Notes for 5e 2024

Species

No species is hard restricted, as in not allowed, at my table. However, most species are "soft restricted" as in playing as one of these species will be like playing on hard mode.

The species without restrictions are Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, and Goliaths (though goliaths are an edge case).

All other species are considered aberrant or even demonic by the majority of the peoples of Alar. More cosmopolitan societies tend to be more tolerant of these species, while less cosmopolitan societies tend to be less tolerant. These, however, are generalities and are not always the case in either situation.

The dangers for these species can range from relatively benign prejudice to condemnation and summary execution for being "demonspawn". It's a big mixed bag, and greatly depends on the situation and people involved.

Many of these "aberrant" species take to hiding themselves in one way or another, either by living underground, figuratively or literally, using magic to disguise themselves, excessive makeup, or, horrifically, body-modification.

Magic

Magic, as practiced by the mortal races of Alar, is only about 200 years old, and is known as The Arcane or The Divine, depending on your school of thought, and whether you believe that the gods gave mortals access to magic, or that Feldon Cyrwic opened the connection to The Arcane through the First Spell. Though, many will use both terms interchangeably.

Practically, for our table, this means that magic is relatively new, and some aspects of a traditional magical fantasy world, are just generally not possible. At least for the mortals of the world.

Mechanically, this is only going to impact teleportation and resurrection magic, as in both teleportation and resurrection have not yet been developed as spells, and therefore are unavailable as spells or features for the party.

This does not mean, however, that teleportation doesn't exist, nor does is mean that resurrection isn't possible, as, within the lore of the setting, are many instances of some magical creatures being able to teleport like many of the fey, and there have been credible records of resurrections taking place, but in both cases arcanists have failed to reproduce these phenomenon reliably if at all. The closest arcanists have gotten to teleportation is trans dimensional travel, and even that isn't totally reliable.

What does it mean for me?

In the new 2024 PHB, many of the subclasses give players access to teleportation magic via feats, or spells lists that add either teleportation spells or resurrection spells to the always prepared spells. In this case, I will find work arounds that we are both happy with. Spells that are added to the possible known spell lists, however, I simply ask that you just avoid taking these spells (misty step, revivify, etc...) though that doesn't necessarily mean that you will never have access to such spells.

In the event of class feats giving access to teleportation or resurrection magic, I want to make these story elements. I don't want to discourage your picking a class that you really want to play, but I don't want to handwave the setting either. In many of these the PC can have the opportunity to gain these spells/magical abilities. Sorcerers unlocking a hidden block that their bloodline held, or finding the courage within to overcome a mental block, which kept them from fully realizing the true potential of The Arcane. Warlock patrons, with their otherworldly knowledge, gifting this power to their protégé for some great service rendered. Way of shadow monks, finding the pathways that interconnect the shadows through journeys of self discipline, meditation, or some mystical quest. The possibilities go on, but I want to turn these advancements into story beats, where the PCs earn access to these hidden powers. And this affects levelling, since I do milestone leveling.

Leveling

Leveling will take place at milestones, which will be different for each player, and depends on character goals as well as class roadblocks, like gaining a level of class that gives access to teleportation or resurrection magic.

To be clear, PCs will all gain levels at certain story milestones, however, since I am aiming for proactive roleplaying, all PCs will have goals that they and I develop together. These goals may cause a level for one PC to be gained earlier than for other PCs, or might cause that level to be gained later than others. Depends on the goal and depends on the story. So even though leveling is milestone, leveling might still be asymmetric.

Monsters

The biggest change to monsters that I make, is that "demons" refers to creatures more on the level of Arch Devils and Demon Princes, but also kind of not. A demon, in my setting lore, is a spiritual being, and, as such, demons operate in a way that is difficult to defend against. However, demons do vary in power from one another greatly. One demon may have a vast domain, reaching from the lowliest beggar to lords and kings, and their influence may span the nation of said kings, whereas other demons may only hold influence over a few individuals, and these individuals may be powerful in their own right, or not. Lots of variation.

I want to characterize what 'demon' means for the setting because it impacts 5e's monster category of 'fiends'. Fiends in my setting is simply another name for demons, which does not characterize many of the fiends in various monster manuals, instead, within the setting, these are referred to as demonspawn -- physical manifestations of demonic corruption.

This also applies to many celestials as well, though much rarer. Angels, referring to spiritual beings, and creatures like Deva and Solars being characterized more of as avatars of some divine spirit, or champions that have been wrought into warriors of light by some great divine influence.

What's it mean tho?

So what this means is that there's no distinction between devils and demons, what affects one will affect the other. Infernal or Abyssal? more like dialects than wholly separate languages. Species heritage? more of a regional difference than being from wholly separate planes.

Dragons

Also, dragons are considered myth. There are hint and tales of them, for instance I'm not going to take your pseudodragon familiar away, but they are quite largely considered mythical. The only dragons to really be acknowledged as real are Avanthal and/or Vrakhara, and then only by their followers. Even so, though, Avanthal is considered more of a cosmic being of light or spirit -- depending on the priest/cleric/paladin, and Vrakhara, is still considered a demon.