New article - Elves, Eladrin and Drow. Oh, my!

[Falling Icicle]

Now, the good drow is ever a rarity... very, very rare, even in FR. Unlike what the haters may say, it's a chance in hell to find an eilistrean.

I wasn't aware that playing non-good characters was against the rules.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

I wasn't aware that playing non-good characters was against the rules.

You know, I was inmplying in the world - of course, the PC are different. Could be a whole party out of them (like a party of Awakened in Shadowrun).

That don't make them common out on the world, NPC-wise.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I like it. I think find interesting the lengths that WotC went to to stress that the majority of Elves and Eladrin are "Unaligned" (in the new parlance), neither good nor evil. The default assumption until now was always that they were good, and that non-good elves were very unusual (and outcasts). I suspect that Evil (capital E, aligned Evil) elves and eladrin will not be outcasts from their societies as long as they aren't sociopathic murderers or whatnot.

I'm neither criticizing nor agreeing with the change; merely noting it. It's interesting, and certainly a clean break from all editions of D&D previous to this one.

I'm definitely grooving the whole Fey thing though. I have been ever since I first heard the term "Feywild" and realized the logical implications thereto. So far my deductions have all come to pass, and I'm really looking forward to introducing this IMC.

 

[Voss]

i like it mostly, a minor variation on the old split.

I like the confirmation that drow PCs will be in the FR book. hopefully it will keep them out of the core books

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

Still find rebranding hald the elves as eladrin annoying and pointless, and one thing that did annoy me was that they closed off the possibility of an eladrin referring to itself as an elf.

Actually, I just came up with a way this works, fits in with the racial predispositions of each one, and will annoy everyone who's not elven blooded.

The term "elf" is actually the name for the whole group of fey creatures who are now elf/eladrin/drow.

The elven people call themselves 'elf' because that's what they are. As they are straightforward people, it works fine. Much like in our world, people call themselves 'human.'

The snooty, self-superior group call themselves 'eladrin,' which --in the elven language-- is just another way of saying elf, but pretentiously. Much like someone on earth referring to themselves as 'homo sapien.' It means the same thing as human, but someone who calls themselves homo sapien is trying to show off their learning and cultural refinement... or just being a pompous donkey's behind.

The group that broke away see themselves as a whole new people, different from the stock they came from. They're 'superior' and 'better' than those they left, and so they have a new name for themselves, drow. Drow see 'drow' as being the same as 'homo superior', while the others see it as 'two-timing ba$7ards.'

So they're all 'elves', but there is weight to the meaning behind how they refer to themselves, as it reflects their own cultural biases.

 

[Orius]

There is also a lot of implied world material being tossed around here. Things like "As kingdoms and empires grew and collapsed -- the human realm of Nerath, the dragonborn Arkhosia, the tiefling Bael Turath".

One of the things I'm not liking about 4e. Actually, it's probably my biggest problem.

If they're going to use a ton of fluff for the noobs, then they should just go and make the Realms the default setting or something instead of using all this exotic stuff. All this newfangled fluff is going to be a real pain to untangle with inexperienced players who're going to be going with everything in the core books as literal. Yeah, I can easily ignore what I want fluff-wise, but getting new players up to speed is going to be unfun the way I see it. And then there's plenty of instances where the crunch and the fluff is getting pretty well intertwined where I can't just replace the fluff, I might have to throw all of it out. I prefered 3e's fluffless approach to crunch, i'd rather WotC produce the tools to help me use my own imagination.

I preferred the whole setup of racial deities too. I know 3e broke from this partially, but I stuck with the older D&D material. I prefer the gods having their own chosen races rather than being more ecumenical. And in some cases it doesn't make much sense. Like Gruumsh. He's always been a xenophobic, hateful, warmongering god. He's the whole reason orcs are always one the warpath. I'd like to keep him that way; he doesn't feel the same taking non-orc worshippers.

 

[Orius]

With 4e, Wizards is finally giving us a 'core setting' . . . something just about every other RPG figured out years ago.

Except that D&D has often supported many many homebrews, perhaps one of the reasons why it's the biggest RPG. That's where the complaint is, DMs want to use their own worlds, not WotC's world.

 

[Orius]

Yeah. "Controversy and shock factor" would be reserved for something like Drow now are topless bikers who worshiped Fire, Wind, and the Need for Speed, and drove around in packs looking to cause destruction and mayhem. All in the name of their eye-patch wearin', Topless Goddess of Badassery.

I'm glad that's not happening, then more players would want to play them.

I can see it now, everyone would want to play the topless drow ranger babe and follower of Eilistraee dual-wielding scimitars with her panther companion.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Except that D&D has often supported many many homebrews that look like Greyhawk , perhaps one of the reasons why it's the biggest RPG. That's where the complaint is, DMs want to use their own worlds that look like Greyhawk , not WotC's world, and now they have to house-rule extensively instead of the non-Greyhawk DMs.

All bolded text added by myself, but I believe that's a little closer to accurate.

 

[catsclaw227]

Has anyone else noted this?

Far more drow follow divine paths to become clerics or paladins than either elves or eladrin do -- perhaps in part because of the temporal authority that comes with service to Lolth but also for the opportunity to commune more closely with their god and savor her power flowing through them.

Drow paladins of Lolth. A paladin is not necessarily good anymore. If they have already mentioned this, then ignore my excitement, but I have always replaced paladins with the (Un)Holy Warriors from Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous. I think an evil Paladin of Lolth sounds like an awesome NPC villian.