D&D General Wildly Diverse "Circus Troupe" Adventuring Parties

[Cap'n Kobold]

wait that's kind of adorable what

Based on a published AL module, although I have no idea what freedoms were taken in converting it.

 

[Dire Bare]

Not really. Because Elves in Oerth aren't the same as elves in Krynn, Eberron, Athas, or Ravenloft. So if I read in the PHB how elves worship Correllon and then decide make an elf cleric of Corellon, he's not going to be playable in Krynn (which has its own strict pantheon), Eberron (ditto, and elves have very different, non-Tolkien cultures there) etc. And that's just the setting WotC makes; who the hell knows if your campaign has elves, clerics, or Corellon!

That's what I'm getting at. In Pathfinder, you hand me the Core Rulebook and I have enough information to make an elf cleric appropriate to Golarion. In most editions of D&D, the PHB does not give me the necessary info to do that. The only editions that do are 3e (assuming you are using Greyhawk) or 4e (using Nentir Vale). I guess BECMI too.

So no, the problem has existed since 1e. And its not going away until D&D settles on one setting that the game uses to the exclusion of all others.

Yeah, but . . . they're not that different. D&D elves vary only slightly from setting to setting, for the most part. There are some neat exceptions, of course.

If a player rolls up an elf cleric of Corellon for your Dragonlance game . . . use the character, and just swap the deity out for Paladine. No changes to the rules necessary!

 

[Amphytrion]

If a player rolls up an elf cleric of Corellon for your Dragonlance game . . . use the character, and just swap the deity out for Paladine. No changes to the rules necessary!

Dragonlance has a Corellon in all but name, Branchala, specifically for this.

Paladine is Bahamut, naturally.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Not really. Because Elves in Oerth aren't the same as elves in Krynn, Eberron, Athas, or Ravenloft. So if I read in the PHB how elves worship Correllon and then decide make an elf cleric of Corellon, he's not going to be playable in Krynn (which has its own strict pantheon), Eberron (ditto, and elves have very different, non-Tolkien cultures there) etc. And that's just the setting WotC makes; who the hell knows if your campaign has elves, clerics, or Corellon!

That's what I'm getting at. In Pathfinder, you hand me the Core Rulebook and I have enough information to make an elf cleric appropriate to Golarion. In most editions of D&D, the PHB does not give me the necessary info to do that. The only editions that do are 3e (assuming you are using Greyhawk) or 4e (using Nentir Vale). I guess BECMI too.

So no, the problem has existed since 1e. And its not going away until D&D settles on one setting that the game uses to the exclusion of all others.

problem with that is it overstuff the setting people complain out the cantine but if that are all in one setting, then it is not a dm or player issue but a hard system issue.

unless we have multiple setting but with less base connective tissue of shared races as only one setting gets to have elves

 

[Amphytrion]

I think the Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes approach to elves was very useful. Actually, it’s approach to everything was useful, as it painted a standard fantasy cosmology for all major fantasy races.

I believe it is not unfair to say that most tables portray elven society in a somewhat archetypal way, influenced by Tolkien or myth. It is useful to have some guidance on how to achieve that even if a setting could deviate from this baseline entirely. Tome of Foes accomplished this while also having some very interesting, not so traditional, ideas I always play with on my tables (e.g. elven reincarnation).

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Dragonlance has a Corellon in all but name, Branchala, specifically for this.

Paladine is Bahamut, naturally.

 

[Amphytrion]

Is Branchala not a Corellon analogue, like Reorx is Moradin’s?

 

[Bae'zel]

Now see, that's one of my pet peeves. People who obviously have an idea for a character independent of D&D and, instead of writing a novel about them, decide to use a new D&D campaign as the medium to play out their story. Regardless of the fact that the character is completely unsuitable for D&D in genre or power scale or what have you. Very often they'll have drawn up an idea of what their abilities are first, and then when those don't match any of the races or classes actually in the game ask for dubiously balanced homebrew solutions.

I know it's not the worst thing in the world, but it annoys me to no end.

On the other hand, isn't this kind of how the first book of the Expanse came into being?

Guy (writer) joined his friends' Traveller (or other sci-fi RPG) campaign and insisted on being a Private Detective instead of the usual sci-fi tropes and it inspired the creation one of the most memorable sci-fi novels in recent memory.

But not everyone's a writer haha

 

[AnotherGuy]

Is Branchala not a Corellon analogue, like Reorx is Moradin’s?

I recognise only Ilsundal and Kagyar, the rest are imposters I say...

EDIT: Ordana and Mealiden Starwatcher are also acceptable

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah, but . . . they're not that different. D&D elves vary only slightly from setting to setting, for the most part. There are some neat exceptions, of course.

If a player rolls up an elf cleric of Corellon for your Dragonlance game . . . use the character, and just swap the deity out for Paladine. No changes to the rules necessary!

I'm not talking about rules, I'm talking about the lore, the tl;dr part the players skip. The player who read just the PHB now has supplemental reading: where do elves fit into Krynn, who is Paladine, what is the nature of priests on Krynn. It's even worse if you roll up that elf cleric of Corellon and find out your DM is running Dark Sun: no Gods, clerics worship elements, and elves are desert raiders. Nothing in the PHB prepared you for that, even if the mechanics of elf and cleric are functionally the same.