Dwarf

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Dwarf.png Dwarf
Conversion

80 points = +1 Max HP per level
(Rewind) +10 Max HP

Suggested Classes Thief, Priest, Rogue, Bloodmage
Lives in The Delta-Iota-Gamma Fraternity
Class portraits
Dwarf Fighter.pngDwarf Berserker.pngDwarf Warlord.png Dwarf Thief.pngDwarf Rogue.pngDwarf Assassin.png
Dwarf Priest.pngDwarf Monk.pngDwarf Paladin.png Dwarf Wizard.pngDwarf Sorcerer.pngDwarf Bloodmage.png
Dwarf Crusader.pngDwarf Transmuter.pngDwarf Tinker.png
The Dwarf race offers improved toughness and longevity in combat over other races. The dwarf is difficult to work into advanced builds for a variety of reasons, and is often considered as the least powerful race. But dwarf can still be very effective when leveraging the right bonuses.

Hit points automatically recalculate every time you gain a new level, so it doesn't matter when you gain the conversion bonus.


Human vs Dwarf

As an attack is effectively exchanging your health into damage, humans and dwarves are going its own way to pull off the damage output from a full health bar. Total damage done is roughly proportional to attack power multiplied by total health, so their racial bonus contributes equally here. However, while humans require 100 CP to gain a bonus, dwarf only need 80 CP. This means dwarves have the higher total damage from his/her full health bar.

However, it is important to note that not all healing effects will be improved by the dwarf racial bonus; the HALPMEH glyph and exploration in particular are not improved, so you will need to work harder to refill your full HP gauge. For characters relying heavily on regeneration-fighting or magical healing, this makes human always a better choice. One-time bonuses such as Glyph: GETINDARE GETINDARE, Trait: Death Protection Death Protection or Item: Reflex Potion Reflex Potion favor human even more.

The true power of dwarf comes when there are no more exploration space; generally, that's where all the %-based health refills kick in. Almost every health refill, including God boon: Protection Protection, God boon: Chaos Avatar Chaos Avatar/God boon: Last Chance Last Chance, Item: Fire Heart Fire Heart and Item: Health Potion Health Potion, are all %-based. But the most notable one is God: Dracul Dracul's God boon: Blood Swell Blood Swell and God boon: Blood Tithe Blood Tithe, which even deducts a flat amount of maximum health. This makes dwarf a much stronger class than the human especially in the endgame phase, but in other words, dwarves have to find %-based refills to be better than humans.

Maybe the only exception of this rule is when you are planning to go on a regen fighting, but your maximum health is too low to tank a single hit. This is occasionally the case for Class: Rogue Rogue or Class: Assassin Assassin, who are very skillful for regen fighting but have no resistances to start with. Especially the Rogue takes great advantage from being a dwarf. The dwarven HP bonus is not affected by the Rogue's HP penalty, allowing a dwarven rogue to have above-average hit points without using any boons from deities.

One difficulty dwarves often have is fighting monsters with powerful attacks. For most characters, there isn't a big difference between a monster that deals 60% of your hit points in damage and a monster that deals 90% of your hit points in damage; either way you're not going to be able to get a second attack in. If dwarves cannot improve their HP enough to survive at least one extra hit, their entire racial advantage is useless. If you have high resistances the dwarf is even less attractive, because the ability to tank a big hit is no more an advantage over the human.

To sum up, it's almost always better to use the Race: Human Human, unless you find a lot of %-based health refills and some damage improvements.

Strategy

The biggest challenge the dwarf has is in improving his damage output. Having high hit points will allow you to survive more attacks, but this means little if the attack damage you're hitting back for is low.

Dwarves make effective Thieves, Rogues, Priests, and Bloodmages.

Thief Being able to use your mana potions for extra health regeneration leverages the dwarf's bonus hit points nicely, making the thief a great class selection.

Rogue Where the rogue suffers from horrendously low hit points, the dwarf compensates. It's a great pairing.

Priest With super-powered healing potions filling the entirety of the expanded dwarven hit point gauge, the priest is a great selection for the dwarf.

Bloodmage The sanguine class feature heals a % of your maximum hit points, which means dwarves benefit more than anyone else.