Grav (Grey or Gravity or Cloud Dwarves)
Medium Sized Humanoids
Hit Dice: 2d8+6 (17 hp)
Initiative: -1
Speed: 20*
AC: 20 (+3 natural, +1 size, +2 Shield, +5 Breastplate), 14 Touch, 17 Flat
Base Attack/Grapple: +2
Attack: Hammer +6 (1d10+3), Heavy Crossbow +2 (1d8)
Special Attacks: Mass Manipulation, Psionics
Special Qualities: Low-Light Vision
Saves: Fort +5 Ref -1 Will +1
Abilities (Soldier) Str 16, Dex 7, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
Typical Appraise +3, Craft (Stonecutting) +3, Craft (Mining) +3, Perception +3
Feats: Weapon Focus (Hammer); Stone Interaction (+5 skill bonus)
Climate/Terrain: Cloud Isles
Organization: Patrol (2-7), Army (20-50), Town (500-2000)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: Double Standard
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Advancement Range: By Class
Gray skinned dwarves, three feet tall and almost as wide, with short white beards that are over 300 pounds. Most wear light metal armor, and use either a pick or hammer for both their work and combat weapon.
Grav are best known as reclusive cloud miners, who exclusively control trel production which is a magical ore that gives the wielder levitation properties. These psionic creatures can manipulate gravity, to levitate or featherfall almost at will. When the grav are transporting their goods they become targets of raiders, so they often look to hire adventuring companions.
Society: Grav society is extremely codified; every citizen knows their exact duties. Leaders are chosen at birth based on exhibiting greater psionic talents. They are taken away for instruction by the elder counsel, never knowing their birth families only the responsibilities that come with prestige and political power. Nobility or societal rank is rarely hereditary, higher level military station comes from success in battle, similarly, higher social rank comes from action, wealth and fame. Grav give nothing away, those who have something, have it because they earned it.
Those of the lower class usually take one of two roles: soldier or miner. Both are dangerous jobs, however, everyone in grav society has the possibility to advance upward due to performance. They may have little money, but they are a content lot and few grav would ever disobey their elders. Like their land based kin, grav enjoy pints of mead, and it is a little nervy to witness dozens of them drinking together in near perfect unison, no planned co-ordination but their natural instincts taking over.
While friendly, Grav rarely do well with strangers. They don't understand things like artistic expression that doesn't fit into pre-determined functional slots. But what many non-Grav often find most surprising is that for a codified society, they have little fear about expressing themselves or their ideas. All Grav are free to express themselves and to question the reasons for decisions their elders make, the only difference is once a group or society makes a decision, few Grav ever question it, as they trust each other.
Combat They fight using psionics to control the weight of the weapons and armor foes use, making it impossible to wield in battle or strong enough to move more than a few feet without extreme effort. Grav often grapple foes and drag them off a cliff or mountainside then safely levitating back up. They concentrate on an enemies leaders or spellcasters. Grav soldiers never surrender and willingly sacrifice their lives.
Miner or Soldier: mass manipulation (self) PSP: 5 (by HD)
Noble: mass manipulation, phobia amplification (heights), levitate; PSP: 15 (3 HD minimum)
Grav as Characters
+2 Constitution, +2 Strength, -4 Dexterity
Bonus Feat: Weapon Focus (Hammer)
Speed: 20 (15 in armor)
+1 Natural Armor Bonus / 3 HD or class levels
Fighter is the preferred class for soldiers;
Psion for Nobles.
Psionics: +5 PSP, Mass Manipulation
Trelline (Trel) is one of the base magical metals on Nyssa. It is mined almost entirely by the Grav dwarves in the clouds above the land. It is a pure white stone, with small cracks on its surface. The Grav must go into the deepest parts of the cloud to obtain the ore. With a processed piece of Trel, upon concentration, the user can slowly levitate upwards - speed and distance depends upon the user. Their communities are based on permanent cloud isles that must mine for Trel, they need to go to new clouds, find a line and do their work to extract the ore. Unlike traditional ground ores, Trel is always being naturally generated in new clouds. Clouds have a centralized gravity, meaning down is towards the cloud centre base.
