Eldritch Extras: Polishing Off Birthright

Hey folks, sorry for the brief absence. Suffered a hard drive failure, was swept up by (and finally beat) the Witcher 3, and work suplexed me with all the tenderness of a hill giant on meth. I promised I'd finish up the last few traces of Birthright stuff, and so I come to deliver!

Realm Magic

By and large, these are mostly mechanically sound, and have only a few sticking points that I would personally want to see revised. Let's begin.

All realm spells in the old core rules have a minimum Character Level required, which doesn't really have a good parallel in 5th Edition unless you consider them on the level of class abilities -- which they are absolutely not. Rather, they are more like extremely powerful rituals that take a long time to cast and prepare. Naturally, only blooded spellcasters can know realm spells, and must have access to temple holdings (for clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers) or source holdings (for bards, eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, sorcerers, and wizards) in order to cast them at all. Warlocks never gain access to realm spells, as their power comes from elsewhere and not the magic of the land or the power of gods.

Of course, if you really, REALLY wanted them to, you could make them gain them at the same rate as sorcerers and wizards. It's just a flavor thing I don't really like, and you'd need to resolve how this jives with their warlocky stuff. I'd recommend leveraging their Slot Level to determine when they qualify to learn a particular realm spell, and maybe even using Mystic Arcanum to give them bonus ones.

As such, I've reclassified all the relevant realm spells as one might with regular spells. It is reasonable to allow a spellcasting regent to begin play with a number of realm spells that befits their class and its grasp on magic. Some do not gain realm spells until they begin to cast any spells at all, such as in the case of the eldritch knight fighter.

• Bard: 1 realm spell
• Cleric: 2 realm spells
• Druid: 2 realm spells
• Fighter, Eldritch Knight: 1 realm spell starting at 3rd level
• Paladin: 1 realm spell starting at 2nd level
• Ranger: 1 realm spell starting at 2nd level
• Rogue, Arcane Trickster: 1 realm spell starting at 3rd level
• Sorcerer: 2 realm spells
• Wizard: 2 realm spells

The realm spells are otherwise grouped by class and spell level, and I pulled from all of my available sources to classify them (that is, core rules Birthright, Book of Priestcraft, and Book of Magecraft). The bard borrows here and there from the old cleric list, as I felt befits their class and role; convert any temple holding requirements to source holding requirements accordingly.

Old effects that require saving throws should be changed to Bloodline saving throws as though cast like normal spells by the offending regent. For example, if Calimor (a level 10 wizard with a 19 Intelligence) catches a rival regent with the ley trap spell, that regent must succeed on a DC 16 (base 8 + 4 proficiency + 4 Intelligence modifier) Bloodline saving throw to avoid the effect.

Bard Realm Spells

First Level

Alchemy

Battle Fury

Coffer Credit

Detect Ley Line

Dispel Realm Magic

Inflame

Scry

Subversion

Second Level

Demagogue

Investiture

Royal Facade

Summoning

Transport

Third Level

Gold Rush

Honest Dealings

Warding

Fourth Level

Defection

Cleric and Druid Realm Spells

First Level

Bless Army

Bless Land

Dispel Realm Magic

Investiture

Protection from Realm Magic

True Believer

Second Level

Blight

Holy War

Magical Tithe

Maintain Armies

Population Growth

Ward Realm

Third Level

Bless Holding

Conversion

Honest Dealings

Fourth Level

Erik's Mighty Forests (Erik Clerics... Cleriks? and Druids only)

Excommunicate

Legion of the Dead

Sixth Level

One True Faith

Eighth Level

Consecrate Relic

Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster Realm Spells

First Level

Alchemy

Battle Fury

Dispel Realm Magic

Inflame

Scry

Subversion

Second Level

Mass Destruction

Summoning

Transport

Third Level

Death Plague

Stronghold

Warding

Paladin and Ranger Realm Spells

First Level

Bless Army

Bless Land

Dispel Realm Magic

Investiture

Protection from Realm Magic

True Believer

Second Level

Blight

Holy War

Magical Tithe

Maintain Armies

Third Level

Bless Holding

Conversion

Honest Dealings

Sorcerer and Wizard Realm Spells

First Level

Alchemy

Battle Fury

Coffer Credit

Detect Ley Line

Dispel Realm Magic

Inflame

Scry

Subversion

Second Level

Demagogue

Ley Trap

Mask Ley Line

Mass Destruction

Royal Facade

Summoning

Trace Ley Line

Transport

Third Level

Death Plague

Gold Rush

Protect Source

Regent Sight (this is called Regent Site in Book of Magecraft; a typo? It does a detection...)

Stronghold

Warding

Fourth Level

Defection

Feign Destruction

Legion of the Dead

Protect Ley Line

Ley Ward

Fifth Level

Deactivate Ley Line

Deplete Mebhaighl

Enhance Source

Raze

Shadow Block

Sixth Level

Siphon Mebhaighl

Sunder Ley Line

Eighth Level

Poison Source

Monster Modifications

For the uninitiated, Cerilia has a few creature conceits that are fairly easily addressed. Primarily, there are no orcs in the setting, with orogs being the default "big evil humanoid" alongside goblins and goblinkin. Statistically, I think it's perfectly reasonable to use the standard orc and just call it an orog, and the actual orog entry in the 5th Edition Monster Manual being a particularly nasty representative of its species.

Goblins and gnolls fill out the remainder of the evil humanoid monsters category, with the term "goblin" being used interchangeably between the three kinds (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, who share a society in several places on the continent).

Dragons are a tricky bit, and the presence of a dragon on a given stretch of land is a Big Deal. There are no non-ancient dragons anywhere in Cerilia that anyone knows of, and there are even very few of those hanging around in distant mountain ranges or sleeping beneath deep oceans. Cerilian dragons are not your cackling wyrms coming to raid your castles and eat your maidens, they are cataclysms that people hope never awaken. This is not to say that you cannot (or should not) make younger dragons exist for the purposes of telling an existing story, but you can be sure that sages and wizards will be immensely curious that one exists at all.

My personal suggestion is that every Cerilian dragon is of ancient-strength (as mentioned above), uses the draconic spellcaster variant as presented on page 88 of the Monster Manual, and can use lair actions anywhere in their territory (basically the entire province in which they are located), not just their lair proper. Increasing their challenge rating by 3 is probably a good accompaniment to these changes, and you should feel free to give them wildly different breath weapon energy types and scale coloration -- Cerilian dragons do not fit in to the chromatic/metallic spectrum, as they are noted to "all belong to the same species" (Birthright Rulebook, page 87) and are neutral in the affairs of men and elves.

Is that it?

Gosh, I hope so. I've loved doing this, but every time I think I'm done, I find something else I want to add in! I'm still working on the domain sheet, since I have all the graphic design skills of a drunken mole rat, but I'll toss it up eventually.

As for what's next, I've been wanting to brush up on my fiction writing skills a bit, so I may do some short stories here and there. My day job doesn't let me flex those muscles as much as I'd like anymore, so this is as good a place as any. Toodles for now!