The web content for this book is actually all about characters brewing beer as potions, with their feet.

It's called "Mordenkainen's Foam of Toes."

Quote from: RPGPundit;1047882Gnomes should be excised in all cases, wherever they are found.

Agreed. With the same level of compassion one shows a fire ant.

I do wish that "rock gnomes" were not the standard version as I agree that they fall too far into the space between dwarves and halflings. I can better tolerate "forest gnomes," but even then they don't really offer anything unique apart from being overly tall and not blue Smurfs.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1048035Gnomes are terrorists.

Cool idea for a party of CN gnomes: Thief-lllusionists rage havoc!

No mercy.

Quote from: Franky;1048039Gnomes are Freedom Fighters.

And creepy lawn ornaments.

He gets it:cool:

In my DCC gonzo world of the Last Sun, the Gnomes are the true masters of the Dark Ones, who fucked up the entire world.

Quote from: KingCheops;1042080There's literally no rules for the shape changing and it is specifically called out as something the DM decides.  Worries and hand-wringing were vastly overblown.  It's even a sidebar so you'd have to really be a non-assertive DM.

Also I forgot that Eladrin are a playable subrace now.

Finally got my copy after a huge delay.

You are totally right. This was was not a storm in a teacup. It was a storm in a thimble.

This whole gender change thing is
A: Totally Optional.
B: Not something every elf gets. It is a very rare thing.
C: Drow can get it too. But normal drow do not like it as is messes with the matriarchy.

The entry basically says Correllon can be whatever he wants to be and the original elves could change genders but lost this feature at some point. A rare few elves are born with the ability. Even Drow. This feature is optional and up to the DM to allow or disallow.

Quote from: Brad;1042157The only annoying thing I found in the book that *might* be some SJW nonsense (but, more likely, is just a re-imagining I think is stupid) is this:

It then specifically mentions Glasya, who I remember pretty well from my old Monster Manual. Sure, I can ignore this sidebar, but it really changes just what devils are, fundamentally, and I don't like it. This seems like it'd be much more applicable to demons who never seemed to have any sort of sex; devils, however, were definitely tied to male or female in the old D&D books.

Again, change for a nefarious reason or just a stupid ass one? Why not make this explicit statement about demons instead?

Havent got that far in the book yet but this is a valid point as well. But this is part of some weird larger agenda WOTC has with inserting demons and devils into things that werent before, or overwriting somethings established backstory for sometimes what feels like "just to add demon to it!"

Lower plane being having no outlook on gender goes counter to whats been established prior. But. There are some lower plane beings that have indeed posed as male or female as it suits them. Others are male or female or nothing at all.

The whole "demons dont procreate" also rather contradicts the various examples allready in 5e alone that oh yes they do get it on and can sire or birth offspring.

Quote from: Omega;1050404Finally got my copy after a huge delay.

You are totally right. This was was not a storm in a teacup. It was a storm in a thimble.

This whole gender change thing is
A: Totally Optional.
B: Not something every elf gets. It is a very rare thing.
C: Drow can get it too. But normal drow do not like it as is messes with the matriarchy.

The entry basically says Correllon can be whatever he wants to be and the original elves could change genders but lost this feature at some point. A rare few elves are born with the ability. Even Drow. This feature is optional and up to the DM to allow or disallow.

Yes, totally rare, like 18/00 strength. I'm sure it will never come up.

What I'm still confused about though is the idea that only special people can change "gender". I thought SJWs were strongly in the camp that espouses anyone can change gender, any time they want to, just by saying so. Does the text actually say "gender" or does it say "biological sex"?

It is a shapeshifting power and explicitly says "sex" so you are changing all your tackle.  Gender is still as fluid as the number of gender/woman's studies courses you've taken.

As I explained before: should have been a Feat.

Quote from: Mike the Mage;1050451As I explained before: should have been a Feat.

I don't know if I would put it in a feat.  Not just the straight "change your sex" ability.  I'd have "change your sex" replace one of the Elf abilities and make a feat be something like "your Elf can cast Alter Self 1/day immediately after taking a long rest."

Quote from: KingCheops;1050454I don't know if I would put it in a feat.  Not just the straight "change your sex" ability.  I'd have "change your sex" replace one of the Elf abilities and make a feat be something like "your Elf can cast Alter Self 1/day immediately after taking a long rest."

A few years ago I reread Left Hand of Darkness and decided to to incorporate the sex-changing stuff. Elves could change their biological sex by deciding on the new moon that they were gonna change. Then, over the next 2 weeks (until the full moon) they would undergo a gradual shift from one to the other. As far as societal and gender stuff goes, elves don't really give a shit whether someone is male or female. Really the only difference is who's gonna bear the child.

I don't really like the way Tome of Foes makes it a daily thing so I won't be incorporating that into my game. Given that the sex change in my game happens mostly of-screen during down time between adventures I just added it to the elven abilities without worrying about balancing anything out.

What does this add to the game as already established? Is it really that meaningful? The mere fact people are confused about its implementation here and the ramifications thereof sort of implies the obvious truth: it wasn't necessary. To the effect that one might differ, while Omega is here saying it's no big deal, then why have it at all?

We all know why it's been inserted in there.

I'd rather have them create new race of Fae-blooded Elf that shift their genders and sex at will and make it an optional race (Corellon's Chosen or whatever). At least that might be useful and more interesting to design around culturally, as opposed to this weak attempt at giving a wink to the SJW crowd.

The irony that the low-expectations of this gesture would satisfy those concerned speaks volumes.

I wonder if elves have the magical ability to change the pronouns others use when referring to them?

Quote from: Mike the Mage;1050451As I explained before: should have been a Feat.

Since this is something you are born with I'd say more likely either a background, or a racial option only available at chargen. Feats are too few gained and too broad to waste on this.