Small but mighty, optimise your Mountain Dwarf character with our optimisation guide
What are Mountain Dwarves?
Dwarves are one of the original playable races of D&D 5e and follow the blueprint laid out by Tolkien and other fantasy writers; they’re squat, hardy folk with a great pride in their beards and an unhealthy obsession with wealth.
Mountain dwarves, as you’d expect, live in their mountains carving out vast cities in the rock that often go deep into the ground in search of veins of ore and precious gems from which to accumulate great wealth. While similar to their Hill Dwarf and Duergar cousins, Hill Dwarves tend to dwell onto he surface while the Duergar originated much deeper than the Mountain Dwarves, dwelling in the Underdark.
More isolated than Hill Dwarves, Mountain Dwarves tend to embody those attributes that are most dwarfish more than other subraces of Dwarves. They are more stubborn, more greedy and do more digging. Having said that, Mountain Dwarves are not a rare site in the more cosmopolitan parts of the planes, just less common than Hill Dwarves.
The rules for Mountain Dwarves can be found in the Player’s Handbook. We’ve detailed everything you need to know to play as a Mountain Dwarf below from lore and descriptions to abilities and advice on how to play as a dwarf.
Is a Mountain Dwarf the right race for me?
Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Mountain Dwarf you might consider the following:
Choose a Mountain Dwarf if you like…
- A tanky character
- Want to deal loads of melee damage
- Love beards and gold
A Mountain Dwarf might not be for you if…
- You want to move quickly, Dwarves are slower than most races
- Want to fight at range
- Dislike facial hair
If you think a Mountain Dwarf isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative tough race, you could consider a Goliath or a Half-Orc.
Racial traits
| Ability Scores | +2 Constitution; +2 Strength |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Medium |
| Lifespan | About 250-450 years |
| Speed | 25ft |
| Languages | Common and Dwarvish |
| Traits | Darkvision, Dwarven Resilience, Dwarven Combat Training, Stonecunning, Tool Proficiency, Dwarven Armour Training |
| Proficiencies | Light and medium armor, handmade, battleaxe, Warhammer, light hammer and one of Smith’s tools, brewer’s tools or mason’s tools |
| Resistances | Advantage on saving throws against poison and poison damage resistance |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate Spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Player’s Handbook |
If you want to play as a Mountain Dwarf, your character will have the following traits and abilities (as found in the SRD for D&D 5e):
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.
Dwarven Armor Training – You have proficiency with light and medium armor.
Choosing a class for your Mountain Dwarves
Mountain Dwarves gain +2 to both strength and constitution which is more ability score increases than most other races making it highly valuable. This on its own leans heavily into martial classes, especially those that use strength as their attacking ability. Dwarven Resilience is useful for martials too, making you tougher against poison attacks (one of the more common damage and condition types).
A Mountain Dwarf’s other abilities are less important but split the kinds of classes you’d want to use them with a little. They essentially give some of the benefits of a fighter like light and medium armour proficiency and proficiency with some martial weapons, to any class. This is useful if you want to play as a class that doesn’t normally have these proficiencies, but considering that the best match for a Mountain Dwarf are the martial classes, these traits often become fairly redundant.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Mountain Dwarf based on how well the ability score increases and racial traits work with each class:
Artificer⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐
Warlock ⭐
Wizard ⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for Mountain Dwarves
With the above in mind, the best classes for a Mountain Dwarf are:
- Barbarian
- Fighter
- Paladin
All these classes have a high need for constitution and strength and while you may get little from armour proficiencies (either because your class has them already or because you don’t wear armour), being resilient to poison is a big bonus.
With a bit of building around, you could make a ranger work with a Mountain Dwarf by having them be strength based and compensating for lower dexterity with the medium armour you’re now proficient in. It does feel a bit like a poor man’s fighter in that regard but it can work.
There’s also a case to be made for having spellcasters with much better armour, especially ones that can delve into melee combat and while this can work, it can also be difficult making it work and other races are likely to work better on this front.
Worst classes for Mountain Dwarves
Classes that rely on dexterity and having a higher movement speed do suffer as Mountain Dwarves with their lack of dexterity and 25ft movement speed. This makes monks and rogues difficult to recommend, especially as armour that isn’t light will likely hamper your stealth abilities. Sorcerers, warlocks, wizards and bards also gain little here as their more important charisma and intelligence ability scores don’t get a boost or secondary ability scores like dexterity. Some of this is compensated for with armour proficiencies but it isn’t enough.
It should also be mentioned that while a battle smith or armourer artificer may seem like a natural fit for a Mountain Dwarf, and certainly the extra constitution is a welcome boon, Artificers still use intelligence for attack rolls rather than strength. This makes the +2 strength wasted on artificers. On top of this, these artificers are already proficient with the armour they need so gain little other than a bit of extra resilience.
It should be noted that the optional rules in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything do allow for players to change their ability score increases to improve whichever scores they want which does give a bit more flexibility to Mountain Dwarves if your DM is happy to work with those rules.
About Mountain Dwarves
Appearance
Mountain Dwarves are short humanoids, with long beards and a stocky frame. They are slightly taller than other dwarven subraces like the Hill Dwarves and Duergar, but still stand at about 4-5ft tall. Mountain dwarves are also used to living in more rugged terrain and are a little hardier for it too.
Personality
Dwarves adhere to a strict hierarchical society based on their clans. Clanless dwarves usually find themselves disadvantaged and are given little respect among the Dwarves. Dwarves also place great importance on their beard as it’s an important symbol of their dwarven customs.
Dwarves have a long life span typically reaching about 250-450yrs. This long life span makes them slower to develop trusted friendships as the younger races like humans, spending much time getting to know an acquaintance. This can be accelerated in certain situations, especially in an adventuring party where they live together with other party members. Of course, that long life span does mean that they have a long time to hold a grudge. Dwarves are typically slow to forgive, especially if you’re an Orc for whom Dwarves have an intense hatred!
Names
Because Mountain Dwarves live a long time, many have experienced first hand the tales told by Humans as legends. Mountain Dwarves will tend to recycle names, with the clan elders naming a child after some legend or other. These names bear significance and if a Mountain Dwarf brings dishonour to their clan, they are no longer allowed to use a Dwarven name.
Examples of male Mountain Dwarf names: Adrik, Barn, Dain, Einkil, Fargrim, Harbek, Horbir, Kildrak, Orsik, Rurik, Thoradin, Traubon, Tugnuth, Ulfgar, Vondal, Wenmead
Examples of female Mountain Dwarf names: Amber, Dagnal, Eldeth, Gunnloda, Gurdis, Harra, Kathra, Ilde, Ismel, Lodra, Mardred, Sannl, Tharfani, Tobera, Vistra
Mountain Dwarves will also have clan names that will represent a hierarchy within Dwarven culture. Belonging to a prominent clan is a matter of immense pride to a Mountain Dwarf. Clan names will tend to revolve around trades and functions performed historically by that clan.
Some common clan names: Anvilclasm, Balderk, Battlehammer, Clawhelm, Dankil, Dragonbreaker, Fireforge, Holderhek, Loderr, Rocksmelter, Rumnahein, Stonesmoke, Torunn, Ungart, Ulmbrewer
How to roleplay as a Mountain Dwarf
Gruff, tough, slow to develop trust or forgive, a pride in the clan, a love of wealth and a stubborn, determined streak are the typical hallmarks of a Dwarf. Not all Dwarves follow these archetypes, but below are some ideas to consider when roleplaying a Dwarf.
- Dwarven pride – Mountain Dwarves are notoriously proud and will rarely admit to doing things in an inferior way to other races, whether it be their ability to forge powerful weapons, build impressive structures or knowledge of mining.
- Gold digger – Amassing wealth is hugely important to Dwarves. Be stingy in your purchases and aggressive in your negotiations. Some Dwarves certainly are altruistic, but you can be kind and get fair pay for your services right?
- Battle-hardened – Dwarves are renowned warriors and incredibly hardy. Be ready for battle whenever it may come and share tales of great battles from your clan’s history.
