Editing Duergar (section)

==Duergar vs. Drow==
Duergar like [[drow]] have starred in several D&D modules: some classic (''[[Gates of Firestorm Peak]]'') some not so much (''[[Bloodstone Pass|Mines of Bloodstone]]''). But duergar have never caught on as well with the punters.

One issue is that whereas drow feel different to [[elves]], being spider-worshipping BDSM crazies; duergar are basically dwarves acting like jerks and being called out for it. It certainly doesn't help that in both AD&D and 3e, duergar actually co-existed alongside the "Deep Dwarves", whose archetype was being "[[Underdark]] dwarves who are ''not'' evil", something that undercut duergar rather badly. Fourth Edition tried to address this by essentially turning the duergar into fiendish devil-worshipers that incorporate lots of magma and flames into their strongholds, but the change was reversed come Fifth Edition (though minor lore ties to devils are mentioned in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Rime of the Frostmaiden).

Another issue is habitat. Duergar live in hewed-out Moria-style mines... just like dwarves. Surface-origin visitors, by then, have Been There and Seen That. By contrast the drow, as elves, take an organic approach to the Underdark as their ancestors once did for the surface. Drow-inhabited caverns work within the beauty in the caves. And by the late 1970s, the wonders of natural caverns were well-known to interactive-fiction players of ''Advent'' and ''Zork''.

On the positive side, or perhaps negative from a narrative standpoint, the duergar's particular form of evil is more of a "utilitarian unpleasantness" compared to the drow's "psychotic sadism." You can negotiate with duergar and they're not just going to stab you or enslave you for the giggles. They deeply empathize with suffering, too. Following the Spellplague, their home of Gracklstugh was decimated (literally nine in ten residents perished), and they accepted refugees from throughout the Underdark, including Derro. They also deeply mourn their dead (as evidenced in Rime of the Frostmaiden.)