Rich Baker Blog on Monsters

[an_idol_mind]

Secondly, it makes more of the Monster Manual "usable" if you can fight things like dryad briar witches and amok satyrs, at least every now and then.

I understand the logic there, but I'm not terribly excited by that design strategy.

(Also, I guess that means the poor flumph will have to sit out. Again.)

 

[erf_beto]

What I find most revealing is that it appears that alignment is in, but that all creatures won't have one. I wonder how that will apply to PCs.

Maybe it will only apply to characters like clerics and paladins who have a strong 'aura of...'.
I'd like that. Aligment only matters when it matters the most.

 

[pawsplay]

Seems to imply unicorns will be fey.

 

[grimslade]

I really like the approach of making Fey more wicked. Maybe they should have a Seelie Court and and UnSeelie Court, or something like that. And there should be a Plane of Fey, and it should be rather easy to accidentally get into it, but rather tricky to get out.

Ken

I don't think fey will be necessarily more wicked but they will have a different morality. The Feywild seems like you will get your wish. There will be thin places where you can cross between coterminus planes.

It seems to me that unaligned will be like True Neutral, uncaring of the greater cosmic struggle of elemental good and evil. I think most PCs will be unaligned until paragon or epic levels. A PC may have good or evil tendencies but until they become a part of the GvsE struggle they don't have a strong alignment. By 'becoming a part of the struggle' will probably require at least a feat or talent tree choice.

 

[Sammael]

I imagine the unicorn will be a Large Fey Beast - much like the Spined Devil is a Medium Immortal Humanoid (Devil).

 

[TwinBahamut]

Well, it seems that there is some form of alignment left in the game, which doesn't really make me happy, but I guess I can still hope it is meaningless.

More importantly, while I approve of the idea of making fey more interesting and potentially dangerous, I question the sense in making dryads and considering about making unicorns into something for the PCs to fight.

Unicorns are one of the very few creatures that are unquestionably great to turn into a mount for a high-level PC. If anything, they should be rebuilt to serve in that role better, rather than anything else. The fact that Mr. Baker is not mentioning that role at all is worrying me somewhat.

 

[Cbas_10]

Well, it seems that there is some form of alignment left in the game, which doesn't really make me happy, but I guess I can still hope it is meaningless.

More importantly, while I approve of the idea of making fey more interesting and potentially dangerous, I question the sense in making dryads and considering about making unicorns into something for the PCs to fight.

Unicorns are one of the very few creatures that are unquestionably great to turn into a mount for a high-level PC. If anything, they should be rebuilt to serve in that role better, rather than anything else. The fact that Mr. Baker is not mentioning that role at all is worrying me somewhat.

I agree....except for alignment. Sort of. In my opinion, the alignment mechanics were a little too black-and-white in 3.x and before. However, I really see a place for them in some sort of descriptive sense or regarding general tendancies. Exceptions apply.

I really think that a cleric or blackguard (or whatever we have) that has sworn service to a clearly evil god and benefits from that god's influence....should be able to be "tagged" as evil for purposes of protection spells or whatnot. Fighters that simply worship Bane and carry a shield with his symbol upon it should not be subject to anything, but a cleric who channels the negative energies of Bane into spells should be subject to a "good" paladin's smiting. Of course, we can expand this to angels and demons and more.....

Alignment should, however, give way to ambigously grey shades of PCs, alien mindsets like Illithid, and more.

 

[Warbringer]

I imagine the unicorn will be a Large Fey Beast - much like the Spined Devil is a Medium Immortal Humanoid (Devil).

If we stick with the mythical, as I think he's trying to do, Unicorns are not fey. In the west they are judeo-christian in origin (re'em), became a symbol of the virgin mary in medieval (the whole tamed only by a virgin)...and even Narnia, that wonderful hodgepodge of christian fantasy themes.

No, clearly they are a symbol of the forces of good, and should reamin so aligned.

 

[ZappoHisbane]

My impression is that unaligned or not having an alignment is about the same as True Neutral is now. If they only have Good, Evil and unaligned, then it seems like alignment is similar to 3.x but with less emphasis. In some ways it reminds me of alignment from Warhammer Fantasy RP.

As I just posted over in the news thread for this same item, I'm taking 'unaligned' as meaning the same as 'Alignment: Any' means right now. There is no set alignment for that creature, thus it could be any of the standard alignments.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And there should be a Plane of Fey, and it should be rather easy to accidentally get into it, but rather tricky to get out.

Wish granted! The Feywild is explicitly one of the planes in the new cosmology.