D&D General Dark Sun Nostalgia Thread [+]

[LuisCarlos17f]

DS needs work not only for the psionic powers, but to think about all the crunch after 2nd Ed, for example the game mechanic of the martial maneuvers, the soulmelds of the totemist shaman (Magic of Incarnum), the wilden (new PC race from 4th Ed) or the Athasian genasies (embersoul, sandsoul and sunsoul). Why not a Athasian sorcerer with primal magic instead arcane? Or to recycle the ardent and the lurker, two new classes from 3.5 "the complete psionic". What about the dread domain of Kalidnay in the demiplane of the dread (Ravenloft)? Maybe there was a link in the metaplot of both settings. Why not to add werevermins? Or the death lands, home of undeads, being invaded by necrotic-proof constructs, or quasielementals.

Is, or should, the spynewyrm to be a true dragon, with age categories? I love that idea from Dungeon Magazine. Maybe it was not in the natural origin, but a crazy cult leaded by a "biohacker" created a digievolution of mind-control parasites.

The people from Yathazor(Black Spine module) could be retconected like a potential faction for the future. I mean this city could explain because some creatures and races could appear in Athas, because they are fugitives from here.

 

[Marandahir]

DS needs work not only for the psionic powers, but to think about all the crunch after 2nd Ed, for example the game mechanic of the martial maneuvers, the soulmelds of the totemist shaman (Magic of Incarnum), the wilden (new PC race from 4th Ed) or the Athasian genasies (embersoul, sandsoul and sunsoul). Why not a Athasian sorcerer with primal magic instead arcane? Or to recycle the ardent and the lurker, two new classes from 3.5 "the complete psionic". What about the dread domain of Kalidnay in the demiplane of the dread (Ravenloft)? Maybe there was a link in the metaplot of both settings. Why not to add werevermins? Or the death lands, home of undeads, being invaded by necrotic-proof constructs, or quasielementals.

Is, or should, the spynewyrm to be a true dragon, with age categories? I love that idea from Dungeon Magazine. Maybe it was not in the natural origin, but a crazy cult leaded by a "biohacker" created a digievolution of mind-control parasites.

The people from Yathazor(Black Spine module) could be retconected like a potential faction for the future. I mean this city could explain because some creatures and races could appear in Athas, because they are fugitives from here.

They don't need to provide all of those game mechanics in 5e.

Just like 5e sadly has no rules for Brown, Grey, Iron, Adamantine, Steel, Cobalt, Mercury, Orium, or Mithral Dragons, but it DOES have rules for the Gem Dragons which 4e did not (though Purple Dragons are in 5e, they're just called Cave Dragons).

The important thing is not that you can one-to-one adapt everything down to the small strokes of game mechanics from past editions, but that you can play in the broad and medium strokes of the setting. So yes, Psionics are necessary, as are Templars, defiling magic, Thri-Kreen, and feral cannabalistic Halflings, but Elemental Priests, Athasian Genasis, Minotaurs, even Kalidnay's Domain of Dread aren't necessary.

Half-giants could just be Goliaths or they could be a new lineage specific for 5e Dark Sun. Dray could be a new variant of Dragonborn or something different. Just because they were in a past edition doesn't mean they need to be here. We just need ENOUGH to be able to say, "this is definitely Dark Sun in 5e." The DM's Guild can pick up the slack on the rest of the setting, like they've done for Eberron and Ravenloft and the Realms.

 

[overgeeked]

So yes, Psionics are necessary, as are Templars, defiling magic, Thri-Kreen, and feral cannabalistic Halflings

And it all depends on how you want these done.

Psionics could simply be the existing psi subclasses. You can use an extra feat at character creation to duplicate the everyone’s a wild talent thing. Go for telepathy or telekinesis, or one of the spell granting feats, or really anything if you say it’s psionic fueled. You’re missing the pure psi class, sure, but I’m not sure we’re getting one this edition (including the 50th revised). Aberrant mind is close for pure psi powers. The monk is close for the physically focused pure psi. The fighter psi sub is a good mix and obviously a jedi, so we’re covered. Basically.

Templars are either clerics and paladins or warlocks dedicated to the sorcerer-kings. The existing subclasses for the cleric and paladin cover this well. You can refluff the warlock patrons to suit, though one or two new ones specific to Dark Sun would be nice.

Defiling magic could be a free up cast or sorcery points and you could drop in the old 2E defiling table for ranges.

We have a UA thri-kreen and hopefully an official one soon.

And I don’t think we need a new subrace for Athasian halflings. They’re wild and eat people. That’s a cultural thing. You don’t need a separate stat block for that. Not like you would for the thri-kreen, as an example.

So we already have 80-90% of what we’d need player’s side to run Dark Sun. All the old books still work for fluff. And DM‘s would need to homebrew some monsters. But we have the majority of what we’d need already.

 

[TheSword]

dup

 

[TheSword]

I loved this cover. City by the Silt Sea was the first boxed set I ever bought. There was so much stuff in there and many poster maps of all the different levels of the city.

 

[Staffan]

And I don’t think we need a new subrace for Athasian halflings. They’re wild and eat people. That’s a cultural thing. You don’t need a separate stat block for that. Not like you would for the thri-kreen, as an example.

Other than the souped-up statline (+2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str, -1 Constitution and Charisma) Dark Sun halflings were, mechanically, pretty close to identical to core 2e halflings.

 

[overgeeked]

Other than the souped-up statline (+2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str, -1 Constitution and Charisma) Dark Sun halflings were, mechanically, pretty close to identical to core 2e halflings.

Well, 5E is pretty souped-up compared to 2E, so it should be fine.

 

[Marandahir]

And it all depends on how you want these done.

Psionics could simply be the existing psi subclasses. You can use an extra feat at character creation to duplicate the everyone’s a wild talent thing. Go for telepathy or telekinesis, or one of the spell granting feats, or really anything is you say it’s psionic fueled. You’re missing the pure psi class, sure, but I’m not sure we’re getting one this edition (including the 50th revised). Aberrant mind is close for pure psi powers. The monk is close for the physically focused pure psi. The fighter psi sub is a good mix and obviously a jedi, so we’re covered. Basically.

Templars are either clerics and paladins or warlocks dedicated to the sorcerer-kings. The existing subclasses for the cleric and paladin cover this well. You can refluff the warlock patrons to suit, though one or two new ones specific to Dark Sun would be nice

Defiling magic could be a free up cast or sorcery points and you could drop in the old 2E defiling table for ranges.

We have a UA thri-kreen and hopefully an official one soon.

And I don’t think we need a new subrace for Athasian halflings. They’re wild and eat people. That’s a cultural thing. You don’t need a separate stat block for that. Not like you would for the thri-kreen, as an example.

So we already have 80-90% of what we’d need player’s side to run Dark Sun. All the old books still work for fluff. And DM‘s would need to homebrew some monsters. But we have the majority of what we’d need already.

100% agree that you could do these well. I would put a Dragon King Patron Warlock in, and maybe a Psionic Wizard or Artificer subclass, and definitely include stats for Thri-Kreen characters (and maybe Muls and Dray Dragonborn). MAYBE reprint the Aberrant Mind and Goliath. Then you need defiling magic rules and that's kinda it for character options.

 

[overgeeked]

100% agree that you could do these well. I would put a Dragon King Patron Warlock in, and maybe a Psionic Wizard or Artificer subclass, and definitely include stats for Thri-Kreen characters (and maybe Muls and Dray Dragonborn). MAYBE reprint the Aberrant Mind and Goliath. Then you need defiling magic rules and that's kinda it for character options.

Muls could be a customized dwarf or human or a player created race from Tasha’s. Dray are too rare to worry about, but it would be easy to use the dragonborn from Fizban’s and customize it. Half-giant as goliath is solid, if not quite right.

 

[Marandahir]

Muls could be a customized dwarf or human or a player created race from Tasha’s. Dray are too rare to worry about, but it would be easy to use the dragonborn from Fizban’s and customize it. Half-giant as goliath is solid, if not quite right.

Oh I agree. I just think that if they don't offer some guidance as per the above, a lot of people would complain that they're leaving out key elements of the setting.

They're not going to complain if the setting book doesn't feature martial maneuvers or alternate Genasi forms (when we haven't even gotten the 4e's core sublineage - the Storm Genasi). Those are negligible parts of the setting. If anything, I'd expect them to say that use Fire Genasi to model Sun Genasi, etc.