A Dwarven Army

[Lord Loss]

I need a list of 15-30 different creatures that could be part of a dwarven army under the following circumstances. All creatures should be no higher than CR 7 or 8.

A semi-apocalyptic event has taken place and the nearby lands are being overtaken by a duo of evil armies (it's unclear wether or not the two are allied): demons and undead. The Army seeks to steal the Book of Deeper Roads a magic item held by the dwarves that contains detailed accounts of what lies in the deepest parts of the mountain (and many others) and what creatures live there. It also has many magical powers. The dwarves are allied with the wild-folk and most other denizens of the mountain, as the evil creatures probably intend to murder everything in their path.

What creatures (mountain-folk, constructs, trained/captured beasts etc.) could be part of the dwarven army, apart from the dwarves themselves. I own the following splatbooks (I only mentioned those with monsters in them) :

Monster Manual, Monsters of Faerun, Monster Manual Three, Fiend Folio, Races of Stone, Frostburn (some sections of the mountain are glacial), Libris Mortis, FC I: Hordes of the Abyss, FC II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, Races of Stone, Races of the Wild, Dungeonscape, Book of Vile Darkness, Heroes of Horror, Drow of the Underdark, Lords of Madness, Forgotten Realms, Races of Faerun.

Thanks for the help, I can't seem to find all that many creatures to add into the army. This is for a semi-wargame D&D game in which the players creat their armies and I need a decently-sized list of monster for the Dwarven Army player to choose from.

[Giggling Ghast]

Why not golems?

Also, how about dire boars and underground Good-aligned dragons?

[Totally Guy]

Dwarves! If it's got all those other guys at what point does it stop being a Dwarven army?...

I'm thinking back to warcraft 2. The orc army was Peons and Grunts... Then there were trolls, goblins, dragons, ogres and death knights... And by that point I wasn't using Grunts much... So the badass orcs that I'd chosen to play were just meandering menials for a mishmash of monsters...

[Giggling Ghast]

Dwarves! If it's got all those other guys at what point does it stop being a Dwarven army?...

Well, there's only so many permutations of "XXX dwarf".

"My evil army consists of goblins, trolls, giant spiders and zombies!"

"My dwarven army consists of hammer dwarves, axe dwarves, crossbow dwarves …"

[Johel]

Chained elves, as meatshield.
Drunk Half-Giant Barbarians as mounts.

[The Oakenshield]

Both of Johel's ideas are fantastic.

What about Dwarven criminals interred in golem-like fighting constructs indefinitely, and who are only redeemed when they are destroyed in battle. (The constructs would need some sort of a runic failsafe to stop them attacking fellow dwarves if the criminal doesn't like the idea.)

[IthroZada]

Earth elementals, Goliaths might be willing to help Dwarves, Bullettes and Delvers for sapping, Rhinos are listed as a common Dwarf mount in the Arms and Equipment guide. Good aligned giants, svirfneblin (deep gnomes), all sorts of constructs, possibly Rocs, Thoqqua, dire badgers, Stonechildren, Ankheg, the Mineral Warrior template on a whole bunch of stuff.

Races of Stone has some good races and mount options, I've listed many of them here. Underdark might also have some stuff. I'm not sure if there is a specific mountain ecology book.

Edited because svirfneblin is incredibly difficult to spell.

[maysarahs]

How about goliaths on top of the mountain, dwarves underneath? frost giants work well, maybe some trained animals? if your battleground extends to the foothills as well Bulettes make nice shock troops? linnorms, frost worms, cloud giants bugbears? The SRD can give you some inspiration (pathfinders SRD lists them by terrain here: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/indexes-and-tables/monsters-by-terrain) (I can't account for all of their CR's though so I apologize)

EDIT: Swordsaged a little. And I was so excited to be the first one to mention Goliaths and Bulettes! Shoot!

[SuperFerret]

If rhinos are common dwarf mounts, why not use the occasional Triceratops?

[IthroZada]

Specific constructs could be Automatons, Desmodu might actually be willing to fight with Dwarves during the night... which would include Desmodu bats as mounts. Firbolgs maybe, Galeb Duhr would protect their home but convincing them to go to battle would be about as difficult as convincing Ents, Juggernauts are probably too high CR at 11, Stonespikes, Myconid?

Edit:
Avalanchers would be awesome, I could definitely see Dwarves and Bearhounds getting along, Gulgar (which like to ride Yrthaks), if the Dwarves can convince Desmodu, Nycters might work too.

[Lord Loss]

Specific constructs could be Automatons, Desmodu might actually be willing to fight with Dwarves during the night... which would include Desmodu bats as mounts. Firbolgs maybe, Galeb Duhr would protect their home but convincing them to go to battle would be about as difficult as convincing Ents, Juggernauts are probably too high CR at 11, Stonespikes, Myconid?

Edit:
Avalanchers would be awesome, I could definitely see Dwarves and Bearhounds getting along, Gulgar (which like to ride Yrthaks), if the Dwarves can convince Desmodu, Nycters might work too.

I was considering Nycters myself, as well as Gulgar. Bearhounds are a nice idea, but the yare already part of the nature army. What books are Desmodu, Automatons, Myconids, Stonespikes, Ents (or did you mean Treants?) and Galeb Duhr from? Some of my books are in French, so I might need a little direction before finding them. Juggernaughts are indeed over CRed, as ar avalanchers.

[smasher0404]

If there is a forest nearby, have them happen to have tamed bears.

[Volthawk]

I suppose you could say Warforged are a Dwarven creation (they were put into the MMIII, where they have a bit of fluff that isn't Eberron-ese), so you have another base humanoid to use...

And Chargers for more heavy-duty soldiers, perhaps.

[dgnslyr]

War Elephants. Many, many war elephants.

[IthroZada]

I was considering Nycters myself, as well as Gulgar. Bearhounds are a nice idea, but the yare already part of the nature army. What books are Desmodu, Automatons, Myconids, Stonespikes, Ents (or did you mean Treants?) and Galeb Duhr from? Some of my books are in French, so I might need a little direction before finding them. Juggernaughts are indeed over CRed, as ar avalanchers.

Desmodu, Automatons, Myconids, Stone spikes, and Galeb Duhr are all Monster Manual 2, which I think is technically 3.0? And might require some conversion, not much I would would imagine though.

Some few others, and I'm mostly tapped out.
Lodestone Marauders, a Dwarf Ancestor is incredibly obvious. Magmacore Golems are pretty cool. Tusk terrors, and there are plenty of cooler stuff, but not in your CR range.

This will help you greatly. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/lists/monsters It's an index of most monsters in D&D.

Edit: And by Ents (which are basically treants), I was referencing the tree people in Lord of the Rings, Galeb Duhr are like rock versions of them, and take a very long time to convince, so the war would possibly be over before they consider joining.

Edit 2: And if you are really hard up for Dwarf themed creatures, the third party books "Quintessential Dwarf" and "Hammer & Helm" have creature sections.

[nyarlathotep]

Here are a few good monster possibilities listed by booked

Monsters of Faerun


Alaghi - Bigfoot like creates that could like in the foothills
The two living deep bats
Chitine and Choldrith could both be natives to the cave systems being an interrelated spider people
Cloaker Lords could be included as commanders if cloakers are present
Phaerlin Giant though due to their size verse defensive abilities they are a bit lopsided
Gibberlings are also usable for savage races if used in huge numbers
Groundlings being evil mole people also work well
Ibrandlin are subterranean dragons and technically under the CR limit but massively under CRed if played intelligently
Peryton are insanely evil be do live in the mountains to act as an airforce
Subterranean spiders also work

Drow of the Underdark


The younger levels of deep dragon
quaggoth yet another big foot monster

Frostburn


Yeti is all I can really find under the CR limit

Monster Manual III


Avalanche could lead to some fun tactical possibilities
Harpoon Spider could also be interesting as a sort of sniper
Summoning ooze would be really useful but also rather silly
Cave trolls could function much like tanks and would logically live there


That's all I can think of that the others haven't already said.

[Marnath]

Dwarven calvary who wield stone warhammers and wear hide armor while riding on advanced Large-size rustmonsters! No really, that's from the arms and equipment guide. It's 3.0 but that shouldn't matter since it's just an idea with a handle animal DC for training rust monster mounts.

[Lord Loss]

These are all great suggestions! Thanks everyone.

I for some reason thought avalanchers were CR 15 instead of CR 5...

[Saintheart]

This is somewhat tangential and I'm not sure if it'll be much use thanks to the books you're confined to, but for any building of army units in D&D I love The Spartan Handbook, a.k.a How to Rock the Phalanx. (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4963.0) Has a lot of nice cheap stuff like Teamwork Benefits and Affiliations which stack very nicely indeed. Well worth a look.

[Deimess]

What about Dwarven criminals interred in golem-like fighting constructs indefinitely, and who are only redeemed when they are destroyed in battle. (The constructs would need some sort of a runic failsafe to stop them attacking fellow dwarves if the criminal doesn't like the idea.)

This sounds A LOT like Dragon Age: Origins haha

And if you don't already have them, any heavy set animal works best for dwarven mounts, like goats or boars.

[Zonugal]

What about Dwarven criminals interred in golem-like fighting constructs indefinitely, and who are only redeemed when they are destroyed in battle. (The constructs would need some sort of a runic failsafe to stop them attacking fellow dwarves if the criminal doesn't like the idea.)

Starcraft? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hROzz6yD_a8)

[JackRackham]

I need a list of 15-30 different creatures that could be part of a dwarven army under the following circumstances. All creatures should be no higher than CR 7 or 8.

A semi-apocalyptic event has taken place and the nearby lands are being overtaken by a duo of evil armies (it's unclear wether or not the two are allied): demons and undead. The Army seeks to steal the Book of Deeper Roads a magic item held by the dwarves that contains detailed accounts of what lies in the deepest parts of the mountain (and many others) and what creatures live there. It also has many magical powers. The dwarves are allied with the wild-folk and most other denizens of the mountain, as the evil creatures probably intend to murder everything in their path.

What creatures (mountain-folk, constructs, trained/captured beasts etc.) could be part of the dwarven army, apart from the dwarves themselves. I own the following splatbooks (I only mentioned those with monsters in them) :

Monster Manual, Monsters of Faerun, Monster Manual Three, Fiend Folio, Races of Stone, Frostburn (some sections of the mountain are glacial), Libris Mortis, FC I: Hordes of the Abyss, FC II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, Races of Stone, Races of the Wild, Dungeonscape, Book of Vile Darkness, Heroes of Horror, Drow of the Underdark, Lords of Madness, Forgotten Realms, Races of Faerun.

Thanks for the help, I can't seem to find all that many creatures to add into the army. This is for a semi-wargame D&D game in which the players creat their armies and I need a decently-sized list of monster for the Dwarven Army player to choose from.

Any army can have some mercenaries, I suppose, and any people can have allies. Some of the armies I've envisioned in my game had Orcs as convenient warriors-for-hire, but if this is a good vs evil thing, I see no reason why they couldn't have some elven archers or some mercenary rogue-types to prepare ambushes and weaken the incoming army.

Otherwise, Idk. Just think about different elements filling complementary roles (a couple ambushes to take out officers, lower morale, a couple volleys of arrows and some crazy (read: expendable) orcs or something to soften the lines, then the main force and finally some elite troops to come in and clean up.

[Wyntonian]

These (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192017&highlight=forge+beast)are homebrewed, but fit thematically, and would make cool AMAZING mounts.

*Conversation between dwarf and goblin*
Goblin: Raaawwwww! my spider mount can climb up walls! Rawwwww!!!!
Dwarf: Really? Cool. Mine eats walls. And poops them out. Literally.
Goblin: *cackle* mine has poison fangs! RAWWWW!!!
Dwarf: Yeah, mine breaths fire. Take it, spider.

[Thurbane]

I know it isn't on your list of splatbooks, but if you can get access to it, Heroes of Battle has a whole heap of troop types for various armies (and special units), including Dwarven.

[shadow_archmagi]

Battlewagons! Also, I believe that 40k had dwarves with some kind of magical land-train that they used in war.

[RndmNumGen]

If there are a bunch of dwarf cities, then there must be TONS of cats. Unleash them all upon the undead, who will stave from lack of FPS.

Alternatively:

Dwarves form the infantry & archer divisions.
Golems make up the brunt of the shock troops.
Earth Elementals make excellent flankers.
Kobold Trapsmiths, if the dwarves wouldn't mind allying with them, are terrifying. Combined with dwarven industry, this sets up some real area denial.

[Cespenar]

Dire rats. Lots of them.

[Coidzor]

Goliath tribes that live on the mountains might be hired on as mercenaries or out of common cause what with the ravening hordes heading their way.

Goliath Barbarian-fightery types seems like a given if you have those.
Maybe whisper gnome special ops...

I remember reading about specialist corps within dwarf armies at one time about them having trained rust monsters and fighting with wooden clubs and wearing stone armor... I think it was described in A&EG for the price of a rust monster that was trained, but if you're not messing with that aspect of the cost, specialist dorfs in stone armor & wielding non-metal weapons riding or training and fighting alongside rustmonsters was the idea.

[Feytalist]

Any sort of summoned/trained/manufactured allies would be my best bet. Automatons, rhinos/rust monsters/rapid badgers, earth elementals/galeb duhr have all been mentioned. I don't think a dwarven army would have many allies from other races. Although, how you write your dwarves are obviously up to you. Goliaths, gnomes, good-aligned giants maybe.

[Pokonic]

One question. How nice are the dwarves? Because while goliths are fine and dandy, nothing makes a army like a mind-controled Frost/Fire/stone giant covered in chains in the center of the army, acting like a small living seige engine, with a club/axe chained to both hands.

[Lord Loss]

They are about 60% LG 30% LN 10% Other Alignments

[Pokonic]

Okay, so do you think that this group would dare to force a giant to fight for them? That pesky good alignment, always getting in the way of my ideas!:smallbiggrin:

[Telonius]

Well, there's only so many permutations of "XXX dwarf".

"My evil army consists of goblins, trolls, giant spiders and zombies!"

"My dwarven army consists of hammer dwarves, axe dwarves, crossbow dwarves …"

Pulling from an old Crystalkeep file (saved before The Great Purge), there are at least 16 flavors of Dwarf:

Hill Dwarf (PHB, MM)
Mountain Dwarf (MM)
Aquatic Dwarf (UA)
Arctic Dwarf (UA)
Badlands Dwarf (Sandstorm)
Deep Dwarf (MM)
Desert Dwarf (UA)
Dream Dwarf (RoS)
Frost Dwarf (Planar)
Earth Dwarf (UA)
Glacier Dwarf (Frost)
Gold Dwarf (DMG)
Gray Dwarf (Duergar) (MM)
Lesser Gray Dwarf (Lesser Duergar) (PGF)
Jungle Dwarf (UA)
Seacliff Dwarf (Storm)

As for allies? Goliaths, Gnomes, Shield Guardians, Constructs in general, Warforged (if you're up for that). Azers. Earth Elementals. Tame Rust Monsters. Gray Renders. Possibly Silver Dragons. Maybe Earth Mephits.

[PirateLizard]

As rule of Dm thumb, there are always a few decently powered "favored classes" in any racial wargroup I make. While the Fighter side doesn't help too much, the Cleric side does. Now you can summon up all types of stuff, not to mention turn undead on the skeleton army and banish the outsiders. Whoo Whoo, Pain Trains comin'.

Also, as DM, I find the 5lbs of silver for a pint of holy water derped beyond belief. Since they sell it at cost, change silver to gold (or even better Platinum) and you need only 1/10th or 1/100th the allotted material, meaning .05 lbs of plat is good for a pint. Now a big vein of material can make you hundreds of gallons of holy water. Load it into some dwarven catapult munition and go all gungan on their evil arses. You could have the dwarves have flying machines and drop it on them like fire fighters too.

[Zonugal]

Okay, so do you think that this group would dare to force a giant to fight for them? That pesky good alignment, always getting in the way of my ideas!:smallbiggrin:

If you can get some Dwarven artificers they can make some magical items of Summon Giants from Frostburn. Typically it is a level 8 spell but for the Disciple of Thrym it is a level four spell, which means you can have either 3 Fiendish Hill Giants, 2 Fiendish or Celestial Stone Giants, 1 Fiendish Frost Giant or 1 Fiendish Fire Giant for upwards of 8 rounds before they disappear.

[Cieyrin]

Automatons and Stonespikes are in MM2, I believe.

Other creatures of interest that I believe are in you book list are Goatfolk, Stonechildren and Neanderthals.

[mabriss lethe]

Elite Dwarven Were-rat saboteurs.

[subject42]

Duergar are SRD, so if they didn't already align with one of the other armies, they would make for an interesting ally.

Enlarge Person + Invisibility makes for an interesting combo for commando units.

[Cieyrin]

Duergar are SRD, so if they didn't already align with one of the other armies, they would make for an interesting ally.

Enlarge Person + Invisibility makes for an interesting combo for commando units.

Just roll 'em like they do in Secrets of Sarlona and they can be elite psychic rebels.

The same for stone giants, who, it should be noted, tend towards neutrality as opposed to evil and probably don't take kindly to their homes being overran by undead nasties.

[big teej]

some of these may have been mentioned.

Goliaths
Gnomes
Dwarves
Slaughterstone Behemoths - dwarven warmachine
Warforged?
there's an abberation in one of the monster manuals that "tunnels" one of those.