D&D Outsider - Wilden & Shardmind
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Pure fluff, but if any races could use a bit of exposition it would be those two.
Or, if any two races would have been better off on the cutting room floor, it's those two.I didn't particularly care for any of the races in PH3 though, so I guess that should be taken with a grain of salt.
The racial options, like most other options in 4e, are already bordering on ridiculous in quantity, but seriously lacking in quality.
Most of these silly new races I just ignore, and if someone in my game wants to play one then they have to sell me on the concept. Or make the mechanics fit a more "normal"-looking race. Call it old-fashioned, call it short-sighted, call it Tolkienish grognardia, but enough with the freaks, already.
That's my two coppers. YMMV.
Or, if any two races would have been better off on the cutting room floor, it's those two.
The more I think about this, the more I disagree. Shadar-kai, shades, tieflings, devas, revenants, and even goliaths... they all could have been done as feat chains or (preferably) themes a la dark sun.
Shardminds and wilden are substantively different from the standard races.
Yeah if anything, races should be less about trek-style humans with head bumps, and more about genuinly wierd creatures. We have enough demihumans, the game should focus on non-humans for new races.
Kudos to [MENTION=71815]OhGodtheRats[/MENTION] for the article. I hadn't thought of mixing warforged components and shardminds, but it works beautifully. So much so that Shardminds, as is, can stand-in for the Psiforged. In Keith Baker's ( [MENTION=15800]Hellcow[/MENTION] ) The Dreaming Dark series, one of the villains was Harmattan, a warforged composed of telekinetically-controlled metal shards. A shardmind would be perfect for that.For either race (and the bladelings, before them), the biggest hurdle, IMHO, is the art. Neither (or none of the three) races has a really compelling look.
What's funny is writing "Amusing Fluff" may actually be in my job description with D&D Outsider.If Rock-Candy Folk & Plant People didn't seem to many to be kinda goofy, one-note, & hard to role-play in a normal game, it wouldn't be easy/fun/necessary(?) to write an Article about them. See also my old Deva article, born from my irritation at a race inherently "Super Good". (Which shockingly got mechanical stuff months later turning my jokes = paragon paths.) Sticks & Stones both have interesting things lurking behind the "Holy Crap its a Rock/Weed Man with a Magic wand" stumbling block. Well, I like to think. That's a big hurdle for some, I confess.
So yeah, I'm not defending myself or arguing, but I am saying that writing about races folks love to hate & trying to hammer some comedic sense into them (the races, I leave folks who hate un-hammered)...it's kinda what I try to do. "Try" being the key word here.
-Jared
I thought this was a great article, even if I'm not 100% sold on these races as PC's. I enjoyed the use of humor in explaining the viewpoints of these alien beings and how their unique outlooks can be adapted to play.I plan on using a wilden 'grove' as an NPC community in my campaign so this has a practical use for me as well.
A little off topic, but if my group came to the table with a Wilden, a Shardmind, a Deva, a Gensi and a drow, I'd play it as they are basically the Justice League, but all Martian Manhunters. 
--Z
Yeah, I think the only other area of information that would be cool for these races would be an article really going into some details on their societies. We have some general info but what exactly does a Wilden community LOOK like? Do they construct anything? What sort of social organization do they use? What are their relations with their neighbors actually like? A model community for the wilden would be great. Something that the DM can drop into a game and use. That would make bringing them to life as a campaign element a lot easier. As it is we have little to go on in that respect. I can make a human or demi-human village or whatever easily enough as I know basically what it is going to be like from everyday experience. I don't even know where to start with the wilden really.Shardminds don't seem to have much in the way of organized society, or at least they are basically outsiders without a necessary presence in the normal world. Still, some sort of shardmind outpost or something would be a huge boon.
Good article and I rather like the Shardmind as a Construct character race, though in reality the whole town would probably roll out, with pitchforks, if one ever tried to get in the gate 
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