Sunday, February 15, 2015

Some new 5th Edition D&D warlock patrons

Potentate

A being in the future guides you towards your fate. It may be a power yet unmade, or one of your companions… or perhaps even yourself.

Expanded Spell List

The Potentate lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Potentate Expanded Spells


  1. heroism, sanctuary
  2. augury, enhance ability
  3. haste, sending
  4. death ward, divination
  5. circle of power, commune

Fated

When you expend inspiration, the target adds your Charisma modifier to their next attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made before the start of your next turn.

Temporal Echoes

Starting at 6th level, if you or a creature you can see would take damage, you can use your reaction to call up other possible timelines. The target is affected is as if it had cast a mirror image spell, except the duplicates affect even creatures which cannot see, use blindsight, or can perceive illusions, and the duration is a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Prescience

Beginning at 10th level, you add your Charisma modifier to Initiative rolls and Intelligence (Investigate) checks.

As Things Should Be

When you reach 14th level, you can tell with whom your fate is entwined. When you finish a long rest, choose a creature. If either of you gain inspiration, both of you do.

Massacre

You survived a great slaughter, but the spirits of those who died press upon you to carry out their unfinished tasks and grievances.

Implements granted by a massacre warlock’s pact boon tend to look ruined and worthless to casual observers - a pitted kitchen knife for a pact weapon, or a singed diary as a Book of Shadows.

Expanded Spell List

The spirits of the massacre let you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Massacre Expanded Spells


  1. dissonant whispers, wrathful smite
  2. blindness/deafness, spiritual weapon
  3. animate dead*, bestow curse
  4. fire shield, phantasmal killer
  5. animate objects, hallow

Paroxysm

You may choose to take disadvantage on any attack. If you do so and hit, as a bonus action, you may cast any cantrip you know which requires an attack roll.

Whispers of the Slain

Starting at 6th level, you can tap the collected knowledge of those massacred. As a bonus action, you may gain proficiency in any skill or tool, or expertise in any skill or tool in which you are already proficient, for 1 minute.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Arcane Vengeance

When you reach 10th level, your spells which require an attack roll score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Chorus of Ruin

Starting at 14th level, you can call upon vengeful spirits to carry your destructive magic. You may use this feature as a bonus action. Doing so requires concentration, and every time you cast a cantrip which requires an attack roll, you conjure an invulnerable spirit infused with that cantrip.

On your turn, if you use your action to cast a cantrip which requires an attack roll, each conjured spirit does so as well, acting as a 5th-level caster for its infused spell, but using your ability score modifier. You may have a number of these spirits up to your Charisma modifier - any new one conjured replaces the oldest.

If you spend your action to do anything else, or lose concentration, all the spirits dissipate and this feature cannot be used again until you finish a long rest.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Sack of Crapsack Worlds

These tables generate rather unpleasant settings in the vein of Robert E. Howard or Clark Ashton Smith. As examples:

In the sky there is a fat red sun, the Keening Moon, and the little Silent Moon. Magic is usually taught, but inimical to us. Outside the settlements, there is mostly marsh, dotted with pylons. We worship the ancestors, but schisms are widening in the faith. Monsters are rare and cunning. We work in wood, which is guarded. Settlements are ancient and teeming.

In the sky there is a yellow sun, a vast sweeping ring, and the twin moons. Monsters are hidden and viscous. Settlements are isolated and hungry. We work in bronze, which must be hunted. Outside the settlements, there is mostly ice, dotted with ruins. Magic is usually abundant but ritualistic. We worship the one God but heresies are becoming common.

Of course, in any of these settings, one must consider the sky first.

We watch (1d6) interesting things in the sky. Each is…
  1. tiny (a star, a comet)
  2. small (a small white sun, a lesser moon)
  3. average (a yellow sun, a moon)
  4. large (a fat red sun, a large moon)
  5. immense (a sister planet, a planetary ring)
  6. weird (fragments of larger body, erratic orbit, a literal five-headed space dragon)

For the other aspects, first roll to see the order in which each dominates the setting, then roll 2d6 for each.

(1) We work in ... which…
  1. wood
  2. stone
  3. bronze
  4. iron
  5. steel
  6. crystal
  1. is rewarded
  2. is guarded
  3. is unstable
  4. must be hunted
  5. is dwindling
  6. is toxic
(2) Magic is usually…. but…
  1. nonexistent
  2. the stuff of legends
  3. taught
  4. inherited
  5. abundant
  6. unavoidable
  1. requires sacrifice
  2. ritualistic
  3. inimical to us
  4. wrought by spirits
  5. prone to surges
  6. fading
(3) We worship… but...
  1. the ancestors
  2. the one God
  3. the divine family
  4. spirits of the land
  5. a myriad of gods
  6. the great Entities
  1. nobody really believes
  2. the faith is old and unsteady
  3. heresies are becoming common
  4. schisms are widening in the faith
  5. only out of fear
  6. there has been silence
(4) Settlements are usually… and…
  1. tiny
  2. sprawling
  3. isolated
  4. mobile
  5. underground
  6. ancient
  1. fortified
  2. decadent
  3. forlorn
  4. insular
  5. hungry
  6. teeming
(5) Outside the settlements, there is mostly… dotted with...
  1. desert
  2. ice
  3. marsh
  4. jungle
  5. the sea
  6. the howling void
  1. craters
  2. storms
  3. volcanoes
  4. ruins
  5. lights
  6. pylons
(6) Monsters are… and…
  1. rare
  2. hidden
  3. swarming
  4. migratory
  5. everywhere
  6. in control
  1. immortal
  2. viscious
  3. cunning
  4. horrific
  5. invisible
  6. charming