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Ring Side Report-Unboxing, How to Play, and Review of Space Base!
Month: April 2018
Daily Punch 4-23-18 Crippling Dagger magic weapon for DnD 5e
How about a magic item today? I’ve got a few ideas…
Crippling Dagger
weapon(dagger), very rare
This +1 dagger looks more like a pin as it lacks a guard and is simply a solid cone of metal ending in a infinitely small point. When wielded by an cunning swordsman, it worse than fatal learning how to twist the knife to make even the biggest opponent hurt. Once per round, it a target is struck with this weapon while the attacker has advantage, the target of the attack must make a saving throw. On a failure, the target is incapacitated for one round. On a success the target is immune for one round. The DC of the saving throw is detailed below.
| Creature Size | DC |
| Tiny | 13 |
| Small | 14 |
| Medium | 15 |
| Large | 16 |
| Huge | 17 |
| Gigantic | 20 |
Thoughts?
Daily Punch 4-20-18 Nimble feat for DnD 5e
More fun for the upcoming book.
Nimble
There are only two types of people out there: The quick and the dead! Gain the following:
- Increase your Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you wear light or no armor, you gain a bonus to AC equal to half your Dexterity modifier rounded up.
Thoughts?
Ring Side Report- Savage Worlds Deluxe Core Rules
Product– Savage Worlds Deluxe Core Rules
System-Savage Worlds
Producer– Pinnacle Entertainment
Price– $9.99 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/92743/Savage-Worlds-Deluxe?term=savage+worlds+delu&test_epoch=0?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-Super Swingy, but super fun! 97%
Basics-Wanna do…. Anything? Savage Worlds is a generic RPG that isn’t tethered to any one world or system. It’s so untethered to any setting that the first few pages of the book are all the different worlds the Pinnacle Entertainment and others offer. Let’s dive into this game and see what’s there.
Base Mechanics- Here is where the fun begins. Savage Worlds uses a dice chain. When you want to do a thing that needs a roll, you roll your skill die and aim for a 4 after modifier. That’s pretty much it. Hit 4 and the thing happens. Every 4 above 4 is a raise and does something awesome. Sometimes damage, sometimes extra effects, but it’s always something good. If you hit the max number on a die, then got an ace, and you roll the dice again adding to the total. Ace again? Keep going! Like I said above, this system is super swingy, but fun.
Stats-Your skills and attribute dice are decided at character generation. Your attribute are Agility, Smarts, Strength, Spirit, Vigor. These are dice ranging from a d4 to a d12. Most humans have a d6 in every attribute. When you build a character you get dice for a skill, but the skill advancement is tied to each attribute and advancing past an attribute dice cost a lot more than normal. If you ever don’t have the skill that you want to use, you roll a d4-2 still trying to hit the 4, so hope for the ace!
Wild cards and Extras-Extras are random background people from the mook attacking the bar to the faceless ninjas that you mow down in wave after wave. Wild cards are special character ranging from your player character to the big bad evil guy. Wild cards get an extra die to all rolls called the wild die that is a d6. You roll this for attacks and skills, even if you are untrained!
Edges and Hindrances-Something I miss from light systems are feats. Savage Worlds has edges and hindrances. At character generation you get hindrances that flesh out your character as well as bonuses called edges that give you extra little abilities from being able to hit harder bare handed or bonuses on some skill rolls.
Combat and Initiative-Savage Worlds has roots in some crazy RPGs and none comes out more that initiative. Players don’t roll, but get cards from a deck of playing cards with the Jokers left in. High card and suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and finally Clubs). Jokers do crazy things to the person who draws them and then after the round the initiative deck is reshuffled. Each round you get to move a bit and do one action. Actions range from shooting people to doing a skill. Melee attacks means you have to hit the opponents parry value. Ranged attacks have to hit a 4. In either case rases add an additional 1d6 of damage to the target. If you hit you then roll damage equal to your weapon value. If the damage value equals an enemies toughness (2 + half the opponents vigor die), then the opponent is shaken. Shaken means your do nothing next turn except try to shake off the hit via a Spirit roll (4 to shake it off, 8 to act normally). If you get a raise on the toughness, than the enemy takes a wound. Wild Cards have three wounds before a fourth kills them, but extras only have one before they are down!
Bennies-Oh story candy! I love you! Bennies are chips you get to reroll dice, immediately shake of being shaken, and whatever you convince your GM that you can do. The GM gets a pile as well! Act like your character would? Story Candy. Do something cool? Story Candy. Buy the GM a coke? STORY CANDY!
Character Generation- A big theme in savage worlds is rules light, and Savage Worlds is really light when it comes to character generation. Characters are made by doing a number of small steps. When you build a character you start by choosing a race, which may give you additional starting abilities with humans getting one extra edge, then you get point to buy new attribute dice, going up one level on the dice chain for each point, points to get and advance skills , one for one as before, move to selecting edges, then you can select to get extra hiderence to get more points for skills and edges, and finally you get gear based on the campaign you’re playing. DONE. The hardest part is selecting what gear and edges you will chose.
Leveling up or Advancement-Every good game needs XP, and this one give xp at the end of each session. For every five xp, a character can get a new edge, advance attribute dice, raise one skill above an attribute, raise two skills with values under a linked attribute, or get a d4 in a new skill. For every 20 XP a character enters a new rank that give access to new edges.
Magic, machines, and maham- Savage Words is system agnostic, so magic and powers a built in but not essential. Characters can get powers via different routes from the gods, reading books, or simply building a crazy lightning boxes from technology. All power work the same as they start with getting an edge. The powers have a rank you can get them at, a cost in power point (think magic points from Final Fantasy), and some skills you have to roll to make them happen, if needed for things like attacks. It feels like old schoo video game!
Ok, enough background, what are my thoughts.
Theme or Fluff-No fluff for this one. Each world needs its own fruff. There is awesome stuff here from the Rippers universe where people fight monsters in a Victorian setting with magic, monstrous power of their own, and machines to Solomon Kain fighting monsters across the world. It’s all fun, but Savage Worlds is anything you want it to be. You give the biggest thing in the world to d12+2 for his or her thing, and then you set the smallest or weakest thing at d4-2 for their thing, and scale accordingly. You can do Savage Hacks for literally anything from Shadowrun to DnD. If you like the math above, see if your favorite system or setting has a Savage Hack out there, or go make one! -/5
Mechanics or Crunch– Holy cow is this thing swingy! That’s not a bad thing, but it is a thing. If you need careful balance where expected results always happen, WALK AWAY NOW! But if you love you some pulp craziness, then get into this game. Its light and fast. I play with no miniatures, but many people love miniatures. I just love the math here. It goes fast and plays quick. The one thing I don’t like is how little the attributes matter. They are important for some things like Spirit rolls and determining toughness, but overall they feel slightly left aside. As this is mostly a skills game, its ok, but I always hate when games have attributes, but don’t really use them as much as say Dungeons and Dragons. It’s not bad, but it’s something that sticks in my craw. If you can ignore that one complaint I have, then Savage Worlds is a swingy, amazing system! 4.9/5
Execution– Is this available in PDF since its past 2015? Check. Hyperlinked to make my life easy? Check. Overall, I love how the book looks. I’d like a bit more walkthrough on a few things, but once you work through the rules it’s easy enough. Also, I’d like a bit more tables to break up some of the text for things like spells. It’s a well done book that you can skim through in an afternoon without an advanced degree or major eye strain. 4.8/5
Summary-I am a convert! I love lots of different systems, but Savage Worlds is one that always seemed off in the corner where the weird kids hang out. It’s a smaller system, but its got a big cult following, almost like The Evil Dead. And I think that that’s a good way to look at this system. If you want your standard fantasy where predictable thing happen at predictable time scales, then this isn’t for you. It’s not bad, but it’s not for you. If you want a faster pace with some crazy stuff happening like a player who is the town poopscooper getting five aces in a row and triple critting the big bad evil guy on the first turn, then this is the game for you. The system is slick, fast, and low crunch. The book is well put together and reads quickly and enjoyably. That’s everything I want in an RPG, and a system I can’t wait to get back into. 97%
Daily Punch 4-19-18 Mass Inflict Wounds spell for DnD 5e
We have mass cure, so why not mass hurt!
Mass Inflict Wounds
5th-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You drain the life from an area in range. Choose up to six creatures in a 30-foot-radius sphere centered on that point.
On a failed Wisdom saving throw, each target takes 6d8 necrotic damage. This spell has no effect on constructs and undead.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, increases the damage by 1d8 for each slot level above 5th.
Daily Punch 4-18-18 Gaea’s Chosen Warlock Patron
How about some anti-God Giant warlocks?
Gaea’s Chosen
Somehow you now work exclusively against the gods be it from loss or anger. This has lead to other patrons noticing you. Chief of among those is Gaea. Having lost her first creation, she now works behind the scenes choosing those she finds worthy to help hear giant children retake heaven!
Expanded Spell List
Gaea lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Shield, entangle |
| 2nd | enhance ability, barkskin |
| 3rd | Meld into Stone, Counterspell (divine magic only) |
| 4th | Stone Shape, Stoneskin |
| 5th | Conjure Elemental (Earth Elemental only), Wall of Stone |
The Gift of Pharmakon
Starting at 1st level, you gain advantage against all spells and effects from divine creatures and all divine spells and effects have disadvantage to hit you.
Gift of the Earth Mother
Starting at 6th level, you can no longer be killed while on ground and without divine help. If you die on natural earth (ground that is not process to become a street, stone not made into fortress or man-made caves, or earth not made into farmland) you instantly stabilize. You only begin dying if a non-magic weapon and a divine spell both attack you in the same turn and you are taken off the natural earth. This power functions on the elemental plains, but does not function on other planes.
Gaea’s Dark Protection
Starting at 10th level, up to a number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, when you cast a spell and are directly standing on natural earth you may draw power from Gaea and cause the spell to be affected bye empower spell as a Sorcerer’s ability.
Giant Metamorphosis
Starting at 14th level, Gaea blesses you with a few drops of the last true giants blood. You fall into a trance for 24 hours after which your type changes to giant, you be large, your Constitution, Strength, and Charisma increase by +2, to a maximum of 22. All gear you had when you entered the trance is now sized for a large creature, but you weapons do not deal extra damage. In addition, you feet become snakes you can walk upon. It does not change your speed, but as a melee spell attack with which you are proficient, you may attempt to attack another target as an action dealing 3d10+Charisma modifier poison damage to the target.
Daily Punch 4-17-18 Thick feat for DnD 5e
A man in Texas was stabbed by knife over 12 inches long. He didn’t sustain any injuries because it failed to hit any organs! Here is the feat for that.
Thick
You were always big, and that bulk took the hits for the rest of your body. When you take bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage you may reduce the damage by an amount equal to your Constitution modifier. This reduction occurs after damage reduction is factored in.
Thoughts?
Daily Punch 4-16-18 Giantblooded feat for DnD 5e
You know what Nietzsche said about fighting monsters….
Giantblooded
You have always been tall for you people. Maybe their is some of the tall folk in your family history. Gain the following:
- Increase your Constitution or Strength by 1, to a maximum of 24.
- Your new maximum of Constitution or Strength is 24, and you may act as if all feats that allow you to increase Constitution or Strength have a maximum of 24.
- You gain training in Strength(athletics) or gain advantage on all Strength(athletics) checks.
Thoughts?
Daily Punch 4-13-18 Precise Strike feat for DnD 5e
We have power attack, but why not go the other way?
Precise Strike
Damage is great, but hitting your foe is even better! Gain the following:
- Increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- As part of a weapon attack, you can reduce your damage by one step on this dice chain. For every step you reduce the dice, you gain a +1 bonus to attack for that attack roll. You may reduce your damage by up to half your proficiency bonus. Dice chain: 1d3-1d4-1d6-1d8-1d10-1d12/2d6-2d8-2d10-4d6-4d8-4d10.
Thoughts?
Daily Punch 4-12-18 Orion’s Apprentice Ranger Archetype for DnD 5e
How about a giant that teaches a hunter to be a better stalker?
Orion’s Apprentice
Not all giants are evil, some are simply boisterous, and your master is no different. Orion is a master huntsman who has gift far above mortal men and giants. He has taken you under his wing and provided you with gifts that are amazing and terrible to behold.
Orion’s Own Gifts
At 3rd level, you gain some of the masters power as you train in his stead. You gain advantage on all Strength(athletics) and Wisdom(survival) checks. In addition, you gain the ability to cast waterwalk once per day.
The Gifts of Helios
At 7th level, you gain the gift of healing from the sun itself. Once per day, as a bonus action you may spend as many healing surges as you want healing as normal from each surge.
Gift of Sirius
At 11th level, you gain the gift of survive from the master’s dog. You gain conjure animals as an extra prepared spell. You may also cast conjure animals once per day as a bonus action. that does not require concentration and the animals last for up to eight hours. The animals conjured by this spell still act as if summoned by the spell conjure animals, but you may only conjure an animal that is canine in nature if you cast this spell as a bonus action.
Final Lesson of the Master
At 15th level, you learn exactly what was such a painful lesson for the maters. From now on you can coat your weapons in poison from a scorpion changing all your weapon damage to poison if you choose. In addition, you can a number of time per day equal to your wisdom modifier coat your weapons in Wyvern poison. A creature struck with this weapon must make a Constitution saving throw (DC equal to your spell save DC) taking 30 (10d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
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