Dream dwarves feel the hills slumber beneath them. They see the world as a resting giant of inestimable power, and they are caught in the dreaming. While other dwarves shape metal and stone, dream dwarves contemplate and meditate. Wise and cautious, they understand nature in a way at once similar to and wholly alien to the understanding of druids and shamans of other races.
Dream dwarves share a sort of collective subconscious with the world around them, a phenomenon they call the earth dream. The earth dream shapes many aspects of a dream dwarf’s life, and no discussion of dream dwarves can be complete without at least some understanding of the earth dream. The earth dream is a powerful force, and members of other races can occasionally feel its pull and become earth dreamers.
Personality: Dream dwarves have little of the natural craftsmanship of other dwarves, and they instead spend many hours in somber contemplation of the earth dream. They are inquisitive, and they seek to supplement the information and wisdom they gain from the earth dream with personal experience. To those who don’t know them well, dream dwarves can seem shy or wary, but in truth they are merely reserved; they are more likely to utter one carefully chosen phrase than engage in a prolonged discussion.
Physical Description: Dream dwarves stand about 4 feet tall and weigh about 10 to 15 pounds less than a typical dwarf. Their skin colour ranges from dark grey to deep brown, and their hair is dark brown or black. They have pale eyes, usually green or blue in colour but with the occasional lavender or pale red. Dream dwarves usually decorate their clothing with abstract symbols that represent important personal experiences within the earth dream.
Relations: Dream dwarves get along well with other dwarves, who look up to them as shamans and prophets. They also get along well with gnomes, who share their love of the earth, and they even enjoy the company of halflings and elves. They are friendly with druids of any race, sharing the class’s love of nature and natural power.
Their silent and mystical demeanor can cause humans, half-elves and half-orcs to think dream dwarves a little strange, but rarely causes significant problems in relationships with members of these races.
Alignment: Dream dwarves are most often neutral good. They share a bond with the earth and the earth dream, and this bond helps them see the power and energy inherent in a peaceful life. As a result, most dream dwarves remain kind and good-hearted even through adversity, and they value a balance between law and chaos.
Dream Dwarf Lands: Dream dwarves almost always build their homes within or near those of other dwarves, and many members of other races don’t even realize that dream dwarves are a separate sub-race. Their homes are often underground, embodying their love of the earth. Occasionally, dream dwarves form small, secluded monasteries high up on a mountainside in an effort to become closer to the earth dream.
Religion: Although dream dwarves pay homage to Moradin and the rest of the dwarf pantheon, their primary deity is the earth itself, as expressed by the collective experience that dream dwarves call the earth dream.
Language: Dream dwarves speak Dwarven.
Names: Dream dwarves place great significance on their names, believing that even the most common version of a name carries power. Their names are likely to change over time, as they incorporate new syllables or words into their names. Dream dwarves believe that they find these words and syllables within the depths of the earth dream, and they incorporate them into their identities out of reverence and to show that they understand the power of the earth.
It is quite likely for a dream dwarf’s name to change or grow longer after he goes through a particularly harrowing or dangerous experience; as such, it’s usually true that an accomplished dream dwarf adventurer has a long, intricate name that recalls his greatest exploits
Male Names: Bren-Iol, Bollinak, Car-Innul, Derinar, Harar, Malanath.
Female Names: Allalia, Assanae, Giallin, Kula-Tai, Mala, Shelbath.
Clan Names: Brekaran, Esstranak, Penathan, Quwerthena, Skarnath.
Adventurers: Dream dwarf adventurers seek the wisdom that comes from personal experience. Some, driven by the earth dream’s urgings, wander to find more of what they’ve seen in the dream. Others seek to escape the dream and their people’s involvement in it, travelling to other lands to be rid of its pull. Most however, travel and adventure to better understand the parts of the earth dream that they can sense, to experience the dream in other places, and to broaden their own understanding of the world.
Source: Races of Stone (Page 88)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 years | +4d6 (64—84) years | +6d6 (66—96) years | +9d6 (69—114) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 175 years | 263 years | 350 years | +4d% years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 3’ 6" | +2d4 (3’ 8"—4’ 2") | 100 lbs. | ×2d6 (104—196 lbs.) |
| Female | 3’ 4" | +2d4 (3’ 6"—4’) | 80 lbs. | ×2d6 (84—176 lbs.) |
Source: Races of Stone (Page 86)