D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

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dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Chaosmancer]

Man. So how awesome are plasmoid monks? I cannot wait to play a plasmoid monk. They seem boss.

I don't know. The Monk angle seems... too cheesy for me? I've been trying to figure out what I want to play with Plasmoid. Story-wise I could play into consumption angles by going Bard, but I've never been able to figure out a bard subclass I want to play (weird personal thing I think)

Oooh, what about a Soulknife Plasmoid? That'd make for a scary assassin build,

The hadozee seem really sweet, too. Definitely getting a steampunk zeppelin captain or fantasy spy vibe from that one. Rogue with gliding for easy escapes and cancel falling damage as a reaction. That's tight.

Hadozee Swashbuckler with a big hat. That'd be an awesome captain.

 

[overgeeked]

Anyone know the manga / anime Eat-Man? A plasmoid artificer might come close. Build something then absorb it. Store it until you need it, then gloop...I’ve got a machine gun.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nah, spelljammer problem was that it was too overtly silly/goofy.

It seemed silly/goofy because it used ideas which are no longer part of the common paradigm for space: Stars and planets and nebulas; people fighting lizardmen on asteroids; etc. To a reader 350 years ago it's version of space would not have seemed silly/goofy.

A Spelljammer that looked more like Treasure Planet would have been more successful

Absolutely.

not some weird river of flammable goop

This is drawn from 17th-18th century attempts to understand the nature of heat and cold, and why they appear to flow.Caloric theory - Wikipedia

Yes, it's inclusion was just daft to anyone not well versed in the history of scientific thought.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It seemed silly/goofy because it used ideas which are no longer part of the common paradigm for space: Stars and planets and nebulas; people fighting lizardmen on asteroids; etc. To a reader 350 years ago it's version of space would not have seemed silly/goofy.

Absolutely.

This is drawn from 17th-18th century attempts to understand the nature of heat and cold, and why they appear to flow.Caloric theory - Wikipedia

Yes, it's inclusion was just daft to anyone not well versed in the history of scientific thought.

but is it worth having in a modern version or would just void be faster to explain and deal with?

 

[Guest 7032719]

but is it worth having in a modern version or would just void be faster to explain and deal with?

.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It seemed silly/goofy because it used ideas which are no longer part of the common paradigm for space: Stars and planets and nebulas; people fighting lizardmen on asteroids; etc. To a reader 350 years ago it's version of space would not have seemed silly/goofy.

Absolutely.

This is drawn from 17th-18th century attempts to understand the nature of heat and cold, and why they appear to flow.Caloric theory - Wikipedia

Yes, it's inclusion was just daft to anyone not well versed in the history of scientific thought.

Yeah I don’t think the reason it’s goofy is that the ideas are old and have been replaced, though. Like, people knew there were stars and that said stars were things outside of the Earth, a very long time ago.

But people are familiar with Steampunk tropes of Victorian Fantastical Futurism. My Aether sea is called that because you sail “on” it, but it isn’t anything like the astral sea. Instead, it’s gas that most life forms can breath, that carries sound and heat and electrons through space allowing things like sound in space.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Void would have a lot more issues that need to be adressed:

1. It blocks sound, invalidating verbal communication and some attacks
2. It has no friction and no mass creating gravitational pools (i.e. attraction to planets), so you have to deal with 0-G and inertial movement. Side effect this also prevents wind-based, impacts and similar attacks from working.
3. It has no pressure. So the temperature is almost absolute 0, no way to breath, decompression issues and the spacecrafts can blow out or be destroyed if a single attack pierce the external shell.
4. Most people have no idea how void actually works

so the problems every sci fi game has so something we know how to fix?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah I don’t think the reason it’s goofy is that the ideas are old and have been replaced, though. Like, people knew there were stars and that said stars were things outside of the Earth, a very long time ago.

It depends what you mean by "a very long time", but the idea that stars are like the Sun has only been around for about 350 years, and only generally accepted for about 200.

People didn't know about air until the 18th century, and so the idea that you might not be able to breathe in space came later than that.

But people are familiar with Steampunk tropes of Victorian Fantastical Futurism. My Aether sea is called that because you sail “on” it, but it isn’t anything like the astral sea. Instead, it’s gas that most life forms can breath, that carries sound and heat and electrons through space allowing things like sound in space.

Who is familiar with which tropes depends on what group of people you are talking about. People who like steampunk are familiar with steampunk tropes. "Aether" was only science for a relatively short period of time, as evidence mounted that Newton was wrong about light and Huygens was right. Everyone knows waves require a medium to propagate, right?

The advantage of "Astral" was it was popularised by the 1960s counterculture, and was never science. Since it was never science, it is not subject to being disproved, and therefore can never replaced by something else.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Void would have a lot more issues that need to be adressed:

1. It blocks sound, invalidating verbal communication and some attacks
2. It has no friction and no mass creating gravitational pools (i.e. attraction to planets), so you have to deal with 0-G and inertial movement. Side effect this also prevents wind-based, impacts and similar attacks from working.
3. It has no pressure. So the temperature is almost absolute 0, no way to breath, decompression issues and the spacecrafts can blow out or be destroyed if a single attack pierce the external shell.
4. Most people have no idea how void actually works

You only have to match the modern idea of space, not the scientific reality. Tie fighter goes "wheeow".

 

[Mind of tempest]

It depends what you mean by "a very long time", but the idea that stars are like the Sun has only been around for about 350 years, and only generally accepted for about 200.

People didn't know about air until the 18th century, and so the idea that you might not be able to breathe in space came later than that.

Who is familiar with which tropes depends on what group of people you are talking about. People who like steampunk are familiar with steampunk tropes. "Aether" was only science for a relatively short period of time, as evidence mounted that Newton was wrong about light and Huygens was right. Everyone knows waves require a medium to propagate, right?

The advantage of "Astral" was it was popularised by the 1960s counterculture, and was never science. Since it was never science, it is not subject to being disproved, and therefore can never replaced by something else.

astral was from the 20-30 but otherwise, you are right.