Dwarves are known as skilled warriors, miners, and metalworkers – not typical sorcerer fare. That doesn’t mean you can’t roll an interesting Dwarf Sorcerer in your next campaign! Let’s go over how to build one.  

The Dwarf race AND the Sorcerer class can be found in the Player’s Handbook. Click here to pick up your own copy of The Player’s Handbook!

How to Make a Dwarf Sorcerer

Sorcerers rely heavily on CHA, and no dwarf options will augment that stat. As a sorcerer, you’re incredibly squishy with only d6 hit points. Roll a Hill Dwarf for extra hit points or a Mountain Dwarf for the ability to use medium armor and gain extra CON – your Dwarf Sorcerer might not be the most optimal spellcaster, but you’re going to be hardier than other casters.

The Sorcerer class’ most important stat is CHA, as it commands all of your major class abilities. The next most important are DEX for AC and CON to compensate for your low hitpoints – but mostly focus on CHA.

You’ll have access to many subclasses that can augment your playstyle. Aberrant Mind is a psionics-focused subclass that gives your character access to powerful psionic spells and resistance to psychic damage, charm, and fear effects.

How to Play a Dwarf Sorcerer

With Sorcerers, flexibility is key. Sorcerers are full casters but don’t have access to as many spells as most of the other caster classes.

You might not get access to as many utility spells, but your damage spells are going to be more applicable and more effective than other casting classes. At 2nd level, your character gains Fonts of Magic, tapping into a deep wellspring of magic from within and gaining access to sorcery points that scale with your level. This provides flexibility to create more spell slots, or use sorcery points to manipulate your spells with Meta Magic.

Meta Magic is gained at 3rd level, giving you the ability to spend sorcery points to augment a spell with powerful attributes. For example, Careful Spell allows you to spend a point and weave large AOE spell blasts around your party members, hitting only enemies. Distant Spell doubles the range of ranged spells and allows touch spells to be used with 30ft or range.

How to Roleplay as a Dwarf Sorcerer

In most dwarf communities, sorcerers are relatively rare. This means that your character will most likely have a unique backstory and motivations for why they adventure.

Sorcerers gain their magic through a wellspring of magic from within, meaning that any Dwarf can be gifted without their choosing. Your character could have been blessed with magic intuition from a young age and is on a quest to cultivate their abilities. Dwarven Wizards are common – maybe your character was in training to become a wizard before realizing that they were different from the other students. Maybe you grew up in a poor dwarven mining community, outcast for what was seen as “unnatural abilities”, searching for a group to take you in.

Roleplaying a Dwarf Sorcerer is a game of contradictions, as Dwarves aren’t natural sorcerers. As always, these contradictions make for an interesting and fun character to play.