D&D 5E What Do Dwarves Eat?

[Henry]

And if you're going for a more modern flavour, batter everything and deep fry it.)

Somehow, "deep" fried sounds very appropriate for Dwarves.

I think the goat, barley, and mushroom thing sounds appropriate. As far as fresh fruits go, it's not a given that dwarves need vitamin c, or certain other vitamins! One thing I have noticed is that it's never been covered in any games i've seen that elves, dwarves and halflings have any dietary restrictions. Think to our own animal kingdom - Just as alcohol and chocolate can kill dogs and cats, if a dwarf or elf is truly different species or genus from humans, might there be some substances that are poisonous to dwarves, but not humans? Conversely, might there be some things a dwarf needs in their diet that would make humans or elves sick?

"Ho, Volgrim! Why are your human allies at the banquet retching?"
Thorin, it's the arsenic in the Galeb Duhr Pie! Humans can't eat it! Fetch the cleric!"

 

[Uchawi]

At least Arnold Schwarzenegger had one thing right about what dwarfs drink.

Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer.

 

[Sadras]

Good grief after reading this thread I'm starving. Every second post speaks of mutton, vegetables, mushrooms, pork, potatoes and sausage.

 

[delericho]

I think the goat, barley, and mushroom thing sounds appropriate. As far as fresh fruits go, it's not a given that dwarves need vitamin c, or certain other vitamins!

True.

Another option: apparently both watercress and onions are good against scurvy - one could easily imagine a semi-aquatic herb similar to the former growing underground, while the latter is perhaps something dwarves could cultivate, at least in some form.

All assuming, of course, that there isn't a whole eco-system of unique fruits and vegetables that can't grow underground. Indeed, a DM interested enough to consider "what do dwarves eat" really should introduce at least a few unique ingredients and dishes!

One thing I have noticed is that it's never been covered in any games i've seen that elves, dwarves and halflings have any dietary restrictions. Think to our own animal kingdom - Just as alcohol and chocolate can kill dogs and cats, if a dwarf or elf is truly different species or genus from humans, might there be some substances that are poisonous to dwarves, but not humans? Conversely, might there be some things a dwarf needs in their diet that would make humans or elves sick?

A very good point. Though perhaps understandable, given that it's very much a niche topic and one that doesn't obviously lend itself to adventuring - or, at least, not immediately.

 

[Dausuul]

In every edition of D&D I've ever seen, Dwarves are consistently shown to live in mountains and generally underground. Sometimes near to the surface, but sometimes they're shown to be deep, deep down in the dark. They collect gems, they're dedicated miners, so far so good.

But they're also shown to enjoy fairly mundane looking food, just large portions of it. They eat sausage and bacon, they eat bread, they love beer, and that's where it starts to get a bit hazy. Because, uhhh...where does all this come from? Do they raise pigs and grow crops underground? It would be cool to see a "farming room", where farmers go in and pluck potatoes and carrots from the dirt 'ceiling' above them, and it would also make sense if Dwarves relied heavily on trade with other races. It would explain why Dwarves seem to be considered a "common" race despite living at the center of the earth, playing pranks on sleeping Balrogs and whatnot.

But if they don't do their own farming, and if they don't trade with others, really, what the hell do they eat? Do they just eat fungus and worms? Do they hunt Drow and eat them, and just lie to the outside world that the Drow are "evil" for this reason? Do they just soak in minerals from rocks somehow?

What is going on with these little dudes?!

This ties into the larger question of just where the Underdark ecosystem gets its energy. In the real world, life in deep cave systems is sparse and small, because it has to rely on whatever scraps of food find their way in from the outside. "Fungi" are a popular handwavy solution in D&D, probably because fungi look like plants but don't need sunlight, so people figure you could grow them in caves and solve your food problems that way. Doesn't work, though; the reason fungi don't need sunlight is that they get their energy from whatever organic matter they're growing on. They don't add energy to the system, they subtract it. Mushrooms gotta eat, too.

The simplest solution is to invoke magic. In AD&D, the Underdark had some kind of mystical "radiation" that was responsible for, among other things, the special properties of drow equipment. Drow gear eventually stopped working when you took it out of the Underdark, even if it was never exposed to the sun; you had to make periodic trips back to the Underdark to renew it. I like this idea--the mystical radiations of the Underdark are an energy source distinct from sunlight, with a whole separate ecosystem built on top of it. Or perhaps the deep Underdark is full of rifts to other planes, and plant life from those planes is the source of its energy.

Another possibility is that there's a lot more volcanic activity in a typical D&D world than there is on Earth. (Let's see a show of hands: How many DMs here have never used lava as a terrain hazard? Anyone? Bueller?) The real world has small, isolated ecosystems that thrive around deep-sea volcanic vents, using sulfur compounds released from those vents as an energy source. Conceivably, something like that on a much larger scale could drive the ecosystem of the Underdark.

A third possibility is that the Underdark doesn't have an ecosystem, and relies entirely on food brought down from the surface--either by trade (the dwarven solution) or by raids (the drow solution).

Of course, if you don't want to worry about all this, you can just wave your hands, say "Fungi," and leave it at that. Personally, I like thinking through questions like this. It makes the world feel more engaging and interesting to me, and sparks ideas for adventures.

 

[Celebrim]

Cold chicken, pickles, seed cakes, red wine, beer, bacon, eggs, coffee, mince pie, apple tart, cheese...

Pretty much anything humans eat, and with equal relish. Mountain dwarves tend to live in Alpine regions, so you'd expect their cuisine to be similar to that of real world alpine regions - for example, Peru, Switzerland, and Tibet. Yak, alpacas, goat, mutton, potatoes, domesticated marmots or guinea pigs, barley, yogurt, cheese, quinoa, beets, legumes, and various berries are likely food stuffs. Some of these may be regional if trade is not global in your world, but in typical cosmopolitan D&D worlds most of the plants and animals would have been traded around centuries ago resulting in the sort of varied robust cuisine typically seen in the real modern world.

Dwarves are explorers, travelers, and traders and so many are broadly familiar with cuisines of other species and regions and may develop keen appreciation for other than their own native foods.

Ideally, dwarves prefer to leave agriculture to their neighbors and to lower caste dwarfs. They consider agricultural pursuits to be less intellectually fulfilling and less honorable than 'creative' trade skills like masonry, smithing, and so forth. Only relatively low caste dwarfs normally engage in farming and animal husbandry, although brewing and distilling are skills greatly prized by dwarves and considered quite honorable. As such, most successful dwarf farmers also have a 'house brand' of some sort, that they use as social cover for their agricultural endeavors ("I found I couldn't trust the hops and barley to anyone else. My suppliers just didn't have an eye for quality, and you know what they say, if you want it done right, do it yourself."). It is a very common situation to employ human tenants to work the surface land and provide food to the dwarf kingdoms.

Normally, only a small percentage of the food stuffs of a dwarf kingdom comes from deep farms in the underdark where ambient magic is sufficiently high to substitute for the sun. These fungal food stuffs and the animals that subsist on them are not considered to be as wholesome or as tasty as those coming from the surface, and are relied on mainly to extend food supplies when besieged. Generally speaking, dwarves respond to extended sieges not by merely bunkering down, but by extending tunnels out secretly in all directions so as to force the besiegers to try to cover larger and larger arrays to keep the besieged bottled up. Tunnels after all can be easily collapsed if need be, and it's difficult (barring treachery) to force passage of a long and narrow tunnel. However, while they will also try to increase their internal food supplies as a precaution, deep foodstuffs as associated closely with goblins and the hated Duergar ethnic group, and a dwarf that develops too keen of an appreciation for such food stuffs draws suspicion and even scorn. Ironically, the Duergar themselves, eschewing all comforts and aesthetics, feel much the same way - enjoying one's food too keenly is a sign of having fallen into the sins of the decadent soft surface dwellers.

 

[thalmin]

I have never pictured dwaves living in the underdark. I've always viewed dwaven cities as being inhilly or mountainous areas and having an undergound componant, and of course mining going deep underground.
Of the standard PC races, only halflings (really hobbits) are described as living "underground" in holes in the ground, and they are noted gardeners.
In our real world, miners live on the surface and only work underground. Many people live and work inside man-made mountains of steel and glass, but their food still comes from the outside world. I see no reason for dwarves to be any different. If they live in an area that cannot produce enough food (which describes virtually all cities) they must rely on trade. Their mines and forges should provide enough export material.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Hill dwarves live on hills, and eat food that grows on hills. Mountain dwarves live on mountains, and eat food that grows on mountains. Deep dwarves (duergar) live underground, and eat adventurers.

 

[Zardnaar]

You can farm in mountains and hills and Dwarves do live on the surface as well. In most D&D worlds they trade as well so I suppose there would be a ready market for Dwarven weapons, armour and ingots. Dwarven communities are rarely that large either it seems rarely being larger than 10-20k or so.

I mean look at the Swiss they have farms in the valleys and mountains and even in my RL country we have mountain farms. The Inca in Peru would be another example. You are just not going to have a massive population density compared to countries with more arable land (China, France etc).

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

I picture Dwarf cuisine to be very much like modern Scottish cuisine. Meat, fish, dairy, grains especially oat and barley. Nothing is wasted. a Dwarf version of haggis exists I'm sure.

Along with these traditional foods, there exists a growing fondness of taking said foods battering and deep-frying them has become popular.

And don't forget the alcoholic food groups