I don’t like the new duergar. What don’t I like? The quills. The quills! Not being much of a complainer, I decided I’d make the duergar that I’d like to see. I wanted to continue to move them in a new direction from previous versions of D&D. I also wanted to further explore the duergar’s infernal roots. What might you get if you went further down the duergar’s infernal path? Letting that question swish around in my mind brought me to the Hellrock Duergar clan.
I hope you enjoy it! Comments and criticisms welcome!
Hellrock Duergar
Curious and inquisitive duergar backed by infernal powers and attempting to unlock the mysteries of their own lineage.
Racial Traits
Average Height: 4′2″ – 4′8″
Average Weight: 160 -220 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom or Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Darkvision
Languages: Common, Deep Speech, Dwarven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Dungeoneering
Kin to Dwarves: Hellrock duergar are considered dwarves and duergar for anything that targets those races. They may not take feats that require the race to be dwarves, but can take duergar racial feats or classes.
Child of the Hellrock: any time the duergar is hit with attack that does fire or necrotic damage, he may expend a healing surge to gain temporary hit points equal to his healing surge value + his Constitution modifier.
Devil’s Due: Hellrock duergar can use use Devil’s Due as an encounter power.
Devil’s Due
Racial Power Encounter
Free Action Personal
Trigger: You roll damage and dislike the result
You may re-roll the damage. The power gains the the fire and necrotic keywords in addition to any other keywords it has.
Background
“Gray dwarf? I advise you to watch your mouth and your manners around me, lest you find out how hot Hell truly is.”
Though all duergar have the infernal blood in their veins, one clan have embraced their infernal heritage fully, walking further down this abyssal path. While other dwarves and duergar mine for precious stones, the hellrock duergar mine for arcane knowledge and hidden mysteries. They have already unlocked the mysteries of their heritage, transforming the appearance of a hellrock duergar. Hellrock duergar lack quills or even the white hair of other duergar. Their skin is an even darker grey, and their eyes burn with intense reds and oranges. Hellrock duergar smile (on rare occasion) with razor-sharp teeth.
This clan of infernal dwarves derive their name from the special metal that they mine. Hellrock smoulders perpetually, and is used by the duergar for everything from weapons and armor to rituals and building material. No matter how much hellrock is mined, it appears that they will never run out of the magical substance.
Hellrock duergar society is fragmented. Though ostensibly a large clan of duergar, centuries of life has seen the clan split into several houses, or gressen. The powerful gressen determine overall direction and goals of the clan, while lesser gressen scheme constantly to acquire power and become larger. Each gressen is run by a matron who is turn backed by an infernal power, usually a devil, but for the most powerful gressen, the support of a demi-god such as asmodeus is not unheard of. To many people’s surprise, other duergar and even dwarves are –what is most important to those born of the Hellrock is growth and loyalty to one’s gressen and the powers backing them. If a duergar or dwarf wishes to join their clan, and submit to arcane rituals to test their loyalty, they are welcome in. Most dwarves and many duergar are rightfully suspicious of those born of the Hellrock, so keep their distance.
Playing a Hellrock Duergar
Hellrock duergar, while still treacherous and cruel, are on the surface much more open-minded and less stubborn than their kin. Hellrock duergar, similar to the devils they consort with, seek to influence others to their ways of thinking and then corrupt them. It doesn’t take long to discover their true purpose, but many have been lured in by the promises of what hellrock or the duergar’s patrons can bring.
It is common for a child of the hellrock to explore the world on the surface. It is not because the hellrock duergar have any great love for the other races, but because they are always seeking some advantage over their rivals in oppossing gressen. Making allies on the surface, or finding some new magic or tool can be all the competitve edge that’s needed to advance one’s gressen, and therefore, one’s position.
Hellrock duergar have inherited a natural curiosity from their explorations into the arcane. They are more prone than their kin to hear the words of others. They are inflexible to all matters regarding their own identity, however.
While they consort with devils, the hellrock duergar do not consider themselves evil. Though their patrons may wish to take over the world, the children of the Hellrock are more concerned with drawing forth more of their infernal roots, becoming more of who they feel that they are. To this end, they will go to any extreme.
Similar Posts:
About gamefiend
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e. By day he is a technologist.
You can’t use immediate interrupts on your turn. Make it a free action with a trigger.
I like this race much better. I have a place for them coming up in my game right now actually. I’ll have to convert them to monsters but they definitely have a good flavor to them.
In fact, one of my players just decided to play a warforged created by a Duergar and I wasn’t sure how I was going to work all of that in. Nice timing!
Pretty cool.
I definitely agree that the quills are lame. I can only assume that the writers were trying to think of ways to show traces of infernal dabbling without using horns (because they already gave them to Tieflings).
Really, though, they could’ve had an entire infernal subspecies/template for any race, instead of making up a ‘new’ races like the Duergar (or Spriggans or Shadar-kai, etc.)
Glad you guys like.
@Ishi doh. I thought that I had caught this! I’ll fix.
@Jackofhearts Oooh. Well then you’ll like the feats and paragon path for the hellrock when it comes out.
@kingworks an infernal template would be nice, though I like a holistic approach to tweaking the subspecies. The shadar-kai don’t at all feel like generic shadow-humans…they feel like their own thing.
I’m glad the quils are gone but that encounter power is only useful to a few classes. I’d retool that myself. Otherwise, this is the duegar I prefer to see.
I’m surprised that Wizards deviated so far from the obvious visions so many of us had of the Duergar. This sounds a whole lot more like an infernal dwarf than an evil, bipedal porcupine.
I agree with @kingworks that there should be an infernal template that can be used to create a demonic or devilish version of a creature. I know they were trying to use the quills to be different, but I really don’t mind if all my infernal creatures have horns and a tail.
[...] introduced my variation on the duergar, the Hellrock clan, a little bit ago. They’re basically duergar sans the quills who have [...]
But… I love the quills…
ME
Here’s my response to quill-haters: , you can take it or leave it.
Quite fun. I really like the healing surge ability, there’s a heavy element of “cool” to it. Being able to drop healing surges left and right against the right enemy? That’s fun. Not to mention, it’s limited in scope, so it’s not infinitely useful. The encounter ability is nice, too, and its lower usability is a good offset to the potential power of Child of the Hellrock.