Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Perhaps a new Book of Vile Darkness? (Obviously very different than the 3e one.)
So the barbarian's level 3 ability, Banshee's Wail, seems better than the fighter's level 10 ability, Hellfire surge
The Eldritch Invocations seem really weak to me. I guess Elemental Overflow could be mildly useful if you play a melee warlock using booming blade or green flame blade.
Good call on the Oathbreaker, it would definitely fit the theme
mechanically the primordial warlock is a bit different but it has a lot of thematic overlay with genie so I am not sure its a great option. i am never a fan when a large section of a subclasses abilities are tied up around a once per short rest ability(yeah you can blow a limited pact slot as well), the level 6 + chr to ac on it i am not sure about, due to the elemental nodes limited nature. and the invocations are kind of bad, they would be mid at best even if you didn't need to repeat the 5th level one to cover the elements and the 2nd level one just allowed free swapping between elements.
Based on how many player facing options are revealed so far, I think we might bet the opposite of the Book of Vile Darkness - instead of a manual for DMs on how to add evil to their campaign, I am (as I have alluded to before) hoping we get a "here is how to play an evil character and not be a problem for your table" player facing option. I also think it would be helpful to have a "and here is how to run an evil campaign" section for DMs. Evil campaigns are fundamentally different to Good campaigns in enough ways (ex. good campaigns tend to be reacting to the BBEG, evil campaigns tend to be the ones who are proactive) that some guidance would be super helpful.
Though, if I were going to choose an older book to reference, I would pick Elder Evils. If there are two things the previous D&D team kind of failed on, it was having built in options for folks who want to play evil (which this book seems to be specifically aimed at) and a complete failing to produce high level threats. "Here are a bunch of character races that can be cultists to great evils and here are a bunch of very evil things designed to end level 20 campaigns that can be their bosses" would be a fun way to have both a player-facing and DM-facing set of related options. Doubt that will happen, but I'll keep dreaming!
I will say, while I am glad the new team is embracing more darkness, as with Ravenloft, Dark Sun, and now these villainous options, I do have some concern that we have heavily invested in more horror products for the immediate future. Given the current team's background comes heavily from horror, I think this is understandable... but if we see a fourth horror book implied in the next couple UAs, I can see that becoming a problem for the game as a whole.
It really feels like a better capstone ability than most barbarian path capstone abilities.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Easy counterbalance: a Bloomburrow sourcebook
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
It's double limited by long rests & rage.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
I'm focusing more on warlock as its my favorite class. But another thing on the warlock the capstone primordial herald, a d4 or in this case 2d4 long rest recharge sucks. Balance it to being a daily. Though planar ally slot free is kind of balanced already as a daily. They are not automatically working with you. Heck your "ally" is from a mustache twirling evil patron, with a muahahah evil agenda. It will probably bite you in the butt or cost a pretty penny far more often than not as is. At least the genies limited wish had some oomph to it, this is laughably bad with that recharge and even with the genie i think its bad design to make the balance that random, if we get to 14 it likely will not be for too long before we stop and if im lucky i cast it 5 times once a day but if im unlucky that's 20 days. Sill balance system imo, that is there to motivate people to not use the ability so they have it saved for when they need it. But for this one its just planar ally, just add it to your 6th level mystic arcanum, allow them to have 2 6th level known arcanums but still limited to one cast a day.
Vecna’s Something of Everything 🤷♂️
Covers lich and death knight.