5e Grognard

The wand of mirrors originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #102 in an article "Nine Wands of Wonder" by Ed Greenwood.  I changed the name from wand of magical mirrors, and edited down the language.  I always feel that these 1st Edition AD&D  items were too wordy. Wand of Mirrors Source Rare magical wand These wands were made by the archmage Glendar, who, though good and noble in life, became a lich, and was later destroyed. The knowledge of their making is now lost. Perhaps twenty were made, and most survive in the possession of powerful mages, or in treasure, caches. Activation of this wand creates an opaque, silvery, and reflective circular shield of force. This shield appears wherever the wand is pointing, 10’ distant from the wielder of the wand, facing outward. Its surface will reflect images (including gaze attacks) like a mirror; the wand wielder can look through the mirror as though it was a window without suffering any harm from such attacks. ...

The final item that I will be doing out of Dragon Magazine #99's Treasure Trove II is the Hammer of Penetration by John Uustal. Updated up the 1e AD&D speech and and based the structural damage capabilities on the earth elemental's "siege monster" ability. Hammer of Penetration Rare magical weapon This is a large-headed light hammer with a 2’ long handle. The hammer’s head slopes down to a point on one side, and the hammer is not balanced for throwing. The hammer of penetration may be used one-handed in combat, and it does double normal hammer damage (2d4), plus a +3 bonus to hit and damage. When used two-handed on stone walls or wooden doors up to 2’ thick, the hammer does 4d4 damage. PDF now available for download!

Rock Gnome The rock gnomes of Eska mechanically are like the gnomes in the 5e Player’s Handbook.  Physically, their skin has taken on a rough, pebbly stone-like texture.  This provides no protection, though. The rock gnomes sought to escape the wars that ravaged Eska and drove them from their homes.  They scavenge ruins for metal, wood and stone that they can use to create.  Using their ingenuity they built their massive crawlers that have become their roaming homes.  Powered by magic, each crawler is large enough to support a small gnome clan or large family. Equipped with cranes, furnaces, workshops and lots of living and/or storage space, crawlers are perfect as mobile headquarters, shops, and homes for the diminutive junk scavengers. Rooftop gardens provide food.  The vehicles play a large role in gnome society. One of the most important days for most gnomes was the annual meeting of crawlers. They are also key in gnomish defense doctrin...

Next item from Dragon Magazine #99's Treasure Trove II is the Bow of Doubling, originally by Stephen Martin. I have updated this entry and included it in my DMs Guild Pay What You Want entry, Bazaar of the Bizarre: Archer's Best Friend .

Moved to my new blog here .

The Stone of Mysterious Sounds is another creation from Dragon Magazine #99's Treasure Trove II.  It is originally by Nick Kopsinis. It was a pretty easy conversion.  It had a minimum strength to make it stick when thrown, and required a "to hit" roll, but I just simplified it to a single Strength check.   I added the bit about wild sorcerers, inspired by the 2nd Edition AD&D's wild mage having a 50% chance to control wands of wonder and other random magic items.  It's something I think I'm going to add as a class ability.  I think 50% chance to control is a bit much, so I built off of the existing mechanic of the spell attack bonus to expand the range of the die roll and give a couple options to choose from. Stone of Mysterious Sounds Uncommon wondrous item This stone appears to be similar to any other magical stone, though it is malleable and can be easily grasped and reshaped by a human hand. The stone cannot be pulled apart in...

To show you how I'm imagining Eska, I'm going to share with you the inspirationl sources that sparked this whole thing. Mad Max: Fury Road.  I had wanted to see it, but I rarely go to the movies.  I usually catch them later and watch at home.  My wife wasn't interested in seeing it, so I went and saw it, alone...  I had forgotten how fond I was of the Mad Max world.  Things have gone to hell, and we have no idea how it got that way.  Different roving bands and petty warlords all have a "unique look". Building on unique look, you can't help but love 1979's The Warriors.  One of my all time favorites movies. That, but turned up to 11. A healthy dose of Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man and Blackstarr. All that got thoughts swirling in my head, and I binge-read some Hill Cantons and other stuff about D&D's implied world. Jurassic World has me replacing all the standard Earth beasts with dinosaurs, giant lizards, giant insects, monstrositi...

Eska, "home" in the elven tongue  is a land in turmoil. Until recently, the high elves, wood elves and drow lived in peace and harmony, ruling the small continent of Eska until Lolth split the drow elf away in an act of rebellion.  This sparked off a terrible war that lasted nearly two centuries and has left its mark on all the races of Eska. Click to embiggen. There was no winner in this war.  The land is left scarred and its people scattered.  What was so recently thriving cities, towns, and ports are now just huddled masses hoping to survive. The high elves, once the ruling class on Eska, have retreated into domed mountaintop cities.  During the war, their masters of wizardry used strange magics to transform their goblin servants into hobgoblin troopers, and armed them with shocklances.   Dome City by   Ishutani Wood elves once roamed the northern forests and plains have now retreated into treetop cities.  Using sorcery to aw...