I'm a cynic, but I feel they're unnecessary and should just be dropped. We got a fair amount of choices in beastfolk and we have Aasimar for celestial origins. I'd rather we put focus on either underutilized pre-existing races or new and fully-original races.
Lets look where the Ardling fits in the cosmology. looking at their description in the first package to me they felt like people influences by Guardinals a type of celestials with animal traits.
In older editions the 3 main groups of celestials where Angels Archons and Guardinals Just like Demons devils and Yugoloths where the 3 main kind of fiends. When you look at the first package released (Character Origins) you can see that for the Tiefling they have 3 sub species reflecting the 3 main kind of fiends.
Maybe we should do the same for the Aassimar, though the main race might not be called Aasimar as the Aasimar as we know it seems very tightly bound to Angel celestials. You could have a race of celesial touched creatures with 3 subspecies. The Aasimar associated with Angel celestials. The Ardling associated with Guardinal celestials. And a new 3rd one to be associated with Archon celestials.
I like this idea. Maybe they could just do like you say and just combine Aasimar and Ardling under one celestial race with the three celestial legacies. If you want to play Aasimar take the Angelic legacy, Ardling (or animal celestial) take Guardinals legacy, and whatever the Archon legacy would be.
But JC did say Aasimar was not being removed so I don’t know if they would do something like this
Assuming we can't break them into two separate species for the PHB I feel balancing the two themes more is the way to go. They were conceptualized as a celestial race, and personally I'd prefer a generic beastfolk race to be its own thing with heavy nature associations rather than being connected to the divine. If we are to have divine animal people I'd definitely want to FEEL like a divine animal person. Spells like Bless, Cure Wounds, or Detect Good and Evil would play into that theme of being a sort of animal headed demigod quite well. Maybe throw in a bite/peck/headbutt natural weapon that deals radiant damage.
That said I do also really like the idea of just fusing Ardling and Aasimar and making them a true counter to the tiefling by giving them three distinct flavors.
Angelic - You have a divine halo, supernatural beauty, and glowing eyes.
Guardinal - You have an animal head.
Archon - Strange colored skin that can be a brass-like red, green, gold, or twilight blue.
Ok so one of these 2 things I would like to see for ardlings.
The first option would be bring back the celestial legacies and damage resistance, but replace angelic flight with ferocious bite since you have an animal head. Ferocious bite could replace one of your attacks when you take the attack action. Make an unarmed attack it deals 1d4 piercing, slashing or bludgeoning damage (you choose based on the animal head you picked) + your int, wis, or cha in radiant damage (matches your celestial legacies stat pick), you can choose to grapple instead of deal damage, if you do the target has disadvantage on their first attempt to escape the grapple. This would help separate it from Aasimar, which has been the primary complaint so far about getting a second celetial.
Another option is to take the current lore
"Celestial animals roam the Beastlands, a plane of untamed beauty and wild nature. Many of those otherworldly animals serve the Beast Lords, and in the early days of the multiverse, some of the animals evolved into bipedal forms. Among their number are Ardlings, people with beastlike heads, keen senses, and an innate connection to divine magic. Long ago, the ancestors of Ardlings migrated to the Material Plane, and Ardlings can now be found on many worlds. An Ardling has a head resembling that of an animal. Depending on the animal, the Ardling might also have fur, feathers, or scales. Some little and others hulking, Ardlings are as varied as the animals they resemble."
Replace Animal Ancestry with "Divine Animal" A number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest You can activate one of the following effects with your bonus action.
Divine Claws. Radiant claws protrude from your hands and feat For 10 minutes you gain a climb speed equal to your walking speed. Your unarmed strikes deal your PB in radiant damage and enemies have disadvantage on their first attempt to escape your grapples.
Angelic Flight (level 1 matches first one, level 3 you can extend this flight to 1 minute by concentrating, level 5 you can extend this flight to 1 minute concentration no longer needed)
Divine Senses. You gain blindsight to 30 feet for 10 minutes and you have advantage on your attempts to search and can take the search action as a bonus action.
Divine Lungs: You cast water breathing and gain a swim speed= to your movement speed for 10 minutes.
Then you gain Divine magic, exactly as it is now, keen senses at it is now and resistance to radiant damage as with the first UA.
This allow the animalistic powers to be more specifically divine. It also allows the look of animal head on person without any of the other physical features you don't want to have. (Like with climber currently you get the claws or a tail on your cat person even if you just wanted the head part.)
These are ways I thought that you can make it more uniquely celestial accentuating the celestial area it comes from.
So what do you guys think? First option better? Second option better here? Both still way off? Both too powerful? One option too strong?
I think with the current Ardling, the benefits of your animal ancestry are all physical, which seems to align more with a primal beastfolk. This seems to be justified from their celestial origins, but incongruous with what some may associate with a celestial race. If they changed to more of a mix of a mental benefit and a minor physical benefit, in line with the idea of innate magic resistance, the Ardling might fit better with expectations for a race with celestial origins. I think they should stick with mechanics that convey that Aardlings are humanoid with an animal head rather than animals that have morphed into something humaniod.
Conditioned (Bear, Cat, Lizard, Squirrel). You have a relentless endurance. As a result, you have a bonus to Constitution saving throws equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Once per short rest, if an enemy you can see and hear starts casting a spell, you may move 10' as a Reaction (this movement occurs before the spell resolves). This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Wizened (Bat, Eagle, Owl, Raven). You have a unique perception of the world. As a result, you have a bonus to Wisdom saving throws equal to your Proficiency Bonus. (And taking from the simic hybrid - Manta Glide:) You have vestigial wings to slow your fall or allow you to glide. When you fall and are not incapacitated, you can subtract up to 100 feet from your fall when calculating your fall damage and can move horizontally 2 feet for every 1 foot you fall.
Quickened (Deer, Dog, Horse, Triceratops). You are supernaturally stimulated. As a result, you you have a bonus to Initiative equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Once per combat, you may use Evasion (When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.)
Cunning (Crocodile, Dolphin, Frog, Shark). You have a keen mind. As a result, you have a bonus to Intelligence saving throws equal to your Proficiency Bonus. In addition, you cannot be the target of a single-target spell that requires a saving throw unless you are the only valid target.
I'm mostly alright with the current proposal of Aardling (note, I was also mostly alright with the previous Aardling) but I feel like mechanically speaking Animal Ancestry could use some more work. Especially Flyers. Advantage on the Jump Action just doesn't cut it.
Those are all great ideas, Aquilontune and NijayDaeva! It's seems like the right direction to move. I think the most people will be satisfied with an Ardling that really has its own identity. A Celstial creature with bestial traits, but supernatural in nature, not mundane.
I'm not sure why WotC went to the other extreme with the second version. Maybe it was exactly for this reason. To see how much of a balance people really wanted. I think they were both pretty solid mechanically, but were each still missing that unique feeling.
Too many current species use variants of mechanics that start to make them feel the same. I like these idea of giving Ardlings something really different. Even just adding Radiant damage or improving a type of save is something that helps set them apart. Very inspiring ideas. It really makes me think of what's possible.
Those are all great ideas, Aquilontune and NijayDaeva! It's seems like the right direction to move. I think the most people will be satisfied with an Ardling that really has its own identity. A Celstial creature with bestial traits, but supernatural in nature, not mundane.
I'm not sure why WotC went to the other extreme with the second version. Maybe it was exactly for this reason. To see how much of a balance people really wanted. I think they were both pretty solid mechanically, but were each still missing that unique feeling.
Too many current species use variants of mechanics that start to make them feel the same. I like these idea of giving Ardlings something really different. Even just adding Radiant damage or improving a type of save is something that helps set them apart. Very inspiring ideas. It really makes me think of what's possible.
Other places to draw inspiration for divine abilities is the Cleric and Paladin classes as well as the Celestial Warlock and Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Honestly... I don't like the Ardlings as a nod to Guardinals specifically because Aasimar were not originally as 'angelic' as they were made to be in 5e (the same way Tieflings were more generically 'lower planes' than specifically linked to Asmodeus and other Devils).
Aasimar were simply 'Good-aligned' plane-touched and that let them fit into any homebrew setting that had any kind of Planar 'Goodness'. Be it legit Upper Planes, even if different from the usual D&D cosmology, or just a generic 'energy of goodness' permeating existence.
But when the playable species is specifically tied to beings in the existing D&D Cosmology, it's a lot harder to use that species if you're explicitly not using all the bits of cosmology it's linked to.
The existence of Ardlings as 'Aasimar, but for Guardinals' requires that Aasimar are not generic Good-Aligned Plane-Touched, but at best associated with a specific Lawful Upper Plane (to counterbalance Ardlings' specific association with a Chaotic Upper Plane) and at worst specifically descended from Angelic Celestials like Solars and Deva (requiring that those be part of the setting if Aasimar are).
I liked Ardlings better when I thought they were a somewhat flawed, but admirable attempt to acknowledge the animal(headed) deities of non-'Western' religions after making Aasimar so much more blatantly linked to the popular (if inaccurate) conception of Abrahamic angels, rather than the attempt to tie certain playable species to specific bits of D&D Cosmology that I don't even use in half my campaign settings.
I don’t see anything wrong with a beast race being added. More options is always a better thing.
No this shouldn’t replace or reflect assimar as the celestial race.
How I view it is more focused on the Primal spectrum, if you want a celestial/infernal ardling that I look at the half race rules.
Pick tiefling/assimar as your racial effects but than add the animal aspect into it. Solves everyone’s problem … if you want more primal focus reverse it.
What they really need to do is offer a level 1 feat that allows you to take a trait from the other parent race you represent.
No this shouldn’t replace or reflect assimar as the celestial race.
Ya know... people say this a lot, but I want to take a moment and make a point.
Eladrin are supposed to be the CG celestial grouping, and they're basically just shiny high elves; we've already established them in 5e as part of the elven people. Aasimar do NOT represent eladrin. The aasimar cannot represent "the celestial species" when its already partially taken.
Volo / MM have printed the aasimar as tome/sword/trumpet archon + angel types. That's their identity in 5e. They cannot cover the beast-types nor the elf-like types without destroying the current 5e identity, which would seriously @#$ with backwards compatibility. Aasimar are staying in their current form for the angel people. "But Aasimar did more than that in the past!!! They could cover guardinals and eladrin fine!" The game's changed. Aasimar are now strictly angelic beings. They've been depicted as glowy-angel-like beings for more editions than not. Three versus one.
So, Aardlings are the last block*. They're the animal-like celestials and the beastkin in general. CG Lillends (snake people) + noviere (dolphin people), LG hound + bear archons, NG guardinals. They're covering a major archteype in both fantasy games in general and in D&D cosmology that's sorely missing.
* Second to last. I want to see celestial dwarves that aren't winged or just have divine spells grafted on. I'd say that "dwarf celestials" should be closer to golems and modrons than angels. Moradin forges all dwarven souls, so it makes sense for them to have a kind of ... construct nature to them.
Here's the thing about the Feywild. In 4e, the devs decided that a good chunk of the planes were... boring as @#$ and needed to be shaken up. The various elemental planes plus the plane of Limbo were collapsed into a single one - the Elemental Wild, along with shoving the Abyss at the very bottom. The Grey Wastes was merged with the Domains of Dread demiplane and the Plane of Shadow into the Shadowfell. And the Beastlands and Arvandor along with the rest of the NG and CG planes were merged into the Feywild. A number of the remainder of the Outer Planes were basically left adrift in the Astral Sea as locations to visit when spell jamming. Thus the World Axis cosmology was born.
So, the Feywild was now a new place. Its no longer a "Goodly" aligned plane so you can have evil creatures like bad goblinoids, formorian giants and hags hanging around causing problems and creating adventures as they vie against the "goodly" eldardin. Or at least as good as snooty, noble-type elves get.
Fast forwards to 5e. The Great Wheel's returned, along with the NG/CG planes, in all their pre-4e ways. And... the Feywild was left behind too. We now basically have two copies of the same plane group, ruled by the kinda same Eladrin. Just... one on the Material Planes, one in the Goodly Planes.
I mean, its not like this is the first time D&D has copied itself. Limbo is a set of planes that are basically carbon copies of the Elemental ones in the Inner Planes, complete with "chaos elementals" and "chaos dragons." Slaad and gith hanging out is the only practical difference.
And dragonborn kobold if you count dragons as being lizard like
It kind of bugs me that that put effort into stuff like this that no one asked for, when you still have rules for running the game that are either missing or totally inadequate. Like rules for lockpicking, and thieves tools, rules for overland travel, foraging, crafting, guidelines for how much and what kind of magical items are appropriate for what levels etc.
Move it to the DMG as an example of how to create a race and move Aasimar to the PHB. That way people can "roll their own" since NO ONE is happy with Ardlings and think they should only be played THEIR way. If One D&D is focusing on inclusiveness, let the DM / players decide on this controversial race / species will be played at their table.
Honestly, who tf looked at the current options and said, "ya know what we need is more animal themed options"?
Lots of people. There are zero dog/wolf or fox options, which are two VERY popular beastfolk types, for instance. No rules for playable gnolls despite them being playable in Eberron. Further, each and every one of those are scattered around in supplements that, honestly, a lot of people probably don't have or know about. Also, I can't imagine many people would think "Oh, I'm going to buy an entire adventure book for a single rabbit race and nothing else."
If people were to randomly choose a race/species there is a good chance your party is going to end up looking like a furry convention already.
You say that as if furry conventions are a bad thing. And maybe, just maybe, the sheer number of beastfolk should give us a hint that animal people are a thing in fantasy and thus should be represented in the core book? If there's going to be so many everywhere?
It kind of bugs me that that put effort into stuff like this that no one asked for, when you still have rules for running the game that are either missing or totally inadequate. Like rules for lockpicking, and thieves tools, rules for overland travel, foraging, crafting, guidelines for how much and what kind of magical items are appropriate for what levels etc.
Hate ta break it ta ya, but.... people very much have asked for it. On these very forums, in fact. And, while the first pass might have scored "low" on the satisfaction index, that was still over 60% of people that were satisfied with them. Think about that. The majority of people taking the survey thought ardlings were fine. And that was just a first pass.
Furthermore... its a new edition. New rules are being made for lots of stuff - we know, for instance, that you can use Slight of Hand as a skill for lock picking; there very may well be other changes we haven't seen. We have a feat specifically making reference to crafting, implying that we'll see new rules there too. Complaining that they're only doing aardlings instead of the other stuff is disingenuous. There's lots we haven't seen.
And dragonborn kobold if you count dragons as being lizard like
It kind of bugs me that that put effort into stuff like this that no one asked for, when you still have rules for running the game that are either missing or totally inadequate. Like rules for lockpicking, and thieves tools, rules for overland travel, foraging, crafting, guidelines for how much and what kind of magical items are appropriate for what levels etc.
Because churning out races is easy. Just design 3-4 1st level abilities and two paragraphs of lore if there isn't pre-existing stuff, and you're good. This is one of the reasons why I'm all for the idea of one catch-all Beastfolk race.
And dragonborn kobold if you count dragons as being lizard like
It kind of bugs me that that put effort into stuff like this that no one asked for, when you still have rules for running the game that are either missing or totally inadequate. Like rules for lockpicking, and thieves tools, rules for overland travel, foraging, crafting, guidelines for how much and what kind of magical items are appropriate for what levels etc.
You make some very good points.
[REDACTED]
As far as the race itself, I really just don't see the point or need. If it is to serve a flavor desire, simple saying your Human or whatever has a tail or was born with bear claw like hands. My first thought was so Shifters? Well, my first thought was WTF, but after that Shifter-lite?
It doesn't fit with Celestials, and seems like an juvenile way to push Aasimar aside, when I'd so much rather we get more Aasimar options, if not straight up put the Aasimar in the PHB.
I chose the last option, because out of the few presented ot was the most correct. I'd rather strip the race of either Celestial or Animal-feature options/origins completely. Removing the Celedtial part outright would be better in my opinion, allowing for people to be able to use the chassy with more ease, (Dr. Moreau, ancient family curse, mage experiment, Shifter-related, or whatever particular player wants for their character). Hell, it could be a really bad Hound Archon that got downgraded or the true origin of a Kitsune, or a planeshift screwup from Star Wars (pre-Disney).
I'm a cynic, but I feel they're unnecessary and should just be dropped. We got a fair amount of choices in beastfolk and we have Aasimar for celestial origins. I'd rather we put focus on either underutilized pre-existing races or new and fully-original races.
I like this idea. Maybe they could just do like you say and just combine Aasimar and Ardling under one celestial race with the three celestial legacies. If you want to play Aasimar take the Angelic legacy, Ardling (or animal celestial) take Guardinals legacy, and whatever the Archon legacy would be.
But JC did say Aasimar was not being removed so I don’t know if they would do something like this
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Assuming we can't break them into two separate species for the PHB I feel balancing the two themes more is the way to go. They were conceptualized as a celestial race, and personally I'd prefer a generic beastfolk race to be its own thing with heavy nature associations rather than being connected to the divine. If we are to have divine animal people I'd definitely want to FEEL like a divine animal person. Spells like Bless, Cure Wounds, or Detect Good and Evil would play into that theme of being a sort of animal headed demigod quite well. Maybe throw in a bite/peck/headbutt natural weapon that deals radiant damage.
That said I do also really like the idea of just fusing Ardling and Aasimar and making them a true counter to the tiefling by giving them three distinct flavors.
Angelic - You have a divine halo, supernatural beauty, and glowing eyes.
Guardinal - You have an animal head.
Archon - Strange colored skin that can be a brass-like red, green, gold, or twilight blue.
Ok so one of these 2 things I would like to see for ardlings.
The first option would be bring back the celestial legacies and damage resistance, but replace angelic flight with ferocious bite since you have an animal head. Ferocious bite could replace one of your attacks when you take the attack action. Make an unarmed attack it deals 1d4 piercing, slashing or bludgeoning damage (you choose based on the animal head you picked) + your int, wis, or cha in radiant damage (matches your celestial legacies stat pick), you can choose to grapple instead of deal damage, if you do the target has disadvantage on their first attempt to escape the grapple. This would help separate it from Aasimar, which has been the primary complaint so far about getting a second celetial.
Another option is to take the current lore
"Celestial animals roam the Beastlands, a plane of untamed beauty and wild nature. Many of those otherworldly animals serve the Beast Lords, and in the early days of the multiverse, some of the animals evolved into bipedal forms. Among their number are Ardlings, people with beastlike heads, keen senses, and an innate connection to divine magic. Long ago, the ancestors of Ardlings migrated to the Material Plane, and Ardlings can now be found on many worlds. An Ardling has a head resembling that of an animal. Depending on the animal, the Ardling might also have fur, feathers, or scales. Some little and others hulking, Ardlings are as varied as the animals they resemble."
Replace Animal Ancestry with "Divine Animal" A number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest You can activate one of the following effects with your bonus action.
Divine Claws. Radiant claws protrude from your hands and feat For 10 minutes you gain a climb speed equal to your walking speed. Your unarmed strikes deal your PB in radiant damage and enemies have disadvantage on their first attempt to escape your grapples.
Angelic Flight (level 1 matches first one, level 3 you can extend this flight to 1 minute by concentrating, level 5 you can extend this flight to 1 minute concentration no longer needed)
Divine Senses. You gain blindsight to 30 feet for 10 minutes and you have advantage on your attempts to search and can take the search action as a bonus action.
Divine Lungs: You cast water breathing and gain a swim speed= to your movement speed for 10 minutes.
Then you gain Divine magic, exactly as it is now, keen senses at it is now and resistance to radiant damage as with the first UA.
This allow the animalistic powers to be more specifically divine. It also allows the look of animal head on person without any of the other physical features you don't want to have. (Like with climber currently you get the claws or a tail on your cat person even if you just wanted the head part.)
These are ways I thought that you can make it more uniquely celestial accentuating the celestial area it comes from.
So what do you guys think? First option better? Second option better here? Both still way off? Both too powerful? One option too strong?
I think with the current Ardling, the benefits of your animal ancestry are all physical, which seems to align more with a primal beastfolk. This seems to be justified from their celestial origins, but incongruous with what some may associate with a celestial race. If they changed to more of a mix of a mental benefit and a minor physical benefit, in line with the idea of innate magic resistance, the Ardling might fit better with expectations for a race with celestial origins. I think they should stick with mechanics that convey that Aardlings are humanoid with an animal head rather than animals that have morphed into something humaniod.
Conditioned (Bear, Cat, Lizard, Squirrel). You have a relentless endurance. As a result, you have a bonus to Constitution saving throws equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Once per short rest, if an enemy you can see and hear starts casting a spell, you may move 10' as a Reaction (this movement occurs before the spell resolves). This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Wizened (Bat, Eagle, Owl, Raven). You have a unique perception of the world. As a result, you have a bonus to Wisdom saving throws equal to your Proficiency Bonus. (And taking from the simic hybrid - Manta Glide:) You have vestigial wings to slow your fall or allow you to glide. When you fall and are not incapacitated, you can subtract up to 100 feet from your fall when calculating your fall damage and can move horizontally 2 feet for every 1 foot you fall.
Quickened (Deer, Dog, Horse, Triceratops). You are supernaturally stimulated. As a result, you you have a bonus to Initiative equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Once per combat, you may use Evasion (When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.)
Cunning (Crocodile, Dolphin, Frog, Shark). You have a keen mind. As a result, you have a bonus to Intelligence saving throws equal to your Proficiency Bonus. In addition, you cannot be the target of a single-target spell that requires a saving throw unless you are the only valid target.
I'm mostly alright with the current proposal of Aardling (note, I was also mostly alright with the previous Aardling) but I feel like mechanically speaking Animal Ancestry could use some more work. Especially Flyers. Advantage on the Jump Action just doesn't cut it.
Those are all great ideas, Aquilontune and NijayDaeva! It's seems like the right direction to move. I think the most people will be satisfied with an Ardling that really has its own identity. A Celstial creature with bestial traits, but supernatural in nature, not mundane.
I'm not sure why WotC went to the other extreme with the second version. Maybe it was exactly for this reason. To see how much of a balance people really wanted. I think they were both pretty solid mechanically, but were each still missing that unique feeling.
Too many current species use variants of mechanics that start to make them feel the same. I like these idea of giving Ardlings something really different. Even just adding Radiant damage or improving a type of save is something that helps set them apart. Very inspiring ideas. It really makes me think of what's possible.
Other places to draw inspiration for divine abilities is the Cleric and Paladin classes as well as the Celestial Warlock and Divine Soul Sorcerer.
And Monsters like https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16832-couatl
with its mental shield, or the https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17042-unicorn With it's healing touch.
Maybe look at some of the lair actions of the Ki-rin
Or any number of other celestial monsters
Honestly... I don't like the Ardlings as a nod to Guardinals specifically because Aasimar were not originally as 'angelic' as they were made to be in 5e (the same way Tieflings were more generically 'lower planes' than specifically linked to Asmodeus and other Devils).
Aasimar were simply 'Good-aligned' plane-touched and that let them fit into any homebrew setting that had any kind of Planar 'Goodness'. Be it legit Upper Planes, even if different from the usual D&D cosmology, or just a generic 'energy of goodness' permeating existence.
But when the playable species is specifically tied to beings in the existing D&D Cosmology, it's a lot harder to use that species if you're explicitly not using all the bits of cosmology it's linked to.
The existence of Ardlings as 'Aasimar, but for Guardinals' requires that Aasimar are not generic Good-Aligned Plane-Touched, but at best associated with a specific Lawful Upper Plane (to counterbalance Ardlings' specific association with a Chaotic Upper Plane) and at worst specifically descended from Angelic Celestials like Solars and Deva (requiring that those be part of the setting if Aasimar are).
I liked Ardlings better when I thought they were a somewhat flawed, but admirable attempt to acknowledge the animal(headed) deities of non-'Western' religions after making Aasimar so much more blatantly linked to the popular (if inaccurate) conception of Abrahamic angels, rather than the attempt to tie certain playable species to specific bits of D&D Cosmology that I don't even use in half my campaign settings.
It seems the groups are fairly evenly split.
I don’t see anything wrong with a beast race being added. More options is always a better thing.
No this shouldn’t replace or reflect assimar as the celestial race.
How I view it is more focused on the Primal spectrum, if you want a celestial/infernal ardling that I look at the half race rules.
Pick tiefling/assimar as your racial effects but than add the animal aspect into it. Solves everyone’s problem … if you want more primal focus reverse it.
What they really need to do is offer a level 1 feat that allows you to take a trait from the other parent race you represent.
Ya know... people say this a lot, but I want to take a moment and make a point.
Eladrin are supposed to be the CG celestial grouping, and they're basically just shiny high elves; we've already established them in 5e as part of the elven people. Aasimar do NOT represent eladrin. The aasimar cannot represent "the celestial species" when its already partially taken.
Volo / MM have printed the aasimar as tome/sword/trumpet archon + angel types. That's their identity in 5e. They cannot cover the beast-types nor the elf-like types without destroying the current 5e identity, which would seriously @#$ with backwards compatibility. Aasimar are staying in their current form for the angel people. "But Aasimar did more than that in the past!!! They could cover guardinals and eladrin fine!" The game's changed. Aasimar are now strictly angelic beings. They've been depicted as glowy-angel-like beings for more editions than not. Three versus one.
So, Aardlings are the last block*. They're the animal-like celestials and the beastkin in general. CG Lillends (snake people) + noviere (dolphin people), LG hound + bear archons, NG guardinals. They're covering a major archteype in both fantasy games in general and in D&D cosmology that's sorely missing.
* Second to last. I want to see celestial dwarves that aren't winged or just have divine spells grafted on. I'd say that "dwarf celestials" should be closer to golems and modrons than angels. Moradin forges all dwarven souls, so it makes sense for them to have a kind of ... construct nature to them.
They may have been, at one point, in the past. But 5e Eladrin are Fey Elves, not Celestial Elves.
AFAIK, they're actually both now.
Its like the succubi. They're all over the place rather than specifically in the Abyss or the Hells.
Here's the thing about the Feywild. In 4e, the devs decided that a good chunk of the planes were... boring as @#$ and needed to be shaken up. The various elemental planes plus the plane of Limbo were collapsed into a single one - the Elemental Wild, along with shoving the Abyss at the very bottom. The Grey Wastes was merged with the Domains of Dread demiplane and the Plane of Shadow into the Shadowfell. And the Beastlands and Arvandor along with the rest of the NG and CG planes were merged into the Feywild. A number of the remainder of the Outer Planes were basically left adrift in the Astral Sea as locations to visit when spell jamming. Thus the World Axis cosmology was born.
So, the Feywild was now a new place. Its no longer a "Goodly" aligned plane so you can have evil creatures like bad goblinoids, formorian giants and hags hanging around causing problems and creating adventures as they vie against the "goodly" eldardin. Or at least as good as snooty, noble-type elves get.
Fast forwards to 5e. The Great Wheel's returned, along with the NG/CG planes, in all their pre-4e ways. And... the Feywild was left behind too. We now basically have two copies of the same plane group, ruled by the kinda same Eladrin. Just... one on the Material Planes, one in the Goodly Planes.
I mean, its not like this is the first time D&D has copied itself. Limbo is a set of planes that are basically carbon copies of the Elemental ones in the Inner Planes, complete with "chaos elementals" and "chaos dragons." Slaad and gith hanging out is the only practical difference.
Honestly, who tf looked at the current options and said, "ya know what we need is more animal themed options"?
If people were to randomly choose a race/species there is a good chance your party is going to end up looking like a furry convention already.
Arakocra
Olwlin
kenku
harengon
Triton
locathah
tortle
tabaxi
lionin
satyr
Yuanti
Grung
lizardfold
shifter
Centaur
minotaur
loxodon
Giff
Hadozee
symic hybrid
And dragonborn kobold if you count dragons as being lizard like
It kind of bugs me that that put effort into stuff like this that no one asked for, when you still have rules for running the game that are either missing or totally inadequate. Like rules for lockpicking, and thieves tools, rules for overland travel, foraging, crafting, guidelines for how much and what kind of magical items are appropriate for what levels etc.
Move it to the DMG as an example of how to create a race and move Aasimar to the PHB. That way people can "roll their own" since NO ONE is happy with Ardlings and think they should only be played THEIR way. If One D&D is focusing on inclusiveness, let the DM / players decide on this controversial race / species will be played at their table.
Lots of people. There are zero dog/wolf or fox options, which are two VERY popular beastfolk types, for instance. No rules for playable gnolls despite them being playable in Eberron. Further, each and every one of those are scattered around in supplements that, honestly, a lot of people probably don't have or know about. Also, I can't imagine many people would think "Oh, I'm going to buy an entire adventure book for a single rabbit race and nothing else."
You say that as if furry conventions are a bad thing.
And maybe, just maybe, the sheer number of beastfolk should give us a hint that animal people are a thing in fantasy and thus should be represented in the core book? If there's going to be so many everywhere?
Hate ta break it ta ya, but.... people very much have asked for it. On these very forums, in fact. And, while the first pass might have scored "low" on the satisfaction index, that was still over 60% of people that were satisfied with them. Think about that. The majority of people taking the survey thought ardlings were fine. And that was just a first pass.
Furthermore... its a new edition. New rules are being made for lots of stuff - we know, for instance, that you can use Slight of Hand as a skill for lock picking; there very may well be other changes we haven't seen. We have a feat specifically making reference to crafting, implying that we'll see new rules there too. Complaining that they're only doing aardlings instead of the other stuff is disingenuous. There's lots we haven't seen.
Because churning out races is easy. Just design 3-4 1st level abilities and two paragraphs of lore if there isn't pre-existing stuff, and you're good. This is one of the reasons why I'm all for the idea of one catch-all Beastfolk race.
You make some very good points.
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As far as the race itself, I really just don't see the point or need. If it is to serve a flavor desire, simple saying your Human or whatever has a tail or was born with bear claw like hands. My first thought was so Shifters? Well, my first thought was WTF, but after that Shifter-lite?
It doesn't fit with Celestials, and seems like an juvenile way to push Aasimar aside, when I'd so much rather we get more Aasimar options, if not straight up put the Aasimar in the PHB.
I chose the last option, because out of the few presented ot was the most correct. I'd rather strip the race of either Celestial or Animal-feature options/origins completely. Removing the Celedtial part outright would be better in my opinion, allowing for people to be able to use the chassy with more ease, (Dr. Moreau, ancient family curse, mage experiment, Shifter-related, or whatever particular player wants for their character). Hell, it could be a really bad Hound Archon that got downgraded or the true origin of a Kitsune, or a planeshift screwup from Star Wars (pre-Disney).
Let's not break more in the process. People like Aasimar the way they are. Aasimar don't look like dogs all the time.