Daily Punch 1-15-15 Ball Lightning Cantrip for DnD5e

Had a new player love Shocking Grasp, but hate to have to get close.  How about something similar, but not overpowered?

 

Ball Lightning

Evocation Cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 100 feet

Components: V,S

Duration: Instantaneous

You lob a ball of pure electricity at a target.  Make a ranged spell attack against the target.  On a hit, the target takes 1d6 electric damage and can not take reactions for the next turn.

The spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6)

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dues for the Dead

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dues for the Dead

Product– DDEX 1-04 Dues for the Dead

System– Dungeons and Dragons 5e

Producer– Wizards of the Coast

Price– FREE

TL; DR-An amazingly long dungeon crawl! 93 %

 

Basics– The dead walk, and that’s a problem for the priests of the dead.  Adventures are called to the Valhingen Graveyard to find the cause of these undead.  Will you answer the call?

 

Mechanics or Crunch– Mechanically, this game pretty much a by the book dungeon crawl.  It’s a fun romp that does have a lot of undead in it.  As a low level adventure, it’s got all the greatest hits you can expect.  Don’t expect a ton of new content, but get ready for a fun catacomb crawl.  4.5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-  You know what I want out of a four hour experience?  I want a crazy long dungeon crawl!  This adventure covers an extreme amount of ground.  Honestly, go big or go home!  There is also a ton of encounters and a ton of roleplay.  The players work with an acolyte who is a reluctant addition to the party.  She doesn’t steal the show, but she provides an awesome counterpoint to just having to kill wave after wave of monsters.  No one will be bored during this adventure.  5/5

 

Execution-Hay, it’s free!  That gives this some slack.  Usually I expect more pictures from a RPG product to break up the text, but for these free productions I’m ok.  The layout is ok, but I would like a bit more content spotlighted such as items, gold, and room highlights with either bold text or subsection on room descriptions.  That is a constant complaint I have for the current Adventure League adventure format, but again for free content, I’m pretty happy with what’s here.  Also, the adventure comes with two different maps: an awesome one of the whole catacombs and another of just the final encounter.  That helps groups that want to play up-close and tactile and for groups that want to play theater of the mind.  It’s got my constant complaints for layout, but all and all, it’s a good product.  4.5/5

 

Summary-I’m kind of biased on this one.  My favorite characters to play are clerics, and my favorite enemies to fight are undead.  Let’s write an adventure to me specifically!  Sure there are a few problems with layout like no art to break up text and honestly this is a by the book dungeon crawl, but this is a GOOD by the book dungeon crawl.  It’s large, has great roleplaying moments with your constant acolyte companion and “other” things that pop up over time, and build on the current story arc well.  I had a blast running it.  My players have always had a blast playing in it.  And now none of us can wait to see what’s next!  93%

Daily Punch 1-9-15 Alternate The Fiend ability for the Warlock in DnD 5e

How about some love for Tiefling Warlocks out there?  This ability replaces Dark One’s Own Luck

 

Power In the Blood

prerequisite: Tiefling

You’ve give yourself over to your fiendish ancestry.  You don’t use charisma for spellcasting or Charisma based skills and saves, but instead use Constitution for all spell casting depending effects, skills, and saves.  All spells you cast using your Infernal Legacy trait now use Constitution for their effects as well.  In addition, you gain one additional use of all spells gained from your Infernal Legacy trait.

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 1-7-15 Draconic Focus feat for DnD 5e

Saw a player who really wanted more dragon breaths.  Let’s work on that…

 

Draconic Focus

Prerequisite: dragonborn

Some dragonborn avoid their draconic parentage.  You’ve embraced your and trained it.  Gain the following benefits:

  • Gain one extra use of your dragon breath power per rest.
  • Increase the DC of your dragon breath by 1
  • If you use your dragon breath to attack a creature that is resistant to your dragon breath damage type, that resistance only reduce the damage to 3/4, not 1/2.

 

Thoughts?

 

Daily Punch 12-31-14 Mass Inflict Wounds spell for DnD 5e

What do you mean, mass inflect wounds  ISN’T in the PHB or the DMG for 5e?!  WELL, HERE IT IS!

 

Mass Inflict Wounds

5th Level Necromancy

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 6o feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Instantaneous

You create a gate to the plane of negative engergy that sucks all life from an area in range.  Choose up to six creatures in a 30 foot radius sphere centered on that point.  Targets in the radius of the spell must make a Wisdom saving throw.  Those that fail take 5d10 necrotic damage.  On a save, the targets take half as much damage

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the damage increase by 1d10 for each slot level above 5th.

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 12-30-14 Lich Patron Warlock for DnD 5e

Ya, I have been playing a ton of 5e lately?  Why do you ask?  Here is some more ideas for your 5e game-Lich patron Warlock?

 

The Lich

Power comes when things die.  What kind of power can come from something that refuses to die?  You’ve meet the creature in its tomb lair.  It offered you power along side its smell of decay.  You said yes.  Now you do the bidding of the cadaver itself.

Lich Expanded Spell List

Level          Spell

1st        inflict wounds, protection from good and evil

2nd      phantasmal force, blindness/deafness

3rd      animate dead, protection from energy

4th      Phantasmal Killer, evard’s black ttentacles

5th      cloudkill, mass inflict wounds

 

Dead Speech

Starting at 1st level, you patron bestows upon you the speech of the dead.  As an action, you can cast speak with dead.  You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

 

Life Draining Touch

Starting at 6th Level, your patron teaches you the secret of draining the life of others.  When you at the subject of a melee attack, you can cast vampiric touch as a reaction to the attack.  You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

 

Command of the Dead

Starting at 10th level, unintelligent undead will not longer attack you.  In addition to you gain resistance to all damage dealt to you from all undead, intelligent or otherwise.

Also, at 10th level, you gain the bonus spell create undead once per day.

 

Wrath of the Lich

Starting at level 14, you can point at a creature and fire a beam of negative energy at it as an action that can be avoided with a charisma saving .  If you succeed, you inflict 5d8 necrotic damage on the creature and the paralyzed.  You heal half the amount of damage dealt.  Each turn the creature can make a saving throw at the start of its turns.  If it fails it continues to be paralyzed and take 5d8 necrotic damage, and you continue to heal half the damage dealt.

You can not do this again until you complete a long rest.

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Daily Punch 12-29-14 Dark Lance spell for DnD 5e

I think there should be a spell that does negative energy at range.  Who else wants this?

 

Dark Lance

Necromancy Cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 120 feet

Components: V,S

Duration: Instantaneous

A dark lance of negative light shoots from your hand to the target.  Make a ranged spell attack against the target.  On a hit, the target takes 1d10 necrotic damage.

The spell’s damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10)

 

 

Thoughts?

 

Daily Punch 12-25-14 Specialist Wizard Feat for DnD 5e

Well Yesterday was a Generalist wizard.  How about a feat for the specialist wizards out there?

 

Specialist Wizard

Prerequisite: Wizard, Arcane Tradition focusing in one school of magic

Gain the following benefits:

  • Gain a +1 bonus to intelligence to a maximum of 20.
  • When you gain this feat, choose one school of magic to specialize in and two schools of magic to ignore.  When you prepare spells for the day, gain one extra spell slot per level of magic spells you know if you do not prepare magic spells from the schools of magic you ignore.  This extra slot can only be used to cast spells of your specialized school.

 

 

Thoughts?

Daily Punch 12-24-14 Universalist Wizard for DnD 5e

How about a Universalist Wizard Arcane Tradition for DnD 5e?

 

Universalist Wizard

Instead of focusing, you choose to study longer and harder then your fellows examining all the schools of magic.  This has given you powers over all magic, but you have mastered none.

Broad Studies

You know a little about all magic.  At level 2 for every spell level of magic you know, you gain one extra spell slot.  This continues as you learn higher level spell slots.

 

Surprising Recall

You can often recall a spell from just your memory based on your studies instead of your daily preparations.  At level 6 increase the number of spell you you can prepare daily by your intelligence modifier.

 

General Focus

You’ve learned a little bit about how to maximize or minimize every school you’ve studied.  At level 10, once per day per school of magic, before the target rolls a saving throw you can grant advantage or disadvantage to its saving throw against a spell you cast.

 

Student of the Many Ways

You have a unique knowledge of how magic flows.  Instead of learning just how one type of spell moves, you see the flow of them all. At level 14, you can choose one effect per day.  You can gain advantage on all saving throws against magic and magic effects or you can choose to have disadvantage on saving throws against magic effects to impart disadvantage on all saving throws against spells you cast and advantage on all spells you cast that require an attack roll.  This choice is mad when you prepare spells for the day.