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[Mini-Let's Read] The Blue Rose Adventurer's Guide (5e)
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8328889" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/hyMHE4W.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><em>Rangers</em> are those who cross through the wild lands of Aldea for all manner of reasons. Rangers who choose the Hunter subclass gain additional chooseable features in line with those who prioritize hunting the servants of Shadow. One 3rd level feature treats their melee weapons as magical vs favored foes, a 7th level feature grants them resistance to necrotic damage and advantage on charm/frighten effects vs fiends and shadowspawn, at 11th level they can damage the summoner by damaging the summoned creature if the former fails a Wisdom save, and at 15th level they can learn a feature that grants advantage on all occult* uses of spells and all spells cast by fiends and undead.</p><p></p><p>*Occultism is using magic for evil purposes, usually in subverting one’s free will along with the typical ‘evil magic’ tropes.</p><p></p><p>The 3rd and 11th level abilities are more situational, but the 7th and 15th are rather useful given that such creature types and spells are common among Blue Rose’s villains.</p><p></p><p><em>Rogues</em> are...well, they’re just like rogues in every other setting. The new Rebel subtype are those who use their talents to fight established power structures. At 3rd level they gain a bunch of proficiencies (disguise kit, forgery kit, 1 gaming set, 2 languages) and once per short or long rest can spend a reaction to perform any action as though it was readied ahead of time. At 9th level they gain advantage on Charisma checks when addressing crowds of 10 or more people and also bestow immunity to the frightened condition on those listening (but only effects with a lower DC than the ability check result). At 13th level they gain proficiency in Charisma saves, and at 17th level they can once per short or long rest roll a Sleight of Hand or Stealth check vs a target’s opposing skill. On a failure they can’t move or take an action or reaction on their next turn and are considered surprised.</p><p></p><p>The ability to insta-ready certain actions and the frightened immunity are pretty good boons, and the 17th level ability is great for shutting down enemy actions. The bonus proficiencies and saving throw are a bit more situational.</p><p></p><p><em>Sorcerers</em> are basically those who are born with a stronger Talent than usual, and some believe they may have been companions to the Primordials, made pacts with the fey in prior reincarnations, or hail from an ancient arcane dynasty of adepts. They are considered gifted children in Aldis and Rezea, while in Jarzon they are feared as being tainted by occultism and strongly pressured to become wards of the Church. In Kern they are trained as Shadow-Taken, the kingdom’s elite force of evil magic-users. As dragons are unknown in Aldea, those who would have the Draconic Bloodline are instead replaced with the new Primal Sorcery subclass.</p><p></p><p>They are pretty much the Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, but instead of Draconic and bonuses to interacting with dragons they learn one of the four elemental languages and gain double proficiency on charisma checks when interacting with such elementals. At 14th level they can take on an aspect of their element once per short or long rest as a bonus action: air grants flight and immunity to lightning damage, earth grants a burrowing speed and immunity to nonmagical bludgeoning and resistance to piercing/slashing, fire allows them to emit a damaging aura of flames, and water grants immunity to cold damage, a swim speed, and the ability to breath underwater. At 18th level they can cast true polymorph once per long rest to assume the form of an elemental matching their favored type for an hour.</p><p></p><p>Elementals aren’t a common creature type in the Monster Manual, and being limited to a single “energy type” makes their initial class feature even more situational. There’s a wider variety of 14th level abilities to replace the Dragon Wings of the original subclass, although the fire one is kind of underwhelming and flight still wins out over burrowing and swimming. The 18th level feature can be useful for utility purposes depending on the type, and is longer-lasting than Draconic Presence which has a more immediate use in combat.</p><p></p><p>As a replacement subclass it’s a bit underwhelming at lower levels, but at higher levels has some nice alternatives.</p><p></p><p><em>Warlocks</em> break apart Blue Rose’s setting expectations for magic in a big way. While being born with the Talent is the universal default option for adepts, warlocks are born without it. THey desire arcana so much that they make pacts with otherworldly beings to gain the ability to manipulate magic. Warlocks are widely distrusted, even in Aldis due to fear that such desire for power can lead down the road to occultism and thus Shadow. Fey warlocks are often seen as the most “benign,” and those of the Fiend are those who enter into alliance with the Exarchs. Warlocks who pacted with the Great Old Ones are viewed by outsiders the same way as the Fiends, although said warlocks claim that their patrons are ancient entities that existed even before the Eternal Dance. Most people are skeptical.</p><p></p><p>There are two new otherworldly patrons for Aldean warlocks to take. The first is the Autumn King, those who pledge themselves to Anwaren. Their bonus spells are mostly utility and defense, such as shield, gentle repose, speak with dead, and stoneskin. At 1st level they can cast a modified version of Sanctuary once per short or long rest save that it only affects fiends, shadowspawn, and undead. At 6th level they gain resistance to psychic and necrotic damage. At 10th level they can spend Hit Dice to immediately gain hit points if they drop to 0 HP, and at 14th level they can conjure a terrible vision of Shadow to instill in a nearby creature. if they fail a Wisdom save they are blinded for 1 minute and take 4d10 psychic damage every round (can save every round to end the effect). Fiends, shadowspawn, and those Lost to Shadow are immune to this trait as well as those immune to psychic damage. Shadow-Touched are not, and if they are affected the experience alone is enough to make them desire to walk the path of redemption.</p><p></p><p>The other patron, the Winter Queen, are those warlocks who honor the goddess Selune, gaining insight from her guiding light. Their bonus spells are a mixture of illumination and some miscellaneous things such as nondetection and cone of cold. At 1st level they can cast detect evil and good at will without the need for a spell slot. At 6th level they can cast counterspell once per short or long rest. At 10th level they can cast commune while sleeping in the middle of a long rest, and at 14th level can once per long rest call upon their patron for aid. For this last ability, they can make an ability check with double proficiency bonus or spend a spell slot to cast any spell from any spell list of 5th level or below.</p><p></p><p>The Autumn King patron has overall nice abilities. The spending of Hit Die to avoid death is highly useful and few characters will regret having it, and the 14th level ability is a good damaging debuff that also has the side effect of redeeming some villains. As for the Winter Queen its abilities are more passive and centered around lore and information gathering with some defense. However, warlocks as a class aren’t particularly known for specializing in divination-style magic barring a few choices, and given the mixture of other spells it doesn’t feel as impressive as other warlock subclasses which play upon its strengths.</p><p></p><p><em>Wizards</em> are adepts who approach magic in a scholarly way, attuning their power to spellbooks. They are common in the major nations save for Rezea which has a lack of written lore, and Jarzon where book-learning can be a threat to their power and magical items are associated with the occult.</p><p></p><p>The new School of the Psyche is devoted to the true source of magic, study of the awakened souls of the Eternal Dance where one’s mind allows one to channel arcana into the world. At 2nd level they gain two feats of their choice: Psychic, Psychic Shield, Seer, or Shaper. At 6th level while preparing spells they can choose two spells that they can cast without any components provided that said components have no monetary cost. At 12th and 18th level they can prepare one more spell each this way. At 10th level they add their Intelligence modifier to the damage rolls of spells that deal psychic damage. At 14th they gain resistance to psychic damage and advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves vs effects that would influence their mind or spirit.</p><p></p><p>Ironically the Psychic Shield feat overlaps a bit with the 14th level capstone, even if it’s but one option out of many. Additionally psychic-type damage spells are pretty limited if you’re using just the corebooks. There are 5 in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (Mental Prison, Mind Spike, Psychic Scream, Shadow Blade, Synaptic Strike), and 2 in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (Mind Sliver, Tasha’s Mind Whip) which opens things up a bit. The component-less spellcasting can be useful for some “save me” spells if the wizard ends up grappled, silenced, and the like, but otherwise nothing sticks out much.</p><p></p><p><em>Feats</em> provide 8 new options, most of which are magical in nature. Animist are those in tune with the natural world, granting the ability to cast animal friendship and animal messenger once each per long rest. Ariser is a Rhydan-only feat that lets the user twice per long rest magically assume a single specific humanoid form for a number of hours equal to half their level. Body Control grants the character the ability to do one of four things: hold their breath for far longer than normal, ignore the effects of exhaustion until the next short rest, go into a death-like trance that halts the effects of suffocation, disease, and poison, or spend a reaction to gain advantage on a save vs disease, fear, pain, paralysis, or poison. Each use of this feat can be used once per short rest, but can be used an additional time via taking a level of exhaustion. Psychic lets one communicate telepathically with another creature within 60 feet, and can also cast the sending spell once per short or long rest without any components. Psychic Shield grants advantage on saving throws vs magic that reads thoughts, inflicts psychic damage, or imposes unwanted communication or mental influence. Psychic Weapon lets the user summon a ghostly melee weapon with the finesse* and thrown properties in their hand that deals psychic damage and adds Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier to damage.</p><p></p><p>*Given that said property lets one add Dexterity to attack and damage rolls, this begs the question if psychic weapons add both Dexterity and the appropriate mental ability score to damage or just the mental modifier. I presume the latter, but the book could stand to be clearer on this.</p><p></p><p>Seer grants knowledge of the guidance cantrip, and lets the user cast augury and detect magic as rituals, or normal spells if they have the spell slots for them. Finally, the Shaper feat lets the user cast mage hand but without components, a range of 60 feet, and it’s invisible.</p><p></p><p>Several of these feat choices feel rather weak. Ariser and Shaper can be replicated by spells and magic items. Body Control’s Exhaustion-ignoring is perhaps the most useful, while Psychic may be good if the entire party takes it so they can communicate without giving away their position. Psychic Shield is great in resisting a wide variety of effects, and depending on how the DM interprets Psychic Weapon it can make for a good damage-dealing build or just a nifty ‘always-armed’ feature. Animist is situational but Seer has some useful spells.</p><p></p><p>None of these feats grant +1 to ability scores, which limits their appeal even further. The most common means I’d see them taken is via free such as with the variant human or the new races and class options in this book.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HR4nU6I.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>This section covers the existing backgrounds from the corebooks as well as three new ones. Overall the more ‘hard luck’ backgrounds (Charlatan, Criminal, Urchin) tend to either be rarer in Aldis due to society covering a comfortable standard of living for most inhabitants and very common lie-detecting magic. This means that the few criminal organizations still around are those who are very good at covering their tracks. Additionally, Nobles in Aldis don’t come from inherited wealth, and are instead magistrates appointed by the test of the Blue Rose Scepter. Alternatively the background can represent the children of merchants or other families of wealth in Aldis or elsewhere, regardless of whether they’re viewed as technical commoners or something more.</p><p></p><p>For the three new backgrounds, the first one is Reawakened, someone who has recently become aware of significant past-life memories. They gain proficiency in History, Insight, a language, and either a single artisan’s tools or musical instrument. Their Feature lets the GM grant them fragmentary memories of encountered people, places, and events.</p><p></p><p>The second background, Refugee, represents someone forced by circumstance to leave their home and take up a new life in new lands. They choose two of Deception, Persuasion, or Stealth as skills in which to be proficient, one language and one tool proficiency each of their choice, and their Feature lets them substitute Deception/Persuasion in civilized areas in lieu of Survival to forage for food and similar necessities.</p><p></p><p>The final background, the Shadow-Scarred, represents someone who had a momentous encounter with an area or being tainted by Shadow. They gain proficiency in Insight, Intimidation, and one tool proficiency and language of their choice. Their Feature can grant them advantage on Insight or Perception checks to gather clues about phenomena related to Shadow, and can discern between ordinary misdeeds and those motivated by the corruption of Shadow.</p><p></p><p>We end our chapter not with more backgrounds, but two new optional rules. As Blue Rose and romantic fantasy don't put as much of an emphasis on gathering loot and wealth, alternate rules abstract the gear of a character based on their skillset, background, and favors.</p><p></p><p><em>Narrative Equipment</em> is the first such rule. Instead of tracking individual weapons and armor, a person’s damage die is determined based on whether they’re proficient in simple and-or martial weapons and if they’re fighting one-handed or two-handed. Their base AC value is based on their armor proficiency, meaning those with heavier armor proficiencies can still be very well-protected even if described as wearing light armor. Shields still add to AC the normal way but preclude being able to make two-handed weapon attacks when benefiting from this AC bonus. When it comes to other equipment PCs are presumed to have all the necessary tools for their trade and as members of the Sovereign’s Finest. In cases where it’s necessary to see if they have a particular item on hand, a Wisdom saving throw (add proficiency bonus if relevant to their profession) is rolled against a DC based against said item’s rarity and relative expense.</p><p></p><p><em>Narrative Wealth</em> is similar in that it abstracts what a character can afford based on their <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Expenses#content" target="_blank">lifestyle.</a> Generally adventurers have a modest lifestyle when traveling and comfortable when resting at home. Aldis’ social system means that virtually nobody lives a squalid lifestyle and few are poor, but very few are aristocratic due to heavy taxes on the rich and an expectation that people “earn their wealth.” In Jarzon, modest lifestyles are more common than comfortable. If an item is within the reasonable purchasing price of someone’s lifestyle, then they can afford it. If out of their price range then the PC must find other means of obtaining the item and/or its cost.</p><p></p><p>The backgrounds are rather broad, and I do like how they each grant bonus tools and languages which tend to be rare in such a mechanic. I have mixed feelings on Narrative Equipment and Wealth. I kind of like the variety in weapon types in D&D and the various properties that make them feel different. This makes such armaments a bit too uniform for my liking.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7PzieAt.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Aldea is overall a high-magic setting. Although there are some places where magical talent is highly regulated and kept out of the hands of the majority, the legacies of the Old Kingdom (think the “golden age” before corruption) and the Empire of Thorns persist throughout the lands. In Aldis magical talents are common and adepts use their skills to build extensive public works projects, while Kern has dark mages keeping a tight rein over their citizenry and huge crystal cannons on the border to repel invading armies. Rezea incorporates witches and sooth-sayers among virtually every tribe, while tainted lands such as the Shadow Barrens are awash with warped monstrosities and ruins that may or may not contain vaults full of magical treasures.</p><p></p><p><em>Spellcasting</em> works more or less the same as in other 5th Edition settings, save with a few changes. Aldea is more isolated from otherworldly planes of existence, and the only known means of traveling to other realms is via the shadow-gates. Conjure celestial, contact other plane, gate, planar ally, plane shift, teleport, and teleportation circle all require the use of a shadow-gate to be cast, and given that said items are rare and dangerous occult items you shouldn’t count on making regular use of such spells in a typical campaign. Spells that conjure fey and elementals function normally, as they’re calling the entities from the foundation of Aldea rather than from other realms. The awaken spell doesn’t exist, as intelligent animals are rhyda, who bear souls capable of reincarnation from the Eternal Dance which is something that mundane animals lack.</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, certain spells and magic items are associated with the occult (known in previous systems as sorcery), ‘evil magic’ that can corrupt some with frequent use. The primary factor that determines whether or not magic is occult is whether or not it subverts someone else’s free will. Every soul spawned from the Eternal Dance bears a fraction of the Primordials’ divine essence, the Talent manifesting as remnants of that deific connection. The soul twists in pain and reacts against this violation when one uses magic to subvert or alter one’s mind, body, or soul without their consent.</p><p></p><p>In practical terms, this means that virtually every enchantment or emotion-altering spell counts as occult if cast on an unwilling/unknowing target. Same for spells that intrude into one’s mind like detect thoughts, or that change their body like enlarge/reduce and polymorph. Spells which summon or create fiends and undead creatures are also occult regardless of the circumstances in which they’re cast, due to drawing upon Shadow. We have a list of spells that qualify as occult, but the preceding guidelines are more or less comprehensive in covering such ground.</p><p></p><p><em>Corruption</em> is actually a new set of rules way back in chapter 1, but I included it here for the sake of ease. Basically there are several flavors of supernatural evil. Shadow-touched are people and places bearing the taint of Shadow and can be detected as such via the detect good and evil spell. Mundane animals go out of their way to avoid shadow-touched beings and locations, and anything born within a shadow-touched area comes out wrong, growing into a diverse array of monstrous beings collectively known as shadowspawn.</p><p></p><p>Rules are provided for PCs and other characters suffering from corruption. Those who suffer from corruption are known as the Corrupted, while those who succumb fully are Lost to Shadow and/or become the Shadow-Taken. There are two ways to suffer Corruption: use a magic item or spell in an occult way, or perform immoral acts while in a corrupted place. Every action forces a Wisdom saving throw whose DC depends on the degree of severity of the action or the level of the spell or spell slot used. Failure gives 1 point of Corruption. One can deliberately call upon Shadow to gain inspiration to spend on a roll to gain advantage, if said roll is used during the course of the corrupt act or spell.</p><p></p><p>A Corruption score applies as a penalty to one’s Constitution and Wisdom scores, and the maximum possible Corruption value is 20. If one’s Corruption score exceeds their Wisdom, they become Lost to Shadow and gain an indefinite form of madness each time they gain a Corruption point. If Corruption exceeds Constitution first, the creature dies and rises the next day as an undead shadow. Creatures can avoid these negative consequences by willingly giving in and becoming Shadow-Taken. They no longer suffer penalties to Constitution and Wisdom, gain a Corruption point, become evil-aligned, and cannot be raised from the dead. Instead they become an undead creature upon death, the more powerful the higher their Corruption score. If they’re a spellcaster they can substitute their Corruption score for their spellcasting ability modifier if the value is greater.</p><p></p><p>Corruption can be lost gradually, unless one is Shadow-Taken in which case it’s permanent in most circumstances. If one acts in accordance with a good-aligned ideal they can spend Inspiration to remove 1 Corruption point. For the Shadow-Taken the loss of Corruption and their status is more subject to DM Fiat, usually involving some grand act of heroism. As they can lose their Shadow-Touched status but not all of their Corruption, it is entirely possible for them to perish after the completion of such an act. And turn undead if reading the rules as is, although the book doesn’t point this out and I figured it’d be narratively unthematic..</p><p></p><p><em>Telepathy</em> gets its own short section due to how common the ability is in Aldea, be it from natural talents of the rhydan or learned via conventional magic. Basically “receivers” don’t have to possess telepathy and can receive and respond to telepathic messages but otherwise can’t initiate it on their own without the ability. Unwanted contact can be terminated on a successful Wisdom save, locking the sender out of that particular mind until the sender’s next short or long rest. “Senders” don’t have to see the receiver in order to make contact and may end contact at any time. Contact is broken if either party moves out of range or the sender is incapacitated. Finally, two or more telepathic senders can enter into a psychic rapport, a deep kind of communication that takes an action for all involved parties to enter. Communication is 10 times faster and all parties have advantage on Wisdom saves, but they are considered stunned while in such a state and cannot lie to each other. Rapports can only be entered into with the consent of all parties.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JuogATo.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><em>Magic Items</em> gives us 42 new magic items, 35 of which are of a more generic nature and 7 of which are occult items. Due to the commonality of magic in Aldea a fair amount of these items have Common or Uncommon rarity, 8 and 12 respectively. I won’t cover them all, but will touch upon a few of the more interesting ones.</p><p></p><p>For the generic magic items we have Collar of Hands (lets rhydan cast mage hand like the Shaper feat), Cryston (crystal wand pseudo-gun that a spellcaster can use, only KOs living beings but can destroy fiends and undead), Fountain of Glory (stationary item that can restore HP, cast control water, and can conjure a water elemental a limited number of times per day), Glorious Ballroom (unique magic room in a villa outside the Aldisian city of Garnet, grants advantage on all Charisma checks to people inside chosen by the attuned owner), Harness of Defense (rhydan who wear this gain +2 to AC if wearing no armor and using no shield), a Hawkbow (+1 attack and damage, doubles range for attuned user), various kinds of Potions (Potion of Communion grants telepathy for 1 hour; Potion of Recovery can remove 2 levels of exhaustion, but every drink before next long rest removes 1 less; Potion of Stamina lets one ignore exhaustion level penalties for 4 hours, Potion of Suppression makes drinker unable to use any magical abilities for 1 hour on a failed Constitution save), Stone of Meditation (resting for four hours nearby lets you remove a level of exhaustion), Stone of Memory (can record one’s memories which can be accessed by telepathy, memories can be altered and deleted unless “locked” to avoid tampering by other users), Stones of Messaging (basically act as telepathic telephones, but can only communicate to the stone it’s paired with), the Table of Accord (an item in the Sovereign’s Palace in Aldis which grants advantage on Persuasion and Insight checks but disadvantage on Deception and Intimidation checks), the Touchstone (giant shas* crystal used to protect the capital city of Aldis, those touching it can scry on anything anywhere within the city and draw from a pool of sorcery points used to cast spells through the scrying receptacle), Union Rings (often worn by significant others to cast Telepathic Bond and Warding Bond on each other without the need for components), and a Ward Blade (blade’s point can be used to trace a magic circle spell on the ground).</p><p></p><p>*Aldea’s general-purpose magic crystals that can be used in a variety of magic item creation.</p><p></p><p>As for our Occult items, they are much rarer. Most date from the Empire of Thorns, and are the creation of wicked spellcasters, fiends and shadowspawn, and perhaps even the Exarchs of Shadow themselves. Possession and use of such items is illegal pretty much everywhere save Kern, where only the ruling class and their agents are permitted to have access. Such items include the Crimson Eye amulets (can spend charges to cast divination spells, but there’s a ‘master amulet’ that lets one scry on all other amulet wearers that was once owned by Kern’s Lich King), the Ebban Mask carved from the skull of a darkfiend (intelligent and evil-aligned, grants bonuses to AC, HP, telepathy, can cast some magical spells), Fragment of the Shadow Heptagram (exploded fragments of a former touchstone, can draw sorcery points from it to fuel one’s spells), the Jade Crown (can summon a creature of the fiend type without the need for a shadow-gate), Skull Helms (immune to divination magic, charmed and frightened conditions, can cast fear 1/day, there’s a ‘master amulet’ which lets one bypass the divination immunity of the helm’s wearer), and the Talon of Kargus (preserved hand of an infamous darkfiend, can graft to a severed stump on one’s hand to gain 20 Strength, a magical claw attack dealing 3d8 damage, cast Vampiric Touch via the claw, and becomes stunned on a natural 1 on an attack roll or ability check as contact other plane is cast on the user).</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3K8AjMS.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>You likely only counted six occult items. Well I saved the best for last. Shadow-gates were the most famous devices of the Old Kingdom before it turned into the Empire of Thorns. Looking like a giant flat ring suspended on its side, such structures were used to access far-flung worlds and planes of existence, first for trade and later for conquest when the Kingdom’s leadership became corrupted. Now they are thankfully rare, lingering in forgotten corners of the world to be found and activated by some foul figure or hapless wanderer. Shadow-gates summoning hordes of darkfiends into a region are a rare yet significant danger the Sovereign’s Finest of Aldea and the Knights of Purity in Jarzon have had to deal with.</p><p></p><p>In addition to allowing a caster to bypass the setting restrictions on planar magic, one can use teleportation and teleportation circle to travel between shadow-gates, but doing this risks corruption. There are rules for destroying shadow-gates, but they are sturdy, have lots of hit points, a large number of damage immunities, and are resistant to all forms of damage they’re not immune to and subtract 20 from the final damage result of such assaults. An easier way to destroy shadow-gates is to overload them with magic, where spellcasters must pour 20 levels worth of spell slots into the shadow-gate’s arcane circuitry, triggering a countdown implosion where a gravity well sucks all creatures and materials below a certain size, weight, or failed Strength saving throw. Anyone or anything pulled into the portal vanishes and is lost forever.</p><p></p><p>Overall I enjoyed the new magic items the most. Those took up the bulk of the chapter, so I don’t have much to say on Aldea’s altered/unavailable magic; the rules aren’t overly restrictive save that it more or less locks you out of being an enchanter unless you want to get corrupted quickly. But given that such magic was most often sorcery in the prior systems this wasn’t a PC-friendly archetype in Blue Rose, so in an odd way this is just in keeping with the setting lore.</p><p></p><p>The Corruption rules aren’t a constant danger to most PCs, and really only activate if you start making use of forbidden magic or do bad things in bad places. Furthermore, removing Corruption is relatively easy, although as it requires eating Inspiration it’s still something under the realm of DM Fiat. The penalties to Constitution and Wisdom are very debilitating, so I imagine that most gaming groups are going to go out of their way to avoid gaining Corruption. Which is in keeping with the romantic fantasy theme, but combined with how overall rare it is to get it probably means such rules aren’t going to be very common.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The rest of the classes and much of the feats didn’t really grab me. The big highlight of this section was the altered spells, Corruption rules, and magic items. These rules do a good job at emulating the romantic fantasy genre and keeping in line with the original Blue Rose’s magic system (if the spirit rather than the letter). I do like how there are magic items which are effectively immobile and more akin to foundations in a building, and some meant more for general-purpose use rather than being “adventurer-appropriate.”</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we finish this review with Chapter XII: Aldean Creatures and the Shadows of Tanglewood adventure!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8328889, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/hyMHE4W.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [I]Rangers[/I] are those who cross through the wild lands of Aldea for all manner of reasons. Rangers who choose the Hunter subclass gain additional chooseable features in line with those who prioritize hunting the servants of Shadow. One 3rd level feature treats their melee weapons as magical vs favored foes, a 7th level feature grants them resistance to necrotic damage and advantage on charm/frighten effects vs fiends and shadowspawn, at 11th level they can damage the summoner by damaging the summoned creature if the former fails a Wisdom save, and at 15th level they can learn a feature that grants advantage on all occult* uses of spells and all spells cast by fiends and undead. *Occultism is using magic for evil purposes, usually in subverting one’s free will along with the typical ‘evil magic’ tropes. The 3rd and 11th level abilities are more situational, but the 7th and 15th are rather useful given that such creature types and spells are common among Blue Rose’s villains. [I]Rogues[/I] are...well, they’re just like rogues in every other setting. The new Rebel subtype are those who use their talents to fight established power structures. At 3rd level they gain a bunch of proficiencies (disguise kit, forgery kit, 1 gaming set, 2 languages) and once per short or long rest can spend a reaction to perform any action as though it was readied ahead of time. At 9th level they gain advantage on Charisma checks when addressing crowds of 10 or more people and also bestow immunity to the frightened condition on those listening (but only effects with a lower DC than the ability check result). At 13th level they gain proficiency in Charisma saves, and at 17th level they can once per short or long rest roll a Sleight of Hand or Stealth check vs a target’s opposing skill. On a failure they can’t move or take an action or reaction on their next turn and are considered surprised. The ability to insta-ready certain actions and the frightened immunity are pretty good boons, and the 17th level ability is great for shutting down enemy actions. The bonus proficiencies and saving throw are a bit more situational. [I]Sorcerers[/I] are basically those who are born with a stronger Talent than usual, and some believe they may have been companions to the Primordials, made pacts with the fey in prior reincarnations, or hail from an ancient arcane dynasty of adepts. They are considered gifted children in Aldis and Rezea, while in Jarzon they are feared as being tainted by occultism and strongly pressured to become wards of the Church. In Kern they are trained as Shadow-Taken, the kingdom’s elite force of evil magic-users. As dragons are unknown in Aldea, those who would have the Draconic Bloodline are instead replaced with the new Primal Sorcery subclass. They are pretty much the Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, but instead of Draconic and bonuses to interacting with dragons they learn one of the four elemental languages and gain double proficiency on charisma checks when interacting with such elementals. At 14th level they can take on an aspect of their element once per short or long rest as a bonus action: air grants flight and immunity to lightning damage, earth grants a burrowing speed and immunity to nonmagical bludgeoning and resistance to piercing/slashing, fire allows them to emit a damaging aura of flames, and water grants immunity to cold damage, a swim speed, and the ability to breath underwater. At 18th level they can cast true polymorph once per long rest to assume the form of an elemental matching their favored type for an hour. Elementals aren’t a common creature type in the Monster Manual, and being limited to a single “energy type” makes their initial class feature even more situational. There’s a wider variety of 14th level abilities to replace the Dragon Wings of the original subclass, although the fire one is kind of underwhelming and flight still wins out over burrowing and swimming. The 18th level feature can be useful for utility purposes depending on the type, and is longer-lasting than Draconic Presence which has a more immediate use in combat. As a replacement subclass it’s a bit underwhelming at lower levels, but at higher levels has some nice alternatives. [I]Warlocks[/I] break apart Blue Rose’s setting expectations for magic in a big way. While being born with the Talent is the universal default option for adepts, warlocks are born without it. THey desire arcana so much that they make pacts with otherworldly beings to gain the ability to manipulate magic. Warlocks are widely distrusted, even in Aldis due to fear that such desire for power can lead down the road to occultism and thus Shadow. Fey warlocks are often seen as the most “benign,” and those of the Fiend are those who enter into alliance with the Exarchs. Warlocks who pacted with the Great Old Ones are viewed by outsiders the same way as the Fiends, although said warlocks claim that their patrons are ancient entities that existed even before the Eternal Dance. Most people are skeptical. There are two new otherworldly patrons for Aldean warlocks to take. The first is the Autumn King, those who pledge themselves to Anwaren. Their bonus spells are mostly utility and defense, such as shield, gentle repose, speak with dead, and stoneskin. At 1st level they can cast a modified version of Sanctuary once per short or long rest save that it only affects fiends, shadowspawn, and undead. At 6th level they gain resistance to psychic and necrotic damage. At 10th level they can spend Hit Dice to immediately gain hit points if they drop to 0 HP, and at 14th level they can conjure a terrible vision of Shadow to instill in a nearby creature. if they fail a Wisdom save they are blinded for 1 minute and take 4d10 psychic damage every round (can save every round to end the effect). Fiends, shadowspawn, and those Lost to Shadow are immune to this trait as well as those immune to psychic damage. Shadow-Touched are not, and if they are affected the experience alone is enough to make them desire to walk the path of redemption. The other patron, the Winter Queen, are those warlocks who honor the goddess Selune, gaining insight from her guiding light. Their bonus spells are a mixture of illumination and some miscellaneous things such as nondetection and cone of cold. At 1st level they can cast detect evil and good at will without the need for a spell slot. At 6th level they can cast counterspell once per short or long rest. At 10th level they can cast commune while sleeping in the middle of a long rest, and at 14th level can once per long rest call upon their patron for aid. For this last ability, they can make an ability check with double proficiency bonus or spend a spell slot to cast any spell from any spell list of 5th level or below. The Autumn King patron has overall nice abilities. The spending of Hit Die to avoid death is highly useful and few characters will regret having it, and the 14th level ability is a good damaging debuff that also has the side effect of redeeming some villains. As for the Winter Queen its abilities are more passive and centered around lore and information gathering with some defense. However, warlocks as a class aren’t particularly known for specializing in divination-style magic barring a few choices, and given the mixture of other spells it doesn’t feel as impressive as other warlock subclasses which play upon its strengths. [I]Wizards[/I] are adepts who approach magic in a scholarly way, attuning their power to spellbooks. They are common in the major nations save for Rezea which has a lack of written lore, and Jarzon where book-learning can be a threat to their power and magical items are associated with the occult. The new School of the Psyche is devoted to the true source of magic, study of the awakened souls of the Eternal Dance where one’s mind allows one to channel arcana into the world. At 2nd level they gain two feats of their choice: Psychic, Psychic Shield, Seer, or Shaper. At 6th level while preparing spells they can choose two spells that they can cast without any components provided that said components have no monetary cost. At 12th and 18th level they can prepare one more spell each this way. At 10th level they add their Intelligence modifier to the damage rolls of spells that deal psychic damage. At 14th they gain resistance to psychic damage and advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves vs effects that would influence their mind or spirit. Ironically the Psychic Shield feat overlaps a bit with the 14th level capstone, even if it’s but one option out of many. Additionally psychic-type damage spells are pretty limited if you’re using just the corebooks. There are 5 in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (Mental Prison, Mind Spike, Psychic Scream, Shadow Blade, Synaptic Strike), and 2 in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (Mind Sliver, Tasha’s Mind Whip) which opens things up a bit. The component-less spellcasting can be useful for some “save me” spells if the wizard ends up grappled, silenced, and the like, but otherwise nothing sticks out much. [I]Feats[/I] provide 8 new options, most of which are magical in nature. Animist are those in tune with the natural world, granting the ability to cast animal friendship and animal messenger once each per long rest. Ariser is a Rhydan-only feat that lets the user twice per long rest magically assume a single specific humanoid form for a number of hours equal to half their level. Body Control grants the character the ability to do one of four things: hold their breath for far longer than normal, ignore the effects of exhaustion until the next short rest, go into a death-like trance that halts the effects of suffocation, disease, and poison, or spend a reaction to gain advantage on a save vs disease, fear, pain, paralysis, or poison. Each use of this feat can be used once per short rest, but can be used an additional time via taking a level of exhaustion. Psychic lets one communicate telepathically with another creature within 60 feet, and can also cast the sending spell once per short or long rest without any components. Psychic Shield grants advantage on saving throws vs magic that reads thoughts, inflicts psychic damage, or imposes unwanted communication or mental influence. Psychic Weapon lets the user summon a ghostly melee weapon with the finesse* and thrown properties in their hand that deals psychic damage and adds Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier to damage. *Given that said property lets one add Dexterity to attack and damage rolls, this begs the question if psychic weapons add both Dexterity and the appropriate mental ability score to damage or just the mental modifier. I presume the latter, but the book could stand to be clearer on this. Seer grants knowledge of the guidance cantrip, and lets the user cast augury and detect magic as rituals, or normal spells if they have the spell slots for them. Finally, the Shaper feat lets the user cast mage hand but without components, a range of 60 feet, and it’s invisible. Several of these feat choices feel rather weak. Ariser and Shaper can be replicated by spells and magic items. Body Control’s Exhaustion-ignoring is perhaps the most useful, while Psychic may be good if the entire party takes it so they can communicate without giving away their position. Psychic Shield is great in resisting a wide variety of effects, and depending on how the DM interprets Psychic Weapon it can make for a good damage-dealing build or just a nifty ‘always-armed’ feature. Animist is situational but Seer has some useful spells. None of these feats grant +1 to ability scores, which limits their appeal even further. The most common means I’d see them taken is via free such as with the variant human or the new races and class options in this book. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/HR4nU6I.png[/IMG][/CENTER] This section covers the existing backgrounds from the corebooks as well as three new ones. Overall the more ‘hard luck’ backgrounds (Charlatan, Criminal, Urchin) tend to either be rarer in Aldis due to society covering a comfortable standard of living for most inhabitants and very common lie-detecting magic. This means that the few criminal organizations still around are those who are very good at covering their tracks. Additionally, Nobles in Aldis don’t come from inherited wealth, and are instead magistrates appointed by the test of the Blue Rose Scepter. Alternatively the background can represent the children of merchants or other families of wealth in Aldis or elsewhere, regardless of whether they’re viewed as technical commoners or something more. For the three new backgrounds, the first one is Reawakened, someone who has recently become aware of significant past-life memories. They gain proficiency in History, Insight, a language, and either a single artisan’s tools or musical instrument. Their Feature lets the GM grant them fragmentary memories of encountered people, places, and events. The second background, Refugee, represents someone forced by circumstance to leave their home and take up a new life in new lands. They choose two of Deception, Persuasion, or Stealth as skills in which to be proficient, one language and one tool proficiency each of their choice, and their Feature lets them substitute Deception/Persuasion in civilized areas in lieu of Survival to forage for food and similar necessities. The final background, the Shadow-Scarred, represents someone who had a momentous encounter with an area or being tainted by Shadow. They gain proficiency in Insight, Intimidation, and one tool proficiency and language of their choice. Their Feature can grant them advantage on Insight or Perception checks to gather clues about phenomena related to Shadow, and can discern between ordinary misdeeds and those motivated by the corruption of Shadow. We end our chapter not with more backgrounds, but two new optional rules. As Blue Rose and romantic fantasy don't put as much of an emphasis on gathering loot and wealth, alternate rules abstract the gear of a character based on their skillset, background, and favors. [I]Narrative Equipment[/I] is the first such rule. Instead of tracking individual weapons and armor, a person’s damage die is determined based on whether they’re proficient in simple and-or martial weapons and if they’re fighting one-handed or two-handed. Their base AC value is based on their armor proficiency, meaning those with heavier armor proficiencies can still be very well-protected even if described as wearing light armor. Shields still add to AC the normal way but preclude being able to make two-handed weapon attacks when benefiting from this AC bonus. When it comes to other equipment PCs are presumed to have all the necessary tools for their trade and as members of the Sovereign’s Finest. In cases where it’s necessary to see if they have a particular item on hand, a Wisdom saving throw (add proficiency bonus if relevant to their profession) is rolled against a DC based against said item’s rarity and relative expense. [I]Narrative Wealth[/I] is similar in that it abstracts what a character can afford based on their [URL='https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Expenses#content']lifestyle.[/URL] Generally adventurers have a modest lifestyle when traveling and comfortable when resting at home. Aldis’ social system means that virtually nobody lives a squalid lifestyle and few are poor, but very few are aristocratic due to heavy taxes on the rich and an expectation that people “earn their wealth.” In Jarzon, modest lifestyles are more common than comfortable. If an item is within the reasonable purchasing price of someone’s lifestyle, then they can afford it. If out of their price range then the PC must find other means of obtaining the item and/or its cost. The backgrounds are rather broad, and I do like how they each grant bonus tools and languages which tend to be rare in such a mechanic. I have mixed feelings on Narrative Equipment and Wealth. I kind of like the variety in weapon types in D&D and the various properties that make them feel different. This makes such armaments a bit too uniform for my liking. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/7PzieAt.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Aldea is overall a high-magic setting. Although there are some places where magical talent is highly regulated and kept out of the hands of the majority, the legacies of the Old Kingdom (think the “golden age” before corruption) and the Empire of Thorns persist throughout the lands. In Aldis magical talents are common and adepts use their skills to build extensive public works projects, while Kern has dark mages keeping a tight rein over their citizenry and huge crystal cannons on the border to repel invading armies. Rezea incorporates witches and sooth-sayers among virtually every tribe, while tainted lands such as the Shadow Barrens are awash with warped monstrosities and ruins that may or may not contain vaults full of magical treasures. [I]Spellcasting[/I] works more or less the same as in other 5th Edition settings, save with a few changes. Aldea is more isolated from otherworldly planes of existence, and the only known means of traveling to other realms is via the shadow-gates. Conjure celestial, contact other plane, gate, planar ally, plane shift, teleport, and teleportation circle all require the use of a shadow-gate to be cast, and given that said items are rare and dangerous occult items you shouldn’t count on making regular use of such spells in a typical campaign. Spells that conjure fey and elementals function normally, as they’re calling the entities from the foundation of Aldea rather than from other realms. The awaken spell doesn’t exist, as intelligent animals are rhyda, who bear souls capable of reincarnation from the Eternal Dance which is something that mundane animals lack. Furthermore, certain spells and magic items are associated with the occult (known in previous systems as sorcery), ‘evil magic’ that can corrupt some with frequent use. The primary factor that determines whether or not magic is occult is whether or not it subverts someone else’s free will. Every soul spawned from the Eternal Dance bears a fraction of the Primordials’ divine essence, the Talent manifesting as remnants of that deific connection. The soul twists in pain and reacts against this violation when one uses magic to subvert or alter one’s mind, body, or soul without their consent. In practical terms, this means that virtually every enchantment or emotion-altering spell counts as occult if cast on an unwilling/unknowing target. Same for spells that intrude into one’s mind like detect thoughts, or that change their body like enlarge/reduce and polymorph. Spells which summon or create fiends and undead creatures are also occult regardless of the circumstances in which they’re cast, due to drawing upon Shadow. We have a list of spells that qualify as occult, but the preceding guidelines are more or less comprehensive in covering such ground. [I]Corruption[/I] is actually a new set of rules way back in chapter 1, but I included it here for the sake of ease. Basically there are several flavors of supernatural evil. Shadow-touched are people and places bearing the taint of Shadow and can be detected as such via the detect good and evil spell. Mundane animals go out of their way to avoid shadow-touched beings and locations, and anything born within a shadow-touched area comes out wrong, growing into a diverse array of monstrous beings collectively known as shadowspawn. Rules are provided for PCs and other characters suffering from corruption. Those who suffer from corruption are known as the Corrupted, while those who succumb fully are Lost to Shadow and/or become the Shadow-Taken. There are two ways to suffer Corruption: use a magic item or spell in an occult way, or perform immoral acts while in a corrupted place. Every action forces a Wisdom saving throw whose DC depends on the degree of severity of the action or the level of the spell or spell slot used. Failure gives 1 point of Corruption. One can deliberately call upon Shadow to gain inspiration to spend on a roll to gain advantage, if said roll is used during the course of the corrupt act or spell. A Corruption score applies as a penalty to one’s Constitution and Wisdom scores, and the maximum possible Corruption value is 20. If one’s Corruption score exceeds their Wisdom, they become Lost to Shadow and gain an indefinite form of madness each time they gain a Corruption point. If Corruption exceeds Constitution first, the creature dies and rises the next day as an undead shadow. Creatures can avoid these negative consequences by willingly giving in and becoming Shadow-Taken. They no longer suffer penalties to Constitution and Wisdom, gain a Corruption point, become evil-aligned, and cannot be raised from the dead. Instead they become an undead creature upon death, the more powerful the higher their Corruption score. If they’re a spellcaster they can substitute their Corruption score for their spellcasting ability modifier if the value is greater. Corruption can be lost gradually, unless one is Shadow-Taken in which case it’s permanent in most circumstances. If one acts in accordance with a good-aligned ideal they can spend Inspiration to remove 1 Corruption point. For the Shadow-Taken the loss of Corruption and their status is more subject to DM Fiat, usually involving some grand act of heroism. As they can lose their Shadow-Touched status but not all of their Corruption, it is entirely possible for them to perish after the completion of such an act. And turn undead if reading the rules as is, although the book doesn’t point this out and I figured it’d be narratively unthematic.. [I]Telepathy[/I] gets its own short section due to how common the ability is in Aldea, be it from natural talents of the rhydan or learned via conventional magic. Basically “receivers” don’t have to possess telepathy and can receive and respond to telepathic messages but otherwise can’t initiate it on their own without the ability. Unwanted contact can be terminated on a successful Wisdom save, locking the sender out of that particular mind until the sender’s next short or long rest. “Senders” don’t have to see the receiver in order to make contact and may end contact at any time. Contact is broken if either party moves out of range or the sender is incapacitated. Finally, two or more telepathic senders can enter into a psychic rapport, a deep kind of communication that takes an action for all involved parties to enter. Communication is 10 times faster and all parties have advantage on Wisdom saves, but they are considered stunned while in such a state and cannot lie to each other. Rapports can only be entered into with the consent of all parties. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/JuogATo.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [I]Magic Items[/I] gives us 42 new magic items, 35 of which are of a more generic nature and 7 of which are occult items. Due to the commonality of magic in Aldea a fair amount of these items have Common or Uncommon rarity, 8 and 12 respectively. I won’t cover them all, but will touch upon a few of the more interesting ones. For the generic magic items we have Collar of Hands (lets rhydan cast mage hand like the Shaper feat), Cryston (crystal wand pseudo-gun that a spellcaster can use, only KOs living beings but can destroy fiends and undead), Fountain of Glory (stationary item that can restore HP, cast control water, and can conjure a water elemental a limited number of times per day), Glorious Ballroom (unique magic room in a villa outside the Aldisian city of Garnet, grants advantage on all Charisma checks to people inside chosen by the attuned owner), Harness of Defense (rhydan who wear this gain +2 to AC if wearing no armor and using no shield), a Hawkbow (+1 attack and damage, doubles range for attuned user), various kinds of Potions (Potion of Communion grants telepathy for 1 hour; Potion of Recovery can remove 2 levels of exhaustion, but every drink before next long rest removes 1 less; Potion of Stamina lets one ignore exhaustion level penalties for 4 hours, Potion of Suppression makes drinker unable to use any magical abilities for 1 hour on a failed Constitution save), Stone of Meditation (resting for four hours nearby lets you remove a level of exhaustion), Stone of Memory (can record one’s memories which can be accessed by telepathy, memories can be altered and deleted unless “locked” to avoid tampering by other users), Stones of Messaging (basically act as telepathic telephones, but can only communicate to the stone it’s paired with), the Table of Accord (an item in the Sovereign’s Palace in Aldis which grants advantage on Persuasion and Insight checks but disadvantage on Deception and Intimidation checks), the Touchstone (giant shas* crystal used to protect the capital city of Aldis, those touching it can scry on anything anywhere within the city and draw from a pool of sorcery points used to cast spells through the scrying receptacle), Union Rings (often worn by significant others to cast Telepathic Bond and Warding Bond on each other without the need for components), and a Ward Blade (blade’s point can be used to trace a magic circle spell on the ground). *Aldea’s general-purpose magic crystals that can be used in a variety of magic item creation. As for our Occult items, they are much rarer. Most date from the Empire of Thorns, and are the creation of wicked spellcasters, fiends and shadowspawn, and perhaps even the Exarchs of Shadow themselves. Possession and use of such items is illegal pretty much everywhere save Kern, where only the ruling class and their agents are permitted to have access. Such items include the Crimson Eye amulets (can spend charges to cast divination spells, but there’s a ‘master amulet’ that lets one scry on all other amulet wearers that was once owned by Kern’s Lich King), the Ebban Mask carved from the skull of a darkfiend (intelligent and evil-aligned, grants bonuses to AC, HP, telepathy, can cast some magical spells), Fragment of the Shadow Heptagram (exploded fragments of a former touchstone, can draw sorcery points from it to fuel one’s spells), the Jade Crown (can summon a creature of the fiend type without the need for a shadow-gate), Skull Helms (immune to divination magic, charmed and frightened conditions, can cast fear 1/day, there’s a ‘master amulet’ which lets one bypass the divination immunity of the helm’s wearer), and the Talon of Kargus (preserved hand of an infamous darkfiend, can graft to a severed stump on one’s hand to gain 20 Strength, a magical claw attack dealing 3d8 damage, cast Vampiric Touch via the claw, and becomes stunned on a natural 1 on an attack roll or ability check as contact other plane is cast on the user). [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/3K8AjMS.png[/IMG][/CENTER] You likely only counted six occult items. Well I saved the best for last. Shadow-gates were the most famous devices of the Old Kingdom before it turned into the Empire of Thorns. Looking like a giant flat ring suspended on its side, such structures were used to access far-flung worlds and planes of existence, first for trade and later for conquest when the Kingdom’s leadership became corrupted. Now they are thankfully rare, lingering in forgotten corners of the world to be found and activated by some foul figure or hapless wanderer. Shadow-gates summoning hordes of darkfiends into a region are a rare yet significant danger the Sovereign’s Finest of Aldea and the Knights of Purity in Jarzon have had to deal with. In addition to allowing a caster to bypass the setting restrictions on planar magic, one can use teleportation and teleportation circle to travel between shadow-gates, but doing this risks corruption. There are rules for destroying shadow-gates, but they are sturdy, have lots of hit points, a large number of damage immunities, and are resistant to all forms of damage they’re not immune to and subtract 20 from the final damage result of such assaults. An easier way to destroy shadow-gates is to overload them with magic, where spellcasters must pour 20 levels worth of spell slots into the shadow-gate’s arcane circuitry, triggering a countdown implosion where a gravity well sucks all creatures and materials below a certain size, weight, or failed Strength saving throw. Anyone or anything pulled into the portal vanishes and is lost forever. Overall I enjoyed the new magic items the most. Those took up the bulk of the chapter, so I don’t have much to say on Aldea’s altered/unavailable magic; the rules aren’t overly restrictive save that it more or less locks you out of being an enchanter unless you want to get corrupted quickly. But given that such magic was most often sorcery in the prior systems this wasn’t a PC-friendly archetype in Blue Rose, so in an odd way this is just in keeping with the setting lore. The Corruption rules aren’t a constant danger to most PCs, and really only activate if you start making use of forbidden magic or do bad things in bad places. Furthermore, removing Corruption is relatively easy, although as it requires eating Inspiration it’s still something under the realm of DM Fiat. The penalties to Constitution and Wisdom are very debilitating, so I imagine that most gaming groups are going to go out of their way to avoid gaining Corruption. Which is in keeping with the romantic fantasy theme, but combined with how overall rare it is to get it probably means such rules aren’t going to be very common. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] The rest of the classes and much of the feats didn’t really grab me. The big highlight of this section was the altered spells, Corruption rules, and magic items. These rules do a good job at emulating the romantic fantasy genre and keeping in line with the original Blue Rose’s magic system (if the spirit rather than the letter). I do like how there are magic items which are effectively immobile and more akin to foundations in a building, and some meant more for general-purpose use rather than being “adventurer-appropriate.” [B]Join us next time as we finish this review with Chapter XII: Aldean Creatures and the Shadows of Tanglewood adventure![/B] [/QUOTE]
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[Mini-Let's Read] The Blue Rose Adventurer's Guide (5e)
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