Tough – You may divide damage between Strength and Dexterity (instead of choosing one) when endurance is at 0. Requirements: Endurance 8+
Uncanny Senses – You may be prompted for spot or recon rolls other characters are not.
Cleave – A melee attack with a -1DM, declare two adjacent targets within reach, and attack the first. If the first target is killed, knocked out, pushed back, dodges, or dives for cover then remaining damage from the attack with a bladed, two-handed weapon may be applied to the second target (targets may take any legal reaction, parry, or dodge, etc.) Requirements: Strength 8+ Cleave 2 – No negative DM, any number of targets in reach without the adjacency requirement. Requirements: Strength 10+, Bladed Weapon
Sweeping Attack – Damage is halved for this attack, for each level of effect (roll over target number) you may apply damage to an additional target.
Ambidextrous Fighter – May dual wield melee weapons and attack with both without the -2 DM penalty but you sacrifice your strength bonus to melee damage. Requirements: Agility 8+ Ambidextrous Fighter 2 – You may add your damage bonus. Requirements: Agility 10+, Bladed Weapon
Armor of Ire – Ignore extra damage you would suffer from the effect of attacks (aka the margin of success) Requirements: Primitive Homeworld
Battle Song – You sing or perform an inspiring song targeting an ally. As an action make a social (profession: music) check (target 8+) to give a character you choose a boon to their next action. If you are forced to take any action or reaction before the boon is used, it is lost. Requirements: Profession: (musical)
Inspiring Song or Story – This can give a boon to morale checks for your crew/party. Requirements: Profession: (musical) [House Rule: Morale]
New Equipment
Chameleon Visor – Allows the user to process 2 independent visual feeds. Can duel wield ranged weapons, and fire at multiple targets without the -2DM. Requirements: Optics 3 (new skill)
360 Visor – Allows the user to have a full 360-degree field of view. This provides various bonuses to recon and survival at the Refs discretion. Requirements: Optics 2 (new skill)
Reactive Sensory Protection – Can be built into many ear and eye devices or independently in a helmet. Sensory protection provides hearing and eye protection from loud noise and dangerous laser or other lights reactively by isolating them and converting them to safe levels as visual and audio input.
I am proud to present to you a mix of fantasy themed metal which serves as great inspiration for my games and an epic soundtrack to my gaming sessions!
This has been stuck in draft for a while and I want to unleash it, better late than never. Enjoy while playing an epic game session.
These things have various definitions when it comes to dueling and MMA etcetera but here’s my take.
In D&D 5e you can use the “Reaction” rule to power these moves, in other systems you may allow a certain number or in the most austere cases force the character to forfeit their following action or prepare ahead of time with a readied action. Being a special maneuver, limiting the use to once per round is fine but it may make sense to allow it more depending on the system.
Parry/Deflect A parry is using your weapon(s) in an active motion to strike and deflect an attack.
As a reaction to being attacked in melee if you’re wielding a weapon that could reasonably deflect the attack you may make an ‘opposed’ attack roll, if its higher than the enemies attack roll you block that attack. Riposte: if it is 3 or more than the opposed attack and beats their AC you strike them back with that attack roll. (Optional: require a finesse weapon in 5e.)
Block Positioning your weapon or shield between yourself and the attackers strike to stop it.
As a reaction to being attacked in melee, if you’re wielding something that could reasonably block the attack make a strength roll (+2 with shield), if the roll is higher than the opposed attack you block it. If the roll is 5 or more than the opposed attack you may push the target back 5′.
Dodge Ducking, moving aside, and any other avoidance maneuver to escape attacks.
As a reaction to being attacked, make a Dex check, disadvantage if the attack is ranged, if it is higher than the opposed attack that attack misses, if the roll is 3 or more you may shift (move) up to 5′.
Full Defense(optional) Full defense is using everything in your power to move away from attacks and minimize their impact. Taking no aggressive actions whatsoever.
On you turn you mac declare Full Defense, until your following turn all attacks against you (that are not from behind if playing 5e with flanking or in systems where that is taken into account) are reduced by d6 and increase reflex saves by d6. (You must be able to move, not bound, and you must be armored or holding something you could reasonably block with.) Alternatively you can replace the d6 with the characters hit die.
My current Parry rule In DCC I use a single parry/block/deflect reaction along with a defense as described above. “Parry: in reaction to an attack you may sacrifice one of your action dice for the next turn to add your attack bonus (with a weapon you’re wielding) to your AC vs a total number of attacks equal to your attack bonus until your next turn. (Can be used in reaction.)” Its elegant but no riposte.
A PVP Dungeon Crawl Classics Battle Royale using Magic the Gathering Creatures and Spells!
Titans prepare to face off!
It’s been a while so let’s cut right to the chase. I wanted to do something new for our typical PVP sessions we do when too many players are out. I’ve explored the concept of spatial MTG before and thought I’d give it a try again with a new context, the “players” in MTG are instead the player characters in DCC. So its like being a Planewalker in D&D, with real MTG spells!
I’ll explain the cards I used and how I converted things, you’ll see it’s straightforward and works well. There are some critical differences between this and strict MTG. People had a blast drawing cards and collecting mana and summoning creatures.
The Rules So Far…
Players run around the map collecting any mana they touch from the mana spawn points for that color on the map, just like a video game character. The mana token on the map is exhausted and players draw a land card of that color. Players all draw spell cards from a single infinite of the same 11 cards (in this session). Unlike Magic, mana is spent from the hand and discarded when used.
Scoring: Each Kill, of a PC, performed by your or your summoned creatures is worth 2 points, each time you die is -1; the tiebreaker will be a PC’s proximity to the center of the board. Optionally the board can close in Battle Royale style.
Start of round: Initiative is rolled each round and all players draw 1 card. End of round: clear corpses (in other words graveyards don’t last, so you can’t resurrect a creature at sorcery speed if you’ve already gone that round).
Hand-size limit: Intelligence. Casting limit: The total number of creatures you control converted mana cost cannot exceed personality.
Each round players draw one card, and the monsters and PCs move and act (creatures that tap do so as an action). Monsters can only be controlled if they are within line of sight of your PC. At the end of their turn, the PC may cast any number of cards (then execute any upkeep effects). Also at the end of a PC’s turn, any creatures they control which are outside of their line of sight will move toward and attack the nearest* enemy, unless they have a 0 power, in which case they will attempt to move toward the controlling PC as directly without provoking attacks if possible.
Hands: start the game with 1 card and draw one card per turn. (You can sacrifice a spell card for a colorless mana.)
You must have and expend the required mana to play a card from your hand (it does not last like in MTG). Casting a 0-cost creature requires that you have mana of their color in your hand.
Creatures are summoned adjacent to the caster or up to 1 square (x5′) away per converted mana cost.
Direct damage listed is in the form of d6s, so 3 damage in MTG terms is 3d6 in this game.
There is no range limit on “targets” they must only be in line of sight. A creature’s attack and damage bonus is equal to its power and dictates its attack die on the die-chain starting from d3. Explained further below.
A creature’s HD is based on its toughness. its die type on the die chain up from d3 and the number equal to toughness. Its AC is 10+toughness.
A creature’s size is based on average power and toughness. <=2 medium, 2-4 = large, 5-6 = Huge (3×3), 7+ = Massive (4×4) 11+ beyond that figurte it out yourself but for each size increase reduce the AC by 1.
So a 2/3 creature would be as follows. Large; AC 10 ( 8+3 -1 from size); Attack d20+2 d4+2 dmg; 3d6 hp.
A 0/1 Creature would have AC 9; No Attack; 1d3 hp.
Keyword Abilities I have accounted for
Lifelink: temp HP, beyond max!
Vigilance: creatures with vigilance move before all other creatures without. First Strike: creatures with first strike attack before all others without. Double Strike: two attacks. Reach: can attack anything in line-of-sight (just go with it). Death-touch causes max (damage rather than outright killing). Trample: a cleave, roll damage, if you kill a creature you may specify another creature in reach whose AC would be beaten by the initial attack roll, apply remaining damage to them and continue as long as there is damage and legal targets. Islandwalk: the attack roll automatically succeeds against a PC if the controlling player has islands in their hand. Flying: flying creatures ignore attacks-of-op and terrain but are always within reach of a creature that is not prone and could otherwise attack a non-flying creature in the same space.
Graveyards only exist temporarily until the end of the round but keep in mind that targets (corpses) must be within line of sight.
Creatures share the caster’s initiative. Again all casting (except “instants”) is done after all PC and creature movement on your turn.
If you die you must make an intelligence check, if you fail you must unsummon a creature. You can burn luck adjust this.
Mana Respawn. Use DM/Judge’s discretion but here are a couple of ways. Initially, I wrote: each round there’s a chance some mana of each color refreshes, starting with those fonts furthest from PCs. I used Fate dice rolling one for each color (tip: “/r 5df” in Roll20) [blank] = no refresh of that color, [ – ] = refresh mana equal to 1/2 of PC’s in match, [ + ] = refresh equal to number of PCs. This was too fast and let players farm mana so I switched to the following alternative [ + ] = 1 mana of the color (as long as nobody is adjacent), everything else is no refresh. Really mana could be done in many ways and if you don’t like mine you should just make your own. Hell, have players draw it and use it by tapping just like in Magic the Gathering, and give them their own decks even.
Power/Toughness
Damage Die / Hit Die Type / Crit Die
AC Bonus (8+x) / Damage Bonus / HD Number
0
0 (cant attack) / (Dead)
0
1
d3
1
2
d4
2
3
d6
3
4
d8
4
5
d10
5
6
d12
6
7
d14
7
8
d16
8
9 d20 10 d24 11 d30 12-21 + 2nd action die 22-31 + 3rd action die, and so on….
Use the most appropriate crit table (usually Monster).
Hoaf and Lys take refuge from the stronger casters.
Some helpful constraints
Your maximum hand size is equal to your intelligence. You must discard cards at the end of the round if you exceed it.
Optional (if creatures get out of hand) you may only have a number of creatures under your control equal to your personality score. At the end of the round choose and unsummon creatures until you reach this limit.
On your turn you may control a number of creatures each turn equal to your personality in converted mana cost; you may always control at least one of your summoned creatures despite this limitation (for example: if your personality is reduced or the creature has an exceptionally high cost).
(AC Caps out at 22 for now so that creatures with a massive number of buffs are still hittable.)
All DCC spells and Deeds work as they would with/against any normal monsters!
The bottom line is there’s still some work to be done with mana but the spell casting/monster summoning and power levels/conversion worked great and players loved it!
I would almost just replace the Magic system in 5e with this if I go back to running that. Tired of Vancian…
This ancient weapon set was crafted in the Halls of one of the first true Dwarven nations, by a miner, smith and artificer of Clan IronFist by the name of Derglaer. While searching a tunnel for a vein of ore he came across a shard of obsidian crystal intertwined with a ribbon of golden metal, both of which the likes he had never seen nor heard of. He tucked it away in a pack so that he could examine it later. Back in his lab he began trying to separate the two, only to find a thin layer of a clear crystal almost like glass separating them, but keeping them firmly fused together, and through it all he heard persistent voices in his head. He shut himself off from everyone for a few weeks, working nonstop until he came to realize that somehow the materials housed elements of the outer planes. The golden metal he found out from an ancient tome, was called Lustrum (referred to by the dwarves as ‘Dumathoin’s Mantel’, which in some lighting, had a lavender hue), and seemed to house some aspect of the ‘Higher Planes’. The obsidian ended up being something called Abyssal Diamond, this was only found in the Nine Hells and contained some bit of that aspect within. The Glass substance between the two was unknown and when the two pieces were spread apart, it seemed to expand and retract but would never let them get more than a few feet apart. Derglaer hid the materials away for over 2 centuries, every day hearing the voices, everyday losing a bit of his sanity and his soul. Growing old and having the feeling that something tragic was about to happen, one night he barred himself in the great forge and went to work. Everything that he had was put into the creation, and when his clanmates managed to break in hours later they found the husk of what was Derglaer and two scimitars, one Abyssal Diamond and one Dumathoin’s Mantel connected by a clear glass chain, with 10 links, one tinted with a swirling blue and red mist inside.
Two days after the tragic incident the clan of IronFist was attacked by a host of demonic entities, most of the dwarves were killed in the retreat. Unknown to the dwarves, having completed the task they were summoned for, the demons left shortly after (about 50 years after the assault) and the mines became a ruin lost to time. Adventurers have been in parts of the stronghold, not knowing the truth of the grand place they were in. At some point in the past, the blades were pulled out, along with most of the other dwarven treasures. It wasn’t until 500 years later that the twin sons of the last king began their quest to retake the nation, and then the search to reclaim its lost treasures.
These 2 blades are connected by a chain seemingly made of glass and consisting of ten links, the Soul Chain, that seems to change in size on mental command by its wielder, the length can vary from ten inches (each link is a small, about 1 inch) when sheathed, to 10 foot (each link is about 1 foot long) as when being used for Order and Chaos. Every creature killed by one of the blades has a portion of its being absorbed through the blade and stored in the Soul Chain (three souls are required to fill one link).
They are at their base a +1 scimitars, however, whenever the bearer kills a creature, weapons gain a soul. As a bonus action, the bearer can use any number of filled links to deal that much extra magical damage + character lvl on their next attack. Otherwise the wielder can decide to use the filled links + character lvl to heal any target within 15 ft.
Order and Chaos
Five times per short rest, as long as the chain is storing 1 soul, as an action, the user can spin one of the blades with a flourish (Acrobatics or Perform DC 16), throwing it at a target up to 10 foot away. If the Saint is used, and the attack strikes, it deals 1D4 radiant damage per filled link (expending all souls in the links) + the characters Acrobatics or Perform skill, all damage done is channeled back to the wielder as HP. If the Sinner is used, and the attack strikes, it deals 1D8 necrotic damage per filled link (expending all souls in the links) + the characters Acrobatics or Perform skill, and gives the target disadvantage on all attacks and saving throws for a number of rounds equal to the number of links that were filled.
A Paladin of Torm and well known slayer of evil outsiders, Sir Erik of Creek, collected an assortment of demonic parts from his victories, thinking that if they were forged into a weapon, they would give him an advantage over the creatures he faced. When the day came he gave the parts to a runesmith. The blade of this weapon was forged with the bones of devils found in the Nine Hells and quenched in the blood of demons from the Abyss. Despite his best attempts to turn the weapon toward the divine, there was an air of haunting evil. Sir Erik refused the finely crafted rapier and began to spread rumors of the smith’s poor quality, quickly running him out of business. The smith, was taken in by an up and coming guild of thieves and assassins, as a gift he presented the rapier, Demon’s Fang, to the Guild Master, it was then placed in the guild armory for use on jobs. Less than a year later, a powerful Balor Demon, Errutu, (while in disguise) hired the guild to deal with an annoying warrior that was hunting his minions. Sir Erik was found dead two weeks later in a rundown inn, a single stab while sleeping from a long slender blade that seemed to leave a wound that had a hauntingly evil presence. Many decades later, Demon’s Fang was lost on a job, when the assassin, escaping the scene of his latest job, was aboard a pirate ship, which was sunk by a pirate hunting ship leaving Luskan on the way to Waterdeep. The weapon gradually found its way back to the shore and into the hands of a young halfling rogue, who hid it away until needed, so as to not bring unwanted attention to herself.
Smoke rises from this weapon revealing the demonic apparitions that haunt it. They lash out at living targets every time the bearer scores a hit, doing an additional amount of necrotic damage equal to character’s level (CL) for every 10 points of damage done.
With every hit where the wielder gets advantage or sneak damage the blade heals the wielder with a portion of the damage done. The hit points that are restored is determined by the characters level starting at 3 HP restored. (level 4 restores 6 HP, lvl 8: 9HP, lvl 12: 12HP, lvl 15: 15HP, lvl 18: 18HP). This healing does not add to the amount of damage done.
The PC is leading a unit of friendly combatants in a skirmish or larger-scale battle where they are organized into rank and file regiments. These are class-specific feats the PCs can take to expand their powers in this scope, many of which extend to the entire unit the PC is leading.
The overarching Mass Battle ruleset is not fully defined. To use the additional rules for large battles in the DMG as a base structure. Details will need to be worked out to determine how the prescribed feats will interact with the ruleset.
This system assumes players are using a system for mass combat such as the one published by wizards here: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/mass-combat. However the rules are flexible and should fit into most homebrew systems without much adjustment.
Members of a unit must be within 5′ of another member.
Units are formed of relatively similar folk.
Each unit can have passive and/or triggered abilities.
BARBARIAN
Any Barbarian hero can lead a unit of frenetic warriors, and even intelligent beasts at the discretion of the GM. They have the most limited options when forming a unit, but barbarian units can be completely devastating to any foe who dares to stand in their way. In a mass battle, barbarian units gain the following:
A barbarian’s unit may use Reckless Attack if the barbarian has it (PHB p48).
Armor of Ire
Deafened by fury, a legion of pure rage at your back, you move like the wind and cut down foes like the swift scythe of The Reaper, himself.
While this unit is lead by a barbarian it may use a Bonus Action to trigger Armor of Ire. When Armor of Ire is active the unit can only be struck by critical hits. This lasts for a number of rounds equal to the barbarian leader’s level. After which enemies have advantage when making attack roles against this unit. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or a long rest.
You may lead any number of willing creatures with a total number of hit dice less than or equal to your Barbarian level x 10. All creatures in this unit must have at least 1d8 hit die or greater, e.g., 1d8, 2d8, 1d10, etc.
CLERIC
The Cleric’s core abilities scale to the battlefield when their god calls them to war. In mass battle, all clerics have the following benefits:
Healing targets and affects entire units.
Turn Undead targets and affects entire units.
The Invoker
“It’s by mercy alone that I cannot recount – the memories fade and I tire – a glimpse of all things vile and cruel, haunting my dreams when I doze. The memories come more and more; are they my own or the calling chaos? I will always recall the sounds of the gods as they rose. The old ones awaken again… I am the invoker.” – Seraph
Clouds swirl above as your god speaks from the heavens with a thunderous boom, calling down a torrent of wind on the mighty Cleric and his guard, as dust a debris are driven outward an enemy is compelled to face them in a duel.
You may trigger The Invoker as a action. An enemy you can see must make a will save vs. your spell save DC or be compelled to fight you (they move intelligently and attempt to reach you; Undead have disadvantage). A powerful burst of wind spreads from your unit (60′ radius; difficult terrain). Creatures of 3 Hit Dice or less may not enter this area. At the start of their turn, units within the area must make a Strength Save vs your spell save DC. Failure means they cannot move, failure by 5 or more means they are pushed outside of this area. The wind does not affect the target of this ability. Likewise our unit is not affected and may act as normal. The effect lasts as long as you are in combat with the enemy or a number or rounds equal to your level. The challenger may bring their mount or rider (or pets).
DRUID
A unit lead by a druid in mass combat has the following benefits. A druid can control the most varied group of creatures in a skirmishing formation. Animals and humans fighting side by side, quite a frightening prospect to the enemy.
Creatures in the druids formation do not need to be rank and file. Merely within 20 feet of 2 other members, if possible.
Pro-tip: if you’re leading a regiment of Brown Bears.. be sure you have good-berries at the ready… you have now idea how much these things can eat and what they will do if hungry!
Nature is Neutral
Like dust motes, small spores carried slowly in the wind around Lichen and his people. Their foes met them with a charge stopped short, and then a melancholic gaze. Trapped in memories of childhood on a warm spring day, perhaps from a past life, they felt no more compelled to attack these people than trees.
At the start of their turn the druid may create an invisible cloud of pacifying spores around a unit he leads. This cloud lasts a number of rounds equal to the druid level. The spores automatically pacify Living creatures of Hit Dice less than the Druid level, within 20 feet. Creatures see them as neutral and will not attack unless the unit threatens them directly. A druid may do this a number a times per day equal to half their druid level.
The druid may lead a varied and thematic group of creatures of Hit Dice equal to 5 x their druid level.
WARLOCK
Treacherous Trap
As an action, the warlock may cast Armor of Agaths on the unit he leads, as a ritual (taking 10 minutes) even if they do not know this spell.
A warlock may lead a unit with total hit dice of 5 x the caster warlock level or less.
Jaerun’s dark magic gives his people the ability to take back what is theirs, and make their enemies flee in pain
FIGHTER
Fighters are champions and knights, natural leaders on the battlefield. All fighter-lead units have the following benefits during mass battles:
The fighters unit has advantage on morale checks.
Units may test with the fighter’s morale bonus (Charisma bonus) during a morale check if the shortest path between the leader and that unit does not intersect an enemy.
Charge of the Champions
I am the hammer, you are glowing iron.
As a Fighter, when you lead a unit on a charge (moving into combat) all of the units attacks automatically hit (unless a hit would be impossible), 1/10th are critical hits. A fighter may perform this action in battle a number of times per day equal to their fighter level.
You may lead a unit of Hit Dice up to your Fighter level x 7.
These are only some of the classes, which would you like to see next? Tell me what you think and make up some of your own.
Have you seen this topic covered in other source material? Let me know.
Often in our favorite shows, movies, video games, and books our heroes are challenged by a wide variety of seemingly unequal forces, but its always an exciting challenge. How can this be, and how can we capture that in RPGs? In a lot of fiction challenge is built around creating tension and excitement as characters gauge the situation and build up to the level of response which is appropriate to overcome the odds. It’s a strong trope in episodic TV like Star Trek where different writers adjust the characters capabilities to their liking to achieve the desired narrative. Sometimes this can destroy our suspension of disbelief, other times it makes sense not set phasers to kill right off the bat. It can be done in a way that lends credulity. I believe its more thematic to have a response of force which matches the challenge. We can do this in our RPG even when most systems do not account for it out of the box.
In systems like D&D you can have this situation where the wizard just fireballs everything in their path, big or small, in every encounter, especially when they are about to hit the sack. If that seems cool to you, then you have nothing to worry about. If, however, you’ve pondered ways of making your game play out differently, maybe more like the the books and shows you enjoy, read on.
Adjusting level on the fly is something seen in plenty of video games, but it would be hard to crunch those numbers on the fly when you’re playing a “pen and paper” game. While leveling a character up and down between each encounter would be tedious we have other options. There are ways we can achieve the same effect with much less work. D&D and many other systems, can be tweaked, and of course there’s always the prospect of building a system with this in mind from the start. I have to mention that some RPG systems do reenforce this this out of the box, I’ll mention one later.
This is a thinking exercise, something for us to use as inspiration to create scenes that feel more like the media we consume. Gandalf doesn’t drop his best spells at every opportunity, how can we be more like Gandalf? Let me share my thinking process, this is my flow for GMing, creating systems, and arbitrating rules. Just get started and refine along the way. You can follow along at home and come up with something of entirely your own creation. Lets Riff.
Off the cuff, I start thinking lets take D&D, and easiest thing to tweak from the start: spell level. If the encounter is Challenge Rating (CR) 3 then perhaps cap the Wizard at level 3 spells. Now of course if things start to go south we can always make exceptions. Say if a character or two goes down this should perhaps remove or adjust the constraint. What about other classes?
“Ultimately the point is we are changing the optimal go to with each encounter and thereby creating more interesting choices.”
Similarly, you could cap character abilities at the level of the encounter, (without adjusting HP because thats tedious). You could also keep other level based increases to spells and abilities of a level lower than the encounter, just to avoid the tedium. Does your cantrip do 5d8 because you’re level 15 but you’re in a CR 3 encounter? Thats fine, just use it without fussing over what it would be if you were only level 3. I find it much more believable for a wizard to throw a leveled up cantrip at a small monster than a high level spell. Even if they are equally “overkill”. The cantrip is reusable and low effort in that fantasy setting. Ultimately the point is we are changing the optimal go to choice with each challenge, and thereby creating more interesting choices.
Now of course wizards don’t get level three spells till level six so if you want to limit them exclusively based on level progression like other characters, as mentioned, you’d need to keep the chart handy or remember, wizards know spells of 1/2 their level rounded up (to a max of 9). A little annoying. Spell level not being tied to character level is, to many people, akin THAC0, but it sticks around in 5e.
There are alternative solutions to achieve the desired effect as well, say for example adjusting recovery. For D&D 5th edition you could require a short rest to be: a full nights sleep in comfort and safety, and a long rest to be: 10 or more days in a comfortable settlement without much stress. I like this quite a bit, it creates a grittier campaign. You can do this with any system but its build into most OSRs in some fashion or another. This is why I prefer to play those systems these days.
Within one of my favorites OSR systems, Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC), using magic should be carefully considered. Clerics can lose spells for long lengths of time and must perform duties to regain them, wizards recover spells overnight typically, however, thats not the only consideration. Casting spells has inherit risks, toying with magic can cause irreversible changes to the character and should not be used lightly. This helps curtail the casual use of magic in that system.
If I were to come up with a Fantasy system I’d likely build something in to promote force appropriate response. It would may be as simple as allowing characters to only use abilities of a level which do not exceed the “threat level” of the scene / encounter. Then of course, most likely, allowing the rule to be broken at some cost.
A related idea for homebrew systems or hacks: ramp up the abilities over the course of combat. Characters facing new challenges (typically combat in RPGs) often must test their opposition and try new things exhausting more and more effort along the way. So lets say in round one of combat you can use level one abilities, and level two in round two, and so on. Building on that maybe you’re the thinking type, the wizard who observes the fighter and rogue and you hold back on round one. Round two come around, the rogue and fighter confront the challenge with level one or two abilities, keeping track of which perhaps, to save the remaining unspent allotment. You the wizard having reserved you action on round one could maybe add that to your round two allotment and now you can do something at level 3? No wasted turns. Whether you get to save the remaining allotment on a turn where you act but use a lesser ability is up to the designer or GM. Enemies should probably be subject to the same restrictions… but not always! (I think this is literally how Dragon Ball Z must work.)
However, its important to be realistic, a character who has faced the same challenge before will know the appropriate level of response and should be allowed to it. Likewise a flaming Balrog should telegraph a serious challenge which could open up a strong response straight away, on the other hand they take those early turns to save up their power, defensively positioning, till they can unleash it!
There’s no shortage of ideas to discover around this concept. What I know is I am going to attempt to guide my groups into more thematic scenes with ideas here and in other new and interesting ways. I think we will all enjoy our games a little bit more, if not, we keep refining.
I remember the first D&D character that I ever played (probably 30 years ago), he was a dwarven fighter, Darden SteelForge. I imagined him as muscle-bound, bruiser, a famous smith turned to the life of adventure. My GM at the time fed into this idea and gave me an amazing hammer, polished but still pitted from the life it had. It was a family heirloom passed down for centuries, it had been used to slay dragons, it had seen wars with goblins, taken down beholders, and now that power was mine.
I met my party in a tavern, as you are wont to do, and we were off to stop some farm raiding kobolds. In less than an hour we had our first encounter with the little beasts. It was my turn, and the little bugger was cowering before me, I drew my hammer back…. and asked the GM, what special properties did my hammer give me? Better hit, more damage, maybe fire damage, that would be cool (dwarves, forges and all), and she said, “It’s just a hammer.” I was dumbstruck, “But..it slayed dragons?”, she smiled and said, “Oh. That’s just for the story.”… Crestfallen I took my swing, and missed, horribly.
We finished the adventure, losing our wizard in the process, and it was time for looting the treasure the kobolds had collected. I didn’t want to fight over the things that the other three player wanted,I looked around, and nestled in the back of the cave was a dagger, not just any dagger… a +1 dagger. “Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that this little knife does the same damage as my “heirloom” and has a better chance to hit?!”, I stared at the GM, she just shrugged. As soon as we made it back to town, I sold the “ancient hammer” to a black smith for 5 silver, and never looked back.
Throughout my years of playing and GMing, I could never understand why players and GMs got so excited over the idea heirloom items. Sure, every once in a while you’d get that player that held onto that item or weapon forever, but chances are, after the first adventure, they never used it again. About 25 years ago I was running an AD&D campaign and I wanted an enemy that would stand out. This was about the time that Star Wars was making a comeback and Episode 1 was announced, so I thought what better way than to make a fighter with a light saber. Everything I came up with made the light saber either too weak for my fighter, or too powerful if the players got it. So I adjusted the damage and properties based on the level, and the more I developed that the more I realized that this was an heirloom weapon, something that the player wouldn’t throw away at the first chance cause there was a new toy. Something that, if stolen or lost, it would feel like a piece of them went with, and they couldn’t go to the smithy and replace it.
Here you will find some of the scalable weapons and items that I have created. They are not good for every GM/player and they may or may not fit into the design of your game, but give them a look and see.
As a side note, here is what I imagine my ‘heirloom’ hammer from above to be.
In the far north, after a lengthy battle with orcs that nearly wiped out Clan DeepAxe, the clan leader, Jerdan SteelForge, saw that his people wouldn’t last the winter. He set out to find some way to get supplies for his kinsmen. After braving weather and monsters for weeks, he found himself slumped in a cave, contemplating the futility in his actions. Awaking from a sleep that he expected would be his last, he found a warm fire and an ancient looking dwarf. As payment for removing the orc menace from “his lands”, and continuing to do so, he offered the dwarf a diamond that would create food and drink, maybe not enough to get full, but enough to survive the winter. Upon accepting the old dwarf took on his true shape, a massive dragon that stretched further than the dwarf could see. Its scales were no less impressive, ranging in all the colors of the metallic, chromatic and gem dragons, and all the ones in between. Jerdan realized that this was one of the ancient dragon gods of legend. With its huge claw, it pricked a spot on it’s foot and where the single drop of blood landed, a shimmering gateway appeared, that led to the front gates of Clan DeepAxe. The dwarf also noticed that the blood had solidified into a multi-hued metal. A whisper in his mind told him to take it and go.
After feeding and telling his story to the clan, he was struck with an idea, almost as if he heard a whisper and he gathered the best craftsmen and runesmiths and headed to the forge. Two long, grueling weeks at the forge and it was done, using the dragon’s blood-metal they had masterfully crafted a near-indestructible warhammer, that shone of mithral, but danced with all colors in the light, and safely encased within, was the lifesaving diamond.
Jerdan used the hammer in many conflicts, against unimaginable foes, and when it was time, he passed it to his daughter, the clans finest warrior and their next leader. The tradition continued for generations, passing it to the dwarf that would bear the weight of Clan DeepAxe’s agreement with the ancient god, status and name not mattering, the hammer seeming to choose the next wielder on it’s own, then directing the current owner when it was time to hand it over.
Hammer of SteelForge Versatile 1d8/1d10. Returns, has a throwing range of 20/80. Natural dwarven enemies take damage equal to weapon damage plus one additional damage die every 3 levels. (levels 1 base dmg, level 3 = +1 dice, level 6 = +2 dice, level 9 = +3 dice, etc…). Starting at 3rd level, the wielder can summon a full meal a number of times equal to their character level +2. At level 10, the weapon grants the ability to cast Hero’s Feast 1/week for every 5 levels (lvl 15: 2x/week, lvl 20: 3/week).
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