Spes Magna Games

The Ways Of…, which presents seven new monastic traditions for seven core races, seems to be doing well. I’ve gotten one three-star rating, which is okay, but also a bit irritating. Not that it’s three stars, mind you, but because I don’t know why it’s three stars instead of two or four. Tomorrow, I continue running The Lost City for four 3rd-level monks, each one using a different archetype from The Ways Of…. The first session went well, the only real problem due to laggy videoconferencing. (Nota Bene: That last link is an affiliate link. If you click and buy, I get a few copper pieces.)

I recently mused about what a 20-level samurai class for 5E D&D might look like. Those musings have been fleshed out into a document that includes said 20-level samurai class, three samurai archetypes, 12 new spells, and sidebars that briefly discuss samurai armor and weapons. I’ll be revising and editing the document more today and/or tomorrow before it too goes up on DriveThruRPG as a PWYW playtest supplement.

I have a few other Oriental Adventures-inspired ideas outlined. I’m probably going to put together a third OA-themed document, this one detailing subclasses. The bushi and sohei are fighter subclasses, the shugenja a cleric subclass, and the wu jen a wizard subclass. Likely the yakuza will get added in as a rogue subclass, but I’ve not outlined that one yet. I’m not sure about an OA-style barbarian subclass, and the assassin rogue archetype hits most of the ninja. More mulling over those that two must occur.

But none of that is what this post is about. This post is about a new 5E D&D monster.

Have you seen The Art of Stefan Koidl. No? Into the circle of shame you go. “Shame! Shame! Shame!” Now that those who deserve punishment have eaten their just desserts, let’s move on to the new monster. Since I don’t have the artist’s permission, I’m linking to today’s inspirational work of horror. If your SAN is low, don’t click here.

Hatiyara

The hatiyara is an undead monster that lairs in abandoned buildings or tunnel systems. In life, the hatiyara was an outcast, one who lived on the fringes of society, often surviving by begging and theft. In undeath, it survives by murder in order to consume the hands of its victims.

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 15 (natural)
Hit Points 90 (12d8+36)
Speed 30 feet

STR 17 (+3), DEX 12 (+1), CON 16 (+3), INT 8 (-1), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 15 (+2)

Skills Athletics +6, Sleight of Hand +4, Stealth +4, Perception +4
Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing not made with silvered weapons
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages the languages it knew in life
Challenge 5 (1,800)

Dimension Door. As part of its move, the hatiyara can pass through a portal (such as a doorway or a window) and appear in another portal within 60 feet. The hatiyara does not need to be able to see the destination portal.

Regrowth. The hatiyara regrows severed arms after a short or long rest. When it regrows a severed arm, its detached limbs cease to be active.

Actions

Multiattack. The hatiyara makes three attacks with its claws.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage plus 2 (1d4) necrotic damage.

Reactions

Severed Arm. When the hatiyara takes slashing damage, it can choose to have one of its six arms be severed by the attack. The hatiyara takes no damage from the attack. As a bonus action, the hatiyara can control its severed arms as long as they remain within 30 feet of it. If more than 30 feet separates the hatiyara and a severed arm, the severed arm “dies” at the end of the hatiyara’s turn. A severed arm has a base speed of 15 feet. It has the hatiyara’s AC, resistances, and immunities. A severed arm has 9 hit points, and it can make one claws attack on its turn.

Tags: 5E D&D, Character Classes, monsters, samurai

It’s no secret I like making up new monsters or adding my own twists to classic creatures. Often, my inspiration comes from an illustration. Other times, I’ve taken inspiration from W. B. Yeats (Aengus Wandero’er in Chance Encounters III), wonderfully bad movies (the shark storm in Shallows & Sharks), and medieval bestiaries (the cinnamologus in Chance Encounters II and the bear-ape in Chance Encounters IV).

Bestiaries inspire today’s new monster. You can read a summary of the pard’s history by visting Atlas Obscura. If you want AD&D stats for the monster, they’re on my Google Drive. Enjoy!

The Pard

The pard bears a superficial resemblance to a great cat, such as a lion or leopard. From its whip-like tail to its almost-human face, from its sinuous neck to its curved talons on raptor’s feet, the pard’s unnatural origins cannot be missed. In the Nine Hells, pards roam in packs, hunting lesser creatures for sport. In the Material Plane, the pard uses its powers to mate with female great cats, especially lionnesses. Females cubs born from such a union are leopards; males are juvenile pards, which immediately abandon their mother and siblings. A juvenile pard reaches full maturity in a matter of days, at which time it plane shifts to the Nine Hells.

Medium fiend (devil), lawful evil

Armor Class 15 (natural)
Hit Points 52 (8d8+16)
Speed 50 feet

STR 19 (+4), DEX 15 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 14 (+2)

Saving Throws STR +6, CON +4, WIS +4
Skills Stealth +4, Perception +4
Damage Resistances cold, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nomagical attacks not made with silvered weapons
Damage Immunities fire
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Infernal, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 4 (1,100)

Devil’s Sight. Magical darkness doesn’t impede the pard’s darkvision.

Innate Spellcasting. The pard’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.

At will: animal friendship, detect evil and good, speak with animals
3/day each: charm person, phantasmal force, suggestion, teleport
1/day: animate dead, fear

Keen Smell. The pard has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

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

Pounce. If the pard moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a talons attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the pard can make a talons attack against it as a bonus action.

Running Leap. With a 10-foot running start, the pard can long jump up to 25 feet.

Summon Devil (1/Day). The pard has a 20% to summon another pard.

Actions

Multiattack. The pard makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its talons.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) piercing damage.

Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, monsters

So, if I’m heading toward a new campaign starting circa October of this year, and if this campaign is to use the 5E D&D ruleset but with influences from early edition Oriental Adventures and Birthright, that means renaming, tweaking, and rewriting a certain amount of material. For example, no OA-inspired setting would be complete with a samurai character class. After rummaging through my bookshelves, I found five books, each one with a version of the samurai. To wit:

Oriental Adventures (1E): This character class starts with katana specialization and the possibility of specializing in daikyu, making samurai the only class allowed two weapon specializations. As they advance in levels, samurai become proficient in horsemanship, the bow, calligraphy, painting, and poetry. They gain multiple attacks at higher levels. Samurai can focus their ki via a “loud, fierce shout” that increases attack and damage ability. As samurai earn levels, they become more able to damage foes, gain immunity to fear, are harder to surprise, and can cause fear in their enemies.

The Complete Fighter’s Handbook (2E): This warrior kit grants bonus weapon and nonweapon proficiencies that focus on samurai weapons and skills. The kit grants the “loud, fierce shout” ability found in 1E OA.

Oriental Adventures (3E): This character class grants an ancestral daisho at first level. The daisho becomes more powerful as the samurai earns levels. Starting at 2nd level, the samurai gains bonus feats drawn from a list of feats associated with the different samurai clans.

Complete Warrior (3E): Another take on the samurai as a character class. This time the samurai gains daisho proficiency at 1st level, but the samurai’s daisho do not gain power as the samurai advances in level. At 2nd level, the samurai learns to fight with both katana and wakizashi at the same time. After that, we see a return of the “loud, fierce shout” theme coupled with a gradually improving ability to cause fear in enemies.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (5E): The samurai is a fighter subclass, available starting at 3rd level. The samurai gets a bonus skill proficiency and a “fighting spirit” to start. The latter improves a single weapon attack and grants bonus hit points. At higher levels, the samurai becomes an “elegant courtier” and his fighting spirit ability expands and improves.

Out of these five options, I prefer the samurai be its own class rather than an add-on (2E) or a subclass (5E). These abilities seem a must:

1. Emphasis on the daisho.
2. Skills that combine martial and courtly foci.
3. Some sort of “loud, fierce shout” ability.
4. Some sort of ability to cause fear, perhaps related to the “loud, fierce shout” ability.

Samurai subclasses (available starting at 3rd level) might focus on different different fighting styles. For example, a Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu style would focus on fighting with two swords, using one for offense and the other for defense, whereas a Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu would focus on drawing and cutting with the sword as a single motion. What might these look like in game terms and modified for a fantasy world? Well, I’m not sure about that.

My initial thoughts involve basing different subclass abilities on the themes of eight or so samurai fighting styles. To fit the subclass pattern of things, each style would need to grant an ability at 3rd, 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th levels. Since I’m not even going to attempt create 40 different abilities, I’d combine fighting styles, ignore this, emphasize that, et cetera. My goal isn’t historical accuracy.

If I whittled down, say, eight fighting styles to three or four, I could then create a “menu” of character options for the aforementioned levels. A samurai who focuses on a single style would have greater ability within a narrow field, whereas a samurai who dabbles a bit in different styles would have a wider range of weaker abilities.

Perhaps over the next few days, I’ll put together a rough-draft samurai class?

Next up, to repeat myself, for the first time in a while, I’ve finished a new Spes Magna product, this time for 5E D&D. The Ways Of… presents seven new monastic traditions, each one available to a different core rules race.

Tags: 5E D&D, Character Classes, samurai

First up, two announcements.

For the time in a while, I’ve finished a new Spes Magna product, this time for 5E D&D. The Ways Of… presents seven new monastic traditions, each one available to a different core rules race. The elven monks of the way of the Blade and Bow practice a different art than do the halfling monks of the Way of the Hearth. A dwarven Cave monk fighting back-to-back with a gnomish Prank monk use their ki in very different ways. Other monastic traditions include tieflings, dragonborn, and drow. This is the playtest version of The Ways Of…. Get it today by paying what you want, and create a monk for your favorite non-human race.

I’ve also completed about two-thirds of The Ninth Face of Cro, my fourth Dangerous Place and the first one written for 5E D&D. (The other three Dangerous Places are for Swords & Wizardry.) The Ninth Face introduces beginning characters to the Mortuary Moot, a frontier region recovering from a natural disaster. As part of the recovery efforts, the barons have put out the call for adventurers to seek fame and fortune in the Moot (and thus help drive out the hordes of evil humanoids and other monsters who threaten settlers and merchants). I hope to have The Ninth Face available as early as this Friday (although next week is probably more realistic).

And now for more thoughts about investigative 5E D&D.

I’ve written three blogposts about The GUMSHOE System’s applicability to a more traditional fantasy game, wherein I’ve mused about clue hunting, gothic Victorian D&D, and what an Adventuress background might look like. The focus on these musings has been TSR’s wonderful Masque of the Red Death campaign expansion with a dash of Chaosium’s excellent Cthulhu by Gaslight. In recent days, I’ve started down a different rabbit trail. Two of my other favorite TSR products are Oriental Adventures and the Birthright campaign setting. Both of these products encourage and reward things like courtly intrigue, spying, et cetera. They’re ideal for investigative roleplaying.

Nota Bene: All of the links in that last paragraph are affiliate links. If you click and buy, I get a pittance.

5E D&D already includes a few nods to what was the Oriental Adventures milieu: monks, assassins (read: ninjas), and samurai. Working up a few new races (spirit folk) or subraces (korobokuru) shouldn’t be too hard. Classes such as the yakuza could become subclasses. Thrown out the PH weapons and armor tables and pull in OA weapons and armor, change a few names, and a lot of the work would be done. Also, I’ve printed for closer reading the 5E conversion of Birthright by Marsupialmancer. The conversion looks promising.

Little by little, after our current d20 Modern science-fantasy-horror campaign draws to a close, I’m leaning heavily toward a less gonzo game of political intrigue with a decidedly OA feel. Time will tell whether my ADHD drags me in a different direction before we’re ready for a new campaign in the fall.

Tags: 5E D&D, game play, GUMSHOE, monks

In TSR’s wonderful Masque of the Red Death campaign expansion, we find several character kits, namely Cavalryman, Charlatan, Dandy, Detective, Explorer/Scout, Journalist, Laborer, Medium, Metaphysician, Parson, Physician, Qabalist, Sailor, Scholar, Shaman, and Spiritualist. From Chaosium’s excellent Cthulhu by Gaslight, we expand the Victorian-era background material by including social class (Upper Class, Middle Class, or Lower Class) and several occupations, specifically Adventuress, Aristocrat, Clergyman, Consulting Detective, Ex-Military, Explorer, Inquiry Agent, Official Police, Rogue (not to be confused with the character class), and Street Arab (period slang for Lower Class children “adept at surviving on the street”) (Gaslight, page 12).

Nota Bene: All of the links above are affiliate links. If you click and buy, I get a pittance.

When adapting 5E D&D to the last few decades of the Victorian era, setting-appropriate backgrounds are a must. Let’s take the Adventuress Gaslight occupation and turn it into a 5E D&D background. Direct quotes below come from Gaslight (pages 10-11).

Adventuress

Adventuress is “a euphemism for the woman who, by her association with Upper Class suitors and admirers, managed to gain power, respect, and sometimes reluctant approval from Victorian society. Often the Adventuress has worked in the theater or in some other form of entertainment. Sometimes ruthless, always competent and intelligent, she can greatly influence the life of her suitor of the moment. In fiction, a famous example of an Adventuress is Irene Adler, ‘the woman’ of the Sherlock Holmes Story ‘A Scandal in Bohemia.’ The adventuress may come from any social class. In so far as the behavior of the Middle Classes and Lower Classes directed at her, her effective class standing is that of her current suitor — but only so long as he remains her protector or until her cash runs out. Then her standing reverts to that of her birth. Naturally her protector’s peers always view her in terms of her original social class.”

Proficiencies: 4
Equipment: A set of fine clothes, letters from suitors, a bottle of perfume, and a pouch containing 20 gp

Feature: Name-Dropping: Due to your association with one or more men of repute, people are inclined to treat you with deference. You can gain access to places normally reserved for the Upper Classes. The Middle and Lower Classes make every effort to accommodate you and avoid your displeasure.

And now some notes regarding proficiencies. As touched on in a previous post, tweaking 5E D&D toward the investigative paradigm of The Gumshoe System requires modifying skills. Certain skills become investigative skills, the use of which guarantees discovering clues, assuming the proper skill is used at the proper time. In short, no die roll is required with an investigative skill.

To ensure that an adventuring group has the investigative skills covered means changing the ways a character gains skills. So, for example, instead of a background having a fixed list of skills, tool proficiencies, et cetera, a background provides X number of points that are spent on such things. This increases the amount of customization each character receives and also ensures that no adventuring group can’t find a clue because no member of the group has the applicable skill. I don’t see how either those “ensurances” are a bad thing.

Back to the Adventuress. If I make up a character with this background, I get 4 points I can spend on skills, tool proficiencies, and/or languages. I might decide to spend 2 points on investigative skills, picking Deception and Insight. For the other two, I might choose Performance and proficiency with a disguise kit.

These skills and this tool proficiency would be in addition to those gained from race and class. If my Adventuress were a half-elf rogue, I’d be looking at 2 more points from race and 4 more points from class. All in all, my Adventuress would have an impressive list of investigative and other skills to help her navigate her way through the strange currents of a mystery.

Tags: game play, GUMSHOE, horror