The Draugr's Bastard (An Unexpected Dhampir)

There's a story about what happened, that night on the Black Reef. Harmund Darkhair's ship fetched up against the rocks, but he wouldn't die. He survived the frigid storm, and ate the bodies of his dead men, trying to gather his strength. He wanted to see his wife one last time, and to tell her he loved her. Once winter had let go, she took a small boat out to the broken ship, searching for her husband. She found him there, and they had one, last night together. The next day, she left the ship alone... or nearly so.

Her son was born, and the lad was queer. He was strong, and fierce, just like his father had been. But his milk teeth were sharp enough to draw blood, and he was prone to rages. They say his eyes shone red in the darkness, and that the smell of death lingered on his skin. His strength grew, and he was stronger than most men by the time he was old enough to grow hair on his face. In time, he was driven from the town, and forced to live in the wild lands of the Broken Hills. Though there are beasts and bandits aplenty in those hills, none dare venture into them after darkness without a tithe to give. For if you move in the lands of the Draugr's Bastard, he will demand payment. And if you lack the gold, he will gladly take value in your blood.

The hills have teeth. Walk shy of them, if you would avoid being bitten.

An Unexpected Dhampir

When someone tells you they're playing a dhampir swashbuckler, you probably picture something like Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of The Night. While that's one option, a lot of us get stuck imagining all vampires as Vlad Dracula, and all dhampir as being in the same vein... so to speak.

Not so with the draugr's bastard. We already have a different look, since he comes from strong, northern stock. So he's big through the shoulders, with thick, dark hair, and likely dresses for the weather in a fur cloak and heavy leathers. He is still pale, as one would expect with his heritage, but he's also fearsome and barbaric. A man from outside civilization, as surely as he is outside the normal cycle of life and death.

Then we get into his mechanics. Because while dhampir get bonuses to charisma and dexterity, it's important to remember that all sorts of things can be one-handed piercing weapons. Such as a bastard sword, if you take Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword), and Slashing Grace. When you have that combination, you can swing around that heavy blade faster, and with greater precision, than one might expect. And if you throw in feats like Power Attack, watching you fight is almost like watching a predator unleashed onto the battlefield.

Cold, and ruthless, as the snows he lives among.

 

While the legend of his birth might be true, or it might just be a wild tale that's gotten out of control, the man himself is clearly otherworldly. And whether he'll choose to stay in the northlands near folk who hate and fear him, or whether he'll seek out opportunities elsewhere, depends on the player behind the character. Of course, if he grows in skill and power, he could easily become more than a local legend to the hill folk. The people who leave him offerings, and who call on him when reavers threaten their lands, or when it looks like war will spill over into their holdings.

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That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

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Ethnicity and "Half-Breeds" in Fantasy RPGs

Anyone who's ever played a fantasy RPG is familiar with the idea of half-breed races. Half-orcs, for example, tend to lack the sheer ferocity of their full orc parents, but they tend to be smarter, and more cunning. Half-elves are not as long-lived as full elves, but they temper wisdom and enthusiasm in a way that alloys their human and elven heritages. There are also tieflings and aasimar, who reflect infernal and celestial heritages, as well as more unusual examples like dhampir and half-ogres.

The first question most people ask is why are there so few "half-breed" races to pick from? Are there no partial gnomes? Is there a half-halfing option? Has a dwarf never managed to have a child with an orc?

Don't let the charisma negative fool you, I'd hit that... with my ax!

The simple answer, which you find in books like Bastards of Golarion, is that certain races simply don't produce offspring. And, in other cases, the children may inherit features of both parents, but will only have the benefits and racial abilities of one template. So, for example, it's perfectly possible to have a child whose parents are an orc and an elf... but you can't get the benefits of both races. You need to pick which one is more dominant.

And maybe take the feat Racial Heritage to give you access to abilities usually reserved for the other side of your lineage.

The question I'd like to ask is why all our half-orcs, half-elves, and other characters with unusual heritage all tend to look the same?

There's More To The World Than Fantasy England

I harped on this in Do Dwarves Surf? Tips For Diversifying Non-Human Fantasy Races, as well as in the post Ethnic Homogeneity in RPGs (Or, Why So Many Burly, White Adventurers?), but there's a tendency for us, as players and DMs alike, to default to the same half-dozen acres of English countryside that's carved out of J.R.R. Tolkien's back garden. Even if the setting we're playing in is diverse in terms of races, ethnicity, cultures, and traditions, it's like Lord of The Rings is a comfort zone we just can't step out of for too long.

Thanks, Tolkien!

So, the question I think we should all ask ourselves the next time we put together a PC with only a partially human heritage is to ask who their human parent was. Where did they come from? What features did they inherit from their human mother or father? Most importantly, Who Raised Your Character, and How Did That Shape Them?

There's a whole layer of character development here that we often ignore. Take the map of Golarion, the base world for Pathfinder (it's the one I know best, so it's the one I tend to default to for examples). Say you want to play an aasimar, and you decide that his lineage comes from both the Mwangi Expanse, as well as from the celestial realm. So you end up with a tall, handsome black man, with eyes of silver, a halo of light, and wings inherited from the supernal planes.

There are all kinds of examples you could pursue with this idea. What would a half-elf born to the Shoan-Ti, and raised in their burning deserts and arid wastes, look like? How would a half-orc born from a union where one parent had Tian heritage appear? What would a dhampir reared in the Land of The Linnorm Kings look like? Or a tiefling from the top of the world, born to the Mammoth Lords?

It also bears repeating that, just because a character shows a certain ethnicity, that's no reason to declare they must be from a certain place. Between traveling merchants, wandering adventurers, wars, and the slave trade (all common elements in most fantasy RPGs), it's usually possible to find all kinds of heritages in places that aren't their "homelands". Which is just one more element you have to consider. If you're the child of immigrants, even if your parents, and their parents, were born in your home country, how were you treated? And what are the attitudes toward your non-human heritage in that part of the world?

Just some food for thought!

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