Jeff Albertson
Explorer
I'm thinking Fey.
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D&D 5E We've had dragons, elementals, and demons - so what iconic evil is next?
- Thread starter Mercurius
- Start date
I'm going to stick to my guns and say it's going to be Giants. Maybe with a Slaver's mash up to get/let it span the levels the APs are supposed to cover. Gives us a break from the "something from beyond is invading the world."
I agree, with the model of "introduce new AP = introduce new mechanics/races/archetypes", an aberrations "here's seperate/full psionics" makes sense/would follow that pattern. But, apparently, we're getting mind flayers (at least one) already.
I am not certain what else there could be [to give us psionics]...unless they are going to introduce/try to UA article some Dark Sun business...but that wouldn't be able to cover psionics and obviously, they will not release an AP SET in Dark Sun. So that idea kinda goes no where.
And the upcoming Abyss in the Underdark will, undoubtedly, include drow in copious numbers.
The other top contender (after or before the giants) is the undead idea many have had.
Ravenloft demi-plane setting, Strahd as major player, partnered with Vecna and bringing in Tomb of Horrors/Acererak. In terms of "cosmic threat for the whole world from another plane" pattern, this really is "larger" and more in line than the giants idea.
But I'm still going to go out on a limb and say they'll do a Giants focused AP first. Then the Undead. With or without psionics being introduced in/among that time frame through UA and other article material. What's the other one? Not Unearthed Arcana, the other supposedly regular/serial article...I can never remember its name. That's about rules, right? Psionics will probably be introduced through that.
I agree, with the model of "introduce new AP = introduce new mechanics/races/archetypes", an aberrations "here's seperate/full psionics" makes sense/would follow that pattern. But, apparently, we're getting mind flayers (at least one) already.
I am not certain what else there could be [to give us psionics]...unless they are going to introduce/try to UA article some Dark Sun business...but that wouldn't be able to cover psionics and obviously, they will not release an AP SET in Dark Sun. So that idea kinda goes no where.
And the upcoming Abyss in the Underdark will, undoubtedly, include drow in copious numbers.
The other top contender (after or before the giants) is the undead idea many have had.
Ravenloft demi-plane setting, Strahd as major player, partnered with Vecna and bringing in Tomb of Horrors/Acererak. In terms of "cosmic threat for the whole world from another plane" pattern, this really is "larger" and more in line than the giants idea.
But I'm still going to go out on a limb and say they'll do a Giants focused AP first. Then the Undead. With or without psionics being introduced in/among that time frame through UA and other article material. What's the other one? Not Unearthed Arcana, the other supposedly regular/serial article...I can never remember its name. That's about rules, right? Psionics will probably be introduced through that.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I dunno, I don't see anything inherently "advanced" about psi.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Giants have been stated to be next, with allusions to Shakespeare. I'm guessing big fat shenanigans in the North, where all the Giants and Humanoids are (Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, etc allowing the rampup to full Giants), maybe an implementation of the mass combat rules from AU.
Past that:
-Fey of some sort, battle between the courts with the players caught up in the middle. Good opportunity to throw in new PC options in addition to monsters.
-Shadowfell (terrible name), probably drawing in Ravenloft and other iconic stuff, as others said up thread. Good character option potential as well.
- Far Realm: Lovecraft corpus is public domain. Dagon and Cthulu, fully stayed. Psionic rules, including class options and races (Mearla said they were not including Kalashtar in he Eberron article because they would be treating Psionics elsewhere).
- Lost world hex crawl, namely the now cosmic Isle of Dread (DMG has Isle of Dread as floating between different prime material realms via the Elemental plane of Water). So much potential here.
- Devils: they are different from Demons, so different stories present themselves here. Maybe we'll get a Iuz focused AP when they do Greyhawk, that draws in Asmodeus and company? Cultists optional...
- Riff on the Great Modron March, or maybe some sort of Modron-Slaad conflict. Plenty of seeds in the MM and DMH for this, maybe they could get Monte Cook involved...
-Gotterdamurung (sp?), war in the heavens draws players into the conflict. Kooky D&D polytheism leaves plenty of room for this.
- Atlantis Attacks, all the underwater civilization stuff gets thrown together in a "fish out of water" story starring your party. Also lots of hooks in the MM for this, but plenty of room for them to develop more.
- Culturally themed, like say an Egyptian style AP set in Mulhollerand (sp, phone) which is apparently a thing again, that can be ser in some other Egypt analogue as desired. Use all the mythos specific monsters, introduce new ones.
Some thoughts based on the core books, at any rate.
Past that:
-Fey of some sort, battle between the courts with the players caught up in the middle. Good opportunity to throw in new PC options in addition to monsters.
-Shadowfell (terrible name), probably drawing in Ravenloft and other iconic stuff, as others said up thread. Good character option potential as well.
- Far Realm: Lovecraft corpus is public domain. Dagon and Cthulu, fully stayed. Psionic rules, including class options and races (Mearla said they were not including Kalashtar in he Eberron article because they would be treating Psionics elsewhere).
- Lost world hex crawl, namely the now cosmic Isle of Dread (DMG has Isle of Dread as floating between different prime material realms via the Elemental plane of Water). So much potential here.
- Devils: they are different from Demons, so different stories present themselves here. Maybe we'll get a Iuz focused AP when they do Greyhawk, that draws in Asmodeus and company? Cultists optional...
- Riff on the Great Modron March, or maybe some sort of Modron-Slaad conflict. Plenty of seeds in the MM and DMH for this, maybe they could get Monte Cook involved...
-Gotterdamurung (sp?), war in the heavens draws players into the conflict. Kooky D&D polytheism leaves plenty of room for this.
- Atlantis Attacks, all the underwater civilization stuff gets thrown together in a "fish out of water" story starring your party. Also lots of hooks in the MM for this, but plenty of room for them to develop more.
- Culturally themed, like say an Egyptian style AP set in Mulhollerand (sp, phone) which is apparently a thing again, that can be ser in some other Egypt analogue as desired. Use all the mythos specific monsters, introduce new ones.
Some thoughts based on the core books, at any rate.
pming
Legend
Hiya!
I'd like them to do something that doesn't involve some rarely encountered monster that the vast majority of common folk in the world would have never even heard about, let alone ever seen. In other words...I'd like to see an AP that has, say a Hobgoblin Hoard attacking/warring against some country. Get some city and country wide politics and intrigue going on. If well written, a DM could play up the RP stuff (alliances, betrayals, power-grabs, etc), or the exploration stuff (scouting, spying, etc), or combat stuff (small tactical team stuff to being cogs in a big-azz battle involving hundreds of combatants, siege weapons, etc). In other words, it could be played completely different by different groups, with different stories for all depending on what they focused on!
I'm not holding my breath though. I fully expect them to keep falling back to the video-game adventure design style where they pick some really tough critter to be the Big Bad Evil End Boss and work backwards from there. So the adventure will be "Agh! A goblin with a stick!", then move onto "Agh! An ogre with a sword!", then continue onto "Agh! A hill giant with a tree!", finally climaxing in the BBEEB of "Agh! An evil titan-demon-dragon with the Wand of Orcus!". *sigh*
As for what I think they'll do next? I agree with a few others...I think they'll go for Mind Flayers and Intellect Devourers so they can introduce psionics. And I'll probably pass on those too.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I'd like them to do something that doesn't involve some rarely encountered monster that the vast majority of common folk in the world would have never even heard about, let alone ever seen. In other words...I'd like to see an AP that has, say a Hobgoblin Hoard attacking/warring against some country. Get some city and country wide politics and intrigue going on. If well written, a DM could play up the RP stuff (alliances, betrayals, power-grabs, etc), or the exploration stuff (scouting, spying, etc), or combat stuff (small tactical team stuff to being cogs in a big-azz battle involving hundreds of combatants, siege weapons, etc). In other words, it could be played completely different by different groups, with different stories for all depending on what they focused on!
I'm not holding my breath though. I fully expect them to keep falling back to the video-game adventure design style where they pick some really tough critter to be the Big Bad Evil End Boss and work backwards from there. So the adventure will be "Agh! A goblin with a stick!", then move onto "Agh! An ogre with a sword!", then continue onto "Agh! A hill giant with a tree!", finally climaxing in the BBEEB of "Agh! An evil titan-demon-dragon with the Wand of Orcus!". *sigh*
As for what I think they'll do next? I agree with a few others...I think they'll go for Mind Flayers and Intellect Devourers so they can introduce psionics. And I'll probably pass on those too.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Agreed, possibly thematically esoteric, moreso than in the 70's. Arcana Unearthed hinted on the first article that they would be running Psionic rules by us in that medium at some point.
Mearls specifically cited mixing an AP with Mindflayers and bringing in Psionic rules as a model under consideration, so not too far fetched.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Chris Perkins was asked point blank about that on Twitter, and his answer was very firm: WOTC will not do villain stories, period, he described it as something for home game experimentation that they will not support.
JackOfAllTirades
Explorer
I'd like to see the Unholy Trinity of Ultimate Evil:
Return to the Valley of the Rules Lawyers
Escape from the Lost City of the Power Gamers
And finally...
Downfall of the Evil Overlord of Munchkins!
Return to the Valley of the Rules Lawyers
Escape from the Lost City of the Power Gamers
And finally...
Downfall of the Evil Overlord of Munchkins!
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