Thursday, March 17, 2016

New Cantrips; Non-combat skill bonuses (D&D 5e)



Olympian's Vigor
transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Athletics rolls. If you are already trained in the Athletics skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Tumbler's Sense
transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Acrobatics rolls. If you are already trained in the Acrobatics skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Legerdemain
illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Slight of Hand rolls. If you are already trained in the Slight of Hand skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Cloak of Shadows 
illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Stealth rolls. If you are already trained in the Stealth skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Revelation
divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Investigation rolls. If you are already trained in the Investigation skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Animal Friends
enchantment cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Animal Handling rolls. If you are already trained in the Animal Handling skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Second Sight
divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Insight rolls. If you are already trained in the Insight skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Fleshcraft
transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Medicine rolls. If you are already trained in the Medicine skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.
A character who has chosen the Transmutation School as their Arcane Tradition may replace their Wisdom bonus with their Intelligence bonus when making Medicine rolls while benefitting from this spell.

Deathwatch
necromancy cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Medicine rolls. If you are already trained in the Medicine skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.
A character who has chosen the Necromancy School as their Arcane Tradition may replace their Wisdom bonus with their Intelligence bonus when making Medicine rolls while benefitting from this spell.

Ornithurgy
divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Survival rolls. If you are already trained in the Survival skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Allurian
enchantment cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Deception rolls. If you are already trained in the Deception skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Shadowplay
illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Intimidation rolls. If you are already trained in the Intimidation skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Artful Dodge
illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Performance rolls. If you are already trained in the Performance skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.

Savoir Faire
enchantment cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Component: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration you can add your proficiency bonus to Persuasion rolls. If you are already trained in the Persuasion skill this doubles your effective proficiency bonus for that skill for the duration.


~~*~~
So, I was playing with a website that lets you search and manage all the 5e spells that have been officially published when I made a discovery that I consider pretty frustrating. I've talked before about how much the emphasis on evocation, and combat magic in general, infuriates me. It's cheap and easy to make, rules wise, but it adds very little to the game and leaves the other specialists oddly hollow. But, to find that it's gotten to the point where evocation has more cantrips than half the other schools combined was simply stunning.
So, I decided to see if I could find a way to slap together a batch of cantrips quickly just to show that there are easy routes to creating mechanically effective cantrips for other purposes than combat. Fortunately I'd already done a fair amount of the legwork with the clear sight cantrip I made a while back.
These cantrips, effectively, substitute out a cantrip slot for an extra skill proficiency and the possibility of "specializing" in that skill.

With the lack of textual background for the spells above you'd think that it's an easy job of cut and paste. And, mostly, that was absolutely the point. But, even if I didn't explain it, each is built around a specific concept of use. Whether that's the quick application and brief benefit of many of the illusion and enchantment cantrips or a more deliberately paced effect. Because cantrips can be cast at will the duration is only a mild inconvenience, though an enchanter muttering to himself every few minutes or an illusionist who has to restore their illusory disguise is going to have more trouble than a character who can do without. The casting time, however, is a key lever between usefulness and not. As a case in point, I repeated the Medicine skill, but both will find very different uses in play between the necromancer (who will likely keep it up with regular, long term application) and the transmuter (who will apply it in the heat of the moment). Why would you pick the transmutation version over the necromancer's version? Aside from style, and I obviously felt that these in particular could definitely use a specific "call" to their individual specialties, it's because if the necromancer gets "caught out," (at the end of a cycle or when he hasn't been able to prep for whatever reason) he doesn't get to apply his version in a timely manner while the transmuter, who will nearly always be down but can become ready, has to take that time in the heat of the moment.

I do still feel like I owe the set of knowledge skills. My assumption is that its a set of divination cantrips. The problem, though, is that the knowledge skills don't really have a predictable check. You see it, you check it, you move on. While the use of most skills are deliberately selected, knowledge checks are more like saving throws than attack rolls. That may be the way I handle it; giving a second check with a bonus.

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