#'how many spell slots does this wizard have???'

[wolverinedoctorwho]

With the number of times I've seen this spell get used incorrectly in fanfiction, I thought I'd put this out there. Silence makes everything INSIDE the sphere silent.

No hate to anyone taking artistic liberties, not everyone has to be a rules lawyer like me, but I do find it funny (albeit distracting) to be trying to get into the mood of a fic only to go, "Wait, that's not how that spell works. Wait, why's he casting six fourth-level spells at once? Wait, how did that rogue even learn Entangle?"

[cervinayyy]

Are you new to D&D? Think caster classes are complicated and hard to learn? Do you want to understand how each caster class works in one easy analogy? Then this is for you!

Let's think of casting spells as cooking. When cooking (casting spells) you need to:

1. Have a way to learn the recipe. (Known Spells)

2. Prepare the recipe. (Prepared Spells)

3. Eat the recipe. (Spell Slots)

The way each caster class does spells is different, but they can be categorized into 3 separate groups:

Prepared Casters, Spontaneous Casters, and Wizards.

With this in mind, we can categorize them by how each class learns their recipes (known spells) as well as how they get ready to make them (prepared spells).

Prepared Casters: These casters have access to any recipe they could ever need. Think of it like having access to Google, or Pinterest (known spells). If they want a recipe, they just spend their morning finding what they want, grocery shopping and getting it ready (prepared spells). They can make any food you give them a recipe for.

Spontaneous Casters: These casters don't have internet. They do, however, have a few recipe books (known spells). They have few really good recipes that they like, and have basically memorized these recipes. They always have the ingredients to make their favourite things (prepared spells).

Wizards: A grouping of their own, they are somewhat a combination of the two. Wizards do not use Google or Pinterest, they're better than that. Any recipe they like, they compile into a recipe blog (known spells). Their recipe blog is pretty full, any time they find a new recipe that they like they can add it to their blog, though adding new recipes can sometimes be costly (they need materials to copy down the recipe). That said, like prepared casters, they do their grocery shopping in the morning, when they'd decide what recipes they're going to make that day (prepared spells).

The next section is spell slots. If you make the food, you have to eat it too, right? Spell slots are basically how much a given caster can eat.

All full casters (Druids, Bards, Clerics, Wizards, Sorcerers) have the capacity to eat a decent amount of food.

Half casters (Paladins, Rangers), can only eat a portion of the food that they make.

Warlocks are weird, the food they make is always top notch, but they can't eat very much of it (they cast their spells at the highest level they can and don't have many spell slots). That said, their metabolism is beefy as hell and after a few hours of rest they can eat again.

I'll probably add a section to this later to explain regaining spell slots. If anyone has any additions they wanna make, please go for it!

[shrimpys-log]

Shrimpy's Log 001: Sleep-Talking

✎ Concept/Headcanon ✎ Characters: Azul, Ace, Rook ✎ Gender-neutral

『Mumbling in Your Sleep, but Not the Romanticized Way』

It's not unusual for you to fall asleep in impractical places around campus, such as in the common rooms or the library or during study sessions... which, really, you should be a bit more cautious about, considering you know you talk in your sleep... and judging by your dreams, you don't have anything particularly intelligent to say when unconscious.

When with your favorite person, the moment does have the potential to be cute. Too many times have you been exposed to those cute scenes in various romantic media, wherein a lover confesses their feelings in their sleep, mumbling their truest and most vulnerable words of love without fear of consequence---and unbeknownst to them, their lover is privy to it all.

...if only you were one of those people who had anything remotely romantic to say...

『Azul』

When Azul catches you sleeping, it's not nonsense you're mumbling--then again, it's nothing romantic either. Instead, you're mumbling about something that makes Azul end up loving you even more: plans.

Even when asleep, you're buzzing like a little worker bee, mumbling about due dates, time slots, objectives and priorities. It comes out in short bursts--key words that give him minuscule insights into what you're dreaming about--but he pieces it together soon enough, and it's beyond endearing.

You're truly someone after his own heart, aren't you? All ambitious and organized, even as you sleep. You'd probably forget it all by the time you wake up, but it was adorable to him nonetheless.

As far as priorities go, you're his number one--though of course, number two is chasing success, and he's glad he's found someone who shares that ambition. You two were truly made for each other.

『Ace』

Ace doesn't know what in seven's name you're even saying as you sleep, but that doesn't stop him from taking out his phone and recording a nice, long clip to tease you about later.

He's practically vibrating with excitement as he waits for you to wake up and realize you fell asleep in the middle of a study session. He's smiling at you like you'd given him the best gift in the world, and by the time you finally open your eyes, it almost seems as if you had babbled about how much you loved him in your sleep, with how delighted he is and all.

"What are you, the wizard?!" He cackles, practically rolling on the ground. "I didn't even know what you were saying! It sounded like you were chanting spells! Pfffft--your droning is worse than Trein talking about eras of magical prosperity. What's that one wizard fellow from your world you talk about... uh... jigglypuff? Rumbleroar?"

"Dumbledore?"

"That!" Ace snickers. "We got Dumbledore over here, muttering some expect-a-patrol-bus nonsense. Bahaha!"

You personally thought his complete butchery of your world's pop culture references was more embarrassing than anything you could have mumbled... but whatever. If it meant waking up to see Ace smiling so brightly, it was well worth the embarrassment.

『Rook』

You were slowly picking up some French phrases from hanging around Rook so often, and unbeknownst to you, they were slowly seeping into your spontaneous sleep-talking.

Rook was rarely caught completely off-guard, but he certainly hadn't been anticipating you to burst out with a particularly passionate 'Aujourd'hui!' in the middle of your nap. Aujourd'hui - 'today', of all things to say.

"What about today, mon amour?" He asks with an amused smile, fully aware that you were merely sleep-talking, You go silent after that, and he seems to decide that's the end of it, because he goes back to focusing on whatever he was focusing on before.

Then, you hit him with another curveball.

"Filet mignon." You say, before letting out a soft snoring sound. "Mm... mignon..."

"Tu es trop mignon(ne), ma trésor," Rook coos in response. "Cuter than any filet."

Silence, once more, and then...

"C'est bon!"

He can't help it--he starts laughing.

"I love you more than anything, mon ange," he replies--not loud enough to wake you, of course. He didn't mean to disturb your sleep; he just couldn't contain his affection for you any longer! You may have been the one sleep-talking, but in this scenario, he was the one confessing his love for you (again)--and he would happily repeat the sentiment as many times as you want, once you wake up.

[blububblgum]

Arya stark: bloodhunter, order of the ghostslayer.

Once again, reasoning in incredible detail under the cut

Ok for arya, i once again wanted to subvert obvious expectations (and play more in the dnd space) so instead of the rogue subclass (with either thief or assassin as her subclass) i settled on bloodhunter for her class. First, to be clear on why not rogue; its not really that different from how she is in the actual world of asoiaf, and if i'm committing to an au then i might as well branch out (the same reasons stand for why not fighter). Bloodhunter is a class that was created by matthew mercer for campaign 2 of critical role, and it is deeply interesting to me (as well as being suited to arya)

Bloodhunters are a martial class that is based around the use of blood magic in order to destroy evils in the world, while resisting giving into the dangerous magic they work with. The subclass that i chose for arya is Ghostslayer, which is "the oldest of the bloodhunter orders" and they focus on everything around death, with an obsession with ridding the world of the undead. While the House of Black and White is not like, focused on ridding the world of undead, it does align well with how she could have come into these powers/fighting style. Beyond the House of Black and White, arya herself has so many personal vendettas that work with the motivations of ghostslayers (especially when you think of the white walkers, though i know she doesn't know about them).

Though ghostslayer (and bloodhunter really) have some magic, it doesn't really give the specific power of changing appearance, and that is kinda crucial to what arya learns in the House of Black and White. So!! In order to make this work, i think dnd arya is not a human (or at least, not a human anymore). Instead she is a shifter, which is descended from a were-creature. The shifter option that suits arya best is swiftstride (which isn't the one that is recommended for werewolves but whatever), since it gives extra movement/increased speed, and matches how arya fights. However, arya still can't change her faces, so this is where feats come in. The Eldritch initiate feat allows one invocation (something that warlocks get as part of their deal) and though arya is definitely not a warlock (though i did think about hexblade for her, i just couldn't figure out what her patron would be), the Mask of many faces invocation allows the character to cast disguise self at will, which works as a dnd take on changing faces. If she were higher level then Master of myriad forms makes more sense (it gives the spell alter self at will, which actually changes the form of the caster, whereas disguise self   is an illusion spell) but i decided to plan her at about 8th level, so whatever lol.

Some bonus thoughts (i know i have already rambled a lot oopsies); her fighting style is either duelling or two-weapon fighting, depending on whether she uses exclusively needle or if she also fights with a dagger. Her crimson rite damage would be cold, as a little nod to her stark side. For her blood maledicts (bonuses that are useful in fighting) i decided on the Blood curse of the Eyeless which lets her temp blind people (fun!) and Blood curse of Binding which reduces peoples speed to zero for a bit (good for just fucking sprinting away). Since i'm thinking of her as 8th level, she can have another feat (which is more interesting than an ability score improvement) and i decided on magic initiate (wizard, since its intelligence based), which gives 2 cantrips (spells that don't require spell slots) and 1 first level spell. For the two cantrips, mage hand and booming blade would give some helpful bonuses to her both in and out of combat. For the one spell, i thought find familiar would be fun! Find familiar doesn't have wolf, but if you just  use cat stats for wolf then that's fine, find familiar is cool cause the caster can look through the eyes of the familiar when they are in range, and they can be summoned in a different form when it is recast. Lastly, i think her stats (highest to lowest) are: dexterity, intelligence, constitution, wisdom, strength, charisma.

Again, if you read all this, thank you!!!! I hope it made sense and lmk ur thoughts.

[pinacoladamatata]

Shovel the fucking quasit

Finally figured out what the deal is with the summon Shovel spell. After about 85 reloads to test it, it seems that Setting Shovel's name is crucial to getting her to say the "ooh a spellshite" line which will then add the "summon cheeky quasit" spell to your spellbook for a wizard/sorcerer/warlock.

We all know it's bugged for storm and draconic sorcerers, it's because their unique dialogue with Shovel overrides the option to set her name.

There are other posts floating around on reddit saying you have to choose certain dialogue options in a 1,1,1,1,1,1,2 way, and while it works (for non storm/draconic sorcerers), it works BECAUSE that order will set her name as Shovel. You can actually choose any dialogue options: As long as you set her name as Shovel before speaking to her with the character you want the permanent summon spell on.

[I've sent bug reports to Larian about this, please do not message me telling me to do so. They know. I promise. I've sent them my findings. Hopefully they can fix Shovel's dialogue tree so that the spellshite line triggers reliably. But it's fucked for now and has been since EA, so here's how to get the summon for storm/draconic sorcerers.]

Example for what worked to get summon quasit spell:

Use any companion (any class, but NOT a sorcerer) to cast the scroll.

Choose whatever dialogue options you want. But during this conversation at some point you MUST choose the dialogue option "your name is shovel?"

This will give you the option to name Shovel. You can choose either option 1. "What do you want to be called?" followed by "Shovel is fine". Or just choose 2. "Shovel is fine"

Finish the conversation however you want.

Switch to Tav (or the character you wish to get the permanent summon spell on [they MUST have at least 1 level of wizard/sorcerer/warlock]) and speak to Shovel. Shovel should now say "ooh a spellshite!" and the summon quasit spell will appear in their spellbook. Boom. Have fun murderising!

I tested this method by using a random companion to cast the scroll, and then using storm and draconic sorcerer Tav/Durge and it consistently worked to give my sorcerer the "spellshite" line. All of this was done in the cellar, before going through the mirror.

Example of what does not work:

using storm or draconic sorcerer Tav to cast the scroll and speak with shovel. -> The option to name shovel never appears. Can continue conversation about mirror/book.

trying to set shovel's name using another companion after 1st conversation with sorcerer; this will not work, her dialogue will repeat "talk to mirror" or "trust me beefy".

If you choose a different name for Shovel (like i tried many times): When you speak to "Basket/Fork" as sorcerer/wizard/warlock Tav, "Basket" will say "Another gobshite. What you want with Basket?" and this line will override the spellshite line, and it won't play. Repeat attempts to talk to "basket" will give "go on talk to mirror" line on loop, or the "see, tell you truth beefy" line on a loop. "Basket/Fork" will never say the spellshite line, unfortunately :(

*You can learn the scroll as a wizard, however this will add it to your wizard spellbook and will take up a prepared spell slot, and it will not get added to your common spellbook as a ritual spell. **but only the "Spellshite" line adds the summon quasit spell to your common spells as a ritual spell that does not take up a spell slot to cast.

[nailsofvecna]

I feel like you'd have some interesting oppinions on this.

What do you think of spells having "prerequisites" to learn, and I mean besides being of the appropriate spell level and class. Like maybe you need to know "spell a" before you can learn "spell b", or something like that?

It's a good question. Narratively it makes sense, right - it'd be like real life where you have to know about certain concepts before you can understand ones that are built on top of them. And we already have rules to say you can't craft certain magic items unless you know the spells contained in them.

I think it's an idea that could work well, but the system would have to be designed to accomodate it. Assuming we're talking about 5th edition D&D, I think it runs into a couple of issues, which I'll explore below the cut.

Not to mention that it wouldn't work at all for clerics, druids or paladins.

I feel like there's a pretty high risk that this would act as a tax where you have to take spells you don't want in order to take ones that you do, which doesn't really serve any gameplay purpose and wouldn't be fun for players. Espeically considering that wizards can know basically as many spells as they want, while all other known-spell casters are already hard pressed for making their choices count. So it's not even a fair tax.

A key issue for me is that 5e lets you boost spells by casting from a higher level slot. That means there aren't any spells that are just direct upgrades of lower-level ones any more. The core rules only have a handful of 'spell Bs' that would warrant a prerequisite. Granted, quite a few of my own homebrew spells are just modified versions of canonical spells, but I don't think it adds much to them to say "you can't learn this unless you already know the vanilla version".

And again, most of the obvious candidates for needing a prerequisite are cleric spells (lesser restoration -> greater restoration, revivify -> raise dead -> resurrection -> true resurrection, cure wounds -> mass cure wounds).

The flavour we've been given about how spells are learned somewhat alleviates the lack of realism, too (i.e. "how can you know delayed blast fireball if you don't know how to cast a regular fireball?"). Wizards learn spells by rote by studying books and scrolls, with each spell's mechanics being essentially sui generis. Bards pick up secret tricks here and there on their travels and don't really know how their spells 'work'. Warlocks are directly gifted their spells by their patrons and also don't usually know how their spells work. In all of those cases, there's a built-in explanation for why you know the spells you know, which doesn't depend on knowing simpler versions. Meanwhile I don't think the ranger list has a single spell that would logically need a prerequisite.

That does leave sorcerers. It's harder to wave away the above delayed blast fireball question for a sorcerer. Plus you could say that any spell cast with metamagic is actually a different spell, so they're already kind of doing the whole 'know spell A in order to be able to cast other spells' thing. Unfortunately, sorcerer is the class that's hurting the most for spells known, so it'd be unfair to tell a player they can't learn a spell because they don't have it's prerequisite. I guess you could imagine that they did know how to cast the prerequisite spell, but just forgot it because they weren't using it any more? They can replace spells on level up, after all.

One thing I have done in the past as a DM is require a character to know a spell A in order to create their own custom spells (which I've then let them have without it taking up a 'spells known' slot). For example, I required Astra's player to learn haste before she was able to forumlate Astra's instant antique. I'd say something like that is reasonable and can lead to fun interactions, without running into the problems I've discussed above.

[dailycharacteroption]

First World Caller (Wizard Archetype)

(art by Matteo Brizio on Artstation)

 When you look for the power and blessings of the fey, you probably look for druids, maybe rangers, or else an enchantment-focused caster like a bard or even mesmerist. One usually does not look to the disciplined and measured power of a wizard for flights of fey fancy.

And yet, with today’s archetype, we are presented with exactly that. Whether it be because of artificially strengthened pacts or bonds with the fey or the First World itself, or a natural affinity for the fey realms, today we are looking at a form of wizard that boasts the ability to call in a bit of the First World wherever they are.

And why not? With it’s primal and wild magic, as well as it’s connections to the earliest days of the multiverse, the fey realm of the First World seems the perfect place to study magic at it’s most wild and untamed, free from the structures and systems imposed by gods and mortals alike.

This archetype is heaviliy associated with gnome civilizations that still dwell in the First World, but any ancestry, gnome or not, can potentially learn or be imbued with this path.

 These wizards bond with a familiar, which seems to have been created or linked to them by how their soul has interacted with the First World in their past, perhaps before they were even born. Either way, these familiars are part fey, and though their physical defenses are not as impressive and they do not grant their master the typical blessing based on their species, they do gain a measure of fey resistance to damage that is not from cold iron, as well as a bit of resistance to magic and the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid form. Later on, they even grow insectile wings if they don’t already have them, gaining flight.

With their connection to the First World, these mages excel at summoning creatures, and learn how to summon many different types of fey ally in addition to the typical summons.

In addition to this, more powerful callers can infuse some of the ever-changing nature of the First World into local reality, altering it’s physical and even magical properties. Gravity, magic, and even alignment-based planar properties are theirs to impose upon such a region for a short time.

Interested in a character with a unique familiar, summons, and even the ability to create massive areas that can help or hinder with planar traits? This archetype may be for you. You lose out on the arcane school, which will limit your spell slots somewhat, but the options opened up by your new summons and the like should make up for it. Naturally, summoning spells are an important part of the build, and feats that bolster them or help you acclimate to the conditions you impose upon reality are good choices.

 This archetype has a nice little touch of “magical destiny” to it that is perfect for “secret heirs to magical kingdoms” sort of personal storylines, as well as the eager young mage that leaps into exploring their unique ability.

  All his life, Micross has been able to see hints of the fey realms, and had a gift for befriending the denizens that seemed attracted to his presence, but he never had any idea what it meant. So, he studied, hoping to understand more by developing his own magic through this connection. Finally, a breakthrough was discovered when he heard rumors of a way to follow the thread of fate back in time, allowing him the opportunity to see where this connection comes from and what destiny he was shouldered with… but will he find peace of mind, or disappointment?

 On the world of Vushan, elves have a much more defined fey connection, and the royal families of which often exhibit an inherent ability to command the fealty of the fey and the very fey realms themselves. Nobody expected such an ability to manifest in a half-blooded scion born from a tryst with a human woman, however. But, that ability does make him a contender for the throne, causing much stirring in the elven courts.

 After barely surviving a peryton attack, Akkez fled through a fey grotto and ended up in the realm of the fey, where he bartered his magical skill in exchange for passage and protection. It’s been years now and he has learned many new magical abilities. However, he still remains there, partially out of fear that the peryton still hunts him, but also because his debt to the fey continues to grow.

[dilatorywriting]

Okay so FIRST.... I absolutely adore the Malleus Monster Mayhem fic. My whole entire heart was REELING for it, but also you have such great comedic timing and it was so ENGAGING! Truly there is nothing better than the harmony between powerful/sexy Mal and confused/huffy dragon Mal.

Also, the D&D mechanics were so awesome to read!!! I loved the chaos of forcing a certain someone to waste all of their spell slots... pride cometh before the fall! Or tackle, then incineration, in this case. I have to know... when MC/reader tackled him, what spell did they interrupt? Did you have a particular one in mind? Also, did you build a character sheet for Rollo? My inner nerd is screaming about D&D 😅

Excuse me as I melt over here >.<

But yes!! I also LOVE D&D, so I was super excited to try and integrate it into a fic!! And oh my lord, I should have built a whole character sheet because that would have made my life SO MUCH EASIER. Instead I was just hemming and hawing over spells, and spell slots, and 'oh but does he have too many how do I even keep track.' Alas. I just suffered like an idiot and kept track of most of it in my brain.

The idea I was working off of for his D&D version was basically a wannabee cleric who never was really holy enough to reach actually being that, so was instead a very stuck-up Wizard who was very strong! But also kind of fucked because he kept picking up Cleric and other Magical Initiate feats and whatnot rather than actually improving what he was naturally good at as a High Elf. I was working off him being around a level 15 Chronurgy Wizard with a lil smidgen of oathbreaker paladin for flavor -- just enough to get him to having a big, eighth-level spell slot but also so he had access to the 'Convergent Future' Ability. Natural he knew 'Silence,' 'Hold Person,' and the 'Firebolt' cantrip, but the other big spells I had for him in my head were 'Disintegrate,' 'Hellish Rebuke' (because helllo Hellfire reference lol), 'Shield,' 'Misty Step,' and 'Hold Monster.'

That big ol' last spell of his was basically a mix of 'Dominate Monster' and the Magic-Eating/Destroying flower bullshit Rollo tried to pull in the Twst Event. And with the addition of 'Convergent Future' thrown on top which would have forced Malleus to auto-fail the save.

[inklesspen]

D&D and D&D-derived elfgame players, an question:

Does the Wizard class in your game rules have to pick spells for the day from their spellbook, such that during the "day" they will only have a limited subset of spells available to cast?

For example, in D&D 3.5e, the Wizard gets a number of slots and must assign spells to each slot. Want to be able to cast fireball twice? That'll be two level-3 slots please. In Worlds Without Number, on the other hand, a wizard does have to prepare a selection of spells, but may cast each prepared spell as many times as she likes, as long as she does not exceed a spells-per-day limit.

If your game has this rule, does your table actually abide by that rule?

If so, how do you (and/or your fellow players) feel about that rule?

Additional bonus question: If your ruleset allows the Wizard some flexibility around prepared spells (swapping out a prepared spell during a short rest, for instance), do you think that rule goes far enough? Too far? Something else?

[ghostofafool]

I have a Theory about Prodigy Math Game's Order of Influence. And this does not have evidence that I know of, I am playing with thumbtacks and string at this point.

This theory is that the Order of Influence has already partially accomplished their goal. This goal is world domination, but they're already in a good place to take over all of Prodigy Island. This is because there had to have been a governing power on the Island at one point. Probably the school board at the Academy. And the combat systems have changed at least twice already.

CS1: Easy Mode. The first one is simple, it lets you cast any spell your wizard has ever learned, whenever it is their turn. It does not let them cast the most powerful spell of any element except for Astral.

This changed to CS2: Actual Strategy. This let your wizard use any spell they had ever learned, but not whenever in battle they wanted. There were six spell slots, and you had to equip the spells you wanted to use beforehand. This lends room for actual strategy in your team setups, but is still restricting.

This changed to the current Combat System; CS3. CS3 only lets you use Four Spells. Starbit which is half power with Excellent Accuracy, One Spell decided by your wand, an All-Out Attack which is a screen nuke that depends on how many members of your team are active, and One Spell decided by your Relic. Relics are the replacement of your learning the spells.

The Wizards are using Relics instead of their actual knowledge. They are not learning new spells. All the Puppet Master has to do is remove the Relics, and then they have a massive advantage.

If the Academy School Board has been infiltrated by the Order of Influence, they also have an easy route to the Wardens.

[owlbear33]

Right Then version 2

this is a revision of the single-use item wizards thing from yesterday

the idea for this whole thing came from a discussion I had (I don't remember where or with whom) about the fact that old dnd magic users basically depend on magic items for most of their spellcasting, they don't get a lot of spells because they're meant to be using scrolls and wands and the like

and like so many things I don't think this element of play is adequately presented by the rules, so why not make all magic item magic

the aim of this homebrew is to turn spellcasting into a downtime action, a magic user builds up a stock of prepared spells, which they then take adventuring, they might also find prepared spells on their adventures

the two major changes are that you shouldn't have to make a spellcasting check twice for the same spell, and only a mage gets to tell a misbehaving spell to behave itself

--

this is a modular magic system for D20-based dungeon games it requires a pre-existing magic system with spells leveled 1-9

do away with spell slots

Spellcasting requires access to a written script for the spell

those who use magic may have access to a spell book containing these scripts and gain knowledge of these scripts as though they were spells in the usual manner

casting spells is a ritual action taking an hour per level of the spell plus any usual spellcasting components or action

casting spells takes a spellcasting check of 10 plus the spell level

the spell activates (causing whatever effect) at the end of the ritual

alternatively, a spellcasting check of 11 plus the spell level can produce a single-use magic item that can be stored for later use

(fluff what the item is as appropriate, suggestions: break to use spell tablets, a section of knotted rope, a small sealed jar)

the spellcasting DC can be increased in small intervals for anything that might cause difficulty casting

failure means that the time and any spell components consumed by the spell are wasted

how many spells you can cast is only limited by time and access to materials, the ability to cast spells may be limited by level at GM discretion

_

Using single-use spell items (SUSI)

using a SUSI requires an action

if the character did not create the SUSI then a spellcasting check is also required DC 8 plus the spell level

if the check is failed then the spell goes awry if the character is able to cast spells then they may try and control the spell failure, making a check DC 1 plus the spell level

success means the spell fizzles and does nothing rather than going awry

increase the spell control DC in situations where magic may wish to misbehave, such as in the presence of antimagic zones or entities, the spell not being on a spell list you have access to, or not knowing with spell

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

I really need to talk about my dnd character for my next campaign but I can’t actually talk about it with my party for reasons that will become obvious so you’re getting it.  (First of all though you must understand I approach dnd as a place to put all my characters who I reckon are too self-indulgent to write in a story.  So yes I am aware the backstory has many cliche elements but shhh shh let me have this.) 

So my character, I say pulling out my well-filled character sheet, Laverne, is a sorcerer from a noble family whose younger sister was accidentally killed in an explosion of wild magic five years ago.  Even though it wasn’t Laverne’s fault, she feels guilty for not being able to protect her sister, so she set out on a journey to better understand her powers.  She is the Elle Woods of the fantasy world, she has a heart of gold and a surprisingly high intelligence, she is charming and friendly and loves pink, her last name is Butterbiscuits and she (if I can manage it), has a strong Southern accent.  She is Lawful Good, and a delight.   

What a lovely character, you say.  LIES AND DECEPTION, I cry in response, pulling out a second, even more filled, character sheet, with identical stats but a completely different magic system.  Laverne is ACTUALLY Desma, the daughter of an evil queen mother and an insane king father, who ran away as a teenager in an attempt to find some way to save her people.  She looked into magic, originally doing Wizard stuff, but on following a corrupted ley-line, she stumbled across a half-covered summoning circle.  Being an idiot (low wis despite high int) seventeen-year-old she tried to fix it up just to see what happens and accidentally summoned a demon without any power to control it.  Rather than kill her, however, the demon offered her a deal, he gives her magic in return for her doing stuff for him, and she can back out whenever she wants! It just means she’ll lose that magic again! Remember how I said she’s an idiot? well now she’s a warlock idiot. 

(The catch, of course, is that whenever she does anything morally wrong for this dude, he owns a little more of her soul.  She can only back out before all of her soul is sold of.  The danger isn’t the power of the demon, it’s his ability to manipulate her into doing things she knows are morally wrong). 

Laverne is a complete deception! Which explains why she seems a bit thin! And the most fun thing about it all is that only my dm knows, none of the other players know! And I WILL have to pretend to use sorcerer spells with only my two assigned warlock spell-slots this WILL be difficult thankfully we’re all pretty new at this so nobody really knows how magic works so probably won’t call me out for it.

[solradguy]

Could we possibly learn more about your D&D character(s)? :D

YEAH!!! Thanks for asking :D!! My group used to do one-shots every time someone in the group couldn't make it so I've had like 15 characters haha I'll tell you about the two I'm playing now and my all-time favorite character I've played.

We have a side campaign run by Raven that takes place in Strixhaven and we do this campaign when too many people are missing from our main one. My character for this campaign is a Leonin wizard named Gringdor Kethu (the R's in Gringdor are rolled). He was raised by a gay Dwarf couple and I wrote him to have the most wholesome backstory possible lol. They love him so much and support all of his hobbies and are paying for his way through college. Gringdor wants to study theology at Strixhaven.

Gringdor's personality at the start of the campaign was pretty stuffy and arrogant, but the dice had other plans about that!!!! He rolls bad on EVERYTHING. EVERY SINGLE THING. It's so funny. The first time we got into combat poor Gringdor whiffed like EVERY HIT and then we had a dance class where he tripped and knocked down a bunch of people. He's soooooo pathetic but he's very optimistic and he's trying his best!!!

I did our tokens for this campaign in watercolors and based them on the original UK covers for Harry Potter. Here's Gringdor's:

Our current main campaign is run by Nuns and is a homebrew scifi/fantasy mixture setting with space travel and cyberpunk elements. The party recently got consumed by Rylox, an elder deity, and isekai'd to a medieval fantasy setting. I'm playing Mirasaran Tokhubileh (Mira) in this setting. He's a half-Orc/half-Tiefling (he uses the half-Orc stats but looks mostly like a Tiefling) pact of the old one warlock and his patron, Nyarlathotep (Gnarly), turned out just to be a rather wimpy messenger of Rylox and the other elder deities.

The medieval setting the group is in right now is eternally night and the people there worship the Twin Suns, Sigma Yol and Serrenna, and recognized Mira's magic as being related to Rylox, who is basically the anti-christ to them. One of our party members, Zab, was created by the Twin Suns. Most of the party kind of has this "friends because they have to be" dynamic but Mira and Zab are actually pretty good friends despite their powers coming from totally opposite places haha. They've butted heads on it before, but Mira got his powers unwillingly and doesn't always want to do what Gnarly does (which is usually kill and eat innocent people lol). Mira's sort of getting into the idea of killing people though because he's fed up with being pushed around by other people.

I drew all our tokens for this campaign in a sort of 1980s anime inspired style. Here's Mira's:

and his ref sheet:

My ALL TIME dnd bae is the second character I ever made for dnd. My buddy Shottie and I tried doing a campaign with this guy named Wolf but everyone got busy with work n stuff so the group dissolved. I played a character named Daemedes (half-Orc paladin) for that and Shottie played Nekeesk, Dae's bff, who was a Kobold necromancer. Then we found a new group through Reddit and ran Curse of Strahd. I didn't want to have to manage spell slots n stuff so I made a Tiefling barbarian based on one I was playing in Neverwinter at the time, Steel Flexmeat, but I didn't want to ruin the vibe of the setting bringing his name over like that and I changed it to Stahl Flexicarnosus (a pseudonym).

I wanted Stahl to be an outgoing asshole jock-type character but our DM back then (not Nuns, our current DM) wanted us to do character voices and I was too shy to so Stahl became introverted. He was still kind of a bastard but instead of rubbing it into peoples' faces, he let his actions speak for him instead.

Our Curse of Stahd campaign was kinda rushed by our DM and I wasn't really satisfied with how it went so when we got our current DM, Nuns, I brought Stahl back for our Ravnica campaign. I talked to him about working Stahl's CoS lore in with Ravnica since Rav's got a bunch of planeswalking nonsense going on anyway. Stahl's lore ended up that when the CoS party went to kill Stahd, the magic they activated to permanently kill Strahd and stop him from resurrecting forever went sideways and Stahl got blasted to another dimension: Ravnica.

In Ravnica, Stahl ended up joining the Gruul Clans (Zhur Taa specifically; Gruul was like the Mad Max raider faction) and decided that he was going to summon Ilharg the Raze Boar in the hopes that causing a cataclysmic amount of damage to this plane might warp him either back to the CoS plane or even the plane he came from originally (CoS itself was a separate dimension Stahl had fallen into). Shottie brought Nekeesk back for this campaign too and we had some moments where I got to play Daemedes again. It was cool.

Stahl ended up joining with the party because he was chosen by the Gruul Clans to go to this super boring meeting that all of the guilds of Ravnica had been called to attend because he was like the "new guy" and a bit of an outcast. It turned out that Nicol Bolas was returning and was going to blow the whole place up. Stahl could not care less.

A bunch of crazy stuff went down and basically Stahl became the vessel of Ilharg a few weeks before the party had a showdown with Nicol Bolas. Stahl turned into a giant flaming boar monster and fought Bolas with the rest of the party on top of these floating islands in the sky. It was sikkkkkkkkk. We were SO CLOSE to party wiping. Ilharg's essence made Stahl want to burn and destroy everything around him so whenever it was my turn to attack, I also had to roll to make sure that Stahl stayed in control of himself and didn't start attacking the party. The rolls were insane. I had to beat like a 15 or something and rolled higher than that like 5 times in a row.

After the party killed Nicol Bolas, they all kind of scattered in different directions. Stahl still had Ilharg's essence in him so he went back to the Gruul wasteland so if he accidentally flaming boar god installed again, he'd only melt cacti and stuff until he calmed down again. This was like 3 years before I got into GG btw, which I think is hilarious. I was so close to accidentally reverse engineering Tiefling Sol Badguy hahaha

Anyway, I've drawn Stahl a LOT. Our DM uses this cute token pack so I drew our party's tokens based on it. Here's Stahls:

And his post-Ravnica reference sheet:

I've got entries on my Toyhouse for Mira and Stahl, but not Gringdor or most of the other characters I've played:

[lunar-drow]

One DnD playtest Sept 2022 Classes

So Wizards have published new playtest material for the next iteration of DnD. Lets have a look at whats change, whats new, and whats out. Focus on Expert class group (Bard, Rogue, and Ranger [Artificer will also count but its outside the scope of PHB]) Key notes: All Expert classes gain Expertise twice during progression, Subclasses now give additional ability at 10th level. Capstone abilities are gained at 18th level. ASI/Feat progression remains the same. Class feature changes Bard Bardic Inspiration Same dice progression, Uses are now equal to proficiency bonus (PB) per long rest. Uses reaction to activate for two effects, You need to be able to see or hear the target. Boost d20 test - When another creature fails a d20 test within 60ft, add Bardic Inspiration die to the result. Heal - When a creature within 60ft takes damage, roll a Bardic Inspiration die and heal them that much. Spellcasting Spell slot progression remains the same. Now a prepared caster but have access to all Arcane spells from the Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, and Transmutation schools. Jack of All Trades moved to 5th level ability. Expertise Now gained at 2nd and again at 9th Song of Rest Replaced Song of Restoration Starting at 2nd level you gain permanent bonus prepared spells. 2nd - Healing Word 4th - Lesser Restoration 6th - Mass Healing Word 8th - Freedom of Movement 10th - Greater Restoration Font of Bardic Inspiration Moved to 7th level ability Countercharm Removed. Magical Secrets Moved to 11th level. Functionally the same, except you can change the two spells after each long rest. Prepared as per normal. Superior Bardic Inspiration Moved to 18th level. Regain 2 expended Bardic Inspiration uses each time you roll Initiative. Epic Boon at 20th level gain a Epic Boon feat. Right so, here we have our (usually horny) bard. Quite a few abilities got shuffled round. -Spellcasting. No longer a spontaneous caster but a prepared caster. However this new found freedom does have a limit. Bards can only prepare spells from 4 schools, aside from their Song of Restoration and Magical Secrets bonus spells. Thematic but is it worth it? This tread does make me concerned about the Mage classes. -The loss of Countercharm in the core kit is a rough blow. -Song of Rest/Restoration, not sure how I feel about this one. A niche use during short rests compared to permanent access to some healing spells that they now couldn't get access to outside of Magical Secrets. -Magical Secrets. Bards are no longer locked into their choices here which gives them a lot more freedom with spells. -Superior Bardic Inspiration. In line with all capstone abilties being shifted down two levels, which may have meant a nerf to its power however it got a buff instead. Now instead of gaining 1 Bardic Inspiration uses if you had none when you rolled Initiative, you are getting 2 back regardless. This is a great change. More accessible and feels better for having it. Overall I think Bards will maintain being a flexible pick acting as support or healing as needed especially with Magical Secrets being a lot more flexible.

Rogue Expertise Still gained at 1st. Two more choices at 7th Sneak Attack No changes Thieves' Cant Same as before but now gives one more language known. Cunning Action No change Uncanny Dodge No change Evasion Now a 9th level ability, Doesn't work if you are incapacitated. Reliable Talent No change Subtle Strikes New Gain Advantage on attacks against a creature within 5ft of an ally that isn't Incapacitated. Blindsense Removed Slippery Mind Now grants proficiency in CHA saves as well as WIS Stroke of Luck 18th level. Now applies to any d20 test. Regain on Short or Long rest. Epic Boon see above Note Rogue subclass features are now gained at 3rd 10th and 14th levels. Rogue has managed to come through relatively unscathed compared to Bard and Ranger. Not many of their abilities have changed, although the loss Blindsight is a big downside. New Subtle Strikes is actually very powerful ability for a Rogue. As it means that will you will always get your Sneak Attack against a foe within 5ft of an ally since it will cancel out any disadvantage. Slippery Mind got a nice buff, making a Rogue proficient all three mental saving throws. Stroke of Luck. Like the Bard capstone, this got ab uff in that you now can use it on Saving Throws as Attack Rolls and Ability Checks.

Ranger Note Almost a complete rework here. Just going to list the abilities rather than explain changes only. 1st - Expertise (second set at 9th) Favored Enemy Always have Hunter's Mark prepared as a bonus spell, Does not require concentration, lasts full duration (unless you end with BA or you are Incapacitated) Spellcasting Primal caster, any school except Evocation. 2nd - Fighting Style gain Fighting Style feat, limited to Archery, Defence, and Two-Weapon Fighting. 5th - Extra Attack (1) One extra attack during Attack action 7th - Roving Speed increases by 10ft while not wearing Heavy Armour. Gain Climb Speed and Swim Speed equal to Speed. 11th - Tireless - Gain Temp HP equal to 1d8+PB after every Short or Long rest. - Decrease Exhustion by 1 level after a Short rest 13th - Nature's Veil Use Bonus Action and a spell slot to become Invisible until the end of your next turn. 15th - Feral Senses gain 30ft Blindsight 18th - Foe Slayer Hunter's Mark now deals +d10 instead of +d6 20th - Epic Boon Gain a Epic Boon feat

Alright so we have Ranger v15 for 5e (just joking about the version part, but it feels like every 6 months Wizards tries to do something about making them better). Overall this version really feels like they have leapt away from the outdoorsy, hide in the woods for years theme to more of a inexhaustible single target hunter that doesn't care about the environment so much. -These changes meld the optional features from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything into the core kit. With Canny being reduced to Expertise (Don't get the extra two languages) -Favored Enemy presented here actually comes from a UA testing options for TCE. However it does lose a lot of the flavor and utility from the 2014 ranger (This is a reoccurring theme). -Spellcasting. Similar to the changes in Bard's spellcasting. Full access to all Primal spells except any Evocation. -Fighting Styles. Almost the same as 2014 except they lost access to the Defence style, probably not a great loss there. They wont lose access to the TCE styles since TCE will remain a legal resource until it gets updated to the new edition. -Natural Explorer, Primeval Awareness, Land stride, and Vanish. All are gone. Hide in Plain sight is replaced with the Nature's Veil from the UA. -Roving. This is an upgraded version of the one introduced in the UA. Larger speed increase and extra movement options makes this much better. -Tireless. Reworked from the UA. Doesn't use an action but only get it after resting and is scales with PB rather than WIS. Still not a bad ability. -Nature's Veil. Another reworked UA ability. This time requires expending a spell slot rather than coming with its own set of uses. -Feral Senses. Picked up 3 levels earlier, with the wording being cleared up to just be Blindsight (which is slightly better than previous version) -Foe Slayer. Improves the damage bonus from Hunter's Mark to d10. So this one is an interesting change. While you have Hunter's Mark up with 2 attacks this adds about the same amount of damage as before, but if you are dual wielding (see changes to Light weapons in the Glossary run down) then it increases the damage by nearly 50%. However this is dependent on Hunter's Mark being active on your target. So bit of a mixed blessing here. A lot of changes here with a lot scope for subclasses to bring back the focus on Nature themes, especially now that all subclasses get one more feature. On the flip side there is now more room to explore other hunter themes like bounty hunters or military scouts.

[dukhlontales]

Resource Pacing: The Martial vs Caster Problem In D&D

The differences between martial classes and spellcaster classes in D&D have been talked to death, but there’s an aspect of this problem that doesn’t comes up nearly as often as it should, and is a crucial point of ttrpg design in my opinion. Martials and casters tend to have resources that regenerate at different paces.

People constantly talk about the versatility of spellcasters: how they have a spell for every combat, social, and environmental challenge. People constantly talk about how it is boring as a martial to “move and attack” over and over and over and over. These are valid points. The latter rings true far more for me personally because I can’t stand not making interesting decisions. If I’m not making choices that matter in a roleplaying game, I may as well just roleplay while playing Snakes and Ladders.

But the biggest issue for me in terms of feeling outshined as a martial character is that I don’t get my fair share of resources. Let’s talk about Long Rests, Short Rests, and why the division of resources in D&D5e sets martials up to fail.

The most important resource for spellcasters is undoubtedly spell slots. They let spellcasters cast their best spells! Martials tend to rely on a variety of resources, almost all of which have names unique to the flavour of the class: action surge, second wind, ki points, rage, etc. HP is also pretty relevant. The problem here is most resources that martials care about regenerate on Short Rests (and Long Rests), while the resource that casters would sell their soul for regenerates on Long Rests.

Now, while I don’t like many aspects regarding D&D5e’s design (and I’m writing about this for that very reason), I’d be lying if I said the game wasn’t designed around this. It is! You should get 1-2 Short Rests for every Long Rest. The game assumes your sessions will be paced as such, so everyone gets to use their resources to a fair extent. The game does not assume that you’ll have one combat encounter per Long Rest.

Unfortunately for the game, that’s extremely common. Unless you’re in a dungeon or some kind of fighting area, you probably have combat interspersed with all kinds of social interactions and exploration. While the game gives next to no rules to support those explicitly important pillars of play (combat is clearly the youngest child, social encounters are the eldest, and exploration is the middle child that WOTC feeds once a week), people LOVE them. I have a great time roleplaying in combat, but I’ll be damned if roleplaying in social encounters and exploration isn’t more fun.

Actual play shows really help bolster this sentiment. I doubt many people watch Critical Role or Dimension 20 for the strategy involved in their combat encounters. The roleplaying is the draw of content like this. And it’s good. But I wouldn’t watch either if it was consistently five or more consecutive combats. People like specifically roleplaying more and more.

The resource issue in D&D5e is that martials don’t get the resources that the game expects to give them. If I’m the fighter in our one combat, I get to action surge and second wind. Maybe my subclass has a couple more resources to burn, but those are assumably balanced against subclasses that don’t. The casters get to dump all their spell slots! It’s no wonder I feel useless!

Even if I’m level five and can attack four whole times in a turn, the wizard gets to follow up their fireball with another fireball, and then scorching ray after scorching ray. My turns after that action surge are me attacking twice. I’m not just bored by the lack of interesting options. I’m being robbed of features that should make my class feel powerful.

There are a couple solutions to this issue that can get these resources back on track. You can use the “gritty realism” optional rules to restrict Long Rests. And that does work. But if you’re only having one big fight for several sessions, it’s going to feel pretty bad as a caster to have your spell slots from the last mini boss still be missing. You can also just run more combat! Play the game in a way it’s designed for that you specifically don’t enjoy. That one isn’t exactly an option. Of course, if you’re already enjoying having lots of combat and this isn’t an issue, you’re someone who D&D5e was actually designed for. That’s pretty cool.

In terms of ttrpg design though, there’s a glaringly obvious lesson to be learned here. Don’t pace resources differently for different characters! Imagine a world where the fighter gets three action surges per Long Rest. Or a world where casters get one spell slot for each level per Short Rest. A party of diversely powerful characters could rest on the same schedule!

Ironically, D&D4e already did this. But while many people disliked that edition, and it certainly has its own problems, there is much to learn from D&D4e. This is just one of them. And it’s a lesson worth learning.

In Dukhlon Tales, the ttrpg I’m designing, all characters have their resources on the same schedule. Some resources are akin to regenerating on Long Rests, and some are akin to regenerating on Short Rests, but all characters use both sets all the same. In my games with my friends, I’ve never worried about someone outshining someone else because I didn’t pace enough fights into a session. I can run as many, or as few, combats as the story we are telling requires. I don’t see why I’d want to run a system where that is an issue.

[tea-with-eleni]

What to do, what to do...

First, some history.

Back in October, I needed to remove the party dhampir wizard for like a month while his player did an artist residency. Escher showed up in a back alley in Vallaki and was like "...so that vampire in the Barovian church basement, the one who's starving. Wanna go rescue him. Cause that's like. A really shitty way to die." and so they went off on a buddy adventure for like two days of game time.

Said wizard apparently ditched Escher before the mission was successful. Escher, against all odds, actually succeeded anyway. Probably because Doru was starving, Escher wasn't, and that particular church was about as consecrated as the average public bathroom.

Around Christmas, they got a quick reveal of how some of Ireena's past lives died. Of particular interest (or benefit) was Victoria, a Vallakian mage who froze to death on Mount Baratok after her spell slots ran out and she still hadn't figured out anywhere better to go. They copied a few spells from her spellbook.

I took a fair few liberties with Ireena's backstories.

Victoria's full story went something like this:

Victoria was part of one of the then-slightly-more-numerous noble families of Vallaki, the Voltanescu family. She was adopted at a young age with no knowledge of where she came from before the age of, like, five. This is Barovia. That isn't too weird. The Voltanescu family lost little opportunity to ensure a close friendship between their daughter and Vaclav Vallakovich, ancestor of the current generation. The friendship was genuine; the two had similar personalities and interests. When Vaclav discovered a book outlining the basics of magic, the two studied together and reinvented the wheel on a number of different spells. It was clear to anyone with half a brain that these two were going to become a power couple and might actually do Good Shit for Vallaki.

Then Vasili von Holtz arrived in town. It's a little strange how quickly the Voltanescu opinion changed from "Victoria should marry Vaclav as soon as it wouldn't be weird to hold a wedding" (probably around age 15-16, since, well, Barovia) to "Victoria should marry this new guy from a family we can't quite place who claims he works in Castle Ravenloft". By many accounts, it made no fucking sense.

Victoria seemed rather taken with Vasili, for a while. But the feelings wore off on her end all too quickly, as Victoria was too smart (and too skilled at magic, by then) to not realize what was going on. Unfortunately, Vasili had been rather thorough. Things were ruined between her and Vaclav and Victoria had no doubt that Vasili would damage Vallaki if she did anything against him outright. Victoria tried to flee to Krezk, since at least it was further away and might buy time for her to think of something, but the town refused to let her in. She headed for the mountains instead and didn't survive. Strahd was never sure what became of her, since he has never found any of Tatyana's remains, but he figured out that she was Super Dead when her next incarnation turned up.

...and now Vaclav, naturally reincarnated as Doru, is vampire spawn under Strahd's control. Strahd charmed Ireena during her visit to Ravenloft, but he almost didn't need to when Ireena realized Vaclav's situation. Just to twist the knife, Vaclav might have been the only person Tatyana's ever actually fallen in romantic love with. Sergei was just trying to get his brother to leave her alone.

The party is aware that:

They have no way of differentiating between a free-willed true vampire and vampire spawn.

Doru has part life memories that seem to line up with Ireena's.

Ireena knows this.

Ireena hates that they had to leave Doru at Ravenloft.

Ireena's drives at present:

She still does not want to marry Strahd under any circumstances.

She does not want to be a vampire.

She doesn't want to lose Doru.

The third drive might outweigh 1 and 2. The only problem is that she doesn't have a good way to free Doru and the idea of Strahd controlling him is just as repulsive to Ireena as the idea of Strahd controlling Victoria was to Vaclav. If she got confirmation that Doru either wasn't spawn or that any true free-willed vampire could free any vampire spawn, that would dramatically change her behavior.

It would also probably doom her, since the point of Barovia is that Strahd Cannot Win. No matter how close he gets, Tatyana will always die.

Of course... it might be good for the story if Tatyana doesn't survive this time either...