GM musings, UA GreyHawk initiative

The Unearthed arcana article on the grayhawk style initiative system has been out a while. I've had time to let it roll around in my head. I think it's an interesting idea, I'm not totally against using it....but I'm not totally sold on it.

I think what really bothers me about it is lowest going first. It feels so counter intuitive. All of 5E is roll high. Maybe if I used it regularly I would I would get us to it.

My only analogy for how rolling low for initiative feels to me is if I was driving, and at every intersection there was a roundabout, and in roundabouts you drove in the opposite side of the road. You drive on the same side before the roundabout, same side after, but while in it, you drive in the opposite direction in the opposite lane.

After a lot of mulling it over I came up with what for me feels much more organic to 5E. Everyone rolls a D10 (D20 if you like but I feel d10 makes the bonuses more meaningful) highest roll goes first.

Ranged weapons, including bows, wands, cantrips and any other ranged fast attacks get a +6. Melee attack, fisticuffs, Molly whopping of any kind gets a +3. Spell casting is just a standard roll.

As a totally optional rule, for  this totally optional rule: If player chooses to move after their action, no matter if the choose to shoot, Molly whop, or cast add +2. Moving before the action doesn't give a bonus or penalty.

What I like about this is it can be recorded on the character sheet. Add bonus for type + Dex adj.(if you choose to keep Dex bonus)= Initiative bonus. Long sword with a +2 Dex adj.? Then +5 to initiative.

D&D 5E in its 4th year.

It's hard for me to believe D&D 5E is in it's 4th year. My players and myself really got excited with it's launch. We did the Next play test. When basic dropped we played it. When the core books came out we grabbed them up. We like the system alright. We like the way characters advance and how paths give a nice level of customization.

The core three books is where my excitement ends. I've come to the realization that I'm not the target audience for 5E. I don't run campaign books whole cloth but rather mine them for ideas. Full color hardbound art books sold as campaign books are not for me.

I've picked up a couple, namely Curse and yawning. Curse because Ravenloft was my thing back in the day. And yawning anthology format seemed like it could be useful. Also some of those classic Adventures are worth a look. Xanathar's might be worth a look.

As of right now there is no setting books. Sword coast is as close as we have and it's just a players guide to a setting that really doesn't exist yet in 5E.

Rather than have an actual forgotten realms we are just told with every product how to shoehorn it into the realms. Or we are told to use the product in any number of other settings not out for 5E but only fleshed out in older edition products. Not sure how this format is in any way new player friendly. Which is I guess where the campaign books come in. It just feels so empty and soulless. It's just generic fantasy tropes.

At this point Adventures in middle earth by cubicle 7 has been out for less than a years. Yet has more books made or in the works for 5E that I want. More than wizards has that interests me. The Adventures are part of a larger world, the locations are interconnected places. The feel and tone are the same, not a bunch of disconnected campaign books that "can be dropped in any campaign world you like" even though their tone and settings have nothing in common like all the wizards campaign books.

In the end all I can say is that 5E clearly isn't for me. It's not marketed or intended for me. The longer it's out the clearer it gets. I'm pretty sure from here on out I'll be more interested in 3rd party publishers and their products.

All that said the rules are solid and is a staple in my group. I'll continue to run it as long as my players want to play it.

Adventures in Middle Earth player's guide review

I finally made my way through the players guide. It's been a crazy month with very little time to do a single read through. A few sections got a twice over. While other chapters got a quick scan.

While I'm no Tolkien scholar, I am a big fan. I'm now also a very big fan of this book. After reading through I really want to run this.

First off the book clearly has a setting. It's set firmly between the Hobbit and LotR. There is information on the people who follow Beorn known as the Beornings. As well as Bard leading his people north to rebuild Dale. It's really laid out well and good at explaining the time between the major events in the books.

The Cultures, which replace races are really done well. I find enough in them to encourage players and support different story possibilities. The cultures of man are the Bardings, Beornings, Dundain, men of Bree, men of the lake, men of Minas Tirith, Riders of Rohan, and the Woodman of wildland. The non-human cultures are Dwarves of the lonely mountain, Elves of Mirkwood, and the Hobbits of the Shire.

The Classes, of the six classes provided none are magic users. The scholar has some healing abilities and some trick abilities but nothing like the spells of 5E D&D. I like the variety of classes available. They really do cover the spectrum without too much overlap. The classes include Scholar, Slayer, Treasure hunter, Wanderer, Warden, and warrior.

The next section of the book is Virtues. Virtues are in essence feats. While a few (5) virtues are open and allowed by anyone the rest of them are Cultural specific. I find 5E feats truly superior to the version in eirlier editions. I find the ones in this game even superior to those in the 5E players book. Flavorful and specific to the people of each culture.

Backgrounds in AiME is less what job you once did, and more who your character is at its core. Part personal story and part archetype.

The equipment section is pretty basic yet  inclusive. Included in the equipment is a section or cultural heirlooms, which can be gained through story or Virtues.

Something new and interesting added to the rules is Journeys. This is a phase where the players plan out a route. And the number of perils will be found along the way. Players assign roles to characters and roll to see how well the party does on the travel. The journey will also include encounters both fellowship and combat along the way.

Some rules added by AiME is a new Ability called Shadow and some added skills. Shadow is taint of the dark forces. It's both the mark of dark influence and a measure or sanity, as the darkness clouds the mind of the effected.

After finishing the read through I was listening to someone review another game describing it was "not just another Tolkien based fantasy". And it hit me how un-tolkien like most fantasy is. Middle earth is actually a very dark and dangerous place. Middle earth is a very low magic when placed next to any version of D&D. It's full of personal horror and corruption, well intending people who do evil trying to do greater good. And stories of the lowliest of people rising to the occasion, overcoming the greatest evils. This to me IS what I want in a setting.

I've seen a few people talk about using things from AiME to run other low magic settings. One idea I would like to add to that is everything written in The Hobbit and LotR is set in roughly 1/6 of the total land of one of two continents of Tolkien's world. It would be just as easy to introduce other material to the AiME world.

Ideas for stealing from D&D to add to your AiME game. Goliaths could be men of the north, living north of the grey mountains for 1000s of years. Genasi are elves who originate from the northern undieing lands, from the region that are elemental touched. Eladrin are elves who have lived in the southern undieing lands who are closer to elf magic. Drow are elves touched by the shadow who moved to the land east of Rhûn. There is a lot of room on Tolkien's map not fleshed out.

5E D&D Optional rules

This is a small list of optional rules I'm using in my current 5E D&D game. If we add more I'll update.

1. If players can take extra time and are not in eminent danger players can choose to "take 10". Taking 10 as their d20 skill roll rather than rolling.

2. Players can choose to apply either proficiency bonus or proficiency dice roll. Their choice.

3. On a critical hit in combat apply maximum damage for the weapon (8 on a d8) then roll the damage die and add it before adding bonuses.

4. When players would normally roll hit points (on a new level or healing) and/or weapon damage die they may instead choose to take the average roll instead of rolling.

5. Players may choose for their characters to fail at something rather than rolling to add a complication to the story. If they do so they gain inspection.

6. Optional rules that seem assumed but I'm not using. No multi-classing. And characters are limited to two feats, three for variant humans.

"Paint the target" New sniper ability for Ultramodern5

Inspired by the Tau from Warhammer 40k I thought this might be a good ability for a sniper to have. If you had two, one could be a spotter allowing the second to take full advantage of this ability as well as the rest of the team. This is intended for sci-fi settings mainly.

Paint the target
Marksman cost: 4
Instead of doing damage the sniper instead paints (marks) the target. This mark is compatible with smart weapons and advanced targeting systems. Once marked the target stays marked until the end of the snipers next turn.

Marked targets get no AC benefit from light cover or cover from obstructed view. And shooters get no penalties for low light. If the marked target is in plain sight attacks gain advantage. This applies to all attacks that can take advantage of the snipers mark.

Lich servants (Grave servitors)

These servants of the Lich Lords are not fully dead, yet not fully alive either. Held between worlds, these once mortal beings are Lich bound for eternity.

Medium Humanoid/undead, any evil alignment (usually that of their master)

AC: 15 (Natural)
HP: 50
SPD: 30ft.
CR: 4 (1,200 exp)

Str: 13 +1
Dex: 14 +2
Con: 16 + 3
Int: 11 +0
Wis: 14 +2
Cha: 13 +1

Damage resistance: cold, lightning, necrotic, and poison. Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non magical weapons.
Condition immunity: Charmed, exhausted, frightened, paralyzed, and poisoned.
Saving throws: Con+8, Dex+6, Wis+3
Passive perception: 16, truesight 60'

The servitor of a Lich lord always carry a wraith blade, usually a long sword but can be anything from a dagger to a great sword. Any attack with a wraith blade that hits on a natural 16+ does an additional (10) 3d6 cold damage. And must make a DC 10 Con save or be paralyzed for one minute. The target can attempt a saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end this effect.

Ultramodern5 Review

From the launch of 5th I hoped a modern version of the rules would be released.

What ultramodern5 offers is so much more than just converted and reskined 
D&D races, classes, and backgrounds.

The meat and potatoes of this product is the character build options, so I'll mostly be focused on that. I think anyone looking for a review will be wanting more details on those options.

There is a section for equipment, adventuring, and antagonists. There is also adventures included at the end of the product and even sample chapters.

Characters in Ultramodern5 are comprised of Race, Lifepath, Ladders, and Classes. This is why I find Ultramodern5 so special, it's sheer number of character options.

While everyone is assumed human there is still a system for benefits and shortcomings to add some diversity from character to character.

Lifepaths are a reworking of backgrounds, to include a way of life and social standings. 

There are 11 backgrounds to choose from.

Ladders are how a character lives it's life. They are optional abilities characters can gain in the place of magic or other powers for non- fantasy settings. Any ladder can be mixed with any class. There are 7 total ladders. The ladders are born leader, juggernaut, runner, savant, survivor, veteran, and warrior.

Classes are about what you would expect,  there are 10 classes. They are Face, Grounder, Gunslinger, Heavy, Infiltrator, Marshal, Martial artist, Medic, Sniper, and Techi.

Classes are then again defined further with 24 archetypes. Archetypes are not tied to specific class, if a character meets all the requirements they can take the archetype. The archetypes are anti-hero, authority, banner head, brawler, brother of blood, cleaner, country gunman, diplomat, driver, field machinist, field medic, grandmaster, gun dancer, infantry support specialist, machine of war, man at arms, militarist, pathfinder, pistolero, recon intelligence, ring fighter, sapper, selfless protector, skirmisher, and suave.

The sheer number of combinations is brilliant. For two players to end up with exactly the same character it has to be on purpose.

While I'm at it I would like to address a criticism I've seen for UM5. That some weapons, specifically guns don't do enough damage. I want to chime in here. 

How UM5 handles guns is that training is what makes guns dangerous. Anyone can fire a sniper rifle, a trained sniper is always deadly with a good rifle. Not just do I appreciate this and find it to my taste I feel it's right for a class based system. Also it's right for a game based on D&D, anyone can use a dagger, but a rogue with a dagger is deadly. Class abilities build on core damage.

If you wish to pick up a copy of Ultramodern5 you can pick it up here. I was not in anyway compensated or approached to review this product. I'm not even an rpgnow.com affiliate. Just for the record.

Making D&D basic more basic.

I really like running D&D 5th edition with just the free basic rules. I find it to be a simple elegant set of rules in and by itself.
Adding the occasional background or other options from the full rules set for flavor.

But I've been thinking, can I make basic D&D even more basic? Can I trim even more fat? I believe I can, here is how.

I propose dropping skills all together. That's right, no skills. Instead characters get their proficiency bonus to all rolls. Proficiency is the characters power level and experience. Like old school D&D weapons are restricted to your class proficiency weapons.

When characters make a roll that involves the characters background in any way, the character has advantage for the roll. If the character makes a roll appreciate to their class, they have advantage.

I haven't tried this yet. But I hope to soon.

Mini review: Cross planes material for 5E D&D

I have been a long time follower of the cross planes blog and the plethora of work done by Mr. Mark craddock. His ability to grasp so many systems and make some of the most fun conversions always impresses me. I was glad to see he has made a few entries into the Dungeon master's guild.

These 5E character offerings are:
Dahmpires (race)
Goff (race)
Monster hunter (class)
The celestrial (warlock patron)
Mind mage (sorcerous Origin)
Tesseract (martial archetype)
Way of the Telekinetic (monk tradition)

Deities and Domains volumes 1&2, specialty priests of the forgotten realms (feats)

PDF's available here

I really enjoyed reading through them all, my favorite is the Dahmpire, but then I was pretty sure I would like that one.

The Giff, looks fun and different. Not often you hear of a hippopotami player race.

The monster hunter is perfect for my needs, will fit into my Ravenloft campaign nicely.

The celestial is now my favorite warlock patron, first time I ever thought a paladin warlock duel class could make sense to me.

I love that the mind mage, Tesseract, and Telekinetic are all psionis based characters, yet all three are distinct but feel very much part of the same psionic force. Each harnesess their power to their own abilities.

Though the two I think I will find the most useful are the Dieties and domains. Especially when using the sword coast's adventure guide. Nice to have the priests of the Faerünian pantheon laid out in usable feats. Or as I will, mine them for my own setting.

I look forward to seeing more from this very prolific author.

Return of the healing surge (5E D&D)

Hit dice are a resource, something I want the players to have to manage, to weigh the pros and cons of every use. As is there is really only one choice that matters, and that is how many to use during a rest.

I propose a second option. Hit dice can be used during battle, but only a single use per battle, take what you roll that doesn't add Con mod to the roll. It's worse than a rested use, and it's a limited resourse. Great for when you don't know if you will live til the next rest. But something you might regret when the chips are down and you have burned through all your hit die.

Duel class, duel backgrounds, Batman (5E)

One of my players and I happen to be talking about backgrounds in 5E. How they add flavor even if they are pretty narrowly focused.

Somehow the conversation went the direction of playing more experienced characters who were not necessarily more skilled at their class. How two backgrounds might be even more fitting than a duel class. Or might even compliment a duel class.

As these conversations often do this one turned to comic books for a frame of reference. Specifically Batman. If batman at the start of his time as the man bat was a D&D character how would he be best represented?

So here is my quick and dirty conversation batman build. I would start him off as level 2: 1 Rogue, 1Fighter (fighter being his class) with both the Criminal and Noble backgrounds. While growing up with as a young noble the murder of his parents consumed him. Disguising himself he sought out those that could train him in the ways of stealthful fighting and ways of the underworld.

Running 5E D&D using the siege engine.

Can the siege engine that powers castles and crusades be used to run 5E D&D?

I belive it can very easily. First assign prime attributes. One by class, second by choice.

Second ignore proficiency bonus (except for combat, more on this later).

If a player rolls on a skill he has add his level. Otherwise just d20+ability mod.

Proficiency bonus is now strictly to hit bonus for all classes.

Thats really it.

Now here is a twist:
Prime attributes add level to rolls.
Having a skill or not decides the difficulty of all rolls. 18 for not having a skill, 12 if you have it.

Assassin's blades (5E D&D)

The Assassin's balade is a cestus that looks like a heavy leather glove with three small blades protruding from the nuckles. Fashioned with tips specifically designed to pierce deep into it's target.

Some are designed to leave the blades behind after use. Leaving the blades deep in the wounds.

These blades are crafted by artisans of the Raven house guild of assassins. They are fine crafted and well balanced.

Assassin's blades 1d4 Piercing light, finesse.

+2 to all concealment rolls.

Mages Bow, Elven (5E D&D)

This well crafted elven bow acts as a +1 longbow in anyone's hands.

In the hands of a wizard it has an even deadlier side. Requires attunment by a mage for full effect. 

As the name of the bow is whispered into the string and the string is drawn an arrow of pure energy appears. Damage is that of a longbow but the damage type is radient.

If the wizard gives up a spell slot as the radiant arrow is fired some effects can be added. Only one spell slot can be expended on a single attack.

Level 1+ spell slot, treat the shot as a fired from a +2 bow.

Level 1+ spell slot, the damage type becomes the type of damage chosen by the wizard.

Level 2+ spell slot, add intelligence modifier to damage.

Level 3+ spell slot, gain advantage on the attack roll.

Palladium style Armor for 5E D&D.

The armor rule in the 5th edition of D&D is by far my favorite of any edition of D&D. Though there is one system that I can't help but love. The Palladium armor rules grew from house rules of older editions of D&D. I want to do the reverse and see how I would handle a Palladium style system within the frame of D&D 5E.

I want to keep this system very simple so to be upfront about this. I'm going for the feel, while still keeping things simple. I have no interest in realism or direct porting from one system to the next. I'm also doing my best not to throw off the math. It will add more granularity to armor, Which is not everyone's cup of tea. This is totally untested, for now. So here we go.

Armor now has its own hit point pools.
All light armor has a base of 25hp.
All medium armor has a base of 40hp.
All heavy armor has a base of 50hp.
Obviously none standard materials could add or subtract from the base pool of hit points.For example a breast plate made from bone might have only 30hp, While one made from the Dwarven great forge could have 50 or more hit points.

Armor has an AR rating. AR is equal to original AC of the armor plus any Dex bonus it originally had.

Base to AC is now 5 + Dex bonus.

So for example:
 Athen the bard has a Dex bonus of +2 and is wearing leather armor. His armor would be:
Leather armor, AC 7, AR 13, 25hp.

Dillan the warrior with a dex bonus of +2 and wearing chain mail would be:
Chainmail, AC 7, AR 16, 50hp

Any roll of the AC or lower is a total miss. A roll greater than AC but less that AR is a hit to the armor, damage is rolled and deducted from the armors HP. Any roll greater than AR is a hit to the character directly and deducts from the characters HP as normal.

Once armor looses its last hit point it is useless and must be repaired or replaced. And the player looses the AR value all together. I'm sure GMs could allow armoring rolls to repair armor allowing armor to regain some or all of its hitpoints back.

This can also add granularity to well crafted items. For example maybe Dwarven armor has more hit points. While Elven steel is so light it adds more to base AC. And Human Fine craft adds to AR bonus.

Proficiency (Hacking) D&D 5E

I'm really loving the modular nature of the 5E D&D system. The great thing about modular systems is the ability to remove or change parts of the system. Sometimes to "fix" a part of the system. Sometimes it's to mold the system to get "the right feel" for a given campaign.

One such part of the 5E D&D system is the proficiency system. It would be very easy to customize it to taste. One could change out skills or even expand or restrict the number of proficient skills based on class, race, or background and not unbalance the game.

I'm also a very big fan of the DMG optional rule of being proficient in some abilities scores rather than skills. Much like my beloved Castles and crusades. Would be just as easy to also add proficiency bonus to any roll that just "makes sense" based on the characters Race, Class, or Background.

If you wanted to run a simplified (even more simple) version of Basic D&D you could ditch skills and just add Proficiency bonus to all rolls and just use that and ability bonuses. giving a +2 bonus to any roll that is covered under the class of the character, Like a rogue picking locks or moving silent.

Some may even like the DMG optional rule of rolling a die rather than use a proficiency bonus. This too has some potential for hacking. For example, rather than adding bonuses for class or other sources you could give a type of advantage/disadvantage by allowing more than one Proficiency die to be rolled. Picking the the best or worst one rolled.

Using the system to run modern of future games would be very easy. After all it's easy for me to treat a computer use as a tool proficiency. Using a car could be as well, after all  piloting a boat is in D&D.

There are so many ways to make the system 'your' system. Proficiency is a big part of the over all 5E system. Nothing would add more flavor or customization than hack the proficiency system.

Speciality arrows

The Ranger (Hunter) in my group would like some variety in his arrows. I didn't want to get to complicated so I tried to keep it simple.

Piercers: piercers are made for penetrating heavy armor. The heads are narrow and do not cause the trauma that arrows with broader heads do. Reduce the die type by 1 (d8 becomes d6). Lower the AC of medium armor by 1 and lower heavy AC by 2.

Broad head: These arrows are broader than standard arrow heads. Most commonly used for hunting they sometimes have use in battle.
Broad head arrows cause slashing damage rather than piercing. Raise the damage type by 1 (d6 becomes d8). Raise the AC by 1 on all targets.

Bladed: These arrows are more utility than weapon. Shapes range from fan to "U" shaped. Bladed arrows do slashing damage. Bladed arrows get a +2 for hitting small (none combat) targets and trick shots. +2 to all AC vs Bladed arrows.

Thumper: also called stun arrows used as a utility arrow or none lethal alternative. Thumper arrows do 1d4 bludgeon damage. Target hit by a thumper must make a Con save vs 10 (15 for called shot to the head) On a failed save the target is disadvanyaged till the beginning of its next turn. On a save roll of 4 or less the target is stunned.

This is still a work in progress. I need to play test and work out the math a bit more, especially the thumper save. I had the idea to do barbed arrows that would do damage when trying to remove it. But couldn't think of a simple way I liked.

Magic weapon damage in 5E.

Thinking lately about weapons imbued with magic. And about how 5E handles resistance, immunity, and vulnerability. I had the idea of adding a damage die. Mostly because I feel a sword should still do its damage type as well as magic. Rather than all of its damage as a magical type.

For example, a flaming sword. Rather than doing all fire damage. The damage roll adds 1d4 of fire damage. Any resistance, immunity, or vulnerabilities to fire applies to only the d4 and not the sword damage die.

The to hit bonus would determine how powerful the weapon. Which would determine the die size of magical damage. +1 would equal a d4, +2 a d6, and +3 to a d8. Anything greater is religated to greater monster abilities and/or Arifacts.

Specializing and double specialized in 5E

I must admit that I love how proficiency works in 5E, simple and lite. With wiggle room like the Rogues the two skills they get to double their proficiency bonus on.

This got me thinking about additional training with regards to proficiency. I don't want to steal the rogues thunder and give other classes that big of a boost to skills, but having a rule for additional training would be nice. It could also be used in instances where the character gets the same skill from two different sources like say class and background.

I'm planning a game which will use only the (free) basic rules and some home brew subclasses. In that game I'm going to try out these house rules.

All characters at creation can pick out one skill to be specialized in. This skill nets an additional +1. If two character options give the same skill twice, that skill also becomes specialized and gains a +1. If the skill gained twice is also chosen as the one specialized skill then that skill is double specialized and gets a +2 instead. These bonuses all stack with proficiency bonus.

I'll see how this works.

Running Cyberpunk with 5E D&D?

Ive seen a few posts around the net about using guns in 5e D&D. Mention of black-powder as well as modern. So it got me thinking, what would be that absolutely simplest plug and play way to run something like Cyberpunk. Just plug and play and run. So here is a quick shot at it.

Street Samurai
HD:D10, primary:Str, Dex.
Save:Dex,Wis.
Armor proficiency: Light, Med, Hvy armor.
Weapon Proficiency: Pistols, SMGs, Rifles, Hvy support.
Tools: Gunsmith.
Skills: choose any three.
Start with 4 contacts.

 Face
HD: D6, primary: Cha, Wis.
Save: Cha, Int.
Armor proficiency: Light armor.
Weapon Proficiency: Pistol, Rifle.
Tools: Disguise, forgery.
Skills: choose 6.
Start with 6 contacts.

Techi (Hacker)
HD: D6, primary: Int.
Save: Int.
Armor proficiency: Light armor.
Weapon Proficiency: Pistol.
Tools: CyberDeck.
Skills: Choose 6.
Start with 4 contacts.

All firearms have a crit range of 19-20.

Basic pistol 1d8 piercing, 100/800 double tap

SMG  1d8 piercing  100/600 double tap, spray

Rifle 1d10 piercing 400/1000  2-handed

Assault Rifle 1d10 piercing 400/800 double tap, spray, 2handed

Shotgun  1d12/1d6 piercing  30/200, 2handed

HMG 1d10 piercing spray, spray2, heavy, 2handed.

Double tap: take two attacks against the same target, do not add dex bonus to either shot just proficiency is it applies.

Spray: releasing a burst of rounds at a target. every possible target within 5' of the initial target must make a Dex save or take weapon damage. initial target of the attack takes an additional 1d10 on a failed save.

Spray2: Attacker picks a spot to attack, all targets within a 10' must make a Dex save or take x2 weapon damage, normal weapon damage on a successful save. Any roll 5 greater than the save DC take no damage.

DC of a firearm attack is 10+proficiency(if applies)+Dex adj of attacker.

Light Armor: as Studded leather.

Medium Armor: as Breastplate.

Heavy Armor: as Splint.