Gray Dwarf

Regions: Dwarf (gray), The North, Turmish, Vaasa, Vilhon Reach. Most duergar characters have little contact with other cultures and choose the gray dwarf region.

Racial Feats: Arachnid Rider, Hammer Fist, Iron Mind, Stoneshaper.

Level Adjustment: +2.

Dwelling in great subterranean cities of the Underdark, the gray

dwarves are deep-dwelling cousins of shield dwarves, known for

their cruelty and bitterness. Like their surface-dwelling kin, gray

dwarves are famed for their smithwork and craftsmanship, but

unlike their brethren in the Realms Above, the duergar are grim

and cheerless, living lives of endless toil. Like their gold and

shield dwarf kin, the duergar have forged great empires, founding

such realms as the Deepkingdom of Gracklstugh and the

Steel Kingdom of Dunspeirrin in the endless darkness of the

Realms Below.

Averaging 4 feet tall, gray dwarves weigh nearly as much as

an adult human. While other dwarves tend to be round-bodied

and stoutly muscled, duergar are wide of shoulder but wiry and

lean, their limbs corded with tough muscle. The skin of a gray

dwarf is light or dark gray, and his eyes are dull black. Both

genders are usually bald, with males having long gray beards

and mustaches.

Gray dwarves are consumed with bitterness, feeling their race

has forever been denied what was rightfully theirs. The duergar

expect and live lives of never-ending drudgery. While their

work rivals that of shield and gold dwarves, they are relentless

perfectionists who take no pleasure in their craftsmanship.

Only cruel jokes and petty torments bring a moment’s smile to

most gray dwarves, and they delight in tormenting the weak

and the helpless.

Gray dwarves have the life expectancy and age categories

defined for dwarves.

Random Starting Ages Aging Effects

Use the table below to determine an gray dwarf's height and weight.

Abilities and Racial Features

Racial Abilities: Duergar have all the dwarven racial traits except as follows:

• +2 Constitution, -4 Charisma. Duergar are extremely withdrawn and guarded.
• Darkvision up to 120 feet.
• Immune to paralysis, phantasms, and magic or alchemical poisons (but not normal poisons). Duergar acquired immunity to some illusions and many toxic substances during their servitude to mind flayers
• *4 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. Gray dwarves excel in stealthy movement.
• +1 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks.
• Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—enlarge and invisibility as a wizard twice the duergar's level (minimum 3rd level). These affect only the duergar and whatever it carries.
• Light Sensitivity: Duergar suffer a -1 circumstance penalty to attack rolls, saves, and checks in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
• Automatic Languages: Dwarven, Undercommon, home region. Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Orc, Terran.
• Level Adjustment +1: Duergar arc more powerful and gain levels more slowly than most of the other common race's of Faerun.

History

Gray dwarves trace their history back to the establishment of

Barakuir, one of the eight kingdoms of Shanatar. The Iron Kingdom

was dominated by the shield dwarves of Clan Duergar, who

venerated Laduguer as their kingdom’s patron. Although they

swore allegiance to the Wyrmskull Throne, the rulers of Clan

Duergar thought their king should have been selected to rule

Shanatar at the conclusion of the Second Spider War. Consumed

with bitterness, the dwarves of Barakuir largely turned away

from the rest of the empire. The foolishness of this action was

quickly proved when war broke out with the illithids of Oryndoll,

a city that lies deep beneath the Shining Plains, around

–8100 DR. Although Shanatar battled the illithids to a stalemate,

the enemy’s armies managed to cut off Barakuir from outside

reinforcement. By the time the Mindstalker Wars had

ended, Barakuir had fallen to the illithids, and most of its inhabitants

had been enslaved as thralls.

After millennia of enslavement and countless illithid breeding

experiments, the descendants of Clan Duergar were transformed

into a new dwarven subrace: the gray dwarves. Roughly

four thousand years before the start of Dalereckoning, the duergar

rebelled against their illithid masters and eventually freed

themselves of the mind flayers’ dominion. These newly liberated

gray dwarves carved out their own holdings in the northern

Underdark beneath the Orsraun Mountains and in isolated caverns

deep beneath the Great Glacier.

In the North, gray dwarves founded Gracklstugh, City of

Blades, in –3717 DR. As the first city of their kind in the

North, its holdings grew without rival throughout the upper and

middle Underdark. The Deepkingdom reached its peak around

–2600 DR, but in –1803 DR, the kingdom fell into a slow

decline after smashing the quaggoth nation of Ursadunthar

which lay deep beneath the Spine of the World. For centuries

thereafter, the overextended duergar battled barbaric quaggoths

(who were incited by the drow), as the Deepbear Battles raged

until –1350 DR.

In the heart of Faerûn, gray dwarves founded Dunspeirrin,

City of Sunken Spires, beneath the Orsraun Mountains. In time,

the holdings of Underspires, as the city was also known, grew to

encompass the Underdark of Turmish and the Dragon Coast,

and the gray dwarves grew strong. In –1850 DR, under the leadership

of their greatest queen, Duerra, the gray dwarves

launched a series of attacks against the drow of Undraeth, the

illithids of Oryndoll (from whom Duerra is said to have wrested

the secrets of the Invisible Art), and other Underdark races.

Duerra’s armies turned their simmering hatred against the remnants

of Deep Shanatar sometime around –1800 DR. The gray

dwarves overran Ultoksamrin and Holorarar and conquered the

caverns of Alatorin for themselves. Laduguer rewarded Duerra

with divine ascension. Afterward, Dunspeirrin fell into a centuries-

long decline, from which it has only recently begun to

emerge. The return of Deep Duerra during the Time of Troubles

has sparked a new age of empire-building, but the city’s

Army of Steel now finds itself locked in a three-year-old conflict

with the gold dwarf Army of Gold over control of the caverns

of ancient Shanatar.

Outlook

Gray dwarves view the world with bitterness, convinced family,

clan, other dwarves, and the rest of the world have cheated them

of their birthright and their due. They see life as nothing more

than endless backbreaking labor, a torment from birth through

death. The duergar evince little mercy for the helpless or the

weak and enjoy tormenting those they can prey upon. From a

young age, gray dwarves are quickly schooled in the harshness of

the world, taught that their lot in life is nothing more than

never-ending labor accompanied by betrayal and then death.

Gray dwarves rarely adventure out of choice. Those who are

exiled or flee imminent banishment often gravitate to the life

of an adventure simply in hopes of surviving. Adventuresome

duergar are usually focused on the acquisition of material

wealth, caring little for the plight of others.

Gray Dwarf Characters

The ever-present dangers of the all-enveloping darkness are

taught to gray dwarves from a young age. Most receive some

training as fighters or rogues to better defend their homes

against those who would steal their hard-earned wealth. Clerics

are common as well, for those who serve the duergar gods

claim positions of relative influence within their clan. Experts

who combine traditional smithcraft with skill in the arcane

arts are also much respected. Wizards are much more common

than sorcerers among the gray dwarves. Common multiclass

combinations include fighter/cleric, fighter/expert, and

fighter/rogue.

Favored Class: A gray dwarf’s favored class is fighter. The Underdark

is a harsh and unforgiving environment, where only the

strongest can survive. Gray dwarf fighters have formed the

bedrock of duergar armies for generations, enabling them to

hold off such varied threats as aboleth, drow, illithids, kuo-toa,

and svirfneblin.

Prestige Classes: Gray dwarves gravitate toward prestige

classes such as assassin and blackguard. A few become dwarven

defenders. As with their cousins, the shield dwarves, the gray

dwarves have a tradition of rune magic, and so a number of

clerics become runecasters.

Language and Literacy

Like all dwarves, gray dwarves speak Dwarven (language) and employ the

Dethek rune alphabet. Gray dwarves also speak Undercommon,

the trade tongue of the Realms Below. The primary gray dwarven

dialect, Duergan, is an offshoot of the shield dwarven

dialect, heavily influenced by drow and illithid words and language

constructs found in Undercommon.

Common secondary languages reflect those spoken by traditional

foes, including Draconic, Elven (the drow dialect), Giant,

Goblin, and Orc. Those who have extensive dealings with creatures

of elemental earth often learn Terran, while those who

trade with inhabitants of the Realms Above often learn the

trade tongue Common.

All gray dwarf characters are literate except for barbarians.

Gray Dwarf Magıc and Lore

Gray dwarves have a strong divine spellcasting tradition, with

many of the Stout Folk called to serve Laduguer or Deep

Duerra as clerics, runecasters, or runesmiths. Arcane spellcasters

are much rarer, but wizards skilled in the crafting of magic

items are much respected.

Spells and Spellcasting

Gray dwarves favor spells that aid their abilities in combat, assist

in craftwork or mining, or facilitate stealthy movement.

Spellcasting Tradition: Some gray dwarves take the Duergar

Mindshaper feat, part of the lore they stole

from the mind flayers.

Gray Dwarf Magic Items

Gray dwarves favor magic items that aid in combat, facilitate

craftwork, shield the mind, or enable stealthy movement. Blades

and axes are commonly crafted with bane, keen, lawful, mighty

cleaving, sundering, stunning, unholy, and wounding special abilities.

Hammers and maces are commonly crafted with bane,

impact, lawful, returning, stunning, sundering, throwing, and unholy special abilities. Armor is typically crafted with etherealness, shadow, slick, silent moves, and spell resistance special

abilities that facilitate stealthy movement.

Common Magic Items: Cloak of arachnida, dust of tracelessness, ring of mind shielding, and the whetstone of keen edge.

Duergar are notoriously suspicious of outsiders, but duergar merchants

trade throughout the Underdark. These items are commonly

available at a 10% discount in any duergar settlement of

at least large town size.

Iconic Magic Items: Gray dwarves have fabricated many

unique magic items, such as absorbing shields, the bolt of battering,

and stonereaver axes.

Duergar Deities

Laduguer, the Gray Protector, is the harsh taskmaster of the

duergar and the patron of their subrace. Although the duergar

nominally venerate all the dwarven deities of the Morndinsamman,

in truth they venerate only Laduguer and his daughter,

Deep Duerra. Before the rise of Shanatar, each of the shield

dwarven subkingdoms had its own patron deity. The kingdom of

Barakuir, dominated by the dwarves of Clan Duergar, honored

Laduguer and never accepted the ascension of Dumathoin as the

patron deity of shield dwarves. The ancestors of the gray

dwarves continued to honor Laduguer during their long

enslavement by the illithids of Oryndoll. Unlike their shield

dwarven brethren, the duergar did not evolve their religious

practice toward the veneration of the pantheon as a whole.

Deep Duerra, the Daughter of Laduguer, is said to have been

a great warrior queen who stole many secrets of the Invisible

Art (psionics) from Ilsensine, god of mind flayers. Deep Duerra

is venerated primarily by duergar who study the Invisible Art

and by those militant gray dwarves who would rather crush

their subterranean neighbors than trade with them. Her faith is

particularly strong beneath the Osraun Mountains of Turmish,

where her followers rule Dunspeirrin, the City of Sunken Spires.

Relations with Other Races

Dour and suspicious of outsiders, gray dwarves have uniformly

bad relations with all other races, including other dwarven subraces.

The duergar regard their shield dwarf cousins with particular

bitterness, dating back to the shield dwarves’ failure to

succor Clan Duergar during the Mindstalker Wars. The Kin

Clashes forever cemented the mutual animosity between the two

dwarven subraces, a hatred that continues today. Gray dwarves

regard their gold dwarf cousins as arrogant rivals and potential

threats, but trade is possible between the two groups.

Gray dwarves view the surface-dwelling races—elves and halfelves,

gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, and planetouched—with suspicion

but willingly trade with those who are foolhardy enough

to venture into the depths. The duergar harbor a longstanding

hatred of their subterranean rivals, the drow and the svirfneblin.

Nevertheless, they regularly trade with both groups, pitting

them against one another whenever possible.

Gray Dwarf Equipment

Duergar carve and emboss scenes of bloodshed into many items

they craft. Though they have a fierce appreciation for fine

craftsmanship, they are pragmatic enough to shun ostentatious

decoration (such as glittering gems) when it prevents them from

creeping unseen through the Underdark. Duergar traders may be

richly appointed or seem poorly equipped, depending on the sort

of bargaining advantage they seek.

Common Items: Exotic military saddles, thunderstones, and

any poison.

Unique Items: Gray dwarves have perfected armor lubricant

to assist armored warriors in stealthy maneuvering.

Arms and Armor

Even more so than other dwarves, duergar favor weapons

clearly derived from the craftsman’s tools. They favor hammers

and picks of all sorts.

Common Items: Heavy pick, light crossbow, light pick, maul,

warhammer, breastplate, chainmail.

Animals and Pets

Gray dwarves favor common bats, hairy spiders, osquips, and

spitting crawlers as pets and familiars. Deep rothé are the preferred

type of livestock. They employ pack lizards as beasts of

burden. Although gray dwarves are known for their use of steeders as mounts, some clans employ riding lizards as well.