Planescape 5e Planescape- What would you like to see in the upcoming setting?

[Professor Murder]

My personal heresy:
Reduce the number of Upper planes. There are currently 17 planes for nine alignments. Furthermore, the naming conventions could use a reexamination. Several planes still come from existing/historical faiths. DnD cosmology should be just that, DnD cosmology. Pastiche is fine enough, but outright embodiment of real world beliefs is challenging, if not for the simple reason that even with a bloated 17 planes, we don't even come close to representing all world religions. They changes Nirvana into Mechanicus. They can do more.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I sort of doubt that they'll stat the archdevils as well, it's a decent chunk of space that can be used for creatures that DMs are more likely to use. I think at best we'll see 2 or 3, perhaps a reprint of Zarial, and the rest will be lower level planar monsters.

Yeah, I have to agree. I love delving into the big name planar powers like the Lords of Nine, but in Mord's Tome of Foes and Monsters of the Multiverse, they didn't just stat out a Lord of Nine in Zariel, but also former Lords of Nine like Geryon and Moloch and even lesser Infernal Nobles like Bael, Hutijin, and Titivilus.

I've been mapping out the political structure of Baator the Nine Hells for a personal project for some time, and if they go by the metric used in MToF, they're looking at dozens of statblocks to draw from. The Rabble of Devilkin, a collection lesser archdevils living in exile in the hinterlands of Avernus, is a good 15+ names just by itself, and that's before getting into the consorts and courts of the various Lords of Nine. Then, if I were to indulge in some wishful thinking, you'd also need to consider the Dark Eight, the generals of the Three Commands, and the various deities that set up shop on Baator in the Nine Hells like Tiamat and Set and their respective entourages.

That's basically a full-sized sourcebook on Baator the Nine Hells in and of itself, well before getting into talking about Demon Lords they have yet to touch on (of which there are a similar, if not greater, number), hierarch modrons, gehreleths demodands, guardinals, eladrin whatever the CG celestials are now, rilmani, ratatosk, dabus, and other planar creatures.

In a 64 page book ostensibly covering an array of creatures from across the multiverse, that'd be basically impossible.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I do really wish WotC would not couple adventures with setting material. It's like they're having us subsidize the adventure department so they don't have to accept how very few people want their adventures.

So much this, it eats up too much space.

 

[dave2008]

But, umm, why? His art is what made Planescape iconic. It has given it its unique style.
Don't tell me DiTerlizzi too has been cancelled because someone dug up something he said 20 years ago. Can we just give this nonsense a rest, before everyone in existence is banned? Don't tell me you never said or wrote anything online you regretted in a moment of anger or confusion.

Try not to jump to conclusions. I was very literal when I said I didn't like his art. I didn't like his art style back in 2e. So I didn't buy the planescape looks.

Now, I do like his current style, which I admit is an evolution of his old style, much better.

 

[Faolyn]

My personal heresy:
Reduce the number of Upper planes. There are currently 17 planes for nine alignments. Furthermore, the naming conventions could use a reexamination. Several planes still come from existing/historical faiths. DnD cosmology should be just that, DnD cosmology. Pastiche is fine enough, but outright embodiment of real world beliefs is challenging, if not for the simple reason that even with a bloated 17 planes, we don't even come close to representing all world religions. They changes Nirvana into Mechanicus. They can do more.

They're not going to reduce the number of upper planes unless they get rid of all the dual-alignment planes, because they like their symmetry. Which, theoretically, they could do--they've basically ignored all the lower planes in favor of the Abyss and Nine Hells already. Since they have already blended the para/quasi-elemental planes into the basic four elemental planes, I wouldn't be surprised if Pandamonium, Carceri, Gehenna, and Acheron got blended into other planes: Pandemonium (and Ysgard) and Carceri (and Bytopia) can become part of Limbo and Mechanus, respectively, and Genenna and Acheron can become part of the Abyss and Nine Hells.

I'm of two minds about that, myself. I actually prefer those dual-aligned planes to the Abyss and Hells; I find them a lot more interesting and wouldn't want them to be removed or mixed in with another plane. Heck, I'd be happy if the Abyss and Hells were totally downplayed, simply because I find them really boring (I know they won't be, though). On the other hand, I know that, if I were to run a Planescape game, I'd completely change the planes around to be more to my liking anyway, and my idea is closer to what I think 4e did, with individual domains claimed by deities and arch-whatevers or just naturally-formed bits of weirdness, than anything like the Great Wheel. After all, I don't need both a Limbo and an Elemental Chaos, after all. But that's me; probably some people like them both.

While there are still planes and layers named after parts of real-world religions and mythologies, I think it might be more important to simply remove the real-world gods from the setting. Or at least the real-world gods that haven't been co-opted into a D&D religion, like Bahamut and Loviatar. What I would like to see is them come up with a brand new bunch of gods to fill in the blanks where the real gods had been used previously. Not just renaming the real gods into something more fantastic, but literally new gods.

(Sadly, though, the book is going to be 96 pages long; there's no way they'll come up with a new grouping of gods, even if they only gave them each a 1-sentence description.)

 

[Faolyn]

So much this, it eats up too much space.

And it's something that can really only be used once per gaming group. It's fine if you go out of your way to buy an adventure, knowing you can only use it once, but it removes value from a setting book because it takes up that space that could be used for more information.

 

[Parmandur]

I would actually expect to see the Big Bads in a Fizban's style book: I'm sure we'll get some hughbCR critters here, but not necessarily Archdrvils and such.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I will surprised if they stat Primus and I don't seem them spending 16 pages on the arch devils. I am thinking closer to 25-30 pages for the groups you list with about 32 pages of other monsters.

Like I mentioned at the end of my last post, since page count would be less of an issue, they could very well dump them, at least in part, into the assumed D&D Beyond extra release. Basically, when it comes to if all traditional members of the big groups we've been discussing will appear in the book (in my opinion): demodands, almost certainly; guardinals, very likely; archons, very likely; hierarch modrons, somewhat likely; Archdevils, less likely. When it comes to whatever they rename the OG eladrin, I'm not sure at all (they could show up in full, or partially, or be ignored altogether), and I'm guessing the rilmani will be missing altogether.

One further question: will the setting focus solely on the Outer Planes? I'm guessing it will, just for cohesion and space considerations. Despite the fact I love the xag-ya and xeg-yi, I'm guessing we won't see any creatures from the Inner Planes here.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I would actually expect to see the Big Bads in a Fizban's style book: I'm sure we'll get some hughbCR critters here, but not necessarily Archdrvils and such.

Good point. I wouldn't be surprised if a Fizban's-style book on fiends is in the near future. Like, even as early as 2024; after all, fiend books are always a big seller. And us getting a giant book in the near future (and when will they start dropping info on that? It's the next release and I'm really curious about it!) despite the fact they were featured in VGtM means that, even if the fiends did appear in MToF, they're still free to appear in their own book (even more so since VGtM and MToF were more or less de-canonized). If that's the case, then, yeah, they'll skip out on some or all of the Archdevils in this one..

 

[Parmandur]

Good point. I wouldn't be surprised if a Fizban's-style book on fiends is in the near future. Like, even as early as 2024; after all, fiend books are always a big seller. And us getting a giant book in the near future (and when will they start dropping info on that? It's the next release and I'm really curious about it!) despite the fact they were featured in VGtM means that, even if the fiends did appear in MToF, they're still free to appear in their own book (even more so since VGtM and MToF were more or less de-canonized). If that's the case, then, yeah, they'll skip out on some or all of the Archdevils in this one..

Yeah, I'd put Fiends down for a top 5 choice of they keep thst series up.

What I expect to see in this set are weird things that will never pop up anywhere else, so I'd rate the Rilmani as having good odds: they fit with the oddball deep cuts if Spelljammer like the Mercane.

Lots of Celestials seem likely, because Outsiders can be NPCs in Sigil.

Reviewing the old Planescape stuff, we might see the Einheriar, Incarnate, Noctral, or Demodands pretty easily. I expect WotC can think up some new weirdness, too.