5e Grognard

Going to mix things up today and have a guest writer behind today's post, Chris Scaturo . Lingering Injuries Linger- v. to be slow to disappear Sasha looked down.   The stone golem lay battered and broken; it would move no more.  Unfortunately, her foot was in a pretty similar condition.   It hurt.   It really hurt. Clyde’s simple prayer to Pelor wasn’t going to fix this one. Lingering injuries can add a dynamic that improves the combat narrative as well as the story arc. When presented with a long term penalty, characters are forced to make decisions. Suddenly, the formerly simple path becomes more complex.  Combat tactics will change and the games narrative may be forced into a detour as an immediate concern becomes more pressing than the overarching plot.   L’tera wasn’t sure what to do.   The scrolls needed to be delivered but Sasha’s injury was slowing them down.   They were able to fend off the Bugbear ambush without her usual mobility but if something more

Last month I was looking forward to this month's Blog Carnival , A New Year, A New World.  The world I'm using right now is new, and mostly in my head, and I was hoping this would help motivate me to get some work done on it and put some thoughts onto the screen.  I was so wrong.  I got distracted by some other things and forgot about the Carnival topic until today.  I like to participate in them when I can, but don't know about getting anything down from my new world of Terra Novo .  Yeah, that link from October, it's about all I have down for Terra Novo, and I've been running in it since May.  Like I said, most of it is in my head. So, in order to participate, I'll post up a my starting write up from the last world I started building, Troika.  Based on the trinity of the dragon gods Io (creation), Tiamat (evil), and Bahamut (good).  The creation myth I pulled straight from Io's Wikipedia entry .  This is all I ever got going for Troika before I aband

With other stuff going on, we only got one, somewhat short play session in this weekend.  It was time to finish up the grimlocks before moving on. Grallak Kur Part 2 Part 1 Our intrepid adventurers: Daughter has, Lylas, drow elf rogue thief, level 4 Third, human fighter  sentinel , level 3 Son 1, Narcisso, half elf life cleric level 4 Dravin, human moon druid level 3 Son 2, Jackson, human earth wizard, level 4 Kargash, half orc ranger hunter, level 3 Also, 2 NPC's are tagging along Rurik, mountain dwarf totem barbarian, level 4 Filch, human necromancer, level 3.  This is Filge from the observatory in the Whispering Cairn.  He surrendered to the party and is tagging along.  The kids, being Harry Potter fans, renamed him. Only two small portions of the grimlocks remain, the chieftan and Grallak Kur.  The group chose the passage that lead to Grallak Kur, the grimlock priest of Erythnul.  A narrow passage decended in a spiral to a small cavern.  A 10' tall cliff rose ah

The last creature I'm going to convert from Dragon Magazine #94's Creature Catalog II is the urisk, and a variation, the lubin.  Originally by Roger Moore, I could find no other versions. by Roger Raupp Urisk Small fey, neutral Armor Class 13 Hit Points 10 (3d6) Speed 35 feet STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 9 (-1) 16 (+3) 11 (+0) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 14 (+2) Skills Perception +2, Stealth +6 Senses passive Perception 12 Languages Common, Sylvan Challenge ⅛ (100 XP) Pass without Trace.  Urisk do not leave footprints or a scent trail while moving. Tracking the urisk is impossible by nonmagical means. Animal Friendship (Recharge 5-6).  The ursik can convince a beast that it means it no harm. Choose a beast that you can see within range.  It must see and hear you. If the beast’s Intelligence is 4 or higher, the spell fails. Otherwise, the beast must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for the spell’s d

Back to Dragon Magazine #94's Creature Catalog II, and the Lillend, originally by Stephen Inniss. http://myrmirada.deviantart.com/ Based this more off of the 3e/Pathfinder stats that I found online.  I bumped up the hit dice to parallel the boost that demons and devils got compared to earlier editions as well. Lillend Large celestial (eladrin), chaotic good Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 105 (10d10+50) Speed 30 feet, fly 60 feet STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 20(+5) 17 (+3) 21 (+5) 14 (+2) 16 (+3) 19 (+4) Saving Throws Dex +7, Con +9, Wis +7, Cha +8 Damage Resistances cold, fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren't cold iron Damage Immunities electricity, poison Condition Immunities charmed Skills Persuasion +8, Perform +8 Senses Darkvision 60 feet, passive Perception 13 Languages Celestial, Sylvan Challenge 6 (2,300 XP) Inspiration.  The lillend can ins

Moved to my new blog here .

Moved to my new blog.

In our session this past weekend when we played through part of The Three Faces of Evil, the second part of the Age of Worms I tried out using a new critical/fumble system.  Two sessions, one being combat heavy, and I think the system held up well, and the kids liked it, too. I had been using this critical generator from the d20PFSRD, but it relies heavily on ability modifications, which aren't supported in 5e.  I found myself re-rolling (or clicking) sometimes several times until I got a result that seemed to fit. I wanted to keep it simple, and since I'm a fan of Advantage/Disadvantage, I based it on that mechanic.  Also, since I like dice (honestly, who doesn't), I bought some new dice to help illustrate this in game. On a critical hit, roll all damage dice a second time and add any modifiers, as per RAW.  In addition, you gain Advantage on your next attack roll.  To keep track, I give a steel/silver colored die to the player/monster that got the crit and place it