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Finally: [[Half-dwarves]]!
Finally: [[Half-dwarves]]!


The '''Mul''' (which, at least in [[4e]], nobody can agree on how to pronounce, but pronouncing it "Mule" is a way to get your face punched in) are half-[[dwarf]] and half-[[human]]; in other words, half-awesome and half-sucky. They have shown up in various incarnations of the [[Dark Sun]] campaign setting, wherein dwarves are primarily a slave race, as the result of some seriously creepy slavedrivers deciding that their slaves deserved to be taller and less awesome. They are as tall as humans but as stocky as dwarves, making them one of the heaviest races in 4th edition. Their racial bonuses are +2 Con, and a choice of +2 Str or +2 Wis. 4e Muls only need to rest for 6 hours in a 72 hour period, and have a racial power that allows them to end any ongoing damage or dazed, slowed, stunned, or weakened condition at the start of their turn. They also count as both dwarves and humans for feat purposes.
The '''Mul''' is a race of human/dwarf crossbreeds that originated in the [[Dark Sun]] campaign setting, wherein dwarves are primarily a slave race. The idea was that forcing humans and dwarves to mate would produce a race that would hopefully have human flexibility and stature combined with dwarven strength and endurance. The result worked more or less like a charm; muls are taller than normal humans and massively muscled, with absolutely incredible physical prowess. They are, however, usually completely hairless, sporting at most some hair on their head -- but then, Athasian dwarves were usually depicted as being completely bald as well, with [[Star Trek|Klingon]]-style forehead ridges to boot, so that's not quite so weird.


They make good tanks and in [[Advanced_Dungeons_and_Dragons#AD.26D_2nd_Edition|2nd Edition]] Dark Sun they made excellent choices for Gladiators, otherwise known as "Fighters better than all other fighters." The damage a Mul gladiator with a strength of 20 could inflict with Cahulaks was a beautiful thing to behold.
They had minimum Strength scores of 10 and Constitution scores of 8 (bumped up to min Con 10 in the Revised version) and maximums of 20 in AD&D, paired with +2 Str, +1 Con, -1 Int and -2 Cha as racial modifiers in that edition. They also had a really weird focus for racially specific abilities, in the form of...work. No really, due to their mix of human and dwarf parentage that was one of their special gifts. The ability to work for literally days at a time before needing to stop and rest. Generally speaking, this had zero practical use campaign wise as there aren't many GMs who are going to feature a campaign where you have to dig a ditch in a hurry.


Muls had some very weird racially specific abilities, such as...work. No really, due to their mix of human and dwarf parentage that was one of their special gifts. The ability to work for literally days at a time. Generally speaking, this had zero practical use campaign wise as there aren't many GMs who are going to feature a campaign where you have to dig a ditch in a hurry. This had happened precisely once in all the campaigns I played where my Mul Gladiator cut down a bunch of trees and trimmed the logs for a palisade, the combat benefits of which while not being negligible, were close to negligible.
They make good tanks and in particular they made excellent choices for [[Gladiator]]s, otherwise known as "[[Fighter]]s better than all other fighters." The damage a Mul gladiator with a strength of 20 could inflict with Cahulaks was a beautiful thing to behold.
 
4th edition, being somewhat more practical, instead gave them a static race bonus of +2 Con and then their choice of either +2 Str or +2 Wis, a bonus healing surge, the ability to count 6 hours of sleep out of every 72 as a long rest, and the ability to automatically end any ongoing damage/dazed/slowed/stunned/weakened effect once per encounter due to being so goddamned tough they could just shrug it off.
 
Dark Sun being the [[grimdark]] D&D setting of its time, muls were stated as being very prone to dead mother syndrome - since a baby mul is so much bigger than a human or a dwarf baby, birthing is very difficult - and also to be sterile, despite the fact that [[half-elf|half-elves]] and [[half-orcs]] have never been described that way. The idea was to emphasize just how cruel and callous the Sorcerer-Kings are, in that they would force the creation of muls even knowing they were costing women their lives for something that would live one generation and then be gone, all so they could have super-good laborers or gladiators.
 
4th edition, being the lighter & softer edition in many ways, abandoned both of these aspects. Grognards '''raged''' at this, but, really, why is it a bad idea to make half-dwarves less grimdark and more accessible in settings outside of Dark Sun?
 
In fact, 4th edition actually devoted an article in [[Dragon Magazine]] #391 to examining a more setting-neutral possible origin for muls, in this case tying them to a [[drow]] city-state that had a [[Lolth]]-inspired vision to breed super-slaves from their human and dwarven slave-stock, only to lose control of them when the fickle bitch lost interest. It was suggested that these muls are probably very staunchly anti-slavery and don't get on well with dwarves, due to many dwarves seeing their half-human origins as being abominable and muls have a strong anti-authoritarian streak.
 
Incidentally, their name has long been a source of some minor debate; why ''are'' they called Muls instead of "half-dwarves"? And how do you pronounce it? In 2e, it was generally accepted it was pronounced "mule" and was given as an insult, another way of highlighting their "born to slavery because of bastard overseers" origin. In 4e, it was changed to being short for Mulzhennedar, the dwarven word for "Strength", and it was noted that the two most common acceptable pronunciations were "Mull" (probably the "purest" pronunciation) and "Mool", with "Mule" being a good way to start a fight.


{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Races]]
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Races]]

Revision as of 15:05, 4 July 2016

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Finally: Half-dwarves!

The Mul is a race of human/dwarf crossbreeds that originated in the Dark Sun campaign setting, wherein dwarves are primarily a slave race. The idea was that forcing humans and dwarves to mate would produce a race that would hopefully have human flexibility and stature combined with dwarven strength and endurance. The result worked more or less like a charm; muls are taller than normal humans and massively muscled, with absolutely incredible physical prowess. They are, however, usually completely hairless, sporting at most some hair on their head -- but then, Athasian dwarves were usually depicted as being completely bald as well, with Klingon-style forehead ridges to boot, so that's not quite so weird.

They had minimum Strength scores of 10 and Constitution scores of 8 (bumped up to min Con 10 in the Revised version) and maximums of 20 in AD&D, paired with +2 Str, +1 Con, -1 Int and -2 Cha as racial modifiers in that edition. They also had a really weird focus for racially specific abilities, in the form of...work. No really, due to their mix of human and dwarf parentage that was one of their special gifts. The ability to work for literally days at a time before needing to stop and rest. Generally speaking, this had zero practical use campaign wise as there aren't many GMs who are going to feature a campaign where you have to dig a ditch in a hurry.

They make good tanks and in particular they made excellent choices for Gladiators, otherwise known as "Fighters better than all other fighters." The damage a Mul gladiator with a strength of 20 could inflict with Cahulaks was a beautiful thing to behold.

4th edition, being somewhat more practical, instead gave them a static race bonus of +2 Con and then their choice of either +2 Str or +2 Wis, a bonus healing surge, the ability to count 6 hours of sleep out of every 72 as a long rest, and the ability to automatically end any ongoing damage/dazed/slowed/stunned/weakened effect once per encounter due to being so goddamned tough they could just shrug it off.

Dark Sun being the grimdark D&D setting of its time, muls were stated as being very prone to dead mother syndrome - since a baby mul is so much bigger than a human or a dwarf baby, birthing is very difficult - and also to be sterile, despite the fact that half-elves and half-orcs have never been described that way. The idea was to emphasize just how cruel and callous the Sorcerer-Kings are, in that they would force the creation of muls even knowing they were costing women their lives for something that would live one generation and then be gone, all so they could have super-good laborers or gladiators.

4th edition, being the lighter & softer edition in many ways, abandoned both of these aspects. Grognards raged at this, but, really, why is it a bad idea to make half-dwarves less grimdark and more accessible in settings outside of Dark Sun?

In fact, 4th edition actually devoted an article in Dragon Magazine #391 to examining a more setting-neutral possible origin for muls, in this case tying them to a drow city-state that had a Lolth-inspired vision to breed super-slaves from their human and dwarven slave-stock, only to lose control of them when the fickle bitch lost interest. It was suggested that these muls are probably very staunchly anti-slavery and don't get on well with dwarves, due to many dwarves seeing their half-human origins as being abominable and muls have a strong anti-authoritarian streak.

Incidentally, their name has long been a source of some minor debate; why are they called Muls instead of "half-dwarves"? And how do you pronounce it? In 2e, it was generally accepted it was pronounced "mule" and was given as an insult, another way of highlighting their "born to slavery because of bastard overseers" origin. In 4e, it was changed to being short for Mulzhennedar, the dwarven word for "Strength", and it was noted that the two most common acceptable pronunciations were "Mull" (probably the "purest" pronunciation) and "Mool", with "Mule" being a good way to start a fight.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Races
Player's Handbook 1 DragonbornDwarfEladrinElfHalf-ElfHalflingHumanTiefling
Player's Handbook 2 DevaGnomeGoliathHalf-OrcShifter
Player's Handbook 3 GithzeraiMinotaurShardmindWilden
Monster Manual 1: BugbearDoppelgangerGithyankiGoblinHobgoblinKoboldOrc
Monster Manual 2 BullywugDuergarKenku
Dragon Magazine GnollShadar-kai
Heroes of Shadow RevenantShadeVryloka
Heroes of the Feywild HamadryadPixieSatyr
Eberron's Player's Guide ChangelingKalashtarWarforged
The Manual of the Planes Bladeling
Dark Sun Campaign Setting MulThri-kreen
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide DrowGenasi