We talked about critical fumbles last week while covering the Gunslinger’s Misfire mechanic. While I stand by the conclusion that you shouldn’t build a (sub)class around a critical fumble mechanic, there may be a solution to the problem fumbles experience interacting with extra attacks.
The Problem
Critical fumbles impose an additional penalty on players who roll a 1 on a d20.
For the sake of discussion, we’ll assume you’ve already set your heart on running critical fumbles, notwithstanding the narrative perils.
The mechanical problem you still need to resolve is that extra attacks make more proficient martial characters more likely to fail. This is not an impediment that “linear” fighters need to experience against “quadratic” wizards. Especially considering the spellcaster’s reliance on fumble-immune saving throw spells at higher levels.
The Solution
For tables that insist on using critical fumbles, a tidy solution comes courtesy of reader Alexander Davis:
Four Fey-folk are explored in the March 11 Unearthed Arcana drop. This includes the classic Fairy, two animal-folk (rabbit and owl), and a Fey Hobgoblin. While all of these races are connected to the Feywild, they are not called out specifically as being from the Feywild, just connected to it. Only the Fairy is Fey, by creature category. In some ways this makes the other three racial options (the document does not call them out as lineages) like “normal” Elves rather than Eladarin. If this UA gets strong feedback there will be two Hobgoblins in existence, one a martial warrior and the other that creates a unique bond through gift giving.
The “Creating Your Character” section provides special character-creation rules for the race options in this article. The races that use these rules can coexist seamlessly with races that use other rules. For example, the race options in the Player’s Handbook have built-in ability score increases, while the races in this article don’t. Race options from both sources can adventure together. If you’d like a race that doesn’t appear in this article, such as an elf or a dwarf, to have similar ability score flexibility, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything provides a rule, called Customizing Your Origin, that gives you that flexibility. That book also gives you the option of building your own race, rather than choosing an existing one. That option is called the Custom Lineage. No matter which option you choose for your character—a race in this article, a Player’s Handbook race, a race modified by the Customizing Your Origin rule, or a Custom Lineage—you can adventure with characters who are built with a different option. This sidebar builds on the design note in our previous Unearthed Arcana, “Gothic Lineages.”
Any fey centered story has to have fairies as playable characters. Fifth edition is finally adding them. They fly, of course. The Fairy joins Aarakocra and Feral Tieflings as able to fly at first level. Owlfolk join that group shortly. These are the only races limited away from some versions of Adventurers League.
All of the abilities just make sense for what we expect from fairies, but the one that stands out to me as unique and situationally potent is Fey Passage. The ability of a small fey to enter nearly sealed spaces fits so much of the legend and lore surrounding these peoples.
Hobgoblin of the Feywild
Whereas the Volo’s version of Hobgoblins focused on every single one of them being at least a light fighter, those Hobgoblins with connections to the Feywild are helpers. Rather than armor or weapon proficiencies, your Hobgoblin gains a leveling version of the Help action. This is much more interesting flavor.
Hopefully when the Fey Hobgoblin gets dialed into official material the two version appear more like subraces, rather than having similar, but still different abilities. There is language drift between the new Fortune from the Many and the old Saving Face. Also, the older version of the Hobgoblin is just weaker. Three proficiencies is just weaker than Fey Gift and Fey Ancestry.
Owlfolk
Another flying creature, of course. The choice to be either medium or small makes sense, as there is variation in size for real owls, as well as the stories upon which the Owlfolk are based. There are two sight based abilities, but neither directly relate to Perception. This UA does insert a third scale of Darkvision. It should likely be changed to either 60′ or 120′ to be inline with other races. 5e is about those kinds of simplicity.
My favorite ability for Owlfolk is Magic Sight. Adding a ritual spell makes so much sense for a race that is so storied in wisdom and intelligence. It combines well with spellcasters and martial types. Hopefully there are more races that access rituals rather than the now standard 1 per long rest usage of a 1st level spell.
Rabbitfolk
Hip, hop and hippity hop. Yes, there will be a Rabbitfolk Bard in my future. There’s some interesting mirroring of Halfling abilities here, which makes sense. The two generally smaller folk both love freedom and large families. Rather than Lucky, the Rabbitfolk get a minor bonus on failed Dexterity saving throws. These similar abilities maintain interest while connecting to their stories.
Here, the Rabbit Hop is the ability that leaps out. Being able to jump around is key for a rabbit. Getting to use it with no cost is wonderful. The d12 of additional feet is clunky (just as the similar rules regarding Athletics are clunky). For gridded play something like +5′ per proficiency bonus would be simpler. For those playing with Theater of the Mind the difference between 3 feet and 4 feet is meaningless in combat.
Overall these should be popular. There are entire game systems dedicated to animal folk. Humblewood was extraordinarily popular, because people just enjoy being little floofs of magic and power. Official support for similar folk makes sense.
Hopefully the feedback helps dial in some changes to the various hobgoblins and other non-core races that have clear subraces but operate as completely separate instances rather than those that share story and abilities.
There’s a packed week’s worth of news around Dungeons & Dragons this week — two books are in the preview stages, the movie keeps getting attention, a new AAA video game is now public and more. This amount of news should no longer be a surprise, as Wizards of the Coast and D&D are the fuel to Hasbro’s machine now. We’ll dive into that as well.
Before all of that a reminder that though DDD:253‘s table is sold out YachtCon has plenty of other opportunities to support the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital. You can also audit the game with Tacoma Defiance Head Coach Wade Webber, Defy Wrestler Ethan HD, and myself. Even if you don’t like Puget Sound soccer, there are classes on pizza making and cocktail shaking for you to enjoy.
Check out the Remarkable Drudge, a laborer background for your 5th edition D&D game.
Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews
Candlekeep Mysteries Previews
Physical copies of Candlekeep Mysteries are out in influencer and media hands.
The iconic library-castle is a huge part of the story. Candlekeep gets a map and chapter to expand your own setting or your understanding of the Forgotten Realms.
Adam Bradford, formerly of DnDBeyond is off to Demiplane. This move indicates that the expanding digital options around D&D and tabletop roleplaying games will continue to grow and compete with each other.
Several miniature manufactures are making wheelchair users for D&D play. Yorktown this week connects with Strata Miniatures and Sara Thompson about the Combat Wheelchair.
LevelUp released a preview of their Exploration pillar. The baseline rules of the game address this pillar less than any other aspect of the game. It will be interesting to see where LevelUp diverges from Adventures in Middle Earth, which also expanded exploration.
Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs
POC Gamer’s OrcaCon session on worldbuilding is now available to all.
In Indiana the Lawrenceburg Main Library is hosting D&D in its café. As regions climb out of pandemic social distancing it will be interesting to see how many libraries take their virtual sessions into real life.
Ingenious, Indigenous: The Tunumiit (E Greenland Inuit) practice of carving portable maps from driftwood, used for navigating coastal waters. Representing coastlines up one side of the wood & down the other, they fit in a mitten, are compact, buoyant, & can be read in the dark. pic.twitter.com/FkNHBoXf9s
— The Decolonial Atlas (@decolonialatlas) March 7, 2021
Over the past five years I’ve participated in YachtCon — sometimes as talent, sometimes as green room host. In 2019 and 2020, while with Tacoma Defiance I sold off the opportunity to join the broadcast booth for a match. Those 2020 winners are still waiting to do that, as the covid-19 pandemic made that option unsafe.
Still wanting to give some South Sound flavor to an event that will be entirely virtual I needed to come up with a different idea. Ambition got the best of me, and with Sounder at Heart/Nos Audietis manager Jeremiah Oshan’s approval Dungeons & Dragons & Defiance: Invasion of the Trees was launched. DDD:253 is a charity game with two celebrity guests and five PC spots for people who donated $60 dollars to the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital. DDD:253 sold out in 24 hours. There’s still plenty of opportunity to join the audience for the live stream of this 3-hour tour of D&D.
There are also many other opportunities to join in on classes about pizza making, wine tasting (observer only), cocktail shaking, watercolor painting, and so much more. All of them will have twists related to the pro soccer teams in the area, including celeb participants. Just as gaming conventions had to adapt, so did YachtCon. The group of passionate Sounders/Reign/Defiance fans haven’t been to a match together since March 8, 2020. It’s possible that the 2020 YachtCon was the last time we were all together. This year’s event is as much about re-connecting the community as it is raising funds. That’s why you can audit every “class” for free. But, it’s also a way to raise funds. The Nos Audietis/Sounder at Heart/Ride of the Valkyries group has raised over $30,000 dollars in the past five years. Please join us. There’s even kickass soccer gear.
This is a short adventure inspired by Tacoma and Tacoma Defiance, set in a small frontier town common in so many fantasy worlds. This port village has a tavern where a local leader needs help. Our adventuring party is going to help the city defend itself from an invasion from the south. Along the way they will meet hazards, possible allies, and of course the enemy(ies?).
Railroads have been avoided, which means there are nearly a dozen encounters, but in a 3-hour session only a handful will ever be used. Maybe, just maybe, the whole world will see the product after the live adventure, which will be streamed. There will be no VTT, everyone will track their damage, spells, etc with paper sheets in their own homes. Maps and art will be via a shared screen and the experience will be Theater of the Mind, rather than tactical. The model being followed is the Stranger Things x D&D game from early winter rather than highly produced streams like Critical Role.
Each participant is getting an individual session zero, which will involve character creation and an agreement on option rules. They are also getting pixel art of their PC, using the ReRoll app. Each will also get a set of dice, which is especially handy for those who are playing for the first time.
Lorenzo is a human bard, run by Tacoma Defiance Head Coach Wade Webber. He’s as handy with his lute as he is with a dagger or rapier. Sometimes he’ll bang a drum or play a recorder, but mostly he likes the strings to accompany his songs and poetry. Snapdragon is likely to be the charismatic face of the party.
Du-Rag, The Honest, is run by Defy professional wrestler and Destiny City Comics owner Ethan HD. Du-Rag is a half-orc cleric, who is as comfortable in the streets as he is in the pulpit. His friends? He’ll heal them. The Honest will usually try words first, but those that stay enemies face the dagger, or the power of his god.
Rest of the Party
Over the next week the rest of our adventuring party is being filled out. When those are done we’ll share the character art for them. There’s already a tortle warlock, a half-orc barbarian joining the cause. The group is banding together to defend a lumber town, with a port, a gritty city of unpaved streets with a good bar and neighbors who gather together in defiance of the odds against them.
Again, DDD:253 Invasion of the Trees is part of YachtCon: Back to School. All proceeds from every class go to the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
It was just last week when Wizards of the Coast announce their latest product release, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. It’s easy to miss big news these days, as if you miss 36 hours online the conversations die off, so we’ll capture a bunch of previews for the new book set in the Domains of Dread as we scan all the news and advice around D&D over the past week + a day, as much of my weekend writing was focused on Sounder at Heart’s 2021 Seattle Sounders season preview and DDD: 253 – Invasion of the Trees (more on that adventure soon).
Official D&D Products Releases and Reviews
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Thirty different flavors of horror are coming to D&D (which has already featured three horror-themed books in 5th edition – Curse of Strahd, Descent into Avernus, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden).
Van Richten’s release is currently scheduled for May.
Dungeons & Dragons Movie News
The Big Bad Evil Guy in the D&D movie is Hugh Grant. The Hollywood Reporter also mentions that Sophia Lillis joins the cast of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page. As a reminder, John Francis Daley, co-director and writer with Johnathon Goldstein, was one of the authors in Rime of the Frostmaiden.
Fandom, the owner of DnDBeyond.com, is expanding its services. They’ve just purchased an e-commerce site and in the statement plan to offer more options for direct purchasing of fan products as well more audio & video content.
I love this job board, and will likely add things like it to my next adventure, even as the players won’t go on any of them.
Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs
How you handle a character that is removed from the game determines the style of table you run. A player who is only able to roll a save every round could miss out on a majority of a session. Gnome Stew has ideas on how to handle that.
