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Like, one striking example of reification for me was when a hobgoblin in 3e always had to have a bunch of class levels, because they were a humanoid with no extra HD. But they also weren't a normal playable race because they were ever so slightly superior to a normal PC race. So if you have a...

I described it as the revised edition in the third sentence, there is no confusion, just people who either didn't read or are looking to argue over nothing.

Call it a distraction if you like. The fact is, they didn't give it an official name, and I don't feel like typing out 5e (2024) for the next decade.

Which is also not an official. I don't feel like doing the extra typing, or for that matter pretending like D&D wasn't revised. But you know, I figure people can call it what they want. It'll settle out in the end. 5E, as you will recall, wasn't even 5e at one point.

The edition after 5e.

First of all, let me acknowledge that I'm using ludification wrong, because it means to mock, tease, or make fun of. However, it comes from ludus (game, sport) and so literally means to make a game of. I just want to make an observation about some of the changes from 5e to the revised edition...

I'm not sold on the elementals with thundering javelins angle. Like, I guess it's fine, it's unlikely to impact my home campaign. But they had existing lore. In fact, they have already had their special equipment described, and it did not involve elemental powers. They also have some fairly...

In 2e, monsters had unified mechanics. All monsters of a given HD had the same attack matrix/Thac0, and saving throws follow a regularized theme. They had few special abilities, and these would be spelled out in small paragraph formats. 2e introduced the one monster, one page format, as well...

3.5 definitely advanced that aesthetic, but it wasn't even true in 3.5, not entirely. Monster types are not classes, for instance, and don't grant per level abilities for advancing. But that was definitely not true in 3.0. Most monsters had an entirely different method for generating skill...

It's the process of reification. That is, treating some representation of a thing as the thing itself. A simple stat block simply describes the creature in its basic terms and gives it measurements. But once you start assigning special moves, it becomes increasingly less a creature you are...

It would also be a strange choice for something called an "angel," considering angel means messenger or emissary.

In the D&D I cut my teeth on, fairies and pixies were considered humanoid and susceptible to charm person.

At some point, D&D gave us the hamadryad, a dryad who isn't bound to a particular tree to survive. That's reverse, and I am far more keen to see that reversed than I am concerned about what genders a dryad might have. I don't particularly like the idea of male hags, because I don't have a...

I'm not setting out how "big of a deal" it is. As I said, gnolls don't really closely map to a specific example or trope or representation of a real human group. However, they do overlap considerably with "savage" tropes, and they are factually situated in Africa. There is simply no way of...

It is weird that hyenas are distinctly African, and gnolls are saddled with tropes about savage people, the worship of Chaotic entities, and other Lovecraftian stuff about non-Europeans. It's not 1:1 but the tropes are there.

Things I don't like about 5e: It's complicated. Blood dice? The clan flaws can be severe and I'm not sure how some of these guys have survived a decade, much less a millennium. Even though some really patient people have tried to explain it to me, I don't understand the Ministry, and how they...

I would rather leave hags "broken" the way they have been, and try to fix the setting in other ways, than to just say there are male hags and call it a day. I also don't think it really fixes anything.

I personally think the handling of DR, weapon sizes, and monster building all went backwards for 3.5. DR became complicated and made characters carry around more weapons. Bilbo takes a -2 to attack with Sting. Dinosaurs with 12 HD now suddenly have a bunch of feats and need to spend some skill...

Early on, when it was specified at all, orcs were brown or green, and almost certainly looked very similar to the orcs drawn by the Brothers Hildebrandt for LOTR book covers. In my youth, I was informed that goblins were yellow or ochre. A lot of things were ochre back then. Kobolds were...

My pronunciation is a lot closer to "draw," but in an American way, without a phantom R, but also not a Texan way with a flat vowel. Or I could say it rhymes with Nassau, the city, not the place in New York. I could say the vowel sound is the same as in bout, but then I would have to tell you...