Re: (TFT) New File on Dwarves on Rick's web pages.

[Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi Meg, all,
  I thought my Dwarf write up pretty ho hum, but it has generated the most
feed back lately of all my articles.  Strange.  :D


  The thing I don't like about 'infravision' is how does it work when the 
dwarf him or her self is generating heat.  The sensors (the eyes) would
drown out the signal with their own emissions.  (I suppose it could work 
in the very near infrared, but then it wouldn't be much use as a night 
vision ability.)  The D&D infravision, only made sense to me as a 
magical effect.

  Perhaps I was not clear, that the silent movement thing for dwarves 
is of limited help if they are wearing metal armor and banging pots
and pans together.  (Altho a dwarf with this ability who was in metal
armor and banging pots and pans together would be a bit harder
to hear than one doing the same thing with out the ability.  Both would
surely be heard tho.)

  My Advantages of Great ST start giving you bonuses, at fairly low ST.
(The threshold number of leather armor is 13 for example.)  I think that
Adv of Great ST would be a good thing to put up on this site.  If I get 
time I will see about tidying it up and posting it.

  As for bearded ladies, I LIKE there to be significant differences between
races.  :-P

  Warm regards, to you all.  :-)
  Rick


On 2016-02-04, at 3:09 PM, Meg Tapley wrote:
> I'm all in favor of bearded dwarf ladies, and the elaborate beardstyles they would surely wear, but that's just my opinion. And I, too, appreciate what you've done with the MA and armor penalties thing.
> 
> My problem with the Advantages of Great ST is that it's tough to build your ST that high, without really being hit hard by the tradeoff in terms of DX and IQ, especially DX. I actually don't recall ever seeing a player character with ST 18+, even in games where everyone started with 40 attribute points. For this reason, I think the Advantages of Great ST should start kicking in around ST 14 or so.
> 
> As far as being able to see in the dark, instead of some ill-defined magical effect, I'd rather give dwarves natural vision in the infrared spectrum (still doesn't work against Shadow spells, which presumably block infrared wavelengths as well as the spectrum visible to humans). Explicitly basing game effects on real-world physics seems to result in less rules-lawyering, and more creative problem-solving.
> 
> As a balancing penalty for the infra-vision, my thought was severe acrophobia - forcing dwarf characters to make an IQ roll vs. panic when they get more than a certain distance away from solid ground. Could be good for both frustration and laughs, depending on the player. It does seem fair to allow that particular trait to be bought off with experience.
> 
> Stealth? Dwarves? Hah. Just as Mr. von Kleinsmid pictures dwarf women as beardless, I imagine dwarves being about as stealthy as an overcaffeinated three-year-old getting into the pots and pans cabinet. Stealth, a dwarf might say, is for cowardly elves who can't stand up in a fair fight, bouncing blows off well-designed armor like a respectable warrior.
> 
> - Meg


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