Dwarves

>>53422836
They're isolationist and not very imperialistic

>>53422836
Because elves keep them scarce and in check.

>>53422858
>>53422836
also, clan pride tends to mean dwarven kings spend more time keeping big-ego'd clansmen from ripping eachother apart than focusing them into more aggessive armies.

Oh, and because of dwarven preference for building into solid rock, it kind of slows down how quickly and where they can easily expand into.

Oh, and they're generally not portrayed as terribly good sailors or particularly fond of open waters either.

>>53422836
Shitty reach and leverage. Slow movement. Fat fingers limit manual dexterity. Isolationist and not very charismatic. Prefer underground citadels which take a long time construct and can't be built just anywhere, limiting their ability to expand. Locked in obsessive revenge wars all the time. Drink too much. Limited magical aptitude.

>>53422836
>breed slowly
>isolationist
>conservative and tend to focus on improving what they have rather than innovating new things

Take your pick. If they really wanted to, they probably could take over a significant chunk of the continent if not all of it, but they just don't have the mentality for it.

>>53422895
Also, shitty to no cavalry, and shitty to no navy.

>>53422836
They occupy their own ecological niche (underground) where they have their mighty empire. Why the hell would they spend effort on conquering the upside?

>>53422836
>smaller than humans
>less dexterous than humans
>fewer dwarves than humans
>but lack magical abilities
>overrelies on their machanical tombs under the ground, not fit for surface life

>>53422836
They did once. But after that, they went full xenophobic and isolationist, and dwarfen women started giving a lot more stillbirths (which may or may not be caused by last curse of goblins, who dwarfs genocided in attempt to keep underground under their control). A few thousand years later, most of them just died out.

>>53422836
Why would they waste time ruling an empire?

The Dwarves don't need anything the other races have to offer that they can't obtain by trade. Ruling vast swathes of land is just too much of a hassle

>>53422836
Because they keep digging to deep and getting wiped out by subterranean horrors.

>>53422836
They used to, along with the elves, but then shit happened and now there simply isn't enough of them to control anything bigger than a small mine or two.

Because empires need to have places far away from mountains and mines, fuck that let the humans have the shitty oceans and forests

they live in mountains that cant support a large population; dwarves could never be an expansive race. They also dislike innovation and change, so they tend to stay wherever they are already

>>53422836
No Calvary, terrible in open fields/spaces.

They'd get rolled by your standard Mongolian knockoff culture.

>>53422877
>Oh, and they're generally not portrayed as terribly good sailors or particularly fond of open waters either.

I've wondered about this. Wouldn't their lower centre of gravity, and thus greater balance, be an advantage on a ship?

>>53423727
Probably, but they're used to walking around on bedrock. The movement probably skeeves out a lot of them.

>>53423544
I remember that thread

Also, a lot of the reasons posited in this thread are actually pretty solid - generally dwarven characteristics don't suggest they go out and conquer places all that much - there might be a dwarven empire, occasionally, but their clans and fit for certain niches clamp down on it pretty quickly

>>53422836
In my setting, the Dwarves are a VERY aggressive militarist power, held mostly in check by their slow birth rate and their ancient rivals, the elves. BOTH sides use auxiliaries of the other races - particularly humans - to fill out their armies. Orcs and Humans (who are a magical experiment by the elves to create a better soldier/worker out of Orcs that got loose) are basically mercenaries, soldiers, cannonfodder and laborers to them.

Humans tend to have it better off under the Elves, who allow them to interbeed and said offspring have more rights as half elves (though by law a half elf can only breed/marry another elf, bringing about more elves and bringing that hybrid vigor back into the race, and there is a soft racism against non pureblood elves), and Orcs tend to have it better off under Dwarves as they can keep pace with their stamina and aren't regarded as magically impure by the Dwarves - who none the less regard all non-dwarves as inferior, and have a very Roman society/organization.

Both great powers basically cancel each other out since the Dwarves are supreme at fortification and heavy infantry, but the elves are supreme at archery, skirmishing, and cavalry.

>>53423727
The same way a fat guy in theory is more suited for sea travel thanks to higher energy storage, but in practice they are the first to throw up and get sick over malnutrition. Basic aspects never fare well in complex situations.

Also, dwarves are traditionally underground creatures. They're adapted to underground atmosphere and land firmness. Put him in a sunny, humid and shaky boat and he's as good as an orc in math class.

>>53422836
Dwarves are the logical dominant race in any fantasy setting besides Tolkien where they are limited genetically, are more insular and don't have super advanced technology. In warhammer and D+D they have reliable 20th century level technology and all the advantages you list while everyone else is basically medieval peasants with magic. Europeans in Africa in the 19th century killed huge swathes of natives with the first gatling guns, conquered the whole continent in a few years despite being outnumbered 1000 to 1, and they didn't even have helicopters, airships, tanks, magic armour, 200+ year lifespans, incredible resilience etc'.

>>53422895
>>53423063
>Dwarves don't do magic

I despise this trope. It comes from early D&D where dwarves didn't learn spells, but had an innate magical resistance. In AD&D, when class and race were separated, they could be clerics and fighter/clerics and that was it for magical dwarves.

In my setting, dwarven wizards are called runemasters, or runelords if they hold a title. They are often trained as priests since runic knowledge is stored and studied in temples. Rather than standing around looking mysterious in a robe and pointed hat, runemasters are predominantly craftsmen who use their arcane knowledge to help them in their craft.
I like my dwarves industrious.

>>53422836
They did once until it was retconed out of Mystara. The grand Empire of Dorfin IV, we will remember its glory for all time.

>>53424932
In both D&D and Warhammer, they're still severely hampered by their low birth rate.

>>53422836
>Stronger than humans
Nope, just hardier. They can lift as much as your average human, but can survive a bit better.
>Has a lot of fine motor controls and dexterity
Only as much as a human's.
>Live longer, thus retain more skills
Ehh, not really. It's more about risk taking than it is about longer life, and no one owns the title for greatest risk takers.
>Able to forge runic weapons and armor better than the regular stuff
Only because of traditions and techniques handed down among their people. If the humans knew of these, they too would forge great runic weapons and armor.
>Mechanically inclined and able to develop better technology than anyone else
No more so than humans. And their mechanical inclinations are towards mining and defense of their mountain holds.

>>53422836
Because they have more important things to worry about, like when they're going to hold death combat over the ancestral grudge with the Beardaxe clan; because Stouthammer Beardaxe spilled a few drops of mead on the tunic of Rockpebble Alcoholbeard and clearly no slight can remain unpunished.

Oh, and because they have no cavalry, are traditionally not magically inclined, have limited reach, stubbornly refuse to live anywhere that isn't a fucking cave, are generally too busy being a bunch of backwater neanderthals to actually accomplish anything worth noting.

>>53422836
>Mechanically inclined and able to develop better technology than anyone else

First part yes, second part no. Dwarves are extremely conservative and lack much innovation. When confronted with a problem, they look backwards for similar problems in the past and use those solutions, rather than forward and try and come up with new solutions. This is fine for things they have experience with but it means that they tend to get completely blindsided by new problems.

They also, as mentioned, don't create new technology, just make the best damn versions of existing technology. Show a dwarf the basic concept of a 12th-century siege cannon, for example, and he and his buddies will make the best damn cannon you've ever seen. But a dwarf would never make the leap from siege cannon to hand cannon, or from hand cannon to musket or rifle.

Finally, as a culture, dwarves are emotionally weak; if a human or an elf fails at something, they usually get back up and try again. If a Dwarf fails at something, they get depressed and never try again and get drunk. Worse, they may get obsessed and turn deathseeker over it, inevitably dragging countless others into a long, tragic saga over a relatively trivial matter.

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>>53424689
>he's as good as an orc in math class

How fucking dare you. #notallorcs #Orclivesmatter

How tied to dwarves have to be to Germanic folklore?

Could they not be represented by similar beings in other cultures?

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>>53429691
I wouldn't say "never", you do tend to get the odd dwarf innovator, and dwarves live long enough that eventually someone else is likely to come around to a "newfangled idea" that the inventor has been trying for a century or so, but yes, on the whole they tend to be immensely conservative when it comes to making new things (and over-engineer as a matter of course)

>manlets

>>53422836
Orcs, volcanic eruptions, and elves.
And then more orcs.

>>53430397
>How tied to dwarves have to be to Germanic folklore?

They don't really. Since 'dwarf' just means "of a smaller type" then there's an argument for it being a generic term rather than specifically referring to the Germanic folklore creatures.

>Could they not be represented by similar beings in other cultures?

They could, Shadowrun has some Dwarf variants like that.

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>>53422836
That'd be a pain to manage. Just own all the brothels and call it a day.

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>>53422836
>Live longer
The same weakness of elves.

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Yakshini

>Short thick waifus that protect the treasures of the earth.

>>53424436
If there's a greentext, I want it.

>>53426553
So, Warhammer?

>>53433945
India needs to hurry up with its middle class so we can get some fat tittied Hindu hentai.

>>53433945
Yaksha and Yakshini live in a mythical kingdom in the Himalayas, ruled by god king of wealth. They guard the treasures of the world, but also give and teach freely.

They tend to have two forms, both a benevolent and a malevolent one.The benevolent are very much like dwarves, whereas the malevolent are very much like orcs.

>>53429465
.. so what exactly is this setting you're talking about?

>>53429465
>human +1 to strength ability score
>dwarf +2 to strength ability score

>>53436871
>retarded newfag who literally thinks there's only one system and setting in the entire world

Lurk moar, kiddo

>>53436986
In most settings and systems dwarves are stronger than men.

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>>53436764
Standard D&D. Dwarves get a bonus to Con with a penalty to Cha usually. Some subraces might get a minor bonus to strength in older editions.

>>53436871
>>53437088
What the hell kind of obscure shitty systems are you using? In the most popular settings and systems that are played far more than any other (D&D), they are hardier and lacking in personal magnetism.
2e - +1 Con, -1 Cha
3e - +2 Con, -2 Cha
4e - +2 Con, +2 Wis
5e - +2 Con

>>53430397
Not very. Pretty much every culture has some variation on short stocky people who live in the hills or caves. This is why I spread the truth that they are the cultural remnant of our cousins the Neanderthals.

>>53437313
In later 4e they could take +2 Str in place of +2 Wis, and in 5e they can take either +1 Wis or +2 Str in addition to the +2 Con.

>>53437806
Was that for Essentials? I don't remember that. I stopped playing around Essentials and from what I saw of it, I really didn't care for it. Too much 3e but in a bad way.

>>53422836
They keep getting shit stomped by millions of orcs and they would rather dig anyways.

>>53437840

Yeah. One of the few decent things to turn up at that point was some more versatility on racial stats.

Doesn't make up for all the other bullshit though.