Plane Shift: Kaladesh

[Stan]

Apparently, a new setting inspired by MtG has been out for a couple of weeks. I haven't seen anything here. It's Kaladesh, here's the link (http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/plane-shift-kaladesh-2017-02-16)

I don't really play Magic and I've been finding these articles awesome. Apparently, the 3 out so far are all from James Wyatt.

I've only skimmed Kaladesh so far: A couple of new monsters, quite a few descriptions with instructions to reskin other stat blocks, rules for making some magic items, 2 new races, new versions of elves and dwarves, plus good chunks of flavor text.

While UA has been uneven to me, Wyatt's been delivering solid hits with these 30-40 page intros to these settings. They all have MtG art too, which is very good (and new to me). I wouldn't mind seeing these expanded to single book settings.

Previous articles:
Zendikar (http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/plane-shift-zendikar-2016-04-27)

Innistrad (http://www.dragonmag.com/5.0/article/45813/106375/102161027)

[jaappleton]

I already posted a whole topic about it detailing its release and it was discussed there.

Here's the TL;DR of the whole Plane Shift article:

It's pretty much garbage.

First, if you want to use that setting, note that most classes don't exist.

Second, as far as new content, there's not much. There's one Sorcerous option which was simply a reflavored Storm Sorcerer, but changed to Fire and its incredibly uninspired. Then there's a race that gets a unique attack, the Aether-something... but they never tell you how to actually utilize the attack, how often it can be used, any modifiers that go with it, etc.


Any other races are basically reflavored PHB races. But again, setting specific. There's a Medium sized Gnome, I guess that's about the only decent thing.

Honestly, considering how long James Wyatt has been at WOTC, it's shameful how poorly done this article is.

[Honest Tiefling]

Okay, I just skimmed the article, but one thing is confusing me: If you don't like the Consulate, what's preventing you from just...Moving away? I get some people might want to fight for their homeland, but that is a pretty dangerous option. Are there just no other cities for some reason? There's a tiny section about the wilds, but it seems pretty lack luster.

The art is wonderful, however, and I really like the aesthetic. I just don't get how super ornate pretty stuff really works with the whole 'oppressive government wearing down individuals' thing. Maybe they are the snazziest magical tyrants? Is fabulousity just a part of the aether using process? Even the characters that look like rebels are decked out.

It occurs to me that this seems to be geared to a city-wide campaign with no discussion of class politics. That's...Kinda odd?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Second, as far as new content, there's not much. There's one Sorcerous option which was simply a reflavored Storm Sorcerer, but changed to Fire and its incredibly uninspired. Then there's a race that gets a unique attack, the Aether-something... but they never tell you how to actually utilize the attack, how often it can be used, any modifiers that go with it, etc.

Adding onto that, the Aetherborn are functionally refluffed half-elves, except with necrotic resistance instead of a skill proficiency. The Gift of the Aetherborn isn't even a default feature of the race, so the whole thing is pretty underwhelming.

[toapat]

Okay, I just skimmed the article, but one thing is confusing me: If you don't like the Consulate, what's preventing you from just...Moving away? I get some people might want to fight for their homeland, but that is a pretty dangerous option. Are there just no other cities for some reason? There's a tiny section about the wilds, but it seems pretty lack luster.

The art is wonderful, however, and I really like the aesthetic. I just don't get how super ornate pretty stuff really works with the whole 'oppressive government wearing down individuals' thing. Maybe they are the snazziest magical tyrants?

Lathnu is the capital of the Dwarves but its just like, Pittsburg to Ghirapur's NYC.

generally speaking, a "setting" from MTG is about the size of New York State now.


Consulate being evil: James Wyatt really, really dropped the ball here. Ghirapur's The Consulate actually is more like the US government with its own different divisions.

the Dhuund, run by Chief of Compliance and Blue Mage Hitler Dhirian Baral, hunts and kills Fullcasters and religious characters.

Padeem and Dovin Baan are ranking members of the organization in its manufacturing wing, with Padeem judging which inventions are slated for mass production and Baan overseeing maintainance staff and the process of implementing

then theres the normal Government wing of the Consul, with Judges, Peacekeeping forces and that focuses on city infrastructure and development, named characters here are Sram the senior Edificer, Kimbal the Consul of Allocation, and Pia Nalaar, who replaced Kimbal after the Revolution because of his function as an Agent of Bolas.


Class Availability: the Lockdown on the "Nature" classes in Ghirapur to only elves doesnt make sense as far as the "Living City" that is part of the world's concept. in Kaladesh you should easily be able to be a Mechanization Druid or Urban Ranger. it is as much a City of spires as Ravnica and the fact that every race has Lifecrafters suggests the opposite, Druids and artifice are compatible there. No its Clerics and Paladins that should be locked to elves, as elves are the only ones who view the world in a religious manner.

otherwise, barring bards, Fullcasters should primarily be found in the Dhuund organization, where Grand Hypocrite Baral imprisons and brainwashes them.

[Stan]

Must have missed the first discussion - don't check everyday.

Now that I've had more time to look it over, it's not as good as the other two but still alright. I'm fine with banning some classes from a setting, it makes playing in it feel different. The magic item rules are not as detailed as I thought but the feats are ok, if not really that new.

[toapat]

Must have missed the first discussion - don't check everyday.

Now that I've had more time to look it over, it's not as good as the other two but still alright. I'm fine with banning some classes from a setting, it makes playing in it feel different. The magic item rules are not as detailed as I thought but the feats are ok, if not really that new.

you dont need to have classes banned to make a setting different. if Paladins and Clerics are exclusively renegades and exclusively elves, and Wizards and sorcs will always be Dhuund Operatives, and not just have X class is Pro Consulate and this class is Pro "My stuff"

[Stan]

you dont need to have classes banned to make a setting different.

Of course you don't need to. But it is a valid option. Though banning too many will limit the appeal.

[Sariel Vailo]

next planeshift ravnica and i can do my multi -planeswalkig campaign

[jaappleton]

Honest Tiefling is correct.

The artwork IS absolutely beautiful.

But everything written in it is pretty bad. :smalltongue:

[toapat]

But everything written in it is pretty bad. :smalltongue:

i honestly kinda got like, James Wyatt only did this planeshift because he was reminded by someone else in WotC that he did this thing. Quicksmithing for instance is just Ritual Caster for Artificer with the Gnome's tinkering ability. Like Innistrad knew what it was doing with the setting and mostly was just Curse of Strahd conversion becausue Curse had just come out, but the setting wasnt pretty far off from the world described in the MTG story

Visually, since while the DnD sourcebooks have been pulling from what are intended to be In Universe cultures and the world, and Faerun is huge, the books have a wide range of designs, while MTG focuses on a single city or small country at a time during a specific art movement in a specific storytelling theme

[DragonSorcererX]

I like all the Planeshift Series because I know nothing about MtG and it has a bunch of neat stuff and cool ideas that would be good to use in D&D.

[Stan]

i honestly kinda got like, James Wyatt only did this planeshift because he was reminded by someone else in WotC that he did this thing. Quicksmithing for instance is just Ritual Caster for Artificer with the Gnome's tinkering ability.

Yea - it's playable, but it's not 'wow', just obvious repurposing. afb but the other one seemed 90% like magic initiate.

The art (which they already had lying around) is great but the layout is rather basic.

Zendikar and Kaladesh look like they have enough going on that I'd buy a setting book - if it was properly ported to D&D and not just 120 pages of descriptions that already exist and 4 pages of mechanics thrown together.

[toapat]

Yea - it's playable, but it's not 'wow', just obvious repurposing. afb but the other one seemed 90% like magic initiate.

The art (which they already had lying around) is great but the layout is rather basic.

Zendikar and Kaladesh look like they have enough going on that I'd buy a setting book - if it was properly ported to D&D and not just 120 pages of descriptions that already exist and 4 pages of mechanics thrown together.

the second feat is just Find Familiar. not even useful because it has the same Pre-Requisites as Quicksmithing and FF is a ritual.

Zendikar is actually very strange because its MTG theme is quite literally "DnD World"

Innistrad is the reverse where the thing that makes it seem like a pointless plane to pull into DnD is its superficial identicallness to Ravenloft and the fact that the UR didnt really explore the world in the same way that the other 2 planeshifts are like.

for Kaladesh, alot of the problem is just the way he seems to have done the Kaladesh UR in like, 8 hours on a co-workers complaint. Reading the Kaladesh Story and looking through the cards gave a very different idea of the world than what is in the UR, where you really have the "Government" "Illuminati" and the "Culture"

[Vaz]

The Flying Whale is a brilliant Polymorph Shape. But that's about it.

[Stan]

the second feat is just Find Familiar.

I knew it was just like something else but it's been a long week.

I'm a MtG neophyte so I have zero basis for judging the accuracy of the world descriptions. In the few cards I have, the Kor look like the most interesting new race. Goblins look cool too, and different than D&D standard. Vampires look ok but I got tired of vampires with the Anne Rice books - everything after than has been a blur of stuff to ignore.

[toapat]

I knew it was just like something else but it's been a long week.

I'm a MtG neophyte so I have zero basis for judging the accuracy of the world descriptions. In the few cards I have, the Kor look like the most interesting new race. Goblins look cool too, and different than D&D standard. Vampires look ok but I got tired of vampires with the Anne Rice books - everything after than has been a blur of stuff to ignore.

Find familiar is just the spell

you dont need to own cards to goto gatherer.wizard.com and search Zendikar Block/Battle for, or Innistrad/Shadows over, or Kaladesh block, and you can look up the master lists for the BFZ, SoI, and KLD stories from Uncharted Realms. Sort by Color in descending order as well

like one significant mistake in the Planeshift is Pyromancer sorcerer is supposed to represent Chandra Nalaar, but she is more of a lvl 12 Teifling Sun Soul Monk than an actual Sorc.