This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves
Published by Bad Axe Games
Written by Benjamin Durbin
64 6" × 9" b&w pages; $9.95
The biggest problem with the d20 market is the glut of products that hit upon a particular subject at one time. Take dwarves. Green Ronin is doing Hammer & Helm, Mongoose Publishing is doing the Quintessential Dwarf, and from left field, Bad Axe Games comes out with a smaller book, 6" × 9", that has a nearly singular focus of showcasing the fighter, the favored class of the dwarves, in numerous class combination roles with optional prestige classes.
Now when I say near singular, there are lots of crunchy bits here for dwarf players who aren't interested in seeing new PrCs. They'll enjoy the feats, runes, and crafting rules introduced. The bulk of the book, however, showcases how to play a dwarf fighter dual classed with all the other core classes.
The crunchy goodies start to flow in Chapter 2, "Feats and Skills." A new type of Feat, the Dwarf feat, is introduced, along with some new fighter and general feats. One of my favorite feats has got to be Refined Skill Focus. Simply put, it provides +2 bonus to any two skills, +3 bonus on one skill, or +2 Ranks in one skill. I've waited for something like this for a while and have already had a house rule, like many probably do, that follows this rule. Perplexing though, are the various weapon mastery feats. For example, there are Axe Mastery, Crossbow Mastery, Hammer Mastery, and Spear Mastery. Each one grants the user . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 7, 2002
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