[A to Z April] D is for Dwarves, Ashwaste (creature)

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The Ashwastes are home to only a few hardy species who have survived through sheer tenacity and brutality, not to mention just a little bit of luck. Ashwaste goblins are one of those; Ashwaste dwarves are another.

Ashwaste dwarves are not all that different from normal dwarves, but the differences have a major influence on how they live among the desolation of the Ashwastes. To an Ashwaste dwarf, water and wood are as precious as gems and metals are to their normal cousins. The Ashwastes do not have much surface rock; the small islands of stone that exist among the ash desert serve as the entrances to the tunnels and caverns created by the dwarves in their search for water and wood. In some areas of the Ashwastes, piles of gems and precious metal ore are gathered and discarded, creating random treasure caches for the lucky wanderer. Most Ashwaste dwarves have never seen a body of water larger than a small brook or stream, and those only in underground caverns.

• Like their goblin counterparts, Ashwaste dwarves have developed a resistance to fire, but a susceptibility to acid attacks. Their eyes have evolved to allow a higher tolerance to sunlight and the glare from the Wastes, but most still require the use of goggles with colored lenses to see in full sunlight in the Wastes.
  
• Ashwaste dwarves, as they are not surrounded from birth by stone, have lost the usual stonecunning ability. They have also lost the usual affinity for the Appraise skill.
• Ashwaste dwarves have very little practical use for axes and hammers as tools. They have thus lost the racial familiarity with such as weapons. Instead, they may treat exotic weapons such as the khopesh and two-headed scimitar as martial weapons.
  
• Ashwaste dwarves count barbarian as their favored class. A multiclass Ashwaste dwarf 's barbarian class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
  
• Ashwaste dwarves count Ashwaste goblins as their default favored enemy.
  
• Ashwaste dwarves may last for three days before beginning to experience any ill effects from a lack of water.
  
• Hydrophobia: Ashwaste dwarves must make a Will save (DC 16) when they encounter any large body of water (river, lake, ocean) and a Will save (DC 20) when they are forced to travel upon any large body of water. The save must be made once per hour during normal water travel; failure of the save imposes a condition of cowering. During battle, the save must be made every 1d6 rounds; failure of this save causes the dwarf to become merely sickened, distracted as they are by the fight.

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Previous "D"s: 
2014: D is for Delightful Drink of Draconic Darkness (beverage) 
2013: D is for Duk (npc) 
2012: D is for D'leth Inemas 
2011: D is for Drake, Carrion