The return of Illumians -- sort of

[jelmore]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Illumian Echoes)

Introduces Syllables of Creation, unique consumables. A character must be able to speak Supernal or Abyssal in order to use them.

I never liked the illumians as a PC race in 3.5e, but I like the idea of them as another long-vanished planar race.

 

[FreeXenon]

I feel exactly the same way. This is a great way to introduce them that really well meshes with the 4E history and mechanics.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I heartily approve!

One of my criticisms from the 3.5 era of D&D was that many of the new races seemed to be "humans, with a twist."

With the illumians, and the elan before them, we now have a way to include what was cool about those races with any of the 4e races, creating some nifty combinations.

 

[Shazman]

I heartily disagree. I hate how they destroy the flavor of so many things to make them fit into the 4E cosmology/points of light setting. Blech!

 

[AngryMojo]

I just noticed the syllable of soul references taking 10. Last I checked that's not a 4e rule. I mean, I know what it means, and I don't think there will be any confusion, but I did notice it.

 

[jelmore]

I heartily disagree. I hate how they destroy the flavor of so many things to make them fit into the 4E cosmology/points of light setting. Blech!

Given that the flavor of the illumians in 3.5e made them completely uninteresting to me -- especially as a player race -- I have to say that sometimes change is good.

I'd be curious to know how many people actually played an illumian character for the flavor.

 

[Mika]

Am I the only one who thinks we should say, "OMG! They killed the Illumians!" and then wait for somebody else to make the proper South Park reply?

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

But "Those bastards! They killed the Illumians!" doesn't roll of the tongue very well...

 

[Ainamacar]

Given that the flavor of the illumians in 3.5e made them completely uninteresting to me -- especially as a player race -- I have to say that sometimes change is good.

I'd be curious to know how many people actually played an illumian character for the flavor.

I really love the idea of the Illumians as the embodiment of language, and they played a major part in one of the worlds of my homebrew setting. I also wanted to play one in our last 3.5 campaign, but they were not appropriate for the setting.

When our group moved to 4e one of my first tasks was an Illumian homebrew, but again I never had the opportunity to play one. Mostly because I didn't refine it to the point where I was really happy with it. And shortly thereafter we decided that 4e wasn't for our group and started working on a system from scratch, at which time I converted them once again. Have I played one yet? No, in part because it doesn't fit with the GM's setting. Notice a recurring theme? (And I'm not bitter, restrictions are important to a flavorful setting.)

So maybe it's just me, but they are actually the intended-for-PCs race that has fired my imagination the most, bar none. I admit that the "basically human" bit isn't that great, but for me that is a pretty minor fault.

 

[jelmore]

I just noticed the syllable of soul references taking 10. Last I checked that's not a 4e rule. I mean, I know what it means, and I don't think there will be any confusion, but I did notice it.

I don't have my PHB handy, but it's on page 127 of the Rules Compendium, under the rules for passive checks.