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[Let's Read] Midgard Worldbook
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7578955" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RcDGi2t.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.imgur.com/AkN3fVm.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Although the Midgard Heroes' Handbook and the Midgard Player's Guide each cover nearly 200 pages worth of material for 5th Edition and Pathfinder respectively, that hasn't prevented the Worldbook from providing new mechanics. Ordinarily the two appendices are split into their own entries, but to avoid repeating myself I figured to cover them both in one sitting. In some cases there are mechanics found only in one version (usually 5th Edition). I assume that this is because existing material is in the other system already, such as the Lust domain which already exists in Pathfinder. For ease of use, (5e) stands for 5th Edition D&D, while (PF) stands for Pathfinder.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Character Options</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/gbBkx2x.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><em>Gnoll Caravan Raider</em> is a background (5e) and is exactly what it says on the tin: it provides proficiency in Acrobatics, Intimidation, Alchemist's tools, and nomadic gear along with the Feature where you have advantage on sifting through and appraising trade goods. In Pathfinder gnolls get two new archetypes: <em>Havoc Runner</em> for Fighters, and <em>Caravan Raider</em> for Rogues. The Havoc Runner has some mobility-based features where you gain increased speed when you move, and you can impose penalty on attack rolls and movement speed to people you hit while running. The Caravan Raider has some bonus feats, but its signature feature is a Shock Bag which is a limited-use-per-day item generator which can replicate an alchemical weapon. We also have a pair of new <em>Rogue Talents</em> (PF) which increase the damage values and save DCs of alchemical weapons, which work great with multiclass Alchemist builds.</p><p></p><p>Paladins get a new <em>Sacred Oath (5e) of the Giving Grave</em> which is all about transcending the mortal coil. It grants some new blood-themed spells as well as more familiar necromancy spells such as animate dead. Its Channel Divinity can compel undead to attack who you want or stun a target for one minute until it takes damage. Its other class features include granting turn immunity to yourself and allies, gain regeneration when below half your hit points, and as a 20th level capstone you resurrect as a death knight if slain.</p><p></p><p>The new <em>Lust Domain (5e/PF)</em> in 5th Edition is possessed by Bastet, Freyr and Freyja, Marena, and Bacchos. It focuses on enchantment spells, grants proficiency in one of Deception/Performance/Persuasion, and its Lustful Gaze channel divinity is a single-target debuff which impacts perception related abilities and at 17th level can obey your verbal commands. In (PF) the already-existing domain has replacement powers akin to a bard's fascination or enthrall abilities.</p><p></p><p>The <em>Hunger Domain (PF)</em> is exclusive to Vardesain and grants the cleric a rounds-per-day bite attack along with feast of ashes as a spell-like ability (which can starve people). Its domain spells are predictably related to food and water creation, buffs usually in the form of bite attacks, and debuffs like energy drain and a new spell Ravenous Hunger (which forces an affected creature to drop what it's doing and eat something nearby).</p><p></p><p>The <em>Serophage Sorcerous Origin (5e)</em> is all about the dark powers of the blood. It includes reduced damage from bludgeoning weapons, the ability to regain sorcery points or add +1/+2 to save DCs (based on level) if you deal 1d4 slashing damage to yourself, and the ability to form a ring of blood from a recently killed creature to absorb incoming attacks or be launched at foes as a weapon. Its greatest feature at 18th level forcefully exsanguinates blood from nearby creatures to restore your own HP or sorcery points.</p><p></p><p>Wizards get a lot of fun here. They have a <em>School of Blood Magic (5e)</em> where they gain learn the memories of a creature whose blood they drink, and absorb poisons and diseases from other creatures into their own body...and can launch it at others as a ranged spit attack! The <em>School of Void Magic (5e)</em> revolves around the alien nature of the Void, where speaking the dread language as part of a verbal component can impose disadvantage to an affected target's next roll, and other features the ability to impose necrotic damage as a per-long-rest ability, and at 14th level can manifest a 20 cubic feet of darkness which imposes necrotic damage and disadvantage on Wisdom checks. Finally, the <em>Void Savant (PF)</em> is virtually the same as the School of Void Magic, save that they gain free Extend Spell metamgic feat a limited number of uses per day.</p><p></p><p><em>Occultists (PF)</em> can play around with void magic in the form of new Implements, focus powers, etc. As I never got into Occult Adventures, I cannot really comment on this in an educated way on the base class' powers. Their implements can impose madness debuffs, create a warped major image as a Base Focus Power, and various dark magic related Focus Powers like turning into an aberrant alien form, summoning creepy creatures, devouring spells and souls, and free divinations from violent sacrifice.</p><p></p><p>We have a pair of new feats (PF): the first is the metamagic feat <em>Strengthen Caster</em> where you restore HP equal to twice the level of a cast spell, while <em>Rush of Magic</em> grants a free bull rush using your caster level and spellcasting score on all those affected by an elemental damage spell (acid/cold/fire/electricity). Yes, this applies to area of effect spells for multiple targets, the feat states as such.</p><p></p><p><em>Nonmagical Items (5e)</em> presents five new pieces of gear, most focused on the cultures of the Rothenian Plains. The Centaur Lance is a super-spear which does double the normal damage as a regular spear and provides advantage against mounted enemies. The Kariv Wheel Shield can be used as both a shield and wagon wheel which act as a +3 AC shield (but needs STR 16 or disadvantage on DEX checks due to bulkiness) or if used on a vehicle grants it bonus AC and HP. The Khazzaki Trick-Bow is meant to be used to show off in archery competitions, with half the range of a shortbow yet grants advantage on Charisma (Performance) checks for archery-based endeavors. The Rothenian Spice Kit can be used to brew food during rests to regain one additional hit die with a DC 5 Intelligence check by the cook. Finally the whip-sash is an unassuming Kariv weapon disguised as a normal piece of clothing but can be turned into a whip with a bonus action.</p><p></p><p><em>Drugs & Poisons (5e/PF)</em> details Requiem, a drug which allows you the ability to cast the speak with dead spell, but with risk of poison damage (5e) or suffering nonlethal damage and penalties on d20 rolls (PF). It can be imbibed as clay to smoke, or smoked in a more powerful form known as bliss which grants contact other plane or speak with dead, save the spirit cannot lie to you. We get a 5th Edition-exclusive poison known as ghoul saliva paste which can cause paralysis on a failed Constitution save, but is very smelly and as such it's hard to sneak up on creatures with Keen Smell trait while carrying it.</p><p></p><p>We have a new vehicle in the form of a <em>Siwali Dune Ship.</em> In 5th Edition you merely add +25% to the base cost of a ship so it can travel on desert sands; it is not in the Appendix proper but in the Southlands chapter. In Pathfinder it's listed as a vehicle in the Appendix, and provides a full stat block for a Colossal multi-purpose desert and water vehicle: it's 12,500 GP to buy and requires longstrider and pass without trace spells for its creation. A rather reasonable price for a magic item of that kind; nonmagical fortresses are 50,000 GP.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Magical Items</strong></p><p></p><p>There's quite a bit of magic items here, 23 typical ones and 2 artifacts to be precise. But only half of them are dual-statted for both Pathfinder. I'm not going to repeat them all, just the more interesting ones.</p><p></p><p>The Black Phial (5e) can provide the effect of a Potion of Greater Healing if filled with fresh blood, but this is limited use item. Blood Mark (5e) is an appropriately creepy coin, as a person can fuel its charges with their own blood, and another person can "fulfill the pledge" to restore their HP at the expense of dealing damage to the original donor. The Keffiyeh of Serendipitous Escape (5e/PF) can be worn as a head garment but also laid out into a flying carpet. The Key of Veles (5e/PF) can be used to locate a ley line or shadow road and open the latter by expending a charge. Memory Philters (5e/PF) are favorites of the shadow fey: they impose various emotion-related buffs and debuffs to the drinker, but their creation requires a mortal to sacrifice knowledge of an appropriate memory (memory of failure or embarassment for shame potion, a nice childhood memory for a joy potion, etc). A Nullifier's Lexicon (5e) allows you to communicate in Void Speech and grants the ability to cast certain spells from its pages, but successive castings deal a cumulative 1d6 necrotic damage whose damage value only resets during long rests. The tome can also rearrange reality to your will once a week. The Staff of the First Labyrinth (5e/PF) is a creation from the days of the Moon Kingdom and can banish stricken opponents to an extradimensional maze for a limited time.</p><p></p><p>Our two artifacts are And'Ducyr (5e), the Khazzaki Khan's legendary longbow which generates its own ammunition, grants truesight to one who draws its string (but deals damage if you don't fire it at a creature within your turn), can fire blinding arrows, and grants advantage and proficiency on Charisma and Intimidation/Persuasion/Performance skills respectively. The Spark of Kjord (5e/PF) is a formless power of divinity which was last possessed by a priest of Mavros before his death at the hands of vampires. It grants advantage/bonuses on Charisma checks to rally people to your cause and deals bonus/radiant damage to undead creatures along with the effects of the bless spell. The spark leaves you to inhabit another creature if you die or waver in your convictions against fighting vampiric tyranny.</p><p></p><p><strong>Fun Fact:</strong> the Spark of Kjord is a reference to the divine sparks in the Southlands Campaign Setting. Such things were stored ephemeral energy of the mighty titans of Glorious Umbuso. They were meant to be found as rare treasure, usually in a king's vault or well-guarded dungeon, and in game purposes granted the powers of <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/" target="_blank">Mythic Tiers.</a></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Alternate Magic</strong></p><p></p><p>This details new magic sub-systems. The first we have is <em>Blood Magic (5e)</em> which was created by the evil wizard Taergash the Bloodpurger. His spells are highly sought after by wicked mages of all kinds, and the book cautions against granting these spells to PCs on account that they are "evil options" not suitable for most parties.</p><p></p><p><em>Red Portal Magic (5e/PF)</em> meanwhile is is a unique form of extradimensional transportation which connects not only to shadow roads but other planes, times, and alternate realities which the book calls out as being possibly other published campaign settings. It has no game mechanics beyond suggestions on their use and the most well-known red portal locations in Midgard.</p><p></p><p><em>Shadow Magic (5e/PF)</em> is fully detailed in the Midgard Heroes' Handbook/Player's Guide, but for now we get notes on Shadow Corruption: it's basically a debilitative condition gained from spending a long time in the Shadow Realm, pacts with dark beings, etc and is represented in six stages. Lower stages involve minor debuffs in bright light and social penalties, but later stages make you blind/sickened/etc in light until you eventually become a Shadow Thrall. Those unfortunate souls are maddened people obsessed with the Shadow Realm and can be commanded by creatures of shadow.</p><p></p><p><em>Void Magic (5e/PF)</em> gets a pretty lengthy entry here. Long story short, it's Lovecraftian magic gleaned from aboleth glyphs, but can also come from the howling denizens in the dark spaces between the stars. For 5th Edition we get a pair of feats for Void Magic: Void Channeler which ups the DC for speaking the language to 8 + proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier for its frightened effect and is no longer limited to just hearing it for the first time. The limiting factor is that you take necrotic damage if you use it too often between rests. Void Scribe lets you inscribe a glyph on an object to make it vulnerable to and take necrotic damage the round after. As far as the feats go, Void Channeler's quite good for the debuff effect of frighten, whereas Void Scribe is rather weak.</p><p></p><p>We get discussion of Void Taint, which usually comes from exposure to related magic, monsters, and terrain poisoned by the powers of the Void. It is resisted with a save appropriate to the method of taint, and people with void-related archetypes and feats have advantage on the saving throws. Failure causes affliction with a short-term madness. Further Void-related maladies can make madness effects last longer or gain physical deformities based on a numeric threshold known as Void Taint. The madness effects are generally role-play focused obsessions, but the deformities have mechanical effects: they are generally a double-edged sword, such as constantly producing slime on your skin which grants advantage on checks to slip out of bonds, but advantage on checks for other people to track you.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Spells</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nSxAm6q.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The final section of the twin appendices do not disappoint. We have 77 new spells for 5th Edition, and about half that amount for Pathfinder. For new magical types, we also have [blood] and [void] descriptors for both 5th Edition and Pathfinder entries.</p><p></p><p>While you'd think that 5th Edition would get most of the exclusive spells, interestingly there are are several Pathfinder-specific options. Two of them are incantations handled as rituals: Incantation of Fealty Given Form (geas/quest to the Duchy), and Incantation of Walking the Shadow Roads (go through a shadow road). Other Pathfinder specific spells include Essence of Instability (radiate an invisible damaging aura), Grasping Water (water sprouts attacking pseudopods), and Halt Vessel (prevents seacraft from moving).</p><p></p><p>Like the magic item section, I will not cover them all. Instead I'll focus on the most interesting ones.</p><p></p><p>Alone (5e/PF) is an enchantment spell which fools the target into thinking its allies vanished to another realm; this prevents them from interacting and gaining teamwork-related abilities and treats them as if they were invisible and silent. Blood & Steel (5e) allows you to charm a construct by pressing your own blood into a handprint on it. Conjure Undead (5e) lets you summon a shadow to do your bidding, but higher spell slots let you summon stronger undead such as wights or ghosts. Conjure/Summon Minor Voidborn (PF/5e) and Conjure/Summon Voidborn (PF/5e) summon an aberration or outsider of a relative power level, and in 5th Edition expending higher level slots lets you summon them in greater numbers. Doom of the Slippery Rogue (5e) covers a 20 by 20 foot section of wall or floor with bacon fat and can cause people to slip or fail on a failed Dexterity save or Strength (Athletics) depending on circumstances. Find Kin (5e) is a low-level ritual which allows you to learn the identity and general location of a random living blood relative of the target. Hobble Mount (5e) deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage (plus 2d6 per slot over 1st level) to a mounted creature which moves more than half its normal movement speed in a round. Ice Soldiers (5e/PF) creates one or more humanoid constructs made from freezing water poured out of a vial, which has respectable statistics for a melee-focused creature. Mammon's Due (5e) summons a burning figure of ash to grab and deal fire damage to creatures in its space to pull them underneath the ground. Open Red Portal (5e/PF) can create a two-way portal on a nearby Shadow Road to take you anywhere in Midgard in the present day, up to 1,000 years in the past, or another plane of existence. Void Rift (5e/PF) opens up a rift into absolute nothingness akin to a black hole, forcefully dragging creatures within the area of effect, deals damage, and either treats them as blind and deaf (5e) or begin to suffocate from lack of air (PF).</p><p></p><p>Also the Lust Domain for 5th Edition has 3 new spells specific to that ruleset. Throes of Ecstasy causes a target to be overcome with sexual euphoria, is incapacitated, auto-fails Wisdom saves for the duration, <em>and</em> suffers 1 to 3 levels of exhaustion based on how long the spell lasted. Lovesick is akin to confusion in that you roll a 1d10 for random behavior: do nothing and sulk like a lovelorn teenager, burst into tears and take the Dash action in a random direction, fly into a jealous rage and attack a random creature, etc. Finally, Kiss of the Succubus can only be used on a charmed creature or one affected by your Lustful Gaze Channel Divinity: it deals 5d10 psychic damage on a failed Constitution save and reduces the victim's HP maximum by that amount until a long rest (or kills them instantly if their HP max is reduced to 0).</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> There's quite a wealth of material in both appendices, especially for spellcasters. I have to wonder how many of the 5th Edition specific material already exists in a Pathfinder book, on account that most Midgard books have been published for that ruleset. If most of them don't exist in earlier products, I can't help but feel that Pathfinder players are getting the short end of the stick here. Some of the abilities seemed to have questionable balance: the Kariv Wheel shield when combined with heavy armor and magical enhancements can push one's AC beyond bounded accuracy thresholds, the Serophage's boost to spell DC is a great deal for just a little bit of damage, and the Throes of Ecstasy is a great setup for a followup Wisdom-save effect...presuming your gaming group would be comfortable with having you cast that spell, as it's technically sexual assault if done against an unwilling creature.</p><p></p><p>As for what I liked: I found that the Oath of the Grave paladin makes for a pretty good martial necromancer archetype. The Rothenian Spice Kit brings back fuzzy memories of Final Fantasy XV's camping mechanic. The memory philters and the methods of their creation were thematically awesome. The Red Portals have great potential for multi-campaign crossovers or "guy sucked from modern world into fantasy realm" adventure ideas. Requiem's dead-speaking properties make it both a useful resource for players, as well as creating an insidious effect for addicts desperate to speak to loved ones as a social scourge.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Concluding Thoughts</strong></p><p></p><p>My feelings for Midgard remain just as strong as they were when I first picked the book up six years ago, albeit perhaps with a more critical eye on its problematic elements. Still, the 2018 Worldbook is a worthy successor for fans and newcomers alike. There are very few settings out there like it: it calls upon fairy tale and folkloric elements without taking a stereotypical "kid-friendly" route, it has a diverse kitchen-sink world which feels naturally connected and not disparately crammed together, and its relative rules-neutrality but with system-specific booklets makes it accessible to gamers of various fantasy RPGs.</p><p></p><p>I hope that I demonstrated to readers the strengths of Wolfgang Baur's long-running passion project, and hope that you all enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7578955, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/RcDGi2t.png[/IMG][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/AkN3fVm.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Although the Midgard Heroes' Handbook and the Midgard Player's Guide each cover nearly 200 pages worth of material for 5th Edition and Pathfinder respectively, that hasn't prevented the Worldbook from providing new mechanics. Ordinarily the two appendices are split into their own entries, but to avoid repeating myself I figured to cover them both in one sitting. In some cases there are mechanics found only in one version (usually 5th Edition). I assume that this is because existing material is in the other system already, such as the Lust domain which already exists in Pathfinder. For ease of use, (5e) stands for 5th Edition D&D, while (PF) stands for Pathfinder. [CENTER][B]Character Options[/B] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/gbBkx2x.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [I]Gnoll Caravan Raider[/I] is a background (5e) and is exactly what it says on the tin: it provides proficiency in Acrobatics, Intimidation, Alchemist's tools, and nomadic gear along with the Feature where you have advantage on sifting through and appraising trade goods. In Pathfinder gnolls get two new archetypes: [I]Havoc Runner[/I] for Fighters, and [I]Caravan Raider[/I] for Rogues. The Havoc Runner has some mobility-based features where you gain increased speed when you move, and you can impose penalty on attack rolls and movement speed to people you hit while running. The Caravan Raider has some bonus feats, but its signature feature is a Shock Bag which is a limited-use-per-day item generator which can replicate an alchemical weapon. We also have a pair of new [I]Rogue Talents[/I] (PF) which increase the damage values and save DCs of alchemical weapons, which work great with multiclass Alchemist builds. Paladins get a new [I]Sacred Oath (5e) of the Giving Grave[/I] which is all about transcending the mortal coil. It grants some new blood-themed spells as well as more familiar necromancy spells such as animate dead. Its Channel Divinity can compel undead to attack who you want or stun a target for one minute until it takes damage. Its other class features include granting turn immunity to yourself and allies, gain regeneration when below half your hit points, and as a 20th level capstone you resurrect as a death knight if slain. The new [I]Lust Domain (5e/PF)[/I] in 5th Edition is possessed by Bastet, Freyr and Freyja, Marena, and Bacchos. It focuses on enchantment spells, grants proficiency in one of Deception/Performance/Persuasion, and its Lustful Gaze channel divinity is a single-target debuff which impacts perception related abilities and at 17th level can obey your verbal commands. In (PF) the already-existing domain has replacement powers akin to a bard's fascination or enthrall abilities. The [I]Hunger Domain (PF)[/I] is exclusive to Vardesain and grants the cleric a rounds-per-day bite attack along with feast of ashes as a spell-like ability (which can starve people). Its domain spells are predictably related to food and water creation, buffs usually in the form of bite attacks, and debuffs like energy drain and a new spell Ravenous Hunger (which forces an affected creature to drop what it's doing and eat something nearby). The [I]Serophage Sorcerous Origin (5e)[/I] is all about the dark powers of the blood. It includes reduced damage from bludgeoning weapons, the ability to regain sorcery points or add +1/+2 to save DCs (based on level) if you deal 1d4 slashing damage to yourself, and the ability to form a ring of blood from a recently killed creature to absorb incoming attacks or be launched at foes as a weapon. Its greatest feature at 18th level forcefully exsanguinates blood from nearby creatures to restore your own HP or sorcery points. Wizards get a lot of fun here. They have a [I]School of Blood Magic (5e)[/I] where they gain learn the memories of a creature whose blood they drink, and absorb poisons and diseases from other creatures into their own body...and can launch it at others as a ranged spit attack! The [I]School of Void Magic (5e)[/I] revolves around the alien nature of the Void, where speaking the dread language as part of a verbal component can impose disadvantage to an affected target's next roll, and other features the ability to impose necrotic damage as a per-long-rest ability, and at 14th level can manifest a 20 cubic feet of darkness which imposes necrotic damage and disadvantage on Wisdom checks. Finally, the [I]Void Savant (PF)[/I] is virtually the same as the School of Void Magic, save that they gain free Extend Spell metamgic feat a limited number of uses per day. [I]Occultists (PF)[/I] can play around with void magic in the form of new Implements, focus powers, etc. As I never got into Occult Adventures, I cannot really comment on this in an educated way on the base class' powers. Their implements can impose madness debuffs, create a warped major image as a Base Focus Power, and various dark magic related Focus Powers like turning into an aberrant alien form, summoning creepy creatures, devouring spells and souls, and free divinations from violent sacrifice. We have a pair of new feats (PF): the first is the metamagic feat [I]Strengthen Caster[/I] where you restore HP equal to twice the level of a cast spell, while [I]Rush of Magic[/I] grants a free bull rush using your caster level and spellcasting score on all those affected by an elemental damage spell (acid/cold/fire/electricity). Yes, this applies to area of effect spells for multiple targets, the feat states as such. [I]Nonmagical Items (5e)[/I] presents five new pieces of gear, most focused on the cultures of the Rothenian Plains. The Centaur Lance is a super-spear which does double the normal damage as a regular spear and provides advantage against mounted enemies. The Kariv Wheel Shield can be used as both a shield and wagon wheel which act as a +3 AC shield (but needs STR 16 or disadvantage on DEX checks due to bulkiness) or if used on a vehicle grants it bonus AC and HP. The Khazzaki Trick-Bow is meant to be used to show off in archery competitions, with half the range of a shortbow yet grants advantage on Charisma (Performance) checks for archery-based endeavors. The Rothenian Spice Kit can be used to brew food during rests to regain one additional hit die with a DC 5 Intelligence check by the cook. Finally the whip-sash is an unassuming Kariv weapon disguised as a normal piece of clothing but can be turned into a whip with a bonus action. [I]Drugs & Poisons (5e/PF)[/I] details Requiem, a drug which allows you the ability to cast the speak with dead spell, but with risk of poison damage (5e) or suffering nonlethal damage and penalties on d20 rolls (PF). It can be imbibed as clay to smoke, or smoked in a more powerful form known as bliss which grants contact other plane or speak with dead, save the spirit cannot lie to you. We get a 5th Edition-exclusive poison known as ghoul saliva paste which can cause paralysis on a failed Constitution save, but is very smelly and as such it's hard to sneak up on creatures with Keen Smell trait while carrying it. We have a new vehicle in the form of a [I]Siwali Dune Ship.[/I] In 5th Edition you merely add +25% to the base cost of a ship so it can travel on desert sands; it is not in the Appendix proper but in the Southlands chapter. In Pathfinder it's listed as a vehicle in the Appendix, and provides a full stat block for a Colossal multi-purpose desert and water vehicle: it's 12,500 GP to buy and requires longstrider and pass without trace spells for its creation. A rather reasonable price for a magic item of that kind; nonmagical fortresses are 50,000 GP. [CENTER][B]Magical Items[/B][/CENTER] There's quite a bit of magic items here, 23 typical ones and 2 artifacts to be precise. But only half of them are dual-statted for both Pathfinder. I'm not going to repeat them all, just the more interesting ones. The Black Phial (5e) can provide the effect of a Potion of Greater Healing if filled with fresh blood, but this is limited use item. Blood Mark (5e) is an appropriately creepy coin, as a person can fuel its charges with their own blood, and another person can "fulfill the pledge" to restore their HP at the expense of dealing damage to the original donor. The Keffiyeh of Serendipitous Escape (5e/PF) can be worn as a head garment but also laid out into a flying carpet. The Key of Veles (5e/PF) can be used to locate a ley line or shadow road and open the latter by expending a charge. Memory Philters (5e/PF) are favorites of the shadow fey: they impose various emotion-related buffs and debuffs to the drinker, but their creation requires a mortal to sacrifice knowledge of an appropriate memory (memory of failure or embarassment for shame potion, a nice childhood memory for a joy potion, etc). A Nullifier's Lexicon (5e) allows you to communicate in Void Speech and grants the ability to cast certain spells from its pages, but successive castings deal a cumulative 1d6 necrotic damage whose damage value only resets during long rests. The tome can also rearrange reality to your will once a week. The Staff of the First Labyrinth (5e/PF) is a creation from the days of the Moon Kingdom and can banish stricken opponents to an extradimensional maze for a limited time. Our two artifacts are And'Ducyr (5e), the Khazzaki Khan's legendary longbow which generates its own ammunition, grants truesight to one who draws its string (but deals damage if you don't fire it at a creature within your turn), can fire blinding arrows, and grants advantage and proficiency on Charisma and Intimidation/Persuasion/Performance skills respectively. The Spark of Kjord (5e/PF) is a formless power of divinity which was last possessed by a priest of Mavros before his death at the hands of vampires. It grants advantage/bonuses on Charisma checks to rally people to your cause and deals bonus/radiant damage to undead creatures along with the effects of the bless spell. The spark leaves you to inhabit another creature if you die or waver in your convictions against fighting vampiric tyranny. [B]Fun Fact:[/B] the Spark of Kjord is a reference to the divine sparks in the Southlands Campaign Setting. Such things were stored ephemeral energy of the mighty titans of Glorious Umbuso. They were meant to be found as rare treasure, usually in a king's vault or well-guarded dungeon, and in game purposes granted the powers of [URL="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/"]Mythic Tiers.[/URL] [CENTER][B]Alternate Magic[/B][/CENTER] This details new magic sub-systems. The first we have is [I]Blood Magic (5e)[/I] which was created by the evil wizard Taergash the Bloodpurger. His spells are highly sought after by wicked mages of all kinds, and the book cautions against granting these spells to PCs on account that they are "evil options" not suitable for most parties. [I]Red Portal Magic (5e/PF)[/I] meanwhile is is a unique form of extradimensional transportation which connects not only to shadow roads but other planes, times, and alternate realities which the book calls out as being possibly other published campaign settings. It has no game mechanics beyond suggestions on their use and the most well-known red portal locations in Midgard. [I]Shadow Magic (5e/PF)[/I] is fully detailed in the Midgard Heroes' Handbook/Player's Guide, but for now we get notes on Shadow Corruption: it's basically a debilitative condition gained from spending a long time in the Shadow Realm, pacts with dark beings, etc and is represented in six stages. Lower stages involve minor debuffs in bright light and social penalties, but later stages make you blind/sickened/etc in light until you eventually become a Shadow Thrall. Those unfortunate souls are maddened people obsessed with the Shadow Realm and can be commanded by creatures of shadow. [I]Void Magic (5e/PF)[/I] gets a pretty lengthy entry here. Long story short, it's Lovecraftian magic gleaned from aboleth glyphs, but can also come from the howling denizens in the dark spaces between the stars. For 5th Edition we get a pair of feats for Void Magic: Void Channeler which ups the DC for speaking the language to 8 + proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier for its frightened effect and is no longer limited to just hearing it for the first time. The limiting factor is that you take necrotic damage if you use it too often between rests. Void Scribe lets you inscribe a glyph on an object to make it vulnerable to and take necrotic damage the round after. As far as the feats go, Void Channeler's quite good for the debuff effect of frighten, whereas Void Scribe is rather weak. We get discussion of Void Taint, which usually comes from exposure to related magic, monsters, and terrain poisoned by the powers of the Void. It is resisted with a save appropriate to the method of taint, and people with void-related archetypes and feats have advantage on the saving throws. Failure causes affliction with a short-term madness. Further Void-related maladies can make madness effects last longer or gain physical deformities based on a numeric threshold known as Void Taint. The madness effects are generally role-play focused obsessions, but the deformities have mechanical effects: they are generally a double-edged sword, such as constantly producing slime on your skin which grants advantage on checks to slip out of bonds, but advantage on checks for other people to track you. [CENTER][B]Spells[/B] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/nSxAm6q.png[/IMG][/CENTER] The final section of the twin appendices do not disappoint. We have 77 new spells for 5th Edition, and about half that amount for Pathfinder. For new magical types, we also have [blood] and [void] descriptors for both 5th Edition and Pathfinder entries. While you'd think that 5th Edition would get most of the exclusive spells, interestingly there are are several Pathfinder-specific options. Two of them are incantations handled as rituals: Incantation of Fealty Given Form (geas/quest to the Duchy), and Incantation of Walking the Shadow Roads (go through a shadow road). Other Pathfinder specific spells include Essence of Instability (radiate an invisible damaging aura), Grasping Water (water sprouts attacking pseudopods), and Halt Vessel (prevents seacraft from moving). Like the magic item section, I will not cover them all. Instead I'll focus on the most interesting ones. Alone (5e/PF) is an enchantment spell which fools the target into thinking its allies vanished to another realm; this prevents them from interacting and gaining teamwork-related abilities and treats them as if they were invisible and silent. Blood & Steel (5e) allows you to charm a construct by pressing your own blood into a handprint on it. Conjure Undead (5e) lets you summon a shadow to do your bidding, but higher spell slots let you summon stronger undead such as wights or ghosts. Conjure/Summon Minor Voidborn (PF/5e) and Conjure/Summon Voidborn (PF/5e) summon an aberration or outsider of a relative power level, and in 5th Edition expending higher level slots lets you summon them in greater numbers. Doom of the Slippery Rogue (5e) covers a 20 by 20 foot section of wall or floor with bacon fat and can cause people to slip or fail on a failed Dexterity save or Strength (Athletics) depending on circumstances. Find Kin (5e) is a low-level ritual which allows you to learn the identity and general location of a random living blood relative of the target. Hobble Mount (5e) deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage (plus 2d6 per slot over 1st level) to a mounted creature which moves more than half its normal movement speed in a round. Ice Soldiers (5e/PF) creates one or more humanoid constructs made from freezing water poured out of a vial, which has respectable statistics for a melee-focused creature. Mammon's Due (5e) summons a burning figure of ash to grab and deal fire damage to creatures in its space to pull them underneath the ground. Open Red Portal (5e/PF) can create a two-way portal on a nearby Shadow Road to take you anywhere in Midgard in the present day, up to 1,000 years in the past, or another plane of existence. Void Rift (5e/PF) opens up a rift into absolute nothingness akin to a black hole, forcefully dragging creatures within the area of effect, deals damage, and either treats them as blind and deaf (5e) or begin to suffocate from lack of air (PF). Also the Lust Domain for 5th Edition has 3 new spells specific to that ruleset. Throes of Ecstasy causes a target to be overcome with sexual euphoria, is incapacitated, auto-fails Wisdom saves for the duration, [I]and[/I] suffers 1 to 3 levels of exhaustion based on how long the spell lasted. Lovesick is akin to confusion in that you roll a 1d10 for random behavior: do nothing and sulk like a lovelorn teenager, burst into tears and take the Dash action in a random direction, fly into a jealous rage and attack a random creature, etc. Finally, Kiss of the Succubus can only be used on a charmed creature or one affected by your Lustful Gaze Channel Divinity: it deals 5d10 psychic damage on a failed Constitution save and reduces the victim's HP maximum by that amount until a long rest (or kills them instantly if their HP max is reduced to 0). [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] There's quite a wealth of material in both appendices, especially for spellcasters. I have to wonder how many of the 5th Edition specific material already exists in a Pathfinder book, on account that most Midgard books have been published for that ruleset. If most of them don't exist in earlier products, I can't help but feel that Pathfinder players are getting the short end of the stick here. Some of the abilities seemed to have questionable balance: the Kariv Wheel shield when combined with heavy armor and magical enhancements can push one's AC beyond bounded accuracy thresholds, the Serophage's boost to spell DC is a great deal for just a little bit of damage, and the Throes of Ecstasy is a great setup for a followup Wisdom-save effect...presuming your gaming group would be comfortable with having you cast that spell, as it's technically sexual assault if done against an unwilling creature. As for what I liked: I found that the Oath of the Grave paladin makes for a pretty good martial necromancer archetype. The Rothenian Spice Kit brings back fuzzy memories of Final Fantasy XV's camping mechanic. The memory philters and the methods of their creation were thematically awesome. The Red Portals have great potential for multi-campaign crossovers or "guy sucked from modern world into fantasy realm" adventure ideas. Requiem's dead-speaking properties make it both a useful resource for players, as well as creating an insidious effect for addicts desperate to speak to loved ones as a social scourge. [CENTER][B]Concluding Thoughts[/B][/CENTER] My feelings for Midgard remain just as strong as they were when I first picked the book up six years ago, albeit perhaps with a more critical eye on its problematic elements. Still, the 2018 Worldbook is a worthy successor for fans and newcomers alike. There are very few settings out there like it: it calls upon fairy tale and folkloric elements without taking a stereotypical "kid-friendly" route, it has a diverse kitchen-sink world which feels naturally connected and not disparately crammed together, and its relative rules-neutrality but with system-specific booklets makes it accessible to gamers of various fantasy RPGs. I hope that I demonstrated to readers the strengths of Wolfgang Baur's long-running passion project, and hope that you all enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it! [/QUOTE]
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