Dwarf
by Prince Phantom
A race so iconic that they’ve been here from the very beginning, Dwarves are a decent and reliable option with good abilities and features that make them decent, but not stellar choices for just about any build. I’ll only be talking about the two subraces provided in the PHB in this review, as the Duergar has been expanded to be its own race.
Base Dwarf Features
Ability Score Increase: +2 Constitution: Literally every character wouldn’t mind to have this, though most would prefer to have their +2 be in their primary stat, and Constitution is almost always a secondary stat.
Speed: 25ft, though heavy armor does not slow you down if you don’t have a high enough strength score for it.
Having a reduced movement speed is genuinely a big nerf, as it becomes much harder to keep pace with monsters and even your own teammates. Not being slowed by heavy armor is interesting though, as it allows characters who don’t want to prioritize strength to have the highest AC possible with normal armor. Many Cleric subclasses are perfect for this, as now they can focus their scores on Wisdom and Constitution rather than having to dip into strength to have the best possible AC. Archery Fighters may also appreciate this, allowing them to have the highest AC possible while focusing on their Dexterity.
Darkvision: Always nice to have.
Dwarven Resilience: Advantage on saves versus poison and resistance to poison damage is very helpful, especially in low tier play when enemies with poison damage is super common. Most creatures hit you with an attack and then inject poison, forcing a Constitution save for half damage if you succeed. If we pass the save (easier to do thanks to advantage) we will only take 1/4 of the poison damage. All around a great thing to have to keep you alive for longer.
Dwarven Combat Training: Most builds that need weapon proficiencies already get them inherently, but monks are a notable exception to that rule thanks to their new ability to turn a weapon they are proficient in into a monk weapon. A Dwarf Monk swinging around a battle axe is a pretty neat image, and it’s actually a decent way to get the most damage out of a Monk. Still doesn’t make Monk a good class though.
Tool Proficiency: Not much to write home about here, though note that Xanathar’s did massively expand tool proficiencies, so take a look there and see which of these tickle your fancy.
Stonecunning: This is definitely a ribbon, but I do think it could provide some neat roleplay moments. Just keep an eye out for opportunities to use this.
Special Note: Access to Dwarven Fortitude: Only Dwarves get access to this feat, but sadly it sucks, so that’s not really a point in their favor.
Hill Dwarf
Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom: Clerics and Druids appreciate this, but I’d probably use the Tasha’s rule and take a +2 Wisdom and a +1 Constitution.
Dwarven Toughness: One extra HP per level equates to about enough to take one or less more hits before going down. This does have the niche of being a part of the puzzle of how to get the most HP possible, but that’s mostly a meme build and this feature really just isn’t necessary. This makes me feel like the Hill Dwarf is a bit lacking overall. Our base race features are nice but not amazing besides the poison resistance, and our subrace is adding very little. If it’s durability you want, there are other races that can provide that and so much more, and do it better.
This race is just boring, and that’s about the worst comment I can make about something. Nothing here excites me except the meme potential of getting the most HP possible. That is literally the only build I would consider this for.
Final Rating: 2/5
Mountain Dwarf
Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength: Note that this is a +2 and we already got a +2 to Constitution. Yes, this race gives you a total of +4 to your stats instead of the usual +3. How good is that? Well it depends on your build. You’ll also definitely want to be using the Tasha’s rule to shuffle these around, because our next feature would be wasted on almost all Strength based characters. Personally, I believe high ability scores are a bit overrated by the majority of the community. Feats, spells, and items are where most of your power comes from, but there are some classes like Paladin that would really enjoy a +2 to both their Strength and Charisma. Still, players do just fine with the standard +2 and +1 all the time, so this obviously isn’t that big of an improvement.
Dwarven Armor Training: This is a Wizard/Sorcerer/non-Hexblade Warlock/non-Swords or Valor Bard’s dream ability. Wizards and Sorcerers go from a 16 AC at best with Mage Armor to a 17 with no resources used. Just one problem: no shield proficiency. That part genuinely stings, as you’re missing out on +2 AC. If you’ve got room on your build for a one level dip into a class that gives you armor and shield proficiencies like Cleric, Fighter, Hexblade, Paladin, or many other class/subclass options, I’d recommend just going for that instead of this, as you are also forcing yourself to play a suboptimal race. If, however, your table bans multiclassing because they hate fun, this suddenly becomes a much more attractive option, and I’d definitely give it consideration for some builds.
In a game without multiclassing, I would definitely give this a good long look if I was playing a armorless caster. Outside of that, multiclassing to get armor proficiencies will generally be stronger than taking this race, and the extra ability score point isn’t as big of a deal as a lot of newer players think.
Final Rating: 3/5
Mark of Warding Dwarf
This subrace is typically exclusive to the Eberron campaign setting, though it isn’t so powerful that I believe it should be excluded from other settings. Just talk to your DM before grabbing this.
Ability Score Increase: +1 Intelligence: As always, this is nice, but with Tasha’s rules for racial ability scores becoming more and more widely accepted, you’ll probably be able to just pick where these bonuses go yourself. If not, this works really well for an Artificer or Wizard.
Warder’s Intuition: An extra D4 to Investigation and Thieves Tools checks will actually come up quite a lot, especially if you take the role in your party of the lock pick.
Wards and Seals: We get three abjuration spells here that we know and can cast once per day each. Alarm is a ritual, so getting a free cast is pretty situational. Mage Armor is nice but you should probably get actual armor proficiency at some point. Arcane Lock is nice because it normally requires and consumes a costly material component, but our free casting skips that. It’s still a pretty situational spell, but you’ll be happy to have it when you find a use for it.
Spells of the Mark: These are spells that are added to your classes spell list, assuming you have a spell list (martials, lol). These are not automatically known or prepared, but you can choose to learn them as you level up. This makes this best on classes with limited spell lists like Clerics, Bards, or Warlocks. This list in general is pretty underwhelming, barring one spell in particular: Armor of Agathys. If you’d like to know how to maximize that spell, we actually have a build on this site that uses this race plus the Abjuration Wizard, and gaining Armor of Agathys from this race was the main reason we took it. This means that this race is very build dependent. If your build wants Armor of Agathys but doesn’t normally get it, then this race is an all star. If not, this is still probably better than the other Dwarf subraces, but not by much.
This race is really just for those who want to build around Armor of Agathys and not much else. If that’s you, take a look at this. If not, then move on to other options.
Final Rating: 3/5
Duergar
Because I guess every race needs an evil Underdark counterpart, Duergar are Dwarves that dug a little too deep and got enslaved by the evil aberrations that inhabit the Underdark, namely the Mindflayers. So, what did they do when they finally escaped that slavery? Why, they became slavers themselves of course! Boy, the creative team sure was having a stellar performance that day. Well, maybe the mechanics can salvage this race, and thankfully flavor is free, so Duergar in your world don’t have to be boring slaver race #4.
Superior Darkvision: 120ft darkvision is a big deal, especially in campaigns where you’ll be spending time underground, and I can definitely see people being drawn to races like this more when preparing for a campaign like that.
Duergar Magic: We get Enlarge/Reduce and Invisibility once for free, and then we can cast them using spell slots. Invisibility is a fantastic spell, and Enlarge/Reduce actually has a lot of utility when you get creative. Door blocking your way? Shrink it to half its size and watch it fall off the hinges! Think outside the box with this spell and you’ll find plenty of use cases.
Dwarven Resilience: There’s actually a slight difference between this and the normal Dwarven Resilience. We don’t get advantage on saves against poison damage, like when a Wyvern stings you with its tail and you make a save to take half damage from the poison. That’s actually a significant nerf, and one that I’m not entirely sure was intentional. As a trade off, we now get advantage against the poisoned condition, which depending on your build, might be helpful and might not. Many spellcasters for example can completely ignore being poisoned as they aren’t in the business of making attack rolls. This is still a great feature, just note quite as good as usual.
Psionic Fortitude: Advantage on saves versus charm and stun are really helpful, and yes, the stun part definitely seems like a pointed defense against an Illithid’s Mind Blast. This plus Dwarven Resilience gives us a very good suite of defensive features.
The Duergar easily outpaces the normal Dwarves in my opinion. We get two great spells and some really nice defensive features, allowing this race to be pretty much whatever it wants. I do believe being a spellcaster would be best so you have slots to cast your spells with after the first free casting, but there are a lot of different ways you could go with this.
Final Rating: 4/5
SCAG Duergar (Legacy)
This is a legacy race and may not be available at all tables. Check with your DM before selecting this option.
Ability Score Increase: +2 Constitution, +1 Strength: The Duergar found in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide has all of the base Dwarf features (including a 25ft move speed, while the revised version has 30ft) with the following additions:
Superior Darkvision (replacing Darkvision): Same as what I said before.
Dwarven Resilience: This is the old version of Dwarven Resilience that I mentioned, and I think it’s slightly better.
Duergar Magic: We get the same spells, but now we can only cast them on ourselves, we can only use the Enlarge part of Enlarge/Reduce, and we can’t use spell slots to cast these spells. This is a big downgrade from the revised version.
Sunlight Sensitivity: Either play in an Underdark campaign or plan on never making attack rolls. This severely limits the builds and campaigns that this race is compatible with.
Assuming Sunlight Sensitivity won’t be a problem, I still think this is better than the normal Dwarves, but it’s completely outclassed by its revised version, even if I like it’s new Dwarven Resilience slightly less.
Final Rating: 3/5
The Duergar got a big glow up with their revision, and they were already a decent race to begin with. Of the Underdark races, I’d probably say this is the strongest, so if you’re playing in that setting and want to feel at home, you could definitely do a lot worse than this.
Dwarves are an all around fine race, but powercreep has definitely caught up to them over the years. They definitely have some builds that would appreciate them, but for almost all of those builds there is a better option as well. If being a Dwarf is core to the fantasy of your character, you at least won’t regret your choice.
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