RPG Geek Nation

[gryffonweald]

Inspired by: https://lair-master.tumblr.com/post/186427249862/dd-paladin-idea

I’m open to comments and suggestions! Feel free to play with it!

[arcane-cosmetics]

Why... why?

[lair-master]

d&d paladin idea

on trial, the knights templar were accused of worshiping a severed head. by some accounts, the head of medusa.

imagine, holy knights who secretly kneel before the martyred gorgon. their initiation rites require they meet her lifeless gaze and withstand its petrifying curse.

those who fail join the statues standing sentry atop their cathedral.

but those who prevail are fortified by patches of calcified flesh, can extend this protection to others, and restrain enemies where they stand, hardening their skin at a glance.

the terrible truth is, even those who survive these rites are slowly being turned to stone–though they cease to age–relying on magic salves and ointments to hold petrification at bay.

they shall all adorn that cathedral in the end, watching over the exiled and afflicted, awaiting the day that their serpent-haired patron restores them to flesh for a heavenly cause.

[gildedwildwood]

I may have drawn up a Paladin Oath based on this: 

https://gryffonweald.tumblr.com/post/186431521885/inspired

I hope you don’t mind! I loved this idea so much I had to make something for it!

[lair-master]

mind? i am honored. so cool! love how your text and mechanics reflect the narrative.

[daemons-and-deathrays]

Bizarre Bazaar - Items of Castlevania (November 2019 Blog Carnival)

Bizarre Bazaar – Items of Castlevania (November 2019 Blog Carnival)

As the fog begins to roll in, a comforting light barely breaches the blanket dead ahead.  A vardo wagon sits idly, alongside a crackling fire pit.  One lone man clad in ornate robes and a ceramic plate covering his head beckons you over.  His body language seems friendly, but he is clearly interested in business.  A quick wave of an arm showcases all means of strange and wondrous trinkets to…

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[rpggeeknation]

The Destructive Force - Warlock Patron

“You have made a pact with a being of destruction, chaos, and inconvenience. Perhaps it is a Demon Lord of Pandemonium, a Lesser Demigod of Orcs or Goblins, a powerful being from Limbo, or a Spirit of Chaos Incarnate. Whatever it is, it desires one thing… mayhem!!!” Expanded Spell List: The Des...

I made a homebrew warlock patron for inspired by an idea a friend had about what if Mayhem from the Allstate commercials was a Warlock patron. It hasn't been playtested but here it is:

[rpggeeknation]

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/f0nr6x/no_one_ever_knows_what_to_do_at_my_table_when/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

I found this funny.

[rpggeeknation]

Check out The Wagadu Chronicles | Big Announcement Soon (@WagaduChronicle): https://twitter.com/WagaduChronicle?s=09

[rpggeeknation]

https://nerdarchy.com/mythology-of-a-5e-dd-dwarven-artificer-specialist/

Great article by the folks at Nerdarchy

[prokopetz]

Some day I want to play a game of D&D as an animated skeleton that has all the physical and mental limitations of a standard animated skeleton, except it’s inexplicably charismatic. Like, Int 6, Wis 8, can’t speak, can’t make facial expressions, yet somehow it’s sporting a Charisma score of 20. This is one charming fucking skeleton.

[waltzing-with-my-inner-geek]

There was actually an NPC kinda like this in a campaign I played! 

Okay, a little background is in order here: a certain region of the campaign world was ruled by a group of evil mages who put a curse on their land. The curse turned all the living into zombies and all the dead into skeletons. The newly minted undead had free will and weren’t necessarily evil, but they were treated as little better than slaves.

Enter Glint, a skeleton freedom fighter. He had a gold tooth and carried a musket. In life, he had been an adventurer just like the player characters, and he still wanted to be a hero like in his glory days. Thus he somehow managed to seem genuinely happy about helping us despite no ability to make facial expressions or talk. (When he wanted to use words, he would write them down on a piece of paper and then hold the paper up.) He helped the party sneak into the castle where the evil mages lived so that we could kill them all off. We couldn’t lift the curse since we were Level 3 at the time, and anyway that probably would have been basically genocide, but at the very least we could set all the undead free from their oppressors.

So we save the day, and we all kind of assume that we’ll never see Glint again. For most of us that was true, admittedly, since people left and joined the campaign, and by the time that he comes up again my character Euphemia the halfling wizard is the only one in the party who actually knows him. But towards the end of the campaign, we go around recruiting important NPCs on a mission to save the world from the Elder Gods (i.e., Cthulhu and co.), and of course Glint is on the list of NPCs to recruit. So we go back, and we meet Glint in his little hidey-hole next to the castle – did I mention he lived right next to the castle? That’s how he helped us sneak in – and once we’ve finished catching up, Glint asks us (through writing, of course) what brings us back here. Euphemia says, “Actually, we came to recruit you on a mission to save the world –”

She doesn’t even finish her sentence before Glint grabs his musket and runs out the door.

@rpggeeknation

[rpggeeknation]

😊

[rpggeeknation]

I started coming up with some ideas to make Goliath lore more interesting. I thought it would be cool if they had shamans who see glimpses of the future by spilling blood on ancestral stone and looking at how it spills over the stone.

Here are some sample omens based on how the blood spills that I have come up with (written from the perspective of the shaman):

"The blood trickles around these sacred stones like the weaving strands of a spider's web. Just as the spider betrays the fly, someone aims to betray the chief."

"Look, here, as the blood splashes against that stone and droplets of red seep into the dirt. Like the rain, it is. There will be a great downpour."

"Ah, the blood pools in a small pond of crimson. But oh what is this that floats in the blood I have spilt? A raven's feather. Oh, no. A great death approaches."

"The blood trickles over this stone like a mountain brook. But oh. Oh no. Look as that Toad splashes in the blood. Our tribe shall face a coming plague."

"Look, boy, as the blood swirls in a pattern that mimics the cosmos on a clear night. The spirals tell me that a great hero will soon be born."

"Ah, yes, good. Just as the blood nurtures this flower that grows between the stone, so too will we be nurtured by good health this new year. This is good."

As you can see it's not just the pattern of the blood but how the blood interacts with the world around it. The shaman knows how to read the signs. Now so do you. Feel free to use in your own fantasy worlds, whether with Goliaths (or other giantkin), orcs, elves, humans, whatever you desire.

Also please note that just because blood is spilt and used to predict the future it doesn't have to be evil. I imagine the shaman from my examples would be neutral good. And while it would make perfect since for a witch to do this too, witches dont have to be evil either.

I dont know what it is but there is something Evocative of freshly spilt blood on cold, mountain stone. It's very mystical.

Enjoy.

[rpggeeknation]

Self taught wizards attempting summoning circles/rituals/spells often leads to amateur warlocks.

[rpggeeknation]

Into the Super-verse: 13 text-based superhero MMOs you can play today | Massively Overpowered

Just thought I’d share this...

[rpggeeknation]

The Metamorphica

There is a systemless supplement called The Metamorphica (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/115703/The-Metamorphica-Classic-Edition). It is great. I love it. Full of random tables for mutations such mental, physical, psionic, supernatural, etc. mutations as well as descriptions of them. There are sections on using mutations for different genres and there are even a collection of different mutated NPCs and monsters. 

In the Planescape 5e campaign I DM we have a character who recently got trapped in Limbo and now he has a very short temper (Behavioral Mutation) and the ability to duplicate (like Multiple Man but limited to one copy). It gives him a boost in power but it is thematic and a lot of fun. There is also risk involved. Does he sacrifice his duplicate so his party can escape, or does he save it for later and risk his party’s safety and survival.

I have an idea to run an X-Men Campaign where everyone randomly generates their Mutant using the random tables to create their characters. The idea being the Mutants in X-Men didn’t get to choose their Mutations, unless you count Mister Sinister  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, so neither will the players. I think it could be fun.

But you could use The Metamorphica to create (and even play) Post Apocalyptic Irradiated Wastelanders, Chaos Warped Demonic Abominations, Body Horror Experimentation Victims, Super Soldiers, Superheroes, Bizarre Alien Lifeforms, Formless Dream Entities, Eldritch Monstrosities, or beings trapped in Limbo.

Mutations range from Anthropomorphic Animal to Hunchback, from Double Jointed to Diabetic, from Genetic Memory to Dyslexia, from Magnetic Control to Cause Insanity, from Animated Tattoos to Cannot Cross Running Water, and so many more.

There is so much you can do with this product. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. This review is not sponsored, I did not receive money from them or anyone else to review this. I simply gotta spread the love of an awesome product. 5 out of 5 stars. 

The Metamorphica:  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/115703/The-Metamorphica-Classic-Edition

[thecreaturecodex]

Dire Rabbit

[There were some complaints about this one when this PDF released. People wanted a killer rabbit ala Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but the whole appeal to me of Night of the Lepus is that the rabbits are 100% ordinary except for their size. And their occasional, inexplicable bloodlust. The original version had a kick attack that did Str x. 2 damage, but that’s been removed in favor of an ordinary bite. Both because real rabbits bite when cornered, and because I had a cavalier player with a dire rabbit mount whose mount was positively broken at high levels.]

Dire Rabbit CR 1 N Animal The only thing out of the ordinary about this rabbit is its size—the animal stands half as tall as a man at the shoulder.

Overgrown relatives of ordinary rabbits, dire rabbits are inoffensive but can prove dangerous if cornered and destructive in numbers. Like their smaller brethren, they are strict herbivores and eat grains, roots and leaves. Diurnal creatures, they are most active during the day and return to their burrows once the sun sets. Dire rabbits are not very stealthy, relying on their keen senses and great speed to avoid predators. They will, however, fight savagely if cornered or confronted in their burrows. Dire rabbits tend to live communally in warrens, the burrows of which can extend for miles. These burrows contain a number of individual rabbits or mated pairs that live in loose association with each other and with no hierarchy.

Dire rabbits grow to maturity very rapidly and are extraordinarily fecund. Predation and disease generally keep the populations of dire rabbits in check, but massive surges in dire rabbit populations are not unknown. During such outbreaks, dire rabbits can blacken the plains with their numbers and do massive damage to croplands and grain stores. A dire rabbit stands about two feet high at the shoulder and weighs seventy pounds. Dire rabbits can be found in grasslands, forests and tundra. Arctic dire rabbits have the ability to shed their brown summer coats and grow thick white fur during the snowy winters—these dire rabbits gain a +4 racial bonus to Stealth checks made in snowy conditions.

Dire Rabbits as Animal Companions Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 50 ft., burrow 5 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack bite (1d3); Ability Scores Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 5; Special Qualities leap, low-light vision.

4th-Level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack bite (1d4); Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2

A dire rabbit is a suitable mount for a Small cavalier of at least 4th level and can be called using the divine bond class feature of a Small paladin.

Keep reading

[rpggeeknation]

Now I gotta make a Leshy Druid with a Dire Rabbit. Either that or a Halfling Cavalier with a Dire Rabbit.

[rpggeeknation]

“Just created a homebrew race for D&D 5e: The Elken. It is available online for free on D&D Beyond but if you really like it please consider donating a bit to https://t.co/KpC1xdpSQh and tweet at me to let me know. https://t.co/DRhOX1m8rd This is only the first. #DnD #WWF”

check out my twitter campaign to where I make an animal folk race for D&D 5e every week in an attempt to raise money for WWF.

[rpggeeknation]

Dungeons and Dragons: TSW Homebrew Release

It’s taken me longer than I expected, but I have now cleaned up my notes for homebrew adapting the setting of The Secret World to fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons enough for a public releas…

Check out this awesome The Secret World Homebrew for D&D 5e by Tyler F. M. Edwards.

For those who don’t know The Secret World (now Secret World Legends) is an MMORPG set in a world of conspiracies and cosmic horror and is REALLY cool.

[filibusterfrog]

albinism

[rpggeeknation]

So Cool!

Also, that Albino Fire Genasi is basically Hades from Disney’s Hercules.