[FR] What's missing in Races of Faerun (i rant a lot)

[Gez]

Actually, saurials will be back in a web article, if we can believe Sean K. Reynolds: link.

Originally posted by Sean K. Reynolds:
Saurials update:

The good news: WotC has the files and they're in the pipeline to be converted to HTML and posted like any other article on the WotC site.

The bad news: There are other articles ahead of the saurials, so don't expect them to go live online before late May.

But hey, they're still free.

 

[Alzrius]

This is back from my initial reply to the review of RoF, but I dug it up because I'm always happy to help out a rant!

The following are not mentioned in RoF, despite being sub-types of the various major races covered:

Derro
Snow elves
Spriggan
Tinker gnomes
Ogrillons
Odonoti orcs
Furchin (arctic halflings)
Draegloth
Durzagon
Chaond
Zenythri

 

[I'm A Banana]

Y'know....I'd like to see a RoF-style book for the goblinoids/orcs/sahuagin/lizardfolk of the world....*sigh*\

I guess I'm going to have to pitch my Kobold Kompendium to some OTHER d20 company....

 

[Dark Jezter]

This is back from my initial reply to the review of RoF, but I dug it up because I'm always happy to help out a rant!

The following are not mentioned in RoF, despite being sub-types of the various major races covered:

Derro
Snow elves
Spriggan
Tinker gnomes
Ogrillons
Odonoti orcs
Furchin (arctic halflings)
Draegloth
Durzagon
Chaond
Zenythri

Good grief! Snow elves?! Just how many elven subraces are there on Toril?

 

[Gez]

Good grief! Snow elves?! Just how many elven subraces are there on Toril?

666.

 

[demiurge1138]

This is back from my initial reply to the review of RoF, but I dug it up because I'm always happy to help out a rant!

The following are not mentioned in RoF, despite being sub-types of the various major races covered:

Derro
Snow elves
Spriggan
Tinker gnomes
Ogrillons
Odonoti orcs
Furchin (arctic halflings)
Draegloth
Durzagon
Chaond
Zenythri

As I said on some other thread, in Faerun, tinker gnomes aren't even a gnomish subrace- they're just the Lantanese culture. They were mentioned, but not as their own seperate article (they don't need to be).
I agree on the draegloth, but I've seen no indication that the durzagon, chaond and zenythri even exist on Faerun. They're all MM2 races.

Demiurge out.

 

[Gez]

MM2 creatures do exist in the Realms, they just aren't mentionned. The Banshee is in the MM2, and there are banshees in the Realms (Agatha, anyone ?).

It's just, and I'll paraphrase Skreyn there, that FR sourcebooks only assume you got these 5 books: PH, DMG, MM, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and Monsters of Faerûn. All others -- even Magic of Faerûn, Lords of Darkness, or Silver Marches -- you don't need to have.

Also, that's why we see nothing about the psionics in the Realms (I would have liked to see the blues mentionned in the Goblinoid chapter) or the Planes.

Draegloth are not planetouched, but half-fiends. (Durzagon also.) That's why they put the Fey'ri and Tanarruk, but not the Draegloth.

 

[muhcashin]

To whom?

RoF is for players? or for DMs? I mean sure mindflayers and giants are definitely wayyy too powerful to be PC races, I just hadn't thought that RoF was aimed at PCs. I assumed it was DM oriented, considering that most of the sourcebooks are (Lord of Darkness, Silver Marches, Faiths and Pantheons.) Besides many of the races in book are so reclusive and odd that not many players could play them adequately. All those curiosities are the DM's stuff, made to show players how diverse the cultures on Faerun are. Rather than always meeting elves in the forest, they can stumnle upon a community of forest gnomes.

Personnally, I feel that details on giant would be nice. Though, I could try to find 2e book about giants... What was it called? Giantcraft? Something like that.

And yes, mindflayers can be found in many many many products. But so are shades. Lords of Darkness' information on the shadovar is much more extensive than that found in the RoF.

One final thing, the only time I've heard about the Avariel is in Baldur's Gate II. Where else (besides RoF) are they mentionned? The notion of flying doesn't sit well with me.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Re: To whom?

The notion of flying doesn't sit well with me.

*fights back urge to make comment*

 

[Cernunnos]

Giantcraft is an excellent book. I highly recommend it (or its ESD). To be honest, I thought it pretty much adaquetly explored giant culture in the Realms (though I've NEVER been able to find where exactly Hartsvale is located). It also had some kind of neat giantish magic, and I think a giant rune-caster class (that could be made into a PrC).
Avariels were first mention in the Complete Book of Elves, and I think they were mentioned briefly in Elves of Evermeet. I'm just glad they didn't neuter them the way they did in 2E... they had hollow bones, couldn't wear armor, and had to fight w/ glass weapons (because they were light, and of course, shattered half the time). All to counterbalance the fact that they could fly.
Though, I too find them leaving out the Saurials to be too much, especially now that they are getting into a 2 or 3rd generation, were just cool to begin with, and were striking me as a race that could start to really spread out in the Dales in the next century.