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What I Want From DnD 6e

Wizards of the Cost has now put out two surveys for both the Races and Classes/Subclasses in the Players Handbook, which suggests they’re either gearing up for a Remastered Edition with updated rules and features, or they’re preparing for 6th Edition. Or perhaps like with 3rd Edition we’re about to get a 5.5 Edition. So, whether we get a 6th Edition, a 5.5 Edition, or just a remastered edition of the PHB, I wanted to air my larger scope desires moving forward. These are in no particular order, just my personal opinions, and I don’t need all of these fulfilled to be happy. These are just ideas I’m spit-balling.

A larger Spells Known List for Sorcerers: Sorcerers only get 15 spells total, while Wizards get 44. If Sorcerer and Wizard are supposed to be the quintesential pair of arcane mastery, it doesn’t look good when the Sorcerer has literally ¼ the spells of the Wizard. Clerics, Druids, and even Paladins get more spells than the Sorcerer, and if you count Mystic Arcanums, then even the Warlock gets more spells than the Sorcerer. Whether they get Origin Spells or just larger spells known in general, these masters of the arcane need more spells. 

More Spell Slots for Warlocks: This is more of a personal grievance. The warlock is so limited that you are pretty much backed into a corner to rely on Eldritch Blast and discouraged from taking any spells that don’t deal damage. The only out is to play a blade pact warlock where your weapon attacks are a valid second option to casting spells or relying on Eldritch Blast. I think giving the Warlock spell slots equal to half their level rounded down or otherwise limiting the maximum amount to about 8-10 would at least relax the crushing grip that restrains the class as casters.

More Domains for Clerics: Clerics have one of the biggest subclass lists in the game, but look at the domains of 3.5e, and you’ll actually start to feel jealous over how few options we have in 5e. So many great options aren’t available, or are “covered” by an inadequate substitute. There’s no Ocean domain, but those gods are lumped into Tempest. A domain that has nothing to do with controlling water. Because flying and farting lightning bolts sounds like a power I would get from worshipping Umberlee. Likewise, every Love deity is crammed into either Life or Light, instead of just giving us a Charm Domain for them to rule over.

Additions to Cleric Domains: So, one thing that 3.5e has that 5e doesn’t is Evil, Good, Lawful, and Chaotic Domains, as well as Racial Domains. I don’t know how this could be implemented exactly, but finding a way to implement alignment or race into a cleric build when building your character would help each god feel different, even if it was in small ways. It should be different worshipping a Chaotic Evil god of the Sea vs a Neutral Good God of the Sea, or perhaps to see the difference between worshipping the Dwarvish god of Crafting vs the Elvish god of crafting. Doing this can make worshipping Sune different from worshipping Aphrodite, Veranestra, Luthic, or Iallanis, while also making the process of choosing your deity a more laborious choice, rather than slapping any random god into the slot. It’s a way to make who you choose as important as the character you’re building itself.

A Comprehensive Guide of Deities and Patrons: Similar to the Paladin,  I think Clerics and Warlocks would benefit from having a guide to different deities or patron options on an individual level with things like Tenants, unique features for following them, other kinds of boons or bonuses, what they ask of you or how to worship them, and what kinds of things they might want their Cleric or Warlock to do. By having this sort of thing, each individual patron or deity becomes more unique, and there’s a difference between worshipping Asmodeus, being his Warlock, both, or whatever. Even if you like playing as a Life Domain Cleric, serving Demeter would be different than worshipping Apollo. Same Domain, but different figure. Likewise, you could play three different Archfey Warlocks and each time serve a different master with an entirely different objective, boon, or pre-written story hook. Thus, adding more variety while also improving the roleplaying aspect that comes with playing a Cleric, Paladin, or Warlock. Sune might ask her followers to pay craftsmen to create instruments or artwork, while Freya might ask her followers to protect mankind from evil creatures, and Veranestra might delight in her clerics toying with the emotions of mortals. By making each patron or deity unique, it adds a layer to the roleplaying, and even gives non-clerics or warlocks an excuse to actually care about their setting’s pantheon.

Eliminating a Set Casting Stat: So this is likely to be an unpopular opinion, but set casting stats are a crutch when it comes to multiclassing. It’s very limiting, and you’re unlikely to see a Sorcerer/Monk because it requires too many stats and doesn’t leave enough room for other stats to matter. By eliminating a set casting stat, you open the door for a Bard/Cleric who worships the god of music, or a Druid/Paladin who swears an oath to the ancient guardians of the forest. It opens the door for more variety and customization.

Adding a Science Skill: There really should be a skill for knowing things like chemistry, physics, aliens, etc. and a broad-specs Science skill like Arcana for magical things seems about right. Obviously, it would be an Intelligence check.

Giving Player Characters a Trade: Another thing I found in 3.5e that we don’t have in 5e is an ability to invest time into improving on a skill or trade that can be monetized. Sewing, crafting, building, inventing, there’s a lot of room for player characters to have a trade from their backstory, but this seems to have been completely discarded for 5e, as there’s no real mechanics in place for owning your own business or crafting your own goods to sell, which leaves a lot of it to DMs having to make up rules if their players want to do this sort of stuff. Letting characters pick up a trade similar to a feat or gaining a trade from their background would benefit player customization, even on a smaller scale.

Making Players less reliant on the CON stat: This is a personal grievance. I hate that I can’t build a character without needing to invest in this stat. Any other stat can be a dump stat, but CON pretty much is not allowed to be. It wouldn’t matter if it mattered for skills, but it doesn’t. You just have to invest in it, or you’ll get very familiar with your settings’ version of the grim reaper very quickly. A high CON should just make you MORE tanky, but shouldn’t be mandatory to avoid dying. I’ve had many builds undermined by a need to focus on the HP stat that they couldn’t really do anything else.

More Elemental Spells: If you want to build a Fire or Cold damage character, you’ll be fine. Radiant and Necrotic have some variety. And Psychic has gotten more spells lately. But try to build a character with just Lightning spells or just Thunder or Force, and you’ll quickly realize that some elements get way more love than others. The WoTC team needs to really expand on elemental damaging spells to give players more variety with their options. Particularly with Lightning, Thunder, Force, Acid, and Poison damage spells, but even Psychic, Radiant, and Necrotic could still use more variety.

More Thematic Spells: Have you ever wanted to play as Poison Ivy only to realize there’s like 3 spells that actually attack people with plants? Or maybe you wanted to build a character that uses shadow powers, but the number of spells that use darkness or shadows are few and far between? I think DnD would benefit from adding more spells that fit into thematic groups, such as plant-based spells, shadow spells, telekinetic abilities, using fey, celestial, or fiend magic, elemental magic of water, earth, and air, etc. We recently got a lot of new spells for summoners, and that was great. So while it sucks they can only be summoned once at a time, it’s still an improvement over not having any summoning spells at all.

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Excited to finally share this one! A commission of the clients’ full party. This was really awesome to get to work on and design a whole party to feel cohesive together!

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I'm just suprise that the Somnovum, who most likely gave Lucien Psychic Immunity, would die from Intuit charge wich deal Psychic damage. Its an amazing ending for this episode, but its still a bit weird to me.

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Forest Of Vrexh'leth

While most of the areas in Icxothlast rain and storm constantly, this area has no weather at all. In fact, it is devoid of any patterns of any shape or form. Multitudes of thin trees make up this entire region, and due to excessive amounts of leaves, there is no light. There is hardly any sound at all besides the noises you make. The Forests are pitch black, quiet, and eerie. Due to this darkness, many of the creatures have adapted and survived here by evolving beyond comprehension. Even the largest ones that roam the area, the Echo Class, make zero sound. Many hang in the trees or scatter themselves across the Forest floor with the intention of trapping victims. All of these creatures are blind and rely on sound to hunt, this means that you may shine a light but to very little effect. In Vrexh'leth, a deep fog surrounds the area made up of an unknown humid substance. This causes prey to cough and unfortunate travelers to cough due to the humidity which allows them to be hunted. Creatures such as large bloated spiders, deers with 6 eyes and razor sharp teeth, infants with insects nesting in them, etc. It is quite common for people to be forgotten here, as most get lost and aren’t seen again. And those who have, let’s just say they were begging for revelation. This place is north of the Shores.

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Just cuz I'm confuse about the end of the last Critical Role episode. I must've lost track of the placement of everybody, but why do they say that Lucien and Cree now are the one fighting the monsters or traps in the ruins? Didn't Liam ask Matt if he bumped into Lucien after he Dimension Door, while he was walking toward the group, and Matt said no? Wasn't Caleb and the group resting where Lucien and the TT would've pass to go deeper underground? Or were they resting in an opposite tunnel or hole?

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Thank god for Caduceus.

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They can't plane shift out if they wait for the team fun ball to come out. Since the Route to the dragon's room is compromised thanks to Yasha. They can't use the same method again to bring everybody now.

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Cuz someone had to....

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Fellow DMs, do you ever get home from work and decide you're going to plan for an upcoming session but the moment you sit down at the computer your brain goes "You know what, never mind" and then checks out?

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This is my new character, following the death of my satyr druid Aries.

Frieda is a transgender female who grew up in the Imperi Liber. A sort of infernal ruled empire.

She's a buff in history, reading all about the heroes of past (who are coincidentally the party's previous characters in the first campaign). Frieda never met her father until the age of 16, wich is the age where every citizen of the Imperi Liber are forced to enroll in the military.

Frieda's father is a cold-hearted tactician officer and instead of showing love to her daugther, used her desire to please and be worthy to further his own agenda.

She was part of an assassination/infiltrator squad, rooting out the enemies of the empire before they grew to powerful.

She eventually couldn't take the atrocities anymore and defected, not before doing her best to disappear from the face of Synemora (the planet).

Frieda joined a visionarist who was working as an archeologist prior to digging up an old celestial artefact, the blood of an angel. He started to worship the artefact, giving speechs to encourage change and also blaming the empire for the crimes they've committed and are committing. The artefact was slowly twisting the group, turning them into a cult. Spiralling into doing violent and cruel things in the name of good. Her mentor eventually ask his followers to sacrifice themselves so he could ascend as a new god and change the world.

Seeing the cult slowly walking towards destruction, Frieda tried to destroy the artefact. Believing the blood was fake, she drank it hoping they would snap out of their trance.

But the blood was real, and her celestial patron fused with her.

Frieda is now on the run, with a vengeful angel trying to take over her mind.

Commission of the client’s new Half-Orc character, Frieda. I had a lot of fun with this one, and am pretty stoked with how she came out! 

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I think I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I really love unusual warlock/patron relationships. I mean, the usual extraplanar manipulater trope is all well and good, a character who is dancing to the tune of a possibly dangerous super being is always an interesting addition to a party. But I also like it when people branch out and explore some different dynamics.

Warlocks have one of the more interesting built in backstory hooks out of all the classes: They have a pact, bond, or connection of some kind to an immensely powerful being, and that gives them immense powers. I feel like it’s a waste of potential to just use the whole “mysterious master and unwitting servant” dynamic over and over. So, here’s a few other ideas ideas that I like:

The Warlock is actually the Patron’s biological descendant from a relationship/fling they had with a mortal hundreds of years ago. The Patron had no idea they still had any living descendants, and their blood is too diluted for them to be a sorcerer, so when the patron finds out who the warlock is, they are struck by a massive wave of “I’m a terrible grandparent” syndrome. The pact is really just an excuse to try and reconnect with their great-great-great grandchild.

The Patron suckered their Warlock into the pact with full intention of exploiting them and manipulating them as a mere pawn in their master plan... Buuuut then they went and got attached. Now they can’t bring themselves to hurt their “pawn” and their whole plan is falling apart around them. Meanwhile the warlock is a big dumb and doesn’t realize any of this, blissfully unaware that their super powerful magic friend was playing them/is currently having a breakdown.

The Warlock was offered up as a sacrifice to the Patron, either in hopes of gaining their favor,(likely because someone else was trying to become their warlock or something) or to placate them. (Like how in all the fairytales they sacrifice maidens to the dragon or something so it leaves the town alone) But the Patron saw potential in them, and chose to take their sacrifice under their wing instead.

The Warlock is a lost/abandoned/orphaned child who just happened to stumble into the Patrons domain. The Patron is all like “Welp, I guess this is my kid now,” and forms a pact with them. Bonus points if the Warlock starts calling their Patron Mom/Dad.

The reverse scenario of the last one! The Patron is an extremely powerful being, but also just a baby. They can’t defend themselves, so their Warlock acts as their guardian and protector.

The Warlock and Patron are deeply in love. Their “Pact” is basically a souped up, magical marriage that binds them together, which as a side effect gives the Warlock their magic. Meaning that every time the Warlock casts a spell, they are, quite literally, using the power of love. Bonus points if their love is forbidden by the powers that be, and the Warlock’s overarching goal in the story is to reunite with their beloved.

Neither the Warlock or Patron wanted a pact in the first place, but due to outside forces, were forced to work together. Maybe they were both prisoners of some kind of supernatural mega prison, and they needed each to escape. Maybe they were both dying and somehow pooled their life force together to survive. Maybe they were forced together by the gods. Either way, the aren’t happy about it, and they bitch at each other constantly. Bonus points if they eventually build up a mutual respect for each other over time and become friends. (Or more, who knows, anything’s possible. Nothing like a good old fashioned Enemies to Friends to Lovers story.)

The Patron doesn’t actually exist at all. The Warlock got really high/drunk/smashed their head on a rock or something and hallucinated being visited by an all powerful being. The Warlock believes in this vision so hard, that they kinda accidentally give themselves magic powers.

The Warlock has absolutely no idea who or what their Patron is. Just, seemingly out of nowhere they can do Warlock stuff now. The Warlock’s main goals are split between trying to find who out who the Patron is why they’re giving the Warlock power, and dealing with the existential dread that somewhere out there in the universe there is some unknown being pulling their strings for some unknown purpose... Or I don’t know, maybe some Archfey thought it would be hilarious to just give some random dingus super powers and watch them freak out about it.

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Samael, The Enkindled One - A high lord of the Realm of Black and the first of two BBEGs in my party’s main campaign. I’m glad I finally found the time to draw her! And just in time, as the endtimes draw near!

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I’ve been working on this DND map for a future campaign I’m writing and I’ve added TTRPG maps to my Ko-fi commissions. So, if you’re interested in having a map drawn for your campaign, consider checking out my Ko-fi page at the link in my description.

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A sad session last night.

The group attempt to eliminate the head of an organisation by posing as chefs and poisoning the food.

While the supper in itself went well and most of the targets die because of the poison, the leader skipped on the main course.

Half of the group went after the boss, followed by guards right behind them, while the other half were defending themselves against more guards.

Aries was basically slaugther to death, she casted one spell while trying to run away and the guards just surround her while the rest of the group was dealing with the boss.

They force the party to submit by threathening to finish Aries off, only to let her bleed out on the ground once they did.

The worst part about it is that they were brought to Aries's mentor who's "working" with them.

He is known to be a powerful necromancer and not the good kind. If Aries is brought back against her will, she will be pissed, heartbroken and devastated.

I don't want to see my girl in this state. :(

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Another character commission of a pirate-esque echo knight idea. This one had a really unique color scheme and I’m pretty stoked with how it turned out!

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Commissions for January are open! Please feel free to reach out at Outlandidolcommissions(at)gmail(dot)com.