shard of evil, living gate, obyriths

i am formulating a comprehensive history in which the shard of evil was a piece of the living gate. the obyriths, powerful creatures of the far realm, pierced the living gate momentarily, causing a shard of the living gate to break free. that shard, having been the locus of the obyriths' concerted effort to pierce into the known planes, absorbed an unfathomable amount of the energies of the far realm.

the deities of the astral plane, wherein the living gate was momentarily ruptured, quickly recognized the corrupting effect that the shard of evil was having upon the plane. tharizdun, a lawful good deity of great power and wisdom, recognizing that the shard, a thing not entirely of this plane, could not be destroyed, took it upon himself to remove the shard to the furthest reaches of the elemental chaos, a plane dominated by primodial beings with whom the deities warred.

pazuzu, an obyrith, told asmodeus how to remove a piece of the shard of evil. perhaps pazuzu did so in order to get a piece of the shard to the astral sea in hopes of doing to that plane what the shard has been doing to the elemental chaos--namely, transforming it into the abyss, a place more to the liking of these far realm alien creatures.
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the above history implies that the worst of evils actually stems from the far realm. the abyss is the corruption of the elemental chaos by the influences of the far realm, via the physical presence of the shard.

it is with this understanding that creatures throughout the known planes--deities, primal spirits, wilden, shardminds, etc.--universally oppose the presence of far realm influences in any form, whether aberrations, malevolent stars, portals or rifts.

as i see it, such far realm influences physically warp their surroundings in a manner not unlike the shard of evil, but on a much smaller scale. the mere presence of a community of aberrant creatures actually will cause its environs to change (think of the movie Aliens or the starcraft zerg).

in a sense, demons are another form(s) of aberrant creatures.

minotaurs

similarly to my decision to make trolls fey instead of natural, i have decided that minotaurs are fey creatures. in the feywild, minotaurs are largely subservient to fomorians. subterranean minotaur mazes often serve as outer defenses to fomorian kingdoms; however, minotaurs often are deployed by fomorians on missions above ground.

some minotaurs worship baphomet. others follow primal traditions. both of these subsets conflict with fomorian rulership.

predicting variable racial stats

my (great) expectations (actual outcome in bold):

Deva – Wis, Int or Cha
Dragonborn – Cha, Str or Con (same)
Drow – Cha, Dex or Wis (Dex, Cha or Wis)
Genasi – Int, Str or Con
Gnoll – Dex, Con or Str
Gnome – Int, Cha or Wis
Goliath – Str, Con or Wis (most likely, but i prefer Con, Str or Wis for primal goodness)
Half-Elf – Cha, Con or Wis (Con, Cha or Wis)
Half-Orc – Str, Dex or Wis (Dex, Str or Con)
Kalashtar – Wis, Cha or Dex
Revenant – Con, Dex or Wis
Shadar-kai – Dex, Int or Con
Shifter – Wis, Str or Dex
Tieflings – Cha, Int or Dex (Cha, Int or Con)
Warforged – Con, Str or Int

unnatural

denizens of the elemental chaos refer to the natural world as the unnatural world because, as they see it, it is not natural.

Smite Elemental Creature

although, the ampersand piece on the upcoming warpriest build says "most deities view undead creatures as abominations that must be destroyed", it seems to me that a more unifying power than smite undead would be something like smite elemental creature--you know, dawn war and all of that stuff.

it would be quite simple to make available to every cleric the following alternative channel divinity power:

Smite Elemental Creature
Cleric Attack
You scorch an elemental foe with your weapon, driving it back and then binding it in place.
Encounter (Special) Channel Divinity, Divine, Radiant, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One elemental creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Will
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier radiant damage, and you push the target a number of squares up to 3 + your Constitution modifier. The target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Level 11: 3[W] + Wisdom modifier radiant damage.
Level 21: 4[W] + Wisdom modifier radiant damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Special: You can use only one channel divinity power per encounter.

if i had my druthers

wotc does not want to alienate gamers by changing existing class builds radically; instead, wotc adds more builds reflecting how they would have done things differently. one downside to this approach is the pressure to continue supporting builds that, in hindsight, really should have been done better, which is a bit like throwing good money at bad money.

here is how i would have made the original builds:

cleric: wis, con or cha
fighter: str, con or dex
paladin: str, cha or wis
ranger: wis, str or dex
rogue: dex, str or cha
warlock: cha, int or con
warlord: str, int or cha
wizard: int, con or dex

new builds with new secondary stats

i like the new direction i am seeing with new class builds using new secondary stats. this, of course, presumes an A-shaped class. it allows more races to partake effectively of the class. it expands the repertoire of powers available to all builds of the class, albeit without the riders of the intended build.

one way that wotc could further, and more quickly, broaden the support for new builds--and to a lesser extent, older builds--is by publishing dragon articles listing old powers with new riders for the new builds--and for the older builds that did not have riders on those powers. eventually, the compendium potentially could show every power with a separate rider for each build of the applicable class. of course, exceptions would exist.