I mean it is pretty backwards compatible, but the new PHB is literally done, youtubers have it right now
There are a lot of things I don't like about WOTC but getting mad that they moved subclasses to level 3 based on pretty overwhelming community feedback isn't one of them - I haven't seen anything of their new design that isn't a dramatic improvement, although I'm still probably ditching D&D for DC20 because I think that literally the only thing I like less about that system is that it's a meat grinder - but I already homebrewed a solution (just added a downed state where you dont die until you hit -100% maxhp, but you cant be "upped" by just healing you need to rest and spent rest points to regain consciousness or hit by a powerful heal)
Oh yeah, I knew what I was saying. Especially when earlier they doubled down on the shitty CR system as "working fine". Of course it sounds like if Override is right they realized that was stupid and hopefully changed their mind, but I don't hold out much hope here.
I don't get why they don't list offensive and defensive CR in the statblocks when you have to figure them out as part of the system. It makes a difference if a creature has the CR it does primarily because of its offensive capability versus its defense, or vice versa.
If they actually took time to improve how monsters were designed
*sensible_chuckle.gif*
I've found that some books do a lot better with monster design than others. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica were the first 5E books that had creatures with some pretty interesting mechanics (the sorrowsworn each have a fun gimmick, for example). The original MM was the weakest monster book, so I'm hoping the new one is a pretty significant departure (maybe that could explain why it's taking so long to come out versus the new PHB and DMG).
I think bringing back the monster role design philosophy from 4E would help to standardize monster design and to inspire more interesting statblocks.
I'd bet my paycheck that at a number of 4e design principles will be quietly integrated into the new MM and DMG without anyone at WOTC ever saying "fourth edition"
I'd bet my paycheck that at a number of 4e design principles will be quietly integrated into the new MM and DMG without anyone at WOTC ever saying "fourth edition"
it's possible not, still they've been quite upfront about just stealing homebrew and making it how the game works now in the most recent interview, IDK why they wouldn't steal from their own previous ideas
it's possible not, still they've been quite upfront about just stealing homebrew and making it how the game works now in the most recent interview, IDK why they wouldn't steal from their own previous ideas
I made a poll on ENWorld a while backing asking if monster roles should be brought back. The majority said yes, but it was surprisingly close.
one thing that i think is important about adapting a cosmic horror situation into a tabletop situation is that the core of cosmic horror is how one responds to the unknown and not how unknown it is. grand daddy cthulhu does not have psychic mind melting powers or anything. cthulhu is just really, really big, in a way that a 1920s man has never seen, and he has malicious intent that as far as humans can understand is ultimately unstoppable. and also he's still a big thing that you can just ram with a boat. it's not necessarily gonna do much and he heals quick but almost every part of him exists on an understandable level. it is characterized ultimately not by the shape of the thing you are perceiving, but the way in which it stresses you out. the combination of your knowledge being forcibly widened and the resulting reallocation of your place in the cosmos. to a certain extent cosmic horror existed before we called it that, because in a sense a guy in the 1500s laying awake at night going "what if i'm following the wrong religion" is in some ways experiencing the same emotions that are invoked by cosmic horror.
and that's why the most cosmically horrible thing in D&D is finding out another adventuring party has outleveled you
eh paladin got nerfed in the burst damage department but with the other changes to paladin it's not really an overall nerf, they have all fighting styles, more channel divinity uses, etc
+1
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
edited June 2024
Also a free cast of divine smite per short rest, I think?
I just went on a tear and typed up a lot of words on my personal take on a Spelljammer setting, the Elserryn Cluster, which amalgamates my research on both the Astral Plane and wildspace. Included in this is my conception that the wildspace systems and other features of the Astral Plane are logically-grouped into clusters, which makes features popularly believed to be within the Elserryn Cluster easier to reach and those considered outside the Elserryn Cluster to take longer due to their greater conceptual distance.
I'm spoilering for the wall of text I just typed on my phone over the last four hours, but I'd be interested in feedback and ideas.
Elserryn Cluster
- Overview. The Elserryn Cluster is a logical grouping of wildspace systems and Astral phenomena such as god isles. It is primarily controlled by the mercane, though proxies and vassals manage the cluster for them.
- Expanding Reach. The Cluster is centered on Crosswinds Keep and is believed to have been much more metaphysically limited in size before the integration of the Peregrine Line to the cluster. It is believed the cluster's size will grow or shrink based in large part on the regular routes of the Peregrine Line’s Astral vessels
Crosswinds Keep
- Crosswinds Keep. The popularly-established center of the Elserryn Cluster is Crosswinds Keep, an expansive fortress settlement built upon the petrified head of a nameless goddess. It was founded by an adventuring company that sought immortality in the Astral Plane, but following its acquisition by the mercane its founders went their separate ways to parts unknown. No more than 25,000 people are allowed to live at Crosswinds, which the mercane enforce by making the cost of living prohibitively expensive.
- Defenses. Crosswinds Keep is protected by paid mercenary companies, as is typical of the mercane's practices. They are further reinforced by powerful inhabitants and visitors to the Keep. The githyanki also periodically defend Crosswinds from significant threats.
- Prison. Upkeep is minimal for the prison due to the timeless nature of the Astral Plane, which means food, water, and sanitation are unnecessary for keeping inmates physically well. Crime is minimal at the Keep, perhaps in part due to the deterrent of the rumored everlasting oubliettes where enemies of the mercane are forever entombed (as air is also a mere luxury in the Astral Plane).
- Mindex. The head of the forgotten deity that Crosswinds Keep is built upon once yielded plentiful mindex, a metal receptive to psionics and used for both the construction of Astral vessels and by the githyanki as a component in the construction of their infamous silver swords. After the mercane took control of the Keep the god isle produced a greatly-reduced quantity of the metal for reasons unknown (possibly related to controlling and manipulating the supply of mindex within the Cluster).
Peregrine Line
- The Line. The mercane own and operate the Peregrine Line, a fleet of Astral vessels that serve as luxury passenger ships, having long ago acquired them from the mage who established the business. The headquarters for this business is Crosswinds Keep, which had the effect of greatly expanding the Elserryn Cluster to include those wildspace systems and adjacent Astral bodies the mercanes’ ships offered regular passage to.
Voidjammers. The Peregrine Line's fleet is composed of astral vessels that can only function in the Astral Plane, called “voidjammers” by the company. They are very metaphysically fast thanks to their Astral Engines and their mindex frames, which amplifies and focuses the psionic energy of the helmsman. For the sake of safety the ship is also equipped with gravvastone paneling, forbidding those within range from flying or levitating by thought or by magic.
- Security. Few attempts have been made to hijack the voidjammers. This in part because they cannot depart for hidden ports in other planes, but also because a ship's crew and passengers often include very powerful individuals. The gravvastone included in the ship's construction also helps to ward of threats from attackers floating through the plane.
- Astral Engines. The secret behind the signature voidjammers of the Peregrine Line is that each vessel is powered by a linked pair of captive and artificially sustained illithid brains. This macabre innovation is thanks to the lost founder of the Line and has been kept up by the mercane, who secretly trade away mindex ore to members of Vala'Koth's leadership in exchange for freshly-harvested illithid brains.
- Dohwar "Rivals". The dohwar take advantage of the voidjammers’ inability to enter wildspace by offering passage to the Astral Plane. Several dohwar cartels have established partnerships with the Peregrine Line to establish and maintain ports connecting the Line with the dohwar's own passenger ships. The dohwar believe that this will eventually lead to somehow usurping control of the Peregrine Line itself and is worth temporarily allying with their competitors.
Vala'Koth
- Githyanki. The mercane somehow formed a truce with the githyanki of nearby Vala’Koth. It is rumored this involved foul play against the founder of the Peregrine Line, the founders of Crosswinds Keep, or both. Whatever the case, Vala’Koth no longer acts against either the Keep or the Line and sometimes provides assistance with mutual threats.
- Patient Opportunists. Cynics whisper that the githyanki are biding their time until the Keep becomes wealthy enough to plunder for more than it would ever be worth otherwise. The githyanki neither confirm nor deny these allegations, encouraging Crosswinds Keep to remain ever vigilant if the people truly believe the githyanki would betray them.
Conceptual Neighbors
- Astral Dominions. Many beings hail from the outer planes or revere the deities of those realms, which border islands in the Astral Plane known as Astral dominions. Color strands leading to those functioning Astral dominions related to the local pantheon of the Elserryn Cluster take mere days to find, no matter where in the Cluster travelers are. Astral dominions not associated with the gods revered by the people of the Elserryn Cluster are more metaphysically distant.
- Bral. A locale made unusual by its historically-contested logical categorization. For whatever reason, the asteroid-based nation known as Bral is simultaneously claimed as a member of multiple Astral clusters. This has led to a growing conceptualization of Bral being the central point of a metacluster linking otherwise discrete clusters and facilitating travel between them, which would promote its independence by making Bral more valuable as a port between clusters rather than a member of a specific one.
- Hestavar. An Astral dominion ruled by Erathis, a goddess of law seeks to unite all wildspace systems and other locations in the Astral Plane into a cohesive cluster. Followers of Erathis claim that the means by which clusters are able to come into existence at all uses a metaphysical framework overseen (or perhaps even created) by their goddess called “the Lattice of Heaven”. Hestavar, also known as “the Bright City”, has come to be classified by planar researchers as the hub for a metacluster linking those clusters whose inhabitants revere Erathis, which both the goddess and the divine assembly of Hestavar encourage as the first phase of unifying the Astral Plane and, by extension, all of wildspace.
- Vodoni Cluster. The wildspace systems of the Vodoni Cluster are controlled by warring factions born from the remnants of the Vodoni Empire. The conceptual framework of the Vodoni Cluster is in the process of dissolution as both the inhabitants of its worlds and the people of the Elserryn Cluster gradually cease to categorize them as belonging to a unified group. As a result, a few wildspace systems that once were conceived of as part of the Vodoni Cluster are now part of the Elserryn Cluster, such as the sparsely-populated Passarspace.
- Xaryxian Cluster. A growing number of wildspace systems are falling under the control of the Astral elves of the Xaryxian Empire. Gabionspace and Remichispace, previously independent wildspace systems, are now believed to have been annexed as part of the Xaryxian cluster.
Paladins getting a burst nerf is fucking wonderful news IMHO; like since real early on they've been basically walking around with a .500 magnum on their hip and that's meant that one of these guys can *dramatically* shorten a fight; Like two of these guys would have been able to dumpster Strahd in like two rounds just by unloading smite+mulit attack.
Also there is apparently some art for orcs going around right now that is... umm... how do I put this... kind of ridiculous.
Somebody decided the best way to seperate them from their "problematic" history is to make them mexican.
Yup.
This is of course, even more bizzare given that the creators want to make their materials more "setting agnostic" as opposed to just greyhawk and/or Forgotten realms.
Gaddez on
+1
daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
What exactly is their problematic history, other than the whole designated bad guys thing, that 'Mexican' (seriously, are they wearing sombreros or eating tacos or something stupid in the art?) would somehow separate them from?
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
because racists refer to *insert whoever they hate* using the same characteristics as orcs, but orcs in D&D neither have human skin colors nor does any group of humans have tusks, the primary complaint has been a lack of depth, IE, they're just evil because race - something Greenwood and Salvatore have thoroughly tackled but WOTC is straight up allergic to including their work in the PHB for some reason
What exactly is their problematic history, other than the whole designated bad guys thing, that 'Mexican' (seriously, are they wearing sombreros or eating tacos or something stupid in the art?) would somehow separate them from?
Well there was the whole Savage rampaging idiots phase they had.
Then there was a period of time when orcs were being conflated with being black (for some reason... along with Drow).
So they threw out all of their lore, just burned it to the ground.
So they could apparently make orcs Mexican.
like... I can't be the only person who is bemused by this turn of events.
I've never understood the drow as racist allegory other than "dark skin = evil", racists don't depict those they hate as sexy aristocratic hedonists (also drow haven't been "inherently evil" since the very early novels, as soon as an entire generation of kids wanted to play as drow after the drizzt homeland trilogy, they did a lot of backtracking on that front)
Now the chultan drow
whooooooooooooooooooooooo boy someone sure had an idea when they created those, a really fucking bad idea (they dressed dark elves up in african tribal attire, which admittedly is just the same style of clothes as the native humans, but it was not a good look and made no fucking sense for a race of setting-contemporary technological advancement and whos silk clothes are renowned for their detail and artistry)
edit: there were some novel covers with the artists depicting drow as literally african americans in... I wanna say the late 1980s? but that has nothing to do with the content of the books, that's whoever they got to do the art either being terrible or being given bad instructions, "oh dark skin? they're black?" it's not like the artist knew what a dark elf was. The OG depiction of drow visually is mostly problematic in trying to actually depict them, humans dont have infravision so your characters being vantablack from head to toe with shock white hair and bright red eyes basically means unless you're depicting them in sunlight - which they never are - it's very hard to even draw them in a way where you can even distinguish their appearance and features - the depiction that's stuck around since I wanna say the early 2000s of just grey skinned like the duergar works much better both in terms of visually depicting them and making it less confusing to visualize them interacting with people
I wonder if they're going to decouple PB from CR, it never made sense to me how crap something like a Cat is at things that cats are literally better at than any human because they're CR 0 their PB is so low
Like here's the thing: I kind of like the idea of a setting that is mapped onto the american southwest. I can see how that could be fun and interesting along with figuring out how best to fit the various races into it.
But throwing this up as the default image for orcs for the new edition seems... counter intuitive to the idea of making them going setting agnostic.
+1
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited June 2024
I cannot be convinced that that's not just WotC's art departments having some crossover or remainders from the Magic the Gathering set Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
For those that are unaware, WotC made an entire set that was basically Wild West themed but it used all the existing kinds of weirdo fantasy things that Magic has always been known for. So you have wizards/angels/demons with pistol/wands and magic energy-lassos, and big sweeping rocky savannahs in the backgrounds, and lots of cowboy hats, dusters, and flowing cloaks. Seriously, just go look at this art.
Is this particular art piece "not good" for 2024 D&D's tone? I think it depends on its context in the book, and absent that context I can't judge. Taken out of context, it just looks like generic-mashup-fantasy art to me. I get no cultural vibes from it. I do like that WotC is willing to spread out from the traditional fantasy art that has long been a staple in their books. Give us more weirdness in our core books!
And actually, I take back what I said. The vibes I get are the Orcs Are Sexy Now, looking at some of the individuals in that art! The ladies in the back! The burly axe-dame! The sweaty, shirtless muscleman on the right! Srsly.
My hard copy of Tales of the Valiant came in today! It's the open source(is that the right word?) version of D&D 5e made by Kobold Press in response to all the OGL shit. It's basically compatible with 5e so I can bring monsters/items/adventures/etc. back and forth with minimal effort. I even ran one of the adventures included as a digital reward for the Kickstarter campaign in for my friends using 5e rules and I didn't have to change a thing. Enough of the rules are slightly different enough that I doubt I'll get my group to switch over, but I'll try and see if there's anything I can bring over in our games to improve stuff. I mostly backed the Kickstarter because I support the idea and I figure Kobold Press is a decent company so might as well. Plus I'm a consumer whore with poor impulse control so
+7
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
I also backed ToV, but opted for all-digital goods because that's where I live nowadays.
I cannot wait to have another Monster compendium to use in my Roll20 game, just to give me more in-built tools to play with.
and that's why the most cosmically horrible thing in D&D is finding out another adventuring party has outleveled you
I'm double posting because the thought of the players running into a long-standing rival adventuring party and the other party are just casually standing around showing off all their cool new powers and magic items and the players are just like, "oh come the fuck onnnn" is absolutely killing me 😂
edit: I guess not a double post, Nips beat me to the punch lol
How friggin' wild would it be if the default orcs were suddenly cowboys? It's so weird that I kind of want it to happen. Maybe Gruumsh is now the cowboy god or something.
+3
daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
I mean I guess it’s Mexicanish if looking like they’re in the American Southwest somehow says Mexican to people.
Otherwise I don’t see how the image impacts their setting agnosticity or whatever. They’re not living in a standard temperate hilly wooded setting. Big whoop.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
+7
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Unrelated to the aesthetics of the art, I really like this quote from the artist on Twitter.
With Orcs' relatively short lifespan as fantasy races go, I really wanted to emphasize the multi-generational nature of a hunting party – kids and teens learning alongside the older folks.
I like the idea of giving more and expanded dimensionality to some of the less-represented (or rather, previously-hostilely-represented) species, and actually showing it in the art.
+7
ToxI kill threadsDilige, et quod vis facRegistered Userregular
How friggin' wild would it be if the default orcs were suddenly cowboys? It's so weird that I kind of want it to happen. Maybe Gruumsh is now the cowboy god or something.
D I R E C O Y O T E
maybe the real panopticon was the friends we made along the way
Those orcs certainly have a vibe that says not from fantasy Europe, which I don’t think is a big deal if they make the key art for other heritages worldwide too. I’ve always thought Mayan + Dwarf would make for some cool designs. It’ll be a bit odd if human, elf and dwarf are clearly from Englandshireham though.
Posts
There are a lot of things I don't like about WOTC but getting mad that they moved subclasses to level 3 based on pretty overwhelming community feedback isn't one of them - I haven't seen anything of their new design that isn't a dramatic improvement, although I'm still probably ditching D&D for DC20 because I think that literally the only thing I like less about that system is that it's a meat grinder - but I already homebrewed a solution (just added a downed state where you dont die until you hit -100% maxhp, but you cant be "upped" by just healing you need to rest and spent rest points to regain consciousness or hit by a powerful heal)
I don't get why they don't list offensive and defensive CR in the statblocks when you have to figure them out as part of the system. It makes a difference if a creature has the CR it does primarily because of its offensive capability versus its defense, or vice versa.
I've found that some books do a lot better with monster design than others. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica were the first 5E books that had creatures with some pretty interesting mechanics (the sorrowsworn each have a fun gimmick, for example). The original MM was the weakest monster book, so I'm hoping the new one is a pretty significant departure (maybe that could explain why it's taking so long to come out versus the new PHB and DMG).
I think bringing back the monster role design philosophy from 4E would help to standardize monster design and to inspire more interesting statblocks.
I'd hope, but I'm not optimistic.
I made a poll on ENWorld a while backing asking if monster roles should be brought back. The majority said yes, but it was surprisingly close.
and that's why the most cosmically horrible thing in D&D is finding out another adventuring party has outleveled you
I'm spoilering for the wall of text I just typed on my phone over the last four hours, but I'd be interested in feedback and ideas.
- Overview. The Elserryn Cluster is a logical grouping of wildspace systems and Astral phenomena such as god isles. It is primarily controlled by the mercane, though proxies and vassals manage the cluster for them.
- Expanding Reach. The Cluster is centered on Crosswinds Keep and is believed to have been much more metaphysically limited in size before the integration of the Peregrine Line to the cluster. It is believed the cluster's size will grow or shrink based in large part on the regular routes of the Peregrine Line’s Astral vessels
Crosswinds Keep
- Crosswinds Keep. The popularly-established center of the Elserryn Cluster is Crosswinds Keep, an expansive fortress settlement built upon the petrified head of a nameless goddess. It was founded by an adventuring company that sought immortality in the Astral Plane, but following its acquisition by the mercane its founders went their separate ways to parts unknown. No more than 25,000 people are allowed to live at Crosswinds, which the mercane enforce by making the cost of living prohibitively expensive.
- Defenses. Crosswinds Keep is protected by paid mercenary companies, as is typical of the mercane's practices. They are further reinforced by powerful inhabitants and visitors to the Keep. The githyanki also periodically defend Crosswinds from significant threats.
- Prison. Upkeep is minimal for the prison due to the timeless nature of the Astral Plane, which means food, water, and sanitation are unnecessary for keeping inmates physically well. Crime is minimal at the Keep, perhaps in part due to the deterrent of the rumored everlasting oubliettes where enemies of the mercane are forever entombed (as air is also a mere luxury in the Astral Plane).
- Mindex. The head of the forgotten deity that Crosswinds Keep is built upon once yielded plentiful mindex, a metal receptive to psionics and used for both the construction of Astral vessels and by the githyanki as a component in the construction of their infamous silver swords. After the mercane took control of the Keep the god isle produced a greatly-reduced quantity of the metal for reasons unknown (possibly related to controlling and manipulating the supply of mindex within the Cluster).
Peregrine Line
- The Line. The mercane own and operate the Peregrine Line, a fleet of Astral vessels that serve as luxury passenger ships, having long ago acquired them from the mage who established the business. The headquarters for this business is Crosswinds Keep, which had the effect of greatly expanding the Elserryn Cluster to include those wildspace systems and adjacent Astral bodies the mercanes’ ships offered regular passage to.
Voidjammers. The Peregrine Line's fleet is composed of astral vessels that can only function in the Astral Plane, called “voidjammers” by the company. They are very metaphysically fast thanks to their Astral Engines and their mindex frames, which amplifies and focuses the psionic energy of the helmsman. For the sake of safety the ship is also equipped with gravvastone paneling, forbidding those within range from flying or levitating by thought or by magic.
- Security. Few attempts have been made to hijack the voidjammers. This in part because they cannot depart for hidden ports in other planes, but also because a ship's crew and passengers often include very powerful individuals. The gravvastone included in the ship's construction also helps to ward of threats from attackers floating through the plane.
- Astral Engines. The secret behind the signature voidjammers of the Peregrine Line is that each vessel is powered by a linked pair of captive and artificially sustained illithid brains. This macabre innovation is thanks to the lost founder of the Line and has been kept up by the mercane, who secretly trade away mindex ore to members of Vala'Koth's leadership in exchange for freshly-harvested illithid brains.
- Dohwar "Rivals". The dohwar take advantage of the voidjammers’ inability to enter wildspace by offering passage to the Astral Plane. Several dohwar cartels have established partnerships with the Peregrine Line to establish and maintain ports connecting the Line with the dohwar's own passenger ships. The dohwar believe that this will eventually lead to somehow usurping control of the Peregrine Line itself and is worth temporarily allying with their competitors.
Vala'Koth
- Githyanki. The mercane somehow formed a truce with the githyanki of nearby Vala’Koth. It is rumored this involved foul play against the founder of the Peregrine Line, the founders of Crosswinds Keep, or both. Whatever the case, Vala’Koth no longer acts against either the Keep or the Line and sometimes provides assistance with mutual threats.
- Patient Opportunists. Cynics whisper that the githyanki are biding their time until the Keep becomes wealthy enough to plunder for more than it would ever be worth otherwise. The githyanki neither confirm nor deny these allegations, encouraging Crosswinds Keep to remain ever vigilant if the people truly believe the githyanki would betray them.
Conceptual Neighbors
- Astral Dominions. Many beings hail from the outer planes or revere the deities of those realms, which border islands in the Astral Plane known as Astral dominions. Color strands leading to those functioning Astral dominions related to the local pantheon of the Elserryn Cluster take mere days to find, no matter where in the Cluster travelers are. Astral dominions not associated with the gods revered by the people of the Elserryn Cluster are more metaphysically distant.
- Bral. A locale made unusual by its historically-contested logical categorization. For whatever reason, the asteroid-based nation known as Bral is simultaneously claimed as a member of multiple Astral clusters. This has led to a growing conceptualization of Bral being the central point of a metacluster linking otherwise discrete clusters and facilitating travel between them, which would promote its independence by making Bral more valuable as a port between clusters rather than a member of a specific one.
- Hestavar. An Astral dominion ruled by Erathis, a goddess of law seeks to unite all wildspace systems and other locations in the Astral Plane into a cohesive cluster. Followers of Erathis claim that the means by which clusters are able to come into existence at all uses a metaphysical framework overseen (or perhaps even created) by their goddess called “the Lattice of Heaven”. Hestavar, also known as “the Bright City”, has come to be classified by planar researchers as the hub for a metacluster linking those clusters whose inhabitants revere Erathis, which both the goddess and the divine assembly of Hestavar encourage as the first phase of unifying the Astral Plane and, by extension, all of wildspace.
- Vodoni Cluster. The wildspace systems of the Vodoni Cluster are controlled by warring factions born from the remnants of the Vodoni Empire. The conceptual framework of the Vodoni Cluster is in the process of dissolution as both the inhabitants of its worlds and the people of the Elserryn Cluster gradually cease to categorize them as belonging to a unified group. As a result, a few wildspace systems that once were conceived of as part of the Vodoni Cluster are now part of the Elserryn Cluster, such as the sparsely-populated Passarspace.
- Xaryxian Cluster. A growing number of wildspace systems are falling under the control of the Astral elves of the Xaryxian Empire. Gabionspace and Remichispace, previously independent wildspace systems, are now believed to have been annexed as part of the Xaryxian cluster.
Also there is apparently some art for orcs going around right now that is... umm... how do I put this... kind of ridiculous.
Yup.
This one in particular is a new familiar option for Pact of the Chain warlocks.
Then there was a period of time when orcs were being conflated with being black (for some reason... along with Drow).
So they threw out all of their lore, just burned it to the ground.
So they could apparently make orcs Mexican.
like... I can't be the only person who is bemused by this turn of events.
What does "PB+2" mean on the CR line? Drawing a blank.
Now the chultan drow
whooooooooooooooooooooooo boy someone sure had an idea when they created those, a really fucking bad idea (they dressed dark elves up in african tribal attire, which admittedly is just the same style of clothes as the native humans, but it was not a good look and made no fucking sense for a race of setting-contemporary technological advancement and whos silk clothes are renowned for their detail and artistry)
edit: there were some novel covers with the artists depicting drow as literally african americans in... I wanna say the late 1980s? but that has nothing to do with the content of the books, that's whoever they got to do the art either being terrible or being given bad instructions, "oh dark skin? they're black?" it's not like the artist knew what a dark elf was. The OG depiction of drow visually is mostly problematic in trying to actually depict them, humans dont have infravision so your characters being vantablack from head to toe with shock white hair and bright red eyes basically means unless you're depicting them in sunlight - which they never are - it's very hard to even draw them in a way where you can even distinguish their appearance and features - the depiction that's stuck around since I wanna say the early 2000s of just grey skinned like the duergar works much better both in terms of visually depicting them and making it less confusing to visualize them interacting with people
I'm guessing that means the creature's proficiency bonus is +2? That’s a weird place to put it, though.
E: yeah here:
I guess I can see where the comparison comes from but ehhh
I'm wary of people getting mad just because it's not tolkien or warcraft orcs or something
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
But throwing this up as the default image for orcs for the new edition seems... counter intuitive to the idea of making them going setting agnostic.
For those that are unaware, WotC made an entire set that was basically Wild West themed but it used all the existing kinds of weirdo fantasy things that Magic has always been known for. So you have wizards/angels/demons with pistol/wands and magic energy-lassos, and big sweeping rocky savannahs in the backgrounds, and lots of cowboy hats, dusters, and flowing cloaks. Seriously, just go look at this art.
Is this particular art piece "not good" for 2024 D&D's tone? I think it depends on its context in the book, and absent that context I can't judge. Taken out of context, it just looks like generic-mashup-fantasy art to me. I get no cultural vibes from it. I do like that WotC is willing to spread out from the traditional fantasy art that has long been a staple in their books. Give us more weirdness in our core books!
And actually, I take back what I said. The vibes I get are the Orcs Are Sexy Now, looking at some of the individuals in that art! The ladies in the back! The burly axe-dame! The sweaty, shirtless muscleman on the right! Srsly.
I cannot wait to have another Monster compendium to use in my Roll20 game, just to give me more in-built tools to play with.
I'm double posting because the thought of the players running into a long-standing rival adventuring party and the other party are just casually standing around showing off all their cool new powers and magic items and the players are just like, "oh come the fuck onnnn" is absolutely killing me 😂
edit: I guess not a double post, Nips beat me to the punch lol
Otherwise I don’t see how the image impacts their setting agnosticity or whatever. They’re not living in a standard temperate hilly wooded setting. Big whoop.
I like the idea of giving more and expanded dimensionality to some of the less-represented (or rather, previously-hostilely-represented) species, and actually showing it in the art.
D I R E C O Y O T E