D&D 5E My Review of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is Live will also answer any questions

[Demetrios1453]

I mean, I'm glad I'm not playing AL; it must be stressful to have your stuff make sense one day and when you show up to the next game, your character background and mechanics have changed.

But there's thing: are Drows now unaffected by Ressurection spells? If so, that a big mechanical effect that may ruin a character.

MtoF will be live on D&D Beyond in about three hours or so - I'll make sure to read up on this particular section first and report back on it, as there seems to be some potential confusion on what exactly is being said there.

(But in any case, these are Mordenkainen's musings, and, archmage or no, he's not 100% guaranteed to to have knowledge on absolutely everything. The unreliable narrator card can always be played with it comes to this sort of thing...)

 

[gyor]

I mean, I'm glad I'm not playing AL; it must be stressful to have your stuff make sense one day and when you show up to the next game, your character background and mechanics have changed.

But there's thing: are Drows now unaffected by Ressurection spells? If so, that a big mechanical effect that may ruin a character.

They haven't said that straight out, but its a logical conclusion. If a Drow's soul dies when its body dies how can you call the soul back from the afterlife? You can't call a soul back to a body if said soul doesn't exist anymore.

Actually it could even be a problem for other elves because if they get reincarnated right away after dead, you can't call a soul back if its incarnated in another living body.

Also what fiend would ever make a pact with an Elf if its soul wouldn't survive its death? I've barely scratched the surface of why this the worst idea they've had in 5e.

I mean its not completely bad for Shadar Kai because it gives then an easy way to united the 3e, 4e, and 5e Shadar Kai, although there still needs to be a period of afterlife before reincarnation, but for other elves its a bad idea, and soul death for Drow especially for those that don't worship the Seldarine, wrecks the entire Drow Society, why worship Lolth and the other members of the Dark Seldarine if it means oblvion, all an regular elf needs to do is prove only the Seldarine can save your soul, and Drow society collapses.

And in FR all souls (that don't gey stolen like by demons first), go to Kelemvour, who judges them and sends them to their afterlife. In FR Arvandor has always been the afterlife for Elves, now they are what barred from it?

All this runs head long into countless FR novels and RPG materials including 5e's own SCAG!!!

What a cluster****.

Runner up for bad ideas is Shadar Kai looking old in the Shadowfell, which btw also hasn't been a thing in the novels.

Least anyone call me a hater, I like that they fleshed out and united the Seldarine, Dark Seldarine, Dwarf, Gnome, and Halfling Pantheons.

Like they added members of the Seldarine mentioned in various products and settings to the regular members, given the Sundering it makes sense too from an FR and Greyhawk perpective. It also paints an interesting picture of the Seldarine.

Like several of these new to 5e Gods function simularly to Azuth, Selvras, and Velsharoon do for Mystria, only for Corellon who is the elf God of magic. One is a God of Enchantment and Divination magic, another is a God of Conjuration and Runic Magic, another is a God of Abjuration and Mythals for example.

Another is a LG Goddess whose the Daughter of Lolth, but who wasn't invovled in Lolth's betrayal, unlike her Bother and Sister and so remained a member of the Seldarine, not the Dark Seldarine but is still effectively a Drow Goddess.

Two of these Gods didn't start out as members of the Seldarine, one left the Fey Pantheon (a Goddess of Nixies and Water) and the other started out as a Goddess of Humans, than was adapted by Elves and Half Elves when her Yuirwood Pantheon was absorbed by the Seldarine).

Each of these Gods when you learn their backgrounds add depth to the Seldarine and Elves.

This is true of the other racial Gods as well.

 

[gyor]

I also like the Tiefling subraces, but wish there was more details on how each subrace comes about, culture, and how they fit into settings like FR, physical differences, they give us the mechanics, but not enough fluff compared to the Elf subraces, the Gith, and so on.

I also like the Gith from what I've heard.

I like that the Halfling Pantheon got Greyhawk Goddess Charmalaine, because I think she'd fit Ghostwise Halflings well so she's a great addition to the Setting.

Thard Harr is back in the Dwarf Pantheon, he really should have been mentioned in ToA as Chult is his main area of worship by the Dwarfs there. He's also really doesn't fit Dwarf stereotypes at all.

I all the demons, devils in the book and at least some of the Yugoloths.

I also like the Eldar Evil part of the Beastiary.

As for the Elder Elemental Section (Leviathan, Phoenix, Zaratan, Elder Tempest), I think its a prelude to Sorcerer Origins based on them, inspired by the Phoenix Sorcerer from UA.

 

[gyor]

MtoF will be live on D&D Beyond in about three hours or so - I'll make sure to read up on this particular section first and report back on it, as there seems to be some potential confusion on what exactly is being said there.

(But in any case, these are Mordenkainen's musings, and, archmage or no, he's not 100% guaranteed to to have knowledge on absolutely everything. The unreliable narrator card can always be played with it comes to this sort of thing...)

Thank you.

 

[Kendra Lawrence]

Wow, if that is true about the elves and drow, I’m sorry, but I call BS. That ignores lore that was even in the SCAG! Some elves get reincarnated eventually, sure, but they all go to Arvandor first (unless they worshiped non-elven deities, in which case they went to that god’s realm). But now they don’t go to Arvandor? Seriously? What about the souls that are already there? Why is previous established lore (that has been there throughout the editions) being so thoroughly changed?

And the drow…are they so evil now they don’t even get an afterlife? In other words, they basically have no souls and are intelligent zombies? Might as well be. Getting a reward from Lolth in the afterlife was as much a motivation for the priestesses as reward in the current life. This "fading" includes followers of Vhaeraun, too, I take it? And it’s uncertain where the followers of Eilistraee go? This is all just a big wtf to me, and honestly, it makes me really upset. I’ve always loved the elves and the drow, and I’ve always been a fan of the elves going to Arvandor. This change almost makes me tempted to leave. The afterlife in the Realms has always been a fact, but if I were an Eilistraeen or a Vhaeraunite, and my soul was either going to fade or have an uncertain “future”, that would make me hesitate in my calling. And if I were an elf, I’m not sure I would want to get automatically reincarnated right away. Arvandor has long held sway in elven hearts, a destination they can look forward to, when their long life is at an end. Now that is being taken away? What is the point of the deities, then?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Actually having her as an Elven Goddess would be an improvement over what they did to her, she's not even a God anymore (no domain), she more like a Demon Lord or Archfey, but for the Shadowfell. She got demoted hard.

And changed her basic nature, as well. She isn’t even a arch shadow thing with the same priorities and goals as she had before. It makes me wonder why bother even including her?

 

[Irennan]

(But in any case, these are Mordenkainen's musings, and, archmage or no, he's not 100% guaranteed to to have knowledge on absolutely everything. The unreliable narrator card can always be played with it comes to this sort of thing...)

Eh, that would work with someone like Volo, but archmages have a lot of credibility in D&D. Especially Mordenkainen, who is completely neutral and has no favorite horses in this race.

 

[Parmandur]

And changed her basic nature, as well. She isn’t even a arch shadow thing with the same priorities and goals as she had before. It makes me wonder why bother even including her?

Because Critical Role.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Because Critical Role.

There’s no benefit to including her if people who check it out because of CR can’t recognize anything about her but the name, IMO.

But idk, the lore in this book just seems like much more of a miss so far than the other books.

 

[Marandahir]

Have they changed her? They've incorporated her into Forgotten Realms and possibly other settings in a way that she wasn't previously. Remember, she wasn't a deity in FR in 4e; she wasn't anything in fact, and Shadar-Kai were transformed Humans from the Shadovar, but were not Shades for some reason.

This doesn't change her Nerathi lore. Asmodeus isn't a deity in FR either, but he is in Nerath.

Nerath's Bane is not Faerûn's Bane. Entities may share the same name or title but be different on different worlds.

I do recognise that this does put Adventurer's League questions into play, and feel sorry for anyone who does play AL and is in a bit of a bind here because their character concept was reliant upon the elven afterlife lore. I have no doubt that, like with every other release, Adventurer's League will make a ruling for their own internal consistency, and it will all work out eventually. It's not like tomorrow morning suddenly everything changes because of the new release. It won't change until they release an update to the Adventurer's League document, and I can't recall those documents ever forcing you to remake your character; instead, they've allowed you to retrain into new options with some limitations, or else ruled some element of a new book is off limits (like Aarakocra). Meanwhile, everyone else who doesn't play AL can choose the lore they want or create their own lore.