my explanation for "Where'd they come from?" would be that changelings have always been on the fringes of humanity, but remained hidden for good reason. shifters, mechanically, are surprisingly akin to nomadic barbarians, so who's to say that anyone's really ever been able to tell them apart. also, the though of having a good number of Uthgardt barbarian-folk be shifters who literally embody their deific totem is pretty sweet-buns sweet. in my books anyhow.
fairly self explanatory, but i was considering adding shifter and changeling - both from the eberron campaign setting - into my 3.5e forgotten realms campaign. is this a good or bad idea, from anyone who's had any experience doing something like this beforehand?
my explanation for "Where'd they come from?" would be that changelings have always been on the fringes of humanity, but remained hidden for good reason. shifters, mechanically, are surprisingly akin to nomadic barbarians, so who's to say that anyone's really ever been able to tell them apart. also, the though of having a good number of Uthgardt barbarian-folk be shifters who literally embody their deific totem is pretty sweet-buns sweet. in my books anyhow.
Depends how many are you thinking. Are you looking for whole communities or maybe just a village or two. One of the "devices" I really liked was the Inn that appeared on a bunch of game setting worlds. World Serpent Inn I think. Now maybe there was a group of shifters who had fled to the realms during the time of the Lycanthrope Purge by Thrane on Eberron. They could have settled in a remote/hidden forest somewhere and between the time they arrived and the boost from the 97 years or so to the current setting, they probably have had enough time to start a small thriving village.
Other races would work, but only in small groups at most, say a small group got transported by Halaster before his death.
Shifters can also work - I figure its a mutation caused by the Spellplague on creatures afflicted with Lycanthropy. Selune got a power-infusion that probably screwed her up right good for awhile, and Lycanthropy falls under her (and Malar's, somewhat) jurisdiction. Figure whenever a Were-creature had sex with a normal person, the offspring wound up a Shifter after the Spellplague, rather then another Lycanthrope, like before.
With all the other changes, having this two races appear over the last century isn't a bad idea at all.
Warforged are another matter - while I do like them, and they are pretty cool and all, they just scream Eberron. I was planning on working them into 3e through the Utter East and the Bloodforges (they would be Bloodforged), but that would be on a VERY limited case-by-case basis, giving DMs a reason for a few of them to be around in the Realms. Nothing on the order of what we see in Eberron, and their back-story would be very different as well.
In 4e, I have another idea - there are at least two places with 'Ceramic Clay Soldiers' arrayed in formation in the eastern lands, and it wouldn't be too hard to apply Warforged rules to these 'artificial men built for war' - in fact, its a no-brainer. They looked a little different then Eb Warforged, like artifical Samurai, but thats what sets them apart and gives them more of an FR flavor.
Hope that helps somewhat.
also, the changelings tie with the creator races quite perfectly, or maybe as yuan-ti tainted infiltrators or something.
I don't see a reason why there wouldn't be artificers in Faerun.
-There are. The Gnome Artificer is a PrC in Magic of Faerûn.
18DELTA
-I was thinking about making Shifters Black Blood Cultist! :D
so I suppose if we do get stuck with shifters this will make some sense
so I suppose if we do get stuck with shifters this will make some sense
-You make it seem like a bad thing.
18DELTA ;)
the shifters are in Rawh (homebrew Dambrath, mostly woodlands), some are followers of guardinal paragons, some Black Blood Cultists, or worshippers of Selune or Malar, depends on the tribe. Also in Rawlinswood where are inserted Eldeen Reaches.
don't have warforged, the gnomes of Lantan have created golmoids, they're less numerous and independent, they form kinda symbiotic society with the gnomes
Sarlona is in Utter East, so kalashtar are there, the geography is changed and rearranged, Riedra has only 5 million people, quori are replaced by fey. Tashana Tundra is just a plateau of Yehimal (includes the dwarves, but I have Castlemourn dwarves also there as korobukuru), Adar is mostly the same, part of Yehimal. Syrkarn is east of Durpar, Sarlonian ruins are Imaskari, doesn't include yuan-ti, but rakshasas.
Aerenal is east the southern undead continent (Zakhara). Lhazaar Principalities are seafaring undead realms there. Sulatar drow are in the southern polar regions, bordering Katashaka, followers of Surtr, etc.