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Returning 35 results for 'strangers of rules defeating variant'.
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Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Variant Rules A shared campaign might use some variant rules to handle certain aspects of the game. The Adventurers League, for instance, has variant systems for gaining levels and acquiring treasure
. These “house rules,” presented below, serve as a sort of common language, ensuring that the rewards all characters receive are equivalent no matter what kind of adventure a character experienced.
Monsters
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
have no personalities or memories; they’re driven only by the desire to commit evil. The amnizus that patrol here drill the rules of the Nine Hells into the new arrivals’ minds and marshal
them into legions.
Amnizu (Summoner Variant);Variant: Devil Summoning
Some amnizus have an action that allows them to summon other devils:
Summon Devil (1/Day). The amnizu summons 2d4
Variant Human
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Species
Basic Rules (2014)
If your campaign uses the optional feat rules from the Player’s Handbook, your Dungeon Master might allow these variant traits, all of which replace the human’s Ability Score Increase trait.
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply those rules to these aquatic dragons.)
Dragon Turtle Personality Traits
d8
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
. Fear and bloodshed are no strangers to you, and you’ve garnered a somewhat unsavory reputation in many a port town.
Variant Feature: Bad Reputation
If your character has a sailor
the Gray Wavers—the Flaming Fist harbor guards—and have a sense of how to operate the city’s mechanized cranes.
Variant Sailor: Pirate
You spent your youth under the sway of a
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
characters, and use the Dragon Turtle Spellcasting table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for
making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply those rules to these aquatic dragons.)
Dragon Turtle Personality Traits
d8;{"diceNotation":"1d8","rollType":"roll","rollAction":"Trait"}
Trait
Sailor
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Backgrounds
Player’s Handbook (2014)
more than one deserving soul to a briny grave. Fear and bloodshed are no strangers to you, and you’ve garnered a somewhat unsavory reputation in many a port town.
Variant Feature: Bad
Master will determine how long it takes to get where you need to go. In return for your free passage, you and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage.
Variant Sailor: Pirate
Entertainer
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Backgrounds
Player’s Handbook (2014)
establishment), as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they typically take a
liking to you.
Variant Entertainer: Gladiator
A gladiator is as much an entertainer as any minstrel or circus performer, trained to make the arts of combat into a spectacle the crowd can
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply
62,000 XP (124,000 XP total) for defeating the dragon turtle after its Blessing of the Sea activates.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dragon turtle fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed
Criminal / Spy
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Backgrounds
Basic Rules (2014)
than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society
; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.
Variant Criminal: Spy
Although your capabilities are not much different
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they typically take a liking to you.
BALDUR’S GATE FEATURE: BACKSTAGE PASS
You
occupation or social class that frequents the establishment. This contact is delighted to talk with you, and to listen.
Variant Entertainer: Gladiator
A gladiator is as much an
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society.
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: One
always occur in shady venues.
Variant Criminal: Spy
Although your capabilities are not much different from those of a burglar or smuggler, you learned and practiced them in a very
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Rewards Adventures in a shared campaign that uses variant rules for gaining levels and acquiring treasure (such as those described below) don’t include experience point awards or specific amounts and kinds of treasure.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Creating a Dragonmarked Character Dragonmarks manifest on certain members of a few species, represented in the rules by variant race options: For humans and half-orcs, a dragonmark is a variant race
that replaces traits associated with those races. For half-elves, a dragonmark is a variant race that lets you keep some half-elf traits and replace others with the traits associated with your mark
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)
HUMAN TRAITS
If your campaign uses the optional feat rules from chapter 6, your Dungeon Master might allow these variant traits, all of which replace the human’s Ability Score Increase trait
with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on. VARIANT
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Out of the Abyss
his home, then began to throw fits and terrorize any creatures coming near. Vazuk is a specter (use the poltergeist variant). He can’t be turned while inside his former home. He attacks the characters
hole in the floor. The hole contains a small zurkhwood chest holding eight tiny rubies worth 250 gp each. XP Awards In addition to the XP earned for defeating Vazuk, each character earns 50 XP if they inform Burrow Warden Jadger (see area 8) that the spirit has been dealt with.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Tying Knots The rules are purposely open-ended concerning mundane tasks like tying knots, but sometimes knowing how well a knot was fashioned is important in a dramatic scene when someone is trying
Sleight of Hand with Intelligence, rather than Dexterity. This is an example of how to apply the rule in the “Variant: Skills with Different Abilities” section in chapter 7 of the Player’s Handbook.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
section offers three variant dragonborn race options that can be used to create a character with clear connections to a specific draconic ancestry. When you’re making a new character using one of these races, use the rules under “Creating Your Character” to fill out the details.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
Rest Variants The rules for short and long rests presented in chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook work well for a heroic-style campaign. Characters can go toe-to-toe with deadly foes, take damage to
within an inch of their lives, yet still be ready to fight again the next day. If this approach doesn’t fit your campaign, consider the following variants. Epic Heroism This variant uses a short rest
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)
lift. For a Tiny creature, halve these weights. Variant: Encumbrance The rules for lifting and carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for
determining how a character is hindered by the weight of equipment. When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table. If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)
a Tiny creature, halve these weights. Variant: Encumbrance The rules for lifting and carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for determining how
a character is hindered by the weight of equipment. When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table in chapter 5. If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse->Sigil and the Outlands
garbage that gathers in Sigil’s alleys and sewers. Common and giant rats are found throughout the Cage, as are variant cranium rats known as squeakers (further detailed in Morte’s Planar Parade). Adapted
razorvine strategically to deter intruders by letting it grow along estate walls or as carefully cultivated hedges. Rules for razorvine can be found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Quests from the Infinite Staircase
Character Advancement If you want to use story-based level advancement, the characters receive experience points for achieving milestones rather than defeating monsters. When the characters leave the
hearts carry the heroes further than strength of arms.
This updated version of the adventure reimagines Caerwyn and Porphura’s—originally Porpherio’s—garden as the Eternal Garden, a domain in the Feywild, and the Green Man as the Gardener, the benevolent archfey who rules it.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Ankhtepot’s Powers and Dominion A fantastically ancient Undead, Ankhtepot has statistics similar to a mummy lord. Beyond this, he rules as pharaoh, national leader, and voice of the gods. None in
, having no idea that their deities are false. They keep alert for strangers and omens, reporting them to their superiors and, ultimately, High Priestess Isu Rehkotep. The high priestess dutifully watches
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Challenge Rating Challenge Rating is defined in the “Rules Glossary”, while guidance on using CR to plan potential combat encounters is in the DM’s Toolbox. Experience Points The number of Experience
Points (XP) a monster is worth is based on its CR, as detailed in the Experience Points by Challenge Rating table. XP is awarded for defeating the monster in combat or otherwise neutralizing it
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
Spellcasting table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply
those rules to these aquatic dragons.) Dragon Turtle Personality Traits d8 Trait
1 I speak slowly and deliberately, pausing to reflect after (or sometimes in the middle of) each utterance
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragon of Icespire Peak
-long stretch of it is buried under rubble that is difficult terrain (see the Basic Rules). Reaching the Gatehouse.The trail ends at the outer door of the gatehouse. This door can be barred shut from
and alerts her companions in area H4 if she sees strangers approaching the gatehouse. Careful not to wake the dragon, the mercenaries allow characters to enter the gatehouse unchallenged. See the “Stone-Cold Reavers” sidebar for more information about the mercenaries.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Heroes of the Borderlands
ooze seeps from the supplies with a hideous squelching noise and fights the characters. Roll Initiative! Preparing for Combat. Use the “Combat” section of the D&D Beyond Basic Rules, along with the
Trail Map and the Gray Ooze Glob stat block, to run this encounter. Reward After defeating the ooze, carting the goods is straightforward work. When the characters return to Oleira, she’s shocked to
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Volo's Guide to Monsters
introduction of the Monster Manual before proceeding further. It explains stat block terminology and gives rules for various monster traits — information that isn’t repeated here. As with the
that are appropriate for your adventure or campaign. If you’re looking for ways to use the variant beholders, giants, gnolls, goblinoids, hags, kobolds, mind flayers, orcs, and yuan-ti described in this
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
The Balance The demons and the devils both foresee their own versions of the future of the multiverse — a cosmos in which one side or the other triumphs in the Blood War and rules for the rest of
discouraged from seeking out and defeating Demogorgon, because doing so could weaken the Abyss enough to allow the forces of the Nine Hells to gain a firm foothold there. An adherent of the Balance
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer Academy
Running the Encounter Use the following guidance for running and resolving the encounter between the characters’ hammerhead and the githyanki ship. The Battle Begins Using the side initiative variant
rules from chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the players roll a d20 for their initiative as a group, and you roll a d20 for the githyanki aboard the enemy ship. Neither roll takes any
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Astral Adventurer’s Guide
Ship-to-Ship Combat The following rules are designed to make ship-to-ship combat simple yet exciting. Starting Distance At the start of an engagement, the DM decides how far a ship is from its
ballistae and crossbows 1,000 feet Beyond the range of most ranged weapons Initiative The Dungeon Master’s Guide presents a variant rule called side initiative, which is ideal for ship-to-ship engagements
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mythic Odysseys of Theros
rules from chapter 6 of the Player’s Handbook, your Dungeon Master might allow you to take a feat as a variant supernatural gift. You gain one feat of your choice. This list suggests twelve feats from
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
the variant rules presented in this or any other book, let your players know about them. Remember, you’ll always know more about your campaign world than the players do. Having spent all their lives in
, and discuss house rules, with the goal of ensuring the game is a fun experience for everyone involved. The “Ensuring Fun for All” section in chapter 1 covers some of the most important groundwork you
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
deposit strangers to Barovia within sight of the fortress, daring the unwary to approach. Ultimately, only the bravest lay siege to the castle or accept the count’s invitations to visit him there. But
Castle Ravenloft needn’t be challenged in a single assault, and defeating Strahd might not be the only goal of those who enter. The library, chapel, and catacombs of Castle Ravenloft all hold tempting