Dwarves are a stout race, built as solidly as the mountains they call home. Their skin, typically a light tan or dark umber tone, is coarse and often streaked with ore dust or soot, as dwarves take pride in displaying the efforts of their labors. Hair and eye color, ranges from rust red to browns to black; dwarven hair often turns silver or slate gray by adulthood. Dwarves prefer the same somber, earthen tones in their clothing, often adorned with precious metals.

The dwarven mindset centers on the forge and family. They respect dedication in all forms — to hard work, to their clan, and to codes of honor. A dwarf holds nothing so precious as her family and nothing so beautiful as finely worked steel. Dwarves have little time for frivolity. Their music consists entirely of dirges for their ancestors or anthems of clan tradition. Other races often view dwarves as dour and humorless creatures but retain high praise for dwarven craftsmanship.

Dwarves claim a spiritual kinship with the earth itself. Some humans have distorted this, believing that dwarves are actually elemental spirits. Many human folktales speak of dwarves who require a diet of gold and gems or who turn to stone if touched by sunlight.

Homelands

The center of dwarven culture is the town of Tempe Falls in Darkon, though nearby Corvia also hosts a sizeable dwarven population. Smaller dwarven communities have also spread south along the Balinoks and to other mountainous regions, such as the Sleeping Beast of Lamordia. In recent years, dwarven explorers have also been making inroads into the forsaken region of the Mountains of Misery once known as Arak. There they have been laboring to reopen the abandoned mines and a long-neglected trade route that once connected Tempe Falls to Liara in Nova Vaasa.

Base Outcast Modifier: 3

Racial Traits

• Ability Score: Your Constitution score increases by 2.
• Age: Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they're considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.
• Alignment: Most dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society.
• Size: Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.
• Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.
• 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.
• Dwarven Resilience: You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
• Dwarven Combat Training: You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.
• Tool Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the artisan's tools of your choice: smith's tools, brewer's supplies, or mason's tools.
• Stonecunning: Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
• Languages: You can speak, read, and write the local Domain language and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.

Also pick a subrace.

Hill Dwarf

• Ability Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
• Dwarven Toughness: Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.

Mountain Dwarf

• Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by 1.
• Dwarven Armor Training: You have proficiency with light and medium armor.