94
D&D has no world outside of meta-influence
Allow me to frame-challenge here: for all intents and purposes, there is no canonical D&D world outside your DM's representation of that world at the table.
Your DM may have some information prepared (campaign notes, established facts from the campaign to date) or even official information about the world (...
44
Meta-influencing the game is normal and unavoidable
In D&D everything in the world exists as a set piece for the benefit of the players and the PCs. Things that are expected to be important or evocative are usually created/described by the DM ahead of time, however they can't anticipate everything the PCs might want or need. That means that often the DM ...
29
It is a process known as ceremorphosis.
Several articles about the Baldur's Gate III trailer indicate that the depicted process is indeed ceremorphosis.
Rock Paper Shotgun touches on it:
They call it Ceremorphosis. The excruciating seven day process by which a humanoid might transform into a Mind Flayer. Stick one illithid tadpole in the brain and one ...
25
Noted in your forum thread, but the best descriptions of Acheron and Carceri that I have seen—based in, but not directly quoted from, actual text—are those by Jade Ripley (who goes by Lord_Gareth here and numerous other places, including GiantITP.com’s forums):
Acheron
Acheron has no architects. None of the Outer Planes do. [...]
Yes, Acheron looks ...
22
Adamantine metal was known as "adamantite" in earlier D&D products.
In AD&D 1e, Gygax refers to the metal as "adamantite". Later writers, during AD&D 2e, would correct this nomenclature, since the English suffix -ite normally denotes a mineral, and the metal was renamed to adamantine.
Drow of the Underdark (1991) retconned that "adamantite" was ...
20
Primarily, this is based on precedent
Each of these planes was introduced in the article "Planes: The Concepts of Spatial, Temporal and Physical Relationships in D&D", in The Dragon #8, released July 1977. The alignments of these planes seem to have been set way back then and have been generally maintained with some minor alterations. There are good ...
19
Oh, it's way worse than Polymorph
The basic principle of how Mind Flayer (aka Illithid) reproduction works is this:
Mind Flayers produce batches of tadpoles which live in the Brine Pool of an Elder Brain--being fed brains, eating each other, and being eaten by the Elder Brain for about 10 years. Those that survive are removed from the brine pool and put ...
13
Check in with your DM
You've got the crux of this right in that you're simply going to have to check in with your DM on what general world knowledge you have and don't have and whether or not the backstory you're developing will work.
It's great that you want to develop a backstory and have desires for items that will drive your roleplaying and the ...
12
There is a difference between the two, elucidated in the AD&D (2e) Volo's Guide to all things Magical
On page 55 of AD&D 2e Volo's Guide to all Things Magical (1996) [in the section on Raw Materials: Metals] the following paragraphs speak about the differences between the substances:
Adamant: This is the pure metal form of the hard, jet-black ...
12
Suggest to your DM that they roll for likelihood
In a game that I'm playing in at the moment, my DM, if ever confronted with a decision about some detail he hadn't considered before now (no matter how trivial, literally whether this nameless guard had cornflakes for breakfast or whatever), will then roll a d20 (with some arbitrary DC in mind that he never ...
10
They are basically interchangeable, somewhere around 3rd edition it became adamantine from adamantite. For example, there 4 references in the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) to adamantite (see below for one instance comparison, emphasis mine), and zero references to adamantine.
DMG 1st Edition - Daern's Instant Fortress description (Page 142):
[.....
8
In addition to how the DM builds the world, as outlined by the other answers, there is a difference between what your character knows about the world and what you know about the world. For example, if your character has grown up in the area, she probably knows that Crowdedville is about a six-hour walk from Tinyton.
Asking your DM a question about the ...
7
Order the items from the shopkeeper
This answer is only helpful if you have a hub you frequent, but have you considered placing a request with "ye old magic shop" to get you that item? Maybe you'll feel less bad about it suddenly appearing in the inventory if you specifically ordered it from the shopkeeper and he/she/it has it the next time you come by.
...
7
There is no reason to believe that they would be different. Baalzephon, Corin, Dagos, Furcas, Pearza, Zaebos, Zapan and Zimimar were mentioned in the 2e Planescape sourcebook Faces of Evil: the Fiends (page 29), which got published in 1997. The same names appear on page 36 of the 3.5e sourcebook Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (FC2:TotNH), ...
7
Talk it out.
I had a tool kit that I wanted so I discussed it with my DM out of the game. A good DM will discuss a realistic scenario where obtaining that item makes sense in the story.
In my case I just had to ask the shop keeper and they “had one in the back”. The DM said that one of his goals is that people have fun and if he can make an idea work than ...
7
A number of different published sources mention the process
The adventure
has a (very) brief passage on what is happening in the clip (located on
)
has this passage, hinting at what we see:
Additionally, the other pieces of lore we have on the process of transforming a creature into illithid kin, from the published books, is in
Volo's Guide to Monsters:...
5
It reverts to its draconic form.
In AD&D 2e, D&D 3.5, and D&D 4th edition, a steel dragon reverts to its true dragon form when slain.
In AD&D 2nd edition, according to the Monstrous Compendium: Greyhawk Adventures Appendix, the steel dragon's shapechanging ability comes from the ability to use polymorph self five times per day with ...
5
There are a lot of great answers here, particularly Quadratic Wizard's and NathanS' (the former of which is the answer I would give as well, had it not already been written). But something which might enhance the elements you're looking for is to simulate the process of your character searching for information, goods, etc.
If you request that the DM help ...
4
For the example you give of securing items, the listed price for an item in the game materials gives you an idea of its relative abundance, unless the DM says otherwise. In the case of 5e, the "Item Rarity" is actually listed. So, until your DM says anything about it, you as the player should know that a Component Pouch is "Standard", and thus you should not ...
4
The ability to make pacts with mortals by virtue of the Ruby Rod is unique to devils.
The use of the Ruby Rod when making a pact which binds even the gods is referenced in D&D 3.5's Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, p.4-5, though it is not fully clear whether the Rod holds that power or is merely symbolic of Asmodeus' power:
He extended ...
3
It did originate from the cat people themselves, in fact different types of them (leopard man vs jaguar men) pronounced it differently according to an article in Dragon Magazine issue 93 in 1985 and later backed up by the 'Monstrous Manual" published ironically in '93.
Its also made clear that the tabaxi labguage is a precursor to the payit language, but the ...
2
Yes
Beholders are powerful creatures and undercommon is one of their languages. If there wasn't a word for them, then they will have made one (or several which they all believe is the best word for their kind).
But, No
There doesn't appear to any WOTC-official undercommon word for them. The best collection of undercommon translations appears to be this ...
1
DnD 3.0:
Book of Vile Darkness (121-122):
A select choice of abilities of the Ruby Rod is usable at will by Asmodeus, but only once by anyone else. The wielder can cast Bodak Birth as if cast by a 20th-level spellcaster.
Bodak Birth (Book of Vile Darkness 86)
The caster transforms one willing subject [...] into a bodak. [...]
anyone that holds the ...
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