What 4e Fluff do you Like?

[awesomeocalypse]

4e has a reputation, even among its defenders, for being mechanically pretty kickass but somewhat weak on the flavor. I won't, for the most part, dispute that, especially for early books. Reading spell or monster lists in previous editions was often much more engaging and evocative than 4e's "2 lines of intentionally bland, generic fluff, then a bunch of abstract mechanics". The first PHB was pretty brutal in this respect, and a big part of why 4e has such a "plays better than it reads" reputation.

But I actually think that as time's gone on, and the 4e designers have become noticable more comfortable with injecting some actual flavor into the default Points of Light setting, they've come up with some cool and interesting flavor for different elements of their system and settings.

I've been reading PHB3 and noticing a lot of this going on with the flavor surrounding psionics and the far realm.

I also thought that the explanation of the Primal Power Source and how it fits into the world in Primal Power is great stuff.

The entire Underdark book, especially the Torog stuff, is incredibly flavorful (and by flavorful, I mean metal).

Even some PHB1 elements are pretty cool. I don't like the way they've made Tieflings look, but the Tiefling--Dragonborn backstory with their respective shattered empires is pretty nifty.

How about you guys? Any 4e fluff that impressed you?

 

[Verdande]

To be honest, I haven't gotten anything other than the core 3 4e books. I wasn't really impressed, and they're kinda expensive.

But even if it turns out I don't much care for a lot of the fluff changes, I like two things especially:

1) They turned gnolls into hideously evil demon cultists, which is a step up from Yet Another Evil Demihuman.
2) They gutted alignment. I don't want to have a long drawn out discussion of alignment(again), but I think they could have gone further and just cut it out entirely instead of leaving it a nonsensical, shattered husk.

I guess it's three things, now that I think about it:
3) I like Torog. I don't know where he came from, but he's a pretty cool evil god dude.

 

[Sepp]

I really like the Primal Power Source, and the fluff regarding the spirits of creation being a balance and shield between the gods and primoridials. Druids always bothered me, being Divine but worshiping.... well, it was never really clear if it was nature gods, nature itself, or something else.

Primal Power Source explains that nicely.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Revenants and Assassins. I especially like the new take on assassins and the Shadow power source.

 

[wedgeski]

The cosmology outlined in Manual of the Planes absolutely rocks: tons of flavour and dripping with inspirational hooks. Much of my current campaign took shape as I was reading that book.

 

[The_Gneech]

I like the new look for trolls and troglodytes, and I like that cyclopses are mentioned at all (but as fey, what the--?); beyond that, I'm not particularly keen.

-The Gneech

 

[MerricB]

The cosmology is unbelievably good. The war between the Primordials and the Gods just works for me, and it comes through the subsequent books - and it's just getting better. We keep on getting new facets to the origin story and how its affected everything since.

The books are getting more readable as well. Underdark worked for me far better than any book during the 3e era.

Cheers!

 

[Verdande]

I like the new look for trolls and troglodytes,

We stand in agreement for everything, except for the new look for troglodytes. They're too sleek and characterless for my liking.

Now that I think about it, that could apply to a lot of things I don't like about the new edition

 

[MrMyth]

The cosmology outlined in Manual of the Planes absolutely rocks: tons of flavour and dripping with inspirational hooks. Much of my current campaign took shape as I was reading that book.

Got to agree here. I liked the base 4E cosmology and creation mythos and so forth, but I've had an epic level campaign coming together recently and finding more and more material to draw from - in the Manual of the Planes, the Elemental Chaos book (the Plane Below), and all sorts of Dragon articles.

Outside of the stuff I'm using, I've really enjoyed the articles on the gods and on various big bads - the Codex of Betrayal, Lords of Chaos, Demonomicon, Court of Stars, etc. I've also enjoyed a lot of the race articles, particularly the first article for the Deva.

Things I have not cared for: Some of the material on the Raven Queen that seems to really portray her as a completely self-serving evil deity, rather than an unaligned bringer of judgement for the dead (the interpretation I favor.) And a recent article on Deva that included an Epic Destiny where they remember countless lifetimes as... not being Deva, which makes no sense and contradicts the previous background. I'm fine with exceptions like that, but not when there isn't any reason given for it, or worthwhile result of making such changes...

 

[samursus]

I am really jiving off of the bits released for the upcoming Planes Above. I also really liked the Primal Power stuff as well. It fills a nice niche IMO, being the forces between the gods and the primordials, creating a useful reason as to why the World hasn't been overwhelmed by Chaos or the Gods. I also like the Far Realm stuff, creating an imaginative reason for psionics (although I am sure a lot of players do not like the return of "Psionics as Magic" paradigm). FWIW I never used psionics... ever. Until 4e it just seemed easier not to, and for my games, was never desired by anyone. Playing a Battlemind with my alternate DM has been fun and I have no issues with it (psionics) now. I also like the Dragonborn/Tiefling empire backgrounds.

I agree with those who feel Wizards is ramping up the fluff content, and in general, have noticed a real effort to respond to what players have been asking for. Say what you want about 4e, but it seems the current state of technology has made for a lot more input from Wizards customers, and utilizing DDI and feedback Wizards is in a better place than ever to make a majority happy.