Spes Magna Games

This Christmas Eve, don’t forget the tomte’s bowl of porridge topped with a buttery pat.

Tomte

This fey creature appears as an elderly man the size of a young child. It wears simple albeit often brightly colored clothing. One seldom encounters a tomte, and this encounter most often occurs on or near a farm or perhaps in a barn or livestock pen.

A farmer who believes a tomte resides on his property enjoys a mixed blessing. If the tomte is treated well, it helps protect the farm and its creatures from harm. Unfortunately, the tomte has a short temper and is easily offended. An angry tomte may pull pranks on the farm’s residents, break farm equipment, or even harm livestock.

Small fey, neutral

Armor Class 12 (16 with barkskin)
Hit Points 18 (4d6+4)
Speed 25 ft.

STR 16 (+3), DEX 14 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 11 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 12 (+1)

Saving Throws STR +5
Skills Athletics +5, Perception +3, Stealth +4
Damage Immunities cold
Condition Immunities charmed
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Sylvan
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Great Strength. The tomte possesses supernatural strength. It counts as one size larger when determining its carrying capacity and the weight it can push, drag, or lift. The tomte makes Strength checks and Strength saving throws with advantage.

Innate Spellcasting. The tomte’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 11). The tomte can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:

At will: barkskin, druidcraft, light, mending, shillelagh, speak with animals
3/day each: animal friendship, cure wounds, expeditious retreat, silent image
2/day each: animal messenger, enlarge/reduce (self only), invisibility
1/day each: bestow curse, plant growth

Actions

Club. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) bludgeoning damage, or 7 (1d8+3) bludgeoning with shillelagh

Tags: 5E D&D, Christmas, monsters

So, I’m on holiday until a bit after the new year. At least for now, I’m pretty much done with my Tanelorn Keep Player’s Guide. I’m thinking about starting up a meet-online game to run some players through some of the dangers of the Tanelorn Keep’s environs. Not sure I really have the time for that, so I must mull.

Whilst shifting some of the debris in my library, I stumbled across a few maps I drew on index cards. For example, see the shoe map to the right of this paragraph. I like my shoe map. It’s not great art, to be sure, but it makes me giggle a little, and that can’t be a bad thing. The original shoe map did not include location numbers. The one to the right does.

“Why?” you ask.

Well, when I’m not working on curriculum maps or gracing the family with my presence, I’m working on a short 5E D&D adventure titled The Lady in the Shoe. When done, it’ll be intended for five 2nd-level heroes, but I’ll include notes about how to scale it for weaker or stronger parties.

“So, what’s it about?” you ask.

Well, not to give too much away, but the adventure starts when the heroes return to Schuhdorf to discover that a beautiful but cruel woman has polymorphed the village’s key leaders into goats and flew away with them in a giant shoe. To make matters worse, later that same night eerie music lured several children away from their beds and into Flussenke, the nearby wooded river valley.

Schuhdorf stands in dire straits. Their spiritual leader is a kidnapped goat. The knight who oversees the village’s defenses is a kidnapped goat. Several children have vanished into the woods. Now is the time for heroes!

I hope to have the adventure ready before this coming weekend ends.

Tags: 5E D&D, adventure design, maps

The sokwe arrive from the skies in strange craft made of metal and glass. From these craft drop thunderous bombs and project destructive blasts of energy. When the craft land, the sokwe emerge, protected by remarkable armor and bearing uncanny weapons. Ape-like and intelligent, the sokwe strike with speed and ferocity.

Sokwe
Large beast, neutral evil

Armor Class 18 (power armor)
Hit Points 67 (9d10+18)
Speed 35 ft., 35 ft.

STR 20 (+5), DEX 14 (+2), CON 16 (+3), INT 11 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 10 (+0)

Skills Athletics +7, Perception +3
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages Sokwe
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

High-Tech Weapon. Roll 1d10. The sokwe is armed with either a dual phaser (1-5), a blaster rifle (6-8), or a pulse cannon (9-10).

Power Armor. The sokwe wears a suit of power armor. In addition to providing excellent protection, servo-motors in the armor grant advantage on Athletics checks. While wearing power armor, the sokwe counts as one size larger when determining its carrying capacity and the weight it can push, drag, or lift (1,200 pounds and 2,400 pounds, respectively).

Actions

Multiattack. The sokwe makes two fist attacks.

Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) bludgeoning damage.

High-Tech Weapon

Dual Phaser. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 50/200 ft., one or two targets. Hit: 13 (2d10+2) fire damage. Nota Bene: A dual phaser can be fired twice with the Attack action. Both attacks must be at the same target or at a second target adjacent to the first target.

Blaster Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (4d10+2) lightning damage.

Pulse Cannon (Recharge 4-6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 35 (6d10+2) force damage.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters

And, at long last, here’s Wastri the Hopping Prophet in all his splendor!

Since Wastri is a deity, albeit a Material Plane demigod, he should almost certainly have lair actions and regional effects as well. Given his preference for swamps, the lair actions and regional effects of the ancient green dragon are a good starting point.

Wastri the Hopping Prophet
Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil

Armor Class 21
Hit Points 255 (30d8+120)
Speed 45 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR 18 (+4), DEX 22 (+6), CON 19 (+4), INT 10 (+0), WIS 20 (+5), CHA 11 (+0)

Saving Throws STR +10, DEX +12, INT +6, WIS +11, CHA +6
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Skills Acrobatics +12, Athletics +10, Deception +6, Perception +11, Persuasion +6, Religion +6, Stealth +12
Senses passive Perception 21
Languages Common, Bullywug
Challenge 19 (22,000 XP)

Amphibious. Wastri can breath air and water.

Assassinate. During his first turn, Wastri has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn. Any hit Wastri scores against a surprised creature is a critical hit.

Bane of False Humans. As a bonus action, Wastri can expend a spell slot to cause his melee weapon attacks to magically deal an extra 10 (3d6) radiant damage to a non-human humanoid target on a hit. This benefit lasts until the end of the turn. If Wastri expends a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the extra damage increases by 1d6 for each level above 1st.

Evasion. If Wastri is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, Wastri instead takes no damage if he succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if he fails.

Sneak Attack. Once per turn, Wastri deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage when he hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of Wastri that isn’t incapacitated and Wastri doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.

Innate Spellcasting. As a demigod, Wastri has innate magical abilities. His innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14). He can innately cast the following spells as a 15th-level caster, requiring no material components.

At will: command, comprehend languages, detect evil and good, gate, geas, teleport, true seeing
1/day each: Wastri’s croak, dampness, plague of warts

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Wastri fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.

Magic Resistance. Wastri has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Spellcasting. Wastri is a 15th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 19, +11 to hit with spell attacks). Wastri has the following cleric spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): guidance, light, resistance, sacred flame, thaumaturgy
1st level (4 slots): bane, cure wounds, guiding bolt, protection from evil and good, sanctuary
2nd level (3 slots): hold person, protection from poison, warding bond
3rd level (3 slots): dispel magic, protection from energy, water walk
4th level (3 slots): control water, freedom of movement, guardian of faith
5th level (2 slots): insect plague, scrying
6th level (1 slot): word of recall
7th level (1 slot): symbol
8th level (1 slot): antimagic field

Standing Leap. Wastri’s long jump is up to 30 feet and its high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.

Unarmored Defense. While Wastri is wearing no armor and wielding no shield, his AC includes his Wisdom modifier.

Actions

Multiattack. Wastri makes two attacks when he takes the Attack action.

Skewer of the Impure. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (1d10+7) piercing or slashing damage. Nota Bene: The Skewer of the Impure is a magic glaive. It has a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls. It requires attunement by a human for its magic to function.

Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d6+6) bludgeoning damage.

Conjure Frogs (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). Wastri conjures eight giant frogs, which appear in unoccupied spaces the priest can see within 60 feet. Each beast disappears when it drops to 0 hit points. The summoned frogs are friendly to Wastri and Wastri’s companions. Roll initiative for the summoned frogs as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal commands Wastri issues to them (no action required). If Wastri doesn’t any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The frogs remain until killed or until Wastri takes a short or long rest.

Legendary Actions

Wastri can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Wastri regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.

Attack. Wastri makes one attack.

Cantrip. Wasti casts a cantrip.

Detect. Wastri makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.

Move. Wastri moves up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Tags: 5E D&D, Deities & Demigods, monsters

We jump right into today’s Wastri-centric post!

Wastri is the demigod of amphibians, bigotry, and self-deception. This week’s posts have hit the first two. There’ve been monster frogs, “false human” hunters, and jumping priests. But what about self-deception? What is it, and why would anyone emulate a deity who encourages it? Let’s start with a definition taken from the on-line Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy:

What is self-deception? Traditionally, self-deception has been modeled on interpersonal deception, where A intentionally gets B to believe some proposition p, all the while knowing or believing truly that ~p. Such deception is intentional and requires the deceiver to know or believe that ~p and the deceived to believe that p. One reason for thinking self-deception is analogous to interpersonal deception of this sort is that it helps us to distinguish self-deception from mere error, since the acquisition and maintenance of the false belief is intentional not accidental.

In other words, that aspiring Hopeful of Wastri knows that Wastri’s doctrine about human superiority is not true, but he deliberately chooses to believe and act as if the doctrine is true. In the Hopeful’s mind, we find two conflicting beliefs:

p: Humans are superior to all other humanoids.
~p: Humans are not superior to all other humanoids.

Resolving this contradictory set of beliefs is the function of bigotry. Bigotry helps the Hopeful generalize and specify in ways that explain the contradiction between his beliefs and reality. Euphemisms likely help this process. For example, consider what a simple change in terms accomplishes:

p: Humanity is superior to false humanity.

The first step in Wastri’s doctrine of self-deception must be to redefine terms. “Humans” is too specific. “Humanity” is abstract enough that the term becomes elastic, capable of stretching to reach whichever conclusions are most desired. Changing “all other humanoids” to “false humanity” not only creates a useful euphemism, but it also turns p into a statement that verges on self-evident. By definition, it seems, “false humanity” must be bad. “Humanity” is the opposite of “false humanity”; therefore, since “false humanity” is bad, “humanity” must be good. The Hopeful knows this is really just a semantic trick, but it creates a powerful motive for rationalizing his self-deception.

As the Hopeful progresses in his devotion to Wastri, he becomes more adept at rationalizing away the contradiction between p and ~p. Everything good about “false humanity” becomes a flaw obvious to the properly indoctrinated Hopeful. A dwarf’s ability to see in the dark? That’s not an example of a dwarf being superior to a human. Dwarves can see in the dark because they are creatures of darkness, hiding their wickedness from human eyes out of fear of just judgment. An elf’s centuries-long life span? This enables elves to both inflict their wickedness of the world for a long time and also encourages the vice of sloth. Why accomplish something today when one has decades to spare?

Et cetera.

The Hopeful’s process of rationalization also explains Wastri’s doctrines of self-improvement. The Hopeful sees his personal failures as sins related to not fully embodying humanity’s innate superiority. Thus, the Hopeful must study more, exercise more, work more, sacrifice more. Wastri’s followers who’ve advanced further along the path to personal perfection are there to help. Imagine a caste system of Wastrian self-improvement coaches, croaking out inspiring aphorisms to motivate the faithful and entice the curious.

Which bring us to Wastri’s alignment: lawful neutral (evil). Wastri’s worshipers are either lawful neutral or lawful evil. (See Dragon 71 from March 1983.) Now picture Wastri missionaries, all lawful neutral, establishing schools and gymnasiums, available for humans only, of course. As enrollment at the schools and gymansiums increases, so too does the revenue they generate, which Wastri’s faithful put back into the community, building better homes, improving infrastructure, providing employment, et cetera, but, as always, only for humans.

Years ago, in a 3E D&D campaign, I used Wastri, redefining his alignment to lawful neutral. In 3E’s rules, a cleric’s alignment could be “‘one step’ away from” his deity’s alignment (3E PH 29). So, a cleric of Wastri in that campaign could be lawful neutral, lawful evil, or lawful good. Based on this idea, I introduced into the campaign a lawful good paladin of Wastri, a missionary working hard to establish within the city a zone for humans to live and thrive along side other humans. The so-called “false humans” were not to be persecuted. The paladin encouraged “false humans” to live among their own kinds, to establish their own “racially pure” communities. Of course, the humans would occupy all important positions in the city’s government, and strict rules would be implemented to ensure that “false humans” did not infect the city with their inferior ways of living.

The players had to make a decision about what to do with the paladin. Despite his racist doctrines, he was a paladin. He was a lawful good man genuinely motivated to help the human community. He really believed that his program of racial segregation within a city ruled only by humans would ultimately benefit everyone — human and “false human” alike. The paladin was popular among the city’s humans as well as personally powerful with a small army of faithful at his command. The war waged by the forces of Hextor and his allies (the campaign’s major focus) was drawing closer to the city with each passing week. Compared to the slaughter looming on the horizon, could the PCs afford to not forge an alliance with Wastri’s paladin?

Unfortunately, we never answered that question. Due to player loss, the campaign sort of fizzled out. Among the PCs was another paladin, a human champion of Hieroneous. I had hoped that the clash of ideologies between the paladins would led to a situation in which Wastri’s doctrines of self-deception might have been undone. Maybe our current campaign can feature the return of this conflict? Only time will tell!

Tags: 5E D&D, game play