PDA

View Full Version : Dwarven wars? [3.5]



Flail_master
2010-07-17, 06:33 AM
hey guys... again,

i was lookin up the traits for D&D 3.5 when i came across 'War Veteran' which is the only one which MIGHT fit my dwarven character... however, i don't know about dwarven wars that much, and i cant seem to find much info on them.
i Know they had wars with goblins and giants (hence their racial abilities) but i dont know any details, even if i dont take this trait for my dwarf im still intrigued as to details about the wars, cos im picturing that my character may have been part of it (in heritage as in, and perhaps personally if its recent enough)

so any links or straight out written on to here history is much appreciated


P.S. It's no issue what realm its from, we have created out own map and realm and could probably just take the elements we like from it and make our own 'dwarven wars' i would just like a basis :smallbiggrin:

Yora
2010-07-17, 06:44 AM
Depends a lot on the setting: In most standard generic settings you'll have dwarves in their mountain fortress cities and they fight hordes of orcs in front of the main doors and hordes of goblins in the lower tunnels. Often, there's not much more on that.

gibbo88
2010-07-17, 06:56 AM
Dwarves would have all the same reasons for war as any other sentient - power, money or women. Claim that he fought in a clan war between dwarves or that he fought against a specific group of enemies, say Drow of another monsterous underground race.

The sky is the limit!

Aroka
2010-07-17, 07:38 AM
How could anyone else tell you anything about your own setting? That's a nonsensical request.

FWIW the bonus to AC against giants is a stupid legacy ability; in AD&D, it was because they were small and good at using it to their advantage. Now it's suddenly a special training thing because size categories already represent size differences (and it's not like the poor dwarves had anywhere close to enough abilities to make them as awesome as, say, half-elves). Faerūn dwarves, for instance, have no history of wars with giants (at least in the last few thousand years); they were created as servants to the giants of old, and may have rebelled, but that would be something like 30,000 years ago in the default AD&D and D&D 3.5 time (1350s-1370s DR).

Flail_master
2010-07-17, 08:14 AM
Dwarves would have all the same reasons for war as any other sentient - power, money or women. Claim that he fought in a clan war between dwarves or that he fought against a specific group of enemies, say Drow of another monsterous underground race.

The sky is the limit!

indeed that is true, i may have to do that,

otherwise, damn, i really had no idea there was so little history on dwarven wars (or the absence of the) D&D being all about the story and stuff in some cases

in which case i shall do as i wish history wise :smallsmile:

and @ Aroka, indeed the bonus AC against giants is a bit WTF if they never fought them, or dont do so regularly.

and the reason i was asking was to get a basis of what kind of things dwarves fight/have fought, i know i can make up my own stuff, being our own setting and all, but we dont create everything, certain basics stay the same, we mainly made the realm so we could have our own maps and heroes from the past, and for the freedom to create stories if we really want to without it clashing with lore of another realm, almost everything we can keep similar or the same to other realms lore, humans being most common and dragons existing and the such, or hatred between kobolds and gnomes, we keep them the same because otherwise we'd be here for weeks or months, so i was just trying to get any info on wars which may have happened in other realms so we dont have to give ourselves extra work (call it laziness if you want :smalltongue:)

ok that was way too much explanation :smalltongue:

Scarey Nerd
2010-07-17, 09:36 AM
I asked this exact same question a few months ago: Hence I've invented The Giant Wars. There is basically no information available in sourcebooks etc, so I came up with the wars from centuries past. The great wars are long since past, but Dwarves and Giants still fight across the world, the wars only ceased because the two species came to a stalemate, where neither could defeat the other, but neither would accept this fact.

The two races still fight, and still despise each other, but only fight opportunistically. They don't instigate war, preferring minimal casualty-skirmishes.

Flail_master
2010-07-17, 12:41 PM
I asked this exact same question a few months ago: Hence I've invented The Giant Wars. There is basically no information available in sourcebooks etc, so I came up with the wars from centuries past. The great wars are long since past, but Dwarves and Giants still fight across the world, the wars only ceased because the two species came to a stalemate, where neither could defeat the other, but neither would accept this fact.

The two races still fight, and still despise each other, but only fight opportunistically. They don't instigate war, preferring minimal casualty-skirmishes.

aaah good times, shall do then :smalltongue:

Hurlbut
2010-07-17, 12:56 PM
And some of the giants do live on the mountains doesn't they? (trolls and stone giants for one thing) So it make sense that there would be clashes from time to time. So they rank just below Orcs and Goblins as humanoid enemies of the dwarvenkind.

Dr.Epic
2010-07-17, 01:37 PM
Dwarves would have all the same reasons for war as any other sentient - power, money or women...The sky is the limit!

Pretty much. Just pick one of the hundreds of reason wars happen in our world and just modify it to be more fantasy oriented.

maddmatt
2010-07-17, 02:21 PM
When Dwarves go to war, the very mountains themselves move. The loss of a dwarf is a bad occurrence, and thus Dwarves tend to wage war in a more defensive manner. It is better to lose 1000 war hounds and 50 trebuchets than a single life.

Greenish
2010-07-17, 03:31 PM
Dwarves used to fight each other only a few generations back.

But hey, no problemo: the Last War left the whole continent brimming with veterans. Dwarves not living in the Mror Holds nor associated with the House Kundarak (which doubtlessly exist) probably fought for their home nation, and many a young dwarf might've left Mror Holds to become a mercenary.

Prodan
2010-07-17, 03:36 PM
Dwarves would have all the same reasons for war as any other sentient - power, money or women.

And beards.

Zen Master
2010-07-17, 05:03 PM
Since dwarves (in the fantasy sense) do not exist, and the OP doesn't refer to any specific campaign world, it's basically a question of opinion.

To my thinking, dwarves really have better things to do than go to war. They're busy digging for ore, extracting it, forging it into goods, and selling it off at a hefty profit to 'lesser races'.

Only when something interferes with this - or if they are attacked - do dwarves go to war.

Things that might interfere:

- Some other guys have all the best ore
- Our old mine ran out of ore
- The neighboring dwarf clan insulted our honor by claiming their ore is better than ours

Things that might attack:

- Some other dwarves who have poorer ore
- Some dwarves whose old mine ran out of ore
- Neighboring dwarves who felt insulted when we told them our ore is better than theirs
Also:
- Goblins, orks, drow, kobolds, mind flayers, and basically anything else that lives underground and might want either ore, gold, slaves or well-built subterrainean fortifications.

The important thing to remember about dwarven wars is - when they *do* go to war, they go at it with all that wonderful skill and productivity with which they also dig up ore and forge items. There is a great abundance of effort and determination involved.

Coidzor
2010-07-17, 05:06 PM
And beards.

And woe to anyone who ever claims to have invented booze. :smalleek:

Scarey Nerd
2010-07-17, 05:06 PM
And woe to anyone who ever claims to have invented booze. :smalleek:

This. Oh so very this.

dgnslyr
2010-07-17, 11:38 PM
Elephants. The most accursed foe of dwarves. Nothing is as dangerous as a pack of ferocious elephants. Many lives are lost in the ongoing struggle against the most hated enemy, but still the war is waged, neither side accepting anything less than total victory.