Small question about the Red Sign... It says that "each creature (including yourself) within 30 feet of you that can see you takes 5d8 Necrotic damage"... Does this mean that if the caster can't see themselves, they take no damage ?
Despite my username, this is actually Mike Mearls, project lead on Cthulhu by Torchlight. This is what I get when I pick a username in haste without thinking how I'll use an account...
Setting that aside, please feel free to drop a note on any errors you spot here. As part of the work process on this project, I've been tracking bugs to figure out when and where in our process bugs creep in.
My understanding is that we'll have the chance to submit a list of bugs to the D&D Beyond team, so I am compiling errors as they see them.
Confirming that this is indeed the man himself. Welcome to D&D Beyond, Mr. Mearls, and congrats on Cthulhu by Torchlight!
(and if you'd like us to change your username, just let me know :P)
SPecific Feedback on Dagon legendary actions (chapter 7 Monsters of the Mythos): It says Dagon can regains the legendary actions: "Dagon regains all expended uses at the start of each of its turns. " But one of the legendary actions has it's own recharge mechanic? Plus it mentions "If Dagon is unable to use legendary actions for any reason, it automatically uses Relentless Horror." I have questions:
1 - Dagon has used all the legendary action uses => means it is unable to use it => triggers relentless Horror? 2- Dagon was incapacitated => triggers relentless Horror? even if it is not recharged or above the limit of 3 legendary actions? 3- then why have a recharge to relentless Horror? THank you
Regarding some of the concerns about spells, the book does say this:
Spell Descriptions
The following spells draw on the mythos and themes. While they are balanced with existing spells, many don’t allow saving throws. Their damage is designed with this in mind, much like Magic Missile. The spells intend to capture the horrid, inevitable nature of the mythos. Most of them rely on Concentration as a central mechanic, forcing the spell’s target to harm or defeat the caster to end an effect.
On the Tomes section, what is the number next to the Insight line for? I know it's a bonus, but a bonus to what exactly?
Also, Curse of the Putrid Husk says that the target creature makes an Unarmed Strike against a creature within 5ft, but doesn't specify how. Is it a Bonus Action or Reaction?
A creature becomes filled with spite as it tries to spread the disease to its enemies. It takes the Dash action and moves toward its nearest enemy by the safest route on each of its turns unless there is nowhere to move. When an enemy is within 5 feet of it, it makes an Unarmed Strike against that target.
Edit: Also on Curse of Putrid Husk, the listed spell duration says "special 1-round", but the effects say they're on each turn. Is it supposed to last 1-round or 1-minute?
While we normally ask for you to report issues in the related Bugs & Support thread, we're going to leave this one open so you can continue to discuss the mechanical/gameplay aspects of the book. To keep things tidy, I've merged the more recent thread that opened earlier today into this one. The new one will redirect here for some time before disappearing.
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Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her) You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On| CM Hat Off Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5]. Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
For the spell Shadowy Eruption, it doesn't list the duration for the 20ft speed reduction on the second option. The spell duration is Instantaneous, potentially making this a permanent effect as read.
"Tomb of Shadows. Creatures of your choice in the area must make Constitution saving throws. A target takes 4d8 necrotic damage on a failed save and its speed is reduced by 20 feet. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage only."
Hi Mike, this is a great product, and I'm excited to share it with the party of my next campaign! There's a lot here that's going to fit into it very well, so this is great timing.
I made some spell comments above (originally posted to another thread and moved by mods), so hadn't given any general feedback. All I've seen of it has been flavourful and exciting. I initially was sceptical of the idea of including a stat block for Great Cthulhu, as I was concerned that would lead to combats in which he might be defeated, but having looked at it I'm glad the outlook for combat against him is... appropriate. Hehe.
Clutch of Darkness is original and sounds fun. Summon Shadow (Assassin variant) strikes me as handy if you're a king with a usurping younger brother who's confused you by eating a peach. I think anyone playing a shadow sorcerer would have a tough time knowing which of the shadow-themed spells to pick!
Only typographic point I've noticed is that throughout the subclasses it often refers to a "Short or long rest" or just a "long rest". In both cases, I think "Long Rest" should be capitalised.
The book could stand to be divided by chapters. Also I'd like to say I'd be very happy to see balance tweaks as well as bug fixes if you and Chris feel it warranted. Take advantage of the digital format!
Any thoughts on whether Body Warping of Gorgoroth should really have a Range of Self, meaning that you can only copy your own appearance, or if it should be either Touch or some number of feet in range?
Hi Mike! I noticed some things that may be worthy of a fix.
The Edit Spell feature on the Bibliomancy Wizard has an effect that reads: "The spell save DC of your spells increases by 1." I believe it was unintended for the player to be able to prepare, for example: "Magic Missiles that increase the Spell Save DC of all spells by 1." I think as it's written now, the ability is confusing and could be interpreted the way I have demonstrated by many players. If the ability instead said "The spell save DC of the chosen spell increases by 1", I believe it would convey the meaning in a much more unambiguous manner.
In Chapter 5, Example Skill Challenges, Social Encounters, there is this text: "There are a variety of twists you can apply to a chase encounter." Chase encounters are an example before social encounters in this chapter.
There's a 4th-level spell that does 8d6 necrotic damage with other effects on a failed save... and the full 8d6 (without the effects) on a successful save
What
So that idea is that many of these spells offer a lot more reliability than other spells, but at the cost of a potential dreadful insight.
In the case of this spell, the damage felt balanced because it is equal to the area of effect damage for a spell that is one level lower. YMMV.
I assume the spell we are talking about here is Fist of Sothoth. For balancing, I would have looked at Raulothim's Psychic Lance instead of Fireball and only given half damage on a successful save. The consequences of a Dreaful Insight aren't that grave to justify that imo. Overall, balancing seems to be an issue here. There are several very powerful subclass features. It's not game-breaking, but in the realm of Peace Domain and Twilight Domain.There are also some problems otherwise. True Shadow, for example, says "It vanishes when reduced to 0 Hit Points", but it says nowhere how many hit points the Shadow has and previously it says "Your shadow disappears when it takes any damage, is the target of any effect, or if you have the Incapacitated condition". And when it says "Its Attack action uses your game statistics, including class features, feats, and weapons", that only refers to the attack, not the hit points. Or is this supposed to be covered by "As a Bonus Action, your Shadowy Reflection transforms into an exact duplicate of you"? If so, why was it considered necessary to clarify that the attack uses the characters game statistics, but not whether the Shadow also otherwise shares the characters statistics when it comes to hit points or saving throws? I also noticed that the spell list for the Hungering Dark Sorcerer links to the 2014 version of Black Tentacles instead of the 2024 version.
Just wanted to say great job reaching out to @Chris Treantmonk for a calibration of this material. It shows that developers are in the know. Looking forward to looking at this new material. Just can’t purchase it at this time, but from what Chris has posted on his channel, it’s very interesting.
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ModeratorThat's a known issue. The devs are looking into it.
Please use the official support thread for any implementation issues.
EDIT: Should be fixed!
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SPecific Feedback on Dagon legendary actions (chapter 7 Monsters of the Mythos):
It says Dagon can regains the legendary actions: "Dagon regains all expended uses at the start of each of its turns. "
But one of the legendary actions has it's own recharge mechanic?
Plus it mentions "If Dagon is unable to use legendary actions for any reason, it automatically uses Relentless Horror."
I have questions:
1 - Dagon has used all the legendary action uses => means it is unable to use it => triggers relentless Horror?
2- Dagon was incapacitated => triggers relentless Horror? even if it is not recharged or above the limit of 3 legendary actions?
3- then why have a recharge to relentless Horror?
THank you
Regarding some of the concerns about spells, the book does say this:
On the Tomes section, what is the number next to the Insight line for? I know it's a bonus, but a bonus to what exactly?
Also, Curse of the Putrid Husk says that the target creature makes an Unarmed Strike against a creature within 5ft, but doesn't specify how. Is it a Bonus Action or Reaction?
Edit: Also on Curse of Putrid Husk, the listed spell duration says "special 1-round", but the effects say they're on each turn. Is it supposed to last 1-round or 1-minute?
Body Warping of Gorgoroth: Choose a Humanoid of your size that you can see in range.
Since the listed Range is Self, doesn't that make this spell useless, since you can only ever choose yourself (assuming you're Humanoid)?
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D&D StaffHey all!
While we normally ask for you to report issues in the related Bugs & Support thread, we're going to leave this one open so you can continue to discuss the mechanical/gameplay aspects of the book. To keep things tidy, I've merged the more recent thread that opened earlier today into this one. The new one will redirect here for some time before disappearing.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her)
You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On | CM Hat Off
Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5].
Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
Useful Links: Site Rules & Guidelines | D&D Educator Resources | Change Your Nickname | Submit a Support Ticket
Here's another one:
For the spell Shadowy Eruption, it doesn't list the duration for the 20ft speed reduction on the second option. The spell duration is Instantaneous, potentially making this a permanent effect as read.
"Tomb of Shadows. Creatures of your choice in the area must make Constitution saving throws. A target takes 4d8 necrotic damage on a failed save and its speed is reduced by 20 feet. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage only."
Hi Mike, this is a great product, and I'm excited to share it with the party of my next campaign! There's a lot here that's going to fit into it very well, so this is great timing.
I made some spell comments above (originally posted to another thread and moved by mods), so hadn't given any general feedback. All I've seen of it has been flavourful and exciting. I initially was sceptical of the idea of including a stat block for Great Cthulhu, as I was concerned that would lead to combats in which he might be defeated, but having looked at it I'm glad the outlook for combat against him is... appropriate. Hehe.
Clutch of Darkness is original and sounds fun. Summon Shadow (Assassin variant) strikes me as handy if you're a king with a usurping younger brother who's confused you by eating a peach. I think anyone playing a shadow sorcerer would have a tough time knowing which of the shadow-themed spells to pick!
Only typographic point I've noticed is that throughout the subclasses it often refers to a "Short or long rest" or just a "long rest". In both cases, I think "Long Rest" should be capitalised.
All the best, I hope the product does well!
The book could stand to be divided by chapters. Also I'd like to say I'd be very happy to see balance tweaks as well as bug fixes if you and Chris feel it warranted. Take advantage of the digital format!
Any thoughts on whether Body Warping of Gorgoroth should really have a Range of Self, meaning that you can only copy your own appearance, or if it should be either Touch or some number of feet in range?
Hi Mike! I noticed some things that may be worthy of a fix.
The Edit Spell feature on the Bibliomancy Wizard has an effect that reads: "The spell save DC of your spells increases by 1." I believe it was unintended for the player to be able to prepare, for example: "Magic Missiles that increase the Spell Save DC of all spells by 1." I think as it's written now, the ability is confusing and could be interpreted the way I have demonstrated by many players. If the ability instead said "The spell save DC of the chosen spell increases by 1", I believe it would convey the meaning in a much more unambiguous manner.
In Chapter 5, Example Skill Challenges, Social Encounters, there is this text: "There are a variety of twists you can apply to a chase encounter." Chase encounters are an example before social encounters in this chapter.
I assume the spell we are talking about here is Fist of Sothoth. For balancing, I would have looked at Raulothim's Psychic Lance instead of Fireball and only given half damage on a successful save. The consequences of a Dreaful Insight aren't that grave to justify that imo. Overall, balancing seems to be an issue here. There are several very powerful subclass features. It's not game-breaking, but in the realm of Peace Domain and Twilight Domain.There are also some problems otherwise. True Shadow, for example, says "It vanishes when reduced to 0 Hit Points", but it says nowhere how many hit points the Shadow has and previously it says "Your shadow disappears when it takes any damage, is the target of any effect, or if you have the Incapacitated condition". And when it says "Its Attack action uses your game statistics, including class features, feats, and weapons", that only refers to the attack, not the hit points. Or is this supposed to be covered by "As a Bonus Action, your Shadowy Reflection transforms into an exact duplicate of you"? If so, why was it considered necessary to clarify that the attack uses the characters game statistics, but not whether the Shadow also otherwise shares the characters statistics when it comes to hit points or saving throws? I also noticed that the spell list for the Hungering Dark Sorcerer links to the 2014 version of Black Tentacles instead of the 2024 version.
Can we still buy it? It says "unavailable" in the app but I was able to put in the cart on the website.
That’s weird, checked the app and got both “currently unavailable” and a pop up telling me to buy it
Mike,
Just wanted to say great job reaching out to @Chris Treantmonk for a calibration of this material. It shows that developers are in the know. Looking forward to looking at this new material. Just can’t purchase it at this time, but from what Chris has posted on his channel, it’s very interesting.