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

[Scribe]

Sure you can make them sailors or rangers or desert nomads or burlesque dancers but other than putting the dwarf label on them what distinguishes Dwarf from Human (or Halfling for that matter?

What your asking, to me, is what actually makes an origin an origin.

Removed from their typical environment.
Remove culture or stereotype attitudes, behaviors or mannerism.

What's left?

The 'biological' is really all that 5e has remaining.

This is a major reason why I find floating ASI an absolute abomination as a standard as its just one more piece removed in what defines an origin.

BG3 really hammers this home with how boring the origin options are.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

other than putting the dwarf label on them what distinguishes Dwarf from Human (or Halfling for that matter?

Depending on D&D edition, their resistance to poison & magic stands out. Having an innate feel for stonework. Darkvision. Their cultural training in fighting giants.

 

[MarkB]

watching the recent DnD movie my head kept thinking of Holga as ‘the Dwarf’ because she fit the tropes of hard drinking, hard fighting gruff warrior with an axe and I think that may be part of the problem too, Varric as discussed above also exemplifies it.
Once you take away the Undermountain/Miner-Smith aspect and clannish pride there is nothing about Dwarfs that really distinguish them from a stout human viking. Sure you can make them sailors or rangers or desert nomads or burlesque dancers but other than putting the dwarf label on them what distinguishes Dwarf from Human (or Halfling for that matter?

I think that's part of the issue. Elves have this aloof, slightly otherworldly attitude and manner of speaking that distinguishes them from the average human no matter what particular variety you're dealing with, whereas dwarves tend to be well within human norms in those regards. As a result, once you strip away their stereotypical cultural aspects and replace them with something else, it's a lot easier to lose their essential dwarfiness along the way.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Sure you can make them sailors or rangers or desert nomads or burlesque dancers but other than putting the dwarf label on them what distinguishes Dwarf from Human (or Halfling for that matter?

the quality and grooming of their beards

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just have dwarves and halfling be another type of elves and map them to the giant-kin, as a nod to the norse inspiration of the whole thing (cant remember the name, alfar vs jotun? something like this?)


Trow -> drow -> troll
Wood elves -> firbolg -> wood giants
Storm elves -> orc -> storm giants
Hill elves -> halfling -> hill giants
Flame elves -> dwarves -> fire giants
Mountain elves -> goliath -> stone giants
High elves -> high elves -> cloud giants

 

[Clint_L]

I think a lot of D&D species can be hard to think of variants for because fantasy has a long tradition of equating species and culture, so that the species into which you are born largely determines your personality, aptitudes, etc.. Unless you are human.

There's absolutely no reason why dwarves can't have a largely sea-going culture, or culture acclimatized to the desert, or whatever, if you don't want to stick them back underground. And elves can have a culture that is outgoing and friendly, with a strong focus on service industries or something. We don't have to keep going back to the Tolkien well.

 

[Tonguez]

Same for the barbaric D&D Japanese Ainu folklore inspired Korobukuri from Oriental Adventures. Partially that is from there being very little description or art of them in OA and I am not personally familiar with the original inspiration folklore so they are mostly 1e OA barbarian dwarves which never really strongly grabbed me as a concept.

In Japanese folklore Koro-pok-kuru were described as rough and primitive looking, with large heads, prominent brows, and short, squashed noses. They often had ruddy skin and were rather hairy and odiferous. (They were pretty much a racist caricature of how Japanese saw Ainu)
Ainu folklore said they were in Hokkaido before the Ainu and lived in pits covered by Butterbur leaves (the name Koro-pok-kuru means Person under the Butterbur leaf), they used stone knives, and were skilled in the art of pottery which they would trade with Ainu, however they were very shy and so most contact was at night. Initially Ainu and Koropokkur lived peacefully but eventually conflict arose (maybe because an Ainu person wanted to see a Koropokkur and kidnapped one). After the resulting conflict Koropokkuru were never seen again.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The text has said for a long time 'you do not have to do this'. Its not D&D's fault if players and especially DM's lack the will/creativity/desire to do something different. Its not the games job to tell you you dont have to have a beard on your dwarf and carry an axe.

Except, of course, when it doesn't say that. Like when it tells people that worlds always have elves and dwarves but dragonborn are rare and unheard of. Even though the first two things are false and the third is only true by happenstance, not by necessity like it presents things.

 

[Scribe]

Except, of course, when it doesn't say that. Like when it tells people that worlds always have elves and dwarves but dragonborn are rare and unheard of. Even though the first two things are false and the third is only true by happenstance, not by necessity like it presents things.

Eh, Dragonborn are still pretty out there. I'm sure the next edition will present them as just as common as everything else.

 

[Divine2021]

As long as we agree that lady dwarfs have beards, we’re good here.