Hammer & Helm: A Guidebook to Dwarves
by Jesse Decker
d20 Accessory (112 pages)
Product Code: GRR1101, ISBN: 0-9714380-5-6
Green Ronin Publishing, $19.95
Hammer & Helm is a softbound d20 sourcebook for Dwarven characters, both for players and DMs alike. This book, for use with any D&D game, provides a source of feats, prestige classes and other items to help build dwarven characters and cultures beyond that of the typical dwarf.
The book is divided into six chapters and an appendix. Chapter one, being rather short, deals with how to play dwarven characters, is titled “Way of the Mountain.” Listed here is a very short group of Dwarf archetypes to help players and DMs get an idea on what type of dwarves can be played. Along with this is a listing of the core classes and how dwarves fit into each one. The material here, though short, is interesting, and could lead to some unique dwarven characters in any game. Dwarven racial concepts are also covered in this chapter, with a small group of subraces described to help give an idea of how to make plain dwarves a little more interesting. The last bit here is a very brief sample of three main dwarven pantheons. This sample gives a nice basis for dwarven divine magic, but being only half a page, is only a foundation to go on, leaving the rest up to the DM (or another d20 rulebook).
Chapter two deals with Feats. Two new types of Feats are introduced, Bloodgift and Bonding. Bloodgift feats deal with powers handed down through ancestral ties, or the bloodline as some would say. Bonding feats are achieved through a bonding ritual that takes plenty of money and time to acquire. This along with the usual listing of feats is a nice addition to the d20 system. While many of the new Feats can be used by other races, it is recommended to limit this, so that dwarves have something special that the other races don’t have. Some of the feats that I really like are combat-related and help dwarves fight in groups, such as the Back-to-Back feat, which allows characters to fight adjacently so they cannot be flanked. Some other feats also help with dwarven spell casting (both divine and arcane). This book goes to some lengths to remove the old “dwarves don’t make good spellcasters” stereotype leftover from older D&D versions.
Prestige Classes are the subject of chapter three, providing over a dozen classes for dwarves. Some of the new Prestige classes in this book are tailored towards particular classes, such as Acolyte of the Crystal Path for Monks and Clanheart Disciple for spellcasters. A few Prestige classes are also made to be somewhat generic, so that any dwarf could take them. Some classes are also designed towards evil or chaos, which I found interesting for NPCs, but wouldn’t use them myself for player characters (sorry, I don’t like evil PCs). As a whole, the Prestige Classes in this book are well designed, and make dwarves much more interesting than the average dwarf that too many players think of.
Chapter four is a smaller section of this book that deals with new creatures, both good and bad (for dwarves), plus a special Construct armor. Detail is given on the Defenders of Mar-Namor, undead bound to the Forge God’s will. These creatures will fight anything, including dwarves. Creatures of Mar-Namor can be any type of undead that is bent to the Forge God, from skeletons and ghouls, to things even nastier. A few creatures, such as the Stonestrider, can be used as mounts by dwarves. I found this section to be one of the weaker parts of this book. The new creatures are nice additions to the d20 system, but the section was small enough and so limited that I just thought it could have been left out of the book. Decent stuff, just nothing really special in my opinion.
Spells listed in chapter five are specially designed as Clanheart Magic, and can only be used by dwarves who take the Clanheart Magic feat. This leaves a decent list of spells usable by dwarven clerics, druids, paladins and other spellcasters. All are a little more powerful than normal spells due to the simple fact that they are dwarven specific. Along with these spells are new cleric domains, also designed for dwarves. As expected, many of the new spells are related to dwarves, such as Armored Skin, Cavernlore, Hammer Chant, and other such spells. I thought this section of the book was very well done, and beyond a doubt adds that special touch to dwarves that other classes cannot use. This to me makes playing a dwarf just a bit more fun, as I’ve always noticed that most players like to have something about their characters that is different or can’t be used by other players.
The last chapter of this book deals with equipment, and ranges from armor and weapons, to magic items of all types and even siege engines. The armor section has Exotic armor for dwarven use, some of which allows dwarves to move at better speed while still using heavy armor. The Exotic weapons section is a small listing of dwarven-only weapons. Both armor and weapon listings have drawings to go with them (a nice touch), so you can see what the weapons actually look like. Half of a page of this chapter is devoted to Special Items, which is a group of alchemical materials specifically created by dwarven artisans, such as Gelform Acid, a ranged acid attack that deals no splash damage. The magic items in this final chapter are, as expected, tailored towards dwarves, and add some cool new items for your d20 game. Golem Plate, one of my favorite magic items, is a plate armor that transforms its wearer into an iron golem. Nasty and just plain cool! The last part of this section is small, and deals with siege engines, including masterwork and specific engines for all types of combat situations. This last part I found to be a bit too short. It could have been expanded somewhat. But in all, the magic item section will be a nice addition to my game, and hopefully others as well.
The appendix in this book is comprised of tables that represent six dwarves, to be used by a DM in running encounters with large groups of dwarves. It would definitely be useful for those situations where you needed to come come up with a dwarf or a group of dwarves on the fly while running a game. This is something that I liked a lot, as I personally hate stopping a game even for short periods of time to make up a random NPC. This doesn’t happen very often, but it’s nice that they added it to the end of this book.
As for the artwork used throughout this d20 rulebook, all drawing were up to Green Ronin standards, which means they were all done marvelously well. I couldn’t complain about any of the excellent artwork in this book.
Hammer and Helm definitely takes the dwarf character beyond the typical axe (or hammer) wielding staple of your typical fantasy game. Thanks to Green Ronin for coming out with a book that does justice to the dwarven race. If you play a dwarf, or are a DM, I would without a doubt recommend getting this book, or at the very least giving it a look!
(review (c) March 2003 / David Flemming)