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."

 

[garnuk]

Lots of different versions of the alchemists. I wonder if they will ask which one people want. My theory is that the desire for the alchemists is based on unhappiness with current item creation rules.

 

[reelo]

I would sooooo love to set my campaign (the start of which is still set some time in the unforseeable future) in the world of Greyhawk.
I mean I love the FR, but I would rather play in a world where the big players are less visible, and the whole world is more "gritty".
As others aid, one can only hope...

 

[dwayne]

Greyhawk

As a player I am going on 47 years now and started in the box sets and worked way through the 1st edition to now and Grey hawk was were I started to play the island of dread and tomb of horrors the expedition to the barrier peaks, fighting robots and aliens (mind flayers) and vegepygmies, delvening in to the forbidden realm of an evil demigod and his vile creations and offspring, combing the wasteland desert of dust for lost cities with forgotten power of ages past. Wood giants with massive bows and valley elves with suspicious alliances and other elves who were more like the mohican Indians of earth with a extreme xenophobia, the gypsies with there river barges and wondering, the mounted riders on there mechanical horses in the desert that guard a crazed mage, The bandet kindoms with there fighting and so much more that I could go on and on. But with all this there was still room for the GM to add his bit here and there and make it his own. Because in this setting you your characters were the ones that had to do the important things there was no "good guys " to bale anyone out as most was a balancing act to keep others from gaining too much power and so was left up to you as players to over come things. I liked the harshness and as some say grit but mostly I liked that it was not all mapped out and there was blank spots were no one has been or left unexplored so you could carve out a kingdom of your own. Most of the awesome spells you have come to know and love came from this world and formed the basics of every other down the line each has taken a small piece of it and ran with it. I for one would buy a setting book with all the up to date information on greyhawk along with the back grounds for the renee (gypsies ) the different races of humans, the creatures specific to that world (woodgiants, grauch elves, valley elves, ect..) And a list of all the gods to top it off with. For the younger generation you have missed out because the adventures were more hard core and death was far more permanent, I remember going through more than one character a night before I decided to stop being stupid and be a lot more cautious about touching something or opening a odd door, and black orbs are very bad.

 

[Dark Kain]

Any news about the previous survey? The one about spells, whose results were slated this month?

 

[MrZeddaPiras]

So basically no one cares about the Known World/Mystara anymore? That's disappointing.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

As others have pointed out, Greyhawk has it's share of uber-powerful NPCs. However, the tone/feel is certainly different. The NPCs that are "equivalent" to Elminster and all the various Chosen of FR is the Circle of Eight . . . but most Greyhawk players know these NPCs are famous and important BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL PCs!!! The only reason Mordenkainen is who he is, is because he was Gary's player character! (or, one of Gary's players/friends, can't remember anymore) So, the feeling that I got from the setting is that Mordenkainen and crew weren't there to play deus ex machina, but served as inspiration for my own character's exploits.

I don't see Greyhawk as darker, but certainly more gritty and more in tune with older sword-and-sorcery influences. It's tone and feel certainly offer something different from D&D's other settings . . . and nostalgia is a powerful drug . . . but ultimately, I don't see Greyhawk as being worth WotC's time (as a business) to redo.

I mean, I'd almost certainly purchase a 5E Greyhawk as would other long-time fans . . . but I don't think WotC doing Greyhawk justice and also making some profit really go together. What I would love to see is a coffee-table style book with NO CRUNCH (because, it isn't needed) that presents the original Greyhawk, has a chapter outlining the "future history" developed in later game products, and a chapter with advice on how to GM that "old school" feel. Beautiful maps and art, fresh writing . . . I'd buy that! But I don't think WotC would sell enough copies to make it worthwhile . . .

Maybe Mearls should go pick up a copy of Pathfinder's Blood of Angels. I thought they did a great job on that.

 

[TwoSix]

So basically no one cares about the Known World/Mystara anymore? That's disappointing.

I'd say that "Known World" and "Forgotten Realms" are both massive misnomers at this point.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Starting caveat: I have not read or played an existing Shaman class from any form of D&D. I have, however, studied quite a bit about the cultural/spiritual practices of shamanism (or more accurately, shamanistic practices, unless you're in Siberia.)

In D&D terms, shaman aren't really divine casters. The closest existing thing (in concept rather than mechanics) would probably be a necromancer, except that a shaman would work with natural spirits rather than the spirits of the dead. Each spell on the spell list would represent different spirit allied with the shaman, acting at his behest. Spells would be (fluff-wise) gained by making deals with new spirits (or overcoming them in a challenge), so they would be fewer than many classes get.

Based on that, and on my readings, the closest thing to a shaman in 5E today would be a Warlock. Every other type of caster gets their power from either a divine, internal, or external 'raw power' source, while a warlock gets his power by making a deal with an intelligent external source - much like a shaman. Just create a warlock archetype with a Patron of 'Spirits.' Fill the patron's list with healing, buffing, and protection spells, and you're ready to go.

That is also largely in line with the 2nd edition class introduced in the Shaman splat book (came out around the same time as the Chronomancer book). You had limited number of spells, but if you made your charisma check or if the spell was in line with the spirit's goals, you didnt expend the spell slot. It was a neat little book.

 

[Agamon]

The reason Greyhawk has a gritty, old school feel is because it's representative of its time. The late 2e relaunch and 3e LG were weaksauce, and I'd expect little more from anything else WotC would add to the setting now.

Ya want some Greyhawk, I got yer Greyhawk right here.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I would sooooo love to set my campaign (the start of which is still set some time in the unforseeable future) in the world of Greyhawk.
I mean I love the FR, but I would rather play in a world where the big players are less visible, and the whole world is more "gritty".
As others aid, one can only hope...

So do it? All that 1E and 2E fluff is still valid. Crunchwise, all you really need is domains for the gods (and even then, really only the god a player wants to have their cleric follow, the rest are NPC's which follow different rules). Greyhawk was designed in broad strokes with less detail to let you fill in your own.