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[Let's Read] Nyambe: African Adventures
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7634986" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/x6K3EMv.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is a collection of new setting-specific spells, along with some alternate rules reflecting the magical foundation of the universe.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Alternate Magic Rules</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>These are not suggested house rules, but rather specific variants taking into account the unique practices of Nyamban magic and the world’s history. First off, we get a deeper explanation on mojuba bags: mojuba literally means “to prepare a spell” in Kordo, so the bag is a container with the necessary objects for spellcasting. The contents include seemingly mundane trinkets like metal shards, rocks, animal parts, and so on, but another spellcaster can recognize them as the literal building blocks of a spell. The items are referred to as mojo.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Secondly, summoning works differently. Instead of the standard Summon Monster and Summon Nature’s Ally spells we have variants. Other summoning spells such as Insect Plague, Planar Binding, etc are unchanged. Rangers and clerics (including the Nyamban variants) who use the druid spell list have access to a new spell, Summon Elemental, while every other class and n’anga who use the cleric spell list cast Summon Dragon. Although dragons and elementals are quite diverse for monsters and have some utility functions, this is a bit of an overall downgrade.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The tale of the frog and the bat is no mere fable: reincarnation and resurrection magic is less powerful in Nyambe, the existing spells reflecting an imperfect understanding. There’s also the fact that the spirit world is a very busy place, and the departed often gain new duties and obligations preventing their return. The <em>reincarnation</em> spell works best on those without living descendants, as those who do have descendants are expected to serve their family as ancestor orisha and being brought back as another bloodline would sever that obligation. Secondly, all forms of <em>resurrection</em> spells including raise dead function mostly for those with living descendants; those without descendants are waiting in Da’s oceans to be reincarnated and Siama is not fond of breaking this cosmic order. All such spells, even <em>true resurrection,</em> requires a grave to be made and ashes gathered from the hearth of a temple to be sprinkled upon it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>What does this mean in game effects? Well these revival spells have anywhere from a 10% to 20% chance of failure, the latter if you’re using the wrong spell in regards to descendants or lack thereof. If any attempt at reincarnation or resurrection on a specific creature fails, all future attempts will also fail. This makes perma-death much more likely in the setting.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Finally, spells which grant any kind of Armor Class bonus (even non-armory ones like deflection or insight) require additional valuable material components with a cost of 25 gp per level of the spell. This is to simulate the setting’s lack of heavier armor by bringing down spellcasters to a similar restriction.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Gasp, a setting which is actually weakening spellcasters in numerous ways? Shocking!</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Y6ualz4.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Nyamban Domains</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>We have 16 new domains for n’anga, and 10 of those include at least one new spell from this book! Half of them are the province of a specific orisha and are highly themed after their nature.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Bird</em> relates to the skyborne masters of the animal kingdom and includes various flight, weather, and shape-changing related spells with the restriction to winged creatures only. Its special power grants speak with animals at will in regards to birds</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Confusion</em> is the province of GuDuGu the Obscene One, granting immunity to all insanity-related effects and has various mental debuffs. It also includes the <a href="http://dnd.arkalseif.info/spells/players-handbook-30--106/random-action--5023/index.html" target="_blank">Random Action spell</a> which never made the transition to 3.5, a rare relic from pre-2003!</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Dance</em> teaches you how to wield the power of music and magic together like Tarango the Drummer. Its granted power grants synergy bonuses on various physical skills if you have 3 ranks in Perform (Dance) and whose spells are based around mobility, sonic damage, and a few buffs and debuffs.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Darkness</em> seeks the death of all light as Gamal wishes. Its granted power includes 60 foot darkvision and focuses on shadow magic and various creepy debuffs such as nightmare, phantasmal killer and power word blind.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Exile</em> teaches those banished from communities self-survival, in line with Tu the Outcast. Its granted power is +2 on Hide and Move Silently and its spells revolve around avoiding detection (invisibility, blink, sequester) or imposing restrictions on action (sanctuary, dimensional anchor, imprisonment, etc).</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Fertility</em> harnesses the power of creation, and not just in reproductive manners. Its granted power increases the amount of hit points gained via natural healing and rest, and its spells are themed around creating and repairing objects and sustenance.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Fish</em> grants province over marine life. Its granted power allows for rebuking and commanding aquatic creatures, and its spells revolve around water and polymorphing in regards to marine life (not just fish).</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Flesh</em> teaches the deadly arts of inflicting ruin upon others’ bodies, and as such is taught only by fiendish orisha. Its granted power increases your Hit Points by 5 instead of 3 whenever you take Toughness, and its spells are almost exclusively physical debuffs of some kind.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Greed</em> is what trickle-down economics looks like in practice; being less about wealth creation and more preserving what wealth you have. Its granted power includes a +4 on all Pick Pocket skills and Spot checks to detect pickpocketing yourself. Its spells are diverse, ranging from guarding against scrying to protecting them from unwanted intruders such as guards and wards, or leomund’s secret chest.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Hunting</em> teaches one how to take advantage of the natural world as well as ranged combat. Its granted power allows you to learn the Animal Empathy skill (in 3.5 it became a Druid/Ranger class feature), and its spells are a mixture of debuffs, mobility, and two new arrow-themed spells described later.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Iron</em> is considered a fifth element beyond the classical four (but is not affiliated with the Elemental Orisha oddly enough). Its granted power allows you to ignore the Hardness, Damage Reduction, or armor bonus from iron creatures and objects three times per day, which is a great way of effectively turning weapons into touch attacks against armored opponents...if iron armor was a common option in Nyambe. Its spells are diverse, ranging from buffs and debuffs such as keen edge and rusting grasp, to battlefield control such as wall of iron and blade barrier.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Lightning</em> is the destructive right of Siama the Dead and is anything but subtle. Its granted power grants 10 points of Electricity Resistance to the n’anga and almost every spell is directly offensive with lightning or sonic attacks.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Love</em> can be used for both good and evil for its ability to literally change hearts and minds, and as such n’anga with this domain are not trusted until they’re needed to gain the hand of another or dissolve a tense situation. The granted power allows the cleric to automatically know how to brew love potions (or at 50% cost if Brew Potion/Culinary Ashe is known). Its spells are predictably various forms of enchantment.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Plague</em> is taught by Sama/the Poison One, a domain that is one of the most hated in Nyambe-tanda for obvious reasons. Its granted power grants immunity to ability score damage (but not permanent drain) from diseases while still allowing the n’anga to incubate and spread them. Its granted powers include the summoning of insects and vermin or poison and disease-related debuffs.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Serpents</em> are the dominion of Zombi, whose fell empire’s legacy still casts a shadow of ill omen across the continent. Its granted power allows the n’anga to rebuke or command reptilian creatures including dragons! The spells tend to be animal-themed around serpents, ranging from offensive buffs such as magic fang and animal growth to more offensive ones such as Poison and Snake Staff.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Wisdom</em> is associated with both the madness of GuDuGu the Obscene One and Ramaranda the Diviner. N’anga with this domain often find themselves as advisors to nobles or community spokespeople for their foresight. Its granted power is a lame +1 bonus to all Wisdom-based skills, and the spells are exclusively utility divination.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/gJJWt8n.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Nyamban Spells</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>Nyambe has 24 new spells, 40 if you count the nine iterations of Summon Dragon/Elemental as their own individual magic. And to reduce confusion, new abbreviations are made for the new Nyamban core and prestige classes, with the Player’s Handbook abbreviations in parenthesis. I’m also getting some Dragonlance 3.5 vibes in that several of the spell descriptions include in-universe lore of the spell’s inventors and/or most infamous uses which I like. In keeping with divine magic being common and socially acceptable, all but the new Summons are included as a domain spell, 4 of which are domain-exclusive.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Arrow of Slaying</em> is a Hunting/Dembe spell privately taught among the greatest monster hunters and as such is never incorporated into charged magical items. It grants the slaying enhancement upon already-magically arrows, the type of monster designated upon casting. If such a creature type is hit with an arrow, they must make a DC 20/23 Fortitude save (lesser or greater) or die. This is a multi-use save or die spell and really effective.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Babble</em> is a permanent AoE debuff which renders afflicted targets unable to speak or write intelligibly. Non-linguistic communication is possible, but it renders verbal spellcasting impossible.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Bite of the Plague Rat</em> is a powerful 9th-level spell which afflicts everyone in a 30 foot radius with the red death disease on a failed save, a new one in this book (1d6 Constitution damage per day). The disease is highly contagious airborne plague which manifests no symptoms, allowing for a devastating chain spread.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Convocation of Eagles</em> is a Bird domain specific spell, summoning 12 giant eagles to your side.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Drums of Panic</em> is a cool Bard/Dance domain spell which requires drums as a focus. For one round per level you roll Perform (drums) which sets the DC for the spell, and enemies within a 30 foot burst who fail the DC become panicked for 1d4 rounds. Given how easy it is to cheese Perform bonuses, this is a potent spell.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Fertility Charm</em> is perhaps <em>the</em> most well-known spell in Nyambe-tanda. For one hour per level a touched creature is able to impregnate or become pregnant based upon their physical sex as well as gaining Endurance as a bonus feat. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Incantation of the Broken Limb</em> is a low-level (2nd, or 1st with Flesh domain) spell, but is quite devastating. It doesn’t deal much damage (1d4 to 5d4) but can render a limb of the caster’s choice to be broken on a failed Fortitude save, imposing a -2 penalty on all d20 rolls relating to the use of said limb until the damage is healed.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Iron Golem</em> is a 9th-level spell for spellcasters on a budget. Instead of building your own iron golem you can summon one for 1 round per level and are automatically capable of communicating with and commanding it. However in exchange for this “golem on the go” there’s a 10% chance every round that said golem will turn on the caster.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Lesser Water Breathing</em> is one level lower than its standard counterpart, lasting only 10 minutes per level rather than 24 hours.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Lighting Storm</em> and <em>Lightning Strike</em> are a pair of electricity-themed spells known exclusively to n’anga druids (Storm) and/or those with the Lightning domain (Strike). The first spell fills a bunch of 10 foot cubes with ambient electricity dealing 1d6 damage per caster level, while the second spell is a lightning version of <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm" target="_blank">flame strike.</a></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Lobir</em> creates an invisible insect construct of the same name for 1 round per level, commanded by you and capable of burrowing under an opponent’s skin to deal internal damage. The spell is the only known means of creating a lobir to inhabit the world, for they cannot be permanently built. Although detailed in Chapter 13, a Lobir is a Challenge Rating 3 fly-sized construct with an amazing Armor Class and Damage Reduction (27, DR/15), are naturally invisible, and deal 1d4 constitution damage per round they remain embedded in a target via a touch attack. A pretty nifty and powerful spell.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Lockjaw</em> causes the jaw muscles of a target to clench up on a failed Fortitude save, rendering them incapable of speech or verbal casting and lasts indefinitely until the target succeeds on a save they can make once per day. Although second-level (1st if Iron domain), this is a really powerful anti-spellcaster debuff. Much like Babble but targeting less people and with a shorter duration.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Lover’s Curse</em> is a reverse charm spell, a permanent curse which causes the target to suffer a -10 penalty on Charisma checks as people instinctively hate or dislike them.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Phase Arrow</em> is the other Hunting/Dembe spell. It enchants 10 normal arrows into +1 weapons which can travel through the Shadow World to ignore physical barriers. They ignore all armor, natural armor, and cover modifiers, turning physical and damaging a target normally once it reaches its intended destination.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Snake Staff</em> turns a quarterstaff into a snake for 1 round per level, capable of being wielded as a weapon dealing 1d8 piercing damage and 1d4 Constitution damage as a poison. The staff has an infinite supply of poison but cannot be “milked.” It’s rather underpowered for a 7th-level spell.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Solid Darkness</em> creates a cloud of physical darkness, granting full concealment to all within and blocking out even Darkvision. Creatures move at 1/10th normal speed, and is charged with negative energy dealing 1 damage per round, making it a good means to heal multiple undead minions the same amount.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Sticks to Serpents</em> turns a pile of branches and twigs into 3 fiendish small vipers per level, and you can communicate with and command them. For comparison, a single fiendish small viper can be summoned with Summon Monster I, but higher-level SM castings max out at 1d4+1. As this spell is 6th-level it’s a great means of potential action economy abuse, but these monsters are so weak that they can be easily destroyed by an AoE spell.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Summon Dragon</em> and <em>Summon Elemental</em> are our two replacement spells for the ubiquitous Summon X spells which are the bread and butter of standard D&D. Both go all the way up to IX and function similarly to their replacements. Summon Dragon is pretty good, as the 3rd Edition designers intentionally under-CRed true dragons so as to make them “even tougher fights,” and those of sufficient age can outright cast sorcerer spells. Depending on how liberal your GM is with granting you control over who you summon, this can be an effective way of getting a more minor spellcaster to perform a spell upon your behalf.</p><p></p><p></p><p>As for Summon Elemental, it is weaker in that said creatures do not have as much function, but can have useful utility. They can do things mundane animals cannot, but unlike fey they do not have as much versatility.</p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/DtHsq0e.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/teCNtjh.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Tear the Open Wound</em> is a powerful necromancy debuff permanent in duration. A targeted creature who has taken damage from a slashing or piercing weapon becomes unable to be healed from any cure spell on a failed Fortitude save, although natural healing and healing spells without the word “cure” in their name work normally. This spell can only be dispelled by break enchantment or the wish series of spells (limited wish, wish/miracle). Given that casting healing magic in general is not action-efficient in D&D, this is rather underpowered.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>True Love</em> is either a 9th-level Love domain capstone or a 6th-level bard spell. It causes two targets within range to permanently become hopelessly in love with each other, and both must fail their Will saving throws in order for the spell to take effect. In addition to regarding each other as beloved and trusted companions, they both physically sicken if separated for more than 24 hours, ranging from Strength and Dexterity penalties to becoming bedridden at 0 hit points at worst. This is of limited utility given the double-fail-save as well as being a slower-acting debuff.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Weaving Dance</em> is the 9th-level capstone of the Dance domain, and is a multi-purpose personal buff spell. It effectively grants you Dodge, Mobility, Fast Movement, Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge, and +4 Trap Sense which can stack with existing modifiers of said features. It only lasts for 1 round per level, and I found it rather uninspiring in that the individual effects pale in comparison to lower-level spells such as haste, displacement, etc.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Wings</em> is a 5th-level Bird domain exclusive spell. It functions much like Overland Flight, but is personal in use, causes you to physically manifest wings which have a faster 90 feet per round speed (60 if wearing medium or heavier armor) at good maneuverability. You also get Flyby Attack as a bonus feat for the duration, and if your spell ends while you’re still in the air you begin to float slowly down for 1d6 rounds at a rate of 60 feet per round. This slow fall even occurs if said spell is dispelled or you get caught in an anti-magic field.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The new domains and spells are overall quite cool. In a few cases they are underpowered for their level and a few are quite potent, but the latter case tends to be spells exclusive to one of the new cleric domains so as to reward taking it. I am not exactly fond of the variant rules: although I can understand the sentiment of not making shield/mage armor widen the <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards" target="_blank">Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards gap,</a> Nyamban adventurers are already quite AC-starved with the pitiable Sanguar feat. The unreliability of magical reviving nicely ties into the world, but given the preponderance of Save or Die spells may make Nyambe campaigns unexpectedly lethal. I can imagine the “forever dead” percentage chances being more unwelcome than not in gaming groups.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we take a tour of the continent in Chapter 10’s Lands, Nations, and Societies!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7634986, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/x6K3EMv.png[/img][/center] This is a collection of new setting-specific spells, along with some alternate rules reflecting the magical foundation of the universe. [center][b]Alternate Magic Rules[/b][/center] These are not suggested house rules, but rather specific variants taking into account the unique practices of Nyamban magic and the world’s history. First off, we get a deeper explanation on mojuba bags: mojuba literally means “to prepare a spell” in Kordo, so the bag is a container with the necessary objects for spellcasting. The contents include seemingly mundane trinkets like metal shards, rocks, animal parts, and so on, but another spellcaster can recognize them as the literal building blocks of a spell. The items are referred to as mojo. Secondly, summoning works differently. Instead of the standard Summon Monster and Summon Nature’s Ally spells we have variants. Other summoning spells such as Insect Plague, Planar Binding, etc are unchanged. Rangers and clerics (including the Nyamban variants) who use the druid spell list have access to a new spell, Summon Elemental, while every other class and n’anga who use the cleric spell list cast Summon Dragon. Although dragons and elementals are quite diverse for monsters and have some utility functions, this is a bit of an overall downgrade. The tale of the frog and the bat is no mere fable: reincarnation and resurrection magic is less powerful in Nyambe, the existing spells reflecting an imperfect understanding. There’s also the fact that the spirit world is a very busy place, and the departed often gain new duties and obligations preventing their return. The [i]reincarnation[/i] spell works best on those without living descendants, as those who do have descendants are expected to serve their family as ancestor orisha and being brought back as another bloodline would sever that obligation. Secondly, all forms of [i]resurrection[/i] spells including raise dead function mostly for those with living descendants; those without descendants are waiting in Da’s oceans to be reincarnated and Siama is not fond of breaking this cosmic order. All such spells, even [i]true resurrection,[/i] requires a grave to be made and ashes gathered from the hearth of a temple to be sprinkled upon it. What does this mean in game effects? Well these revival spells have anywhere from a 10% to 20% chance of failure, the latter if you’re using the wrong spell in regards to descendants or lack thereof. If any attempt at reincarnation or resurrection on a specific creature fails, all future attempts will also fail. This makes perma-death much more likely in the setting. Finally, spells which grant any kind of Armor Class bonus (even non-armory ones like deflection or insight) require additional valuable material components with a cost of 25 gp per level of the spell. This is to simulate the setting’s lack of heavier armor by bringing down spellcasters to a similar restriction. Gasp, a setting which is actually weakening spellcasters in numerous ways? Shocking! [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Y6ualz4.png[/img] [b]New Nyamban Domains[/b][/center] We have 16 new domains for n’anga, and 10 of those include at least one new spell from this book! Half of them are the province of a specific orisha and are highly themed after their nature. [i]Bird[/i] relates to the skyborne masters of the animal kingdom and includes various flight, weather, and shape-changing related spells with the restriction to winged creatures only. Its special power grants speak with animals at will in regards to birds [i]Confusion[/i] is the province of GuDuGu the Obscene One, granting immunity to all insanity-related effects and has various mental debuffs. It also includes the [url=http://dnd.arkalseif.info/spells/players-handbook-30--106/random-action--5023/index.html]Random Action spell[/url] which never made the transition to 3.5, a rare relic from pre-2003! [i]Dance[/i] teaches you how to wield the power of music and magic together like Tarango the Drummer. Its granted power grants synergy bonuses on various physical skills if you have 3 ranks in Perform (Dance) and whose spells are based around mobility, sonic damage, and a few buffs and debuffs. [i]Darkness[/i] seeks the death of all light as Gamal wishes. Its granted power includes 60 foot darkvision and focuses on shadow magic and various creepy debuffs such as nightmare, phantasmal killer and power word blind. [i]Exile[/i] teaches those banished from communities self-survival, in line with Tu the Outcast. Its granted power is +2 on Hide and Move Silently and its spells revolve around avoiding detection (invisibility, blink, sequester) or imposing restrictions on action (sanctuary, dimensional anchor, imprisonment, etc). [i]Fertility[/i] harnesses the power of creation, and not just in reproductive manners. Its granted power increases the amount of hit points gained via natural healing and rest, and its spells are themed around creating and repairing objects and sustenance. [i]Fish[/i] grants province over marine life. Its granted power allows for rebuking and commanding aquatic creatures, and its spells revolve around water and polymorphing in regards to marine life (not just fish). [i]Flesh[/i] teaches the deadly arts of inflicting ruin upon others’ bodies, and as such is taught only by fiendish orisha. Its granted power increases your Hit Points by 5 instead of 3 whenever you take Toughness, and its spells are almost exclusively physical debuffs of some kind. [i]Greed[/i] is what trickle-down economics looks like in practice; being less about wealth creation and more preserving what wealth you have. Its granted power includes a +4 on all Pick Pocket skills and Spot checks to detect pickpocketing yourself. Its spells are diverse, ranging from guarding against scrying to protecting them from unwanted intruders such as guards and wards, or leomund’s secret chest. [i]Hunting[/i] teaches one how to take advantage of the natural world as well as ranged combat. Its granted power allows you to learn the Animal Empathy skill (in 3.5 it became a Druid/Ranger class feature), and its spells are a mixture of debuffs, mobility, and two new arrow-themed spells described later. [i]Iron[/i] is considered a fifth element beyond the classical four (but is not affiliated with the Elemental Orisha oddly enough). Its granted power allows you to ignore the Hardness, Damage Reduction, or armor bonus from iron creatures and objects three times per day, which is a great way of effectively turning weapons into touch attacks against armored opponents...if iron armor was a common option in Nyambe. Its spells are diverse, ranging from buffs and debuffs such as keen edge and rusting grasp, to battlefield control such as wall of iron and blade barrier. [i]Lightning[/i] is the destructive right of Siama the Dead and is anything but subtle. Its granted power grants 10 points of Electricity Resistance to the n’anga and almost every spell is directly offensive with lightning or sonic attacks. [i]Love[/i] can be used for both good and evil for its ability to literally change hearts and minds, and as such n’anga with this domain are not trusted until they’re needed to gain the hand of another or dissolve a tense situation. The granted power allows the cleric to automatically know how to brew love potions (or at 50% cost if Brew Potion/Culinary Ashe is known). Its spells are predictably various forms of enchantment. [i]Plague[/i] is taught by Sama/the Poison One, a domain that is one of the most hated in Nyambe-tanda for obvious reasons. Its granted power grants immunity to ability score damage (but not permanent drain) from diseases while still allowing the n’anga to incubate and spread them. Its granted powers include the summoning of insects and vermin or poison and disease-related debuffs. [i]Serpents[/i] are the dominion of Zombi, whose fell empire’s legacy still casts a shadow of ill omen across the continent. Its granted power allows the n’anga to rebuke or command reptilian creatures including dragons! The spells tend to be animal-themed around serpents, ranging from offensive buffs such as magic fang and animal growth to more offensive ones such as Poison and Snake Staff. [i]Wisdom[/i] is associated with both the madness of GuDuGu the Obscene One and Ramaranda the Diviner. N’anga with this domain often find themselves as advisors to nobles or community spokespeople for their foresight. Its granted power is a lame +1 bonus to all Wisdom-based skills, and the spells are exclusively utility divination. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/gJJWt8n.png[/img] [b]New Nyamban Spells[/b][/center] Nyambe has 24 new spells, 40 if you count the nine iterations of Summon Dragon/Elemental as their own individual magic. And to reduce confusion, new abbreviations are made for the new Nyamban core and prestige classes, with the Player’s Handbook abbreviations in parenthesis. I’m also getting some Dragonlance 3.5 vibes in that several of the spell descriptions include in-universe lore of the spell’s inventors and/or most infamous uses which I like. In keeping with divine magic being common and socially acceptable, all but the new Summons are included as a domain spell, 4 of which are domain-exclusive. [i]Arrow of Slaying[/i] is a Hunting/Dembe spell privately taught among the greatest monster hunters and as such is never incorporated into charged magical items. It grants the slaying enhancement upon already-magically arrows, the type of monster designated upon casting. If such a creature type is hit with an arrow, they must make a DC 20/23 Fortitude save (lesser or greater) or die. This is a multi-use save or die spell and really effective. [i]Babble[/i] is a permanent AoE debuff which renders afflicted targets unable to speak or write intelligibly. Non-linguistic communication is possible, but it renders verbal spellcasting impossible. [i]Bite of the Plague Rat[/i] is a powerful 9th-level spell which afflicts everyone in a 30 foot radius with the red death disease on a failed save, a new one in this book (1d6 Constitution damage per day). The disease is highly contagious airborne plague which manifests no symptoms, allowing for a devastating chain spread. [i]Convocation of Eagles[/i] is a Bird domain specific spell, summoning 12 giant eagles to your side. [i]Drums of Panic[/i] is a cool Bard/Dance domain spell which requires drums as a focus. For one round per level you roll Perform (drums) which sets the DC for the spell, and enemies within a 30 foot burst who fail the DC become panicked for 1d4 rounds. Given how easy it is to cheese Perform bonuses, this is a potent spell. [i]Fertility Charm[/i] is perhaps [i]the[/i] most well-known spell in Nyambe-tanda. For one hour per level a touched creature is able to impregnate or become pregnant based upon their physical sex as well as gaining Endurance as a bonus feat. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) [i]Incantation of the Broken Limb[/i] is a low-level (2nd, or 1st with Flesh domain) spell, but is quite devastating. It doesn’t deal much damage (1d4 to 5d4) but can render a limb of the caster’s choice to be broken on a failed Fortitude save, imposing a -2 penalty on all d20 rolls relating to the use of said limb until the damage is healed. [i]Iron Golem[/i] is a 9th-level spell for spellcasters on a budget. Instead of building your own iron golem you can summon one for 1 round per level and are automatically capable of communicating with and commanding it. However in exchange for this “golem on the go” there’s a 10% chance every round that said golem will turn on the caster. [i]Lesser Water Breathing[/i] is one level lower than its standard counterpart, lasting only 10 minutes per level rather than 24 hours. [i]Lighting Storm[/i] and [i]Lightning Strike[/i] are a pair of electricity-themed spells known exclusively to n’anga druids (Storm) and/or those with the Lightning domain (Strike). The first spell fills a bunch of 10 foot cubes with ambient electricity dealing 1d6 damage per caster level, while the second spell is a lightning version of [url=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm]flame strike.[/url] [i]Lobir[/i] creates an invisible insect construct of the same name for 1 round per level, commanded by you and capable of burrowing under an opponent’s skin to deal internal damage. The spell is the only known means of creating a lobir to inhabit the world, for they cannot be permanently built. Although detailed in Chapter 13, a Lobir is a Challenge Rating 3 fly-sized construct with an amazing Armor Class and Damage Reduction (27, DR/15), are naturally invisible, and deal 1d4 constitution damage per round they remain embedded in a target via a touch attack. A pretty nifty and powerful spell. [i]Lockjaw[/i] causes the jaw muscles of a target to clench up on a failed Fortitude save, rendering them incapable of speech or verbal casting and lasts indefinitely until the target succeeds on a save they can make once per day. Although second-level (1st if Iron domain), this is a really powerful anti-spellcaster debuff. Much like Babble but targeting less people and with a shorter duration. [i]Lover’s Curse[/i] is a reverse charm spell, a permanent curse which causes the target to suffer a -10 penalty on Charisma checks as people instinctively hate or dislike them. [i]Phase Arrow[/i] is the other Hunting/Dembe spell. It enchants 10 normal arrows into +1 weapons which can travel through the Shadow World to ignore physical barriers. They ignore all armor, natural armor, and cover modifiers, turning physical and damaging a target normally once it reaches its intended destination. [i]Snake Staff[/i] turns a quarterstaff into a snake for 1 round per level, capable of being wielded as a weapon dealing 1d8 piercing damage and 1d4 Constitution damage as a poison. The staff has an infinite supply of poison but cannot be “milked.” It’s rather underpowered for a 7th-level spell. [i]Solid Darkness[/i] creates a cloud of physical darkness, granting full concealment to all within and blocking out even Darkvision. Creatures move at 1/10th normal speed, and is charged with negative energy dealing 1 damage per round, making it a good means to heal multiple undead minions the same amount. [i]Sticks to Serpents[/i] turns a pile of branches and twigs into 3 fiendish small vipers per level, and you can communicate with and command them. For comparison, a single fiendish small viper can be summoned with Summon Monster I, but higher-level SM castings max out at 1d4+1. As this spell is 6th-level it’s a great means of potential action economy abuse, but these monsters are so weak that they can be easily destroyed by an AoE spell. [i]Summon Dragon[/i] and [i]Summon Elemental[/i] are our two replacement spells for the ubiquitous Summon X spells which are the bread and butter of standard D&D. Both go all the way up to IX and function similarly to their replacements. Summon Dragon is pretty good, as the 3rd Edition designers intentionally under-CRed true dragons so as to make them “even tougher fights,” and those of sufficient age can outright cast sorcerer spells. Depending on how liberal your GM is with granting you control over who you summon, this can be an effective way of getting a more minor spellcaster to perform a spell upon your behalf. As for Summon Elemental, it is weaker in that said creatures do not have as much function, but can have useful utility. They can do things mundane animals cannot, but unlike fey they do not have as much versatility. [img]https://i.imgur.com/DtHsq0e.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/teCNtjh.png[/img] [i]Tear the Open Wound[/i] is a powerful necromancy debuff permanent in duration. A targeted creature who has taken damage from a slashing or piercing weapon becomes unable to be healed from any cure spell on a failed Fortitude save, although natural healing and healing spells without the word “cure” in their name work normally. This spell can only be dispelled by break enchantment or the wish series of spells (limited wish, wish/miracle). Given that casting healing magic in general is not action-efficient in D&D, this is rather underpowered. [i]True Love[/i] is either a 9th-level Love domain capstone or a 6th-level bard spell. It causes two targets within range to permanently become hopelessly in love with each other, and both must fail their Will saving throws in order for the spell to take effect. In addition to regarding each other as beloved and trusted companions, they both physically sicken if separated for more than 24 hours, ranging from Strength and Dexterity penalties to becoming bedridden at 0 hit points at worst. This is of limited utility given the double-fail-save as well as being a slower-acting debuff. [i]Weaving Dance[/i] is the 9th-level capstone of the Dance domain, and is a multi-purpose personal buff spell. It effectively grants you Dodge, Mobility, Fast Movement, Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge, and +4 Trap Sense which can stack with existing modifiers of said features. It only lasts for 1 round per level, and I found it rather uninspiring in that the individual effects pale in comparison to lower-level spells such as haste, displacement, etc. [i]Wings[/i] is a 5th-level Bird domain exclusive spell. It functions much like Overland Flight, but is personal in use, causes you to physically manifest wings which have a faster 90 feet per round speed (60 if wearing medium or heavier armor) at good maneuverability. You also get Flyby Attack as a bonus feat for the duration, and if your spell ends while you’re still in the air you begin to float slowly down for 1d6 rounds at a rate of 60 feet per round. This slow fall even occurs if said spell is dispelled or you get caught in an anti-magic field. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] The new domains and spells are overall quite cool. In a few cases they are underpowered for their level and a few are quite potent, but the latter case tends to be spells exclusive to one of the new cleric domains so as to reward taking it. I am not exactly fond of the variant rules: although I can understand the sentiment of not making shield/mage armor widen the [url=https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards]Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards gap,[/url] Nyamban adventurers are already quite AC-starved with the pitiable Sanguar feat. The unreliability of magical reviving nicely ties into the world, but given the preponderance of Save or Die spells may make Nyambe campaigns unexpectedly lethal. I can imagine the “forever dead” percentage chances being more unwelcome than not in gaming groups. [b]Join us next time as we take a tour of the continent in Chapter 10’s Lands, Nations, and Societies![/b] [/QUOTE]
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