The summary of the class is "Fighter/Miner is to dwarves as Fighter/Magic-User is to elves, so-called racial detection abilities are actually class abilities, otherwise treat miners as thieves with various stonework skills replacing thief skills." It's not a great class, but it gives players of dwarf PCs something to do with earned experience after maxing out as fighters.
But, as I noted in that old post, I didn't really have an equivalent to founding a barony or thieves' guild for dwarven miner lords.
Well, duh, they would build an underground fortress, attracting 1st level dwarf miners. And, as Zornhau suggested in a comment, and as also occurs in DF, creating their fortress eventually releases something nasty from below.
DF is great for D&D.
ReplyDeleteI'd give the Dwarf Miner the normal dwarf skills, plus the following:
Hear Noise (for when it's really dark)
Detect Water (so you know when the wall you're about to dig through is the only thing separating you from the Great Underground Ocean)
Detect Magma (again, so if you dig through into a magma vent you're doing it on purpose)
Slow Breathing (protects against poison gas and suffocation)
Liquid Courage (drink some liquor once a day to heal some HP)
Rocksplitter (ignore "magic weapon to hit" against rocky, earthen, clay, or sandy creatures)
And the dwarf forts should have a chance at releasing terrible monsters from below but also have a chance at a craftsman creating something cool, which is why anybody settles them. Also a chance to find HIDDEN FUN STUFF, which is an interesting gameplay choice.
I love DF, even though I am terrible about remembering what controls do what, and also to look at important information.
ReplyDeleteMy own favorite idea for a dwarf equivalent to the magic user is the Crafter (pdf at the link). It needs work, but I think that it would make an excellent basis for such a class for dwarfs/dwarves.
@faoladh: Yeah, the DF interface is certainly its weak point. For my dwarf equivalent to M-Us, I'm basically going with my smith class (linked from the miner.) It's simple to explain: thief, but with all skills replaced with something to do with metal, ore, or crafting; make magic armor and weapon crafting the 10th level bonus ability and you're done.
ReplyDelete@1d30: I wouldn't want to copy DF directly; that's their schtick, and I don't want to steal their thunder. I wouldn't give miners too many special abilities, and certainly nothing like Slow Breathing or Rocksplitter... and I already have a more general rule about improving morale/healing 1 hp with alcohol, fine cooking, music, and other comforts.
I think a general "properties of earth, stone, and the underground" ability could cover stuff like noticing damp/warm stone, depth/direction underground, new construction, and many other things. It could even include noticing open areas in stone when enveloped in darkness, a sort of limited "infravision". I like trying to reduce class abilities to two broad multipurpose abilities instead of lots of very specific abilities.