blightlandsofficial-blog

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Lesser Inner Focus

Required CL: 2

Duration: 5 Rotations

Magic Cost: 0

Cast time: 2 Full actions

AOE in ft: N/A

Effect:

The caster focuses inward. Using this ends their turn and allows them to regenerate 10% more magic per rotation for 5 Rotations.

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Greater Inner Focus

Greater Inner Focus

Required CL: 8

Duration: 5 Rotations

Magic Cost: 0

Cast time: 2 Full actions

AOE in ft: N/A

Effect:

The caster focuses inward. Using this ends their turn and allows them to regenerate 100% more magic per rotation for 5 Rotations.

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Crossing the Portal – Moving from one campaign to another

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Our Question from a Denizen this week comes from rolewiththeroll, who has quite a predicament. They ask, “One of my campaigns ended abruptly recently, and I love my character for said campaign quite a lot, but I’m having trouble reworking him into another campaign that I may be joining soon. Do you have any tips on adjustment from one campaign to the next?”

I’m sorry to hear about the campaign you were in ending abruptly, rwtr. I know that can be a bummer. I have so many characters I love sitting in Limbo, waiting to see if the GM will ever return to those games. I’m glad you found another campaign to join, but I get that this can be tricky.

Your question doesn’t make clear why this is tricky: maybe your character replied on specific rules that your DM doesn’t allow in their campaign. Maybe the group doesn’t need another fighter, so you’ve been asked to find a way to make your character a healer instead. Maybe your character’s backstory doesn’t really jibe with the new world you’re going to be playing in. It could be anything, but, because I don’t know the specifics, I can really only offer general advice. Hopefully you’ll find it useful.

Ironically here, my first advice may sound faintly familiar. Talk to the Dungeon Master. Communication is always key in making sure both you and the DM have similar expectations. Maybe in the original campaign, your half-orc paladin was a cleric of a nearly unknown orcish god of chivalry who was all-but-destroyed ages ago by Gruumsh. Looking over the DM’s packet of info, you don’t see any such deity. It’s time to sit down with the DM and tell them about your character. Maybe your DM will say, “Well, there wasn’t such a god in my campaign, but I really like the idea, so let’s add them in.” Or maybe they will say, “I just don’t think that fits well into my campaign. What about Hieronymous, patron of paladins, instead? Maybe you were raised by a rebellious group of orcs out in the wilderness who choose to serve Hieronymous instead of Gruumsh?” This might work for you, or you might find some other, similar option that works.

My second piece of advice is to try to get to know the new setting you’re in. If the campaign is set in Oerth, or Athas, or Krynn, or Toril, or another of the many worlds that D&D has developed over the years, then you’re in luck. There’s a lot of material out there to read in order to get roughly familiar with the setting your character will be from. If not, ask your DM if they have a website or a primer or something similar. Once you have a stronger idea of what the setting is like, you can better assess how your character might (or might not) fit into it. For example, if you want to play a character hailing from a vast desert, it’s going to be tricky if your DM says that the world is spanned by nothing but tiny islands. Likewise, if you want to play a cleric, it’s going to be tricky if the campaign is set in Krynn, ten years after the Cataclysm, when the gods stopped granting spells to mortals.

It could also be a good idea to talk to the other players. If you have your heart set on playing a rogue, but the rest of the group really needs a healer and has two rogues already, this might not go over so well. They may also be able to give you some insights into the game and campaign world to help you see if there’s a way for your concept to work with some modification.

If it doesn’t seem like your character is going to fit well, or if you’d have to modify your character past recognition to make it fit, you may want to consider creating a new character. My half-orc paladin, Rukh, for example, I’ve played in two campaigns. Neither one lasted for a huge amount of time, but I don’t know if I’ll try again in another game. I’ve always got more ideas for characters I want to play, so I don’t mind coming up with something new.

I hope that helps, rwtr! If you need more specific advice, let me know.

[blightlandsofficial-blog]

Valkyrie Water Strike

Required CL: CL 1 Duration: Until used Magic Cost: 20 Cast time: Free action AOE in ft: N/A

Effect: The next attack used by the target ignores dodge and deals water damage instead of whatever damage(s) it would deal.

Augmentation 1: More hits Cost: 10 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied the spell lasts an additional attack.

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Valkyrie Air Strike

Required CL: CL 1 Duration: Until used Magic Cost: 20 Cast time: Free action AOE in ft: N/A

Effect: The next attack used by the target deals air damage instead of whatever damage(s) it would deal. Anyone attacked by the target is knocked by 5 feet.

Augmentation 1: More hits Cost: 10 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied the spell lasts an additional attack.

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Valkyrie Ice Strike

Required CL: CL 1 Duration: Until used Magic Cost: 20 Cast time: Free action AOE in ft: N/A

Effect: The next attack used by the target deals Ice damage instead of whatever damage(s) it would deal. Anyone attacked by the target must succeed a SR 8 Vigor roll or be frozen.

Augmentation 1: More hits Cost: 10 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied the spell lasts an additional attack.

Augmentation 1: Colder ice Cost: 30 Effect: This can be applied up to eight times. For each time this is applied the Vigor SR increases by 2.  

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The clear common thread here is “listen to your players”.

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Valkyrie Electric Strike

Required CL: CL 1 Duration: Until used Magic Cost: 20 Cast time: Free action AOE in ft: N/A

Effect: The next attack used by the target deals electric damage instead of whatever damage(s) it would deal. Anyone attacked by the target must succeed a SR 10 Fortitude roll or be stunned for 1 turn.

Augmentation 1: More hits Cost: 10 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied the spell lasts an additional attack.

Augmentation 2: Longer Stun Cost: 15 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied anyone that fails the Fortitude roll is stunned for an additional turn.

Augmentation 3: Greater Charge Cost: 10 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied the Fortitude SR is increased by 3.

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Force of Virtue (8th Level, Abjuration)

Casting Time: 1 minute (ritual)

Range: 60 feet

Components: V, S, M (a feather, dipped in melted silver worth 50 gp)

Duration: 1 hour

Classes: Cleric

As you finish casting this spell, choose up to five creatures that you can see within range. You feel divine inspiration flow through you and into the chosen targets. For the duration, creatures affected by the spell gain a +1 bonus to all attack and damage rolls, and their attacks ignore damage resistances. In addition, affected creatures gain a +1 bonus to AC and resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can also choose to cast this spell as a reaction when you or a creature you can see within range makes an attack. To do so, you must also expend a spell slot of 4th level or higher in addition to the spell’s normal casting costs.

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as request your own card conversions, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon.

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Newts tend to stay near water sources, if they stray far it is in search of food during times of scarcity. Highly territorial and moderately hostile they will attack anything that threatens them but won’t pursue those that flee. They look just like a normal salamander, however they tend to be around 4 feet long.

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Scale Up (2nd Level, Transmutation)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

Components: V, S, M (a bit of shed snakeskin)

Duration: 1 round

Classes: Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

This spell transforms a willing creature that you can see within range into a new form. The spell has no effect on a shapechanger or a creature with 0 hit points. The transformation lasts until the start of your next turn, or until the target drops to 0 hit points or dies. The new form can be any beast or monstrosity whose challenge rating is equal to or less than ½ the target’s CR (or the target’s level if it doesn’t have a challenge rating). The target’s game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the chosen beast or monstrosity, except that it retains its mental ability scores, alignment, and personality. The target assumes the hit points of its new form. When it reverts to its normal form, the creature returns to the number of hit points it had before it transformed. If it reverts as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to its normal form. As long as the excess damage doesn’t reduce the creature’s normal form to 0 hit points, it isn’t knocked unconscious. The creature is limited in the actions it can perform by the nature of its new form, and it may not be able to speak, cast spells, or take any other action that requires hands or speech. The target’s gear melds into the new form. The creature can’t activate, use, wield, or otherwise benefit from any of its equipment.

Overload. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, you can instead target any number of willing creatures that you can see within range.

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as request your own card conversions, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon.

Keep reading

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A great monster in the shape of a titanic sized octopus with the limbs of an octopus these terrors of the deep have plagued ships for centuries. While in truth they are rare they are common enough for sailors to be on guard and for a few groups to specialize in Kraken hunting. Krakens do reproduce like normal octopuses, but on a colossal scale, meaning they should be much more common than they are. Every sailor has a different answer for why this is, but none are reassuring.

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Contagion

Required CL: 6 Duration: Instant Magic Cost: 300 Cast time: Full action AOE in ft: N/A

Effect: All enemies within 5 ft() of someone taking disease damage begin taking disease damage equal to them. This stacks if they are near multiple people taking disease damage.

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It is said that the souls of women that freeze to death can come back as a Yuki-onna. All Yuki-onna appear as beautiful women with pale skin or white fur that help them hide in the snowy places of their death that have now become their hunting grounds. When they come across their prey, their favorite being young men, they will appear before them and try to seduce them or if it is a group invite them to her home where she will pick them off one by one. She prefers to freeze her prey solid where she will then begin to devour the flesh and souls of the men and tear apart the females with great fury.

In combat, they use their command over ice and snow to cast spells to freeze and weaken their opponents while dodging enemy attacks and flying out of range.

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We have a Discord! Anyone is welcome, and the more the merrier. 

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Valkyrie Disease Strike

Required CL: CL 1 Duration: Until used Magic Cost: 20 Cast time: Free action AOE in ft: N/A

Effect: The next attack used by the target deals disease damage instead of whatever damage(s) it would deal. Anyone attacked by the target takes damage each turn equal to 10% of the damage dealt to them until it is cured.

Augmentation 1: More hits Cost: 10 Effect: This can be applied multiple times. For each time this is applied the spell lasts an additional attack.

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The Time Between – Dealing with a long divide between games

Hullo, Gentle Readers. A very intriguing quandary has been posed to me by a-gayish-geek. They ask, “I’m a very new DM (only about a year’s experience) and my group is having its final session of the school year this Sunday. We all have to move back home after so we will not be able to play till next school year. I have plans to make the world they are in still have time pass and all of their characters can do personal objectives during this time. I also want to level them up over summer but I don’t know how many levels to “give” without it seeming like it’s too much to the players. They are currently level 4 and I’m looking to maybe get them up to level 8-10.”

First things first, gayish…love the name. :)

Second thing…however you want to do this, it’s not the wrong way. There are no formal rules for what you want to do, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t do it. And this is the lesson I want all my readers to catch – there’s nothing wrong with letting time pass and hand-waving some of the in-between story, narrating it, perhaps, or asking the players what they would do with 3 months of downtime.

If it’s possible for everyone to meet online, maybe you could even keep gaming. When I was a kid, the only way to do that would’ve been by sending letters back and forth to each other, describing what was happening, or by having long phone calls (and with long-distance, that would’ve been an expensive game!) Nowadays, however, there’s a whole industry around connecting gamers over the internet. You could try Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, or even just playing via Discord, Google Hangouts, a Telegram chat, or any other medium you like.

Maybe this isn’t your cup of tea, however, so you just want to hand-wave things and let them level up as they adventure on their personal goals. While I personally find the level jump from 4 to 8 to be a REALLY big one, it’s ultimately up to the comfort level of you and your gaming group. So guess what advice I’m going to give you!

Talk to your players! You knew I was gonna say it, didn’t you? Before the school year is over, if possible, sit down with your players and talk to them about what you have in mind. It could be that they’ll be perfectly happy to level-jump and enjoy the sudden bump in power. But I think your players might surprise you and tell you they’d really prefer to only jump a level or two. One of the most fun things about playing the game, for my money, is that feeling of having earned every level that you gained. If things are just handed to you, it can be a little unsatisfying.

Ultimately, if you and your players are cool with the time passing and leveling up, then you should go for it. It might be something like the conceit of the original Dragonlance novels. In Dragons of Autumn Flame, the main characters had gone their own ways for five years and were returning together, some of them very changed by their experiences.

So yes, talk to your players and see what they think of your plan. Their opinions, and your own opinion, of course, are the only ones that matter, because this is your game. As Jeremy Crawford likes to say, there are no D&D police who will come to your house and tell you you’re doing it wrong. So put your heads together and find what will work best for you all.