As part of the Spelljammer first impressions? I posted some of my issues with rules in the Astral Adventurer's Guide that were problematical for various reasons and in a product from WotC made it a "bad" product, on an objective level. Now it's time to fix Spelljammer! These are changes I intend to offer up to the DM who will be running Spelljammer for our group in an attempt to get ahead of the issues before they crop up in mid-adventure. My goal with these fixes is to keep things relatively quick and straightforward while answering the questions that are left by the original rules and when possible use fixes that are already or were already in place in some publish form. Input and suggestions welcome, and if anyone has any other fixes for rules mechanics within the book I welcome them. So with that out of the way let's get started!
Falling and Gravity Planes
The Problem: [Original Text:] A floating creature that enters the air envelope of a larger body is immediately affected by the larger body's gravity (such as that of a planet) or gravity plane (such as that of a spelljamming ship). The creature falls from where it entered the air envelope to the surface of that body, or to the gravity plane of that body, whichever is nearer. Normal damage from the fall applies if the creature hits something solid at the end of the fall. A creature or an object that falls across a gravity plane takes no damage from the fall but begins oscillating from one side of the gravity plane to the other, as described above.
There are no mechanics behind falling through a gravity plane beyond the standard rules for falling. There's a narrative explanation that things will end up oscillating back and forth through the plane but with no mechanics as to how that functions or interacts with the usual falling rules. Depending on how one interprets the rules there's an argument that the oscillation effect would almost never occur, that an object or creature would 'fall' straight through the gravity plane and out the other side and beyond the air envelope due to the instantly fall 500ft at the end of turn rules from Xanathar's as most of the presented ships do not have air envelopes of 500 vertical feet.
The Fix: [New Text, replacing old starting with 'as described above' in the last sentence] as described below. A falling creature passing through the gravity plane will continue moving in the same direction for half (rounded down) the original distance of the fall to the gravity plane before the new direction of gravity will cause them to fall back towards the gravity plane. After this movement through the plane and before the new fall occurs their turn ends. On at the end of their next turn they will now fall in the direction of the gravity plane following the above rules again. If halving the distance of the fall (rounding down) results in 0ft of travel, the creature or object is now caught in the gravity plane and subject to the rules of Drifting. Example: A creature pierces the top of a nautaloid's air envelope and is now influenced by its gravity. The creature falls 180ft towards the gravity plane and happens to be fortunate enough to miss the ship itself, they now travel another 90 feet through the plane in the same direction as their original fall and their turn now ends. On the end of their next turn the new gravity now takes full hold and they fall again for 90 feet, passing back through the plane and travel another 45ft (90 halved) in that direction and their turn ends. Assuming nothing halts or interferes with this fall it will repeat for six more rounds (for a total of 8), the next round of the fall would be 45 feet to the plane then 22 feet beyond, followed by 22 and 11, then 11 and 5, 5 and 2, 2 and 1, and finally 1 and 0 which would leave the object or creature in the gravity plane itself and subject to Drifting.
My Thoughts: Is it perfect? Noooo. If we think about it too hard.. well it creates very unscientific effects on acceleration and what not, but these rules aren't intended to 100% simulate real life free falls and gravity, but to emulate what the book tells us happens and gives no mechanics for. I think this does accomplish the goal of adhering to the original narrative rules while giving the DM something relatively straight forward to work with and giving the player's agency and opportunity to do something about the fact a character or important object is ping-ponging up and down through the gravity plane. As seen in the example above for a nautaloid and assuming someone is falling the full distance from a top of the gravity plane, there's 8 rounds worth of action where the player's can attempt to bring the fall to a safe conclusion. It also allows for the Drifting rules that will follow to actually work, as written with no mechanics behind it, the current rules for falling would allow almost no instance of an object ever actually drifting since most any object going over the side of a ship or entering the air envelope is going to fall some distance to and through the gravity plane and back and forth forever or until it smacks onto something else. The above will eventually settle every falling thing either onto the ship and 'safe' or onto the gravity plane and subject to drift. As for why I chose the 'top' of each arc, just before the new fall will come into effect as the point to pass the turn instead of 500 feet of actual travel? Because.. well let's face it that would be a whole lot of extra tracking that I as a player don't want to do and so I also don't want to saddle a DM with it. I don't want to waste time going 'Okay he fell.. 180 feet, then traveled 90 more.. then 90 back.. then 45 upwards, 45 back downwards, then 22 up, 22 down, 11 up.. and there's 505 feet, so actually only 6 up and next turn he will go 5 more feet up then start falling again. Yeaaah. No. Bad maths. Do not like.
Drifting
The Problem: [Original Text]When a spelljamming ship moves in space, creatures and objects in its air envelope move with it, pulled along with the ship because of the strength of its gravity plane. However, an unanchored creature or object floating in a ship’s air envelope is weightless and drifts toward the edge of the air envelope at a speed of 10 feet per minute. For example, an unconscious sailor or a crate that falls off the deck of a spelljamming ship would begin drifting away from the ship along its gravity plane toward the edge of the ship’s air envelope. When it exits the air envelope, the sailor or the crate would be left behind as the ship moves away from it.
Drifting is a poorly edited import of 2nd edition rules wherein the original intent was inadvertently and drastically altered by no one catching a change in terminology introduced in the course of someone writing the new rules. In addition, under the narrative rules of falling, it's going to be exceptionally rare that anything would actually drift, since something has to stop the oscillation of falling for drifting to come into effect. Either this rule directly contradicts the falling rules wherein if you're in a ship's air envelope you're subject to its gravity and thus would never be floating and weightless, or it offer an exception via the example of the unconscious sailor to gravity that relies on a conscious awareness of gravity for it to work on anyone, orrrr... someone done goofed and said 'ship's air envelope' when they meant 'ship's gravity plane'.
The Fix: [New Text replaces original 2nd sentence] However, an unanchored creature or object floating in a ship's gravity plane is weightless and drifts toward the edge of the air envelope at a speed of 10 feet per minute.
My Thoughts: Pretty straightforward in that it brings it back to the 2nd edition intent and doesn't make Gravity a subjective force within Spelljammer but leaves it as an objective constant whether someone is conscious or not and functions well with the above falling mechanics.
Hadozee
The Problem: I'm only speaking to rules mechanics here, anything else is outside the scope, so no lore discussion will be had here. If you want a discussion on their lore, look elsewhere. [Original Text] Glide: When you fall at least 10 feet above the ground, you can use your reaction to extend your skin membranes to glide horizontally a number of feet equal to your walking speed, and you take 0 damage from the fall. You determine the direction of the glide.
While this is less broken than the original release, it still, for me at least, has issues. How does this actually function in terms of falling. Falling is an instant occurrence at the end of a characters turn wherein the person or object descends 500 feet (or until it smacks into something whichever is first) as an imposed movement. So at the end of their turn, after anything else including movement and attacks and such occur, a hadozee can then glide as a reaction to the fall now happening to them. This robs this ability to much utility and leaves various questions up in the air (pun intended)..are they falling instantly 500 feet, even though they're gliding and should therefor be descending slower? Does that happen before, after, or as a smooth action during their glide movement? Is that glide movement free no that the zero movement cost portion is gone? Can they actually maneuver during the glide, it says 'You determine the direction of the glide' but is that only the initial direction and from their its a straight shot only, or can they manage turns and such while descending.? How actually useful is this other than negating fall damage since it happens only at the end of a turn?
The Fix: [New Text]Glide: Using your skin membranes you can slow your fall and glide short distances.When you would fall at the end of your turn, you can instead use your reaction to preemptively extend your skin membranes and slow your descent as part of your movement for the turn instead of falling at the end of it. While doing so you descend gently at a speed of 60 feet per round at no movement cost to you, taking no fall damage when you land. If you would fall at least 10 feet in this way, you may fly up to your movement speed in one direction you chose, although you cannot choose to move upwards.
I am heavily borrowing from the Humblewood 5e setting's birdfolk and their gliding racial traits here and freely admit it. I have made alterations to fit hadozee biology and for reasons outlined below, but the original source material is from Humblewood.
My Thoughts: This does something much more like what I feel a glide feature should. It slows a fall so the hadozee don't plummet a possible 500 feet while 'gliding' and allows for a limited form of flight. The Humblewood rules include a part about 'landing in the space you finish your movement' at the end of the flight portion that I've done away with because it seems unnecessary and creates new questions. If I'm more than 60 feet up in the air.. how do I land in the space where I ended my movement, instantly plummet the rest of the way even though I only go 60 feet down per round? With it gone you've either reached the ground and have therefore landed or your next turn you would be able to resume gliding flight like anything else with flying movement does. By giving the player the preemptive ability to move falling into their movement for the turn instead of at the end of it the ability now gains actual utility beyond damage avoidance and directional falling. A hadozee can now glide into a position and then attack after landing. Making the descending portion of movement free, because it's still being imposed by gravity, while still allowing flight up to movement speed hopefully makes it clear which portions are free movement and which are not. Down is free, directional that's not down costs movement. I kept with Humblewood's gliding flight being limited to movement speed, since it seems less likely to break things, but I could see it being more, perhaps double movement speed as for most PCs that would make it a 1-1 ratio of fall to forward movement, but since I'm not sure what kind of balance issues that might create I'm going the cautious route for now.
Thri-Kreen
The Problem: [Original Text] Secondary Arms: You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms can manipulate an object, open or close a door or container, pick up or set down a Tiny object, or wield a weapon that has the light property.
My problem here is that there are logical inconsistencies in the rules here and waaaay too many questions for a DM to have to field on the fly about whether an arm can or can't do something it probably should be able to do but isn't expressly allowed by the rules as written. For an logical inconsistency we need only look at the fact the arms can wield a light weapon, which would include say.. a scimitar which is probably about 3ft long (per actual scimitars) and weights 3lbs (per D&D rules) against the fact that these arms can only pick up and put down tiny objects. Object size in D&D is.. very fuzzy.. with basically two examples give for each, but for tiny we have a Lock or Bottle. For Small we have a Lute or a Chest. A scimitar falls much more in line with a Small Object Lute or a Chest for sizing purpose than a Tiny Object Lock or Bottle. So we have arms that are strong enough and dexterous enough to have zero issue fully wielding a scimitar that those same arms could not, by rules as written, pick up and set down. As for questions for the DM to have to rule on in the moment.. any item that the Thri-Kreen attempts to be pick up with secondary arms that isn't a lock or a bottle or smaller than either of those prompts the question: 'Is it tiny?' The rules don't provide a clear answers, on where Tiny Objects end and Small Objects begin so it's left to DM fiat. Can these arms be used for sign language? It's not expressly allowed but they probably should be able to do so if only for inclusion sake, but that's up to the DM. Can they be used to write the Gettysburg Address? Probably! A pen is fairly certainly a tiny item, so you can pick up, and writing with it is fairly certainly a manipulate an item action. Can they be used for spell components? Is spell component usage a 'free' manipulate an object action as part of a spell casting, much like the act of drawing a sword is a 'free' manipulate an object action to draw the blade if it's still sheathed and then make the attack with it? If so then yes. Otherwise.. not expressly allowed by rules as written. What about somatic gestures? Rules as written.. almost certainly a no. Anyways. Lots of problems due to how very narrowly it is written as to what the arms can do and how generally open to interpretation or vague other rules are.
The Fix: Go back to the UA rules: [New Original Text] You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms function like your primary arms, with the following exceptions: You can use a secondary arm to wield a weapon that has the light property, but you can’t use a secondary arm to wield other kinds of weapons. You can’t wield a shield with a secondary arm.
My Thoughts: Changing back to the original permissive with exceptions rules creates far fewer instances of 'Can I do this thing with the secondary arms?' that aren't answered in the text. Can I pick up this weapon with my secondary arms that I'm allowed to wield with my secondary arms? Why yes, yes you can, because your regular arms can pick up weapons their allowed to wield. Can I do sign language with them? Yep! Same as regular! Wield a shield? Nope! Expressly forbidden! Be the other hand for two-handed wielding? Nope! A two-handed weapon isn't a light weapon, so your secondary arms can have no part of wielding it! If this ends up being overly permissive and causing too much cheesy exploitation and creates unintended effects, then it's far simpler to simply add exceptions to what the arms cannot do than to have to answer all the questions left open by the 'these are the things the arms can do' current rules.
The end
Annnd.. that's what I've got to 'fix' the most glaring issues that I had from the Astral Explorer's Guide. Good? Bad? Improvements to be had? I'll be presenting this to our group's DM once he's back from his current travels to look over, so there's time to refine it further before actual Adventure's in Space happen.
Those are issues, but the biggest and by far worst issue is Ship battles. Originally your ship had a bunch of things it could do costing spell slots, plus the party had weapons to use on their turn. Now it's a creature, and... one speed, no maneuvers, no tactics. Small ships can't do the fast turn and flee, because turn rates are not included. Which was why pirates liked small ships with bigger turn speeds.
Then there is the total lack of support for home games and campaigns. They have one set of maps for one adventure. with no rules for planet creation, ship construction, or any of the things that gave AD&D Spelljammer it's meat. Most people ran Spelljammer for the build your own space adventure. And that is what is totally lacking in this release.
Also they kind of missed the point with the Thri-Kreen, back in Dark Sun, they could wield their racial bone spears in one set of arms, and a sword and shield in the other. Their racial gave them extra attacks which in 2nd was godly, a Thri-Kreen Fighter could double the amount of attacks a human fighter had.
Those are issues, but the biggest and by far worst issue is Ship battles. Originally your ship had a bunch of things it could do costing spell slots, plus the party had weapons to use on their turn. Now it's a creature, and... one speed, no maneuvers, no tactics. Small ships can't do the fast turn and flee, because turn rates are not included. Which was why pirates liked small ships with bigger turn speeds.
Then there is the total lack of support for home games and campaigns. They have one set of maps for one adventure. with no rules for planet creation, ship construction, or any of the things that gave AD&D Spelljammer it's meat. Most people ran Spelljammer for the build your own space adventure. And that is what is totally lacking in this release.
Also they kind of missed the point with the Thri-Kreen, back in Dark Sun, they could wield their racial bone spears in one set of arms, and a sword and shield in the other. Their racial gave them extra attacks which in 2nd was godly, a Thri-Kreen Fighter could double the amount of attacks a human fighter had.
The one solar system map provided is in Spelljammer Academy.
Th 500’ max fall from Xanthers is just that a maximum fall distance in one round. The actual physics of entering a gravity field is such that you would add the initial speed from outside the field to the accelerated speed from falling to the gravity plane. At that point, if you haven’t hit anything and gone splat you would start decelerating as you fly outwards from the gravity plane. You would lose all the speed you picked up in the fall but your initial speed would still be there and would carry you out of the gravity field in a new direction with your original speed.
The biggest issue with Spelljammer (even bigger then the complete absence of mechanics for operating one) is the utter derth of lore about the setting; what are the major powers, factions, locations, threats and aspirations of those in the space ways?
Without any information on this it just feels so much more hollow as a setting since I have nothing to Work With.
If the creature or object is floating in the ships gravity plane wouldnt that mean they would have to be in the middle of the ship and hence couldnt ever reach the edge of the air envelope? Or have started in the gravity plane behind the ship? It just seems unlikely and also a creature that falls to that plane would then start oscillating anyway.
Basically I'm just trying to understand how changing the term to gravity plane would fix it??? I need help this is hurting my brain hahaha
The biggest issue with Spelljammer (even bigger then the complete absence of mechanics for operating one) is the utter derth of lore about the setting; what are the major powers, factions, locations, threats and aspirations of those in the space ways?
Without any information on this it just feels so much more hollow as a setting since I have nothing to Work With.
There is plenty of lore, however, it’s all in 2nd edition books. Personally, it’s still useable if you drop the Astral stuff from this edition and use the traditional phlogiston. It even fits in with old novels you have read.
The book is fundamentally broken for space combat, it puts out a very short module, and the monsters are slim. Wildjammer is probably the best overall solution with some interesting mechanics for 5E Spelljammer if you want to have fun. I could not find any way to work with 5E Spelljammer without taking a week off from work and doing a complete rework while using my 2E sourcebooks to make it work by creating my own system, and wildjammer is good enough. It was the last purchase I'll make from the current Wotc management team due to how it was marketed and what I actually got, I no longer trust the brand.
We shouldn't have to go to external sources to fix the setting that we paid money for.
Caveat Emptor.
I greatly curtailed my D&D purchases since they ousted Mearl's. I loved the old Spelljammer setting and I gave WotC their last chance to show they could put out quality work compared to Paizo, Goodman Games and Kobold Press, I was proved wrong. I don't believe the current team at D&D has the capability to right that ship.
Well they could do us a solid, hire Mike Pondsmith and have him be the new Executive Producer for D&D. He has been a RPG producer for most of his life, he does have some video game work and I'd love to see his take on Spelljammer. He'd be better than someone with exclusively video game work. Imagine what the Cyberpunk 2020 creator and someone into steampunk could help create for Spelljammer?
That would be my take on fixing Spelljammer, new Exec Producer (I know current exec wasn't it for Spelljammer but its just going off his public resume and his interview performance I have no confidence - I'm sure he'll make a great video game for DND but not tabletop) and hey Pondsmith worked with Grubb in the past, so he could probably get his help on the setting.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
As part of the Spelljammer first impressions? I posted some of my issues with rules in the Astral Adventurer's Guide that were problematical for various reasons and in a product from WotC made it a "bad" product, on an objective level. Now it's time to fix Spelljammer! These are changes I intend to offer up to the DM who will be running Spelljammer for our group in an attempt to get ahead of the issues before they crop up in mid-adventure. My goal with these fixes is to keep things relatively quick and straightforward while answering the questions that are left by the original rules and when possible use fixes that are already or were already in place in some publish form. Input and suggestions welcome, and if anyone has any other fixes for rules mechanics within the book I welcome them. So with that out of the way let's get started!
Falling and Gravity Planes
The Problem: [Original Text:] A floating creature that enters the air envelope of a larger body is immediately affected by the larger body's gravity (such as that of a planet) or gravity plane (such as that of a spelljamming ship). The creature falls from where it entered the air envelope to the surface of that body, or to the gravity plane of that body, whichever is nearer. Normal damage from the fall applies if the creature hits something solid at the end of the fall. A creature or an object that falls across a gravity plane takes no damage from the fall but begins oscillating from one side of the gravity plane to the other, as described above.
There are no mechanics behind falling through a gravity plane beyond the standard rules for falling. There's a narrative explanation that things will end up oscillating back and forth through the plane but with no mechanics as to how that functions or interacts with the usual falling rules. Depending on how one interprets the rules there's an argument that the oscillation effect would almost never occur, that an object or creature would 'fall' straight through the gravity plane and out the other side and beyond the air envelope due to the instantly fall 500ft at the end of turn rules from Xanathar's as most of the presented ships do not have air envelopes of 500 vertical feet.
The Fix: [New Text, replacing old starting with 'as described above' in the last sentence] as described below. A falling creature passing through the gravity plane will continue moving in the same direction for half (rounded down) the original distance of the fall to the gravity plane before the new direction of gravity will cause them to fall back towards the gravity plane. After this movement through the plane and before the new fall occurs their turn ends. On at the end of their next turn they will now fall in the direction of the gravity plane following the above rules again. If halving the distance of the fall (rounding down) results in 0ft of travel, the creature or object is now caught in the gravity plane and subject to the rules of Drifting. Example: A creature pierces the top of a nautaloid's air envelope and is now influenced by its gravity. The creature falls 180ft towards the gravity plane and happens to be fortunate enough to miss the ship itself, they now travel another 90 feet through the plane in the same direction as their original fall and their turn now ends. On the end of their next turn the new gravity now takes full hold and they fall again for 90 feet, passing back through the plane and travel another 45ft (90 halved) in that direction and their turn ends. Assuming nothing halts or interferes with this fall it will repeat for six more rounds (for a total of 8), the next round of the fall would be 45 feet to the plane then 22 feet beyond, followed by 22 and 11, then 11 and 5, 5 and 2, 2 and 1, and finally 1 and 0 which would leave the object or creature in the gravity plane itself and subject to Drifting.
My Thoughts: Is it perfect? Noooo. If we think about it too hard.. well it creates very unscientific effects on acceleration and what not, but these rules aren't intended to 100% simulate real life free falls and gravity, but to emulate what the book tells us happens and gives no mechanics for. I think this does accomplish the goal of adhering to the original narrative rules while giving the DM something relatively straight forward to work with and giving the player's agency and opportunity to do something about the fact a character or important object is ping-ponging up and down through the gravity plane. As seen in the example above for a nautaloid and assuming someone is falling the full distance from a top of the gravity plane, there's 8 rounds worth of action where the player's can attempt to bring the fall to a safe conclusion. It also allows for the Drifting rules that will follow to actually work, as written with no mechanics behind it, the current rules for falling would allow almost no instance of an object ever actually drifting since most any object going over the side of a ship or entering the air envelope is going to fall some distance to and through the gravity plane and back and forth forever or until it smacks onto something else. The above will eventually settle every falling thing either onto the ship and 'safe' or onto the gravity plane and subject to drift. As for why I chose the 'top' of each arc, just before the new fall will come into effect as the point to pass the turn instead of 500 feet of actual travel? Because.. well let's face it that would be a whole lot of extra tracking that I as a player don't want to do and so I also don't want to saddle a DM with it. I don't want to waste time going 'Okay he fell.. 180 feet, then traveled 90 more.. then 90 back.. then 45 upwards, 45 back downwards, then 22 up, 22 down, 11 up.. and there's 505 feet, so actually only 6 up and next turn he will go 5 more feet up then start falling again. Yeaaah. No. Bad maths. Do not like.
Drifting
The Problem: [Original Text] When a spelljamming ship moves in space, creatures and objects in its air envelope move with it, pulled along with the ship because of the strength of its gravity plane. However, an unanchored creature or object floating in a ship’s air envelope is weightless and drifts toward the edge of the air envelope at a speed of 10 feet per minute. For example, an unconscious sailor or a crate that falls off the deck of a spelljamming ship would begin drifting away from the ship along its gravity plane toward the edge of the ship’s air envelope. When it exits the air envelope, the sailor or the crate would be left behind as the ship moves away from it.
Drifting is a poorly edited import of 2nd edition rules wherein the original intent was inadvertently and drastically altered by no one catching a change in terminology introduced in the course of someone writing the new rules. In addition, under the narrative rules of falling, it's going to be exceptionally rare that anything would actually drift, since something has to stop the oscillation of falling for drifting to come into effect. Either this rule directly contradicts the falling rules wherein if you're in a ship's air envelope you're subject to its gravity and thus would never be floating and weightless, or it offer an exception via the example of the unconscious sailor to gravity that relies on a conscious awareness of gravity for it to work on anyone, orrrr... someone done goofed and said 'ship's air envelope' when they meant 'ship's gravity plane'.
The Fix: [New Text replaces original 2nd sentence] However, an unanchored creature or object floating in a ship's gravity plane is weightless and drifts toward the edge of the air envelope at a speed of 10 feet per minute.
My Thoughts: Pretty straightforward in that it brings it back to the 2nd edition intent and doesn't make Gravity a subjective force within Spelljammer but leaves it as an objective constant whether someone is conscious or not and functions well with the above falling mechanics.
Hadozee
The Problem: I'm only speaking to rules mechanics here, anything else is outside the scope, so no lore discussion will be had here. If you want a discussion on their lore, look elsewhere. [Original Text] Glide: When you fall at least 10 feet above the ground, you can use your reaction to extend your skin membranes to glide horizontally a number of feet equal to your walking speed, and you take 0 damage from the fall. You determine the direction of the glide.
While this is less broken than the original release, it still, for me at least, has issues. How does this actually function in terms of falling. Falling is an instant occurrence at the end of a characters turn wherein the person or object descends 500 feet (or until it smacks into something whichever is first) as an imposed movement. So at the end of their turn, after anything else including movement and attacks and such occur, a hadozee can then glide as a reaction to the fall now happening to them. This robs this ability to much utility and leaves various questions up in the air (pun intended)..are they falling instantly 500 feet, even though they're gliding and should therefor be descending slower? Does that happen before, after, or as a smooth action during their glide movement? Is that glide movement free no that the zero movement cost portion is gone? Can they actually maneuver during the glide, it says 'You determine the direction of the glide' but is that only the initial direction and from their its a straight shot only, or can they manage turns and such while descending.? How actually useful is this other than negating fall damage since it happens only at the end of a turn?
The Fix: [New Text] Glide: Using your skin membranes you can slow your fall and glide short distances.When you would fall at the end of your turn, you can instead use your reaction to preemptively extend your skin membranes and slow your descent as part of your movement for the turn instead of falling at the end of it. While doing so you descend gently at a speed of 60 feet per round at no movement cost to you, taking no fall damage when you land. If you would fall at least 10 feet in this way, you may fly up to your movement speed in one direction you chose, although you cannot choose to move upwards.
I am heavily borrowing from the Humblewood 5e setting's birdfolk and their gliding racial traits here and freely admit it. I have made alterations to fit hadozee biology and for reasons outlined below, but the original source material is from Humblewood.
My Thoughts: This does something much more like what I feel a glide feature should. It slows a fall so the hadozee don't plummet a possible 500 feet while 'gliding' and allows for a limited form of flight. The Humblewood rules include a part about 'landing in the space you finish your movement' at the end of the flight portion that I've done away with because it seems unnecessary and creates new questions. If I'm more than 60 feet up in the air.. how do I land in the space where I ended my movement, instantly plummet the rest of the way even though I only go 60 feet down per round? With it gone you've either reached the ground and have therefore landed or your next turn you would be able to resume gliding flight like anything else with flying movement does. By giving the player the preemptive ability to move falling into their movement for the turn instead of at the end of it the ability now gains actual utility beyond damage avoidance and directional falling. A hadozee can now glide into a position and then attack after landing. Making the descending portion of movement free, because it's still being imposed by gravity, while still allowing flight up to movement speed hopefully makes it clear which portions are free movement and which are not. Down is free, directional that's not down costs movement. I kept with Humblewood's gliding flight being limited to movement speed, since it seems less likely to break things, but I could see it being more, perhaps double movement speed as for most PCs that would make it a 1-1 ratio of fall to forward movement, but since I'm not sure what kind of balance issues that might create I'm going the cautious route for now.
Thri-Kreen
The Problem: [Original Text] Secondary Arms: You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms can manipulate an object, open or close a door or container, pick up or set down a Tiny object, or wield a weapon that has the light property.
My problem here is that there are logical inconsistencies in the rules here and waaaay too many questions for a DM to have to field on the fly about whether an arm can or can't do something it probably should be able to do but isn't expressly allowed by the rules as written. For an logical inconsistency we need only look at the fact the arms can wield a light weapon, which would include say.. a scimitar which is probably about 3ft long (per actual scimitars) and weights 3lbs (per D&D rules) against the fact that these arms can only pick up and put down tiny objects. Object size in D&D is.. very fuzzy.. with basically two examples give for each, but for tiny we have a Lock or Bottle. For Small we have a Lute or a Chest. A scimitar falls much more in line with a Small Object Lute or a Chest for sizing purpose than a Tiny Object Lock or Bottle. So we have arms that are strong enough and dexterous enough to have zero issue fully wielding a scimitar that those same arms could not, by rules as written, pick up and set down. As for questions for the DM to have to rule on in the moment.. any item that the Thri-Kreen attempts to be pick up with secondary arms that isn't a lock or a bottle or smaller than either of those prompts the question: 'Is it tiny?' The rules don't provide a clear answers, on where Tiny Objects end and Small Objects begin so it's left to DM fiat. Can these arms be used for sign language? It's not expressly allowed but they probably should be able to do so if only for inclusion sake, but that's up to the DM. Can they be used to write the Gettysburg Address? Probably! A pen is fairly certainly a tiny item, so you can pick up, and writing with it is fairly certainly a manipulate an item action. Can they be used for spell components? Is spell component usage a 'free' manipulate an object action as part of a spell casting, much like the act of drawing a sword is a 'free' manipulate an object action to draw the blade if it's still sheathed and then make the attack with it? If so then yes. Otherwise.. not expressly allowed by rules as written. What about somatic gestures? Rules as written.. almost certainly a no. Anyways. Lots of problems due to how very narrowly it is written as to what the arms can do and how generally open to interpretation or vague other rules are.
The Fix: Go back to the UA rules: [New Original Text] You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms function like your primary arms, with the following exceptions: You can use a secondary arm to wield a weapon that has the light property, but you can’t use a secondary arm to wield other kinds of weapons. You can’t wield a shield with a secondary arm.
My Thoughts: Changing back to the original permissive with exceptions rules creates far fewer instances of 'Can I do this thing with the secondary arms?' that aren't answered in the text. Can I pick up this weapon with my secondary arms that I'm allowed to wield with my secondary arms? Why yes, yes you can, because your regular arms can pick up weapons their allowed to wield. Can I do sign language with them? Yep! Same as regular! Wield a shield? Nope! Expressly forbidden! Be the other hand for two-handed wielding? Nope! A two-handed weapon isn't a light weapon, so your secondary arms can have no part of wielding it! If this ends up being overly permissive and causing too much cheesy exploitation and creates unintended effects, then it's far simpler to simply add exceptions to what the arms cannot do than to have to answer all the questions left open by the 'these are the things the arms can do' current rules.
The end
Annnd.. that's what I've got to 'fix' the most glaring issues that I had from the Astral Explorer's Guide. Good? Bad? Improvements to be had? I'll be presenting this to our group's DM once he's back from his current travels to look over, so there's time to refine it further before actual Adventure's in Space happen.
Those are issues, but the biggest and by far worst issue is Ship battles. Originally your ship had a bunch of things it could do costing spell slots, plus the party had weapons to use on their turn. Now it's a creature, and... one speed, no maneuvers, no tactics. Small ships can't do the fast turn and flee, because turn rates are not included. Which was why pirates liked small ships with bigger turn speeds.
Then there is the total lack of support for home games and campaigns. They have one set of maps for one adventure. with no rules for planet creation, ship construction, or any of the things that gave AD&D Spelljammer it's meat. Most people ran Spelljammer for the build your own space adventure. And that is what is totally lacking in this release.
Also they kind of missed the point with the Thri-Kreen, back in Dark Sun, they could wield their racial bone spears in one set of arms, and a sword and shield in the other. Their racial gave them extra attacks which in 2nd was godly, a Thri-Kreen Fighter could double the amount of attacks a human fighter had.
The one solar system map provided is in Spelljammer Academy.
Th 500’ max fall from Xanthers is just that a maximum fall distance in one round. The actual physics of entering a gravity field is such that you would add the initial speed from outside the field to the accelerated speed from falling to the gravity plane. At that point, if you haven’t hit anything and gone splat you would start decelerating as you fly outwards from the gravity plane. You would lose all the speed you picked up in the fall but your initial speed would still be there and would carry you out of the gravity field in a new direction with your original speed.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Step 1 remove the Astral content.
The biggest issue with Spelljammer (even bigger then the complete absence of mechanics for operating one) is the utter derth of lore about the setting; what are the major powers, factions, locations, threats and aspirations of those in the space ways?
Without any information on this it just feels so much more hollow as a setting since I have nothing to Work With.
Add space environments like a space coral reef.
If the creature or object is floating in the ships gravity plane wouldnt that mean they would have to be in the middle of the ship and hence couldnt ever reach the edge of the air envelope? Or have started in the gravity plane behind the ship? It just seems unlikely and also a creature that falls to that plane would then start oscillating anyway.
Basically I'm just trying to understand how changing the term to gravity plane would fix it??? I need help this is hurting my brain hahaha
There is plenty of lore, however, it’s all in 2nd edition books. Personally, it’s still useable if you drop the Astral stuff from this edition and use the traditional phlogiston. It even fits in with old novels you have read.
To fix 5E spelljammer go to the Spelljammer reddit and use this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/spelljammer/comments/u8t6ld/spelljammer_resources/
The book is fundamentally broken for space combat, it puts out a very short module, and the monsters are slim. Wildjammer is probably the best overall solution with some interesting mechanics for 5E Spelljammer if you want to have fun. I could not find any way to work with 5E Spelljammer without taking a week off from work and doing a complete rework while using my 2E sourcebooks to make it work by creating my own system, and wildjammer is good enough. It was the last purchase I'll make from the current Wotc management team due to how it was marketed and what I actually got, I no longer trust the brand.
Refund everyone that paid for it?
https://wulfgold.substack.com
Blog - nerd stuff
https://deepdreamgenerator.com/u/wulfgold
A.I. art - also nerd stuff - a gallery of NPC portraits - help yourself.
I paid for it, its on me. There are good solutions outside of WotC to help fix Spelljammer however.
We shouldn't have to go to external sources to fix the setting that we paid money for.
Caveat Emptor.
I greatly curtailed my D&D purchases since they ousted Mearl's. I loved the old Spelljammer setting and I gave WotC their last chance to show they could put out quality work compared to Paizo, Goodman Games and Kobold Press, I was proved wrong. I don't believe the current team at D&D has the capability to right that ship.
Well they could do us a solid, hire Mike Pondsmith and have him be the new Executive Producer for D&D. He has been a RPG producer for most of his life, he does have some video game work and I'd love to see his take on Spelljammer. He'd be better than someone with exclusively video game work. Imagine what the Cyberpunk 2020 creator and someone into steampunk could help create for Spelljammer?
That would be my take on fixing Spelljammer, new Exec Producer (I know current exec wasn't it for Spelljammer but its just going off his public resume and his interview performance I have no confidence - I'm sure he'll make a great video game for DND but not tabletop) and hey Pondsmith worked with Grubb in the past, so he could probably get his help on the setting.