Kuh None

Heh.

Gaming on Sunday got me thinking about canon and retcons. I run a campaign in the same world I write in, but there are some pretty stark (to me) differences between those worlds. When setting up for 4th Edition I had to make some changes to the world to fit it into the system of rules that 4th Edition uses, so things aren't a perfect fit. See, I don't know how to make races and have them be balanced in 4th Edition, so I had to take a race already granted stats and try to alter them enough to fit what I envisioned for each race but still keep the general shape of what I based them off of to preserve balance. I have no idea how to create classes, and lack the time and inclination to do so, so those were a lost cause in the first place.

For simple ease of use and translation, I used dwarves as dwarves. Their stats are the same in my campaign as they are in core, and that was a poor decision on my part. The dwarves of core are a warrior race and have all kinds of good attributes for fights. They can use their Second Wind as a Minor Action and they have a stability ability that allows them to avoid pushes, pulls, and being knocked prone. All of which allow them to work extremely well as defenders and maintain a front line melee position marking as many foes as possible to keep them off of everyone else. The "dwarves" of my world are a dark dwelling merchant race. They have warriors yes, but nowhere near what they once had and their society has become a collection of merchants, bankers, scholars, and aristocrats with the warriors as the lower class citizens. They've lost the warrior nature that makes core dwarves what they are. If I had had more time to think it all through, I'd probably base the Children of Volung off of the core dwarf template (rather than dragontits), my dwarves off of the eladrin template, and base the Vyanth off something else. Aside from the ability to teleport, eladrin fit a lot better with the concept of my dwarves than anythig else I've found so far.

I also felt bad about Fell-Humans and their half-human descendants in this particular scenario. I found tiefling to be the best core race to fit with fell-humans, but again, it is not a perfect fit. Most of what I've written equates the hell-kin to a race of men twisted and malformed by demonic magic. This is true. Unfortunately most of the guys tend to perceive this exactly as tieflings look, red skin, horns, hooves, etc (at least I think that is how they picture it). I more envisioned it as people with vestigial tails, patches of scaly skin, arms that are shrunken and mishapen, or way out in left field with a fraternal twin fused to your spine with a head that peaks over yours. It was always a mutation fueled by magic, but it was meant to be darker and more twisted than "we are mini-demons, grrr."

Edit: To be fair, the way I made Nakmander look pretty much fits the mini-demon motif to a tee. So I guess the problem is my fault.

Music: Burn the Earth - Dethklok
Music: Be My Lover - Alice Cooper