Tieflings on All of the Planes

Tearing through the battleground with a terrifying smile, dancing through the night in blood covered robes, the Path of the Maenad is all about these unnerving contrasts 🩸🍇

I SAW THE TV GLOW 🩷

D&D5e

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/xRnF2lLLQbEq

(↑ Full homebrew here)

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

My Kickstarter has only a week left! Become a weredragon before its too late! Get in on the tycanthropic awesome!

It's week 5 of our four week series on mayhaps, and so I do something different. This time, inspired by the new game I'm a player in, a desert themed druid.

Sand Veil

This ability was inspired by Gaara's shield of sand power. Originally I was to make it more expensive and use a pocket sand inspiration, letting you blind people who try and attack you in melee, but then I added spray of cards as a spell so it felt superfluous

Animated Sands

Sand monsters are cool. What if you could summon them?

Shifting Masses

Misty escape from the feylock is cool, what if you AND your sand monsters could do that, sandily?

Oh yes, and make all your summons sand, why not? Why not change the elementals? Because that wouldn't make sense. And the fire elementals would be shit out of luck in water

Animated Hordes

Not a lot of druid circles call for the spend two wild shapes cost on the level 10 feature. It'ls kind of neat. So here I give you the intended animated sands, but game balance is a thing

Quicksand Vortex

And here's what I did in lieu of making a quicksand spell, because I decided that would be awkward. Instead I have you tear a hole in space as a capstone. Very reasonable, I know.

Sandstorm

So we have Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornados, Full control over the weather, but no sandstorm spells? nah man.

Sand Tomb

What if we just dropped a heap of sand on top of people? Can I say that suffocation is a weird rule to work around? And why is this a sphere instead of a more typical conical shape as expected of a fallen heap of sand? As much as I wanted to troll the 5e shapes guide by making it a 20 ft cone pointed down, that probably would have caused needless confusion

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

To Shreds, You Say?

Chimeric Hunter Conclave

I Costs an Arm and a Leg

Skeletal Amagams

I also have four classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

Subclasseptember Day 3 - Mage

Have you ever found yourself thinking "I should take a quick multiclass to get armor proficiency"? What if instead of armor, you could invest in something that actually makes sense for your character? No need to justify your wizard's sudden interest in religion or swordplay when you can put on one of these.

Me: Well she left her Monestary because she felt stifled there and wanted to help people and then discovered her Master was lying to her about her parentage.

DM: That's acceptable.

Me: But I suppose that's hardly a secret--that Monk left the monestary... That's like practically monk going on an adventure.

DM: Not necessarily. Monks might be going on a quest assigned to them by their Monestary.

Me: ...I suppose you could have like an adventure IN the Monestary... like an ancient Eldritch horror bring discovered beneath the Monestary, or like the Monestary was built on top of it and the Monks have to go check it out--

having a water genasi on board is good luck, even better if they’re higher ranked (captain, first mate). however, if they’re a prisoner, it’s extremely bad luck for the crew that has them imprisoned. 

holy people of sea gods closely follow water genasi in good luck/bad luck.

sailors tend to get tattoos of a land god’s symbol in hopes that if they drown, a land god will get them back safely. however, sea gods find this extremely rude and disrespectful, so sailors have to find ways of hiding the tattoos at all times, whether with magic, clothes, or makeup. 

every port city has a shrine or temple to a sea god. the very last thing sailors do before heading out on the ocean and the very first thing they do when they get back on land is pray at one of these places. bigger port cities have special roads for sailors to take.

the only time it’s okay to sing sea shanties on land is if you have a vial of seawater on you. if you don’t have any, sea gods think you’re singing for the land gods instead of themselves. and if they think that, things will turn nasty when you get back to sea.

sailors don’t talk about their families/friends/loved ones while at sea. the sea could get jealous, and try and keep the sailors all to itself–by whatever means necessary.

there are various tattoos one can get for certain accomplishments (ie. defeating a monster, sailing for a certain amount of time/for a certain distance, which port you hail from, etc)

every ship brings a small animal that’s special to a sea god on board (ie a crab). that animal has all priority–in food, in defense, in healing. it’s said that if that animal dies, the rest of the crew will soon follow.

bonus sea shanties:

dwarf and orc shanties have a very steady rhythm and often involve drums–meant to keep rowing easy and sailors focused.

tiefling and elf shanties are melodious and often eerie to hear from another ship–especially in foggy/stormy weather. they’re meant to simulate the sound of the wind, waves, and those who died at sea.

dragonborn and genasi shanties often involved overlapping lyrics and melodies, causing them to sound like the storms out at sea. they’re meant to pay tribute to and appease the gods.

halfling and gnome shanties are cheery and peppy, meant to keep things interesting after monotonous days at sea and to make sure morale is up.

Sailors will often get tattoos of a sea god and a land god locked in combat or an arm-wrestling match, to show that both are strong, but important. That way, the sea god doesn’t sink them for insolence and the land god guides them home safely if they get lost or sink.

A water Genasi is good luck, but an earth Genasi always knows the closest point of land.

Fire Genasi are extremely bad luck, as they invite disaster to the ship. Most notably being attacked by pirates or enemies (being “under fire”) or being struck by lightning.

Air Genasi are good luck if happy, and bad luck if peeved. Fair winds get the crew where they need to go, while calm seas can kill entire ships.

Goats are still a thing. They still eat everything, like a living recycling bin.

Tiefling shanties are good luck if the Tiefling on board sings from the crow’s nest, the quarterdeck, or the bridge, but are indications of disaster if song from any of the other decks, unless most of the crew is Tiefling.

Do not deal with the Beings in the Water.

Drow, Dueregar, and other Underdark natives are to be kept belowdecks at all times. If they are a part of the crew, or must be on the deck for any reason, they may only come up when the sun is well below the horizon. It’s bad luck if the sun shines on those who live in darkness.

In a similar vein, don’t let a Dwarf be in the crow’s nest, unless it’s a Dwarven ship, a mostly Dwarven crew, or you’re in sight of land. It invites capsizing, as the world wants to put the ones who live beneath the earth beneath the tall trees (the masts).

A Sailor should love the land while at sea, but love the sea while ashore. They are each jealous lovers, and might try to keep those who do not remind them of their devotion.

Vampires can’t go on ships. The sea is always running water. It’s just going to so many places, how can it not be running?

Kenko are great in administrative roles of as runners, but do not allow them in the crow’s nest, despite their resemblance. It may keep silent if it doesn’t know what the land sounds like.

More shanty stuff:

Tortle shanties are slow and rhythmic, meant to be rowed/actioned in 2/2 rather than 4/4. They’re slow, methodical, but effective, usually covering old stories of seafaring heroes, or are histories set to verse.

Aarockra sky-shanties keen like the wind itself. Be wary if the wind sounds like song, for it may mean that your crow’s nest will become shortened.

Triton shanties shall not be sung. To do so is to invite you ship to the sea floor, usually without the benefit of air.

It's been a little while, but I'm back with something new! I love the Warlock class, and I wanted to come up with some new options to add to its pool. I ended up with this document, The Eldritch Tome. Within, you'll find 3 new Pact Boons, 24 new Invocations, and 17 new Spells, most of which are themed around the various star-like Elder Evils (Hadar shouldn't get to have all of the fun) or the layers of the Nine Hells!

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NjfQO5KHN9wnGnrSaNG

Twin Weapons - a Collection of Magic Weapons and Items Designed for Two Weapon Fighting

That's certainly a mouthful of a title, isn't it?

There's been a lot of fuss over dual wielding, and whether the rules for dual wielding should be changed. But all of the rules changes in the world won't change the fact that there aren't nearly enough weapons designed for dual wielding!

Inside this compendium are dozens of weapons and other magic items designed to bring those fantasies to life... And room for plenty more! Suggestions are always welcome, as is feedback on anything I make.

Homebrewery (Updated!)

DNDBeyond:

This should be a niche roundabout for weirdly specific concepts. Mmmaybe if you got the equivalent of Victorian clubs that trained gentlemen in fisticuffs, you could spin a brawler monk, i.e. someone who learnt an unarmed martial art in a school of some sort. Even then, D&D monks are Mystical™, and while you can re-interpret that up to a point (don't say ki is supernatural, say it's a person's impressive but finite capacity to truly focus), after mid-levels you get crazy shit like immunity to disease or not aging, and that can't just be the product of intense and precise training at fisticuffs.

If you're making a conventional brawler (bar brawls! alley fights! boxing games! lucha libre!), you should be thinking of Barbarians and Fighters and Rogues. And there should be extensive feat/subclass support for that. And sadly, there isn't. (5e Rogues can't even sneak attack with unarmed strikes by RAW, which is some bullshit. Personally, I ignore this rule with contempt.) Basically, the combat rules themselves are lacking.

So the flavours clash. You're left with a mystical class trying to portray a decidedly mundane concept. Brawlers can be many things, reckless (barbarians) or tactical (fighters) or dirty-fighting (rogues), but they're not necessarily martial artists trained in a school, and they're not Grand Masters of Flowers, I can tell you that.

Personally, I'm a bit lax about "design spaces" in general. (Like, I'm cool with wizards casting Knock.) But even if I weren't, I genuinely don't think that the Monk's territory is, or ever should be, "fistfighter". Or any and all "unarmed combat". I think it is, as it should be, "wuxia". Or "martial arts with emphasis on unarmed combat".

Do you really think that a class that can move across liquids, be immune to diseases and poisons and aging, understand all spoken languages, turn invisible, and astrally project should be the only available route to people who want to play

a scrappy bar brawler

a back alley boxer

a flamboyant luchador

a tough bouncer?

Or would you tweak the monk to take out all the mystical stuff? That's an interesting option, though by that point we're just homebrewing a new Brawler class, aren't we?

Either way, I think martial arts are awesome but they did not invent the punch. I'd like options to play characters who punch and wrestle people for a living (or for adventure) in a more mundane way.

Advance casting! Its vancian casting but for 5e as an alternate class feature!

I've had this one cooking up for a good while. Like, a few months actually. I was on like, a long train ride, hit the inspiration to start writing this, conceptualized the whole thing and got blasting.

And then like, I got to the druid, couldn't think up a good way to implement it, said "eh ill sleep on it."

and then me sleeping on it took actual months, until I just hit the answer I wanted while taking a shower and here it is, finished not long after!

Im most proud of the title. Advance casting sure, because you choose your spells in advance, but also its advance casting, as in, vancian.

Im awful for doing that haha.

But yeah, balance wise, if you're a paladin, cleric, wizard, or druid (the prepared casters of 5e), you can choose to be an advance caster. From then on, you exclusively have vancian rules for your spellcasting, but in exchange, you get a few extra spell slots per day (Albeit, extra spell slots with limitations in what spells they can choose.)

So, the paladins bonus spell slots are exclusively for their oath spells, and the clerics for their divine domain. Wizards get to pick a spell school, and druids a "elemental force".

Notably, the cleric and paladins bonus spell slots can cast spontaneously with these bonus spell slots any of their oath/domain spells, the druid only gets one spell per level, but can freely upcast, and the wizard can prepare any spell they know into these spell slots (so long as its in the spell school) but their bonus spell slots work vancian style still.

So yeah, theres a distinctness to how these bonus spell slots work.

These bonus spell slots are very much inspired with Clerics in 3.X and their domains, and how they'd get domain slots for their domain spells. I think its neat.

Also an intresting thing, on the Cleric, Wizard, and Druid, you get to choose whether you want full progression with your bonus spell slots (1-8), or twin progression, (two sets of 1-5).

I think its nice because it lets you choose between pure strength or wide versatility. The twin progression paths arent as strong sure, but you get a lot more spells available at hand, and a couple more total spells per day.

The druid is kinda unique among these in that, my struggle with it was that it didn't have an equivilent to Domains, Oaths, or spell schools like the other classes, so that was what locked me out of finishing this for a bit

It actually was my last homebrew that drew me out of this lock, the Sha'ir, since it had a handful of 0-7/8 "planar revalation" lists exclusive to the class, and then I realized, "Wait, I could just use something like the planar revalation lists"

The planar revalation lists are actually pretty similiar, with the air/earth/fire/water ones being not 1:1, but the basis for what I put in for the druid. The Flora and Fauna were brand new. But yeah, thank you other homebrew for helping me finish this one.

Also, druids and clerics are unique here in that they have spontaneous magic still, though only a single spell.

Cleric choose at level 1 between Inflict Wound or Cure Wounds, and can from them on exchange any prepared spell or spell slot for their chosen wound related spell.

Druids on the other hand, get to pick between their circle spell list (if they have a circle spell list), or Goodberry / Entangle with bonus perks for upcasting them.

Yeah.

Pretty neat.

A Divine Blade is a rogue in the service of a deity, utilized by their faith to complete less savory activities that clerics and/or paladins couldn’t do. The are suffused with divine power, allowing them to protect their allies while destroying enemies of their god. 

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-N__qtK0fQJX-SXHufbV

Not entirely sure I'm 100% happy with the color scheme, but I don't thin I'm gonna get anything better out of putting in more time.

Anyways. NECRO-CRAFTER! (PDF here)

Build little undead constructs or animate dead humanoids, and then turn your cute little skeleton children into little bombs, armor, and portable infusions.

Happy Halloween, darklings.