D&D 5E (2024) Ardlings, Shifter and Hengeyokai as different variations on animal people

[Reynard]

I think it is weird to.include Shifters. They aren't anthros.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it is weird to.include Shifters. They aren't anthros.

They’re adjacent, and currently the closest thing 5e has to a catch-all animal people race.

 

[Incenjucar]

Can I just say that I love that one of the animal heads is triceratops.

 

[Reynard]

They’re adjacent, and currently the closest thing 5e has to a catch-all animal people race.

No, they're not. They aren't an anthropomorphic race, they are very specifically a lycanthrope race, which is not the same thing at all.

 

[MockingBird]

So, is the Ardling suppose to be a new core race or for a upcoming source book?

 

[Charlaquin]

No, they're not. They aren't an anthropomorphic race, they are very specifically a lycanthrope race, which is not the same thing at all.

They have animal features. That makes them anthro-adjacent,

 

[Lojaan]

The celestial angle ties them to guardinals and various mythical figures from around the world, and of course the Beast Lords which are very old D&D lore.

Fey things have often been granted celestial attributes. Look at the unicorn.

But yes, there is a little known celestial place where there are beast people.

I guess this comes down to which book the ardlings are in -

• If it is in the PHB then they should be fey. People are going to interact with the fey much more than an obscure celestial plane.
• If it is in planescape, however, then it makes more sense for them to be celestials. Not decendants of guardinals, but guardinals themselves.

 

[Mecheon]

I second that ardlings should be fey, and I would add that Owlin, Harengon, Tortle, Leonin, Loxodon, and yes even Tabaxi and Bullywug, should be rolled into ardling. For species that have a lot of separate lore or history (like Bullywug, Giff and Tabaxi) you can have it that they migrated from the Feywild so long ago that although they were originally ardling, they are now considered their own thing.

I disagree on this one strongly. You'd lose a lot of the neat individual stuff that these groups have by themselves. Plus, well, those races have a history. They're not related and don't have anything feywild to 'em. Certainly more viable to have seperate beast-people race than 7 different types of elves

I still do like the thing of D&D's Generic Beastman Race being celestial related, when it tends to be demonic in other stuff

 

[Incenjucar]

So, is the Ardling suppose to be a new core race or for a upcoming source book?

Core species, presumably.

 

[mellored]

So, is the Ardling suppose to be a new core race or for a upcoming source book?

Depends on how people vote.
But I expect yes.