Help Me Repopulate the Outer Planes!

[Tequila Sunrise]

My brain has recently wrapped itself around the planes, as it is wont to do without warning. As with every aspect of D&D, I'm never quite happy with the way things are. At the moment I'm rethinking all the major outsider paradigms. For example, this is what I've come up with so far:

The rilmani of the Outlands are replaced by the guardinals (not NG of course). Guardinals just fit the Outlands so much better than Elysium.

The slaad of Limbo are replaced by trueshifters, outsiders with no true form who can change their form with a thought. Unlike slaad, trueshifters are CN, not "CE *cough* I mean, CN."

The modrons/inevitables/formians are replaced by well...I haven't decided exactly what, other than that they'll be Living Constructs. I may just restat the modrons, actually.

The demons will be a total mess of animal traits all smashed and mashed together, none of this anthropomorphic stuff for them.

So...that leaves two other major fiendish races (devils and yugoloths) and three other major celestial races (archons, guardinals-no-more and eladrins) to re-imagine.

Any ideas are appreciated,
TS

 

[Nifft]

Do you need all 16 outer planes? Does each one require its own unique race?

There's nothing wrong with having only a few of them populated -- for example, just Hell, Mechanus, Heaven, Pandemonium and the Abyss. The Guardianals could live in all of them, acting like border-guards to ensure that the upper three don't get invaded by one of the lower two. Then, all the space between Hell and the Abyss becomes a giant battleground.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ry]

This reminds me of when I was talking about the economics of our generation with my wife, and I declared "The only way that we can possibly retire comfortably is if we cause a baby boom."

She said "Honey, I have a headache."

 

[DreadArchon]

I nominate this as "Creepiest Thread Title Ever."

Anyway, just make sure to follow the rule of threes...

Let's see, I'd go with Angels as the Neutral Good Exemplars and Archons as the Lawful Good, had I made the changes that you have. I'd probably leave the 'Loths, just 'cause they're cool, but you could always throw the Ghereleths into the NE Exemplar position. Slaadi, which I also like, could be the new Demons at CE, and Tanari could be merged with Baatezu fairly easily.

But you got rid of Modrons? Man, I am so not "repopulating" with you.

 

[szilard]

I've been tempted to stick the ancestors of Fey in Limbo in place of Slaad. Each one would be a unique outsider. When on the Prime, though, they'd gradually become more static and (d)evolve into Fey.

-Stuart

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Do you need all 16 outer planes? Does each one require its own unique race?

There's nothing wrong with having only a few of them populated -- for example, just Hell, Mechanus, Heaven, Pandemonium and the Abyss. The Guardianals could live in all of them, acting like border-guards to ensure that the upper three don't get invaded by one of the lower two. Then, all the space between Hell and the Abyss becomes a giant battleground.

I'm actually only concerned about the nine 'major' outer planes; I've trashed the eight 'minors', because I find them repetitive. (Gehenna, Arcadia, Ysgard, Pandemonium, etc.) I like the idea of 'border patrols' but I'd prefer to reserve that job to the celestials themselves. That way, there's no impartial 3rd party around when the upper planes get tiffed at eachother. Doesn't happen very often, but it is a concern.

I nominate this as "Creepiest Thread Title Ever."

Damn. I really need to read a thread title out loud before I post it. No wonder nobody's answered on the other message boards.

I'm not really concerned with racial names or just switching the races around to new home planes. I'm mostly looking for ideas about different defining physical traits for each of the races. For example, what physical trait do archons share that separates them from eladrins? Yeah, yeah eladrins all look elvish but that's a pretty lame defining trait.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I've been tempted to stick the ancestors of Fey in Limbo in place of Slaad. Each one would be a unique outsider. When on the Prime, though, they'd gradually become more static and (d)evolve into Fey.

-Stuart

This is a great idea, but pretty impractical in practice. Any encounter with a group of said outsiders would either require a massive amount of prep work or be guaranteed to be 100% roleplay.

 

[Ry]

I've been tempted to stick the ancestors of Fey in Limbo in place of Slaad. Each one would be a unique outsider. When on the Prime, though, they'd gradually become more static and (d)evolve into Fey.

You could keep the Slaad and do both:

"I kissed a frog, it turned into a prince! Unfortunately, when I kissed the prince, he turned back into a frog. He says he wants to eat Australia and zippo tangerene fluffypuff underpants! The nerve!"

 

[DreadArchon]

For example, what physical trait do archons share that separates them from eladrins? Yeah, yeah eladrins all look elvish but that's a pretty lame defining trait.

I'd go with shapeshifting, actually. The Eladrins can all turn into some sort of amorphous, high-energy shape, like a whirlwind, ball of light, or pillar of flame. Indeed, shapeshifting is a common theme for the highly Chaotic... though Tanari seem to not get much, for some reason.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'd go with shapeshifting, actually. The Eladrins can all turn into some sort of amorphous, high-energy shape, like a whirlwind, ball of light, or pillar of flame. Indeed, shapeshifting is a common theme for the highly Chaotic... though Tanari seem to not get much, for some reason.

Well the trueshifters already have form shifting covered, but I like the idea of the celestials having energy shifting. I'm thinking to fit my planar energy themes: Archons = fire storms, Guardinals-no-more = lightning storms and Eladrins = blizzards.