I have to agree with Tzardok. The statblocks are not inherently bad, but the lore is painful to read. Besides the forcefeeding of the Primordials-Gods war everywhere (which could theoretically work as a "before the beginning" story), the lore doesn't mesh with anything in 3e. The gods killed so many elementals? What? The Elemental Chaos? What? Isn't the Elemental Chaos supposed to have been created by the Spellplague? Now it's been there from the beginning? It all screams "we wanted to do another cosmology, but didn't know how". And that's exactly the problem here. If you want to do something new, do something new. If you want to keep the existing lore, keep the existing lore. But do not change everything in the existing lore and frame it as if it was always that way. The clearest (and, in my opinion, most infuriating) part of it all is why they named these elemental soldiers "archons":
Quote Originally Posted by Fire Archon article
Yet the word "archon" is powerful, and we knew we wanted 4th Edition to use it in a cooler way that would be more likely to see play than the angelic furries. Giving it to the new elemental beings we wanted in the game seemed a perfect fit. There could be no confusing them with the old archons, and using a cool word that would be familiar to many players would raise their profile.
What? Just for name recognition? Are you kidding me? What did they think would happen when a 3e DM goes through the 4e MM? "I want an archon for my next scenario that will introduce my players to 4e, let's look at... Well these aren't archons at all. Oh well, I'll look up angels... Well these aren't angels either. Guess I'll play the scenario in 3.5 instead." Making DMs and players expect something through name and giving them something completely different is the fast track to disappointment. There were so many other ways to name these that would be cool, even if you wanted to cut the celestial archons from the game, but "fire archon" is just stupid so soon after the celestials have been part of the game for decades.

The whole Spellplague debacle is the same, trying to find a reason why "we're in the same world as before, but everything is different". And worse than that, the reason isn't even good. Mystra already died twice before without any cosmological change. As it is written in the wiki, "In [some] scholars' views, the truth [of why the Spellplague happened] would never be fully known to mortals, and perhaps not even to the gods.". Thanks for that, and get out. F**king WotC in machina. The whole edition is just "please buy our new edition, we promise you it's still D&D".


The other thing that oozes from the article is the will to make everything dangerous. Not to create an ecosystem, to create a hostile environment for PCs. It's the same for so many things in the new continuity. The gray render were affectionate monsters bonding and protecting humanoids, they are murder-monsters in 4e. Astral Stalkers were noble hunters with a set of strict rules for their hunt, they are still hunter, but bloodthirsty, with no rules, and surprisingly created by the gods.
The elementals of 3rd Edition have no needs, no clear desires or motivations, and no culture, yet they attain human Intelligence, speak, and can manipulate objects. They exist in limitless numbers on the elemental planes, but they build nothing and make no lasting impression upon the game. Mechanically, they exist as neat creatures to summon or put in a dungeon and nothing more. What do they do on the elemental planes besides attack interlopers? What do they care about? In 3rd Edition, we have only vague ideas that they fight each other. If they were dumb beasts, they would make more sense. If they had a culture and did interesting things like invade the Material Plane, they would be better.
I read "if they attacked us, they would be interesting". No. Not at all. Quaraphons are not interesting because they attack people. They are (mildly) interesting because they have a clear society, with people to talk to, because they know their place in the setting. Changing "lives peacefully in the elemental planes, can be summoned and attacks interlopers" with "created in the elemental planes and lives to wage war and destroy everything until they die" doesn't make anything more interesting, especially not when they explicitly keep the previous elementals. Making them more interesting would mean creating relations between elementals and other creatures and giving them related motivations. Or, you know, not, and give them an actual society. They live in the elemental plane of fire, there could be commoner fire elementals, and artists, and bards, and alliances between several elements to create something new. No general motivation for the race doesn't make the race uninteresting. No personality for the race does, though. And fire archons do lack personality.

Just look at how they describe the fire fonts: "A fire font presents a great opportunity for a cool adventure location. Let your imagination run wild. Put it anywhere you like, and use it as an excuse to make a truly magical location. Flame throwers in the walls and floor, flying bonfires, jets of fire that leap from place to place, buildings of flickering crystal, inferno tornadoes that carry creatures about, stairs of smoke, blazes that act as teleport pads -- whatever you want.". Great! These are all great things to add. But why are these here? Do efreeti create these teleporters? Do fire archons use these flame throwers for anything? Who cares! But it's cool, right? Yes. Yes, it's cool. But in the frame of an adventure, "cool" isn't enough, it needs a reason to exist. 4e is cool. The art is awesome. But it's not fun to build as a DM and it's not fun to play as a player and it doesn't create a good story by itself. And if you wish to go "out with the old, in with the new", you'll need something that can stand on its own two legs without relying on name recognition and, apparently, miniature art from another game.
Spoiler: Yeah, miniatures. What do they have to do with anything?
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Between the reference to the Desert of Desolation miniature set and the Dreamblade miniature game, it seems like they really wanted to sell miniatures. But why put that in a lore article about upcoming creatures in a new game? It just feels weird, and like they want the client to buy as many things as possible from the edition while putting the least amount of effort in and basing themselves on Dreamblade. I am angry and I fear that they could have made something great within the Dreamblade universe but instead chose to put everything in the D&D universe to take the least amount of risk possible and because they knew that it would sell anyway even if it was bad, while they didn't have that guarantee in a new universe.




But no matter any of that. Let's look at the monster itself. Elementals sacrificed in a dark ritual by Elder Evils, efreet or what have you, to create powerful elemental soldier slaves, got it. It intrigues me that they mention that any kind of elemental could do. Sacrificing a water elemental to create a fire archon seems weird, especially when 4e has water, air and earth elementals, all created basically the same way.
What is the equivalent of the crucible for earth archons? The crucible can be used repeatedly to create several fire archons, but at what frequency? Can a player create a fire archon? How much does it cost? These are all things that 3e strived to provide, not just to be left to the DM.

"Although a fire archon can remove its armor and wear different armor during its life, the encasement of its energies in armor from the foundry's forge is a crucial element of the ritual. Without that final step, the fire archon might expire or lack the intelligence and soldier's mindset at best, and at worst, it might grow into something powerful and uncontrollable that seeks revenge for its torturous transformation."

Honestly, that part is actually interesting. The fire archons seem to be both influenced and restrained by the armor in which they are born. But they're not. What is a blazesteel? What is an ash disciple? Just fire archons created in more powerful fires. I would have liked to know what an unarmored fire archon becomes, what it entails to change their armor, how it all works. But now I only see a basic archon in heavy armor and two more powerful ones in light armor. Is it relevant? Absolutely not! And there's no more information in the 4e Monster Manual, because of course, it's 4e!



So, the fire archon, 8 RHD, +12 Str, +14 Dex, +8 Con, +2 Int, +6 Wis, +6 Cha: Absolutely god-like stats, balanced and all, but no useful ability (what was that? "like an ogre without Power Attack"?) except a weak fire burst that you'll probably never use. So many stats make me think of monk or paladin, these classes that are generally too MAD to be useful, but would be interesting here. Or anything, really. Maybe a psionic rogue, with so much Dex and an Int bonus. Or a Binder. A swordsage is always nice, or a fancy prestige class (abjurant champion? Chameleon?). All in all, so many stats but no ability makes me confused. There has to be something to do with it. I'm just too blind to see it. It will just do okay but not great anywhere you put it. I'll go with a tentative LA +0, but I could be talked to +1 or -0.

Blazesteel fire archon, 10 RHD, +14 Str, +8 Dex, +12 Con, +4 Int, +6 Wis, +4 Cha: Flanking Fire makes the Blazesteel more akin to a melee combatant. Being able to make two melee attacks with a standard action is great, and makes an initiator the preferred class here. Probably Warblade. Once again, a tentative LA+0, probably a weak one.

Ash Disciple fire archon, 14 RHD, +10 Str, +12 Dex, +8 Con, +4 Int, +6 Wis, +4 Cha: Yeah, this one's not worth it. The stats are basically the same as the regular archon, and the only interesting ability (Flame Step), though it may be interesting if an ally is a Swordsage with Distracting Ember, doesn't make up for 6 HD. LA-0