Month: February 2016

Daily Punch 2-22-16 Big for Your Size feat for DnD 5e

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

The smaller races don’t get much love in this edition, but I think we can change that and build something that everyone can enjoy!

Big for Your Size

You stand as a Titan among your peers.  You’re a biggun’ and you know how to use that to your advantage.  gain the following:

  • Increase your Constitution or Stregnth by 1 to a maximum of 20.
  • You can wield weapons up to two size categories bigger than normal with no penalty 
  • Your base fist or unarmed attack increase by one size.  As an example a human would increase from a 1 to a 1d4.

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 2-16-16 Martial Monk Monastic Tradition for DnD 5e

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How about expanding maneuvers to other classes?  Let’s make a fighter monk!

 

Way of the Fist

This path is taken by those who emphasize the physical over the mental for martial combat while still honing your body over any weapon.  You’ve learned how to master your body and master the bodies of your foes by emphasizing physical technique over utilizing ki.

Hard-Drilled Skills

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain three maneuvers as if you were a fighter.  You have a number of superiority dice equal to your Wisdom modifier, and your superiority dice are equal to your unarmed attack dice.

Second Wind

Gain the Second Wind class feature of a 1st level fighter using your monk level as if it were your fighter level.  Also, gain one additional maneuver from the fighters list.

Personal Conditioning

At 11th level, you an an ability score improvement.  Gain one additional maneuver from the fighters list.

Sifu of the Temple

At 17th level, when you use a maneuver as part of an attack, you can spend superiority dice and perform two different maneuvers as long as both maneuvers target the same creature and cast the same number of superiority dice.

 

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 2-15-16 Mage Hammer maneuver for DnD 5e

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I’ve been thinking of fighter maneuvers for a while now, but here’s another!

 

Mage Hammer.   When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you may expend a superiority die to cause a spell caster to have to make Constitution saving throws when casting any spells for a number of turns equal to the number rolled on your superiority die.  On a failure the spell slot is lost to no effect.  If the spell was a cantrip, the character simply fails to cast the spell.

Daily Punch 2-12-16 Yaka Arrow magic item for DnD 5e

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

My wife and I spent our time watching movies trying to figure out what class all the actors are.  It’s time for an item to come from Guardians of the Galaxy..

 

Yaka Arrow

Arrow, rare (requires attunement)

This arrow has 7 charges.  Each day at sunrise the arrow regains 1d6 charges.  When the attuned character whistles, the arrow floats in the air and attacks up to 1d6 creatures doing an automatic 1d6 magic piercing damage to each target.  The arrow ignores cover, obscurement, and only relies on the attuned character knowing that the target exists.  The Yaka Arrow will not cross planes by itself and must remain within 200 feet of the attuned character.  If the last charge is used, roll a d20.  On a 1, the arrow turns back into a regular arrow.  Any character that can catch an arrow throw any method, can deflect or catch the arrow.

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 2-11-16 BellRinger! maneuver for DnD 5e

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More maneuver madness!

 

BellRinger!.   When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you may expend a superiority die to stun a creature if it fails a Constitution saving throw.  The creature is stunned for a number of round equal to the number rolled on the superiority die.  At the end of each of the creature’s turns it can attempt another Constitution saving throw to end the stun condition.

 

 

Thoughts?

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Monsternomicon: Mind Flayers

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Product–Monsternomicon: Mind Flayers

System-DnD 5e

Producer-DM Guild

Price– $1.49 here http://www.dmsguild.com/product/172230/Monsternomicon-Mind-Flayers&affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR-An awesome product that shows the DM Guilds problems. 93%

172230

Basics-Let me pick you brain…. Mind flayers!  This product provides some background on the illthids that stalk the Underdark from elder brains to lich mind flayers.  This product is firmly a GM only product but provides a ton of different creatures for the DM to throw at his/her players as well as whole campaign of ideas for the players to combat.

Mechanics or Crunch-I love mind flayers, and this book provides some awesome new crunch to their bag of tricks.  This book is primarily a monster manual focusing on these evil monsters, but the monsters it does provide all look great in terms of their stats.  This product stays away from the psionic side of things and introduces new monsters like a lich mind flayer.  Nothing quite like an undead brain eater to throw at the party!  What’s here is a fun bag of tricks for the DM to surprise the players with. 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-Here is where things are slightly off kilter, but not by much.  There are no pictures of any on the creatures from this book.  I’d like a few more pictures so I can throw these to my players to instill the sheer horror of what’s ahead of them.  What is here though does have some great fluff to build on the world and the mythos of the purple fiends from underground.  Also, by focusing on the arcane, the book misses a bit of the psionic fun that these creatures have.  The arcane monsters that are here are great, so while I might not be as enthralled with the magic of them they do have their own world built around them. 4.75/5

Execution–  What’s here is good, but I’d like a bit more art to show the players and break up the text.  The major problem I have is some systemic problems that can’t really be fixed.  The DM guild provides an awesome platform for creators to build onto the world that Wizards of the Coast has.  However, it comes with limits, and this book runs into them and it hurts the product a bit. I’d like this product to start with the basic mind flayer.  The book can’t as that’s not allowed by the terms of the DM Guild.  I’d like to include the current psychic ideas, but that also can’t be added as that isn’t part of the DM Guild as well.  Overall, it’s a great product, but I feel it’s fighting a bit of an uphill battle to be as amazing as it is. 4.25/5

Summary-Mind flayers are my second favorite enemy after the undead, so this book hit the best parts of my evil soul.  I love new options to make my players cringe and cry as horrors beyond time and space devover commoners in horrific ways, and this book provides those new abominations to make that happen.  However, I feel that a few changes would help this product get to its potential.  Some are minor things like more pictures of the monsters, but some are things that can’t be fixed because of the platform it’s placed on.  The DM Guild is a phenomenal resource, but some of its restrictions will hurt products.  And, I feel that those restrictions hurt the product here.  It doesn’t damage the product in a real tangible way.  You will enjoy this from cover to cover, but you can feel the problems it presents in this tome. 93%

Daily Punch 2-10-16 Rapid Strikes maneuver for DnD 5e

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I’ve dug deep into the fighter, so let’s keep going with another maneuver!

 

Rapid Strikes. When you would make a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority dice to rapidly shoot your ranged weapon or to swing your melee weapon at a creature you are engaged with.  That creature must attempt a Dexterity saving throw.  On a failure the creature takes damage as if you had hit the target as well as extra damage equal to a number rolled on your superiority dice.  You may attempt this any time you would make a weapon attack.

 

Thoughts?

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of One Night Ultimate Vampire

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Product-One Night Ultimate Vampire

Producer–Bezier Games

Price– $25  here http://www.amazon.com/Night-Ultimate-Vampire-Board-Game/dp/B013TRQSWY/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1454300120&sr=1-1&keywords=one+night+ultimate+vampire

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 10 minutes (3-10 players!)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Even I get to play! 96%

photo-original

Basics-Are you a vampire?  One Night Ultimate Vampire is the latest instalment of the hit Werewolf franchise.  In this incantation, players all are members of a village plagued by vampires.  During set up, players elected a number of different roles for the players to take equal to the number of players plus three.  Each player get a secret role card as well as a mark of clarity.  This is a token that states you have no effects currently on your characters.  The three unused roles are set in the middle of the table, but not revealed to the players.  Then all players close their eyes.  Much like One Night Ultimate Werewolf, there is an IOs and Android app that the players can use to have an automated game master.    Each of these characters all have different actions that the computer will tell you when to take them.   The computer will then move through the roles, and one by one tell the characters to take their actions and when.  These actions range from the vampires all selecting another, non-vampire and changing that characters face down mark of clarity for a bite mark.  That character is now a vampire!  Another action could be the priest.  That character removed his or her current mark, unseen, and takes a mark of clarity for himself/herself and another character as well.  Midway through the game, the players look at their current marks, and then close their eyes again.  Other characters and roles then take their actions such as the marksmen who then looks at one players mark and another player’s card.  Once all characters have taken their actions, the game instructs you to wake up and to choose a player to kill!  If members of the village team kill a vampire, they win!  If the vampires all survive, then they win.  But, the game throws monkey wrenches into things like an assassin who isn’t a villager, but has to convince the town to kill his/her target to win.

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Mechanics– This game is pure, orchestrated chaos and that is beautiful!  Every player gets a role and action.  No player just sits tight is a pure improvement of the game.  All the actions are simple, and what happens to your character is pretty simple as well.  This game takes less than 10 minutes to play, and that’s’ hard to pull off with up to 10 people!  However the best part for me is that all people get to play.  Instead of me running the game and not being able to play, the app makes this a fun experience for everyone you can find!  This is the definition of simple, fast, party fun.  5/5

Theme–  So the game is pretty strange, but  honestly you will have a blast and feel tension.  This game has honest to god tention!  You try so hard to do your action in a way where you won’t cause yourself to out yourself as a vampire or a villager.  The apps simple music helps paint a story.  Sure, you won’t get the amazing story of a DnD game, but it’s 10 minutes frantic voting to try to keep yourself alive and find the monsters among you. 5/5

Instructions– The one problem I have with this game is the instruction.  A cheat sheet would help this game, and maybe a few more explicit instructions.  Sure, the game isn’t hard to play, but unless your read every detail of the book, players miss hiding marks, keeping only one mark at a time, and most players won’t always remember the mark’s functions.  Reading the rules cover to cover will get you those rules, but I think that something else might be able to get the players hitting the ground running a little faster. 4.25/5

Execution– I love chunky cardboard.  I love quick games.  And, I love the app for this game.  It’s available to almost everyone, and now even I, the ever GM for my home games, gets to play the game.  A little more volume might help, but that might be my phone’s quite nature.  I can’t gush enough about how this game is put together.  If you want to see all the pieces check out our unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/54qa9yOJ98c.  5/5

Summary-Ok, this review took longer to read then for the game to play.  If you want a fun, quick, party game for up to 10 people, go buy this game.  For about $20, you get a phenomenal game that everyone gets to play in.  This series has shown some significant changes over time, but from what I’ve seen they’ve keep the games soul while finding the improvements that are need to keep it viable.  Just go get this game! 96%

Daily Punch 2-9-16 Two-Fisted Fighter Fighting Style for DnD 5e

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What happens when you don’t want to be a monk, but you also don’t want to be sword fighter?  What if you don’t want to use feats or multiclassing to make that happen…

 

Two-Fisted Fighter

Instead of attacking with a weapon, you my choose to attack with your body instead.  You count as proficient with any strikes made with your own body and use damage equal to a monk of your level.  Much like attacking with two weapons, you can make an additional strike, but you do not add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the second strike.

 

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 8-2-16 Whirlwind Attack maneuver for DnD5e

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I’ve been reading a ton of DnD lately with Winter Fantasy last weekend.  Let’s add a few things I think would be awesome.

 

Whirlwind Attack.  When you would make a weapon attack, you can expend two superiority dice to attempt to simultaneously attack all creatures engaged with you.  Each creature you are engaged with must attempt a Dexterity saving throw.  On a failure the creature takes damage as if you had made a melee weapon attack plus extra damage equal to a number rolled on one of your superiority dice.  You may attempt this any time you would make a melee weapon attack.

 

 

Thoughts?