Duergar

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Physical Description

Resembling shorter, broader humanoids standing on average 4'3" tall, Duergar are more robust than the average humanoid, as if a human grew twice as wide and three-quarters as tall, but their stout-powerful build makes them strong, sturdy and ponderous with their movements. Duergar typically have skin-tones similar to humans although some take on a charcoal-grey tone with black or white hair to match. Some grow large bushy beards while others are bald and clean-shaven, culturally the status of one's facial hair isn't as important as it is to traditionalist Duergar.

Duergar are also surprisingly dense for their size; with a full-grown adult weighing in between 500 to 800lbs, they're capable of crushing a human under their own body weight, and that's without heavy clothing and armour they're liable to be wearing. If it weren't for their innate ability to muffle their footsteps, you'd be able to hear a Duergar walk from across the street. A Duergar's head, hands and feet are proportionally larger than a humans' for their height, approximately twice as wide and deep, and one-half longer for each extremity. Regardless of height, Duergar are unmistakably massive.

Culture and Social

Duergar usually work in large settlements and cities where they can work their craft, the skilled workers of the Cerulean Kingdom. A strong work ethic and boundless stamina when it comes to their work, Duergar mine, smelt and manufacture for their own benefit, not just to their contractors. Duergar are free to pursue other ventures including those on the darker side of the law, which all Duergar can excel at but only a small population do. Their ability to become giants and turn invisible makes the great and formidable combatants, thieves and fixers.

Duergar are open to both Magic and Engineering but favour engineering feats more. A Duergar Smithy will often have facilities to craft weapons and armour and then enhance them materially and magically.

Whether this be due to the past achievements of Duergarkind or the cultural influence of Traditionalists, but many Duergar tend to think highly of themselves and their works and take offence to criticism levied at them. Most would instinctly argue and move to prove their detractors wrong, and less scrupulous Duergar may use their natural abilities to enforce their superiority if they can get away with it. Not all Duergar are so hot-headed, but the likelihood of an outburst of emotion might be stemmed by their shorter-than-average stature.

Duergar work and reside mainly within the Cerulean Kingdom cities and towns which contain many sturdily-built walls and buildings which they prefer, reminding them of mountainside fortresses of their homelands. They're friendly and cooperative with most races and some even feel parental obligation over the smaller races, they're less lenient with bigger races, especially if they cause trouble.

Some less lawfully-inclined Duergar will try to use their natural physical advantages over others, becoming giants if it makes things easier for them. Those that commit to being giants evermore tend to find the Saffron Alliance more suitable for their stature and become more friendly to giant races and more opportunistic with smaller ones.

Duergar and Humans see themselves as equals, similar enough to call them 'Gars of another Ma'. Duergar see the Dweman be a twinned-race of the Viridian Republic and favour each other as distant relatives; it is said that the Duergar's ability to grow to giant size may have led to what the Dweman have become today.

Race Meta

• Better known as: Dwarf (although the literal Duergar concept is used in their place)
• Duergar stand between the heights of 3'6" and 5'0", averaging 4'3" tall. Their size is Medium (1).
• Genus: Humanoid
• Faction(s): Cerulean Kingdom

Duergar are effectively the 'Dwarves' of this setting, except they retain the spell-like abilities of their namesake. With significantly higher strength and endurance, it's like they were built for melee roles, although they're kinda slow due to their trait and Agility reduction. Duergar function like medium-sized tanks by default but their ability to grow into giants as well as turn invisible makes up for their slowness, they can be one of the most dangerous races out of the fantasy three because of this.

Duergar are great tanks/melee characters and their growth/invisibility powers can really make them a force to be reckoned with.

Gameplay

Duergar have +2 Strength and Endurance, making them already ready for melee roles and getting into the thick of battle, other archetypes are there to expand the Duergar's skillset a bit more before the player applies their free attribute point and skill-focus. The thing that sets them back is their Stout-Powerful trait and -1 to Agility slowing them down. The short, waddling dwarf trope is in full effect here. Thankfully Stout-Powerful comes with its own upsides as well, reducing the possibility of being pushed over and negating encumbrance penalties, so it's not a straight up flaw.

What a Duergar can do to offset these drawbacks is Duergar Stealth and Duergar Growth, the first one is a racial ability to mimic Invisibility and the second turns them into a giant. Since size scales up movement speed and reach, a Duergar can often negate their penalties just by getting bigger, but only when there's room available to do so. Turning invisible is also useful to get around how loud Duergar are when walking and running, so their extreme weight can be another hindrance avoided.

The two abilities mentioned above can be further improved with Skill Ranks in Potential, the key skill for all personal/racial abilities. Read down below this section to see what skill perks are available. It may not be possible to obtain all skill perks at once, but like all skills at Master (100) rank, Skill perks for mastered skills will be obtainable by using perk points as if they were universal perks.

Roleplaying Suggestions

The average Duergar is kind of like your average middle-aged dad, they have their interests in sports, building things and drinking. Some are a bit gruff and grumpy sometimes, particularly when it feels like they're being belittled, disrespected or the other person is just being an ass. Others tend to be mild-mannered or jolly spirits giving as much hospitality as they can. Duergar generally like to do things which rely on muscle-power and endurance rather than acrobatics, which is why they have a keen interest in crafting machines and equipment, finding heavy weapons and firearms a suitable solution to a hostile threat.

Duergar are fairly short at around 4'3" and significantly heavy for their size, so moving around quickly and sharply isn't their forte. That doesn't stop dedicated Duergar Monks from sprinting across the battlefield to deliver huge drop-kick to a foe that taunted them on the other side, or a Duergar Rogue from feinting their foe for a vital blow. Duergar are open to spellcasting and metaforce manifesting as they get to unleash powerful abilities without running around too much.

In Duergar homes and settlements, lots of furnishings and facilities are positioned much lower for their convenience and also reinforced for stability. This becomes a frustration in other places where things as simple as sitting on a chair becomes a hassle as their extreme weight can sometimes cause them to break under the weight of their body. Even Duergar clothing is specially made with thicker and sturdier materials, clothing like their shoes tends to constructed with heavy soles and thick leathers and metal plates for extra durability.

Duergar tend to like smaller races more than most, as both tend to move across land at similar pace and find it comfortable to look down rather than being looked down upon. Some Duergar can feel a kind of parental responsibility for little folk, but they have enough sense and pride to change their tune when the little folk start acting up in front of them, forcing their hand. When it comes to giants, Duergar try to use their innate abilities to size up to level the playing field, if they cannot equal or surpass them, they'll attain maximum size for their own safety. Duergar do have a sense of humour, utilizing their invisibility to spook people at unexpected angles or sit in front of a doorway at an enlarged size, so it can't be opened from the other side. It is not illegal to use their abilities in their culture, but being caught committing crimes with them is severe.

Duergar Adventurers
With the disposition of Duergar to stay in the same place for comfort, for the average duergar, it would take a lot of motivation and/or dedication to travel down the unbeaten paths and take risks for fame, fortune or realization of their goals. A Duergar adventurer is likely going to be keenly focused on whatever objective that's ahead of them, pushed along by their motives and personal drive to see things done. A Duergar adventurer might have qualms with party members that keep losing focus or their objective or mess around too much, but other Duergar take the opposite approach and try to encourage their allies and instil positive-reinforcement messages to get them rallied.

Racial Adjustments & Archetypes

Duergar

Duergars are strong, tough and heavy, though their short height can sometimes leave some things out of their reach. As they are culturally encouraged to uphold tradition, every Duergar has some training in crafting and repairing machines and equipment.

♦ Duergar gain a +1 attribute bonus to Strength, Endurance, Intelligence and Charisma.

♦ All Duergar gain a Skill-Focus in all Engineering skills.

♦ Duergar are considered to be Medium-sized; their size-rating is 1.

Traits

Passive: Stout-Powerful

Duergars are adept at wearing heavy armours and outfits without hindering their mobility, however their stout forms do make them less agile than most races. This is further compounded by their dense, heavy bodies which make them even harder to forcibly move.

♦ Duergars have a movement speed base of 4 steps instead of 6 at medium size. ♦ Duergars do not suffer encumbrance effects from exceeding Load-Point thresholds, resulting from heavy equipment or full inventories. They still cannot carry more than their maximum capacity.

♦ Duergars are treated as one size larger in terms of physical effects that knockdown or stagger targets. They also count as one size category larger for knocking down or staggering foes. > If knocked down or tripped for whatever reason: A Duergar must spend a standard action (50AP) to get up on their own turn and double the amount to get up outside their turn. >> Normally: A character can get up from being knocked down/prone on their own turn, and expend a standard action (50AP) to get up outside their turn, after their attacker's turn.

♦ Duergar cannot Swim unless they have a skill rating of Competent (40) in Athletics: Aerobics and have the Trained Swimmer skill perk. > "It is dangerous for another character to attempt to save a drowning Duergar as they will be much too heavy for them to lift unless they are immense in size or use other means to pull them out."

Ability: Duergar Invisibility

At will, Duergar can become hard to see and hear. This effect is partially suppressed when interacting with objects or people and lost completely when harmed.

♦ Effect: The Duergar can become invisible to normal sight, they gain a +100 bonus to stealth bonus to being detected by sight. The user may still be detected by sound and any influences upon the environment. Non-sight based stealth still uses the Duergar’s Stealth skill. Magic or other revealing effects may be able to detect and decloak an invisible Duergar.
♦ Invisiblity costs an Advanced-Action (100 AP) to activate, and an additional 100 AP per round to maintain.

Skill Perks

The Duergar can select a new skill perk with each rank of Potential:

Muffled ♦ Invisibility now grants the full +100 bonus to all stealth detection instead of just sight.	Effortless ♦ Invisibility now only costs 50AP to activate and 50 AP per round instead of 100. The Duergar can use any remaining AP to increase their movement distance.
Ghost-Fighter ♦ Invisibility is no longer lost by taking damage, touching or harming others or interacting with objects. Instead, only brief visibility for being harmed or harming others will be the punishment for such events and will reset at the Duergar's next turn. Touching and interacting maintains full coverage.	Master Stealth ♦ Invisibility negates all stealth penalties due to size; the Duergar is treated as being Medium sized or smaller while invisible.

Ability: Duergar Growth

At will, Duergar can grow multiple times their original size. Growing bigger does not heal the Duergar but their increased mass scales up their current and maximum health points appropiately to their new size. Once a Duergar enlarges themselves, they can function similarly to their smaller size. After growing, Duergar can use this ability in order to shrink back down again.

♦ Growth is a Full-Round action (AP cost equal to user's maximum AP). ♦ This ability does not need concentration to maintain its effect. The user must activate the ability again to return to their base size or change to another size. ♦ Effect: Growth causes the Duergar to increase their size-rating by double their base rating, inheriting all size adjustments for the duration. (If the Duergar's base size is 1, Growth can increase them to size 2. If their base size is larger, the rating will be multiplied by up to 2.)

Clarifications / Errata ♦ Objects and equipment resized by a Duergar for their personal use remains resized for a short duration, about 6-12 seconds. This allows the Duergar to use enlarged projectiles while disallowing things like sharing equipment with other characters. An enlarged weapon given to a naturally giant-sized character will eventually shrink down to its original size after one round passes.

Skill Perks

The Duergar can select a new skill perk with each rank of Potential:

Mastery ♦ Growth is now treated as an Advanced action (costing 100 AP) to activate.	Revitalizing ♦ Growth now heals 5% of the user’s maximum HP per Potential skill rank (max. 5 ranks). > This effect may only trigger once per rest. > This Perk can be used any time the Duergar character activates Growth to increase their size rating to a size not yet achieved since their last rest. This perk can activate twice when the Overgrowth perk, once for doubling in size and again for enlarging to x4 their base size-rating.	Overgrowth ♦ The maximum size-rating cap for Growth is increased from x2 to x4. The user still can only increase in size by a factor of 2 per activation. When used with Mastery: The Duergar can change sizes freely as an Advanced Action (100 AP), from base size to x4 scale in one round.
Adjust ♦ The Duergar may now use their Growth ability to affect unattended objects, outfits or equipment in their possession during or after using said ability. Affected items will resize fit the user’s new size category. This effect cannot be used to shrink objects or equipment when activating the ability to shrink or return to normal size nor can it be used to enlarge objects bigger than the Duergar's base size or other creatures. Enlarged objects remain enlarged until dismissed by the user or the user returns to a smaller/base size. Items that leave the Duergar's possession return to their normal size after one round. Adjust requires activating the Growth ability for this expressed purpose and consumes the appropriate amount of Action-Points.	Shrivel ♦ Growth can instead be used to shrink the Duergar down by the same factor of size-ratings as they can with their base ability. > When used with Overgrowth: they can shrink down to 1/4th their base size-rating instead of just 1/2th. > When used with Adjust: objects can be shrunk down to fit the Duergar's new size. Note: Shrivel does not activate nor recieve benefits from the Revitalisation Skill Perk.