A Look at the Duerger: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Preview

Alas, the party completed the Duergar section of the dungeon 2 sessions ago! :O

 

[Jer]

I dont get why duergers arent more popular in the D&D lore.

Mostly I suspect because there isn't a "classic" adventure centered on the duergar. The Drow early on had Lareth the Beautiful show up in Hommlet, as well as the D and Q series of modules, making them mysterious and horrible foes that kept getting cycled into products until Salvatore spun out Drizzt and cemented their place in D&D forever. The duergar have never really had that - they've always played second (or third, or fourth) fiddle to the drow when it comes to underdark threats.

 

[Solandros]

Am I the only one that thinks the defining clan trait 11 is a pretty strong hint we'll get psionics in this book? How can your clan be famous for something that doesn't technically exist in the game yet. That compared with all the psionic races, multiverse coverage etc, seems like pretty strong hints

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I don't get how you could wish for more

I'm getting old, it seems. A few years back I know I loved them leather clad elves and their repentant ranger.
Looks like the older me prefer deeper and more elaborated story (if still a little edgy, in the case of the Duergars).

I get a vibe from the Duergars that they are tragic counter-part to the concept of the ''adaptable elves who shaped themselves to fit each Plane''. Duergars have been broken, enslaved, betrayed by every Plane, but they wont compromise and become one with them: they take the weapons that crushed them and use them against their oppressors. That's the motto of the Duergar: no weapon is too evil to fight back against those who hurt us.

Now I want to play a Duergar rogue who gathers part of the fire giant's Vonindod to assemble it and release it on the filth of the Underdark.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The duergar have never really had that - they've always played second (or third, or fourth) fiddle to the drow when it comes to underdark threats.

They're 4th, the Illithids and Beholders as underdark threats certainly rate above Duergar.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

While emphasizing the idea that they're former Illithid slaves might explain their affinity towards psionics, I think it gets in the territory of Githyanki with them also being an evil race of former Illithid slaves.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

While emphasizing the idea that they're former Illithid slaves might explain their affinity towards psionics, I think it gets in the territory of Githyanki with them also being an evil race of former Illithid slaves.

They are not ''former slaves'' tho, the Illithids still enslave whole clans of duergar and some of them are even willing ''victims''. In FR there's also a part where the Duergar gods (exiled from regular dwarf pantheon) were killed in secret and a Devil Lord took their place in disguise, tricking them into pacts and war against demon etc.

Where the Gith are former slaves who revolted and kicked the butt of the Illithids and the Drows are mostly unchallenged in the Underdark, the Duergars are always in survival mode, always attacked and betrayed, left with no allies to help them make a place in the world.

 

[The Thrasson]

Mostly I suspect because there isn't a "classic" adventure centered on the duergar. The Drow early on had Lareth the Beautiful show up in Hommlet, as well as the D and Q series of modules, making them mysterious and horrible foes that kept getting cycled into products until Salvatore spun out Drizzt and cemented their place in D&D forever. The duergar have never really had that - they've always played second (or third, or fourth) fiddle to the drow when it comes to underdark threats.

They mainly occupy the middle and lowerdark. Their interaction with the surface world is less frequent than other underdark races. I would like them to have a little more "surface world" affecting scenario. Maybe an uneasy alliance with the Githyanki for an underdark cleansing crusade against the hated Illithid. Some PCs being dragged along for the ride, could be quite epic.

 

[Bitbrain]

While emphasizing the idea that they're former Illithid slaves might explain their affinity towards psionics, I think it gets in the territory of Githyanki with them also being an evil race of former Illithid slaves.

I never liked the idea of the Duergar being enslaved by the Illithids, so my home-setting's lore is that the Duergar are the "true dwarves".
The hill and mountain dwarves available as PC races are actually those dwarves whose ancestors fled the Underworld, abandoning the old ways.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Where the Gith are former slaves who revolted and kicked the butt of the Illithids and the Drows are mostly unchallenged in the Underdark, the Duergars are always in survival mode, always attacked and betrayed, left with no allies to help them make a place in the world.

How is survival mode that much different from the Githyanki, they have a lot of enemies too not including the Illithids, they certainly feel betrayed by those who became the Githzerai, not to mention most humanoid races feels the Githyanki are antagonistic to say the least, and if the Psurlons are factored in to things (they probably won't be brought up in that book) there's also another enemy who wants to destroy them, one in fact based in the Astral Plane. Let's not forget whatever pact one of the Lich Queens Vlaakith made with Tiamat, which mirrors that of the infernal pacts the Duergar.

To me it feels like they're trying for a little of the Drow and a little of the Githyanki with this current depiction of the Duergar. I always felt the Derro were the more interesting "Dark" Dwarf subrace, even if they also have origins tied to the Illithids too and have never been as fleshed out as the Duergar have... They have at least the insanity thing going for them to separate them from both the Githyanki and the Drow.

Maybe it's the existence of the Derro that has diluted the idea of Duergar being the "Dark" Dwarves, as there's not 1 but 2 "Dark" Dwarf subraces.

 

[Prakriti]

Am I the only one that thinks the defining clan trait 11 is a pretty strong hint we'll get psionics in this book? How can your clan be famous for something that doesn't technically exist in the game yet. That compared with all the psionic races, multiverse coverage etc, seems like pretty strong hints

Doubtful. There are psionic creatures in the Monster Manual, and Volo's Guide to Monsters had a whole chapter on Illithids. If the inclusion of psionic creatures meant anything, then we would have had psionics years ago.