My Life As A Gamer: The Dwarves As They Are

Foreword

The playable races in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition are as subject to presumptions and Cargo Cultism as the classes and the gameplay paradigm.

What is presumed to be so about the Dwarf, the Elf, the Gnome, the Halfling, or the two half-breeds (Elf and Orc) often ignores what is in plain language in the manual. This is before acknowledging the literary roots that inform the game; we have a problem of reading comprehension, so let's Explain Things Like We're Five.

This week we're looking at the races of the game as in the core rulebooks of the game. We're starting with the Glorious Sons of the Mountain, the Dwarves.

The Dwarf

• Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Consitution, -1 Charisma.
• Racial Ability Score Limits:
  • Male: Strength (8/18), Intelligence (3/18), Wisdom (3/18), Dexterity (3/17), Constitution (12/19), Charisma (3/16)
  • Female: Strength (8/17), Intelligence (3/18), Wisdom (3/18), Dexterity (3/17), Constitution (12/19), Charisma (3/16)
  • Note: If unmodified Charisma is 17+, that score applies to interactions with other Dwarves.
• Classes
  • Cleric: (NPC Only) 8th
  • Druid: Not Allowed
  • Fighter: 7th (STR 16-)/8th (STR 17)/9th (STR 18+)
  • Ranger: Not Allowed
  • Paladin: Not Allowed
  • Magic-User: Not Allowed
  • Illusionist: Not Allowed
  • Thief: Unlimited
  • Assassin: 9th
  • Monk: Not Allowed
  • Multi-Class Combinations: Fighter/Thief only.
• Racial Benefits:
  • Bonus to Saving Throws vs. magic wands, spells, rods, staves, and poisons: +1 per 3.5 points of Constitution to a limit of +5.
  • Infravision: 60 feet range.
  • +1 to attack rolls vs. orcs, half-orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins; inflict a -4 penalty to attack rolls by ogres, ogre magi, trolls, giants, and titans again the Dwarf.
  • (Must be done actively) Can detect the following when within 10 feet of it:
    • Approximate Depth: 50% probability. (Flip a coin or whatever.)
    • Detect Grade/Slope In Passage: 1-3 on a d4.
    • Detect New Construction In Passage/Tunnel: 1-4 on d6.
    • Detect Sliding/Shifting Walls/Rooms: 1-2 on d4 or 1-3 d6.
• Aging: (Young Adult) 35-50, (Mature) 51-150, (Middle Aged) 151-250, (Old) 251-350, (Venerable) 351-450, (Upper Limit) 830 years.

Dwarf Culture

The Monster Manual entry notes that the Dwarf defaults to Lawful Good in Alignment. This is not changed with the Mountain Dwarf variant sub-entry. They prefer to live on and within hills and mountains, and they are long-lived as a rule.

Their class options are limited, and one of them is NPC-only so no one at the table will be that. Very few Dwarves ever win their way by force of arms to become a warrior king (Name Level), and none of those few who are Evil reach the leadership level in Assassin society, so most Dwarf leaders are THIEVES.

That is at odds with the popular notion of Dwarf As Plate-Armored Tank. It is not, however, at odds with their depiction The Hobbit. Dwarf culture is odd due to this, as their Alignment norm seems out of line with being filled with Thieves.

It is not when you remember where they live, and against whom. Goblinoids are far more numerous then Dwarves, and giantkin also tend to be more numerous as well as mightier; Dwarves, therefore, must resort to guile to tip the scales into their favor. Their preference for life underground, seeking gold and other valuable treasures from the veins of the earth, also rewards stealth and patience over might and fury.

Assassins already exist in a shadow subculture. Dwarf Assassins are more marginalized than otherwise the case, but are too valuable to drive to extinction; the ability to stalk a high-value threat target, shadow him for long periods of time, and then strike at the best moment with absolute certainty is a capacity no Dwarf leader can ignore- especially when it is readily employable against you.

Dwarf warcraft, as with Elf warcraft, values intelligence and unconventional warfare (as we say in contemporary terms). They seek to shape the battlefield to guarantee that any battle happens on their terms and thus to play to their strengths: the enemy crashing upon a wall of thick steel in a prepared location, locked into place, and then hammers from the flanks by hidden units waiting to shiv them in the ribs with prepared weapons- including firearms and ordinance where applicable.

That shaping is where adventuring Dwarves show their value, and demonstrates why there are so many Thieves among them. Stealth and ambush does a lot when it works, as Rangers prove on the regular, as it can achieve results far outsized for the level of force committed.

(Players of Dwarf Patrons, or characters aspiring to such, should find old Special Forces manuals and steal liberally from them. For those of us who grew up with Boomer elders, now is the time to recall all of their whining about the Viet Cong and use it; for everyone else, look up "Tucker's Kobolds" and apply as best you can.)

The Fighters, Thieves, and multi-classes do valuable and respectable work in dealing with the myriad of threats to a Dwarf Domain; it is the Assassins that are what can turn a risky commando raid with high chances of failure as well as fatalities--always an issue for Dwarves--into a nigh-guaranteed decapitation strike that paralyzes enemies and opens a Window of Opportunity to exploit by those other heroic figures. Dwarf rules may not like or approve of the Assassins, but they are necessary, and a Dwarf understands in a visceral manner the weight of necessity.

Dwarves, as a result, are a highly conservative race with a Stoic nature, but it is flawed by a drive for glory and wealth and a need to compensate for a far more numerous array of enemies whose hatred is so great as to be existential. That much is obvious. Those flaws in their characters are where the liminal spaces in their culture reside, wherein the Assassins hide and everyone makes excuses for treasure hunts that go wrong.

(If you want a social strucutre to work with, go read The Ancient City, and in particular the chapter on the Ancient Family, for a real world model on how Dwarf culture would organize itself.)

Dwarf religion, as in the formal priesthood that the Clerics come from, are going to be few and far-between compared to the Fighter, Thieves, and Assassins (and far outnumbered by 0-level NPC craftsmen and soldiers). I expect this to be a form of Ancestor worship in structure; the Greyhawk/Realms take works well enough for actual play and needs only some refinement to fit snugly together with the aforementioned ancient conception of family and religion.

Their access to the divine is implied to be restricted due to the lack of access to the Cleric class for Player-Characters. The savvy Referee will play on this fact to drive Dwarf-specific campaign objectives. I have my opinion on this dissonance between "Lawful Good" and a culture dominated by Thieves, but it is not relevant to this post; all I will say is that Tolkien's opinion on his inspirations for the Dwarves ought to be heeded instead of the popular faux-Scottish concept.

Maybe this is confined to a single bloodline, who as a result are not permitted to engage in adventures because of their strategic and political value, like the way that the Temple priesthood was for Israel in ancient days. Maybe it follows a Christian model, specifically the Catholic model, and in a race so lacking in numbers families may be reluctant to surrender a son (especially a daughter) to that life. Maybe there are so few (NPC Only) due to having to be literally chosen to qualify at all, and there is just enough at any one time to meet requirements; given the long lives of Dwarves, a Dwarf Domain may see the same handful of Clerics for centuries.

The competing influence of the Thief presence and the Fighter presence, the Assassins in the shadows, and a Clerical presence that most players will not notice much if at all in the many smaller Domains of this race is a far different one that what even TSR sold to us in the 1980s. This is the image of a people with long-standing beliefs that they are required to act upon lest they be wiped out, and likely have nearly been so more than once, but in doing so may well perpetuate the very problems they long complain about.

No wonder others have issues with them, especially the Elves.

Not that they are some pure and innocent folk; they get their turn tomorrow.