Imaro
Legend
That's a pretty fine line. When is a change a change or an addition?
I don't think it is...
Change = Something previously established that is disregarded and replaced with something new.
Addition = Something that was not previously established or touched on and is created or an aspect of something already created that had not been established that is expounded upon.
Is the difference really that hard to see?
I mean, Eladrin expand elves. They don't change them. They added a fey background story and a teleport ability. Did they change elves or simply expand?
The problem is you're asking the wrong question... they changed what an Eladrin actually was...
I'll bet the answer to that questions depends an awful lot on whether or not you (generally you, not you @Imaro) like the changes.
Nope let's examine what an Eladrin has been in each edition...
Wikipedia said:[h=3]Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition[/h]Eladrin first appeared in a D&D product in Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (1995). This book featured the greater eladrin: the tulani, the firre, and the ghaele. And the lesser eladrin: the bralani, the coure, the noviere, and the shiere.
[h=3]Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition[edit][/h]The ghaele eladrin appears under the celestial entry in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000).[3]
The firre eladrin appears under the celestial entry in the Manual of the Planes (2001).[4]
Savage Species (2003) presented the ghaele eladrin as both a race and a playable class.[5]
[h=3]Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition[edit][/h]The bralani and ghaele eladrin appear in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003).
The coure, the firre, the shiradi, and the tulani eladrin appear in Book of Exalted Deeds (2003). The book also details the Court of Stars, the celestial paragons of the eladrin: Morwel, Queen of Stars; Faerinaal, the Queen's Consort; and Gwynarwhyf, the Whirling Fury.[6]
The eladrin's role in the tanar'ri uprising in the Abyss was detailed in Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006).
So far nothing about what an Eladrin is that has been established has changed... The ghaele eladrin is expanded as a player race in 3e, the Court of Stars is expanded on in 3.5 as well as some named Eladrin but what the eladrin are as well as what has been established has not been changed just added to. Now let's look at 4e...
Wikipedia said:[h=3]Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition[/h]Eladrin appeared in the preview product for 4th edition, Wizards Presents: Races and Classes (2007).[8]
Eladrin appear as one of the core player character races in the Players Handbook for this edition (2008). They are described as living in the Feywild and are the 4th edition equivalent to High or Grey Elves. The elves are eladrin who made their way to the mortal world after the war between Corellon and Lolth.[9] All elven races have the humanoid type and the fey origin in 4th edition.
The Eladrin also appear in the Monster Manual (2008) for this edition, which includes the eladrin fey knight, the eladrin twilight incanter, the bralani of autumn winds, and the ghaele of winter.[10]
In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, the Moon and Sun Elves are now subgroups of Eladrin, as opposed to elves, as described in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (2008).
The shiere knight is an Eladrin racial Paragon Path in the Player's Handbook 2 (2009).
The eladrin also appeared in the fourth edition Monster Manual 2 (2009).
The spiral tactician is an Eladrin racial Paragon Path in the Martial Power handbook (2010).
The eladrin appeared again as a core character race in the Essentials rulebook Heroes of the Fallen Lands (2010).
So now they are a sub-race of Elves, come from the Feywild but reside in the mortal world, have fey as their origin, encompass Moon and Sun elves, etc. and we no longer have the original Eladrin... and you honestly don't see the difference here... really?
EDIT: What irritates me about changes like this is that the developers/designers could have just created a new sub-race of elves called something else instead of using the Eladrin name for something totally different. The other side of this coin is that we no longer have that class of anatgonist in D&D 4e or 5e because of a silly name change that could have easily been avoided.
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