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.
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.
Continue reading “Late Review – The Complete Book of Necromancers”
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?
Continue reading “Homebrew Introspective – The Council Warlock”
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!
Continue reading “Late Review – Al’Qadim, Arabian Adventures (Part 2)”
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a character option here – more so due to coincidence than any conscious decision. Plus all that nonsense with the OGL is really not ideal. But all the same, I feel examining homebrews is an interesting way of looking deeper into the philosophy and mechanics of the game.
By examining my own homebrews, I can even ensure there won’t be any angry creators coming after me! So let’s take a look, shall we?
Continue reading “Homebrew Introspective – Generalist Wizard”
In the end, I really did want to go over some of the specific themes I had in mind while detailing The Living Dungeon, and so here we are! I wasn’t originally intending to do these so soon after the original articles, but I’m not in charge of the content pipeline. Come to think of it, I also don’t know who is in charge of it, or if it exists at all.
As a warning, this will include some body horror – the original iteration of this idea was intended to be an aberration-themed nightmare after all. But not all of them are. Just to make doubly sure, all the body horror options will actually have the words “body horror” in their section headers.
With all that out of the way, let’s dive right in!
Continue reading “Dungeon Designs – The Living Vault Addendum”
Welcome back to Dungeon Designs and our discussion of “The Living Vault” – a dungeon which aims to feel more alive than any other in existence. Last time, we went over the basic stats for the Living Vault as a creature and an active participant in players’ dungeon crawl. This time, though, we’re going to be focusing more on the actual “dungeon” aspects of this concept.
And don’t worry – anatomical expertise is not required because I sure don’t have any.
Continue reading “Dungeon Designs – The Living Vault, part 2”
Recently I’ve been brainstorming a new concept for a dungeon. Not for any particular reason – I just think it sounds cool. But I wanted to discuss it here to show off my method for making dungeons, which should be informative, entertaining, and/or horrifying.
That last option is primarily for people who have played in my games, who will presumably come away from this thinking “what the hell man, that’s how you came up with this nonsense?” To which I say… sometimes.
Other times I’m just sort of winging it.
Continue reading “Dungeon Designs – The Living Vault, part 1”
While “save-or-die” isn’t really what we’re talking about here, it sure makes for a catchy buzzword. But instead of that, we’ll be looking more generally at the evolution of the saving throw in general – from its humble and confusing beginnings to the modern day.
Also get the d20’s ready. When I say the old system is confusing, I mean like in the confusion spell. Hope you’ve got a good Wisdom save bonus.
Just as a note, it may take a year but by god do I follow up on my stupid title jokes.
In the past, I created a shadow magic wizard that focused on using quasi-real shadow illusions to fake evocation and conjuration spells. I did a couple revisions and planned on coming back to it, but ultimately I think its dead.
But the question remains… why? So today I’ll be taking a look at why shadow magic didn’t work, why it exists in the first place, and why it inherently doesn’t fit in modern Dungeons and Dragons.
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