Oinoloths in MToF?

Mouseferatu · May 19, 2018

Could someone with early access to the book, or to D&D Beyond, share the 5E lore on the Oinoloth? I've heard they've made it a type of Yugoloth, rather than an individual title. Is that so? If it is, have they addressed that as a change, or is it more of a "This is how it's always been" thing? What's their place in the Yugoloth hierarchy? What's their CR? Any mention of Anthraxus personally?

Demetrios1453 · May 19, 2018

Mouseferatu said:
Could someone with early access to the book, or to D&D Beyond, share the 5E lore on the Oinoloth? I've heard they've made it a type of Yugoloth, rather than an individual title. Is that so? If it is, have they addressed that as a change, or is it more of a "This is how it's always been" thing? What's their place in the Yugoloth hierarchy? What's their CR? Any mention of Anthraxus personally?

They're presented as normal yugoloths, with no mention of the previous title or Anthraxus. They're CR 12, so they're roughly on par with arcanaloths and ultroloths. They're plague-spreaders, so basically they're weapons of mass destruction and weapons of last resort for the yugoloths. They're basically scaled down versions of Anthraxus, so they can easily be added to previous yugoloth lore as servants of Anthraxus and/or *the* Oinoloth (allowing for these to be potentially added in the future).

Mouseferatu · May 19, 2018

Oh. That's... honestly the first truly disappointing thing I've heard thus far about this book.

I was looking forward to some truly powerful Yugoloths, and some lore on Anthraxus/other unique Yugoloths. Blargh.

Demetrios1453 · May 19, 2018

Mouseferatu said:
Oh. That's... honestly the first truly disappointing thing I've heard thus far about this book.

I was looking forward to some truly powerful Yugoloths, and some lore on Anthraxus/other unique Yugoloths. Blargh.

I wouldn't get too upset over it. It's obvious that there are still higher-level outer planar beings that they will be covering in later books, such as the main archdevils and the hierarch modrons (both are mentioned in MToF, but not covered). It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that some higher-level yugoloths would be among those...

MonsterEnvy · May 19, 2018

I am currently trying ot ask the designers about the Oinoloths as its a strange decision I am curious about.

Mouseferatu · May 19, 2018

MonsterEnvy said:
I am currently trying ot ask the designers about the Oinoloths as its a strange decision I am curious about.

Please do let us know what they say.

Demetrios1453 · May 19, 2018

MonsterEnvy said:
I am currently trying ot ask the designers about the Oinoloths as its a strange decision I am curious about.

I'm more curious on why they left the piscoloth out, considering it's one of the more distinctive yugoloths. I'm actually fine with these new oinoloths, since they're simple to explain, at least in my mind - they're just "lesser oinoloths", servants or creations of the original.

MonsterEnvy · May 19, 2018

Mouseferatu said:
Please do let us know what they say.

Got a reply from Mearls. He did not elaborate much on the reasons for the change but did say this about Anthraxus.

"Oinoloth is a type of yugoloth, Anthraxus is a specific and very powerful individual of that type"

Shemeska · May 19, 2018

MonsterEnvy said:
Got a reply from Mearls. He did not elaborate much on the reasons for the change but did say this about Anthraxus.

"Oinoloth is a type of yugoloth, Anthraxus is a specific and very powerful individual of that type"

That's an unfortunate retcon there in Mearls answer on top top of the already extant retcon regarding "oinoloths" in MToF.

Anthraxus is an altraloth, formerly an arcanaloth (per the 2e 'Pox of the Planes' article) prior to his transformation.

I'm disappointed that as 5e seems to be genuinely trying to appeal to fans of prior settings and make reference to them in 5e content, it's retconning a pretty massive amount of the lore from those settings.

pukunui · May 19, 2018

Shemeska said:
I'm disappointed that as 5e seems to be genuinely trying to appeal to fans of prior settings and make reference to them in 5e content, it's retconning a pretty massive amount of the lore from those settings.

They've been changing the lore since the playtest period (eg. merrow), so it's not all that surprising to me that they're still doing it now.