D&D 5E Dwarves Could Use A Rethink

[Urriak Uruk]

I believe that perhaps Troika! should be consulted. In this game, dwarves aren't born. They are made - mastering craftmanship is crucial for a dwarf, so that he make build another dwarf.

A possible character is a poorly made dwarf - one with no craftmanship whatsoever. The other dwarves are horrified by it.

Now this is a cool concept... are Troika! dwarves cosmetically the same as D&D/Tolkien dwarves, or do they have their own look?

 

[Ancalagon]

Now this is a cool concept... are Troika! dwarves cosmetically the same as D&D/Tolkien dwarves, or do they have their own look?

The Troika art style really precludes a clear answer to that question.

However, I hope they will forgive me if I quote the text:

"You are a short, hairy, belligerent, alcohol dependent creature. The latter two may be linked but you’ll fight anyone who suggests as much. Since there are no Dwarf women (or men, technically) there are no Dwarf children or Dwarf families so you can fully commit yourself to the important Dwarfy endeavours of creating fine art in unusual places. You intend to find the most unusual places ever seen in all the million spheres

(snip stats stuff)

Dwarfs may eat gems and rare metals as food replacements. You, in fact, vastly prefer the taste of rare minerals to mundane food. Dwarfs are genderless. You are immune to all compulsions that play on a creature’s desire for sex. This also means you don’t have sexual organs. Instead of urinating you excrete through sweating, thus explaining your odour."

And the poorly made dwarf:

"Dwarfs are known for being the finest artisans of the million spheres. Give a Dwarf a rock and they will make gold, give a Dwarf a boulder and they will make a Dwarf. You were supposed to be the finest expression of Dwarfy craftsmanship, a true masterpiece, a brand new Dwarf like those made by the old masters, but you were deemed imperfect and abandoned

(snip stats)

As 22 Dwarf but addtionally: Other Dwarfs will completely ignore you as though you were a piece of furniture or somebody’s abandoned hat. Very occasionally they may openly examine and comment thoughtfully to themselves on your unforgivable flaws, possibly while marking areas for improvement on your body with a grease pen. To non-Dwarfy eyes you probably look like any other Dwarf. You have +4 Sneak versus Dwarfs"

(I highly recommend the system )

 

[Don Durito]

My personal take on dwarves in recent years has been to make them both a diaspora and cursed. They have lost their old mountain home and dispersed through human lands but there is no agreed Thorin Oakenshield as the heir awaitng. Instead there is acrimony and bitter blood feuds.

"Every dwarf knows their family history and it's long and complicated web of branchings, marriages, blood feuds and alliances. As mercenaries they tend to join sides in human struggles where they can oppose rival claimants. Dwarves have a reputation amongst humans of being unreliable mercenaries, willing to switch sides at the drop of a hat, but in reality they have their reasons. When Dwarves change sides it's because some distant marriage or death has led to a change in their families allegiance to one or the other of the leading rival claimants to the lost Dwarven throne, or because circumstance has provided the chance to act on an ancient bloodfeud. There is no hatred in the world so strong as that of a Dwarf for another Dwarf.

In the last days of the humans' war, one of the last scions of an ancient line died overwhelmed by sheer numbers in a siege. Now, dwarves scurry across the land, making new alliances and breaking old ones, consulting weighty genealogical tombs and negotiating marriages.

And arranging assassinations. It is said by those who live by the sword, that when a Dwarf has a job for you, it will in the end, no matter what the initial claim, be about settling a score with another Dwarf."

But of course, this fits my own preferred somewhat gritter Warhammer inspired take on D&D which is not the predominant approach around here.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dwarves are rather tired in any regard now (although not as tired as elves). In any new settings I think dwarves should be left out entirely.

In existing settings, dwarves should continue to use the dwarf lore established by those settings. I see no benefit to trying to make them "more Scandinavian" unless you are making a Norse mythology setting.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Hey! Don’t get me wrong, Dwarves are cool. But…they’re at risk of getting a bit stale in D&D.

what if we went back to origins and rethought what a Dwarf can be?

For instance, and mind this ain’t a scholarly source because this ain’t an academic discussion, this article goes into just how ambiguous stories about dwarves are in Norse myth. Dwarves in Norse Mythology

Now I’ve done a decent amount of research on this topic over the years, myself, and yeah, Ivaldi is never said to fear the sun, nor the Bricings, nor Gandalfr, nor Alberich IIRC, nor the 4 who hold up the sky, etc, and none of them are described as short, either.

So perhaps a line of dwarves, Dvalin’s kin, fear the sun, while others simply live underground, and still others live in the forest.

What do Norse dwarves have in common?

Well, they’re very magical, for one.

For another they are excellent craftsfolk.

They seem to tend not to like outsiders much to me, and they are almost certainly related to elves. Too many of thier names have variants of alfar in them to be otherwise.

Okay, so this sounds more like gnomes than dwarves in a lot of ways, but let’s roll with it. How can we make more magical dwarfs while keeping them dwarfy?

Anyone here knowledgeable about dwarves from other cultures, or have some really interesting tales on them?

maybe they like practical magic as opposed to the flashy stuff so they would more likely churn out some kind of ur-artificer having to do with scrolls and runes as opposed to sorcerers and warlock(both of which would likely generate the wizard in time)?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Oof, no. I can respect most of Age of Sigmar, but Fyreslayers are the worst case of flanderisation I can think of in any medium.

Seriously, the Warhammer Fantasy Dawi are a nuanced race with reverence for tradition and honour to a sometimes ridiculous degree - but Slayers are there because among any people who revere honour the dark side is what happens to those who are dishonoured? And that was how you got the punk deathwish unarmoured slayers who added shading and details to the wider dwarfish culture. They were there to answer, in part, if this race has a hat what of those who don't wear it?

Meanwhile the Fyreslayers took the slayer aesthetic - and just about nothing else about them.

they do apparently have a rather different and odd culture and honestly, they with some development might work as a regional variant of the dwarves in a setting as it is slightly interesting.

 

[Flamestrike]

Scottish accents, drink like sailors and bushy beards.

And Im talking about the women.

 

[Thunder Brother]

I generally like dwarves as they are. If you change them too much from the default, even in a quest to be more "authentic" to their mythological origins, you risk losing what made them so memorable in the first place.

With that said, I do change up dwarves a little bit in my own setting, primarily by taking inspiration from the Mostali of Glorantha.

For example, dwarves in my setting are born from carved stonework in a sacred ritual perform by two parents. As a result, dwarves have a distinctly different concept of family, parentage, as well as sex and gender.

There appear to be male and female dwarves, at least humans think so. But truly, to a dwarf, identity is based upon one's guild. A dwarf is a miner, a warrior, a smith, a lorekeeper, etc. Some dwarves dedicate their lives to be all these things, and can become "Masters of All".

This last example only really applies to the most widespread dwarf culture, and there are may dwarves who don't fit within such confines.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You don’t need to revamp dwarves entirely, just come up with an interesting subgroup. I did this in 4Ed:

Magnus Skyhammer of Clan Skyhammer was one who was chosen to go out into the world to enact his clan’s oath:

“In deepest mine, on mountain's height
Our cunning foes will face our might
No Far Realms scourge evades our sight
Skyhammer clan's eternal fight!”

Clan Skyhammer’s sole remaining stronghold sits atop one of the tallest peaks in the land. From there, scholars of various kinds tirelessly scan the night sky, looking for where falling stars land. This is because they know that some are not actually made of precious starmetal, bur rather, are actually “seeds” from the Far Realms, sent to corrupt the world with abominations, old and new.

Magnus was unusual among those entrusted with the Clan’s sacred mission. He sought to fight fire with fire, as well as with the traditional skills and talents of his people: he was a Starpact Warlock…and a Psion as well.

 

[Minigiant]

I kinda like the tradition of the dwarves.

In my Klassico setting, dwarves are all about tradition. And they are great at weaseling new ideas into tradition.

Hill dwarves we're just supposed to set up forts closer to the ground to fight the giants. However they stay due to liking the fresh air. "Well someone has to dwarf the forts, my king. We cannae break our oath of vigilance."

The deep dwarves tried that BS and got captured. And the dwarf kings never sent help. Because they just wanted wealth to boost their clans.

And dwarves don't go to the afterlife if any clan mates are alive. There are just thousands of dwarf ghosts floating around mountains with ghastly axes. And they just reform if a clanmate prays for them. Only halflings can stand those spooky places.

Also why dwarves don't understand personal space and privacy. Nosy ghost ancestors.