Revisiting the morality of undeath

In past editions the undead were heavily involved with positive/negative energy and associated planes. These distinctions no longer exist in 5e, being replaced by necrotic and radiant damage which are entirely separate from healing (good riddance!). There are plenty of arguments for non-evil necromancy and non-evil undead, but in the end it depends entirely on the metaphysics the GM has chosen for their campaign. In this post I present a number of "moral options" I have seen proposed...

Three axis alignment, revisited

I have seen a couple different suggestions for adding a third axis to alignment. One suggestion is to add an active/passive axis for how militantly a character pursues their alignment. Another suggestion is to split the lawful/chaotic axis into two axes for internal and external attitudes: a chaotic/orderly axis for a character's behavior and a lawful/lawless axis for whether a character respects the laws of society.

The utility of the planes (and their basis in world mythology)

Something that has bothered me is the question of whether all the planes are necessary. Aside from Planescape, they are either never used or only used for high level adventures. Most of them are boring expanses of so much nothing. Much of this probably has to do with the planes having only limited support in world mythology, where other worlds were described in a much more interesting manner. More below the break...

Little known cosmology models: omniverse

There has been many different cosmological models devised for D&D settings. The "omniverse" model simplifies the D&D cosmology to its bare minimum. It was first described in the 3rd edition Manual of the Planes and probably informed the development of the "world axis" model of 4th edition.

Little known cosmology models: As Above, So Below

Named by Mongoose Publishing's Classic Play: The Book of the Planes. Similar to but distinct from the Great Wheel and World Axis models.

©2015 David Gonterman

Above the material plane, connected by the astral plane, the outer planes form the upper arc. Below the material plane, connected by the ethereal plane, the inner planes form the lower arc.

Revising the transitive planes

As the D&D rules and campaign settings have developed over their history, so too has the planar cosmology changed over time. This has left numerous irregularities, such the existence of several transitive planes with almost identical utility. More below the break...

Reading material on fey

In order to keep myself from forgetting, I am putting a list of reading material on fey in this post. Details below the break...

Ecology on the Shadowfell

The shadowfell is depicted as a shadowy reflection of the material world, where the geography mimics the material but shifts over time as the lighting changes. It is traditionally depicted as utterly devoid of life aside from the undead, but I find that to be bland and boring. I will provide some pointers on populating the shadowfell below the break...

Variant vampires

What follows is another take on vampires in the MM, with credits to Isaac Horn for the ideas.

Too many psychopomps

The world building in Pathfinder and Golarion is retarded at the best of times. One of the many, many stupid things is how death and the afterlife are handed.

Classifying the undead

Since the undead do not exist in reality, any attempt to classify them is arbitrary. The best way to classify the undead is by their traits and capabilities, such as their corporeality, appearance, intelligence, motivation, etc. Like others have done, I would prefer to place all undead into a small number of families to keep track.

Etymology of liches, wights and zombies

This post is an expansion of my last post dealing with etymology, specifically with regard to the undead. In this post, I discuss liches, wights and zombies, their etymology, how it changed, and alternatives for those etymological determinists out there.

Curse of lycanthropy

The nature of lycanthropy has varied immensely across the past four or five editions of D&D. Here is my attempt at a framework which accounts for all of them at once. More information below the break...

Revisiting the lamia, part 2

I previously explained that my campaign setting has a more relaxed conception of lamiae. I let them have the lower bodies of any creatures, including dragons and hybrids. I give them shapeshifting abilities to better conceal their appearance. In this post I will explain more of the liberties I take to give lamiae more in common with mythology.