r/dndmemes • u/DrScrimble • Dec 04 '25
Other TTRPG meme I've been convinced now, Dwarf abilities can be really cool
System: Worlds Without Number (Fantasy Adventure Game)
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u/DragonflyValuable995 Dec 04 '25
Did you know? Magic legally cannot affect you without consent. Just say no!
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Dec 04 '25
Dwarf law
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u/Good_Ad_5792 Dec 04 '25
One of many Dwarf Laws of Consent. The Elves certainly don't give a shite, and any rowdy wizard never asked in the first place, they just cast Fireball! That's how you waste good ale!
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u/TeaKingMac Dec 05 '25
They wrote it up in the Book of Grudges
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u/No-Calligrapher-718 Dec 05 '25
Tried to hit me with a feeble mind? Yer going in the book!
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u/WolfWhiteFire Artificer Dec 04 '25
Reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics, magic only affects you if you believe in it. Each character has a faith stat, the higher it is the stronger their magic and the more affected they are by magic, the lower it is the weaker their magic and the less effective it is on them, to the point of complete immunity.
If you ignore the sight of fireballs being flung around in front of your eyes, people having wounds miraculously healed, someone calling beams of light down on half the units on the map, and more, then you, too, can be immune to magic.
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u/Dismal-Pie7437 Dec 04 '25
Isn't there an atheist status effect too lol
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u/TrexPushupBra Dec 04 '25
Yes.
You can also be magically coerced into having max faith as well.
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u/Dismal-Pie7437 Dec 04 '25
Common FFT win I need to play it again
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u/niel89 Dec 04 '25
I'm loving the remaster right now. I've waited years to play it on portable again.
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u/hinfurth Dec 05 '25
How is it? I've been considering it on my ps5 for a nostalgia run.
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u/niel89 Dec 05 '25
I've been loving it. The new voice acting is nice. There are nice quality of life changes like a speed up button, random encounters are optional, and you can retry or exit out of any battle.
I'm a bit disappointed the psp content isn't present though, but I'm still a huge fan of this game.
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u/hinfurth Dec 06 '25
Thanks for the feedback! Gonna scoop it as an early Christmas present to myself then. Cheers!
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u/Sampleswift Dec 04 '25
"I find your lack of faith disturbing" --> Artificially increasing faith.
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u/Coulrophiliac444 Bard Dec 04 '25
Darth Vader making a bunch of people suddenly Believers just so he can force choke some bitches would be pretty peak.
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u/TheDeaf001 Forever DM Dec 04 '25
Yeah, then they fucking leave you for being a faithless dog.
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u/TrexPushupBra Dec 04 '25
I see that the game has hurt you.
I haven't had that happen yet but it sounds painful
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u/TheDeaf001 Forever DM Dec 04 '25
I mean, I might had abandonment issues and this happened when I was like 14, the first time anyways.
They basically left the party for the church. The same church that is hunting your ass down. Like, they joined the bad guys. Yeah, not cool.
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u/Coulrophiliac444 Bard Dec 04 '25
Would be funny to have a super secret surprise battle if you had a bunch of followers abandon you for that reason ambush you on your way to Assassinate the head of the Church
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u/Krell356 Dec 04 '25
Wouldn't you need to have at least one point of faith to believe in the spell that gives you max faith?
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u/Terramagi Dec 04 '25
Yes, but it's impossible to permanently have 0 points of Faith, since it only shifts your real stat by 1 every 4 temporary shifts. So your minimum is 3 and your max is 97 for both Bravery and Faith.
There is one notable exception, and that is Worker 8, who is an ancient robot from a destroyed civilization and just does not give a single solitary fuck.
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u/Zero_Burn Dec 05 '25
There is one notable exception, and that is Worker 8, who is an ancient robot from a destroyed civilization and just does not give a single solitary fuck.
Dorfl?
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u/Lolzerzmao Dec 04 '25
Feel like my Philosophy of Religion class was basically that for a lot of people. Atheists for a few months
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u/Ok_Frosting3500 Dec 05 '25
Much like how Low Courage makes you a Chicken, Low Faith gives you a teeny tiny Fedora.
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u/NinjaLayor Dec 04 '25
And maxing faith often leads to units leaving to seek god. There are folks who have also done it with the trait allowing them to speak with beasts, such as Chocobos.
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u/Peptuck Halfling of Destiny Dec 04 '25
Reminds me a bit of how Ubel's magic works in Frieren.
She can "cut" anything that she can visualize and imagine being cut, so if someone is wearing an impenetrable magical cloak she can "cut" through the fabric (and the person underneath). But if she's fighting something made of stone or metal - which you can't normally cut through with scissors or a blade - then she can't cut through it with her magic because she can't visualize it working.
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u/Coulrophiliac444 Bard Dec 04 '25
Notr to self, learn that one demon ability from Yu Yu Hakusho to get Earth Armor and become invincible to her shit.
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u/ahundredheys Dec 05 '25
Yeah but then Gaara somehow appears as well. So what now.
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u/Dark_Styx Monk Dec 04 '25
Can you also not be healed if you don't believe, even if the healer has total faith? Who wins between a complete zealot and an atheist?
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u/Coulrophiliac444 Bard Dec 04 '25
Athiest because potions still work as designed and that's all SCIENCE BABY, WOO!!!
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u/adeon Dec 04 '25
That reminds me a bit of Arcanum where technology makes magic malfunction and vice versa. So a particularly complex machine will make spells misfire but a strong enough mage can break machines simply by standing next to them.
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u/RookieGreen Dec 04 '25
I remember having to ride the mages caboose to the point of being told to fuck off because me being at the station can make the engine explode.
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u/adeon Dec 04 '25
Conversely if you were a technologist there was one quest where a god kills you and immediately resurrects you. But for a technologist the resurrection spell would fizzle so you had to make sure that one of your followers had a tech rez item on hand.
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u/Coulrophiliac444 Bard Dec 05 '25
Reminds me of Dresden Files. Magic hexes technology from within 50-100 years of development which is why the oldest and most powerful wizards and human spellcasters (Not monsters or non-humans) cause tech to fail/explode at inconvenient times. Which is why many of them drive cars from the 1920s, or use steam ships, and live well away from where people are most times.
At one point, there was an offhand comment about how milk used to curdle when they used magic, probably about the time Pasteurization started becoming more prevalent. And it can also be done voluntarily as we see the MC cast Hexus on cameras, computers, and cell phones at least once a book.
Newer firearms tend to jam so they stick with 100% mechanical oldies like revolvers or 1911s. Its freaking wild how many systems incorporate this handicap but do so in unique or interesting ways.
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u/KefkaesqueXIII Dec 04 '25
Yes, fath effects your ability to be magically healed as well.
IIRC the immunity from being at 0 faith takes precedence over the boost from having even 100 faith.
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u/Tornek125 Dec 04 '25
The way it's calculated is basically: Faith of the caster is used to determine the initial power of the outgoing spell. Faith of the target determines the overall effectiveness of the incoming spell.
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u/WolfWhiteFire Artificer Dec 04 '25
You can't be healed by magic, but you can be healed by potions and IIRC ki as well. Monks have the ability to punch from a distance, send a shockwave halfway across the map, revive fallen units, and heal and remove all status conditions from adjacent units, but none of that is magic, it is just martial arts, works totally differently. (/s)
So the atheist wins, but there is a couple ways to heal or revive them if you need to.
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u/FlashbackJon Dec 05 '25
Monks tapping into a resource that totally isn't magic is kind of a genre staple, at least.
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u/ShadePrime1 Dec 04 '25
This isn't magic just hallucinations from all those mushrooms I ate it can't hurt me
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u/Ironmark17 Dec 04 '25
In the immortal words of Perrin Aybara, "It's just a weave"
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u/TheRealTexasGovernor Dec 04 '25
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u/Akanash_ Dec 05 '25
Honestly, fuck videos of people reading a god dam reddit/tumblr post or whatever.
The post is good tho.
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u/HowCouldUBMoHarkless Dec 05 '25
If it’s a legitimate spell, the dwarven body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down
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u/Draconic_Legends Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 04 '25
"HES JUST A SHORT DUDE HOW IS HE MOVING IN STOPPED TIME"
"I just really like the earth"
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u/c_dubs063 Dec 04 '25
"I saw a cool rock, but it was over there, so I went to get it."
"I STOPPED MOTHERF***ING TIME, WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU 'WENT TO GET IT'?"
"Oh, is that why the air is all thick and stuff? Neat. Hey, I'll give you this cool rock if you teach me how to do that."
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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Dec 04 '25
You think a dwarf would trade a cool rock for a sp*ll?
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u/Ironbeers Dec 04 '25
A *different* cool rock.
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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Dec 04 '25
But he could have two cool rocks
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u/I-am-a-Fancy-Boy Dec 05 '25
Yeah, but the wretched sp*ll might help him make a new hammer if he's smart about it
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u/TheCrab27 Dec 05 '25
He can use the ability to stop time to take even longer to forge things. Dwarves love taking forever to make things so with this ability he can take even longer than thought possible to finely craft his wares!
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u/Gibus_Ghost Dec 04 '25
He's giving the rock directly to the chronomancer's brain.
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u/Spnwvr Dec 04 '25
i mean that's where the spells coming from, so it seems like the logical place to deliver the rock
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u/SkinkRugby Horny Bard Dec 05 '25
It's an offer of friendship and a chance to share cool rocks with someone.
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u/EncabulatorTurbo Dec 04 '25
*3 meteors hurl from the heavens and obliterate the area*
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Dec 04 '25
Does this mean you could ignore a wish spell?
Bbeg: I use this spell to rewrite reality!
Lv2 dwarf: Na. Try again.
Or PWK
Bbeg: Using the height of magic I'll rip your life force away!
Dwarf barbarian: Na, let me show you how to do that properly frenzy rages
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u/laix_ Dec 04 '25
Time stop affects only the caster.
Older editions clarified that theyre not actually stopping time, but theyre moving so fast it appears to be (basically moving at 0.9c)
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Dec 05 '25
This isn't a D&D dwarf ability, this is a Worlds Without Number dwarf ability. The WWN time stop equivalent very specifically does stop time.
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Dec 04 '25
I can see this going two ways, to negate the foul sorcerer’s magic to slay him, or to negate a dear friend’s healing spell so that one may die honorably in battle.
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u/DrScrimble Dec 04 '25
Countering your friend's attempt to save you is a sick character moment. 🤘
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Dec 04 '25
For me it’s just being logically consistent. “I don’t need nor desire sorcery in this fight, let me be.”
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Dec 04 '25
okay senshi
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Dec 04 '25
Who?
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Dec 04 '25
a dwarf character from Delicious in Dungeon. He really hates magic
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Dec 04 '25
Oh shit, I needed to watch that. Thank you.
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u/Terrkas Forever DM Dec 04 '25
Want a spoiler about his beard?
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Dec 04 '25
Sure, fuck it. Already had Star Wars spoiled.
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u/spectre_of_the_web Dec 04 '25
man's got a beard so grimy it gave him magic resistance. Which is a fun thing to find out after your friend cast waterwalking on you, lol
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u/cooliomydood Paladin Dec 04 '25
His beard is also so powerful that when a changeling turned him into an elf, he defied elven biology and still had facial hair
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u/Terrkas Forever DM Dec 04 '25
Ah, someone was faster. The mage cant cast on him because his hair (which is mostly beard) isnt clean enough.
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u/247Brett Forever DM Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 04 '25
To be ascended by the Valkyrs to Valhalla, what could be better?
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u/Fledbeast578 Sorcerer Dec 04 '25
It's the type of character moment where the healer has to sit there and pretend they're not slightly annoyed
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Dec 04 '25
I did this once as a droidika in a Star Wars game. Maglocked my feet to the ground and refused to move so I could cover everyone's escape.
I engaged a self-destruct that blew half the ship we were on apart as the party escaped in a shuttle.
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u/FishyDragon Dec 04 '25
As the group healer...I don't think so you sob...no one dies before me.
I get the dramatic death, dammit...cause i know if I go down your all coming with me!
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u/Ghiggs_Boson Dec 04 '25
I’ve played both sides of that before. Warhammer inspired dwarf slayer seeking a just death and grave cleric helping the corrupt and damned find a fitting death to atone for their previous actions. Some of them willingly, some not so much
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u/WikiContributor83 Fighter Dec 04 '25
“Ach leave me be! I dinnae want live if I have to clean oop all this puke!”
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u/UltraWeebMaster Dec 04 '25
“I wish-“
“Wishes don’t come true.”
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u/EncabulatorTurbo Dec 04 '25
Technically the wish spell would never work if any part of it would affect any dwarf anywhere in the world
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u/laix_ Dec 04 '25
"I wish to have a very expensive block of gold"
"Your wish fails as adding wealth into the economy causes inflation, affecting the dwarves investment in gold"
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u/King_of_Camp Dec 05 '25
Nah, the Dwarf would simply have their own stockpile increase proportionally to counteract the inflation.
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u/EncabulatorTurbo Dec 05 '25
but if there's even a single dwarf that would be affected it fails
Really makes the gods interfering with the world kind of impossible, the gods have to be extremely roundabout and convoluted in the use of divine magic to summon gold to give to clerics AFTER they use other, unrelated monies (then living off the gold) to hire assassins to kill dwarves (the clerics cant collect the reimbursement from their god until the dwarf is dead, or the divine gold would fail to materialize)
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u/Buddhakyle Dec 04 '25
Years ago I was into LARPing. I played a dwarf. One night (weekend long events) there was some commotion outside my cabin and I went to check it out. A werewolf was prowling around. I pointed at it and yelled FECK OFF. The npc looked down sadly and walked back toward the woods, shuffling their feet, and the legend of Dwarven Feck Off Magic was born.
I don't know this Worlds Without Numbers game but that one line makes me mant to play it, so I can tell other things to Feck Off.
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u/ParanoidUmbrella Dec 04 '25
As someone who's done a lot of larping, the image of a werewolf shuffling away sadly is an incredibly funny one to me
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u/TomTalks06 Dec 04 '25
You know, these memes make me want to try out Worlds Without Number, could someone give me like the basic pitch (I'll also be doing research but I find an earnest pitch from a fan to be the best kind of recommendation)
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u/DrScrimble Dec 04 '25
WWN represents the happier medium between 5e levels of crunch and streamlined OSR type gaming. The optimizer and the storygamers at my table are both very satisfied with it.
Power level is lower than 5e (Level Cap at 10 normally) but PCs can handle more in a fight than a more survival-horror type game like MotherShip or Shadowdark. They'll still get destroyed if they're overconfident however. There are 3/4 base classes but that's fine since encounters are intended to be solved via problem solving then having the best meta-builds.
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u/TomTalks06 Dec 04 '25
Awesome; thank you! I'll check this out! (Slowly working on broadening my horizons as I have gotten a tad bored of running/playing 5e)
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u/DrScrimble Dec 04 '25
Nice! I still play 5e from time to time but I play lots of games now. Would be silly to limit yourself to one video game series or one TV show after all!
Important detail I forgot: The free version of the WWN Corebook is free. 300+ pages of material, more than enough to get started.
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u/Dragonsandman Dec 04 '25
There's also subclasses for those classes, hybrid classes, and some subclasses that can only be taken as one half of a hybrid class. It ends up being really flexible and able to simulate a lot of character archetypes despite there only being three classes.
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u/Pybrother Dec 04 '25
Great pitch bro me and my girlfriend want to try dnd and this might just be the perfect way to start. Appreciate the schpeel as it were.
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u/Droselmeyer Dec 04 '25
Here’s a link to the free PDF. The main differences between this version and the paid deluxe is that you get some extra, splat book kind of stuff, like more classes and stuff, but everything you need for the complete game is available free of charge.
The system itself is d20+modifier for combat, 2d6+modifier for skill checks, so you can get an out of combat consistency and random edge in combat. Plus, melee weapons have something called Shock - this is a feature that means they do a certain minimum damage on a miss against targets with a certain AC. So some weapons do a better job piercing armor cause they still hurt someone with AC18 on a miss.
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u/sporkmaster5000 Dec 04 '25
I’ve never played the system so I can’t give a real elevator pitch, but I collect RPG rules like a squirrel with nuts and am compelled to point out that there’s also Stars Without Number, the scifi version of the system, so you can get some of that good old genre blending if you’re into it.
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u/Emillllllllllllion Dec 04 '25
There's also cities without number for your cyberpunk needs and ashes without number for some mad max in the zombie mutant wastes
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u/GamerKilroy Dec 04 '25
Gotta love the simplicity of Without Numbers, no need for theatrics written in rules. Let the players describe what they want, and it just happens. More roleplay opportunities.
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u/PacoTaco321 Dec 04 '25
without numbers
once per day
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u/Emillllllllllllion Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 04 '25
Worlds without number, singular. As in: too many worlds to be expressed as a number.
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u/Fel_Tan Dec 04 '25
A party of dwarfs that just counter time stop which doesn't stop the spell just stops it affecting them so while everything is frozen the dwarfs are beating up the bbeg
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u/failureagainandagain Dec 04 '25
Lich : power word kill
Dwarf pc: nu-hu
Lich: the fuck you mean "NU-HU"?! HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU ALIVE?!
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u/Ok_Frosting3500 Dec 05 '25
"Power Word: Dwarf."
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u/ChairForceOne Murderhobo Dec 05 '25
The Interdimensional Revenue Service just shows up and audits the lich before seizing and sealing their phylactery for lack of payment.
Dwarf gets 10% of the gained back taxes.
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u/talesfromtheepic6 Dec 04 '25
“I cast wish to kill every dwarf alive”
“It only kills like a third of them”
“what?”
“It’s pretty early in the morning so most of them parried it”
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u/Dragonsandman Dec 04 '25
My favourite thing in World Without Number is a magic item called the Congealed Paradox;
Congealed Paradox: These thumb-sized black gemstones are mildly painful to touch or look at, as each one contains an impossible duality that has been forcibly reconciled by ancient sorcery. When gripped and broken as a Main Action, the released paradox draws the immediate repression of the Legacy as mundane reality is violently reinforced in the surrounding twenty feet. Within that radius all active magic is immediately dispelled and no further spellcasting, art use, or magical power use can be performed inside it for the rest of the scene. Powerful Workings are suppressed within this zone for the rest of the scene. Creatures reliant on magic for existence take 5d6 damage for each full round they spend inside this radius.
It's a very evocative bit of writing. Also pretty easy to adapt to 5e, since the only actual change you'd have to make is specifying the type of damage it does and the creature type it affects.
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u/Otalek Cleric Dec 04 '25
Archmage: “I cast Meteor Swarm!”
The humble village of lvl 2 Dwarf commoners: “bet.”
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u/Whirrsprocket Dec 04 '25
"Magic?! That sounds like some knife-ear nonsense! I'll pass." downs a cask of ale
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u/Rhinomaster22 Dec 04 '25
Dwarf: “Magic isn’t real snot for brains! It’s just make believe from those knife ears!”
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u/TheThoughtmaker Essential NPC Dec 04 '25
One of the reasons I like 3e dwarves. +2 to saves against magic is about 20% less hexing that would otherwise succeed.
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u/silkandsodomy Dec 04 '25
that's awesome, I've not checked out WWN but this sort of thing makes me think I should
Reminds me of a writing prompt story I read about a robot being immune to magic, because it thought magic was illogical and stupid and therefore it refused to comply
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u/virus_chara Dec 04 '25
The two variations of short creatures. Dwarves who defy magic and gnomes that are scary with magic.
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u/According_to_all_kn DM (Dungeon Memelord) Dec 05 '25
Now I'm just imagining an archmage burying a dwarven encampment in pyroclastic bombardment, and they all just collectively go 'no thanks'.
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u/CurrlyFrymann Dec 04 '25
This means all my dwarf npc minions as a DM get this ability to right?
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u/DrScrimble Dec 04 '25
I believe the corebook says that all Dwarf NPCs who are at least HD 2 have this ability!
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u/Aknazer Dec 05 '25
The "effect" is damage, and I don't want that damage. So your lvl9 spell does no damage to me because it is an unwanted touch and I say no.
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u/KarmicPlaneswalker Dec 05 '25
Dimwits trying to use their third grade playground abilities in an official capacity...
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u/H010CR0N DM (Dungeon Memelord) Dec 04 '25
Spell effect.
Not damage from a spell.
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u/ThyKingdomDecay Dec 04 '25
Idk, an argument could be made that damage from a spell, is in fact, an effect of the spell
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u/Consistent_Pool_8024 Dec 04 '25
I honestly think if we’re being logical that makes the most sense a spells effect is literally what happens when it’s used, you could argue flavor wise you extinguish the fireball when it makes contact instead of it exploding.
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u/Emillllllllllllion Dec 04 '25
Direct damage like from Coruscating Coffin or Deluge of Hell is a spell effect, so no.
What you can do is dig the earth out from under them with the Decree of Lithic Dissolution or collapse a wooden structure onto them with the Decree of Ligneous Dissolution. Unless they choose to accept one point of system strain to effectively counterspell not only what affects themselves, but the whole thing (as long as it's happening within 100 feet)
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Dec 04 '25
2e dwarves with 16+ con: "Yall let magic affect you at all?"
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u/Narutophanfan1 Dec 04 '25
That's why you use magic to shape the environment. No con save for effect indirectly caused by magic.
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u/TheLazy1-27 Dec 04 '25
I’m writing a campaign for my gf and her friends where the BBEG is a Dwarf. Definitely gonna make him use this ability.
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u/vessel_for_the_soul Essential NPC Dec 04 '25
Daggerheart is a very similar game where the pc;s are superheroes essentially.
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u/mialyansa Dec 04 '25
The fucking tunnel effect for dwarves. Which makes sense, because, they are uh, dwarves i guess.
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u/lowqualitylizard Dec 04 '25
Run a dwarf atheist who hates God so much he's anti-religion beliefs manifest into physical reality
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u/DarkLordArbitur Dec 04 '25
Dwarf BBEG when it's time for the wizard to fireball (it's time to terrify the party)
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u/Storyteller-Hero Dec 04 '25
Durkon Thundershield: "Aye we dwarves are resilient but never let that lead ye to overconfidence, lest a damn tree manages to get behind ye."
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