D&D General In 2025 FR D&D should PCs any longer be wary of the 'evil' humanoids?

[Staffan]

That inspires the thought of reskinning the Illithid as the Gou'ald from Stargate.

No no no. The goa'uld are the quori/inspired from Eberron.

 

[Alzrius]

There is also a cathartic value: in real life, beheading your coworker when they irritate you is generally frowned upon, and acting it through roleplay, or seeing it in a theatre, helps one process natural feelings without enacting them in real life. So you behead a dragon instead, despite not applying all the possible ways of dealing peacefully with the situation.

I think this needs to be highlighted, because it's a major aspect of play that seems to be glossed over in these discussions: symbolic rejections of cherished values is a form of catharsis, and does not represent an actual repudiation of those values, despite there being a vocal contingent insisting that's exactly what they mean.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Wasnt that the retcon that tied the whole thing to one society and Asmodeous and forced a singular look? Instead of having near infinite variety and depth?

They had a single look and a single origin, yes.

They actually DID something with that, instead of just having a generic "well I guess evil made them".

That's the difference here. Variety solely for variety's sake with no effort or thought behind it doesn't add much. I personally didn't care that much about the singular physical appearance, but the cultural lore? Absolutely great. It made them much more interesting.

And, worth noting, Bael Turath was an empire, spanning huge areas. It wasn't a cultural monolith. That, plus it being more complicated due to the long time since it fell, made for a far more interesting situation.

But sure, reductive one-sentence summaries are a choice I guess.

 

[Scribe]

But sure, reductive one-sentence summaries are a choice I guess.

They actually DID something with that, instead of just having a generic "well I guess evil made them".

Yeah true.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yeah true.

I mean that literally actually is what I was just told. It literally just is "a deity of pure evil made them, all of them, and they're just like that now." There literally isn't more to it, which is one reason among several why I find the new lore so boring.