D&D 5E Any fluff from various editions you want to see carried forward in 5e?

[Savage Wombat]

I don't know if I necessarily want to have it included, but I did very much like 4e's idea of the giants as Nephalim-like descendants of the elemental creators of the world, instead of just another humanoid race.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

If they could write it in Gary's style of prose from the AD&D books I would be very happy. His writing made me feel as if I was about to embark on a dangerous, mysterious adventure. Many of the later books read like auto repair manuals.

I liked the 4E cosmology too.

 

[avin]

There are some monster fluff from 4E I would like to be kept.

Fomorians as crazy giants from Faerie is one of them. I also like 4E Deva's race, but I would change the name to accommodate former edition's Devas.

 

[avin]

...and while there are select things from the 4e planes that could be poached for 5e...

And that would be...?

 

[Niccodaemus]

I would like to read about dragons, rided dragons, dragon highlords, dragon orbs, and... yes you understood... dragonlances!
Dragonlance setting apart, I would like to read more about knights, peasants, castles and medieval lore. I think that D&D has got to be too much fantastic in last years. And too much dark: I prefer "regions of light" to "points of light".
More shining armors, white horses, sunny places on art please!

You might like my campaign setting, Shatterworld. I consider it a "points of darkness" setting, but "regions of light" works too!

Shatterworld

Take a look and see what you think! (I don't have a lot of dragons, but they can easily be inserted into your own campaign)

 

[fuindordm]

Monster ecology, not monster tactics.

 

[CM]

Gleep Wurp the Eye Biter

Seconded on the fluff for the giant-kind. Being descendants of the titans of old is very cool and makes them more than just "taller, tougher orc."

I am kind of torn on the great wheel. It was incredibly complex and flavorful but really a terrible place to adventure for the most part. I like how 4e made the planes more accessible without making them any less mysterious. I love the concept of the shadowfell and feywild (take or leave the names, they don't bother me) and the astral sea and would hate for them to go away.

The great wheel could probably be helped by re-imagining it a little. The planes are supposed to be infinite, so why are they depicted as narrow slices of a pie? Instead make each plane its own island in the astral sea. Give a brief description and just tell where the crossroads/portals are that link it to its neighboring planes. Make Mount Celestia rise above the rest and the Abyss sink below. That sort of thing.

I think a mashup of the great wheel and 4e cosmology could work.

 

[Zaukrie]

I like there being some kind of Faerie plane. I like the idea of a shadow plane, but am not a fan of 4E's version all that much.

I like the Far Realm, but it needs to be more weird and less understandable somehow. Big fan of Cordell's work in this area in 2E and 3E. Also loved Monte's work on this in 3E (which was mostly Bruce's I think, but I can't recall). Their work was more alien than most 4E work on this topic.

Big fan of the idea of giants being related to titans (or, at least something other than "tall human").

I liked the Blood War, ok, loved the blood war. A lot of that should come back somehow. I know not everyone will agree with this.

slightly off topic....big, big fan of the monster books that have fluff in them. Super easy to ignore, super great for DMs wanting to mine ideas.

There are a lot of setting specific things I like, but I don't want them to mash 5 settings together (sigh, I know people are going to comment on this part and say the FR does this already, so I beat you to it, and it doesn't really add value to the conversation) so I don't know what to say about stuff like dragonlance or the Circle of Eight.

I'd love to see more emphasis/articles/books on groups like the Circle of Eight, frankly. So much that can be done with groups in terms of themes, and PC and DM ideas.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Although I dislike much of the fluff destruction from 4E -- bring back 1E/3E demons & devils, blood war, great wheel, goblinkin, etc -- I'd definitely retain the Feywild from 4E. I think it achieved a better Faerie-like dangerous setting than prior editions.

Yeah, the Raven Queen is cool, but so is Vecna, and Mordenkainen and Bigby ...

 

[Lord Zack]

The Great Wheel and its three editions worth of development on the history and origins of the various D&D outsider races and their respective planes. A vast amount of that was gutted or radically transformed by the PoL cosmology in 4e, and while there are select things from the 4e planes that could be poached for 5e, I truly don't want to see the PoL planes imposed for a second edition in a row.

"You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to Shemeska again."

 

[Andor]

Whatever fluff they need to give me back my Binders again.

Mechanically it was a cool but slightly sub-par class, but my God was it rp inspiring!

I also loved Totemists but they could be refluffed while Incarnum dies from loneliness and enuui.

Eberron.

Artificers. Probably not returning with the 5e deemphasis on magic bling, but maybe they can be reworked for the new ethos.

 

[Mercule]

I'd like to say "Greyhawk", but I've come to the conclusion that only Gygax could do the setting integration justice. I would love to see the Forgotten Realms exiled even more remotely than Oerth, though. Integration with the Realms would be more likely to turn me off than anything they could do, mechanically.

I think I also prefer the 4e planar landscape more than earlier editions. I'd say cosmology, but I really hated the 4e angels and some similar elements. The Feywild rocks.

Ageless elves. I really liked the 1500 year age span for 1e high elves. Keep the resistance to mind control, too. Most of the 1e racial fluff (for all races) was awesome. This is one area the game has really degraded. Non-humans should be different from humans.

I actually grew to like the dragonborn. Keep them. Tieflings need to go back to their earlier appearance (origin optional), but I'd be okay keeping them as a core race. I'm also okay with the elf/eladrin split -- I always pictured high elves as eladrin, but there are enough people who disagree, it'd be best to keep both.

Limited edition, named demons and devils, as per 1st edition (Marilith and Balor are individual names, not types). Asmodeus is not a god. Demogorgon is the prince of demons.

 

[Remathilis]

Actually, I'd like to see some of the stuff go BACK into their respective settings, rather than get slammed together into the core. Each campaign setting had cool elements to it (Vistani and Strahd in Ravenloft, Sigil and tieflings in Planescape, draconians and death knights in Dragonlance, Warforged and Shifters in Eberron, Mordenkainen and Pelor from Greyhawk etc) that got ripped out of their native homes, run through the setting bleach, and presented in the core devoid of all its original interesting fluff and place. I guess it makes sense to cherry-pick the best from the settings you have, but reducing vistani to "just a gypsy clan (that allows halflings!)" or making warforged just another monster (or PC race) destroys the unique setting elements that they had in there respective worlds...

 

[Mercule]

Actually, I'd like to see some of the stuff go BACK into their respective settings, rather than get slammed together into the core. Each campaign setting had cool elements to it (Vistani and Strahd in Ravenloft, Sigil and tieflings in Planescape, draconians and death knights in Dragonlance, Warforged and Shifters in Eberron, Mordenkainen and Pelor from Greyhawk etc) that got ripped out of their native homes, run through the setting bleach, and presented in the core devoid of all its original interesting fluff and place. I guess it makes sense to cherry-pick the best from the settings you have, but reducing vistani to "just a gypsy clan (that allows halflings!)" or making warforged just another monster (or PC race) destroys the unique setting elements that they had in there respective worlds...

Oh, heck yeah. I saw this trend in some of the 4e setting books. Why are there warforged clerics in Dark Sun? Don't know, but at least you can do whatever you want.

 

[grimslade]

Um I would like all of my fluff please. All of it. Why are we relegating some fluff to the darkness? I want Meepo to sell illicit rituals (Cheepo!) outside the Hamlet of Hommlet where I can pry a map to the Isle of Dread from Redgar's corpse.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Belly button lint. That's my favourite kind of fluff.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Belly button lint. That's my favourite kind of fluff.

Combine it with satchel fluff, seat cushion fluff and pocket fluff and you can make something really special.

 

[Andor]

Combine it with satchel fluff, seat cushion fluff and pocket fluff and you can make something really special.

Tinder?

 

[Riley]

Combine it with satchel fluff, seat cushion fluff and pocket fluff and you can make something really special.

It might bear fruit.


(p.s. I must spread some experience around before giving it to Savage Wombat again.)

 

[Ant]

I'd just be happy to see spells names with "Mordenkainen's", "Otiluke's", "Nystul's" et al in the title.