astraeas-dnd-library

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inspired by the scariest words my dm has ever said to me and the subsequent coolest (AND SCARIEST) scene of my life

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Another worldbuilding application of the "two layer rule": To create a culture while avoiding The Planet Of Hats (the thing where a people only have one thing going for them, like "everyone wears a silly hat"): You only need two hats.

Try picking two random flat culture ideas and combine them, see how they interact. Let's say taking the Proud Warrior Race - people who are all about glory in battle and feats of strength, whose songs and ballads are about heroes in battle and whose education consists of combat and military tactics. Throw in another element: Living in diaspora. Suddenly you've got a whole more interesting dynamic going on - how did a people like this end up cast out of their old native land? How do they feel about it? How do they make a living now - as guards, mercenaries? How do their non-combatants live? Were they always warrior people, or did they become fighters out of necessity to fend for themselves in the lands of strangers? How do the peoples of these lands regard them?

Like I'm not shitting, it's literally that easy. You can avoid writing an one-dimensional culture just by adding another equally flat element, and the third dimension appears on its own just like that. And while one of the features can be location/climate, you can also combine two of those with each other.

Let's take a pretty standard Fantasy Race Biome: The forest people. Their job is the forest. They live there, hunt there, forage there, they have an obnoxious amount of sayings that somehow refer to trees, woods, or forests. Very high chance of being elves. And then a second common stock Fantasy Biome People: The Grim Cold North. Everything is bleak and grim up there. People are hardy and harsh, "frostbite because the climate hates you" and "being stabbed because your neighbour hates you" are the most common causes of death. People are either completely humourless or have a horrifyingly dark, morbid sense of humour. They might find it funny that you genuinely can't tell which one.

Now combine them: Grim Cold Bleak Forest People. The summer lasts about 15 minutes and these people know every single type of berry, mushroom and herb that's edible in any fathomable way. You're not sure if they're joking about occasionally resorting to eating tree bark to survive the long dark winter. Not a warrior people, but very skilled in disappearing into the forest and picking off would-be invaders one by one. Once they fuck off into the woods you won't find them unless they want to be found.

You know, Finland.

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isekai about a nyc apartment block getting teleported into a fantasy realm, and how this group of people who previously have only had incidental contact with one another come together to build a vibrant community in their new circumstances. there's a season-long arc about introducing bagels and pizza to the fantasy world that gets into the details of sourcing ingredients, developing new technologies, and learning how to work with supernatural substitutions.

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Relatives tend to share mannerisms and if you want a nice little detail for your stories, I recommend including that.

A father and son share the same restless or anxious movement like chewing on the inside of their lip or tapping their fingers. A mother and daughter both raise their eyebrows when they’re in deep thought. Two siblings both tilt their heads when something is intriguing. A younger brother copies his older brother’s posture. A grandchild copies the way their grandfather crosses his arms behind his back when he walks. A father throws his hat down when his sports team loses and his child grows up to do the same.

Adding niche similarities between my characters and their families is one of my favourite things to develop and one of my favourite ways to connect them despite whatever relationship and differences they may have.

They could hate their family and yet they tap their foot side to side when they’re standing in one spot like their father does, and they scrunch their nose when they close their eyes like their mother did. This can be used to portray your character’s struggle with their family, and amplify their fear over ending up like their family. It’s a subtle addition and yet it adds more depth to their turmoil.

Or on the flip side, it can help show how much your character admires their family by emulating them. It can help show how important their bond with their family is to them by showing those shared, unconscious similarities.

Shared mannerisms are a small detail but they will be noticed by somebody and appreciated.

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Uncommon Questions for OCs and their creators:

Send me a # (questions for OCs) or a letter (questions for creators) and I’ll answer

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR OCs

What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

How easy is it for your character to laugh?

How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?)

How easy is it to earn their trust?

How easy is it to earn their mistrust?

Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child

Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word?

What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach?

What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color?

What animal do they fear most?

How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

What makes their stomach turn?

Are they easily embarrassed?

What embarrasses them?

What is their favorite number?

If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

Why do they get up in the morning? 

How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)? 

How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)? 

 Is sex something that they’re comfortable speaking about? To whom? 

 What are their thoughts on marriage? 

 What is their preferred mode of transportation? 

 What causes them to feel dread? 

 Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 

 Do they usually live up to their own ideals? 

 Who do they most regret meeting? 

 Who are they the most glad to have met? 

 Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke? 

 Could they be considered lazy? 

 How hard is it for them to shake a sense of guilt? 

 How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive? 

Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap? 

Do they have a system for remembering names, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (like anagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)? 

What memory do they revisit the most often? 

How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people? 

How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

How do they feel about children? 

How badly do they want to reach their end goal? 

If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so? 

QUESTIONS FOR CREATORS

A) Why are you excited about this character? B) What inspired you to create them? C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story? D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look? E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you? F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)? G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most? H) What trait do you admire most? I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe? J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

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i think one of the reasons i get mildly annoyed about worldbuilding threads that are 200 tweets of why you should care about where blue dye comes from in your world before saying someone is wearing blue is that so few of them go up to the second level of "and that should impact your characters somehow" - i don't care that blue dye comes from pressing berries that only grow in one kingdom a thousand miles away if people are casually wearing blue

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Random mansion generator

The Procgen Mansion Generator produces large three-dee dwellings to toy with your imagination, offering various architectural styles and other options. Each mansion even comes with floorplans:

https://boingboing.net/2019/07/12/random-mansion-generator.html

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A wizard whose familiar is a hamster, and its cheeks are a bag of holding-- but only for tiny objects.

Magic ring no one in the party can use? Goes in the hamster. Precious jewel spell components you don't want to get stolen? Feed the hamster. All your platinum? Hamster can put 'em away one piece at a time.

Only downside? The merchants look at the wizard really weird when it comes time to pay and he pulls out a small fluffy rodent and starts shaking it until gold falls out...

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The Flayed Court

Though adored and loved by his people, King Bhelrath was feared as a monster by outsiders. The very monstrous image he sought to impress upon his enemies became his undoing, as he started to become the thing he portrayed.

This is part of the long-running Forgotten Foes series which features creatures considered to be mere myth, if they’re remembered at all. If you like this monster, consider paying my Patreon a visit for many more interesting creatures like it!

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Disabled characters in ttrpg/fantasy ARE cool, narratively interesting, and should be a part of the lore/worldbuilding process. It’s good writing, plain and simple. If you choose “disabled people don’t exist bc ✨magic✨” you’re boring.

Here are some examples: dryads with connective tissue disorders. Lignin and cellulose are great but can form an excess of rigid scar tissue after injury, or interrupting cellular structure and creating a spot that can be re-injured. Using braces or tying joints might help.

Spell casting with a stutter: I will probably play this character eventually. I have aphasia and a stutter, so my characters have stutters by default, and I always wondered how that would affect spells with verbal components. Aphasia has made my brain replace a word in a sentence with a random one. Ex “I put Rosemary in ice cubes to make it last longer” became “I put watermelon in ice cubes to make it last longer” and every time I retried the sentence I kept saying watermelon. Or “my road is just up the school”. I think rolling wild magic for verbal spells could be cool, and doesn’t just ‘punish or nerf’ characters for being disabled, cool and good stuff could happen.

I also did a visually impaired character. It’s a bit more intense than what I have, my eyes always have really big pupils so I never had to get them dilated at the optometrist. When you have photosensitivity it sucks and is very painful. Divination as an accommodation is really interesting to me, and using tinted glasses (just polarized sunglasses or pink fl41 for me) helps.

Any other disabled folks feel free to add on!

[astraeas-dnd-library]

Feline - 5e Monster Girl Player Race

Artwork by Dansome and QueenChikkibug!

Get the full PDF for free on my patreon!

Consider supporting me on patreon or ko-fi to gain access to additional options for your Feline character, such as an exclusive subrace and several unique feats!

Want more updates on future content and other regular updates, consider following me on twitter!

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......... different fantasy races should be impacted differently by each other's alcohol

no more if this "fine elvin wine" shit, I am going to personally write a fantasy setting in which every human knows that elf booze tastes and feels like fantasy la croix. there's barely even a flavor, and you'd need to drink a few to even get tipsy.

meanwhile, every human with a lick of common sense knows that you need to plan accordingly if you're going to be drinking dwarven liquor, because it hits you hard and fast and you'll lose feeling in your legs faster than you thought was physically possible. the hangovers are the stuff of legend.

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⚔️ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Air Render Weapon (shortbow), rare (requires attunement) ___

When you make a ranged attack with this magic bow, you can choose to fire a mote of wind instead of using an arrow. When you do, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack and damage rolls, and you can choose the form the wind takes, causing it to deal either bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage (your choice). When you roll a 20 on an attack roll made in this way, the target also suffers from one of the following effects:

𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙂𝙪𝙨𝙩. If the mote of wind dealt bludgeoning damage, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone or pushed 15 feet away from you (your choice). If the target is Huge or larger, it automatically succeeds on the saving throw.

𝙋𝙞𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙙. If the mote of wind dealt piercing damage, you can immediately make another attack with the same mote of wind against a different creature that is within 15 feet of the original target. This attack deals piercing damage.

𝙎𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙙𝙤. If the mote of wind dealt slashing damage, each other creature within 5 feet of the original target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 slashing damage. ___

✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for only $1 to $7 a month!

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🛡 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Impact Plate Armor (plate), very rare (requires attunement) ___

This resilient plate mail was made by dwarves but magically resizes to fit the wearer’s stature. While wearing it, you have resistance to bludgeoning damage, and you don’t take any falling damage when you fall no farther than 100 feet. ___

✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for only $1 to $7 a month!

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This is pretty late in the night to be posting this, but here it is. I think Succubi and Incubi are really interesting monsters to bring into a campaign, but once you get to a certain level they don't pack much of a punch. So, what if there are more powerfuls one known as an Arch Succubus or Arch Incubus?

If you enjoy my work and would like immediate access fo exclusive content, you can find that here on My Patreon!

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More reverse Dungeons & Dragons adventures:

A wizard has become trapped at the bottom of their own dungeon, and magically summons the party to free them  

The party must resurrect a dragon, who had served as guardian of a nearby town before dying in a bizarre accident  

A clan of famed goblin artisans are relocating their village; the Queen has hired the party to ensure that the site the goblins choose is within her territory  

The party must create a magical artifact in order to prevent the death of a benevolent deity  

A local population of endangered Golden Owlbears is suffering from the depredations of an unknown trophy hunter; the party has been asked to put a stop to it  

The party must find a non-violent way to get rid of an unwelcome princess who refuses to leave

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Just a lil recap of my favorite creations during the inktober challenge… WHICH I FINISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME. I’ll go back to drawing monsters and characters too, but I am having a lot of fun making this magic items for DnD 5e. If you like them, it would help me greatly making it a viable project if I gain more followers on the dedicated instagram. Anyway, tumblr is still my fav hell circle of the internet, I wanted to thank all of you, I love you all, my little cursed followers, and thank you all for the love, likes and reblogs <3 https://www.instagram.com/luca_emporium