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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Lightbulb Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Hi everyone.

    I am playing a shugenja in a rokugan campaign and the DM stated that we will enter the shadowlands soon. It's D&D 3.5. I have a few questions:

    1) Rules state that anyone attempting to cast a spell inside the shadowlands must succeed a spellcraft check DC 20+spell level. Failure not only means you lost the spell but that you also acquired taint - and that is one taint score for every 5 points below the DC you attempted the test!!! So attempting to cast one single spell can result in two or more taint scores, if you roll bad enough. We are in 2nd level so my chances aren't that high anyway. To make matters worse, there's no saving throw to avoid this taint and jade won't help either.

    So I was thinking of ways to go around having to actually *cast* a spell - for example, using items such as scrolls and wands. Are they considered a 'casting spell'? To determine if I would be subject to this effect... To me, it makes sense to say that using a scroll or wand is not equivalent of casting a spell, since, for example, you use the item creator's caster level when determining the effects of the spell being activated and also that when you create these items, the spells are in fact stored there, you only need to complete its activation... Maybe it works differently for scrolls and wands? I am not sure, and couldn't find this info neither in Oriental Adventures or the Rokugan Campaing setting. The DM is resistant to allow this. But we agree that potions wouldn't have these restrictions.

    2) Another thing we stumbled upon is that when you are 'infected' with the taint, you apply your taint score as a penalty to both constitution and wisdom! Sucks! Right, so would this ability score damage be healed normally by spells like restoration, the 4th-level spell (even if the taint score itself wouldn't be 'healed', but at least you could get your ability points back).

    3) Finally, my character concept... After seeing these rules, I don't even think it's feasible. Originally, he would be this badass fighter/shugenja who wants to kick some shadowlands creature's ass in physical combat with a large weapon like a naginata or scythe, but with the assistance of certain spells such as Protection From Taint, Magical Weapon (to bypass Oni's DR), or using buffs as Bull's Strenght, etc. :D pretty much like an ordinary fighter/mage would do, but focused on defeating the shadowlands creatures. It's a kind of dark, edgy, facepaint character. To go around the shugenja multiclassing restrictions, I will get the feat 'Chosen by the Kami' on my 3rd character level, and I would prefer to have my shugenja levels two higher than my fighter levels (the maximum allowed by the chosen of the kami feat).

    However, if spellcasting in the shadowlands is *that* risky, it might make this entire build unfeasible, at least until I reached mid to high levels and have a high enough spellcraft check (I'd be comfortable at a +15 total skill bonus or higher... ). Do you have any suggestions on that? Is it even worth trying? Are there any feats (aside from like, skill focus - spellcraft) or maybe prestige classes I could look for in order to play such a character? I know most of you think multiclassing sucks but I was so excited about this character concept that now I am trying to find ways into the system to play it...

    Sorry for the super long post and thanks for reading this far. Any thoughts on any of these questions is welcome!
    Last edited by julio22; 2020-11-28 at 12:44 AM.

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    WhiteWizardGirl

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    You want one feat above all, so I hope it's not limited to OA material only.

    What you want is the feat Pure Soul, out of Heroes of Horror (which, you can even argue is setting appropriate, as the Shadowlands are beyond question a Horror setting).

    Pure Soul's effect? You gain immunity to taint.

    The catch? You must take it BEFORE gaining your first point of taint.

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    Pixie in the Playground
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    Lightbulb Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Hmmm that would DEFINITELY solve all my problems.

    But thinking here, there are feats like 'taint resistant' which grants you +4 bonus to your fortitude check in order to avoid the taint, or prestige class abilities such as the tattoed monk stuff which increases your resistance to taint, some crab feats too etc. And this one feat 'pure soul' would simply overcome all that stuff, everyone would get it and no one would use all the other stuff, so I guess it looks broken to me.

    However, I do agree that the Shadowlands are a horror setting, no doubt about that! But the feat is so powerful (stopping you from ever getting the taint) that the DM will never allow, hahaha. I guess he wants us to feel the horror and how we deal with it.

    I think I need some more mild and 'diplomatic' solutions lol but thanks a lot for the input anyway, this seems like a fun material to look into

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by julio22 View Post
    Hmmm that would DEFINITELY solve all my problems.

    But thinking here, there are feats like 'taint resistant' which grants you +4 bonus to your fortitude check in order to avoid the taint, or prestige class abilities such as the tattoed monk stuff which increases your resistance to taint, some crab feats too etc. And this one feat 'pure soul' would simply overcome all that stuff, everyone would get it and no one would use all the other stuff, so I guess it looks broken to me.

    However, I do agree that the Shadowlands are a horror setting, no doubt about that! But the feat is so powerful (stopping you from ever getting the taint) that the DM will never allow, hahaha. I guess he wants us to feel the horror and how we deal with it.

    I think I need some more mild and 'diplomatic' solutions lol but thanks a lot for the input anyway, this seems like a fun material to look into
    Keep in mind that the feat from Heroes of Horror and the feats from OA come from two different settings and Taint Systems. OA/Shadowlands is trying to emulate the 1e L5R taint system (a wholly separate system) in the context of D&D. They also were drawing upon/reusing the Dark Side point system in the then-current Star Wars RPG (and specifically the Dark Side Sourcebook, which came out two months before OA), especially with the limits before being utterly corrupt being related to Wisdom. The Taint System in HoH was a later development that separated mental and physical corruption - it was a similar concept but went in a VERY different mechanical direction. Further, nothing in Rokugan short of a divine artifact can offer full protection from Taint, as far as humans go; benefits were designed to mitigate or reduce the risk but it could never be fully undone. Mechanically, RAW, yes, it would work. Thematically, your GM would probably ban it and I'd have a hard time arguing against that.

    To your question about what could prevent this, scrolls probably wouldn't work. Scroll activation normally requires you have the spell on your class' list and is affected by everything else that would affect casting a spell - such as having the ability score required for the spell and suffering from spell failure risk. Other magic items MAY be less risky to you, however. A spell trigger item requires the spell to be on the list but not that you are currently able to cast it - it still runs the risk of going awry (since magic in Rokugan involves invoking the Kami, and in the Shadowlands, the Kansen act in their stead and can choose to warp a spell), and the ITEM may become corrupted (which could leak into you over time), but it's probably safer. Command Word items would be the same. Keep in mind that D&D magic items don't line up perfectly with L5R lore - wands and rods don't exist as common magical implements in L5R, and technically all spells are stored in scrolls which are used as foci, with "one use" spells being almost non-extant as a concept in-universe (save for Scorpion Ward Magic). I'm coming at this from a deeper perspective, and your GM may have different interpretations based on their knowledge; it's not explicitly stated anywhere that I know of that these methods wouldn't work, but it's also not stated that they would, at least as far as d20 goes. However, given that everything mechanical about a scroll in D&D says it's basically casting a pre-made spell without using a slot, I'd almost certainly never allow a scroll to bypass those restrictions, and would probably always make the risk of the Kansen rebelling a possibility with other items as well.

    That said... bringing 2nd level characters into the Shadowlands is close to asking for a TPK (or Total Party Corruption, as well). The Shadowlands aren't just a place to adventure - they're extremely dangerous, in any version of the game. If the GM is running them as written, he needs to be aware that it will likely kill or corrupt the entire party in very short order. The steepness of the check is supposed to be the warning - this is not a casual stroll through the park, but a dangerous and potentially fatal challenge for even the most reliable samurai. Low level Shadowlands encounters are supposed to happen at or just within the Kaiu Wall, before the area is so suffused with Taint that it is considered the Shadowlands. To break even on the check with a first level spell (that is, to be at a place where your base skill ranks plus ability score mod gets you an even roll, no other benefits considered), you'd be looking at needing a +10/+11 (since it'd be a DC 21). Even if you had a +4 in Intelligence (on a Charisma-based Caster), that's a minimum of six spellcraft ranks - at least level 3. For your +15 (which I agree is a smarter bet overall) that means level 8, which is much more reasonable for even a small foray into the Shadowlands.

    For context, the conversion chart in the back of the Rokugan d20 book between L5R 2e and D&D (which sounds like it's in play, as you're referencing multiclass restrictions for shugenja) puts levels 4 and 8 as Rank 2 and Rank 3 respectively*. Now, L5R 2e varied from its later successors, but all the AEG editions of the game were roughly similar in relative strength - that is, you'd see similar differences in power between a Rank 1, 2, and 3 character in each respective edition, so discussing Rank between editions is fairly comparable. In the 4e living campaign I was a part of a few years back, the first foray into the Shadowlands proper was a mid-rank module, meaning you had to be minimum Rank 2 to play it, and it was built around a party of Rank 3s with sliders for Rank 2 and Rank 4. You could run into Shadowlands-related foes before this point, but until that module, you never went IN. And that has been consistent in other cases of long-running campaigns - going TO the Shadowlands is very risky in general. Your Level 2 Shugenja is a Rank 1 character roughly - they're not even at the "You must be this tall to ride" line, and way short of the "You must be this tall to not need a car seat" point.

    However, there is another d20 variant of the Shadowlands Taint system, in the AEG book Secrets of the Shadowlands. That is more gentle, though risky still, and more in line with how it tends to work in the L5R game. In that system, corrupted environments prompt a Fortitude save with an initial DC of 5 upon casting a spell - not a shugenja's best (I played a Phoenix shugenja as my first EVER PC**), but at that DC and with a non-negative Con modifier certainly more likely. Failure causes the spell to go awry and gives 1d4 points of taint. The DC increases by 1 for every successful spell cast, and 5 for each failed check prior, and can be reset with 8 hours of meditation and a Concentration check or by remaining out of corrupted areas for 1 day for each point the DC went up. It's still a potential death spiral, but doesn't hit AS hard, and makes the multiclass combo you discuss more viable since that would give you a bit more Fortitude (though I warn you, the multiclassing will hurt your later spellcasting abilities pretty hard, but that's a problem that 3.5 has in general and not specific to JUST the shugenja).

    *It should be noted that Ranks in L5R's first four editions are not quite equivalent to D&D levels; this is a rough comparison. Unlike D&D, L5R is a point-buy system, and Rank is a result of specific traits hitting certain thresholds; it is possible to spend a lot of XP and have a powerful character but be at a low Rank. However, the comparison works for average builds, and the "suggested experience point" equivalent lines up with how much XP a PC would likely have had at that point in the campaign as well if they had played at least 75% of the adventures in the campaign leading up to the one in question.
    **Albeit as a visitor from our version of Rokugan in a western setting and without me knowing a lot about the lore - a void shugenja was just the only way I could find at a time to be the healer we needed AND cast fireball, which was very important to me at 12 for some reason.

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Don't know if it's in play but Magic of Rokugan has some stuff about actually curing taint and more specialized shadowlands stuff to work with.
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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    It sounds like you're using classes from the Rokugan book and taint rules from the Oriental Adventures book? Because, unless I've overlooked something, Shugenja as printed in the Oriental Adventures book doesn't have multiclassing restrictions, and taint rules as printed in the Rokugan book don't give you taint for casting non-maho spells, even if you're in the shadowlands (and penalizes Cha, instead of Con and Wis).

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    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Note: Naga and Nezumi are immune to Shadowlands taint completely

    Alternately, you may try to get the Shadowlands subtype - in this case, your Taint would be a fixed value and never get any worse

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    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessKng View Post
    Keep in mind that the feat from Heroes of Horror and the feats from OA come from two different settings and Taint Systems. OA/Shadowlands is trying to emulate the 1e L5R taint system (a wholly separate system) in the context of D&D. They also were drawing upon/reusing the Dark Side point system in the then-current Star Wars RPG (and specifically the Dark Side Sourcebook, which came out two months before OA), especially with the limits before being utterly corrupt being related to Wisdom. The Taint System in HoH was a later development that separated mental and physical corruption - it was a similar concept but went in a VERY different mechanical direction. Further, nothing in Rokugan short of a divine artifact can offer full protection from Taint, as far as humans go; benefits were designed to mitigate or reduce the risk but it could never be fully undone. Mechanically, RAW, yes, it would work. Thematically, your GM would probably ban it and I'd have a hard time arguing against that.

    To your question about what could prevent this, scrolls probably wouldn't work. Scroll activation normally requires you have the spell on your class' list and is affected by everything else that would affect casting a spell - such as having the ability score required for the spell and suffering from spell failure risk. Other magic items MAY be less risky to you, however. A spell trigger item requires the spell to be on the list but not that you are currently able to cast it - it still runs the risk of going awry (since magic in Rokugan involves invoking the Kami, and in the Shadowlands, the Kansen act in their stead and can choose to warp a spell), and the ITEM may become corrupted (which could leak into you over time), but it's probably safer. Command Word items would be the same. Keep in mind that D&D magic items don't line up perfectly with L5R lore - wands and rods don't exist as common magical implements in L5R, and technically all spells are stored in scrolls which are used as foci, with "one use" spells being almost non-extant as a concept in-universe (save for Scorpion Ward Magic). I'm coming at this from a deeper perspective, and your GM may have different interpretations based on their knowledge; it's not explicitly stated anywhere that I know of that these methods wouldn't work, but it's also not stated that they would, at least as far as d20 goes. However, given that everything mechanical about a scroll in D&D says it's basically casting a pre-made spell without using a slot, I'd almost certainly never allow a scroll to bypass those restrictions, and would probably always make the risk of the Kansen rebelling a possibility with other items as well.

    That said... bringing 2nd level characters into the Shadowlands is close to asking for a TPK (or Total Party Corruption, as well). The Shadowlands aren't just a place to adventure - they're extremely dangerous, in any version of the game. If the GM is running them as written, he needs to be aware that it will likely kill or corrupt the entire party in very short order. The steepness of the check is supposed to be the warning - this is not a casual stroll through the park, but a dangerous and potentially fatal challenge for even the most reliable samurai. Low level Shadowlands encounters are supposed to happen at or just within the Kaiu Wall, before the area is so suffused with Taint that it is considered the Shadowlands. To break even on the check with a first level spell (that is, to be at a place where your base skill ranks plus ability score mod gets you an even roll, no other benefits considered), you'd be looking at needing a +10/+11 (since it'd be a DC 21). Even if you had a +4 in Intelligence (on a Charisma-based Caster), that's a minimum of six spellcraft ranks - at least level 3. For your +15 (which I agree is a smarter bet overall) that means level 8, which is much more reasonable for even a small foray into the Shadowlands.

    For context, the conversion chart in the back of the Rokugan d20 book between L5R 2e and D&D (which sounds like it's in play, as you're referencing multiclass restrictions for shugenja) puts levels 4 and 8 as Rank 2 and Rank 3 respectively*. Now, L5R 2e varied from its later successors, but all the AEG editions of the game were roughly similar in relative strength - that is, you'd see similar differences in power between a Rank 1, 2, and 3 character in each respective edition, so discussing Rank between editions is fairly comparable. In the 4e living campaign I was a part of a few years back, the first foray into the Shadowlands proper was a mid-rank module, meaning you had to be minimum Rank 2 to play it, and it was built around a party of Rank 3s with sliders for Rank 2 and Rank 4. You could run into Shadowlands-related foes before this point, but until that module, you never went IN. And that has been consistent in other cases of long-running campaigns - going TO the Shadowlands is very risky in general. Your Level 2 Shugenja is a Rank 1 character roughly - they're not even at the "You must be this tall to ride" line, and way short of the "You must be this tall to not need a car seat" point.

    However, there is another d20 variant of the Shadowlands Taint system, in the AEG book Secrets of the Shadowlands. That is more gentle, though risky still, and more in line with how it tends to work in the L5R game. In that system, corrupted environments prompt a Fortitude save with an initial DC of 5 upon casting a spell - not a shugenja's best (I played a Phoenix shugenja as my first EVER PC**), but at that DC and with a non-negative Con modifier certainly more likely. Failure causes the spell to go awry and gives 1d4 points of taint. The DC increases by 1 for every successful spell cast, and 5 for each failed check prior, and can be reset with 8 hours of meditation and a Concentration check or by remaining out of corrupted areas for 1 day for each point the DC went up. It's still a potential death spiral, but doesn't hit AS hard, and makes the multiclass combo you discuss more viable since that would give you a bit more Fortitude (though I warn you, the multiclassing will hurt your later spellcasting abilities pretty hard, but that's a problem that 3.5 has in general and not specific to JUST the shugenja).

    *It should be noted that Ranks in L5R's first four editions are not quite equivalent to D&D levels; this is a rough comparison. Unlike D&D, L5R is a point-buy system, and Rank is a result of specific traits hitting certain thresholds; it is possible to spend a lot of XP and have a powerful character but be at a low Rank. However, the comparison works for average builds, and the "suggested experience point" equivalent lines up with how much XP a PC would likely have had at that point in the campaign as well if they had played at least 75% of the adventures in the campaign leading up to the one in question.
    **Albeit as a visitor from our version of Rokugan in a western setting and without me knowing a lot about the lore - a void shugenja was just the only way I could find at a time to be the healer we needed AND cast fireball, which was very important to me at 12 for some reason.
    Hey endlesskng thank you so much for your detailed answer. We are still learning about Rokugan, none of us have much experience with it but the GM is the one who read most about it. We are using rules both from "Oriental Adventures" and "Rokugan Campaign Setting" for d20, 3.5 rules. Sometimes the rules from these books contradict each other, but often not. Ocasionally we also use some rules from the "Secrets of the..." (crab, samurai, crane, shadowlands etc.) books, but then we have to adapt them because they are not d20. I guess we are still trying to find where we stand haha

    I agree that preventing taint is almost impossible (I found that the tattooed monk's crow tattoo will give you taint immunity for a few days, but my character is not getting that haha), and yes, any use of magic in the shadowlands could result in eventually getting tainted. After some reading and debating, we reached the conclusion that using spells in the shadowlands (wether through your own casting, or scrolls and other items) is always risky because of the way magic functions in Rokugan - through using the spirits of the environment itself in order to complete the spell. So who know who's going to answer your call inside the shadowlands... ? lol (somehow like using magic in a wild magic or dead magic area - no matter the source of magic, it will conflict with the characteristics of these specific environments...).

    I was suspicious of entering the shadowlands as 2nd lvl characters, but our game ran surprisingly 'smooth'. The idea of that quest is that we were taking our Genpukku tests, and return with the head of some monster we fought and defeated, you know, as the book says is Crab tradition. We were provided with enough jade, and after a few days following some tracks, we got into the mid-fight of some five Hiruma patrols battling some 'hounds of the lost' and we succeeded unscathed, to the expense of the poor patrolling guys - only two survived. So yeah, it is not meant to be a place for low level characters, but the GM went easy on us this time. But then I was wondering, how do the crab do the Genpukku thing this way? Do they take levels of other classes before being accepted in society as Samurai (that is, before completing the Genpukku)? Can they actually take Samurai levels before the Genpukku? In my case the GM just put me along the Samurai because I am a fighting-type shugenja (fighter 1/shugenja 1 with 18 Strengh lol) . I found a way to really improve my spellcrafting check for my level, but it's not much different from what you calculated, so not safe for using yet. All in all, I can say that this character concept I had in mind will only work properly in mid-to-high levels, when I will be able to cast spells in there in a less risky way. I just didn't know it because I didn't know the rules right, hahaha.

    Thanks so much for bringing the taint system variant. It seems a lot more reasonable, I will present it to the GM and see how it goes.

    As for the other replies, I really appreciate your inputs too guys, will reply you soon! (busy days...)

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    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    The Crab have found ways to stem the taint and a lot of Crab Shugenja, the Kuni who study it have found ways to help the clan.

    Secrets of the Crab Clan book is very worthwhile read. Get it and read it.

    Ive been playing L5R rpg from its inception and love the setting, the taint can mess a party up so much. Though the Crab have a dojo in the Shadowlands for its members who are tainted to live out their lives fighting the Shadowlands.

    The feat Jade Rationing is also great to take, makes jade last longer in the Shaowlands.
    Last edited by Orpheus108; 2020-11-29 at 11:15 PM.

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by Kelb_Panthera View Post
    Don't know if it's in play but Magic of Rokugan has some stuff about actually curing taint and more specialized shadowlands stuff to work with.
    Kelb_Panthera I didn't know this book until now. The only specific thing we found in the books we have is that Remove Disease or Remove Curse spells will lower the taint score by 1, and the Heal spell, by 3 - or you can use a Miracle or Wish spell to emulate those too - but nobne of them (not even Miracle or Wish) can completely remove taint, only lower it to 1... I am definitely going to look into Magic of Rokugan, besides more info on the Shadowlands and how to deal with the taint, there might be some really cool and useful stuff - particularly for shugenjas. Many thanks

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by Maat Mons View Post
    It sounds like you're using classes from the Rokugan book and taint rules from the Oriental Adventures book? Because, unless I've overlooked something, Shugenja as printed in the Oriental Adventures book doesn't have multiclassing restrictions, and taint rules as printed in the Rokugan book don't give you taint for casting non-maho spells, even if you're in the shadowlands (and penalizes Cha, instead of Con and Wis).
    Maat Mons, that's true, I hadn't realized that the description of the Shugenja class in the Oriental Adventures book actually do not mention any multiclassing restrictions, but I know my GM, he will argue that there is... And about the shadowlands, there is little info on both books, so we just are just using whatever rules we found. I couldn't find this mention of CHA penalty in the Rokugan book before, I'm going to look for it, I really appreciate your input!

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by ShurikVch View Post
    Note: Naga and Nezumi are immune to Shadowlands taint completely

    Alternately, you may try to get the Shadowlands subtype - in this case, your Taint would be a fixed value and never get any worse
    ShurikVch thanks for the suggestions! Well, this character concept is a human, really, so I wouldn't change it. Nezumi lack the fearsome vibe I want to give of. Naga seems cool enough but no idea how to make it into the plot with a Naga character, are they friends with some clan like the Nezumi are with the Crab? And wow, I didn't know that there were Shadowlands-subtype player characters - aren't all these shadowland creatures controlled by Fu-leng? Or can they actually be a part of the empire?
    Last edited by julio22; 2020-11-30 at 11:15 PM.

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Fu -Leng is dead, the Shadowlands arevruled by the Daigotsu, Secrets of the Shadowlands is a great source of info.

    Anyone that has the taint is shunned by the empire, though the Crab clan use the good ones to fight within the Shadowlands.

    If your going to be hunting in the Shadowlands, besides jade you should be taking Kuni crystal aswell. The Goju (ninja linked to the Shadow Dragon the Dragon clan had it in a prison of crystal, well the Lying Darkness or The Nothing) family will make a mess of your day quick. The Chuda are the shugenja of the Shadowlands and are sneaky. The Tsuno are very nasty to fight.

    But couldnt recommend Secrets of the Shadowlands and Crab and if your not Crab clan look at the Secrets of (clan name) book, one for each and a great reads

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    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by julio22 View Post
    Naga seems cool enough but no idea how to make it into the plot with a Naga character, are they friends with some clan like the Nezumi are with the Crab?
    Naga and the Crab


    Quote Originally Posted by julio22 View Post
    And wow, I didn't know that there were Shadowlands-subtype player characters - aren't all these shadowland creatures controlled by Fu-leng? Or can they actually be a part of the empire?
    Well, Bakemono, Ogre (Shadowlands), and Tsuno are explicitly playable in the 3.0 Oriental Adventures

    But for the "part of the empire"... Try the Spider Clan?

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    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    You could be Dragon clan. One of the secret feats, Tattoo Magic, for the Dragon Clan allows you to spontaneously generate one of the Tattooed Monk's tattoos. It requires Void Use and you have to be a monk or inkyo, though.

    The feat that makes you immune to taint has to be taken in context: OA/UA taint is different from HoH taint. HoH taint is a combination of Corruption and Depravity and is measured separately. It is stated to replace the version from OA. It does not apply a penalty to CON/WIS, instead it manifests as physical and mental defects, depending on the score, which apply various mechanical penalties in the same manner as Flaws. If you are using OA taint, the feats from HoH that deal with it should be ignored as it runs on a separate metric. It's like the difference between 3.5 and 5e. Thematically the same but enough difference to render some options inoperable.

    Quote Originally Posted by julio22 View Post
    Kelb_Panthera I didn't know this book until now. The only specific thing we found in the books we have is that Remove Disease or Remove Curse spells will lower the taint score by 1, and the Heal spell, by 3 - or you can use a Miracle or Wish spell to emulate those too - but nobne of them (not even Miracle or Wish) can completely remove taint, only lower it to 1... I am definitely going to look into Magic of Rokugan, besides more info on the Shadowlands and how to deal with the taint, there might be some really cool and useful stuff - particularly for shugenjas. Many thanks
    If you are running a shugenja, you almost need Magic of Rokugan. It increases the versatility of the class to an extreme degree by adding a large selection of spells and feats. I have a physical copy of it just so I can bring it with me to in-person games.
    Last edited by illyahr; 2020-12-01 at 06:17 PM.
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  16. - Top - End - #16
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Nov 2020

    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by Orpheus108 View Post
    The Crab have found ways to stem the taint and a lot of Crab Shugenja, the Kuni who study it have found ways to help the clan.

    Secrets of the Crab Clan book is very worthwhile read. Get it and read it.

    Ive been playing L5R rpg from its inception and love the setting, the taint can mess a party up so much. Though the Crab have a dojo in the Shadowlands for its members who are tainted to live out their lives fighting the Shadowlands.

    The feat Jade Rationing is also great to take, makes jade last longer in the Shaowlands.
    Orpheus108 big thanks for the input! I am already reading the secrets of the crab and finding some cool stuff. And yes, in our game we passed by this 'tainted dojo' in the shadowlands, it was pitiful but creepy at the same time.

    Yes to Jade Rationing! I have to squeeze that feat into my build somewhere!

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Nov 2019

    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    No worries dude, any other questions just ask

  18. - Top - End - #18
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Nov 2020

    Default Re: Rokugan shadowlands - magic item use, ability damage, and others

    Quote Originally Posted by Orpheus108 View Post
    Fu -Leng is dead, the Shadowlands arevruled by the Daigotsu, Secrets of the Shadowlands is a great source of info.

    Anyone that has the taint is shunned by the empire, though the Crab clan use the good ones to fight within the Shadowlands.

    If your going to be hunting in the Shadowlands, besides jade you should be taking Kuni crystal aswell. The Goju (ninja linked to the Shadow Dragon the Dragon clan had it in a prison of crystal, well the Lying Darkness or The Nothing) family will make a mess of your day quick. The Chuda are the shugenja of the Shadowlands and are sneaky. The Tsuno are very nasty to fight.

    But couldnt recommend Secrets of the Shadowlands and Crab and if your not Crab clan look at the Secrets of (clan name) book, one for each and a great reads
    Kuni Crystal sounds badass haha, Are these families like enemies of the Crab?

    Orpheus108, My shugenja is a Crab (Kuni)!
    I have another character I am playing, a Crane (Kakita) Samurai/Monk/Fighter who fights using only robes and relies on speed and such. Really fun too, can even be effective, although a difficult build.

    thanks again.
    Last edited by julio22; 2020-12-03 at 12:01 AM.

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