D&D Brand Manager of Fluff

[Greg K]

tihnk it would be interesting for domains to determine your spell list. I do not know if I would ultimately want to live with that for every cleric i play(being a cleric-only guy for the most part). But certainly very interesting. Like nature cleric to be a non-broken to hell druid class and a social cleric having aocial skills, higher skill ponts and less hp/spells per day or a thief cleric who gets sneak skills and skill points in exchange for spells and hp. I think it would be fun. .

That's pretty much what I do in my games. I made Divine casters spontaneous casters. They get their deity's (campaign predetermined) three domains, an alignment domain (good, evil or neutral as I don't use chaos or law domains or spells in terms of alignment), and then a handful of spells shared by all clerics (e.g., spells to atone, spells to bless alliesfaithul and curse spells to punish deity's enemies/ unfaithful, spells to communicate with deity, and planar allies tied to creature's associated with the deity). Good clerics can cure spells of fifth level or less (unless deity has healing domain), Evil clerics can cast inflict spells of fifth level or les (unless associated with deity's domain). Neutral clerics can cast cast either cure or inflict spells of level five or less based on deity's association with appropriate deity.

 

[Glyfair]

I think it stems more from modern perceptions of deities as omnipotent beings. However, the Aesir or the inhabitants of Olympus (for two already used examples), both of which had an influence upon the formation of D&D, are far from omnipotent in their various myths and legends.

We could spend hours discussing how much what lead to it, I think we'd both agree that both ideas did in the long run. However, it is pretty clear than in many (most) mythologies gods were far from omnipotent beings.

 

[johnnype]

Fiendish Codex III is a no brainer.
Cabals and Conspiracies - Keith Baker's idea upthread (post # 158)
The Rest of Khorvaire - Again, post #158

I also love the "one-shot setting" idea. I'd prefer it if they were all new settings as there already is much more than 300 pages on any one of the old ones. 300 pages would not be enough to please all the fanboys anyway.

Hell, if all eight fluff books were one-shots I'd actually buy the whole series. Just make sure at least one is heavily psionic. You owe us at least that much.

The other option is to publish one new setting and put out seven new books on it. I'd buy that as well.

Books on giants and fey? I'm nonplussed. I can't even begin to understand how either topic could be interesting. Different strokes I guess.

 

[jasin]

But interaction is in no way limited to fighting them and then looting their corpse.

OK, I misspoke: you can meaningfully interact with CR >30 entities... but seldom in a way which requires knowing their Fort save modifier.

I want either CR up to about 30-ish gods, with complete stat blocks, which I'll then kill and take their stuff and the end of the campaign; or CR n/a gods, statted up with other info, which I'll use in roles other than bigass monsters. Or CR n/a gods with CR up to about 30-ish aspects/avatars.

CR n/a, almost omnipotent gods statted up as if they were just bigass monsters is mostly a waste of space IMO, since I'm extremely unlikely to use them in that role.

IOW, I think we mostly agree.

 

[jasin]

This is sort of drifting away from the original topic, but is it just me or has "would also include some crunch", "this is actually crunch, but I want it" been heard many times so far?

Is this an indication that people don't really want fluff-only books?

There has definitely been a trend from crunch towards fluff over the years, both in (IME) player interest and the books published, but at this point, most people would seem to prefer books where there's crunch in the service of fluff, like Drow of the Underdark or Five Nations, to pure fluff books like, say, The Forge of War.

Agree, disagree?

 

[Snotlord]

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: A revision of the the classic D&D high fantasy setting for any edition of the game. No rules, just realmslore and maps. By Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Sean K Reynolds and Rich Baker. 320 pages.

Greyhawk Campaign Setting: A revision of the the classic D&D fantasy setting for any edition of the game. By Erik Mona and Sean K Reynolds. 224 pages.

Mystara Campaign Setting: A revision of the the classic D&D High Fantasy setting for any edition of the game. By Aaron Allston & Bruce Heard (?). 224 pages.

Revised Manual of the Planes. A comprehensive guide to the planes for any edition of the game. By Wolfgang Baur, James Jacobs and Jeff Grubb. 224 pages.

Beyond Faerûn: The lands beyond Faerûn. By Ed Greenwood, Wolfgang Baur, Sean K Reynolds and Jeff Grubb. 224 pages.

Faith of Faerûn: A comprehensive look on the churches of Faerûn. By Ed Greenwood and Eric Boyd. 160 pages.

Cities of the Heartlands: Chapter 4 from Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990) updated and expanded. By Ed Greenwood, George Krashos, Jeff Grubb and Eric Boyd. 1648 pages.

Epic Adventures: Plot hooks and advice on running epic level adventures, with 3.5 conversion of the remaining epic character rules and fast monster advancement rules. By Wolfgang Baur and James Jacobs, with Bruce Cordell. 160 pages.

 

[Razz]

It'd be interesting to see count up to see how many times fey, giant, Zakhara/Kara-Tur/Maztica and some of these other books were suggested/requested.

You also forgot FC3: Yugloths being mentioned just as many times.

I hope WotC pays attention to that count, cause over the years since 3E's release it's just been rising higher.

 

[Obrysii]

Not sure if this has been mentioned (I'm sure it has) ... but...

Draconomicon II would be my first choice for a fluff-centric book. The first one had a perfect mix of fluff and crunch. The second in the line would focus less on dragons as a whole and more on individual species. Gem dragons, oriental dragons, and others.

 

[Gold Roger]

In addition to my first three suggestions:

Powers of the Wild: This book Focuses on the conflict between civilisation and wilderness. A book that highlights plants, fey and various magical beasts Draconomicon style as well as giving advice for campaigns that focus on this theme.

Oriental Adventures 2: The first one was a disapointing bunch of boring crunch and attempt at shoehorning a very specific setting into D&D that doesn't even have much to do with D&D. I'd love to see a book that actually focuses on channeling the influence of various oriental cultures to D&D.

The Non-Fiendish Codex: This book focuses on all creatures that populate the various Outer Planes of the Great Weel, but aren't Fiends. Should Bring back Modrons!

Fiendish Codex III: A book that focuses on the remaining fiends, notably Barghests, Night Hags, Rakshasa, Demondands and, of course, Yougloths.

Planes of Eberron: Eberron is the best published setting out there, but its planes are terribly underdeveloped.

Khyber: The Dragon Below: The underdark of Eberron is as underdeveloped as its planes. This has to change.

And with those, I'm at eight.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Fiendish Codex III

Oh, and sure, some other stuff. Whatever.