Origins of the "New" Races

[Allister]

Er, you guys DO realize a locked closet will stop an Eladrin?

Hell, a 10' pit will stop an eladrin.

 

[Mallus]

But imagine a community of 5000 people who could all teleport a short distance.

Imagine a community of 5000 people who could start fires. A community with matches...

What do their jails look like? Is prison even a realistic concept?

Jails would need to be windowless, no line of sight.

What do their town defenses look like?

Different.

And how do you defend against them?

Differently.

Forget about moats.

Very wide moats would still work.

Do they build bridges? Do they use ferries?

If the river is more than 25 ft. wide, then yes.

 

[pawsplay]

Jails would need to be windowless, no line of sight.

How do you get them in there? How do you feed them? If you captured thirty Eladrin warriors, what kind of facility would you need to hold them?

 

[Fifth Element]

Is prison even a realistic concept?

You need line of sight to teleport, so yes.

Do they have ladderless towers?

Maybe, if the tower is less than 25 feet tall. But that would be rather impracticle, since they can only do it every 5 minutes.

Traditional murder holes won't work, and imagine what they could do in a siege situation. Forget about moats.

If your moat is 26 feet wide, you're golden. As for murder holes, they could certainly bypass one set, but then what? Stay where they are for 5 minutes until they can teleport again? If they do that, they should be easy targets.

For that matter, could you blockade an alley in a town like that?

If you set up two blockades, at least 25 feet apart, sure.

Do they build bridges? Do they use ferries?

For anything over 25 feet, they'd have to. And again, the once-every-5-minutes restriction makes relying on it for everyday transportation undesirable.

You seem to be overestimated what fey step allows a character to do.

 

[Shroomy]

Again, check out the Mithrendain article in Dragon for WoTC's thoughts on some of those questions, especially the sections on "Architecture" and "Laws and Enforcement."

Mithrendain, Citadel of the Feywild

 

[Fifth Element]

How do you get them in there?

Capture them, tie them up, blindfold them. Like you'd probably do with most prisoners. If they make trouble, knock them unconscious.

How do you feed them?

Magic, or some sort of clever turntable thingy built into the door, through which it is impossible to see.

If you captured thirty Eladrin warriors, what kind of facility would you need to hold them?

A facility without windows.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Hell if you were particularly nasty you could burn the eyes out of any Eladrin prisoner. No Fey Step ever. There are even items specifically designed to stop a Eladrin from Fey Stepping.

There is also plenty of creatures who can do much more amazing things then teleport 25 feet in D&D and yet these things don't seem to raise a issue. Even when these are things that actually live in the main world, not in a parallel plane, who just sometimes come and live in the core world.

 

[Thasmodious]

What do their jails look like? Is prison even a realistic concept?
What do their town defenses look like? Do they have ladderless towers?
And how do you defend against them? Traditional murder holes won't work, and imagine what they could do in a siege situation. Forget about moats.
What would a riot look like? For that matter, could you blockade an alley in a town like that?
Do they build bridges? Do they use ferries?

This is what we've been doing in fantasy for many years; imagining what fantastic worlds populated by fantastic races would be like. Thinking about these things is no different from imagining how the medieval castle has to change to account for intelligent flying creatures, wizard spells like DD or Passwall, and the like. Or to imagine what a village of 5000 halflings would look like or a wealthy city in a world of magic or a ring of villages around a mountain inhabited by dragons or any of a million other possibilities.

 

[Fifth Element]

Hell if you were particularly nasty you could burn the eyes out of any Eladrin prisoner. No Fey Step ever.

Good point. Harsh, but good point. The article does mention that eladrin favour disfigurement rather than imprisonment.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Good point. Harsh, but good point. The article does mention that eladrin favour disfigurement rather than imprisonment.

Well when you consider the amount of fiction that has Fey vs. Human stuff I wouldn't be surprised to see Humans resort to such harsh measures.