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i am linking to this thread as the official discussion thread.

@Shroomy:  thank you for creating this thread. 

I heart the duergar. That whole grim work ethic thing works really well for a "dwarves pushed too far" kind of bad guy. An antithesis to the hard-working grumpy drink-loving adventuring party dwarf. A knowledge that all work and no play makes Gimli a murderous thug. That loyalty to clan can be twisted to mean loyalty to a devil's legion.

I've gotta say, though, the bead quills is one of the most goofy game elements ever. It's basically a gag power. "Hur hur, I need a shave, hur hur." I'm not using duergar because I want all the powers of the mighty porcupine, I'm using duergar because I want grim workaholic dwarves corrupted by ages of back-breaking labor in pursuit of material goods under a harsh god that cracks the whip, forcing them to labor for his glory. Beard-quills do jack all to emphasize that (the clever use of the barbazu in this article possibly excepted), and do a whole lot to make me never, ever want to use that power, because "I stab you with my beard" is at the top of things I never want to say at a table.

Quills are dumb.



For a fix, I'd go back to their psionic bits, honestly -- how they control their bodies with their minds, using the driving power of their wills to forge even their own flesh into weapons, as they forge steel and iron. Invisibility isn't exactly unique and expansion is really very cool (dwarf grow big!), but size issues are problematic when you've got grid-based combat, so I'd go all grim and solid about it. The iconic power should be something that emphasizes that toil, that work, that hard, stone-like, metallic dwarfness, focused into an engine of destruction. I'd imagine some sort of melee attack power, or some enhancements to their physical power, or perhaps a defensive ability, generated when you're hit with a weapon. Getting punched by a duergar should be like getting wallopped with a hammer, and perhaps hitting a duergar with your sword -- a metal object whose craft they are very close to -- would dull it against their rock-like skin.

But dwarfupines? Not cool, man.

I also can't say I like the picture of duergar as underdark raiders and slavers. Ah, yes, because we don't have enough of THOSE kinds of threats....

For a fix for this, I would make duergar more gloomy, more "monstrous in evil" less "monstrous because they're monsters." Duergar warriors are dangerous, duergar priests are hell-fuelled, but most duergar are minions, and they confront their enemies with a grim, fatalistic determination born of a life lived in service to back-breaking labor. They have been slaves so long that they have enslaved themselves even in freedom, turning all but the priestly caste into unthinking machinations, one million arms beating rhythmically on anvils, forging the very best weapons wielded by the underdark folks, all to kill each other pointlessly. Duergar leaders are merciless, duergar troops are expendible. And not comically bullywug expendible, but expendible in the way that when the duergar priest gives the order, an entire family of minions marches forth -- noncombatants, children, the elderly -- all to crash upon the shores of the nearest threat (adventurer) simply to slow her down with bodies while the priests summon their hell-fired backup.

That's my vision of duergar.

The article doesn't do much to fuel that.

Though I'm open to the idea that my vision of duergar has absolutley nothing to do with how anyone else has ever seen them.

Please, sir, can i have some more?