Monday, January 26, 2015

Undead Templates for 5e


I wanted to make an undead wizard for 5e that was less powerful than the lich, so I sat down with the Dungeon Master's Guide and went to work with the monster creation rules. Aaaaaaaand, I promptly got bored because it was too much accounting and looking things up on a chart for me.

And then I realized that all I really needed to do was slap a few resistances and immunities on one of the NPC wizard statblocks in the back of the Monster Manual and call it a day. 

Using the cheap-n-cheerful templates below you can make undead archmages, bandits, cult fanatics, gladiators, etc. Need an undead knight that is less powerful than the death knight? Major Undead template + Knight stats. Undead viking? Minor Undead + Berserker. 

You could also use these with regular animals, you know, for when you need a ghostly Killer Whale.

Minor Undead
Damage Resistances necrotic
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Major Undead
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Incorporeal Undead
Damage Resistances acid, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Reskinning 5e Classes

5th edition D&D has many classes to choose from; taken as a whole, they offer a wide range of thematic archetypes. Better still: they're easily reskinnable to emulate archetypes that the designers probably weren't thinking about. Some ideas:


D. Gray-man-style Exorcist: If you haven't seen it, D. Gray-man is a manga and anime series about "exorcists" who hunt demons. Each exorcist is bound to "Innocence," a supernatural force for good that gives them otherworldly powers to fight against darkness. The protagonist of the series, Allen Walker, has an arm that can transform into fearsome weapons. If I wanted to make a character like Allen Walker, I'd pick the Warlock and reskin one of the patron types as "Innocence." Since the Pact of the Blade gives you proficiency with whatever sort of weapon you want to manifest, it could easily simulate the various weaponry he uses--just reskin his arm with the stats of weapons from the equipment section and you're good to go.

* * *



Spiritualist: It's an odd fit, but the Totem Warrior Barbarian gets a variety of spirit-based powers and the Spirit Walker ability could be reskinned as the ability to conduct a seance. Levitation? Check out the 14th level Eagle Totemic Attunement ability. 

The warlock is probably a more easy-to-visualize pick, what with its Speak with Dead invocations and powers granted from a patron spirit. There you go, two ways to skin that cat.

* * *

Gunslinger: I noticed the other day that many of the Battlemaster Fighter's maneuvers don't necessarily have to be used in melee; many of them can be used at range as well. Maneuvers such as Disarming Strike, Distracting Strike, Feinting Attack, Goading Attack, Maneuvering Attack, Menacing Attack, Precision attack, Pushing Attack, and Trip Attack to simulate trick shots, blowing a foe off their feet with a rifle blast, shooting the weapon from a villain's hands, etc.

* * *



Serial Killer: Usually the Berserker Barbarian is thought of as a primal warrior with an innate bestial rage. But a "barbarian" could just as easily be a normal person who becomes overcome with a murderous rage. They could be a scientist whose self-experiments resulted in a Jekyll/Hyde condition, an aristocrat with murderous impulses ala some theories about Jack the Ripper, or a normal person who is sometimes possessed by the spirit of a murderer.

* * *



Swashbuckler: If you're willing to squint at the ki mechanic, the Monk makes a surprisingly good swashbuckler. (You'll also need to reskin the short sword, which monks are proficient with, as a fencing blade, but that seems easy enough) A Monk's Martial Arts ability lets you rely on a high dexterity for your attack and damage rolls with your sword, gives you a bonus to unarmed strike damage, and lets you get a bonus unarmed strike in when you attack with your sword--just like in the movies, your swashbuckler is slicing and punching all over the place. You can spend ki for daring-do like Flurry of Blows, enhanced dodging, and Step of the Wind. There's also a ton of mobility powers that fit the theme, and Unarmored Defense gives you a reason not to be an armored tank in combat.

* * *



Street Fighter: As with the swashbuckler ideas above, you could use the Monk as the basis for a back-street brawler. Brass knuckles should definitely qualify as "monk weapons."

* * *



The Other Kind of Street Fighter: The elemental Monk has all the right moves for all the hadokens and shoryukens you could ask for.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Friday, January 9, 2015

The 14 Best Books I Read in 2014


Hanns Heinz Ewers, Alraune
At noon the silver tears that the clouds wept on their green leaves sparkled like polished moonstones. It was there where the pale snow of acacias lay, where now the luburnum drops its poisonous yellow, that I discovered the great beauty of chaste sin. And, sisterkin, it is thus that I learnt to understand the passions of saints.


* * *


Daniel Mills, Revenants
At last she sleeps and the colors swoop to cover her. Copper. Crimson. Driftwood brown. Wide wings converge beneath her body, bearing her upward into the opening they create above her, a cone-shaped hollow formed from pure color, paper veils like spider’s silk. She floats, weightless upon the rising blood-tide, adrift in a void that seethes with silent voices.

* * *


Deborah Lutz, Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism
Pornography was scribbled by being passed from hand to hand, yielding a text written by six or more fellows. They read aloud to each other, sometimes they had sex with each other. Collaboration involved tenderness, often caresses, sometimes fierce competition. The fact that so much influential work on sex was done in this wise—as gestures of love—seems to me a useful discovery. … I was watching a modern approach to sexuality get hammered out through acts of intimacy.

* * *


Brian May et al, Diableries
No example text needed; an image will suffice:



* * *



Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (ed.), Queen Victoria's Book of Spells
You don’t need to know what you’re saying for the thing to work—I declaimed the poems and watched the shadows boil.

* * *



Horace Walpole, Hieroglyphic Tales
The king insisted that his eldest daughter should be married first; and as there was no such person, it was very difficult to fix upon a proper husband for her.

* * *


Joseph Delaney, The Last Apprentice series

And as for the Devil, well, I used to think that evil was more likely to be inside each one of us, like a bit of tinder just waiting for the spark to set it alight.

* * *


Oliver Potzsch, The Hangman's Daughter
Rumors of witchcraft and diabolical rites spread faster than the odor of excrement in a small town like Schongau.

* * *


Paul Leppin, Severin's Journey into the Dark
The blind and malignant rage of solitude flared in Nathan’s voice, poison seethed in it that laid waste to the hearts of the crippled and deranged, hatred for the world. He preached wrathful disbelief in the good and splendor of the earth, the merciless score of an insolent blasphemer.

* * *


Philip Reeve, Larklight series

Among my mother’s books I had once discovered a volume of stories by a gentleman named Mr Poe … There was one, The Premature Burial, which gave me nightmares for weeks after I read it, and I remember thinking that there could be no fate more horrible than to be buried alive, and wondering what type of deranged and sickly mind could have invented such a tale. But as I lay there immobilised in a jar on the wrong side of the Moon with only a ravening caterpillar for company I realised that Mr Poe was actually quite a cheery, light-hearted sort of chap, and that his story had been touchingly optimistic.

* * * 

Colette, The Vagabond

Faith, that is what it is, genuine faith, as blind as it sometimes pretends to be, with all the dissembling renunciations of faith, and that obstinacy which makes it continue to hope even at the moment of crying. ... There is no doubt that, if ever my heart were to call my master Chance by another name, I should make an excellent Catholic.

* * *

Stephen King, The Gunslinger
The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which streched themselves on the horizon and the devilgrass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death.

* * *

Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
Will and Lyra felt a succession of cold, delicate brushing sensations as the ghosts passed through their bodies, warming themselves on the way. The two living children felt that little by little they were becoming dead, too; they hadn’t got an infinite amount of life and warmth to give, and they were so cold already, and the endless crowds pressing forwards looked as if they were never going to stop.

* * *

Molly Tanzer, A Pretty Mouth
Really, who didn’t write poetry these days—and yet he alone was punished for the crime of artistic expression! How could he have anticipated that, at Wadham, admiring one’s betters through verse would be viewed as some gross sin, akin to shitting on the Bible or poisoning an especially cherubic child?

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New 5e Backgrounds: The Country Squire and the Dandy


Country Squire

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Nature
Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, vehicles (land)
Equipment: A set of fine country clothes, a riding crop, a gaming set, a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

Feature: Position of Privilege
Thanks to your status among the gentry, people are inclined to think the best of you. You are welcome in high society, and people assume you have the right to be wherever you are. The common folk make every effort to accommodate you and avoid your displeasure, and other people of high birth treat you as a member of the same social sphere. You can secure an audience with a local noble if you need to.

d8
Personality Trait
1
I like to treat others to food and drink to illustrate my gregarious nature.
2
I prefer the fellowship of the working man to that of the nobility.
3
My family has a long and storied family tree, and I won't let anyone forget that fact.
4
I will a tale unfold—and my tales are never brief.
5
I use polished manners to make an impression.
6
There is no deed, true or untrue, that I won't boast of.
7
I go on long, flowery descriptions of the beauty of the countryside.
8
My word is inviolate.

d6
Ideal
1
Familiar Honor. I value my family's good name over my own life.
2
Sublimity. The beauty of nature must be preserved from the march of progress.
3
Tradition. The time-honored ways of the country life must be preserved.
4
Pleasure. Pursuing one's own satisfaction is the greatest good.
5
Modernization. I am fixated on the newest developments.
6
Charity. I believe in improving the lot of my fellow man where possible.

d6
Bond
1
Somewhere out there is my bastard child, to whom I feel duty-bound to secure a prosperous future.
2
I'm trying to pay off my family's outrageous debts.
3
I am engaged to a family friend, but do not love them.
4
I am the patron of the charitable institution.
5
I would move heaven and earth to regain the trust of my long-lost love.
6
My loyalty to the sovereign is unswerving.

d6
Flaw
1
A pretty face is hard to pass by.
2
I never back down from a challenge to my honor.
3
Sometimes the common folk need to be reminded of their natural inferiority.
4
Scandalous rumors follow me wherever I go.
5
I have a weakness for drink and other intoxicants.
6
I have trouble holding onto money; it all goes toward decadent luxuries and creature comforts.



Dandy

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, one type of musical instrument
Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a walking stick or parasol, a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

Feature: Bunburyism
You have created a second identity that includes documentation, established acquaintances, and
disguises that allow you to assume that persona. Additionally, you can forge documents including official papers and personal letters, as long as you have seen an example of the kind of document or the handwriting you are trying to copy.

d8
Personality Trait
1
I have a witty paradox ready for every occasion.
2
I adore adding new items to my cabinet of curiosities.
3
I'm a snob who looks down about those who can't appreciate the finer things in life.
4
I wield rudeness like a hammer.
5
I use flattery to ingratiate myself with the upper crust.
6
I refuse to be dressed in anything less than the latest fashions.
7
I want to rub the world's nose in its own absurdity.
8
I believe that other people exist to entertain me.

d6
Ideal
1
Classicism. The knowledge and art of the past age must be preserved at all costs.
2
Flaneur. There is no greater thrill than to adventure in the metropolis.
3
Egalitarianism. I fight to show the world that nobility of spirit is not the sole purview of noble birth.
4
Hedonism. Pursuing one's own pleasure is the greatest good.
5
Self-objectification. I present myself to the world as an objet d'art.
6
Aesthetic Charity. I live to brighten the life of the common man through providing entertainment and beauty.

d6
Bond
1
I would do anything to protect my paramour.
2
I'm trying to pay off my outstanding and outrageous debts.
3
I would rather be famous than righteous or holy.
4
I am the patron of an artistic academy or institute of higher learning.
5
I wish to show the world that my rival is unfashionable, uncouth, and coarse.
6
I have a young ward I have sworn to protect.

d6
Flaw
1
A pretty face is hard to pass by.
2
I can resist everything but temptation.
3
Sometimes the common folk need to be reminded of their natural inferiority.
4
Scandalous rumors follow me wherever I go.
5
I have a weakness for drink and other intoxicants.
6
I have trouble holding onto money; it all goes toward decadent luxuries and creature comforts.