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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DND_Reborn" data-source="post: 8153114" data-attributes="member: 6987520">Dwarves, like any race, are what you make of them. Are all elves flighty and such, all gnomes absent-minded and distracted, all halflings hungry and trying to find their courage? No, of course not. All half-orc brutish and crude? Nope. Again, dwarves are what you make of them.Anyway, looking over some of the info in the OP this is hardly "the fall of the dwarves" IMO. We don't have enough information, really; after all, the most recent info only shows the top 5 as where the other lists show over 10 each.Also, look at what dwarves have for racial traits (before Tasha's <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /> ):[SPOILER]+2 CON - great for any class due to HP+2 STR or +1 WIS or +1 STR (Duergar) - great for non-DEX martials and Clerics mainly. Given the over-importance of DEX (AC and Initiative primarily), it isn't surprising a lot of people shy away from STR-based martials. Two martial classes (Monks and Rogues) traditionally don't favor STR anyway, and Rangers are close to them in that respect. Even Barbarians rely on DEX some because you can't benefit from raging in Heavy Armor, so the AC factor is important to them. Which basically leaves three classes for Dwarves: Clerics, Fighters, and Paladins. But, with all the literature and prior editions portraying many dwarves as unfriendly, rude, etc. CHA is not normally associated with dwarves, which takes Paladins out of the running in many players' minds. So: Clerics and Fighters.Speed: 25 feet - so poor. At least heavy armor doesn't slow you down. But again, this favors Cleric and Fighter builds.Darkvision: Awesome (IMO and IME) - but over 50% of the races have darkvision, so it isn't as important because so many races have it.Dwarven Resilience: - ok, poison is pretty common in the game and getting both advantage and resistance is great. BUT once you get to higher levels, it starts to not be as important since you have higher HP and as a damage type it becomes less common.Dwarven Combat Training: Proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer - All pretty much pointless since a number of Clerics get all martial weapons and Fighters already do. Probably the worst trait for dwarves.Tool Proficiency: just three choices so pretty weak. Good for flavor at times, but that is about it. Also, many groups don't fully exploit the potential of tools so it loses something for them.Stonecunning: also very meh. I think in the last two years of playing this came into play two or three times at best--and we do A LOT of dungeon crawls, etc.Subraces (PHB):Dwarven Toughness: +1 HP / level - again, useful for any class, but since Hill Dwarves favor Clerics (WIS +1) the extra HP put them on par with the d10 martial classes. So, nice, but hardly great IMO.Dwarven Armor Training: Light and Medium armors? Oh, what a colossal waste! All clerics and fighters have these already, and so do many other classes. Very weak.And finally the Duergar:Superior Darkvision: 120 feet! Nice, very useful IMO and IME. Extra Language: Undercommon - Nothing special unless it fits your campaign.Duergar Resilience: Advantage on saves for illusions, charms, and paralysis. Handy when needed.Duergar Magic: Very good. Enlarge yourself good for many combats and situations when you want advantage due to a size bump, "Go biggie Dwarf!" as we like to say. Also good for blocking enemy movement as a large creature. And later on: Invisibility... enough said. Totally useful and awesome if used correctly.[/SPOILER]They contradict much in that some favor classes such as Fighter and Cleric but the others don't favor them at all and are virtually useless.Now, with Tasha's, you can move the ASIs (LOL many tables already did this, so very creative of of you, WotC  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> ) so dwarves can be expanded to other classes and in many ways can favor a lot of the casting classes. But casters rarely use weapons (as cantrips do as much or more) IME and tools still aren't used a lot in many games. So, you have to really want the other traits to play a dwarf.Finally, with custom lineage ( <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f922.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":sick:" title="Sick    :sick:"  data-smilie="19"data-shortname=":sick:" /> ) why bother playing a dwarf or anything else? You get darkvision and a feat if you allow it (never in my games--NEVER I say!), arguably the two strongest racial traits you can have. All the rest is pretty much fluff and DM fiat (other than extra HP, of course) so those are the two biggies.</blockquote>

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