For this series of posts I will be using the free PDF of the
Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games
The Dwarf
My favorite fantasy race barring dragons. It also has the honor though of being the first of the races as a class that a number of people don't like about the older D&D editions. Lets get that out of the way right now. It is the generic dwarf and not every single dwarf out there. The included classes are just your starting point and if you want a dwarf who is a cleric talk it over with your DM, its his world and he can put whatever he wants in it. Ok, now onto whats actually in the book.
To play a dwarf you need at least a constitution of 9. Dwarves are tough and if you want to be one then you better be tough as well. Of course since it is like a fighter the prime requisite is for strength. Yeah nothing has really changed with melee fighters at all since the beginning if you discount the book ofweeaboo fightan magic nine swords.
The dwarf being a race other then human of course has another controversial thing going for it.They have a level limit. If you are a dwarf you will never ever (barring act of DM) be a single level higher then 12. Some people don't like this as it limits them. I personally have no problem with it as it is generally agreed that the levels from ~3 to ~9 are the funnest to play. I would personally rather just settle my dwarf in his shiny new underground stronghold and start a new dwarf at level 1 who comes from there. Then again I also like consistent worlds that grow with play and that my characters can truly affect so the founding of that stronghold would actually mean something.
Umm, yeah I like dwarves and think they rock and this post turned into more of a rant then I was planning but at the least I got all those thing out of the way.
To play a dwarf you need at least a constitution of 9. Dwarves are tough and if you want to be one then you better be tough as well. Of course since it is like a fighter the prime requisite is for strength. Yeah nothing has really changed with melee fighters at all since the beginning if you discount the book of
The dwarf being a race other then human of course has another controversial thing going for it.They have a level limit. If you are a dwarf you will never ever (barring act of DM) be a single level higher then 12. Some people don't like this as it limits them. I personally have no problem with it as it is generally agreed that the levels from ~3 to ~9 are the funnest to play. I would personally rather just settle my dwarf in his shiny new underground stronghold and start a new dwarf at level 1 who comes from there. Then again I also like consistent worlds that grow with play and that my characters can truly affect so the founding of that stronghold would actually mean something.
Umm, yeah I like dwarves and think they rock and this post turned into more of a rant then I was planning but at the least I got all those thing out of the way.
Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games
Sounds entertaining, it makes sense that dwarves require high constitution. I'm not sure why there would be a level limit for dwarves though. Dwarves in a D&D setting are considered middle age when they are 125 years old. Although level is not a representation of age, I think it would have some part of it.
ReplyDeleteThough I would also agree that the early levels are the most fun. After playing for awhile it becomes challenging to keep the game entertaining, but playing a new character and introducing a new plot is a change of pace, and can be refreshing.
I'll have to take a look at this Labyrinth Lords ruleset. It sounds like it is well constructed. D&D (Especially 4e, which is what I play) has a lot of content, but many things are scattered around and vague. Especially things like familiars and ranger pets.
I might have to go check this out, being a player of 4e and with my tendency to play a Dwarf Characters in RPG settings.
ReplyDeleteWile the level cap is odd, it does support the idea of changing things up and keeping things from growing stale, which sounds like it works if the first chunk of leveling is the best to go through.
On a side note, am I the only one who finds that they say "there are no limits" back on page four only for them to say "Oh, but you can't go past this level" a tad bit funny?
The level cap is partly because generally you did not make it that high and by the time you did most of what you where doing is nation building and whether your level 12 or 20 matters a lot less. This is especially true as there where not skill checks that would go up with level. Another thing that went into is that the setting was meant to be human-centric and level caps was a way to show why humans ruled the world when there where magical races around every corner.
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