Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Lady_Auralla May 23, 2015 22:25:50	Over 4 decades D&D has built up masses of fluff including Planes, Settings, Characters, Archetypes, Races, etc, etc. Much of this has had repeated strong focus whilst other areas have had minimal to none. What areas do you think need a spotlight shined on and what would you like to see done with it?   For me Planes are the biggest area in this. Some planes like the Nine Hells and the Abyss get strong focus every edition but others see little to none. I would like to see a focus on the Neutral planes where you can find forces from all over the alignment spectrum vying for various goals. The neutral planes have been left largely unexplored. Adventure wise I think something like a nefarious hidden force trying to manipulate the march of the Modrins for it's own purpose.   So please share your bit of D&D fluff you would like spotlighted and some things you would like done with it.   NOTE: Can we please as much as possible keep mechanics out of this and though this will require discussion on how different editions handled things can we not turn this into an edition war.
#2 Marandahir May 24, 2015 5:30:59	Feywild stuff was hinted at through the Heroes of the Feywild supplement in late 4e, but never got a true setting treatment. Part of that is because it's an echo-world to whatever your main plane is, but it would be nice to see a write-up on all the movers and shakers, the different classic regions, the relevant races, PC and monster, and give a Feywild adventure path to go with it. Remember, some fluff has changed since 4e – Lord Oran is now called King Oberon, and Queen Tiandra is now called Queen Titania, as per earlier editions of fey stuff. But a lot remains the same: Fomorians live in the Underdark of the Feywild, hags come from there, Eladrin aren't secluded to Aborea, but have civilizations in the Feywild, where they're the noble fey and noble elves. In 4e, if I wanted to do Feywild stuff, I needed to gather background material from the DMG, the Manual of the Planes, the Underdark supplement, and the Heroes of the Feywild supplement, plus I don't remember how many Dragon and Dungeon articles. I'd love to see a real Feywild setting book. I'd also like to see the Nerath setting book we never got for 4e. The setting was made for 4e, but that doesn't mean it should be retired with 5e, and its pantheon survived to the 5e DMG. We know they put extensive work into developing setting areas from it, like the Dwarven capital of Mithralfast to the east over the mountains from the Nentir Vale, and we got glimpses of it through a few (not so great) novels and a couple supplements. We got to see a big map through the boardgame and following the boardgame got a handful of articles by the setting's designer on different nations featured on that map. I'd love to see that Nerath Gezateer that never happened. I know some got moved into the Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale and other related products, but there's still room for a Nerath Campaign Setting alongside Greyhawk, The Forgotten Realms, The World of Eberron, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Planescape, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft.   Speaking of which, I'd also love to see Ravenloft return, and tied into the Shadowfell in a Shadowfell setting book. We had Domains of Dread for the Shadowfell last edition, we had a write-up for Strahd, but we never a write-up of his home Domain of Ravenloft. I'd love to see a well-organized Shadowfell setting book, that included Gloomwrought and Letherna, but also spent time with Ravenloft and touched on the various Dragon article Domains of Dread from last edition, maybe giving conversion notes since those were mostly fluff-based articles, and all that's needed to update them are new stat-blocks for the Darklords. Featuring Lord Soth from Dragonlance would be nice, too. It would highlight the "echo not of the material plane, but of many material planes" idea. In terms of archetypes not fully explored before, I'd like to see a book on different martial arts for Monks. Right now, Monks have "unarmed strike" which covers kicking, and punching, and all sorts of martial arts maneuvers. In 4e, we had a bunch of Monk powers that emulated different techniques, but may have locked one into a certain type of technique based on whether there was something close to what you wanted to do that was published or not. In 5e, the burden is on the player to explain how they do what they do. But I also feel like there could be significant differences whether you attack with an uppercut to the chest versus a kick to the groin or a chop to the head, or whatnot. That's my weak non-martial-artist deliniation. I know that there's a lot out there. But a set of guidelines on creating a martial artist from this monk class, and how it can be used that way, would be nice. And maybe have variant rules on how different types of unarmed attacks might put you into different stances setting up for other types of attacks. I don't know. The Monk feels very underwhelming in terms of its martial arts, and it feels very underwhelming in terms of its allotment of ki to use on the mystical stuff. But I feel like without a significant power boost, it could be made stronger by a deeper analysis of what these sorts of attacks could do and how you align them with other attacks and movements.
#3 Artifact May 24, 2015 5:41:05	I'd love to see the Dawn War spotlighted.  I kinda view 4e lore as an Ultimate Marvel Universe of the regular '616' Marvel Universe. Parallel realities as it were.  Others might go a different route, say merging 4e lore more closely with traditional D&D lore.  Either way would be interesting I think.   The Dawn War introduced  primordials.  Many of these godlike beings were only mentioned in passing, some were actually statted in 4e.  I'd hate for 'em to be forgotten because they are part of the lore now, something uniquely D&D.
#4 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 6:01:48	Primordials would make a nice change to gods for a bit and yes I loved the Feywild as an adventuring place......the prime material plane turned up to 11.
#5 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 6:37:30	The followig are Planes I would like them to give more detail on and utilize more: * Ysgard * Limbo * Pandemonium * Carceri * Hades * Gehenna * Acheron * Mechanus * The Beastlands * Arborea * Para Elemental Planes * Plane of Shadow
#6 Zardnaar May 24, 2015 13:09:37	I did not mind Nerath by itself I just didn't like how they used the 4E stuff to replace the Great Wheel while tryig to keep bits and pieces I would associate with Greyhawk/Planescape. I also do not want to see all the setting mashed up to fit the Great Wheel as Darksun, Mystara, Nerath, and Eberron for example in the orinigal settings did not use it. Ravenloft was kind of cut off from the D&D cosmolgy but technically existed as a demiplane.   FR, Krynn, Spelljammer and Greyhawk do use the traditional D&D cosmology. I would like some fluff setting though perhaps ones that have not been done for a while (ie since TSR), Take a break from Darksun, Eberon, Dragonlance, Ravenloft and Greyhawk which have seen support over 3E and 4E.   Spelljammer Planescape Mystara Birthright   Would be nice to see again. Yes I know they are not as popular as some setitngs but they have not been done for a while and I do not expect ongoing support or tie in novels. Some fluff mechanics going generic I would not find either such as defiling rules, domain and rulership rules, or Spelljamming rules. I kind of liked 4Es idea of spelljamming through the Astral Sea just noto as a replacement for  the actual Spelljamming stuff so if the rules were generic enough you coul use them to do either SJ or a 4E type jamming.    When it comes to settings any update should be faithful to the original source material so no Dragonborn on Darksun just update the Dray. This means use 4E only material for Nerath as well and just update some of the 2E setitngs to 5E tweaking the rules to makle them fit if need be as the settings in the 2E era did that anyway. Basically make each setting a module I suppose.
#7 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 18:23:30	I think PotA fell short. I would of like more of an indepth look into what is Elemental Evil, it's history, where it's going, who is who, etc. Also I would of liked Elemental Evil to be hijacked from a lie to an actual existance considering how much worship it gets.   Nerath I believe deserves a full treatment. There is enough to work with it had its own unique flavor and it has support. It can be a new general fantasy without the investment that Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk require. Then there is poor neglected Mystra. A rich setting that got left behind, what a pity.
#8 Zardnaar May 24, 2015 18:37:47	Lady_Auralla wrote:
#9 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 18:38:16	I believe when it comes to adventures from and evil threat from planar origins the the designers have been somewhat lazy and are only using the Abyss and The Nine Hells. What about Acharon, Gehenna and Hades.   Acharon a plane of never ending war home to orcish and goblinoid deities, Bane and several other not so nice deities. Hades the realm of loss and despair home to unclaimed souls. Not much detail is given on who resides here and what powers dwell. Gehenna the home of cruelty and greed next to no information given as to who or what dwells there.   These 3 planes are ideal for adventures and to use as a threat yet the designers are too invested in the Abyss and The Nine Hells. I will look through my Planar books from previous additions but I dont expect to find a lot.
#10 Zardnaar May 24, 2015 18:38:43	CE and LE are the extremes of the evil alignment and the Yugoloths were not that much of a thing in AD&D outside Planescape.
#11 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 18:44:29	Zardnaar wrote:
#12 Zardnaar May 24, 2015 18:56:04	Lady_Auralla wrote:
#13 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 19:25:57	Zardnaar wrote:
#14 Zardnaar May 24, 2015 21:27:59	Lady_Auralla wrote:
#15 Lady_Auralla May 24, 2015 23:22:19	Maybe Yugoloths need a reintroduction, complete with reflavouring and refluffing in a adventure of their own.
#16 Zardnaar May 25, 2015 0:49:54	Well the yugoloths have not been in very many mm1. It means they have not been in the classic aventures much. Very few splat book monsters have made the jump to classic dnd monsters and the ones that have are mostly 1E such as death knights, yuan ti and gith.
#17 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 0:55:52	Name 5 other Death Knights from D&D history other than Lord Soth.
#18 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 0:59:19	Lady_Auralla wrote:
#19 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 1:04:10	What I am getting at if we only utilize beasties and places which became inmportant in BEMCI or 1E than the game will stagnate.
#20 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 7:00:42	Does anyone remember Antraxus the head honcho of Hades lost the title in 2E got it back in 3E and was renamed Phraxus in 4E.  The 1E & 2E modules involving him were some of the greatest made. I would like to see him resurface as a world shaking entity.
(Reply to #18) Azzy1974	Lady_Auralla wrote:
#22 BRJN May 25, 2015 13:55:11	Lady_Auralla wrote:
(Reply to #22) Mechatarrasque	BRJN wrote:
#24 Mechatarrasque May 25, 2015 14:52:46	As for yugoloths, the whole mercenary outsider thing is kind of limiting.  While there is some use for an outsider that can hang out with devils or demons (and that the PC's can bribe instead of fight), that does limit their potential as big bads.   Although I think daemons in Pathfinder Try Too Hard to Be Evil (taking that gig away from demons), at least when they show up it is a big deal, because they are eating souls or starting wars, not because there is some wizard big bad summoning outsiders......   A novel or an AP with the General or the Oidaemon as the big bad would be nice, and if that was a sign that the Blood War was going three ways and possibly spilling over into the campaign world, that is all for the better.  New edition means weird stuff is going on in the Planes--that's tradition.
#25 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 22:44:00	I think Hades and Yugoloths needa bit of a face lift and a coat of fresh paint.  What changes can be made to Hades and Yugoloths to get them out of storage?
#26 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 22:46:58	Hades is all about despair and loss, I think they should tie Yugoloths to those themes rather than greed and being mercenaries. They dont go after you they go after what you care about. Now that would make them scarey opponents.
#27 Zardnaar May 25, 2015 23:09:06	Lady_Auralla wrote:
#28 Lady_Auralla May 25, 2015 23:19:09	Zardnaar wrote: