dingusanddargons

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Hopefully just looking at this map will bring you inner peace. …Now cover it in monsters. See the variations here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/zen-garden-21x49-26624599

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Cities are supposed to be a place where people feel safe. Walls keep the monsters out and guards protect the streets. But even the guards and walls cannot keep the people safe from the monster that lurks in the shadows. People call him the Butcher, a demon that hunts those foolish enough to wander at night alone.

The demon that haunts the streets is no demon but a man. Duncan Caldwell was driven to insanity when he came face to face with a demon. The demon instilled in the man an overwhelming desire to create perfect creatures. To aid him in this quest the demon gave him a magical cleaver lovingly referred to as the Cleaver of the Damned and access to a small pocket dimension called the Plane of Sorrow.

Duncan took to his new calling like a moth to the flame. Every night he stalks the street using his Hounds to help in his hunt. Then like the darkness itself, come morning the Butcher is nowhere to be found.

The guards have done everything they can to stop him, but they have not been able to find where he hides. They are at their wit’s end and willing to part with just about anything to get rid of the monster.

Why did the demon twist Duncan’s mind instead of killing him? What purpose could this killer serve for the demon? Where might Duncan make his lair?

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Some ridiculous firearms for your D&D game. More to come. 

|Twitter | Ko-FI |

[dingusanddargons]

Alrighty, fellas. Today I’m gonna teach you how to play chaos dice.

This isn’t strictly a rpg thing, but it involves D&D dice and could easily be worked into any campaign that uses gambling, lots of chance, or players getting very mad at each other and the universe.

So each player lines up all their dice in this order: d4, d6, d8, d10 (ones place), d12, d20, d10 (tens place).

On “3, 2, 1, Go,” each player starts rolling their d4. As soon as you roll a 1, move on to the d6.

You keep rolling each die till you get a 1 (on the first d10 you’re still aiming for a 1, not a 0) until you hit the final die. First one to roll double 0s wins. If you drop a die, all other players are allowed to keep going.

That’s the basic way.

If you wanna make it more fun, any time you roll the highest number on a die (first d10, the 9 is the highest number), go back one die and continue as normal. The exceptions are the first die (cause there’s no lower die to go to) and the last die (because I’m not that mean).

I’m convinced this is the worst best way to play. I’ve seen games where one person zooms their way to the d20 while the other has rolled a 6 on their first d6 roll 4 times in a row. It’s fantastic.

You can also add a Queen’s Luck or Bitch Luck rule. Queen’s Luck—anyone who rolls three 1s in a row on their first try skips to the end. Bitch Luck—they have to start over.

Wanna be extra cruel and slightly impossible? Go straight from d8 to d12, and make it so the first person to roll all zeroes with both d10s (as in, tossing both at once) wins.

So if you’re a GM who wants to make their players hate each other and develop weird superstitions about their dice—just have ‘em play some chaos dice and watch everything unravel.

And if you’re a player with a bad unlucky streak—you might just be a chaos dice champion.

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Prophet of Kruphix

If you’d like to support what I do, find free pdf’s for my content, get insight into my design process, and get access to other exclusive homebrew content, feel free to check out my Patreon, whose link can be found on my page.

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Holy Mace

A cleric cantrip for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition by @lair-master​.

image by Todd Ulrich

Keep reading

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Lash of the Whip (5th Level, Necromancy)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Components: S, M (the thigh bone of a beast, monstrosity, or humanoid)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min.

Classes: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

A whip of malevolent, purple energy springs forth from your hand, twisting and writhing as if it were a living creature, seeking blood. As part of casting the spell, and as an action on each of your turns for the spell’s duration, you can make a melee spell attack using the whip against a creature you can see within 20 feet. When you hit a target with the whip, it takes 4d8 necrotic damage, and if the target is a creature, it must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks until the start of your next turn.

If you’d like to support what I do, find free pdf’s for my content, get insight into my design process, and get access to other exclusive homebrew content, feel free to check out my Patreon, whose link can be found on my page.

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Player’s Guide: Sorrow [Version 2.0!]

Sorrow

4th Level Enchantment

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 60 Feet

Components: V, S, M*

Material Components: A Shaving of Weeping Willow Root

Duration: Concentration, Up to 1 Minute

Classes: Bard, Cleric, Paladin

Version: 2

You invoke a sense of crushing despair in a Creature that you can see within Range.

The Creature takes 2d10 Psychic Damage and must make a Wisdom Saving Throw or become Incapacitated for the Duration of the Spell, as they become consumed by grief, sorrow and trauma. On a successful save, the Spell ends.

For the Duration of the Spell, or until the Creature takes Damage from a Source other than the Spell, at the start of each of the Creature’s Turns, the Creature takes 2d10 Psychic Damage.

This Spell has no effect on Undead or Constructs.

Designer’s Notes

I feel like this Version of the Spell really does create an image of a Spellcaster bombarding the mind of their Target with negative emotions. Plus making an Orc cry is kinda hilarious…

Big thanks to @get-cuboned on Tumblr for their amazing critique of Version 1 and their help in writing Version 2!

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Fear the Rise of the Hollower V2 When I first created the Hollower Class, it was on commission, and inspired by discussions with two separate clients. Both wanted something focussed around the idea of darkness and shadows, and I myself had an interesting idea for a class that used status effects as an ability cost rather than a set number of points or spells lots. It was my second major homebrew, and while I was very happy with it at the time, even then I recognized that it was an experiment, and definitely had it’s flaws. I took it as a learning experience, and never planned to revisit the class. But some discussions with players and play testers struck me with a line of thinking that finally brought me back around.

There were always a few major issues with the hollower, mostly brought forth out of my own inexperience: Firstly, The split madness table seemed to give a lot of people trouble, and no one seemed to agree how it was meant to be used. Secondly, The First Subclass, which focussed around a black-whole like passive effect, had a fundamental flaw which made effectively unplayable. Thirdly, the Seed of Corruption Subclass was a nightmare to keep track of. What worked in theory made an absurd amount of work for the DM in practice. Finally, the originally class was tied inherently to a setting specific idea of “the void” which heavily limited its inclusion in other settings.

In taking on this rework, I basically overhauled the class from the start, using everything I have learned since I started homebrewing to clean it up, and make it both more sun, and more simple to play. I kept the general idea of descending into madness in exchange for power, and built on that, mostly dropping the darkness and “void” aspects, and leaving the flavor open to whatever interpretation best suited the setting.I completely replaced the first subclass, this time instead building an “insane juggernaut” subclass, modeled around slasher villains like Jason and Michael Meyers. And for the other subclasses, I redefined their mechanics to fit the same theme, but to operate a lot more smoothly and without so much to keep track of. This time Around, I’m a lot more confident in the playability of the class, and while it still wont be for everyone, it’s no longer as experimental. The balance is tighter, and the mechanics are smoother. I’m sure it still needs some work here and there, but in defence of my own sanity I think this is a good place to stop for now. Hope you all enjoy! As usual, the preview here is low resolution, and  is missing both the madness table and the spell list. For the FULL high-resolution PDF, as well as a whole host of other work I have done, check out this handy dropbox link. And be sure to tell me what you think!  If you like what I do and want to support me or just generally help out, Check out my Patreon, or throw some coin at me through Paypal.me. If you wanna just come say hi on my Discord, that’s great too!   P.S. to Anyone wondering, the original hollower will still be available, you can find it in the “Archived” folder of the linked Dropbox

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Insight Checks

A lot of times when players make a Wisdom (Insight) check to try and determine a creature’s motives, DMs may tend to immediately divulge the creature’s intent, emotions, or whether they were lying.

Instead, try to be more subtle with what you tell your players. You can especially be vague with a partial success, which might come from being “very close” to the target DC.

The most common things players use Insight for is to tell whether or not a character is lying, hiding something, or guilty of something. Use these random tables to clue players in on the character’s intent.

The Character Seems Guilty

Roll 1d10 and consult the list below when a Wisdom (Insight) check is made with a partial success and the creature is hiding something.

Their cheeks are either flushed red or drained and pale.

They seem to keep blaming other things.

They are shuffling their feet a lot.

Their pose is very closed, as if reluctant to give away information.

They keep biting the edge of their lip as they talk.

There are a lot of pauses while they are talking to you.

Their story seems highly elaborate.

They looked away for a second before answering you.

They are fidgeting a lot while they talk.

You note a drip of sweat on their brow.

The Character Seems Innocent

Roll 1d10 and consult the list below when a Wisdom (Insight) check is made with a partial success and the creature is innocent.

They are confident in their response.

Their emotions seem genuine.

They are caught off-guard when accused.

They look you in the eye without wavering.

They didn’t have to think too hard to answer you.

They take responsibility for their part, if any.

They seem more worried for safety of others than themselves.

They seem offended that they would ever be accused.

They seem preoccupied with other matters right now.

Their shoulders and chest seem relaxed.

Failed Insight Check

When a player fails their Wisdom (Insight) check, you can usually just tell them that the creature’s motives or body language is hard to read. If the player fails spectacularly (especially if the roll was made in secret) you can give them an incorrect or misleading result.

If you have a more complex Insight check you need to describe, or one you plan to describe, check out this list of emotions and their related body language at this link!

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Ah yeah, sweet life distractions~

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What’s It Like To Create Your Own Spell?

An Example

While shopping for high quality Parchment and Ink in the Capitol (while the rest of the Party goes shopping for magic Items and Healing Potions), the Wizard takes interest in a burnt and extremely weathered spellbook that still seems to still have some esoteric arcane runes within.

After speaking with the Shopkeeper, the Wizard buys the ruined spellbook at a great discount, as well as some fine Parchment and Ink.

The Wizard takes the Book back to the tavern, only to discover that most of the pages are burnt beyond recognition. A flash of inspiration and a Mending Cantrip later soon restores the book to its former glory, though does not restore the page’s missing texts.

An Investigation Check into the Book’s Contents soon reveal the Book’s age, the Book easily dating back to before the Time of King Hirdall and perhaps even to the Time of the Floating Sky Cities of the Dragonborn…

Fascinated by their discovery, the Wizard looks into the Book even more, and with their previous Investigation Check finds the book appears to be in a different script, with elements of it appearing in Draconic, confirming to the Wizard the age of the Book.

The Wizard then goes out during their Downtime to the local Library to expand their knowledge of the Dragonborn Cities of Old that once ruled the sky. After speaking with one of the scribes working at the Halls, they are guided to a section on Ancient History, and another successful Investigation Check allows the Wizard to find the History Books they were looking for, gaining far more knowledge about the Dragonborn of old.

Returning to the Tavern later that night, the Wizard then decides to use Comprehend Languages in an attempt to translate the Ruined Book’s Pages.

However, it seems as though only parts of the Book seem translatable, and another Investigation Check reveals that the Book, while written in Draconic, has been written in an old and strong cipher.

A quick Intelligence Check says that this could take the Wizard hours to decrypt and translate, as well as multiple castings of Comprehend Languages.

Left a little demoralized, the Wizard goes to bed and wakes up with only one mission, to translate this entire book.

As the Wizard explains to the rest of the table, by studying the occurrence of vowels, consonants and key words, and some aid from Comprehend Languages and the Rogue’s knowledge of ciphers and Thieve’s Cant, they hope to make a “Key” of sorts to this Ruined Book.

The Rogue helps out where they can, but this is clearly above their knowledge…

So as the Rogue and the rest of the Party go out to do some Downtime Activities, the Wizard shuts himself in his Room at the Tavern and begins to create a pile of papers, spending the whole day translating and then deciphering the texts and symbols of the Book.

Another Intelligence Check (aided by a little luck) let’s the Wizard go well into the night without any sleep while they decode these arcane glyphs, and by the morning of the next day, even though they now have 1 Level of Exhaustion, they have now translated the Book, and it seems to be a part-Journal part-Spellbook, noting the works of a Dragonborn Wizard from ages past. 

The Dragonborn was working on a Spell of their own, and seems to of completed it according to these Journal entries, but whatever flames the book was subjected to have seem to of partially ruined the spell the Dragonborn had completed, but it still excites the Wizard that there’s a Spell out there that no one else knows, and in theory, the Wizard could replicate…

The Wizard then collapses from exhaustion and spends the next day sleeping.

Finally, as this part of Downtime comes to a close, the Wizard shares their discovery with the Party…

This is just one example of how I would allow a Wizard Player to craft their own Spell in D&D, while still hanging onto the Story and making the process of discovering & creating a new Spell exciting.

And there are many ways to go about making a Spell, maybe if there’s two or more Wizards in the Party, or a Wizard and another Arcane Spellcaster such as an Artificer, Warlock, Sorcerer, Arcane Trickster or Eldritch Knight, then they could work together to create a Spell.

They could also talk to NPCs, from Archmages to Historians, Librarians, Magic Item Sellers and more to “unlock” this new Spell.

But if you want to make your own Spell, always communicate it first, and talk to your DM about the possibly of weaving that into the overall story.

In my Homebrew Campaign Setting, this is why I created places like the Library of Saturnity in the City of Fostin, a place where Wizards and people of the Arcane can come and research, as well as the whole host of places to visit in Capitol; From the Edhel Halls Library to the War College to the Tower of War, the Tower of Evocation and all the other Archmage’s Towers, Magic Item Shops and more that a Wizard could visit to learn more.

And that’s why magic is beginning to boom in my Setting, with so many resources available to those that need them, it means its easier than ever to create your own Spells!

I also like to connect the Spell to a Place, Person or Object. In the example above, I’ve used a ruined Spellbook, but I’ve used things like a solid sphere made of silver with elven texts etched into its surface…

The whole point of crafting a new spell is that it’s a challenge: You don’t just wake up with something new in your spellbook.

A Wizard has to do research, perfect their idea, find the perfect Verbal, Somatic and Material Components they need for the spell before they can even think of writing it down in their Spellbook.

It’s a story in itself!

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I am a DM for a wonderful group of players. One of my players, T. Dizzle, plays a character that is devoted to Pelor, the Dawnfather. He bought this journal to act as a record of his backstory, and is writing entries for it almost every session to catalogue what his character sees. After a while, another player (@ollie-mcskitches) got T. Dizzle this amulet. A symbol of the sun, a shining golden symbol of Pelor.

Today, T. Dizzle got a tatoo of that very symbol. It is amazing to see someone be so devoted to a character and a game that they would get a permanent reminder of it. I cant wait to follow suit!

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wtf is a changeling

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Blood Borne Monster Handbook: Central Yharnam Part 2 

Cover Artwork by Victoe Garcia All monster Artwork by From Software

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The Gatecaller

Homebrew Wizard Subclass: The Gatecaller

A new subclass that is all about teleportation and portals! They have some features of the Conjuration school (scroll transcription and Benign Transposition) plus features that make teleportation circle less expensive and more useful, even in a world without a ton of existing teleportation circles. They also have the unique ability to add range to their spells by spitting them out of portals to surprise and confound their enemies. Eventually, they can even teleport unwilling targets for their spells.

You can find the PDF over at my Patreon!

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College of Mirrors Bard is a subclass for tricky stealth-based bards, with redirection as the main focus. It uses magical “smoke and mirrors” to beguile and surprise your foes!  Please leave me any comments, suggestions, or critique if you have any. Thanks!