D&D 5E Ideas for Dwarven Calvalry
- Thread starter IronWarrior18
- Start date
Quickleaf
Legend
Hello all! I'm running my first game of 5E and I'm homebrewing up a lot of lore to go with my world. One thing I've been trying to think of is some kind of Calvary mount for dwarves. I've considered horses, boars, and even bears as elite mounts for a powerful group of dwarves in my lore. I'm wondering if anyone could throw other suggestions my way, since I just feel like I'm missing some possibilities. A mount that would function well underground is preferable, since these dwarves live miles below and would need a mount that can easily traverse the terrain. I am open to homebrewed ideas! Also, I've considered bulettes as a possibility, would that be to OP? Thank you in advance for your help!
Rhinoceros. (CR 2)
Dragon Age has their dwarves herd "brontos" which are essentially a subterranean-adapted rhino.
QuietBrowser
First Post
Since I feel no reason to abide by Tolkienisms, allow me to offer my input on this.
The first thing you should consider is where your dwarves are living. Underground? Aboveground in mountainous terrain? Elsewhere? What's available to them will affect what kinds of steeds they can consider taming.
Duergar have, to my knowledge, traditionally ridden giant spiders and giant geckoes, with Pathfinder adding giant beetles. All of these make sense given where they live.
In Scarred Lands, a Duegar-esque dwarven offshoot worshipping one of the local gods of evil rides either mountain goats or bighorned mountain sheep, which are actually descended from dwarves who were transfigured into this shape to help their non-transformed brethren win a battle. Whilst I would avoid the whole "dwarves and sheep must occasionally interbreed still to preserve the strength of the sheep's bloodline" from that setting, it's a good example.
As just "generic" options...
Giant Vermin: Massive beetles, scorpions, worms and centipedes all make sense for a burrowing, cavern-dwelling race. Giant spiders are their own category of useful because their climbing adds great mobility in deep caverns and steep peaks.
Giant Ravens or Raptors: Both types of bird tend to favor mountainous terrain, so giant versions are great "cavalry" for above-ground battle.
Giant Moles, Badgers and Weasels: Surprisingly fast-moving mammals with considerable burrowing aptitute; an excellent mesh for dwarves.
Mountain Goats/Sheep: Naturally adapted for moving quickly and with great agility over high mountains.
Giant Bats: Like dwarves, they're adept at maneuvering in the darkness, they like to live in caves, and flight is always a huge advantage.
Boars: These are more associated with orcs, because of Warhammer, but they're tough, surly, adaptable and vicious, all good dwarfy traits.
Giant Lizards: These would mostly be gecko-like climbers, creatures that can carry them swiftly over even the worst terrain.
Bears: They don't normally respond well to training, but in forested mountains, some particularly crazy dwarves might try riding them.
Griffons or Hippogriffs: People will call you on the Warcraft connection, but these are vicious flying monsters native to the mountains. Non-sapient manticores and wyverns could work for the same reason.
Drakes: Whether winged or not, climbing or not, runners, burrowers, whatever, dwarves live in places where dragon-kin tend to gravitate to, so them training or selectively mutating & breeding dragons for calvary does make an ironic sense.
The first thing you should consider is where your dwarves are living. Underground? Aboveground in mountainous terrain? Elsewhere? What's available to them will affect what kinds of steeds they can consider taming.
Duergar have, to my knowledge, traditionally ridden giant spiders and giant geckoes, with Pathfinder adding giant beetles. All of these make sense given where they live.
In Scarred Lands, a Duegar-esque dwarven offshoot worshipping one of the local gods of evil rides either mountain goats or bighorned mountain sheep, which are actually descended from dwarves who were transfigured into this shape to help their non-transformed brethren win a battle. Whilst I would avoid the whole "dwarves and sheep must occasionally interbreed still to preserve the strength of the sheep's bloodline" from that setting, it's a good example.
As just "generic" options...
Giant Vermin: Massive beetles, scorpions, worms and centipedes all make sense for a burrowing, cavern-dwelling race. Giant spiders are their own category of useful because their climbing adds great mobility in deep caverns and steep peaks.
Giant Ravens or Raptors: Both types of bird tend to favor mountainous terrain, so giant versions are great "cavalry" for above-ground battle.
Giant Moles, Badgers and Weasels: Surprisingly fast-moving mammals with considerable burrowing aptitute; an excellent mesh for dwarves.
Mountain Goats/Sheep: Naturally adapted for moving quickly and with great agility over high mountains.
Giant Bats: Like dwarves, they're adept at maneuvering in the darkness, they like to live in caves, and flight is always a huge advantage.
Boars: These are more associated with orcs, because of Warhammer, but they're tough, surly, adaptable and vicious, all good dwarfy traits.
Giant Lizards: These would mostly be gecko-like climbers, creatures that can carry them swiftly over even the worst terrain.
Bears: They don't normally respond well to training, but in forested mountains, some particularly crazy dwarves might try riding them.
Griffons or Hippogriffs: People will call you on the Warcraft connection, but these are vicious flying monsters native to the mountains. Non-sapient manticores and wyverns could work for the same reason.
Drakes: Whether winged or not, climbing or not, runners, burrowers, whatever, dwarves live in places where dragon-kin tend to gravitate to, so them training or selectively mutating & breeding dragons for calvary does make an ironic sense.
Notag Ymra
First Post
It really depends on what, exactly, these cavalry units are trying to accomplish on their mounts. Cavalry are usually shock troops, who rely on speed to break up enemy lines and sow mayhem. As boring as it might sound, horses may just be the best thing for that, and Dwarves aren't so much smaller than Humans that they couldn't ride horses. However, if the mounts are intended for underground mobility, a completely different set of requirements are needed, notably burrowing and/or climbing. Giant lizards and beetles were suggested earlier, and would certainly be good for those purposes, but you'd be sacrificing the speed and mass that a horse would provide.
So ultimately, ask yourself why it is that these Dwarves choose to be mounted, and what requirements they look for in their mounts. Then you can try to see what creatures might fit that bill.
So ultimately, ask yourself why it is that these Dwarves choose to be mounted, and what requirements they look for in their mounts. Then you can try to see what creatures might fit that bill.
Bradley Hindman
Explorer
As long as we are getting all sciency . . . As long as both the dwarves and basalisks maintain their heads at a vertical angle all would be well. The first bloke who tips his head to the side will become a large load of rock.
True, but clear lenses that still block 50% of the incoming (unpolarized) light.
GreenTengu
Adventurer
There are plenty of suggestions here that might be epic mounts for a singular hero, no doubt. However, I think it is important to keep in mind the actual challenges of choosing what they could use as a mount.
First, it would be an animal that can live underground in cramped quarters in effectively complete darkness. Anything that needs sunlight for heat or is most active during the day or needs a lot of room to move around just won't work. That eliminates quite a lot of the suggestions here.
Second, it needs to be something that can live off some sort of food source that Dwarfs can mass produce. Without sunlight, I really have no idea how Dwarves feed themselves and I don't think I have ever seen a fantasy that has properly explored that. We always hear about Dwarven alcohol, but it is always weirdly alcohols that require a giant field out in the open under direct daylight every day for most of the year and a proper amount of rain or other waters. Where exactly is this subterranean race getting all this wheat and barley from? It is a massive flaw in the conception of the race. And other solutions-- mushrooms or something? There is just simply no way you could grow enough to feed a population center large enough to develop the sort of culture they have and certainly not the excess needed to raise armies. The only possible solution is that the Dwarves are completely dependent upon trade of the stone they quarry and the ore they mine in trade for food and would immediately starve to death if left without a surface trading partner.
Now, horses require a massive amount of room to be able to graze. For each and every horse, you need an acre or two of pasture land. And that is if you are in absolute ideal conditions with perfect amount of sunlight and water and good soil-- and that is with an extraordinarily streamlined plant like grass. Granted, while grass grows better than almost anything else, it is also true that it is very difficult to digest and doesn't really produce all that much energy once digested. Grazing animals have taken to eating it because it is simply so readily available. But underground? Well, you are without all the energy produced from the sun and thus nothing will grow there. Sure, you might be able to harness geothermal energy and have some sort of adapted plant or fungal life that can grow allowing for some food production-- but it just isn't going to be able to rival the energy from the sunlight hitting half the surface of the whole planet for roughly half the day.
In other words-- Dwarves in all likelihood aren't really capable of feeding themselves, much less having vast acres of fertile pastureland for any creatures to graze. While this might not eliminate all creatures, it eliminates just about every possible creature. You need to really answer "what does this thing eat and where does the food come from?"
Third, the animal needs to be domesticated or at least tamed. Any animal that is both capable and generally prone to just straight up kill any random level 1 dwarf is just not going to work as a mount. Sure, maybe a dwarf with the right mystical powers or the right skill set can force their will upon such a creature, but only that one particular dwarf-- if there is going to be a trade in the creatures as mounts, they really do need to have been properly domesticated for generations and certainly would no longer have the power or aggressiveness of their wild cousins. Even after domesticating them there is a breeding program to make really big and strong ones-- they are just not going to have the viciousness of their wild cousins or else they would be more likely to turn on the dwarf. So anything that says "this is a badass deadly creature that would just overrun an army" is instantly invalidated as a potential candidate for a general dwarven mount.
Fourth and final point I need to bring up-- whatever this creature is, even if you do manage to get around all three previous points somehow... is the creature actually faster than a Dwarf or have enough of an increased carrying capacity to have even made it worth the effort for the Dwarves to have spent generation upon generation breaking, breeding and domesticating the things? If it is just marginally faster, then no Dwarven society would have gone through the trouble in the first place.
My final analysis is.... Dwarves should not have standard cavalry and for very, very good reasons. Their choice of home has eliminated any chance of there being any qualifying creature that they could use for such a purpose-- plus, there really isn't all that much need for one. Their physical stature also demonstrates that they have not been bred themselves to be using any sort of mount-- surely if any such mount was available, those who were better physically equipped to make use of them would have become wealthier, more powerful and had more children as a direct result causing a notable physical change in the dwarven population-- their physiques altering just as much as any beast they used as transportation as the symbiotic relationship developed over many, many generations.
Now, if Dwarves are not subterranean at all... besides then having to find another explanation for their unusual physique, they would naturally both be able to and have every reason to make use of the same mounts as humans... maybe just a shorter, bulkier breed that they could better mount yet could still hold their frames. There really would be no reason they would breed a totally separate animal all together.
First, it would be an animal that can live underground in cramped quarters in effectively complete darkness. Anything that needs sunlight for heat or is most active during the day or needs a lot of room to move around just won't work. That eliminates quite a lot of the suggestions here.
Second, it needs to be something that can live off some sort of food source that Dwarfs can mass produce. Without sunlight, I really have no idea how Dwarves feed themselves and I don't think I have ever seen a fantasy that has properly explored that. We always hear about Dwarven alcohol, but it is always weirdly alcohols that require a giant field out in the open under direct daylight every day for most of the year and a proper amount of rain or other waters. Where exactly is this subterranean race getting all this wheat and barley from? It is a massive flaw in the conception of the race. And other solutions-- mushrooms or something? There is just simply no way you could grow enough to feed a population center large enough to develop the sort of culture they have and certainly not the excess needed to raise armies. The only possible solution is that the Dwarves are completely dependent upon trade of the stone they quarry and the ore they mine in trade for food and would immediately starve to death if left without a surface trading partner.
Now, horses require a massive amount of room to be able to graze. For each and every horse, you need an acre or two of pasture land. And that is if you are in absolute ideal conditions with perfect amount of sunlight and water and good soil-- and that is with an extraordinarily streamlined plant like grass. Granted, while grass grows better than almost anything else, it is also true that it is very difficult to digest and doesn't really produce all that much energy once digested. Grazing animals have taken to eating it because it is simply so readily available. But underground? Well, you are without all the energy produced from the sun and thus nothing will grow there. Sure, you might be able to harness geothermal energy and have some sort of adapted plant or fungal life that can grow allowing for some food production-- but it just isn't going to be able to rival the energy from the sunlight hitting half the surface of the whole planet for roughly half the day.
In other words-- Dwarves in all likelihood aren't really capable of feeding themselves, much less having vast acres of fertile pastureland for any creatures to graze. While this might not eliminate all creatures, it eliminates just about every possible creature. You need to really answer "what does this thing eat and where does the food come from?"
Third, the animal needs to be domesticated or at least tamed. Any animal that is both capable and generally prone to just straight up kill any random level 1 dwarf is just not going to work as a mount. Sure, maybe a dwarf with the right mystical powers or the right skill set can force their will upon such a creature, but only that one particular dwarf-- if there is going to be a trade in the creatures as mounts, they really do need to have been properly domesticated for generations and certainly would no longer have the power or aggressiveness of their wild cousins. Even after domesticating them there is a breeding program to make really big and strong ones-- they are just not going to have the viciousness of their wild cousins or else they would be more likely to turn on the dwarf. So anything that says "this is a badass deadly creature that would just overrun an army" is instantly invalidated as a potential candidate for a general dwarven mount.
Fourth and final point I need to bring up-- whatever this creature is, even if you do manage to get around all three previous points somehow... is the creature actually faster than a Dwarf or have enough of an increased carrying capacity to have even made it worth the effort for the Dwarves to have spent generation upon generation breaking, breeding and domesticating the things? If it is just marginally faster, then no Dwarven society would have gone through the trouble in the first place.
My final analysis is.... Dwarves should not have standard cavalry and for very, very good reasons. Their choice of home has eliminated any chance of there being any qualifying creature that they could use for such a purpose-- plus, there really isn't all that much need for one. Their physical stature also demonstrates that they have not been bred themselves to be using any sort of mount-- surely if any such mount was available, those who were better physically equipped to make use of them would have become wealthier, more powerful and had more children as a direct result causing a notable physical change in the dwarven population-- their physiques altering just as much as any beast they used as transportation as the symbiotic relationship developed over many, many generations.
Now, if Dwarves are not subterranean at all... besides then having to find another explanation for their unusual physique, they would naturally both be able to and have every reason to make use of the same mounts as humans... maybe just a shorter, bulkier breed that they could better mount yet could still hold their frames. There really would be no reason they would breed a totally separate animal all together.
GreenTengu
Adventurer
(Why are these forums both prone to giving error messages causing double posting and yet also without any option to delete one's own posts. With all the other upgrades and alterations, why does something so basic get ignored? 
)
)
[MENTION=6777454]TheHobgoblin[/MENTION], I understand where you are coming from, but I think there are just some things you have to accept for fantasy campaigns. If you have races that live underground (whether dwarves or drow) you have to accept that there is some way that those races can feed themselves.
I always assume there is magic involved with underground ecosystems in typical D&D campaign settings. Mosses that magically eat rock and glow that is harvested by dwarves and placed strategically to slowly enlarge caverns and to provide light for crops. I think of it similar to a long term space ship. There has to be a power source other than the sun. Is that power coming from hydrothermal vents? Magical crystals? Some combination of the two?
If you assume that you can provide light (and possibly heat), you can set up an underground greenhouse that could actually be more productive than topside because you can control all of the inputs.
Alternatively, dwarves do all of their farming above ground and simply live underground. Either way is fine, it's going to depend on how you see your world working.
Anyway, didn't mean to sideline the thread. Just stating that if you accept underground races, food supply is a secondary consideration.
I always assume there is magic involved with underground ecosystems in typical D&D campaign settings. Mosses that magically eat rock and glow that is harvested by dwarves and placed strategically to slowly enlarge caverns and to provide light for crops. I think of it similar to a long term space ship. There has to be a power source other than the sun. Is that power coming from hydrothermal vents? Magical crystals? Some combination of the two?
If you assume that you can provide light (and possibly heat), you can set up an underground greenhouse that could actually be more productive than topside because you can control all of the inputs.
Alternatively, dwarves do all of their farming above ground and simply live underground. Either way is fine, it's going to depend on how you see your world working.
Anyway, didn't mean to sideline the thread. Just stating that if you accept underground races, food supply is a secondary consideration.
GreenTengu
Adventurer
Okay, I suppose that is a fair enough point.
But are you then saying that how exactly you are supposed to feed these mounts should in no way be a consideration at all? That's really the primary issue I see with so many of the suggestions here. How exactly are you feeding these things?
You shouldn't just say "we'll have basilisks" or "we'll have giant rhino" or something like that without the question of how you feed the thing coming into play. That's going to be a question for every individual who would think of having one and most certainly ought to be a consideration if you are talking about whole armies dragging these creatures around against their will.
Horses feed off of grass. And most sorts of grass are inedible to humans (wheat, corn and a few others). Thus, if your society lives on a wide open grassland and this grass is not edible to people, it makes all sorts of sense to keep around animals that can eat this grass for food, labor and transportation. Once you no longer have those wide open grasslands, they generally become more trouble than they are worth.
Giant boars, if such a creature existed, would be a potential alternative. Similarly, boars can eat all sorts of refuse that humans either can't or won't eat. That's why cultures that live in temperate or tropical reasons kept them around to feed them what humans don't get to get them big and fat and then eat them. So if you have a people who are from a tropical heavily forested climate, giant boars would work well.
Some sort of Moose or giant Reindeer would work well for a people who live a colder climate because they are good at finding food and, again, don't eat what humans prefer to eat.
And if you have a people who live in a generally uneven, mountainous region... giant goats could be a good go-to option. Although I wouldn't expect such mounts to be particularly fast-- they would just be considerably more sure-footed than a horse would be.
Goblins riding Wolves is a very difficult one to explain. Aside from the fact that no stat block for goblins has ever given them a super-human ability to tame animals as they surely must have if they can dominate primarily predatory creatures that are larger than them, it isn't clear where the food supply comes from. Sure, goblins might well be able to eat things humans would not, we are not really led to believe they can eat grass or leaves or such, and while wolves are primarily carnivorous, they can live on an semi-omnivorous diet-- but, again, no grass or leaves or such. Then again, I guess because such goblins and wolves are living in forests teeming with wildlife, they manage to get by and perhaps supplement their food supply by theft or raiding human and halfling villages or maybe even just going through the waste of large cities for discarded food sources. Plus, we are never particularly led to believe there are really whole massive regiments of wolf riders, not the way there would be regiments of human horsemen. (Sure, they were there in LotR, but not so much in D&D)
Even your suggestions of how Dwarves might be able to get enough food to feed themselves seems to at least support the idea-- they aren't going to have extra food for beasts of labor or mounts.
However, there is a possibility, I suppose. Considering we are talking about a world with magical creatures here... I suppose if we consider one can imagine up anything. In which case, if Dwarves are going to be using beasts of burden or mounts, it would sort of have to be something that can sustain itself primarily off of rock and maybe requiring heat that can either be provided by geothermal power or sunlight. Sure, such a biology wouldn't make sense (not in a creature large enough to carry a Dwarf at least) and I am not sure why a rock-eating creature with no predators and no prey would be any faster than a Dwarf... but since we are just shrugging our shoulders and saying "because magic" or "because imagination" it is imaginable even if not a rational, logical element to add into our world.
Also, the whole issue of providing a food source is really only a serious issue for the subterranean Mountain Dwarves. As I understand Hill Dwarves, they are at least primarily surface dwellers. As such, they do farming on the surface and their mountains are likely covered with grasslands. Given the conditions though, World of WarCraft's solution of giving Dwarves giant goats as mounts seems perfectly reasonable.
Similar Threads
