New D&D Monthly Survey: Mystics & Psionics

The new D&D monthly survey is up - it asks about last month's Unearthed Arcana psionics rules. Additionally, WotC reports on the results of the last survey about settings, classes, and races. It turns out that the top tier settings in terms of popularity are Eberron, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms, followed by Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Spelljammer. Additionally, popular character types were led by the artificer, shaman, and alchemist; while the most popular races were thri-kreen, goblin, and aasimar.

Find the new survey here. "This month, our survey looks at the mystic character class and our first draft of psionics rules for fifth edition. Your input is an invaluable tool that helps shape how we develop new material for D&D. If you love the rules, hate them, or have a specific issue you want to address, let us know."

 

[GlassJaw]

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA6_AwakenedMysticv2.pdf

Thanks. The link isn't on the UA article anymore...at least not that I could find.

 

[Minigiant]

Looks like we might get goblin alchemists and goblin artificers eventually.

Explosives for everyone. The treasure is in the back. The front door is free game!

 

[epithet]

That would be my case. I'm curious about what is so unique about Greyhawk that makes it diferent from The Realms. I think the diference is much more clear when I think of Eberron, Darksun, Ravenloft or Planescape.

The difference is one of flavor. The World of Greyhawk is a meaner place than the Forgotten Realms. It's difficult to really quantify, but WoG was created by an adult, for adults, and looks like a Frank Frazetta painting. The FR was originally conceived of by Ed Greenwood as a kid, and I think that's given it somewhat of a lighter, more innocent feeling. It looks more like a Larry Elmore painting.

Now, I like Larry Elmore paintings, and my inner child is spoiled rotten, but sometimes I just prefer the darker, more aggressive feel of a Frazetta scene.

Make any sense?

 

[ChapolimX]

The difference is one of flavor. The World of Greyhawk is a meaner place than the Forgotten Realms. It's difficult to really quantify, but WoG was created by an adult, for adults, and looks like a Frank Frazetta painting. The FR was originally conceived of by Ed Greenwood as a kid, and I think that's given it somewhat of a lighter, more innocent feeling. It looks more like a Larry Elmore painting.

Now, I like Larry Elmore paintings, and my inner child is spoiled rotten, but sometimes I just prefer the darker, more aggressive feel of a Frazetta scene.

Make any sense?

Yes, it do make sense. Perhaps because my group is full of crazy people the Realms never felt so light to me. But I might check out Greyhawk, specially if they release a new phisical book. Thanks for the answer.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

It says the Alchemist has never been in any PHB.

Yeah, but I assumed that just meant it appeared in another source. Dragon magazine had a billion in the 1st edition days (and kits later), but I wasn't sure if I had missed a base alchemist somewhere in 3.X or 4E.

 

[steeldragons]

Yeah, but I assumed that just meant it appeared in another source. Dragon magazine had a billion in the 1st edition days (and kits later), but I wasn't sure if I had missed a base alchemist somewhere in 3.X or 4E.

Pathfinder did an Alchemist class. So, basically, there's a 3.x base class.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yeah, but I assumed that just meant it appeared in another source. Dragon magazine had a billion in the 1st edition days (and kits later), but I wasn't sure if I had missed a base alchemist somewhere in 3.X or 4E.

Alchemy was a feat in 4e (much like Ritual Casting), and the Artificer could be particularly good at it, IIRC. In 3.5, it was a craft skill, presumably in-class for Artificers.

 

[Agamon]

The difference is one of flavor. The World of Greyhawk is a meaner place than the Forgotten Realms. It's difficult to really quantify, but WoG was created by an adult, for adults, and looks like a Frank Frazetta painting. The FR was originally conceived of by Ed Greenwood as a kid, and I think that's given it somewhat of a lighter, more innocent feeling. It looks more like a Larry Elmore painting.

Now, I like Larry Elmore paintings, and my inner child is spoiled rotten, but sometimes I just prefer the darker, more aggressive feel of a Frazetta scene.

They are different, no doubt. But Mike raises a good point. What would be needed for a GH setting that hasn't already been published? No new crunch is required outside the core rules.

I think there'd be more blowback from grumpy grognards "ruining" GH by printing something shiny and new, than there are people looking for a relaunched GH setting.

Also, there is a new setting that arguably out-Frazetta's GH, and that's Primeval Thule.

 

[procproc]

The difference is one of flavor. The World of Greyhawk is a meaner place than the Forgotten Realms. It's difficult to really quantify, but WoG was created by an adult, for adults, and looks like a Frank Frazetta painting. The FR was originally conceived of by Ed Greenwood as a kid, and I think that's given it somewhat of a lighter, more innocent feeling. It looks more like a Larry Elmore painting.

Now, I like Larry Elmore paintings, and my inner child is spoiled rotten, but sometimes I just prefer the darker, more aggressive feel of a Frazetta scene.

Make any sense?

I agree that it's one of flavor, but I get a different sense than you do. My feeling is that the flavor of the Realms is just more over-the-top epic in scope.

When I think of Greyhawk, I immediately think of Iuz, a demon price running a country and trying to take over the world. He's no lightweight, but he's no tarrasque, either -- he's not going to singlehandedly crush the entire world. And he feels somehow static to me -- while he's plotting evil, I can't think of any great storylines involving specific acts he did.

When I think of the Forgotten Realms, I think of Karsus and the fall of Netheril. That's ancient FR history, but even in more recent times, I think of Fzoul, Manshoon, Elminster, the Simbul, the Red Wizards, and so forth. Lots of figures that are practically godlike in power, who *could* take over the world on their own, but can't because there are others in their weight class stopping them.

Greyhawk doesn't feel darker to me, but it does feel grittier because of that difference -- like there's less room for deus ex machina, because there just aren't the same big players to step in if the PCs don't.

 

[Remathilis]

"Personally, I’d love to pick up Mystara’s rakasta as our catfolk race, but all these options have strong legacies to build on. "

Oh Please Oh Please Oh Please [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION], you'd make this old Known Worlder happy if you just brought back the rakasta...