Saw your thing about the compass home base on my dashboard, and I immediately gave a follow after looking at your other stuff :D any chance you can do a druid themed home?
Player Home: Two-Goats Lookout
"I'll admit, it took me a while to find this place: Not only is it out of the way, I thought the notation on my map was warning me to beware a pair of angry ungulates guarding the pass" -Barnabus Blythe, Coachman
Setup: Built half way up a rolling mountain on foundations set down by a barbarian warlord, this walled outpost overlooks a vast landscape of rolling foothills and plunging valleys along the kingdom’s border. Serving both as shelter for travelers and staging ground for expeditions into the wild frontier, this forester’s fortress could act as a thriving home for a party focused on exploration and facing the challenges of the wilderness.
Adventure Hooks:
As it guards an important mountain pass, Two-Goats Lookout could be a good place for a first-time party to meet: drawn from local trappers, caravan travelers, and soldiers shipped out to the boonies to defend the kingdom’s furthest border. Hunting dangerous wildlife, protecting the footholds of civilization, and escorting foreign traders to and from nearby settlements can all provide a great backdrop for early adventures, to say nothing of the various caves and ruins scattered throughout the landscape waiting to be explored.
The party might first learn of the lookout while hunting a dangerous outlaw, who retreats to the disused outpost after kidnapping the scion of a noble house for ransom. After the brigands are dealt with, the innocent is returned, the party may realize mid-way through their looting that they’re now in possession of a reasonably established (if somewhat bloodstained) keep. Why not invest a bit of their looted spoils and hard-won reward and see about turning this into their personal clubhouse?
Alternatively, if the party were of an outlaw bent themselves, Two-Goats Lookout would provide an excellent hidden base from which to plot their attacks against a corrupt administration overseeing the local townships. Mostly forgotten though it might be, It’d be the perfect place to add a few fortifications, perhaps start assembling a band of merry individuals who also share the party’s problems with authority.
It’s not uncommon for nobles to be put into the position of having to reward groups of adventurers for their vital service in preserving the order of their realms. While some of these sellswords are professional and well composed enough to earn themselves a place at court, most mercenaries are about as crass and volatile as a powderkeg with political opinions. In this latter case, standing operating procedure is to load them down with gold or shiny weapons and hope they go away, but if the vagabonds DO want land, perhaps a fortress far, far, FAR, away from their benefactor’s own could do the trick?
Accommodations & Upgrades:
Though already sitting on enough stock and provisions to last out the winter or repel a marauding band of ogres, the Lookout has a long way to go before being truly self sufficient. Architects can be hired to make repairs and additions, artisans to craft gear from abundant local resources. Perhaps they should go about seeking some followers to fill the lookout’s many unused buildings.
A small temple to Erathis, the Lawbearer was built by one of the Lookout’s previous owners, but anyone who goes to pray there can tell that the shabby little shrine has something off about it. The temple was actually built in a space considered sacred by the fortress’s original barbarous inhabitants, and the builder presumed to consecrate it in the name of his patron without asking either goddess. This has left the outpost in a sort of spiritual limbo between the domains of the goddess of law, and the goddess of the wilds, Melora. Rededicating the temple to either goddess could provide numerous blessings, With the Lawbearer granting safer roads and surer walls/ tools, and the Wildmother blessing the surroundings with bountiful game and favorable weather. Doing so would require some meditating, and perhaps acting as go-betweens to appease both gods.
Traveling about the hinterlands and befriending local traders is sure to give the party insight into sources of natural resources, as well as merchants willing to invest in some new ventures: after a year or two of good work the party might end up owners of a mine or lumbermill, a great source of downtime funds.
Further Adventures:
A series of odd occurrences among villages in the foothills leads the party to discover that a nearby peak contains a band of darkelf bat-riders, hunters and isolationists who aren’t above a little light caravan-raiding now and again. Maybe the party should make nice with their new neighbors before the two encampments come to blows.
After a series of inexplicably prismatic clouds begin raining random objects through the valley, the party is sent to investigate and discovers a rogue alchemist who’s set up shop (quite literally) on top of a nearby mountain after levitating his house away to escape his debts.
A series of clever passages connect most of Two-Goats Lookout’s buildings for ease of travel through the winter, but beneath these lays a blocked off series of chambers known as “The Deep Cellars”. Dating back to the time of the warlord, these chill dungeon chambers connect to a series of long buried caverns, and may infact contain the warlord’s final horde.
While the Deep Cellars do contain the horde, it is locked behind a curse-warded door that can only be opened by a key taken by the warlord to his tomb, a tomb that exists somewhere out across the mountains or down into the foothills. Perhaps the party can decipher the clues left within the caverns ( and do a little research on history) and discover just where this tomb might lay.
A magic item for use in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition tabletop role-playing game. This is a homebrew magic item created by Cloaks and Capes.
Traveler’s Tea Cup
Consumable, common
“These small single serving cups are biodegradable, and have a small enchantment on the peel back lids that quickly warms them when opened.”
This magic tea is pre-packed and made for long travels. It comes in packs of 6.
As a Bonus Action, you can drink this small travel sized cup of tea or administer it to another creature within 5 feet of yourself. The creature that drinks the magical tea regains 1d4 - 1 Hit Points. Once a creature has consumed one of these magic cups of tea, they cannot benefit from the effects for the next 24 hours.
Hello all! Here's the Cartographer! A class about wandering the world in pursuit of its wonders! You are able to see and speak with the spirits of places and ask them to guide you. I really enjoyed making this class, so I hope you enjoy it as well!
As an avid collector of 3rd party and homebrew materials I end up coming into contact with a lot of ideas like the one above that hold a lot of promise but don't QUITE meet the bar of going in my "reccomend to players" collection. So after clearing it with brewerssupplies I've decided to write up a little critique of this class. Commentary specific to the cartographer will be written like this..
... while discussions of good practices in homebrew design will be seperated out like this.
First notes: I LOVE the idea of a cartographer as a player class, it's a clear adventure-fantasy as vivid as playing a questing knight or a fortune seeking scoundrel. If you wanted to go just a little more generic/general with It I might reccomend a name like "The Seeker", which has just as strong a connotation of going out into the unknown but is also perhaps more flexible than someone who's specifically there to make maps.
When you're making a whole new class, rather than an archetype for an existing one it's important (and correspondingly difficult) to ensure it fits into a distinct thematic and mechanical niche. Finding designspace that hasn't already been filled is a great canvas to play around in, as is aking yourself " what if X functioned like Y".
Speaking of niches, it's important to ask just what kind of role the cartographer is supposed to hold, and how we could adjust the mechnics as presented here to help it better fit that.
The cartographer is about exploration, so why not just play a ranger?
The cartographer has nature spells, why not just play a druid?
I think the obvious awnser is that the Cartographer is (or perhaps, could be) an exploration based support class. Specifically, I think it could provide the option of a spellcasting primal class that doesn't require as much work as the druid. I play with a lot of new people who want to do a nature themed magic character and being able to put something infront of them that doesn't require memorizing a huge spell list would be a massive weight off my shoulders.
Honestly, "casting primal spells like a warlock" is a selling point in and of itself, and I think one of the easiest and most decisive improvements would be to drop it's current spellcasting framework and replace it with a 1:1 replica of how the warlock pact-slot-on-short-rest system works, save that it draws from the druid spell list.
If it ain't broke don't fix it. If a preexisting class already has a functioning mechanic, it's offten better to copy it outright (with relevant adjustments) than trying to reinvent the wheel.
Using the spell-list for a pre-existing class will not only save you a lot of work in your document, but will also make it widely compatable with future offical materials/the wide selection of 3rd party materials. It saves both you, players, and DMs time.
My second big critique is with the "Speaker of the Wilds" class feature as their signature class ability, which summons a helpful spirit to guide them after spending time in a location.
If the class is about discovery and venturing into the unkown, having an ability that gives them immediate awnsers undercuts that. Instead, lean into the idea that the spirit provides "direction" towards a goal (Saftey, the key to this locked door, the path to riches) both fufills the fantasy AND lets the DM lead the party directly into encounters and other challenges. Perhaps rename the ability " Seek the Path", and open its interpritation to things like guiding breezes, unusual jolts to the compas, or just good vibes. This resource should also be limited, say wis+proff per day, letting the player declare they want to "Seek the path towards X" and having their character hold concentration on it.
That said, "Speaker of the wilds" is still a fantastic name for an ability, and the idea of a character that can freely converse with nature (whether it be animals or terrain features) to ask for gossip/directions is a delightful tool to give players early. Perhaps make it work off the same daily pool as "Seek the path", or model it off "Lay on Hands" and give them a number of questions they can ask equal to 5X their character level, being able to spend 5 of them all at once to freely converse with a character. Give the dungeon delving archetype the ability to speak with objects/bodies and you're all set.
Finally, I want to point out what I think is this class's most glaring flaw at first blush, namely that it lacks a signature combat ability at first level.
Every non-fullcaster class needs to have a combat gimmic, both to distinguish it from other people in the party and also to give the player something to DO. Combat is a big part of D&D afterall.
If this is a class all about learning, I say lean into that, let them spend questions from "Speaker of the Wilds" on a successful weapon hit to ask the DM what a foe's weaknesses or vunrabilities are, or get bonuses against targets that've been identified with a proper knowledge check.
Finally, I think the idea of building up a map/journal/codex is a great mechanic to play into for later levels. I'd need some time to think exactly how you'd model this, but something about granting the party passive buffs after charting landmarks/learning the secrets of a location/fighting its major treats feels right.
LMAOOO i tried to post the car fight from deadpool 3 on youtube with casual playing in the background and it immediately got copyrighted. marvel your homophobic side is showing /j
International Children’s Book Day with Tom Hiddleston reading Winnie the Pooh!!!! #hiddleston #hiddlestoners #hiddlesarmy #hiddles #tomhiddleston #hiddlestoners❤️ #winniethepooh
Okay but you forgot the best part! During the scene where Aragorn, Gandalf and the other Main CharaktersTM ride ahead to go shout at the gate (and talk to the mouth of sauron in the extended edition) they were very firmly told only to ride up ahead “this far” because that area was cleared and beyond that it wasn’t.
But. Viggo Mortensen is absolutely mad and lead them just…. a bit farther than that. Everyone else was very scared they might blow up any second. Viggo said it “added a little extra tension”.
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