Fluff Q

[mrtomsmith]

I know that D&D is now a minis game and I'm not supposed to worry about this sort of thing (kidding), but there are still some bits I'm not able to wrap my brain around:

1. Do Eladrin really live partially in the Feywild? For a player, what's that like? Do Eladrin cities randomly disappear into the Feywild?
2. When Eladrin teleport (Fey Walk, is it?), what's that like? What do they see? Earlier reports mentioned things DMs could do to limit Fey Walk, such as saying that this area is less complete in the Feywild than in the real world - do the books talk about that?
3. What's a warlock's relationship with his pact creatures? Sold your soul? Captured a demon? Business partners?
3 1/2. Does dealing with devils and/or Cthulhu ever bite you in the ass, as it has in every recorded case in literature? I can understand not including mechanical disadvantages, but do the books talk about role-playing disadvantages? Or do they justify the player having complete control somehow?
4. When a warlock takes a power from a different pact, what's happening there? Are the fey granting him access to a demonic power (which would be weird), or is he using his knowledge of working with fey to gain power from a separate demon?
5. Can you really be an evil Paladin? Why would an evil Paladin be a Defender? I can't picture Lord Evil jumping in front of an attack to save his minion.
6. With all the talk of Rangers as fighters in light armor, do the books push the 'nature-lover' fluff much? How easy would it be to house-rule the starting skill and make Rangers into generic warriors?

For the record, I'm 100% ready to house rule all this, but I like to know the starting position I'm changing, especially since official fluff tends to pop up in future books and influence the mechanics.

 

[malraux]

In answer to the fluff questions, pretty much the answer is whatever you like. Seriously, there 100x more fluff in the worlds and monsters book (and presumably the races and classes book) than in the core set.

 

[Lizard]

5. Can you really be an evil Paladin? Why would an evil Paladin be a Defender? I can't picture Lord Evil jumping in front of an attack to save his minion.

No, but Lord Evil can rush into the thick of the fray, glorying as the blood of his foes splashes against his face. He can also be a proud servant of Lord Even Eviler, who is performing a foul ritual and must be protected from those so-called "heroes" before he completes it.

"Champion of Darkness" style Paladins make perfect sense to me. I'd say that evil paladins use necrotic instead of radiant energy where appropriate, but that's just me. There are, I am told, few, if any, "good" monsters in the MM, so there's probably not a lot of things vulnerable to necrotic energy, but we'll see what's in the 3P supplements.

I've heard from several people that the 4e books are almost entirely fluff free. If so, double-plus-good on them! I have an imagination, a personal wiki, and a map making program, and I'm not afraid to use them!

 

[mrtomsmith]

Yes, I agree. I like the fluff-lite approach they took. I don't want to pour on more fluff in the base system.

But given that there is at least some fluff in the core books, I'm trying to make sense of it. And a few bits like living part-time in another dimension and making deals with devils with no drawbacks are giving me pain. Any help?

 

[Thasmodious]

It's not so much making deals with devils. I mean, you didn't summon Bob the war devil as a small child and exchange your first toy for infernal power. The pact is more about tapping into the magical power of a plane. You connect yourself to the Feywild or the Far Realm rather than negotiating contracts with its denizens. That said, such a pact will bite the warlock in my group in the posterior at least a couple of times.