Spelljammer Spelljammer Shows Up In The Wild - Check Out The Tables of Contents

Copies of Spelljammer are starting to show up. Mike Long of Tribality is in receipt of the books and has tweeted some photos!

 

[Thommy H-H]

Yeah. Most, if not all, intelligent humanoids should be this way (with maybe a very weak tendency in a particular direction). That is if they don't remove alignment completely - which at this stage I would prefer.

They did that for Van Richten's Guide and it wasn't well received. The current paradigm is likely to remain in place for the forseeable future, based on what they've said in articles and interviews. That means most (unnamed) Humanoids and other intelligent creatures are 'Any Alignment' unless there's a storyline reason for them to be 'Typically [X]'. For example, the hobgoblins that appear in Monsters of the Multiverse are 'Typically Lawful Neutral' because their backstory is that they're functionaries of either rigid militocracies or status-obsessed fey courts. Similarly, traditionally alignment-locked denizens of the Outer Planes are also 'Typically...' because they are capable of making moral choices (Radiant Citadel includes a LN Solar, for example).

Essentially, alignment is being used to help tell a creature's story now - 'Any Alignment' tells you the statblock represents a kind of being that may belong to one of many possible cultures, with quite different moral outlooks.

 

[Yaarel]

Here is the astral elf. Official.

The mechanical balance is solid. The Misty Step is ... per pro bonus!

One cantrip is fine, and I like the luminous flavor.

The trance-knowledge feature is fine (now part of Trance, with skill + tool/weapon). My campaigns get much use from tools generally.

I might prefer to swap out Perception for Arcana, but either way, trance-knowledge covers both.



The Darkvision flavor feels off. Their culture is either in the astral sea where there is little or no darkness ... or else right next to the sun. I dont see even an opportunity to use it, nevermind evolve it to adapt. Plus they have light cantrips.

I will probably delete the Darkvision, and think about what to do with its design space. I have to doublecheck the design space, but maybe grant a slot-1 spell per day or a cantrip.



Anyway, I love it, even if I will tweak it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Darkvision flavor feels off. Their culture is either in the astral sea where there is little or no darkness ... or else right next to the sun. I dont see even an opportunity to use it, nevermind evolve it to adapt. Plus they have light cantrips.

They had it when they migrated to the Astral, and, since they are immortal, they aren't going to loose it by natural selection.

It serves the same function as an appendix in humans.

 

[Ondath]

Heh, it looks like they nixed the 1e psionic combat tables twice. They arent going to happen.

(Personally, Im not crying. Theyre a mini game, that tends to remove the other players at the table from gameplay.)

To be fair, since Monster Manual's psionic monsters, 5E's approach seems to have been "psionics is just a subset of magic that doesn't require any components". And while I understand how this doesn't fit the flavour psionics had in earlier editions (being a separate thing from magic and working within anti-magic fields, fulfilling the more New Age "open your mind" themes etc.), I'm kinda satisfied with it. I can flavour arcane magic, divine magic and psionics to be different facets of the same supernatural force, and I get a coherent system that doesn't require too much homebrewing. I was never immersed in any older version of psionics (I tried understanding the 2E system for a Dark Sun oneshot that never came to pass, and the whole separate system felt needlessly complicated), so I don't really feel the loss. Even Level Up's rendition of the psion, while thematically interesting, seems too fiddly in hindsight.

I think I'm pretty happy with how psionics turned out to be in 5E. I'd maybe only ask for a new full caster class fully committed to psionics that isn't about eldritch horrors (so Aberrant Mind is a no), but beyond that I like the simplicity of how they do it now.

 

[Thommy H-H]

Also, it's still relatively dark in Wildspace - lots of the creature statblocks seem to have Darkvision. Like the Underdark, there's flavour about glowing fungi and so on, and the art always looks bright and clear, but it's still not daylight.

 

[Yaarel]

They had it when they migrated to the Astral, and, since they are immortal, they aren't going to loose it by natural selection.

It serves the same function as an appendix in humans.

Heh. The darkvision is just wrong.



There is no longer a need to be slavish to subraces.

Each race is its own race. Each can be very different.

astral elf ≠ wood elf ≠ high elf ≠ drow elf ≠ sea elf ≠ shadar-kai ≠ palid elf ≠ eladrin ≠ ... ≠ ... ≠ ...

 

[Yaarel]

To be fair, since Monster Manual's psionic monsters, 5E's approach seems to have been "psionics is just a subset of magic that doesn't require any components". And while I understand how this doesn't fit the flavour psionics had in earlier editions (being a separate thing from magic and working within anti-magic fields, fulfilling the more New Age "open your mind" themes etc.), I'm kinda satisfied with it.

I like 5e "psionic magic" alot. Especially the no spell components.

I can flavour arcane magic, divine magic and psionics to be different facets of the same supernatural force, and I get a coherent system that doesn't require too much homebrewing.

Tentatively, arcane and divine use the "cosmic weave" for their magic.

But, psionic and primal use a personal aura for their magic.

But both are magic.

I was never immersed in any older version of psionics (I tried understanding the 2E system for a Dark Sun oneshot that never came to pass, and the whole separate system felt needlessly complicated), so I don't really feel the loss. Even Level Up's rendition of the psion, while thematically interesting, seems too fiddly in hindsight.

I enjoy the 3e Psion.

Less into 4e Psion, actually, because of its weird mechanics.

I think I'm pretty happy with how psionics turned out to be in 5E.

Me too.

I'd maybe only ask for a new full caster class fully committed to psionics that isn't about eldritch horrors (so Aberrant Mind is a no), but beyond that I like the simplicity of how they do it now.

Yes, please!

 

[Yaarel]

They had it when they migrated to the Astral, and, since they are immortal, they aren't going to loose it by natural selection.

Heh, you thought I meant evolve ... genetically.

I meant evolve culturally ... by means of magic to alter their themselves ... transhumanly ... in any way they choose.



Besides the whole premise of the elves, currently, is they shapechange to adapt to whatever environment they enter.

When darkvision is wrong for their environment it needs to vanish for something that makes more sense in their astral/solar habitat.

 

[Shardstone]

I wish Doomspace still had Athas in it. I know it would have made a lot of people upset, but we could have eventually gotten a cool adventure where you go into the Eye of Doom, return to Old Athas, and prevent the gods from destroying the sun while also struggling with the reality that maybe Athas ought to be destroyed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Heh, you thought I meant evolve ... genetically.

I meant evolve culturally ... by means of magic to alter their themselves ... transhumanly ... in any way they choose.



Besides the whole premise of the elves, currently, is they shapechange to adapt to whatever environment they enter.

When darkvision is wrong for their environment it needs to vanish for something that makes more sense in their astral/solar habitat.

Everyone gets Lightvision for free, there is no reason to go to all the bother of removing an ability to pay for it.