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  1. J

    Envoy Warforged: You Pass Butter

    I kind of want to play the brewer bot. An actual walking keg. Play him as a Belushi-esque Big Fat Party Animal, or a super-boring homebrew enthusiast, waxing poetic about pilsners vs. stouts.
  2. J

    Envoy Warforged: You Pass Butter

    "As an envoy, you were designed with a certain specialized function in mind. You might be an assassin, a healer, or an entertainer, to name a few possibilities. Envoys are the rarest of the warforged subraces, and yours could be a unique design." So . . . an integrated set of tools. Combine...
  3. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Devil's Advocates --- The Case for Lawful Evil

    MTOF does some great stuff explaining the culture, psychology, and motivations of various races. Particularly impressive: devils as tyrants versus demons as egotists. I love the bit about how devils feel like they don't get the credit they deserve for holding back the demons and preventing...
  4. J

    UA: Giant Soul Sorcerer

    Yeah, I think you gotta read "hill giant" more as "baseline giant," i.e., big and smashy, no particular elemental schtick. I share the concern that at least some of these options feel very melee-oriented . . . but I like the idea that in an emergency, you can cast heroism and shillelagh and...
  5. J

    Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Giant Soul Sorcerer

    Yeah, I think you gotta read "hill giant" more as "baseline giant," i.e., big and smashy, no particular elemental schtick. I share the concern that at least some of these options feel very melee-oriented . . . but I like the idea that in an emergency, you can cast heroism and shillelagh and...
  6. J

    D&D 5E (2014) Tell me about your Adventures in Middle-Earth experiences, please

    My secret dream is to get a bunch of players together for a AiME one-shot, hand out the setting-appropriate pregen characters, play a little LOTR soundtrack with a Christopher Lee monologue to set the mood, and then five minutes into the adventure . . . modrons, and lots of them.
  7. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    I'm oversimplifying . . . his point was more that hobbits are a romanticized version of pre-industrialized simple salt of the earth folk, as romanticized by an academic who didn't have much experience with / insight into actual rural folk. All of which I find interesting (like much of what...
  8. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    Agreed, but initially it was importing these ethnic monsters into a default setting that was still overwhelmingly Northern / Western European. As early as 1st Edition, it progressed to cover fantasy versions of Africa, Asia, etc. . . . Kara-Tur was surely a big step. And then over time, it's...
  9. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    Not sure I'm tracking with you here. I think elves have always been presented as different from humans, but these new changes make them . . . more differenter. I like the changes because they build upon some existing lore (while contradicting some other stuff, I admit), they seem to reflect a...
  10. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    Yes --- great story hook. I've also been thinking about how Lawful Good dwarves who just don't get it are an interesting area to explore . . . sort of a Hank Hill thing, where an unquestionably admirable person still has trouble dealing with people and things outside his comfort zone. Come...
  11. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    Chainmail bikini, but she can't lay with a man until she's beaten him in combat, or she loses her might in battle. The Red Sonja comics have recently done a riff on this with a man --- Osric the Untouched --- but Conan never had that kind of limitation. Not bashing white male lead characters...
  12. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    I like the idea that the default world for D&D is becoming more inclusive. If someone else wants to go back to Strength limits for female characters and tales of orc rape, go ahead, but I think it's good for game to try to change with the times.
  13. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    D&D is not "white fiction," is it? It's rooted in a lot of European mythology and history, and in various early fantasy that drew upon that same European mythology and history, sure . . . but the game has continuously moved toward more diversity, more inclusion. Howard had some specific ideas...
  14. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    I am reminded of Donald Glover's recent take on Lando . . . in a universe with an endless variety of sentient life, some guys are just going to flirt with everything. I dunno . . . I'm glad they are trying to look at some of these classic fantasy races through a different lens (gender fluidity...
  15. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    I dunno . . . to me, Red Sonja being simulaneously hypersexualized and sexless is pandering. Old-school half-orcs where the default origin story was "rape" is pandering. As much as I love Robert Howard, all of these stories where the purest-blooded white guy crushes the enemy and hears the...
  16. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    https://www.quora.com/In-Tolkiens-world-how-does-Elvish-reincarnation-work I understand that Tolkien rethought this a number of times and ended up with something quite different . . . elves are eventually "reborn" into recreations of their original bodies, and thereafter live in the undying...
  17. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    And this stuff, by the way, is why dwarves and elves don't get along. Different on not just a cultural level, but also biological and spiritual --- dwarf souls and elf souls don't operate the same.
  18. J

    D&D 5E (2014) MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

    Seriously. It's 2018, and I'm ready for elves that aren't just two or three familiar Tolkeinesque subraces or 1990s drow cliches. If you're chaotic good and enjoy several hundred years of youthful vigor, you're gonna want some variety, and if you were a different gender, or a tree, in your...
  19. J

    Baalzebul is back to normal (And other new lore discoveries.)

    Interesting! Contradicts the established lore, yes, but in all these years, no one has done anything with the idea that the female gnome deities are "missing," other than (as I recall) noting that gnomes who leave their communities are said to be "searching for the goddesses" (a figure of...
  20. J

    D&D 5E (2014) My Review of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is Live will also answer any questions

    I think that "rock gnomes as scientists" angle has a lot of promise . . . driven by curiosity, relying on innate intelligence and a scientific method (something none of the other races have really picked up on), the rock gnomes seek to understand everything. That's a good hook.
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