I really like rangers, in theory. But like many folks, I have found the published ranger designs for 5e to be a bit… off? Some say weak or unbalanced, some say ineffective or irrelevant to actual campaign styles. Whatever it is, it bugged me enough to take a swing at designing a class that might scratch that ranger itch for me. And as you’ve noticed from the title of this post, my ranger is a fighter.
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Yesterday I DM’d a one-shot with my wife, two daughters, and my dad using a little homebrew system I made the day beforehand. It went really well! The system was easy to use and everyone said they had fun, so I’d call that a win. I’ll keep noodling with it before I think about posting it, but so far it seems pretty good for getting a bunch of noobies having fun quickly.
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Elric, rebel sorcerer and albino outcast, would-be emperor and reluctant servant of Chaos, continues his wayward journey across his strange world, trying to learn new virtues and ideas of justice before he returns home to take his rightful place on the Ruby Throne of Melnibone. While fleeing from enemies, he climbs aboard a foreign ship full of unusual men, including three warriors who are mystically bound to him, claiming to all be the same Eternal Champion, but from different times and places. The ship is captained by a blind man through a perpetual fog across different planes of existence, until they arrive where Fate requires them to be.
So…that’s a pretty interesting setup. What follows are several semi-connected tales of exploration, adventure, friendship, and betrayal that largely define Elric as a…tragic hero? anti-hero? anti-villain? It’s complicated.
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I just re-watched the Castlevania animated series (which I enjoyed on many levels, yet again), and one of the characters that resonated with me this time was Hector. He is a human “forge-master” who creates undead monsters to fight for Dracula, but his character hook is that he is appalled by suffering. He may be helping Dracula to end the human race, but he doesn’t want it to be any worse than it needs to be. He just wants to be left in peace to play with his undead puppies. The other villains often say Hector is like a child, who needs to be managed and coddled, and lied to.
I really liked the idea of a person who loves animals, and hates suffering, and has a bunch of friendly undead puppies to play with. So in that spirit, I created the following spells for Necromancers in 5e. I think necromancy is underwhelming in that system, it has fewer spells than other magic schools, and the special abilities are very narrow and not terribly thematic.
So here are my new spells for friendly necromancers everywhere who would like to have more ghostly, ghoulish, or skeletal friends:
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Wizards of the Coast recently released new D&D playtest material (“Unearthed Arcana”) that included a “Rune Knight”. I really liked this concept, but I wasn’t terribly excited about the options and design flavor that they came up with. Their version is all about Giants and as a friend pointed out, it feels very Barbarian-ish. So I re-skinned the concept to make it more fighter-y. What do you think?
Continue readingSo, I am writing my new book, but it’s a little different from previous books. This one still has main characters and a main story, but I’m writing the book as a collection of short stories so you get to experience the plot from about 20 different points of view, and we explore some of the strangeness of this world from new perspectives.
The first sequence of the book centers on the wizard Malachi Draas. You might remember him from Beneath the Dying Land as the wizard who accidentally opened a few hellmouths in his search for the World Within and the road to the Cradle of Life. The new book opens with five stories about him and the people in his orbit as he begins his descent into the World Within.
#1 – Wizard. Malachi escapes from Sahar and wanders the desert alone.
#2 – Dusteater. A desert hermit has her first human encounter in years with the wizard.
#3 – Ghost. A dead man implores the wizard for help.
#4 – Paladin. A young warrior seeks justice for everyone the wizard has killed.
#5 – Outlaw. A thief tries to rob the wizard using his nightmares against him.
The next sequence of the book, Witch, will be along soon.
(This is story #5. Previous: “Paladin“.)
He waited until the wizard was alone.
The woman might have been his first choice, but then he saw her eyes. There was something dangerous about her. He couldn’t say what exactly, just that it put him off wanting to be alone with her. And he didn’t want to risk the strong one with the sword, for obvious reasons. But the little one in the black robes? Perfect target.
Continue reading(This is story #4. Previous: “Ghost“. Next: “Outlaw“.)
“We’re all gonna die!”
Amos grabbed the young soldier and hauled him back toward the flickering torch. “No, we’re not. Now run, for Gideon’s sake!”
The soldier scrambled back up the steep rocky tunnel, his bloodied sword clanging dully against the walls as he stumbled and gasped.
Amos glanced around one last time to make sure he had gotten the entire squad. One man had died, but the others were still alive and running back up the tunnel. Amos knelt by the one fallen soldier and studied his dirty face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. But I promise you will know justice, even in death.”
A screech and roar echoed up from the cavern below. Amos rose to his feet, lowered his visor, and lifted his shield. “By the might of Gideon!”
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Having conquered his upstart cousin and acquired the soul-devouring sword Stormbringer, young emperor Elric sets out to explore the world to learn wisdom and justice so he can transform his people from amoral decadents into virtuous paragons. But his journey does not start out well.
This is the second book in the linear progress of Elric’s story. Our hero is alone in the world, and while searching for the virtuous city of Tanelorn he stumbles upon the corrupt city of Quarzhasaat instead. Deprived of his healing herbs and not having devoured any souls recently, fragile Elric stumbles out of the desert and lies dying in a hovel, tended by an opportunistic boy named Anigh.
Definitely not a good start.
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