D&D 5E Mordenkainens feedback.

[Parmandur]

Yeah, that's what I meant. My brain wrote DMG, but my fingers had a disagreement with it and decided to type PHB instead.

I tell ya, sometimes it's just alphabet soup.

 

[dave2008]

Okay. Well, I guess I've been doing that "incorrectly" at my tables (in a way that is much cooler and more fun, IMO). I had just assumed she was a god, like she was listed as in the DMG and in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount.

She is a god in Exandria (Wildemount) and the Dawn War Pantheon (DMG & 4e)

 

[Parmandur]

To be fair to MToF, I don't think that even in 2018 they realized how big Critical Role was getting and that it would reinvigorate the Dawn War pantheon.

 

[dave2008]

That statement just blows my mind- that nobody even bothers to get the phb... seriously??

I've played with the same group since the 80's and ever since 1e this is how it goes for us. I buy the books and that is it. The players take their character sheets, but all the books stay at my house. We typically have a separate session just to level up and do downtime activities when we bring the books out, but other than that they stay on the shelf.

 

[Parmandur]

I've played with the same group since the 80's and ever since 1e this is how it goes for us. I buy the books and that is it. The players take their character sheets, but all the books stay at my house. We typically have a separate session just to level up and do downtime activities when we bring the books out, but other than that they stay on the shelf.

Seems pretty normal?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

To be super pedantic, the Raven Queen isn't in the PHB, but in the DMG as part of the example DM built pantheon (which is the 4E and Exandria pantheon).

Huh. I would have sworn the list of pantheons was in the phb...like at the very end.

 

[Parmandur]

Huh. I would have sworn the list of pantheons was in the phb...like at the very end.

There is a list of Pantheons: Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, some real world ones (Greek, Norse, Egyptian, maybe Celtic), and some racial specific gods.

But the Dawn War pantheon is used in the DMG section on world building, where James Wyatt walks us through the logic of how and why they built the ,4E pantheon as an example of how a DM might make a custom cosmology.

 

[Lord Twig]

Actually MToF page 59 explicitly says that the Raven Queen has achieved divinity. So she is a goddess.

 

[Parmandur]

Actually MToF page 59 explicitly says that the Raven Queen has achieved divinity. So she is a goddess.

Is she on the table of Elven deities in that chapter...?

 

[Ash Mantle]

Is she on the table of Elven deities in that chapter...?

Not so, unfortunately, where the Elven deities mostly appear as members of the Seldarine or Dark Seldarine.

She does make an appearance in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, page 21, in the Prime Deities section, where she is listed with the Provinces (cooler way of saying portfolios) of death, fate, winter, is LN, and has the suggested domains of Death and Grave.

 

[dave2008]

FYI, here is what it says on page 59:

View attachment 136201

Assuming "achieving divinity" means she is a god, then she is a god per MToF

Actually MToF page 59 explicitly says that the Raven Queen has achieved divinity. So she is a goddess.

Not so, unfortunately, where the Elven deities mostly appear as members of the Seldarine or Dark Seldarine.

She does make an appearance in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, page 21, in the Prime Deities section, where she is listed with the Provinces (cooler way of saying portfolios) of death, fate, winter, is LN, and has the suggested domains of Death and Grave.

 

[R_J_K75]

That statement just blows my mind- that nobody even bothers to get the phb... seriously?? I'd never heard of this until very recently. Why would you NOT? How else are you supposed to know about the game you're playing? Do they have that little commitment that they won't even get the rulebook? Why would I want someone in my campaign if they care that little about it- or the others involved?

I mean jeez, they give you the core rules for free on WoTC's website. You can download the phb in pdf formet, if you think the cost of a hardcover is too salty; You can buy the book used all over the net and at all the gamestores (that sell used D&D stuff)... Do you need them to hold your hand, too?

Sorry, that sort of laziness and entitlement just pushes my buttons.

I understand your feelings but our group has played pretty inconsistent in the last year or two, and these are relatively newer players. I updated my books so they included the errata and gave an extra phb I had to one player and they are reading it. I had a second spare that I offered to another player and they are buying their own new copy. On one hand I can see them not buying one based on the fact that the game might break up but I agree it does seem like a given that if your going to play then buy a phb. Weve switched our time and day, one player dropped out, another returning and looks like were gonna have a good group now.

 

[R_J_K75]

Some of it is changing things just to have a new take with the new edition, yeah, IMO.

In 4e at least, though, those changes were geared toward playability, making those options have a more interesting or more impactful or thematic place in the world, etc. Gnomes, for instance, are still largely 4e gnomes in my groups games.

Halflings were really cool, but our halflings tends to vary wildly from campaign to campaign and world to world, and have developed into a sort of mix between the 4e halfling, bits of Kender, and like...Bud Cubby from Fanatasy High. (See below for reference) Basically, they're almost never motivated by fear, and have a strong sense of fairness and equality and empathy, and their games and stories and songs all have lessons and reminders and training applications for how to survive in a world that is fairly safe but can suddenly become incredibly dangerous without warning. So, every halfling raised in a halfling town or caravan or part of a city knows how to fight, unarmed and armed, how to ride animals like goats and ponies, how to hide both singly and in groups and coordinate movement while hiding, and a bunch of other stuff that they often feel like everyone just knows because it is just how they're raised. And they aren't afraid to actually deal with things they see as wrong. The inertia that humans experience, where fear of reprisal tends to have to be outweighed by either incentive or by things being bad enough that reprisal just isn't that scary anymore, halflings rarely experience.

So you can probably guess that I don't love the 5e/mordy's halfling


Bud Cubby

Halflings do seem like "lost" races in a sense. I ran a short series of adventures where Halfings ran a town and were basically the mob and humans were subserviant. The Don was actually an evil Brownie.

 

[Maxperson]

Aww, man! I saw the thread title and was hoping someone came up with a new Mordenkainen spell.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Halflings do seem like "lost" races in a sense. I ran a short series of adventures where Halfings ran a town and were basically the mob and humans were subserviant. The Don was actually an evil Brownie.

Nice.

 

[Voadam]

As a kid and through high school I played in long term campaigns of Warhammer FRPG and multiple editions of Shadowrun without ever owning any of the books. Same for not so long term games of Star Frontiers, Mechwarrior, and Mage the Ascension. I played in my brother's long term Vampire the Masquerade game through multiple editions where I started off with no books (eventually I got a clanbook) and specifically only read the character creation and rules portions of his main book to maintain as much setting mystery as I could and maximize setting element discovery through play.

I owned the 3.0 PH but worked mostly off the SRD and during the 3.5 era I worked solely from the SRD and did not own a PH hardcopy. Similarly so for Pathfinder 1e for a while.

The closest frustrations to Gorg's I have seen are usually from someone slowing play in practice such as adjusting and painfully slowly recalculating 3e attack bonuses with rage and power attack from scratch every round.

 

[R_J_K75]

Nice.

I may have a short write up of it and I do have the map of the village if you're interested I can message it to you.

 

[R_J_K75]

Bud Cubby

Hmmm that was unique to say the least. Doesnt that 5e Modem kickstarter launch this week?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I may have a short write up of it and I do have the map of the village if you're interested I can message it to you.

Sure! Thanks!

Hmmm that was unique to say the least. Doesnt that 5e Modem kickstarter launch this week?

Yeah, the DM (Brennan Lee Mulligan) was a philosophy major in college, I think, and can just rattle off the rhetoric of all manner of philosophies without hesitation. There is ap oint where the cleric is getting really into questioning her faith, and her Spirit Guardians become the philosophers whose work she's reading, and every time someone takes damage Brennan is just rattling off some random philosopher's words or the common rhetoric of some philosophical school of thought, as one of her guardians punches someone. It's fun.

 

[R_J_K75]

I think, and can just rattle off the rhetoric of all manner of philosophies without hesitation.

I noticed that he seemed pretty quick on his feet. Definitely seems like something worth watching from the beginning, it took me a minute to figure out what was going on with no point of reference.