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Stout, squat, strong, and blessed by the most luscious of beards,D&D’s dwarfs are built for mining. That’s not to say that they’re all miners or that every dwarf works in a quarry, but because of their stony heritage, every dwarf has some affinity to the very ground on which they walk. Provided that ground is made of rock, that is.
The other thing that dwarfs are known for is being tough as nails. Dwarfs can endure poisons and physical trauma that would fell most humans, all while toiling underground in near-complete darkness. If this combination of facial hair, rock love, and resilience sounds appealing, then read on to learn how to build a dwarf character in the 2024 rules of Dungeons & Dragons.
What Are Dwarfs?
Made in the image of the mountains, dwarfs were born long ago by a god of the forge. Because of this,dwarfs were made for mining and metallurgy, with short and stout bodies perfectly suited for tunneling below ground and then forging the metals they found into weapons, armor, and artifice.
Althoughall dwarfs have an affinity for rock and stone, it doesn’t mean that dwarfs are bound to the mountains. Many dwarven settlements are situated on hills or within mountains, but some dwarfs live nomadic lives as traveling merchants or sail across vast oceans in search of treasure.
Some dwarfs, inspired by ancient songs and tales of mighty warriors, go on tojoin adventuring groups to seek their fortunebeneath the wide blue sky.
Dwarfs typicallylive up to 350 yearsand arebetween four and five feet tall. Despite their relatively short stature, dwarfs have amovement speed of 30 feet.
Dwarf Traits
Dwarfs havefour traits that reflect their toughness and underground origins. Not only are these traits suitable for working in dark tunnels, but they’re also great for delving into dungeons wearing a suit of full-plate armor.
You have Darkvision out to 120 feet.
Dwarven Resilience
You have advantage against poison saving throws and resistance to poison damage.
Dwarven Toughness
Increase your hit point maximum by one and gain one additional hit point at each level.
Stonecunning
If you’re on or touching a stone surface, you may use your bonus action to gain Tremorsense out to a range of 60 feet for ten minutes.
Darkvision is always an incredibly useful ability. It means not having to spend money on torches to see in the dark, and it means not having to use your shield arm to hold that torch up. Only orcs can see as far in the dark as dwarfs can.
Darkvision allows you to see in dim lightas though it were bright lightand see in darknessas though it were dim light.You can only see in shades of gray in dim light.
Poison is a fairly common damage type in Dungeons & Dragons, so havingresistance to poison damage and advantage on poison savesthanks to Dwarven Resilience is an excellent thing.
But if you really want to build your character into a veritable tank, look no further than Dwarven Toughness. An extra hit point per level meansa dwarf character can take more damage than any other species in the game.
Try combining Dwarven Toughness with other abilities that give you damage resistance, such as with the Barbarian’s Rage feature or the Absorb Elements spell.
Stonecunningdoesn’t always work since you have to be touching a rocky surface, but so long as you’re not fighting underwater or in an overgrown forest, being able to see enemies even while completely blindedis a great trait to have for any martial class. It’s less usefulif you’re blindand want to fire your longbow at someone across a giant cavern.
Try using Stonecunning’s Tremorsense to see what’s on the other side of a doorwhile you’re searching a stone keep, or seeing what’s on the other side of a mining tunnelwhile searching the Underdark.
Which Class Should You Consider?
The dwarven combination of higher hit point totals, a damage resistance, and still being able to fight blind lends this speciestowards martial classes like the Fighter, Paladin, or Barbarian. These classes usually charge straight into battle and are usually the ones most debilitated by blindness.
The increase in hit pointsgiven by Dwarven Toughnesscan beparticularly useful for Monk characters. Monks have very few hit points despite being in the thick of most fights, so having those extra hit points can help a dwarven Monk survive hits that other species wouldn’t.
Warrior of Shadow Monks will find Stonecunning’s Tremorsense particularly helpful. The Darkness spell given by the Shadow Arts blinds even characters with Darkvision, but it doesn’t prevent characters from seeing with Tremorsense.
But just because those extra hit points might be better used in martial classes doesn’t mean they’re bad in spellcasting classes.Wizards and Sorcerers can make great use of a few extra hit pointsgiven how few they’ll receive throughout any campaign.
Many spellcasting classes, like Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlockscan also cast Darkness, so they all canbenefit from the Tremorsensegranted by Stonecunning.
Differences In The 2024 Player’s Handbook
The biggest change between the 2014 and 2024 rules is there areno dwarf subspecies in the 2024 rules. We may yet see the duergar return in future releases, but for now at least, all dwarfs share the same traits. And because there are no dwarf subspecies, the bonus hit points of Dwarven Toughness now apply to all dwarfs and not just hill dwarfs in the 2014 rules.
The second biggest change is speed. In the 2014 rules, dwarfs had a movement speed of 25 feet but didn’t lose any movement for wearing heavy armor without meeting the Strength requirements. This made dwarfs less than ideal melee characters, sothe 2024 rules gave them the same movement speed as most other species.
Doubling the range of Darkvision from 60 to 120 feetgave dwarfs a significant advantage over elves and also better emphasized their heritage as underground miners.
Dwarven Combat Training and Tool Proficiencyfrom the 2014 ruleshave been completely removed, so if you want those weapon or tool proficiencies, you’ll need to get them from your class or your origins in the 2024 rules.
Stonecunning has gone from providing proficiency in Historychecks regarding stoneworkto providing Tremorsense on stone—a huge upgrade from the 2014 rules. History checks regarding stonework was rarely relevant for players on the 2014 rules, but Tremorsense is something that will see way more play.
