D&D 5E General rules, Specific worlds

[Mercurius]

In my eyes, "Players Handbook" = "Forgotten Realms Players Guide". Since it already is a specific setting, I imagine it would continue to look moreorless the same. Moreorless the same format and same content. There is no alignment in the Players Handbook statblock for Elf, whether Drow, High, or Wood.

I am guessing, they will make the Drow description a bit more sophisticated, and highlight several different possibilities. Hopefully they remove Evil color coding. I hope the Drow were always black before Lolth and will remain black when there is no Lolth. That would be retcon to the Forgotten Realms lore, but most players are on board with this?

And let's be honest: part of what makes drow so cool is their distinct appearance. I remember loving this picture from back in the day:

And that's a pretty sexy man-drow for you, Haldrik ;-).

That aside, the Realms already has variant sub-classes of elves: moon, sun, etc. I actually like that treatment better than the core rules, but it might be best staying as the Realmsian versions.

 

[Haldrik]

And that's a pretty sexy man-drow for you, Haldrik ;-).

One time, my brother and a male friend of ours were at a bar, with three female coworkers. Of course, the topic of sex came up.

What we discovered was, each of the males was especially attracted to a different aspect of the partner. My brother loves women with a voluptuous behind. I love a goodlooking face. And our friend is all about breasts.

Males are weird.

All of us, the men and the women, were equally surprised. But the women were actually relieved. One of them said: "You know, my breasts arent so big, but I have a nice ass. Theres someone out there for me."



For me, there are many ways to be beautiful. Every ethnicity includes guys who I find attractive.

I dont know if I would describe that particular drow as goodlooking, but he definitely looks awesome. It is one of my favorite images from the Old School pen-and-ink drawings. Heh, I notice that that artist makes the men as appealing as the women.

 

[Mercurius]

Yeah, I hear you, @Haldrik .

I remember being particularly struck by the tunic/armor the drow is wearing in that picture.

 

[Shardstone]

Do you think that Wizards can produce specific worlds in this environment? If orcs in one world are just another player race and in another they are savage evil wouldn't people still complain? Maybe 3pp could produce world specific books, but then few people buy them. I worry that all the worlds would be very similar in regards to monsters and player races.

Theros?

Ravnica?

WIldemount?

Eberron?

My man, what are you saying?

 

[Mercurius]

Do you think that Wizards can produce specific worlds in this environment? If orcs in one world are just another player race and in another they are savage evil wouldn't people still complain? Maybe 3pp could produce world specific books, but then few people buy them. I worry that all the worlds would be very similar in regards to monsters and player races.

Some people will complain no matter what. But it isn't WotC's job--even if it were possible (which it isn't)--to please everyone. They have to find a line somewhere.

 

[Haldrik]

Yeah, I hear you, @Haldrik .

I remember being particularly struck by the tunic/armor the drow is wearing in that picture.

Heh, to this day, I have a thing for adamantine and elven chain armor.

 

[Tonguez]

So a D&D version done like GURPS? Or BRP from Chaosium?

I for one would really like that - I was playing GURPS before 3e came out and prefer 3.5 because of its Feats & Skills customisability.

But I do realise that it would be a hard sell as DnD, 5e though is somewhat to specific in its cultural melee and getting a bit more customisation without the Feat overload of 3e would be awesome.

I do like the idea of a Core Rule Set + “World Expansions”. Of course that is very much what the D20 SRD before the powers that be decided it wasnt their thing anymore.

1. In 3e I used to use a Humanoid template to transform monsters into playable races, so I suppose that route could be taken for the new humanoid set

Ie create one standard humanoid in the core rules with examples of how they can be adjusted (Size and ability adjustments) + Ancestral Traits package + culture package + Background + Motivation

So Drow
Medium Humanoid (ASI 0)

• Ancestry: Elf (+Dex, +Cha, Trance)
• Culture: Lolth Zealot (dark vision x 2 v - sunlight sensitivity*)
• Background: Fey (magic)
• Motivation: Hedonist

* disadvantage = bonus feat?

Hmmmm

 

[Haldrik]

It occurs to me. If they develop the Drow description with a faction that is Evil and a faction that is Good, they should probably do the same with the High Elf and Wood Elf. This helps undo the color coding.

For Forgotten Realms, I view the High Elf as mainly like the Lord of the Rings Elf. Sophisticated magical scholars, living in elegant cities comprising treehouses in the branches of living trees, and coexisting with nature. I see the D&D version as especially the Eldritch Knight, with an acrobatic swordfighting style. This makes an awesome Good faction with a "defenders of the realm" vibe − but more wizardly.

There seems room for a creative interesting Evil faction for the High Elf. I wonder what it would be about.

 

[Haldrik]

1. In 3e I used to use a Humanoid template to transform monsters into playable races, so I suppose that route could be taken for the new humanoid set

Ie create one standard humanoid in the core rules with examples of how they can be adjusted (Size and ability adjustments) + Ancestral Traits package + culture package + Background + Motivation

Hmmmm

If I remember correctly, each 5e Players Handbook race is equal to about 5 feats. (The Half Elf worth 6 feats.) Or something like that. +2 ability score equals a feat; an amount of skills, tools, languages equals a feat; an amount of armor, weapon, or cantrip proficiencies equals a feat; and so on. I could probably drudge up details from somewhere, but you get the idea. On Reddit, there is an excellent fix to make all of the official feats balanced with each other, that is particularly well done. It can be used to help calibrate how much each feature is worth.

For 5e, it might even be easy, to allow players to swap in and out feats to tweak an official race, or build one from scratch.

Of course, the same building blocks helps the DM do worldbuilding too, while making it easier to maintain gaming balance.

* disadvantage = bonus feat?

Disadvantages arent really worth anything because they are too easy to work around. Disadvantages are mostly for flavor.

In the case of the Drow, Darkvision x2, isnt too much a big deal compared to x1, and oppositely sunlight sensitivity isnt too much a detriment. So the combo seems like a wash, and fine as is.

I feel Darkvision is worth 1 cantrip, and can probably work on a list of cantrips to choose from. The Drow combo would worth about the same.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Heh, to this day, I have a thing for adamantine and elven chain armor.

Yeah, no disadvantage on stealth checks is pretty awesome