D&D 5E 16 More Details About Theros

The latest edition of WotC's online magazine contains some juicy tidbits about Mythic Odysseys of Theros!

1. It features Volothamp Geddarm.
2. It was headed up by James Wyatt, who used to work on D&D, and now works on Magic: The Gathering. He worked on the 3E Deities & Demigods.
3. It's based on a novella, which Wyatt spent considerable time researching.
4. He also read about the government of Athens, and the Greek calendar.
5. Subclasses include the College of Eloquence bard ("the philosopher ideal'), the Oath of Heroism paladin, and the Forge and Grave cleric domains.
6. The DMG piety system has been "blown up into a huge thing"... "That includes all sorts of rewards and restrictions for characters who choose to devote themselves to a god and track their piety.”
7. New magic items of the gods - artifacts and weapons.
8. “Everyone gets this extra leg up that is a gift of the gods, which is separate from the usual character background. It may be a magical thing about your nature, such as you have the mind of a sphinx and your thoughts can’t be read. Or you might be an oracle, which is an opportunity for your Dungeon Master to give you plenty of adventure hooks. It’s a straight power-up but not a huge power-up”
9. A table of omens with 100 entries.
10. Minotaurs, centaurs, merfolk (tritons from Volo), satyrs, leonine.
11. “The leonin is a different, stronger cat person, not just a tabaxi!”
12. "Satyrs are pretty much as you would expect. They’re party animals with good Dexterity and Charisma, they have a headbutt attack, they’re fast, they’re fey, they resist magic and they have musical instrument proficiency and persuasion."
13. Different lore for D&D creatures to match the Greek setting.
14. Mythic threats are boss fights. More than legendary. Aresta of the Endless Web is a spider. Has baby spiders which fight you.
15. Dyson Logos did the maps.
16. "There’s a temple of Athreos in two parts, split by the river that flows between the mortal world and the underworld."

 

[Dungeonosophy]

real world history does not need to change D&D terms just because it's in a Hellenistic setting.

I'm not suggesting that the Theros rulebook should not use the term Bard. In my OP, and throughout this convo, I've only asked for an Appendix or Web Enhancement that gives official Ancient Greek names for all the key D&D terms (classes, races, etc). Similar to the table in the DMG which gives Chinese and Japanese synonyms for the D&D weapon names*, or how in 1e Oriental Adventures, the Fighter is called Bushi -- Japanese for "Fighter."

*(BTW, it is very questionable how WotC includes Japanese weapon names under "wuxia"! Really ought to be its own D&D culture, distinct from Wuxia Adventures, such as: Sengoku Adventures / Chanbara Adventures / Zipangu Adventures / Wa Adventures.)

 

[LordEntrails]

A lot of it looks so similar to Greek lore that I almost wonder why not just use the Greek stuff straight up, rather than creating a version of Athens, and a version of Sparta, and a version of Odysseus, and a version of the Trojan Horse, and so on.

Because you can't copyright Athens, Sparta or Odysseus?

 

[LordEntrails]

Oh, yeah. $29.99 is standard for the sorcebooks, and the adventures tend to be a little less than that.

It's still more than I would prefer, but I can live with it.

Yea, all the digital platforms except for Roll20 sell at the reduced (40%?) price. At least I know DDB and FG do, Roll20 does on a couple of things but most I believe are still full price. Not sure about d20 Pro as it has so few things available.