Dwarves with crossbows

[johnsemlak]

There used to be a slight tendency to associate Dwarves and crossbows, IIRC. I remember several NPCs and pregenerated characters in the old modules having them. Where does that association come from?

Do you like to promote this association in your campaigns or your characters?

I have to say, I have a horrid streak of being clicheic. I'm currently playing a dwarf fighter with a crossbow, and I've always done so in the past as well.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think it comes from (a) the idea of a dwarf being a rather good engineer (often confused with gnomes) and (b) dwarves not having regular bows.

When I play a dwarf I usually go for mostly melee or thrown weapons. After all, in the dark caves and cramped corridorrs that are home, you're not going to have to be able to hit things at 50+ feet very often.

 

[Reprisal]

That's another thing about dwarves that I've never gotten: Why the attachment to axes? Being native to a cramped environment, you'd think that they dwarves would utilize thrusting weapons like spears and short-swords. I've no problem associating Roman Legionaire type arms and armour for a dwarf, what with heavy segmented armour, a big shield, a javelin and a short sword for stabbing -- but big swinging weapons like battle-axes and great axes?

Excuse me?

If it worked well for the Romans, why couldn't it work well for our favourite ale-swilling, beard-growing warriors of legend?

- Rep.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

After all, in the dark caves and cramped corridorrs that are home, you're not going to have to be able to hit things at 50+ feet very often.

Or room for a long bow to be used properly..

Even the Dragon Dice had crossbows for icons of the dwarven ranged attacks- iirc.

SD

 

[Sagan Darkside]

If it worked well for the Romans, why couldn't it work well for our favourite ale-swilling, beard-growing warriors of legend?

At first it was to irritate the tree-hugging elves, but it just became a habit.



SD

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

Even though nobody would confuse a gnome and a dwarf IMC (gnomes a Size T for starters), dwarves have always had a reputation for engineering seperately from gnomes (in fact why gnomes should tinker at all must be some sort of anglosaxon concept? Norse gnomes ("nisser") are as far from engineering as ogres).

Nevertheless, IIRC one of the earlier editions of the PHB stated that dwarves favored crossbows because the ballistic trajectory of the quarrel is flatter than that of the bow propelled arrow and thus more suitable for indoor (underground) use. Whether or not this has any foundation in physics I do not know, but bear in mind that Dwarves were Size S in the former editions and thus weren't able to use bows (at least not the long bow).

 

[kengar]

That's another thing about dwarves that I've never gotten: Why the attachment to axes?

I think it's two reasons, really.

1) Gimli.

D&D dwarfs are heavily LOTR -and therefore Nordic- in flavor. Gimli used an axe at least partially because Tolkien was so heavily influenced by Nordic/Icelandic sagas and Norse myths. Dwarfs in ME were a lot like short underground vikings. The battleaxe was -IIRC from Western Civ. classes- a favorite of the Vikings. Of course, Vikings had LOTS of big trees to deal with up in Scandanavia, so that made sense.

2) To a lesser extent, I think that mining tools like picks reinforce the idea of "swinging" weapons for dwarfs.

That's my HO, YMMV

 

[DDK]

Even though nobody would confuse a gnome and a dwarf IMC (gnomes a Size T for starters)... -snipped.

Bligfizzit!

Big Jobs!

Nac Mac Feegle!

Sorry, had to be said

 

[krunchyfrogg]

An Axe requires a lower center of gravity to be used effectively.

A crossbow is better suited to indoor use, because there's less of an arc to its firing, as opposed to a bow (as mentioned above).

I think Dwarves shouls all recieve martial weapon proficiency in either an axe or hammer, and crossbows (light and heavy), just as an elf recieves the bow and sword poficiencies.

 

[drnuncheon]

in fact why gnomes should tinker at all must be some sort of anglosaxon concept? Norse gnomes ("nisser") are as far from engineering as ogres

It's not an Anglo-Saxon thing, it's a Dragonlance thing.

You see, gnomes used to be cunning tricksters with a penchant for illusion. They were closer to nature than dwarves, and far less serious than elves.

Unfortunately, on a continent called Ansalon, on a world called Krynn, a terrible infection (thought by some to be related to syphilis) began racing through the gnomish population. As it destroyed their capacity for thought, it caused them to adopt long names made of impronounceable, incomprehensible, and nonsensical syllables, and also engendered a racial obsession with engineering on a scale heretofore unknown.

A planar quarantine was called, and that woul dhave been the end of it, except some fool let the gnomes get ahold of a spelljamming helm. With the help of the helm, the gnomes spread their terrible plague to other worlds.

Fortunately for the population of these other worlds, the infection was less severe. While the predisposition to tinkering was indeed transferred to its new victims, the disease did not seem to inhibit their mental capacity to as great of a degree. These gnomes kept their traditional names, and went on to design devices that actually worked. Prime examples of these 'second-stage' gnomes can be found on the island of Lantan on Toril, and in the so-called "steam gnome" communities existing under the city of Bluffside. Unfortunately, the disease does become acute in some individuals, causing them to rename themselves with bizarre sobriquets, such as "Meadowflower Bananafana Alabama McBoingBoing"

Strangely, svirvneblin and other gnomish subraces seem to have an innate resistance to the disease, and scientists are racing to study them and find a cure.

Won't you please help?

Your donation, of amounts as small as 5 or 10 gold pieces, could save gnomish young people from being forced to go through life constructing devices that would make Rube Goldberg go pale with horror, and from being named "Lagomorphinostaculodallabgnikcufecintoronomoustigmatiglobulonoodlenosicalanthropomandibulactiblesotomaculasupercallifragilisticexpialadociousistical (deep breath) Smith"

Please, look deep into your hearts, and give what you can. Our operators are standing by, waiting for your calls. Help us find a cure for tinker gnomes.

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