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Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)
Level Up Surveys #2.7 & #2.8 - Orc & Tiefling
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<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8087530" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>So I wrote this in the surveys, but I have more than 1,000 words here, so:</p><p></p><p><strong>Orcs</strong></p><p>And as I've said before, you put too much setting in your flavor-text. The longstoic idea is interesting, even if I loathe the name with the power of a thousand suns* (just calling them "Stoic" is OK). But there's so much worldbuilding in there it's hard to use without including it. "Some orcs have managed to calm their emotional nature." No need to tie it to a specific ritual. Maybe they were raised in a monastery. Maybe they're naturally calm. Maybe they made a huge mistake while being emotional and decided "never again." Maybe they chose to embrace the teachings of Surak. Who knows?</p><p></p><p>(* I hate it in general when fantasy games does this; it's not just you. The subrace names for Eberron shifters make my skin crawl.)</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Tieflings</strong></p><p>I feel that Steam Tieflings and Carnival Tieflings feel far too setting-based. They wouldn't work in a lower-tech setting, for instance. And the Imperial Tieflings are, once again, a way to say that humans suck (thus making it weird if you decide to have a world where humans are <em>not </em>the dominant species and/or expansionistic). Make it a generic empire. If this long-dead empire was once run by humans, elves, fiends, or whatever--that's up to the DM.</p><p></p><p>You should make tiefs more generically planetouched. When introduced in Planescape, tieflings were descended from any sort of fiend, regardless of type, and it was only in 4e that they became all the offspring of Asmodeus and took on their now standard appearance. If you wanted your tiefling to have the blood of a geherelth, or a yugoloth, or even a barghest or night hag, you could. They also used to have a much more varied appearance; IIRC, in Planescape, there was an NPC tief who looked mostly human, but had snakes for eyes!). And they used to be descended from anything. (Ditto for aasimar; there a Planescape NPC who was an evil aasimar, Qaida, who was very clearly descended from a planatar--bald, green skin, etc. I know I'm not the only one who misses tieflings' diverse appearance.</p><p></p><p>Since you've decided to include Celestial tiefs (presumably, to replace aasimar), you should also include elemental tiefs (to replace genasi), and if possible, Axiotic and Xaotic tieds for modron and slaadi-based tiefs (or their more generic Law and Chaos OGL-compliant variants).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8087530, member: 6915329"] So I wrote this in the surveys, but I have more than 1,000 words here, so: [B]Orcs[/B] And as I've said before, you put too much setting in your flavor-text. The longstoic idea is interesting, even if I loathe the name with the power of a thousand suns* (just calling them "Stoic" is OK). But there's so much worldbuilding in there it's hard to use without including it. "Some orcs have managed to calm their emotional nature." No need to tie it to a specific ritual. Maybe they were raised in a monastery. Maybe they're naturally calm. Maybe they made a huge mistake while being emotional and decided "never again." Maybe they chose to embrace the teachings of Surak. Who knows? (* I hate it in general when fantasy games does this; it's not just you. The subrace names for Eberron shifters make my skin crawl.) [B]Tieflings[/B] I feel that Steam Tieflings and Carnival Tieflings feel far too setting-based. They wouldn't work in a lower-tech setting, for instance. And the Imperial Tieflings are, once again, a way to say that humans suck (thus making it weird if you decide to have a world where humans are [I]not [/I]the dominant species and/or expansionistic). Make it a generic empire. If this long-dead empire was once run by humans, elves, fiends, or whatever--that's up to the DM. You should make tiefs more generically planetouched. When introduced in Planescape, tieflings were descended from any sort of fiend, regardless of type, and it was only in 4e that they became all the offspring of Asmodeus and took on their now standard appearance. If you wanted your tiefling to have the blood of a geherelth, or a yugoloth, or even a barghest or night hag, you could. They also used to have a much more varied appearance; IIRC, in Planescape, there was an NPC tief who looked mostly human, but had snakes for eyes!). And they used to be descended from anything. (Ditto for aasimar; there a Planescape NPC who was an evil aasimar, Qaida, who was very clearly descended from a planatar--bald, green skin, etc. I know I'm not the only one who misses tieflings' diverse appearance. Since you've decided to include Celestial tiefs (presumably, to replace aasimar), you should also include elemental tiefs (to replace genasi), and if possible, Axiotic and Xaotic tieds for modron and slaadi-based tiefs (or their more generic Law and Chaos OGL-compliant variants). [/QUOTE]
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Level Up Surveys #2.7 & #2.8 - Orc & Tiefling
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