Month: September 2021

What are Hit Points?

Grumpy Wizard

I enjoy tinkering with games. I like borrowing and ideas from other referees to modify and insert into my games. For me, modding games is at least as much of the hobby as playing.

Hit points, damage and healing is one of those areas where I have borrowed from other bloggers and modified the rules.

About 10 years ago, OSR bloggers were posting their own variations of “Death and Dismemberment” tables. I recommend checking out this linked post if you are not familiar with the concept. There were a number of variations on the concept. I experienced these tables both as a player and referee. The way it changes game play is substantial. It is certainly being felt in my Dragon’s Bend game.

A Change With Major Implications

Game masters frequently narrate “hits” as an axe to the chest or an arrow stuck in an arm. I’ve always found that…

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Rise of the Runelords #58: The End of Happier Days

Pathfinders' Guild of Berkeley

The party defeated Lucrecia, who had placed the Sihedron tattoo on dozens of residents of Turtleback Ferry. They then settled accounts with the traitor among their midst: Kaven Windstrike. The mild-mannered 美しい巫女 U / Utsukushī Miko describes what happened next. -GM

10th of Kuthona, 4707 AR

美しい巫女 U / Utsukushī Miko

We defeated the lamias then tied Kaven Windstrike. While he was unconscious we tied him down in a chair and then bound his hands to a table, palms down and hands open.

When he woke, I told him, “You are pathetic. You have cowered and done nothing yet expect to reap the benefits of a fight you presumably set up.” He then admitted to being a patron of the sunken Paradise and selling out the Black Arrows.

I then replied, “Your sinful hands have cost many innocent lives. You do not deserve this hand.“ With that, I slammed a…

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Swordtember Blade #29 – “Hold”

Dyson's Dodecahedron

This month is Swordtember. I’m going to try to draw a sword every day for the month. If I manage to keep this going for the whole month, I’ll release all 30 sword images (minus the frame and Swordtember logo I drew) as an incidental stock art pack.

Hold is a sword +3, defender (on the wielder’s turn the bonus of the blade can be applied in whole or in part to either attack rolls or AC until the next turn). Further the wielder of Hold cannot be teleported, plane shifted, banished, mazed, or subjected to similar magics as long as the blade is in hand.

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Theory Crafting: The Barbarian Rogue: The Ghost Guild

Real Women of Gaming

(Art by Jason Engle)

Lords, ladies, lads, and lasses, I am Vinni the Troll and welcome back to my lair. With Halloween fast approaching and my unfortunate altitis affliction I bring you this concept piece D&D build.

This poor soul is the lone survivor of his thieves’ guild. The trauma he saw and the friends he lost has left scars upon him both physical and mental, so we begin as a Barbarian with a criminal background. He was an enforcer, a leg breaker, and obviously a survivor, so we start with a focus on Strength, Charisma, and Constitution. Barbarian rage requires STR attacks to get the rage damage, and this is how he expresses his issues. CHA is here for his use of Intimidation to coerce people to pay the “tax,” or stop skimming off the top, or even to interrogate people with valuable information.

Then we dip into…

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D & D and Me

Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in? That’s me almost all of the time. I’m awkward, shy in large groups, and I am a weird blend of a person who loves sports and everything nerdy. I’m the introverted friend who is adopted by an extrovert and learns how to open up that way. The other way I learned how to open up, is through all of the novels I read and my love of writing. For some reason, it is easier for me to be bold in this manner than any other.

What piqued my interest about Dungeons & Dragons is the storytelling aspect and creativity of it. Here is a game where a world, an experience is woven around you by the Dungeon Master as you react as your character would, creating a real-time interactive story. I love that it gets you to think on your feet…

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Swordtember Blade #28 – “Talambeahr”

Dyson's Dodecahedron

This month is Swordtember. I’m going to try to draw a sword every day for the month. If I manage to keep this going for the whole month, I’ll release all 30 sword images (minus the frame and Swordtember logo I drew) as an incidental stock art pack.

Bound to the land, Talambeahr cannot be carried from the lands it was forged beneath, and attempts to teleport to other lands or shift to another plane will always leave the blade behind. Talambeahr is a sword +2, +5 vs extraplanar creatures. Such creatures struck with a natural 18+ must also make a saving throw vs spells or be sent back to their home plane.

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Swordtember Blade #27 – “EarthPiercer”

Dyson's Dodecahedron

This month is Swordtember. I’m going to try to draw a sword every day for the month. If I manage to keep this going for the whole month, I’ll release all 30 sword images (minus the frame and Swordtember logo I drew) as an incidental stock art pack.

This strangely shaped bronze-looking blade was crafted on the elemental plane of earth. It is a sword +1 that deals an additional 1d6 damage against any target standing on earth or stone.

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D&D 5E – Epic Level Play

Dungeon Master Assistance

5.0-Epic Cover - Small

Think only being able to go to level 20 in D&D is too restricting? Want to take your characters on truly epic adventures? Then this supplement is for you. Download your free PDF copy HERE.

Using these rules you can take any class, or multiclass character beyond level 20. There is no upper limit! This expands each class’s progression of class features beyond 20th level. And for spellcasters it introduces Epic spells with rules for creating and casting any spell you can think of!

I want to thank Bailey, a reader of this blog, for giving me the inspiration to create this.

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Swordtember Blade #26 – “The Goat”

Dyson's Dodecahedron

This month is Swordtember. I’m going to try to draw a sword every day for the month. If I manage to keep this going for the whole month, I’ll release all 30 sword images (minus the frame and Swordtember logo I drew) as an incidental stock art pack.

The Goat is a dark blade hammered out of adamantine with ornamentation in copper with a green and brown patina of age. The sword’s enchantments provide no bonus to hit, but a +4 bonus to damage, with an additional +4 damage against good-aligned opponents. It can also cast cause fear three times per day.

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Swordtember Blade #25 – “Skybreaker”

Dyson's Dodecahedron

This month is Swordtember. I’m going to try to draw a sword every day for the month. If I manage to keep this going for the whole month, I’ll release all 30 sword images (minus the frame and Swordtember logo I drew) as an incidental stock art pack.

A stylized lightning-like khopesh sacred to the plague and war god Reshep, Skybreaker is a sword +2 that draws down a strike of lightning (as the call lightning spell) when hitting with a natural 20 on an attack under the open sky. If wielded where the sky cannot be accessed (underground or in a solidly constructed building) it instead triggers a cause disease spell instead on the target.

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