Dragon 338: Returning to Athas, part1

[Dice4Hire]

This is ENWorld. We're all awesome.

Except for You-Know-Who. He sucks.

Now why am I tempted to make a new account with that name and call this a personal attack?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Now why am I tempted to make a new account with that name and call this a personal attack?

At a wild guess...

Because you're really, really bored?

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Besides, if you did, you would just be proving him right.

 

[The Little Raven]

That means that, fluff-wise, there is always a feywild when an Eladrin chooses to teleport.

Please, cite a book and page number that says the eladrin use the Feywild to teleport with fey step. The preview books and preview articles with outdated information do not count.

This keeps coming up as some kind of central point when there is no basis to it in normal 4e D&D, much less Dark Sun.

 

[Wik]

Please, cite a book and page number that says the eladrin use the Feywild to teleport with fey step. The preview books and preview articles with outdated information do not count.

This keeps coming up as some kind of central point when there is no basis to it in normal 4e D&D, much less Dark Sun.

Um. PHB 1. Page 38. "Eladrin".

And I quote:

Play an eladrin if you want....
* to be otherworldy and mysterious
* to be graceful and intelligent
* to teleport around the battlefield, cloaked in the magic of the feywild
* To be a member of a race that favours the wizard, rogue, and warlord classes.

I'm sure there are other references, but that one is kind of the clincher, for me. I think I read something to this effect in a Dragon article, as well, but I can't really dig it up at the moment.

Anyways. People play the game differently and whatnot. At this point, I'd much rather talk about the positives, and discuss some unknown stuff.

* Do we know what critters are destined for a comeback?
* What are some of the "new" Dark SUn monsters going to be?
* Is there a core adventure? What do y'all think it will involve?
* How can we incorporate divine classes, if we so choose? What do we think the advice in the books will be for this?
* Potion fruits - anyone have an idea of how these will be implemented?

 

[Jack99]

It's going to be okay: Halflings are still cannibals.

Swing!!

This is ENWorld. We're all awesome.

Except for You-Know-Who. He sucks.

Be nice to P-kitty, I am sure he has feelings too....

 

[Aegeri]

Do we know what critters are destined for a comeback?

Mr bell is coming back (forget the name, lures people off a caravan with a bell then murders them) and so are Psurlon's (apparently). Other than that there are Kanks and other creatures. In fact we're most likely going to get the most old monsters coming back out of any setting, because Dark Sun abandons a specific players book and instead has a Creature Catalog exclusively of Dark Sun monsters.

Is there a core adventure? What do y'all think it will involve?

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Marauders-Dune-Sea-4th-Adventure/dp/0786954957/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276903290&sr=8-1-spell]Marauders of the Dune Sea[/ame].

* How can we incorporate divine classes, if we so choose? What do we think the advice in the books will be for this?

I definitely remember reading about this one and the answer is, nothing! Unlike before, instead of specifically removing elements in the book things they don't want to bother with they are just not talking about at all. Divine magic is one of the things not used in Dark Sun, so they just don't talk about it and leave such justifications entirely up to the DM.

This is by far the best way of doing it too.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

To teleport around the battlefield, cloaked in the magic of the feywild

I'm sure there are other references, but that one is kind of the clincher, for me.

I'd like to confirm: for you, it follows logically from the first quote that the character is temporarily shifting planes to the Feywild?

 

[Wik]

I'd like to confirm: for you, it follows logically from the first quote that the character is temporarily shifting planes to the Feywild?

Y'know, I knew someone was going to bring that up. But there are other things:

First, it's called "fey Step". In other words, they're stepping into the fey, and then stepping out. It's a teleportation effect. To me, a power that has "fey" in the name and is teleportation based could reasonably be expected to equal teleportation. there are other sources that say as much, but I can't really dig them up right now (nor do I feel the inclination to).

But yes, I'd say from the descriptions given that it is reasonable to assume the feywild is used as a conduit in this case. You can disagree with me, and that's cool, but I think it's a fairly reasonable line of logic to assume that the feywild is involved from the fluff given.

Mind you, I have no desire to get into a "fluff war" or anything.

Mr bell is coming back (forget the name, lures people off a caravan with a bell then murders them) and so are Psurlon's (apparently). Other than that there are Kanks and other creatures. In fact we're most likely going to get the most old monsters coming back out of any setting, because Dark Sun abandons a specific players book and instead has a Creature Catalog exclusively of Dark Sun monsters.

Ah, yes, the Gith belgoi. I'm aware of the other ones listed. I was kind of curious about some of the more "rare" monsters from Dark Sun. With two whole MC books out there (plus those in other supplements), I don't know if we'll see all, but I think about 60-75% is about the right number.

I really would like to see things like Agony Beetle Swarms, or Silk Wyrms. Those were some of my favourite DS monsters...

As for the Marauders adventure, it seems alright from the basic blurb. I'm all for idle speculation on this subject... what will it contain? The last DS adventure I remember starting in Free Tyr (the one in the revised set) was kind of, um, garbage-y. So let's hope this one is better! I'll probably scavenge the hell out of it.

I definitely remember reading about this one and the answer is, nothing! Unlike before, instead of specifically removing elements in the book things they don't want to bother with they are just not talking about at all. Divine magic is one of the things not used in Dark Sun, so they just don't talk about it and leave such justifications entirely up to the DM.

This is by far the best way of doing it too.

Oh. My. God. I agree with you.

That being said, I think it could have been cool if an effort was made to tie the divine classes into Elements (instead of deities). It was definitely an option, and I'm sure there were discussions to that effect (since Baker mentioned considering including Eladrin to satisfy players, we can easily assume that there was a discussion that divine classes should be included to satisfy players... I take it my logic is sound on that one?).

I'd be curious to hear more regarding that specific decision-making process.

One thing I like about no Divine power source is it, in a sense, makes undead stronger. And I've always seen Athas as a rather undead-heavy setting, considering it lacked a strong "horror" vibe (it could easily support a horror campaign, though).

 

[interwyrm]

First, it's called "fey Step".

One thing I like about no Divine power source is it, in a sense, makes undead stronger. And I've always seen Athas as a rather undead-heavy setting, considering it lacked a strong "horror" vibe (it could easily support a horror campaign, though).

Aren't Eladrin Fey? I don't think it means they have to step through the feywild... just that they have the fey subtype.

I only played Dark Sun through the cRPGs... which, although buggy, were a lot of fun. You *could* play as a cleric, but it was a cleric of an element rather than of a god. I don't understand why they can't do that for the new Dark Sun... although thematically maybe all radiant damage should be converted to the relevant damage type for the element.