Tag: Role Playing

  • Feat: Bonded Companion

    Feat: Bonded Companion

    Salvy

    Animal Companions, or Bonded Companions, or a key element of life in Kin. The Kin are the people of friendship, loyalty of loving those around them. This extends towards their non-humanoid companions as well. Where an elf might group in a land where spells are used to do mundane things, in Kin when a goliath needs a bit of string to finish sewing they send their swallow off to do it, or their heron to fish. Halflings have dogs that pull, push, fetch, hunt, fish, carry, and many other tasks. Human bonds with goats, rams, dogs, birds and horses are quite common. Bonds of Kin are a very essence of life. Almost everyone has one.

    This ruleset needs to do a few things.

    • Scale like cantrips, attacks and proficiency. The companion is expected to live alongside their friend for some time.
    • Build in a reason that having a Bond die is bad for the PC
    • Not destroy the action economy
    • As a bonus, can it be simplified for usage in gaming outside the World of Everflow?

    Feat: Bonded Companion

    Prerequisite: Wisdom of 13 or higher. Kin and Rangers ignore this prerequisite.
    This feat can be taken more than once.

    Two dogs on gravel

    You have an intense bond with a beast. These beasts cannot have a higher Intelligence than the character. In certain worlds the bonded companion can be a monstrosity. At this point I considered just granting access to the Bonded Companion system in a similar manner as to how Magic Initiate works, but instead built it within the Feat. The rule could be built by making Bonded Companion a Class Feature and Feat, but I digress. Taking the feat gives you Companion Points. You also gain companion points in the following manners;

    • Rangers at 1st, 3rd, 5th, 11th, and 17th levels
    • Druids at 1st and 5th level.
    • Clerics with the Nature domain at 1st level.
    • Your Wisdom modifier

    Those points can be spent on a single companion or multiple companions. A character can bond with a number of Companions equal to their Wisdom modifier +1 (minimum 1). Each new companion takes a number of weeks to establish a bond as their cost in companion points. This can be done as downtime, or could be a solo adventure. A character may only spend new points when they take the feat or if they are a Ranger or Druid at their higher levels that earn Companion Points.

    The following chart lists various Companions and their Companion Point cost.

    OneTwoThreeFiveSevenTen
    Herd dogSled DogWarhound *Giant Eagle *&Rhino &Mammoth *&
    RetrieverMastiff *Axebeak *&BisonElephant *Wyvern *&
    TerrierBloodoundOstrich &Bear *&Dire Wolf *&Roc *&
    Sentry DogGuard dog *Elk &Lion *&Owlbear *& 
    SprinterRavenPanther *&Worg *&Griffon *& 
    HeronEagle *&Bear Cub *&Hippogriff *&Pegasus *& 
    PigeonFalcon *Wolf *&Peryton *&  
    SparrowParrotTiger *&Awakened Tree &  
    Pony/MuleDraft HorseWarhorse *   
    FoxRiding HorseApe &   
    Goat/SheepMonkey    
    Awakened Shrub &Cow    

    Legend: The ‘&’ is used to indicate an animal companion that can only be paired with a Ranger, Druid or Nature Cleric. They are normally wild. The ‘*’ is used to indicate animals that can enter combat on command.

    "Postduif". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Postduif.jpg#/media/File:Postduif.jpg
    “Postduif” – Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

    As a Bonus Action the Bonder can command their animal. These commands are Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help. An animal without a * can only attack if the Bonder passes a Wisdom (Animal Handling) DC: 20 check. The Companion will continue that action until the combat is complete or another Bonus Action is used (ie they will Attack the directed target until that target is no longer participating in the combat). Some Companions have other actions that can be taken (A Retriever can Fetch as an action). Check with your DM for these other actions.

    When separated a Bonder and Companion that are on the same plane know the direction and rough travel time between them.

    If someone tries to control a Companion it is an opposed Animal Handling check for the Bonder and whatever skill or spell is appropriate for the attempt to control the Companion. The duration of the control is per the appropriate spell or skill.

    If a Companion dies the Bonder takes half their Companion’s hit points in psychic damage. If they make a Wisdom save (DC: 15) they then take one quarter of their Companion’s hit points in psychic damage.

    Variant Rule in Kin: At first level and below halflings usually bond with canines and goliaths usually bond with avians. All Kin start with an additional Companion Point.

  • Creating a new world

    Creating a new world

    It comes with just a single question. What if? What if I started a new blog? What if we talked about fantasy fiction? What if the stories told coincided with a role-playing game? What if I set myself back two decades and cracked open Dungeons & Dragons again?

    bard-dave
    Every storyteller needs their tools – a good mug, a notebook (or netbook), a satchel for tokens and memories and a block of cheese maybe some sausage, and a trusty sword.

    What if the themes were strong adult subject matter that made for gritty tales of life, death and heroism? What if magic was real? And the gods could talk, but then they stopped?

    What if the continents were small, the peoples plentiful and not all human? What if humans didn’t believe in magic because it had disappeared in the only continent they know? How about making it so they are defined more by their cultures than by their phenotype?

    Have they stopped believing in themselves, in their gods? Do they see good and evil? How?

    Is there slavery? Why? Is there nobility? Can someone be both?

    These questions and the cascade of answers start to form more questions. It’s a nearly infinite series of responses. World building, particularly the creation of a world that breathes, is hard. Crafting a world-space that can withstand episodic gaming is harder.

    Take chunks at a time. That’s what Full Moon Storytelling will be. Small chunks of content for use in a campaign setting, built around a custom set of rules adapted from 5th edition D&D, but with accompanying tales. If the setting says “The Necromancer is just someone trying to be good” there will be a story that explains how that happened.

    As The Worthing Saga took a novella and broke out portions into branch stories, Full Moon Storytelling takes a campaign setting, rule set and crafts micro-fiction, short stories, plotless narrations and episodic adventures within the World of the Everflow.

    Maybe that’s where we start, not with a character, but with a story about a fountain that flows from a cliff and diverts along two paths – the Font of Two Paths, the Two-Headed Spring, Pool of Life, Lake of Wonder. The Everflow influences the western peninsula of Kin, is clearly unnatural and …

    This is Full Moon Storytelling. It’s a way to share writing, writing process and to think aloud, while words spring forth from tiny digits. Things will happen live, in front of you. Process will be as important as output. Creation is play. Come, join me at this fire under a full moon with clear sky as we look up through trees staring towards the open world of wonder, knowing that behind those trees at your back is whatever reality you can imagine.

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  • Taien Sahul – the ripper lizard

    Taien Sahul – the ripper lizard

    Out in the lands of Mehmd mammals and avians are rare. Many of the ecological and domestic niches are instead filled by lizards, amphibians and dinosaur-like creatures. The Taien Sahul are small saurs based on the Velociraptor by Sam Stockdale at ENWorld.

    In Mehmd they tend to roam the wilderness, though certain tribes of Unkempt in the South and the Isles use them as companions. When free they roam in packs of 9 or so (3d6). Their Pounce needs quite a distance in order to be used, but when the commit they tend to rush prey quickly. Taien Sahul can survive in deserts, having advantage on CON checks to deal with dehydration.

    Photo by Innermost Limits on Pexels.com

    Taien Sahul – the ripper lizard
    Small beast, unaligned

    Armor Class 13 (natural)
    Hit Points 3 (1d6)
    Speed 45 ft., climb 10 ft.

    STR 7 (–2)
    DEX 15 (+2)
    CON 10 (+0)
    INT 3 (–4)
    WIS 14 (+2)
    CHA 7 (–2)

    Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4
    Senses passive Perception 14
    Languages —
    Challenge: ½ CR 50 xp

    Keen Sight: The raptor has advantage on sight-based Perception (WIS) checks.
    Pounce: If the raptor moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 10 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If a target is prone, the raptor can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.
    Pack Tactics: The raptor has advantage on an attack roll against a target if at least one of the raptor’s allies is within 5 feet of the target and isn’t incapacitated.

    ACTIONS
    Multiattack: The raptor makes two melee attacks, usually using both claws unless they’ve pounced.
    Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4+2 piercing damage.
    Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4+2 slashing damage.

  • Darius Dondermonger – inspired by dragons and cheese.

    Darius Dondermonger – inspired by dragons and cheese.

    Character concepts come from all sorts of places. Sometimes they grow over years, tended like a rare flower they sprout and bloom after long care. Then there are those that burst forth from your mind to page (actual or digital) in a flurry.

    Darius Dondermonger came into being when two roads combined. The first road originated some time ago, when the D&D released the Drakewarden. Dragons are quite important in the World of the Everflow, so I knew I would revisit the Drakewarden. The second road came when grocery shopping. We needed cheese, lots of cheeses. Yes, we’re fans of charcuterie. These roads merged when reading about Dragon’s Milk Stout’s web-RPG release. As often happens, flavor started to inspire the story.

    The Chef Feat in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is quite useful for someone who latches onto flavors like this. That pushed towards a Variant Human so that the foods he creates can help heal and/or inspire his companions towards greatness.

    Darius Dondermonger kept growing. From a legacy family in a small village, Darius was to be the head of household and manage the ageing of grana (think Parmesean and similar cheeses). Some of these for decades. They use adjuncts at times. That is what sent him to the forests and hills of the area.

    https://twitter.com/bedirthan/status/1341918231880032256

    He is also flawed. Not only does he prefer the hunt for herbs and the like to management, he also prefers the making of cheese to business. That’s part of why he rejects the full family name. The other part is that he does not feel he’s earned that name, for he has lost something special to them.

    Lastly, he took on Dunder, due to his companion’s, and later his own, connection to thunder & lightning.

    He is more than just a ranger, more than just a cheesemonger specializing in aged cheeses – Darius Dondermonger has a small dragon companion and has discovered that he is also part dragon. The family’s most exclusive grana comes from their age-old connection to drakes, wyverns, and all of dragonkind.

    That same blood compels Darius to travel away from town, for someone with his powers cannot just work the books of Amberhearth and Highwall’s greatest cheese makers. Someone with the blood of dragons must, must, pursue a grander destiny — and also find that which they’ve lost.

  • Queen and Konstruct: A Goblin’s Lyfe

    Queen and Konstruct: A Goblin’s Lyfe

    There are two important things in a goblin’s lyfe. I’m talking about all of us, the gobkon, the hobkon, the mulkon — all of us — our relationship to the Queen and our Guild. This is hard for you humans, with all your divergent nations and cities and faiths and disgusting menagerie animals to understand.

    Goblin
    By creanita design und ausführung by nina saner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

    I’m a printer, part of the Ratxet Guild. My engines run on the power of muls (best!) or whoever else I can hire. The clockwerks give that comforting noise as sheaf and stamp press against each other leaving words behind.

    We’re into gears, mostly. But also some other interesting clockwerks. Frankly, we do better with springs than the Union does. Sure, they’ve the Queens’ Stamp – so we cannot sell to others. In our builds we don’t buy from the Union anymore.

    My first engine was a climbing device. Lean it up against a feral tar-tree and you’ll be able to get to the top on a platform to work that tree with nary your own effort. It was a tough build, because I needed it to be strong enough for a hob. Without a brother there were no hobs to help me. Sis rode atop my shoulders during the entire testing phase.

    At Test it showed a new mechanic for the tar-tree. A Baroness blessed the family via flag and decree. Mother’s standing improved, and the full family took on that glory.

    Now, sister is part of the Airxip Syndicate. They’re relatively new. Taking our bike-props and bladders from the Sisterhood, and the Federation’s tar stacks, the Syndicate built those awesome airxips. I don’t understand her werk. There’s something about steampipes. She’s done well for mother. Her flags came from a Countess, one for her and one for mother. Blerxa left on the First Flight with me.

    I’m Phatha Phioxa Baroness-flagged of the Guild. Sis is Blerxa Phioxa First-Countess Flagged and Many Unfurled of the Syndicate.

    We are what we build and how much the Ladies, may they serve the Queen, reward us for our werks.

    A few more daughters like us and mother could be a Lady. If Blerxa and I hadn’t left for the untamed lands of the Kin Blerx may have earned mother the knighting on her own.

    Our werks are trapped from knowing since we are far from Queen, so I expect mother to have a few more gobkon. Maybe I’ll find out if I go back, not until after I figure out how to use the power of horses in my next werk. They smell, but they are even stronger than mulgobs.