Month: December 2019

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Refractions of Glasston

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 1 Comment

Product– Refractions of Glasston

System-Call of Cthulhu, 7th ed

Producer– Taylor University PWR Press

Price– free! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297601/Refractions-of-Glasston?affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR– A grade 297601college work!  90%

 

 

Basics-All is not well in the midwest….In a small glass making town in Indiana, something ancient and evil is stirring.  Can our heroes learn the horrific secrets in time or will fail and end up consumed by the glass as well? Let’s break this down!

Mechanics or Crunch– This is mechanically well done for an intro adventure.  Honestly, the only major tool in the CoC toy box that isn’t on display is a chase scene.  There are fights, ancient, evil books, spells, investigation, and lots of social interaction.  If you play your cards right, don’t lose your head, and look everywhere (all the parts of a smart CoC investigator), you can put down something TRULY evil, and it will feel natural when you do it.  5/5

Theme or Fluff-Here things suffer a bit.  The story is decent once you are in.  However, it’s a big rough getting the different investigators together, into the town, and working together.  That’s a pretty rough start other than “YOU SEEM TRUSTWORTHY! LET’S INVESTIGATE HORRORS BEYOND HUMAN KEN TOGETHER!”  But once you are past that part of the story, it opens up well and you will have a blast. 4.5/5

Execution–  PDF?  Yep! Hyperlinked?  no…. For a first outing by this team, I like what’s here.  Need my links, but it’s not bad. There are rough spots like there is a character that they characters will need up with who plays a major role in advancing the story, but she’s not in the Dramatis personæ at the back of the adventure, so that’s a minor problem.  Aside from minor issues like that, the adventure is solid. The pregenerated characters have a mix of types that are fun, but their skills are thought out enough that they compliment the problems you see well. I would like for pulp options in the next adventure like how that is handled in the larger adventures Chaosium puts out, but again, that’s going beyond in development.  What’s here is relatively solid and reads well out of the box. 4/5

 

Summary-I majored in the hard sciences in college, so I never did anything as cool as write a CoC adventure for credit.  But, if this is the quality I can expect going forward, I think I really missed something awesome. This is a good intro adventure with a fun variety of toys to spring on and for the adventurers.  The story has a harder start, but once it’s going, it takes off. The execution is decent. It’s not perfect, but the issues are minor enough that the players won’t know if you think on your feet as a keeper.  Good layout and text make this easy enough to read. I did enjoy the line about completely reading the adventure before you start because that NEVER happens. Overall, this is a fantastic intro adventure I feel like I can spring on any group of new players and get an amazing CoC experience that will hook them for decades to come.  90%

Daily Punch 12-26-19 HEROES FEAST M4 mystic spell for Starfinder

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How about some holidays in space!

HEROES FEAST M4

School conjuration (creation)

Casting Time 10 minutes

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)

Targets one creature/level

Duration 1 hour plus 12 hours; see text

Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

DESCRIPTION

You bring forth a great feast, including a magnificent table, chairs, service, and food and drink. The feast takes 1 hour to consume, and the beneficial effects do not set in until this hour is over. Every creature partaking of the feast is cured of all sickness and nausea, receives the benefits remove afliction, and gains 1d8 temporary hit points and stamina points + 1 point per two caster levels (maximum +10) after imbibing the nectar-like beverage that is part of the feast. The ambrosial food grants each creature that partakes a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and will saves and a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against against poison, radiation, and fear effects for 12 hours.

If the feast is interrupted for any reason, the spell is ruined and all effects of the spell are negated.

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 12-23-19 Sudden Mercy Champion feat for Pathfinder 2e

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I like healing tanks, so let’s throw some love to the 2e Pathfinder!

 

Sudden Mercy [FREE-ACTION] FEAT 8

Concentrate Metamagic Champion

Frequency once per day

Prerequisite(s) Mercy

You quickly invoke the gods to help you aid your allies. If your next action is to perform lay on hands, you cast the spell without using an action but must still spend a focus point to perform the spell.

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 12-11-19 Belittle for Bard ability in Castles and Crusades

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Playing some CnC at my local store and my bard isnt about helping the party. He wants to insult the enemies. I can make this happen!

BELITTLE (CHARISMA): This is the bard’s ability to crush his enemies, punishing them and destroying their drive. A bard can spend his turn riduculing a foe. The foe can make a charisma save to avoid the harsh words. On a failure, the enemy gets a -2 penalty on any action requiring an attribute check, including class ability checks, attacks, saving throws and standard attribute checks. The enemy must be able to see and hear the bard, and must be within 60 feet. The Castle Keeper may rule that certain uses of this ability are infeasible. The bard can use this ability once per day per level, and can maintain the effect for a number of rounds equal to the bard’s level. The bard can take other actions while using this ability, unless the Castle Keeper rules otherwise. As the bard rises in levels, the penalty imparted increases as well. It rises to -3 at 6th
level, -4 at 12th level and -5 at 18th level.

Thoughts?

Ring Side Report-Keeping It Classy: The Cleric

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Product– Keeping it Classy: The Cleric

System-Dungeons and Dragons 5e

Producer– DMs Guild

Price– $ 5.95 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/290873/Keeping-It-Classy-The-Cleric?affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR– Routinely amazing 93%

290873

Basics-Time for class options for my favorite class-the cleric!  How does this one stack up compared to the others?

Mechanics or Crunch–  This is a well done book with a few things that I would not have done myself.  The book has new cleric domains. That was a given, and these are well done mechanics.  Perhaps a few too many rely on playing with the channel ability, but I like them all. The book has new items.  Again, solid things I expected. The book also has a new race. This I am less a fan of. It’s well done, but I want all the races set out before I start a game.  That’s just preference. What I would like instead is more spells and feats. But, that’s again a personal preference. What is here is solid, but I would just like more.    4/5

Theme or Fluff–  The Keeping It Classy series keeps it classy here.  The race is well done. The domains feel right. The items have good fluff to make you feel them in the world.  I love what is in this book! 5/5

 

Execution–  PDF?  Yep! Hyperlinked?  Yep! Ok, all the things I want standard in a book written in 2019!  It uses public domain art well to break up the flow and makes the book easier to read, so this honestly is how I want books written out.  New art is nice, but for the price you can’t beat what is here! Text is well laid out. If you want solid design of a book, this is a good example to use.  5/5

 

Summary-The Keeping It Classy series is a precision machine that keeps spitting out precision product.  Think less McDonald’s machine and more Fine Dining expectations-the routine should be phenomenal.  And this is true. The book has good races, items, and class parts that if you want new options for your cleric, then this is worth your time.  I’m not as much a fan of new races as other DMs, but the race is well done. I’d just like more other “things” like feats and spells, especially for this spell casting class.  However, that boils down to the problem of me wanting more from this book, which means I like what’s here. This is as always a routinely amazing book from a routinely amazing team.  93%

Daily Punch 12-6-19 The Way of Anger monk monastic tradition for DnD 5e

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been known to fly into a crazy rage and I’ve got a black belt. Let’s get some peanut butter into the chocolate!

The Way of Anger

Not all monks practice the art of silent meditation and delicate self-discipline. Some monks fuel their abilities on the anger that burns in their soul. These monks learn to harness that anger and release it at their enemies when the time arises.

The Way of Rage

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you learn to harness your anger to move faster and hit harder. You enter a fugue state where only combat matters as a bonus action on your turn akin to a barbarian’s rage. You gain the following benefits

  • You have advantage on Dexterity checks and Dexterity saving throws.
  • When you use a bonus action to make an attack, you may make an additional unarmed attack. This stacks with bonus action attacks from ki point use.
  • Melee attacks against you are made at disadvantage.

If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while in this state.

Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.

You can do this a number of times per day equal to your level /3 + 1, minimum 2 per day. Once you have raged this number of times, you must finish a long rest before you can rage again.

Any effect, ability, or feat that would affect a barbarians rage also affect this ability as well.

All Out Attack

At 6th level, your training in focusing for combat bleeds into your ferocity during your rage. If you declare one target as the soul person you will attack this round at the start of your turn, you gain two ki points that you must spend this round in attacks against this target or in advancing on the target. If the target dies or is incapacitated during your round, you may not attack another target but may continue to attack the target’s body or remains.

Hatred

Beginning at 11th level, you now enter a state where you no longer experience the outside world during your rage state. During your rage, you gain resistance to psychic damage and have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.

Only Violence

At 17th level, you gain the ability to literally let rage keep you alive. If you would be knocked out or killed while in a rage, you are allowed to stay conscious while making death saving throws. Increase the number of death saving throws you are allowed to make before dying by 3 while in a rage. Each round you automatically fail your death saving throw if you stay conscious in a rage. Critical hits on you increase the number of failed death saving throws you have failed by 2. While using this ability, you can not be healed or regain hit points. Each round you gain a number of ki points equal to your number of death saving throws you have currently failed. These addition ki point occur after abilities like perfect self have increased your ki pool. As a free action, you can voluntarily end your rage at the start of your turn and fall unconscious and stabilized at 2 death saving throws failed.

Thoughts?