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Rowanomicon
2007-11-29, 05:06 AM
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
2007-11-29, 05:11 AM
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
2007-11-29, 05:24 AM
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
2007-11-29, 05:26 AM
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 :smalleek: , 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
2007-11-29, 05:30 AM
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
2007-11-29, 05:34 AM
Hahaha, nice.
I'll let you in my all-dwarf game when I do it someday.

Sstoopidtallkid
2007-11-29, 05:34 AM
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 :smalleek: , 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.:smalleek:
Someday I'll resurrect the "stupid pcs" thread with tales of our exploits.

Baxbart
2007-11-29, 06:01 AM
The most worrying thing is that these guys have been playing D&D since first edition :smalltongue:

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
2007-11-29, 06:30 AM
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 :smallwink:

SoD
2007-11-29, 06:37 AM
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
2007-11-29, 06:47 AM
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." :smalleek:

ghost_warlock
2007-11-29, 07:02 AM
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
2007-11-29, 07:36 AM
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
2007-11-29, 08:51 AM
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
2007-11-29, 09:10 AM
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
2007-11-29, 10:42 AM
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
2007-11-29, 10:54 AM
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! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64883) (Warning: It's not all that super) character for my brother in an upcoming campaign of mine.

bignate
2007-11-29, 11:17 AM
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
2007-11-29, 11:51 AM
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 (http://www.thetangledweb.net/addon.php?addon=Profiler&page=view_char&cid=287&sid=b7f3e0d570b56f2e143ad5c265516de9), at yer service!

NEO|Phyte
2007-11-29, 12:14 PM
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
2007-11-30, 02:52 AM
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
2007-11-30, 03:05 AM
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
2007-11-30, 03:20 AM
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
2007-11-30, 03:45 AM
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
2007-11-30, 04:25 AM
I love Dwarves. The last one I ran was solely due to the superlative Bear Cavalry miniature from Reaper.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/wolffe42/Throndil.jpg


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
2007-11-30, 04:35 AM
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
2007-11-30, 05:52 AM
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
2007-11-30, 06:23 AM
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
2007-11-30, 06:27 AM
EDIT: Whoo, halfling!

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

thorgrim29
2007-11-30, 07:19 AM
Yea..... Baruk Khazad, Khazad ai Menou.... dwarves rock

BRC
2007-11-30, 01:11 PM
My current character is a dwarf, he's a cleric but he specilizes in using his gun and a cannon. He uses nimbus of light fired from his eyes for Laser Vision, and he built a tank. His brother is a wizard, and their family motto is "there is no such thing as too much firepower". They also hate a gnomish-run merchant orginization called Wal-gnome which drove the mine they grew up in out of buisness

Doresain
2007-11-30, 02:04 PM
I love Dwarves. The last one I ran was solely due to the superlative Bear Cavalry miniature from Reaper.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/wolffe42/Throndil.jpg


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).

now if you can give the bear a gun, youre set

daggaz
2007-11-30, 02:51 PM
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...

Duergar make extremely good rogues.

MrNexx
2007-11-30, 03:13 PM
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...

Actually, dwarves make excellent box-man rogues. Their natural abilities mean that they are better at finding traps and secret doors in dungeons than anyone but elves (and are on par with elves in stony environments), and they are great at identifying things for value. They don't do well at social skills, but they don't have any obvious disadvantages, either.

de-trick
2007-11-30, 03:57 PM
fav dwarf
Turkin balderStone cleric of moradin 11 cleric/10 Hammer of Moradin ... balder than a stone
-first dwarf on Evermeet
-fought in a war to save evermeet
-sucked though it was a elf campaign

because of him I now collect dwarf minis

EvilJames
2007-11-30, 04:09 PM
A friend of mine played a dwarven fighter/cleric in a 2nd ed game a while back. He wasn't a specialty priest of Moradin but he did hold Moradin in higher regard than the rest of the dwarven pantheon. He was a really fun character to DM for.:smallsmile: he ended up getting dwarven plate and being launched from a catapult and most of his philosophical debates with other people resulted in a table being flipped an a bar fight ensuing. there was even a time he couldn't play for a bit and since he had just gotten all his followers i decided to explain the characters absence by telling the other players that The dwarf was delayed at the border of the kingdom because he tried to cross it with an army (diplomacy was not a strong suit for him)

Dragonstar
2007-11-30, 04:18 PM
Let's see - in our first campaign we had a dwarven monk (who used to be human, but... well... reincarnate...) who decided to embrace his "heritage" and become a drunken master... he died when he was turned to stone by a gorgon... and got dropped...

Then there was the guy who played a dwarven cleric of moradin with spellfire access. Completely busted. Luckily the guy playing him wasn't always there, so he was eventually written out.

Our current campaign has another dwarven monk, who's working towards the sunsoul monk prestige class. That's what the arena character in my sig is based off of, as well as this cool mini from Reaper:

http://www.reapermini.com/pages/figure_finder_image.php?sku=03044_G.jpg&image=3

:smallcool:

dyslexicfaser
2007-11-30, 04:55 PM
Fistbeard? That is awesome. Now I want to play a dwarven monk named Fistbeard.

To borrow a quote I saw from Tempest Stormwind and Radical Taoist on the wizard boards:

"We tried sendin' our boys down the breach but they bounced off that dwarf there."
"Idjit! Send 'em again!"
"We did, boss. They started bouncing off in smaller pieces."
~Anonymous goblin footman reporting to Grox Bloody Eyes, goblin lieutenant.

Nattypat
2007-11-30, 04:56 PM
I had a dwarf character in a game... It was a FR game, i was a Hammer of Moradin (level ten, mixed in ranger to get two-weapon fighting and hit with a shield in my off-hand). Shortly after the campaign began, (it was sort of a ravaged realms which was assailed by the city of shade), I found out that I was the reincarnation of a great dwarven hero at Citadel Felbar. It turns out that I WAS that great dwarven hero, as we learned that the reason behind the seemingly endless amount of orcs was a portal that traveled back in time. So the ancient dwarven hero Helgar, was the actual Helgar I was playing. The DM did a good job of making everyone feel cool like that. The campaign never finished, but hopefully we'll play again soon.

Laurellien
2007-11-30, 06:19 PM
My favourite dwarf character has to be my avatar, Carradoc of the Hall of Grond. A prince of the dwarven realms. He gets the wander lust. Long story short he had three different variants of the rage class feature, a kickass will save, and he could hit for high amounts of damage, not even a charging build, just an ass kicking build.

LoneStarNorth
2007-11-30, 08:06 PM
My favourite dwarf ever would have to be Smashgar Ironcobbles, the barbarian. His accomplishments include knocking over a building, wearing every monster he ever killed, destroying a hydra (and the bridge it laired under) with six kegs of dwarven ale and a torch, killing a wizard with his greatsword from 30 ft away, converting enemy warriors to his side with a keg of dwarven ale (the only one to survive the hydra attack), trying to solo a dragon, being killed by a dragon, being reincarnated as a halfling, going insane, stabbing the party in the back, and joining the bad guys.

I'm using him in another game now. He's already 'accidentally' stabbed two people to death that he was supposed to take alive, and broken down his employer's rear gate.

Ralfarius
2007-11-30, 09:52 PM
I have always been a huge proponent of the dwarven race. I may have had more ideas for dwarf characters than any other. Among them that come to immediate memory:
- A dwarf wizard with an ever-present cigar in his mouth that he would light with a prestidigitation.
- A dwarven bard whose primary instrument was a set of bagpipes that were laden with hidden weapons
- A battlerager - not the PrC specifically, just a grappling focused fighter/barb with all sorts of spiketies.
- A well-spoken dwarven barbarian/wizard. I will swear up and down that I had this idea before I even knew what 8-bit theatre was.
- A dwarven defender who rode on a chariot. I don't remember how within the rules it was, but he didn't have to technically move, he could just direct the horses and remain in his stance on the chariot. He also once threw a hundred-pound cask of alchemist's fire at a marauding horde.
- A dwarven buccaneer, essentially a dread pirate/duelist with a stump-knife and a battle cry of "for the profit!" He found his ship abandoned on the coast of the jungles of Chult, after finding his way out with his closest mates. There, a damned monster from the deeps took his hand off at the wrist. He also always had a shanty or two for his crew.

My very first character, back in AD&D was a dwarven fighter. Now that was some good times.

Argent
2007-11-30, 10:30 PM
Actually, dwarves make excellent box-man rogues. Their natural abilities mean that they are better at finding traps and secret doors in dungeons than anyone but elves (and are on par with elves in stony environments), and they are great at identifying things for value. They don't do well at social skills, but they don't have any obvious disadvantages, either.

My current character is just this type, and he's an absolute blast to play. He's not the most combat-effective guy in the world (his feats lie more in the Nimble Fingers and Tactile Trapsmith areas) but he's a trap-obsessed tinkerer who's more comfortable with taking apart a lock than he is in combat or conversation. Love playing that guy.

I've enjoyed dwarves ever since I started playing D&D -- I just enjoy the hard-drinking, doughty, solid characterization of most dwarves. My first 3.0 character was a dwarven paladin, and up until he got crisped by a red dragon, he couldn't have been much more fun to play. (Afterwards, not quite so much.)

MandibleBones
2007-11-30, 11:31 PM
I don't have much experience playing dwarves in table-top, but they're usually my first choice for NWN or NWN2 - 'cause I usually play a fighter the first time through.

Margon Karg is my most recent one, and he turned out alright.

I was having fun with the charcter generator, and between braids, gold dwarf facial choices, hair color and beard choices, I decided that Margon looked uncannily like a klingon. So I gave him a klingon name (thank you, internet!), a giant freaking axe, and a fighter class, made him LN and sent him out to kill things what needed killing.

Apparently, in NWN2, acting like a Klingon nets you a lawful good alignment, so he ended up as Margon Karg, Gold Dwarf Fighter 6/Paladin 1/Dwarven Defender 8 before I stopped playing.

But I need to play a dwarf in table top one of these days.

(P.S. The reason for posting is mainly to give the OP props on his or her choice of thread title - PHBPSAs for the win).

Rowanomicon
2007-12-01, 02:34 AM
(P.S. The reason for posting is mainly to give the OP props on his or her choice of thread title - PHBPSAs for the win).

Thank you, I accept your props graciously.

I'm glad to see there's os many Dwarf-lovers In The Playground.

I'll be sure to let you all know how my Dwarfiest of all Dwarves character turns out once it sees play. Oh, and the answer is: yesh, I am planning on ushing the Sean Connery voishe for that characta.

The Extinguisher
2007-12-01, 02:38 AM
I remember I once made an epic level Lawful Evil halfling who had such a high bluff skill he convinced the universe that he was a Lawful Good dwarf and took levels in Dwarfen Defender.
If that counts.

If not, then I've got nothing. No one seems to play dwarfs in my group, oddly enough.

BRC
2007-12-01, 02:41 AM
now if you can give the bear a gun, youre set

Support your right to arm bears.

Hagentai
2007-12-01, 05:42 AM
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.

CHRIST MAKE SOME EVIL DWARVES! Some famous giant hunters. No Dwarven bar keep? Hell I've had more trouble with elves. Halflings are the most dead weight race in my Dm world.

Renrik
2007-12-01, 11:42 AM
I haven't had many dwarves in my prvious campain, save for the two ill-named cities of Bucklegem and Crystalrock. (I made the campain when I was, like, eleven.) Bucklegem was basically lifted outof that old starter's D&D adventure book for 3rd ed. It was the one where the dwarven city had been taken over by goblins allied with a red dragon. After the players cleared it out, it got reinhabited, but then kept on getting besieged,along with Crystalrock (big city with really high walls overlooking two passes). I don't know why anyone lived outside of walled cities in that campain, because the only plots I could think of involved armies of undead or orcs or goblins or some other nasty villainous race swarming over the land and beseiging cities. Every single villain was out to rule the world, and they all had huge armies. It was messed up.

In my new campain, I'm going for a dark fantasy/psuedo-lovecraftian horror feel. The dwarves in this one are divided into a very loose, clan-based feudal system of thranes paying tribute to other thranes and warring with eachother and the goblins. The dwarves in this have no gods, but engage in anscestor worship- literally. Their clerics are grey-robed or black-robed Death Preists, and the clan necropolis is the holiest part of the city. Their favored warriors get turned into undead to defend the sacred bones of the thranes, and coronations happen in the communal tomb of the past rulers. The temples are always right in front of the entrance to the necropolis, usually near the throne room. Yet, for some reason, the dwavren death preists don;t gain taint (I replaced alignment with taint in that campain.). Still, the elves hate them (for various reasons, including the necromancy as wel as an ancient, near-genocidal conflict), and the humans following the one human faith of the Light view them wth distrust. Still, the dwarves are better than the goblins (who are apt to kill/enslave you) or the gnomes (who all live in a secret and fantastic city-state run by royalty and guild heads and maintained by the labor of magically charmed slaves.)

As for playing dwarves, I once played a dwarf named Thorbadar Grimhammer. He was clanless, a result of his younger brother killing his older brother and framing him for it, thus removing the two obstacles in line for his succession (he had the father killed soon after). So Thorbadar went south, joined up with a rebellon, met some pirates, led an insurrection against an imperialistic human king, went back north, killed a huge dragon, challenged and killed his brother, became Thrane, and united multiple dwarven clans to root out those who had helped the imperialistic human king, then made his clan powerful and influential through trade and the reconquest of lands formerly belinging to his clan. In short, he was awesome. Because he once cleaves three enemy officers. With a hammer.

Green Bean
2007-12-01, 12:02 PM
One of my previous games had a crazed berserker type Dwarven Fighter. He was awesome; the rogue kept using him for circumstance bonuses to Intimidate checks.

Bouncer: No admission unless you're on the list.
Dwarf: GRARRARRRAARRGH!
Rogue: No! Bad Kholgar! Wait over there!
Rogue: That's better. You'll have to forgive my friend over there. He lost his human foster parents at an early age. They were, uh, what happened to them again, Kholgar?
Dwarf: Axed off at the knees.

Theodoxus
2007-12-01, 12:16 PM
Ah yes, Theodoxus Thaxson, first rolled up out the red box - just Dwarf back then...

AD&D came out and I converted him to a fighter. Played a few games and realized he'd be much better as a multi-class fighter/cleric. Shelved him for a number of years until 2nd Ed came out and I recreated him once again.

Probably the most fun I ever had - He started off in a generic campaign, worshiping Ahnold, the God of Strength when he and his brave companions fell through a dimensional portal and ended up in the FR Underdark, besieged by drow.

The DM was a tad sadistic, and had wanted to TPK us to start a fresh FR game. Unfortunately, most of the drow were using poison and spells, and my saving throws (this was 2nd ed, remember) were superior... pretty much roll a 1 to fail against the poison and I think a 3 or better against the spells.

I managed to escape the Underdark (fleeing ftw!) but my companions, not so much. I eventually converted to Torm, as Ahnold had no presense in FR.

I flirted with converting Theo into a Paladin/Favored Soul for 3.x, but never got around to doing it. I'm now in a kickass campaign as one half of twin halfling rogues (my best friend playing the other half) - should it ever come to pass that my halfling dies, I will probably roll Theo as a Paladin/divine something. The group really needs a strong moral compass that doesn't involve killing things with green skin without provocation (long story).

As an aside, I once LARPed for a few years in a now defunct game as a Dwarven Shaman (essentially cleric sans armor). It helped me grow to appreciated dwarves even more at the time.

Dwarves and Halflings are by far my favored races. Though more often in 3.x I play humans for the feat/skills.... but this thread has helped to fan the fires... I'm gonna definitely be a dwarf the next opportunity I have.

Theo

psychoticbarber
2007-12-01, 12:56 PM
I'm currently in the process of restyling dwarfs (forgive my Tolkienisms) for my campaign, actually. Largely inspired by this thread (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?40535) from the CBG, I'm keeping much of the crunchy goodness of dwarfs and making them much more rooted in the stone that their "culture" in D&D is based around.

I don't want to get too much into the details, because I haven't figured them all out yet, but I hope to make dwarfs, at last, more than the short stocky guys with scottish accents. Not that you couldn't play them that way if you wanted to.

I never really focussed on dwarfs, or even many of the other races, before; mostly because I wasn't sure how they fit in, or how they were to be different from humans. So that's what I'm doing now, exploring their place, and their importance, and their differences from the humans we can understand.

fuzzywolf
2007-12-01, 01:11 PM
My group was pretty unusual, but every time the PCs started approaching 10th level, they'd start to think about building a stronghold, and that meant dwarven stonesmiths.

I swear, the Stronghold Builder's Guide was our most dogeared sourcebook . . .

My last campaign was a Dragonlance setting, and my players decided that instead of taking part in the War of the Lance, they'd use the confusion as cover for killing a handful of gods and installing themselves as deities. They decided that the best way to accomplish that was to construct a magically reinforced tower that could fly, teleport and planeshift, protected by a moat of Deathfog and equipped with a hellball cannon. The costs for such an undertaking would be approximately equal to the treasury of a small dwarven kingdom, I haughtily informed them.

So naturally, they infiltrated the Heroes of the Lance and snuck into Thorbardin with them, then made off the Hammer of Kharas. Damn metagamers.

Serpent Stare
2007-12-01, 02:49 PM
Hmmm. The character who has had the longest lifespan in the campaign I DM so far was a dwarf, called Cleatus Oneemakaloperny. He was NOT a classic dwarf, being chaotic neutral (and pretty much the incarnation of CNness) but was loads of fun. He got hi breastplate spiked, and never took it off. He always wore a jester hat and pants even though he was afraid of jesters and carried around a collection of weapons (from greatsword, his most used, to a collection of hand-carved baseball bats) that could have opened a museum. He was also prone to doing tremendously silly things (like sending his allies to go get some rope to pull him out of the hole with, finding his own way out before they got back, waiting for them and jumping back in to be pulled up when they arrived) and adored gambling in the card game 'Bonzo'. (kind of like a complicated and slightly racist version of Arshole/Janitor, with a rock/paper/scissors edge)

The fact that he was a dwarf in strongly elven lands turned out not to matter much because he was so strongly his own individual. He even ended up getting pecked on the cheek by an elvish bandit who had tried (unsuccessfully) to steal from him, but was forgiven. yeah, it was very good fun.