Mystara 5th Edition Player's Handbook

[TheGlen]

I got inspired from the glory days of my humbled beginnings before the Mr. Welch list was even a thing. So I wrote this. The second link is a tablet friendly flipbook. About half edited, still replacing the art with custom work. New races, archetype, spells, weapon mastery feats, Nordic runes, secret schools of magic, magic items, plus a brief overview of Mystara. Enjoy.

http://www.redpub.com/images_articles_2015/view_vernonwells.php

[http://anyflip.com/btzh/aeqw[/URL]

UPDATE: Due to Dropbox killing the link due to bandwidth violation, moved it to a new site with more liberal download rules.

[Gwendol]

Very cool! And very ambitious!

[Ziegander]

Great stuff! Thank you for writing this!

[DireSickFish]

Wow that is very ambitious and cool. Did you have some help in making races and classes balanced? It looks like you put a lot of time and energy into this.

[TheGlen]

Wow that is very ambitious and cool. Did you have some help in making races and classes balanced? It looks like you put a lot of time and energy into this.

Time no, was surprisingly quick. Energy oh yeah... It's still a work in progress, typo hunting and balancing. Have a fundraiser just to pay for the art.

Aside from people helping me tweak in playtest some archetypes and races. Some of them still aren't balanced.
Mystaran dwarves are better than normal dwarves with their inherent magic resistance.

Tortles aren't great with all their restrictions. They make especially bad monks, with their slow move, clumsy disadvantage and are considered to always be wearing armor so no bonus AC.
Weapon master remains up in the air, the differences between simple and martial weapons are intentional. Martial weapons get many more advantages than simple weapons, for the same reason we upgraded from maces to morning stars.

The Runes are underpowered for the risk. You've got a 50% chance of permanent death just to get one, and even then it's permanent hit to Constitution. You can make a runic warrior if you can somehow survive all the attempts, you'll be running around at CON3, but you'll know a lot of runes.

The Secret Crafts of Glantri are the wild card, no idea on how those will work out in the long run, people are looking at them for bugs or exploits.

Glad you liked it though.

[DireSickFish]

Are you looking for advice/suggestions to help balance some of this? I'm rather bad at class balance but I think I understand race balance and design philosophies well. People on these forums can offer a lot of new viewpoints on balance.

[TheGlen]

Are you looking for advice/suggestions to help balance some of this? I'm rather bad at class balance but I think I understand race balance and design philosophies well. People on these forums can offer a lot of new viewpoints on balance.

Of course, there are only 4 new races. Sidhe are extremely powerful, but take extra damage from iron weapons and have several class prohibitions. Rakasta and lupin are straight forward, tortle I've mentioned the short comings.

[TheGlen]

Had to move it to a new site, dropbox locked me out.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Mystaran dwarves are better than normal dwarves with their inherent magic resistance.

The best way to deal with that might be to make them a third sub-race of dwarves (like Mountain and Hill) who don't get any other advantages (no extra hp, no armor proficiency) and possibly don't have a particularly advantageous sub-race attribute bonus.

How resistant to magic are we talking? Reduced damage or advantage on saving throws?

The very first D&D books I got were the boxed set Hollow World expansion for Mystara and D&D basic books, so this is nostalgic.

[TheGlen]

The best way to deal with that might be to make them a third sub-race of dwarves (like Mountain and Hill) who don't get any other advantages (no extra hp, no armor proficiency) and possibly don't have a particularly advantageous sub-race attribute bonus.

How resistant to magic are we talking? Reduced damage or advantage on saving throws?

The very first D&D books I got were the boxed set Hollow World expansion for Mystara and D&D basic books, so this is nostalgic.

Mystara dwarves lose their poison resistance, but add their proficiency to all saving throws against magic, even if they don't have proficiency in that saving throw. As they level up their save against magic gets higher. Downside is they can't be wizards, sorcerers, warlocks and bards because their magical resistance keeps them from casting those spells.

[UXLZ]

Er, what's Mystera?

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Mystara dwarves lose their poison resistance, but add their proficiency to all saving throws against magic, even if they don't have proficiency in that saving throw. As they level up their save against magic gets higher. Downside is they can't be wizards, sorcerers, warlocks and bards because their magical resistance keeps them from casting those spells.

That is a odd mechanic, no wonder you're having problems balancing it. It doesn't really fit 5th ed's design style for it to be proficiency+an extra bonus that increases as you level when proficiency already increases as you level. I'd probably just go with advantage on saving throws, same as the magically resistant outsiders. Gaining better than proficiency against all magic is not balanced by removing poison resistance.

I stand by my earlier suggestion of replacing Hill and Mountain Dwarves with this:
Mystaran Dwarf:
In addition to normal dwarf traits, gains +1 Strength and advantage on all saving throws vs magic.

[DireSickFish]

I'd also recommend against adding proficiency to all saving throws against magic. Why not take the gnomes advantage and reverse it? They have advantage on all int, wis, and cha saving throws vs magic give dwarves advantage on str, dex, and con saves against magic.

Making it a new sub-race also makes a lot of sense as it lines up with the design philosophies of this edition.

[Joe the Rat]

This is really cool. I know some old grogs that'll love seeing this.

You might want to recheck your domain spells - some of them seem to be going by spell level rather than character level (unless you intend for PWK to go on the entropy list even through they won't be able to cast it for 8 more levels...).

As others have mentioned, Save Advantage vs all magic for dwarves follows closer to other examples (gnomes, for example).

[TheGlen]

Er, what's Mystera?

Only greatest and best setting for D&D ever. Aside from the ones I wrote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystara

[Gwendol]

Only greatest and best setting for D&D ever. Aside from the ones I wrote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystara

Which ones did you write?

[TheGlen]

My own homebrews, sadly lost over the sands of time. But they were amazing, trust me.

[TheGlen]

V3 is up, added the Wokani sorcerer for extra blasty, the Master at Arms for extra weapon skill, a list of places not to go if you aren't a heroic adventurer. Plus dwarves are their own subtype now and a bunch of tweaks and typo kills.

[Notafish]

In the case of the Tortles, why not count their natural armor as a tweak to the AC calculations, rather than a separate armor? Personally, I think that something like an alternate unarmored defnse calculation would make sense, particularly given the restriction against wearing armor. Something like AC = 12 + Proficiency Bonus could be fun, since this would allow Tortles to ignore dexterity when calculating AC, which might make sense for a naturally clumsy race. It could also allow them to take advantage of the unarmored bonuses (speed boost, etc.) from being ninjas monks.

This was a fun read!

[Strill]

Rake Archetype for Rogue is incredibly underpowered.


(Level 13) Extra Panache: You gain proficiency in Charisma Saving Throws

You realize there's like 3 things in the whole book that require a Charisma saving throw right?


(Level 3) Bonus Proficiency: You gain proficiency in History and Religion
(Level 17) You gain two extra skill proficiencies from the Rogue's list, and 3 additional languages

This is like a terrible joke. The Skilled Feat would give you three proficiencies of your choice, and is widely considered one of the worst feats. Both of these features combined are worth about one feat.

Moreover, the idea that extra languages would be useful at 17th level is flat-out absurd. Comprehend Languages and Tongues have likely been available to your party for at least 10 levels.


(Level 9) Fighting Style: You gain either the Dueling or two weapon fighting styleBoth of these are extremely minor benefits. A Rogue relies on their sneak attack, so they don't get extra attacks. That means that these fighting styles are far less useful for a Rogue than for a Fighter.

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Why do all the Cleric archetypes only give one domain spell per level? All the core domains give two. Was this intentional?

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This ability for the Shadow Elf Shaman is terrible too.


Colorless Shaman: At 17th level you gain the duties to raise from the dead those Rafiel still sees a need for. When casting a spell that raises from the dead, you may double the time the deceased can be raised. A raise dead spell can affect a character that has been dead for 20 days, instead of 10.
This is what the designers call a "Ribbon". A perk that fits the character's theme, but is so niche in its practical application, that it doesn't affect the character's power or versatility in any meaningful way. As a result, the designers ignore ribbons when balancing classes, and give an additional, more meaningful benefit on top of the ribbon.

[TheGlen]

In the case of the Tortles, why not count their natural armor as a tweak to the AC calculations, rather than a separate armor? Personally, I think that something like an alternate unarmored defnse calculation would make sense, particularly given the restriction against wearing armor. Something like AC = 12 + Proficiency Bonus could be fun, since this would allow Tortles to ignore dexterity when calculating AC, which might make sense for a naturally clumsy race. It could also allow them to take advantage of the unarmored bonuses (speed boost, etc.) from being ninjas monks.

This was a fun read!
Rules issues. If it's not counted as armor a tortle barbarian can get silly levels of AC from unarmored defense. Could do it with monk, but the high strength lent it to being a Barbarian thing first. I believe the character was running (very slowly) in effective full plate with a great axe doing horrific amounts of damage while being really hard to hit at first level. So the nerf bat had to come out.

[Strill]

Feats are poorly balanced.


Weapon Master (Skilled)

Choose one of the following...

...1-handed Martial: Increase damage die to next level (d8 -> d10, d10 -> d12, etc...)
2-handed Martial: Extra die of damage


The 1-handed benefit gives you, on average, +1 damage. This is substantially worse than the +1 damage and +1 to hit that you'd get from just taking +2 STR or +2 DEX. The extra die from 2-handed weapons, however, is worth up to +6.5 damage, which is absolutely ludicrous for a Feat.

You need to do math before you add feats like this.

[TheGlen]

Rake Archetype for Rogue is incredibly underpowered.



You realize there's like 3 things in the whole book that require a Charisma saving throw right?



This is like a terrible joke. The Skilled Feat would give you three proficiencies of your choice, and is widely considered one of the worst feats. Both of these features combined are worth about one feat.

Moreover, the idea that extra languages would be useful at 17th level is flat-out absurd. Comprehend Languages and Tongues have likely been available to your party for at least 10 levels.

Both of these are extremely minor benefits. A Rogue relies on their sneak attack, so they don't get extra attacks. That means that these fighting styles are far less useful for a Rogue than for a Fighter.

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Why do all the Cleric archetypes only give one domain spell per level? All the core domains give two. Was this intentional?

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This ability for the Shadow Elf Shaman is terrible too.


This is what the designers call a "Ribbon". A perk that fits the character's theme, but is so niche in its practical application, that it doesn't affect the character's power or versatility in any meaningful way. As a result, the designers ignore ribbons when balancing classes, and give an additional, more meaningful benefit on top of the ribbon.

The Rake is a non-combat class, hence the 'get undressed quickly' feat. Not meant to be an adventurer, but more of a social butterfly. In my game quite a few things require charisma saving throws, I use them to keep people from being tricked into saying what they really mean. This character is meant to be in the courts of Thyatis where spell casting is frowned up, and natural talent encouraged. Will tweak it so they can pick up any language through conversation instead.

Will add an additional spell to clerics, this was not intentional.

Give the shadow elf shaman a free raise dead.

[Notafish]

Rules issues. If it's not counted as armor a tortle barbarian can get silly levels of AC from unarmored defense. Could do it with monk, but the high strength lent it to being a Barbarian thing first. I believe the character was running (very slowly) in effective full plate with a great axe doing horrific amounts of damage while being really hard to hit at first level. So the nerf bat had to come out.

14 (no shield)-16 (with shield) AC is silly? Even at higher levels, I think that 12+proficiency would max out at 18-20. You can't have 2 AC calculations active at the same time...

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Rules issues. If it's not counted as armor a tortle barbarian can get silly levels of AC from unarmored defense. Could do it with monk, but the high strength lent it to being a Barbarian thing first. I believe the character was running (very slowly) in effective full plate with a great axe doing horrific amounts of damage while being really hard to hit at first level. So the nerf bat had to come out.

True if it's just a straight AC boost but not so with the fix that was proposed. If you give them an effect like Base Unarmored AC is calculated as X+a number it does not stack with other effects that change the base calculation, you have to pick one to use, that's why Barbarian/Monks don't get three attribute AC boosts.

I don't know that I like using 12+proficiency bonus as an AC calculation, but it doesn't run into the issue you mentioned.

[TheGlen]

Feats are poorly balanced.



The 1-handed benefit gives you, on average, +1 damage. This is substantially worse than the +1 damage and +1 to hit that you'd get from just taking +2 STR or +2 DEX. The extra die from 2-handed weapons, however, is worth up to +6.5 damage, which is absolutely ludicrous for a Feat.

You need to do math before you add feats like this.

And you're not looking at the current version. The feats are gone, rolled into a archetype.

[TheGlen]

How about this for the tortle. Unarmored defense equals Con + Proficiency base, can use a shield. Looking at with decent but not great stats around 15-17 AC. That sound good for the tortle?

[Strill]

And you're not looking at the current version. The feats are gone, rolled into a archetype.

I'm looking at the copy (http://fliphtml5.com/tpri/pthi) that's listed in the OP right now.

[TheGlen]

Had an issue with the upload earlier. This website makes really pretty flipbooks, but can't seem to update worth a flip. Try here: http://fliphtml5.com/tpri/rdhv

[Notafish]

How about this for the tortle. Unarmored defense equals Con + Proficiency base, can use a shield. Looking at with decent but not great stats around 15-17 AC. That sound good for the tortle?

10 + Con bonus + Proficiency bonus? I like it. Still a pretty beastly barbarian (who never needs to even consider maxing Dex) but it will be hit-able, at least until the higher levels -- a tortle who focuses on leveling Con could have a 20AC without a shield at level 13, and 21 AC at level 17. Considering the drawbacks, it could be worth it.

[TheGlen]

And the tortle has a lot of drawbacks. Lowest base speed in the game is just a start. It's less Donatello and more Cecil.

[TheGlen]

Due to FlipHTML5 refusing to let me upload revisions, I've switched the flipbook. This one should work better.

[Ashamam]

I don't know if you are still working on this book or not but I noticed the weapon master archetype class has some issues with balance when adding dice. Adding a single damage die is fine for those weapons whose base is only one die, but under powered quite a bit with those weapons whose base damage is two dice. For example greatsword vs. Greataxe.

Greataxe base 1d12 damage 1-12 possible. 1 extra die 2d12 or 2-24 possible 13 average, and finally 3d12 for 3-36 possible average 19.5.

Greatsword base 2d6 2-12 possible 7 average. 1 extra 3d6 3-18 possible 10.5 average, and finally 4d6 4-24 possible 14 average.

To properly scale the sword should get 2 extra dice for each bump as follows:
2 added 4-24 possible 14 average, 4 added 6-36 possible 21 average.

This still maintains the flavor of the multi dice weapons give higher consistent damage (higher averages) but less likely to get extremes and maintains damage possible parity.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

I don't know if you are still working on this book or not but I noticed the weapon master archetype class has some issues with balance when adding dice. Adding a single damage die is fine for those weapons whose base is only one die, but under powered quite a bit with those weapons whose base damage is two dice. For example greatsword vs. Greataxe.
snip details

I don't know that that is exactly a balance issue, so much as encouraging you to use certain types of weapons with the Weapon Master build.

You already see the exact same effect with several official racial and class features that modify critical hits.

[Mr.Moron]

10 + Con bonus + Proficiency bonus? I like it. Still a pretty beastly barbarian (who never needs to even consider maxing Dex) but it will be hit-able, at least until the higher levels -- a tortle who focuses on leveling Con could have a 20AC without a shield at level 13, and 21 AC at level 17. Considering the drawbacks, it could be worth it.

Well, since stats cap at 5 and proficiency bonus goes to 6 it's potentially one AC higher than you'd get with unarmored def. The scaling is potentially slower since you can theoretically have a pair of +5s by your first stat bump and the proficiency bonus has static scaling every time. All in all, it's not a huge departure really. You just save the cost of investing in DEX.

[MeeposFire]

I don't know that that is exactly a balance issue, so much as encouraging you to use certain types of weapons with the Weapon Master build.

You already see the exact same effect with several official racial and class features that modify critical hits.

True though some might say they were trying to make great axes more desirable to barbarians and orcs which is a common weapon race/class combo in D&D. The question is do you think that is what they are trying to do with something with the flavor of weapon master? Just as an example in many games I have read and played swords of all sorts are among the most common weapons used in game by characters who would be "weapon masters". In some cases they were among the only weapons you could really find that you could attain such levels of mastery (I personally never liked that but I have seen it before).

Another idea that allows any weapon to get the same level of benefit is to give a bonus die that is the same regardless of weapon sort of like how war clerics work or if you are enlarged. That would make all weapons just as viable and so you would choose your weapon choice for reasons outside of mastery. I am leaning towards that idea myself as it keeps players from having to chose between max benefit and what weapon they really want.