D&D (2024) All about Ardlings

[Henadic Theologian]

You realize that goes both ways? The aasimar could simply be ardlings when the "animal" is a humanoid? Then we don't need aasimar at all.

But thank you, the guardinals were probably the outsiders I was thinking of above.



Except the warforged are hardly new.

The Aasimar has history and lore on it's side, the Ardlng does not.

 

[Tonguez]

In previous editions an Aasimar could be descended from any kind of celestial, Guardinals, Archons, Eldaelrin, Angels, Good Gods, etc... So Ardlings are just functionally a cosmetic choice for Aasimars.

There is no reason this cosmetic chouce shouldn't be an option for Tieflings and Genasi as well, their are animal headed fiends like Arcanoloths, Ice Devils, Yeeghunee, etc... And Elementals like Salamaders and the Thunder Serpent (I forget his name).

And why stop at animal heads, why not a Dragon headed Abashai themed Tiefling, or even a five headed descendant from Tiamat.

I encourage you all to encouraged WotC in your feedback to make Ardlings a cosmetic feature for all Planetouched races.

Absolutely this, just make one “Planetouched Lineage” that covers everying from Aasimar to Tiefling to Guardinal-spawn

and yeah when I first saw the name Ardling my first thought was something small and cute not winged animal-headed outsider

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Aasimar has history and lore on it's side, the Ardlng does not.

To be fair, Aasimar lore is incredibly thin and uninteresting. They're not like the Daevas or something, who had actual lore, an actual reason to exist and peculiar characterstics. Aasimar are just a weaksauce opposite number to Tieflings, who have nothing to say, and no particular style, with none of the mythological punch of Tieflings. Really Aasimar should have been inspired by tales of Nephilim and Demi-Gods and so on. Instead they're just opposite-day Tieflings, with no real connection to the Upper Planar beings (in every edition after 2E, anyway). Tieflings do have some actual lore, by contrast, even if it's varied a bit.

So all Aasimar really have going for them is "tradition". Though I admit they dodged a bullet because Aardling is just as bad a name as Aasimar, if Aardlings had a significantly better name I feel like Aasimar would almost be on the cutting room floor already lol.

Absolutely this, just make one “Planetouched Lineage” that covers everying from Aasimar to Tiefling to Guardinal-spawn

Except no-one wants that and it would be a huge mess.

 

[MockingBird]

I'd rather them be in a source book not a core book.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Personal preference: kemonomimi (anime style) but I also think 5e tieflings are too devilish.

Writer’s intention? I would guess they look just like guardinials, so full animal head.

As a dm? As much or as little as the player wants.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

To be fair, Aasimar lore is incredibly thin and uninteresting. They're not like the Daevas or something, who had actual lore, an actual reason to exist and peculiar characterstics. Aasimar are just a weaksauce opposite number to Tieflings, who have nothing to say, and no particular style, with none of the mythological punch of Tieflings. Really Aasimar should have been inspired by tales of Nephilim and Demi-Gods and so on. Instead they're just opposite-day Tieflings, with no real connection to the Upper Planar beings (in every edition after 2E, anyway). Tieflings do have some actual lore, by contrast, even if it's varied a bit.

So all Aasimar really have going for them is "tradition". Though I admit they dodged a bullet because Aardling is just as bad a name as Aasimar, if Aardlings had a significantly better name I feel like Aasimar would almost be on the cutting room floor already lol.

Except no-one wants that and it would be a huge mess.

The Aasimar do have lore, it's not that thin at all. Is it as much as the Tiefling? No, but it's not a PHB, rank has it's priveldges.

And Devas and Aasimar ARE the same race as far as FR lore goes, most Aasimar have ties to Mulan Gods, although Planescape style Aasimar exist in FR as well.

You also have a city of FR Aasimar that is the last surviving ancient Netherese city to survive.

You have Aasimar in various novels too.

 

[Parmandur]

To be fair, Aasimar lore is incredibly thin and uninteresting. They're not like the Daevas or something, who had actual lore, an actual reason to exist and peculiar characterstics. Aasimar are just a weaksauce opposite number to Tieflings, who have nothing to say, and no particular style, with none of the mythological punch of Tieflings. Really Aasimar should have been inspired by tales of Nephilim and Demi-Gods and so on. Instead they're just opposite-day Tieflings, with no real connection to the Upper Planar beings (in every edition after 2E, anyway). Tieflings do have some actual lore, by contrast, even if it's varied a bit.

So all Aasimar really have going for them is "tradition". Though I admit they dodged a bullet because Aardling is just as bad a name as Aasimar, if Aardlings had a significantly better name I feel like Aasimar would almost be on the cutting room floor already lol.

Except no-one wants that and it would be a huge mess.

Well, the Aasmair are in OneD&D already on their own, at any rate, in Monsters of the Multiverse. I thinknthe Egyptian Wingfic furry version is likely to make it through UA to the PHB, though, maybe with a name change.

 

[Scars Unseen]

There is nothing in the mechanics that suggests Ardlings are different from Aasimar flavour wise, the heads have no mechanical heft.

Honestly I like the flavour too, I just see no reason to make it unique to one type of Planetouched when it can fit others. And honest given how they do mix race creatures now you cam basically have Fey'ri, just mix Tieflings with Elves.

There's no more reason that the heads themselves need to have mechanics attached to them than there is for a dwarf's beard. They aren't a beast race. And what I'm suggesting is that there should be a difference between aasimar and ardling flavor-wise. Pretty much the entire point of my post is that I feel they should vary mechanically from aasimar. Otherwise they just aren't very interesting, which ostensibly is the justification for their existence: people thought aasimar weren't interesting.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Aasimar do have lore, it's not that thin at all. Is it as much as the Tiefling? No, but it's not a PHB, rank has it's priveldges.

And Devas and Aasimar ARE the same race as far as FR lore goes, most Aasimar have ties to Mulan Gods, although Planescape style Aasimar exist in FR as well.

You also have a city of FR Aasimar that is the last surviving ancient Netherese city to survive.

You have Aasimar in various novels too.

Imho, that's not lore that matters or has much value.

That's FR-specific silly business. All of it pretty recent and forgettable and only existing because the FR is the gelatinous cube of settings. It's definitely fair to say that generally speaking, Aasimar lore is extremely thin and inconsistent. They don't reflect part-angels from mythology/fantasy literature (who are approximately a million times spicier than Aasimar) the way Tieflings do reflect part-demons from mythology/fantasy literature, for example.

By Mulan gods are we meaning Mulhorandi? Took me a while to unpick that one.

Honestly I blame 3E. It utterly ruined Aasimar and Tieflings, and only Tieflings really recovered. 4E having Daevas which were so much more interesting than Aasimar doesn't help (and the idea that they're "the same thing" as Aasimar is terrible and whoever thought of that should stop writing lore forever). I believe 4E much later added Aasimar and they were milquetoast as usual.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Really Aasimar should have been inspired by tales of Nephilim and Demi-Gods and so on.

Exactly what they are in my campaign. Worse yet -- they're the result of very icky experiments by long-dead evil wizards, who got a lot more than they expected, which eventually led to their destruction.