On February 22, Wizards of the Coast confirmed the DnD Ardling race has been scrapped from the One D&D Player’s Handbook. Speaking in a new Unearthed Arcana video (which you can watch below), lead D&D rules designer Jeremy Crawford says: “There are a lot of fans of the Ardling, but the Ardling’s time has not yet come”.
Before Wednesday, the Ardling was the newest of the DnD races. They were something of a polar opposite to the DnD Tiefling, hailing from the Upper Planes and being distinctly angelic in nature. The Ardlings were also easy to spot in a crowd; they had humanoid bodies with various animal heads.
Crawford gives an overview of why the cut was made. “When we dug into the written feedback on the survey as well as what people were saying online, it was clear that with the Ardling, the real miss was context”, he says. “We get that; this is a storytelling game. And the Ardling felt too much like it came out of nowhere.”
“As enchanted as we are by these animal folk with Celestial origins, the place to introduce them is the place where we can provide more story context for them and their entry into the multiverse”, Crawford adds.
So alas, the Ardling is no more – for now. “We often see things as ‘it’s not their time’ rather than ‘it’s finished forever’,” Crawford says, “so the Ardling is moving out of the playtest for now, and maybe in some future year we’ll return.” “They’re not going to be in the Player’s Handbook, but that doesn’t mean they won’t visit us at some future date.”
For content that did make it past the playtesting stages, head on over to our DnD classes and DnD backgrounds guide. We can also recommend a good DnD character creator to kickstart your next campaign.
Source: Wargamer
