Shattered Kingdoms

I'm all for giving dwarves a little something extra.

Actually I'd be happy if they were able to be considered medium. I just don't understand how a beefy dwarf and a halfling can wear the same armor... sure they're both short but... BEEFY dwarf!

I don't think bringing Aedus into this conversation is really the right thing to do. Aedus kicked [REDACTED] it's true, but he existed at a time when the MC was broken and you could have shield wall at all times even when alone, among other things.

Shield wall when alone? Whoa ;p OK then.

I agree I would like to see dwarves moved up a size to medium... It just makes more sense. Other then that I think they are fine.

I'd be for giving a boost to axes, maces and crossbows as well as a int boost, none of these would need to be big boosts. The boost to the weapon types would help with the lack of damage output and the accuracy would help with the tanking ability. This would have more flavor than just letting dwarves use medium weapons as well as upping the interest in three weapon categories that are not very popular. The int boost is purely for the caster concentration. I know these aren't tactical options, but I think they are the best options because they would be relatively easy to impliment, and don't think there would be unknown issues with stacking a new ability with cabal abilities.

Tactical alternatives:
mood defensive boost - sort of a simple option, but I don't think it addresses the percieved problems with a dwarf
or
c 'earth's gift' weapon - Add/change a weapons damage type to acidic bite, perhaps limited on weapon type, would have to be held, if the weapon was removed then the spell is released.

...
Shield wall when alone? Are you silly?

I don't mean to sound defensive, but to ignore something on false pretenses is only going to damage constructive conversation. You could not have shield wall when alone, not in any situation relative to PK or NPC tanking or anything that would have bearing on this conversation. In fact, in PK Aedus never even used a shield. He used the mottled lance, or head chopper.

The only things that have changed, as I have listed, would do to make him more powerful rather than weaker. It's fair to bring up, seeing as he never even used protection when fighting lighties and he was still what he was. He never used shields in PK. He never used his full potential, purposefully. As many dwarves as you say you played, I'm sorry to say it doesn't sound like you know the mechanics behind them very well. I'll give up logs to whoever's curious.

If we are going to dismiss any examples, Aedus included (though he's the only one brought up besides Grakus' case), we can't just say vague dismissals, if we are serious about dwarves. List things that have changed to make the case moot. I could well be wrong at there may have been things that would have weakened dwarves. I don't see it though.

Moving dwarves to size medium would destroy them and every advantage they have, the advantages I listed in my post. They belong small.

I'd say work on their spell concentration problems or their mana pool, and make them hellions/paladins.

Apparently there was a bug that existed in the past that allowed for said skill to be active among MC members who were grouped to be able to use shield wall, even when not in the same room with one another.

Hopefully Dulrik fixed that.

However, Aedus was during the time where everybody used two-handed weapons because of the massive damage they were able to output, and as I understand, the midnight council in those days hardly relied on shield wall to get them through conflicts.

I think, however, that dwarves have enough perks as it is. Giving them something else will probably serve to overpower the race. Unless it's going to be a stat change. The only thing I'd recommend is raising dwarven intelligence by +2 (while lowering their maximum charisma by 2 points), because dwarves aren't stupid. This will serve to offset the weaknesses of them being subpar spellcasters. Also as a subnote, they should also receive a penalty to climb checks for the same reason that they receive penalties to swim checks.

I'll back this up by their ability as architects to create the homes out of rock and carving and having an understanding of those things. Also as smiths they can create excellent weapons and armor and so on and so forth. I don't really think of stupid people when I think of dwarves.

As jerin pointed out, the only real weakness of the race is its inability to be an effective spellcasting race. And that's a shame, because otherwise it's a great race, and there should be more dwarves in the game.

Shield only worked when travelling through special exits and on random rare occassions when recall occurred of one party member after entering a special exit. The moment you moved the benefit was gone. This has (or should have) been fixed. That is the bug being referenced, at least during his time. It may have been broken other ways in the future or prior.

Two handed weapons were nerfed during that time, as well. Only strength bonus was applied rather than a two-handed damage bonus on top of it. That changed early in Aedus' life. They are the same damage bonus they have now, and the mottled lance then is compared to a flamberge now.

As far as cha, I almost forgot about that. A great change would be switching the INT max with the CHA max, number-wise.

I didn't read all that, but Orac's post caught my attention. Shield wall -was- in fact broken, up until roughly a year ago. One could be in a group, with the group members being in a different room than oneself, and shield wall would still kick in.

It made leveling a walk in the park. Fortunately, it was fixed.

As for dwarves, they definately do not suck. There's nothing wrong with them, other than the fact that they make lousy spellcasters. I don't see why anyone would roll a dwarven shaman or priest (besides wanting to RP one) when just about every other race gives far more benefits.

Dwarves only flaw is their size. That is if you wish to use skills such as bash that is virtually impossible to do on a large/giant/huge target if you are small, and they do not deal a lot of damage with small weapons. They require a non average playstyle, but are not weak by any means.