Epiro: Episode 114

Pictured: Spoilers. Kind of. It is not as big.

Cast

• Perseus (level 6 demigod Chaladin)
• Iola (level 6 wood elf Centered Breath monk)
• Atticus (level 6 wood elf predator druid)
• Nero (level 6 human evoker)

One-hundred foot diameter rock hurtling towards your face? That would be time to leg it.

Atticus and Iola were the quickest, easily making it to the relative safety of the passage; being either an elf in cat-form or an elf capable of high-velocity wind-jumps has considerable benefits when the name of the game is speed.

Nero and the heavily-armored Perseus? Not so much.

Or rather, not at all.

The impact obliterated the temple, shattering the summit and sending pillars cartwheeling down the mountainside. Iola and Atticus were tossed about as the passage buckled and collapsed, but aside from some bruises and scrapes they were miraculously unharmed. The ground began to shudder again as a violent, deafening wind erupted from the broken summit. Then the sky darkened as the air quickly became freezing and it began to snow.

Brace yourself, magical volcanic winter is coming.

After about ten minutes the wind mostly subsided and the ground was carpeted in several feet of snow. Atticus was not affected much thanks to all the fur. Iola was used to living high up in the mountains, but not that used to it and ended up having to wrap herself in a blanket to ward off some of the cold. When they were mostly sure that nothing more disastrous would occur, they crept out and made their way back to where the summit used to be, hoping against all odds to find someone. Or at least part of them.

As they started up the stairs a scabrous, clawed arm shot out of the snow. Atticus reflexively darted over and worried it, causing the bloated demonic body it was attached to to bolt upright, bellowing in pain. It was certainly dressed like Nero but–for starters–the head had a crest of twisted horns, the skin was covered in thick, dark protrusions, and while the mouth had too many rows of teeth it was still less disconcerting than the one gaping from its distended gut.

Atticus let go, and both he and Iola just stared at the corpulent obsenity in a mixture of confusion and disgust.

Then the gut-mouth vomited up Perseus.

Then the creature slowly diminished in size until all that was left was a Medium-sized, human-looking Nero. He was feeling uncomfortable for a variety of reasons: physical trauma from all the explosions, transforming into a demon and back, spitting up the son of a god he recently killed, and standing knee deep in snow wearing tattered clothing in a region of the world where snow is not a naturally occurring thing. Could this last half-hour get any worse?

Of course it could.

Perseus stood up, covered in a sheen of demi-demon saliva, standing in the freezing cold, and struck Nero. Several times, until he teetered on the verge of consciousness. Once Nero was sufficiently battered and bloodied, he drew his sword and prepared to drive it through his skull. Nero just laid there in resignation, but after several seconds Perseus’s face turned from rage to horror. He slowly lowered the sword, the lightning flashing in his eyes faded. He then backed away before stumbling off to dry heave in the snow for a bit.

Nero picked himself up. His wounds were rapidly healing, and the axe shot him a mental “you’re welcome”. After some awkward silence the group made their way up the stairs so that they could assess the damage. The meteor was lodged within a cylinder of what looked like black ice. It was around ninety feet across and extended thousands of feet into the depths of the mountain. Cold wind was weakly billowing from it, all that remained after whatever energies it contained had been expelled into the sky.

They began climbing down. Well, not Iola and Atticus. They again had the advantage of flight and simply glided to the bottom. The walls did not afford many handholds, so despite his understandable hatred of Nero Perseus was forced to accept his assistance or risk falling. Nero tied a rope around both of them and animated a grappling hook to slowly lower them down in yet more awkward silence. Even if they had something to talk about it was pretty easy to notice as they descended that the meteor was somehow still pushing its way down, grinding away at the shaft of ice.

Perseus tried his luck some more with the lightning staff. It blew off small chunks, but they continued to hang in a slow orbit, keeping pace with the meteor’s inexorable progress. It was simply too big to destroy, so they would have to think of something else. They reached the bottom a few minutes later. As soon as Perseus’s feet touched the ground he could feel a malevolence emanating from beneath him, and Atticus’s keen senses began to detect a very faint pulse, as if the ground were alive.

Nero opened up his arcane sight to give the area a scan. He saw that the pillar was tightly wrapped in strands of abjuration, conjuration, and evocation magic, and crackled just ever so slightly with necromantic energy. He could also see waves of evocation energy being channeled into the meteor from somewhere atop the mountain’s shattered crown, which he noticed were being disrupted periodically by the gusts of wind. The air was disrupting the earth magic, which was being used to grind away a pillar of ice…uh oh.

All of a sudden Nero realized what was going on. They were standing atop a primordial that had been imprisoned directly beneath the very thrones of Olympus. The pillar that impaled it kept it inert, and was made of ice because stone probably would have not done anything and been easy for a practitioner of earth-based magic to remove once they had found it. That was where the wind came in: currents both inside and outside would have made it virtually impossible for anyone to find it. Even if they did, the wind would oppose their magic and weaken them.

But they did find it, and the last step was to apparently destroy the pillar, which would allow the primordial to recover and awaken.

So, time to plan.

Perseus considered the idea of reconstructing the pillar, but quickly dismissed it as he lacked either the power or time to found a religion and accumulate enough power to perform whatever miracle was needed in order to create it in the first place. Destroying the pillar was likewise out of the question, as they had tried that plenty of times and it would take far too long before it achieved its goal. Nero lacked the time, resources, and knowledge to cobble together a ritual to halt its progress or reassemble the pillar.

But he might be able to knock it off.

Though he did not know much in the way of abjuration, he was pretty handy with forces. With enough time he could gather enough magical energy together and release it in one focused blast to hopefully dislodge it. The downside is that he did not have enough time; the meteor would grind its way through the pillar in a matter of minutes. He would need something to supercharge the ritual, giving him a lot of energy in a short amount of time. Something that had, on several occasions, demonstrably unleashed raw, destructive power.

Were you thinking of Zeus’s lightning bolt-staff thing? Because I was.

The party? Oh no, no no no: they went with Perseus’s blood.

I guess in their defense they were not trying to travel through time.

While Nero went to work Iola kept channeling torrents of wind upwards, which as predicted slowed the meteors descent. Once everything was ready Nero released the ritual. There was a loud thoom followed by an echoing crack as a neat, circular hole was punched through the ice. The meteor shifted, there was some more cracking, and then it finally slid off to the side. It did some damage to the pillar on the way down, but it was nowhere near complete destruction.

Using his sight to check the damage, Nero noticed that the magic holding the pillar together was fraying. Nowhere near as fast as it would have with the meteor on top, but it still likely only had a week or so before it would start to melt away on its own. After much discussion the party concluded that the best course of action was to have Nero remain here and try to halt the decay, while everyone else tried to find some means of rebuilding it before it was too late. Not a likely plan, but they did not have, well, any options.

Something dropped from the opening above. It crashed into the pillar, utterly destroying it while throwing Nero back because why not. Once everyone was finished dodging massive fragments of ice they saw the rock guy, black sword and all, crawling out of the hole that the pillar had previously filled. He stood up, and the glow of the lava that had begun to fill the pit cast a sinister silhouette as his gaze fell upon Nero.

NEEEEERO!

As he began to stalk towards Nero, everyone one else intercepted, punching, slashing, and clawing to little avail. Without so much as a flinch, everyone was flung away by a wave of force. Well, everyone but Nero.

Again, NEEEEERO!

Figuring he had nothing to lose, Nero swung his axe, burying it solidly and surprisingly in rock-man’s chest. He seemed to notice only insofar as he gripped Nero’s arm to keep him from fleeing, and raised his sword for a killing blow. Perseus rushed him from behind, cleanly impaling him with his blade in a burst of lightning and divine light. To Nero’s surprise and relief he did not explode, but simply crumbled apart. His relief was short-lived when the dust cleared and he realized that the lava had grown into a four-headed lava hydra.

Well, out of the frying pan and into the fire, I suppose.

Behind the Scenes
As with A Sundered World I had been making shit up as we went along, spending my time fleshing out the plot threads that they actually followed instead of investing a large amount of time on the setting and places that they would probably never see (which I would if I made this into an actual setting). In this case they ended up in a kind of race with one of the cults of Tharizdun that were seeking out Ogremoch.

I wanted to keep the game going, but my group is chomping at the bits for Numenera and this is another advantage of plan-as-you-go (for me, anyway): it is very, very easy to write in a satisfying stopping point. Sure, we might revisit this campaign down the road, but this way I can wrap things up in a much more satisfactory way so that even if we do not we can look back and feel like the story was “finished”.

At some point I settled on the idea that each of the “gods” were basically high-level genasi crafted by the primordials, empowered by mortal prayer. Due to their connection they could not kill the primordials (it would just kill them), so they decided imprisoned them instead. This way mortal races would be preserved and make them even more powerful.

Honestly I was not sure what the heck they would find up on the mountain. I originally was going to have it that all the gods had died a long time ago, which was part of the reason that the world was falling into decline. “Mount Olympus” was going to be a smaller temple guarded by air and lightning spirits that Perseus would have to defeat in order to start manifesting lightning powers, as that is what Beth had wanted.

5th Edition made this hard to do, or at least do interestingly. I guess I would have probably made an at-will lightning attack and then some daily stuff. Once we shifted over to 4th Edition, though, it was pretty easy for her to just reskin her radiant attacks as lightning and call it good. If we had been playing 4th Edition from the start I could have also written up a Storm Scion theme, too.

Anyway we probably have just one more session before Epiro is wrapped up good and proper. If this is a kind of setting you would want to see fleshed out, lemme know in the comments. I am going to start posting up some Numenera stuff as I start creating my own slice of the Ninth World, so that will be something new for the site.

Wandering Monsters: Basic Beasties

This week takes a brief look at some classics; the bulette (aka landshark), manticore, owlbear, and pseudodragon.

I could not find any stats for the bulette in Next, but if the manticore and owlbear are any indication I am guessing that it is going to be about as…straightforward as it was in 3rd Edition, where it could bite and claw you, or jump and for some reason only claw you a bunch of times. These are all pretty good examples of what I dislike about many monsters in Next: they just kind of stand there and trade blows until someone dies/runs away.

The manticore barely deviates from the formula by having a fly speed and ranged attack, so it can stay out of reach of the fighter and just annoy everyone with tail spikes until it runs out. One thing that gets me is, in a game where so many things are for some reason based on a per-day refresh, why they regrow at a rate of 1/hour (a rate that I would prescribe for many things, like hit points and spells). At any rate the most compelling out of the bunch goes to the owlbear, because if it hits you twice you are grabbed, and grabbed actually does something.

I am not surprised that there is nothing fresh about them, but given the existence of 4th Edition, Dungeon World, and 13th Age I am disappointed that this is what we are getting (especially after a year and a half). Oh, it is a bulette, it will bite you, or claw you, or maybe leap on you and claw you four times because for some reason it can leap really high.

4th Edition’s bulette could dig tunnels, causing characters to fall (and dealt bonus damage against prone characters), or burst from the ground and attack everyone nearby. These two moves go a long way to evoke feeling that you are fighting something that can quickly burrow underground, suddenly surfacing to strike. These are not even things that “need” a grid; if a bulette burrows underground everyone nearby has to make a saving throw to avoid falling, and when it pops out it gets to make an attack against everyone nearby. Of course if characters split up then it might just go for the squishies, which forces them to make a choice.

Dungeon World: Something Stirs in the Blackscale Brakes

Our second product, Something Stirs in the Blackscale Brakes, is finally up on Drivethrurpg. This is a side project that I have been working on when not bugging Josh about A Sundered World, though ultimately he contributed a good deal to the writing.

It is a “campaign front foundation” for Dungeon World that, as the name implies, gives you a solid campaign front and some steadings to start with, as well as some dungeons, new dungeon gear, optional dangers, monsters, magic items, a compendium class, a blank map.

If you like the stuff that we have posted before, then you will probably like this, too. Though it is specific to Dungeon World, if people enjoy the story I would definitely port it over to 4th Edition and 13th Age (when they allow us to, at any rate).

NOTE: I also dropped the price on Seekers of the Sand to $3 for all those looking for a bargain on thematic seeker powers, magic items, and a paragon path.

Legends & Lore: The Next Phase

Though the mostly-final Next packet was a disappointment, I am still ultimately reserving judgement until I see the finished product in case they end up fixing things, and/or create enough optional rules to provide a more entertaining experience.

At this point it looks like there are two design teams: one will be in charge of finalizing the core game, and the other will handle a number of herculean tasks; the underlying math, optional systems for tactical combat, drama, and character customization (all three of which should really not be optional), and a “campaign system”.

No matter what the tactical combat system sounds like it would improve the game, though I think there is a lack of understanding as to why people liked 4th Edition combat so much. For me it was one part that every character had multiple interesting, thematic, and often unique actions they could try, one part that thanks to “page 42” it was incredibly quick and easy to (probably) fairly and reliably adjudicate off the cuff actions that the characters and monsters tried to attempt.

For me encounters never felt puzzles or player-vs-Dungeon Master (at least, no more than in any other edition). It was more that if a character wanted to shove a monster into a firepit that they had a good idea of what they would have to do (probably Strength or Dexterity vs. Fortitude), what would happen (fire damage plus ongoing fire damage), and a good estimate of their odds of success. On the other hand, if a player wanted to use Charisma to trick them into charging just before diving out of the way, I could just change it to Charisma vs. Will.

Likewise even if done poorly I think that the game would benefit from a dramatic system. After a brief foray into Dresden Files this is something I have been using in my games, having the players help create the world and giving me material to bait them with; I think that when the players put in work laying the foundation that it makes them more invested. It also makes it easier to get everyone together and the game rolling if they have to make it work, instead of largely shouldering the DM with the burden.

Why enabling more character customization is an optional system is beyond me. Not only would the game definitely benefit from this, but it needs it. I do not buy that breaking everything down into individual blocks would go beyond playtest expectations; just find the major players on CharOp, forward them the packet, and watch them go to town. From there you could decide what is legitimately broken, and what breaches Pun-Pun levels of absurdity such that no sane Dungeon Master would ever allow it, anyway.

The campaign system sounds interesting, though if I had to choose this is the one that I would have made optional, since domain management and especially business operations sound like they would be good for the occasional diversion. At any rate hopefully domain management does not have a level requirement.

What I think would be beneficial is allowing groups of players that fit a demographic to keep playtesting and providing feedback for one or more of the proposed systems, instead of keeping it more in-house. For example I never shut up about character customization, and I think that I would be a really good “custometer” as to whether the optional system would do a good job.

D&D Q&A: Skills & Proficiencies

Earlier this week it was revealed that skills would be part of the default game (yay!), and we even got to see the current roster (yay…). This week’s Questions & Answers follwup sheds a bit more light on the skill list, how proficiencies work, and if/how you can pick more up.

The skill list is mostly fine, though a few like Perception and Search could stand to be combined (just swap out Wisdom and Intelligence depending on the circumstance), and I can easily see something like Drive being useful if a character wants to use a chariot, like in Eberron or Dark Sun.

This is not a big deal since according to the article they will provide advice on adding, removing, and/or changing them, as well as skills based on backgrounds or story elements. They are even considering an alternate rule that allows you to create a skill using a short phrase, which seems very much like FATE‘s aspects and 13th Age‘s backgrounds, so I both approve and prefer that model.

When I originally read this article I felt that the proficiency bonus was a promising idea, because if attacks and skills had the same range of bonuses that it would be really easy to make one set of DC’s for use in and outside of combat. Additionally an established range of bonuses would make it easier to determine what the range of DC’s in general should be (probably not up to 35).

However I have since read the latest packet where the proficiency bonus is implemented, and I am not impressed with it; the bonus is not only based on your overall character level, but it uniform across the board.

This means that two characters with the same proficiency will have the same bonus throughout the campaign, differentiated perhaps only by ability score (which will ultimately account for less than half of the overall bonus, anyway). Even worse is if you pick up a proficiency later, as it is immediately set to your level-bonus, so a fighter can go from having no knowledge about magical things, to having comprehensive knowledge of it in an instant.

I, as well as many others I am sure, would rather have characters make an actual choice between increasing a skill or choosing a new one instead of having one bonus. The range of the bonus is fine, but a player should choose which one(s) to increase over time so that you get to see your character improve through deliberate choice. Also add something like skill powers to the mix.

D&D Next: The (Almost) Final Packet

Whelp, looks like this is it. Well, except for the part where they mention a packet update for the druid and a paladin oath.

Spoilers: I felt that 4th Edition was a major step forward for Dungeons & Dragons. Aside from a few legacy mechanics like per-day resources they were not afraid to change whatever they wanted to make the game better. With Next Wizards of the Coast is well on their way to making a very…adequate game. Nothing about it seems fresh or innovative, much less even interesting. It looks like a 3rd Edition clone—flaws and cluttered language and all—with some 4th Edition mechanics tacked on, just without actively referring to it whenever possible.

A lot of Next looks like they are sticking with past editions just for the sake of sticking to a past edition. Who knows, maybe down the road they will write some rules modules that will make it easy to work around these issues (or better yet just fix the core game). As I said before I am still going to keep tabs on how the game develops, and hope that they do not take the easy way out and just rehash an older edition. The silver lining is that even if they do I still have 4th Edition (and to a point 13th Age), and I fully expect 4th Edition hacks to crop up that might be improvements over it.

With that here is my breakdown of the actual packet. Really the only thing I do not talk about are spells, partially because as I have said a million times the magic system makes no sense and is boring, partially because I already played 2nd and 3rd Edition, and partially because there are a lot of them. It sucks, and there are plenty of games out there with better magic systems to choose from.

(NOTE: After reading through so many packets it is very possible that I will overlook or confuse something with material from a previous packet. Actually, given the similarities to 3rd Edition it is possible that I might even confuse something in here with that.)

Overall
I hate how things are formatted, namely features and powers. The number of times something can be used in an encounter or per day is buried in one or more paragraphs, making it easier to overlook. This was one strength of 4th Edition, where it was incredibly easy to at a glance determine the frequency, action required, and any other relevant keywords in a power, feature, or what have you. Why go with something so clunky and difficult to sort through (which is a similar issue I have with 13th Age)?

Also if you want to go “mind’s eye” with the game, then why not get rid of explicit speed and range? It would be a lot better to use distances with a slight variation to their range, like in Numenera where an Immediate speed means anywhere within 10 feet, and a Short distance is between 10 and 50 feet. You could also use 13th Age‘s rules for being engaged. All of this has the added benefit that players can still use minis as visual aids.

Races
I dislike that races only get +1 to an ability score, as it means that about half the time the bonus will not do anything, and depending on your class you might never see a benefit from it. Go with 4th Edition and 13th Age‘s +2 bonus so that you are guaranteed to get something out of it. Also, increase the ability score cap at certain levels (like, I do not know, 24 at 10th-level).

Rock gnomes can still for some reason only create up to three clockwork devices that always work for an absolute amount of time. I would think that they would just gain proficiency with a craft skill and/or tools, or have some racial knack that lets them fiddle with devices or fix them, but since this is more restrictive and makes zero sense I guess we are going with it.

Not only are humans, half-elves and half-orcs still boring, but tieflings and warforged join their ranks with their pointless and contradictory uniformity. So much for various infernal heritages and construction materials.

Not only am I very disappointed that certain races are unnecessarily categorized as universally unusual (including to my surprise gnomes, half-elves, and half-orcs), but that the designers are very careful to make sure that—likely certain groups of people—are very aware warforged come from Eberron, and dragonborn have a ridiculous background: they come from un-blessed dragon eggs.

Yep, I am serious. As a consolation to 4th Edition they put in a sentence about how in some worlds they interbreed so much that they take on a uniform appearance. As a member of the 4th Edition crowd I want to say that I prefer the unique look of them, and have said so many times. Also it is not that I want 4th Edition mechanics and flavor for its own sake, but that in a lot of cases I think that both were just plain better.

Classes
The major change to classes is the addition of proficiency bonuses for attacks, saving throws, tools, and skills. This idea sounds good in theory, but it is just a uniform bonus across the board. You do not actually get to choose what to increase, it just goes up when it says it does, even if you pick up a new proficiency down the line. A pretty big missed opportunity for giving characters some variety and choice, as well as attaching benefits for having a proficiency at a certain level.

Classes saw many features adjusted or removed but are still, as I expected, boring and rigidly defined: with few exceptions when you gain a level you just write down what the game says you get based on an arbitrary depiction of a handful of concepts, and at 3rd level you lock in the rest of the features you get.

This means that, for example, every barbarian gets Thick Hide and proficiency in Tools: Mounts (land) at 1st-level. Why do all barbarians automatically know how to ride animals regardless where they came from or what your background is? No idea. Normally I would blame a previous edition, but I do not think that was even the case in 1st Edition, so…huh.

I want to point out, again, that there are very simple games out there that let you make meaningful decisions about your character. Not even just at 1st-level, but at other levels, too. Just saying it is kind of cool to be able to actually customize things and make choices. As someone who has played a lot of 4th Edition, some Dungeon World, and read plenty of 13th Age these seem like the kind of classes you would throw together over the weekend just to have something to show.

Backgrounds & Skills
While it is nice to see skills make a comeback, unfortunately they rely on the universal proficiency bonus I mentioned above in classes. Again this misses out an a major opportunity to let players actually make choices about what skills they want to increase, as well as link special features to skill ranks, and like classes this comes across as a bit lazy.

Feats
Feats can still grant spontaneous mastery in weapons and armor regardless of your prior skill or experience, which contrasts strangely with how magical feats provide incremental benefits over the course of several feats.

Athlete and Loremaster are the only two feats that grant bonuses to Strength and Intelligence respectively. I wonder why it is just those two; it should pretty easy to whip up a feat for each ability score.

Equipment
Everything is still in gold pieces, which I guess I should not be surprised about since there has been no mention of a silver standard in a long time.

Heavy armor is now only nearly pointless since medium armor caps out at 17 with a Dexterity bonus (heavy armor can get you an 18). Still, it would be nice if heavy armor did something more to make it clearly worth your while.

The most interesting thing I noticed, aside from the lifestyle expense (which was in the previous packet) was that the orb focus lets you use your spellcasting proficiency bonus when using magic. A nice 4th Edition idea—among many—that I have missed in Next.

Magic Items
Not all magic items are bad. The +x stuff is pretty boring and I dislike charged items, but a good number have interesting capabilities; efreeti chain lets you walk in molten rock like it was solid ground. That is a lot more interesting than just a list of combat-oriented bonuses.

I think that the tables for magic item details could and should be applied to some mundane stuff; for example a “normal” sword crafted by genies might weigh half as much, while a spear could also be thrown twice as far. Barring an interesting flavor reason ould stand to see per-day powers go away, though.

Bestiary
With few exceptions most of the monsters seem basically like bags of hit points that try to hit you. The lack of an elite/solo status makes it hard to have the players deal with only one or two monsters; in my home campaign the characters were easily able to swarm and take down a “boss” within a few rounds. No tension, no dynamics, just hit him while he stands there and falls over.

Many have per-day spell-like abilities, which does not make any sense and at this point just seems lazy, as if the designers could not come up with anything new. Even Dungeon World sounds better, and it basically just tells you to use whatever, whenever.

Multiclassing
This seems pretty decent this time around. Your proficiency bonus is based on your overall character level, so you do not have to worry about falling behind as in 3rd Edition. Extra attacks seems kind of clunky, and I am not a fan of gaining all the proficiencies of the new class. There is also the issue that if you multiclass too much it can take along time to actually pick up a feat.

Wandering Monsters: Deceitful Devils (Or Is It Demons?)

Dungeons & Dragons does not exactly have the best track record when it comes to translating critters from real-world mythology into the game, so it does not bother me much if the succubus ends up being a devil, demon, or something else entirely. What does bug me is when someone argues that it should be a demon “because that is what is was before” and/or that the wikipedia article cites it as a demon.

In regards to the first argument I was one of those who preferred them as devils, both because a Lawful alignment seemed better suited for a being trying to use deceit and subterfuge to corrupt a soul, and devils in general had a strong theme of corruption (as opposed to Chaotic demons,
who favored the route of destruction).

Additionally I am of the opinion that repeating material from past editions just for the sake of repeating it is a terrible idea. This is why we have attacks and some spells determining success in different ways (except for magic missile, which is the only spell that automatically hits), a heavy reliance on magical healing, rigid classes, magic systems that make no sense at all, per-day resources, angels that just look like winged humans with different skin colors, curses with benefits, and more.

As for the second one, why stop there? Previous depictions of the succubus described them as monstrous rather than attractive, but even later representations made it so that close inspection could reveal features like bird-like claws or tails. They would also collect semen from men, then an incubus would use it to impregnate women, though I am not sure if they just give it to an incubus or change their gender. Interestingly the Arabian version could only be seen by certain people, and even then they would just see a cat, dog, or similar animal.

All of this sounds a lot more interesting than a woman wearing a devil costume that can make out with you and use a souped-up version of charm person as a spell-like ability. I would make them monstrous (or at least be unable to hide specific features), gender neutral (but able to change their shape and/or gender), and also tack on illusions so that they could at least pretend to give creatures whatever the desire most. It would also be cool to have a variant power set that would render them invisible to most people, or make them just see an animal.

But we will most certainly get a succubus that is female and sexy and will totally make out with you because that is how it was before.

I am also not too keen on the idea of making cambions specific to succubi. I get that that is how it works in mythology, but where does that leave tieflings, who will apparently have randomized physical traits? Are we going to have a unique name for each kind of half-fiend? Is there any reason that draegloths are specific to Lolth, or that durzagon are the result of an infernal bargain? Why not just make a set of half-fiend powers for each type of fiend that Dungeon Masters can attach and justify as they see fit?

That sounds a lot better and more useful than books filled with arbitrary race-fiend-flavor combinations.

Legends & Lore: Skills Are Back

It is nice that, after a few weeks of no Legends & Lore (and a pretty disappointing packet release), it comes back from hiatus with some good news: skills are back, +10 lore “skills” and skill dice are gone, and skills are not hard-wired to ability scores.

I made it pretty clear on at least one occasion that I was disappointed with the removal of skills; characters are already starved for choices, and I am not one of those people that believes that having a high Dexterity or Charisma is the same thing as being skilled at sneaking or talking to people respectively.

I am glad, and honestly a bit surprised, that they are going to be a default component of even the basic version of the game. I never thought that if done well they would overwhelm new players, and it sounds like that they are keeping that in mind by having them making you better at dealing with existing rules instead of adding new rules (jumping, I am looking at you). I think that the game is way better off with them, but even so if skills are not something that you want to deal with you will apparently be able to ignore them “fairly easily”.

You can become proficient in a skill or set of tools, which gives you a static bonus. The article mentions a +2 to +6 spread, plus another +5 on top if you are an expert in a skill. I am fine with this so long as Difficulty Classes are not written with the expectation that a character will be an expert. It does not mention how many proficiencies you start with, or how you can get them, but that the bonus will depend on your level, and this is where I get a bit more iffy about the whole thing.

I would rather not see a character pick up proficiency later and have a huge bonus at it. It bugged me about the time Next introduced the skill die, where every skill had the same bonus, and if you opted to increase it they all got the same increase (including skills that you picked up later). I think a simple and organic way to go about it is to have characters spend proficiency slots to either gain a +2 bonus with something or improve the bonus to +4, then finally +6. Classes could have a class feature option where you can choose to become an expert in specific skills that make sense for it.

You could even rank skills and/or attach other potential benefits that can be unlocked, like 4th Edition’s skill powers. For example getting Acrobatics at +4 makes you automatically take less damage from falling, while Acrobatics at +6 lets you use a reaction to reduce damage from an attack. You know, cool choices like that.

Something that I found interesting was how they mentioned weapons along with skills and tools. Does this mean that fighters will start with a +2 to all weapon attacks, or will they be experts (giving them a starting bonus of +7). At the least if weapons follow the same progression as skills then I think it will make it easier to peg DCs for characters trying to do creative things in and out of combat, like adding your Strength and Weapon bonus to bash down a door.

Finally the skill list. It is lacking in Dungeoneering, which I liked for its aberrant lore, but I am guessing that Arcana will give you access to that sort of thing. Strange to see Endurance get cut, meaning there are no skills linked to Constitution. Otherwise it is pretty much fine. Maybe include some kind of piloting or riding skill (unless that got folded into Animal Handling, which would also be fine).

A Sundered World: What Is Going On…Also Mind Flayers

It has been awhile since we last talked about A Sundered World: I moved and have been busy with a new job, play-testing a Super Dungeon Explore expansion, reading up on 13th Age and Numenera, Josh has been busy with his existing job (and his schedule got a bit wonky for awhile, too), etc.

So partly this update is to say that we are still working on the Dungeon World version of A Sundered World (with other systems to come). The page count breached pages out of a projected 150, and we are still working out the gazetteer, class playbooks, equipment, magic items, monsters, and more.

The other part is to talk about the direction we are taking mind flayers or, given that mind flayers are considered Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast, whatever we end up calling our version of them. Mind you none of this stuff is specific to A Sundered World; it could easily fit in any setting with a Far Realm.

Which should frankly be all of them.

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A REALM FAR, FAR AWAY
Mind flayers come from the Far Realm, a void beyond the known regions of the Astral Sea, where space, time, and reason have no meaning or appreciable purpose. Instead of starting out as defenseless tadpoles they look more like facehuggers: vertebrae-like tails and spidery limbs extend from a fleshy mass covered in eyes of various shapes and sizes. Since they can crawl about this already makes them more dangerous, but they also possess an array of primitive psionic abilities that can induce panic in potential victims, hide them from sight, maybe even a one-target mind blast?

Instead of having to be implanted in a victim they just latch on to your spine, digging through flesh and bone with their sharp limbs to get a nice, solid grip. Once the victim is immobilized it is only a matter of suffering through an incredibly painful, lengthy transformation, and that is where baby mind flayers come from.

Sigh. They grow up so fast…

Josh pitched this idea awhile back after reading Perdido Street Station, likening them to the handlingers. I loved the idea of making them more parasitic, but also wanted to make them more dangerous on their own. Since they can move, attach themselves, and are pretty good at hiding I think it will add a lot of tension when creeping into (or trying to escape from) a mind flayer enclave or vessel. This also better allows for someone to get it removed before the transformation is complete, paving the way for a compendium class or one possible origin for psionics.

SAMEY PSIONICS
I think it is kind of silly that 3rd Edition mind flayers had the exact same suite of psionic powers across the board, with customization basically limited to slapping on spellcasting/manifester levels until you get something reasonable. Since mind flayers are derived from other creatures one idea is to have what mind flayers do be layered on top of an existing creature (think 3rd Edition template), even going so far as to affect what kind of psionic powers that they develop.

For example a dwarf mind flayer could manifest powers that let it manipulate metal (or even transform its body into weapons) and regenerate quickly, while an elf would be more graceful, mess with your mind, and manifest precise bolts of telekinetic force. This is not meant to replace one explicitly defined list with another, but give you some thematic groups that you can use or change as you see fit. In Dungeon World this is a pretty simple matter of citing some flavorful moves, while 4th Edition and 13th Age would require power groups and a list of psionic features and/or nastier specials respectively.

OTHER ANCIENTS
Something I pitched while we were talking was if mind flayers were servants, creations, or even just somehow related to an ancient one (probably something that at least looks Cthulhu-ish given all the face-tentacles). Other ancient ones would have their own humanoid-turned-horror servants, like Dagon’s deep one hybrids. This not only adds more variety, but also makes it easier to develop plots where agents working for various ancient ones oppose each other. The characters might have to work for one, or ultimately choose the lesser of two or more impending dooms.

My Next Wishlist

When I got the first playtest packet I was pretty underwhelmed, but still hopeful. Yeah the characters were pre-gens, the system looked like the worst of what 3rd Edition had to offer, and the adventure made absolutely no sense, but despite the protests of my group I figured that this was just the initial release: it looked bad now, but it would get better over time.

And it did.

For awhile, anyway.

More packets came out and we saw the “classically” boring fighter gain maneuvers, sorcerers and warlocks had a lot of promise (and their own magic system!), and you could pick not only pick any four skills you wanted, but there were also neat background traits to go with them. The game still had a very long way to go, but each packet seemed to build on the previous ones bit by bit, making the game better in some places, worse in others. Even so I was still hopeful that these issues would be addressed down the road.

They were not.

Races saddle you with a bunch of features at the start but do not influence your character down the road (and like 3rd Edition, might not even be relevant or usable), classes are largely and needlessly predefined, magic makes no sense, is boring, and does nothing to evoke the concept of the classes that can use it, skills have been replaced with absolute knowledge, feats can instantly make you a “master” in certain fields, heavy armor is pointless when you can just max out Dexterity, combat is boring, monsters are boring, magical healing is necessary…the list goes on.

Honestly I want to like Next. I thought I would, but right now it offers absolutely nothing to a gamer like me. Maybe the game will change down the road, or maybe a module will be added that will cater to my playstyle. Since the public playtest is wrapping up I decided to make a wishlist of things I would like to see in Next, whether by default or with a module, with the caveat that modules do not take a lot of time and/or effort to implement.

NOTE: Obviously I cannot say for certain that without these changes I would not play the game since it is not out yet, but I think it is a safe bet that the less there are the more likely I am going to pass (especially given other games like 13th Age, Numenera, and Dungeon World). Also this list is not complete, it is just the stuff that immediately comes to mind.

• Race need to matter more, not less. Or rather, players should have the choice to help determine how much race impacts their concept. 4th Edition is an excellent model for this (especially with race/class feats), and even 13th Age lets you spend feats to boost racial traits. I could even see a case for 3rd Edition’s racial levels, which could allow some people to play a “dwarf” or “elf” class.
• Halfling fighters need to be at least competent. I call out halfling fighters, but feel free to swap it out for half-orc wizards, gnome barbarians, and any other unconventional combination that did not work in editions before 4th. Right now they can work out just fine, though with all the other 3rd Edition-isms I am concerned that racial penalties might make a comeback. I am fine with races being better than others at certain things, but any race should be able to play any class and at least hit the bare minimum.
• Classes should allow you to make meaningful decisions. Defining most of a class ahead of time, even in a “basic” game, is pointlessly boring. It is entirely possible to allow players to make decisions when creating a character and/or when they are leveling up. You do not have to overload characters with 4th Edition’s options at the start, even letting players make one or two choices would add some much needed diversity without adding too much complexity to characters. Of course you could take a page from 13th Age and rate classes based on their complexity to better prepare characters. Plus it would be nice to see a complex fighter and simple spellcaster.
• Adventurers in general should be competent. Running around with enough hit points to sustain one, maybe two hits is not enjoyable, even if you are a wizard. I get that the world of Dungeons & Dragons can be a scary place and all, but it makes it difficult to run a game where the pace is something other than exploring rooms at their leisure and/or there are not lengthy periods of downtime.
• I want to be able to feasibly realize a kind of fighter/wizard within the first two levels. This means that either at 1st-level I have an option to pick up a cantrip or two, or at 2nd-level I can just take a level in wizard. I do not want to have to wait two or more levels for the wizard apprentice/hedge mage aspect of my background to kick in. It does not have to be anything extravagant or fancy: a fighter that can fire off a ray of frost, conjure light, or shield herself with a plane of force will do.
• While we are on magic, I want a magic system that makes sense. I say this at every packet, and I will say it again: pseudo-Vancian magic makes absolutely no sense. It never has. This by itself is bad enough to turn me off, but it also utterly boring, inflexible, and predictable. There are a variety of much more interesting and evocative magic systems out there to draw from, including Vancian magic. Why not draw from sources that Dungeons & Dragons claims to use for inspiration, like Conan or H.P. Lovecraft.
• Unify task resolution. I am not one of those people that thinks that just because magic systems use the same rules for hitting things and climbing walls, that it somehow makes it less “magical”. There are plenty of games where magic uses the same mechanics for other forms of task resolution–4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, 13th Age, Shadowrun, Dungeon World, Numenera, to name a few–and I greatly prefer this method for its consistency. I see no reason why attacks, skill checks and some spells follow one set of rules, while some other spells demand saving throws.
• Skills should be assumed, preferably how Next was going to have them (pick any four things), but I would settle for 13th Age’s background points (spend 8 points on anything), or even 4th Edition’s trained/untrained model (though, again, let people pick anything they want). If you want to use skill dice, please do not make it universal based on level. 
• Armor that people will actually want to wear. As it is the best route is to max out Dexterity and go with light armor, since you do not suffer Stealth disadvantage or a speed reduction (this also has the benefit of increasing your Dexterity saves, ability checks, and initiative). Include class features for armored archetypes–fighters, paladins, some barbarians, etc–as well as a more in-depth masterwork system. While you are at it, throw granular damage resistance on at least the heavy stuff to really make it stand out.
• Realms management, specifically one that does not assume or even require that high-level characters are at the reins. In other words, I should be able to hand characters a keep somewhere in the level 1-5 range and have it work out. In fact, that sounds like a good idea for a campaign…
• Magical healing cannot be mandatory just to adventure and keep the pace going. A party should be able to work with largely whatever the players want to play: no one should be relegated to the role of a healer. For that matter, there needs to be other healing methods besides magical.