Thursday, October 22, 2015

New Background: Rustic Adventurer (D&D 5e)

You come from among the simple folk of the world for most of your life, and are one of them. Perhaps you dream of being more, becoming a folk hero of legend or even rising to greater rank. Whatever the reason you left home, you've already had to learn new skills to survive and face the world. Have you refined the knowledge learned among your daily chores, discovered that the lessons your elders taught in the evenings had hidden meanings that are now starting to be clear, or did you have a chance encounter that gave you a mentor who taught you the new skills you'll need to survive a life of adventure? However grand or simple your dreams may be, you always remember you have feet of clay.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

New Spell: Manipulate Life (D&D 5e)

necromancy cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Component: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You target two creatures which you must touch (one can be yourself) who must both must be willing, restrained, or incapacitated. One of the creatures suffers a point of damage and the other regains one hit point. If the damage is prevented or reduced in any way no benefit is gained by the other target.
This spell has no effect on constructs.

~~*~~

Thursday, October 15, 2015

House Rule; Random Starting Willpower (nWoD VtR LARP)

At the start of play draw a card, that is how many Willpower points your character was down from max when they went to sleep for the day. Generally you get one point back for sleeping. A character may add their Haven(Size) rating to their initial Willpower or use a point of Resources to gain a point of Willpower (as Herd is used to gain Vitae).


~~*~~


Tuesday, October 13, 2015

New Rogue Archetype: Chirurgeon (D&D 5e)

The earliest studies of healing required the robbing of graves and little mortal knowledge has ever advanced without being wrenched bodily from a universe ill-desiring to yield it.
Sometimes a chirurgeon starts as a humble product of the streets who seeks the knowledge to heal and help those they care about in whatever way they can. More often, they begin as one of the learned who finds themselves skulking in the shadows performing whatever deeds are necessary to further their knowledge. Shunned in higher society of most "civilized" places where magical healing is available, chirurgeons are considered little better than ghouls. Seen as butchers and mocked as would be necromancers lacking the true power of magic, they still flourish wherever the poor and desperate exist. After all, when you need a healer and can't afford the "donations" asked by a temple, some questions aren't worth asking.
Chirurgeons will join adventuring parties for the same reason any other scholar might; in search of knowledge, glory, or for more personal motivations. Perhaps starting adventurers simply needed someone who could patch them together and found that their resources were sufficient to hire a chirurgeon out of their laboratory and into pursuit of greater fortune. Perhaps a soul who would otherwise have spent a life taking decided instead to try their hand at giving back. Regardless, even if their companions fall never to rise again, it simply means the chirurgeon will have new subjects with which to further their understanding of the myriad living forms.


Thursday, October 8, 2015

House Rule: Magic as Masterwork (D&D 5e)

Rather than limit the creation of all magic items to spellcasters, this house rule allows characters with the appropriate proficiency and sufficient talent to craft an item from scratch and imbue it with magical or semi-magical properties by virtue of their skill and effort.

To craft a magical item, the player must have a creation formula that describes the construction, as described under Crafting a Magic Item on pg 128 of the DMG. This formula must be designed for construction using the relevant tool proficiency, rather than magical creation. The most basic requirement is that they must have proficiency with the relevant tools as well as a tool kit of that type (herbalists' kit or alchemists' kit for potions, woodcarvers' tools for bows, wooden shields, or staves, smiths' tools for swords or metal armors, leather workers' tools for leather armor, etc). The DM may decide that certain items or locations are required, just as described in those rules for Crafting a Magic Item. Finally, the crafter must meet a minimum proficiency bonus based on the rarity of the item.

Rarity
Required proficiency bonus
Common
+3
Uncommon
+3
Rare
+4
Very Rare
+5
Legendary
+6

The player may then announce they are going to create that item as their downtime action. They use the Crafting a Magic Item downtime action, requiring materials and time just as if they were crafting the item as a spellcaster, with each day of effort contributing 25 gold pieces worth of progress towards the total required. 
Any number of characters may combined their efforts, contribute 25 gp worth of effort per day towards the completion, but each participant must have the required tools, tool proficiency, and proficiency bonus.
Once completed, the item is indistinguishable from one crafted with the use of magic.
As with the Crafting and Crafting a Magic Item downtime actions, a character can maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay the 1 gp per day or a comfortable lifestyle at half the normal cost.

~~*~~

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

House Rule:Downtime Effects for Lifestyle (D&D 5e)

While you are free to choose any level of lifestyle you wish and can afford to live, there are ups and downs to the various choices. For every week of downtime a character engages in they will roll for a random encounter with a bonus to the roll determined by the lifestyle they maintained for that week. 

Sunday, October 4, 2015

New Spell: Clear Sight (D&D 5e)

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


~~*~~

Saturday, October 3, 2015

New Spell: Gift of Life (D&D 5e)

1st-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Component: V, S
Duration, Instantaneous

You suffer 1d6 necrotic damage. A creature you touch regains a number of hit points equal to twice the damage rolled + your spellcasting ability modifier.
This spell has no effect on undead or constructs and cannot be used by non-living casters.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage roll increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

~~*~~

Friday, October 2, 2015

New Spell: Bind Undead (D&D 5e)

1st-level necromancy (ritual)
Casting time: 1 minute
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust)
Duration: Instantaneous

By means of this spell you target one undead creatures within range which you can see. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save the target must obey your verbal commands. The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you've given it.
Skeletons and zombies which are subjected to this spell are treated as if you created them by means of the 3rd level spell Animate Dead. Thus, such creatures can be mentally commanded as a bonus action if they are within 60 feet of you. If you currently control a skeleton or zombie they do not get a saving throw when you target them with this spell. To maintain control of one of these creatures for another 24 hours you may cast either this spell or Animate Dead before the current 24-hour period ends, reasserting your control as if you created it originally.
Undead with a higher challenge rating than you are immune to this spell. Undead with an intelligence of 8 or higher have advantage on their initial saving throw. If the subject has an Intelligence of 13 or higher it can repeat the saving throw once per hour until it breaks free.
At Higher Levels; When casting this spell, you may target one additional undead creature for each slot level above 2nd.

This spell is added to the Wizard spell list and may replace a spell on the Cleric's Death Domain spell list.

~~*~~

Thursday, October 1, 2015

House Rules: Humanity Penalties (nWoD VtR LARP)


Social Penalty rather than Cap when dealing with mortals;

The penalty a vampire experiences is 10 minus their own Humanity. Thus a vampire with 7 Humanity would have a -3 penalty to Socialize, Persuasion, and Empathy against mortals. This still represents the growing ascendancy of a beast in low-Humanity vampires, and the resulting discomfort in mortals, but does so equally for vampires with both low and high social skills and abilities. 

Starting Blood
At the start of play draw a card, that is how many Blood points your character was down from max when they went to sleep for the day. To rise that night a vampire must spend an amount of blood equal to 10 minus their Humanity.

Rising With Insufficient Vitae
A character may suffer three points of bashing damage per point of blood they do not spend to rise. Thus a character requiring three points of blood to rise one night may take 9 points of bashing damage to expend no blood to rise for whatever reason. Alternately, the character could suffer 6 bashing damage and spend 1 point of Vitae, suffer 3 bashing damage and spend 2 points of Vitae, or simply spend the 3 Vitae.

Coil of Blood

Characters with the Blood Seeps Slowly power benefit by adding the character’s Resolve to their Humanity rating when calculating the amount of blood needed to rise. A character with Blood Seeps Slowly and a Resolve + Humanity of greater than 10 may actually have more blood than they drew (but not more than their full blood pool) because of their reduced blood usage.

~~*~~