Once You Go Dwarf... Well, You Pretty Much Stay With Dwarf...

[Rowanomicon]

This the appreciation thread for the shortest medium size player race in the PHB.

This thread is for all stories, ideas, and worship of the Dwarven race.

I'm currently making a Dwarf that is the Dwarfiest Dwarf in all of Dwarfdom so that can be discussed as well.
So far I'm going with Earth Dwarf (from Unearthed Arcana) Dwarf Paragon 3 (from the same book) Fighter 2 (Dwarven Racial replacement levels) the into Stone Lord (I thought about Dwarven Defender but decided not to go with it).

[Xefas]

Sadly, I don't think dwarves have ever actually come into play in any D&D game I've been a part of. None of the players want to play one (I'm always the DM) and they never really go searching for them. Dwarves just sit in their mountains, which is technically what they prefer to do, anyway.

Other than the random funny shopkeeper, I've never had gnomes, either.

[Rowanomicon]

Sadly, I don't think dwarves have ever actually come into play in any D&D game I've been a part of. None of the players want to play one (I'm always the DM) and they never really go searching for them. Dwarves just sit in their mountains, which is technically what they prefer to do, anyway.

Other than the random funny shopkeeper, I've never had gnomes, either.

Your story of suffering has deeply moved me. I will pray to Moradin/Reorx/Thorin to bring Dwarf into you games.

[Baxbart]

I just started playing in a campaign with a new group based near where I live.

We have a dwarf in the party. He is nicknamed 'The Beardless Wonder'

Most of the people travelling with us thinks he is a woman....


Though, to be quite fair, we got basically nothing accomplished last night. It took us an hour of deliberating to venture from our desert campsite to investigate an abandoned village. 5 minutes after leaving the campsite, the dwarf killed the Sorceror in one hit (He claimed it was in self defence) with a greatsword.

When we finally did get to the village, the rogue sat outside firing flaming arrows and torching the 5 mud huts that were there , while the three fighters (yes, count 'em, three fighters) got attacked, and subsequently chased out of the village all the way back to the campsite by two skeletons...

Hilarious, but pointless. The dwarf got a PC kill... and the NPCs around the campfire ended up killing one of the skeletons because three of use just ran around the campfire in circles trying to avoid the other.

[Reel On, Love]

The ultimate dwarf, whom I will one day play, is Fistbeard the Beardfist. A Dwarven monk whose beard is shaped like a fist... and he punches people with it! (Monks can, after all, use any part of their body for an Unarmed Strike).

[Rowanomicon]

Hahaha, nice.
I'll let you in my all-dwarf game when I do it someday.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I just started playing in a campaign with a new group based near where I live.

We have a dwarf in the party. He is nicknamed 'The Beardless Wonder'

Most of the people travelling with us thinks he is a woman....


Though, to be quite fair, we got basically nothing accomplished last night. It took us an hour of deliberating to venture from our desert campsite to investigate an abandoned village. 5 minutes after leaving the campsite, the dwarf killed the Sorceror in one hit (He claimed it was in self defence) with a greatsword.

When we finally did get to the village, the rogue sat outside firing flaming arrows and torching the 5 mud huts that were there , while the three fighters (yes, count 'em, three fighters) got attacked, and subsequently chased out of the village all the way back to the campsite by two skeletons...

Hilarious, but pointless. The dwarf got a PC kill... and the NPCs around the campfire ended up killing one of the skeletons because three of use just ran around the campfire in circles trying to avoid the other.

Sadly, my group would consider that productive. We're on our 5th session of an "All Flesh" campaign, and we have yet to escape the basement of the office building we're in.
Someday I'll resurrect the "stupid pcs" thread with tales of our exploits.

[Baxbart]

The most worrying thing is that these guys have been playing D&D since first edition

Maybe I'll offer to GM sometime. They seemed rather bowled over when I told them I once wrote a 15000 word scenario for my home group (which took them approximately 25 hours to complete). Though... I do get the feeling these guys will take the better part of a year to get through that much.

The beginning of the session started with the guys introducing themselves. The GM said this: "I like to think that over the years we've developed as a group and moved on from such petty things like plot."

Anyway, thats off topic. back to the dwarves!

[Roderick_BR]

Agreed. Dwarf is my favorite race. I just use humans for ease of use, and the bonus feat. Dwarfs are great for builds that allow armor (like fighter, warblades, clerics...)
Now, the real quicker is to play an high charismatic dwarf. Have him talking loud, with a thick accent and a thick laugh, very uncle-ish style. And telling hobo jokes

[SoD]

My favorite dwarf I've played was a dwarven monk with a charisma score of 3. At one point Brother Dvalr was given a strange substance and was told to go find out what it was. So he went off to the alchemists guild and said, and I quote, ''Oi, you looney bastard. What's this?'' and held the substance straight up in the guys face.

[AslanCross]

I really badly wanted a dwarf in my current campaign. Sadly, everyone was either a human, elf, or half-elf. @_@ Thankfully, a short campaign I'm running this Christmas break now has a dwarf.

...who is named "Holden Magroen."

[ghost_warlock]

I'm usually not overly fond of dwarves as a race and, to date, I've played only one: a rogue who ended up becoming an infected wererat. Eh.

However, I have a great love for an old character-turned-NPC of mine who was a human fighter/transmuter/wild mage who THOUGHT he was a dwarven warrior with a knack for pretidigitation (he thought all of his transmutation spells, including polymorph was just clever sleight-of-hand). He wielded a dwarven waraxe proudly and had a long, braided beard (dyed purple, obviously). He loved to recount his life story to his adventuring companions, how he was the proud son of a slaadi and a chronically depressed plate of spaghetti and how spent much of his early life working underground mining grapefruit. (Please save vs. confusion.)

[raygungothic]

I have fond memories of a friend's Dwarf Monk who dumped Int. Stoneface The Dwarf Monk's catchphrase and principle for life was

*smashes $thingx with bare hands*
*speaks in a deep, comically pseudo-weighty voice:* "$thingx is weak. Stone is strong. I wish to become more like stone."

At every turn he dispensed unintelligent-yet-deep nonsense on the desirability of being strong. Like stone. He was thereby a major hindrance to the group's efforts to keep a straight face, and no-one was able to say "strong" for a week afterwards without giggling. I think it would have gotten old fast in anything other than a comedy one-shot, but he was perfectly judged for that.

[Keld Denar]

Dwarves make suprisingly good wizards. And Gishes. The +2 CON is amazing for a wizard, as it pretty much gives them as much average hp as a d6 die character without the +2 CON. The movement speed isn't much of a penalty, and can be helped via Boots of Speed (for burst speed in combat) and/or a barbarian level or 2.

A friend of mine plays a Dwarf Ftr2/Wiz4/Spellsword9 in LG. He has a 59 AC while warbuffed, and casts Whirling Blade as his primary attack, with a Greatsword power attacking for full, dealing an average of 90 points to all targets in a line. Then he casts Quickened Whirling Blade (Lesser Rod of Quicken in a Caster Gauntlet(MIC)) to do another 90 points of damage. Soon he'll get Twin Spell, and cast 3 Whirling Blades in a round, for an average of 270 damage to all targets in a line. Oh, and he has over 200 HP also, because of dwarven CONy goodness.

I personally play a Dwarven monk, who is going to be a monk4/ftr2/Pious Templar9 of Zurokan by 15th level. That'll net tastey paladin spells such as Earth Hammer and Fist of the Earth. He'll have unarmed strikes that'll do around 6d6+15 before Power Attack, which, while it won't be 2handed PA, it'll still be good. Also, for ultimate beatdown, he can cast Holy Sword on his fists, which along with the other 2 spells, will make his fists effectively magical, cold iron, adamantine, and good aligned. All in all, not too shabby for a monk. Not quite as powerful as my current 2handed power attacker, but very stylish.

[Dark Knight Renee]

I haven't had many dwarves in my game, as a player or a GM. The only one I remember having was an NPC companion to a newly introduced PC, but she didn't do much and eventually got killed off.

Sadly... dwarves are cool. I've been meaning to incorporate dwarves into my game for some time now, but it never seems to happen. When I'm actually working with the plot, visiting dwarven lands either does't come up or is trumped by some more interesting plot choice. When I'm creating characters or NPCs, it never occurs to me to play a dwarf... except when I don't have anything else to add to the concept, so it ends up never seeing play. I've had a token gnome PC (gnomes otherwise haven't shown up) who turned out quite well, but no dwarf. Sad, sad, sad...

[bignate]

we havent had a dwarf character in my group in years...

two of the members of my group hate dwarves(but not as much as gnomes). they make fun of anyone who talks about playing one. usually when we talk about what we would like to see in a game they suggest killing dwarves... i am sure most of this is talk and is pretty funny most of the time but they really dont like them.

that being said...i actually do like dwarves though i usually play human out of ease and for the feat and skillpoints. mechanically they are very good for fighter types. i used to think that was all they were really good for but recently i came up with a concept for a dwarven wizard/runesmith that rolls around in fullplate with a big shield.

[Darkxarth]

I personally do not play Dwarves that often (though I do enjoy the occasional Dwarven Cleric or Dwarven Barbarian) but my brother plays almost nothing but Dwarves!

In fact, for all you Dwarf fans, I'm working on a Super Dwarf! (Warning: It's not all that super) character for my brother in an upcoming campaign of mine.

[bignate]

dwarves make great warriors types and cleric types and i recently discovered a wizard build i would really like to play for dwarf but i just cannot imagine a dwarf in in any rougish capacity...

[GimliFett]

dwarves make great warriors types and cleric types and i recently discovered a wizard build i would really like to play for dwarf but i just cannot imagine a dwarf in in any rougish capacity...

Kiehn Sondergaard, at yer service!

[NEO|Phyte]

I've got a Dwarven Psychic Warrior/Elocater kicking around somewhere, name of Agdor Loathestone. Aside from his aversion to the ground, he's about as dwarven as they come.

[Rowanomicon]

Lots of Dwarfy goodness.

Darkxarth, your Super Dwarf needs level in Dwarf Paragon and maybe a level or two in Dwarf racial level replacement Fighter.

Also I would love to see a Dwarf Elocator in action. I love that PrC almost as much as I love Pyrokineticist.

[Cuddly]

I had a couple dwarf npcs in the campaign I'm running, named balin and thralin. Brothers they were, one a cleric, one a ftr. Basically meatshield and a healer to escort my single, elven wizard player around while I looked for more players.

The fighter carried a keg of ale on his back, both were very dwarfy. The PC fighter we finally recruited drank much ale with them, and said the reminded him of a couple of dwarfes he knew named thrashin and bashin.

Unfortunately, one was killed by an ogre, and the other by the PC fighter's unfortunate cleave in an area of magical darkness (how was the fighter supposed to know the furry thing wasn't a worg, but a dwarf?).

[The_Snark]

Ah, yes. Dwarves are fun, although I don't play them as often as I ought. I had a dwarf street vendor named Bartholomew in a short-lived campaign once; he actually made very nice stone carvings, and sold them for well over what they really should have been worth. Often referred to himself in the third person and spoke with a heavy accent*, because someone who is enjoying their dwarf experience isn't keeping a sharp eye on their purse-strings!

*Not a heavy Scottish accent. I have it perfectly imagined, but I can't think of a real-world parallel. Vaguely Russian, although lighter and more jovial.

And... hmmm, then there was a comical campaign on these boards, in which I played a pyromaniac dwarven wizard with 1 Cha (everyone was playing a caricature). That was fun, although also short-lived. Many of my greatest comic characters are short-lived, alas.

I've also recently become taken with the Ebberon dwarven dragonmarked house. They run banking and security, and I have a great image of coming in to get a loan and meeting your dwarven banker. Short but broadly built, with very, very little fat on him. Not the sort of person you'd want to try to rob or cheat.

[Serpentine]

I was playing a dwarven knight. Now, thanks to a messy death and a Ressurection did I say Resurrection? I meant Reincarnation spell, I'm playing an elven knight. Mmmm... tasty tasty issues.

[Swordguy]

I love Dwarves. The last one I ran was solely due to the superlative Bear Cavalry miniature from Reaper.




How is that not AWESOME?

It's just really, really tough to get a bear for a mount as a Dwarf Fighter. As I recall, the Gm just liked the idea so much he allowed "Bear Riding" as a Dwarven Racial Feat so I could have one (advanced like a Paladin's mount).

[malcolm]

The ultimate dwarf, whom I will one day play, is Fistbeard the Beardfist. A Dwarven monk whose beard is shaped like a fist... and he punches people with it!

LOL! This cracked me up for some reason, good show. Most unarmed-strike monk jokes tend to involve adult-themes, this a great take on it.

[Freelance Henchman]

The ultimate dwarf, whom I will one day play, is Fistbeard the Beardfist. A Dwarven monk whose beard is shaped like a fist... and he punches people with it! (Monks can, after all, use any part of their body for an Unarmed Strike).

Hehe! Nice. Maybe he could style his hair in fist-shape as well?

) Hey, I'm a Barbarian in the Playground now. W00t!

[shadow_archmagi]

Suggestions on how to use dwarfs in your campaign:

1. Dwarfs happen to have an ancient artifact of power you need locked away.
2. Bodygaurds for a dwarfen caravan.
3. Dwarves offer you the item of your choice from their treasury to kill Generic Evil, the orc/goblin/elf/ninja who has been causing raids/plague/zombies/whatever.

4. A fiendish dwarf-cult is gathering all the magic users they can find to cast a massive Animate spell to bring a mountain to life and use it to conquer the world.


EDIT: Whoo, halfling!

[Skjaldbakka]

EDIT: Whoo, halfling!

Whoo! Go halflings! Halflings rock! I <3 Halflings! Halflings are the best! Who da halfling? You da halfling!

[thorgrim29]

Yea..... Baruk Khazad, Khazad ai Menou.... dwarves rock