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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3971403" data-attributes="member: 2067">This.These aren't the "new archons." These are new creatures that have been rather arbitrarily called "archons" because the designers thought it was too cool of a word not to use.The thing is, the game will STILL need a "divine crusader of good from the outer planes" kind of creature-caste. So far in the game, these have been known as "Archons." It's a good name for extraplanar divine creatures, as the term's history in the Greek language, in gnosticism, and in angelology all work well. This draws parallels without drawing equivalencies, and gives it a sense of history without tying it too tightly to anything too specific. If you do research on the term, you'll find uncanny parallels, so D&D is using the word as a continuation and modification of the myth.Calling these things archons is like me going around calling halflings nymphs just because it's too cool of a word not to use, "halfling" is kind of a lame term, and you can't fight blindingly beautiful wilderness spirits, so we can't call nymphs nymphs. And besides, a lot of people in 3e thought Lidda was sexy, so there you go, halflings are nymphs."It's too cool of a word not to use" is a lame excuse, because I pulled a half-dozen acceptable words out of thin air and a quick Wikipedia search. And if too many of their playtesters or people in-house had trouble pronouncing the words, they can change it to something that works better. The point is that Archon ALREADY had a meaning in D&D that gave it a solid, necessary place for the game (evil-smiting angels vs. protecting angels; just like devils and demons are different kinds of fiends). Maybe not every specific creature was inspiring, but that role still needs to be filled, and this article doesn't tell me why the name "Archon" couldn't stay in the same role, a role that it made good sense in. Instead, it was appropriated for a completely unrelated creature.The "new Archons" will be the creatures that fill the role of crusading angelic evil-smiters. These things are not the new Archons. They're just a new monster with a name selected for all the wrong reasons.</blockquote>

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