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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6715977" data-attributes="member: 12731">NPCs in 5th edition are usually not given the full player character procedure; that is they are not statted using the rules for classes and levels. Instead they are given simplified stat blocks akin to monsters; these are found in Appendix B: Nonplayer Characters, page 342 of Monster Manual. For example, Eldeth the Shield Dwarf is described as a Scout (in bold). This refers to the Scout entry on page 349. This means Eldeth is a 3 HD creature with 16 hit points and a Stealth check of +6, for example.Do note that the line right under the headline "Scout" says "Medium humanoid (any race), any alignment" (my emphasis on any race). The fact the picture shows an elf ranger and that the Scout's highest ability score is Dexterity does not mean you can't use these statistics for a dwarf scout. In fact, 5th edition presumes that the differences between different humanoids (elves, dwarves, tieflings, half-orcs etc) are small enough to be negligible, even for semi-important NPCs like Eldeth.If you feel this is not enough, you are (per the NPC creation guidelines that you find in the DMG by the way) welcome to stat up NPCs using the full player character creation rules. But Out of the Abyss does not do this even once. All OotA NPCs are simply given a stat block from this Appendix B, unless they are outright monsters, and I gather this is true of previous adventures as well(?).So, yes, if you want to create a Shield Dwarf PC to use in Forgotten Realms scenarios (such as this one), you are correct in using the Mountain Dwarf PHB subrace.But for purposes of NPCs in OotA, the only example where the adventure goes any length to customize its NPCs is for Drow (=adding drow racial traits to any Appendix B stat block as necessary*). This is not done consistently for dwarves or deep gnomes or goblins or humans etc.Hope this clears things up! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />*) Or more accurately, telling you to do it. The WotC adventures do not include NPC stat blocks, only MM references together with any tweaks.  </blockquote>

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