D&D 5E (2024) Preferences in a New Official 5.5e Specific Setting

[Maxperson]

An Elric setting would delete the Wheel, and only have LLE Acheron and CCE Pandemonium, plus maybe a Neutral (Good) Astral Plane. These alignments would interact to generate and influence the Material Plane. There might be an endless number of parallel Material Planes.

In this setting, D&D rules can work normally. Or it can cap at level 8 and ban fullcasters to assist the sword and sorcery feel. If so, interaction with alignment forces and a Relic like the sword Stormbringer would be DM fiat.

But you couldn't be or do Elric under those limits. Not the cosmology change. That's doable without even deleting the Wheel(see Eberron). You could play a non-Elric/Eternal Champion in one of those universes, but if you want to be like the books, it will take more.

(I forget if the novels describe how an afterlife works.)

The closest that I can remember would be Tanelorn, the eternal city of peace/rest. That's not really an afterlife, though.

 

[Yaarel]

Preferably, an official setting would not retread the past. Fantasy as a genre has moved on since Conan and Elric, heck even D&D has moved on. If a new setting were to be made, let it be more in line with modern fantasy rather than trying to resurrect the dead.

Personally I would love a modern setting with normal Wizard, Paladin, Bard, Barbarian, etcetera, with some convincing explanation for how this high magic can be happening at the same time as reallife.

It would be the magical realism genre, perhaps with a twist that the "magic" is advanced technology, perhaps achieved by AIs competing with each other.

 

[Azzy]

Moved on or lost its way?

Definitely moved on. Let the past go.

 

[Marc17]

Preferably, an official setting would not retread the past. Fantasy as a genre has moved on since Conan and Elric, heck even D&D has moved on. If a new setting were to be made, let it be more in line with modern fantasy rather than trying to resurrect the dead.

Well, all D&D settings already are a mash up of Epic, Heroic, and Sword and Sorcery to begin with because these are the what all got mashed together to make D&D. Some settings have some bent hammered into them like Dragonlance or Birthright, but those have never been main settings. This was not a "choose one poll". Any viable option for a new D&D setting is going to have to check off at least half of everything on the poll list to start with. In the end, or beginning of a new setting, it will also have to accept that everything in D&D exists here too just like Eberron, and any new setting will be differentiated by what it adds, not in how it might seek to limit to a single genre or limited options.

As I think I have said earlier, I think we are past the option for a single setting. Now it will be something like Spelljammer's Braal or the Infinite Staircase, with multiple options for whatever setting the story calls for just an short journey away.

 

[Yaarel]

But you couldn't be or do Elric under those limits. Not the cosmology change. That's doable without even deleting the Wheel(see Eberron). You could play a non-Elric/Eternal Champion in one of those universes, but if you want to be like the books, it will take more.

The closest that I can remember would be Tanelorn, the eternal city of peace/rest. That's not really an afterlife, though.

What can Elric do that a D&D build cant? He might be a Wizard Bladesinger, focusing on summon-conjure spells. A Warlock or Eldritch Knight might make sense too. The magic item Stormbringer does much of the heavy lifting. The physical abilities are low, but the magic items enhance them.

 

[Scribe]

Definitely moved on. Let the past go.

Afraid not, why leave what is the objectively best path?

I remember the hamfisted dialogue in the The Last Jedi had me laughing.

The desire to erase the past is a mistake, it leaves us only with the present as a reference point, and I'll gladly flush that away and stick with what worked, and continues to work.

 

[Maxperson]

What can Elric do that a D&D build cant?

Besides calling on literal gods and animal lords to engage effects that are bigger and more powerful than anything available to PCs in 5e? He literally summoned a million demons(Stormbringers) from across the multiverse in order to destroy the lords of chaos and the world.

 

[Yaarel]

Besides calling on literal gods and animal lords to engage effects that are bigger and more powerful than anything available to PCs in 5e? He literally summoned a million demons(Stormbringers) from across the multiverse in order to destroy the lords of chaos and the world.

When Elric summons the gods, he does it by means of very detailed specific rituals. The efficacy of the summoning depends on the relevancy and performance of the ritual. Equivalent to a DAD spell.

Things like summoning a million Stormbringers, are a DM-fiat narrative ritual, as a solution for an epic tier adventure. It is something like DM-regulated magic item.

 

[Minigiant]

People get along just fine ignoring the way the game was built.

Point is that is extra work and less satisfying because the rules fight the way you want to play.

You can always create more monsters.

But as a tactical combat boardgame 5e (and most other editions) is a steaming pile of manure. Fortunately for WotC, that’s not why most people play. For people who do like tactical combat games, there are much better options available than trying to hammer D&D into a round hole

But that's the thing.

Traditional sword and sorcery has a very narrow amount of available options for both player characters and regular enemies. Therefore you would need a tactical rules variant to spice up 5th edition in order for it to be satisfying as sword and sorcery.

Or you accept your S&S 5e setting has a bunch of casters.

 

[Maxperson]

When Elric summons the gods, he does it by means of very detailed specific rituals. The efficacy of the summoning depends on the relevancy and performance of the ritual. Equivalent to a DAD spell.

Things like summoning a million Stormbringers, are a DM-fiat narrative ritual, as a solution for an epic tier adventure. It is something like DM-regulated magic item.

No, he does not do it with detailed specific rituals. He does it with specific words that the beings he calls listen to. In short, he uses a magic spell set up by his ancestors.