It's Dark Sun

[I'm A Banana]

But if defiling is a "dirty trade secret", an "add on" to the normal routine of casting, which you chose to add strength to the effect by defiling life energy form around you...then everything works out neatly

Totally cool with that.

I do think defiling should be an option for players. The allure and appeal of the "dark side" should be there. You don't have to use it...but it's always there, saying, "hey, wouldn't it be nice to kill these guys a little faster? and will the world really notice just one more little patch of grass?"

Most of the classes shouldn't be a tough fit once you determine what the power sources are drawing on. If all "divine" classes are in service to a sorcerer-king, and all "primal" classes are in service to the elements, and all "arcane" classes have the preserving/defiling option, the individual classes more or less run together.

The thing is, the disconnect from the planes is pretty important to me for the feel of the game. There can be no "fiendish blood," and any "outsider pacts" (even with elemental princes) would leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth. The idea of Athas as an isolated world where there are no angels or demons or outsiders, only forces, is key to the brutality of it. There's nothing to relate to, no mirror you can hold up, nothing alongside this world. There is this world -- this blasted hellscape -- and nothing else. Even death is just nothingness. Everything has to live under the same environmental devestation. The inter-connectedness of the ecosystem is kind of kicked in the junk if the ecosystem is made of magic like the Feywild. Defiling has broken nature; the desert environment isn't a natural desert, and seeing intact places of natural wildness is just dissonant (let alone the fact that mighty wizards like the Eladrin live there).

Most of that is just a re-fluffing issue, though some of it is more difficult (teleportation, in DS, has to be explained as something other than "going to a nearby plane for a while"; any race that is naturally inclined to be a wizard, bard, or other arcane class, is a good target for the Fey Genocide).

If, like Bill said, they're not going to shoehorn 4e aspects into DS, dropping the Feywild and ruling that all fey live on Athas itself goes a long way for it. Mentioning Eladrin and Gnomes only in passing as "races that have been killed" also goes a long way for it (and yes, you can still play one of the unique "survivors of the genocide," but the setting will not assume you can play it).

 

[hailstop]

And what would a 'Realms changing disaster' look like in Dark Sun anyway? The Sorcerer Kings lay down sod? A Halfling population explosion? Elves invent running shoes?

Consider this stolen for my signature.

 

[megamania]

At last!


Maybe now we can get some more Darksun figures.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The Paizo version of Dark Sun was an almost reboot of the setting, skipping a 100 years to the future where most of the stuff in the Prism Pentad and the Revised boxed set was undone.

A lot of it was the progression of things that happened, with Dregoth coming out as a sorcerer king. And others were just to fit in 3.5isms, with all the members of the Order becoming Elan, and Andropinis returning with an army of Maenads.

As for 4eisms in Dark Sun, I think that Tieflings can fit in that there's plenty of "mutants" in Athas, and some of them would seem at home in the Elf Tribes. The Villichi or whatever that secretive tribe of female humanoids could very well be Devas, and the Ruvkova of the Elemental planes are very clearly Genasi.

 

[Scribble]

I was never a Dark Sun fan back in the 2e erra... I was a Tolikienesque world or nothin sort of guy... I guess in my old age things have changed because I'm really excited about this.

 

[PeterWeller]

Wow! At least a dozen posts about how the Shadowfell can fit in DS and no one has mentioned The Gray or The Black. Is the Prism Pentad that hated? The Gray and The Black were the Shadowfell before there was a Shadowfell.

Anyways, I am very excited about this announcement. DS is one of my favorite settings, and I have a good feeling about this.

 

[frankthedm]

Is the Prism Pentad that hated?

ruined the setting in the eyes of many people.

The Gray and The Black were the Shadowfell before there was a Shadowfell.

yeah, that can work.

 

[Stogoe]

I hope they can balance out the half-giants, because Medium sized half-giants simple do *not* cut it at all, they have to be Large.
*scratches head, usnure of balance on that*

Wizards will never publish a Large PC race, because there's no way to balance the racial feature "Affects 150% more creatures with Close Bursts".

Half-Giants should just use the Goliath stats.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Wizards will never publish a Large PC race, because there's no way to balance the racial feature "Affects 150% more creatures with Close Bursts".

Half-Giants should just use the Goliath stats.

There is a LOT of middle ground between these two extremes.

 

[Aldarc]

Huzzah!

I do not really have anything to add other than sheer excitement.

Now back to my excitement.

Huzzah!