D&D (2024) More D&D 2024 Tidbits: Aasimar, Goliaths, Town-Eating Gelatinous Cubes

Here are a few more tidbits from Game Informer's magazine coverage of the new edition's rulebooks.

• Iconic characters like Bobby the Barbarian, or Raistlin and Caramon Majere feature in the art.
• Each class and each subclass has its own piece of art.
• Species now include Aasimar, Goliath, and Orc.
• Bastions are in--player built bases.
• Greyhawk is the sample setting in the Dungeon Master's Guide.
• Each book is 384 pages.

Monster Manual

• 75 new monsters in the Monster Manual; over 500 in total.
• Challenge rating remains the same.
• There are some new lower challenge vampires, and a higher challenge one called the Nightbringer.
• Blob of Annihilation is a gelatinous cube that can eat towns.
• Elemental Juggernaut, Archhag.

 

[Parmandur]

But there have been a lot of other times where WotC have been less clear. Like, they cut a bunch of stuff from Strixhaven, but they also didn't claim it was because of the 70% threshold or anything, and given people generally seemed to like the stuff they cut, I rather suspect it wasn't, but rather was cut for length/complexity (which is ok, I mean it's their game to make mistakes with, but different).

See, this right here: ple ty of times like Strixhaven where stuff was liked here but didn't make it, or disliked here but made it in (Tasha's tests particularly). There is no relationship between the discourse here and the results either direction.

 

[Parmandur]

Anyone also notice the Haragon in that Silver Dragon art? Makes me wonder if their solution to the Ardlings identity issues was to split it in two, the papa Aasimar for the celestial aspect, and mama beastkin for the Furry species, then take a bunch of furry races like Haragon, Tortles, etc..., and turn them into lineages.

Anyways a reminder of what the OG Ardling's Celestial Legacy was like:

" Exalted. The fierce passions of Arborea, the heroic heart of Ysgard, and the wondrous nature of the Beastlands call to ardlings who have the Exalted celestial legacy. Their celestial ancestors are heroic champions of the Chaotic Good planes. (Gain Thaumaturgy, 3rd level Divine Favour, 5th Lesser Restoration)

Heavenly. The blissful harmony of Arcadia, the unwavering justice of Mount Celestia, and the bucolic paradise of Bytopia touch the souls of ardlings who have the Heavenly celestial legacy. Their celestial ancestors are staunch defenders of the Lawful Good planes. (Light, 3rd Cure Wounds, 5th Zone of Truth)

Idyllic. The Idyllic celestial legacy connects ardlings not only to the Beastlands and Bytopia but also to the eternal compassion of Elysium. Their celestial ancestors are paragons of kindness who hail from the Neutral Good planes. (Guidiance, 3rd Healing Word, 5th Animal Messanger)" The animal stuff does not apply to the Aasimar.

They might add a resistance to each of these, Lightening to Exalted, Acid to Heavenly, and Cold to Idyllic.

They might dump Angelic Flight for Darkvision, not sure, but I think they will keep the Radiant Resistance univeral.

Very possible, the different aesthetic possibilities for the Tiefling Legacies are a major strong point.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Anyone also notice the Haragon in that Silver Dragon art? Makes me wonder if their solution to the Ardlings identity issues was to split it in two, the papa Aasimar for the celestial aspect, and mama beastkin for the Furry species, then take a bunch of furry races like Haragon, Tortles, etc..., and turn them into lineages.

Anyways a reminder of what the OG Ardling's Celestial Legacy was like:

" Exalted. The fierce passions of Arborea, the heroic heart of Ysgard, and the wondrous nature of the Beastlands call to ardlings who have the Exalted celestial legacy. Their celestial ancestors are heroic champions of the Chaotic Good planes. (Gain Thaumaturgy, 3rd level Divine Favour, 5th Lesser Restoration)

Heavenly. The blissful harmony of Arcadia, the unwavering justice of Mount Celestia, and the bucolic paradise of Bytopia touch the souls of ardlings who have the Heavenly celestial legacy. Their celestial ancestors are staunch defenders of the Lawful Good planes. (Light, 3rd Cure Wounds, 5th Zone of Truth)

Idyllic. The Idyllic celestial legacy connects ardlings not only to the Beastlands and Bytopia but also to the eternal compassion of Elysium. Their celestial ancestors are paragons of kindness who hail from the Neutral Good planes. (Guidiance, 3rd Healing Word, 5th Animal Messanger)" The animal stuff does not apply to the Aasimar.

They might add a resistance to each of these, Lightening to Exalted, Acid to Heavenly, and Cold to Idyllic.

They might dump Angelic Flight for Darkvision, not sure, but I think they will keep the Radiant Resistance univeral.

I happened to like the first draft of the ardling, at least in concept, because I felt it created a distinction between "celestial" (i.e. archon/guardinal/etc.) planetouched and what I'd call "divine" (i.e. angelic) planetouched, which played into one of the very few 4e-isms that I wish they'd carried forward - namely that "angels" as a creature category are servants of the gods, irrespective of alignment.

The second draft made it pretty clear, however, that the fanbase as a whole (or at least those taking the UA surveys) latched on to the "animal person" aspects of the ardling pretty hard, and I expect most everyone else that were interested in them primarily as celestial planetouched were wondering why they weren't just a set of new aasimar heritages anyway, so in the end this was probably inevitable.

I do hope the PHB aasimar gets some variation on the Heavenly/Idyllic/Exalted lineage options so they better parallel the new tiefling, but I suspect if/when the ardling makes its return, it will probably be primarily as a unified "animal person" framework as in the second UA draft - might even ditch the celestial aspects altogether, to be honest.

 

[dave2008]

It was undeniable more game-y than literally any system in 4E (level requirements for a tavern lol - high ones too!).

well the thing is, it wasn't just a tavern. That was the issue IMO. The needed more mundane options/integration, not a tavern that can brew magic potions. So you can start with a simple run-of-the-mill tavern and then upgrade to something more.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Archhag is good, v good. Can finally have my 3 Norns game... Although tbh, Witchlight was kind of that game, but sideways and through a bent mirror

 

[Vaalingrade]

I'm sure Crawford said they were gonna fix this?

Yeah... there was a lot of talk about making the DMG more new DM friendly, but if you keep Challenge Rating a secret test of character to recognize it's useless, that goal is way more out of reach.

 

[Azzy]

Good gods.

No, no, no... Bad Gods! Bad Gods—no biscuit!

 

[Davinshe]

I hope they fixed some of the issues with Bastions as seen in the playtest.

The main critique seems to be, the Bastions didnt integrate well enough with the normal economy, as seen in the Equipment section of the Players Handbook.

If the Bastions are part of the Players Handbook now, it might be the low level characters can do things like own shops, and live in homes. A kind of normal "bastion". Then later at higher tiers, the special benefits come from do this.

I hated the bastion rules preview -- and since they are keeping the concept of bastion turns, I doubt I'm going to like the ones that eventually see print. They were at once too gamey while giving the players too few ways to meaningfully interact with their base. When I think back to BECMI rules where something like domain rules did something far more ambitious in fewer pages, I just feel disappointed that such a large chunk of the book is going to be used for something that I anticipate flopping.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Btw Bell of Souls use of the Wizard art in the article on Aasimar being in the PHB made me realize the Wizard is an Aasimar, previously I'd chocked her glowing eyes and flying up to flavouring to the spell she was casting, now I see the glowing eyes as a sign of her hertiage.

 

[Corinnguard]

I do hope the PHB aasimar gets some variation on the Heavenly/Idyllic/Exalted lineage options so they better parallel the new tiefling, but I suspect if/when the ardling makes its return, it will probably be primarily as a unified "animal person" framework as in the second UA draft - might even ditch the celestial aspects altogether, to be honest.

I also hope that WoTC does this. However, I don't think they'll be bringing back the Ardling. Not when they can give us the option of role-playing a Guardinal-descended Aasimar instead.