Last night the Order of the Platinum Dragon crushed the gnolls working in Slave Pits of the Undercity and defeated the slavers! The slaves were freed, including some orcs which vowed to help the PCs when and if they could. Detailed maps were discovered and the group is off to stop an even larger threat.
We finished module A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity last night. I ran it under 5th Edition and made a lot of tweaks along the way. While I felt the players had an easy of a time when going through Castle Amber, I made som changes in how monsters were dealt with and felt that last's night session was much more balanced. Plus a lot of great things went on.
I used gnolls instead of orcs. In truth I am tired of orcs and wanted something new. So I used a lot of material from +James Mishler's Hercynian Grimoire #1. I included his Gnoles, werehyenas, and even a gnoll assassin and a gnoll witch. It made for a lot of fun.
Since I am also tying in more to the Out of Abyss adventures I included some gnoll demonic adepts which was great fun. I took the old adage that the campaign is written by the paranoia of the players my oldest son decided that these demonic-gnolls must mean that ultimately demons are in control of the slavers. Sure. Let's go with that!
To really have some fun since there were ghouls in this adventure I added a Thoul enforcer. Now back in the day I always thought thouls were part ghoul, part troll and part gnoll, forgeting all about hobgoblin. So I decided I would honor my 35+ year-old mistake and have a thoul in my game that was decidedly gnoll in heritage. If you never played Basic/Expert D&D then you might not know the thoul. Well here is the man himself, Perdustin over at Thoul's Paradise to educate us on what is a thoul. Mine was a little different than the one in the BECM(I) Rules Cyclopedia.
Thankfully I found this great tool that helps create a D&D5 style monster stat block. http://thegeniusinc.com/dd-monster-maker-download/
I can build monsters all day!
The characters are on their way to the Slaver's Stockade (A2) but along the way they are going hit our "Christmas Special" and have to deal with Krampus! Hey since I have the software open...
Here is Krampus.
We have the new Dawn of Justice movie coming out, the Legends of Tomorow TV series and Suicide Squad movie. It is shaping up to be a good 2016 for DC fans.
So in celebrations of these notable team-ups here is Zee teaming up with some other heroes.
Well I did not have much time today to get videos together or a theme. So I figure why not take a moment and celebrate the fact I have made 3000 posts.
That's a lot of text really.
So let's celebrate this milestone with some videos about hit the mark, getting there or 3000 in general.
Let's start with the best known, if only, 3000 in the music business. That would be Andre 3000 of Outkast. Here is "Hey Yeah" with a multitude of 3000s from their epic two album release The Love Below.
Can you imagine me training for this? Running up steps, punching keyboards hanging from the ceiling? Tangling with other games and blogs? No. Ok maybe not. But let's be honest "Eye of The Tiger" from Survivor is an awesome fight song.
All month, I have counting down to this. You know what that means, right?
In truth not only can I not complain, but I get to do something I enjoy AND others seem to enjoy it too. So as long people want to keep reading what I have to say I'll try to keep saying it. Like Joe Walsh says, "Life's Been Good to Me (So Far)".
This looks every bit as fun as the first Calidar book (reviewed here).
This book "feels" more like a campaign guide too, along the lines of the Forgotten Realms books with gods and things for mortals to do. by contrast the first Calidar book was more Gazetteer like.
The art looks fantastic, but don't take my word for it, pop on over and see.
I also appreciate the handy graphic too to know what it is I am getting for the money I spend.
Last week we discussed the Magic-User and his cousin the Wizard. One thing seems certain, the Magic-User is a bit overpriced in terms of XP. Also, and I am not the only one as we will see, the wizard lacks some powers he really should have.
One of the things I liked (back then) when 2nd Edition came out was that the Magic-User was now properly called a Wizard. Again, the nuance of magic-user was lost on me but obviously it was also lost on the design team.
The wizard, as he for evermore will be known, is really not that different from the magic-user mechanically speaking. Some spells are rearranged but that is about it. The true difference comes when you choose a speciality school or apply a kit, like the many found in The Complete Wizard's Handbook. Here the wizard gets a few more spells at starting level from their speciality school and the kit can provide them with some powers. Though the cantrips as 0-level spells that the Unearthed Arcan gave us are now gone.
Yesterday I reviewed The Principalities of Glantri book and it's school of magic. What stood out for me was things that your wizards can now do if they go to a premier school like Hogwarts The Great School of Magic. The Seven Crafts provide a bit of extra kick for magic-user characters. Personally I think they could use something at 1st level as well.
Since I covered the basic (and really Basic) Magic-User last week, I want to jump into some of the clones and near clones now.
Spellcraft & Swordplay is a near clone that models Original D&D and it's Chainmail roots much closer than Swords & Wizardry does. It does take some liberties though. One is the Wizard and the wizard class elite paths, Warlocks and Necromancers. In S&S wizards can Read Magic at 1st level. We are also given more detail on how to create magic items. An Elite Path like the Necromancer or Warlock also get other powers. Fantastic Heroes & Witchery also has a wizard class, as well as a wise man and a warlock. Additionally, it also has 666 spells split up into gray, white and black magic. The wizard here does not differ much from the standard magic-user, but the number of spells included is not insignificant. Adventurer Conqueror King System gives us a similar looking Wizard, the advantage here are the skills/proficiencies that all classes get. Going back to last week this is similar to the skill checks I give wizards when identifying magic.
Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts also has a wizard class. Many in fact. The wizard is still a Magic-User clone, but there are plenty of other wizard types in this book that the case for experimentation is made here.
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Ah now this is what I was looking for. Each of the books so far has done a little here and little there, but the Magician in AS&SH is waht I have really been looking for. Right away he gets a familiar, the ability to read magic and scribe a scroll. At 7th level he learns som alchemy. The subclasses, Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer and Witch all get similar powers.
Moving out from clone-land and into old-school land proper there is The Arcanum. I keep coming back to this book because it keeps on delivering. There are a lot of magic-user like classes, Alchemist, Astrologer, Charlatan (more of a thief), Enchanter, Mage, Magician, Necromancer, Savant, Sorcerer, Thaumaturge, and Witch. There is, of course, a Wizard as well. What they all have in common and share with some other books is the ability to read magic at first level.
These classes all also get new powers at every odd level. Some are just redefining things the wizard could always do; write scrolls, make potions and magic items. This just defines them a little better. Interestingly this book also allows the wizard to choose a weapon. The book also has plenty of spells to choose from.
It should be noted that these problems are solved by 3rd Edition and beyond. Both the shared XP values across all classes and more features for the Wizards has made all the above points moot really.
My recommendations for the wizard are:
Cantrips
Read Magic/Identify magic as a skill at 1st level. Can be a simple Int check. A bonus equal to level with a penalty equal to spell level.
Find Familiar as a ritual, but not a spell.
Signature Spells. A spell that can be cast twice or three times per day with one memorization.
Some powers at 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level. Signature Spell can be one of these.
I would group powers along something like Arcane Traditions like I do for the Witch and like D&D5 does, save I would call them something else. Schools maybe. I already use "Philosophies" in Ghosts of Albion so I would not want to use that here. Schools are good since I can go beyond "enchantment" or "necromancy" and into things like "Miskatonic Grad" or "Apprenticed under Mordenkainen", that sort of thing.
I would run this wizard through the various class creation kits I mentioned last week, but especially the one out of the ACKS Player's Companion to check the numbers. Might be worth looking into deeper. Why Are my Magic-Users not like Mages?
Spend any time in any other game but D&D, especially one that uses a lot of magic, and somethings just don't make sense. Except as that special branch of logic known as D&D logic. Being first D&D gets away with a lot. Invariably someone will ask though why can't D&D magic be more like the magic in World of Darkness, namely Mage.
The difference, of course, is one of scope. While the D&D wizard might become a "master of reality" the Awakened of Mage are of a different sort. The assumptions of the worlds are too different. Maybe a WoD style Mage could be something the D&D Wizard could aspire to be, I still would not take a Mage with me into a dungeon or try to identify a scroll or potentially magic sword.
So I don't try to make my Wizards into Mages. I keep the Vancian magic intact. If I want to play a Mage, I will pick up Mage. But really, playing both games will give you a better understanding of things your wizard/mage can do in either game.
Still spending a lot of time thinking about witches, wizards, schools of magic and witch queens. So naturally my thoughts turn to +Bruce Heard's masterpiece, GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri.
I have mentioned Glantri here a few times. It was the homeland for my characters back in my D&D/AD&D days. I built up the country from the small bits of information from D&D Expert Set, Isle of Dread and Castle Amber. It was not till much later I discovered the Gazetteer series and picked up Glantri that I discovered how really interesting and fun the place was.
GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri
The pdf is 102 pages (the original book was 96 pages, a detached cover and large map of the country and Glantri City). The PDF is a good quality scan and retains all the information found in the print book. The cover art was done by the fantastic Clyde Caldwell. While this book is a D&D "Basic" book, there is so much here of use that it can really be used with any D&D system. This book really set the stage for all the other Gazetteers to follow.
The first part, Welcome to Glantri, gives a very brief overview of what the country is and what this book sets out to do.
Up next is the History of Glantri. I spent hours and hours reading this over and over. I won't go into great detail, but linking Glantri to ancient Blackmoor was wonderful in my mind. Mostly because I loved the link but also I had done something similar for my own games. What follows next is a time line from 3000 BC, The Rain of Fire* (Before Crowning of the first Emperor of Thyatis) to 1000 AC (today) and even on to 1200 AC. *I always wondered if the Rain of Fire that destroyed Blackmoor was related or even just the same spell that destroyed the Suel in the Greyhawk world. Geography of Glantri is next. Like much of Mystara, Glantri is a mix of all sorts of races and people, but Glantri also has it's fair share of "monsters" those will be detailed later. Glantri's climate is also touched upon, making it one of the colder lands.
The is followed by The Glantrian Economy. I really enjoyed this section because it really breathes life into the people that live here. Each of the Principalities is detailed here for the first time. A quick read and one immediately recognizes analogues to Scotland, Italy, France, and even Transylvania. Glantri is very cosmopolitan. We move into the Grand Army of Glantri and Politics and Rivalries of Glantri. Glantri is the place to play out political intrigue where everyone is mage of some sort or has one on retainer. Like the Economy section, this section breathes more life into the people of the land, in this case all the great houses. I will admit once again that the interior art by Stephan Fabian links this to Ravenloft in my mind. Not only are there humans here, but vampires, werewolves and liches ruling. We will get to witches in a bit. Guilds and Brotherhoods are also one of the more important features of this book and life in Glantri. There are so many here that characters could each belong to many and none overlap. Some are complimentary to each other and others at cross purposes. Really good fodder for role-playing. Glantri City by Night details what happens to the 39,000+ residents when the sun goes down. The book is like a what we now call Modern Supernatural. So all sorts of "monsters" come out and mingle with everyday people. It says "by Night" but really this an overview of the city itself and all it's sections. It reminds me of a travel guide to London I once read, so I am rather fond of this section. Living in Glantri City details life in the city including the laws, who is in charge, magic use and various holy/high days. There is no religion in Glantri, but there is a state philosophy. Of course it is tied in with magic. The Great School of Magic. Outside of Hogwarts or Professor Xavier's school has a school been so rich detailed. Though there is enough here to make me want more, a lot more. This is followed by Creating Spells and Magical Items and The Secret of the Radiance. The source of Glantri's magical power.
Nest we get into The Seven Secret Crafts of Glantri. If you only buy this book for this section then you will be well rewarded. Think of these as schools or even colleges of magic. Each one ads something special to the Magic-User class, almost like a Prestige Class or Paragon class feature. They include, Alchemy, Dragon magic, Elemental magic, Illusion, Necromancy, Rune magic, and of course, Witchcraft.
We wrap up with Adventures in Glantri.
The Gazetteer series were works of art and none more so than the Glantri book.
I mentioned before that this book would work fine with other versions of D&D. Looking deeper into the Seven Secret Crafts of Glantri, one could EASILY replace the Arcane Tradition feature of the 5th Edition Wizard and replace those powers with the craft powers. The 5e wizard gets 4 Arcane tradition powers/features and the Basic craft wizards get 5. They work out to about the same levels too.
So if you have not picked this up, do so. I highly recommend it.
