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I'm surprised at some legal player options sourced from Eberron and Dark Sun in Living Forgotten Realms, and wondered if anyone knows the rationale for their inclusion is?  Specifically, these are things that are very heavily flavored for Eberron or Dark Sun that effectively ruin my immersion when I come accross them in a Forgotten Realms settings.  It's hard enough already to maintain a Forgotten Realms flavor with LFR due to rotating PCs in groups, accepting tenuous reasons to join them, and moving all over the world from adventure to adventure.  But these elements are sourced specifically from other backgrounds and just don't fit.

From Dark Sun:
Muls
Thri-Kreen
3 Racial Paragon Paths
Sorcerer-King Pact Warlocks
Dark Sun specific weapons

(I'd include Dray and Half-Giants, but they've already screwed them up in Dark Sun by shoehorning non-Dark Sun race's mechanics directly as those 'races'.)

From Eberron:
Kalashtar
Warforged
Artificers
Eberron specific weapons

While I'm not certain as to the official reasoning, Muls are perfectly fine for Forgotten Realms, as there have been mentions of 'half-dwarves' and the like before.  I believe the old 2e book 'Forgotten Realms Adventures' mentioned an NPC who, while human, had dwarven blood.

Thri-Kreen have appeared outside of Athas in the past as well, and both they and Half-Giants were included in 4e, despite that edition not having an official Dark Sun setting.  I don't see any reason why Dark Sun weapons couldn't exist somewhere in Faerun as well.

As for the Sorcerer-King Pact...I got nothing.  You could say that the only thing tying it to Dark Sun is fluff, as it has nothing to do with setting-specific mechanics (such as defiling), but it would need some adaptation to explain what the source of the pact is!

The Kalashtar are even stranger.   I could see something like a Warforged being created, and FR has had it's share of magical item creators (the nation of Lantan used to specialize in this sort of thing).  And even the Eberron weapons aren't too beyond the pale.

The Kalashtar though...sure, there's nothing mechanically tying them to the Quori or Eberron, but a race of psionic beings that inhabit human bodies?  Where the heck did they come from?

Now in the past, a lot of oddness existed in the Realms because the world is riddled with portals to other dimensions and such, and there used to be Spelljammers that travelled to Toril as well.  What the status of this sort of thing in 4e is, I'm not certain.

I think the official story is, if it didn't exist in FR before, it's from Returned Abeir.  Or something.

You might also read through my thread on Eliminating Monster Races from the Realms.

community.wizards.com/lfr/go/thread/view...

I think the general consensus was that LFR is not really the Forgotten Realms specifically,
but rather some "melting pot" where you can play any race or class with any feats/powers.
There are a few limitations but they might be considered arbitrary as most things are legal.

The key idea is that LFR is the vehicle for introducing new rules elements and encouraging
players to purchase the books/subscribe to DDI, so they want to allow as much as possible.

Jan 29, 2011 -- 12:09PM, FitzNighteyes wrote:

I'm surprised at some legal player options sourced from Eberron and Dark Sun in Living Forgotten Realms, and wondered if anyone knows the rationale for their inclusion is?  Specifically, these are things that are very heavily flavored for Eberron or Dark Sun that effectively ruin my immersion when I come accross them in a Forgotten Realms settings.  It's hard enough already to maintain a Forgotten Realms flavor with LFR due to rotating PCs in groups, accepting tenuous reasons to join them, and moving all over the world from adventure to adventure.  But these elements are sourced specifically from other backgrounds and just don't fit.

From Dark Sun:
Muls
Thri-Kreen
3 Racial Paragon Paths
Sorcerer-King Pact Warlocks
Dark Sun specific weapons

(I'd include Dray and Half-Giants, but they've already screwed them up in Dark Sun by shoehorning non-Dark Sun race's mechanics directly as those 'races'.)

From Eberron:
Kalashtar
Warforged
Artificers
Eberron specific weapons

Feb 1, 2011 -- 5:26PM, Metafictional wrote:

As for the Sorcerer-King Pact...I got nothing.  You could say that the only thing tying it to Dark Sun is fluff, as it has nothing to do with setting-specific mechanics (such as defiling), but it would need some adaptation to explain what the source of the pact is!

The idea here was not that it is a specific one of the sorcerer kings of athas but any number of similar beings in the Realms, think the warlock knights of vassa or something similar such as making a pact with something on the power level of one of the Choosen.