D&D General DnD cosmology - Which Edition do you prefer?

[Weiley31]

And this is an epic Destiny for MARTIAL characters, specifically the Rogue or the Ranger. You just randomly run into portals and stuff and get where you want to go.

And I love how all of them give you narrative hooks for your brand of immortality. For the end of your character's career. They all feel way more flavorful than any endcap in 5e, including the mostp owerful spells in the game.

I like to look at a number of the epic destinies in 4E and see how some of them can be made into potential faction rewards. But 4E, to its credit, did have some baller ideas/lore/stuff.

 

[Scribe]

Without the Alignment Great Wheel, what even are we doing with our lives?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Without the Alignment Great Wheel, what even are we doing with our lives?

Actually making moral choices?

 

[Staffan]

Without the Alignment Great Wheel, what even are we doing with our lives?

"If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... , then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today." - Angel

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Without the Alignment Great Wheel, what even are we doing with our lives?

Awesome planar moons and Manifest Zones with Eberron and the simple, yet compelling nature of 4e's World Axis Cosmology and how it drives core aspects the edition's (amazing) lore.

 

[ersatzphil]

Actually making moral choices?

Does the great wheel model preclude moral agency?

 

[Neonchameleon]

Does the great wheel model preclude moral agency?

Some versions of it (especially both Dragonlance and the Realms) claim that Balance Between Good and Evil is good. And that does wreck moral agency.

And count me in for preferring 4e slightly to Eberron and both those to just about any other D&D cosmology by a large distance. An interesting thing abut the 5e cosmology is for all it calls itself the Great Wheel it's the 4e World Axis with the Astral Sea broken out into the outer rim of the old Great Wheel.

 

[Vaalingrade]

A big thing no one else seems to have mentioned is the elemental planes.

Realizing that the problem with elemental planes was that they were elemental planes was a eureka moment for me and the Elemental Chaos was an excellent jumping off point for my designs with keeping the 'elements' playable and survivable in mind.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

A big thing no one else seems to have mentioned is the elemental planes.

Realizing that the problem with elemental planes was that they were elemental planes was a eureka moment for me and the Elemental Chaos was an excellent jumping off point for my designs with keeping the 'elements' playable and survivable in mind.

That's why all of the Elemental Planes in my world bleed into one another. You can find earthmote islands floating in the Elemental Plane of Air, volcanos throughout the Elemental Plane of Fire, pockets of air in the Elemental Plane of Earth, and so on. The idea of planes of existence comprised entirely of one of the four classical elements is cool . . . but really doesn't work that well as an adventuring location, which is really how most planes of existence should function (except the Far Realm).

 

[Vaalingrade]

That's why all of the Elemental Planes in my world bleed into one another. You can find earthmote islands floating in the Elemental Plane of Air, volcanos throughout the Elemental Plane of Fire, pockets of air in the Elemental Plane of Earth, and so on. The idea of planes of existence comprised entirely of one of the four classical elements is cool . . . but really doesn't work that well as an adventuring location, which is really how most planes of existence should function (except the Far Realm).

The way I do it is that the Elemental Realm used to be the raw material farm for the Gods of Creation, now lost. Whatever they did to make it is broken now and whatever mechanism they used to keep Creation separate in the Realm broke down and it all became jumbled up, creating actual natural galaxies and planets in it 'Wild Worlds' that exist without divine rules and systems as well as big chunklets of hostile 'pure' element as well as connective skeins of elements that weave and tangle into incomplete worlds.

Since 'life' is an element in my world, it's the places where life tangles into other elements that spawn elementals who then go on to invade and people the wild worlds or any world dumb enough to learn enough magic to access Elemental Realm for cheap, easy magic power.

They're not evil, just looking for a place to live that is hospitable to them. Some are smart enough to work with native material beings. Others are basically animals. Some are just jerks.

None of my players groups have managed to get to a Wild World yet, but they're a thing all their own. Including this one where the natives named it after their word for 'dirt'. Dirt has no magic and no hope of escaping its Wild Galaxy, but sparks of inspiration still land there from time to time and they play games inspired by the divinely created reality they can never know...