D&D (2024) All about Ardlings

[Marandahir]

No, it's from a computer game called Smite. In this game, you get to play a deity fighting against other deities and their minions.

Here's the YouTube clip that has Horus in it.

Oh! That sparks! Darn cool.

 

[Dausuul]

I would be fine with ardlings portrayed as any of the above; it should be up to the player. For me personally, if I were playing an ardling, I would pick either 70% or 100% animal, depending on the character concept.

(Somewhat off topic, I wish they had come up with a different name for them. Something about the "-ling" suffix feels like it's signaling "small" or "less than" to me. It's obviously meant to parallel "tiefling," and I got used to "tiefling" back in the day, so I'll get used to "ardling" now, but it's definitely not the name I would have gone with.)

 

[Marandahir]

(Somewhat off topic, I wish they had come up with a different name for them. Something about the "-ling" suffix feels like it's signaling "small" or "less than" to me. It's obviously meant to parallel "tiefling," and I got used to "tiefling" back in the day, so I'll get used to "ardling" now, but it's definitely not the name I would have gone with.)

Also parallels Glitchling, from the recent UA. I agree that it always makes me think small; besides Halflings you have Gelflings, and probably a bunch of other hobbit or gnome-like beings from other fiction that end in -ling.

In some fiction - I think Shannara? - Halfling instead means someone who is half one lineage and half another. So an Elf-Human Halfling would be what we usually call a Half-elf. I can see how -ling can refer to someone that is a partial descendant of what it's modifying. Ardlings are descendants of ARchons or GuARDinals, presumably. But then what are Tieflings? Fiendling would almost be better, but Tiefling sounds so much cooler. And Glitchlings are descendents of Glitches in the Matrix Mechanus.

Weirder to me is that while Ardling and Tiefling can now be small, Glitchling cannot. And there's no Chaosling for Limbo (maybe that's just the Plasmoid come Planescape, but then its name doesn't match the formatting). And why are Dwarves not able to be small, but humans can be? I mean, isn't that the definition of a Dwarf as opposed to a human? Most mythological creatures we associate with Gnomes or Halflings in D&D have names that actually mean something more along the lines of Dwarf, after all, and the whole point of Dwarves were that they were small mining fey. I get that they don't want to overlap too much between Rock Gnome and Dwarf (and Svirfneblin and Duergar), but it just comes off as distinctly odd to me.

 

[Raith5]

Having thought about this I dont like the Ardlings - it seems a forced combination of several ideas rather than a distinct thing. And I dont like the idea of flying race in PHB.

I much prefer the Shifter idea for andromorphic races (a connection to lycanthropes or a cursed people). I like the Deva and Aasamir to be separate.

 

[Temporalgod]

Getting back to Ardlings... they are built for GRAPPLING.

Unarmed attack to grab someone, bonus action fly 15 feet up with them, your Angelic Flight ends, you both fall, you both take 1d6 damage, you both automatically end up prone if you took damage from a fall, it's still your turn so you use half your movement to stand back up. You are now in the optimal grappling position!

This is the easiest way to get a grapple build going right at lv1. It does cost you 1d6 damage (half if raging! half if you can convince your GM to apply Tasha's falling-onto-creature rules!), but still!

insert furry wrestling league picture here, I am not googling that

Cool so I can Choke Slam people like the Undertaker.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Cool so I can Choke Slam people like the Undertaker.

Game mechanics tell us how the world works, and this is clearly how Ardlings conduct their business.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Having thought about this I dont like the Ardlings - it seems a forced combination of several ideas rather than a distinct thing. And I dont like the idea of flying race in PHB.

I raised that question in my feedback survey: What problem is this solving? If it's a heavenly counterpart to the tiefling, why aren't they just elevating the aasimar? If it's an anthro race, what's with the magical wings? This feels like a senior designer's pet idea that they won't let go of, rather than something that organically arose from a need during the design process.

 

[Mecheon]

I do understand it on the "Aasimar, despite being as stuck onto the game as they are at the moment, have really failed to get a fanbase and stand out as much as Tieflings, so let's go back to the drawing board and try again" and "Generic Furry Race to give that widespread option for folks coming into it new"

but, they're just trying to hit two different targets. They're certainly Interesting and I wouldn't mind them hanging around, but I don't think they're hitting either of their goals particularly well (Not that I think WotC could ever pull off a Generic Furry Race as something like that would require a heap of optional things to chose from, which isn't how 1D&D is being set up)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

but, they're just trying to hit two different targets. They're certainly Interesting and I wouldn't mind them hanging around, but I don't think they're hitting either of their goals particularly well (Not that I think WotC could ever pull off a Generic Furry Race as something like that would require a heap of optional things to chose from, which isn't how 1D&D is being set up)

Well, but look at how they're doing the half-races this time around. It wouldn't be hard to come up with an animal people race (much better name needed, of course), give them Keen Senses, a choice of a land, air or sea movement ability, and maybe another simple ability or two. That would encompass everything from the lupin to the rakasta without each of them needing their own write-up later on.

I do think there's a large market for such a race. I just don't think it should be merged with celestials, any more than it should be made a Shadowfel or fey race.

 

[Yaarel]

A setting that has humanimals can easily have hundreds of different kinds to choose from. For ardling to be a single race that can accommodate all of them is a win.

Notice how the tiefling can represent different kinds of fiends: devil, demon, yugaloth.

Likewise, the ardling should be able to represent different kinds of celestials: including guardinals with animal heads and aasimon with human heads. In other words, an aasimar is one of the options for an ardling character.