D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, to fair, the downside there is that they have a slime body. Yuck, who really wants that?

Well an ooze body, which doesn’t have to be viewed as slimy in texture. Could be more gummy. Or even rubbery when you’re not amorphous.

Also…slime girls are…a thing. The world is wonderfully strange and diverse!

 

[Fenris-77]

Apparently quite a lot of people on Reddit.

And you've identified the root of the problem there I think.

 

[guachi]

I'd love it if we got, instead of the 97th type of elf, we had something done with humans.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'd love it if we got, instead of the 97th type of elf, we had something done with humans.

What's not all inclusive about 'variant'? Doesn't that have us covered...

 

[Scribe]

What's not all inclusive about 'variant'? Doesn't that have us covered...

Yeah, thats how I look at it. Human's are flexible. What more is needed.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

What's not all inclusive about 'variant'? Doesn't that have us covered...

Or the Dragonmarked Humans. Or Half-Elves and Half-Orcs. Or the many different flavors of Planetouched humans (Genasi, Tiefling, and Aasimar, as well as Hexblood, Dhampir, Reborn, and Yuan-Ti Purebloods that started out as humans). And Halflings.

(And to make other human races/subraces that aren't planetouched/lineages could get very problematic very fast. This isn't the Elder Scrolls, this is D&D.)

 

[Charlaquin]

Well, to fair, the downside there is that they have a slime body. Yuck, who really wants that?

o/

 

[Mecheon]

Apparently quite a lot of people on Reddit.

Heck, not even Reddit. Slime girl is basically standard stuff in various communities.

i've seen Things, lemme tell you.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Oh wow yeah if you don’t wear clothes and just make clothes shapes with your weird slime body, disguise self doesn’t need to make illusory clothes over your skin, so someone grabbing you the shoulder won’t immediately give you away like it can other creatures.

I don’t know that I like the idea of these guys being a better changeling than the changeling, tbh…

Maybe Changelings need a feat that lets them mimic any creatures or objects and even surfaces, within a certain size.

IN my group I already have someone that wants to do a warlock 3/Fighter X (bladelock hexblade/rune thign) that is basically odo from DS9

 

[SkidAce]

The primary issue I have with substituting the Astral for Wildspace and the Phologiston is that in the Astral, nobody needs to breathe, eat, drink, or sleep and nobody ages. All of the supply issues that come with having a ship are simply gone. There's no risk if you fall overboard because you'll be (physically) fine even if you're not rescued for years. In Spelljammer, there were risks. If you fell overboard in Wildspace, you'd suffocate. If you fell overboard in the Phlogiston, you'd calcify and possibly become an undead horror. And that's not even including the monsters that could eat you first.

So for me, in order to make Planesjammer interesting, they'd have to change how the Astral itself works. Maybe make it so that the Astral is actually toxic (in a way that doesn't affect normal Astral travelers, the type who have a silver cord). A ship's air bubble protects you and also restores real time on the ship so you need to eat and drink. If you have an air supply (perhaps using one of the Spelljammer's "gadabouts") you can travel around the Astral OK, but too-long exposure to the Astral's psychic winds can cause physical and psychic mutations.

Space is space, i.e. need air, propulsion for the ship etc.
Distant worlds are worlds. Takes a long time to get there. (In my campaign the Abyss is a whirlpool of stars and planets sucking in and tainting the surround stellar areas, Celestia is a planet, etc.)
Astral is hyperspace, i.e. spelljaming, a shortcut to other worlds, but once you warp in you are in local space and need air, and food ,etc...until you land or dock somewhere.

They could use this model, its what I've used for years.