Mines Malingerer
Posts: 41
Joined: Wednesday, 14th March 2018, 00:31
Merge Minotaur and Hill Orc into Mountain Dwarf
Someone misinterpreted "merge HO and Mi like MD was merged into HO" as "merge HO and Mi into MD" and it turns out this solves may of the problems that would result from the merge.
- A new player doesn't need a guide to know how to win as a dwarf (armour up and hit things)
- A new player knows they know how to play a dwarf, because dwarves are the c=299,792,458m/s of fantasy races
- Minotaur is almost like this, but the connection to heavy armour has to be derived by understanding the mechanics (str + armour skill -> wear heavy armour). In addition, while the horns/headbutt mutation is flavorful and simple for experienced players, it introduces a species-unique mechanic at character creation.
- Using Hill Orc as a newbie caster is counter-intuitive. The fire/earth/conj focus of dwarves is obvious from a lore perspective (magma!) and is conveniently the most direct, easy-to-learn form of spellcasting.
- Dwarf's mythological roots are thousands of years older than Tolkien. It's fitting for them to run a gold mine and sell crafted items to heroes. Modern orcs are solely a creation of Tolkien with little mythological root and it's unclear why they're running a gold mine and a floor full of shops.
- Dwarves await their messiah (all species welcome) who will lead them to glory and death in the deepest reaches of the world.
Mountain Dwarf
+10% HP (same as Mi and HO)
10str/7int/7dex, +str/5 (this works out to +2int/-1dex vs Mi and -1int/+1dex vs HO)
+3 MR/level (same as Mi and HO)
Mutations and Abilities: None
Melee (MD = old mountain dwarf aptitudes, ND = new mountain dwarf aptitudes)
- Fighting merge is obvious
- Short blades and UC are low because they're not straightforward and don't fit the lore but aren't low enough to discourage unorthodox play
- Axes and maces are typically associated with dwarves, evening the aptitudes is obvious as axes are a no-brainer for HO
- I'm less certain about Staves and to a lesser extent Long Blades but I don't want to remove Mi's weapon versatility, especially when the character concept is equipment based melee
Ranged
- I erred on the side of flavor here but I could also see it as anything between 0/0/-1/0 and 0/1/1/1
Defenses
- HO gets a decent buff to defenses (armour+1, dodging+1,shields+1) which more than makes up for axes-1
- Mi gets a -2 nerf to dodging, but it's not as relevant as it seems because players treating MD like Mi will have plenty of extra XP due to only focusing on a few skills
Magic
- The good skills are straightforward (Fire/Earth/Conj)
- Can play around with necromancy, hexes, summoning, poison, and ice (dwarves were a little more sinister before Tolkien and the Dwarven Sorcerers in the Dwarven Mine reflect this)
- Hexes, charms, and summoning slightly harder to shift attention from complicated hybrid playstyles (not as certain about this)
Misc
- I'm a bit torn on evo because it fits the lore but complicates both melee and casting gameplay
MDFi vs MiFi
-horns, -headbutt, -1 dex, -2 dodging
+helmet, +2 invo
MDFE vs HoFE
-1 int, -1 XP
+1 dex, +1 earth, +1 dodging, minor effect from +1 shields
- For this message the author cliffracer has received thanks: 3
- chequers, monkeytor, ololoev