Tag: DnD

Daily Punch 12-16-14 Blood Sorcerer Sorcerous Origin for DnD 5e

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 1 Comment

How about a completely different way to cast spells as a Sorcerer in 5e?

Blood Sorcerer

Magic is in your blood….., and in blood in general.  Life is power, and you know how to extract power from your own life.

Power in the blood

You no longer have  a Sorcery Points pool, but you add any point you would gain as hit points.  You also no longer have a limit to the number of spells you can cast per day.  When you cast a spell of any level, lose double the spell level in hit points.  You can cast spells as long you still have positive, non-zero hit points, but you must take the damage.  Cantrips cause one hit-point loss.

Spilled blood, released power

Starting at 6th level, when you are dealt damage as a reaction you can use that hit point loss to cast one spell as a reaction.  The spell level must be less then or equal to double the lost hit point total.  You do not take damage for casting this spell.  You can not use this ability again until you take a short or long rest.

Shared Power

Starting at 14th, another can donate a small vial of blood to you.  Another creature can take any amount of damage and donate that damage to you as hit points you can use to cast spells.  A creature can take up to 30 point of damage.  You can use these points of damage as you would normally use hit point for Power in the Blood.  This donation of blood is usable until that creature takes a long rest.

Stolen Power

Starting at 18 level, you can now use the suffering of your targets to energize your spells.  As a swift action on your turn, when you cause damage to a creature using one of your spells, you can capture up to double your level in hit points of damage from that creature.  You can use these points of damage as you would normally use hit point for Power in the Blood. You must use these points within an hour.  Or, the power leaves them, and they are lost.  You can not use this power until you take another long rest.

Blurbs from the booth- Can we enjoy something for once?

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Let’s talk about three things that just came out-

Jurassic World Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFinNxS5KN4

Star Wars 7- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOVFvcNfvE

Terminator Genisys- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62E4FJTwSuc

 

So odds are you’ve all watched those trailers, and my question to you is:  Can we no longer feel joy?  The reaction I’ve seen to all three of these trailers is overwhelmingly negative.  Why?  Those trailers don’t look any different from any other trailer for an amazingly awesome movie.  What’s happened?   From debate over how a light saber looks to outright racist reactions about Stormtrooper skin color, everybody is unhappy with these movies.  We’ve got almost a year till some of these movies come out.  Now, if you don’t want an action movie, then you’re right to say I don’t want to see that movie.  But, honestly all three look great and are all aimed at our inner geeks.

If you want to get into debates about little things, let’s look at all the logic together.  Lightsabers are an amazingly stupid idea!  They would kill most people who picked them up.  Even the Jedi/Sith would most likely kill themselves than their targets.  Also, lightsabers can’t block projectiles.  Lasers weapons work fine against blocking lasers, but three drunken rednecks with shotguns can kill even the most skilled force user.  But, you know what? They look really cool.  It’s Christmas time.  And, if you’re giving gifts, when you finish with the roll of wrapping paper, guess what noise we all make while swinging the tube around?  Same goes with Jurassic World.  Looks great and will be a fun ride.  We’ve got Pratt riding shotgun with some velociraptors and some new genetically modified dino thrown in the mix.  I’ve got a PhD in biochemistry.  If I wanted to start tearing down the movie, I could.  From dino’s mostly likely being covered in feathers to the fact the half life of DNA in amber is two million years, Jurassic Park could not happen.  But, that movie hits me right in the inner 12 year old.  Sometimes, you just have to let that child out and enjoy the ride.

I see this a lot in the geek community.  DnD 4e come out and most people didn’t even want to try to play it.  Now if you played it and didn’t like it, then you get to have an honest opinion.  DnD 5e comes out, and those same people who hated DnD4e sight unseen now hate this new product.  But, if you haven’t even seen the end product, or even read a summary of the product, why are you making opinions on things?  That’s like deciding you hate a style of music without even hearing a 30 second snippet of a song.  If the movies come out and they do suck, then I don’t have a problem with honest criticism.  But, let’s criticize the thing when it’s here.  Right now, we have 88 seconds of a two hour movie.

So my question is: can we feel joy anymore?  Can geeks see something new and not just jump on the hate bandwagon?  Do we have a compulsive need to hate so much you want to be the hate hipster who’s driving the bandwagon?  I’m sorry you can’t have that joy again of being young again with life being much simpler, but try to see the joy that exists in the world.  New things don’t have to suck, and you don’t have to hope the suck either!  Can we all just try to feel some joy?

Daily Punch 12-4-14 Holy Touch Feat for DnD 5e

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I’m working my way through all the classes, and now I think the paladin needs some extra.  How about a feat to help with lay on hands?

 

Holy Touch

You have been touched by your god, and that flows through you to others.  Double the total amount of hit points you can restore each day by Lay On Hands.

 

Thoughts?  Should that be triple? What do you think is appropriate for a paladin?

Daily Punch 12-2-14 Natural Motivator feat for DnD 5e

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I’ve been making feats for each other class, let’s keep this going now for bards!

 

Natural Motivator

You are a natural speaker, and you can motivate your fellows well.  Gain the following benefits:

  • Increase your song of rest by one step.  A d6 becomes a d8.  When your dice would increase past d12, you dice become 2d8.
  • Increase your bardic inspiration by one step.  Follow the above rules for increasing your dice.

 

Thoughts?

Ring Side Report-Dungeon Master’s Guide

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 3 Comments

Product-Dungeon Master’s Guide

System– Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition

Producer– Wizards of the Coast

Price– ~$50 here http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Masters-Guide-Core-Rulebook/dp/0786965622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417382314&sr=8-1&keywords=dungeon+masters+guide

TL; DR– Bands all together, let’s rock! 98%

 

Basics– Let’s get ready to roll!  The Dungeon Master’s Guide is the final book of the core three for Dungeons and Dragons.  This book covers all the behind the Dungeon Master’s screen aspects of the game.  It is roughly broken into three sections: creating a world/universe, creating adventures, and the math of the game/how to run Dungeons and Dragons.

 

Mechanics or Crunch– Ya’ know what I HATE in a RPG designed for the Dungeon Master?  No random tables!  Yes, I know they are a crutch that bad GM’s use when they don’t prep for an adventure.  But, I don’t want to have to figure out what I’m doing every second of the game, and sometimes the players will want to do something and having a random answer will really help make their choices happen at a moment’s notice.  This book as random tables out the wazoo-from making a complete random dungeon to a random adventure and the encounters between!  Also, this book goes into great detail on how to make the adventures in a non-random thought out way.  From the math behind monsters to how to hand out items and treasure, the book does an excellent job at making your life as a DM as simple as it can explaining how to set up a game in a manner where it won’t crash and fail from problems on the DM’s side of the screen.  Also, found the missing monster by CR guide from the Monster Manual!  It’s good to see it here, but it would be better to see it also in the Monster Manual. 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-This book is full of content and absent of any content in the right ways.  The book goes into how to make a game work as a story and how to fill that story with people to meet and to kill while providing the default multiverse a bit of background too.  From the geography of the multiverse to how a circle of elders works in a feudal village, the game explains how to design a world and a story.  It’s a little light on advice on how to handle players.  That’s an experience thing, but some more sage wisdom on how to handle different kinds of people is always appreciated my new RPG fans.  The book does point to a reading list of books on how to GM, so that does cover kind of what I was hoping this book would have for the newer GM’s out there.  Overall, it’s got great story and tips on how to build your own story!  4.75/5

 

Execution– Just like the other two DnD 5e books, this one is well done!  There are enough words per page to inform, but not enough to bore.  There are lots of pictures to make the reader think of ideas to throw at their players, and almost all of them are new!  I used to play “spot the old art” in my DnD books, but I only saw one reused piece of art in this book which makes me extremely happy (along with the random tables!).  And, the new art is awesome!  If you want to learn how to make a book great from a layout, art, and design sense, then it’s this and Paizo’s books. 5/5

 

Summary– Look, if you’re running DnD, you bought this on Black Friday like the rest of us.  It’s that simple.  WotC spread out the core three books, and if you’ve bought the first two, then you bought this one too. If you’re new to RPGs, then get this book as well as the Player’s Handbook and Monster Manual.  This book has an awesome layout, great story ideas, and some randomness to help you get your players into the action as quickly as possible.  If you love Dungeons and Dragons, you need this book.  If you want to learn how to run Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, this is an awesome book that will give you all the tools you need to build the games you want and have a blast doing it.  This is a great capstone for the basic trinity of 5th edition DnD.  98%