This poll showed that some people want a more Celestial Ardling (like the first version), some want one with more Beast traits (like the second version), and some want a better balance. I'm curious why this is. If it is about everyone's individual opinion on what an Ardling should be, or if has more to do with the kind of species people want to have in general. I hope this will help us get what we really want in the next version.
So, why do you feel the way you do about the Ardling?
These are all mutli-choice so you can select all that apply.
(Despite reviewing it before posting, I already see spelling errors in the polls and I forgot to add 'Other' in the third one. Sigh. If I knew how to edit them I would. Please forgive the mistakes. I hope the ability to select more than one option will help at least an little)
Yeah, I'm sorry... I wish I knew how to edit it on a phone, or even if it can be at all. Oh well, hopefully it's enough to help us get a little more focused data at least.
I can change the thread title and the text of the posts but not the polls themselves. I don't mind creating a new thread before this one goes to far. Are there any other options people want included?
I answered other in the beast poll just so I could see the results.
The final question is missing what I truly want.
I want a more celestial ardling that covers a less generic celestial effects that leans on the divine beast side of things.
I would not mind another universal beast race being added, but I don't think it is needed if you can get the proper blend of celestial beast.
And a big reason for this is the half-race rules. You could get a non-magic animal by making it half-ardling.
For example you want a badger person, but don't want a celestial. Half ardling, half dwarf. Take dwarf stats. Your badger person has tremor sense. I will make my blend suggestion later.
I would also be ok with Aasimar in PHB + a generic beast person NOT named Ardling(name doesn't make sense for a non-celestial). Because with this I could just make an ardling with previously mentioned half race rules.
Well, it's not a massive sample, and the survey has some flaws, but I think we can see some trends.
It looks like people are generally excited to get some Celestial species, with a few caveats. It needs to be distinct enough from the Aasimar to matter. Or should at least be combined with the Aasimar in a broader option with more representation of the types of mythological influences in the outer planes. The beast aspect is what makes it unique. That's the main motivator for people who want the Ardling to be more bestial. But it needs to be divine enough to not just be a generic beastfolk.
As for what people want in the PHB, it's a little spread out. That's to be expected. There is a lot of support for both a Celstial option and a Beastfolk option in one form or another. They just really need to be individual enough to not exclude or overwrite the options we already have.
Aquilontune has a good point on how you can use some version of one or the other to make the character you want. I'm not sure this will be immediately obvious to new players, but word would get around eventually. I love the idea of a Badger Dwarf. That's just pretty much hand selected for me haha.
So I think we're a little closer to the answer. I'm going to work on some ideas today. And try to narrow it down more in some of these threads. But if anyone wants to still vote or comment here, more data and opinions are always appreciated. I think at this point WotC needs to put more focused questions in their own survey if they want to keep the Ardling.
In poll 2, there really needs to be an option for why Ardling should be more bestial that say's "Because I like triceratops."
You can make a celestial Triceratops. I mean they are extinct so them coming from beast heaven makes sense.
Oh it's totally happening in our next playtest.
Honestly, the current play test thing isn't bad at all. I just need more than a cantrip to get that divine side. Whether it is making the animal traits themselves more divine, giving more spells. Giving anything that just adds a tiny amount of more celestial flavor i think could get us there. If we look at the other thread and nix out the 8 people that can't be pleased no matter what, as there is nothing that will fix ardling for them we are left with 6 people that want more bestial ardling and 14 that want either more celestial or a better balance.
In addition to the primary reason for wanting more bestial is that they don't want something so similar to Aasimar is where I think we want to see something new celestial wise. The racer, flyer, swimmer and climber things still works, but either it needs to be more celestial versions of those abilities or a little extra celestial feel can be added elsewhere.
In poll 2, there really needs to be an option for why Ardling should be more bestial that say's "Because I like triceratops."
You can make a celestial Triceratops. I mean they are extinct so them coming from beast heaven makes sense.
Oh it's totally happening in our next playtest.
Honestly, the current play test thing isn't bad at all. I just need more than a cantrip to get that divine side. Whether it is making the animal traits themselves more divine, giving more spells. Giving anything that just adds a tiny amount of more celestial flavor i think could get us there. If we look at the other thread and nix out the 8 people that can't be pleased no matter what, as there is nothing that will fix ardling for them we are left with 6 people that want more bestial ardling and 14 that want either more celestial or a better balance.
In addition to the primary reason for wanting more bestial is that they don't want something so similar to Aasimar is where I think we want to see something new celestial wise. The racer, flyer, swimmer and climber things still works, but either it needs to be more celestial versions of those abilities or a little extra celestial feel can be added elsewhere.
It is going to be tight I think. We have one poll that shows that people aren't happy with as is and two polls that show what people want is pretty divided and all of them will have an impact on the percentage (including those that can't be pleased). Of course we don't have the 40k responses that WotC got for theirs, but it is interesting none the less.
You can make a celestial Triceratops. I mean they are extinct so them coming from beast heaven makes sense.
Oh, 100%. But cool options like the triceratops are why I want to see Beastfolk explored a bit more, with the Ardling's celestial heritage being more of flavor and not being as heavily focused on mechanically.
It happens. My first polls on this platform were incomplete and riddled with errors. Even recently, I had a massive typo on a poll in the "Hey - why can't SPELLS crit?" thread. Overall though, these polls cover most options on something that there can be a billion different opinions on.
As a sidenote, I really like the current Ardling but also had opinions on thing's in basically all three of the polls. Should I have voted on all of them? For example, I don't want the Ardling to become more celestial but I voted there because I did think it was important to note that it becoming a generic catch-all Beastfolk would be extremely problematic. I am sorry if I misunderstood the way these polls worked, I will remove my vote if I did it wrong. (I'm bad at figuring out how to vote for this kind of stuff.)
It is going to be tight I think. We have one poll that shows that people aren't happy with as is and two polls that show what people want is pretty divided and all of them will have an impact on the percentage (including those that can't be pleased). Of course we don't have the 40k responses that WotC got for theirs, but it is interesting none the less.
No offense, but that poll could very little interaction, and I do not think we can really learn much from it. 41 votes is a tiny sample size, and my guess is that the wider fanbase will have a very different opinion than what that poll showed. In short, outliers exist and the smaller the sample size, the more likely the outliers are to occur. As such, I think it is extremely possible that this UAs version of the Ardling is much more liked than the survey showed.
By the way, I am thinking that we should maybe start a thread about dinosaurs in D&D. I would be interested in seeing whether people want to see more or less dinos, now that we have the triceratops version of the Ardling in this UA. Do you guys think that this would be an interesting topic?
Yes, please feel free to vote in every poll with as many answers as you feel apply to your thoughts! I wanted people to be able to really give their full opinions as much as possible without feeling like they had to pick only one answer.
I'm not sure how much traffic a dinosaur thread would get in general, but I'd be happy to see it! Dinosaurs are great. I've found some way to sneak them into almost every campaign I've ever run haha.
Of course we don't have the 40k responses that WotC got for theirs, but it is interesting none the less.
No offense, but that poll could very little interaction, and I do not think we can really learn much from it. 41 votes is a tiny sample size, and my guess is that the wider fanbase will have a very different opinion than what that poll showed. In short, outliers exist and the smaller the sample size, the more likely the outliers are to occur. As such, I think it is extremely possible that this UAs version of the Ardling is much more liked than the survey showed.
No offense taken, but I did notice that you ignored the rest of the post.
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https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/unearthed-arcana/158644-what-would-fix-the-ardling-for-you
This poll showed that some people want a more Celestial Ardling (like the first version), some want one with more Beast traits (like the second version), and some want a better balance. I'm curious why this is. If it is about everyone's individual opinion on what an Ardling should be, or if has more to do with the kind of species people want to have in general. I hope this will help us get what we really want in the next version.
So, why do you feel the way you do about the Ardling?
These are all mutli-choice so you can select all that apply.
(Despite reviewing it before posting, I already see spelling errors in the polls and I forgot to add 'Other' in the third one. Sigh. If I knew how to edit them I would. Please forgive the mistakes. I hope the ability to select more than one option will help at least an little)
Your poll is missing some options, like “not wanting Ardlings in the PHB at all,” “other,” etc.
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Yeah, I'm sorry... I wish I knew how to edit it on a phone, or even if it can be at all. Oh well, hopefully it's enough to help us get a little more focused data at least.
Turn your phone sideways and click on “Tools.”
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I can change the thread title and the text of the posts but not the polls themselves. I don't mind creating a new thread before this one goes to far. Are there any other options people want included?
Ahh. Oh well, it’s not that big a deal.
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Thanks for the help though! I know know that I can change a thread title. :)
I answered other in the beast poll just so I could see the results.
The final question is missing what I truly want.
I want a more celestial ardling that covers a less generic celestial effects that leans on the divine beast side of things.
I would not mind another universal beast race being added, but I don't think it is needed if you can get the proper blend of celestial beast.
And a big reason for this is the half-race rules. You could get a non-magic animal by making it half-ardling.
For example you want a badger person, but don't want a celestial. Half ardling, half dwarf. Take dwarf stats. Your badger person has tremor sense. I will make my blend suggestion later.
I would also be ok with Aasimar in PHB + a generic beast person NOT named Ardling(name doesn't make sense for a non-celestial). Because with this I could just make an ardling with previously mentioned half race rules.
Well, it's not a massive sample, and the survey has some flaws, but I think we can see some trends.
It looks like people are generally excited to get some Celestial species, with a few caveats. It needs to be distinct enough from the Aasimar to matter. Or should at least be combined with the Aasimar in a broader option with more representation of the types of mythological influences in the outer planes. The beast aspect is what makes it unique. That's the main motivator for people who want the Ardling to be more bestial. But it needs to be divine enough to not just be a generic beastfolk.
As for what people want in the PHB, it's a little spread out. That's to be expected. There is a lot of support for both a Celstial option and a Beastfolk option in one form or another. They just really need to be individual enough to not exclude or overwrite the options we already have.
Aquilontune has a good point on how you can use some version of one or the other to make the character you want. I'm not sure this will be immediately obvious to new players, but word would get around eventually. I love the idea of a Badger Dwarf. That's just pretty much hand selected for me haha.
So I think we're a little closer to the answer. I'm going to work on some ideas today. And try to narrow it down more in some of these threads. But if anyone wants to still vote or comment here, more data and opinions are always appreciated. I think at this point WotC needs to put more focused questions in their own survey if they want to keep the Ardling.
In poll 2, there really needs to be an option for why Ardling should be more bestial that say's "Because I like triceratops."
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HERE.Dang! This was my biggest failure in these polls by far. I should have just started over.
(Being completely real - nothing made me as excited to play an Ardling as the word Triceratops)
:)
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.You can make a celestial Triceratops. I mean they are extinct so them coming from beast heaven makes sense.
It's still true. I'm really not good at this. :)
(And I love dinosaurs so much)
Oh it's totally happening in our next playtest.
Honestly, the current play test thing isn't bad at all. I just need more than a cantrip to get that divine side. Whether it is making the animal traits themselves more divine, giving more spells. Giving anything that just adds a tiny amount of more celestial flavor i think could get us there. If we look at the other thread and nix out the 8 people that can't be pleased no matter what, as there is nothing that will fix ardling for them we are left with 6 people that want more bestial ardling and 14 that want either more celestial or a better balance.
In addition to the primary reason for wanting more bestial is that they don't want something so similar to Aasimar is where I think we want to see something new celestial wise. The racer, flyer, swimmer and climber things still works, but either it needs to be more celestial versions of those abilities or a little extra celestial feel can be added elsewhere.
It is going to be tight I think. We have one poll that shows that people aren't happy with as is and two polls that show what people want is pretty divided and all of them will have an impact on the percentage (including those that can't be pleased). Of course we don't have the 40k responses that WotC got for theirs, but it is interesting none the less.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Oh, 100%. But cool options like the triceratops are why I want to see Beastfolk explored a bit more, with the Ardling's celestial heritage being more of flavor and not being as heavily focused on mechanically.
It happens. My first polls on this platform were incomplete and riddled with errors. Even recently, I had a massive typo on a poll in the "Hey - why can't SPELLS crit?" thread. Overall though, these polls cover most options on something that there can be a billion different opinions on.
As a sidenote, I really like the current Ardling but also had opinions on thing's in basically all three of the polls. Should I have voted on all of them? For example, I don't want the Ardling to become more celestial but I voted there because I did think it was important to note that it becoming a generic catch-all Beastfolk would be extremely problematic. I am sorry if I misunderstood the way these polls worked, I will remove my vote if I did it wrong. (I'm bad at figuring out how to vote for this kind of stuff.)
No offense, but that poll could very little interaction, and I do not think we can really learn much from it. 41 votes is a tiny sample size, and my guess is that the wider fanbase will have a very different opinion than what that poll showed. In short, outliers exist and the smaller the sample size, the more likely the outliers are to occur. As such, I think it is extremely possible that this UAs version of the Ardling is much more liked than the survey showed.
By the way, I am thinking that we should maybe start a thread about dinosaurs in D&D. I would be interested in seeing whether people want to see more or less dinos, now that we have the triceratops version of the Ardling in this UA. Do you guys think that this would be an interesting topic?
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Thanks for the reassuring words. :)
Yes, please feel free to vote in every poll with as many answers as you feel apply to your thoughts! I wanted people to be able to really give their full opinions as much as possible without feeling like they had to pick only one answer.
I'm not sure how much traffic a dinosaur thread would get in general, but I'd be happy to see it! Dinosaurs are great. I've found some way to sneak them into almost every campaign I've ever run haha.
No offense taken, but I did notice that you ignored the rest of the post.
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