Races & Classes spotted?

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Well, "neither" is an option too. They could do some research into mythology or maybe, buy a good thesaurus. Why isn't tiefling named "cambion"? That's the english word for it. There are lots of forgotten words like "hobbit" out there in ye olde english which it wouldn't be too much trouble to find. For example "trow" isn't used in D&D yet (Hackmaster picked it up though, cool word).

I'd be very surprised if there isn't some mythological reptile people name somewhere out there. And something real like sidhe would have been better than eladrin...maybe not exactly sidhe, too many puns.

Why isn't "tiefling" named "cambion"? My guess is because "tiefling" is Wizards' intellectual property, but cambion, as the english word for a half-demon, can't be made into it. There was a quote a while ago from one of the developers that said that's why they produce so many compund names for monsters, Hasbro legal want unique names that haven't already been used elsewhere. That's the problem with all the classical names as well.

I'm noting that Tiefling, Eladrin and Dragonborn are all original TSR or WotC names.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Well, "neither" is an option too. They could do some research into mythology or maybe, buy a good thesaurus. Why isn't tiefling named "cambion"? That's the english word for it.

Tiefling comes from the German word Teufel, yes it essentially comes out to mean Devil-ling or Deep-ling, but really to a lot of people German just sounds better.

 

[Derren]

The word "Tief" means "deep" in german.

So in modern day "germanification" "Tiefling" would mean "Deepling" and not "Devilling"

 

[Mark Chance]

The same thing you do if you don't want anything else in your game: be a man and tell the players no.

And, could you try to be a little more condescending?

And who says irony is dead?

Again, this all seems much ado about nothing. There isn't actually any real information to go off. It's all just conjecture, some it wild, based on a few column inches of fluff text that most people haven't read.

My color is still unimpressed.

 

[Koewn]

Dragonborns are the new kobold.

 

[Ander00]

Teufling probably wouldn't have worked quite so well but the name's still likely intended to be based on the word "Teufel". As far as I'm concerned, Tiefling is a perfectly fine name for the race.

I am not thrilled about a name like Dragonborn (and if I had dared hope, I would've hoped for something else as the mystery race). In any case, the name's still a fair bit better than Spellscales, Raptorans or Goliaths.

Goofy names are by no means a new feature of 4E.


cheers

 

[Jhaelen]

For example "trow" isn't used in D&D yet (Hackmaster picked it up though, cool word).

It is. Remember those black-skinned elves? Yep, it's the drow - just a different spelling for trow.

 

[LightPhoenix]

When I was DMing (way back in the day) I changed the names of all the races except Humans anyway, and assumed that the names in the book were the names for them in the Human language.

 

[Sir Sebastian Hardin]

Rumor confirmed: another Hungarian poster in the wizards forum, kunadam (who is a very active poster -no "plant" as many have called morbiczer) has bought the book and is reading it tonight: he will post tomorrow. He says the art is like 3e art (only better, says he). here's the link http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=957107&page=5

 

[GVDammerung]

. . .the fact that every D&D world will now have to cater for dragon halfbreeds as a default part of society because WOTC has seen fit to put them in the PHB is what matters.

Problem is, by going specific, and objectionable, they shut out other tastes that would be served by something more generic.

They could just leave things generic and leave the specific to a supplement as the other editions saw fit to do mostly, but no, we're getting specific in the PHB, so their aesthetics can be specifically rejected, and are harder to ignore or ban. It's a pity that their decision is final.

It's like an unwelcome houseguest who you can't shut the door on without bodily throwing them out.

I'm arguing that they've got D&D's core wrong. Not necessarily D&D, but the core, yes.

I thought this read better strung together. QFT.

D&D has been a generic rules set that could be used to run any old homebrew D&D game. 4e can still be used to run any old homebrew D&D game but there is now to be more that is specific, not generic, that will have to be ignored than in any other prior edition.

Take the Hommlett test -

A human PC walks into Hommlett - nobody notices (1E, 2E, 3E, 4E)
An elf PC walks into Hommlett - nobody much notices (1E, 2E, 3E, 4E)
A dwarf PC walks into Hommlett -nobody much notices (1E, 2E, 3E, 4E)
A halfling PC walks into Hommlett - nobody much notices (1E, 2E, 3E, 4E)

A gnome PC walks into Hommlett - nobody much notices (1E, 2E, 3E)
A half-elf PC walks into Hommlett - nobody much notices (1E, 2E, 3E)

A half-orc PC walks into Hommlett - people notice (1E, 2E, 3E)
An eladrin PC walks into Hommlett - people notice (4e)

A tiefling PC walks into Hommlett - people panic (4e)
A dragonborn PC walks into Hommlett - people panic (4e)

Hommlett doesn't lie. 4e is a large move away from any prior edition in terms of race -

1) 4e removes traditional D&D races that are pretty much generic and accepted in D&D; and
2) 4e adds non-traditional races that are not generic and are not likely to go without notice in D&D.

Over its history, D&D has developed its "classic" bits in terms of race. 4e is a departure from this "classic." A new classic? Where have I heard that before?