Duergar Playable Race Guide for D&D 5e

Underdark dwelling dwarves with their dwarfishness dialled up to 11! Learn how to play as a Duergar.

What are Duergar?

Duergar are Underdark dwelling Dwarves that were once slaves to the psionic mind flayers. Their enslavement led to physiological differences to the race, being imbued with psionic abilities and developing a grey skin, leading to them sometimes being called gray Dwarves.

The savage nature of the Underdark, and their prior enslavement, has hardened Duergar making them even more prickly than most other Dwarves. The Duergar typically live deep in the ground and as such, like most dwarves, have a natural affinity with the earth.

The Duergar were first introduced as a playable race in D&D 5e in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes but have had some updates to their rules in Monsters of the Multiverse. Our guide has everything you need to know to play as one of these gnarly Dwarves.

Is a Duergar the right character 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 Duergar you might consider the following:

Choose a Duergar if you like…

Want resistance against a lot of conditions
Want some really great innate spellcasting options
Being really grumpy

A Duergar might not be for you if…

You intend to lurk away from the action in combat
Don’t want to use stealth
You want to play someone carefree

If you think a Duergar 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 resilient race, you could consider a Yuan-Ti Pureblood or a Warforged.

Racial traits

The following part of the guide will focus on rules provided in Monsters of the Multiverse rather than the original version of he Duergar published in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. The latest version gives you better choice for ability score improvements, more logical resiliences and improved innate spellcasting so is a better option anyway.

Ability Scores	+2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores
Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Medium
Lifespan	About 350 years
Speed	30ft
Languages	Common and 1 other
Traits	Darkvision, Duergar Magic, Dwarven Resilience, Psionic Fortitude
Resistances	Poison, poisoned, charmed, stunned
Proficiencies	None
Darkvision	Yes
Innate Spellcasting	Enlarge/reduce and invisibility
Book found in	Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes

Tactics

Super resilient: Duergar have advantage on saving throws against 3 different conditions with poisoned and charmed being more common conditions. Throwing your Duergar into the fray, especially against magical and poisonous enemies can help protect the rest of the party while you resist those debilitating attacks. Duergar are also resistant to poison damage which is the most common damage type in the game according to our research making it a handy addition.

Operate unseen: Invisibility is a really useful spell. It’s great for stealth, ambushes and escaping danger. You can use it for any of these things but only get a single use per long rest, unless you play a class with spellcasting, in which case, you can use it more often. Consider a spellcasting class just to get more out of your invisibility.

Go big or go home: Enlarge is generally a better option than reduce as you can buff yourself up with extra damage whereas you’re reliant on a saving throw if you want to reduce the damage of an enemy. It’s not a lot of extra damage, but over an entire combat, it does add up. It’s less useful for single attack classes, but those with extra attack can see the benefits grow as they gain more attacks.

Which classes work best for Duergar?

With Duergar being updated in Monsters of the Multiverse, you can now choose which ability scores are improved. This means that matching a class with your race is more about which classes will get the most from your abilities.

The main abilities to consider are your increased defences against poison, stun and charm. Generally, martials that are in the thick of battle gain most from these types of abilities but they are useful for anyone and provide protection from more conditions than most races. The other benefit is your innate spellcasting gaining invisibility and enlarge/reduce. These can only be cast on yourself so no need to buff up on one of the spellcasting abilities.

Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Duergar based on how well the 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 Duergar

Between extra damage from enlarge and extra toughness from resiliences, Duergar make a lot of sense as frontline martials. You can get an extra d4 damage on each attack you make. This doesn’t help spells but it does help both melee and ranged weapons and doesn’t matter if you’re using dexterity or strength for your attacks. This means that your best options are classes that make a lot of attacks and that get into the thick of combat. With that in mind, I’d recommend using the following classes when playing as a Duergar:

Fighter
Monk
Paladin
Ranger

The fighter and the monk are the best options here as they get the most attacks so will get the most bonus d4s in combat. They also tend to specialise on melee combat making resiliences a greater benefit. Rangers and paladins do have spell slots though which means they can recast those innate spells allowing for more uses between rests.

You might also make a case for certain subclasses that gain extra attacks like hexblade warlocks and college of sword bards.

Worst classes for Duergar

Classes that tend to steer away from attacking will benefit less from a Duergar’s abilities so things like bards, sorcerers and wizards. Artificers might seem like a good option if going with a battle smith or armourer that get extra attacks, but they already have access to enlarge/reduce and invisibility so gain less here. Barbarians might seem like an obvious choice with their martial prowess, but rage and the innate spells can’t be used in conjunction as you can’t cast spells when raging and will lose concentration once you do rage.

About Duergar

Appearance

The Duergar are Dwarves and share many traits in common such as their short height, stocky build and propensity towards growing beards. Despite this, they also appear distinct from their Dwarven brethren with the most distinguishing feature being their grey skin. Duergar also tend to be balder and thinner than their less deep-dwelling kin.

Those Duergar that do appear on the surface tend to be exiles and criminals. This means that not only do they tend to be much rougher, but also have brands and tattoos labelling them as such.

Personality

The hardships of the Underdark and a wretched existence as slaves and test subjects has built within the Duergar a morbid and pessimistic outlook on life. To combat their dreadful state of being, Duergar became less and less emotional, hardened to the trials of their life. This has led to the Duergar taking Dwarven principles to the extreme. They are often very insular, greedy and cynical of others and to a much greater degree than their other Dwarven kin.

In taking Dwarven values to the extreme, Duergar consider themselves to be the archetypal Dwarf and that all other Dwarves have lost what it means to be a true Dwarf. They’re considered not tough or industrious enough to bring pride to the Dwarven name.

Since becoming free of the mind flayers, the Duergar have built impressive and near impregnable strongholds deep in the depths of the Underdark. It’s a credit to the industry of the Duergar that they’ve been able to build such impressive fortifications under such constraints. It is a love of industry and a pride in their accomplishments that have driven the Duergar to such levels of craftsmanship as well as a necessity to survive.

Names

Because Duergar live a long time, many have experienced first hand the tales told by Humans as legends. Duergar will tend to recycle names, with the clan elders naming a child after some legend or other. These names bear significance and if a Duergar brings dishonour to their clan, they are no longer allowed to use a Dwarven name.

Male Duergar names: Adrik, Barn, Dain, Einkil, Fargrim, Harbek, Horbir, Kildrak, Orsik, Rurik, Thoradin, Traubon, Tugnuth, Ulfgar, Vondal, Wenmead

Female Duergar names: Amber, Dagnal, Eldeth, Gunnloda, Gurdis, Harra, Kathra, Ilde, Ismel, Lodra, Mardred, Sannl, Tharfani, Tobera, Vistra

Duergar 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 Duergar. Clan names will tend to revolve around trades and functions performed historically by that clan.

Duergar clan names: Anvilclasm, Balderk, Battlehammer, Clawhelm, Dankil, Dragonbreaker, Fireforge, Holderhek, Loderr, Rocksmelter, Rumnahein, Stonesmoke, Torunn, Ungart, Ulmbrewer

How to roleplay a Duergar

While Duergar come with many personalities, most Duergar have a shared history and culture that has led to certain defining features about their personality. Below are some ways you can roleplay your Duergar, but feel free to adapt to your own character’s backstory if you want:

Cynical and mistrustful: Enslavement and the cruelties of the Underdark have made Duergar extremely mistrustful. View kindness as just a cunning way to manipulate you. Be hard to win over, trust no-one, and take your time to share about yourself.

Pride in industry: Despite their lack of trust, Duergar do tend to make great team players. They’re used to striving together to survive and will work hard to do their part for the group (even if they keep half an eye out for someone stealing from their pack).

Greedy, even by dwarven standards: Duergar are greedy and seek to amass great wealth and luxury, even more so than a typical Dwarf. Always make sure you get your fair share (or more) of the spoils, demand more gold for a job hard fought for and do not share your wealth except under the most extreme of circumstances; you earnt it, not that poor, homeless orphan lying in the gutter!

Compulsive grumbler: No one does things the right way, only you, and whenever there’s something important to do, you always have to fic it because anyone else’s effort is bound to be substandard! At least, this is what you tell yourself as you reluctantly go about doing tasks. Grumble and moan, even when willing to do a task, there’s no more dwarven way than this.