Friday, June 23, 2017

Elementals

Summon Elemental Spirit
Level 1 Magic-User spell
The sorcerer can call forth the basal elemental spirit of some aspect of reality, the pure manifestation of a material or concept. This spell is technically many spells in one, for the higher the level of the elemental which is wished to be summoned the higher the level of the spell. For every elemental spirit, the magician must have access to at least 1 significant item slot's worth of the corresponding material or, if the "material" is immaterial, it must be present at the time of casting. All elemental spirits have similar stats, increasing with the level of the spirit.

Elemental Spirit
Hit Dice: equal to level (with some exceptions)
Armor: varies
Attack: 1, bonus equal to level, 1d6-1d12 damage
Saves: 9+level for all save categories, might vary
Morale: 12
Alignment: Neutral

Coagulate
Material: Blood
Level: 2
The Coagulate is a spirit of blood, in the form of a serpentine tower of thick red fluid. It is crawling with small worms that bulge through the skin, and on its tip the Coagulate has a leech-like mouth. Coagulates have a POISON save of 15, and a DODGE save of 13, but all other save types are as normal. Its attack is a bite attack which deals 1d6 damage, with a chance of it transferring its vein worms into the body of its victim on a failed POISON save. Coagulates can heal themselves by dealing damage to organic enemies with blood (so not robots, undead, plants, golems, or other spirits).

Angel of Dust
Material: Dust
Level: 8
Angels of Dust are spindly things made entirely of the dander and particles which accumulate in uncleaned places. Their eyes are paper cut-outs, jarring on their otherwise featureless and bumpy faces. The wings of the Angels are wide and thin, drab and almost entirely translucent. Whenever the Angel of Dust touches a creature, its very body slowly ages and dissipates, turning to dust itself, its skin flaking off and clothing falling to pieces. The creature may make a MAGIC save to resist the effect and simply lose a limb and whatever gear was held in it or worn on it, but if they fail they die slowly from being turned to dust. The Angel of Dust, though a level 8 elemental spirit, only has 1 hit die.

Pain
Material: Pain
Level: 9
A pure manifestation of pain which can only be summoned forth instantaneously when the pain is experienced. It is a ball of spikes, a mix of larger thorns and more miniscule needles, all growing on a red sphere. The very presence of Pain causes anguish and suffering in those around it, making all in its immediate vicinity roll all rolls twice, taking the worse result, due to the intense pain. Touching the Pain deals 2d10 damage, with only a PARALYSIS save possible to avoid also being paralyzed from pain and unable to move.

Hellbender
Material: Lava or Magma
Level: 3
The Hellbender is a giant magma salamander, an amphibian of immense proportions found in volcanoes and lava streams. They are most notable for their tiny volcano eyes, able to launch burning hot balls of melted stone like a cannon. Hellbenders can attack twice in a round, either 2 bite attacks, 2 launches of the volcano cannon, or some combination thereof. Their bites deal 1d8 damage, and their lava attack deals 1d10 damage each. The POISON, PARALYSIS, and DEVICE saves of the Hellbender are all 15, while the DODGE save is only 9.

Crown of Crowns
Material: Gold and Jewels
Level: 4
The Crown of Crowns is a being made of coins and jewels and ancient heirlooms, an elemental of treasure, with an impressive crown of glittering silver atop its head. The Crown of Crowns wears a purple robe made from a tapestry, and has three arms of gold, each armed with a weapon. This golden elemental can attack three times in a round, dealing 1d6 damage with each attack. It takes half damage from all physical attacks, and has +2 to all saves. However, elemental attacks of all kinds, whether fire or ice or poison or rust, deal double damage to them. They have Armor 2. Every hit point of the Crown of Crowns is equal to one gold piece (or silver piece if using a silver standard), but for every hit point the sorcerer removes from the Crown for the purposes of spending, they get a -1 to their next spellcasting roll.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Custom B/X Classes

There are only really two ways to make classes for a class-based game. Either have a small number of generic classes which can encompass a variety of character types, such as that in early DnD (with Fighters, Magic-Users, and Specialists), or have a large number of very specific classes that play into the setting or are just very interesting. When you mix and match these two design philosophies it just doesn't work as well conceptually in my opinion (which is one of the problems I have with 3e and up systems; they have specific classes like Sorcerer, Monk, and Ranger and then also generic classes like Fighter and Rogue, and the specific classes aren't even that fun or unique to begin with). I love working on both such systems of class, though I find that designing goofy highly specific classes is a very fun way to stretch these simple systems and create unique character types. To end this dumb rant about classes, I'm gonna post four custom classes for B/X and derivative systems, whether LL, S&W, or LotFP, three of which I wrote a while ago but hadn't posted and one of which I wrote just yesterday. I tried to keep these as devoid of my house rules as possible, but I'd probably give each class unique roll-under saving throws like I normally use simply because I prefer that, and item restrictions are listed as "proficiencies" because I don't like completely restricting weapons and armor and such. Also the XP totals for these classes were made using the incredible and just downright great custom class creation system over at Of Dice and Djinn, which you should totally check out!

The Haemomancer, a blood-themed magic-user with a unique spellcasting system.

The Protected Researcher, a tank that isn't good at fighting but is very knowledgeable.

The Snail Knight, a gastropod-themed paladin-type character with an adorable pet/steed snail.

The Swamp Monster, a disgusting slimy fighter-type nonhuman.

Monday, May 29, 2017

LotFP Class Houserules

So very soon I will be getting some Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures (Blood in the Chocolate and Tower of the Stargazer), and I've been thinking of making my own historical horror fantasy adventures in the vein of LotFP. As part of this, I've come up with my original house rules for the four classes which I would allow in such a game (the Fighter, Specialist, Magic-User, and Cleric), which I will detail in this post and in a following post. Also it is Very Long so I am gonna put it under a cut.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

An Update

I haven't been on here in a while, woops! I'm going to be trying to write on this blog way more, especially now that the summer months are coming up! Expect more classes, monsters, session recaps, and so on for everything from OSR games to 5e to my very own Fantasmagoria.

Some plans for the future:

  • Finishing up and running my post apocalyptic rpg Gamma Basic, set in the irradiated ruins of the state of Ohio.
  • Writing up loads of wacky new classes and races for Basic D&D of all sorts.
  • Possibly some posts exploring ideas in games and D&D more specifically, since I haven't really done anything like that before and it seems like fun!
  • Game reviews, book reviews, and module reviews possibly.
  • Continuing to run my World With No Name game over the summer, and posting more about it and the setting it is set in!
  • And publishing my very own monster book for the World With No Name!!
It'll be great y'all!

Friday, November 25, 2016

Creepy Crawlies for 5e

So I know that old school stuff is the stuff I normally do, but today I started playing in a 5e game one of my friends is running (the first game they are running actually!) and I'm a slightly modified dark elf thats actually a roach person so I thought "why not make stats for invertebrate races" so that's what this is.

Anything not noted in the racial stats is assumed to be the same as a human (so default). Also, while these are just referred to as cockroaches and worms, they are supposed to be intelligent people versions of them, with it assumed that they can manipulate things like a person.

Cockroach
Ability Scores Cockroaches get +2 to Constitution and +1 to Dexterity
Improved Darkvision Cockroaches are able to see in dim light up to 120 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.
Sunlight Sensitivity Cockroaches have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when they, the target of their attack, or whatever they are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight or otherwise bright light.
Blattodean Resilience Cockroaches have advantage on saving throws against poison, and when they drop to 0 hit points but are not killed outright they can instead drop to 1 hit point. Cockroaches can eat anything and everything.
Fragile Exoskeleton The hit point rolls of a cockroach are made at -1.
Biting Mandibles Cockroaches have a natural weapon attack in the form of a mandible bite, which they are proficient in and deals 1d4 piercing damage + 1d4 poison damage if the victim fails a constitution save.
Languages In addition to Common, cockroaches are able to speak with mundane and monstrous cockroaches of all kinds, and can speak Undercommon.

Housefly
Ability Scores Flies get +2 to Dexterity and +1 to Constitution, -1 to Charisma
Compound Eyes Flies have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Flight Flies are able to fly at a speed of 20 feet, and they can hover in place.
Fragile Exoskeleton The hit point rolls of a fly are made at -1.
Acidic Vomit Flies have a natural "weapon" attack in the form of their acidic vomit. They have proficiency in this attack, and it deals 1d6 acid damage, and functions like a flask of acid. Additionally, they can eat anything and everything.
Languages In addition to Common, flies are able to speak with mundane and monstrous flies of all kinds. However, when they speak Common it is very hard to understand them.

Worm
Ability Scores +1 to Strength and +1 to Wisdom
Blindness Worms are eyeless and thus cannot see, but they have tremorsense out to 30 feet around them.
Digging Worms have a "walking" speed of 20 feet, but have a burrowing speed of 35 feet. Worms can eat dirt, and thus do not require rations.
Dirtcunning Whenever you make any sort of check relating to caves, burrows, valleys, or any other sort of natural earth construction, you double your proficiency bonus when adding to the roll.
Languages In addition to Common, worms are able to speak with mundane and monstrous worms of all kinds, and can speak Terran.

Flea
Ability Scores +2 to Dexterity, +1 to Constitution, -1 to Charisma
Size Fleas are Small in size.
Speed Fleas have a walking speed of 35 feet.
Low Light Vision Fleas can see up to 60 feet in dim light conditions, but cannot see in conditions of darkness.
Flea Nimbleness Fleas can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than them. They are able to long jump without moving 10 feet first, and can jump to heights of 6 + their Strength score.
Fragile Exoskeleton The hit point rolls of a flea are made at -1.
Haemophagous Fleas can heal themselves by sucking the blood from creatures. For every hit point that they suck from the victim, they heal 1 hit point, but unless the victim is held down or is willing they are able to make strength saves to shake the flea off.
Languages In addition to Common, fleas are able to speak with mundane and monstrous fleas of all kinds, as well as all sorts of haemophagous monsters.

Mysterious Creatures

Below are old school stats for a number of cryptids, aliens, beings, and spirits from real world cryptozoology, ufology, and conspiracy theories for if you just really want the flatwoods monster in your game.

A note on statblocks: while this is compatible with whatever osr system you wish to use, they are formatted a bit differently from some systems, and there are some stats that assume houserules I use.

Hit Dice: # of d8s rolled for HP. Armor: if present, points subtracted from damage.
Attacks: number of attacks per round, attack bonus, damage of attacks
Saving throws: Toxic save/Paralysis saves/Magic save/Dodge save/Device save
                         (note: toxic is what is usually called poison, dodge is breath or dragon breath)
                         (second note: its roll equal to or under for success)
                         (third note: use dodge save instead of armor class)
Move: movement rate in feet per turn. Morale: number out of 12 for morale checks

Loveland Frog
Hit Dice: 3    Armor: 0
Attacks: 1, +3, d6 damage
Saving Throws: 14/13/15/12/13
Move: 120' Morale: 7
These frogs are humanoid amphibians that hide in sewers and under fetid bridges, congregating in small groups of 2 to 5. Loveland frogs, named after the first town they appeared in, are unspeaking and have unknown motives, crawling and hopping through their stinking homes during the day and only venturing out at night. They all are found carrying sparkling wands that illuminate the area around them with the loud sparkles, and they are able to paralyze creatures with these wands by pointing them at the victim, freezing them in place on a failed paralysis save.

Star Mummy
Hit Dice: 4+1   Armor: 2
Attacks: no attacks
Saving Throws: 16/15/16/13/15
Move: 100' Morale: 10
Star mummies are beings from another world with unusual appearance. They are vaguely humanoid, with grey wrinkled skin and legs fused together into one limb, their gangly arms ending with crab-like claws. Their heads are featureless except for thin slit mouths and their noses and ears nothing but pointed peaks. They float 2 feet above the ground, and travel about in great silvery craft. Star mummies steal away their victims into their spacecraft, but they do not incapacitate them to do so. Rather, if they "stare" at any sort of being, and said being fails a magic save, then they are almost "charmed" by the being and will accompany them into their starship.

Flatwoods Monster
Hit Dice: 6   Armor: 2
Attacks: 1, -1, 1d4 damage
Saving Throws: 17/16/16/14/14
Move: 90' Morale: 12
An almost spectre-like being from another world, its bulb-like head and metallic skirt immediate identifiers. While it can attack with its sharp claws, its main mode of offence is the stinking pestilential cloud that it can produce from under its body, and the disease which it can inflict. It takes a round of combat to release this cloud, and those within it take 1 point of damage per round from the sting to their eyes and to their lungs. In addition, those who enter the cloud must make a toxic save or contract the "Flatwoods Fever". Those who contract it are confined to their bed, oozing black goo from their orifices for several days if not weeks.

Batsquatch
Hit Dice: 3+2   Armor: 0
Attacks: 2, +4, d6 damage
Saving Throws: 14/15/8/14/8
Move: 130' (flying), 110' (walking) Morale: 6
Batsquatches are large apes native to cold northern rainforests and to mountains near them. They are bulky and muscular, and in addition to being large humanoid apes, they have leathery bat wings. Both the hands and feet of a batsquatch are opposable, often grabbing at things with their feet while they fly through the air.