D&D 5E Archetypes to add to 5e

[Cap'n Kobold]

My hope is that the Eberron setting will be agnostic.

Fundamentally subjective in ESSENCE.

Pretty sure it already is. Faith can grant power. You can be a cleric that follows almost anything as long as your faith is genuine, or even simply being able to tap into a close enough source of power.

In addition to polytheistic religious systems, Eberron also includes animistic religious systems (ancestor worship of the elves, and cult of the blood of vol). Technically, the Silver Flame is probably better described as monism, but can be characterized as monotheism.

But what makes Eberron Eberron is the uncertainty and subjectivity. Each of these cultural perspectives are equally valid and utilitarian.

Bear in mind that while the Sovereigns/dark six aren't the source of power for those religions that you mention, their existence is still believed in and acknowledged by those following the silver flame/blood of vol/undying court.
Indeed all of those religions exist or function specifically because of aspects of the 'gods'.

To connect Eberron to the 5e multiverse would destroy the uncertainty, thus destroy the cultural pluralism, thus destroy the mystique of Eberron.

Look at it the other way around: Eberron being part of the multiverse means that faith, not the existence of the god that you worship is what grants power. Maybe Eberron is walled off, not by its creators, but by the gods of the rest of the multiverse to prevent such a dangerous idea from getting out.

 

[Parmandur]

5e used to be mostly about FR.

Staff has changed, and so has setting preferences.

Not sure what staff changes you are referring to? The new folks don't seem to have strong feelings about setting, and Mearls is still in charge of setting the course for the franchise fluff.

The FR was never the pure default, Planescape/Spelljammer is, with the FR being an example area of the Material Plane. I don't see a chanfe in this, they laid out a long term plan of spreading out over time, that took a few years to come to fruition once they got the product side worked out (as seen in the Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica).

 

[Parmandur]

5e is mostly about the Forgotten Realms. Wizards should go through the FRCS and Player's Guide to Faerun and the other 3e supps to think about what to include and what to discard.
We got the long death monk and purple dragon knight from the Player's Guide. Convert the other prestige classes into archetypes and you have a lot to work from.

Other than as an example in the Adventure books that can be easily removed, FR hasn't been a default in 5E. Volo's Guide, for example, though it uses the name "Volo" has lore that is entirely divorced from the FR, markedly with the Yuan-Ti.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Pretty sure it already is. Faith can grant power. You can be a cleric that follows almost anything as long as your faith is genuine, or even simply being able to tap into a close enough source of power.

Bear in mind that while the Sovereigns/dark six aren't the source of power for those religions that you mention, their existence is still believed in and acknowledged by those following the silver flame/blood of vol/undying court.
Indeed all of those religions exist or function specifically because of aspects of the 'gods'.

No. Many BoV Seekers are hard atheists. They don’t believe at all thatthe sovereigns exist or have ever existed. It’s fairy tales the vassals tell themselves because they can’t fathom the fact that they are the source of their own power, and they can’t face the idea of eventual oblivion. Other Seekers are maltheists, but plenty simply believe that the gods are entirely fake.

The Silver Flame has absolutely no connection whatsoever to any gods, in any way, ever. Coatls aren’t gods, nor were any of the mortals whose souls became part of the Flame.

The Cults Of The Dragon Below are a mixed bag. Some worship one or another of the Dark Six, while others serve other, darker powers.

The Elven faiths have no connection at all to the gods, positive or negative.

Scholars openly question whether the Host and Six exist, or are simply archetypes that people focus their faith upon.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In formative D&D (Blackmoor-0e-1e), polytheism was one among many options, but not a default. Monotheism was also an option. For example, the illustration for the Cleric class in the 1e Players Handbook is a Christian priest. This is because D&D evolved as a medieval genre, including medieval religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, vestiges of European animism and polytheisms, traderoutes to African animisms, Hindu polytheism, Chinese Daoism, various Buddhisms, etcetera).

Whilst the 1st edition cleric was based on a Christian crusader in terms of abilities, the game was already steering away from real world religions that still had a significant believers so as to avoid offense* (whilst still mentioning them as options). This became imbedded with the release of Deities and Demigods as the 4th AD&D core rulebook, which is 99%* polytheism.

The Forgotten Realms was polythisistic because D&D was already largely polythestic. That does not make every poltheistic D&D setting the Forgotten Realms.


*Especially the big three monotheistic ones.

*It included Arthurian Heroes, but no stat block for the God they followed.

 

[DammitVictor]

What worries me, is the unofficial discussions about how Eberron will officially relate to the 5e multiverse.

Yeah I really don't see WHY Eberron needs to specifically being called out as being in the same Multiverse as everything else? Is it something that REALLY enhences the setting? Are people gonna be turned off the setting it if they can't transdimensionally relocate the Forgotten Realms character they've been playing for years?

Personally, if there is any AD&D sacred cow left that needs to be killed off, it's the goddamned multiverse.

D&D has a lot of different, unique settings but the one thing that every single D&D setting has in common is that it isn't improved by chopping into pieces and throwing it into a mixing bowl with the pieces of every other D&D setting. To switch up the metaphor, when you pour all your settings into the kitchen sink, the only flavor you have left is dishwater.

If people want to mix and match all their different D&D settings, by all means have fun, but please stop asking the rest of us to accept it as the default.

Or why we need a multiverse in the first place outside of like Planescape or Spelljammer.

Spelljammer is my favorite D&D setting, and it actually works better when you don't force it to accommodate all of the others.

 

[Yaarel]

D&D 1e includes the possibility of any kind of religious system (especially if contemporary with medieval Europe, or alternatively occurring in any scifi novel).

The 1e Deities and Demigods is an optional supplement − separate from the core three.



No one disputes that Forgotten Realms is polytheistic. Forgotten Realms is intentionally a polytheistic setting.

Eberron is intentionally an agnostic setting.

Dark Sun was originally a nontheistic setting.

And so on.



The point is, D&D invited any kind of setting with any kind religious system. I wish 5e would likewise do so.


In the mind of Gygax, a setting in Europe or a setting on Mars are equally appropriate for D&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The point is, D&D invited any kind of setting with any kind religious system. I wish 5e would likewise do so.


In the mind of Gygax, a setting in Europe or a setting on Mars are equally appropriate for D&D.

I'm not seeing where you are getting the idea that 5e doesn't support that. 5e DMG pages 12-13 covers Monotheism, Dualism, Animism, Forces and Philosophies.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not sure what staff changes you are referring to? The new folks don't seem to have strong feelings about setting,

That's what I'm getting at. The early 5e stuff focused on the Forgotten Realms when it wasn't focused on homebrew, but these days content is being put out for all sorts of different settings.

 

[Undrave]

We're getting off topic a bit here it seems...

Let's get back to archetypes? What would a Rogue with a touch of Divine Power be like?