Verdan apparently are supposed to look like half-elves. Why? Humans, elves, and goblins are entirely unrelated, aside from all being humanoid, so why does a mutation of the latter look like the offspring of the former? If you took a chihuahua and exposed it to some mutagenic transformation process, would you expect a labradoodle as the end product? So why would the Verdan look like half-elves?
First of all, I don't know of too many half-elves that are green, bald, and have enormous ears. Second of all, it's magic, it doesn't follow real-world genetics.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Did you miss the part where Verdan were mutated by magic? The game is not, in fact, bound by basic rules of inheritance, it merely pays lip service to them when they're convenient and ignores them when they're not.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The game is not, in fact, bound by basic rules of inheritance, it merely pays lip service to them when they're convenient and ignores them when they're not
Inheritance is a hard rule in almost every applicable aspect of the world. Why shouldn't we also see it here?
Perception is often just as much in the eye of the beholder as it is in the creature. You look at a continent with a bunch of different types of elves, some of whom have strange colors for their skin (some Eladrin, for example, are Green), and combine that with may of the elven races being relatively uncommon and unlikely to have been encountered by a commoner? They see someone with fey ancestry who stands relatively tall (but not as tall as an elf might), does not act like a goblin, and who has skin that might be similar to an elf type they heard about once? Hardly surprising that some folks might confuse them for half-elves.
Or it might be something completely different. That is the magic of D&D--the canon is in flux and the DM and players can work to come up with an explanation that fits them. Or they can do away with the line about "half-elves" entirely and make them be treated as a different type of Goblin kin.
The game is not, in fact, bound by basic rules of inheritance, it merely pays lip service to them when they're convenient and ignores them when they're not
Inheritance is a hard rule in almost every applicable aspect of the world. Why shouldn't we also see it here?
You keep using the word "should". That's the problem there: a belief that magic has to work only in one specific way. It doesn't.
Magic does require hard rules and limitations to work in a world: Without them, you have an infinite impossibility drive of magic doing whatever whoever wants it to, with no story or play to speak of
You keep using the word "should". That's the problem there: a belief that magic has to work only in one specific way. It doesn't.
Magic does require hard rules and limitations to work in a world: Without them, you have an infinite impossibility drive of magic doing whatever whoever wants it to, with no story or play to speak of
“Goblins and Elves are both Fey and have latent genetic similarities. The mutations amplified those dormant traits and downplayed the goblin traits, making them look more elven.” That explanation was good enough for HP Lovecraft (though he utilised it in a rather racist manner), no reason it couldn’t work in D&D also.
Again, it doesn’t matter what rules you come up with (or if you even come up with something at all) - the book doesn’t contain anything specific because the specifics are irrelevant to the rule system. That is something the players and DM can come up with, no reason for Wizards to fill in all the nitty gritty elements of the details.
In a world of make believe and monsters. A world of wizards and dragons. In a fantasy land that brought to you Mind Flayers, Beholders, and soul Larvea, and this is what suspends your belief? This is where you draw the line of imagination? lol
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
In a world of make believe and monsters. A world of wizards and dragons. In a fantasy land that brought to you Mind Flayers, Beholders, and soul Larvea, and this is what suspends your belief? This is where you draw the line of imagination? lol
It's like when people complain about rogues evading an entire fireball, in a setting where that fireball can be summoned to begin with.
I know right deadPan_c!! The verdan race is like the pokemon of the D&D world. If you read the description they can look like almost any standard humanoid, and part way through their life cycle they can spontaneously change size, appearance and sex. This is like a confused person's dream life. And given the game play rules, I could see someone changing their appearance multiple times in session because certain people tend to create characters based on how they want their life to be.
It honestly blows my mind that anyone would have an issue with how WotC made this race, mostly because it is inconsequential to the overall game, and affects basically Nothing. I have better things to worry about than how the entity known as That-Which-Endures who influences the evolutionary changes of Goblins in the Underdark affect the overall look of their future generations which are "Make-believe". I just understand that Acquisitions Incorporated is Canon, and I just accept it because it is entertaining and doesn't hurt my settings so far.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
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Verdan apparently are supposed to look like half-elves. Why? Humans, elves, and goblins are entirely unrelated, aside from all being humanoid, so why does a mutation of the latter look like the offspring of the former? If you took a chihuahua and exposed it to some mutagenic transformation process, would you expect a labradoodle as the end product? So why would the Verdan look like half-elves?
First of all, I don't know of too many half-elves that are green, bald, and have enormous ears. Second of all, it's magic, it doesn't follow real-world genetics.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
But the world still follow basic rules of inheritance: You can't have two orcs have a child that turns out as a tiefling, for example
Did you miss the part where Verdan were mutated by magic? The game is not, in fact, bound by basic rules of inheritance, it merely pays lip service to them when they're convenient and ignores them when they're not.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
A magical mutation should, if anything, create something new rather than copy something already existent
Inheritance is a hard rule in almost every applicable aspect of the world. Why shouldn't we also see it here?
Perception is often just as much in the eye of the beholder as it is in the creature. You look at a continent with a bunch of different types of elves, some of whom have strange colors for their skin (some Eladrin, for example, are Green), and combine that with may of the elven races being relatively uncommon and unlikely to have been encountered by a commoner? They see someone with fey ancestry who stands relatively tall (but not as tall as an elf might), does not act like a goblin, and who has skin that might be similar to an elf type they heard about once? Hardly surprising that some folks might confuse them for half-elves.
Or it might be something completely different. That is the magic of D&D--the canon is in flux and the DM and players can work to come up with an explanation that fits them. Or they can do away with the line about "half-elves" entirely and make them be treated as a different type of Goblin kin.
You missed the part where 6thLyranGuard said
[REDACTED]
You keep using the word "should". That's the problem there: a belief that magic has to work only in one specific way. It doesn't.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Magic does require hard rules and limitations to work in a world: Without them, you have an infinite impossibility drive of magic doing whatever whoever wants it to, with no story or play to speak of
“Goblins and Elves are both Fey and have latent genetic similarities. The mutations amplified those dormant traits and downplayed the goblin traits, making them look more elven.” That explanation was good enough for HP Lovecraft (though he utilised it in a rather racist manner), no reason it couldn’t work in D&D also.
Again, it doesn’t matter what rules you come up with (or if you even come up with something at all) - the book doesn’t contain anything specific because the specifics are irrelevant to the rule system. That is something the players and DM can come up with, no reason for Wizards to fill in all the nitty gritty elements of the details.
In a world of make believe and monsters. A world of wizards and dragons. In a fantasy land that brought to you Mind Flayers, Beholders, and soul Larvea, and this is what suspends your belief? This is where you draw the line of imagination? lol
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
It's like when people complain about rogues evading an entire fireball, in a setting where that fireball can be summoned to begin with.
[REDACTED]
I know right deadPan_c!! The verdan race is like the pokemon of the D&D world. If you read the description they can look like almost any standard humanoid, and part way through their life cycle they can spontaneously change size, appearance and sex. This is like a confused person's dream life. And given the game play rules, I could see someone changing their appearance multiple times in session because certain people tend to create characters based on how they want their life to be.
It honestly blows my mind that anyone would have an issue with how WotC made this race, mostly because it is inconsequential to the overall game, and affects basically Nothing. I have better things to worry about than how the entity known as That-Which-Endures who influences the evolutionary changes of Goblins in the Underdark affect the overall look of their future generations which are "Make-believe". I just understand that Acquisitions Incorporated is Canon, and I just accept it because it is entertaining and doesn't hurt my settings so far.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!