jacinto amateur hour, classes, is this gonna work, monsters, Not Dead Yet, table, witch

this isn’t even my final form

I’ve been working on a village-building based D&D campaign. One of the things I want to do is tie character progression to exploration, and a way to do that is make classes available based on which NPCs the party has allied with or even brought back to their settlement. For this reason, I picked a random advancement scheme, where players roll 1d100 twice on a table associated with their character class to see what they get when they level up. They can choose choose to roll on the tables of unlocked specialty classes, which means they don’t need to roll a whole new character to realize the benefits of making allies and gaining access to new stuff.
Since this model of D&D is based on building relationships and developing a home base, I want making friends to be on the table as much as possible. This class is unlocked by normalizing relations with the Orminger King, the local dragon and source of many monsters incursions (and sagacious-monarch-turned-abhuman-monster). It also complicates the player’s relationship with most normative NPCs while potentially making it easier to seek peaceful solutions with monsters. Moreover, since this is a low HP class prone to drawing aggression while still having some pretty piquant abilities, players will hopefully be dealing with the mix of power and vulnerability that makes the archetypes behind this class compelling.

Also also, it’s a bit of a rough draft. I’m not terribly worried about balance since it’s random and also players need to go to a lot of trouble to make it available in the first place, but it could still be an issue.
Based on: Ganon, Howl, Witch of the Waste, Queen Beryl, Apostles from Berserk, Maleficent, animist wizards, there’s probably some Dark Souls in here if I’m being honest with myself
from full metal alchemist
WARLOCK
Requisites: make peace with the Orminger King
You are gorgeous and monstrous, magnificent and grotesque. Your magic is born from the darkness of the new moon and the blackness in the deepest earth. People think you’re not entirely human, and they’re not entirely wrong–the wilds and the ruins and the lonely places of the world are filled with the monstrous shells of the god-kings and wicked scholars who were consumed by the power you now bear. By its nature, your magic has left a sorcerous mark somewhere on your body: your palm, your tongue, your belly, your breast. In cosmopolitan areas, people who recognize you as a warlock will be discomfited, wary, and very polite. In more superstitious areas, people will be outright terrified of you–maybe enough to do what you ask, perhaps enough to just try to kill you. 

from magi: labyrinth of magic
  • HD: 1d4
  • Saves: as Magic-user
  • XP: as Magic-user
  • Prerequisite: have an emissary of the Orminger King join your village. New characters can be warlocks once the prerequisite is met, but existing magic-users can select it as a subclass.

The first time you roll on the Warlock table, you gain the ability to assume a monstrous aspect at will, giving you +1 Defense and allowing you to deal d6 damage with unarmed attacks. You cannot wield weapons or wear armor, in this form and most civilized peoples will attack you on sight. If they see you transform, they will seek to jail or execute you, even in human shape. Moreover, while you wear your monstrous shape, the Referee may require you to make a Wis check to resist the impulse to do something greedy or spiteful, if a compelling opportunity presents itself. The appearance of your monster-shape is up to you, though your face always remains the same even as your body changes.

Entries in a list separated by slashes show what is available with each subsequent reroll of that entry.

roll
new ability
1-40
+1 Spell Die
41-60
+1 Save
61-65
Your beast form gains one of the following movement types: climb, swim, clumsy flight. Pick another on reroll.
66-70
Your beast form gain skill of your choice from the following list: Track, Sense, Camouflage. Pick another on a reroll.
71-75
Your beast form’s size becomes Large and you gain +1 to Str and -1 to Dex checks. Lose the Dex penalty on reroll.
76-80
Your beast form has armor as leather/chain/plate.
81-85
Wormtongue. Gain a skill of your choice from the following list: Tempt, Deceive, Intimidate. Pick another on a reroll.
86-90
Dark Glamor. At will, you can wrap yourself in a mantle of dark power, allowing you to transform your clothing as you please and making you appear taller, more imposing, perhaps more appealing and perhaps more hideous. In this aspect your have +1/2/3 Disposition Die size from those prone to temptation and sycophancy; -1 Disposition Die size from those who value basic decency and bravery.
91-95
Minions. You have 1/2/3 Level 0 homunculi allies. They are dark silhouettes of humans, suggestive of ooze in the way their bodies give and sway with each motion. If they wear human clothes, nobody will be able to notice that their appearance is strange. If they die or get lost, you can brew one per downtime up to your max. They are very stupid.
96
Covenant. If someone breaks the word of a promise they made to you, they suffer a -2/4/6 penalty on their saving throws against your spells, and you instinctively know their direction and approximate distance. It must be a promise you genuinely wanted kept, and this ability ceases to function if you forgive them for their transgression.
97
All Shall Love Me. +1/2/3 Faction Die size with monsters.
98
Forbidden Power. When you cast a spell, you can choose to roll with d8s/d10s/12s instead. Each die still expends on a result of 4+.
99
Menace. Enemies in line of sight of you suffer -1/2 Morale.
100
Dark Garden. You rule a 1 acre demiplane that contains your lair. Its appearance is a matter of negotiation between you and the Referee. It can house and feed 1/2/3 people per day. It is totally inaccessible, but if you spend a long rest in a civilized place, you can choose to incorporate the gate to your demiplane into the location in such a way that even longtime locals may not notice it. If you close the gate to your demiplane from the outside, you can choose to send it away again. Anything native to your lair taken out of it vanishes into thick black smoke as soon as it crosses the threshold.

from spirited away
THE ORMINGER KING

A man’s impassive face, pale and immense, set onto a black-furred body, sinuous, graceful, larger than an elephant, walking on the fingertips of splayed human hands. Its great wings are like a crow’s. It is mad, mournful, vicious. It lives in the ruins of the Royal Archives, gently turning pages with giant fingertips. It brews and decants shadow-fleshed homunculi to send on raids for occult reagents and, once in a rare while, companions. It knows many spells of darkness and transformation.

RULES
I draw on some homebrew rules in a few of the entries, so here are explanations:

Magic

You can cast any spell you know. You have a number of Spell Dice, a pool of d6s which represent a combination of your innate magical affinity and experience with your craft. With more Spell Dice, you can cast more powerful spells more often. When you cast a spell, roll any number of your Spell Dice. Examine the result of each die and add up the results. Dice that come up 4+ are expended, and you cannot roll them again until your take a long rest.

from howl’s moving castle
Reactions/Personality Dice/Disposition Dice
The Referee makes Reaction Rolls on the usual table. However, they are not necessarily made with the traditional 2d6. One die is the Faction Die, and represents the encountered creature’s relationship with the organizations, groups, species, clans, etc the party or party leader is a member of. The other is the Disposition Die, which represents the encountered creature’s gut reaction to the party or party leader, a combination of the PC’s personal appeal and the creature’s mood. Both dice start at d6 and are increased by factors that would improve reaction and decreased by factors that would worsen it. Some characters have explicit bonuses to one or both dice, but the Referee can also apply modifiers ad hoc. Example: A handsome cleric wandering a dungeon encounters an incubus. The Referee determines that the Faction Die should be a d4, since demons find clerics tediously Lawful. The Disposition Die, on the other hand, is a d8, because incubi respect physical appeal.
from sailor moon
jacinto classes, flowerland, is this gonna work, magic, monsters, rituals, spell

flower power

I have been rereading about Coins and Scrolls wizards and Goblin Punch spellcasters and have been thinking about my own dice pool magic system (scroll down a little past the fishing stuff). The dice pool makes magic feel more like this amorphous reserve of supernatural influence instead of a bunch of bullets in a gun, while preserving the resource management aspect that makes Vancian magic appeal to me. You’re never quite sure how much you can and should do in a day.

I’ve also been rereading Wonders and Wickedness and reading Paolo’s Marvels and Malisons. I like the distinctness of spell schools and have been thinking about how those would manifest in Flowerland (i.e. the blog post below)
 
ON HOUSES
Planes are the Old World’s crude understanding of the shape of Creation. As the peoples of Flowerland know, our world is made of structures, not surfaces–Houses, not Planes. The Grass House, the Mud House, the Moon House, the Iron House, the Ash House, the Salt House, and the elusive Labyrinth Betwixt are the most known in Flowerland, though of course there are others, some obscure, some defunct. The Houses respect neither topology nor topography–if you walk towards the palmetto scrub, you approach the Grass House as well, and as midnight or noon draw near, so too does the Grass House, whether or not you think you are moving. Should you, in the heat of summer and the brightness of noon, find carrion-eaters crowded around a kill out in the scrub, watch your step carefully–when the auguries of Grass are many, you stand on the threshold of its House.

Magic is: opening a door to a House and shaping what comes out, calling forth its denizens to do your bidding.

SORCERERS
HP, XP, Saves, Skills as wizard/magic-user

You have Power dice equal to your level. When you cast a spell, you can roll as many of them as you like; the more dice you roll, the greater its effect. When a description refer to a spell’s Power, that is the number of dice the caster rolled for it.

  • For each die that comes up a 1 or a 6, after you resolve the spell’s effects, remove a Power die from your dice pool until you take a long rest. (Rolling a 1 means you whiffed it a little and rolling a 6 means you exhausted some part of yourself)
  • If you get pairs, Something Bad happens 
  • If you get triples, Something Terrible happens

At level 1, pick a House: Grass, Mud, Moon, Iron, Salt, or Ash. You know two random spells from its list. you can cast any spell you know, but you can only learn spells from your House. you do so by exploring your House, by bribing and pestering other sorcerers into tutoring you, or studying another sorcerer’s notes. You can learn to cast spells from other Houses, but each has its own requirements.

    THE GRASS HOUSE
    If you are a sorcerer and did not choose Grass as your House at level 1, you can gain attain its power and access its spells by eating the divine carrion at the center of the Grass House, soft like custard, rich like dessert, foul beyond comprehension.
         Sorcerers who can cast Grass House spells find carrion equally delicious and disgusting and can live off of it without fear of disease or malnutrition.

    GRASS CURSE
    Under the roof of the Grass House, your shadow is a curse, and when you cast your shadow you cast your curse also. The sorcerer can cast their Grass Curse on someone touching their shadow, inflicting them with a persistent sunstroke that bestows a penalty to all rolls equal to the spell’s Power on a failed save. If sorcerer’s shadow is being cast in the hot sun–the Grass House sun, the cruel sun that scorches the palmetto scrub and bakes the sugar sand trails–spell gains a +1 Power without the sorcerer needing to roll another die. This hex lasts until the victim immerses themselves in very cold water or another sorcerer lifts it with magic.

    • Something Bad: You put too much of yourself into the curse. You can’t regain any dice lost in the casting of this spell until the victim is cured or you eat them (takes at least an hour).
    • Something Terrible: You are afflicted with the Grass Curse, but the only way to lift it is to cure the victim while they still live. Failing that, there are some exceedingly rare and dangerous to procure cures.

    WEAVE SIGN OF GRASS
    A sorcerer casts this spell by spending an evening weaving grass, withes, reeds, or similar vegetable material into a palm-sized medallion bearing the Sign of Grass. If they lose any Power from this casting, they cannot ever recover it from resting, and must restore their lost Power in some other (dangerous, difficult, and probably disturbing) way. The wearer of the Sign of Grass receives a bonus to stealth checks equal to the spell’s Power while in scrub, forests, the prairie, or other similar environs.

    • Something Bad: the Sign bestows a minor curse in addition to its benefit.
    • Something terrible: the Sign bestows a major curse in addition to its benefit.

    If the sorcerer wishes, they can automatically incorporate a minor or major curse into the Sign. However, this causes Something Bad and Something Terrible to permanently afflict them with the same curse bound to the Sign.

    PACT OF GRASS
    Summons a Child of Grass with HD equal to the spell’s Power and HP equal to the sum of its Power dice. The Child appears as an oversized coyote on all fours, a thief with hair the color of dust and eyes the color of rainwater when it lurches to its feet, and a crow when it leaps into the air (as wolf, as thief with levels equal to its HD, as bird with trivial combat statistics). The Child of Grass remains as long as it pleases, but it only remains bound to the sorcerer’s service for a number of turns equal to the spell’s Power, at which point it is free to do as it pleases, though the sorcerer may bribe it into further service.

    • Something Bad: the Child of Grass wants something like: to eat carrion (either very fresh or very ripe), to make mischief, to know where its summoner lives. It will turn on the sorcerer if it doesn’t get it very soon.
    • Something Terrible: the Child of Grass appears and turns on the sorcerer, either attacking right away or fucking off back to town to start raising hell. It cannot be summoned again until the sorcerer hunts down and eats it.

    BLADE OF GRASS
    Make a blade of sawgrass or a saw palm frond impossibly strong and sharp. Sawgrass acts as a one-handed, bladed weapon of fine make (1d6+1 damage) while a saw palm frond acts as a two-handed, bladed weapon of equal quality (1d8+1 damage). The blades are sharp enough to cut through steel as if it were firewood and damage enemies resistant to nonmagical damage. The effect lasts a number of turns equal to the spell’s Power.

    • Something Bad: the Grass House turns against the sorcerer, making all grass like blades to them. Leaves and fronds are as sharp and strong as steel: walking on grass deals 1d4 damage/round and ruins shoes and boots, walking through scrub deals 1d12/round and reduces  AC by an equal amound (down to sorcerer’s unarmored AC value). Lasts
    • Something Terrible: the Child of Grass appears and turns on the sorcerer. It cannot be summoned again until the sorcerer hunts down and eats it.

    MILKWEED GIFT
    The sorcerer cuts open their inner arm, dealing damage as dagger, and milkweed sap oozes out. When applied to an injury, it heals HP equal to the sum of the spell’s Power dice. The sap can be apportioned between multiple people, but it loses its power after a turn. The HP damage caused by this spell can only be healed with time–only time can give back what the Grass House has taken.

    • Something Bad: The Gift’s sap attracts a colossal swarm of red butterflies to the caster. This makes stealth nearly impossible, and the caster takes +1 damage from weapon attacks as the butterflies lap at the wound with anticoagulant proboscises.
    • Something Terrible: The Gift does not heal properly. Each day, the sorcerer must make a saving throw or the wound will ooze milkweed adulterated with blood and the sorcerer loses 1 point of Constitution. This lasts until the sorcerer undergoes some pretty serious curse-lifting effort or they die.

    EAT SHAPE
    This spell has two uses: if the sorcerer casts this spell on a ripe animal carcass that had HD in life equal to or less than the spell’s Power, they can eat it to turn into the creature. They can also cast the spell to turn into a creature they have already consumed in this manner, though the Power still has to meet or exceed its HD. The spell lasts until the sorcerer chooses to change back, but they cannot speak, cast spells, or recover Power until they do. In animal shape, sorcerers look like carrion–sticky with blood, broken bones emerging from their hide, dirt and roots tangled in their ruff.

    • Something Bad: the sorcerer cannot turn back into their original shape until sunset or dawn, whichever is further away.
    • Something Terrible: the sorcerer cannot turn back into their original shape at all, barring powerful ritual intervention

    THE NATURE OF HOUSES
    Unclear. Dungeons/universes/deities/spell schools. Some were raised or destroyed just past recent memory (such as when Heche Ke Eche, Cacica of the Dead, stopped shut all the doors and ways to the Ghost House with great lead nails and destroyed all of its extant dwellers in a terrible fit of pique, or the night the Moon House was born or perhaps opened agin from the disastrous sinking of Don Fernando’s barge). Others have been around for as long as recorded history, maybe built by something that came before, maybe born from the ritual weight of natural phenomena. Some Houses seem to have volition, some seem content to be a location, others are nearly impossible to enter and barely have internal geography. The Ghost House had doors of the sort that Heche Ke Eche could nail shut (according to legend), but the ways to the Moon House are still waters and bone-filled groves and the shadows of the jacarandas in moonlight.

      jacinto classes, flowerland, magic, new age dnd, new barbary, occult

      something is wrong character creation

      strange beings come out to make mischief in the weirding light of the spiral moon
       

      A super-pared down 5e-ish thing for Flowerland/Weird Florida. Checks are the typical 1d20+ability score mod+proficiency bonus (if applicable), but classes are more thematically defined packages of proficiencies instead of discrete lists of skills and abilities. Magic is an unreliable accretion of superstitions rather than a very formalized list of abilities, and HP is a small, easy come/easy go buffer between mobility and death. All of this should fit the mood better than the more high fantasy feel of rules as written 5e D&D.

      ABILITY SCORED
      Roll 3d6 for Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Use the following ability score modifiers. If your modifiers have a negative total, you can reroll all of your ability scores. Once you have a viable character, you can swap two ability scores of your choosing.

      HIT POINTS 
      Don’t exist. We are using the endurance/stopwatch system. Everyone starts out with 6+CON mod EP.

      • You can recover EP equal to your hazard die by resting an exploration turn (triggers an encounter check). Each time you rest, your max EP reduces by 1. Eating a ration lets you recover EP without losing any points from your maximum.You can’t take a rest in situations that are draining your EP.
      • You recover all of your EP, and you max EP returns to normal, when you take a long rest in a safe place.
      • You gain +1 max EP when you level up.

      CLASS/BACKGROUND/PROFICIENCY
      Your proficiency bonus is +2, and increases by +1 every 4th level. Add your proficiency bonus to tasks your class is good at. The listed die value is your Hazard Die, which determines how much EP you can recover when you rest and how much your weapon attacks deal.

      1. Cacique [1d6] bullshitting, winning contests, brawling, barking orders, making friends/rivals, etc
      2. Warrior [1d8] fighting, climbing, swimming, jumping, athletics, etc
      3. Thief [1d6] picking locks, picking pockets, sneaking, climbing, etc
      4. Cleric [1d4] performing apotropaic rituals, speaking with authority, praying to spirits, etc
      5. Witch: [1d4] performing dark rituals, inuiting, animal handling, bargain with spirits, etc
      6. Hunter: [1d8] ambushing, marksmanship, tracking, naturalism, hiding, etc
      7. Scholar: [1d6] knowing languages, history, teratology, medicine, etc
      8. Diva/Adonis: [1d6] dancing, singing, seducing, conversing, distracting, etc

      EQUIPMENT AND INVENTORY You start with 3d6×10 dollars. $1 = 1 sp. Buy stuff off of the LotFP equipment list. 

      We are using this inventory system.
      SAVING THROWS
      Basic ability score checks. Pick one saving throw; you can add your proficiency bonus to it.

      MAGIC/RITUALS
      Anything that we would recognize as a spell from D&D is far beyond the capability of humans, and generally requires the intercession of a god or demon. Rituals are slower and quieter and subtler, but they are also powerful rules the supernatural world must abide by. Anyone can try to perform a ritual, but people who spend their time close to the supernatural (witches and clerics) are better at them.

      Players do not get to see the list of rituals. They discover rituals as rewards, by accident, in books, through rumors, by joining factions. Some are common and most people know about, some are kept secret by powerful organizations. Players will be part of an adventuring Company that will help explain why a new crop of characters might know a bunch of weird rituals after the last group got a TPK.
      • [simple] rituals are easy to do. You just need the right component and the right action, like throwing salt on a monster or chanting a certain phrase. Some simple rituals people perform on accident, and this can be dangerous.
      • [complex] rituals are hard. They require a lot of practice and knowledge. Making a talisman, reciting a long passage of holy writ, or inscribing a pentagram just right are all complex rituals. They take a month to learn from a tutor or a text. Complex rituals are easy to perform incorrectly, and this can be dangerous.
      • [apotropaic] rituals are the rites clerics use to drive back the supernatural and defend humanity. When they require a check, use WIS. When they require a saving throw, the DC is 8+WIS mod (+proficiency bonus if ritual caster is a cleric)
      • [dark] rituals are the rites witches use to have their way with the world. When they require a check, use CHA. When they require a saving throw, the DC is 8+CHA mod (+proficiency bonus if ritual caster is a witch). These rituals are often illegal.
      • Players can perform impromptu rituals if they make sense. If someone is bitten on the arm by a werewolf and the cleric makes a rosary tourniquet, it is ritually potent enough to work even though it’s not listed below. These might have high DCs, or the victim might get advantage on the saving throw.

      purity rite [apotropaic] [simple] Cast salt on an impure creature (devils, demons, undead, fey, etc). They must make a CHA saving throw or flee for a turn.

      warding rite [apotropaic] [simple] Pour salt in a circle around you. Impure creatures must make a CHA saving throw to cross it. Lasts until disturbed or you leave the circle.

      nazar [apotropaic] [complex] DC 14 Spend a long rest and 10 gp making a blue eye bead. Anyone who carries it will have advantage on saving throws versus curses. It cracks the first time its bearer is the target of a curse, whether or not they succeed the saving throw. If a would-be creator fails a check to make a nazar, all nazars they have already made lose their power.

      casket rite [apotropaic] [simple] Seal a coffin with silver nails. If the interred has the will and ability to rise as a restless corpse, they must make a CHA saving throw to succeed and will not be able to try again if they fail. If a witch is trying to raise them, they must make a CHA saving throw before they can attempt it, and cannot try again if they fail.

      revenant rite [dark] Bury someone with a smoldering piece of cypress charcoal on their chest, and they will return as a restless corpse. If they don’t want to come back, they cane make a WIS saving throw.

      ill rite [dark] [simple] Cast grave dirt on a human as you whisper a cursed syllable. They must make a WIS saving throw or suffer a wasting illness, losing 1 EP a day until they die.

      rite of calling [dark] [apotropaic] [simple] Summon a corpse by calling its name at night at the edge of the woods, the mouth of a cave, the bank of a river, or the shore of a lakeThey may or may not be friendly, and if they don’t want to come they may make a CHA saving throw to avoid the summons.

      red ribbon rite [dark] [simple] tie a red ribbon to a bound or incapacitated spirit (fiend, fey, elemental, undead, celestial). It must make a CHA saving throw or consider you its master. It can remake the saving throw every time your orders humiliate it, place it in danger, or require it to violate its nature.

      shrine rite [dark] [apotropaic] [complex] spend a turn building an impromptu shrine from ritual stones to a spirit (fiend, fey, elemental, undead, celestial) to communicate with it directly. You can ask it to cast a spell, perform a task, guard you, reveal a secret, etc. It may or may not be friendly. Each spirit has its own shrine rite, and they must be learned separately. Ritual stones may be reused.

      jacinto classes, new age dnd, rituals, type v, witch

      toil and trouble

      Extensive rewrite for the 5th edition Warlock class. It’s actually my favorite to play in 5e, but there are many interlocking abilities. This version
      • conforms more to the pattern established by other classes
      • has abilities that stand alone, and don’t require extensive cross-referencing
      • smashes the cleric, druid, and warlock together. I want to get 5e down to four or five classes and get a wider spread of character archetypes with kits. Ideally, I’ll have fighter, warlock/witch, rogue, and wizard
      • is based on archetypal things that witches do, like turn into animals, call up spirits, or brew potions.
      • has an element of risk. Shapeshifting warlocks can get stuck as animals, potions can go wrong, familiars can get loose.
      • makes some assumptions about the kind of campaign. Probably can’t go toe to toe with a monster of equivalent CR the way most classes-as-written can, most of the healing is shunted off to potion-making, so healing is a bit more important as a resource, and I cut out damaging cantrips.

      WARLOCK/WITCH
      a Type V D&D class

      from tactics ogre: wheel of fortune

      CLASS FEATURES

      click to make legible

      HIT POINTS
      Hit Dice: 1d6 per warlock level
      Hit Points at 1st Level: 1d6 + Constitution modifier, minimum 4
      Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 + Constitution modifier per warlock level after 1st 

      PROFICIENCIES
      Armor: Light armor
      Weapons: Simple weapons
      Tools: Choose one from herbalism kit, poisoner’s kit, and alchemist’s kit

      Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
      Skills: Choose two from Animal Handing, Arcana, Deception, History, Intimidation, Nature, Religion, and Survivalism

      PACT MAGIC

      Cantrips. You know two cantrips of your choice from the warlock spell list. You learn additional warlock cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown on the Cantrips Known column of the Warlock table. 

      Spell Slots. The Warlock spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

      Spells Known of 1st level and higher. You know one 1st level warlock spell of your choice. The Spells Known column on the Warlock spellcasting table shows when you learn more warlock spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be a level for which you have slots. When you gain a level, you can replace one of the warlock spells you know with another spell of your choice from warlock spell list that you have slots for.

      Spellcasting ability. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your warlock spells. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a warlock spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
           Spell Save DC = 8 + proficiency bonus + Wisdom modifier
           Spell Attack modifier = proficiency bonus + Wisdom modifier 

      Spell Recovery. When you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level equal to or less than half your level (rounded up).

      Spellcasting Focus. You can use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells

      OTHERWORLDLY PATRON

      Pick one of the following Otherworldly Patrons. At levels 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17, your patron teaches you additional spells; add them to your list of spells known and do not count them towards your limit.

      SPIRIT OF THE HEAVENS
      from mononoke

      1st: bless, purify food and drink
      5th: augury, lesser restoration
      9th: clairvoyance, remove curse
      13th: divination, locate creature
      17th: greater restoration, scrying

      ANCIENT BEAST
      from black desert

      1st: animal friendship, speak with animals
      5th: animal messenger, spike growth
      9th: plant growth, water walk
      13th: conjure woodland beings, dominate beast
      17th: awaken, commune with nature

      STORM GOD
      from final fantasy
      1st: create or destroy water, thunderwave
      5th: blindness/deafness, gust of wind
      9th: call lightning, sleet storm
      13th: control water, ice storm
      17th: cone of cold, planar binding

      FIRST GIFT

      At level 3, your patron rewards you for your service. Choose one of the following First Gifts.

      FIRST GIFT: BORROWED SKIN
      You can polymorph into any beast with a CR equal to or less than 1/3 your level. When you cast polymorph in this manner, it lasts until you lose concentration, with no other limits on duration. If you fail your Constitution Saving throw to maintain concentration with an odd result, you become trapped in your beast form until you take a short rest. If you reach 0 HP while in your animal form, you do not transform back, but continue to deduct hit points from your true form’s HP pool. You must take a short rest before using this ability again.

      FIRST GIFT: BRASS RING
      Pick one of the following: imp, sprite, pseudodragon, or a single beast with a CR of 1/2 or less.
           As an action, you can summon that creature into an empty space within 15 ft. The servant is friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the servant, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to the servant, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions. The servant disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when you dismiss it as an action. If the servant dies, you cannot use this ability again until you take a long rest. The servant recovers all of its HP when you take a long rest.
           This ability requires concentration to maintain. If your concentration is broken, you lose control of the servant, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled servant can’t be dismissed by you.
           When you take a long rest, you can choose a different creature on the list of eligible creatures to summon. You must take another long rest to choose again. If you perform a 10 minute ritual using the remains of a fey, elemental, fiend, or beast-type creature with a CR equal to or less than 1/4 your level, you can add it to the list of creatures you can summon with this ability.

      FIRST GIFT: STRANGE KNOWLEDGE
      Learning. If gain the following proficiencies if you do not already have them:

      • Arcana skill
      • herbalism kit

      Ritualist.  If any of the warlock spells you know or learn have the ritual tag, you can cast them as rituals. If you find any ritual spell in a scroll or spellbook, or see it cast, you can attempt to recreate it as a ritual. This requires an Intelligence (Arcana) check vs a DC of 11 + Spell Level. If the spell exceeds half your level (rounded up), you make the roll at disadvantage. If you succeed the check, the ritual proceeds as it should; if you fail, catastrophe strikes as determined by the DM).

      Potion-maker. When you find a spell with a level of 5 or less, and that spell has a range of Self or Touch, you can memorize it as a recipe. This process takes 50 gp per spell level and 1 hour per spell level, as you impress the formula into your mind with the aid of exotic drugs. You can learn as many recipes as you like.
           You can brew potions using your recipe book. This process requires

      • 50gp/spell level (in ingredients)
      • 1 hour/spell level (fretting over alembics and stirring cauldrons)
      • A Wisdom (herbalism kit) check with a DC of 11 + spell level. If the spell exceeds half your level (rounded up), you make the roll at disadvantage

      If you fail a check, the potion functions as a vial of poison (the DM should roll this check outside of the player’s view and not tell them the result). If a spell can be cast at multiple spell levels, you can choose which at the time of brewing, but you must pay the extra money and take the extra time. A potion causes the exact same effects as the spell it is based off of on the creature that ingests it. You count as the caster if it comes up in the spell description.
           The number of potions you have brewed cannot exceed half your level (rounded up). If you exceed this limit, a random potion you have brewed loses its potency.

      SECOND GIFT

      At level 11, your patron rewards you for your continuing service. Choose one of the following Second Gifts.

      SECOND GIFT: WITCH GARDEN
      You acquire a home and garden in the form of a 1 acre demiplane. Its exact nature, climate, and contents are a matter between you and your DM. The garden is never more than half a day’s travel away, no matter where you go or where you are. Only you know the way there, though others can follow you (even without your knowledge)

      SECOND GIFT: UNBREAKABLE OATH
      Anyone who signs a contract with or swears an oath to you must make a Charisma save vs your spell save DC in order to break its terms. They only must follow the letter, not the spirit of the agreement. Paradoxical promises are null and void.

      SECOND GIFT: WITCH FLIGHT
      You can cast fly on yourself without expending a spell slot. When you cast fly in this manner, it lasts until you lose concentration, with no other limits on duration. You must take a short rest before you can use this ability again.

      FINAL GIFT

      At level 18, your patron rewards you for your continuing service. Choose one of the following Final Gifts.

      FINAL GIFT: HEART’S DESIRE
      Your patron will grant you a wish when you beseech them directly, requiring no action on your part and sparing you the ill effects listed in the spell’s description. However, you must perform an onerous service for your patron before they will grant you a wish again.

      FINAL GIFT: MALEFICENCE
      You can shapechange yourself into a dragon-type creature without any material component. You receive advantage on Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration for this ability, and you must take a long rest before using this ability again.

      FINAL GIFT: WAKE THE DEAD
      You can cast Animate Undead or Create Undead as a 9th level spell without material components. You must take a long rest before you can use this ability again.

       
      ABILITY SCORE INCREASE

      At levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19, you can increase one ability score by 2 or two ability scores by 1. You cannot increase an ability score above 20.

       SPELL LIST CHANGES
      WARLOCK CANTRIPS
      thaumaturgy
      druidcraft
      control flames*
      gust*
      shape water*
      mold earth*
      friends
      mending
      message
      minor illusion

      Asterisked cantrips are from the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion (which is free).

       ADDITIONAL FIRST LEVEL WARLOCK SPELLS

      command
      disguise self
      feather fall
      fog cloud
      jacinto classes, encounters, idyll, is this gonna work, new age dnd, skills

      deep dungeon fishing

      Thinking about ways characters might acquire goods in a D&D campaign with more altruistic assumptions than your standard mercenary fare . Hunting and logging are good possibilities, but I feel like they are pretty easy to model using existing rules (Find A Certain Monster, Go To A Location And Retrieve Object are time honored D&D tasks). 
      Fishing, on the other hand, is a little bit harder to model interestingly. I think there’s a lot of potential in making it tense, especially since it is time consuming, but much of D&D games take place with random monster encounters looming over the player’s heads. Anyways, here’s a stab at it.

      FISHING

      Anyone can fish. For each turn you spend fishing at a regular spot with standard gear, you have a 1 in 6 chance of hooking a fish. Certain spots and certain baits are better than others and afford better odds of catching something. Fishing spots deep in dungeons tend to have rarer and more valuable fish (multiply the dungeon level by the base value of the fish to determine how much gp it is worth). If you take a fish back to town while it’s still fresh, you can tin it, letting you build up a stock of imperishable rations without needing to special order them.

      Once you hook a fish, roll 5 six-sided dice and check to see if they match any of the following categories:
      Two of a kind: d12 gp, 1 ration
      Three of a kind: d20 gp, 2 rations
      Four of a kind: d100 gp, 4 rations
      Full House: 2d100 gp, 8 rations
      Small Straight: d1000 gp, 10 rations, can be used as an alchemical ingredient
      Large Straight: a random consumable magic item
      All of a Kind: a Speaking Fish, will grant a Limited Wish if you let it go.
       If you rolled one of the above categories, you can immediately reel in and catch a fish of the corresponding size and quality, or you can reroll in hopes of getting a better result and a correspondingly larger fish. However, 
      • the quality of your fishing pole limits the number of rerolls you get before it breaks, and if your final roll when reaching that limits doesn’t result in a catch, your fishing pole breaks.
      • you can only reel in the highest category you’ve gotten this fishing attempt. If you pass up on a Full House, you can’t reel in a Two of a Kind on your next reroll.
      A single fishing attempt takes 1 Turn, no matter how many rerolls you use.
       
      FISHING POLES  

      Bamboo Stick: 3 rolls
      Hickory Rod: 4 rolls
      Alchemically Treated: 5 rolls
      Almighty Dragon Fishing Rod: 6 rolls
      Fisher God’s Favorite Rod: 7 rolls

      I am always looking for ways to simplify or replace Vancian magic. It is hard to explain, and while I like it quite a bit, it reflects a very particular kind of fantasy that my games very rarely draw on. For Idyllic D&D, I’d want something more like Dianna Wynne Jones’s magic: friendler, more common, more whimsical, less earth-shaking. Loosely based off of this old class.

      WITCH
      from final fantasy 14
      HP, XP, Saving Throws, and Equipment Restrictions as Magic-user.
      You have Witchery dice equal to your level. When you cast a spell, you can roll as many as you like; the more dice you roll, the more powerful the spell.
      • For each die that comes up a 6, remove a Witchery die from your dice pool until you take a long rest.
      • Count each die that comes up 1. If the number of 1s exceeds half your level rounded down, the spell goes wrong or fails to take affect.

      Spells
      You start with 2 spells of your choice and gain another every even level. You can learn more, but must learn them from (rare) books or (grudging) tutors.

      Wonderwork
      Complete in an instant any task a barehanded person could complete in a number of Turns equal to the number of Witchery dice rolled. Creatures can make a saving throw to resist if the spell affects them.

      Creation 
      Create objects worth a total of 10 × number of Witchery dice rolled in gold pieces. If you are Lawful, they vanish at midnight. If you are Chaotic, they vanish at noon.

      Pyromancy
      Ignite, extinguish, or move a flame that fits within a number of cubic feet equal to Dice. If used offensively, damage dealt equals the sum of Witchery Dice rolled, and targets may save for half damage.
      Polymorph
      Transform into a 1 HD animal for a number of Turns equal to Witchery dice rolled.

      Pact
      Compels a creature with HD equal to or less than Witchery dice rolled to obey the letter of a promise it is making to you.

      Darkness
      Extinguish all artificial lights in earshot. Cannot be reignited for a number of Turns equal to Witchery dice rolled.

      Anemurgy
      Control the direction and intensity of the wind in a mile radius for a number of Turns equal to Witchery dice rolled.
      Windwalk
      This spell transforms the caster into a whirlwind and transports them a number of miles equal to Witchery dice rolled before transforming them back. 

      Ghost Mail 
      Deliver an object light enough you can carry it with one hand to a person or place within a number of Miles equal to number of Witchery dice rolled.

      Waterbreathing
      The caster and everyone they touch at time of casting can breathe underwater for a number of Turns equal to Witchery dice rolled.
      jacinto classes, LotFP, magic, occult, rituals, table

      lamentation final fantasy

      that stupid tonberry shanked your summoner before she got all the words out, and now whatever it was she was trying to call up is coming out wrong.

      from final fantasy tactics a2

      How Is Your Summoner Ruining Ivalice? 

      1. RAMUH. He’s gnarled arms and twisted hands, with skin like lightning-blackened bark, braided into concentric rings. They spin like a confused gyroscope around a lone eye, brilliant with the spiteful white flare of a lightning strike.
      2. SHIVA. She’s a storm of pale blue flower petals, each frozen stone-hard and razor-sharp. They ring like crystal when they strike each other, producing a beautiful, piercing tone that hurts the roots of your teeth and makes your nose bleed.
      3. IFRIT. He’s a creeping patch of consumption, a heaving mass of cinder and charcoal that burns without flame or light everything it touches. Sly yellow eyes well up out of IFRIT as he slides forward, quickly boiling away to nothing from the heat of his internal flame.
      4. MADEEN. She is an endless rotting blossom of wings: swan wings, bat wings, insect wings unfurling, growing, and putrescing off of her shoulders. They twitch and flap, but do not allow for flight; she uses them to drag her limp body on the ground, leaving a trail of black ichor behind.
      5. FAMFRIT. He is a silhouette in the distance of a rainstorm, a shadowy figure seen only in the reflection on the lake’s surface, he is slender black hands rising up from the waters, dozens of them, dragging in fishing lines and nets and boats and swimmers, he is a great slick bulk resting at the bottom, where it is too dark to see.
      6. CARBUNCLE. She is a strange and contagious growth, painful cysts filled with crystallized pus, garnet buboes and diamond teratomas that tear at the flesh around them, epidemics of priceless corpses and hospital massacres.
      jacinto classes, i am sick, is this gonna work, new age dnd, ranger, type v

      ranger danger

      OK, so everyone likes to complain about beastmaster Rangers in fifth edition D&D because they’re not very optimized. Which is fine, but I also don’t like them because their a little boring. This is an archetype about making animal friends. So less of the worrying about action economy and more of the giant wolf mothers. This is based heavily off of the spell planar ally.

      from princess mononoke
      Geomancer, Ranger Archetype

      Geomancy
      Starting at level 3, you can perform a 10 minute ritual to summon a little god of the wild. It appears witin 5 feet of you as a beast of your choice, though little gods with a CR greater than ½ your level will not bother to appear. Little gods can speak Common and Sylvan.

      When the creature appears, it is under no compulsion to behave in any particular way. You can ask the creature to perform a service in exchange for payment, but it isn’t obliged to do so. The requested task could range from simple (fly us across the chasm, or help us fight a battle) to complex (spy on our enemies, or protect us during our foray into the dungeon). You must be able to communicate with the creature to bargain for its services.

      Payment can take a variety of forms. A little god might require you to construct or repair its shrine, kill a rival, or perform a ritual. Some little gods might exchange their service for a quest undertaken by you. As a rule of thumb, a task that takes minutes requires 50 gp/minute, a task that takes hours requires 500 gp/hour, and a task that takes days requires 5,000 gp/day. These payments can change based on the circumstances and nature of the little god; if a task is aligned to the little god’s ethos, the payment might be halved or even waived. Easy or nonhazardous tasks might cost less, while dangerous ones might cost more. Little gods don’t accept tasks that seem suicidal.

      You can also expend spell slots to gift little gods with a measure of immanence; generally, the little god will perform a task that takes a number of minutes equal to or less than the sum of the levels of the expended spell slots.

      After the little god completes the task, or when the agreed-upon duration of service expires, the creature dissipates back into the wild after reporting back to you, if appropriate to the task and if possible. If you are unable to agree on a price for the little god’s service, it dissipates immediately.

      A little god enlisted to join your group counts as a member of it, receiving a full share of experience points awarded.

      Once you have performed this ritual, you cannot perform it again until the little god completes its task or dies.

      from legend of zelda: ocarina of time

      Wild Treaty
      At level 7, you can establish a particularly friendly relationship with a certain clan of little gods. Pick a beast you can summon as a little god (such as a raven, brown bear, giant spider, etc.) You can speak to that type of creature as the speak with beasts spell, and all such creatures will be neutral, if not friendly, to you and your allies as long as you do not attack, they are not magically compelled, and you do not actively work against their interests.

      Every time you gain a level, you can change your chosen type of beast for another.

      Greater Gods
      At level 11, pick an elemental, dragon, or fey creature with a CR equal to or less than ½ your level. You can use your Geomancy ability to summon little gods that take the form of that creature. If you meet an elemental, dragon, or fey creature with a CR equal to or less than ½ your level and receive explicit permission from it, you can summon little gods that take the form of that creature, too. Generally, you must perform a favor or pay a price before it will give such permission.

      from princess mononoke

      Demand Favor
      Starting at level 17, you can compel a little god summoned with your Geomancy ability to perform a favor for you that lasts no longer than 1 minute. You must take a short rest before you can use this ability again.

      jacinto classes, delving deeper, LotFP, san serafín

      pyromancer class

      A simple shooty-blasty magic class suitable for old school games. Intended to approximate Dark Souls pyromancy without getting too caught up in the specific mechanics of it.

      Pyromancer
      HP, XP, Saving Throws, and Combat Abilities as a Cleric.

      from dark souls

      Also called Fire Witches, Children of Chaos

      Every pyromancer has a piece of Fire in them. Not fire, but primordial Fire, the bright, smokeless flame from which the djinn were made, a spark of the flame that ignited the Sun.

      Pyromancers are invulnerable to ordinary fire and receive a +2 bonus to saving throws versus magical fire and dragon breath. When they do take fire damage, they subtract 1 from each die of damage. they take.

      Pyromancers have a number of Fire dice equal to half their level, rounded up. This represents the size of their internal Fire.

      Level 1: (1d6) torchflame: can fit in the palm of their hand.
      Level 3: (2d6) campfire: can fit in a bucket
      Level 5: (3d6) bonfire: can fit in the bed of a pickup truck, requires two hands to hold
      Level 7: (4d6) pyre: can fit in a bedroom, requires two hands to hold
      Level 9: (5d6) conflagration: can fit in a barn, requires two hands to hold

      Pyromancer can use pyromancy to do the following within 40 ft/sling range:

      • conjure a flame the size of their Fire or smaller in the palm of their hand for 1 Turn.
      • hurl a flame the size of their Fire or smaller.
      • extinguish a flame the size of their Fire or smaller.
      • move an existing flame the size of their Fire or smaller to any other spot in range

      When a pyromancer uses pyromancy, they roll a number of Fire dice corresponding with the size of the flame they are creating or manipulating (e.g. if you are conjuring a torchflame in your hand, roll 1d6. If you are hurling a bonfire-sized flame at a monster, roll 3d6). If any of the dice come up 6, the pyromancer removes them from their pool of Fire dice, and note that their internal Fire has shrunk by a corresponding amount. If their are using fire as a weapon, they also use this roll to determine damage. Enemies may Save vs Breath for half damage.

      A pyromancer can recover 1 Fire die by drinking a flask of oil. Pyromancers recover all of their Fire dice by resting in a warm, safe place. They can never have more Fire dice than the limit indicated by their level.

      But What About Fireball?
      Magic as practiced by wizards is fundamentally antithetical to fire. Spells like Fireball, Wall of Fire, and so on produces actinic wer-light that burns without heat and smells like burning metal. There is a piece of forbidden war magic known as False Sun that can create true fire, but only the most unsavory of sorcerers speak of it, and even then quietly.

      jacinto classes, items, san serafín, table

      prototype easy treasure generation

      There are two things that I find to be just unmitigatedly bad in old school Dungeons and Dragons: Turn Undead and treasure generation. I’m still working in the first, but I need a good, easy to use loot generator like two years ago, so here’s what I’ve cobbled together. Since I guess this blog is just a restatement of games with others, it’s based off of the generator here, and has a similar rationale–players are forced to explore more and more dangerous areas if they want to find treasure, gain XP, or even stay supplied.

      the rules
      When you loot a corpse or go through a room, roll 1d10+level+number of times you have already looted the area or corpse. This takes 1 Turn and a roll of the encounter die.

      If you roll higher than the corpse’s HD or higher than 3+dungeon level, you just find junk and will only ever find junk.

      If you roll equal to or less than that, compare the natural result of the 1d10 roll (so don’t add your level or number of items you have looted) to the Loot Table.

      Black Sand is precipitated dream-stuff. It falls gently and diffusely everywhere in San Serafin, but in sufficient quantities it is of some value to various NPCs. Burning it at a campfire provides XP equal to its value.

      Treasures come in several different types. Incense/candles can be used in barter with the Dead or burned on an altar for XP. Hearts can be used in barter with a  devil or buried in a graveyard for XP. Coins can be used to trade with Serafinos, if you can get them to talk to you.

      Bartering is dangerous, difficult, and kind of unfair, so scavenging for supplies is actually important–getting the gear result is not supposed to be a dud roll at all.

      Loot Table

      1. Random gear
      2. Random supplies
      3. Black Sand (value = d100xHD of creature or d100xdungeon level)
      4. Treasure (value=d1000xHD or dungeon level)
      5. high quality gear
      6. secret/map fragment
      7. Consumable Magic Item
      8. Enchanted Magic Item
      9. a secret
      10. Artifact

      Random Supplies (1d8)

      1. torch
      2. ration
      3. flask of oil
      4. lantern
      5. lighter
      6. 1d20 arrows

      Quality Gear

      1. Compass
      2. Rapier
      3. Scimitars
      4. leather armor
      5. chain armor
      6. plate armor
      7. warhammer
      8. greatsword
      9. glaive
      10. longbow
      11. crossbow
      12. javelin

      Consumable Magic Item

      1. MU spell scroll with level = ½ current dungeon level
      2. Cleric spell scroll with level = ½ current dungeon level
      3. Potion of Diminution: makes drinker mouse-sized for d6+1 Turns
      4. Potion of Polymorph
      5. Potion of Protection from Heat
      6. Potion of Protection from Cold
      7. Potion of False Death: appear as undead, even to the undead, for d6+1 Turns
      8. Potion of Sanctuary
      9. Potion of Waterbreathing
      10. Potion of Cure Light Wounds
      11. Potion of Dragonbreath: make a breath attack as a red dragon; deals damage equal to your current HP
      12. Potion of Cure Disease

      Enchanted Magic Item

      1. Pyromantic Sigil: once belonged to a pyromancer betrayed by his own children. Allows the wielder to cast a fiery version of Magic Missile. Has a 1 in 10 chance of failing with each use, but can be recharged with a bottle of Midnight Oil.
      2. Scales of Shaday: Once belonged to a cleric who was declared anathema for violating the course of history. Allows the wielder to Detect Magic and Detect Evil at will.
      3. Viper-embroidered Veil: lost by a thief renowned for her virtue. Allows the wielder to cast Invisibility on themselves 1/hour.
      4. Ring of Ages: once belonged to a powerful alchemist who committed a terrible betrayal to attain eternal life. The wearer does not age so long as they wear it.
      5. Mask of Granosa: created from a beast god’s corpse by an evil mask-maker. Wearer grows sharp claws and fierce fangs and can make unarmed attacks as a grizzly bear (1d4/1d4/1d8)
      6. Six Ways To Sunday: a six-shooter machined by a hated exorcist. Can only be fired 6 times a week; recovers all of its ammunition on Sunday at noon. d12 damage at longbow range, ignores AC provided by armor

      I’m keeping Secrets and Artifacts under my hat.

      This isn’t  the only way to get treasure. There are various NPCs with unique spells, items, and classes you can’t get anywhere else, but they have to be discovered and courted.

      jacinto amateur hour, classes, is this gonna work, new age dnd

      reinventing the wheel

      I speed wrote/designed this today, so it’s a little uneven, but here are four 5th edition classes (with kits) that A) fit onto a single page and B) don’t make me feel like I’m doing calculus. They cover the major archetypes, though the clericky/warlocky one isn’t all that faithful to the traditional Van Helsing type. Pictures of the pages below and a download link here.