Dwarves are a race of stout humanoids in the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons and one of the main races available to players. They are stout, tough beings that are well-known for their craftsmenship and their strict adherance to tradition.
Description[]
The average dwarf stands roughly at about 4 feet tall. While their height is lacking, they make up for it with their bulk, their weight and physical strength matching, sometimes surpassing, that of most humans. As well as their short stature, the most common physical trait among dwarves was their facial hair, which they took great pride in and groomed into immaculate beards. Even the females of the species are known to grow beards.
Dwarves have a considerably longer lifespan than humans, living up to (and in rare cases, over) 400 years. Even the more senior members of the dwarf race can still be physically capable, even if their temperament has gone bitter with age.
Society[]
Dwarven society is primarily clan-based and values family above all else. Dwarves particularly respected elders, from whom they expected sound leadership and the wisdom of experience, as well as ancestral heroes or clan founders. This idea carried on to relations with other races and dwarves were deferential even to the elders of another, non-dwarven race.
Clans were usually led by hereditary rulers, often monarchs of a sort and descended from the founder of the clan. Dwarves strongly valued loyalty to these rulers and to the clan as a whole and even objective dwarves tended to side primarily with their kin over other races or communities. These clan structures promoted a tradition of inbreeding. This was so excessive that it was considered one of the reasons for the dwarves' low birth rate.
Most dwarven clans focused on one or two kinds of crafting, such as blacksmithing, jewelry, engineering, or masonry. Dwarves strove to avoid overspecialization by sending some of their youths to other clans to serve as apprentices, which also helped to foster racial unity. Because of their longevity, these apprenticeships might last decades.
Perhaps moreso than other races, dwarves were highly devout and turned to their gods for guidance. Individual dwarves may be faithless, but the race as a whole was strongly inclined towards religion. The patron deity and creator of the dwarf race was Moradin.
Abilities[]
- Toughness - Dwarves are physically adept and resilient with a high tolerance for pain.
- Poison Resistance - Dwarves have iron stomachs and are resistant to all manner of poisons and toxins. This explains how they handle their liquor so well.
- Stonesense - Dwarves possessed a preternatural sense about them uncommon in other subterranean creatures. They feel one with the earth that surrounds them, sensing through the stone and detecting patterns that other beings cannot begin to understand.
- Darkvision - Dwarves can see up to 60 feet in complete darkness.
Subraces[]
- Arctic Dwarf
- Gold Dwarf
- Duergar
- Shield Dwarf
- Urdunnir
- Wild Dwarf