The new 2024 players’ handbook introduced a new way of looking at Dungeons and Dragons backgrounds. They are more important now. They provide a feat, equipment, and an attribute bonus that was previously attached to race/species.
While I think removing attribute bonuses from species and moving away from bio-essentialism is a good improvement, I think attaching it to the background was a mistake. It would have been better to follow Tasha’s changes and let it just be a floating element.
Since the 2024 rules have been released, I will be revisiting some of the stuff I have written for D&D. This is the updated version of the Vitomancer. It didn’t need much tweaking. I added a little to the 14th level feature making it a little stronger and adjusted the 3rd level feature Necromancy Savant to match the 2024 PHB setup.
My intent here is to create a wizard healer school that is viable and has a flavor that works. I know there are some who will object to the whole idea. I can’t really convince you if you are strictly against the idea altogether. I can only say that this proscription against wizards who heal is strictly a D&D thing. Plenty of games, and folklore traditions, show less of a separation on this point.
I did try to make the thematics of this work for me. The Vitomancer is a close cousin of the Necromancer but inverts that connection to give us the healing wizard.
There is always a need for more magic weapons in D&D. Simply having a +1 just doesn’t feel that satisfying a lot of the time. I like items that are little more varied than simply doing more damage.
This time I am going for bows. There is something compelling about the archer character and there a lot of ways to build them in 5E. Any of these would be great for a ranger, a fighter, a rogue, even some monks. Hopefully, some of these will prove useful for additions to your games.
Making an Encounter table is an interesting exercise. In some ways it is a statement of the tone of your game. Do you have a half dozen silly encounters? Do you have 8 generic wilderness encounters with beasts? Do you have combat encounters? Role playing? Chilling atmospheric encounters? Each says something about the style of game you are running.
Whatever the case, you are generating a list of events you wouldn’t mind showing in your game. You are generating a list of things that fit enough that you don’t care which one shows up. Even having an enormous table says something.
But some folks don’t know where to start. So here is a quick guide on how to make one.
Note: I used this technique to design an encounter table for my adventure, The Lost Library of Meldorin.
I think the Terminator series would make a brilliant D&D adventure idea for a D&D Plot.
There is an artifact in D&D far more insidious than any part of Vecna or Blackrazor. The concept of Alignment is an artifact of the early game and it is filled with problems. It is time to either radically change it or get rid of it altogether.
My intent here is to create a wizard healer school that is viable and has a flavor that works. I know there are some who will object to the whole idea. I can’t really convince you if you are strictly against the idea altogether. I can only say that this proscription against wizards who heal is strictly a D&D thing. Plenty of games, and folklore traditions, show less of a separation on this point.
I did try to make the thematics of this work for me. The Vitomancer is a close cousin of the Necromancer but inverts that connection to give us the healing wizard.
Okay, this is my part two of my lists of elemental beasts.
I originally intended this for a published product. That may still happen, but I can’t afford a a lot of art, and each beast would…
Now that I have described humans on Ballad, I think I will tackle the other races. The people of Ballad are pretty diverse. The longer lived races tend to have a large on the 1000 kingdoms. Monarchs who rule for a thousand years with no succession wars just tend to be more of a stabilizing influence.
That said, the shorter lived races tend to be more numerous and their societies tend to be more dynamic. When you don’t personally remember when the traditions and rules were made, it is sometimes easier to see why you should change them.
Let’s dig in.
