Heroes of the Feywild Excerpts

[Dice4Hire]

The satyrs actually look to be playable, and have some nice little quirks in there.

Not a bad job by WOTC.

 

[JPL]

Satyr preview is up.

Looks good. The racial power is solid, and I like that they always have bluff as a class skill.

I do find the fluff a little amusing. It seems a little ... backpedalish? "Satyrs are hedonistic ... but not too hedonistic". "Satyrs like to partay, but aren't stupid about it."

I'd be interested in knowing the thought process there. I'd guess it's a matter of encouraging a more nuanced approach to the roleplaying. If the default satyr PC is nothing but frolicking and fornicating with the occasional homicidal rage, it could get pretty old pretty quick. But throw in the idea that they can be shy and cautious, and it keeps them from falling into Chaotic Stupid territory.

 

[Zaran]

Just a quick reminder that there is a runepriest article in this month's Dragon.

As for support to other things, the submission window is open! Come up with an awesome story hook for a shardmind or seeker article and send it to WotC.

I don't see why this is the answer for lack of content? Was the tome wizard a submission before it went into Arcane Power? Why do I have to rely on user submissions for content that should be from the same people who gave us the original stuff? User submissions should be a small percentage of content distributed to us.

I really dislike lack of submissions as an excuse for lack of WotC creators.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I'd be interested in knowing the thought process there. I'd guess it's a matter of encouraging a more nuanced approach to the roleplaying. If the default satyr PC is nothing but frolicking and fornicating with the occasional homicidal rage, it could get pretty old pretty quick. But throw in the idea that they can be shy and cautious, and it keeps them from falling into Chaotic Stupid territory.

Yeah, basically. Just encouraging players to add a bit of depth to their characters. Of course you can always still play your character as a total wildman if you want. Not a bad race. CHA/CON isn't that common a stat distribution. I'm sure people can find a niche for it, even if it is a bit of an zoo race. Should be a fun one to use in a Feywild based campaign though.

 

[Kzach]

1) Tons of races that are "barren" of content . . . really? I don't feel the lack you speak of.

So because you don't feel it, it doesn't therefore exist?

2) I don't remember seeing elves in the preview (it's been a few days), but even so, the book is on the Feywild, and that's were the eladrin live and elves come from. I'd be surprised if there wasn't good material for elves and eladrin.

Heroes of the Feywild is a book we didn't need BECAUSE it's just going to have more elf stuff in it. There is already a plethora of elf stuff. Nobody is lamenting the lack of elf material. There are, however, many people lamenting the lack of material for dozens of other races that are already in the system. And on top of that, it's a book filled with new races. Guess what? I bet we don't see much support beyond this book for them either.

3) I don't get the sentiment that classes and races that A) aren't all that popular, and B) don't really fill any mythic or literature archetypes all that well are somehow shafted without tons of powers, feats, and whatevers. Humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits are classic mythic and literature archetypes that D&D is built around . . . why the hate when WotC caters to what the majority of their customers want? Personally, I feel that elves have all the options they "need", but I love elves (and eladrin) and always love seeing quality articles that give me more character ideas.

Again, you seem to think that because you don't see a need, a need doesn't exist. ENW is a small part of the gaming community; try reading other forums that represent other parts of the gaming community and you might just end up seeing that need in other people's comments.

Player's don't write to WotC in droves requesting more Runepriest support...

So you work for WotC's letter receiving department now and know this for fact?

This works with races too. The Shardmind is cool, but you're never going to see it get equal support as the Elf, and you shouldn't. IMO, it's kinda silly to expect otherwise.

Again with this concept that what you want is representative of what everyone wants. YOU might think it's silly, but there are gazillions of other people in the world who don't agree with you and DO want more content for lesser supported races and classes. Read other forums, RPG.net, WotC, GITP, SA, just to name a few and you'll find that you're not in the majority, but rather in the minority.

 

[JPL]

Yeah, basically. Just encouraging players to add a bit of depth to their characters. Of course you can always still play your character as a total wildman if you want. Not a bad race. CHA/CON isn't that common a stat distribution. I'm sure people can find a niche for it, even if it is a bit of an zoo race. Should be a fun one to use in a Feywild based campaign though.

It's good game design . . . I remember back in the day, with races like kender and gulley dwarves and even drow, and the whole alignment of Chaotic Neutral, where the books were damn near instructing the player to ruin the game for everyone whenever possible.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

It's good game design . . . I remember back in the day, with races like kender and gulley dwarves and even drow, and the whole alignment of Chaotic Neutral, where the books were damn near instructing the player to ruin the game for everyone whenever possible.

Ah, the bad old days. I hate Kender.

Yeah, those old floppybacks were chock full of bad advice. Especially if you were 14. "I'm just playing my character!" "It's what my character would do!" Not a good excuse for being a jerk. So seeing them encourage a little restraint now and then is good.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

So because you don't feel it, it doesn't therefore exist?


Heroes of the Feywild is a book we didn't need BECAUSE it's just going to have more elf stuff in it. There is already a plethora of elf stuff. Nobody is lamenting the lack of elf material. There are, however, many people lamenting the lack of material for dozens of other races that are already in the system. And on top of that, it's a book filled with new races. Guess what? I bet we don't see much support beyond this book for them either.


Again, you seem to think that because you don't see a need, a need doesn't exist. ENW is a small part of the gaming community; try reading other forums that represent other parts of the gaming community and you might just end up seeing that need in other people's comments.


So you work for WotC's letter receiving department now and know this for fact?


Again with this concept that what you want is representative of what everyone wants. YOU might think it's silly, but there are gazillions of other people in the world who don't agree with you and DO want more content for lesser supported races and classes. Read other forums, RPG.net, WotC, GITP, SA, just to name a few and you'll find that you're not in the majority, but rather in the minority.

I do see your POV there. OTOH for 30+ years I personally have hankered for the system to do a good job with the Land of Fairy, and finally 4e created a good niche for that and has at least acknowledged it as a core mythological and literary theme to work on and given us SOME material. While the stuff they're doing for it now may in some sense be adding to an already large pile of material it is the one area where I can honestly say D&D really still has a profound void that deserves to be filled. Maybe even moreso on the DM side than the player side, but if you are going to do one you had better cover the other as well.

The whole Heroes of the Elemental Chaos thing OTOH I'm not real sure I find a lot of reason to believe is so needed. I'm sure there will be cool stuff in there, but it seems like less of a really needed theme and one that can mostly already be covered by existing material, nor is there a really coherent basis in source fantasy material for it, so it isn't like "where is elfland?" which is a rather significant lacuna.

 

[Drammattex]

Especially if you were 14. "I'm just playing my character!" "It's what my character would do!" Not a good excuse for being a jerk.

It's a little sad that that we have the exact same memory of this experience, with the exact same quotes, and the exact same age.

 

[the Jester]

I don't see why this is the answer for lack of content? Was the tome wizard a submission before it went into Arcane Power? Why do I have to rely on user submissions for content that should be from the same people who gave us the original stuff? User submissions should be a small percentage of content distributed to us.

I really dislike lack of submissions as an excuse for lack of WotC creators.

There are only so many dudes working at WotC, and they can only create so much stuff. At a certain point, they have to decide whether to spend that limited amount of creation time on expansions for not-very-popular stuff, expansions for popular stuff or entirely new stuff, and they have to strike a balance between them. In that balancing act, the unpopular stuff naturally gets short shrift, but that's better than a lack of support for popular stuff and new stuff IMHO. Not-so-popular support also often doesn't sell well, so can't justify its existence.