D&D General psychology of a mystical race?

[Mind of tempest]

I am trying to figure out the core mental stuff of mystical races and I hit a dead end.
any ideas?
any setting from any work as fiction is possible as long as it is not counter to basic homebrew race design.
like the core kind of mentality ideally with a single snappy word to make it easier on the chaotic mess of my head.

 

[Lojaan]

I'm sorry but I have no idea what you are asking. What is a mystical race? What do you mean by core mental stuff?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Yeah, are we talking about 'can light a fire with a snap, but not much more' mystical, 'prestidigitation at will' mystical, or 'the rules of the world as other know them do not apply to us' mystical?

 

[Mind of tempest]

I'm sorry but I have no idea what you are asking. What is a mystical race? What do you mean by core mental stuff?

elves are a very popular example as are anything sufficiently elf-like as well as other enlightened and intelligent races.
I hate to link to this devouring website but here this will get you up to speed fast:Proud Scholar Race - TV Tropes

Yeah, are we talking about 'can light a fire with a snap, but not much more' mystical, 'prestidigitation at will' mystical, or 'the rules of the world as other know them do not apply to us' mystical?

between the first and second on the individual but with the ideal of being the latter as a very long-term goal.

 

[Yaarel]

@Mind of tempest

Doesnt the TV trope "proud scholar race" solve your quest? It is easy to write up a D&D culture with the trope in mind.

If not, why not?

 

[Mind of tempest]

@Mind of tempest

Doesnt the TV trope "proud scholar race" solve your quest? It is easy to write up a D&D culture with the trope in mind.

If not, why not?

it is like comparing a dictionary to a cook book, one gives you the definition the other gives you the explanation on how to build your own, and I am not a man with a degree in English literature.

I can't find anything that brakes it down so I can see how it works as once I know that it is relatively easy.

 

[jgsugden]

Here is an approach you can try: To see how it works, think about how it is assembled. Tell the story, and the rest will follow.

Start with an origin story. Were they created by the first Gods? Travelers from another Prime Material Plane? Are they from the future and is their mystical ability just reskinned technology? Are they touched by the Magic Weave, the Positive Energy Plane, the Negative Energy Plane, the Elemental Planes, or the Far Realm? Did they gain their magic from a deal with something? Are they travelers originally stranded by a crashed Spelljammer who grew to like their 'island'?

There are no wrong answers there, but once you come up with an origin, that will give you an idea for how to select abilities and lore that support the origin and tell a good story. You don't need to tell that story to the players, but it is good to have in the back pocket when building the lore of your world. I know where every single 5E (and many races from prior editions) originated in my setting. Most originated from the Gods realizing they could gather power from worshippers and creating free willed creatures to obtain those worshippers ... only to find that free willed meant that the being made their own choices of who they worship. Others (elves and dwarves) were created by Angels as servants that crafted the elemental chaos into the Prime Material World (which fits into the crafting elements of the lore of both races). When I need to build a dungeon, I can have a story in mind and it will remind me of one or more of the races in my campaign world based upon lore, geogrpahy, and need. It makes life much easier once you have that level of familiarity.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Here is an approach you can try: To see how it works, think about how it is assembled. Tell the story, and the rest will follow.

Start with an origin story. Were they created by the first Gods? Travelers from another Prime Material Plane? Are they from the future and is their mystical ability just reskinned technology? Are they touched by the Magic Weave, the Positive Energy Plane, the Negative Energy Plane, the Elemental Planes, or the Far Realm? Did they gain their magic from a deal with something? Are they travelers originally stranded by a crashed Spelljammer who grew to like their 'island'?

There are no wrong answers there, but once you come up with an origin, that will give you an idea for how to select abilities and lore that support the origin and tell a good story. You don't need to tell that story to the players, but it is good to have in the back pocket when building the lore of your world. I know where every single 5E (and many races from prior editions) originated in my setting. Most originated from the Gods realizing they could gather power from worshippers and creating free willed creatures to obtain those worshippers ... only to find that free willed meant that the being made their own choices of who they worship. Others (elves and dwarves) were created by Angels as servants that crafted the elemental chaos into the Prime Material World (which fits into the crafting elements of the lore of both races). When I need to build a dungeon, I can have a story in mind and it will remind me of one or more of the races in my campaign world based upon lore, geogrpahy, and need. It makes life much easier once you have that level of familiarity.

the problem is I am trying to make something to spec a particular race niche, the smart/wise one.
I appreciate the thought but that is not how I build, hence the slow build it brick by brick method.

 

[jgsugden]

the problem is I am trying to make something to spec a particular race niche, the smart/wise one.
I appreciate the thought but that is not how I build, hence the slow build it brick by brick method.

Can you explain why the approach I am suggesting will not work? I am not seeing how it does not.

Let me try. You want a smart/wise race, similar to the mystical representation of elves. Right?

So let's say you're not going to use elves as a starting block and let's come up with something different. I'll steal the Kaminoans from Star Wars as a look, but give them blue scales or some other feature to hide that theft ... perhaps copper skin and clawed hands?

Now I ask where they came from. To me, that description sounds kind of Lovecraftian, so I'll go with them being an ancient race from the Far Realm that escaped this world to avoid Dagon, Cthulhu and the other horros of the Far Realm - but accidently opened the door for them to enter our world. So what did they do once they arrived here, and once they realized they popped that door open?

Well, they likely brought strange and alien things with them. I'd give them magical abilities, and populate their abilities with homebrew spells that feel alien and psionic in nature. They tried to advance those abilities when they came here, and that i what allowed the Elder Gods to follow and unleash their horrors on the Prime. As a result, these creatures organized efforts to push them back. How doo they do that in Cthulhu mythos? Secret Orders! These people form secret organizations to train others to fight the Elder Gods.

How do they fight? Well, they have their magics that originated in the Far Realms, but they came to the Prime - so why wouldn't they adopt the tools of the Prime as well? They could have seprate orders of Psions, Mages, Sorcerers, Druids, and Clerics.

Every answer to a question invites more questions - which results in more being fleshde out until you have a story and a clearer vision.

You may not like my story above - but you can tell your story any way you want. This is a tried and true method.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Can you explain why the approach I am suggesting will not work? I am not seeing how it does not.

Let me try. You want a smart/wise race, similar to the mystical representation of elves. Right?

So let's say you're not going to use elves as a starting block and let's come up with something different. I'll steal the Kaminoans from Star Wars as a look, but give them blue scales or some other feature to hide that theft ... perhaps copper skin and clawed hands?

Now I ask where they came from. To me, that description sounds kind of Lovecraftian, so I'll go with them being an ancient race from the Far Realm that escaped this world to avoid Dagon, Cthulhu and the other horros of the Far Realm - but accidently opened the door for them to enter our world. So what did they do once they arrived here, and once they realized they popped that door open?

Well, they likely brought strange and alien things with them. I'd give them magical abilities, and populate their abilities with homebrew spells that feel alien and psionic in nature. They tried to advance those abilities when they came here, and that i what allowed the Elder Gods to follow and unleash their horrors on the Prime. As a result, these creatures organized efforts to push them back. How doo they do that in Cthulhu mythos? Secret Orders! These people form secret organizations to train others to fight the Elder Gods.

How do they fight? Well, they have their magics that originated in the Far Realms, but they came to the Prime - so why wouldn't they adopt the tools of the Prime as well? They could have seprate orders of Psions, Mages, Sorcerers, Druids, and Clerics.

Every answer to a question invites more questions - which results in more being fleshde out until you have a story and a clearer vision.

You may not like my story above - but you can tell your story any way you want. This is a tried and true method.

I am not saying your approach does not work but I simply work with a different one, I am asking for a dissection on how a concept works not a generated option.