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[Let's Read] The Delver's Guide to Beast World
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8951555" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/vAtZOet.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 12: Wagon Customization</strong></p><p></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/TheDelversGuide/status/1425319084623863809" target="_blank">”You’ll come for the beasts, but you’ll stay for the wagons.”</a> The delver’s primary mode of transport isn’t just for getting to Point A to Point B: it’s a combination vehicle, base of operations, mobile weapons platform, and depending on the customizations can be all sorts of other things. The rules for wagons are in-depth in this chapter, from using them in combat and races to buying enhancements for them.</p><p></p><p>Delver wagons are special objects with their own rules: like PCs they gain levels in line with the party, which determines their hit points, Maneuverability (a special stat which can be spent to do fancy movement-based abilities), Adaptability (special stat that can be spent for a variety of things such as rerolling a drive check or making swift repairs), and the number of Attachments (basically customized enhancements) that can be placed onto the wagon. The rules are pretty detailed, ranging from existing and new Conditions that can affect the wagon’s function, special Drive checks for driving the wagon, and making repairs to the wagon via wainwright tools due to damage and Conditions. Draught is a term for animals, steam engines, or other things responsible for a wagon’s locomotion. With the aid of druids and rangers, all wagons are built with something known as a Ranger Fetish that safeguards draughts from harm. While a draught is hitched to a wagon, they are not treated as creatures and cannot be specifically targeted by attacks or effects that affect one creature.</p><p></p><p>The book notes that single-hand reins (for Drive checks) and wainwright’s tools (used to repair wagons) are tool checks, and suggests giving PCs free proficiency in one of them if the campaign plans on using wagon rules often. This is twofold, to prevent a “proficiency tax” for an important ability, and also making them not skills prevents Bards, Rogues, and characters with the Skill Expert feat from dominating wagon encounters. The book does mention as an optional rule to fold tinker’s tools into wainwright tools and land vehicles into single-hand reins if the DM would prefer to focus on existing tool proficiencies.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/F0CSdI8.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>There are three broad types of wagons that serve as “classes,” which provide their own unique benefits based on level. They do not have to be purchased like other attachments and are unique to that type alone. Windsprinters are sleek, swift wagons that prioritize maneuverability and speed but are the most fragile type: their special features include things such as +2 on Drive checks made to race, ignoring difficult terrain, and gaining Jackal-Reared Axe Beaks as special draughts which are the fastest known mounts in the Beast World. Ironaxles are slow, sturdy wagons built to dish out and withstand punishment, and their special features include a ram attack, gaining resistance to damage from nonmagical attacks, and a steam engine as a special draught. Rocksteadies are built for versatility and reliability: their special features include being able to make repair patches no matter where you are on the wagon (normally you have to do so at the service hatch), delaying the negative effects of a breakdown (the “bloodied” condition for wagons), and can gain a pair of autotrotter draughts that can act on their own like programmed constructs and store spells to be released at a later time.</p><p></p><p>On top of their practical functions, wagons provide a useful service for 5th Edition gaming groups: they give PCs something to spend money on! Wagons require gold pieces to gain levels, and on top of that attachments that customize the wagon also cost gold. It’s for this reason that a suggested “wealth by level” table was made based on dungeon delves and funds saved up. Special additions known as attachments can be added to wagons. It’s not enough to have the gold, for attachments are separated into Grades which can only be taken by wagons of sufficient level, and they also take up physical space so you’re also limited to space (measured in cubic feet) as well as weight. Some attachments can only be taken by certain wagon types: for instance, the cannon weapon can only be installed on an Ironaxle.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4UWVhNZ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Components are the first type of attachment, usually having abilities which require them to be used in order to gain their function. They include such options as various types of weapons such as ballistae and cannons, a quick-retract winch which if attached to a character allows them to be pulled to the wagon’s roof for no movement cost, metamagic crystals which if touched provide free sorcery points to apply to a metamagic ability possessed by the crystal, soul orbs fueled by ki points that let the user create a distant image double they can attack through as if physically present, and a speed mirage which can create illusory duplicates of the wagon when Maneuverability is spent to gain extra movement.</p><p></p><p>Fittings are the second type of attachment, being passive or persistent effects. They include such options as an intruder chime that lets out a loud warning when certain creatures not specified as “safe” get adjacent to the wagon, a block of privacy to soundproof the wagon’s walls, an auto-raft and sail that allows the wagon to cross bodies of water, and tremor caps which give tremorsense to the wagon’s inhabitants if the vehicle is in contact with the ground.</p><p></p><p>There is one interesting attachment that defies the magical restrictions of the Beast World. Eighty-Eights are four wheels which contain one quarter of a teleportation circle, and as a reaction the driver can imagine a location the wagon has been to before and teleport to said location. As this attachment is a high Grade, functions only once a week, isn’t pinpoint perfect, and works well with the primary function of wagons (to travel) I can let this one slide.</p><p></p><p>Last but not least, Furnishings aren't attachments in that they aren’t limited by wagon level, but are mostly cosmetic features. They’re usually things that make wagons more comfortable spaces to live in, such as beds, storage spaces such as safes and crates, light sources such as oil lamps or permanent dancing lights cantrips, fold-out patios, built-in plumbing systems such as water tanks and baths, and work stations for various types of tool proficiencies.</p><p></p><p>For delving crews that have a lot of gold but are low on space, they can purchase extraspatial cubes that add more physical space within a wagon. The cubes’ prices increase exponentially, being affordable for just a few cubes but going into the thousands when you approach and exceed double digits. Extraspatial cubes are actually the product of the Broken World, with the cubes reaching into that plane’s existence to pull its space into them. Which sounds rather dangerous, although there are no negative side effects to using them in the rules.</p><p></p><p>Our section on wagons proper ends with stats for unhitched draught types. They aren’t anything to write home about, with dire horses known as Draydrivers being the default type and steam engines being huge objects instead of creatures.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/NxWeTf7.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Wagon Encounters</strong> provide new rules and alterations designed in mind with vehicular play. The first rule, <strong>Enormous Enemies,</strong> is a special addition to all creatures that are naturally Huge and Gargantuan, where they take less damage from Large and smaller creatures until reduced to half their hit points, and automatically crit when attacking creatures in melee if the target is one size smaller. Most wagon weapons ignore Enormous creatures’ damage reduction, so this encourages gaming groups to use wagon weapons when fighting big enemies.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mobile Encounters</strong> are a new encounter type representing larger-scale events such as races and battlefield skirmishes where tracking individual feet is impractical. Squares of terrain are expanded from 5 feet by 5 feet into 120 feet squares called “grounds.” Friendly creatures on the same ground collectively move and act as a “force.” There are new special actions, such as Scout where a creature can learn about hidden threats and creatures in nearby Grounds on an opposed Perception vs Stealth check, or Entrench which must be performed collectively and grants all members of a force cover until they spend movement. Movement and range involving attackers and targets are more fluid, represented as speed in grounds. For melee fighters and those who prefer to battle up close, there’s a special action known as Pass where spending a ground of movement plus contested Dexterity or Drive checks can narrow the gap and allow for advantage on melee attacks and opportunity attacks for the winning side.</p><p></p><p>We also have unique rules for racing, which are treated as a Condition where all focus is spent on movement and one can maintain this condition a number of minutes based on Constitution before suffering exhaustion. <strong>Rallies</strong> are a sample encounter for such races along with other events taking place on a straight path, and we have example rules along with visuals for how a rally may go down:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/AVWmtRn.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Our final new rule is for <strong>Hordes,</strong> where many enemies are combined into a single force resolving actions collectively. A horde is a group of creatures acting together, and are typically used in concert with Mobile Encounters. There are three different horde types based on number: Ambush, Unit, and Mob. The larger types have more creatures and thus more potential attacks, but cannot take certain actions due to their size, such as hiding. Attacks are resolved based on the target’s AC minus the attack bonus of an attack type, which determines the number of attacks that hit. Hordes targeting wagons split their attacks based on wagon locations. Hordes can suffer morale losses, where they must make a saving throw based on the number of creatures killed, and on a failed save half their number will flee and scatter.</p><p></p><p>This sounds like quite the number of rules, right? Well this chapter thankfully ends in a Quick Reference covering them all, easily turned into handouts for gaming groups!</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The rules for wagons are involved to the point that I feel that I’d need to see them in actual play to find out how they work in practice. That being said, I do like how the authors didn’t scrimp on details in making wagons a useful feature for games. The vehicle weapons in particular have good damage, range, and debuffs to make relying on them in battle a viable option, and attachments such as Metamagic Crystals and Soul Orbs directly enhance existing capabilities and class features. PCs will surely appreciate wagons for being more than a simple house on wheels.</p><p></p><p>None of the rules are setting-specific, meaning that they can be transplanted into non-Beast World campaigns easily enough. I am a bit wary about the Enormous Enemies rule: such creatures tend to be pretty powerful already, and there will be times when parties run afoul of dinosaurs, giants, and other such creatures away from their wagon such as inside a dungeon. It’s another rule that ends up punishing melee characters, who will be the most likely to get critted in battles with them.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we finish this book in Chapter 13: Magic Items & Spells and the Appendices!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8951555, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/vAtZOet.png[/img] [b]Chapter 12: Wagon Customization[/b][/center] [url=https://twitter.com/TheDelversGuide/status/1425319084623863809]”You’ll come for the beasts, but you’ll stay for the wagons.”[/url] The delver’s primary mode of transport isn’t just for getting to Point A to Point B: it’s a combination vehicle, base of operations, mobile weapons platform, and depending on the customizations can be all sorts of other things. The rules for wagons are in-depth in this chapter, from using them in combat and races to buying enhancements for them. Delver wagons are special objects with their own rules: like PCs they gain levels in line with the party, which determines their hit points, Maneuverability (a special stat which can be spent to do fancy movement-based abilities), Adaptability (special stat that can be spent for a variety of things such as rerolling a drive check or making swift repairs), and the number of Attachments (basically customized enhancements) that can be placed onto the wagon. The rules are pretty detailed, ranging from existing and new Conditions that can affect the wagon’s function, special Drive checks for driving the wagon, and making repairs to the wagon via wainwright tools due to damage and Conditions. Draught is a term for animals, steam engines, or other things responsible for a wagon’s locomotion. With the aid of druids and rangers, all wagons are built with something known as a Ranger Fetish that safeguards draughts from harm. While a draught is hitched to a wagon, they are not treated as creatures and cannot be specifically targeted by attacks or effects that affect one creature. The book notes that single-hand reins (for Drive checks) and wainwright’s tools (used to repair wagons) are tool checks, and suggests giving PCs free proficiency in one of them if the campaign plans on using wagon rules often. This is twofold, to prevent a “proficiency tax” for an important ability, and also making them not skills prevents Bards, Rogues, and characters with the Skill Expert feat from dominating wagon encounters. The book does mention as an optional rule to fold tinker’s tools into wainwright tools and land vehicles into single-hand reins if the DM would prefer to focus on existing tool proficiencies. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/F0CSdI8.png[/img][/center] There are three broad types of wagons that serve as “classes,” which provide their own unique benefits based on level. They do not have to be purchased like other attachments and are unique to that type alone. Windsprinters are sleek, swift wagons that prioritize maneuverability and speed but are the most fragile type: their special features include things such as +2 on Drive checks made to race, ignoring difficult terrain, and gaining Jackal-Reared Axe Beaks as special draughts which are the fastest known mounts in the Beast World. Ironaxles are slow, sturdy wagons built to dish out and withstand punishment, and their special features include a ram attack, gaining resistance to damage from nonmagical attacks, and a steam engine as a special draught. Rocksteadies are built for versatility and reliability: their special features include being able to make repair patches no matter where you are on the wagon (normally you have to do so at the service hatch), delaying the negative effects of a breakdown (the “bloodied” condition for wagons), and can gain a pair of autotrotter draughts that can act on their own like programmed constructs and store spells to be released at a later time. On top of their practical functions, wagons provide a useful service for 5th Edition gaming groups: they give PCs something to spend money on! Wagons require gold pieces to gain levels, and on top of that attachments that customize the wagon also cost gold. It’s for this reason that a suggested “wealth by level” table was made based on dungeon delves and funds saved up. Special additions known as attachments can be added to wagons. It’s not enough to have the gold, for attachments are separated into Grades which can only be taken by wagons of sufficient level, and they also take up physical space so you’re also limited to space (measured in cubic feet) as well as weight. Some attachments can only be taken by certain wagon types: for instance, the cannon weapon can only be installed on an Ironaxle. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4UWVhNZ.png[/img][/center] Components are the first type of attachment, usually having abilities which require them to be used in order to gain their function. They include such options as various types of weapons such as ballistae and cannons, a quick-retract winch which if attached to a character allows them to be pulled to the wagon’s roof for no movement cost, metamagic crystals which if touched provide free sorcery points to apply to a metamagic ability possessed by the crystal, soul orbs fueled by ki points that let the user create a distant image double they can attack through as if physically present, and a speed mirage which can create illusory duplicates of the wagon when Maneuverability is spent to gain extra movement. Fittings are the second type of attachment, being passive or persistent effects. They include such options as an intruder chime that lets out a loud warning when certain creatures not specified as “safe” get adjacent to the wagon, a block of privacy to soundproof the wagon’s walls, an auto-raft and sail that allows the wagon to cross bodies of water, and tremor caps which give tremorsense to the wagon’s inhabitants if the vehicle is in contact with the ground. There is one interesting attachment that defies the magical restrictions of the Beast World. Eighty-Eights are four wheels which contain one quarter of a teleportation circle, and as a reaction the driver can imagine a location the wagon has been to before and teleport to said location. As this attachment is a high Grade, functions only once a week, isn’t pinpoint perfect, and works well with the primary function of wagons (to travel) I can let this one slide. Last but not least, Furnishings aren't attachments in that they aren’t limited by wagon level, but are mostly cosmetic features. They’re usually things that make wagons more comfortable spaces to live in, such as beds, storage spaces such as safes and crates, light sources such as oil lamps or permanent dancing lights cantrips, fold-out patios, built-in plumbing systems such as water tanks and baths, and work stations for various types of tool proficiencies. For delving crews that have a lot of gold but are low on space, they can purchase extraspatial cubes that add more physical space within a wagon. The cubes’ prices increase exponentially, being affordable for just a few cubes but going into the thousands when you approach and exceed double digits. Extraspatial cubes are actually the product of the Broken World, with the cubes reaching into that plane’s existence to pull its space into them. Which sounds rather dangerous, although there are no negative side effects to using them in the rules. Our section on wagons proper ends with stats for unhitched draught types. They aren’t anything to write home about, with dire horses known as Draydrivers being the default type and steam engines being huge objects instead of creatures. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NxWeTf7.png[/img][/center] [b]Wagon Encounters[/b] provide new rules and alterations designed in mind with vehicular play. The first rule, [b]Enormous Enemies,[/b] is a special addition to all creatures that are naturally Huge and Gargantuan, where they take less damage from Large and smaller creatures until reduced to half their hit points, and automatically crit when attacking creatures in melee if the target is one size smaller. Most wagon weapons ignore Enormous creatures’ damage reduction, so this encourages gaming groups to use wagon weapons when fighting big enemies. [b]Mobile Encounters[/b] are a new encounter type representing larger-scale events such as races and battlefield skirmishes where tracking individual feet is impractical. Squares of terrain are expanded from 5 feet by 5 feet into 120 feet squares called “grounds.” Friendly creatures on the same ground collectively move and act as a “force.” There are new special actions, such as Scout where a creature can learn about hidden threats and creatures in nearby Grounds on an opposed Perception vs Stealth check, or Entrench which must be performed collectively and grants all members of a force cover until they spend movement. Movement and range involving attackers and targets are more fluid, represented as speed in grounds. For melee fighters and those who prefer to battle up close, there’s a special action known as Pass where spending a ground of movement plus contested Dexterity or Drive checks can narrow the gap and allow for advantage on melee attacks and opportunity attacks for the winning side. We also have unique rules for racing, which are treated as a Condition where all focus is spent on movement and one can maintain this condition a number of minutes based on Constitution before suffering exhaustion. [b]Rallies[/b] are a sample encounter for such races along with other events taking place on a straight path, and we have example rules along with visuals for how a rally may go down: [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/AVWmtRn.png[/img][/center] Our final new rule is for [b]Hordes,[/b] where many enemies are combined into a single force resolving actions collectively. A horde is a group of creatures acting together, and are typically used in concert with Mobile Encounters. There are three different horde types based on number: Ambush, Unit, and Mob. The larger types have more creatures and thus more potential attacks, but cannot take certain actions due to their size, such as hiding. Attacks are resolved based on the target’s AC minus the attack bonus of an attack type, which determines the number of attacks that hit. Hordes targeting wagons split their attacks based on wagon locations. Hordes can suffer morale losses, where they must make a saving throw based on the number of creatures killed, and on a failed save half their number will flee and scatter. This sounds like quite the number of rules, right? Well this chapter thankfully ends in a Quick Reference covering them all, easily turned into handouts for gaming groups! [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] The rules for wagons are involved to the point that I feel that I’d need to see them in actual play to find out how they work in practice. That being said, I do like how the authors didn’t scrimp on details in making wagons a useful feature for games. The vehicle weapons in particular have good damage, range, and debuffs to make relying on them in battle a viable option, and attachments such as Metamagic Crystals and Soul Orbs directly enhance existing capabilities and class features. PCs will surely appreciate wagons for being more than a simple house on wheels. None of the rules are setting-specific, meaning that they can be transplanted into non-Beast World campaigns easily enough. I am a bit wary about the Enormous Enemies rule: such creatures tend to be pretty powerful already, and there will be times when parties run afoul of dinosaurs, giants, and other such creatures away from their wagon such as inside a dungeon. It’s another rule that ends up punishing melee characters, who will be the most likely to get critted in battles with them. [b]Join us next time as we finish this book in Chapter 13: Magic Items & Spells and the Appendices![/b] [/QUOTE]
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