Tag: D&D

Fantasy Timespans III – Yes, the Fight to the Death Is a Symbol for High School

On By AnathemysIn D&D Homebrew, Miscellany, Race, SubraceLeave a comment

Welcome back! My last post on fantasy lifespans ended up running a bit long, ironically enough. So here’s the second half of my breakdown of what I, personally, use to explain away the various different “coming of age” ages for different fantasy races. Last time we explored a bit of the problem and then looked at the elves, one of the most troublesome species given the sheer length of their “childhood” century.

This time around, however, we’re going to look at some of the shorter long-lived species: the dwarves, the halflings, and the gnomes. We’re also going to take a short look at shorter lifespan species like the orcs and dragonborn, to help make their maturity progressions a bit better.

With that said, let’s begin with…

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Fantasy Timespans II – Coming of Age at 50 Years Old

On By AnathemysIn D&D Homebrew, Miscellany, Race, SubraceLeave a comment

After what certainly feels like ten thousand years, let’s look at the other side of the “timespans” problem in fantasy – namely the increased lifespans of many fantasy races when compared with humans.

This is a continuation on our discussion on the absurdity of “ten thousand years” as a timespan, but it can easily be understood on its own.

So without even more ado, let’s begin!

(This post is appropriate for all ages unless you’re a dragonborn – in which case if you’re under age 10 you might not be able to read. I guess?)

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Homebrew Introspective – Cursed Sorcerer

On By AnathemysIn Brewer's Tools, D&D Homebrew, SubclassLeave a comment

Today we’ll be looking at the Cursed Sorcerer. The intent here was to have a sorcerer whose magic came from an old curse put on their family, which they then took advantage of in order to gain power.

I like the theming, and I like the narrative. The mechanics? Not so much.

And as much as I’d love to crack a joke about this creation being cursed, I can’t really justify that. It just has some issues, that’s all.

 

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Late Review – The Complete Priest’s Handbook

On By AnathemysIn D&D Homebrew, Late ReviewsLeave a comment

I was quite excited to get The Complete Priest’s Handbook when I first found it. From what I had gathered, it was a bit of a… controversial book. Not in topic (though in hindsight maybe it should have been), but rather in something very near and dear to almost every tabletop RPG player:

Balance (or lack thereof).

Let’s take a look at The Complete Priest’s Handbook, then, and see what’s going on. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll learn why it is generally speaking not a good idea for a single book to include over sixty new character options.

Reading this was a slog.

 

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DM Me – Tears of the Kingdom

On By AnathemysIn DM Me, MiscellanyLeave a comment

Me and my wife both loved Breath of the Wild. For me, it represented everything I wanted to feel after the soul-crushing experience which was attempting to beat Skyward Sword. And so when they announced a sequel, there was a lot of excitement at my house. The cat was concerned.

And ultimately, I really like Tears of the Kingdom. The gameplay is super fun, the exploration has been massively improved thanks to the addition of caverns to discover, and the fact that the game lets me build a fully-functional tank in a Zelda game is simply delightful.

So why am I writing an article about it? Because 1) it’s my website and I decide what gets written, 2) there are some tangentially related to tabletop RPG things to talk about, and 3) the game’s narrative struck me as profoundly disappointing.

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Late Review – The Complete Book of Necromancers

On By AnathemysIn D&D Homebrew, Late ReviewsLeave a comment

Welcome back to the Late Review, which is both much sooner after the last one than normal and somehow simultaneously a little bit late!

In any case, I decided to look at The Complete Book of Necromancers after finishing up the review of Al’Qadim: Arabian Adventures primarily because I didn’t want to spend too much time being negative. So I chose a book I knew I liked, because that would fix it, right?

And then I proceeded to rag on Lords of Darkness for seventeen years and now here we are.

But still, The Complete Book of Necromancers is an excellent supplement. And, for the most part, this post will focus on that. Because this book deserves praise – it is, simply put, excellent.

 

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Late Review – The School of Nekros (Dungeon Magazine #27)

On By AnathemysIn D&D Homebrew, Late ReviewsLeave a comment

I’ve recently been reading through The Complete Book of Necromancers for my next Late Review. One section, covering necromancer organizations, called out a specific example from Dungeon magazine #27 as being a perfect example of the “necromancer group” concept.

As far as I can remember, I’ve never seen any published book mention one of the D&D magazines (Dragon or Dungeon) except as the source of a spell or item used in the published work. This is the first pure “recommended reading” mention, so I decided to look into it.

We’ll come back to The Complete Book of Necromancers next time – because right now, it’s time to talk about A++ adventure module, “The School of Nekros.”

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Homebrew Introspective – The Council Warlock

On By AnathemysIn Brewer's Tools, D&D HomebrewLeave a comment

Welcome back to the Introspective, where I tear apart years-old homebrew in the pursuit of game design understanding. It’s also all my own work, so don’t feel bad about the poor creator of the work – he’s the same one doing the tearing-down in the first place.

Today we’ll be looking at the Council Warlock, one of my more contentious homebrews. Narratively there was the whole “mortal creatures as a Patron” thing, while mechanically it ran afoul of the age-old “INT vs. CHA” argument for the warlock class.

And I think there’s interesting points to make about both. So let’s begin, shall we?

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Late Review – Al’Qadim, Arabian Adventures (Part 2)

On By AnathemysIn Brewer's Tools, D&D Homebrew, Late ReviewsLeave a comment

Last time, we looked at the entirety of Al’Qadim: Arabian Adventures except for one thing. Today, we look at that one thing: the sha’ir.

“Why wasn’t this a class? How is this a wizard?”

Those are the first of my notes from reading about the sha’ir. Things only went downhill from there. The sha’ir is maddening.

So without any further wait, let’s go!

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Late Review – Al’Qadim, Arabian Adventures (Part 1)

On By AnathemysIn D&D Homebrew, Late ReviewsLeave a comment

Welcome to the desert! This one is an odd thing to review. It’s kind of a setting book (like Eberron: Rising from the Last War) but it’s also not actually a distinct setting (since it’s located in the Forgotten Realms). But it also is sort of its own setting?

This one’s actually been metaphorically sitting on my desk for quite a while now, so it’s about time. And it’s a weird one for sure, but sill worth looking at.

Anyway, let’s check out Al’Qadim and quick. I originally planned to joke that WotC wouldn’t be bringing this one back any time soon, but with all their poor decisions recently… anything’s possible.

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