Homebrew Dwarven Child Species Details

Short and Stout

Bold and hardy, dwarves are known as skilled warriors, miners, and workers of stone and metal. Though they stand well under 5 feet tall, dwarves are so broad and compact that they can weigh as much as a human standing nearly two feet taller. Their courage and endurance are also easily a match for any of the larger folk.

Dwarven skin ranges from deep brown to a paler hue tinged with red, but the most common shades are light brown or deep tan, like certain tones of earth. Their hair, worn long but in simple styles, is usually black, gray, or brown, though paler dwarves often have red hair. Male dwarves value their beards highly and groom them carefully.

Long Memory, Long Grudges

Dwarves can live to be more than 400 years old, so the oldest living dwarves often remember a very different world. For example, some of the oldest dwarves living in Citadel Felbarr (in the world of the Forgotten Realms) can recall the day, more than three centuries ago, when orcs conquered the fortress and drove them into an exile that lasted over 250 years. This longevity grants them a perspective on the world that shorter-lived races such as humans and halflings lack.

Dwarves are solid and enduring like the mountains they love, weathering the passage of centuries with stoic endurance and little change. They respect the traditions of their clans, tracing their ancestry back to the founding of their most ancient strongholds in the youth of the world, and don’t abandon those traditions lightly. Part of those traditions is devotion to the gods of the dwarves, who uphold the dwarven ideals of industrious labor, skill in battle, and devotion to the forge.

Individual dwarves are determined and loyal, true to their word and decisive in action, sometimes to the point of stubbornness. Many dwarves have a strong sense of justice, and they are slow to forget wrongs they have suffered. A wrong done to one dwarf is a wrong done to the dwarf’s entire clan, so what begins as one dwarf’s hunt for vengeance can become a full-blown clan feud.

 

 

Dwarven Child Traits

Your dwarf character has an assortment of inborn abilities, part and parcel of dwarven nature. Because of your younger age, however, you're not as strong as an adult.

Your Ability Score Changes

Your Constitution score increases by 2.  You have disadvantage on Slight of Hand and Acrobatics checks, due to the clumsy nature of your adolescent dwarven body.

Youthful Age

Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. You, my young dwarf, are closer to 20 in age, which is considered barely out of childhood among your people.

Dwarven Alignment

Most dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society. They tend toward good as well, with a strong sense of fair play and a belief that everyone deserves to share in the benefits of a just order.

Dwarven Size

Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Dwarven Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.

Dwarvish Darkvision

Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Resilience of the Young

You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage   

You missed some of your Dwarven Combat Training

You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe,  and the light hammer.  You should have stayed home longer to learn the rest. 

Your Tool Proficiency

You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.  You parents made sure you knew at least this much.  Don't want any child of mine embarrassing me when they go out among the people.

Dwarven Stonecunning

Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill.  At least of some of that learning stuck in your head before you left home.

Your Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish.  Since it is what everyone at home spoke, you tend to use your native language when you aren't thinking about it.  It's a habit you're going to have to work on when among the other folk of the world.

Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.  Usually, Elves are the ones who have the hardest time understanding you.