Skylla: D&D 5th Edition

Time to revist one of D&D's iconic witches, Skylla.  Since I began this series I have had a few people email with interesting little tidbits of information. Such as how she was supposed to have a larger figure produced (like the likes of Warduke and Kelek).  Most interesting though was how she was supposed to appear in the D&D cartoon.

http://www.dungeonsdragonscartoon.com/2009/08/skylla.html
http://www.dungeonsdragonscartoon.com/2009/08/yugol-and-curse-of-stone.html

She appears as an old hag but that is only an illusion to cover her true features; that of a beautiful woman.  Interesting switch there, but she certainly sounds like a witch to me.
It seems even more fitting that I try her out under the latest version of the D&D rules.

I always knew I wanted to try her out under the 5th edition rules and I wanted to wait till I had a better grasp of those rules.

Well now I do; give or take, and I wanted to see how she stacks up.  But 5th edition gives me an interesting choice.  Do I stat her up as a Wizard or as a Warlock?  Both have their advantages.

The Wizard of course is closer to the source stats of Skylla.  The Warlock is really closer to the concept.  I suppose in truth she would have started out as a wizard and her desire for more power lead her on a path towards becoming a warlock.   I investigated both and it was educational.

In both cases I started with her same base stats and made her level 7.  In each case her primary stat was 16 (Int vs. Cha) and reversed for the 11 (Cha vs. Int). Though I mix up Wisdom a bit in there as well.

Skylla's Background

For her Background I chose "Sage" since that deals with finding knowledge. For Skylla knowledge is power.  She was a former Wizard's Apprentice (Ringlerun) now turned to chaos and evil.
Personality Traits: "I am convinced that people are trying to steal my secrets."
Ideals: "Power. Knowledge is the path to power and domination."
Bounds: "I sold my soul for Knowledge."   (seems perfect)
Flaws: "Unlocking an ancient mystery is worth the price of a civilization."

Skylla 
7th Level Wizard, Female, Chaotic Evil

Strength: 9 (-1) [-1]
Dexterity: 11 (0) [0]
Constitution: 10 (0) [0]
Intelligence: 16 (+3) [+6]
Wisdom: 12 (+1) [+4]
Charisma: 11 (0) [0]

Proficiency Bonus: 3
AC: 12 (Cloak of Protection, +2)
Hit Points: 34 (d6)

Skills
Acrobatics 0, Animal Handling +1, *Arcana +6, Athletics -1, Deception 0, *History +6, *Insight +4, Intimidation 0, *Investigation +6, Medicine +1, Nature +3, Perception +1, Performance 0, Persuasion 0, Religion +3, Slight of Hand 0, Stealth 0, Survival +1
Common, Elven, Draconic, Abyssal

School of Enchantment

Spells
Cantrips: Light, Mage Hand, Poison Spray, Ray of Frost
1st: Charm Person, Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Tenser's Floating Disk
2nd: Knock, Invisible, Levitate
3rd: Hold Person (2nd level spell), Fear, Lightning Bolt
4th: Dimension Door

Skylla 
7th Level Warlock, Female, Chaotic Evil

Strength: 9 (-1) [-1]
Dexterity: 11 (0) [0]
Constitution: 10 (0) [0]
Intelligence: 12 (+1) [+1]
Wisdom: 11 (0) [+3]
Charisma: 16 (+3) [+6]

Proficiency Bonus: 3
AC: 12 (Cloak of Protection, +2)
Hit Points: 38 (d8)

Skills
Acrobatics 0, Animal Handling 0, *Arcana +4, Athletics -1, Deception +3, *History +4, Insight 0, *Intimidation +6, *Investigation +4, Medicine 0, Nature +1, Perception 0, Performance +3, Persuasion +3, Religion +1, Slight of Hand 0, Stealth 0, Survival 0
Common, Elven, Draconic, Abyssal

Pact of the Tome
Patron: The Fiend

Invocations
Book of Ancient Secrets
Armor of Shadows
Agonizing Blast
Mask of Many Faces

Pact Powers
Dark One's Own Blessing
Dark One's Own Luck

Spells
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Mage Hand, Eldritch Blast, +Light, +Poison Spray, +Ray of Frost
1st: Burning Hands, Command, Comprehend Languages (Ritual), Detect Magic (Ritual)
2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Scorching Ray
3rd: Fireball, Stinking Cloud
4th: Fire Shield, Wall of Fire


So, I like how the Warlock version plays out in terms various powers and role-playing elements.  In particular I really like her pact.  The wizard though has spells closer to the base version of Skylla.  Also since the wizard's primary stat is Int, her skills are better overall as a wizard.
The Pact of the Tome sorta fixes some of this, she can take some wizard spells as a ritual.

I want to try out a few more warlocks with different pacts to see how they play.

Comment Moderation?

It seems that Google wants me to turn on comment moderation.  I have tried to turn it off since I am not a fan of moderation.

Still figuring it out.

Pulling Games

So unless you have not caught up on your reading yet this week (I haven't really myself) then you might not know that OneBookShelf, the owners of DriveThruRPG and RPGNow have opted to pull a title by +James Desborough from their virtual shelves.

Here are the links of what people are saying today.

• http://nuelow.blogspot.com/2014/12/more-gamergate-nonsense.html
• http://nuelow.blogspot.com/2014/12/final-word-on-gamergate-card-game-and.html
• http://dorkland.blogspot.com/2014/12/onebookshelf-and-that-voldemort-card.html
• http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2014/12/if-onebookshelf-banned-game-what-would.html
• http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2014/12/on-hack-slash-tv-2-onebookshelf-bans.html
• https://cirsova.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/gamergate-card-game-designer-statement/
• http://postmortemstudios.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/gamergate-card-game-designer-statement/

And James' first post on this:
http://postmortemstudios.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/gamergate-the-card-game-released/

TL;DR. OBS pulled James "Grim" Desborough's latest game, a card game based on "Gamer Gate".

You can see OBS' comments here:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/drivethrurpgcom/dear-publishers-banned-a-title-on-onebookshelf-marketplaces/10153001549944095

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. But here it goes.

1. I support OBS' stand on their right to pull any game they choose.  It's their store. They can choose what they want to sell or not.

2. I support Grim in making and selling any game he wants.  I do not agree with his stance on Gamer Gate, but I also feel the guy is often accused to saying and doing things he actually never said.  He says on his own blog, posts and everywhere else that if we have a question just ask him.  Turns out that works great.  I do think it sucks that his game was tossed out pretty much sight-unseen.

So my issue is not really with OBS or James.

My issue is with the publisher that forced OBS to make a decision.  They used their own market power as a bullying tactic to get a game they, or rather one person in particular, did not like.   It was a dick move.

This is not the first time this particular publisher has pulled some rather dickish stunts.  In fact it is the third I have heard of in the last year.

I am not getting into details. I have no desire to challenge this publisher and no power whatsoever to have them address their own bad behavior.   All I can do is not play or promote their games here.

If you want to buy the Gamer Gate card game, then please head over to Postmortem Studios  http://postmortemstudios.wordpress.com/.   I have no interest in it myself, but maybe I'll buy something to show support.   Machinations of the Space Princess is a good choice.

Hero Forge: Meet Roryn, Xothia of the Rock

Next week is the premier of the last Hobbit movie.
When the first movie premiered I posted the Dwarven Witch,  the Xothia.

Well thanks to the magic that is Hero Forge I can now see Roryn come to life...er sorta.

She is complete with seer stone and laybrs.

I also did some of my iconic witch Larina.  I opted for the hat over her normal hood because, well I love pointy hats.  I might try one with her with a hood.

And her daughter and apprentice Taryn,

I am having way too much with this!

The best thing is making characters I might never have been able to get before.
Such as Justice,

It's not a perfect representation, but it is really, really close and I really like it.   I kind of dig the armor look vs. the tunic.  The pose and blindfold make it perfect.

I will post some pictures when my backer figure comes in.

Owl & Weasel Wednesday #21 December 1976

Lets got back 38 years to see what was hot in gaming!
Ok let's look at issue 21 of Owl & Weasel.  First off the zine is looking more and more like the White Dwarf it will become.
The Editorial covers both Games Day (February) and also now a D&D Day (March). A couple of typos are dealt with.

Page 3 covers two new games from "The Little Soldier" in Maryland.  The first is Ringbearer. This is the same company that gave us the Book of Monsters, Book of Demons, and the Book of Sorcery that were later re-released by Gamescience (which you can still find at Gen Con).  OF course there is no record of this particular game any more thanks to lawyers at United Artists (who had the Tolkien rights at the time). Basically this little game was a re-enactment of the plot of LotR.  The game sounds a bit like many of the mini-games of the time; one player (The Dark Lord) vs a group of other players.  The next is "Der Fuhrer" a little "political" war game set in World War II.  It sounds interesting in the sense that the battles are more propaganda and street teams than bullets and bombs.

Page 4 covers some news including a bit about GW being featured in the Times.
The growing D&D Society gets a full page treatment later on.  Well, most of a full page. One thing is obvious from the letters is that D&D is growing, rules are being questioned and O&W is more than happy to oblige.

The last page covers all what GW has to sell (as usual).

The articles tend to be much longer in this issue but the downside to that is the zine is still at 12 pages, so fewer articles.

Given this is the last Christmas issue and Christmas is on the way here too, here is Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody. The song is from '74, but this looks like it is later 70s, maybe 76 or 77.
I am sure they got really tired of having to lip-synch to this every year.

New Spells: Blessings of The Morrígan

Couple new spells I have been playing around with.  I was inspired by reading the overviews of the Artesia comic that Trey is doing over at From the Sorcerer's Skull.  I picked up the first couple of comics and they are good.  They certainly remind me a lot of Celtic myth, but there is more to it than that.   It got me thinking about this article saying that if there were a zombie apocalypse we would not have to worry because nature would wipe out all the zombies.  In particular birds would eat them.

So what is an a party to do then when a group of zombies, who are immune it seems from the fauna of your world, show up and ooops, they don't have a cleric to turn them?  Simple. They make sure their witches and druids have these spells.

Still playing with the damage.  I wanted them to be right around "fireball" strength, but given the higher level and the fact they only effect undead I was fine with the extra 1d12.  Let me know what you think.  Also I am releasing it as "open" under the OGL.  So take it and use it how and where you like including publishing your own stuff.

All material below this point is Open for terms of the OGL.
Section 15: "Blessings of The Morrígan" Copyright 2014 Timothy S. Brannan

Blessings of The Morrígan

Clerics are granted blessings from their deities in dealing with the undead.  Nearly all gods want the dead (whom they are caretakers of) to be at rest. A soul roaming free after death cannot be claimed by any god.  So clerics can turn or destroy undead creatures as their own gods wish.
Other followers of gods and of divine or arcane principles, such as druids and witches, lack this innate power.  Some have learned magic though to mimic it.

Blessings of The Morrígan
Level: Druid 4, Witch 4
Range: Corporeal Undead within sight
Duration: Instantaneous
By the means of this spell the druid or witch sends out a plea to The Morrígan, the great Battle Mother, Crow of War.  Instantly several murders of crows fly out from a spot just above the caster toward  any corporeal (ie Physical) undead the caster can see.  The crows bite and pick at the undead till 1d12 + 1d6 per caster's level is done in total damage.  Damage is divided up among all the undead creatures with weakest getting damaged first. Any creature reduced to 0 HP is dead and stripped clean of all flesh it had renaming.  In the case of skeletons they simply die. Creatures not damaged will be held for 1 extra round while the crows fly about.
This spell will effect skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghasts, wights, mummies, vampires and liches.  The crows are considered magical.  It has no effect of ghostly or ghost like undead.
This spell has no damaging effects on living creatures, though for the round the spell is cast they are temporarily held (as per a Hold Person spell) and blinded (as per a Light or Darkness spell). Both of these conditions are removed at the end of the current combat round.
Material Components: A feather of a crow found feasting on a corpse after a battle. Only one feather may be used per crow.  The feather disappears after this spell is cast.

Blessings of The Morrígan, Greater
Level: Druid 6, Witch 6
Range: Incorporeal Undead within sight
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell is identical to the 4th level Blessings of The Morrígan spell, save this one will affect Incorporeal undead.  The crows will appears as ghostly crows and only partially in our own reality.
This spell will effect wraiths, spectres, banshees, ghosts, shadows and other ghost like undead.  It has no effect on corporeal or physical undead unless that undead creature also has become incopreal, such as a lich in the Ethereal plane or a vampire that has become incorporeal.

I Don't Like Mondays.

Been really sick over the last week.  I have a lot of work to do at work (day job) and then finishing up my obligations to various editors on various projects.

So here is a musical interlude.


This song is much darker than I recalled.

Though somehow it also seems appropriate for the last few weeks.