D&D (2024) All about Ardlings

[Kobold Avenger]

I think the descriptions in the playtest document of Tieflings, the look of the Tiefling Druid in the D&D movie, and the 2e Tiefling NPC Rhys appearing in Tasha's Cauldron with an non-updated appearance, are signs that WoTC are moving away from the distinctive uniform appearance of Tieflings from 4e.

 

[Temporalgod]

Their uniform appearance was more or less due to their common origin in 4e. From Wikipedia:

In the setting of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, the tieflings trace their origins to the ancient human Empire of Bael Turath. In the Empire, the noble class was completely obsessed with preserving and gaining power. Rumors of their schemes and obsession with power reached a realm called the Nine Hells, located around the Astral Sea. The devils that resided in the Nine Hells gave the ruling classes of Bael Turath visions while they slept, containing the directions for a grisly, month-long ritual that would extend their rule into eternity. The details of the ritual have been left unclear in the books from the Player's Handbook series describing the events, though it is described as being very horrible. As the ritual demanded the participation of every noble house, those that refused were wholly slaughtered. Once this was done, the ruling class began their ritual. Afterwards, devils from the Nine Hells began to appear, and the nobles gladly made pacts with them. These pacts gave power to the nobles and their descendants forever, but also gave them the devilish features of horns, non-prehensile tails, sharp teeth, and red skin. From that point forward, the former humans were the race known as the tieflings.

In 5th edition, the overlord of the Nine Hells, Asmodeus, is cited as the ancestral source of their devilish features.

The Aasimar or Devas as they were called in 4e also had something of a common origin. By 5th edition they were essentially the product of angels (even though there were other kinds of Celestials in D&D).

Personally I just ignored that part, I prefer the parent is a Cambion origin more and instead of the ugly red Tieflings, My Tieflings are hot, hornless, white haired and have human skin tones, think like if Dante or Vergil from Devil may Cry fused with the X-Man Nightcrawler, the demonic features are still there but less obvious, at a distance they could pass for an elf or an aasimar with a tail but close up the demonic features are much more prominent around the face, hands and feet areas with the glowing eyes, pointy ears, the fangs, tail and claws.

 

[Scars Unseen]

There needs to be ways to move the IP details into the official setting guides, while leaving the core rules as open as possible. The DM needs to use the core rules easily − for the homebrew setting too.

At the same time, even without a setting, worldbuilding elements need some fluff to spark the imagination. Otherwise there's no point to it at all, and we should just have a toolkit to build whatever you want mechanically. The playtest material was laughably uninspiring in it's descriptions. And yeah, I get that it's just a playtest document, but especially when introducing an entirely new race, there really should be more effort put into it. Fluff may be the easiest thing for a DM to replace, but the inspiration some well written fluff can induce has immense value.

 

[Yaarel]

At the same time, even without a setting, worldbuilding elements need some fluff to spark the imagination. Otherwise there's no point to it at all, and we should just have a toolkit to build whatever you want mechanically. The playtest material was laughably uninspiring in it's descriptions. And yeah, I get that it's just a playtest document, but especially when introducing an entirely new race, there really should be more effort put into it. Fluff may be the easiest thing for a DM to replace, but the inspiration some well written fluff can induce has immense value.

The "default" flavor of core can be simple:
• Magic exists
• Culture is vaguely medievalesque
• Humans only!
• A note can mention the DM might add other races.

To select nonhuman races for a particular setting is an important way to create the tropes, themes, and tone of the specific setting.

I feel each setting should present its own assemblage of races.

Of course, a DM can plug in a race from one setting into an other setting.

Make the Forgotten Realms Guide a separate core book. It is an official setting that details the Forgotten Realms setting assumptions including specific races, cultures, religions, and planes. The Player Handbook doesnt go into these kinds of setting assumptions.

The Players Handbook is a rule book with all of the rules that are necessary to play the game, including combat and skills. Pretty much every setting will need to use the Players Handbook. But not every setting with use the content in the Forgotten Realms Guide.

 

[Scars Unseen]

The "default" flavor of core can be simple:
• Magic exists
• Culture is vaguely medievalesque
• Humans only!
• A note can mention the DM might add other races.

To select nonhuman races for a particular setting is an important way to create the tropes, themes, and tone of the specific setting.

I feel each setting should present its own assemblage of races.

Of course, a DM can plug in a race from one setting into an other setting.

Make the Forgotten Realms Guide a separate core book. It is an official setting that details the Forgotten Realms setting assumptions including specific races, cultures, religions, and planes. The Player Handbook doesnt go into these kinds of setting assumptions.

The Players Handbook is a rule book with all of the rules that are necessary to play the game, including combat and skills. Pretty much every setting will need to use the Players Handbook. But not every setting with use the content in the Forgotten Realms Guide.

I would not buy that book. Are you seriously advocating the idea of a human only PHB? Would never happen.

 

[ersatzphil]

I would not buy that book. Are you seriously advocating the idea of a human only PHB? Would never happen.

What would you say to one that just had humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half-elves?

 

[jmartkdr2]

What would you say to one that just had humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half-elves?

Different person, but I wouldn’t want that either. Why would I pay money for fewer options, especially if the goal seemed to be to excise my favorite option in favor of blandness?

 

[Yaarel]

I would not buy that book. Are you seriously advocating the idea of a human only PHB? Would never happen.

Yup. The book that has all the rules, only stats humans.

At the same time, the Forgotten Realms setting guide is also one of the core books and goes into more detail about a specific setting, including which races the setting has.

Not every setting will have halflings. Not every setting will have ardlings. Not every setting will have dragonborns. Not every setting will have elves.

The Forgotten Realms setting has many races. So this setting specifically needs to go into detail about which races, their features, and the various cultures, relating to them. There will be elf culture backgrounds in Forgotten Realms that wont exist in Eberron. And so on.

The existence of any race depends 100% on the setting.

The only default that one can assume is that most settings will have the human race. Even if a setting lacks the human race, the rulebook needs to have a human so that players can relate to the human, and get a sense of how the rules work. The human race is the measuring unit by which to measure and compare other races.

 

[Temporalgod]

The "default" flavor of core can be simple:
• Magic exists
• Culture is vaguely medievalesque
• Humans only!
• A note can mention the DM might add other races.

To select nonhuman races for a particular setting is an important way to create the tropes, themes, and tone of the specific setting.

I feel each setting should present its own assemblage of races.

Of course, a DM can plug in a race from one setting into an other setting.

Make the Forgotten Realms Guide a separate core book. It is an official setting that details the Forgotten Realms setting assumptions including specific races, cultures, religions, and planes. The Player Handbook doesnt go into these kinds of setting assumptions.

The Players Handbook is a rule book with all of the rules that are necessary to play the game, including combat and skills. Pretty much every setting will need to use the Players Handbook. But not every setting with use the content in the Forgotten Realms Guide.

I would not buy that book. Are you seriously advocating the idea of a human only PHB? Would never happen.

Personally I would ban Humans entirely if I had my way, lorewise Humans in D&D aren't even part of Toril's local wildlife, they're an invasive species from a hellish plane of existence called Earth.

 

[ersatzphil]

Different person, but I wouldn’t want that either. Why would I pay money for fewer options, especially if the goal seemed to be to excise my favorite option in favor of blandness?

I ask because that was the lineup for the 2e PHB - 3e had the same lineup, but adding the half-orc.

Which is your favorite option?