We just had session 0 and now that I know which characters are there, I'm going into more detail crafting story elements for Episode 1. I will also be following a remixed version of HotdQ, mostly inspired by Sy Flourish's work and anything fun I'm running into.
The party is as follows :
Triton Fighter
Human Monk
Elf Ranger
Tielfing Sorcerer
Tabaxi Bard
I didn't expect exotic races but I didn't want to tell them "No" either given their excitment.
To help the RP flow more smoothly despite there being a Triton, I thought of giving him a Cloak of Elvenkind to help him conceal his unique features. It would be a gift by the Lord's Alliance. He was their contact with the Triton outposts established in Faerunand when he decided to leave his kin, he sought the only people he knew from the Alliance). He was tasked to oversee this investigation and the gift is to help him not attract unecessary attention on himself.
However, I can't give a magic item to a character and not the others. But I need to be sure I'm not ruining the balance of things. I feel that as long as they are lvl 1 with little HP, episode 1 will be dangerous with real risk of death no matter which uncommon items they have but you never know.
Cloak of Protection for the Ranger. He's going for a dual wielding build so I thought to help his AC with the smallest increment. I would prefer to give him a slightly better armor than the starting equipment allows for (he got the Studded Leather), maybe a Chain Shirt that allows him to use one point more of his Dex modifier but there are no such armors unless I homebrew one. The Elven Chain would lead to the exact same AC result but it's a Rare item and I'd like to stay in Uncommon. The Mithral Armor's description reads EXACTLY like what I'm looking for but it actually doesn't do that (which is really stupid).
Not quite sure yet for the Sorcerer and the Bard since I'm still stuck with the Ranger, making me second guess this whole thing and not give anything to anyone.
If you're not too concerned about item restrictions, you could give the Sorcerer some glamoured clothing (ignore the studded leather requirement and keep him unarmoured, but keep the +1 enhancement, even though it's not proper armor). https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/glamoured-studded-leather
I don’t know the exact setting, but why is the triton being recognized a problem? Are the NPCs/townsfolk cool with the cat-man and devil-person but not ok with a triton being around? It might be the easiest case to have the party more or less accepted at face value so you don’t have to worry about the hijinks a bunch of items will cause right off the bat.
If you want to give out items, the Sorcerer would probably benefit from something that makes them more survivable or gives them another cantrip that covers one of their weaknesses.
I don’t know the exact setting, but why is the triton being recognized a problem? Are the NPCs/townsfolk cool with the cat-man and devil-person but not ok with a triton being around? It might be the easiest case to have the party more or less accepted at face value so you don’t have to worry about the hijinks a bunch of items will cause right off the bat.
There is large population of Tieflings on Faerun. Neverwinter alone harbours a significant enough community. Even if you've never seen a Tiefling, you'd recognise the race upon meeting one. You might have distrust towards them but there is a reason the race has +2 Charisma.
Tabaxi are much rarer than Tieflings, coming from a distant land. But they are not unheard of. There is even a name for them among common people : catfolk. Most people have never seen one but they might have heard stories about them. If you also take into account the character's background of having been a member of a circus troupe, it's quite straightforward that he doesn't feel like he needs to hide his heritage.
Tritons though... they come from a different plane altogether, and an Elemental Plane to boot. Scholars may know of their existence but very few people can claim to have met one. Most of the Tritons in Faerun live far in the ocean and there aren't that many of them either. There might be some obscure stories or legends about them but even those are scarce. And the character basically just arrived on the continent.
Well, you could just have him be constantly mistaken for an aquatic elf. =P
In seriousness, if you're gonna be giving out magic items at the start, I did a similar thing in my campaign by handing out things that had largely had RP value or *very* minor combat value (glamorweave, moon-touched sword, pipe of smoke monsters). I personally would suggest waiting a little longer before giving magic items with tangible combat bonuses, but that's just me.
I don’t know the exact setting, but why is the triton being recognized a problem? Are the NPCs/townsfolk cool with the cat-man and devil-person but not ok with a triton being around? It might be the easiest case to have the party more or less accepted at face value so you don’t have to worry about the hijinks a bunch of items will cause right off the bat.
There is large population of Tieflings on Faerun. Neverwinter alone harbours a significant enough community. Even if you've never seen a Tiefling, you'd recognise the race upon meeting one. You might have distrust towards them but there is a reason the race has +2 Charisma.
Tabaxi are much rarer than Tieflings, coming from a distant land. But they are not unheard of. There is even a name for them among common people : catfolk. Most people have never seen one but they might have heard stories about them. If you also take into account the character's background of having been a member of a circus troupe, it's quite straightforward that he doesn't feel like he needs to hide his heritage.
Tritons though... they come from a different plane altogether, and an Elemental Plane to boot. Scholars may know of their existence but very few people can claim to have met one. Most of the Tritons in Faerun live far in the ocean and there aren't that many of them either. There might be some obscure stories or legends about them but even those are scarce. And the character basically just arrived on the continent.
Although the Tritons may have originated on the Plane of Water, they migrated to the Prime material to protect people from the other creatures who had also migrated from the Plane of Water. (sahaugin, krakens etc). Volos's Guide to Monsters mentions this happened centuries ago.
The Tritons established protectorates and settlements on the sea bottom and even outposts for trade with the land dwellers.
"With their foes banished to the deepest reaches of the sea, tritons settled in to watch for any sign of their return. Over time, the tritons extended their stewardship over the sea floor from their initial settlements and built outposts to create trade with other races. Despite this expansion, few folk know of them. Their settlements are so remote even merfolk and sea elves rarely encounter them."
So, Tritons are inhabitants of the Prime Material like all the other races of Faerun. They aren't commonly seen but some folks might know of them. Most would be completely unaware of any connection to an elemental plane. If the Tabaxi are called catpeople then the common folk would likely label Tritons as fish people. In larger settlements with a wide variety of races represented people might not even find them remarkable. Just another race that they had not seen previously.
In addition, whatever rumors might exist would probably be positive, tritons are protectors of the seas, fighting evil creatures, dealing with pirates, likely rescuing folks from foundered vessels. Whereas, Tieflings might very well be looked upon with greater suspicion due to their infernal heritage. Anyway, I don't see any reason why you would need to single out the Triton to hide their appearance in such a diverse party.
As for magic items, a cloak of elven kind only offers advantage on stealth checks, it doesn't hide the creatures features. You would probably be better off giving the character proficiency in the disguise skill and a disguise kit so that they can wear specially crafted boots/gloves and a hood to hide their most distinctive features if their appearance is going to be an issue.
Personally, I find magic items more fun when discovered during the process of adventuring. 5e doesn't need them handed out at first level especially since 5e tends to be a much lower magic level than previous editions.
P.S. If you want a magic item for the triton then you are probably looking for a Hat of Disguise which casts Disguise Self at will.
Hello !
We just had session 0 and now that I know which characters are there, I'm going into more detail crafting story elements for Episode 1. I will also be following a remixed version of HotdQ, mostly inspired by Sy Flourish's work and anything fun I'm running into.
The party is as follows :
I didn't expect exotic races but I didn't want to tell them "No" either given their excitment.
To help the RP flow more smoothly despite there being a Triton, I thought of giving him a Cloak of Elvenkind to help him conceal his unique features. It would be a gift by the Lord's Alliance. He was their contact with the Triton outposts established in Faerunand when he decided to leave his kin, he sought the only people he knew from the Alliance). He was tasked to oversee this investigation and the gift is to help him not attract unecessary attention on himself.
However, I can't give a magic item to a character and not the others. But I need to be sure I'm not ruining the balance of things. I feel that as long as they are lvl 1 with little HP, episode 1 will be dangerous with real risk of death no matter which uncommon items they have but you never know.
Here are the other items I thought of.
Stone of Good Luck (Luckstone) for the Monk. A gift given to him by Leosar when he saved his life.
Cloak of Protection for the Ranger. He's going for a dual wielding build so I thought to help his AC with the smallest increment. I would prefer to give him a slightly better armor than the starting equipment allows for (he got the Studded Leather), maybe a Chain Shirt that allows him to use one point more of his Dex modifier but there are no such armors unless I homebrew one. The Elven Chain would lead to the exact same AC result but it's a Rare item and I'd like to stay in Uncommon. The Mithral Armor's description reads EXACTLY like what I'm looking for but it actually doesn't do that (which is really stupid).
Not quite sure yet for the Sorcerer and the Bard since I'm still stuck with the Ranger, making me second guess this whole thing and not give anything to anyone.
Which is why I'm here to ask for advice.
Thank you !
I'm on mobile so can't link stuff properly.
If you're not too concerned about item restrictions, you could give the Sorcerer some glamoured clothing (ignore the studded leather requirement and keep him unarmoured, but keep the +1 enhancement, even though it's not proper armor). https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/glamoured-studded-leather
The Bard could gain an Instrument of Illusions (no combat bonus, but can still be used for interesting things) https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/instrument-of-illusions
I don’t know the exact setting, but why is the triton being recognized a problem? Are the NPCs/townsfolk cool with the cat-man and devil-person but not ok with a triton being around? It might be the easiest case to have the party more or less accepted at face value so you don’t have to worry about the hijinks a bunch of items will cause right off the bat.
If you want to give out items, the Sorcerer would probably benefit from something that makes them more survivable or gives them another cantrip that covers one of their weaknesses.
There is large population of Tieflings on Faerun. Neverwinter alone harbours a significant enough community. Even if you've never seen a Tiefling, you'd recognise the race upon meeting one. You might have distrust towards them but there is a reason the race has +2 Charisma.
Tabaxi are much rarer than Tieflings, coming from a distant land. But they are not unheard of. There is even a name for them among common people : catfolk. Most people have never seen one but they might have heard stories about them. If you also take into account the character's background of having been a member of a circus troupe, it's quite straightforward that he doesn't feel like he needs to hide his heritage.
Tritons though... they come from a different plane altogether, and an Elemental Plane to boot. Scholars may know of their existence but very few people can claim to have met one. Most of the Tritons in Faerun live far in the ocean and there aren't that many of them either. There might be some obscure stories or legends about them but even those are scarce. And the character basically just arrived on the continent.
Well, you could just have him be constantly mistaken for an aquatic elf. =P
In seriousness, if you're gonna be giving out magic items at the start, I did a similar thing in my campaign by handing out things that had largely had RP value or *very* minor combat value (glamorweave, moon-touched sword, pipe of smoke monsters). I personally would suggest waiting a little longer before giving magic items with tangible combat bonuses, but that's just me.
Or give him a magic tiara that disguises him as an Elf?
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]Although the Tritons may have originated on the Plane of Water, they migrated to the Prime material to protect people from the other creatures who had also migrated from the Plane of Water. (sahaugin, krakens etc). Volos's Guide to Monsters mentions this happened centuries ago.
The Tritons established protectorates and settlements on the sea bottom and even outposts for trade with the land dwellers.
"With their foes banished to the deepest reaches of the sea, tritons settled in to watch for any sign of their return. Over time, the tritons extended their stewardship over the sea floor from their initial settlements and built outposts to create trade with other races. Despite this expansion, few folk know of them. Their settlements are so remote even merfolk and sea elves rarely encounter them."
So, Tritons are inhabitants of the Prime Material like all the other races of Faerun. They aren't commonly seen but some folks might know of them. Most would be completely unaware of any connection to an elemental plane. If the Tabaxi are called catpeople then the common folk would likely label Tritons as fish people. In larger settlements with a wide variety of races represented people might not even find them remarkable. Just another race that they had not seen previously.
In addition, whatever rumors might exist would probably be positive, tritons are protectors of the seas, fighting evil creatures, dealing with pirates, likely rescuing folks from foundered vessels. Whereas, Tieflings might very well be looked upon with greater suspicion due to their infernal heritage. Anyway, I don't see any reason why you would need to single out the Triton to hide their appearance in such a diverse party.
As for magic items, a cloak of elven kind only offers advantage on stealth checks, it doesn't hide the creatures features. You would probably be better off giving the character proficiency in the disguise skill and a disguise kit so that they can wear specially crafted boots/gloves and a hood to hide their most distinctive features if their appearance is going to be an issue.
Personally, I find magic items more fun when discovered during the process of adventuring. 5e doesn't need them handed out at first level especially since 5e tends to be a much lower magic level than previous editions.
P.S. If you want a magic item for the triton then you are probably looking for a Hat of Disguise which casts Disguise Self at will.
Either make him earn it or have an advanced society without racism