Another 10 Mordenkainen's Tome Questions!

Earlier today I answered ten questions about Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. I have some spare time right now -- so I'll answer another ten questions. First ten questions, one question each, don't ask me to list reams of content or locate a single keyword in a 250-page book I just got, and remember this isn't an essay assignment. Below is a handy-dandy summary of the answers to the previous set of ten questions. For the next ten questions - ask away! Time, as before, is limited.

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What comprises the list of all new player options (races, archetypes, feats, spells, etc.) in the book? This is what I see as I page through (bear in mind I've literally just got the book, so might miss something):

Elf subraces -- eladrin, sea elf, shadar kai
Dwarf subraces -- duergar
Gith race, plus subraces -- githyanki, githzerai
Gnome subraces -- deep gnome
Tiefling subraces -- Asmodeus, Baalzebul, Dispater, Fierna, Glasya, Levistus, Mammon, Mephitopheloes, Zariel

Deep Gnome feat -- Svirfneblin Magic

Is there any discussion, description, detail, mention, or whatever of Tieflings and Aasimars, or Tiefling or Aasimar cultures? There's a bunch of Tielfing subraces, each linked to a Lord of the Nine Hells. And discussion on diabolical cults, personality traits/ideals/bonds/flaws. The whole first 30 pages or so deals with demons, devils, etc. I'm not immediately seeing Aasimar anywhere, but that doesn't mean they're not mentioned.

Do tieflings vary in appearance based on their new possible lineages? I know they may have some new features, but what about their physical appearance? They don't mention physical appearance, no.

Can you give us a quick description of the Oblex (monster)? Oblex Spawn is a Cr 1/4 tiny ooze. Green. Amorphous and Aversion to Fire. Does bludgeoning and psychic damage with its pseudopod attack.

Adult Oblex is CR 5, medium. Eat memories does psychic damage and memory drains the target - -1d4 from ability checks or attacks. Each time it increases to d6, d8, etc. until d20 when the victim falls unconscious. Oblex learns all its languages and proficiencies. Sulfurous Impersonation lets it assume the appearance of a memory drained victim.

Elder Oblex is CR 10.

Does the first section detailing the Blood War provide enough info to run a Planescape campaign (or provide any tantalizing hints that we might see future Planescape products for 5E)? It doesn't detail Sigil, so I'd guess no. I've never run a PS campaign though, so I'm not super qualified to judge what's needed to run one.

Is the Giff a playable race? How much Giff content? Giff are not a playable race. Giff have one page as a monster (including stat block).

Does the book contain anything explicit on using it with different D&D worlds/settings (like how SCAG had sidebars with suggestions for renaming or similar conversions of new class and races elements to non-FR settings), or does the “multiverse” conceit operate as if the material is basically the same (if only mythologically) in all games? Various mentions in sidebars, but not additional rules. Like the Halfling chapter has a sidebar which mentions Halflings in FR, Greyhawk, Krynn, Athas.

Any references to Mystara (other than the Nightwalker)? There are no immediately obvious big references to Mystara I saw on my flick-through, but bear in mind I haven't read every word.

Any information on Duergar in other settings besides the Forgotten Realms? No, just FR.

What's the mention about Elder Evils? Yes, in the Star Spawn entry. The Star Spawn are servants and heralds of the Elder Evils. The Elder Evils are beings which exist in realms lethal to mortal life and cannot enter the Material Plane. There's about 3 paragraphs on Elder Evils and five Star Spawn stat blocks, such as the Star Spawn Larva Mage which is like one of those Kyuss servants in Age of Worms.

They mentioned that there might be celestial versions of the fey eladrin. If so, are there any differences? I'm not seeing anything. Doesn't mean it's not there, but I can't find it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Fey Step teleports 30' once per short rest. At 3rd level it gains one of four additional effects depending on what "season" you chose. For example, Winter means a creature within 5' of you becomes frightened unless they save.

OK, that's all ten questions! I'm out of here for the night!

Ooh, that is actually a really fascinating addition to them. Now I must wonder what the others are.

 

[gyor]

Ooh, that is actually a really fascinating addition to them. Now I must wonder what the others are.

I think I heard that for spring its charmed and Summer fire damage, but I could be wrong.

 

[Jer]

WHY ARE GNOMES?

Blame Paracelsus. He invented the little buggers.

 

[SuperSam888]

No PC Giff! What the hell, WotC?

 

[Spookyboots]

I know it's not a popular opinion but I'm super bummed the Grugach were left out.

 

[Marandahir]

Blame Paracelsus. He invented the little buggers.

While yes, you should blame Paracelsus for first equating the word Gnome with a diminutive fantastic people (γη-νομος (gēnomos, "earth-dweller"), the mythical people he was referencing, the Pygmy Tribe (Πυγμαῖοι (Pygmaioi, "tribe the length of the forearm") date back to Classical Greece as described by Pliny and Aristotle. However, Paracelsus' use was as the Earth-elemental, akin to Sylph of the wind, Undine of the water, and Salamander of the fire. If anything, his Gnomes were more akin to Daolings in D&D!

There are four others who share at least as much of the blame for "inventing the little buggers" as we know them today:

First, Nicolas-Pierre-Henri de Montfaucon de Villars, the Abbot of Villars, who in 1670 equated Paracelsus' Gnome term with the European mythological archetype of the mine-living jewel-hoarder faerie people - from which we also get Dwarves, Goblins, and Kobolds.

Second, Sir Charles Edmund Asham, 10th Baronet in Northhampton. He brought back 21 German Gartenzwerge or "Garden Dwarves" to the U.K. in 1840, and decided to market them and call them Garden Gnomes. The use of other, non-dwarf equivalents for translations had already existed before then - the French called them "Jardinains" after Garden Nain, a French folkloric diminutive demon, more equivalent in D&D to an Imp or a even a Tiefling, that supposedly had inhabited the Celtic ruins of Brettony. While these dropped in popularity after WWI, Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" caused a resurge in popularity in Garden Dwarves in Germany, which led to a resurge in popularity in Garden Gnomes the world over after WWII.

Third, J.R.R. Tolkien, inadvertently. He originally used the term Gnome, from γνώμη (gnṓmē, “thought, judgement”) to refer to his Noldorin race of high elves (Fëanor's people), who were the elves with dark hair and pale skin, but in demeanor, interests, and choice of residence were more like Dwarves (to the point that their chief Vala was the prototype for D&D's Moradin). He wanted English approximation terms at the time, which is why he used Goblin for Orc, and why he didn't call Hobbits Periannath in the context of his books. But he threw out the term Gnomes and went with just the elven word Noldor because of reader confusion with various popular depictions of Gnomes after Paracelsus and Villars. But the damage was done - the term was widely known among the super-geeks of Tolkien fandom – i.e., the creators of Gnomes in D&D!! – and we took his false-cognate idea and made Gnomes "like dwarves, but smarter and more fey!"

Finally, Wil Huygen, the Dutch author of the 1976 book "Gnomes" which spawned the internationally-beloved TV series, "David the Gnome." Well, really we should blame his English translator, since he wrote them as Kabouter, the Dutch equivalent of Leprechauns. But his translator evoked Asham's "Garden Gnomes" with the translation, and it's really from Huygen's works that we get the Forest Gnome archetype as opposed to the Deep and Rock Gnome archetypes.

In short, if we only blamed Paracelsus, we'd all be playing Daolings but calling them Gnomes instead of these miniature mad inventors we've come to know and love in D&D.