Objecthead - Homebrew Lineage by Nines, v1.0

Heads will roll... the dice.

Objectheads, as the name implies, have an object for a head. While this allows them to transcend many physical limitations, such as the need for food and sleep, they still need to keep their head on to survive - so maybe don't try replacing your head with a Revivify diamond.

Campaign idea I've LONG had but would require a fair bit of setup: time loop adventure. The party is having dinner at the tavern, when a rumbling rocks the foundations of the earth. Everything explodes in a wave color, sound, and immense pressure, but it parts around them the crest of a wave to a ship's bow. That bow being a small imp-like creature, screeching with the effort to maintain whatever shield is keeping the wave at bay. As quickly as it began, it ends, the world outside the bubble going greyscale. "Noble heroes," the creature pants, slowly turning. "The world hangs a second from death, I'm afraid I have to break my oath and call upon you once...Who the fuck are you!?" It collapses to its knees as it sees its intended targets, one table over. Epic heroes with legendary kit. Despite trying to maintain a low profile the party might even recognize them, or at least the gear spilling out of their robes. Most seem to be shrinking into their armor, though the gnome's just turning green. The whole bar is doing the same, come to think of it. "HOW. HOW DID I MISS. I- ok, ok. I can work with this. That's fine. they used to be chumps too, we just had more time to work back then. Hi. Welcome to the end of the world. If you want to roll it back, we can talk." The paladin's all for it. The rest of the party is conflicted, but they eventually decide they've got nothing else to do. First thing though, who is this? "Got a lot of names, been around for a while. Maintain time, maybe you've seen my work? Yeah, not gonna have it undone by a punk with a wish. One that wished for more wish granting items, and again with with all of those, until eventually they had enough for thier whole tribe of hundreds. and the tribe had one wish, a wish with enough power to bind even the gods." "They wished for 'Goblin'. And with neither the world or the goblins themselves having any idea what that's supposed to mean, creation answered with 'Yes.' There's not a thing under the sun that's not becoming goblin. Or over the sun. The sun's not outta the question eith- look, it's everything, ok? I don't know the reach, I don't want to either, I just know we can't stop that blast." The party grumbles. how do they save things if the gods themselves are bound? "I can chuck you back in time. Only about a day, I had to snap most of myself off when the corruption started. We can do this for a while, but we have to do this. Find out where they are. Figure out how to get to them. and somehow stop them. Can't be that hard, right? they're just goblins, right?" One way to find out. Basically this would start out consequence free. The world is set up, and full of FAR stronger creatures...at first. If they die they lose thier gear, but NOT thier info, the day just resets. Milestone experience, the players will slowly level up as they discover things. Discover how to get what they need more efficiently, skip parts, etc. I said 'at first.' Once they've gotten far enough, gotten their bearings, etc...they notice something's slightly different. Someone's slightly greener and nobody notices. A butterfly is a little goblin with goblin-patterned wings. something slightly changes in thier loop. next loop the little time gremlin's got a green ear. maybe they notice the bubble's slightly smaller. You've learned how things work, now execute. Whether you progress toward a failstate by amount of deaths/loops, or just give the illusion by going off progress, the pressure ramps up. The dragon they have to convince? goblin dragon. The city? slowly becoming goblins. Wild magic starts effecting party members, as even the concepts of reality start becoming goblin, under a sun that's starting to tint green. The bright side is you could do a bunch of the prep right at the start, and have far less to do as things progress. That's also the downside however, and the reason I haven't done it yet.

Illusts: Alex Ahad, Jenny Park

Our Korean myth-inspired adventure book has now been FULLY FUNDED on Kickstarter! To celebrate, we've unlocked the Dokkaebi and Gumiho ancestries. Our next stretch goal is a one-shot adventure based on household gods!

14 days left as of this post!

The latest ep had me FUCKED UP

so here’s stepmother! (@dimension20official)

For every rogue there's dead parents

For every druid there's a nature connected hometown

For every barbarian there's anger issues

And for every Bard there's the intense desire to be a little menace

Rage Reworked

Rage is a really fun class feature, but it could be better.

With the 2024 player's handbook, Wizards of the Coast have been moving towards rage being an 'always on' feature. Sure you've still got limited uses, but not only can you use a bonus action to keep it up (so you don't need to just hit or be hit) and use it more out of combat, you get an extra use back on a short rest, and most importantly, it now lasts for 10 minutes.

10 minutes.

With a bonus action, it seems clear to me that the intent is for barbarians to sneak around a dungeon while raging, which doesn't really feel thematic for me. In fact I know that's the intent because a later feature lets barbarians use strength for stealth while raging.

Generally this just seems to me that the intent is to make sure barbarians never run out of rages, and in that case, why still have limited uses? It doesn't make sense for me that a barbarian could just, not get angry when they've gotten angry twice today. Combining this with my other rage tweaks, I propose a solution, I propose:

Frenzy

1st-level barbarian feature, which optionally replaces the Rage feature

In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On your turn, you can enter a frenzy as a bonus action.

While in frenzy and not wearing heavy armor, you gain the following benefits:

You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity, the weight you can push, drag, or lift, and creatures you can push or grapple.

When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. This bonus increases as you level.

You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. 

At  11th level, you also have resistance to force damage.

You ignore the Fatigued condition

You are unable to cast or concentrate on spells while in frenzy, except for any free casts of leveled spells you have gained through your race.

Your frenzy lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature, taken damage, cast a spell, or made a strength check since your last turn.

When you end a frenzy, you gain the fatigued condition. Finishing a short rest removes 1 of your levels of fatigue, and finishing a long rest removes a number of levels of fatigue equal to your constitution modifier (minimum 1).

Fatigued

While you are subjected to the Fatigued condition you experience the following effects:

Levels of Fatigue. This Condition is cumulative. Each time you receive it, you gain 1 level of fatigue. You die if your fatigue level exceeds 10.

d20 Rolls Affected. When you make a d20 Test, you subtract your fatigue level from the d20 roll.

Spell Save DCs Affected. Subtract your fatigue level from the Spell save DC of any Spell you cast.

Speed Affected. Your movement speed is reduced by 5 feet for every two fatigue levels you have.

Ending the Condition. Finishing a Long Rest removes 1 of your levels of fatigue. When your fatigue level reaches 0, you are no longer fatigued.

Technically this isn't completely resourceless, you're still having to track your fatigue, but Frenzy feels a lot more thematic to me. So what are the changes and why?

Fatigue vs Limited Uses. I've already mentioned feeling that limited uses doesn't feel right for a barbarian, but the idea of fatigue, where pushing yourself into rage has physical rammifications (that you can ignore while raging) feels thematic, and while yes it's technically limited by the death level for fatigue, pushing yourself so far that you literally die from anger feels more thematic than just, not being able to rage any more. Also 'extra uses' being losing fatigue from resting also just feels like it makes sense for a barbarian.

Force Resistance. For reasons I've discussed a few times before, I feel with the move in high CR monster design away from B/P/S damage, barbarians absolutely need force resistance at later levels so they can keep being the tank they're meant to.

Spells and Strength. Playing a barbarian genasi or tiefling just feels bad, they're really fun combinations (just look at the love Karlach's gotten), but you can't cast spells in rage, so what's the point in having them, well, letting racial spells be cast in frenzy (and continue it) makes those combinations feel a lot better. Additionally, rage continuing from Strength checks lets you use your rage to push and grapple in combat, or move things around outside it without having to worry about it ending early (DMs could rule that raging them pulling something is only one strength check, I'd say you're still making them after the first, but they're low enough you'd automatically pass, your milage may vary)

No Bonus Action to End. Rage ending as a bonus action also always felt weird to me thematically and I've never seen it come up, so Frenzy... doesn't. if you want to stop your fury, you have to take time to calm down, you can't just stop easily.

Counting as Larger. This is another thing where it just feels like barbarians should already get it, you're a raging juggernaut, you should be able to grapple T-Rexes and push away adult dragons!

Old D&D Commission! Amafrey, a Human Fighter-Sorceror

Why does revealing your a warlock have to be so dramatic in DND? Why can’t you reveal your a warlock like you reveal a pregnancy and say ‘guess who’s casting for two?!?!’

Telepole - Magic Item Set

Click for quality because :tumblr: likes eating my pixels.

Take damage, gain charges. Spend charges, deal damage. It's the circuit of life.

It's not lost on me that these are basically blood magic reflavored. The best defense is killing the other guys faster than they kill you!

Based on the world of Lobotomy Corporation. Again. I just think they're neat.

*sigh* I know it's Game Master. I started with Pathfinder, I should have no trouble switching from Dungeon Master back to Game Master. I didn't even spend as long with 5e as I did with Pathfinder! ...but I can't read GM as anything other than General Manager anymore. I've worked too many restaurants and grocery stores. RIP

CREATURE: SAMDUGUMI

Illust: Hanghul

The Kickstarter for our 5e Korean myth-based adventure book is almost at 80% funded!!

There are two different types of Gumiho: those who wish to ascend to the heights of divinity and those who've resigned themselves to their bestial nature. The Samdugumi is the latter having forsaken its lofty goals. Though they appear as feral creatures, they're masters of curses and effectively combine their dark magic with their hunting instincts to slaughter its prey.

The Samdugumi traded away its Fox Marble that all Gumiho possess in exchange for blighted immortality. They can survive being hacked and slashed, reproducing any lost body parts, even splitting its body into separate selves. The Samdugumi is a nine-tailed fox that evolved to spite all mortals.

Y'all have today and tomorrow to take advantage of the 50% off code for Grimdark & Dangerous (the link used here is that discount link). After October 31 the code will become inactive.

And as a reminder, when you buy Grimdark & Dangerous, not only are getting a 160 page full art d&d compendium of player and GM content, you are also getting a secondary expansion (The Living Grimoire Expansion) of that compendium that was unlocked by reaching a stretch goal. With the 50% off code, Grimdark & Dangerous is $9.99. I am not tooting my own horn when i say that this book is comparable in content and quality to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (though this is my opinion and not a proven fact). It is (imo). I'd be full of myself if I said it was better. But it's about the same. And I highly doubt you will ever find a digital copy of Tasha's and then some for as cheap as you can buy G&D now.

Sale warning and promotional over. Have a lovely day and a happy Halloween, darklings.

Anyway here’s a god design for the campaign Im doing 🥰

Taa’Zix the Kobold Sorcerer. A 5e character of my own, cloak inspired by the Cloak of the Cosmos from Flight Rising.

Taa’Zix was born to a colony of Kobolds in the service of a powerful blue draco-lich that dwells deep in the desert wastelands. Every night, when the coast was clear, Taa’Zix would crawl up, out of the bustling tunnel network he called home and look up at the stars that filled the night sky overhead. Some day, he wanted to harness the power of all of those stars and Wish his master back to his former glory before the whole lich-thing. All of the necromancy happening these days was really stressing him out. It didn’t look healthy for the boss if he had to be honest.

what's everyone's favorite table dynamic?

mine's extremely knowledgeable DM who's dating the most unstable player at the table ❤️

D&D Evolution: Tabaxi (Jubatus)

I think that there's a lot of missed potential with beast races. The animal kingdom is an endless well for inspiration. In this new series, I'm going to take an official beast race (lizardfolk, aarakocra, kenku, etc.) and give it several subraces. Richer cultures, new abilities and lore, all of it. First on the chopping block: the tabaxi.

Say hello to the jubatus tabaxi.

Jubatus tabaxi are extremely lean humanoids built for speed over strength. Their fur comes in shades of light yellow-brown or gold, with lighter chests, snouts, and paws. Black spots cover their bodies, and dark tear-like markings lie under their eyes. Jubatus kittens have long, white manes ringed in black fur, which they lose as they mature. Jubatus tabaxi are famous for their agility; they are the fastest runners out of all races. Their incredible speed comes with a price, however; after each sprint, they must remain in place before they are capable of movement again.

Jubatus tabaxi are highly favored by employers as scouts or messengers, due to their ability to cover great distances in a short time. Aside from their swiftness, jubatus are also known for their flair for the dramatic. Like other tabaxi, jubatus love stories and adventure, but favor theatre most of all. Jubatus are skilled playwrights and directors, and are highly sought after as such. However, they make poor actors, as they often can’t decide between which part to play and often overcorrect the lines of others.

Young jubatus live in groups known as coalitions. These coalitions often act as traveling entertainment, and consist almost entirely of family members. Jubatus tabaxi break away from their coalitions and settle down in an area as they mature. Even though jubatus are some of the few tabaxi to be considered “social,” they remain nearly solitary for the rest of their lives.

Ability Score Increase- Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Strength score decreases by 2.

Speed- Your base walking speed is 35 feet when not wearing medium or heavy armor. Otherwise, it is 30 feet.

Cheetah’s Agility- Your Feline Agility trait is replaced with this trait. When you move on your turn in combat, you can triple your speed until the end of the turn. After doing so, your speed is reduced to 0 until the end of your next turn. You cannot use this trait when wearing medium or heavy armor.

Enjoy your new theatre-kid subrace! The jubatus tabaxi is based on cheetahs. Cheetahs are the fastest land animals on the planet, but being built for nothing but speed makes you susceptible to being robbed by anything from hyenas to vultures. Hence the Strength penalty. And yes, lions are not the only social cat to exist! Young male cheetahs live and hunt together for a good portion of their lives.

All of the tabaxi subraces are going to be based on the small cat family. In other words, there will be no Panthera (snow leopard, leopard, jaguar, tiger, lion) subraces. The leonin fit the big cat role much better than the tabaxi do, after all.

Next up- Caracal Tabaxi