So they just gave the title and showed the cover mock-ups; no specific info till Monday?
I'm not talking indepth, maybe just an appendix to fill in the blanks.
So I got thinking...
The book is called the Tome of FOES. Not conflicts, wars, or planes, FOES. I have a feeling we're looking at something less like MotP and more like Elder Evils; a collection of powerful, mostly planar, threats that can serve as antagonists for a variety of games. So, it might take a particular foe or faction (lets say, devils) and discuss the Lords of the Nine, Baator/Hell, cults, new devils, tiefling bloodlines, and maybe a stray feat or spell. Lather rinse repeat for a variety of classic D&D foes.
* Vaalakith the Lich Queen and the Githyanki (with mentions to Ithilids and the GIthzerai)
* The Raven Queen and Shadar-kai
* Asmodeus and the Devils of Baator
* Torag, the King Who Crawls
* The Demon Princes (esp those not mentioned/statted in OOtA)
* Lolth and the Drow
* The Queen of Air and Darkness and the Unseelie Fey
* Tharizdun
Beyond that, there is still plenty of options: The Archomental princes, Tiamat, Iuz, Vecna, Kyuss, the list goes on and on without even really touching any specific prime world.
That seems like the type of grid filling design they're trying to avoid doing.Planetouched subrace speculation:
Shadowfell: Shadar Kai
Archon: Bladelings
Far Realms: Foul Born
Hell: Hellbred
Mechanus:???
Limbo:???
Upper Planes:???
Other Lower Planes: ???
Inner Planes: ???
Feywild: Feytouched.
The 4e cosmology and lore changes are kinda being ignored.So I may have missed something since the 4th ed, but I thought Asmodeus ended the Blood War when he plunged the Abyss into the Elemental Chaos. Has it reignited in 5th ed?
That seems like the type of grid filling design they're trying to avoid doing.
The 4e cosmology and lore changes are kinda being ignored.
The Realms specific ones are being rolled back in-world with the Sundering story and generally justified. But for the larger stuff beyond the Realms they're just acting like the lore changes never happened. Because there were sooo many changes given no in-Universe explanation: the creation of the Shaodwfell & Feywild, where Yugoloths went, why certain demons/devils switched "sides", what happened to the individual elemental planes, etc. Even when they did explain things (Asmodeus became a god and moved the Abyss) it often created more questions (How come gods hadn't done that before? Didn't the gods living in the Abyss object? How did that stop the Blood War when Hell and the Abyss weren't physically touching anyway?)
Since 5e has reverted back to the 1e cosmology with a few 4e nods (the Elemental Chaos as the intersection of elemental planes, the Feywild & Shadowfell) the Abyss is back to being part of the Great Wheel and is no longer part of the Elemental Chaos. And things like the Blood War have reignited... if it ever really ceased.
Because, getting rid of the Blood War was dumb.
Okay, a lot of people don't like it. Which is fine. They don't need to use that particular story seed. It just never comes up in their game. That's cool. Which is easy because it's off in the Outer Planes. You're not making any changes, just not using something that is there. But it's still there for people who do want it, who do like it.
But saying the Blood War is over takes it away from its fans. They have to actively change the story of the game and ignore canon.
Elements like the planes were beyond the settings. Things like succubi ceasing to be demons and instead becoming devils affected things irrelevant of setting, and would have nothing to do with the Spellplague or the Sundering.For most settings 4e really never did happen, it only effected the Forgotten Realms, Darksun, Eberron, and the Nentir Vale Settings anf the yransitive settings of Planescape, Ravenloft, Spelljammer 4e never really did anything with Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Birthright, Known World, etc..., so for them its no change.
No, Jeremy Crawford said it'll be 256 pages on Twitter. So the Penguin product page is wrong.Really?
No, Jeremy Crawford said it'll be 256 pages on Twitter. So the Penguin product page is wrong.
Anyone who has been following Sage Advice knows to take anything Jeremy Crawford says on Twitter with a pinch of salt.