Urdnot Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Oct 27, 2018 4:02:15 GMT
So, question. Next session is on Sunday and I'm thinking of a possible option for the kidnapper in the story to escape (if he is captured) via his blink dog. Would it be realistic to think that its teleport ability could take on both of them, if say he was holding onto it? Thinking sorta like Nightcrawler on it.
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Post by Iakus on Oct 27, 2018 18:51:30 GMT
So, question. Next session is on Sunday and I'm thinking of a possible option for the kidnapper in the story to escape (if he is captured) via his blink dog. Would it be realistic to think that its teleport ability could take on both of them, if say he was holding onto it? Thinking sorta like Nightcrawler on it. A blink dog's ability, as written, allows it to bring up to 40 lbs of stuff with it while teleporting. So bringing a "shorty" with it, like a halfling or a goblin would be reasonable. A tiefling would be stretching it. At least as written. This could be a "special" blink dog after all. But then, blink dogs are typically lawful good anyway, working with kidnappers would be unusual for them anyway
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Urdnot Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Oct 27, 2018 23:53:21 GMT
A blink dog's ability, as written, allows it to bring up to 40 lbs of stuff with it while teleporting. So bringing a "shorty" with it, like a halfling or a goblin would be reasonable. A tiefling would be stretching it. At least as written. This could be a "special" blink dog after all. But then, blink dogs are typically lawful good anyway, working with kidnappers would be unusual for them anyway Yeah, thats what I was thinking its a "special" kind and a little background the kidnapper. He isn't bad per say just one of the town healers/clerics that went off the deep end after his daughter died during a goblin siege on the town and seeing kids start going missing post siege lead him to figuring out there is a darker hand behind it. So, he started to take kids to make sure they were safe. I may come up with some possible scenarios to have him possibility escape. Maybe, the blink dog chews through his robes while the party is off fighting a pack of wolves, he slips away that way. Knowing my friends and the murder hobos they can be, they just might end up killing him if they cannot get the info they want.
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Urdnot Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Nov 1, 2018 3:48:22 GMT
Second session went well. My contingency for the kidnapper was not needed at all. As the party deemed it necessary to kill him no matter his motivations, upon checking his body they found a note that informed the group that there was something other than himself behind the disappearances in the town and a city to west, what it is he didn't know. The group took the children back to town and reunited them with their parents. The local guard captain thanked them for their help. As he did a magical scroll arrived from the city of Arcade (the city the group heard about in the kidnapper's note) inquiring about aid in their disappearances. Local guard captain replied and said he'd send his best people to aid. Who better than the party that had helped settle their problem. As the party was about to leave the town, screams and sounds of buildings falling rocked the town as a goblin attack had begun.
The party rushed to the town hall as they were directed to by Carlen, the Firbolg owner of the local inn. As he rushed people into his place for safety. The group got to the town hall, discovered the guard captain badly hurt, he told the group to find his mother, the town's Jarl. As they made their way through the town hall. They discovered her, knocked out and surrounded by goblins including their leader, Morgue. Battle shortly ensued after that, the goblins were eventually taken down, saving the Jarl and the town. The guard captain, Dolmin thanked them and asked a couple of members of the party as they were needed. As this was happening the captain on the country's army had arrived. In a belittling way he told the two of the party headed to Arcade they were better suited to help than Dolmin. He also mentioned that the crown had a vested interest in having this matter solved and told one of the two, perhaps the answers he seeks could be found there as well. So, the two set off for Arcade. Thats how the session ended.
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Post by Iakus on Nov 1, 2018 14:07:43 GMT
Last weekend I threw what turned out to be one of the deadliest fights to the party yet.
They were staying at an inn on the edges of the Evermoors, a nasty wilderness full of bogs and hills, and full of giants and trolls. That night, a pair of trolls entered the village and tried to break into the stables to get at the horses. The ruckus woke the party and they rushed outside to do battle.
Man those trolls really tore into them! The monk was nearly killed, and even the barbarian despite his rage was feeling the effects. It's actually a good thing I used a variant rule that gave him a chance to lop off a limb if he did enough slashing damage. He managed to decapitate one of the trolls the first round of combat (not that this STOPPED the troll, but it was effectively blinded as its head went bouncing away,and the cleric pitched it further out)
It turns out troll attacks have been on the rise lately. Sadly, the party didn't take the hook and go investigating why. They've been enslaved by a fire giant who sends them out foraging for food as she looks for fragments of a lost giant artifact. If they'd followed up, they would have eventually encountered her and gotten a clue what the fire giants are up to. As it is, they simply cast Speak With Dead on one of the trolls, found out a giant is sending them out looking for food, and then burned the bodies.
Ah well, there will be other opportunities for hints.
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Post by Iakus on Nov 3, 2018 1:07:02 GMT
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Post by Iakus on Nov 5, 2018 4:44:29 GMT
SO is it a good session when you nearly kill the party twice?
First time, I decided to give the party a random encounter as they traveled between cities. They encountered some refugees who said their farmstead was destroyed by giants. They go to investigate, and sure enough two giants (I originally intended it to be three, but one of the players couldn't make it) were busy demolishing the buildings. They got into a position where the sorceress could lightning bolt both of them before the monk rushed in and the cleric started buffing and healing.
The sorceress was almost immediately flattened by a chunk of debris thrown by one of the giants. The monk ended up spending all his ki points getting extra attacks and stuns holding back the giants while the cleric spent most of his spell slots keeping the party alive and getting the sorceress back on her feet.
I gave them a nice haul of gold and gems for this fight. Plus a perfectly ordinary stone idol they couldn't wait to have examined when they got to a temple (it was just a non magical statue of the god of stone giants.
The second time was when they acted on a tip where a cache of magical items was stored by a rather unsavory noble family who "deserved" to be robbed. They had a decent plan on how to circumvent the magical locks and alarms. Unnfortunately, the cleric blew a stealth roll approaching the door he was to dispel the lock on. This brought one of the guards over to investigate.
Then the monk failed a stealth roll as he hid under a carriage, and was found.
Then the "human" guards dropped their disguises and revealed themselves as cambions. The monk barely had time to grab the good and run, with demons hot on his trail (literally. They were throwing fire at him!)
Cambions, as it turned, out, are pretty resistant to most elemental attacks, have a high armor class, and do additional fire damage with their attacks. I had to pull out the fourth character's sheet and let the party run him to give them a fighting chance. Especially after the cambions' mage master showed up. They managed to kill the cambions and drive off the mage just as the City Watch was showing up. They scattered and met back at their inn later (I had them roll Deception or Stealth checks, their choice, to elude pursuit).
They're not sure what will happen now. THe mage escaped and can identify them, but two dead cambions on her property may raise questions.
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Post by Iakus on Nov 12, 2018 15:46:27 GMT
Disadvantage to giving the party the run of a teleportation network:
Now I have to plan for them possibly visiting one ore more of a half dozen different places next session.
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Post by Iakus on Nov 14, 2018 16:19:51 GMT
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Post by Iakus on Nov 19, 2018 15:13:02 GMT
I actually had to give the party a nudge last night. I arranged to have an NPC arrive in a city I was anticipating them to go to. This NPC knows a bit about what's going on and can guide them on the next leg of their journey. Naturally, they decided to go exploring on the exact opposite side of the map instead. I had them fight some giants. They took one prisoner, and they got some useful information out of him (between rants of how his people were going to purge the world of their filth) before he broke his bonds and escaped. The party seriously debated following him back to his lair. They were tired of being reactive and wanted to take the fight to their enemies, whoever they were. I was willing to see it through, but the place they were planning on going was full of giants and other creatures, and would circumvent a fair amount of the story. It could be done, but it would be a hell of a fight, and they wouldn't get as many answers as they were hoping. Ultimately, they realized they might be getting in over their heads and turned back. They were on their way to yet ANOTHER wild goose chase, which would have gotten them even fewer answers, when I took pity on them and had a messenger from the city find them and tell them they were needed on a mission. And said NPC showed up once their task was completed. THey now have some of the answers they were looking for and a better idea what the hell was going on. Though I was impressed how much they WERE able to put together based on what they had already seen and heard. They didn't have it ALL right, but they're definitely on the right track.
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Post by Iakus on Dec 1, 2018 16:15:46 GMT
Tomorrow the party visits an ancient giant temple in hopes of finding answers to their dilemma.
Should be interesting. A dungeon crawl where the dungeon is designed for beings 3-4 times bigger than them. Plus a few puzzles and magical traps. Looking forward to seeing how they react.
And hoping I can anticipate the questions they'll have.
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linksocarina
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Post by linksocarina on Dec 1, 2018 17:06:50 GMT
My Pathfinder group has been on hiatus for a few months now. Hoping that changes soon...
In the meantime, look forward to the dungeon of hell you have set before you. That was always the weakest part of my game mastering.
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Post by masterwarderz on Dec 1, 2018 18:37:12 GMT
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Iakus
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Post by Iakus on Dec 4, 2018 15:11:02 GMT
Drop one trap on them as they enter a temple and suddenly the party is convinced everything around them is rigged to kill them!
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Post by Iakus on Dec 11, 2018 0:02:30 GMT
Protip: A remorhaz is a pretty dangerous encounter for a melee-heavy level 7 party...
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Post by Iakus on Dec 12, 2018 16:12:02 GMT
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Urdnot Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Dec 15, 2018 5:30:24 GMT
Well, that Medusa one gives me an idea for something to do in my game.
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Urdnot Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Dec 31, 2018 12:06:50 GMT
So, question. Been doing run through possible scenarios for the next session. Lets, say you have a woman in peril, tied to a tree to be left to die in some fashion. A group of heroes comes by and finds said woman. She is saved by them and the person who had untied her immediately gets a hug from her but the woman is actually a vampire. So, as a DM how do I approach having her make a surprise bite attack on the PC?
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linksocarina
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Post by linksocarina on Jan 1, 2019 0:24:21 GMT
So what sounds like a better encounter.
A Hobgoblin with a pet manticore, or a cluster of oozes hidden in a still pond in the middle of a forest?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2019 9:05:52 GMT
So, question. Been doing run through possible scenarios for the next session. Lets, say you have a woman in peril, tied to a tree to be left to die in some fashion. A group of heroes comes by and finds said woman. She is saved by them and the person who had untied her immediately gets a hug from her but the woman is actually a vampire. So, as a DM how do I approach having her make a surprise bite attack on the PC? I don't know which D&D edition or variant you are using, or what kind of playstyle or genre you are playing, so I try give generalized advice, which can applied to at least most of them. Firstly I assume that the vampire trope you are using, is the common D&D one. A manlike, intelligent, cunning urban apex predator contra a feral animalistic Nosferatu. Secondly what is the context of the situation? Is she near death, blood deprived and starved? Like is the biting something akin to unconscious reflex, when she comes into contact with a warmblooded body. Kind of blood or feeding frenzy rather than deliberate and conscious attack (which might not even lead to a combat to death, depending on reaction on both sides) Or more like a calculated ambush, in which she tries to make an incapacitating attack, and then move on to regular melee? Something like this Is her motive just to feed off or kill the party? If it's the former, I'd advice maybe rethinking entire encounter, although whether that is advisable depends entirely on what kind of playstyle you are going for, and possibly how threatening the players are (from the vampire's perspective ofc). Regardless, I wouldn't "force" the situation, in a manner that whatever the players do, when they untie her, she gets a drop on them and bites no matter what. Unless it has some greater narrative significance, i.e. in order to plot to move forward it has to happen, or you really want to create an evocative scene for all to enjoy. Although this type of narrative driven or orientated style is not something I recommend for D&D, because rules don't support or offer tools to implement it. Still some do it and like it, so it can work. I would pay close attention to how players narrate and describe their actions, and determinate conditions of the situation according to those. I could see at least couple ways players might approach something like this, and I'd be reactive to those. If they decide when seeing the damsel in distress, to rush over to her quickly as possible, untie her without second thought and whisper to her ear "It's going to be okay, we won't let them hurt you ever again". Then they'll probably won't refuse her support, and try catch her when she collapses from exhaustion to their open arms. Or they might do the careful and paranoid approach, keeping distance, cutting the ropes from the other side of the tree, weapons pointed at her at the whole time. Then obviously the whole hug&kiss tactic might not work at all. Or something totally different or maybe something between those two. Also, how she tries to hug? I mean, is it really active approach like does she try to leap onto them, or more passive in a way that she sort of collapses or leans towards her rescuers (expecting them to catch her), or perhaps collapses to ground and waits until players try to pick her up. Depending how they behave in the situation, either it sort of happens automatically (if they are really into helping her, then it's reasonable that they reflexively won't try to push her away or dodge). If they are more cautious, you can ask whether they want to embrace her or push her aside. If they go with the paranoid route and decide to not touch at all, then her attempt to hug is probably interpreted as an attempted attack, and played as an attempt to grapple. If they end up in the situation, while one of them is hugging the supposed victim, and she goes for the bite. In all possible scenarios, the party should be surprised and the player who is being hugged is being grappled. If she is trying to suck that precious blood (like in the blood deprived scenario), then usually vampires have blood drain or bite special attack / ability (from third ed. onwards). How it works exactly depends on the edition you are playing. In the third edition / Pathfinder, it is CON drain on successful grapple check. In the fifth edition is more like a regular melee attack, which reduces your max. hit points. How this should be played out exactly, and what options are available really depends on the edition or variant you are using. In the fifth edition, it is pretty straightforward combat (blood drain and bite are the same thing), in other editions you might want to tune options depending of what the vampire is trying to achieve (is the vampire just trying to get some nutrition via player's blood, or rip the player's face / throat to pieces with her canines).
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Urdnot Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Jan 1, 2019 11:44:05 GMT
So, question. Been doing run through possible scenarios for the next session. Lets, say you have a woman in peril, tied to a tree to be left to die in some fashion. A group of heroes comes by and finds said woman. She is saved by them and the person who had untied her immediately gets a hug from her but the woman is actually a vampire. So, as a DM how do I approach having her make a surprise bite attack on the PC? I don't know which D&D edition or variant you are using, or what kind of playstyle or genre you are playing, so I try give generalized advice, which can applied to at least most of them. Firstly I assume that the vampire trope you are using, is the common D&D one. A manlike, intelligent, cunning urban apex predator contra a feral animalistic Nosferatu. Secondly what is the context of the situation? Is she near death, blood deprived and starved? Like is the biting something akin to unconscious reflex, when she comes into contact with a warmblooded body. Kind of blood or feeding frenzy rather than deliberate and conscious attack (which might not even lead to a combat to death, depending on reaction on both sides) Or more like a calculated ambush, in which she tries to make an incapacitating attack, and then move on to regular melee? Something like this Is her motive just to feed off or kill the party? If it's the former, I'd advice maybe rethinking entire encounter, although whether that is advisable depends entirely on what kind of playstyle you are going for, and possibly how threatening the players are (from the vampire's perspective ofc). Regardless, I wouldn't "force" the situation, in a manner that whatever the players do, when they untie her, she gets a drop on them and bites no matter what. Unless it has some greater narrative significance, i.e. in order to plot to move forward it has to happen, or you really want to create an evocative scene for all to enjoy. Although this type of narrative driven or orientated style is not something I recommend for D&D, because rules don't support or offer tools to implement it. Still some do it and like it, so it can work. I would pay close attention to how players narrate and describe their actions, and determinate conditions of the situation according to those. I could see at least couple ways players might approach something like this, and I'd be reactive to those. If they decide when seeing the damsel in distress, to rush over to her quickly as possible, untie her without second thought and whisper to her ear "It's going to be okay, we won't let them hurt you ever again". Then they'll probably won't refuse her support, and try catch her when she collapses from exhaustion to their open arms. Or they might do the careful and paranoid approach, keeping distance, cutting the ropes from the other side of the tree, weapons pointed at her at the whole time. Then obviously the whole hug&kiss tactic might not work at all. Or something totally different or maybe something between those two. Also, how she tries to hug? I mean, is it really active approach like does she try to leap onto them, or more passive in a way that she sort of collapses or leans towards her rescuers (expecting them to catch her), or perhaps collapses to ground and waits until players try to pick her up. Depending how they behave in the situation, either it sort of happens automatically (if they are really into helping her, then it's reasonable that they reflexively won't try to push her away or dodge). If they are more cautious, you can ask whether they want to embrace her or push her aside. If they go with the paranoid route and decide to not touch at all, then her attempt to hug is probably interpreted as an attempted attack, and played as an attempt to grapple. If they end up in the situation, while one of them is hugging the supposed victim, and she goes for the bite. In all possible scenarios, the party should be surprised and the player who is being hugged is being grappled. If she is trying to suck that precious blood (like in the blood deprived scenario), then usually vampires have blood drain or bite special attack / ability (from third ed. onwards). How it works exactly depends on the edition you are playing. In the third edition / Pathfinder, it is CON drain on successful grapple check. In the fifth edition is more like a regular melee attack, which reduces your max. hit points. How this should be played out exactly, and what options are available really depends on the edition or variant you are using. In the fifth edition, it is pretty straightforward combat (blood drain and bite are the same thing), in other editions you might want to tune options depending of what the vampire is trying to achieve (is the vampire just trying to get some nutrition via player's blood, or rip the player's face / throat to pieces with her canines). The premise is this vampire is one of the first brought back from a forced slumber, brought back by a cult that wants to bring back 2 others who were forced into the slumber and were "lost" to world, thought dead. So, this cult had infiltrated the city guard and has knowledge that this group will come looking for her. As a member of the cult will play the unassuming husband just looking for his wife, which plays into the overall theme of disappearances that the group has been looking into. The way I thought of playing it out is, having the vampire ask whoever does the untying if she can give them a hug as thanks and then making the bite. This is one of the options I have in mind for my players, so it may not even come up. I actually don't expect it to as one of the other options has ties to one of the pcs background, so that I expect could be where they are headed. This is just more a mental exercise than anything just to sort of understand the potential scenario better. Playing 5th edition by the way.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2019 8:20:50 GMT
The premise is this vampire is one of the first brought back from a forced slumber, brought back by a cult that wants to bring back 2 others who were forced into the slumber and were "lost" to world, thought dead. So, this cult had infiltrated the city guard and has knowledge that this group will come looking for her. As a member of the cult will play the unassuming husband just looking for his wife, which plays into the overall theme of disappearances that the group has been looking into. The way I thought of playing it out is, having the vampire ask whoever does the untying if she can give them a hug as thanks and then making the bite. This is one of the options I have in mind for my players, so it may not even come up. I actually don't expect it to as one of the other options has ties to one of the pcs background, so that I expect could be where they are headed. This is just more a mental exercise than anything just to sort of understand the potential scenario better. Playing 5th edition by the way. Aa, now I understand what you are going for. I can see that working most definitely, especially if you play it in a way, that she acts distraught, traumatized and even little hysterical (as one would expect a civilian goodwife react, after harrowing and threatening ordeal she no doubt has supposedly been through). If the panicky route is not suitable, then perhaps the moment of gratitude would come little later, rather than immediately after she's been untied. Unless you want to create or accentuate otherworldliness, weird and ominous atmosphere and mood, or give player's hint about what's to come. Or the situation is such, in which vampire(s) have a dominion over bipedal mammals they are feeding off (sort like Dracula type situation), and don't really have anything to fear from their blood cattle, and can kill and feed off from them with an impunity. Then subtlety, blending in, manipulation and attentiveness might not be appropriate, unless they enjoy the hunt for its own sake. I do that sort of mental exercise all the time, when I am preparing my sessions. Playing out different possibilities and reactions, and so on, and devise likely courses of action beforehand, and how I am going do in x, y, z. Cannot see anything wrong with that, as long its not obsessive and there's understanding that you cannot ever prepare aginst every eventuality, and that you are not too wedded to those scenarios and allow room for divergence, reactivity and sort of truly emergent story telling roleplaying as a medium does so well and quite uniquely. Although, it took me quite long to get rid of that instinct to more or less force players to interact with any sort of prepared material I had made, because otherwise it would be wasted! A mind sort of rebels against throwing away stuff you have invested time in (albeit I have to confess, that nowadays I often recolor and reuse the skipped stuff in some other time and place, sometimes even in a totally different game and even years after).
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Urdnot Lycan
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, Mass Effect Andromeda
XBL Gamertag: N7 Lycan
PSN: ruins_avenger
Posts: 270 Likes: 306
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urdnotlycan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, Mass Effect Andromeda
N7 Lycan
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Feb 26, 2019 13:03:09 GMT
So, was curious what does the Deity pantheons in your campaigns look like? In my homebrewed world they are as follows.
The Arisen - Corellon, Moradin, Avandra, Pelor, Sarenrae, Ioun, Erathis, The Raven Queen, Sehanine, Bahamut, Kord, Melora The Descended - Tharizdun, Zehir, Torog, Asmodeus, Gruumash, Lolth, Bane, Tiamat, Vecna
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 14:47:08 GMT
Technically I am not running a D&D campaign atm, but 13th Age (it's an excellent d20 OGL game, basically it's a D&D variant which just isn't produced by WotC, like Pathfinder). My current campaign is a homebrew which combines elements of 13th Age's Dragon Empire setting with AD&D 1st ed. default cosmology (as it is described in the essential books, especially in Legends&Lore and Manual of Planes supplements). This means a multi-pantheon approach, in which different races, cultures and civilizations have their own corresponding pantheons, i.e. instead of the sun god, there co-exists several like Apollo, Belenos, Huitzilopochtli, Päivätär, Sól, Utu, etc. True to exalted D&D traditions, in general in my game demihumans have their own D&D originated pantheons (Moradin, Corellon, Lloth, etc.), and different human peoples and races have differing ones according which historical cultures they are based on or take inspiration from. Although not exclusively so, certain demihuman and monster gods overlap with deities from human pantheons, like Surtr from Germanic mythology is also the patron god of the Fire Giant race, Antero Vipunen of Finnish mythology is the patron god of Hill Giants, Pazuzu is a demon prince and a deity in Babylonian pantheon, to name a few. As a qualification, I am not trying to portray these pantheons, their worshipers, or how they were worshiped historically accurately, or trying to model some particular time or place that has actually existed. Rather I appropriate and take inspiration from various historical sources, take elements and bits and pieces here and there, and then implement these ad hoc to make a hodgepodge which is all over the place (which is entirely in line with the original D&D design). As for gods and pantheons themselves, the dominant and most widespread one is representing the Graeco-Roman pantheon, heavy emphasis on the Greek part. It's the default one, an equivalent to the civilization itself. So, it's twelve Olympians (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus), chthonic ones (Hades, Hecate), Titans (Prometheus), then some deitified demigods and mortals. It's more closely modeled after the Homeric/Hesiodic and classical period, rather than the Hellenic period, though to keep things complicated I've taken some elements from there as well (mainly different mystery cults, which sprang during the Hellenic period). The pantheon is typically referred as either civilized gods or the Imperial pantheon. I utilize certain myths and stories, but not in any consistent fashion, so certain events and stories are incorporated and some aren't. Other human-centric pantheons are roughly analogous to ancient Celtic, Germanic and Finnish. These do not form polities, they are more like cultural spheres, with an unison of languages, material culture, way of living, customs, rather than hierarchical nations or states. They are barbarians and foreigners at the edges of the empire. Celtic pantheon is a mixture of Gaulish, British, Celtiberian and Old Irish ones (Belenus, Lugh, Morrigan, Cernunnos, etc.). Germanic is mostly Old Norse, because they are most well-known, with most resonance with players, and most material available to plunder (Thor, Othin, Freyja, etc.). Sometimes I've also used material from proto-Germanic and Anglo-Saxon sources. Similarities are strong, so I use them all pretty interchangeably. Finnish gods are mostly taken from Kaleva (Ukko ylijumala, Surma, Untamo, Esteri, Ilmatar, etc). One of central themes of the campaign and setting, is a cyclical worldview or theory of history. It's a worldview or metaphysical concept very common to numerous ancient cultures, thus it's present with the campaign's gods and pantheons. In the context of religions, it means that there has been different civilizations and pantheons before current ones. When empires wax and wane, and when different nations are born and die, their pantheons follow suit. The prevailing Graeco-Romanesque civilization displaced the previous ruling Mesopotamia-esque civilization. This doesn't mean that gods themselves are dead or displaced, merely they don't have worshipers on the prime material plane anymore (except some over thousand year old liches). Players may occasionally interact with remains of ancient temples and other holy sites, religious artifacts and material, which relate to these bygone pantheons. In theory, they could try to revitalize or use these, if they wish so (some NPCs do), so they are sort of still a part of the world. These are dead civilizations are mentioned Mesopotamian one (a rough mix of Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian gods), also Mesoamerican pantheon are similarly "alive", albeit farther away in the dark and occult past (mostly Aztec). Demihumans and monsters have their own pantheons and gods, and these are quite close to standard (A)D&D ones. For monsters, I use almost entirely default D&D ones, with little or no modifications (goblins have Maglubiyet, orcs Gruumsh, etc). Demihumans have certain adjustments, but are ultimately based on the default material. E.g. dwarves have Abbathor, Berronar, Clangeddin, Dumathoin, Moradin, Vergadain. Pretty usual stuff, some changes here and there. The remarkable difference is that drows and elves share same pantheon (relation between different elven races might not be exactly amicable, but there's no typical kill-on-sight division and hostility usual to D&D universes. All elvish races are subjects to same monarch). So, even if Lloth is still the patron goddess of drows, even wood or high elves might secretly turn to her, if whatever they want crosses her domain (murder, vengeance, sexual lust, spiders, and so on). Temples and priests might be rare among other elven races, but clandestine sacrifices and prayers not so. Drows sometimes also worship vanilla elven gods like Corellon Larethian, Hanali Celanil, etc. Halflings have their vanilla gods (Yondalla, Arvoreen, etc), but what is different that halflings are slowly abandoning their own gods in favor of the Imperial ones. It's a religious conflict within the race, as the Imperial pantheon is not exclusive to humans (only Prometheus doesn't accept non-human worshipers), although elves or dwarves rarely if ever adapt it (unlike halflings or gnomes, which don't have their own realms). So, there is this dynamic between the struggle of the old faith and the new. This can manifests in a lot ways, like as an example, isolate halfling communities still worship solely their own gods, mixed communities typically both or only the imperial. It might be a point of halfling nationalism and separatism. Gnomes don't have a pantheon of their own, but singular patron deity. Incidentally they claim their god is an aspect of the Imperial god Hermes. Some claim this is a lie of convenience, and gnomes secretly worship their own god known truly only to themselves (or a demon prince of greed). Gnome religious practice is an intensively private affair, to a point of being esoteric and occult, thus the truth is hard to come by (even to gnomes themselves sometimes). Demon and devil worship is universally present and universally despised and persecuted (different beings of Abyss and Nine Hells, classification and categorization is sometimes fuzzy). They typically offer more direct involvement, rewards and obligations than rest of religions (if they can be counted as such). Without going into too deep to lore of my particular game, demon worship is 10x more common than devil worship, as there's a large rift between the Abyss and prime material plane (a gab between plane barely holds together, and minions of Abyss pour into the prime material plane all the time, form hellholes in which different layers of Abyss are directly juxtaposed on the isolated spots on the prime material plane). Most people don't really know the difference, but Chaotic Evil variety are running all over the place, meanwhile the Lawful Evil kind operate more from the shadows. The Bloodwar is going on strongly.
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Urdnot Lycan
N3
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, Mass Effect Andromeda
XBL Gamertag: N7 Lycan
PSN: ruins_avenger
Posts: 270 Likes: 306
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Urdnot Lycan
270
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urdnotlycan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, Mass Effect Andromeda
N7 Lycan
ruins_avenger
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Post by Urdnot Lycan on Apr 17, 2019 4:00:28 GMT
So, I had this idea in my head for a potential piece of magical loot to add in an upcoming session. Wanted to get some feedback on it and see how balanced it feels.
Glove of Necrosis Wonderous item, rare (requires attunement) This glove has 4 charges. While wearing this glove you can use your action to expend a charge, and conjure a spear of blackened energy. When you make the ranged magic attack, you make it with an attack bonus of +5. Range 60 feet. Attack deals 1d6 damage necrotic damage, the damage increases by 1d6 per charge. On hit the spear explodes and all creatures within a 5 feet range of the target must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking half damage on a success and full damage on a failure. The glove recovers all expended charges daily at dawn.
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