Quote Originally Posted by Shoreward View Post
To my memory, Flint was afraid of the open water and boats because of a traumatic incident as a child involving a drowning. I don't recall it being a racial trait, despite being basically cited as one in the current PHB, though my memory is far from perfect. It wouldn't be the first example of a character trait being turned into a racial trait in later fantasy media.
Dragonlance, like Star Wars, suffers from a lot of Greedo syndrome... we see one prominent example of the alien, and so all the aliens become like that one. If Flint is a dwarf, and Flint cannot swim, it follows that all dwarves cannot swim.