DnD Head Canons

[vasilidor]

the moment a fiend or similar stops being evil, they stop being a fiend. similarly, the moment a celestial stops being good, they stop being a celestial.

[Bohandas]

All matter in the D&D world is negative mass compared to matter in the real world. This is why pholgiston, which is basically the negation of oxygen, acts as an oxidizer.

[Stattick]

Bards and druids were once the same thing. That's why druids used memorize epic poems that took hours to recite. But once writing was invented, one group of Druids decided that all that memorization crap was unnecessary and a waste of time - just write it down. They dedicated themselves to nature and balance. The splinter faction thought that stories, poem, and song were important, and dedicated themselves to preserving it, so it wouldn't die, since writing was so time consuming and expensive, that only the most important of important things ever got written and preserved. Druids and Bards have disliked each other ever since the schism.

The Ur-Druids above were the first mortals to use magic. Their most powerful verses led to the belief that gave rise to the first gods. Naturally, this contradicts what priests, religions, and gods say. But you can't trust them, they have a vested interest in wanting people to believe what they say, as opposed to what everyone else says.

You know how some religions and occultic philosophies have a symbol of a tree with a big, branching canopy, and a similar big, branching root system beneath the tree? This is a good example of history. The trunk, near the ground, seems to be one solid thing. But as you move upward, there are more and more branches - different possible paths the future might take. The past is like the tree's root system. Many different possibilities that lead to the same trunk. Where you find major discrepancies in myth or historical accounts, or just remember some childhood incident completely differently than your sister, it's not that one story is true and the other false. They're both true. Things are remembered differently, because they happened differently for some people.

[Stattick]

Souls aren't eternal. As the centuries pass, the dead slowly loose their identity and memory, then joining and become part of the god or god's realm where the soul resides. In a sense, the Gods eat the dead. Mortals, as the food of the gods, choose who or what to feed by becoming worshipers of that thing.

[Xuc Xac]

the moment a fiend or similar stops being evil, they stop being a fiend. similarly, the moment a celestial stops being good, they stop being a celestial.

Isn't that already canon?

Bards and druids were once the same thing.

Yeah, in 1E. The bard in AD&D was basically the first prestige class they had to be Fighter-Thief-Druids to qualify as a bard.

[vasilidor]

[QUOTE=Xuc Xac;24616777]Isn't that already canon?


no, not that i am aware of.

[Yuki Akuma]

Eldritch abominations like the beholder are aliens, and the Gith are space elves.

Nothing can convince me otherwise.

I think canonically Gith are closer to space humans.

[Xuc Xac]

"A devil does not choose to be lawful evil, and it doesn't tend toward lawful evil, but rather it is lawful evil in its essence. If it somehow ceased to be lawful evil, it would cease to be a devil."--PHB 122

[ebarde]

Because Elminster can do all sorts of interdimensional travel shenanigans, he has been mostly shielded from all the retcons and weird magical nonesense that happened between editions. This means he still has access to all OP mechanics from earlier editions of the game, while everyone else has been severely nerfed

[vasilidor]

"A devil does not choose to be lawful evil, and it doesn't tend toward lawful evil, but rather it is lawful evil in its essence. If it somehow ceased to be lawful evil, it would cease to be a devil."--PHB 122

this, i think, is one of those things that varies by edition. for me this is a thing that i would have carry across all editions.

[vasilidor]

also: head canons are a gnomish weapon. never really caught on, even amongst gnomes.

[Enixon]

this, i think, is one of those things that varies by edition. for me this is a thing that i would have carry across all editions.

Yeah, in 3.5 one of Wizards' free adventure modules had the party rescue a Succubus Paladin. Granted this adventures was made because "Succubus Paladin" won a "Weird Monster" Poll so I don't know how "canon" you'd treat that.

What was interesting about her though was that she had all four alignment subtypes and would detect as such. IIRC the idea was that she still had the [Chaos] and [Evil] tags because as a demon her body was still essentially "made" of the stuff even though she had long since stopped being Chaotic Evil, [Law] and [Good] because as a Paladin Lawful Good was her actual alignment.

[Millstone85]

"A devil does not choose to be lawful evil, and it doesn't tend toward lawful evil, but rather it is lawful evil in its essence. If it somehow ceased to be lawful evil, it would cease to be a devil."--PHB 122

this, i think, is one of those things that varies by edition. for me this is a thing that i would have carry across all editions.

Yeah, in 3.5 one of Wizards' free adventure modules had the party rescue a Succubus Paladin. Granted this adventures was made because "Succubus Paladin" won a "Weird Monster" Poll so I don't know how "canon" you'd treat that.

As it happens, on the 5e forum, I just made a post that mentions these things.

I didn't know that Eludecia was the result of a poll. What about Felthis ap Jerran, the ultroloth ruler of Ecstasy?

[Man on Fire]

Auriel and Umbrelee are lovers

Ao had stripped Vecna from his godhood, this is why the guy jumped to Exadia to try ascend to godhood again.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I miss Eludecia. She was awesome.

[Bohandas]

The Use Magic Device skill consists of making up convincing sounding technobabble. That's why it's based on charisma rather than intelligence or wisdom

[Wizard_Lizard]

the moment a fiend or similar stops being evil, they stop being a fiend. similarly, the moment a celestial stops being good, they stop being a celestial.

I mean The radiant idol is an evil celestial... and empyreans can be, but I see your point.

[Bohandas]

Most non-adventuring wizards don't typically prepare spells. They spend the extra 15 minutes to cast the spell they need on an ad hoc basis

[noob]

Most non-adventuring wizards don't typically prepare spells. They spend the extra 15 minutes to cast the spell they need on an ad hoc basis

I actually do keep a bunch of free spell slots for this kind of occasions.
It is just that non adventuring wizards are often much lower level and thus does not have many spell slots to keep prepared so they might as well only have free spell slots for last moment spell preparing (takes 15 minutes but if you except to cast few spells per day it is not a huge problem)

[Luccan]

Being naturally resistant to poison and prone towards physical labor, dwarves value beer more for caloric intake than its ability to get them drunk. In fact, it's very hard to get a dwarf truly brick-faced and a dwarf in a more integrated community or who pursues a non-physical career is no more likely to value beer than anyone else. On top of that, the actual preferred form of alcohol amongst "stereotypical" dwarves varies by region

However, dwarven alcohol brewed for the purpose of revelry is very strong and most people of even somewhat higher tolerance will find themselves quiet easily inebriated by it.

[Bohandas]

The true leaders of the Rilmani are not the Aurumachs, but rather a hidden secret caste known as the Aluminati

EDIT:
And I like that dwarven beer thing.

In regard to the last part about their actual recreational liquors having to be extra strong, I have a similar headcanon about demons. Only in the case of the demons it's much more extreme, and many of the more powerful tanar'ri intoxicants double as chemical weapons of mass destruction. Some of their condiments double as chemical weapons as well, including the use of mustard gas as a substitute for mustard.

EDIT:

I mean The radiant idol is an evil celestial...

Radiant Idols CAN be evil, but according to the Eberron wiki they don;t have to be. Also, they're not the same creature as they were when they were a celestial; for one thing they have a different aura

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The true leaders of the Rilmani are not the Aurumachs, but rather a hidden secret caste known as the Aluminati

I ran a Planescape campaign many years ago in which the Rilmani were a somewhat prominent faction. To emphasize their balance-focused nature, I 'brewed up three more rilmani subraces so they'd have nine total (three threes) to fit better with the Rule of Three. The party ran into the new low caste and the new middle caste pretty early on, but went most of the campaign without discovering the new high caste and were wondering what their deal was.

When I finally revealed that the highest caste was the Alumach and their ruling council was, in fact, the Aluminati, the round of facepalms around the table was quite satisfying indeed.

[LibraryOgre]

All editions after 2nd edition are, in fact, games played by people otherwise existing in 2nd edition. ;-)

[No brains]

If you want a recipe for hazardous dwarven booze in 5e, consider this:

The drinker rolls a DC11 constitution save. On a failure, they take two poison damage. On a success, they take 1 poison damage. If they take any poison damage, they are poisoned until they finish a long rest.

The beauty of this is that over half the time a dwarf drinks this, their poison resistance keeps this from doing anything to them since a save with advantage and resistance rounds this down to 0 damage. For others, they instantly get drunk and commoners could die after having seconds.

Though Yuan-ti purebloods are still the champion competitive drinkers. Them and other poison immune creatures probably drink something that does acid or necrotic damage and inflicts exhaustion for kicks.

[KillianHawkeye]

Though Yuan-ti purebloods are still the champion competitive drinkers. Them and other poison immune creatures probably drink something that does acid or necrotic damage and inflicts exhaustion for kicks.

Wow, necromantic liquor?

This talk of magical booze is making me want to play a dwarven wizard who specializes in potions and alchemy. Or a Pathfinder alchemist, maybe.

[Bohandas]

The Power Words are "Ni" "Peng" and "Nee-Wom"

[Draconi Redfir]

Goblins are the ones who invent Black Powder, and/or Gunpowder.

It was however Hobgoblins who refined the substance into firearm use.

Dwarves or Gnomes probably took it a step further and made modern bullets.

[Enixon]

All editions after 2nd edition are, in fact, games played by people otherwise existing in 2nd edition. ;-)

Many of them dwarves that longed to be wizards or other demihumans barred from their dream job by racial class restrictions.

[LibraryOgre]

Many of them dwarves that longed to be wizards or other demihumans barred from their dream job by racial class restrictions.

"Godsdammit, I *know* I am a halfling, but I want to be a ****ing paladin!"

[Batcathat]

"Godsdammit, I *know* I am a halfling, but I want to be a ****ing paladin!"

That reminds me of Mazzy in Baldur's Gate 2 who's pretty much the ideal paladin, except she's a halfling so she can't be one. I always suspect she was created by some developer who wanted to lampshade the weird class restrictions.