Monday, July 4, 2016

Council of Wyrms, v2.3

Happy Independence Day! Nothing fancy today, just wanted to get this out of the way.

I've made a couple updates to the document and uploaded a new version here.

The complete change list:
  1. Corrected references to what saving throw is relevant to a given breed's breath weapon (green and white are Constitution saves, most others are Dexterity, etc.).
  2. Corrected the Wild Gods Warlord's armor class and spell list, since barkskin was pretty worthless for it.

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for the nostalgia.

    Curious as to if you have reviewed the old adventure book included with the original setting. I enjoyed playing the original ones as a kid. I am now looking to run the adventure in 5e for the group that reintroduced me to D&D. With your adaption, would you recommend just substituting the ogres from the 5e MM into the 1st level adventure? Or are your egg hunter ogres a better fit (They seem overpowered for the 1st lvl one)

    Any tips on converting 5e challenge levels and xp for dragon pc's?

    Would appreciate your thoughts.

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    1. I do have the old adventure book on my shelf. It's a fun trip down memory lane, though I haven't tried running it with my conversion as of yet (my gaming groups all have in-progress campaigns else I would have jumped on the opportunity). My egg hunters are for somewhat more experienced dragons, so if you were to run the adventure as-is from the book, regular ogres might still be a significant challenge -- they do hit rather hard.

      Krugg Bonebreaker might be a good candidate for an egg hunter, but that is still quite a scary encounter even for first level dragons. I think regular ogres will suffice, and boosting Krugg's HP or AC due to equipment would be a suitable adjustment.

      As far as converting CRs and XP, I didn't really feel it was necessary without an official playtest of the conversion (of which only a few combats and some creation sessions with friends have been done). I think it's suitable to use as-is monster XP and level advancement without any adjustments; a dragon PC is going to move up in levels fairly rapidly early in their career, but as they face stronger challenges in general from monsters, it might be suitable to reduce expected experience rewards for story beats and the like.

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  2. Dumb question, for claw, bite, and tail attacks must you take the corresponding fighting style (ex to use a claw attack you must take Fang and Claw)? If not would you look at the fighting style for the attack or if not something else (ex the Monster Manuel)?
    Thanks!

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    1. Apologies! I was away on vacation and the blog is set up not to auto-publish on articles older than 90 days.

      Every dragon has Bite as their basic melee attack, and they don't need to take any styles to use it. To use claw or tail attacks at all, the dragon does need to take Fang and Claw or Lashing Tail, respectively.

      It could be easily house ruled that a dragon can use any of those singularly as a basic attack, but it may create some odd balance issues (particularly with tail attacks having extended reach).

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  3. No worries!
    That is what I assumed, was just making sure that I was getting it right and not messing it up.
    Thanks!

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  4. Why can't I find the article for this? Has it been removed? I wanted to check it out...

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    1. Nope, it still exists. I've rehosted this on Homebrewery. The current link is on the top links bar (assuming you're in Desktop view, Mobile doesn't show it), but I'll update the in-article link momentarily. Hope you enjoy it. :)

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Thanks! Found it. I'm loving the work up for the CoW. It has the right feel, too. I also looked at the Dark Sun and Birthright posts you set up. Apparently, we think alike, because you've hit on two of my favorite AD&D worlds. Both of those are woefully inadequate, though. I hope they're rough draft "short" versions. There's loads more content for those two settings.

      I did notice that the Blood Abilities are limited to only one (1) choice of power. Is that a game balancing issue? Because I had a character in the original that started with five different powers and a Major bloodline. It went well, too. I had some of the more flavorful abilities, as opposed to the game breaking ones (Invulnerability, I'm looking at you).

      And my favorite character ever was an Athasian Human Gladiator (Slave). Played him to level 30 using the High Level Campaigns and Skills & Powers books. Dragon Magazine had an article with the point costs for racial abilities and classes back in the day.

      Anyways, thanks for the new stuff. I was always a fan of the CoW setting, and wondered how it would translate to the new 5E, which I have come to enjoy. And that's saying a lot, since I loathed 3rd through 4th. Especially 4th.

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    4. There should be more up to date versions in the Links bar for both Birthright and Dark Sun. The former has a 45 page conversion, and while there's certainly more world and setting content, I tried to keep that one to the systems rather than rehashing/reprinting Cerilia setting data. Plus, trying to avoid getting walloped with a cease and desist. :D

      I did try to keep blood abilities to only one for balance reasons, but the Power of the Blood feat exists if someone wanted to take more abilities. I think it's totally fine if, for purposes of someone's game, they would want to houserule giving out more.

      The Dark Sun rule packet is pretty short by design. Save for my Council of Wyrms doc, I tried not to reprint/rehash setting info since that's readily available elsewhere, but I can understand why the DS and BR packets feel incomplete as a result.

      I am glad you enjoyed the CoW doc though. :)

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    5. Would there be any changes in the system for Darksun to allow for the heightened difficulties of survival as well as characters all starting at higher levels (Darksun in 2E started them at 3rd) and the stat range being from 5-20 (5d4) instead of 3-18 (3d6) before racial adjustments? I know it seems like power gaming, but it added profoundly to the feel of the setting. If you were alive, you had already proven something...

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    6. Also, I would like to offer you this link that details that the Athasian races had available to them for your perusal. Some of them might seem game breaking, but the flavor was awesome! So you might look into them as useful for designing feats, skills and racial abilities. This stuff was only released in Dragon Magazine, and it was tailor made for the AD&D 2E Skills & Powers character building option. All of this was considered optional to a DM, and so liberties were taken assuming the DM would manage his game according to his campaign needs.

      https://sggamma2.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/dark-sun-skills-and-powers/

      Enjoy :)

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    7. While I didn't do it for my conversion material, I think it's just as valid to allow for a stronger player character at the outset by providing more stats at the beginning, whether it be via more points to distribute (if point buy) or a 5d4 stat rolling method. I would, personally, try to avoid boosting the ability score maximum for player characters though -- only because 5E combat math is already fairly dependent on bounded accuracy and even a stray +1 can do odd things to the balance points.

      I'm one of those who thinks monsters are too weak in general in even core 5E, at least with experienced groups. For a Dark Sun game, I would boost monster HP by at least 25% to accommodate anyway, providing a naturally more dangerous world to help sell the theme. As far as starting out at a higher level, that's also totally kosher in my opinion. The early levels provide some useful character development opportunity, but you are correct in that the world strips away the weak and leaves only the strong, especially in a profession as dangerous as the adventuring life.

      Thanks for the link! I shall check it out.

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    8. I never struggled with my monsters weaknesses. But then, I've been playing for over 27 years.

      My solutions are minor, but effective. With monsters, I always max their HP. It's one of the easiest ways to up the challenge. Knowing the creatures and their abilities also drastically improves any given event. Know what you're putting them up against and play the creatures to their strengths. Any given creature will try to secure its own success and survival before hand, and many are in no way ashamed of escaping.

      In my games. I let players either take the average or roll their HP. To be fair, like learning a skill, I also allow them to gain one (1) permanent HP in the same manor they would gain a skill. 100 gp, and one month of intense physical conditioning during down time. In this way they can eventually have maximum HP as well. However, I don't mess around with the bad guys. They already finished their training regimen.

      Additionally, some bad guys use magical items, too. And casters are almost always crafty bastards. Wizards like to prepare, and warlocks can be vicious. Nothing says "hello" quite like an Eldritch Blast with a fireball on its heels (Kiss of Mephistopheles incantation) by a Tiefling with the Elemental Adept feat in fire...

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    9. Also, never be too shy to let the party just crack some skulls. They feel a lot better when they're reminded that they are, in fact, the heroes. Throw some fodder their way. Let them win the day with panache! But as the adventure progresses, and they make their way through the "labyrinth" to the castle, things should get more daunting. The Goblin King is ready, and he doesn't play by their rules...

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