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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9307489" data-attributes="member: 58172">So about them Dwarves.There are about two, maybe three, cultures.Hill and Mountain cultures have always been virtually identical.The Duergar differ, but in 4e and 5e, feel "jump the shark". 4e had a beard of poisonous porcupine quill missiles. LOL! 5e has "aberration" "horrific experiments". Because Duergar are reallife Norse Dvergar, I care about how WotC represents them.Essentially, the Hill-Mountain culture is the old school antimagic culture, or more specifically Anti-Arcane.The Duergar culture is the mage culture. Even in 1e Duergar are psionic, which is great for an animistic earth being.The standard player character Dwarf, is Hill (Gold) in 1e. But 3e Forgotten Realms makes Mountain (Shield) the standard. All the 1e Dwarves were +Constitution but −Charisma. In a Norse context, the lack of Charisma is not so terrible. The dvergar are normal human heights. They are powerful beings, but even when the other species are afraid of them, including the æsir, the dvergar dont seem to get respect. The disrespect might reflect a Norse cultural defiance against a bad fate, which dvergar can inflict. But in the context of Gygax D&D, the Charisma penalty feels more problematic, as if short people are less appealing. 3e Forgotten Realms, tweaks the penalty, assigning a Dexterity penalty to Hill and keeping the Charisma penalty for Mountain. 4e design without penalties makes the Dwarf +Constitution and +Strength/+Wisdom. Hence 5e 2014 makes Mountain a Strength bonus, and Hill a Wisdom bonus.The ability improvements are irrelevant for 5e 2024 characters. But they can still be suggestive for the dwarven cultures, at least for specific institutions within a diverse dwarven culture.The 4e Wisdom bonus is a nod toward the old school Dwarf Cleric. Actually, the 1e player Dwarf is strictly Martial only: Fighter or Rogue. But there was an NPC Dwarf Cleric that was competent enough. Sometimes the D&D old school Dwarf includes Divine magic despite being antimagic.In a 5e context, we have at least some cultural distinction between Hill and Mountain.• Hill culture makes Fighters and Clerics prominent, whence religious warriors, and 5e-style Paladins can now make sense.• Mountain culture makes Fighter and Rogues prominent, whence hardcore Anti-Arcane culture.And yet.There is a faction of Hill culture that are great Druids, and primal magic, including Earth magic and wilderness Wildshapes.There is a faction of Mountain culture that are great Wizards − comfortable in Earth metal armor − who apparently subvert Mountain culture.More on Duergar later.</blockquote>

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