Back in the day, White Dwarf magazine was the British answer to the Dragon, and its regular “Fiend Factory” column was a source of many monsters for early D&D games. In fact, the first edition Fiend Folio (1981) was largely a collection of monsters submitted to WD. This 3e conversion is part of an ongoing project to resurrect some interesting WD monsters that, for one reason or another, fell by the wayside.

The svart was a submission of Cricky Hitchcock and appeared in White Dwarf 9 (Oct/Nov 1978) as part of the “Fiend Factory” column. The monster was based on creatures from The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. In WD 15 the svart was ranked #3 in a poll of most popular “Fiend Factory” monsters.

From here the svart’s history in D&D takes an interesting turn. The monster appeared in the 1e Fiend Folio (1981), but was renamed the “xvart,” undoubtedly to avoid legal trouble with Garner. Xvarts appeared again in the 2nd edition Fiend Folio supplement (1992), in the 3.0 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (2000), and in the 3.5 Dragon 339 (2006). Xvarts were also common in the Baldur’s Gate games.

Despite their long history in D&D, xvarts have always suffered from an utter lack of distinction with the other humanoid races. (In their initial WD entry they were described blandly as “mediary between Goblins and Kobolds.”) In developing this conversion I went back to the original WD entry as well as Garner’s book for inspiration. Garner’s svarts (the name is short for svart-alfar, or “dark elves”) are cut from the same folkloric cloth as drow. With this in mind, I built this conversion using the oft-neglected fey creature type.

Advanced Svart

Most svarts advance by hit dice. In a group of 20 svarts, one will be a strong leader-type, ranging up to 5 feet in height. These larger and stronger svarts are often afforded great respect by their smaller kin. Leaders use a handaxe, heavy mace, battleaxe, morningstar or heavy flail.