D&D 5E How Strange should Flora and Fauna be in the Default 5E Setting?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Froghemoths and wolf-in-sheep's-clothing.

It's D&D, dude -- if the fauna don't eat you the flora definitely will!

 

[Savage Wombat]

Froghemoths and wolf-in-sheep's-clothing.

It's D&D, dude -- if the fauna don't eat you the flora definitely will!

Both examples, interestingly, space creatures from another planet.

 

[Kynn]

I want strange and non-strange alike. I want plenty of plants and animals from around the world, not just from the middle of Western Europe. I want some parts of the setting to be populated with "normal" plants & animals, some populated with exotic magical stuff.

I want it all, and I want in large amounts.

 

[Zustiur]

Like all things, this can be a tricky topic. Some players want their worlds to be fantastic, others want them to be grounded in reality.
I'm more a reality player, which explains why I want 'natural' to be primarily real-world critters, with a few extensions. One of the lesser irritants of 4E is that things like undead skeletons are considered to be natural and thus use the nature knowledge skill.
What the... At least codify things like that under 'dungeoneering' or 'divine' or even 'arcane'.
I can get where they were coming from with the concept - undead happen, there doesn't have to be a necromancer involved - but ...

 

[Kynn]

One of the lesser irritants of 4E is that things like undead skeletons are considered to be natural and thus use the nature knowledge skill.
What the... At least codify things like that under 'dungeoneering' or 'divine' or even 'arcane'.
I can get where they were coming from with the concept - undead happen, there doesn't have to be a necromancer involved - but ...

If this irritates you about 4e, then you probably should know you're not playing 4e correctly.

The rules pretty explicitly state that the Religion skill is used for monster knowledge checks for creatures with the "undead" keyword.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Is it Northern European or just Earth focused but with all these monsters running around? Or are the plants and regular animals alien or at least fairly different from Earth norms?

The starting zone resembles Northern Europe, with fantasy Middle East, fantasy Africa, fantasy Far East, etc at the edges. The basic flora and fauna should be familiar - horses, wolves, bears, eagles, etc - with the addition of fantastic creatures such as gryphons, unicorns and dragons, and totally weird D&Disms such as beholders, rust monsters and otyughs. Somehow they all coexist in the same ecosystem, without any rational explanation.

Typical D&D, really.

 

[hemera]

I want strange and non-strange alike. I want plenty of plants and animals from around the world, not just from the middle of Western Europe. I want some parts of the setting to be populated with "normal" plants & animals, some populated with exotic magical stuff.

I want it all, and I want in large amounts.

As do I. Sure, I'd like bears and wolves in forests, but I'd like packs of hell hounds near lava vents, or illithid plotting in the shadows of cities, or kraken in the seas. I want the monster manuals used, not just typical european assumptions.