Comments and dislikes of lore and other changes in the 4th ed MM.

[hamishspence]

Minotaur

Its in the myth: I think if the greek was transcribed using English lettering it would read Minotaur. Wheras dinosaurs weren't named till recently (last century) I would have preferred direct names (tyrant lizard, thunder lizard, etc, but some might sound a little odd. And the odd oes can be repaced by older versions. Thunder lizard sounds a lot cooler than "Headless Lizard" (apatosaurus))

And yes, the modern translations do use Reptile, not lizard, and Plunderer, not Thief (old translation of velociraptor: swift thief, new translation: speedy plunderer)

I might even have kept the old names, and said that Draconic is a bit like Greek/latin, and these are the names in this language.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

I'm surprised nobody has touched on this one...

Unicorns - since when are they unaligned? Aren't they the very embodiment of good?

yeah good point, I wondered WTH that was changed

 

[freyar]

I'm surprised nobody has touched on this one...

Unicorns - since when are they unaligned? Aren't they the very embodiment of good?

Wasn't there even specifically a blog post that unicorns were going to stay good? That whoever it was (Rich Baker?) couldn't "pull the trigger" to make them unaligned?

Anyway, on the main topic of the thread, I have to agree that the change in fluff just makes the 4e books less valuable to me (or someone who likes the old edition fluff). Basically, I'd either have to do a lot of work to do things like reorganize devils and demons, etc, etc, or wait until there's a GSL and Necromancer or some other company gets around to doing it for me.

 

[Klaus]

She would expect them to feel similar defiance and spite toward her, and to thrive anyway. But Lolth is a twisted, evil being, and part of that package is an unhealthy amount of self-loathing. It's impossible for her to separate her own psychological baggage from the form she's given, and that carries over when she grants that form to others.

She expects her creations to love and loathe her, just as she continues to love and loathe Corellon Larethian. Even if she considers the drider shape to be a "reward" of sorts, part of her knows perfectly well it's also a punishment. It is to her as it's always been: a gift from a scorned lover, a reflection of her twisted inner nature turned into an outer scar. It's both a badge of honor and an indelible stain. It's not, and can never be, simple for her, and so the position of driders within drow society cannot be simple either. This is why they cannot be tolerated by mainstream drow culture; it isn't wise for such a one, touched by the goddess's own hand and the subject of both her love and self-hatred, to be permitted too near those who'd rather avoid the attention of the Spider Queen.

Well, written, but it's still an inordinate ammount of explaining. I still prefer the simpler "she makes her favoured look like her".

 

[med stud]

Someone at WotC said that they are going for a Germanic naming convention instead of a latin. Germanic naming convention = word + word.

How good the names are is another matter. Personally I won't use the names in game anyway so it doesn't really matter.

 

[maggot]

The problem I see with Wordword Behemoth is this:

DM: A wordword behemoth charges you.
Player 1: A what?
DM: [Shows picture or mini]
Player 1: Oh, a T-Rex. I have to get out of here!

Alternative world where 4e designers used real-world words for things:

DM: A T-Rex charges you!
Player 1: I have to get out of here!

Why the extra baggage?

 

[Aeolius]

Why the extra baggage?

You forgot "a Trex charges you"...

Composite decking really isn't all that frightening.

 

[frankthedm]

Behemoth
Dinosaur names do sound a bit technical, but the effort of renaming them does not help that much since the mini will give away the real identity. Plus, I’d rather have the name “Behemoth” used for a collection of dumb, ground-pounding mythical brutes. Big T of course would be the top dog, or at least the most known.
http://wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106317.jpg
http://wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106336.jpg

Giants
I am more PO’ed over the loss of neutral stone giants. Not too keen on having nearly all giants being evil primordial underlings.

Ogre
I am glad the look less bestial, though they might have made them too dumb. I prefer ogres to be close cousins to man.

 

[IanB]

My main beef is when they change the size of monsters they've already given us miniatures for (nightwalker, balor, I think mezzodemon, some others.)

 

[Rowe]

Marut Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful
Religion check.
DC 25: No one knows what purpose the maruts ultimately
pursue, but the price for a marut’s service is always a reciprocal
service; that is to say, maruts seem to be gathering favors.
Maruts keep records of their verbal contracts in their fortresses
on the Astral Sea

The way the DC: check describes these beasts, it seems that their true purpose is left open to interpretation. Maybe for some reason they lost their job as keeps of the natural order of things?