Tapster's Tavern - For all your dwarven needs !

Hi fellow dwarfers!

After burning out a bit with MEA (I'm still waiting on this m/m improvements), I decided to replay DA:I and I'm loving it again, as usual.

Here's my new dwarf: Callum Cadash, sword/shield warrior!

So, quick poll, which Dwarven characters would you like to see upgraded to Companion status in Dragon Age 4?

1. Lace Harding, small town girl who took a level in epic heroism

2. Dagna, Mad Scientist Extraordinaire. *My personal choice; despite how popular Harding is, I think Dagna makes more sense, and would love to see her geek out in Tevinter. For romance, just say she and Sera decided they were better as friends.

3. Shaper Valta, on a mission from the Titans she doesn't quite understand.

4. Korbin, Legionnaire who realizes Orzimmar must be protected from surface threats as well as Darkspawn.

5. Luka, crazy alchemist in search of a better bomb.

6. Pala, the Silent Sister whose quest for glory brought her to the Provings of Minrathous.

7. Jerrik Dace, a grim ranger whose search to empower his House forced him to the surface.

8. Sandal, ENCHANTMENT!!!

9. Other.

Alternatively, what kind of new Dwarven characters would you like to see?

A suave, affably evil Ambassadori Noble, ala Bhelen?

A would be ubermench Paragon like Branka or Hirol?

A dwarf whose attempt to recreate golems turned them into a lyrium powered stone cyborg? *Hell Yeah. Maybe combine this one with the wannabe Paragon?

A Kal Sharok Rock Knocker? And given how secretive and isolationist Knal Sharok is, just what the hell did they do to get exiled ?

Something else?

Wouldn't mind having Sigrun back as a companion, or Harding to be our Dwarf pal.

Otherwise a Silent Sister would be the most interesting for me, although that would mean she'd need to communicate with us in sign language or have someone translate for her.

I also want to add that I hope they change the female Dwarf to be closer to how big they were in Origins, I just didn't like how tiny they were in Inquisition.

I would like to see Valta again. The ending of Descent was slightly cliffhanger-y, and right now the Titans and early dwarven culture are the most unexplored (as far as playable races go). But it feels like dwarves in general have been secondary to everything else going on in the games, so I'll take any increase in dwarven content. Besides, dwarves are the best, so the more the better!


Also, it doesn't feel like Dragon Age without Sandal.

That's how I'd imagine it would work, but at the same time I'd rather they put in the actual animation work for sign language.


Very tiny, have a male Dwarf stand next to a female Dwarf and you'll notice that she is smaller than him and her arms seem really small and stubby to me. Really male and female Dwarves should be about the same height and have a similar stocky build.

Fair enough. A body sliding option would help in DA4, but I won't hold my breath.

I miss all my dwarves peeps. Can't wait until we're discussing dwarf lore again. Also, started a new dwarf, Cedric Cadash:



eggplantred doing really well and having fun with Andromeda. Hope all is well with you.

I've recently begun practising HEMA (standing for Historical European Martial Arts) and I just bought my fencing gear today. Decorating your fencing mask is possible and actually highly recommended if only for not mixing it up with someone else's. So of course I'm torn between painting the heraldry of the Legion of the Dead or the one of the Silent Sisters (I considered the Carta's too, but I like it less that the two others.)



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Such a dilemna!

The Legion of the dead looks nice.

So Dwarf fans, what's your general consensus on Valta and the possibility of Dwarf Mages?

1. It ruins one of the few things that made Dragon Age Dwarves unique?

2. Fine as long as it is extremely rare, and doesn't ignore all the good and bad implications of being connected to the Titans?

3. I want my Dwarf mage!

I'd like to play a Dwarf mage...eventually. Meaning not before one or two more games at the very least. Since Valta vanished in the Deep Roads and the Inquisitor didn't even seem to know what to do with this new information, I think it'll take some times (in-game) before the subject is brought up again.

If Artificers and Tempests use Gadgets and Alchemy to fight enemies, maybe we could have a class of Dwarves who utilise prepared Runes/Enchantments to allow them to use magical effects in combat?

It wouldn't exactly be lore-breaking, since Dwarves are the only people in Thedas capable of creating Enchantments besides the Tranquil. We've also seen numerous examples of Dwarves showing a penchant for "sufficiently analysed magic" and magiteck.

Dwarven ruins have been known to feature a lot of magical wards in their construction, something that Varric jokes in DAI is "compensation" for being not able to use magic. Caridin was able to animate Golems by discovering some method to transfer the souls of Dwarves into his stone/metal constructs, an impressive (if morally dubious) feat. Dagna is another example of a Dwarf who's intensive study on the theory and forces behind magic allowed her to figure out non-magical ways to replicate the effects.

As for Sandal, even ignoring what the deal is up with him (such as "Not Enchantment" causing the frozen Ogre), we learn from Bodahn that he's burned down the house a few times by accident, has been known to create enchantments that go "boom" and a quiet day that the Hawke mansion is one that doesn't involve any "runaway enchantments" to contend with.

All this leads me to think that a Runecrafter would make for the most lore-friendly way to introduce a "pseudo-mage" class for Dwarves. By casting runes at the ground, they could create different effects to help in battle, such as elemental runes meant to damage enemies, or barrier/armour runes meant to buff the party.

Obviously in terms of gameplay-and-story segregration, you couldn't realistically expect a Runecrafter to have an infinite amount of "one-shot" runes prepared for any given battle. Of course, Archers, Artificers and Tempest rogues have "unlimited" arrows, bombs and flasks, so it's not like we don't already accept this conceit elsewhere in the games.