D&D 5E Why are Mercane, Kandori, & Reigar's celestials?

[Parmandur]

These are huge changes, like damn, the set I bought is worth even less now.

On the contrary, worth more as a collector's piece. It is frustrating, however, that they needed so much changed from a playability perspective: kind of ticked to have a book with that Hadozee material.

Anyone else want to know why such major changes were made?

Nor to hard to guess: the Hadozee situation was so aweful that they changed their entire editorial process to have everything, every songle word, go through two sensitivity readers with veto power moving forwards (and may have torpedoed Winninger's career with WotC to boot). Starting, no doubt, with going over Spelljammer with a fine tooth comb for errata. Getting rid of a gigantic cosmic war crone wad a obvious gimme for the Riegar, and I wouldn't be at all shocked if the Mercane and Dooenga (sp?) set off some sort of ethnic stereotype alarm bells, without double checking what the print says.

 

[Shardstone]

"Mercane (p. 37). The mercane’s creature type has been changed to “Celestial.” The first paragraph of the mercane description has been replaced with the following: Mercanes are the mysterious, magical creations of one or more deities whose portfolios revolve around fair commerce. Standing 12 feet tall, they are lanky blue beings who dress in elegant robes and have elongated heads and long, spindly fingers. Mercanes conduct most of their business in Wildspace and the Astral Sea. To a mercane, commerce can take many forms, from the trading of goods and services to the trading of ideas and information. Mercanes are best known, however, for procuring and selling magic items, including artifacts and spelljamming helms. It’s rare to see more than one mercane at a time, though it’s common for a mercane to be accompanied by underlings or bodyguards."

"Reigar (p. 47). In the description of the talarith and in the reigar’s Summon Golem trait (changed to Summon Duplicate), all instances of the word “golem” have been changed to “duplicate.” The first two paragraphs of the reigar description have been updated as follows: Reigar were once cephalopods similar to octopi. They inhabited the stormy seas of Ysgard until the gods of that plane transformed them. Reigar have bioluminescent freckles and the ability to change the coloration of their skin. A glory (or halo) surrounds each of them. This magical display is a cloud of twinkling, glittering motes that changes color randomly and repels attacks. Gifted with audacious hearts, reigar emerged from the Ysgardian seas to test their mettle on land. When the endless battles there grew tiresome, some reigar ventured to the Astral Sea and Wildspace in search of glory. Many are driven by artistic pursuits, but each reigar has their own notion of what constitutes art. For some, warfare is the highest form of artistic endeavor. Other reigar create art of a more benign nature."

These are huge changes, like damn, the set I bought is worth even less now.

Its even the only big change, the Space Penguins are a Feywild race now.

Another creature lost its Priests.


Anyone else think some of these changes are related to Planescape?

Like why else change Mercane's to Celestial servants of the Gods of none evl Capitalism?

And what happened to the Reigar's home world, got replaced by an outer celestial plane?


Anyone else want to know why such major changes were made?

I like these changes.

 

[Tonguez]

All three of those are of Planar origin though arent they? Maybe not upper planes but they’re all ‘native’ to the Astral Sea

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Assuming that planar ally ends up being mostly the same in OneDnD, then Mercane and Reigars could be the "allies" that the PC's get, since the spell summons a celestial, fiend, or elemental. That would make some interesting stories.

I think most of the summoning spells will change with OneDnD, but PA is really different from the rest: no upcasting, no concentration, and the PC doesn't actually control the ally. It is basically a way for PC's to formally ask the DM for a plot twist.

 

[Parmandur]

It is basically a way for PC's to formally ask the DM for a plot twist

That...is a great way of putting it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

but weren't the Reigar really narcissistic and egotistical about everything?

There are plenty of egotistical angels in fiction and myth.

Being Good doesn't make you nice.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Because they aint constructs or fiends.

And 5e (somewhat foolishly) replaced "outsider" with "celestial" and "fiend". They forced planar creatures to carry a moral bent, or else be something weird.

Slaad are aberrations, for example, even if they're just humanoid chaos frogs. The only other thing that really makes sense is elemental, but that's supposed to be for inner planes creatures.

We're fortunate that creature types don't really matter anymore.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

And 5e (somewhat foolishly) replaced "outsider" with "celestial" and "fiend". They forced planar creatures to carry a moral bent, or else be something weird.

Slaad are aberrations, for example, even if they're just humanoid chaos frogs. The only other thing that really makes sense is elemental, but that's supposed to be for inner planes creatures.

We're fortunate that creature types don't really matter anymore.

Monsterous would have worked for Slaads too. Or add chaotic and lawful equivilants to Celestial/Fiends.

And they should have kept the Shadow creature type as well.