D&D 4E Updating Urbis to 4E

[Jürgen Hubert]

You might have heard of Urbis, the setting I am developing and which I plan to publish professionally one day.

Urbis set out with the intention to use everything in the D&D Core Rules (or rather, the basic d20 SRD), throw in all sorts of ideas from 19th century European culture and society, and create an interesting and coherent whole. However, now that the 4E version of the SRD is on the horizon, I naturally want the setting to be compatible with the latest iteration of D&D - and this means I need to rewrite some aspects of the setting to make room for the new material. Thus, I wanted to open a thread for brainstorming ideas how to fit the rules changes into the setting. Here are my ideas - tell me what you think of them, and don't hesitate to come up with your own suggestions.

Classes:

Not all 3E classes are going to be part of the 4E rules. I can live with that - sorcerors, druids, monks, barbarians, and bards aren't all that central to the setting. While these classes will be added to the 4E rules at a later date, I'm not sure if they will be included in the SRD as well. I'll probably restrain myself so that there are a few hints towards there existence, but only in a way that they can be safely ignored - or added in later if the GM has access to those rules.

Paladins apparently now can be different alignments than LG. In this case, I'll probably make them "planar champion" of sorts - a specific plane that represents his alignment and character grants him his powers. But I will have to wait until more details are known before I can make up my mind on this issue.

Warlords should be fairly easy to include - the setting certainly has no shortage of tactically skilled leaders of others. Warlocks are a bit more tricky - they can probably make deals with specific planes (including Faerie), but again I have to wait until I know more details.

Races:

Even if all of the old 3E races don't make it to 4E, I do not plan on removing any of them from the setting. Each race has its own, unique role in the setting and they would be far harder to remove than specific classes (with the exception of half-orcs, who are only bit players in the setting). Thus, I will include roles for playing gnomes (as well as hobgoblins). I'm still on the fence about half-orcs - I'm not sure if they are that important to include, and I would value your opinion on whether to keep them.

That leaves us with the new races. Tieflings should work very well, and I want to extend their role as "offspring of demons and devils" to two new roles: For one thing, they can be "changelings" - beings left by faeries who steal small children, or else small children warped by the magic of the faeries. For another, they can represent "black seeds" or supernatural curses in certain families. For example, in each generation of a particular family there will be one firstborn child who will be born as a tiefling. This fits in very well with gothic stories, which were one of the many inspirations for Urbis.

I'm not sure what to do about the dragonborn, however. Sure, I could associate them with the dragons of the Desert of Thunder, but that doesn't really seem satisfying - and it is too regionally constrained. I want to fill them their own, unique archetype, but so far I haven't been able to come up with anything suitable.

Then there's the eldarin. These are obviously going to be significant players in Avareen and Narevoreen - they probably represent the ruling classes - but I'm still not sure about the precise details. Tuvareen probably doesn't have any eldarin, since that kingdom strikes me as rather more rustic than the others. Perhaps that lack of eldarin contributes to their lower fertility rates (perhaps they killed them all, or else the eldarin killed themselves by accident?).

Here's an idea: Shortly after an elf is born who is a descendant of the elven aristocracy, it goes through a special ceremonial blessing which ensures that the baby grows up to be an eldarin. If there is no such ceremony, it will become a "common" wood elf. Thus, eldarin are essentially elf nobility, with special abilities representing their heritage. Tuvareen has lost the ability to conduct this ceremony, and thus they only have normal elves left.

Furthermore, drow use a perversion of this ritual to ensure that the elves turn into drow shortly after birth. This means that children born to drow start out as normal, fair-skinned elves, but gain their dark skin color and white hair after this ceremony...

What do you think of this idea?

Magic:

Obviously, I have to rewrite the rules for nexus towers to bring them in line with the new magic item creation rules, whatever they might be. After all, this "industrial" production of magic items should still be possible and represent a significant advantage. I don't see much of a problem with the other changes to the magic system.

Psionics:

This is going to be a problem, since the surathi, one of the major villainous races, depend on it - and it will take some time until the psionics rules for 4E are released. However, since for the most part psionics is exceedingly rare among the standard PC races, it should probably be sufficient if I write some quick guidelines on how to run some of the "standard" classes (such as wizards) with a psionic flavor.



That's it for now. What are your thoughts on all this?

 

[Emil]

I like the idea of tiefling changelings, as well the idea of an "initiatory" process in the development of the elven races. Would there be an allowance for someone (possibly a progressive/ambitious Tuvareen wizard) to develop a ritual that granted the metamorphosis later in life? (multiclassing for races? might be a mechanical nightmare, but maybe it would just switch the available racial feats for the character. Sort of a post-adolescent half-race system)

Do you have a contingency for Dragonborn?

I've been toying with ideas on how to handle tieflings in my own homebrew. My most recent idea is to interpret the term "planetouched" literally. Tieflings as individuals who have been present at a given location during a "planar intersection." Though I'm not sure if I'll definitely go with that one. I've often downplayed the role of the multitude of planes in my settings, though I have a softspot for Shadow and Faerie as distinct adventuring locations and places of NPC origin.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I like the idea of tiefling changelings, as well the idea of an "initiatory" process in the development of the elven races. Would there be an allowance for someone (possibly a progressive/ambitious Tuvareen wizard) to develop a ritual that granted the metamorphosis later in life? (multiclassing for races? might be a mechanical nightmare, but maybe it would just switch the available racial feats for the character. Sort of a post-adolescent half-race system)

Hmmm... Well, putting in rumors that the Turaveen are trying to do this wouldn't hurt, but I'd leave that at the rumor stage. I want to keep the mechanics clean and leave the PC races as written in the rules.

Do you have a contingency for Dragonborn?

Nope. I simply haven't found a good idea for them yet.

I've been toying with ideas on how to handle tieflings in my own homebrew. My most recent idea is to interpret the term "planetouched" literally. Tieflings as individuals who have been present at a given location during a "planar intersection." Though I'm not sure if I'll definitely go with that one. I've often downplayed the role of the multitude of planes in my settings, though I have a softspot for Shadow and Faerie as distinct adventuring locations and places of NPC origin.

I want to keep the "dark and tainted" shtick for tieflings because that image fits so well with period literature, which often is a tad excessive about "keeping bloodlines pure". People who are ostrachized merely because of an accident of birth... what's not to like?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Don't force yourself to add things. Simply work in an option for them to exist.

Re-wiring what's been eliminated will be hard enough.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

How you are planning on integrating the Feywild is going to be the biggest issue for how you integrate the Eladrin.

I think I'm only familiar with your earliest incarnations of the setting so I'm not entirely certain how to help you with the Dragonborn, but were I looking for a Nineteenth century analogue I might go with the Sikhs. Nothing wrong with a highly militant, somewhat displaced, and sophisiticated minority looking for allies.

 

[Nyaricus]

For the Dragonborn, what about having them from this Desert of Thunder, but they were enslaved and bred for hard labour - perhaps they helped build up a major part of an empire or somesuch.

What this does is pretty nifty: you now have a race which is plentiful and hardy, since your slaves need to be in good shape to do all that hard work. Also, since they were force-bred, their numbers would be much greater then their homeland's resources would otherwise allow (deserts don't have much wildlife for a reason )

Then, throw in a Big Revolution (tm) and have the Dragonborn rise up and defeat their supposed masters, establishing themselves as the rightful heirs to their own destinies. From there, they being to spread all over the world, and nowadays one can find them in pretty much any urban center.

I'm sorry that I don't know much more about your CS in specific Jürgen, but maybe that wil help you out

cheers,
--N

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

How about this: The dragonborn once lived in great numbers in the Desert of Thunder, and were the favorite servants of the blue dragons that rule this region.

Then, about a thousand years ago, the blue dragon matriarch suddenly goes berserk and orders a purge of them for reasons unknown, killing them by the thousands. Not all of the other dragons agree with her and some work to save some of them, but none dare defy her openly. The surviving dragonborn flee as far away from the Desert of Thunder as they can.

When the old matriarch dies and a new one ascends her place, the genocide is stopped and dragonborn are accepted into the Desert of Thunder again. Some return - it is their home, after all, and they feel the most comfortable in the desert - but many vow never to trust the dragons again and are scattered far and wide across the Known Lands, thus explaining their presence even in the far north.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

How about this: The dragonborn once lived in great numbers in the Desert of Thunder, and were the favorite servants of the blue dragons that rule this region.

Then, about a thousand years ago, the blue dragon matriarch suddenly goes berserk and orders a purge of them for reasons unknown, killing them by the thousands. Not all of the other dragons agree with her and some work to save some of them, but none dare defy her openly. The surviving dragonborn flee as far away from the Desert of Thunder as they can.

When the old matriarch dies and a new one ascends her place, the genocide is stopped and dragonborn are accepted into the Desert of Thunder again. Some return - it is their home, after all, and they feel the most comfortable in the desert - but many vow never to trust the dragons again and are scattered far and wide across the Known Lands, thus explaining their presence even in the far north.

Dragonborn diaspora. I like it.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Hehe, I like how certain ideas about Tieflings for 4e seem to quite-abundent. In my world, Tieflings are humans warped in the womb by the workings of the Far Realm that has invaded the World.

There were once Tieflings born, before the Incursion but these were children of the Thaumaturgist who toyed and played with the distant powers of the Far Realm, tainting their bodies and their childrens with this aberrative nature.

However, come the "Incursion" and the Far Realm sweeping across the World, children are born seemingly at random as Tieflings. Some are hardly different from a human, others are ghastly abominations, some are so twisted beyond the realms of human capabilities they die in the womb.

It is said Tieflings are the only child in the world, not to cry and grow sick from the signs the once rare physical and mental ailments that only appeared near rifts to the Far Realm. These signs however have grown common with the Incursion and every non-Tiefling child feels its affects, till in time as they grow older they become used to it.

Some people, especially those in the Far North wish to see all Tieflings killed off, seeing them as a unwanted taint apon the human body. They do not have much traction, yet, since of the sheer abundance of Tieflings and various Noble-Families having Tiefling members.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Dragonborn diaspora. I like it.

It seemed like a natural solution. If there's no space on the map for them to have their own nation, then the logical solution is to have them wanderers who fled across the world in a search for safety.

They might also fulfill a role as "gypsies" of sorts. And they are unlikely to gather in large communities of their own - to their mind, gathering too many of them in one place only means they would be easier to wipe out.

I'm wondering if I should create some sort of movement for them where they try to establish their own homeland where they can be safe and aren't dominated by anyone but themselves - sort of a local equivalent of Zionism.

My perversity sense tingles, so I probably should do it.