D&D 4E XPH Races in 4e?

[Turtlejay]

Elan seem like they could work like the Revenant worked, where you could have the base class and options for whatever your past life was. Adding my voice to the chorus of those who liked the flavor of the Elan is like a drop in the bucket now, but I'll still add it. Sure you can make Elan with a feat. . .but you could also make many other races with a feat. Elf->Eladrin (Feytouched feat!) Elf->Drow (Shadowtouched feat!) etc.

They are pretty tied to the one power source, but you could de-couple that in 4e, and not make the concept source specific. In the same way that Deva are the Aasimar of old, and have many good roleplaying ties to the Divine source, but have no actual, mechanical ties to it.

Would it be weird if Wizards released a Racial Power book? Or does the title alone turn folks off?

Jay

 

[Flipguarder]

I kinda love the idea of a racial power book, include a few classes devoted only to being awesome in your race. tons of racial feats and options.

I like the idea.

 

[Dragonhelm]

If I were to reskin a race to do the Elan, i'd probably use Deva.

"Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes" has always had Elan written on in capital letters to me.

After looking over the elan, I would tend to agree with this. What I don't quite get is how to reconcile the role of religion in a deva's life and the lack of it in the elan's. That might take some thought.

As for the maenad and xeph, I think they would work well for kalashtar spiritual lineages, particularly the maenad. All it takes is a little flavor text.

 

[Aldarc]

The thing I loved the most about the elan is that they could have been any race, not just humans, who traded their power and memories for eternal life and psionics. That made them rife with plot hooks.

This thread has convinced me to reintroduce them to my world using the kalashtar for stats.

I have turned the Shardmind into my version of the Elan. Psionic beings who may be close to dying or for whatever other reasons, may choose to have their consciousness moved over to living crystals. Once there, their subconsciousness shapes their new forms (hence the reason why some shardminds have breasts that serve no purpose). Usually the form reveals their previous life. So an ex-dragonborn shardmind would have more draconic features. So any race from any culture or background could be a shardmind, which makes shardminds, and other races, wary around other shardminds as they do not necessarily share a common culture. And sometimes multiple souls may be implanted into the same crystal which may either create a shardmind with multiple personalities or a new merged consciousness.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I have written up a small fluff text article on the elan in 4e terms.

Deva Heritage: Elan

When time permits, I'm going to do the same with the maenad, xeph, and the synad (forgot about them!) as Kalashtar spiritual lineages.

Hope you guys enjoy.