# Race: Dwarf > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Common | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Positive. Dwarven craft, trade, and long memory are valued across the continents. | > | **Subraces** | [[#Hill Dwarves\|Hill Dwarves]], [[#Mountain Dwarves\|Mountain Dwarves]], [[#Dark Dwarves\|Dark Dwarves]], [[#Deeper Dwarves (The Lost)\|Deeper Dwarves (The Lost)]], [[#Chaos Dwarves\|Chaos Dwarves]] | > | **Guide Section** | Common Races | ## Overview Dwarves are one of the most widespread peoples in the world, holding the mountain reaches, frozen tundras and open moorlands of north-western [[Continent - Auken|Auken]] and a great deal besides on every other continent. Theirs is a people shaped by stone and by endurance, with memories that run back through the ages in unbroken record. A dwarf reckons an insult in decades and a grudge in centuries, and both are kept in writing. ## Stone Before Metal The dwarves are the finest stonecrafters in the world and they will tell you so without being asked. The greatest expression of that craft is [[Region - Grey Rock Isle|Greyrock Isle]], a windswept island of bare grey rock whose surface has been worked into one continuous quarry, and beneath which the Grey Dwarves have cut what is almost certainly the largest tunnel network on Gryth. Vaulted halls, houses of worship carved directly into the bedrock and trading posts stretch for miles in the lightless deep, divided among ancient families who each hold their own sectors and compete quietly over the finest veins. Greyrock takes a traditionalist’s view of metal. Their recent trade agreements with the wood elves of [[Region - True Sylvaria|True Sylvaria]] deal exclusively in stone, and they regard the forge-work of their mainland cousins as a lesser and noisier trade. Mainland dwarves regard that opinion as the sort of thing an islander says. ## Nine Hundred Years at Silverwall The dwarves of the Forgehold spent nine centuries at war with the human city of [[City - Silverwall|Silverwall]], a conflict so long that both sides organised their societies around it. Recent treaties have finally stopped the bloodshed, and the peace is holding, but it is young. Mount Talvar, the peak Silverwall is built against, takes its name from the old Dwarvish for Father and remains a holy site to the mountain’s original dwarven inhabitants, a fact the human city has learned to be careful about. Elsewhere the record is longer and darker. Under the Eldari Empire, the mines of [[Landmark - Arag'Mar (Gold Peak)|Arag’Mar]] were driven to unprecedented depths using dwarven slaves taken from the Stone tribe lines, and no dwarf has forgotten it. It is among the reasons that dwarven dealings with the high elves remain correct, cold, and conducted at a distance. ## A People on Every Continent There is no part of Gryth without dwarves in it. They number in the hundreds of families and they hold whole countries in their own right, not as tolerated minorities in somebody else’s kingdom, and the great dwarven realms are counted among the powers of their continents rather than as curiosities. Auken holds the most of them by a wide margin, in the holds of the north-west, in Greyrock, in the Forgehold, and as a substantial and settled community throughout the [[Region - The Heartlands|Heartlands]]. [[Continent - Iros|Iros]] holds the fewest, and those are mostly the stone dwarves of the Drymountains, who keep to the high passes among orcs and Tabaxi and have little to do with the holds of the north. Between those two extremes the dwarves are everywhere. They colonised the black stone mountains of [[Region - Eldvale|Eldvale]] after the snow elf empire there collapsed and left their legacies carved into the rock. They hold kingdoms in [[Continent - Edaria|Edaria]], [[Continent - Ganath|Ganath]], [[Continent - Norn|Norn]] and the islands of [[Continent - Q'Shar|Q’Shar]], each with its own families, its own dialect of Dwarvish and its own opinion of everyone else’s stonework. ## Gods with Dwarvish Names Dwarves worship the same powers as everyone else and call them something else. Taron is Ingrizt, Enja is Teesza, Thadrin is Jovor Ogol, and Xinyx, whom the elves greet as Old Friend, the dwarves name Malthurn and do not greet at all. The dwarven pantheon is a matter of lineage as much as devotion, and a house cast out by name stays cast out, which is the whole of the chaos dwarves’ situation in a single sentence. ## Down, and Further Down Not all dwarves remained in the light. Some descended, and kept descending, past the Underdark and beyond any depth on any map. Others left the material plane altogether, and what came back from that exile is no longer welcome in any hold. ## Dwarf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Constitution score increases by 2. **Age.** Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but are not considered adults until they reach the age of 50. They commonly live for over 350 years. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **Size.** Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium. **Speed.** Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armour. **Darkvision.** Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. **Dwarven Resilience.** You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage. **Dwarven Combat Training.** You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer. **Tool Proficiency.** You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools. **Stonecunning.** Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. ## Subraces ### Hill Dwarves Hill dwarves keep the moorlands and lower slopes of Auken. They are the most numerous of their kind, and the hardiest, with a keen sense for people and intent that their mountain cousins tend to lack. **Rarity:** Common **Perception in Gryth.** Positive. As dwarves generally. #### Hill Dwarf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Wisdom score increases by 1. **Dwarven Toughness.** Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level. ### Mountain Dwarves Mountain dwarves hold the high passes and the deep halls cut into Auken’s peaks. They are strong, broad, and raised to arms from childhood; even a mountain dwarf baker knows how to wear a hauberk. Not all of them stayed in Auken. The Svaltüm, a mountain dwarf family, settled the Ganath island nation of Tezzik and took the tradition of arms somewhere no other hold has followed. The rest of their kin will not talk about it. **Rarity:** Common **Perception in Gryth.** Positive. As dwarves generally, though the Svaltum name is poison in Ganath. #### Mountain Dwarf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Strength score increases by 2. **Dwarven Armour Training.** You have proficiency with light and medium armour. ### Dark Dwarves Dark dwarves dwell in the deep places beneath Auken, far from any sun. Generations underground have sharpened their eyes and soured their temperament, and the strange magic of the depths has settled into their blood. **Rarity:** Rare **Perception in Gryth.** Negative. They pass unremarked on the surface, where few know the difference. Other dwarves know the difference, and react to it. #### Dark Dwarf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Strength score increases by 1. **Superior Darkvision.** Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet. **Duergar Resilience.** You have advantage on saving throws against illusions and against being charmed or paralysed. **Dwarven Magic.** When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the *enlarge/reduce* spell on yourself with this trait, using only the spell’s enlarge option. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the *invisibility* spell on yourself with this trait. You do not need material components for either spell, and you cannot cast them while you are in direct sunlight, although sunlight has no effect on them once cast. You regain the ability to cast these spells with this trait when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells. **Sunlight Sensitivity.** You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight. ### Deeper Dwarves (The Lost) Over a millennium ago, a calling went out among the dwarves of Edaria. Most who answered it resurfaced. These families did not. They moved down, and kept moving, past the Underdark and beyond any mapped depth, driven by a hunger none of them could name. What is left of them is small, pale, and scaled. They stand no taller than three feet, their eyes have nearly failed them, and they read the world through the stone beneath their feet. **Rarity:** Extremely rare **Perception in Gryth.** Negative. Most dwarves believe the families who descended died a thousand years ago, and would rather that were true. What came back up is not welcome. #### Deeper Dwarf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 1. **Size.** A thousand years in the crushing depths have twisted and shrunk your form. You stand between 2 and 3 feet tall. Your size is Small. This replaces the Dwarf size entry. **Speed.** Your base walking speed is 25 feet. **Scaly Hide.** Your skin has hardened into thick, unnatural scales. When you are not wearing armour, your base AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armour to determine your AC if the armour you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armour. **Earth Sense.** You have tremorsense out to a range of 30 feet. You can detect and pinpoint the origin of vibrations within this radius, provided that you and the source of the vibrations are in contact with the same ground or substance. **Light Aversion.** Your eyes are wholly unaccustomed to illumination. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in bright light or direct sunlight. **Monochromatic Vision.** Your eyes lack the structures required to perceive colour. You see the world entirely in shades of grey. ### Chaos Dwarves In the elder days a number of dwarven houses left the material plane and passed into the Void. What they sought there is not recorded. They were cast out from the care of the dwarven pantheon for it, and the Void has been working on them ever since. They are known by their dark reddish skin, their white and grey hair, and their eyes, which glow yellow or orange in any light. No hold in Auken will admit one. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Very negative > [!warning] A difficult character to play > Chaos dwarves are met with open hostility in every dwarven hold, and with suspicion elsewhere on account of their appearance. A player choosing this lineage should expect it to shape most social encounters, and should agree that with the rest of the table before session one. #### Chaos Dwarf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 1. **Superior Darkvision.** Your eyes are accustomed to the eternal gloom of the Void. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet. **Fearsome Visage.** You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill. **Void Resistance.** You have resistance to necrotic damage. **Legacy of the Void.** You know the *thaumaturgy* cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the *arms of Hadar* spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. ## Connections - [[Continent - Auken]] — Holds the most dwarves by a wide margin; hill, mountain and dark dwarf lands - [[Region - Grey Rock Isle]] — Greyrock Isle, home of the Grey Dwarves and the largest tunnel network on Gryth - [[Region - True Sylvaria]] — Wood elf realm with stone-only trade agreements with Greyrock - [[City - Silverwall]] — Human city at war with the Forgehold dwarves for nine centuries; built against Mount Talvar - [[Region - The Heartlands]] — Substantial and settled dwarven community - [[Landmark - Arag'Mar (Gold Peak)]] — Mines driven on dwarven slaves under the Eldari Empire - [[Continent - Iros]] — Fewest dwarves; stone dwarves of the Drymountains - [[Region - Eldvale]] — Black stone mountains colonised by dwarves after the snow elf empire collapsed - [[Continent - Edaria]] — Dwarven kingdoms; origin of the deeper dwarves - [[Continent - Ganath]] — Dwarven kingdoms; the Svaltüm settled Tezzik - [[Continent - Norn]] — Dwarven kingdoms - [[Continent - Q'Shar]] — Dwarven kingdoms in the islands --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Dwarf.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*