Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
This is one I've always wanted to try out, but haven't managed to get my players to put themselves into a situation where it could happen.
Avalanche (Player level 3-7)
The party are swept away in a raging avalanche, they could be alone or they might be battling Yetis or Frost Giants, or be joined by Wild Yaks, Mountain Goats, or Mammoths that have also been swept away by the disaster and are simply trying to survive (Adding other creatures other than the party increases the difficulty of the encounter). Note that due to many sources of flight coming online in levels 5-7, the difficulty rating should be decreased by 1 level for higher level players.
Scaling
A "Deadly" difficulty avalanche is 300 ft wide, 500 ft long and 40 ft tall, A "Hard" difficulty avalanche is 150 ft wide, 300 ft long, and 20 ft tall. A "Medium" difficulty avalanche is 60 ft wide, 120 ft long, and 10 ft tall.
The entire area of the avalanche is difficult terrain. The top of the avalanche does not count as a solid surface for the purpose of spells such as Vortex Warp or Levitate, creatures in the area that aren't submerged are simply high enough within the snow flow or lighter area of flow as to not be affected by the submerged condition. The avalanche lasts for 1 minute before coming to a rest at the bottom of the slope.
Swept Away
On initiative roll 20, all creatures within the avalanche area are swept along by the avalanche forcing them down the slope of the mountain by 60 ft - the avalanche moves with them at the same speed. Each creature must make a Strength saving throw consult the table below for the outcome for each creature:
STR save | Outcome < 5 / Natural 1 | The creature is submerged in snow and hits a tree or rock immediately taking 2d8 bludgeoning damage. 5-9 | The creature is submerged in snow and moves 10 ft in a random direction. 10-14 | The creature is pushed 10 ft in a random direction. 15-19 | The creature is pulled along by the current. 20+ / Natural 20 | The creature can swim against the snow moving 5 ft in a direction of their choice.
Any creature grappling or physically touching another creature at that is equal to their size or larger can use their reaction to try to use that creature to protect themselves, giving themselves advantage on the save and the creature they are touching disadvantage on the save.
Submerged
A creature that is submerged in the snow has total cover from effects that originate more than 5 ft away from them, and is blinded and cannot breathe (casting a spell with a Verbal component causes them to start suffocating/drowning). A submerged creature or another creature within 5ft of them can use the Shove action (DC 15) to try to push themselves back to the surface ending the submerged condition. Any creature that ends its turn submerged in the snow takes 3d6 cold damage and must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or contract Frost Bite - a creature native to the Artic, wearing winter clothing, or with resistance to cold damage has advantage on this save.
Frost Bite
Any creature reduced to 0 hp while within the avalanche immediately contracts Frost Bite and gains 1 point of exhaustion. A creature with Frost Bite gains 1 point of exhaustion every 10 minutes until they are warmed up to normal room temperature at which point their Frost Bite ends. Any points of exhaustion gained as a result of Frost Bite can be removed by any ability/item that cures disease.
Whenever you finish a long rest, choose one number between 1-20 that replaced a 20 as a critical hit for you, choose another number from 1-20 that replaces a 1 as a critical failure for you. Whenever you roll a d20 you get a critical success on the first number you choose, and a critical failure on the other number instead of on a 20/1. These critical successes and failure apply to your attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws.
In addition, once per day when you roll the same number on both d20s when you make a roll with advantage or disadvantage you can choose to make it a critical success and immediately change your critical success number to the number you rolled.
Your critical success and critical failure numbers must always be different from each other.
Fine work by all who submitted entries - the poll will be posted tomorrow and run through June 9
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Appreciate the feedback my submissions are getting so far! There is a comment on Order of the Harbinger that confuses me:
Foretelling figures will quickly be able to get you unusable numbers as your hemocraft die size outstrips your weapon damage dice.
A bloodhunter's hemocraft die scales from 1d4 to 1d10 over 20 levels. As a bloodhunter, you are proficient in all weapons, and will likely always have one on hand that matches your current hemocraft die. If you subscribe to the "fighter with a golf bag of weapons" approach to D&D and/or have a bag of holding, you can carry around one weapon of each damage die type and each day pick whichever one has the best chance of matching your Fortelling Figures. Also, your hemocraft die should never "outstrip" your weapon. If anything, your hemocraft die will likely be lower than your chosen weapon's damage die, so it should not give you any numbers that are "unusable".
The only weapon type that has a chance of not matching your hemocraft die ever are d12 weapons (and I suppose blowguns/nets by technicality, since you dont roll damage for those), but even then the two values that wont match are also the best possible rolls for that weapon, so its not a major loss. If you are worried about having no incentive to use a d8 or d10 weapon at early levels, you can always use Two Weapon Fighting with d4 or d6 weapons. Making the extra attack improves your odds of getting the extra damage from matching values. If you pick up a feat or multiclass for abilities that give extra damage die (a la rogue's Sneak Attack or something like Strike of the Giants), those additional dice also have a chance of matching your figures, as long as they are associated with the attack.
Even if none of that works for you, at the end of the day it does not matter what weapon you use, or what feats you pick, or if you multiclass. You will always be able to syngergize with Fortelling Figures by using your other Bloodhunter feature Crimson Rite which lets you roll your hemocraft die for additional damage anyway - and therefor will always have a chance of matching regardless of level - and which you are already likely using if you are playing a Bloodhunter
Appreciate the feedback my submissions are getting so far! There is a comment on Order of the Harbinger that confuses me:
Foretelling figures will quickly be able to get you unusable numbers as your hemocraft die size outstrips your weapon damage dice.
A bloodhunter's hemocraft die scales from 1d4 to 1d10 over 20 levels. As a bloodhunter, you are proficient in all weapons, and will likely always have one on hand that matches your current hemocraft die.
Why would you? Bloodhunter is not proficient in Heavy Armour so requires a 14 DEX for a decent AC, and has a lot of it's class designed around having a decent hemocraft modifier, so you want a minimum 14 for your INT or WIS as well. This means a STR-based build is even harder for Bloodhunter than it is for Ranger, and because Bloodhunter gets Extra Attack crossbows are out of the question unless they take XbowXpert at which point the synergy between Crimson Rite and Hand-crossbows is pretty undeniable, especially since you even get a Hand-crossbow in your starting equipment. So there is a very high chance that a Bloodhunter will stick with a d6 or d8 weapon for their entire level 5-20 run. Swapping weapons is never going to be viable once the party gets magic weapons unless they also get a magic weapon of every type, since magic weapons are just so powerful in the game.
Appreciate the feedback my submissions are getting so far! There is a comment on Order of the Harbinger that confuses me:
Foretelling figures will quickly be able to get you unusable numbers as your hemocraft die size outstrips your weapon damage dice.
A bloodhunter's hemocraft die scales from 1d4 to 1d10 over 20 levels. As a bloodhunter, you are proficient in all weapons, and will likely always have one on hand that matches your current hemocraft die.
Why would you? Bloodhunter is not proficient in Heavy Armour so requires a 14 DEX for a decent AC, and has a lot of it's class designed around having a decent hemocraft modifier, so you want a minimum 14 for your INT or WIS as well. This means a STR-based build is even harder for Bloodhunter than it is for Ranger, and because Bloodhunter gets Extra Attack crossbows are out of the question unless they take XbowXpert at which point the synergy between Crimson Rite and Hand-crossbows is pretty undeniable, especially since you even get a Hand-crossbow in your starting equipment. So there is a very high chance that a Bloodhunter will stick with a d6 or d8 weapon for their entire level 5-20 run. Swapping weapons is never going to be viable once the party gets magic weapons unless they also get a magic weapon of every type, since magic weapons are just so powerful in the game.
If the Bloodhunter sticks with a d6 or d8 weapon for their entire run, then how is their hemocraft die going to outpace the weapon damage die? Only using d6 and d8 weapons means that the only levels there will be a mismatch is level 3 and 4 (where its still a d4) and then level 17 & up (where its a d10). For levels 5-16, a Bloodhunter using a d6 and/or d8 weapon will perfectly match their hemocraft die, so there is no issue for the vast majority of the length of the campaign. For levels 3 and 4, a Bloodhunter using a d6 weapon will only have no chance of matching a fortelling figure if they roll a '5' or '6' on die, which really isnt the worst thing the world since they are rolling max or close to max damage for the attack anyway.
On top of that, I want to highlight the other portion of my response in comment #130. Foretelling Figures is not limited to the weapon's damage die. It procs on any damage roll that occurs for the attack, including dice that are added on from other sources. Even if we ignore feats and multiclassing, that means this feature synergizes with Crimson Rite, an ability a Bloodhunter should be using frequently, as well as the Blood Curse of the Marked. If you pick a race/lineage that allows for additional damage die to be rolled (like a Half Orc's Savage Attacks or a Giff's Astral Spark), then there are even more opportunities for the ability to proc on a given attack. Beyond that, any abilities that let you make more attacks or reroll damage die (like Two Weapon Fighting or Great Weapon Fighting) can also be used to improve the odds of getting one of your figures on a roll.
Once you start including feats and multiclassing, the possibilities become endless, because abilities in 5e that let you roll an additional damage die on attacks or reroll damage die are a dime a dozen. This ability works well enough as a 3rd level feature for a vanilla Bloodhunter, and can from there be further built around if the player really wants it through careful choice of race/lineage, feats, and multiclassing.
What’s a difficulty rating in this context? How does having other creatures in the avalanche increase its difficulty? Why is the area of an avalanche mere difficult terrain (it should be worse IMO)? Why is the scale Medium, Hard, and Deadly? If a Deadly avalanche is 500 feet long, why does it move, at most, 600 feet? Why is Shove referred to as an action? What defines “physically touching”? Why can Frost Bite be contracted both when submerged, and when knocked out (it seems like the first alone would do)?
Difficulty rating is used for all types of encounters not just combat ones, traps and hazards also get difficulty ratings. That is the context for the difficulty rating for the avalanche. It is scaled for Medium, Hard, and Deadly since because the rules are quite complex so it's not worth implementing them for an Easy encounter where the party can easily escape after 1 round.
Having other creatures in the avalanche increases the difficulty since they may attack the PCs or try to use the PCs to help themselves escape (gain Adv on the STR save, and thus give DisAdv to the PCs).
Shove is a type of action in the rules just like Attack or Dash, it just has many special cases / rules that allow it to be used with other types of actions - e.g. Shield Master can use it as a BA. By specifying it is a "Shove" it allows those many other special rules to be applied rather than making it a unique action that would always require a full action to use.
"Physically touching" is as it says - physically touching - it includes cases like: riding a mount, putting someone on your shoulders, or reaching out and grabbing someone's hand without requiring them to roll a grapple contest, and including all situations where a character could cast a spell of range "Touch" on the target creature.
Speed & duration of the Avalanche were limited to make the mechanics more enjoyable not to mimic IRL. Limiting the speed of the avalanche to 60 ft means that characters that manage to escape the avalanche have a chance to keep up with it and continue to try to help their friends. Likewise limiting the duration to 1 minute avoids it getting too boring and reduces the risk of a TPK if the players get unlucky and fail to figure out how to get out.
Frostbite is both when submerged and when KOed in order to increase the risk of contracting it when the avalanche is not combined with a combat encounter, as 3d6 damage/round would take typically 3 rounds to KO a level 3 character and that's assuming they roll below a 10 on every strength save, since even a character that dumps STR has at least 40% chance of avoiding being submerged it is expected to take 5-6 rounds of avalanche to KO a 3rd level character that has a poor STR save. It's added to on KO in order to make KO more dangerous and for realism since being unconscious is extremely dangerous in cold conditions.
The area of the avalanche is mere difficult terrain to make the mechanics more enjoyable by allowing players to use a greater diversity of abilities & class features to escape the avalanche. Had I made it e.g. restrain creatures that would make melee-focused characters and characters with movement bonuses pretty much useless, whereas characters with teleportation would be massively favored. Likewise, making it difficult terrain in the context of a combat occurring within the avalanche prevents stacking player abilities/spells that create difficult terrain with the avalanche movement penalty which could easily totally immobilize enemies.
Hey. To whoever wrote this comment about the feat I submitted to the contest:
”I like the idea; however this seems like it’s potentially "glitchy." Generally speaking, you will have 2 lucky numbers and 1 unlucky number. Assuming none of the numbers match, any time you roll a d20 there is a 10% chance to generate a d6 and a 5% to lose a d6 and fail the roll. Now, here is where things get wonky. This feat triggers ANY time your roll a d20, which includes ability checks. While a DM has the power to tell a player they cannot make any ability check they want, the mechanical potential is there for a player to spam ability checks outside of combat (chopping wood, climbing a nearby wall, trying to befriend forest creatures). Because the odds are always higher to match a lucky roll, on average you will slowly begin to generate a large pile of d6 throughout the day. Even if the DM turns down a fair number of ability checks, this mechanic would inspire a player to request these sorts of things more often, so it could get annoying from a table standpoint as well. Tl;Dr. I like the idea, but it feels like its almost approaching CoffeLock territory with resource generation.”
I wanted to ask if you noticed that there was a built I. Limit on how many lucky dice you can carry around at one time? If you didn’t notice that does it affect your vote at all? And if you did notice it then do you feel it’s not enough to balance it out?
I wanted to ask if you noticed that there was a built I. Limit on how many lucky dice you can carry around at one time? If you didn’t notice that does it affect your vote at all? And if you did notice it then do you feel it’s not enough to balance it out?
That was my bad. Must have missed that detail in my first read through. I have adjusted my vote accordingly
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Wanted to address a couple of things I saw in another response
Why Comprehend Languages?
I envisioned this as the Bloodhunter, while not fluent in a language, is able to spot patterns in reoccuring text or sounds which allows them to piece together the ideas being conveyed. Its a stretch, but that was the idea behind it.
Foretelling Figures seems okay, if a little bland. As for Occult Arithmetic: maybe too complex? Having to do math whenever a creature makes an attack (assuming it hasn’t activated yet) seems annoying. It also seems like you’d have to ask your DM and other players to tell you some information they might not be instinctively giving to you. Also, it needs a maximum range.
Since Foretelling Figures are rolled at the beginning of the day, I imagine that the player would have a little time to also figure out the various combinations that could occur and have ready on hand. It is a little extra math, but not enough to where I think it would become too much of chore. I agree it could use a max range and falls in a difficult zone of metagaming depending on DM playstyle and buy in for the ability.
Maybe specify that the Guidance part of Amplified Prescience is in addition — or if it’s not. Blood Curse of the Visionary seems interesting, but one change I’d make is perhaps requiring concentration. It essentially acts just like a slightly worse Foresight spell that can be cast multiple times, otherwise.
Adding concentration is a good idea. Thanks
It’s Castigation, but you don’t lose points for that. Brand of Reckoning seems perhaps too strong, even if many high-level enemies have high CON — if you were, say, to put a number like 1 on the Brand, then the brand would end after a maximum of only one successful save and immediately give the target 2 levels of exhaustion. And, what if you do that one or two more times? Overall a cool implementation of the theme with creative mechanics
It is worth noting that Brand of Castigation can only be used once per short or long rest, so it wont be used more than once per fight. The tradeoff for using a low number is on purpose. Yes, you get some guaranteed exhaustion quickly, but then your brand is gone for the fight and you miss out on chances for the enemy to accrue the more debilitating levels of exhaustion.
It is worth noting that Brand of Castigation can only be used once per short or long rest, so it wont be used more than once per fight. The tradeoff for using a low number is on purpose. Yes, you get some guaranteed exhaustion quickly, but then your brand is gone for the fight and you miss out on chances for the enemy to accrue the more debilitating levels of exhaustion.
Not sure how I missed the line that gave Brand of Castigation a limit of 1/rest, my bad
Since Foretelling Figures are rolled at the beginning of the day, I imagine that the player would have a little time to also figure out the various combinations that could occur and have ready on hand. It is a little extra math, but not enough to where I think it would become too much of chore. I agree it could use a max range and falls in a difficult zone of metagaming depending on DM playstyle and buy in for the ability.
At level 9 when your proficiency bonus is 4, there are 4*3 = 12 different combinations to add up and keep track of, when your prof bonus goes to 5 this becomes 20 different combinations, when it is 6 it is 30 different combinations.
It is worth noting that Brand of Castigation can only be used once per short or long rest, so it wont be used more than once per fight. The tradeoff for using a low number is on purpose. Yes, you get some guaranteed exhaustion quickly, but then your brand is gone for the fight and you miss out on chances for the enemy to accrue the more debilitating levels of exhaustion.
Combat only lasts for 3-4 rounds, you're never going to get many levels of exhaustion, so it's almost always in your best interest to use a 1 for it.
Since Foretelling Figures are rolled at the beginning of the day, I imagine that the player would have a little time to also figure out the various combinations that could occur and have ready on hand. It is a little extra math, but not enough to where I think it would become too much of chore. I agree it could use a max range and falls in a difficult zone of metagaming depending on DM playstyle and buy in for the ability.
At level 9 when your proficiency bonus is 4, there are 4*3 = 12 different combinations to add up and keep track of, when your prof bonus goes to 5 this becomes 20 different combinations, when it is 6 it is 30 different combinations.
Firstly, thats assuming you dont get any duplicates in the values rolled which becomes less and less likely as you start rolling more dice. Also, some of those sums will be duplicates as well.
Beyond that, you do not keep track of every possible roll your hemocraft die, just the ones you roll each day. For example, at 6th level you have 3 foretelling figures that come from roll d6. Assuming unique numbers, you have A, B, &C. Your possible combinations are A+B, B+C, and C+A (where B+A=A+B and so on). Thats three sums to keep track of.
At 11th level its 4 d8s rolled, resulting in A, B, C, and D. Your combinations are A+B, A+C, A+D, B+C, B+D, and C+D. Thats 6 combinations, not 12. At 20th level, you cannot possibly have 30 unique combinations from six different sums of two d10, as it will only ever fall in combination between 2 and 20 in total.
It is worth noting that Brand of Castigation can only be used once per short or long rest, so it wont be used more than once per fight. The tradeoff for using a low number is on purpose. Yes, you get some guaranteed exhaustion quickly, but then your brand is gone for the fight and you miss out on chances for the enemy to accrue the more debilitating levels of exhaustion.
Combat only lasts for 3-4 rounds, you're never going to get many levels of exhaustion, so it's almost always in your best interest to use a 1 for it.
I've definitely played combats that last more than 4 rounds, and there certainly isnt a rule limiting to 3-4. If you feel the combat you are in will be over in 3 turns, it may not be worth using your Brand of Castigation during anyway.
Some really tight results, including a tie for the winner in one category and a three-way tie for high score, but the overall winner for Competition of the Finest 'Brews XXI is (insert drumroll here)...
ZomblesKlein
Individual category winners:
DM Options: Don't Terrain On My Parade
- Terrain Zones, from Kaboom979, with a score of 7.33
PC Options: Numerology
- tie between Knowledge of the Missing Number, from ZomblesKlein, and Daily Numbers, from AWeirdPotato, with scores of 7.44
Interactive Options: Just a Little Rivalry
- Far Realm Cult / The Gatekeepers, from Gnomarchy, with a score of 7.44
ZomblesKlein wins the tiebreaker with the highest combined score across all three categories. Impressively, they didn't score below a 7.00 on any of their entries
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Last weekend to get in submissions!
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
DM Options: Don't Terrain On My Parade
This is one I've always wanted to try out, but haven't managed to get my players to put themselves into a situation where it could happen.
Avalanche (Player level 3-7)
The party are swept away in a raging avalanche, they could be alone or they might be battling Yetis or Frost Giants, or be joined by Wild Yaks, Mountain Goats, or Mammoths that have also been swept away by the disaster and are simply trying to survive (Adding other creatures other than the party increases the difficulty of the encounter). Note that due to many sources of flight coming online in levels 5-7, the difficulty rating should be decreased by 1 level for higher level players.
Scaling
A "Deadly" difficulty avalanche is 300 ft wide, 500 ft long and 40 ft tall,
A "Hard" difficulty avalanche is 150 ft wide, 300 ft long, and 20 ft tall.
A "Medium" difficulty avalanche is 60 ft wide, 120 ft long, and 10 ft tall.
The entire area of the avalanche is difficult terrain. The top of the avalanche does not count as a solid surface for the purpose of spells such as Vortex Warp or Levitate, creatures in the area that aren't submerged are simply high enough within the snow flow or lighter area of flow as to not be affected by the submerged condition. The avalanche lasts for 1 minute before coming to a rest at the bottom of the slope.
Swept Away
On initiative roll 20, all creatures within the avalanche area are swept along by the avalanche forcing them down the slope of the mountain by 60 ft - the avalanche moves with them at the same speed. Each creature must make a Strength saving throw consult the table below for the outcome for each creature:
STR save | Outcome
< 5 / Natural 1 | The creature is submerged in snow and hits a tree or rock immediately taking 2d8 bludgeoning damage.
5-9 | The creature is submerged in snow and moves 10 ft in a random direction.
10-14 | The creature is pushed 10 ft in a random direction.
15-19 | The creature is pulled along by the current.
20+ / Natural 20 | The creature can swim against the snow moving 5 ft in a direction of their choice.
Any creature grappling or physically touching another creature at that is equal to their size or larger can use their reaction to try to use that creature to protect themselves, giving themselves advantage on the save and the creature they are touching disadvantage on the save.
Submerged
A creature that is submerged in the snow has total cover from effects that originate more than 5 ft away from them, and is blinded and cannot breathe (casting a spell with a Verbal component causes them to start suffocating/drowning). A submerged creature or another creature within 5ft of them can use the Shove action (DC 15) to try to push themselves back to the surface ending the submerged condition. Any creature that ends its turn submerged in the snow takes 3d6 cold damage and must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or contract Frost Bite - a creature native to the Artic, wearing winter clothing, or with resistance to cold damage has advantage on this save.
Frost Bite
Any creature reduced to 0 hp while within the avalanche immediately contracts Frost Bite and gains 1 point of exhaustion. A creature with Frost Bite gains 1 point of exhaustion every 10 minutes until they are warmed up to normal room temperature at which point their Frost Bite ends. Any points of exhaustion gained as a result of Frost Bite can be removed by any ability/item that cures disease.
PC Options (suggested by IamSposta): Numerology
Feat: Superstitious
1st level feat / Background feat
Whenever you finish a long rest, choose one number between 1-20 that replaced a 20 as a critical hit for you, choose another number from 1-20 that replaces a 1 as a critical failure for you. Whenever you roll a d20 you get a critical success on the first number you choose, and a critical failure on the other number instead of on a 20/1. These critical successes and failure apply to your attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws.
In addition, once per day when you roll the same number on both d20s when you make a roll with advantage or disadvantage you can choose to make it a critical success and immediately change your critical success number to the number you rolled.
Your critical success and critical failure numbers must always be different from each other.
Fine work by all who submitted entries - the poll will be posted tomorrow and run through June 9
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Let the wild
rumpusvoting start! Link: https://forms.gle/jBjhDY1MhwyE2iMt5Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Appreciate the feedback my submissions are getting so far! There is a comment on Order of the Harbinger that confuses me:
A bloodhunter's hemocraft die scales from 1d4 to 1d10 over 20 levels. As a bloodhunter, you are proficient in all weapons, and will likely always have one on hand that matches your current hemocraft die. If you subscribe to the "fighter with a golf bag of weapons" approach to D&D and/or have a bag of holding, you can carry around one weapon of each damage die type and each day pick whichever one has the best chance of matching your Fortelling Figures. Also, your hemocraft die should never "outstrip" your weapon. If anything, your hemocraft die will likely be lower than your chosen weapon's damage die, so it should not give you any numbers that are "unusable".
The only weapon type that has a chance of not matching your hemocraft die ever are d12 weapons (and I suppose blowguns/nets by technicality, since you dont roll damage for those), but even then the two values that wont match are also the best possible rolls for that weapon, so its not a major loss. If you are worried about having no incentive to use a d8 or d10 weapon at early levels, you can always use Two Weapon Fighting with d4 or d6 weapons. Making the extra attack improves your odds of getting the extra damage from matching values. If you pick up a feat or multiclass for abilities that give extra damage die (a la rogue's Sneak Attack or something like Strike of the Giants), those additional dice also have a chance of matching your figures, as long as they are associated with the attack.
Even if none of that works for you, at the end of the day it does not matter what weapon you use, or what feats you pick, or if you multiclass. You will always be able to syngergize with Fortelling Figures by using your other Bloodhunter feature Crimson Rite which lets you roll your hemocraft die for additional damage anyway - and therefor will always have a chance of matching regardless of level - and which you are already likely using if you are playing a Bloodhunter
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Why would you? Bloodhunter is not proficient in Heavy Armour so requires a 14 DEX for a decent AC, and has a lot of it's class designed around having a decent hemocraft modifier, so you want a minimum 14 for your INT or WIS as well. This means a STR-based build is even harder for Bloodhunter than it is for Ranger, and because Bloodhunter gets Extra Attack crossbows are out of the question unless they take XbowXpert at which point the synergy between Crimson Rite and Hand-crossbows is pretty undeniable, especially since you even get a Hand-crossbow in your starting equipment. So there is a very high chance that a Bloodhunter will stick with a d6 or d8 weapon for their entire level 5-20 run. Swapping weapons is never going to be viable once the party gets magic weapons unless they also get a magic weapon of every type, since magic weapons are just so powerful in the game.
If the Bloodhunter sticks with a d6 or d8 weapon for their entire run, then how is their hemocraft die going to outpace the weapon damage die? Only using d6 and d8 weapons means that the only levels there will be a mismatch is level 3 and 4 (where its still a d4) and then level 17 & up (where its a d10). For levels 5-16, a Bloodhunter using a d6 and/or d8 weapon will perfectly match their hemocraft die, so there is no issue for the vast majority of the length of the campaign. For levels 3 and 4, a Bloodhunter using a d6 weapon will only have no chance of matching a fortelling figure if they roll a '5' or '6' on die, which really isnt the worst thing the world since they are rolling max or close to max damage for the attack anyway.
On top of that, I want to highlight the other portion of my response in comment #130. Foretelling Figures is not limited to the weapon's damage die. It procs on any damage roll that occurs for the attack, including dice that are added on from other sources. Even if we ignore feats and multiclassing, that means this feature synergizes with Crimson Rite, an ability a Bloodhunter should be using frequently, as well as the Blood Curse of the Marked. If you pick a race/lineage that allows for additional damage die to be rolled (like a Half Orc's Savage Attacks or a Giff's Astral Spark), then there are even more opportunities for the ability to proc on a given attack. Beyond that, any abilities that let you make more attacks or reroll damage die (like Two Weapon Fighting or Great Weapon Fighting) can also be used to improve the odds of getting one of your figures on a roll.
Once you start including feats and multiclassing, the possibilities become endless, because abilities in 5e that let you roll an additional damage die on attacks or reroll damage die are a dime a dozen. This ability works well enough as a 3rd level feature for a vanilla Bloodhunter, and can from there be further built around if the player really wants it through careful choice of race/lineage, feats, and multiclassing.
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Submitted my response! Vote if you haven’t yet!
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My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
Difficulty rating is used for all types of encounters not just combat ones, traps and hazards also get difficulty ratings. That is the context for the difficulty rating for the avalanche. It is scaled for Medium, Hard, and Deadly since because the rules are quite complex so it's not worth implementing them for an Easy encounter where the party can easily escape after 1 round.
Having other creatures in the avalanche increases the difficulty since they may attack the PCs or try to use the PCs to help themselves escape (gain Adv on the STR save, and thus give DisAdv to the PCs).
Shove is a type of action in the rules just like Attack or Dash, it just has many special cases / rules that allow it to be used with other types of actions - e.g. Shield Master can use it as a BA. By specifying it is a "Shove" it allows those many other special rules to be applied rather than making it a unique action that would always require a full action to use.
"Physically touching" is as it says - physically touching - it includes cases like: riding a mount, putting someone on your shoulders, or reaching out and grabbing someone's hand without requiring them to roll a grapple contest, and including all situations where a character could cast a spell of range "Touch" on the target creature.
Speed & duration of the Avalanche were limited to make the mechanics more enjoyable not to mimic IRL. Limiting the speed of the avalanche to 60 ft means that characters that manage to escape the avalanche have a chance to keep up with it and continue to try to help their friends. Likewise limiting the duration to 1 minute avoids it getting too boring and reduces the risk of a TPK if the players get unlucky and fail to figure out how to get out.
Frostbite is both when submerged and when KOed in order to increase the risk of contracting it when the avalanche is not combined with a combat encounter, as 3d6 damage/round would take typically 3 rounds to KO a level 3 character and that's assuming they roll below a 10 on every strength save, since even a character that dumps STR has at least 40% chance of avoiding being submerged it is expected to take 5-6 rounds of avalanche to KO a 3rd level character that has a poor STR save. It's added to on KO in order to make KO more dangerous and for realism since being unconscious is extremely dangerous in cold conditions.
The area of the avalanche is mere difficult terrain to make the mechanics more enjoyable by allowing players to use a greater diversity of abilities & class features to escape the avalanche. Had I made it e.g. restrain creatures that would make melee-focused characters and characters with movement bonuses pretty much useless, whereas characters with teleportation would be massively favored. Likewise, making it difficult terrain in the context of a combat occurring within the avalanche prevents stacking player abilities/spells that create difficult terrain with the avalanche movement penalty which could easily totally immobilize enemies.
Hey. To whoever wrote this comment about the feat I submitted to the contest:
”I like the idea; however this seems like it’s potentially "glitchy." Generally speaking, you will have 2 lucky numbers and 1 unlucky number. Assuming none of the numbers match, any time you roll a d20 there is a 10% chance to generate a d6 and a 5% to lose a d6 and fail the roll. Now, here is where things get wonky. This feat triggers ANY time your roll a d20, which includes ability checks. While a DM has the power to tell a player they cannot make any ability check they want, the mechanical potential is there for a player to spam ability checks outside of combat (chopping wood, climbing a nearby wall, trying to befriend forest creatures). Because the odds are always higher to match a lucky roll, on average you will slowly begin to generate a large pile of d6 throughout the day. Even if the DM turns down a fair number of ability checks, this mechanic would inspire a player to request these sorts of things more often, so it could get annoying from a table standpoint as well. Tl;Dr. I like the idea, but it feels like its almost approaching CoffeLock territory with resource generation.”
I wanted to ask if you noticed that there was a built I. Limit on how many lucky dice you can carry around at one time? If you didn’t notice that does it affect your vote at all? And if you did notice it then do you feel it’s not enough to balance it out?
Shove is not an action. It’s a type of special attack.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
That was my bad. Must have missed that detail in my first read through. I have adjusted my vote accordingly
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Wanted to address a couple of things I saw in another response
I envisioned this as the Bloodhunter, while not fluent in a language, is able to spot patterns in reoccuring text or sounds which allows them to piece together the ideas being conveyed. Its a stretch, but that was the idea behind it.
Since Foretelling Figures are rolled at the beginning of the day, I imagine that the player would have a little time to also figure out the various combinations that could occur and have ready on hand. It is a little extra math, but not enough to where I think it would become too much of chore. I agree it could use a max range and falls in a difficult zone of metagaming depending on DM playstyle and buy in for the ability.
Adding concentration is a good idea. Thanks
It is worth noting that Brand of Castigation can only be used once per short or long rest, so it wont be used more than once per fight. The tradeoff for using a low number is on purpose. Yes, you get some guaranteed exhaustion quickly, but then your brand is gone for the fight and you miss out on chances for the enemy to accrue the more debilitating levels of exhaustion.
Thanks for the constructive feedback.
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Not sure how I missed the line that gave Brand of Castigation a limit of 1/rest, my bad
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
At level 9 when your proficiency bonus is 4, there are 4*3 = 12 different combinations to add up and keep track of, when your prof bonus goes to 5 this becomes 20 different combinations, when it is 6 it is 30 different combinations.
Combat only lasts for 3-4 rounds, you're never going to get many levels of exhaustion, so it's almost always in your best interest to use a 1 for it.
Firstly, thats assuming you dont get any duplicates in the values rolled which becomes less and less likely as you start rolling more dice. Also, some of those sums will be duplicates as well.
Beyond that, you do not keep track of every possible roll your hemocraft die, just the ones you roll each day. For example, at 6th level you have 3 foretelling figures that come from roll d6. Assuming unique numbers, you have A, B, &C. Your possible combinations are A+B, B+C, and C+A (where B+A=A+B and so on). Thats three sums to keep track of.
At 11th level its 4 d8s rolled, resulting in A, B, C, and D. Your combinations are A+B, A+C, A+D, B+C, B+D, and C+D. Thats 6 combinations, not 12. At 20th level, you cannot possibly have 30 unique combinations from six different sums of two d10, as it will only ever fall in combination between 2 and 20 in total.
I've definitely played combats that last more than 4 rounds, and there certainly isnt a rule limiting to 3-4. If you feel the combat you are in will be over in 3 turns, it may not be worth using your Brand of Castigation during anyway.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Last few hours for voting everyone! If you havent had a chance to yet, make sure you get your votes in
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Some really tight results, including a tie for the winner in one category and a three-way tie for high score, but the overall winner for Competition of the Finest 'Brews XXI is (insert drumroll here)...
ZomblesKlein
Individual category winners:
DM Options: Don't Terrain On My Parade
- Terrain Zones, from Kaboom979, with a score of 7.33
PC Options: Numerology
- tie between Knowledge of the Missing Number, from ZomblesKlein, and Daily Numbers, from AWeirdPotato, with scores of 7.44
Interactive Options: Just a Little Rivalry
- Far Realm Cult / The Gatekeepers, from Gnomarchy, with a score of 7.44
ZomblesKlein wins the tiebreaker with the highest combined score across all three categories. Impressively, they didn't score below a 7.00 on any of their entries
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I did a good! :D
I am also here.
Am snek.