Category: Playing D&D

Custom Backgrounds, classes, advice and more about Dungeons & Dragons

  • Fighter: Conscript, version 1.3

    Fighter: Conscript, version 1.3

    In general I’m fascinated with Tier 1 play. But there’s another trope that I enjoy — the old-timer who retreated from the life of adventure and war, but who for some reason gets called back into it. They’ve done their best to avoid violence. Instead violence seeks them out. The Fighter: Conscript (final name TBD) has seen things. Things no one else should see.

    When they get the call to return to their former life they are no longer concerned with having the best weapon and the best armor. Their wits and experience taught them that any tool can be used for any job.

    Design Goals

    With this subclass the desire was to build a character who attempted to retire from their life of violence. They still know how to fight, they just stopped. Then, for whatever the cause, they re-entered the realm of warfare. Most often this transition occurs when they are on their farm, in their tavern, working their forge.

    They use the weapons at hand and the armor of peasants, and yet fight like the mightiest warriors. The build should support the use of simple weapons and lesser armors with Strength being the primary stat.

    Fighter: Conscript

    You are a light fighter who once served as a conscript in a standing army or militia. While there you learned the horrors of war. You also learned how to survive. You fought with what was available. Then, the war ended.

    Now, you attempt to forget your past. Your neighbors may look at you as a hero or a villain. That depends on your behavior and their opinion of the forces for which you fought. You go about your days, an expert smith, carpenter, vintner, or other artisan.

    Recently you’ve felt the call. You are duty bound to pick up your sickle, spear, gambeson, and those well-worn boots again. Your people need help, and you are called to serve.

    Tough as Nails

    Starting at third level you may choose to use your Strength bonus to Armor Class rather than Dexterity when wearing any light armor or medium armor.

    Plowshares into Swords

    At third level you gain the following abilities as a reflection of your life after service.

    • You are proficient in improvised weapons.
    • When using simple or and improvised weapons you gain +1 to damage on a successful attack.
    • You gain proficiency in an Artisan’s Tool. If you are already proficient in an Artisan’s Tool you may instead choose to have expertise in that Tool.
    • When recovering spent ammunition you recover all of it, rather than half.

    Wise Beyond Years

    At seventh level you gain proficiency in Insight and Intimidation. If you already have one or both of these skills you may take any Wisdom skill instead.

    Heart of the Lion

    At tenth level you are noted for refusal to give up the fight. You have advantage on saving throws that would impose the following conditions: Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, or Stunned.

    Rally from Defeat

    At 15th level you inspire your teammates. When an ally within 30 feet fails a saving throw that causes damage you may use a reaction to grant them temporary hit points equal to your Fighter level + your Wisdom bonus and they may reroll the saving throw. They must accept the second result. Your ally must be able to hear you. This ability may be used proficiency bonus number of times per long rest.

    Bones of Steel

    At 18th level your Armor Class is adjusted by both your Strength and your Dexterity Bonus. This bonus is not subjected to a limit based on the armor. When you take damage you may use a reaction to spend a Hit Die to recover Hit Points as if you were taking a short rest.

  • Swarmkeeper of Terriers

    Swarmkeeper of Terriers

    Thoumas Javelot Kern of Aviceland is the first character built from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything I’ve taken for a spin in actual play. He is a Ranger: Swarmkeeper. With a background as a hunter (used fisher and reskinned) and a forest gnome, the only new rules in Tasha’s that took a spin were related to the Ranger.

    https://twitter.com/bedirthan/status/1333154759985950720

    Swapping in Deft Explorer, Favored Foe, Primal Awareness, and Thrown Weapon Fighting changed his flavor and story from the baseline Ranger quite a bit.

    The rules were also much simpler. Implementation of the new rules via VTT was simple (we played using Roll20). Deft Explorer reduces the need to negotiate with the DM about when/how to gain advantage on skill checks since you will have Expertise on one of the Ranger’s signature skills. Favored Foe means more dice for damage. It doesn’t combine well with most Ranger spells, but it gave a nice boost to the average damage done. Thrown Weapon Fighting let me hurl 3 daggers in a round, and when all hit the small damage of the weapon combined with Favored Foe and Gathered Swarm became significant. Flinging out 3d4 (daggers) + 1d6 (Favored Foe) + 1d6 (Gathered Swarm) + 6 (Thrown Weapon Fighting) + 12 (Dex) is a significant first round attack potential. Plus, lots of dice!

    Seven Things I Love in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

    More significant to me, was the fun of flavoring the Gathered Swarm. The connection to the fey spirits that are the swarm is what powers this subclass. How those appear is nearly infinite. The book suggests pixies, twig blights, birds, insects – do not limit yourself to those stories.

    Thoumas’ swarm appears as significant number of cairn terriers. They can do anything another swarm can do, because these are fey spirits. How they do it is up to the player. In play I described the swarm as abnormally playful (terriers are basically fey creations anyway), to include the way they fetched the thrown daggers after the combat (this is essentially Mage Hand, reskinned).

    There was also description of Thoumas reaching down to pet his swarm. They don’t exist except as spirits, except when they manifest, but the natural habit of his time with dogs in reality emerges frequently. He converses and experiences life as if these are real cairn terriers.

    Aviceland was created using the Village Generator

    Part of my build process for any character is to imagine where they are from and how they became heroes. It informs my play. Often using the Traits, Ideals, Bonds, Flaws from the chosen Background, the vision that emerges helps inform roleplay in the game.

    Personality Traits
    Rich folk don’t know the satisfaction of hard work.
    I am unmoved by the wrath of nature.
    Ideals
    Balance. Do not hunt the same spot twice in a row; suppress your greed, and nature will reward you. (Neutral)
    Bonds
    I will hunt the many famous forests of this land.
    Flaws
    I am inclined to tell long-winded stories at inopportune times.

    Thoumas is from a small village, and even then he lived on the outskirts, separated from the other families by a small wood out in the southeast corner of the map.

    He, and his family, hunted, but never over-hunted the region. The Kern clan of gnomes were tied to the land, working as a bridge between the people and the animals. This helped explain why he became a Ranger, eventually. As a gnome (or halfling) having a pack of terriers help the family just made sense. Pets are fun, both in real life and in gaming. Including working pets in the apocryphal world of D&D is something I do frequently.

    Overall, Thoumas felt as powerful as the other characters, but again, more important than the power was the story that could be told of this tiny man with a swarm of terriers serving him as an extra set of hands and even some pesky little biting.

  • What Tools Tell You About Your D&D Character

    What Tools Tell You About Your D&D Character

    Within Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything there is an optional rule that allows you to create a character that shifts their proficiencies around. No longer is every Dwarf a brewer, mason, or smith. No longer will every Elf know how to use a sword.

    The ability to swap these out lets you tell new stories through new mechanics. But the change to the game mechanics are quite minor. Half the classes already allow the weapons that the Dwarf and Elf start with in the Player’s Handbook, in this case many optimizers will take Tools in order to expand their skills.

    Yes, this expands the powers of certain combinations Race and Class. Frankly, ignore that tiny tic up in power.

    This optional rule in Tasha’s grants you the ability to expand the story of your character.

    Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

    Since your Dwarf didn’t grow up knowing masonry, but instead was a woodsman, what does Woodcarver’s Tools mean for them? Were they part of the crew that regularly left the caves of the fathers to harvest the massive trunks that became reinforcement for the great halls? Or were they just not raised among their people, instead taking their mother’s stone carving tools but applying those to the softer structure of wood to create art?

    Your High Elf that did not learn the sword and bow, maybe instead they have Coffee Gear and Insight, because they founded a cafe where they interacted with wizards, nobles, and adventurers. You aren’t a warrior by nature, instead you are someone who understands the people who go out and see the world beyond the city.

    Photo by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.com

    Like so much of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the mechanics by this decision do not create power creep – they fashion story creep. There are 25 tools, plus Gaming Sets and Musical Instruments. Your character that has more of these than typical or usual has reasons for these.

    As you generate new ways that your spells manifest (one of my favorite suggestions in Tasha’s) you should generate the reasons for your differing skill set from the classical presentations within your race. Whether it is all in your head, or a single line on your character sheet, a hint in the art you commission or draw, or an entire blog entry is up to you, the player.

    But it should be there, because the 1000 thousands of stories that can be told in any game session originate in the mechanics, but the mechanics aren’t the point – the story is.

  • 7 Things I Love in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

    7 Things I Love in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

    Tasha’s Cauldon of Everything is packed with new mechanics to add to the game. The expansion of racial options, which reduces but doesn’t eliminate the bioessentialism in D&D, and the new class options was the focus of most of the attention of previews. Now that the book is in the hands of the masses there a few other things that deserve your eyeballs, your character sheet, and your campaign.

    Wizards provides this handy list about how to get your handses [in voco Gollum] on the book, but we strongly recommend supporting your local gaming store. The main digital play tools all have Tasha’s at this time and are in various stages of integration for what is a massive update and reworking of character creation.

    Lean Into Personalization

    While every player-facing book in 5th edition talks about creating your character’s identity through minor reskinning of features, none go as heavy into this as Tasha’s. There aren’t just lists. Through the ample use of sidebars and even art, the designers make it clear that your character is yours, and how that character presents itself is up to you.

    The art with the chicken-shaped Magic Missiles is the most clear demonstration of this concept.

    I’m leaning into this with a Swarmkeeper Ranger whose swarm is a bunch of terriers. They can nip the opponent’s heals, overwhelm them and force them to move, pull me to safety, and even fetch my spent ammunition after the fight.

    Make the world yours, that’s what Tasha would do.

    Battle Master Builds

    The Fighter’s two non-magical subclasses from the Player’s Handbook can lack the identifying traits that connect them to fantasy literature in ways that every other subclass does. Tasha’s helps solve this by providing some sample builds for the Battle Master.

    Each example includes the fighting styles, maneuvers, and feats that help create a cohesive identity rather than have a character that is merely a collection of mechanics.

    With a sampling of those mechanics and about 50 words your Battle Master transforms into a representation of the legendary heroes of yore, that is uniquely yours.

    Session Zero

    Many, many, many blogs, vids, podcasts and articles over the decades have focused on Session Zero. Nowhere has the concept been laid out as clearly in a book produced by the maker of the game.

    Adding this guide to what will almost certainly be the 4th best selling book in the arsenal of official products will help so many people who want to try the game. New players and new DMs will have a foundation upon which to establish their own social contract.

    Sidekicks

    Puppy! Wait, no warrior-wolf.

    Scheduling play sessions during a global pandemic are a different struggle than they were in the Before Times. Getting a group together, using the same technology. In games with only 1 or 2 PCs having a sidekick can help solve the issues of game balance and limit the chances of a total party kill. They also fit the stories we try to tell.

    Here, again, the creators used art to provide examples of the variety of sidekicks that can be created through the three “classes.”

    The Expert shows up as a tortle scout/navigator, a winged kobold with some kind of charm, and a kenku historian/sage. The three versions of the Spellcaster are a bullywug wizard, a goblin mage (love that pink dress), and a tabaxi oracle with a pack of extra large scrolls. For the Warrior the art is of an aasimar with a sword & shield, a wolf, and a firbolg chef ready to smash someone with a cast iron pan.

    Class Icons

    Each of the 13 core classes (Artificer is in two books, it’s core now in my mind) has a icon that represents them. These small images are not new (they’re in the Player’s Handbook), they are just more obvious in their presentation within Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

    They’re a clean look that I hope to see on merch at some point. Many third-party D&D inspired jewelers and apparel companies use class iconography. There is no reason why Wizards shouldn’t embrace this as well.

    Parleying

    People have been homebrewing versions of this for years, but including it in such a common book is important. D&D is, at its core, a combat game. But it doesn’t have to be and more rules to demonstrate that are good.

    Hints, Allegations, Rumors of What’s to Come

    Hidden within Tasha’s in character conversations and the rules sidebars are a plethora of hints about the future of the game. All attempts to figure out what these mean will be futile fun. Search them all and you too can shout “[setting name] confirmed.”

    What are you looking forward to using from Tasha’s?

  • Uprising & Rebellion in a Magic Setting

    Uprising & Rebellion in a Magic Setting

    Oppressive governments are a staple of genre fiction. From Robin Hood to the Vlad Taltos series, from Thay to any place ruled by a Sorcerer-King in Athas – the tales of tyranny that must be overcome are common.

    An uprising is nearly impossible against these powers though. They have access to magics and personnel that make hiding difficult. Identifying who is in rebellion within a society that has the fantastic equivalent of an NSA, CIA, KGB, etc at the surface level seems easy. Yet, in our modern world with facial recognition and AI-infused communication monitoring there are still those who rise up against injustice.

    The following are how you make certain that a rebellion that starts like this

    Photo by Rene Asmussen on Pexels.com

    doesn’t end up like this?

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    Baseline D&D

    There are some tools to help the Dungeons & Dragons themed revolt within the standard rules.

    Illusion Spells

    Everything starts here, really. From something as simple as Disguise Self to the potent Seeming and Mislead the usages are obvious. They must still be stated and reviewed, lest we overlook the obvious.

    Enchantment Spells

    These go hand-in-hand with Illusion. Getting past the guard who recognizes you is key. Having a huge crowd be under Sympathy can turn the entire tide of the movement.

    Rogues and Bards

    These two classes are natural fits for revolution. A College of Whispers Bard can sneak into a castle or manor and learn the secrets of the realm. A College of Glamour will work the nobles The College of Lore will know the History of the peoples, helping define and refine the message of the group, as can Eloquence. The Colleges of Swords and Valor fight among a crowd quite well.

    Every Rogue fits. Every. They’re probably the baseline for your rebellion. Assassins, Tricksters, Masterminds, Inquisitives, Thieves, Swashbucklers, Scouts – the list of rogues involved in uprising reads like a casting call for Hunger Games or Divergent.

    All Classes Can Fit

    • Artificers can build the defenses needed.
    • Barbarians are those enraged by injustice.
    • Clerics are more than the needed healers, but the ministers pushing for the rights of their flock.
    • Fighters can be the thug guarding a raid, or the armored noble who joins the cause.
    • Monks need not be confined to the outsider from another land, but the brethren who know the ancient ways of the nation.
    • Paladins who take their oath to the betterment of the commoner over the ruling class join your uprising.
    • Sorcerers exist in uprising literature often as the targets of a realm that do not like those born to authority.
    • Warlocks may join their pact to gain powers to help their peoples.
    • Wizards are masters of the spells most important to helping the revolution.
    • Druids and Rangers probably take the most work to have them fit the story, but difficulties are not impossibilities.
    by Hartwig HKD (CC BY-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/aDwaAx

    Filling in Gaps via Homebrew

    There are gaps within the common D&D classes, and these won’t be filled by Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The literature and other fictions around resistance feature some tropes that are currently difficult to build in the base rules.

    Each of the following subclasses is a work in progress. Some are more finished than others.

    Society of Veil and Shadow: Rogue

    The Society of Veil and Shadows are a group of rogues dedicated to obscuring and protecting their guild from spies — both arcane and mundane. While able to contribute to the uprising’s success via sneak attacks and other clandestine abilities their true power is their ability to cast a few spells, most of which help keep the rebellion secret.

    Society of Veil and Shadow

    Way of the Frayed Knot: Monk

    The Way of the Frayed Knot is a Monk subclass that attempts to feature some Western fantasy tropes. The most common of these is Friar Tuck from Robin Hood, but there are other studious, religious types that fought alongside rogues and pirates.

    Way of the Frayed Knot

    The Way of Mercy in Tasha’s may be close enough that my own version gets retired.

    Conscript: Fighter

    An old-timer who retreated from the life of adventure and war, but who for some reason gets called back into it. They’ve done their best to avoid violence. Instead violence seeks them out. The Fighter: Conscript (final name TBD) has seen things. Things no one else should see.

    When they get the call to return to their former life they are no longer concerned with having the best weapon and the best armor. Their wits and experience taught them that any tool can be used for any job.

    Conscript

    Propagandist: Rogue

    You rose from the underbelly of empire to demand a better life for all. Your pamphlets and speeches can inspire hope, or fear. Whether from the soapbox or via pamphlet your proclamations turn the tides of rebellion.

    Propagandist

    Still to Come – Circle of Sewers: Druid

    They come from the urchins and gangs, getting to know the vermin of civilization. Simultaneously they serve the people and the animals that run the streets of a city. Able to help feed and heal those in need, the Sewers Druid is equally at home within a gang of thieves as they are a swarm of rats.

    How would you run a D&D campaign that focuses on rebelling against a power much mightier than the player-characters? What tools would you use to rise against The White Witch, or The Union, or the Burgue?

    Fediverse Reactions
  • Community Character – Tatiana Riverhopper

    Community Character – Tatiana Riverhopper

    One of the absolute amazing powers of Dungeons & Dragons is the ability to tell stories that you couldn’t tell by yourself. Whether you play at a table of 2, or 4, or 8 there will be ideas brought forth that surprise you. Communal storytelling by the DM and players creates options and opportunities that a single author would miss or gloss over.

    The additional experiences and diversity of the group interact to create tales of wonder. This is a large part of why I enjoy D&D. Through the power of social media there is an opportunity to mimic this by using polls to guide the character creation process.

    Asking others to help build a character gets you out of potential ruts and tropes, or embeds those tropes even further into your future PC or NPC. In the end of the process you come up with a character that is amalgam of not just your own experiences, but of the near infinite stories available via social media.

    Tatiana Riverhopper

    https://twitter.com/bedirthan/status/1281666965174546432
    The full creation process can be viewed in the Twitter thread.

    Tatiana started with “this character uses a sling.” While everything built off that, rather than build through the explicit creation system as outlined in the Player’s Handbook, instead the prompts were chosen in a more narrative fashion.

    The various choices informed attribute distribution, race, class, background, spells, and skills. Riverhopper was built in order to create an Adventurer’s League character in case someone wanted to jump onto the Yawning Portal and just play.

    Using personality seeds for the choices meant that we have a prankster who left their hometown looking for stories to tell (Bard) and gold to acquire (Criminal). You can find her in alehouses taking out some pocket cheese as she plans her next bit of mischief.

    She’s not great remembering names, even though she’ll always remember you – just be something not a name. She keeps a small notebook and quill with her, constantly taking notes in a delicate hand in code that most do not know.

    In combat Tatiana is likely to use Heroism and Bardic Inspiration to help her allies as she lurks back slinging stones at the enemy. Prone to rash decisions, Riverhopper will use a trick of the mind or hand to get herself out of trouble. The loveable Halfling is best in a support and face role.

  • Coffee Gear – a 5e D&D Tool

    Coffee Gear – a 5e D&D Tool

    Everyone needs a good pick-me-up. The studious wizard, the pickpocket, the noble, and the farmer all can take advantage of the boost of energy whether the beans are from far-off mountains or nearby hills. Adventurers aren’t on standard sleep schedules so the not-quite-magical bean roaster and brewer is quite helpful in the wildes, caverns, dungeons, and seas of any world.

    Components: Coffee gear includes a pound of beans, 2 small spoons, 2 small cups, mortar & pestle or small hand grinder, an ibrik or small moka pot, a small rotisserie or pan roaster (can be powered by fire or certain cantrips), spices and sugar.

    Those cantrips that could power the two styles of roasters are: Control Flames, Create Bonfire, Druidcraft, Fire Bolt, Prestidigitation, and Produce Flame.

    In most D&D worlds a pound of green coffee should be priced around 3 gp and available similar to how cloves are in your worldspace.

    Photo by Svetlana Ponomareva on Pexels.com

    Insight: As someone that is in tune with the life of a cafe, coffeehouse, or court you can read the emotions and even pick up rumors spreading through the crowd.

    Example: As the party enters a bar or coffeehouse there is a buzz of conversation. Volgat Emberstone recognizes the conversations, listening in on the chatter around him. The player tells the DM that they are attempting to learn if Crylia the Goblin has been in the area. Per Xanathar’s Guide, as this Insight check is aided by the Tool, the player rolls with Advantage if they are proficient in both Insight and Coffee Gear, using the higher modifier of the two. If they are only proficient in only one of the two, they would use just the higher modifier rolling a single d20.

    Nature: Familiar with the origins of the glorious bean, you have learned about various locales where coffee is grown.

    Example: Marching through Windy Heaven Ridge, Umog sees some wild coffee. The player is wondering if this area is where they might find the tail feather of the Peryton that the Archmage of Cryssalis Valley hired them to bring to him.

    Remove Exhaustion: During a Short Rest you can roast and prepare a unique beverage for a single humanoid that drinks water. This special beverage can remove one level of Exhaustion, up to level 3 (going from 3 to 2, or 2 to 1, or 1 to no longer exhausted).

    Coffee Gear

    ActivityDC
    Roast Coffee (takes 1 hour)10
    Prepare Typical Beverage (takes 10 minutes)10
    Understand The Hills, Mountains Where Beans Grow15
    Discern Emotions, Learn Rumors In Coffeehouse15
    Remove Exhaustion20
    Photo by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.com
  • Add a Herding Dog to your D&D Game

    Add a Herding Dog to your D&D Game

    Animal companions are a tradition in Dungeons & Dragons. The Ranger with a hunting dog; the halfling riding a wolfhound; the dogs guarding the entry to the castle — all have status as tropes. In the standard rules the “Mastiff” represents all of these.

    But not every dog is a mass of muscle, teeth, and bark.

    Belgian Shepherd by Fouquier ॐ declared public domain at https://flic.kr/p/2i12JQq

    Other dogs exist in any fantasy world. These doggos deserve game-love, too. Inspired by Ambrose, the ranger in the game where my dwarven axe-wizard Awf slings spells and swings a battle axe like some kind of D&D version of John Casey, the Herding Dog leapt into existence.

    The desire with the Herding Dog was to not have an increase in power for a medium canine, but represent how shepherds, collies, sheepdogs, and other AKC Herding Group members are different from the working group types that the Mastiff embraces.

    There’s a small dip in strength, constitution, and damage with the most significant boosts being adding Animal Handling (to embrace the ability to make the herd go places) and Pack Tactics (to represent that herding dogs often work in groups).

    The minor changes give this dog a different identity, stay at the same power level, and give Ambrose a friend that isn’t purely a means to biting enemies. We’re using the Herding Dog in our campaign. Let me know if you decide to add it to your own.

    Terriers and Retrievers are on my list of potential design additions.

  • Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn

    Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn

    In creating Awf there were a few goals. As one of the more experienced players in the party I wanted to have at least a secondary stat be Intelligence. With the party being four to six PCs, there was room for at least one multi-role character. There’s a fighter, a rogue, a ranger, a cleric in the regular group.

    That meant that I could fill a few roles – this dwarf axe-wizard is a solid secondary front-line warrior and secondary spellcaster.

    He’s clearly not optimized.

    As someone who generally tries to avoid the more typical tropes with my PCs, Awf let me explore a few things that 5th edition empowers that weren’t possible when I was originally playing in 1st and 2nd edition of AD&D. He’s a Dwarf Wizard who uses a Battleaxe, fairly well.

    The desire to explore a new subclass was approved by my DM. The Bladesinger made sense for a frontline warrior/spellcaster. But, Dwarves aren’t supposed to be one.

    Courtesy of Delaney Saul for my birthday

    That meant exploring his backstory. Awf has started to talk about that in his backstory in the game, so now it makes sense to share a bit of it.

    His hometown suffered a goblin attack. At the time he was a righteous adolescent who believed in the power of his family and village. Unfortunately his homestead was destroyed by goblins. He will never forgive this act.

    Fortunately the Order of the Shooting Star, mostly Elven Bladesingers, saved the town through a flanking operation. Awf’s family survived. But he lost respect. They weren’t powerful enough; they weren’t strong enough.

    So when the Shooting Stars left, he followed. There was strength in their magic. He followed them for more than ten years. The orphan-by-choice was a hanger-on. He shadowed the lessons of the Eagle Song, as they used axes in their maneuvers, but small axes, for they were not dwarves.

    By day Awf Hornjaw was an annoying outcast who offered just enough service to be useful. By night, Awf Hornjaw studied the ways of the Loragwyn clan’s magic.

    Being 3’11” and 211 pounds, he didn’t fit in the Knightly Order. He was too fat, too slow, too Dwarf.

    But Awf worked. The insulting nickname “Fat Goose” became his calling card. His axe took on the name Oie Cendrée. He learned and succeeded.

    Eventually the Loragwyns and the Shooting Stars accepted Awf. His noble desire to sacrifice anything to help others fit their ideals. His skill with adapting Oie Cendrée to the ways of the Song were intriguing.

    As Awf left the Shooting Stars they awarded him their name. Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn is a man with two last names, two identities, and one goal – to find the goblin clan that threatened his family and show them that the Fat Goose is ready to sing the song of violence and ring the gong of death.

  • Cantrips and Backgrounds Are a Perfect Match

    Cantrips and Backgrounds Are a Perfect Match

    My backgrounds project continues to expand, adding in many medieval/Renaissance professions that fit in the apocrypha of D&D and related fantasy worlds. At this point there are nearly three dozen frameworks down. None of them demand a magical world.

    But, this is D&D, and in all (?) of the official, product-supported worlds of 5th edition magic is not something that is only held by leveled PCs and NPCs. If you visit a shrine in Forgotten Realms there is a great chance that one of the Acolytes there knows Thaumaturgy. The number of Guild Artisans (tailor) in Eberron that know Mending is almost certainly larger than the number that do not.

    In these worlds there should be tales of those who became heroes after their less-than-mundane lives. The fantastic is part of the D&D experience – both in heroic journeys and in everyday life.

    Exploring what cantrips make sense leads me to listing those cantrips that are not designed for warfare – essentially ignoring damage cantrips, but there are a few that make sense. Let’s take a look at the DnDBeyond list of cantrips and pare it down to just things that commoners would possibly know.

    Cantrips for Fantastic Living

    • Control Flames – Yes, it can do damage, but its primary purpose is about starting and putting out fires. I’ll explore a Firefighter.
    • Create Bonfire – Similar to above.
    • Dancing Lights – This also has combat roles, but imagine the ability of a theater designer to take advantage of Dancing Lights in ways that amplify that experience. The name does not leap to mind, but a variant entertainer using light is needed.
    • Druidcraft – The most obvious way this works is to help a Farmer, Rancher, Herder, etc. On the other hand, imagine a Weather Forecaster.
    • Gust – Sailing across the sea and stuck? Find your empowered crew who can create a tiny wind.
    • Light – The uses are nearly infinite. The Lamplighter will be both apocryphal and fantastical.
    • Mage Hand – Thieves and Wizards alike enjoy this one, but so would construction workers. Why bother with a ladder when you have Mage Hand?
    • Magic Stone – While this is a combat cantrip it feels proper for certain wilderness Backgrounds to have access to it. An Herbalist hunting for a rare shroom may need to defend themselves, for example.
    • Mending – Tailors and Tinkers around the world would be thrilled.
    • Message – This would be useful for the Pamphleteer, the Town Crier, the Spy, the City Watch, and many more.
    • Minor Illusion – Another cantrip that would suit Entertainers.
    • Mold Earth – Masons and Farmers could both find uses for this cantrip.
    • Prestidigitation – A Realmsean Dry Cleaner could profit off of making the bloodied heroes, and criminals, presentable. Similar to Light and Druidcraft the Backgrounds that could take advantage of this are nearly infinite.
    • Produce Flame – A third in the fire series.
    • Shape Water – Immediately upon reading this one I thought about construction of aqueducts and water wheels.
    • Spare the Dying – In gameplay this may be one of the weakest cantrips. In the rough and tumble alleys of Baldur’s Gate it keeps the citizenry alive – Medic and maybe for the Barber as well.
    • Thaumaturgy – Acolytes and Sages should probably already know this one. The organized faiths of the world would have plenty of priests and others able to shout above the masses. This also has great application for a Town Crier, Herald, and Soldier.

    Several more attacking cantrips have possible secondary uses. These are ignored because not every D&D world need be one of violence for the commoner.

    Next Steps

    In some cases adding these minor spells to existing Backgrounds makes sense. That would involve a slight change to the current rule set. We know that a cantrip is considered roughly equal to a skill or language based on the Feats Linguist, Prodigy, and Skilled. The product will address that.

    But knowing these cantrips also means an exploration of how certain roles in the medieval/Renaissance apocrypha of D&D change because of magic. A Lamplighter (a custom background in development) with Light should be behaviorally different than one still using flint, steel, and oil.

    Both will exist. You will be in charge of how your world borrows the ideas to come in Before We Were Heroes (tentative title).

    Your world should be apocryphal and fantastic.