Skylivedk
2016-03-13, 09:44 AM
Hello Playground!
We are about to start a new campaign, where I will have the honour of DM'ing.
In that regard, I'd like to post some of the campaign settings and homebrew and get some feedback.
Especially I'd love to hear if any of my changes breaks game-balance. In particular, I'd love feedback on the crafting system and in regards to the arcane cyborg gnome.
First of all: the major change in my setting is that we reintroduce magic items into the economy.
Secondly: the way magic items and crafting are introduced into the economy (slight BioShock inspiration) lends itself to a dark fantasy setting where human greed will lead to pain and bloody deaths.
Thirdly: I've been inspired by homebrew from others. In particular I would like to thank Kryx for his DPR-charts and homebrew. I use some of his suggestions and my TWF-modification is highly inspired by his rend-feature.
Contents
1. General Information and the Major Changes
2. Magic Items and Crafting
3. Arcane Cyborg (Rock Gnome Variant)
4. Extra Level 1 Feat and Feat Tweaks
5. Combat: Two-Weapon Fighting, Versatile Fighting, Charging and Flanking
6. Intelligence Modifier Buff
7. Spells
8. Party Composition
1. General Information and the Major Changes
The campaign setting will be (very) loosely based on the Forgotten Realms. Due to the following changes, the setting will be dark fantasy. We have a Rules as Fun-philosophy.
The major change in our setting is that you can harvest mana which can be used for crafting magic items.
You can harvest mana in 2 ways:
1. You let a spellcaster crystalize mana through 8-hour seances.
2. You drain a (recently) dead spell-caster of his mana.
I'm currently thinking that:
a) one level 4 full caster can crystalize enough mana during 1-year to create a magic item around the power level of a +1 weapon (or +1d4 dmg which will probably be more common... I'd rather not give too many +1 to hit items to avoid breaking bounded accuracy). That would be 200 shards of the lowest quality (so around 0.5 shard a day). 1 shard is commonly traded for 10 gp. (greater shards, necessary for more potent enchantments, are rarely traded for GP).
b) If you harvest the body of a level 4 full caster, you'd get what he produces in 3-months.
c) Different casters produce different mana for different enchantments. Sorcerers' mana would be used for offensive items (also goes for Wizards' mana, but with slightly more utility on Wizards' mana), Bards' mana for social interaction and illusions, Druids' mana for utility and skills, Clerics' and Paladins' mana for defensive buffs and heals and Warlocks would generate mana necessary for intelligent/soulbound items.
d) Everybody can be harvested for a little bit of mana (yes, human sacrifices à la the Aztecs will be a thing)... But casters significantly more.
e) I'm open to suggestions regarding scaling of magic items, but I'm currently working with the scale found in 3e (+2 being worth 4 times as much as +1).
I'm looking forward to seeing the dynamics of this setting.. I believe this economic factor should easily generate tons of plots and paranoia. Also this will, naturally, greatly affect guild structure and power alliances. I predict monks, druids and rogues forming alliances, massive persecution of sorcerers and mages, etc.
2. Magic Items and Crafting
In general, I'd have way more of the quirky items and way more activated items.
So less passive buffs and more
Examples:
In Your Shoes "Once per short rest you can change place with a creature within 60 ft if the creature fails a WIS DC 14"
Unburstable Bubble Blower [Misc.] "You can blow soap bubbles that float in the air. Each bubble can carry 500 pounds and has 5 hp and 15 ac"
The Hook [Throwing Spear] "Range 60 ft / 120 ft. +1 to hit. 1d6 piercing damage. 1/short rest: as part of a succesful attack on a target within 60 ft., you can attempt to pull the creature to melee distance (5 ft.). The target must succeed on a strength saving throw (DC= attacker's proficiency bonus+8+strength modifier, or be pulled".
[B]3. Arcane Cyborg (Rock Gnome Variant
One of my players wants to play an arcane cyborg rock gnome.
Instead of being able to build small trinkets, the Rock Gnome Arcane Cyborg can activate parts of his cyborg body for the following effects. Each effect lasts a minute. Once the minute is over, the cyborg is somewhat disadvantaged and needs to be fixed before going back to normal.
Eye: detect magic, 1 minute. After: disadvantage on all perception checks. 20 minutes to fix.
Arms: reach, 1 minute. After: -2 on all attack rolls. 20 minutes to fix.
Extend-o leg. 10 ft extra movement speed. After: -5 movement speed. 20 minutes to fix.
His big down-sided is that his character is addicted to magic. To function normally he needs the mana of a newly harvested caster of his own level every month. I imagine giving him other functions for his cyborg parts as the campaign progresses, but that will also increase his burn rate.
The character is IMO, from a min-max perspective, still behind the power curve of all the other players (ie the Ftr1/Warlock2 Polearm Master).
4. Extra Level 1 Feat and Feat Tweaks
I give all players a level 1 feat from the following list (of feats, I thought were not seeing enough play):
Actor
Athlete
Dungeon Delver
Durable
Grappler (with +1 str)
Healer
Keen Mind
Linguist
Martial Adept
Medium Armor Master (with +1 agi)
Savage Attacker (with +1 str)
Tavern Brawler
5. Combat: Two-Weapon Fighting, Versatile Fighting, Charging and Flanking
Two-Weapon Fighting (thank you, Kryx
At level 11, you have access to the extra attack feature and hit with both weapons, you can add your proficiency bonus to damage.
Two-weapon Fighting Style: you can use bigger weapons without a penalty and get +1 to hit when Two-Weapon Fighting.
Dual-Wielder: you can sheathe two weapons instead of one. You can add your ability modificer to your off-hand. At level 11, you can add your proficiency bonus to damage if you hit with both weapons (if you have an extra attack you can double your proficiency bonus to damage)
Versatile Fighting: I allow GWM to be used with versatile weapons. This allows halflings and gnomes to use GWM... not that they're all that great at it anyway.
Charging: Charger is a combat option available to everyone, phrased as: "If you take the Dash action during your turn and move 15 ft in a straight line towards an enemy, you can take a bonus action to make a melee attack where you add your proficiency bonus to damage"
Ready Action: Ready Action is changed into being like the old Delay Action (I don't understand why a spell-caster should be allowed to ready a full spell, yet a martial class could only make 1 attack, so... changed).
Flanking: Flanking provides a +1 to hit.
6. Intelligence Modifier Buff
Intelligence gives an extra language or tool proficiency for every bonus modifier. Mental stats are in general more important in my setting (low wisdom characters are not strong under pressure, low int - welll.. complexity really isn't your thing), but even with the inherent campaign buff, it annoyed me that Intelligence provided almost no mechanical bonus. Hence languages and tool proficiencies.
7. Spells
Simulacrum: We change Simulacrum. I'm not sure to what, but probably putting a maximum cap on the level of spells the clone can cast.
:
Some of the other spells will be changed as Kryx has done. Conjure Woodland Beings will be a DM-call (and pixies are CR 1).
Scorching Ray will get a damage buff to each ray (from abilities such as the sorcerer's)
Sorcerers will get more spells (as per Kryx' origin spell list).
8. Party Composition
Currently, the party starts at level 3 with 27 point buy (plus the feat mentioned earlier). They're 5 members strong and include:
Eldritch Knight, Rock Gnome Variant (Arcane Cyborg). Tank
Devoid of emotions and addicted to arcane energy, the formerly good-hearted Kook has been turned into something he'd previously called a monster. He was born a normal life-loving gnome. After his village was attacked, plundered, pillaged and burned to the ground, Kook was found more dead than alive. A Golem-obsessed mage saved his life, but doomed his gnomanity. The morning after Kook learned how to harvest mana, his master woke up dead
Moon Druid, Wood-Elf. Healer, 2nd Tank, CC
Obsessed with the hunt and the pleasure derived from his enhanced senses, Beodroth was banished from his wood-elf tribe once his shape-shifting powers started manifesting. The wood elves would have welcomed another druid, but they could not see past the fact that Beodroth became more beast than elf. The limit of their patience was reached the day Beodroth was found gorging himself on the foal of a Unicorn. Beodroth later joined the druids of Malar. He is constantly trying to find and cultivate more challenging prey. Some think that that is the only reason why he is currently travelling with others...
Fighter 1 / Warlock 2, Human Variant. DPS, Tank, Party Face
Hailing from a Demon-Worshipping tribe where honour in combat is all that matters, a young fighter chose to bind himself to the rulers of his ancestors to gain greater power. The deal was to make him the most powerful of his tribe members. After the pact was agreed upon, the young warlock blacked out. Regaining his senses, he found himself surrounded by his brutally murdered tribe. Seething with anger, the young man ventured forth in the world: to prove his honour and one day challenge the demon who has claimed the lives of his tribes men and parts of his soul
Diviner/Abjurer 3, High-Elf (Perhaps Eladrin) Utility, CC.
A master of contingencies, this ambitious elf foresaw nothing, but boredom if he were to remain in the Elven lands. Boredom, and the slow, but inevitable destruction of his race. The elf decided to take a more proactive approach to destruction and travelled to learn about the greed of humans and discover arcane secrets probably best left alone. His relationship to the Arcane Energy Addicted Rock Gnome is a fragile alliance at best. For now, the elf knows the partnership will increase their likelihood of success, so for now, they travel together
Unknown, Unknown. The last player is yet to choose a class. I'm hoping for a cleric or bard. They lack healing, trap circumvention
In regards to the party, I'd like to hear if you have any ideas to challenging encounters (PM), and how I can prevent the moon druid from stealing the spotlight too often. Also I'd love to get insights into how DM's manage evil groups, especially in regards to discouraging murder-hobo'ing while still allowing players to be plenty evil.
The druid took Actor and has 14 charisma (for RP-reasons.. being addicted to killing things taught him to hide his true nature). The Warlock/Fighter has 16 charisma and the Diviner/Abjurer 12 - so the group should be rather strong in social scenarios.
I see traps being their biggest current weakness.. And the fact that the druid is the only confirmed Healing Word-caster they have.
Of course internal disputes, bad reputations and all of them being casters are all likely reasons for being brutally murdered.
We are about to start a new campaign, where I will have the honour of DM'ing.
In that regard, I'd like to post some of the campaign settings and homebrew and get some feedback.
Especially I'd love to hear if any of my changes breaks game-balance. In particular, I'd love feedback on the crafting system and in regards to the arcane cyborg gnome.
First of all: the major change in my setting is that we reintroduce magic items into the economy.
Secondly: the way magic items and crafting are introduced into the economy (slight BioShock inspiration) lends itself to a dark fantasy setting where human greed will lead to pain and bloody deaths.
Thirdly: I've been inspired by homebrew from others. In particular I would like to thank Kryx for his DPR-charts and homebrew. I use some of his suggestions and my TWF-modification is highly inspired by his rend-feature.
Contents
1. General Information and the Major Changes
2. Magic Items and Crafting
3. Arcane Cyborg (Rock Gnome Variant)
4. Extra Level 1 Feat and Feat Tweaks
5. Combat: Two-Weapon Fighting, Versatile Fighting, Charging and Flanking
6. Intelligence Modifier Buff
7. Spells
8. Party Composition
1. General Information and the Major Changes
The campaign setting will be (very) loosely based on the Forgotten Realms. Due to the following changes, the setting will be dark fantasy. We have a Rules as Fun-philosophy.
The major change in our setting is that you can harvest mana which can be used for crafting magic items.
You can harvest mana in 2 ways:
1. You let a spellcaster crystalize mana through 8-hour seances.
2. You drain a (recently) dead spell-caster of his mana.
I'm currently thinking that:
a) one level 4 full caster can crystalize enough mana during 1-year to create a magic item around the power level of a +1 weapon (or +1d4 dmg which will probably be more common... I'd rather not give too many +1 to hit items to avoid breaking bounded accuracy). That would be 200 shards of the lowest quality (so around 0.5 shard a day). 1 shard is commonly traded for 10 gp. (greater shards, necessary for more potent enchantments, are rarely traded for GP).
b) If you harvest the body of a level 4 full caster, you'd get what he produces in 3-months.
c) Different casters produce different mana for different enchantments. Sorcerers' mana would be used for offensive items (also goes for Wizards' mana, but with slightly more utility on Wizards' mana), Bards' mana for social interaction and illusions, Druids' mana for utility and skills, Clerics' and Paladins' mana for defensive buffs and heals and Warlocks would generate mana necessary for intelligent/soulbound items.
d) Everybody can be harvested for a little bit of mana (yes, human sacrifices à la the Aztecs will be a thing)... But casters significantly more.
e) I'm open to suggestions regarding scaling of magic items, but I'm currently working with the scale found in 3e (+2 being worth 4 times as much as +1).
I'm looking forward to seeing the dynamics of this setting.. I believe this economic factor should easily generate tons of plots and paranoia. Also this will, naturally, greatly affect guild structure and power alliances. I predict monks, druids and rogues forming alliances, massive persecution of sorcerers and mages, etc.
2. Magic Items and Crafting
In general, I'd have way more of the quirky items and way more activated items.
So less passive buffs and more
Examples:
In Your Shoes "Once per short rest you can change place with a creature within 60 ft if the creature fails a WIS DC 14"
Unburstable Bubble Blower [Misc.] "You can blow soap bubbles that float in the air. Each bubble can carry 500 pounds and has 5 hp and 15 ac"
The Hook [Throwing Spear] "Range 60 ft / 120 ft. +1 to hit. 1d6 piercing damage. 1/short rest: as part of a succesful attack on a target within 60 ft., you can attempt to pull the creature to melee distance (5 ft.). The target must succeed on a strength saving throw (DC= attacker's proficiency bonus+8+strength modifier, or be pulled".
[B]3. Arcane Cyborg (Rock Gnome Variant
One of my players wants to play an arcane cyborg rock gnome.
Instead of being able to build small trinkets, the Rock Gnome Arcane Cyborg can activate parts of his cyborg body for the following effects. Each effect lasts a minute. Once the minute is over, the cyborg is somewhat disadvantaged and needs to be fixed before going back to normal.
Eye: detect magic, 1 minute. After: disadvantage on all perception checks. 20 minutes to fix.
Arms: reach, 1 minute. After: -2 on all attack rolls. 20 minutes to fix.
Extend-o leg. 10 ft extra movement speed. After: -5 movement speed. 20 minutes to fix.
His big down-sided is that his character is addicted to magic. To function normally he needs the mana of a newly harvested caster of his own level every month. I imagine giving him other functions for his cyborg parts as the campaign progresses, but that will also increase his burn rate.
The character is IMO, from a min-max perspective, still behind the power curve of all the other players (ie the Ftr1/Warlock2 Polearm Master).
4. Extra Level 1 Feat and Feat Tweaks
I give all players a level 1 feat from the following list (of feats, I thought were not seeing enough play):
Actor
Athlete
Dungeon Delver
Durable
Grappler (with +1 str)
Healer
Keen Mind
Linguist
Martial Adept
Medium Armor Master (with +1 agi)
Savage Attacker (with +1 str)
Tavern Brawler
5. Combat: Two-Weapon Fighting, Versatile Fighting, Charging and Flanking
Two-Weapon Fighting (thank you, Kryx
At level 11, you have access to the extra attack feature and hit with both weapons, you can add your proficiency bonus to damage.
Two-weapon Fighting Style: you can use bigger weapons without a penalty and get +1 to hit when Two-Weapon Fighting.
Dual-Wielder: you can sheathe two weapons instead of one. You can add your ability modificer to your off-hand. At level 11, you can add your proficiency bonus to damage if you hit with both weapons (if you have an extra attack you can double your proficiency bonus to damage)
Versatile Fighting: I allow GWM to be used with versatile weapons. This allows halflings and gnomes to use GWM... not that they're all that great at it anyway.
Charging: Charger is a combat option available to everyone, phrased as: "If you take the Dash action during your turn and move 15 ft in a straight line towards an enemy, you can take a bonus action to make a melee attack where you add your proficiency bonus to damage"
Ready Action: Ready Action is changed into being like the old Delay Action (I don't understand why a spell-caster should be allowed to ready a full spell, yet a martial class could only make 1 attack, so... changed).
Flanking: Flanking provides a +1 to hit.
6. Intelligence Modifier Buff
Intelligence gives an extra language or tool proficiency for every bonus modifier. Mental stats are in general more important in my setting (low wisdom characters are not strong under pressure, low int - welll.. complexity really isn't your thing), but even with the inherent campaign buff, it annoyed me that Intelligence provided almost no mechanical bonus. Hence languages and tool proficiencies.
7. Spells
Simulacrum: We change Simulacrum. I'm not sure to what, but probably putting a maximum cap on the level of spells the clone can cast.
:
Some of the other spells will be changed as Kryx has done. Conjure Woodland Beings will be a DM-call (and pixies are CR 1).
Scorching Ray will get a damage buff to each ray (from abilities such as the sorcerer's)
Sorcerers will get more spells (as per Kryx' origin spell list).
8. Party Composition
Currently, the party starts at level 3 with 27 point buy (plus the feat mentioned earlier). They're 5 members strong and include:
Eldritch Knight, Rock Gnome Variant (Arcane Cyborg). Tank
Devoid of emotions and addicted to arcane energy, the formerly good-hearted Kook has been turned into something he'd previously called a monster. He was born a normal life-loving gnome. After his village was attacked, plundered, pillaged and burned to the ground, Kook was found more dead than alive. A Golem-obsessed mage saved his life, but doomed his gnomanity. The morning after Kook learned how to harvest mana, his master woke up dead
Moon Druid, Wood-Elf. Healer, 2nd Tank, CC
Obsessed with the hunt and the pleasure derived from his enhanced senses, Beodroth was banished from his wood-elf tribe once his shape-shifting powers started manifesting. The wood elves would have welcomed another druid, but they could not see past the fact that Beodroth became more beast than elf. The limit of their patience was reached the day Beodroth was found gorging himself on the foal of a Unicorn. Beodroth later joined the druids of Malar. He is constantly trying to find and cultivate more challenging prey. Some think that that is the only reason why he is currently travelling with others...
Fighter 1 / Warlock 2, Human Variant. DPS, Tank, Party Face
Hailing from a Demon-Worshipping tribe where honour in combat is all that matters, a young fighter chose to bind himself to the rulers of his ancestors to gain greater power. The deal was to make him the most powerful of his tribe members. After the pact was agreed upon, the young warlock blacked out. Regaining his senses, he found himself surrounded by his brutally murdered tribe. Seething with anger, the young man ventured forth in the world: to prove his honour and one day challenge the demon who has claimed the lives of his tribes men and parts of his soul
Diviner/Abjurer 3, High-Elf (Perhaps Eladrin) Utility, CC.
A master of contingencies, this ambitious elf foresaw nothing, but boredom if he were to remain in the Elven lands. Boredom, and the slow, but inevitable destruction of his race. The elf decided to take a more proactive approach to destruction and travelled to learn about the greed of humans and discover arcane secrets probably best left alone. His relationship to the Arcane Energy Addicted Rock Gnome is a fragile alliance at best. For now, the elf knows the partnership will increase their likelihood of success, so for now, they travel together
Unknown, Unknown. The last player is yet to choose a class. I'm hoping for a cleric or bard. They lack healing, trap circumvention
In regards to the party, I'd like to hear if you have any ideas to challenging encounters (PM), and how I can prevent the moon druid from stealing the spotlight too often. Also I'd love to get insights into how DM's manage evil groups, especially in regards to discouraging murder-hobo'ing while still allowing players to be plenty evil.
The druid took Actor and has 14 charisma (for RP-reasons.. being addicted to killing things taught him to hide his true nature). The Warlock/Fighter has 16 charisma and the Diviner/Abjurer 12 - so the group should be rather strong in social scenarios.
I see traps being their biggest current weakness.. And the fact that the druid is the only confirmed Healing Word-caster they have.
Of course internal disputes, bad reputations and all of them being casters are all likely reasons for being brutally murdered.