D&D 5E MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

[Cap'n Kobold]

No other type of creatures in the game have been so ossified. Giants in Greyhawk and Giants in Xendrick are quite different. Genies have a bunch of different approaches. Humanoids have so many variants that you could print an entire Monster Manual with nothing but variations on baseline humanoids and probably still have enough material for a second book.

But demons and devils? Nope. They all come from the same places that they came from when Greenwood wrote those articles about the Abyss and Hell way back in the double digits of Dragon magazine and we cannot have any variations whatsoever.

Since you're mentioning Eberron, it might be worth asking what planar system you use with it.

Eberron doesn't have the Abyss and the 9 hells. Shavarath hosts both Demons and devils, and both Fernia and Shavarath host pit fiends as examples.

 

[jasper]

We really need a "Groan" button.

Groaning Goblin and Elf Excitement coming to a cloak room near you.

 

[jasper]

... All demons come from the Abyss which has 666 layers and all devils come from Hell which has 9 layers and is ruled by Asmodeus.

....

Amosdues, " why are you all picking on us. " Cues the band
" If I could just hunt a deer in the happy hunting grounds,
It would be heaven.
Take a stroll and pick some buttercups on the blessed fields ,
It would be heaven!"
Demogorgon joins in
"Set up my wedding regisitry at Gaylords on Gladsheim,
It would be heaven!"

 

[Jester David]

Swimming way upthread.

My primary issue with Planescape is that it has become the default planar setting for all settings. All planar creatures are drawn from that single setting, regardless of whatever Prime Material setting you happen to be playing in. So, a Vrock summoned to Greyhawk is identical to the Vrock summoned to Faerun or any other setting and comes pre-packaged with all the elements of Planescape - Blood War, cosmology, etc.

I simply don't understand why an entire branch of critters in the game can only come from one source. We have no problems with a bajillion different kinds of elves, but, demons? Nope, every Demon lives in the Abyss and the Abyss is (more or less) headed up by Demogorgon and various other demon princes. It's simply far too stifling for my tastes.

I guess that's why I really like Far Realms. So little of that has been detailed that you can do anything you like with it.

Interesting. Not what I would have expected. So you'd prefer each campaign setting have its own distinct and different cosmology? Infinite hells?

 

[Eltab]

All demons come from the Abyss which has 666 layers

When I saw the 4e lore that Tharizdun stole the Shard of Ultimate Evil and planted it within the fabric of reality where it created the Abyss and is still digging deeper creating more layers, I took that and added it to my cosmology in a heartbeat. Even though it contradicted "The Abyss is infinitely deep".

Your Abyss is too static. Maybe my shard should break into your cosmos (whereupon your sages misidentify the result as "the Far Realm")?

 

[BookBarbarian]

I just always kinda assumed elves didn't have the drive to breed like rabbits. If two elves have two children over the thousands of years of their lives, population growth will, on a yearly level, still essentially be zero.

I remember reading one of the Dragonlance books that mentioned that despite their long lives the Silvanesti may only have 3 or 4 chances to bear children. The Royal couple not taking advantage of the Queens first menstrual cycle was a big deal.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I remember reading one of the Dragonlance books that mentioned that despite their long lives the Silvanesti may only have 3 or 4 chances to bear children. The Royal couple not taking advantage of the Queens first menstrual cycle was a big deal.

 

[BookBarbarian]

No Pressure

Indeed. Though in this case it was the King that got chewed out for not.. initiating things.

 

[Riley37]

My primary issue with Planescape is that it has become the default planar setting for all settings. All planar creatures are drawn from that single setting, regardless of whatever Prime Material setting you happen to be playing in. So, a Vrock summoned to Greyhawk is identical to the Vrock summoned to Faerun or any other setting and comes pre-packaged with all the elements of Planescape - Blood War, cosmology, etc.

So far as I can tell, few people have done much to defy or revise the planar setting of 1E. If Planescape had never been published, would the Gygaxian diagram still be D&D's default? the diagram, I forget if it was PHB or DMG, with inner Etherial and outer Astral, four elements, nine outer alignments AND an inner "positive-negative" sandwich?

Perhaps most D&D authors live on something more or less equivalent to the Prime Material, and thus come up with variations inspired by the range of fictions set on such equivalents, and relatively few authors have such strong artistic inspiration for other planes. That said, yes, any setting other than Greyhawk, should include the relationship between Prime Material and any other planes... if there ARE other planes.

Even a player or DM who has never seen such a diagram, still learns something about the Etherial and Astral Planes from spell descriptions, magic item descriptions, and monster descriptions (such as phase spiders). Those assumptions are "baked into the rules" in many places other than the actual chapter on the planes. If you want to use 5E rules for a setting with different core assumptions, such as Narnia or Middle Earth, you're gonna run into conflicts as soon as anyone casts Rope Trick; or on session one, possibly session zero, if anyone plays a Tiefling.

 

[cbwjm]

If you're playing in Narnia or middle earth then you've told your players which races are available so a tiefling isn't going to be an issue. Unless you're also limiting magic in some way to match the setting then rope trick also isn't a problem.