D&D General 5e System Redesign through New Classes and Setting. A Thought Experiment.

[Micah Sweet]

It was the Dragonborn nation of Tymanther that became a part of the Realms during 4e's Spellplague. The Dragonborn nation of Arkhosia existed in 4e's Points of Light/Nentir Vale setting. The planar swap that brought Tymanther to Toril from Abeir was a neat and easy way to introduce them into the Forgotten Realms setting.

It was easy (for the writers), but I take issue with being neat. Quite cludgy IMO.

 

[Corinnguard]

It was easy (for the writers), but I take issue with being neat. Quite cludgy IMO.

True. The alternate would have been making Abeir into an actual D&D setting.

 

[Zardnaar]

It was the Dragonborn nation of Tymanther that became a part of the Realms during 4e's Spellplague. The Dragonborn nation of Arkhosia existed in 4e's Points of Light/Nentir Vale setting. The planar swap that brought Tymanther to Toril from Abeir was a neat and easy way to introduce them into the Forgotten Realms setting.

Yup dropping them on top of existing material with little reason.

Can't see anything going wrong there.

 

[Steampunkette]

True. The alternate would have been making Abeir into an actual D&D setting.

Or they could've not made Dragonborn core to FR and instead kept them on the fringes. Or they could've revealed some effort by various dragons to imbue their power into mortals. Or they could've introduced a hidden enclave of Dragonborn. Or made the Spellplague turn people into dragonborn. Or...

The list of ways to do it is -long-. The way they did it was terrible. And they did it because they decided the mechanics of their core rulebook with their new favorite dragon race (probably handed down by Edict from above) should trump any setting's lore or structure.

And that's a piss poor way to handle things.

 

[Zardnaar]

Or they could've not made Dragonborn core to FR and instead kept them on the fringes. Or they could've revealed some effort by various dragons to imbue their power into mortals. Or they could've introduced a hidden enclave of Dragonborn. Or made the Spellplague turn people into dragonborn. Or...

The list of ways to do it is -long-. The way they did it was terrible. And they did it because they decided the mechanics of their core rulebook with their new favorite dragon race (probably handed down by Edict from above) should trump any setting's lore or structure.

And that's a piss poor way to handle things.

Saurial lost Vale. Just saying.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Saurial lost Vale. Just saying.

That's a great way to do it in setting, but Saurials are clearly not a major species in the Realms.

 

[Zardnaar]

That's a great way to do it in setting, but Saurials are clearly not a major species in the Realms.

Dragonborn could gave been same boat.

They kind of suck mechanically anyway even in 4E.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i like dragonborn, and i think i'd probably get more use out of them for creating setting that's trying to set itself apart from the norm than elves and dwarves.

 

[Zardnaar]

i like dragonborn, and i think i'd probably get more use out of them for creating setting that's trying to set itself apart from the norm than elves and dwarves.

Nothing wrong with that. They still stink mechanically.

I've seen one once in a one shot. Its not a new vs old thing as they're picking Tieflings, Aasimar and Goliaths.

 

[GobHag]

Problem with having several small (actually, medium-size) companies each publishing and promoting their own systems is that inevitably two things will happen:

--- the hobby will fracture into camps each supporting their preferred system
--- some of the disputes between those camps will get ugly (you thought the edition wars were bad, just wait for the system wars).

You sure you want that?

Yes. I think that's good.