U80 Preview 1 - Duergar

[SteelStar]

Hello everyone! Welcome to your first look at Duergar.

For those unfamiliar, Duergar are similar to Dwarves, and often have their origins Underdark. They are known for delving, digging, discovery, craftsmanship, and an innate connection to Psionic power. While we don't have much in the way of Psionics in DDO, Duergar and their related Iconic will make use of their innate powers.

Before we dive into their skills, there's something new and important about Duergar in DDO:

• Duergar in DDO are from the Forgotten Realms.

All of our base races up until now in DDO have started their journey in Eberron, with a select few Iconics originating in the Forgotten Realms. Duergar, however, will start in the Forgotten Realms. On making a Duergar character, you will find yourself in the Demonweb, speaking to a wizard of great renown. He will give you some information, then send you to Stormreach, where you can learn and grow. When you leave the Demonweb, you will head to wherever your character would have started otherwise: Either to the Beach with Jeets, or to the Veteran Status airship.

What does this mean for character building? At the moment, it means base Duergar characters use Forgotten Realms deities when taking Divine Class levels.

Right now, this starting experience is exclusive to Duergar, though other races may see use of it in the future.
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With that out of the way, let's take a look at Duergar!

Ability Scores
+1 STR, +1 CON

Innate Feats

• Dwarven Stability
• Dwarven Stonecunning
• Weapon Familiarity: Dwarven Waraxe
• Giant Evasion
• Orc and Goblin Bonus
• Poison Save Bonus
• Spell Save Bonus
  • (This list above are existing racial feats they share with Dwarf - See Dwarf for information on those).
• Enlarge Self: Transmutation SLA: For one minute, you grow in size, granting you a +5 Psionic Bonus to PRR. 6 SP, 20 second cooldown. This cancels Reduce.
• Reduce Self: Transmutation SLA: For one minute, you shrink in size, granting you a +3% Psionic Bonus to Dodge. 6 SP, 20 second cooldown. This cancels Enlarge.
  • (Duergar, in most editions of D&D, have an innate Psionic ability to alter size. In DDO, this is represented by the innate Enlarge and Reduce Self feats, which are upgraded in the Racial tree with longer durations and better benefits.)

Duergar Racial Enhancement Tree​

An important note: Being related to Dwarves, Duergar share quite a few abilities with Dwarf. Several of those abilities are being buffed in U80! See "Dwarf Changes" at the bottom for more information.

Cores​

• Underdark Upbringing: +5 Max HP, +6 Max Spell Points
• Duergar Abilities: +1 STR or CON
• Underdark Upbringing: +5 Max HP, +6 Max Spell Points
• Duergar Abilities: +1 STR or CON
• Underdark Upbringing: +5 Max HP, +6 Max Spell Points

Tier 1​

• Dwarven Weapon Training: Multiselector: Choose from Axe Training or Pick and Hammer Training (identical to Dwarf version)
• Duergar Shape I: While Enlarged, you gain a +3 Psionic Bonus to Attack. While Reduced, you gain +3 Psionic Bonus to Max Dodge and the Max Dex Bonus of your Armor. Your Enlarge and Reduce now last for two minutes.
• Mental Fortitude: +1/2/3 to Saves vs. Enchantments
• Dwarven Armor Mastery: +1/2/3 Armor Class and Armor Max Dex Bonus
• Forge Apprentice: You gain proficiency with Handaxes, Light Picks, Light Hammers, Throwing Axes, and Throwing Hammers, and consider them Simple Weapons.
  • (The Simple Weapon distinction here may seem odd - It is here to open some interesting synergy with the Alchemist Vile Chemist tree.)

Tier 2​

• Dwarven Weapon Training: Multiselector: Choose from Axe Training or Pick and Hammer Training (identical to Dwarf version)
• Duergar Shape II: While Enlarged, you gain a +3 Psionic Bonus to Damage. While Reduced, you gain a +3% Psionic Bonus to Max Dodge. Your Enlarge and Reduce now last for three minutes.
• Child of the Mountain: Grants a +1/+2/+3 bonus to fortitude saves. Tier 3: Grants a +5% Quality bonus to maximum hit points
• Arcanum: +25/+50/+100 spell points and +1/+2/+3 spell penetration.
• Forge Familiarity: Your Arcane Spell Failure chance while wearing armor is decreased by 15%.

Tier 3​

• Dwarven Weapon Training: Multiselector: Choose from Axe Training or Pick and Hammer Training (identical to Dwarf version)
• Duergar Shape III: While Enlarged, you gain a +5% Psionic Bonus to Fortification Bypass. While Reduced, you gain a +5 Psionic Bonus to Natural Armor. Your Enlarge and Reduce now last for five minutes.
• Favored Enemy: Vermin / Giant / Monstrous Humanoid
• Underdark Knowledge:+10/20/30 Poison Spell Power
  • (While a lot of the Duergar tree leans martial, our base races tend to be a little broader than just one focus. Duergar do often interact with poisons, and this ability helps support a few different possible builds.)
• Forgemaster: Axes, Picks, and Hammers in your hands become Spellcasting Implements, and no longer take item damage.

Tier 4​

• Dwarven Weapon Training: Multiselector: Choose from Axe Training or Pick and Hammer Training (identical to Dwarf version - Has been upgraded, see below)
• Duergar Shape IV: While Enlarged, you gain a +2 Psionic Bonus to Critical Confirmation and Damage. While Reduced, you gain a +10 Psionic Bonus to MRR. Your Enlarge and Reduce now last until rest or death.
• Size Mastery: While Enlarged, your melee attacks deal +20% damage to Helpless opponents. While Reduced, you gain 5% Incorporeality.
• Invisibility: SLA. 6 SP, 12 second cooldown.
• Deep Magic: Multiselector: +1/2/3 Transmutation or Conjuration DCs
  • (Again, see the note on Underdark Knowledge.)

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Duergar Racial Past Life Feats​

• +1 Balance
• +1 CON
  • (This stacks with Dwarf. Also it's the same bonuses as Dwarf. Would be interested in suggestions to change it up.)

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Dwarf Adjustments​

In conjunction with the Duergar addition above, we're also making the following changes to the base Dwarf's tree:

• Tier 3: The hole here now contains Favored Enemy: Vermin / Giant / Monstrous Humanoid
• Child of the Mountain is now 1AP per rank
• The movement speed penalty on Stand Like Stone is now 20% (was 50%)
• Hands of Stone now uses Stun DCs instead of Transmutation.
• The base DC of Hands of Stone now starts at 14 (was 10)
• Dwarven Axe Training 4 now also adds a +1 Competence Bonus to Critical Threat Range with Dwarven Waraxes.
• Dwarven Pick & Hammer Training 4 now also adds a +1 Competence Bonus to Critical Threat Range with Warhammers and Heavy Picks.

 

[Kyrr]

interesting. Please keep the past life as a Constitution.

This is just a very worse version of dwarf.

 

[SteelStar]

(bumping to get the Duergar party started )

 

[Glargfest]

Looks neat. Cores are very weak. 5 HP and 6 SP on 3 and 5 are too low.

 

[rabidfox]

Forge Apprentice: You gain proficiency with Handaxes, Light Picks, Light Hammers, Throwing Axes, and Throwing Hammers, and consider them Simple Weapons.

• (The Simple Weapon distinction here may seem odd - It is here to open some interesting synergy with the Alchemist Vile Chemist tree.)

will have mess with some alch builds with those.

 

[Ptalon]

So, .... not a subrace of Dwarf.

Once again I am forced to get three past lives to regain my Racial Completionist Feat.
Once again, a little more power creep to the game.

Looks great and all.
But when will the finish line stop moving...... :(

 

[Eightball]

So, .... not a subrace of Dwarf.

Once again I am forced to get three past lives to regain my Racial Completionist Feat.
Once again, a little more power creep to the game.

Looks great and all.
But when will the finish line stop moving...... :(

Hopefully never.

 

[rabidfox]

Visually they look pretty nice. Kept randomize appearances and they looked nifty. And the enlarge/reduce visual effect is solid.

 

[voenixa121]

Do enlarge and reduce have any disadvantage? Even the undead form from dhampir has a negative.
Will Size Mastery stack with other incorp effects?

 

[Rosze]

Please make it a racial bonus to critical threat range.

 

[Justfungus]

Tier 4 Size Mastery is weak as a tier 4.
Might I suggest?
Cultural Heritage - Mithril Armor and shields no longer violate the Druidic Oath and Mithril Light
Armor no longer uncenters the player.
That would be more interesting.

 

[LeoLionxxx]

Duergar Racial Past Life Feats​

• +1 Balance
• +1 CON
  • (This stacks with Dwarf. Also it's the same bonuses as Dwarf. Would be interested in suggestions to change it up.)

Suggestion to change it up: Perhaps Forgotten Realm Races could shake up the past life formula to grant Power and DC bonuses, instead of skill and stat bonuses.

Example of Duragar:

• First: +1 MRR
• Second: +1 Stunning & Transmutation DC
• Third: Racial AP (unchanged)

2 DCs at once seems like a good way to keep it competitive with +1 Stat, and broadens the range of builds it can benefit.

 

[Ilvati]

Put me down for another in agreement with keeping +1 Con as the second PL bonus. More Con is always useful and its one of the 4 stats with only +2 (Dex has +5 and Cha +3). From a design perspective I like the idea of racial PLs providing universal benefits (e.g., no specific melee, ranged, caster benefits).

 

[Defunct]

+1 stat from 2x past lives is pretty big, so alternatives should be decent too.

maybe?
t1 +3 PRR
t2 +10 USP, or +1 transmutation DC's, or +1% stacking quality HP

 

[Blaster]

So, .... not a subrace of Dwarf.

Once again I am forced to get three past lives to regain my Racial Completionist Feat.
Once again, a little more power creep to the game.

Looks great and all.
But when will the finish line stop moving...... :(

It appears SSG is moving forward with an expansion a year, and if this is the case, that's a new race every year. So buckle up, buttercup, you're in for a ride.

 

[Wisefreelancer]

The base race is nice and has some cool Alchemist synergies.

The +1 competence bonus for crit range is kind of 'eh'. With the very, very limited number of options to get +2 crit mult in Fighter/Barb its "something" I guess. Or take Kensei core 3 and skip Tier 5 multipliers entirely. But a Paladin/Dragonlord has +1 crit range / +2 crit mult natively, and its still not going to justify Dwarven Waraxe as they are jet not strong enough at 20/x3 natively.

Could it be psionic or racial? That still only makes Daxes 18-20/x4 with a standard +1/+1 bonus, which is weak compared to most options, or 17-20/x5 for min-maxed Paladin/Dragonlord type builds (which is still not as strong compared to existing longswords or kukris on those builds).

 

[ACJ97F]

Yeah, that's cute, but the completionist goal-post that's bolted on the back of an Indy pace car is getting really, really old.

Cultural Heritage - Mithril Armor and shields no longer violate the Druidic Oath and Mithril Light Armor no longer uncenters the player.

Interesting, but the armor part would really imbalance rather alot with Monk, and various builds. Whap-Fu the Fistastical doing
parkour in some Legendary Tourney (and a few others) would be a bit much, even without taking PRR issues into consideration.

 

[Neain]

So, .... not a subrace of Dwarf.

Once again I am forced to get three past lives to regain my Racial Completionist Feat.
Once again, a little more power creep to the game.

Looks great and all.
But when will the finish line stop moving...... :(

never. it will never stop moving. thats the nature of an MMO

 

[songswrath]

Tier 4​

• Dwarven Weapon Training: Multiselector: Choose from Axe Training or Pick and Hammer Training (identical to Dwarf version - Has been upgraded, see below)

i like to see this added for d axe and picks and light hammers > 1 Critical threat range bonuses are doubled with the appropriate Improved Critical feat, but are not affected by weapons with the Keen or Impact attributes.
mauls and great axes maybe added to this too, but i think this can be too good with some builds

 

[Honkin]

If it was close for you to copy-paste the majority of the racial tree from Dwarf, it was close enough to count as a sub-race. What was the point of doing wood elf as a sub-race if you're never going to use that mechanic again?