The Ardling... and another setting?

[Tawmis]

So everyone jokes that Ardlings are like the Egyptian animal humanoids...
And Egypt being in a desert region...
We got Spelljammer...
We got Dragonlance...

What if this is a part of introducing Dark Sun? :D

EDIT - to add more to this thought...
Spelljammer came out - and that provided a way to "Krynnspace"...
So Spelljammer technically needed to come out before Dragonlance...
So now, they can appease other sets (such as Dark Sun)...
Because the Spelljammer allows you to go beyond the Forgotten Realms...

But, like (ideally) Dragonlance, it can stand alone with the core books...
Darksun could, now be accessible via Spelljammer in an upcoming book... (Darksun Space)....
Expanding the locations discovered by Spelljammers...
And (ideally) Darksun could stand with just the core books.

[Millstone85]

It is more likely in line with Planescape, which has been announced for fall 2023 (https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1313-wizards-presents-recap-catch-up-on-all-the-d-d#dnd-book-announcements).

Also, it is not a joke, Crawford himself sees ardlings as being inspired by such gods (https://youtu.be/mOQ_Exh0DmY?t=656).

[OvisCaedo]

With the Spelljammer book now out, are people still eager to see 5e's interpretation of Dark Sun?

[animorte]

Going to put it to rest right now before anyone asks:

Hypothetically speaking, if I were to hazard a guess, Dark Sun is unfortunately still a ways away. Sorry.

This was mentioned the other day by a notoriously unreliable source…

[JackPhoenix]

They'll be retroactively forced into existing settings, like what happened with 4e lore changes. They have nothing to do with Athas thematically or visually.

[Brookshw]

With the Spelljammer book now out, are people still eager to see 5e's interpretation of Dark Sun?

I wouldn't mind seeing a post-apocalyptic setting done well, I do not have faith that should such a setting be released it will be Darksun.

[Arkhios]

So everyone jokes that Ardlings are like the Egyptian animal humanoids...
And Egypt being in a desert region...
We got Spelljammer...
We got Dragonlance...

What if this is a part of introducing Dark Sun? :D

EDIT - to add more to this thought...
Spelljammer came out - and that provided a way to "Krynnspace"...
So Spelljammer technically needed to come out before Dragonlance...
So now, they can appease other sets (such as Dark Sun)...
Because the Spelljammer allows you to go beyond the Forgotten Realms...

But, like (ideally) Dragonlance, it can stand alone with the core books...
Darksun could, now be accessible via Spelljammer in an upcoming book... (Darksun Space)....
Expanding the locations discovered by Spelljammers...
And (ideally) Darksun could stand with just the core books.

{Scrubbed}

[Tawmis]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

{Scrubbed}

Someone else in the thread, after someone said Ardlings are for kids and furries, someone (I assume jokingly) said

{Scrubbed}

I was definitely not purposely disregarding anything. :)

{Scrubbed}

[EggKookoo]

With the Spelljammer book now out, are people still eager to see 5e's interpretation of Dark Sun?

It'll be a pamphlet that says "It's FR, just make it more... desert-y. And all magic deals psychic damage."

[Anonymouswizard]

So everyone jokes that Ardlings are like the Egyptian animal humanoids...
And Egypt being in a desert region...
We got Spelljammer...
We got Dragonlance...

What if this is a part of introducing Dark Sun? :D

Unlikely for at least two reasons'
1) Ardlings are tied to planes that Athas cannot access (barring one artifact)
2) Dark Sun already cuts down the core list and makes major changes to races.

That's not getting into other reasons that Dark Sun likely isn't high on the priority list, including the fact that everybody in the setting has at least one psionic power.

Planescape however is very likely, as is another MtG book (maybe Kamigawa if they decide to do a Japanese setting again).

[Khrysaes]

Mulhorand in Faerun has the literal Egyptian gods, pulled from Earth, walking and reproducing among mortals. Of note is that previous books noted that many Aasimar come from Mulhorand because of the gods having kids there.

[Jervis]

To me they're a bit more similar to Cynocephaly, which makes them a bit more in place in fantasy middle ages settings at least. TBH I wasn't really a fan of their inclusion in core since it implies they exist in every setting, i have a similar gripe with dragonborn and their oddly specific lore. I'm also not a fan of the humans with animal heads look, it's one of two major issues i have with dndone, the other being the critical rules. They do let you play catgirls by abusing the half X rules and making a human/elf thats half ardling though so they aren't a massive issue i suppose.

[Anymage]

Two more thoughts on ardlings:

First, those animal heads won't come from nowhere. I wouldn't mind more upper planar creatures looking less like renaissance angels and more like various other mythological whatnots, even if that did require changing what the MM entries for angels says. You'd then be able to have those divine beings repping various diverse mythologies without needing to shoehorn in their kids. Although I will note that animal headed angels make more sense in a setting with animal headed gods, and I don't see them monkeying with established pantheons to the point that greyhawk or core forgotten realms gods get makeovers. (I know that FR has its own Egypt expy. I also know that if someone buys a FR book, they aren't expecting it to be set there.)

Second, I'm not liking the reversion to tieflings and aasimarardlings having direct recent descent from an outsider. It made sense in planescape where the world was super cosmopolitan and you could expect to see a fiend or celestial while you were out shopping. In other settings it makes assumptions about both how interventionist outsiders are, and how likely they are to horny bard it up with the locals. I don't mind giving players space to play rarities in settings where this otherwise doesn't happen often. Making both core PHB races and saying that other races are likely to know of and be familiar with them does imply a certain level of commonality, though.

[Psyren]

Two more thoughts on ardlings:

First, those animal heads won't come from nowhere. I wouldn't mind more upper planar creatures looking less like renaissance angels and more like various other mythological whatnots, even if that did require changing what the MM entries for angels says. You'd then be able to have those divine beings repping various diverse mythologies without needing to shoehorn in their kids. Although I will note that animal headed angels make more sense in a setting with animal headed gods, and I don't see them monkeying with established pantheons to the point that greyhawk or core forgotten realms gods get makeovers. (I know that FR has its own Egypt expy. I also know that if someone buys a FR book, they aren't expecting it to be set there.)

You don't have to change angels at all, because they aren't based on angels. Angels are not the only outsiders that live up there. Angels are also not tied to any of the upper planes specifically, they travel freely among all three and are frequently found fighting down below. The outsiders Ardlings are based on, much like the ones Tieflings are based on, tend to stick to/be found on a specific plane.



Second, I'm not liking the reversion to tieflings and aasimarardlings having direct recent descent from an outsider. It made sense in planescape where the world was super cosmopolitan and you could expect to see a fiend or celestial while you were out shopping. In other settings it makes assumptions about both how interventionist outsiders are, and how likely they are to horny bard it up with the locals. I don't mind giving players space to play rarities in settings where this otherwise doesn't happen often. Making both core PHB races and saying that other races are likely to know of and be familiar with them does imply a certain level of commonality, though.

Not sure where you're getting the "recent" from - both the Ardling and Tiefling entries only mention an ancestor, saying nothing about how many or few generations removed that ancestor is.

[Jervis]

Two more thoughts on ardlings:

First, those animal heads won't come from nowhere. I wouldn't mind more upper planar creatures looking less like renaissance angels and more like various other mythological whatnots, even if that did require changing what the MM entries for angels says. You'd then be able to have those divine beings repping various diverse mythologies without needing to shoehorn in their kids. Although I will note that animal headed angels make more sense in a setting with animal headed gods, and I don't see them monkeying with established pantheons to the point that greyhawk or core forgotten realms gods get makeovers. (I know that FR has its own Egypt expy. I also know that if someone buys a FR book, they aren't expecting it to be set there.)

Second, I'm not liking the reversion to tieflings and aasimarardlings having direct recent descent from an outsider. It made sense in planescape where the world was super cosmopolitan and you could expect to see a fiend or celestial while you were out shopping. In other settings it makes assumptions about both how interventionist outsiders are, and how likely they are to horny bard it up with the locals. I don't mind giving players space to play rarities in settings where this otherwise doesn't happen often. Making both core PHB races and saying that other races are likely to know of and be familiar with them does imply a certain level of commonality, though.

They more based on archons than angles. It's possible, probable honesty, that another dndone splat will return aasimar since they are different in origin. My issue with them though is that ardlings are a new core race that fills a similar thematic niche while clashing with the vibe of a lot of settings do to the animal head look.

[Psyren]

You don't actually need them reintroduced in another splat, MPMM is specifically intended to be compatible with 1DD per the devs

[Naanomi]

They more based on archons than angles.
Archons, guardinals, celestial beasts from the Beastlands, maybe even Bariaur... and beast-headed Gods (the Egyptian pantheon is traditionally based out of Arcadia)

[MisterD]

Not Core.
Put them in Dark Sun / Desert/Egypt themed or maybe re-visit Kara-Tur.

[Naanomi]

Put them in Dark Sun / Desert/Egypt themed or maybe re-visit Kara-Tur.
Darksun doesn't have animal headed man sized creatures; nor outer planes related Planetouched

[Anonymouswizard]

Make no mistake, there will be a setting prominently featuring Ardlings create. Maybe like with Tieflings and the Mentor Vale it'll even provide the default fluff.

Plus they'll be stuffed into the Forgotten Realms, like Kender, Dragonborn, and everything else has been. Eventually there will be no racial empires in that setting because there's only enough settlements for one per race.

I also get the arguments for Ardlings. It would be lovely to be able to play a catperson, lizardperson, or angelperson with just the corebook. I'm just not a fan of combining the ideas together, I'm an Aasimar fan and think many people who want to play a humanoid sheep don't want to be saddled with the upper planes stuff. Plus post MotM I'm not even sure Aasimar would be that problematic in core, maybe drop the Necrotic resistance. If anything I'd like to see the core races be redesigned to be more like Aasimar, with a big core power and a few extras. More 4e-like race design please.

What I'm saying is that instead of Ardlings the PhB should have both Aasimar and Shifters.

[t209]

aybe re-visit Kara-Tur.
Well, Spelljammer didn't have Junks, Dragonships, or Tsunami.
(Part of me wonder if TSR heard about Japanese Bune (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/d0/22/94d022b1c69ffecc0941c85b021a9f3a.jpg) since they seem to assume that all asian--even fantasy--ships are Junk and prove that trying to base on pop culture has its limits like not having the will to go beyond Ninja and Samurai along with those type of genre avoiding naval combat. L5R had them because Mantis is naval clan and those tend to require ship flavorings.
Koreans can have issue--aside from ignorance and not seeing merits to research more at the time--since they use broadside cannons ala European style, even the famous Turtleship had one and major reason for their naval superiority against Japan. And assuming if FR have either "everyone but Giff shouldn't have gunpowder" along with many Asianophile tend to dislike inclusion of Gunpowder "ruining authenticity" even if they know it or not.)
Even Dragonship is literally a Pagoda on deck (https://laughingbeholder.com/deckplans/dragonship-colorized.png) and that might go into sensitivity issue (plus it seems to be like trying to put every asian-sounding things together and came out "odd", I mean even the shrine didn't grant bonus or magic boost. At first sight, I thought it was a bridge).
Tsunami had some creativity and try to go into Spelljammer at least, even if it seems to have fighter craft that is fragile and main theme being Kamikaze (again, trying to sound Japanese and awfully wasteful for crew usage).

[Zevox]

Plus they'll be stuffed into the Forgotten Realms, like Kender, Dragonborn, and everything else has been. Eventually there will be no racial empires in that setting because there's only enough settlements for one per race.
To be fair, there is someplace in the Realms where they fit right in: Mulhorand, where the actual Egyptian pantheon is worshiped by people descended from actual ancient Egyptians.

[JadedDM]

Make no mistake, there will be a setting prominently featuring Ardlings create. Maybe like with Tieflings and the Mentor Vale it'll even provide the default fluff.

Possibly in the fall (https://www.ign.com/articles/dd-planescape-sourcebook-reveal-2023-roadmap) of 2023, perhaps?