Half-Dwarf’s are the children of a Dwarf and Human pairing. They are the rarest race to find within the Hammerlands due to the rarity in which the two peoples mix but in the event that a child is born, they are blessed with a merging of the gifts of both their parents.
Bold and Blue
More so than Valkor, Half-Dwarves have a more complete merging of their parent’s features and skills. Their skin is a faded bluish hue, their hair pale browns and dirty blonds, and their height sitting somewhere between the two races. Half-Dwarves grow to a height of between 6 and 7 feet and weigh between 175 to 290 pounds.
They retain the hardiness of the Dwarves while gaining the adaptability of the humans. Their physical Norn strength mixes with the Dwarven magic to create a formidable and adaptable people.
Unknown and Secluded
Due to their rarity, most people of the Hammerlands wouldn’t be able to identify a Half-Dwarf’s origins. Most people doubt they even exist. When someone does happen across one out in the wilderness, there’s usually a moment of apprehension from both individuals as they try to ascertain the nature of the other. Half-Dwarfs enjoy a life of solitude where they can work on their passion projects without disturbance. They know that most folk long for the treasures that only a Dwarf can craft and fear what strangers would be willing to do for that opportunity.
Under the right circumstances, a Half-Dwarf may agree to use their Dwarven talents to forge a powerful magical item, yet this is rare as they don’t want to draw attention to themselves and have to deal with constant requests and commissions that distract them from their personal work.
Half-Dwarf Names
Half-Dwarf can be named based on the culture of either the Norn or Dwarves. It may vary depending on which parent raised you or where you grew up. You can look at the names suggested in the Human (Norn) or Dwarf sections or come up with a new name.
Half-Dwarf Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and one other stat of your choice increases by 1.
Age. Half-Dwarves mature at the age of 40 and live to the age of 600.
Alignment. Half-Dwarves seek to match the magical prowess of their forefathers. Because of this, they lean towards neutral alignments.
Size. Half-Dwarves grow to a height of between 6 and 7 feet. Your size is medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarven.
Innate Enchantment. You learn the spell Shillelagh and can cast it on any non-magic melee weapon you are wielding.
Human Bravery. Upon being placed under the frightened condition, you can use your reaction to end the effect. You can do this a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier. This ability resets after a long rest.
Magic Item Expertise. Magic items you have equipped that use charges gain an additional 25% maximum charges (Minimum increase of 1).
Dwarven Memory. When travelling underground you have advantage on checks to traverse or avoid getting lost.
Designing the Half-Dwarf Race
The Half-Dwarf is a child between a Norn and a Dwarf so I wanted to focus on giving them racial features that are reminiscent of those two races and the traits they had. It would have been easy to take a couple of features from each and throw them together, but that isn’t how we do things here! No half measures! So I began work on a new set of features that honour the Norn’s strength and bravery but still felt controlled and magical, like the Dwarf.
I wanted the Ability Score Increase to leave room for the Half-Dwarf to become anything it needs to, like its Norn heritage. The Dwarves are hardy folk however and I also wanted to recognise this. That’s why I settle on a +2 increase to Constitution and a +1 that can be placed anywhere else! The rest of the stats such as age, size, alignment, etc all became nice middle points between a Dwarf and Norn.
The feature Innate Enchantment allows the race to cast a slightly modified version of the Shillelagh spell. I settled on this feature as it calls back to the Dwarf’s Rune Empowerment feature, yet has a human twist on it. It’s rougher, more of an in-the-moment decision. It’s the perfect example of their Human blood influencing Dwarven magic.
Human Bravery is a feature that is similar in concept but works the other way round. While a pure Norn would overcome a terrifying moment by raging, the Dwarven influence keeps the Half-Dwarf calm and allows them to overcome their fear with a clear mind. This feature has multiple uses that scale off intelligence which might be a stat that gets neglected by many characters, yet I wanted to make sure the Half-Dwarf feels smart and tactical, just with some classic Norn violence on the side!
Magic Item Expert was a ‘passive’ feature that I originally intended for the Dwarf race, however, I felt they were already appropriately strong so moved it over to the Half-Dwarf. Thematically, it implies the Half-Dwarf can squeeze out every last drop of magic energy from an item and can use magic items to higher efficiency. I’m keeping in the back of my head that this feature might get a bit dicey at higher levels. But I will come back and make amends if problems do begin to arise.
Lastly, the Half-Dwarf gets the Dwarven Memory feature. Due to the power of the previous feature, I felt I had to be slightly more reserved with this final trait. I still wanted it to be something flavourful and useful though. This feature lets the Half-Dwarf avoid getting lost when travelling the underground places of the world. A very handy instinct left over from his Dwarven parent.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this post! I have no idea if people are interested in the design breakdown or whether they just want to grab the fun stuff and bounce, but it helps me to write down my thought process so I’ll keep doing it for now! My only intention is to inspire others to think outside the box when designing their own homebrew content, or give some hints that can help a new DM get the confidence to give it a go!
You can join the community on Discord, where I’ll be running some community Oneshots in the coming weeks! You can also find me on Twitch where we build a lot of these homebrews with the help of chat!
Have a great day and a may your next session be filled with glory!
Veneon Reforged 
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