Got it, 4e is not D&D. Well done, deep insight there.
Just stating that Heinsoo & Co.'s "vision" is not shared.
Got it, 4e is not D&D. Well done, deep insight there.
Just stating that Heinsoo & Co.'s "vision" is not shared.
Not at all, there is a commonality between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Ed; 4th Ed is an Advanced version of the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures game, has little to do with D&D.
That 2e Monstrous Compendium that you reference Nymrod came out several years after the release of 2e. 2e, in core, didn't have demons or devils until MC 8 which, IIRC, was three years after release.
So, no, 2e didn't have demons and devils for quite some time. But, reread your 3e Monster Manual. There are no references to the Blood War. None. No references whatsoever that demons and devils didn't get along. No references at all to anything remotely Planescape in nature. All of that was relegated to supplements although it did filter back in in 3.5.
Look at the section on Archons in 3e. Again, completely different than what you see in 2e. All of them are lumped together with LG, NG and CG all being the same critter type. Look at the flavour text. Again, nothing 2e in nature.
Yes, later on, a lot of 2e lore starts to get filtered back into 3e. But, at the outset? In core? Virtually nothing 2e survives into 3e. Heck, compare clerics. A 2e cleric gains Druid spells up to 2nd level - a 3e cleric can cast all "druid" spells up to 9th. A 2e cleric tops out casting at 14th with 7th level spells. A 3e cleric tops out at 17th with 9th level spells. The spell lists are completely changed with 3e clerics gaining all sorts of combat spells. 3e clerics out of the gate can use edged weapons if they choose to. 3e clerics gain spontaneous casting of healing spells. 3e clerics, in core, use Greyhawk dieties as the default. 3e clerics can craft magic items at 1st level and can craft virtually any magic item given time.
On and on and on.
There are easily as many differences between 2e and 3e as there are between 3e and 4e. 3e rejects virtually all things 2e and retains almost nothing of its flavour.
That's odd. I opened the MoP to be sure before posting it and I found numerous mentions of the Blood War all over the lower planes, plus multiple locations that were added in the "Planes of . . ." boxed set series. Want me to list page numbers?
Oh scratch that, don't even have to. It's in the bloody index under BLOOD WAR.
3e ejected almost all of the flavour of 2e. Kept virtually nothing.
Kept virtually all of it, Deities & Demigods, Manual of the Planes, Book of Vile Darkness, Fiendish Codices, Greyhawk, etc, etc.