| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
| | Author | Messages | |
wicked cool
Underboss
1959 Posts
    
 | | 12/21/2007 8:34 AM |  Alert | im blocked at work from providing you the direct link to it but montecooks site has it
http://okayyourturn.yuku.com/topic/13940/t/4e-Elves.html
i like it but i have lots of questions on things such as shift?,heroic powers,etc. im begining to feel like a newb | |
The ROCK layeth the smacketh down. Long live Farscape
Vindicated-CHAMPION of the INTELLECT DEVOURER
i will change my avatar when martin completes dances with dragons | |
| Duke of Spoils
greyhaze
Warlord
5150 Posts
| | 12/21/2007 8:55 AM | Alert | For the websensed.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dramp/20071221
I've been trying to decide what glimpse into the D&D 4th Edition process I could share with you this month. I wanted something cool, something big, something that said "Happy holidays" to everyone in the D&D community.
So I looked around at what the team and I are working on during these last few days of the work year. James Wyatt, Mike Mearls, and I are reviewing every playtest comment, every monster entry, and every rules element, but nothing in that process seems exactly right for what I'm imagining.
I'm busy putting the finishing touches on the skills chapter, paragon paths, epic destinies, and magic items, but that stuff still needs to go through the editors before it's ready for prime time viewing.
Michele Carter, Jeremy Crawford, and Kim Mohan -- excellent editors all -- are neck-deep in the Player's Handbook, scrubbing classes and powers so that they really shine and making sure that everything synchs up from one chapter to the next. One place where they feel pretty much done (at least until James, Mike, and I come back with an adjustment based on the feedback we're reviewing) is the races chapter. Maybe something in there will satisfy my holiday spirit …
I just stepped over to talk to Andy Collins, my mechanical design and development manager (he oversees all of the mechanical game designers and developers that work on my team) to see what he thinks would make a good present. After a brief conversation, and a courtesy call to Scott Rouse to get his buy off, we're all in agreement. I'm going to share with you the first look at a D&D 4th Edition race entry. And, since it is the holiday season, what better place to start than with the elf.
In the current 4th Edition preview book, Races and Classes, we talked a bit about our approach to races. Let me add to that before you skim down to look at the elf. One of the changes that we decided on early for player character races was that we would only provide ability score bonuses. Penalties based on your choice of race are a thing of the past. We wanted to make sure each race had powers and abilities that set it apart and helped make it feel more like the race in question. We also worked on some size issues to make better sense of the various characters and their place in the world. Finally, we looked at the flavor and back story to make sure that each race had a unique role that didn't impinge on any of the other races in the game.
OK, enough with the chit-chat. Let's unwrap your present!
Elf
Quick, wary archers who freely roam the forests and wilds.
Racial Traits
Average Height: 5' 7"-6' 0"
Average Weight: 100-130 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-light
Languages: Common, Elven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Perception
Elven Accuracy
Elf Racial Power
With an instant of focus, you take careful aim at your foe and strike with the legendary accuracy of the elves.
Encounter
Free Action
Personal
Effect: Reroll an attack roll. Use the second roll, even if it's lower.
Elven Weapon Training: You gain proficiency with the longbow and the shortbow.
Wild Step: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift (even if you have a power that allows you to shift multiple squares).
Group Awareness: You grant non-elf allies within 5 squares a +1 racial bonus to Perception checks.
Elven Accuracy: You can use elven accuracy as an encounter power.
Wild and free, elves guard their forested lands using stealth and deadly arrows from the trees. They build their homes in close harmony with the forest, so perfectly joined that travelers often fail to notice that they have entered an elven community until it is too late.
Play an elf if you want …
to be quick, quiet, and wild;
to lead your companions through the deep woods and pepper your enemies with arrows;
to play a ranger, a rogue, or a cleric.
Physical Qualities
Elves are slender, athletic folk about as tall as humans. They have the same range of complexions as humans, tending more toward tan or brown hues. A typical elf's hair color is dark brown, autumn orange, mossy green, or deep gold. Elves' ears are long and pointed, and their eyes are vibrant blue, violet, or green. Elves have little body hair, but males often grow long sideburns. They favor a wild look to their hair, which is often a shaggy mass of braids.
Elves mature at about the same rate as humans but show few effects of age past adulthood. The first sign of an elf's advancing age is typically a change in hair color -- sometimes graying but usually darkening or taking on more autumnal hues. Most elves live to be well over 200 years old and remain vigorous almost to the end.
Playing an Elf
Elves are a people of deeply felt but short-lived passions. They are easily moved to delighted laughter, blinding wrath, or mournful tears. They are inclined to impulsive behavior, and members of other races sometimes see elves as flighty or impetuous, but elves do not shirk responsibility or forget commitments. Thanks in part to their long life span, elves sometimes have difficulty taking certain matters as seriously as other races do, but when genuine threats arise, elves are fierce and reliable allies.
Elves revere the natural world. Their connection to their surroundings enables them to perceive much. They never cut living trees, and when they create permanent communities, they do so by carefully growing or weaving arbors, tree houses, and catwalks from living branches. They prefer the primal power of the natural world to the arcane magic their eladrin cousins employ. Elves love to explore new forests and new lands, and it's not unusual for individuals or small bands to wander hundreds of miles from their homelands.
Elves are loyal and merry friends. They love simple pleasures -- dancing, singing, footraces, and contests of balance and skill -- and rarely see a reason to tie themselves down to dull or disagreeable tasks. Despite how unpleasant war can be, a threat to their homes, families, or friends can make elves grimly serious and prompt them to take up arms.
At the dawn of creation, elves and eladrin were a single race dwelling both in the Feywild and in the world, and passing freely between the two. When the drow rebelled against their kin, under the leadership of the god Lolth, the resulting battles tore the fey kingdoms asunder. Ties between the peoples of the Feywild and the world grew tenuous, and eventually the elves and eladrin grew into two distinct races. Elves are descended from those who lived primarily in the world, and they no longer dream of the Feywild. They love the forests and wilds of the world that they have made their home.
Elf Characteristics: Agile, friendly, intuitive, joyful, perceptive, quick, tempestuous, wild.
Male Names: Adran, Beiro, Carric, Erdan, Gennal, Heian, Lucan, Peren, Rollen, Soveliss, Therren, Varis.
Female Names: Adrie, Birel, Chaedi, Dara, Ennia, Farall, Harrel, Iriann, Lia, Mialee, Shava, Thia, Valenae.
Elf Adventurers
Three sample elf adventurers are described below.
Varis is an elf ranger and a devout worshiper of Melora, the god of the wilds. When a goblin army forced his people from their woodland village, the elves took refuge in the nearest human town, walled and guarded by soldiers. Varis now leads other elves and some human townsfolk in raids against the goblins. Although he maintains a cheerful disposition, he frequently stares into the distance, listening, expecting at any moment to hear signs of approaching foes.
Lia is an elf rogue whose ancestral forest burned to the ground decades ago. Lia grew up on the wasteland's fringes in a large human city, unable to quite fit in. Her dreams called her to the forests, while her waking hours were spent in the dirtiest parts of civilization. She joined a group of adventurers after trying to cut a warlock's purse, and she fell in love with the wide world beyond the city.
Heian is an elf cleric of Sehanine, the god of the moon. The elven settlement where he was born still thrives in a forest untouched by the darkness spreading through the world, but he left home years ago, in search of new horizons and adventures. His travels lately have brought rumors to his ears that danger might be brewing in the ancient forest, and he is torn between a desire to seek his own way in the world and a sense of duty to his homeland.
Well, there you have it. The first unveiling of a full race entry from the 4th Edition Player's Handbook. Oh, what the heck. I'm feeling generous this morning. It must be the season. Here's a racial feat you can peek at, too.
Elven Precision [Elf]
Prerequisites: Elf, elven accuracy racial power, heroic tier
Benefit: When you use the elven accuracy power, you gain a +2 bonus to the new attack roll.
OK, I better stop here or I'll be tempted to show you the entire class chapter. Hmmm … maybe next time? Anyway, have a great holiday season and remember to …
Keep playing!
--Bill Slavicsek
| |
Greyhaze's DDM Spoilers
Champion of Darkenbeast , Raistlin Majere, Nightmare WDQ25/60, Warduke WD60/60,
Anti-Champion of Guns, "Knight of Bugbears", and Joke Champion of Venger.
Called Shots: Ghast in Against the Giants, Darkenbeast in Demon Web. | |
| 
zenthrus
Commander
4356 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 12/21/2007 10:08 AM | Alert | Quite the change from the 3.x elf. 3.x had elves moving away from Tolkein-esque Legolas stereotypes. 4e has them right back in that niche.
No ability score penalties? Seems that powergaming is the way of the future...
There are a few mechanical tidbits that seem to be discernible from the article.
Shift could either be the new 5-foot-step or a new tactical movement (have we heard whether or not AoOs will be surviving the dumbing down?). Encounter are usable once/encounter (very WoW. "Hey guys, don't run into any more creatures until my mana bar recharges..."). I would guess that Swift/Immediate actions have been reduced back to Free Actions (which is sad because Swift/Immediate added a very nice tactical dimension to the game). Skills have been bundled into groups (not a surprise) so instead of Hide/Move Silent there's Stealth; instead of Spot/Listen there's Perception; instead of Knowledge (nature)/Survival there's Nature.
I suppose the next thing that will be revealed is that ability score generation is either 1) 40-point point buy or 2) 5d6 drop the low two. Wouldn't want characters without at least one 18, now, would we?  | |
Knight Warlord a.k.a. Commander (#32) in only 6 months. Where's my pie?
Champion of Dwarven Thunderlashers
Knight of the Large Dire Chicken
Have/Want List
Trade References | |
|
Skyscraper
Sergeant
659 Posts
Montreal
| | 12/21/2007 11:07 AM | Alert | I don't thijk removing ability score penalties equals powergaming. It depends on your comparative value. In 3E unmodified ability scores are those of humans. Races seen as weaker than humans get a STR penalty, races seen as stronger get a STR bonus.
In 4E all races get only bonuses (or no bonus, presumably) to their ability scores. I assume this means that humans are not the comparative value anymore - which makes sense to me. I don't think this will change the game either towards powergaming or towards the opposite. IMO, the measure of powergaming is how your ability scores compare to the average value.
Attacks of Opportunity are maintained in the game to my knowledge. There was a recent post on the WotC site that mentioned Opportunity Attacks (i recall that the slight change in name struck me). I can't remember what article it was however, sorry about that.
On the topic of elves, i like the reroll ability, but it appears applicable to any attack roll? This would include bows, melee, spells, ...? This is a pretty fun ability to give the elves.
I agree that what we see brings them back towards the tolkienesque elves. Taller, more athletic.
I wonder about something... i believe they said at some point that you gained racial powers at every level. There is nothing in this post to that effect, is there? The only power we see is the elven accuracy racial power. Did i misunderstand something?
Sky | |
The wise man doubts often. The ignorant, sometimes. The fool, never. | |
| Duke of Spoils
greyhaze
Warlord
5150 Posts
| | 12/21/2007 1:10 PM | Alert | http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20071221
Once they were a single race: The elves say they were elves, the eladrin say they were eladrin. The drow say they were debased, unfinished, and fatally flawed, and would have stayed that way but for the help of Lolth.
In the younger days of creation, a fey race walked the borders between the world and the Feywild. Corellon and the two sisters, Sehanine and Lolth, delighted in this race, for all three gods saw in them the qualities they most valued. Corellon prized them for their artistry, their innate sense for the ebb and flow of magic, their song, and their fierce anger in battle. Sehanine loved their stealth, their gentle footsteps in the shadows of the forest, and their curiosity and wonder at the newborn world. And Lolth particularly enjoyed those who sought power and seized it, who spied and schemed to achieve their goals, who showed no mercy to their enemies or their rivals.
For this young race, like most of the fey, had a very different sense of morality from that of other races. Moradin, Pelor, and Bahamut taught their followers the noble path of law and good, encouraged them to shun evil, value life, and build societies that protected their weaker citizens. The elves, though, were as changing as the seasons and the moon, mercurial in their passions. Corellon taught them to love beauty and savor life but to kill in an ecstatic fury of blasting magic and whirling blade when they faced their enemies in battle. Sehanine taught them to find their own paths without any particular ethical code. And Lolth extended Sehanine's doctrine to its extreme, teaching the elves to place their own goals above all other cares and to stop at nothing to achieve them.
The elves as a race were neither good nor evil -- they didn't think in those terms. They enjoyed beauty and pleasure, and many of them found pleasure in kindness and beauty in every facet of life, and so acted in good ways. Still, they might inflict pain or even death, not out of cruelty, but purely out of curiosity. Others found pleasure in causing pain, and turned their path to evil.
Sehanine, god of the full moon, was fair-skinned and dark-haired, while Lolth, god of the new moon, was the opposite. As the race of elves spread and built their first cities, Lolth marked her favorites -- those elves who delighted in murder and destruction -- by matching their coloration to hers. Even before Lolth's rebellion, these dark-skinned elves began to claim the name of drow, an ugly Elven word that refers to the things that haunt the night.
Up to this point, the legends and histories of the three races mostly agree. Some details may differ -- most notably the name by which the unified race was known -- but the broad outline is the same. With the rebellion of Lolth, however, the histories diverge. They agree on the fact of Lolth's revolt: She turned against her sister and Corellon and led her chosen ones in battle against the other elves. The reason for her revolt is less clear. The most common legends include the following:
Lolth grew tired of sharing her power and authority with Sehanine and tried to kill her sister, to claim the shadows and the moon as her exclusive domain.
Lolth was jealous of the affection between Corellon and her sister and tried to kill one or the other of them.
Lolth descended into the Elemental Chaos and even plumbed the Abyss in a search for knowledge or power, and she made alliances with demons -- and then Corellon and Sehanine sought to punish her blasphemy.
Or Lolth believed that her chosen people should rule the elf race and led them to seize power, which only then resulted in conflict among the gods.
Whatever the reason for the revolt of Lolth and the drow, the consequences were devastating. War tore through the shining fey cities and consumed the woodlands of the world with fire. Some say that the world and the Feywild grew more distant from each other, making passage between them more difficult and driving a wedge between the elves who favored one over the other. Ultimately, the drow were cut off and banished from elf and eladrin communities, driven into the dark places of the world, the Feywild, and the Shadowfell. Lolth made her home in the Abyss, taking the title of the Demon Queen of Spiders.
By the end of the rebellion, the elves, the eladrin, and the drow were three distinct races. Each was shaped by the nature of their home and the favor of their gods.
Elves: A Closer Look
Whatever the history and legend of their origin, the elves of the present day are very much creatures of the world. Though still fey in their nature, they are attuned to the world and its primal power, at home in the woodlands, and they live in harmony with the beasts and trees that share their home.
Since the revolt of the drow, the elves have walked quietly over the earth, leaving little trace. As kingdoms and empires grew and collapsed -- the human realm of Nerath, the dragonborn Arkhosia, the tiefling Bael Turath, and countless nations before them -- the elves remained in their woodland homes, mostly unaffected by the rise and fall of nations. On a few occasions, the eladrin built kingdoms in the world. Sometimes these kingdoms sought cordial relations with their elf neighbors, and elves and eladrin lived as close as they ever had since Lolth's rebellion. At other times, the eladrin tried to force the elves into a reunion of the races and met bitter resistance. There can be no doubt, now, that the two races will never again be one.
Shunning kingdoms of their own, the elves no longer build cities as their ancestors did, but make their homes among the trees. They live in family or clan units, sleeping in tents or under the stars as they range through the forests and gather what they need to survive. At other times, they in temporary villages built on platforms in the branches, linked by vines and ropes -- almost a natural part of the trees themselves. They roam with the seasons, following animals on their migrations or journeying to where fruits and nuts grow in greatest abundance. At least twice a year -- at midsummer and midwinter -- elf families and clans gather together to observe the turning of the seasons, share stories and news of the recent months, and celebrate marriages, births, and deaths.
In the darkness that has been growing since the fall of Nerath, the elves find it more and more difficult to maintain their traditional ways. Many of their forests are no longer safe even for their keen-eyed archers and hardy warriors. Some forests have burned to their roots, driving the elves to find safe refuge in the better-defended settlements of other races. Where, in the past, it was unusual to find elves in human towns except as traders, now many elf families have taken up permanent residence among humans, halflings, and even dwarves, joining with these other races for protection against the darkness.
As a race, elves are fleet of foot and agile. Though they are by no means stupid, they do not place the same value on learning and intellect that their eladrin cousins do. Rather, they value the wisdom of years and the truth of intuition and insight. Their more comic legends are full of eladrin who are puffed up with their own knowledge but lack even a modicum of common sense, and cunning elf heroes who trick their foolish cousins.
Elves share a passionate and emotional nature with many of their fey cousins. They experience feelings deeply and intensely, and their emotions are often mercurial. An elf can swing from wailing grief to heartfelt laughter in a moment, and as quickly to burning rage. They make bitter enemies, sometimes clinging to grudges through long generations, but they are reliable and compassionate friends who remember gratitude longer than wrongs.
Many elves still revere Corellon and (particularly) Sehanine, but many others worship Melora, god of the wilds where they make their homes. Even those elves who drift toward evil rarely turn to Lolth. The legend of her rebellion stings too much. Instead, they worship the Raven Queen, Zehir, or occasionally savage Gruumsh.
For many elves, the gods are not much different from the clan elders who have moved on from this life to another. They remember the gods in thanks and might pray for insight, but not many elves become champions of any god's ideals as a cleric or paladin. They are not as fascinated with arcane magic as their eladrin cousins, often growing impatient with its intricacies and precision. They are drawn more to mastery of primal power, which keeps them attuned to the natural world with its spirits and forces. Elf rangers, rogues, druids, and barbarians are the most common adventurers.
Eladrin: A Race Apart
The eladrin claim to be the original race from which both elves and drow split, with the (usually) unspoken implication that both other races fell away from the state of near-perfection that the eladrin embody. Certainly, the eladrin are still the most fey of the three elf races, still steeped in the magic of the Feywild and still the favored children of Corellon. Arcane magic suffuses their bodies and souls, sometimes emanating from them in a soft nimbus of fey light.
Many races of the world can look back in history to a shining example of their ancestors' accomplishments: the dragonborn empire of Arkhosia or the human realm of Nerath, for example. When the eladrin reflect back on their days of glory, they think first and foremost of the time before Lolth's rebellion, when the whole Feywild shined with the light of the eladrin cities. Those cities now lie in ruins, still hauntingly beautiful among the fey forests with moonlight shining on their shattered spires and ivory walls, but haunting in their testimony to the violence of the rebellion.
Eladrin still build towers of graceful beauty in the grandest places of the Feywild -- breathtaking gorges and verdant glens -- and sometimes even among the ruins of their ancient cities. But no eladrin city of the present day, or of the past hundred centuries, can compare to the heights of the eladrin race in that mythic time before. Eladrin cities of the present day are usually little more than a single ivory spire rising above a scattering of smaller homes, all built in perfect harmony with their surroundings as if carved from the earth by wind and rain.
There have been times in the history of the world when eladrin tried to rebuild the ancient glory of a united race, extending their city-states into the natural world and making overtures to nearby elf communities. These dreams of kingdoms that would bridge the worlds have always crumbled to dust with the passing of years, usually within the span of a single generation.
Eladrin society has more in common with the human structures of nobility and rulership than it does with the family-based society of the elves. Noble houses ruled by eladrin with titles such as Bralani of Autumn Winds or Ghaele of Winter govern tiny princedoms scattered across the Feywild. The eladrin swear loyalty to their noble protectors, who promise to help defend them against fomorians and other dangers of the fey darkness. Unlike human rulers, these noble eladrin wield tremendous power derived from a close connection to the magic of the Feywild, so their tiny city-states do remain as lights, however dim and flickering, standing against the encroaching darkness.
Eladrin share the grace and agility of their elf cousins but place more value on the developed intellect than on intuition and emotion. All eladrin are scholars to some degree, versed in the history of their race and the theories of magic and more inclined to calculate possible solutions than to run with a gut feeling.
The eladrin can seem cold and emotionless to outsiders, if sometimes capricious, and they are certainly less passionate than the elves. Their grief manifests as a wistful melancholy, their pleasure as a soft smile, and their anger as a simmering glare. Much like the elves, they have long memories for both gifts and grudges.
Most eladrin worship Corellon and Sehanine. Some temples in the Feywild are still arranged as they were before Lolth's rebellion -- built as three interlocking circles, each with its altar to one of the three elf gods. In most of these temples, Lolth's altar has been destroyed or defaced. Sometimes it is draped with black cloth to hide it from view, and sometimes it is visible but simply unadorned. There are eladrin who believe that the three gods will one day be reconciled, just as the three races will again be one.
Some say that Corellon's dominion of Arborea lies in the Feywild, while others claim it floats in the Astral Sea. It's possible that it drifts between the worlds or somehow exists in both places at once. To the eladrin mind, Arborea is perhaps not so different from the court of any noble eladrin -- larger and more magnificent, perhaps, but a place where any eladrin would feel at home, even in the presence of so great a lord as the noble Corellon. Sehanine, it's said, wanders freely in and out of Corelllon's home but spends much of her time in the Feywild, where travelers might stumble across her path. Some who attend one of Sehanine's moonlit feasts are said to become lost for centuries, while others awaken after a single night to find themselves blessed with gifts and powers beyond their imagining.
More so than the elves, eladrin sometimes become champions of a god in much the same way that one might become a fey knight in service to a noble eladrin. Divine magic is not alien to the eladrin, but arcane magic is their love and part of their nature. Eladrin wizards are far more common than warlocks, sorcerers, or bards, but any form of arcane magic is a source of endless fascination for the race.
Noble Eladrin
The lords and ladies that rule the eladrin are powerful fey who embody the character of the race. Their magic is tied to seasons and emotions. A ghaele might lash out with a blast of wintry cold, while a coure sows strife among her enemies. They are enigmatic and aloof and can be very capricious, especially when mortals venture into their domains. The tale of Ferrin Toth, a human wizard who ventured into the Feywild seeking arcane secrets, illustrates the nature of the noble eladrin.
Proud of his knowledge and confident in his arcane power, Ferrin Toth used a ritual to transport himself into the Feywild. After parting the veil between worlds, he found himself in a lovely valley with a crystalline spire rising beside a sparkling waterfall at the valley's head. He presented himself at the palace gate in the late afternoon, asking for an audience with the ruler of the place.
Two women escorted him into the presence of their lord Immeral, Firre of Passion. Warm braziers lit the audience hall against the approaching twilight and fire seemed to dance in the opalescent eyes of the eladrin lord. He welcomed the human wizard graciously, descending from his throne to escort the traveler on a tour through the palace. Ferrin lingered by the doorway to the eladrin's magnificent library, but Immeral told him he could explore the library in the morning. Ferrin tried to protest -- there was still enough daylight for him to read -- but the eladrin wouldn't hear him. He hurried Ferrin to a luxurious guest room, warned him not to leave the room until dawn's light burned on the horizon, and left him alone.
Ferrin couldn't sleep. His glimpse of the lord's great library tormented him, and desire to plumb its secrets consumed him. When the palace was silent and the full moon glittered in its spires, Ferrin crept from his room and tried to retrace his steps to the library. As he walked, the corridors seemed to twist in on themselves, and soon the gleaming crystal walls melted into thickets of briars. He wandered through what had become a labyrinth until dawn began to brighten the sky. Then the two women who had brought him to the lord's audience hall stepped out of the thickets. Their lovely faces and forms vanished in a flash, revealing monstrous creatures of wood and vine, swinging arms like mighty cudgels at him.
With a word of refuge, Ferrin returned to the sanctum of his own tower. But the vision of the Firre of Passion's library haunted him. Every night he tossed and turned on his bed, thinking of the library and the wonders he had glimpsed through its doorway. Every morning, when dawn's light burned on the horizon, he thought he stood again in that doorway, and hope surged in his chest -- but as soon as the sun rose above the distant hills, his vision cleared and he was still in his tower. Many times he returned to the Feywild, but he was never able to find Immeral's palace again.
Drow: Lolth's Chosen
The drow are creatures of evil and darkness, exiles banished to the subterranean realms beneath the Feywild, the world, and the Shadowfell. Their ties to the forests and valleys of nature are cut, and they live by cruelty and domination, no longer in harmony with the beasts of the wild.
The drow build their cities deep underground, their slender spires and feylit towers echoing or mocking the graceful eladrin cities of the Feywild. Their society is a study in paradox. Within a drow city, various families or houses hold power. A drow without a connection to one of these houses is an outcast, and members of other races are rarely anything but slaves to these houses. The drow are inclined to empire, unlike their cousins, and the well-ordered houses would perhaps conquer both the Underdark and the surface world were it not for Lolth and her priests. Lolth is a god of treachery and chaos, and at her urging, her priests lead the house matrons in constant battles for dominance. Even when a single house manages to cling to power for an extended time, it must be constantly vigilant against the threat of a lesser house trying to claim its position, and struggles among the lesser houses prevent the city from acting in anything like a concerted effort toward conquest.
Drow share the agility of their cousins, which they often put to use in stealth and trickery. Although they are no taller than eladrins, they have a presence that often makes members of other races feel smaller and on edge -- a fury seems to be at constant boil behind their blank white eyes, ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Like the elves, their moods can change in an instant, most often transforming into blind, murderous rage.
The drow remain Lolth's own, and they tolerate the worship of no other god. The names of Corellon and Sehanine are blasphemy to a drow's ears, and even a euphemistic reference to either god is accompanied by spitting on the ground. The drow revere spiders because Lolth chose them as her symbol, and they traffic with demons because Lolth has made some demons her servants. The priests of Lolth hold political as well as spiritual power, serving as advisers to the house matrons if not actually filling that position themselves. Drow society revolves around Lolth, though it means a constant state of civil upheaval.
While elves and eladrin are inclined to view the gods as simply a greater form of their own lords and elders, the drow give Lolth their unquestioning devotion. Far more drow follow divine paths to become clerics or paladins than either elves or eladrin do -- perhaps in part because of the temporal authority that comes with service to Lolth but also for the opportunity to commune more closely with their god and savor her power flowing through them. They have not forgotten their heritage of arcane study, however, and produce many mighty wizards and warlocks. While religion and politics are primarily the arena of women among the drow, the arcane masters of the race are mostly men.
The more high-minded elves and eladrin sometimes take a compassionate view of the drow, perhaps believing that the three races might one day be reunited. The drow, on the other hand, permit no such weakness of thought, as they see it. Whatever their short-term plans of conquest or rebellion, the drow long for the day when they will exterminate their kindred, obliterating the stain of elves and eladrin from the world and the Feywild. Only occasionally do these dreams manifest in any kind of action, but drow have been seen fighting alongside fomorians in the Feywild.
Without a doubt, the aspirations of the drow echo the dreams and schemes of Lolth, the Spider Queen. In her Abyssal domain of the Demonweb Pits, she sits and waits, plotting the day when she can snare her sister and Corellon in her webs and finish the work she started at the dawn of time.
And then the three races will be only one.
Drow As Player Characters
With the release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting in the summer of of '08, drow will be presented as a fully playable character race. Although drow as a race are a singularly wicked people, cruel and treacherous in their dealings with others, a smattering in every generation learn cooperation and the value of alliance. While some of these are merely cunning in their decision to gain the trust of others, a few truly come to value the positive aspects of camaraderie and friendship, sometimes even with those not of their own race.
Play a drow if you …
want to be good at skulking about, striking quick, and employing a variety of dirty tactics;
?enjoy playing a hero in search of redemption and who struggles to rise above the wickedness of his people;
?are considering a ranger, rogue, warlock.
| |
Greyhaze's DDM Spoilers
Champion of Darkenbeast , Raistlin Majere, Nightmare WDQ25/60, Warduke WD60/60,
Anti-Champion of Guns, "Knight of Bugbears", and Joke Champion of Venger.
Called Shots: Ghast in Against the Giants, Darkenbeast in Demon Web. | |
|
PaSquall
Underboss
1375 Posts
| | 12/21/2007 1:48 PM | Alert | As if we needed another army of Drizzt clones... Some might say we're back to 2E days.
That's the problem when you promote originally "monster" creatures to full-fledged classes : not very easy to find "correct" uses for them. Even if you devise a very cool legend story about them.
| |
Vindicated Champion of the PSEUDODRAGON
(Unhappy) vindicated champion of the DRYAD
Against the giants called shot : huge cloud giant female
Demonweb called shot : ghost | |
|
PaSquall
Underboss
1375 Posts
| | 12/21/2007 1:52 PM | Alert | Posted By zenthrus on 12/21/2007 10:08 AM I suppose the next thing that will be revealed is that ability score generation is either 1) 40-point point buy or 2) 5d6 drop the low two. Wouldn't want characters without at least one 18, now, would we?
Half of your prediction is right : the mainstream method of generating characters will be point-buy.
But there will be a dice-rolling method too.
In fact you're 3/4 right.
| |
Vindicated Champion of the PSEUDODRAGON
(Unhappy) vindicated champion of the DRYAD
Against the giants called shot : huge cloud giant female
Demonweb called shot : ghost | |
|
scruffydude7
Underboss
1196 Posts
Rock Hill, SC
| | 12/23/2007 9:34 PM | Alert | Ugh. I strongly dislike the way they have changed elves and made eladrin a core race. Bad idea.
It doesn't make sense for elves to have short but intense passions when they have such long life spans and above average wisdom. They would be extremely patient and have long term goals and passions, with such a long lifespan. I have always thought of elves as the one race who would be most likely to perfect their art as a lifelong passion, rather than find a new passion every week.
Also, I don't understand how having above average wisdom would result in letting emotional whims be a guiding force in life.
I also don't want to have to be an archer or cleric to play an effective elf character. It seems like races are much less diverse from what I have seen so far.
Eladrin are way cooler as outsiders, not as a PC race. | |
Champion of the Revenant
Knight of the Elf Duskblade
Complete Trades: Oni, Kidkach, Melrune, callidusx3 | |
|
dagonet
Sergeant
439 Posts
| | 12/23/2007 10:14 PM | Alert | Posted By scruffydude7 on 12/23/2007 9:34 PM
Eladrin are way cooler as outsiders, not as a PC race.
I haven't been following the details on the upcoming
4E conversion all that closely--has WotC given any explanation for why
they're transplating Eladrins from the Outer Planes into the ranks of
the core races? If they wanted a more fey-ish elven subrace, all
they had to do was come up with a new name. Using eladrins in a
way that's completely counter to the established cosmology (and which
has been added to fairly recently, in the Fiendish Codices)
seems. . . inexplicable.
Thoughts?
Dagonet
| |
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Champion of Kyuss and his Servants of Squishy Doom | |
|
scruffydude7
Underboss
1196 Posts
Rock Hill, SC
| | 12/23/2007 11:44 PM | Alert | I absolutely agree. It makes a whole lot more sense that they should make a new race to be the ancestors of elves and drow instead of deciding that eladrin are suddenly something totally different and fill that role. From what I have read, it seems like eladrin are replacing what used to be high elves/moon elves/gray elves, and standard elves are what used to be wood elves.
I don't really like this because I always thought of the high elf as the standard elf. I like elves that prefer arcane magic and take pride in their swordplay as much as their archery. I always thought of wood elves and other tree-hugging type elves as sort of a minority.
And then I can't help but associate eladrin with divine magic, because they were outsiders in 3rd edition. It would seem like they would be tend to be paladins and clerics rather than the wizardly, logical type that WotC is apparently making them. But...if they are supposed to be the more fey version of elves, and fey are supposed to be all about nature, why aren't THEY the ones more interested in nature and divine/natural magic instead of the elves?
I dunno. The more I see about 4th Edition, the more I think the whole thing is just kind of being rushed and not very well thought out. I mean, sure, the rules might have more effort put into them and they might be more clear and easier to pick up, and thats all good and well. But half the fluff either doesn't make sense, or is just inherently uncool or not traditional. I just can't get passed that. | |
Champion of the Revenant
Knight of the Elf Duskblade
Complete Trades: Oni, Kidkach, Melrune, callidusx3 | |
|
Shottglazz
Sergeant
827 Posts
Quinte West, Ontario, Canada
| | 12/24/2007 6:24 AM | Alert | Posted By greyhaze on 12/21/2007 8:55 AM For the websensed.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dramp/20071221 Elf Quick, wary archers who freely roam the forests and wilds. Racial Traits Elves mature at about the same rate as humans but show few effects of age past adulthood. The first sign of an elf's advancing age is typically a change in hair color -- sometimes graying but usually darkening or taking on more autumnal hues. Most elves live to be well over 200 years old and remain vigorous almost to the end.
Anyone notice this? Does anyone currently play a campaign where elves don't live for 800+ years? Makes me wonder what the lifespan for dwarves will be...and if they're moving the FR forward a couple hundred years, wouldn't that mean Drizzt is dead? | |
Shottglazz
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand;
I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
Completed trades ( 40 ): Pikel, Darrell, JeffDHarvey, BiggPappa001, Ghendar, Valinrook X2, Wolfgang x2, Wraithborne x4, Mr Ruffles, Anothermullen, CKissee x3, Browns_Scoundrel, Kyrin, GuJiaXian x2, Tyngfumv, Basic_Aim, Mickey Mouse, Berus316, Crisisman, Zoons, Rockfrd, Sterling40 x2, Brucemc, 2007 Magical Mystery Trade, Redskullz x2, Stephengroy, Lyus_Sleyden, Foolforthought, 2008 Magical Mystery Trade, Kilsek
Pending trades ( 1 ): Generic Fighter
WotC trades ( 1 ): Red_Deceiver
Bad trades ( 2 ): LeftEyeofGruumsh, Yotebeth | |
| Duke of Spoils
greyhaze
Warlord
5150 Posts
| | 12/24/2007 6:35 AM | Alert | | There's also a strange ideal where the elves are whimsical, but hold long friendships and grudges... seems contradictory. I always felt that druids (as tree huggers) were more heart than head, and wisdom may not be the actual best stat for them to work from. Just thinking in terms of all the activists. You risk life and limb to defend a whale or a rain forest, fighting industry and your own people to defend something that can not defend itself. The ideals don't seem to match up to me. | |
Greyhaze's DDM Spoilers
Champion of Darkenbeast , Raistlin Majere, Nightmare WDQ25/60, Warduke WD60/60,
Anti-Champion of Guns, "Knight of Bugbears", and Joke Champion of Venger.
Called Shots: Ghast in Against the Giants, Darkenbeast in Demon Web. | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5362 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 12/24/2007 8:54 AM | Alert | | From a purely statistical standpoint, I like the way 4E is going. Seems like a stronger system. As far as fluff... well, Let's just say I'll be keeping a little closer to the 3.5/classic worlds. | |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
|
scruffydude7
Underboss
1196 Posts
Rock Hill, SC
| | 12/24/2007 1:51 PM | Alert | Posted By Teflon Jeff on 12/24/2007 8:54 AM
From a purely statistical standpoint, I like the way 4E is going. Seems like a stronger system. As far as fluff... well, Let's just say I'll be keeping a little closer to the 3.5/classic worlds.
I had originally kept up hope that it would be possible to play 4th Edition rules with older versions of the campaign settings when I read about the butchering of the Forgotten Realms and all the cosmology.
Unfortunately it looks like they are basing so much of the racial bonuses and other mechanics on the crap fluff, that it won't feel right to, for example, play a traditional Forgotten Realms Moon Elf using the 4th edition elf race, especially since 4th Edition classes are a significantly different for each race.
| |
Champion of the Revenant
Knight of the Elf Duskblade
Complete Trades: Oni, Kidkach, Melrune, callidusx3 | |
| Duke of Spoils
greyhaze
Warlord
5150 Posts
| | 12/26/2007 7:40 AM | Alert | | I'm hoping for someone to take the 4e rules and do a conversion for 3.5 edition fluff. | |
Greyhaze's DDM Spoilers
Champion of Darkenbeast , Raistlin Majere, Nightmare WDQ25/60, Warduke WD60/60,
Anti-Champion of Guns, "Knight of Bugbears", and Joke Champion of Venger.
Called Shots: Ghast in Against the Giants, Darkenbeast in Demon Web. | |
|
PaSquall
Underboss
1375 Posts
| | 12/26/2007 9:50 AM | Alert | Posted By greyhaze on 12/26/2007 7:40 AM
I'm hoping for someone to take the 4e rules and do a conversion for 3.5 edition fluff.
That is very possible, due to the 3E OGL. It will take dedicated people to do it however.
| |
Vindicated Champion of the PSEUDODRAGON
(Unhappy) vindicated champion of the DRYAD
Against the giants called shot : huge cloud giant female
Demonweb called shot : ghost | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5362 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 12/26/2007 4:21 PM | Alert | Posted By PaSquall on 12/26/2007 9:50 AM Posted By greyhaze on 12/26/2007 7:40 AM
I'm hoping for someone to take the 4e rules and do a conversion for 3.5 edition fluff. That is very possible, due to the 3E OGL. It will take dedicated people to do it however.
and a lot of that fluff is copyrighted too. I'm hoping to see the same thing.
| |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
|
Elenial Noial
Skirmisher
13 Posts
Dufresne, MB, Canada
| | 01/30/2008 10:56 PM | Alert | | Rubbish, pure and simple. They are totally ignoring the entire D&D history of elves that has been consistent throught the Basic, Advanced, 2ed, 3ed and 3.5ed. Methinks that perhaps they should've just created an entirely new game and not dragged down the D&D name with this 4th edition fiasco. | |
When the levee breaks, mama you got to move.... | |
| The Great
Choco Monster
Ghendar
Warlord
10652 Posts
In the constellation of Cygnus, or Central Connecticut
| | 01/31/2008 12:31 PM | Alert | Posted By Teflon Jeff on 12/24/2007 8:54 AM
From a purely statistical standpoint, I like the way 4E is going. Seems like a stronger system. As far as fluff... well, Let's just say I'll be keeping a little closer to the 3.5/classic worlds.
Unfortunately, it will be more difficult to do this than in ever before because they are hard wiring the new fluff into 4E. It seems the FR changes are being done more to bring it in line with 4E than any real desire to make the setting more accessible to newbies.
If you have a homebrew, you should be able to use whatever fluff you want. If you want to run FR, you are going to become more dependent on their fluff. Which means new cosmology, new "core" races, etc. Should be interesting come June. Not necessarily good, but definitely interesting.
| |
The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner and RPG designer from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute and RPGA certified DM named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark and THAC0. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons, D&D every night. In the spring we'd make meat helmets for LARP. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag, forced to walk the walk of a thousand four siders, and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe, which was very handy for D&D. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles for LARP. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.
Spreading the love of the Digitus Impudicus
Champion of the Spider Eater with rider.
I actually love to be swallowed. - Posted By gss_000 on 09/04/2007 2:32 PM
How many times in life do you get to eat your own Ctulhu? - Posted By Pedro on 03/31/2008 2:29 | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5362 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 01/31/2008 5:25 PM | Alert | Just noticed, but 4E elves are a lot taller.
| |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
|
magefire
Skirmisher
8 Posts
New Hampshire, USA
| | 01/31/2008 11:15 PM | Alert | | And only live 200 years. Huh. Well that sucks. Granted no one plays out 800-1000 years of elf life, but why bother to shorten the lifespan? Only makes the fae "I have seen things and will see things that you will never see" etherealness go bye bye. | | | |
|
zenthrus
Commander
4356 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 02/01/2008 2:40 AM | Alert | Posted By Teflon Jeff on 01/31/2008 5:25 PM
Just noticed, but 4E elves are a lot taller.
Goes along with the "all elves are really Legolas" flavor of 4E elves (along the same lines as 'all drow are Drizzt'). Tolkein's elves were quite tall.
| |
Knight Warlord a.k.a. Commander (#32) in only 6 months. Where's my pie?
Champion of Dwarven Thunderlashers
Knight of the Large Dire Chicken
Have/Want List
Trade References | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5362 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 02/07/2008 2:48 PM | Alert | I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not against it. i think I actually kind of like it. I liked the tolkienesque elves more, felt less like a kid brother for minis/art. Plus, the elf warmage just became normal. well, closer to normal.
| |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
|
Bert the Troll
Commander
3595 Posts
Adelaide
| | 02/24/2008 3:15 PM | Alert | I like tolkien elves more (and never invested much with 3.x stuf so...) but I dont like only one drow god
Kinda expected Drizzt Drow to be entrenched. | |
"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrer." Bert the Troll - The Hobbit
Semi-Secret sig business: Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. ~ Seinfeld
Champion of Epic Lolth, Orcus, & Demogorgon and bring us Asmodeus! | |
| Knight of the
Round Table
Thenameless
Warlord
7965 Posts
The Fortress of Solitude
| | 02/25/2008 2:08 AM | Alert | | Looks like I'll be playing the Bralani in 4e. Love the magic. | |
Over 270 successful online DDM trades. | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5362 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 02/25/2008 11:18 AM | Alert | Not a bad idea. I'll probably settle there after experimenting with the others.
| |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5362 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 02/25/2008 11:18 AM | Alert | | Not a bad idea. I'll probably settle there after experimenting with the others. | |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
|
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
ActiveForums 3.6 | You must be signed in to participate in the
games. |