worlds and monsters is in my hands

[Kobold Avenger]

I'd like to know more about how Resurrection & Reincarnation work in 4e though, it's always been a big sticking point in my (and many others') games. And who are the Shadar-Kai again?

Introduced in the 3.5e Fiend Folio, they're a race of cursed Fey who live in the Plane of Shadow and wield spiked chains as weapons.

 

[Lackhand]

I like the Iron Dragon. I don't like the Adamantine Dragon. I could never remember the difference between the Brass and Bronze dragon

I don't like the Adamantine Dragon because it's not one of the classical metals -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planets_in_Western_alchemy -- and because it's just a supermetal, more "iron" than iron is. Blech. I would have preferred Mercury or Lead as a dragontype, instead. Indeed, depending on what Adamantine Dragons get, I may just call them Leaden Dragons.

Looking forward to the shadow power source.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'd like to know what details do they have on the Dark Ones?

And is there anything on the Yuan-ti? Since they became a lot more significant and cooler in 3e, than they did in the editions before that.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

There are two new flavours of metallic dragon which displace bronze and brass from the core group. The new metallics are Iron and Adamantine.

Iron Dragon *yay*

Adamantine Dragon *boo*

 

[A'koss]

Introduced in the 3.5e Fiend Folio, they're a race of cursed Fey who live in the Plane of Shadow and wield spiked chains as weapons.

Ah, okay - thanks. I've got that book and I think I remember the picture, I'll have to look them up again...

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Some more details:

The Temple of Elemental Evil is mentioned as a Location of Note. This section is said to contain 'future adventuring locales'...

Kickass!

Dragons aren't forced into specific 'alignments'. Their motives can vary from a baseline - chromatic are wild, metallic like to be in control but good and evil manifests in each.

Interesting.

There are two new flavours of metallic dragon which displace bronze and brass from the core group. The new metallics are Iron and Adamantine.

Not too much of a change IMO, but I'll be interested in seeing how this works out.

Chromatic dragons grow in raw elemental power as they age which manifests as unique new powers related to the appropriate element. An ancient red's breath weapon, for example, can 'scour the fire resistance right off you'

Only chromatic, and not metallic? Weird ...

Giants:

There are Huge versions of the standard giants called Titans - these are more closely tied to the elements and have greater power

Giants in general are more elemental in nature, and there is greater variety between the standard types

I'm a pretty big fan of the new giants.

Shadow is a power source. Involved with stealth, illusion, dread, 'devastating enemies' and 'necrotic energy'

Pretty much a necromancer thing here . It wouldn't surprise me if the assassin is a Shadow Striker.

Lots of details about how the new cosmology explains resurrection and reincarnation

That'll be an interesting read!

Shadowfell is inhabited by ... the Shadar-kai.

I've never heard of these guys ...

 

[Raloc]

Or the idea of these "folds" or "layers" of the Far Realm that occasionally blanket the material-world and twisting the flora and fauna can also lead to bizarre creatures that don't match the ecology.

You could have a fold touch down for a little while in a forest and when it leaves all manner of bizarre mutated creatures rear their heads and completely alien and otherworldly plants sprout up amongst the evergreens and wild-flowers of our world. Hell if they pollinate alot they could even become a highly abundant plant that has forced its way into this world's ecology.

These new twisted animals and plants could also start to take over and kill/throw out natural creatures/plants. Sorta like what happens when you introduce foreign animals and plants to a isolated enviroment, ie: Australia and rabbits and feral cats.

That could be a really cool campaign. Maybe something like the PCs were caught in a power magic-user's inter-planar hideout, where time passes at a much slower rate, and most of the natural beasts of their plane have become tainted, and they have to find out why.

I'm actually planning to start a city campaign sometime soon, so I think I might do that for the early levels, then soul trap or spirit my players off to such a planar hideout. After they escape it, they'll find a bunch of time to have passed and this taint having fallen upon everything.

The idea reminds me a lot of the second trilogy of Thomas Covenant.

 

[Markustay]

Thanks for all the great info guys...

It all sounds pretty interesting - I might even pick up this tome (even though I HATE the idea of paying for previews).

Loving the Giants.

I was never a big fan of the Far Realms, but I trust Bruce Cordell, his work is solid, so maybe it won't be so bad.

I guess someone finally figured out that Brass and Bronze were alloys.

 

[JohnSnow]

We are not even sure that they exist though... Races and Classes mention them, but in a more recent reveal about warlocks it talked about them having "a fundamental choice of a pact with one of three varieties of supernatural patron"

These were later identified as Feral, Shadow and Infernal (although I can't place the reference at the moment).

It looks as if star-pact disappeared...

It was infernal, wild and "shadowy" which was a reduction of one from the four we were told about in Races and Classes. That list was infernal, star, fey, and vestige. As I understand, vestige has been eliminated from PHB I, but the fey, infernal, and star pacts remain. Star is supposed to be the "shadowy" one...

 

[Fallen Seraph]

It works really well for my campaign too, since mine had originally the Feywild collapsing into our world and its magic warping the world. But now that the Far Realm is actually built around the idea of warping our world and having layers that spread over our world, the Far Realm works even better.

The whole Otherworldly beings of the Far Realm also work since Arcane Magic is done by going to a certain plane of existence from which you originally draw your magic (magic works differently in my world), and certain beings know more about this plane then us and can control it more. This was gonna originally be the Fey and the Collapse was gonna be that going to this plane destabilized the magic of the Feywild causing it to collapse. But now, I am thinking arcane users after leaving this plane brings some of the Far Realm with it/peeks the interest of those who have power over this plane of magic.