Spes Magna Games

Today begins a series of twelve days worth of posts about things monstrous and terrible. The first day is inspired by The Birch, a nifty short film available via Crypt TV.

On the first day of searching / My party encountered: / A birchwrath in a fell wood.

The birchwrath is a plant monster summoned from a wooded area in which birch trees grow. Few creatures know the ritual used to call a birchwrath. The sigils and chants are most often handed down within certain clans or tribes.

AD&D Version

Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 0
Move: 15″
Hit Dice: 16
% in Lair: Nil
Treasure Type: Nil
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 2-8/2-8
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: Half damage from blunt and piercing attacks
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (9′ tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: IX/6,500 + 20/hp

The birchwrath exists to mete out vengeance for its summoner. Once conjured and instructed what to do, the birchwrath no longer responds to its summoner. The birchwrath is a faultless tracker within one day of a quarry’s passing. Once its engages its victim(s), the birchwrath attacks with its powerful hands. If both hands strike its opponent, the birchwrath does an additional 4-16 points of rending damage.

The birchwrath’s dense bark and woody tissues resist damage from blunt and piercing weapons, which inflict half normal damage. Attacks against a birchwrath based on fire gain a +4 “to hit” bonus and inflict +1 point of damage per damage die. The birchwrath makes saving throws against fire with a -4 penalty. If the birchwrath takes damage from fire, it becomes enraged, gaining a +2 “to hit” bonus and inflicting +2 damage per damage die with its attacks (including rending damage, if applicable).

The birchwrath always passes without trace. It is able to use any of the following powers at will, once per turn: trip, warp wood, and plant door.

The birchwrath does not speak, but it understands the Common Tongue and the languages of woodland beings.

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5E D&D Version

Large plant, neutral

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 152 (16d10+64)
Speed 40 ft.

Ability Scores STR 21 (+5), DEX 10 (+0), CON 19 (+4), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 10 (+0)

Skills Perception +5, Survival +5
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing
Senses passive Perception 15
Languages Common and Sylvan, but doesn’t speak
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

False Appearance. While the birchwrath remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal tree.

Faultless Tracker. The birchwrath is given a quarry by its summoner. The birchwrath knows the direction and distance to its quarry as long as the two of them are on the same plane of existence. The birchwrath also knows the location of its summoner.

Passes without Trace. A birchwrath moves in a veil of shadows and muted sounds. It has a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks and can’t be tracked except by magical means.

Rend. As a bonus action against a restrained creature, the birchwrath rends the target’s flesh, inflicting 23 (4d8+5) slashing damage.

Innate Spellcasting. The birchwrath’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13). The birchwrath can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

1/day each: grasping vine, spike growth, tree stride

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the birchwrath cannot its claws on another target.

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Nota Bene: I still have three bundles of products for sale:

1. The Mutant Wastland Holiday Adventures bundle features three post-apocalyptic products.
2. The New School Holiday Adventures bundle of six 5E-compatible products
3. The Old School Holiday Adventure bundle includes 16 OSR products.

Tags: 12 Days, 5E D&D, AD&D, monsters

The Mutant Wasteland Holiday Adventures bundle features three post-apocalyptic products:

Metro Gnomes: A beer-and-pretzels one-shot for Geodesic Gnomes, the game of stunted mutants surviving in biosphere crawlspaces. Geodesic Gnomes is written by mapmeister Dyson Logos.

Shallows & Sharks: A half dozen marine mutants for your Mutant Future game. (Nota Bene: That’s an affiliate link the previous sentence.)

Terrors of the Toxic Waste: More than 20 mutant foes, hazards, and NPCs ready to add danger and excitement to your post-apoc world.

Get all three for $2.25, which is 50% off the regular prices.

The New School Holiday Adventures bundle of 5E-compatible material and the Old School Holiday Adventure bundle are also still available for you to stuff into someone’s virtual stocking.

Tags: Geodesic Gnomes, Mutant Future, Spes Magna Products

The New School Holiday Adventures bundle brings you a stocking full of 5E-compatible material, including these titles:

Chance Encounters II, III, and IV: New monsters, new magic items, a short dungeon adventure, new spells, and even a history lesson about cinnamon.

Dangerous Women: Khatira Amrat, Kona Hættuleg, and Menyw Beryglus. Three complete NPCs who can challenge or assist your players’ characters as you see fit.

Shallows & Sharks: A half dozen aquatic predators lurk just beneath the waves.

The Dwarf: Its Old School meets New School with the dwarf character class, including two new dwarf subraces, new dwarf archetypes, and three dwarf backgrounds.

With this bundle of holiday gaming cheer, you can purchase these publications for $4.50 in toto, which is a bit more than 50% off their normal prices.

Ho, ho, hozzah!

Nota Bene: If the Old School is more your style, the Old School Holiday Adventure bundle is still available for you to stuff into someone’s virtual stocking. For $11, you get 16 OSR-compatible products.

Tags: 5E D&D, Spes Magna Products

About every other Saturday, friends come over and join my son and me to play 5E D&D. Overall, it’s been rather enjoyable despite my initial misgivings. I’ve not learned not to be skeptical about new things, such as new editions of D&D. For example, I continued to play 1E for years after 2E was released. I started 2E because I couldn’t find a 1E group while stationed in Hawaii. The only reason I started playing 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder was because a good friend had purchased the 3.0 Players Handbook and insisted that I give it a try. I never touched 4E, and I played 5E for the first time because I was out of town at a conference and bored one evening while just down the street from the hotel was a game/comic shop hosting D&D night.

Most of us Saturday gamers enjoy 5E well enough, but there is one persistent complaint (mostly from one player), which is that the characters aren’t advancing in level quickly enough. The problem, however, has less to do with the game system itself, and more to do with how often we play, which is, at most, twice a month for about 4-5 hours each time.

The 5E Dungeon Master’s Guide has some XP suggestions and alternatives, all of which have been echoed in other books. For example, is there really a good reason not to give an absent player’s character at least some XP even though the character might not take part in the current session? Not really. As the DMG points out, “Few players will intentionally miss out on the fun of gaming just because they know they’ll receive XP for it even if they don’t show up.” Currently, we don’t do this. We’ve talked about it, but, for whatever reason, it’s not happened so far.

The DMG also suggests giving XP for noncombat challenges (which I’ve done for years and years) and for completing a goal or for reaching an important milestone (which I’ve done for years and years). Since I’m already using these suggestions, and the perception that characters advance too slowly remains, it doesn’t seem as if they’ll solve the perceived problem.

Next we get to “Level Advancement Without XP” (DMG, p. 261). Here’s where things get interesting. The book informs me that “session-based advancement…mirrors the standard rate of advancement, assuming sessions are about four hours long.” This means that a 1st-level character needs one session of play to reach 2nd level, another session of play to reach 3rd level, and two more sessions of play to reach 4th level. That’s a session per level up to 4th level. After that, a character should level again after every two or three sessions.

This is not what our characters have been doing.

I’m pretty sure this is because no one is building encounters using the XP budget system described in the DMG. That’s too much like work for me. Session-based advancement, however, isn’t like work. It’s like counting, and I can do that with a minimum of effort. So, since I’m currently the DM for the Saturday group, that’s what I’m going to do.

Which means after our next session that all the characters will level up, even the characters whose players don’t make it to the game because real life has gotten in the way.

As an aside, the excellent The Black Hack uses session-based advancement for characters. If don’t own The Black Hack, you’re wrong. Life’s too short to be wrong. (Nota Bene: That link The Black Hack is an affiliate link.)

Tags: game play

The Old School Holiday Adventure bundle is still available for you to stuff into someone’s virtual stocking. For $11, you get 16 OSR-compatible products.

It’s been a while since I tackled another 5E D&D conversion of material from the AD&D Deities & Demigods. Today, I offer the Son of Pohjola, Louhi’s savage offspring. I once used the Son of Pohjola as the main villain in an adventure oh-so-many years ago. The heroes had trouble navigating the Son’s illusory maze while fighting off his minions (based on Warhammer 40K genestealers because I had the miniatures for them).

(Nota Bene: The Deities & Demigods link above is an affiliate link.)

This son of Louhi was a leader of the people of Pohjola and a savage enemy to Lemminkainen and the other good heroes of Kalevala. (Deities & Demigods, page 61)

Son of Pohjola
Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil

Armor Class 16 (studded leather)
Hit Points 170 (20d8+80)
Speed 40 ft.

Ability Scores STR 22 (+6), DEX 19 (+4), CON 19 (+4), INT 15 (+2), WIS 15 (+2), CHA 17 (+3)

Saving Throws DEX +9, CON +9, INT +7, WIS +7, CHA +8
Skills Athletics +11, Insight +7, Intimidation +8, Perception +12, Stealth +14, Survival +7
Senses passive Perception 22
Languages Common, Giant, Infernal
Challenge 13 (10,000 XP)

Action Surge (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). On his turn, the Son of Pohjola can take one additional action on top of his regular action and a possible bonus action.

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

Expertise. The Son of Pohjola’s proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check made with Perception and Stealth.

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

Master of Wolves. The Son of Pohjola can speak with animals with wolves and dire wolves. Any wolf or dire wolf that ends its turn within 30 feet of the Son of Pohjola must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed for 24 hours (as animal friendship). Once per day, the Son of Pohjola can call 15 (6d4) wolves or 5 (2d4) dire wolves. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as allies of the Son of Pohjola and obeying his spoken commands. The beasts remain for 1 hour, until the Son of Pohjola dies, or until he dismisses them as a bonus action.

Second Wind (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The Son of Pohjola can use a bonus action on his turn to regain 17 (1d10+12) hit points.

Sneak Attack (1/Turn). The Son of Pohjola deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage when it 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 the Son that isn’t incapacitated and the Son doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.

Spellcasting. The Son of Pohjola is a 10th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Charisma (save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). He prepares spells from the bard (up to 3rd-level spells), druid (up to 3rd-level spells), and wizard (up to 5th-level spells) lists. He has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): acid splash, chill touch, dancing lights, fire bolt, guidance, light, mage hand, minor illusion, produce flame, thorn whip, true strike
1st level (4 slots): cure wounds, disguise self, witch bolt
2nd level (3 slots): heat metal, mirror image, see invisibility
3rd level (3 slots): clairvoyance, haste, protection from energy
4th level (3 slots): dimension door, greater invisibility
5th level (2 slots): dominate person, wall of force

War Magic. When the Son of Pohjola uses his action to cast a cantrip, he can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

Actions

Multiattack. The Son of Pohjola makes two attacks.

+3 Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d6+9) slashing damage.

Legendary Actions

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

Cantrip. The Son of Pohjola casts a cantrip.

Cunning Action. The Son of Pohjola takes the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action.

Detect. The Son of Pohjola makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.

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