#bard spell

Snowball Slinging

Blizzard Brawl Frost Bite Rime Infusion

This is a loooong post so TL;DR - awaken should give the creatures it affects a new alignment, some personality traits, and the possibility of more varied mental ability scores just like humanoids have. And now, on with the post. 

Awaken is one of those spells that I’ve always dreamt of casting but have never played a game at a high enough level to get to it. You basically get to magic an NPC into existence from nothing, and that NPC is either an animal companion (dope) or a goddamn sentient tree (also dope). From the point where this awakened creature becomes sentient, a whole new world opens up for them. They can attune to magic items with their newly-lengthened attention span, they can learn new languages, tool and weapon proficiencies, they could even (theoretically) become classed characters just like a PC (if your DM allows it with the right amount of training, of course. I, for one, would require several months at least of downtime to become a 1st level character from being level 0).

There was one issue I noticed, however. Awaken doesn’t give your furry/fir-y friend an alignment (which is a crucial part of being, like, a person in D&D) nor does it budge their Wisdom or Charisma. Lots of beasts have decent or above-average Wisdom, but their Charisma is usually pretty poor. Maybe you like that idea; maybe for you it is inevitable that an Awakened Beast (or Tree) would be socially awkward after spending the majority of its life unable to do much in the speaking department beyond growling or purring (if a Beast), repeating phrases (if a parrot or similar), or merely rustling in the wind (if a Plant). But I, for one, want to see the Urchin PC’s pet rat bangin’ out the tunes and giving out Bardic Inspiration from his keeper’s coat pocket.

(look at him go!)

So to fix what I see as a problem, I would like to propose three tweaks to the awaken spell: first, the spell sets the creature’s Intelligence to 10, but it also changes its Wisdom and Charisma to 10 as well. This represents it gaining the “mind of a person”, which is average in all respects. They lose their animal instincts to a certain degree (as shown by their probably-lowered Wisdom) but gain the ability to converse with humanoids and not make a total ass of themselves (assuming they weren’t an ass to begin with) doing it. At this point, the creature is assumed to be a bit like a baby that’s suddenly gained an adult’s intelligence: quite befuddled by the broadened scope of the world but also keen to figure out its place in it (or perhaps keen to return to its old life?).

Secondly, after the first 30 days that the creature spends not charmed by you (considering that they aren’t really themselves if they’re charmed by you 24/7) the DM decides on the creature’s personality that is going to be more-or-less permanent. The way I see it, the creature needs that first month to figure out who it is now that its mind has been so altered. It keeps all its memories and prior attachments (assuming it’s a beast), but now that it has a humanoid-level mind it must have a personality beyond mere instincts. To figure that out, the DM assigns the creature a new alignment, as it simply will not do for a walking, talking member of society to go around Unaligned like a mere beast! They also assign some personality traits, an ideal, a bond, and some flaws just like they would for any NPC. In theory, over the last month the creature will have undertaken actions that prove its essential character. An Awakened Giant Boar who betrays its keeper to join up with some mercenaries who promise it its favourite treat (them good mashed carrots) may be labelled Chaotic Neutral (or even Chaotic Evil) and given the ideal “I go wherever the eating’s good” and the flaw “I am disloyal and selfish, and will abandon anyone who does not attend to my needs”. Meanwhile, an Awakened Parrot who accidentally casts a spell by mimicking the party wizard’s vocal components and then begins dabbling in wizardry itself may have the bond “I cast my first spell quite by accident, and now I’m excited to see what more power I have hidden within me” and the flaw “I’m terrified that my lifespan as a parrot won’t be enough to reach my potential and so I overwork myself to compensate”. Such a beast may be labelled Neutral Good or Neutral Evil depending on its goals.

Lastly the DM chooses two of the three “mental” ability scores and raises one by 1d4 points and lowers another by 1d4 points. I think it would fun to have some variety in our awakened creatures and sort out which ones have the innate talent to learn new things (like a rat with high Charisma becoming a world-renowned musician, for example). Likewise, no one aside from the truly exceptional has decent stats across the board (as many animals have good Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution already) so I think we should lower one for the sake of balance and to show the creature’s personality more. Maybe the musical rat lost any and all animal instinct during the awakening ritual (thus now having a lower Wisdom score) and is now totally unable to relate to fellow rats as he drowns in the praise of humanoid fans. But do his fans truly understand him, or do they just love him for his music? Does anyone understand him? Can anyone understand him? What does it mean to have the mind and future of a humanoid but the body and past of a beast? Was the awakening ritual a gift… or was it a curse?

Tears of Denial (4th Level, Abjuration)

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Range: Touch

Components: V, S

Duration: 24 hours

Classes: Bard, Cleric, Paladin

When you finish casting this spell you touch a willing creature, granting it a ward against death itself. The next time during the spell’s duration that the target would be reduced to 0 hit points, it’s reduced to 1 hit point instead. Afterwards, the spell ends.

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as request your own card conversions, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon.

Arcanatober Day 6– Verminous Swarm / Fool’s Gold

Theme Week– Guilds of Ravnica: Izzet League

Last weekend was my monthly theme week release over on Patreon, and it was up to my patrons to select their favorite guild from the city-plane of Ravnica! Last month’s winner was the Golgari Swarm, who I do love, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the megalomaniacal science-casters in the Izzet.

September Challenge– Days 9 & 10