UA:Desert Dwarves

This material is published under the OGL 1.0a.

Desert Dwarves

Because of their skill with stone and engineering, dwarves are acknowledged masters of locating water and digging wells. The importance of water to desert peoples gives the dwarves both great wealth and great political power.

Racial Traits: Desert dwarves have the following racial traits.

• +2 Constitution, –2 Dexterity: Desert dwarves are tough enough to survive the brutal environment of the desert, but they rely on more on cunning and fast talk than agility.
• Humanoid Type (Dwarf).
• Medium: As Medium creatures, desert dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Desert dwarf base land speed is 20 feet. However, desert dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
• Darkvision: Desert dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and desert dwarves can function just fine with no light at all.
• Weapon Familiarity: Desert dwarves may treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
• Stability: A desert dwarf gains a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
• Heat Endurance: Desert dwarves gain a +4 racial bonus on Fortitude saves made to resist the effects of hot weather.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.
• +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against humanoids of the reptilian subtype (including kobolds and lizardfolk) and dragons (including half-dragons): Desert dwarves are trained in special combat techniques that allow them to fight common enemies more effectively.
• +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against dragons: Dragons are a more common threat than giants in the desert climes, and desert dwarves have adapted to meet this challenge. Any time a creature loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class, such as when it’s caught flat-footed, it loses its dodge bonus, too.
• +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or metal items.
• +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (architecture and engineering), Knowledge (dungeoneering), and Profession (miner) checks: Desert dwarves protect a great deal of information about what lives beneath the desert and how to reach it.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon.
• Favored Class: Fighter. A multiclass desert dwarf’s fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
• Level Adjustment: +0.

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