D&D General why are dwarves harder to think of varients for?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mechs - These dwarves meld technology and magic into their beings. They're essentially arcane cyborgs - and in some ways are the Borg of my setting. They aspire for perfection of form and usually stay self contained, but send out missions to add new tools to their communities. They gain additional attunement slots (6), but when they attune, they attune for life as the magic is embedded into them. They also get to graft on mundane items and steal magic from other magic items in order to enchant something they've incorporated. While they keep to themselves most of the time, if they believe that a culture is worthy of contributing to their goals, they will attack, enslave, and then forcibly incorporate them into their culture. They are incapable of disobeying their Matriarch.

Me, from 2007, reskinning & mashing Warforged & Dwarves together (emphasis is new):

The D&D campaign I'm designing now has Humans, Githyanki, Githzerai, & Gnollkind as the sole unaltered "core" races. Elves exist in 3 forms (a starfaring race from the future, one melded with plant life, and a race that are the decendents of Drow & Shadar-Kai), Halflings are extinct, Orcs and Goblins have had significant changes, I'm replacing Kobolds with a different small "draconic" race with some more powerful (non-fertile) mutations, Dwarves are extinct, survived by The Inheritors (psionic dwarves who have become a Dalek/Cyberman-esque variety of living construct), Gnomes are crossed with Mephits & Mephlings to create Gnophits, I'm melding SS Anthropomorphic Animals with OA hengeyokai to create a more flexible "race," and I'm writing up a "race sub-type" template called "Nephilim" which will be more flexible than the original Planetouched they'll replace.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

it occurred to me when contemplating on making a cooler setting of the triumvirate of nearly omnipresent options dwarves seem to all end up sort of clones of each other and this bugged me thus I am making this thread.

elves I swear you find a new hill and you will find a new varient.

orc do well but still need to move beyond barbarians

humans are not a part triumvirate as they are the only real option.

why can't I figure out how to make more different variants of dwarves past making them evil?
I also notice this in other settings so it does not seem to be a me limitation.

why is this and can it be remedied?

Because the dwarf concept, as integrated into modern "high fantasy" fiction, has only really two significant inputs. Namely, actual Norse mythology, and Tolkien, who adapted that mythology to suit his own needs.

Elves pull from multiple distinct cultures now, and while Tolkien still looms large over that space, he's no longer hegemonic. This is not true of dwarves, which remain pretty much fully in Tolkien's shadow today. Sometimes elves can have facial hair (Azeroth, Tamriel), sometimes they can't (most D&D settings, Middle-Earth.) Sometimes they're truly immortal, or just long-lived, or formerly long-lived, etc. Religious sentiments run the gamut. Social mores can be anything from libertine to ultra-conservative. Some Elves are true outright "fey folk," terrifying beings of mystery and power with bizarre, literally inhuman thoughts; some are basically identical to humans; some are fully understandable to humans but with radically different instincts or core beliefs (e.g. Vulcans are basically space elves.) Etc., etc., etc. None of these things feel not-elf-like, despite often being at diametrically opposite ends of the spectrum.

Dwarves have to be, as OSP's Red put it, "beardy fighter-types." There's hardly even a full draw on all of Tolkien here; Gimli is one of the most intelligent, well-educated people in the Fellowship because he is literally dwarven nobility/minor royalty (Balin and Dwalin are his first cousins, once removed; and all three are of the House of Durin, with Gimli being Thorin's fourth cousin.) The son of a noble house, and certainly one who, fifty years on from Thorin reclaiming Erebor, would have had a first-class education. Very little of this conception survives in the D&D dwarf today, with only the "mountain" dwarf vs "hill"dwarf distinction, that more cashes out as "cleric" vs "fighter" type.

Religious diversity is low: they all revere Durin the Deathless Moradin the Dwarf-Father, and maybe some other dwarf-specific gods if the author's feeling fancy. Origin diversity is low: they literally come from hills and/or mountains, and usually by direct divine creation (taken from Tolkien rather than the Norse.) Social structure diversity is low: they almost always have a clan-based society (Norse and sort of Tolkien) with societal ranks somewhere between tribal leaders and formalized nobility. In terms of moral/ethical beliefs and values-systems, they're almost always depicted as being either pretty much just humans with a couple of quirks (e.g. "lust for gold"), or always straddling the middle point between the alien elves and the relatable humans. Their personality variance is often quite limited, heavily leaning on specific cliches (drunkenness being the common one), and the only really major developments on this front in several decades are the idea of sea-faring dwarves (which many don't cotton to, because it separates the dwarf from the land) and heavily druidic dwarves (which is more well-liked, but still a little awkward because of the strong association between dwarves and industry.)

In brief: It's hard to come up with variants of dwarves because "dwarf" is significantly more narrowly-defined than "elf," in part because dwarves are used far less often in fiction. Halflings are in a similar boat, barely ever being used except as a direct homage to Tolkien.

Often, it takes a well-liked exemplar character to invigorate interest in a fantasy race. Dak'kon completely reinvented the githzerai, for example. This is one of the reasons why it makes me so happy to see dragonborn in Baldur's Gate 3. With the ability to play dragonborn firmly entrenched, it now becomes possible for there to be dragonborn companions who can win the hearts and minds of players, characters who follow in the footsteps of Legolas (who pretty much single-handedly manifested the "elf ranger" archetype) and the aforementioned Dak'kon (the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon is absolutely one of the coolest examinations of religion in CRPGs.)

TL;DR: We need more dwarves that are still clearly dwarves, but who buck the trends of their past characterization. That's the only way to make them more diverse and interesting...because it literally is making them more diverse, and if well-done, more interesting as well.

 

[cbwjm]

I think you might need to define what dwarves are, then take traits and either highlight them or oppose them. To me dwarves are:

• Related to stone, hills, and mountains
• Orderly/law focused
• Clan/family based
• Skilled craftsmen
• Skilled warriors

I could probably think of more, but you might ignore the hills and mountains and create a desert dwelling clan that is known to be skilled mounted warriors (maybe giant lizards, maybe camels) and skilled craftsmen creating incredible glass products from sand located in their home.

Maybe a clan has taken to the seas, a chaotic society where strength and cunning gets you a leadership position. Still skilled warriors, there homes are found on the coasts and ships at sea.

Maybe they're skilled wizards, known for their spellcasting and the magical artifacts that come from that knowledge. This one is probably a trope as well, dwarves forged magical artifacts in Norse mythology, it's one reason why I always found it weird that they couldn't be wizards back in the day.

 

[Aldarc]

and the only really major developments on this front in several decades are the idea of sea-faring dwarves (which many don't cotton to, because it separates the dwarf from the land) and heavily druidic dwarves (which is more well-liked, but still a little awkward because of the strong association between dwarves and industry.)

In one setting that I have toyed around with, dwarves were based on seafaring Pacific Islanders. They were seafarers in search of land, which was sacred to them. They venerated volcanoes as the bringers of new land and fertile soil. They were more typically farmers rather than miners.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My 1st 4Ed PC was a Dwarven Starlock/Psion. I made up a background for him and his clan and showed it to the DM. It wasn’t like anything he’d come up with, but didn’t disrupt is setting, either. So he approved it.

Clan Skyhammer had a vow to protect their world from incursions from the Far Realms. They knew that the streaking lights in the sky heralded one of two things: a deposit of starmetal to be gathered and refined, or an “egg” of unreality sent from the Far Realms.

Because of this, Clan Skyhammer migrated to and settled the highest of mountaintops to support their mission. Many of their people watched the sky for signs of starfalls and other things. Others trained to go into the world to combat whatever incursions they could find.

Some “fought fire with fire”, and made warlock pacts with beings from outside realities, or followed the path of psionic force. Magnus did both.

(Tangentially, Clan Skyhammer’s culture heavily favored percussion instruments of fire, stone or refined metals- lithophones, xylophones, chimes, triangles, cymbals, gongs, crystal bowls, pyrophones, steel drums, etc. Their musical instruments & style led them to invent the campaign world’s version of capoeira.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Inspired by the volcano snail:

Scaly-foot gastropod - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

How about a race of aquatic dwarves who live near aquatic geothermal vents, tectonic fissures, etc.? Both water breathing AND highly resistant to nonmagical fire & heat.

Don’t want them to be fully aquatic? Make them a lost tribe of Azer who are now masters of “steampunk-ish” diving gear/armor, possibly with aesthetics inspired by aquatic mollusks, arthropods and echinoderms.

 

[Dioltach]

How about dwarves that take on properties of metals and minerals? Not element-based, perhaps, just assuming or aspiring to the defining qualities. Gold dwarves, iron dwarves, sapphire dwarves, heliodor dwarves, alexandrite dwarves.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Honestly, I don’t understand the problem. Why can’t you have many variants of dwarves? I don’t think I see any reason to limit them?

it is more I can't do it without it feeling non-dwarvish and this angers me as it seems like it should be so easy.

 

[Mind of tempest]

How about dwarves that take on properties of metals and minerals? Not element-based, perhaps, just assuming or aspiring to the defining qualities. Gold dwarves, iron dwarves, sapphire dwarves, heliodor dwarves, alexandrite dwarves.

gems are mixtures, stick with metals.

osmium dwarves when?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Common themes for dwarves are: Industry, Isolationism, Greed, Conservatism. So I give you 1 word:

BIOSHOCK

Dwarves lives in weird industrial utopia far removed from the world of men where they spiraled into depraved societies.

Mix steampunk dwarves with the eldritch-body-modification of Eberron dwarves, use the highly regimented society of Dragon Age's dwarves....boom, you have Bioshock Dwarves.