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D&D 5E Mystara 5th Edition Fan Made Supplement
- Thread starter Water Bob
- Start date
Saeviomagy
Adventurer
Some issues:
There's a lot of archetypes that give advantage with skills. This means that the DM can no longer give advantage with that skill. Consider giving expertise (ie - double proficiency) instead.
There's a lot of reference to turns, but I didn't see a definition for them.
Why are sidhe forbidden from being a warlock with a fey patron? Heck, why are they forbidden at all - does every demon and fey refuse to deal with them?
Aurumancer is an interesting concept, but compared with the benefits of other schools is incredibly weak. I imagine that someone wishing to go down that line would be far better off as a diviner.
Brave is a nice attempt to have a fighter archetype that's more than just combat, but I personally think it's a bit weak. Counting coup seems like an awful lot of effort for a very minor benefit. You could probably get the same benefit from a character flaw.
Diplomats get the ability to use skills less proficiently than normal, the ability to take a really long time to learn a language instead of an incredibly long time to learn a language, some feats anyone can take and finally advantage on some checks that it's easy to get advantage on.
Foresters... suck outside of forests. Which is going to be a lot of the time. They're not even particularly good inside forests. The spell crossover is nice.
When a heldannic knight challenges an opponent, that opponent's best strategy is to respond by attacking someone other than the knight, which seems odd.
Hin masters - just drop the spell requirement thing. Right now it's "for a while, you won't be able to use 3rd or 4th level spells".
The horse warrior's death flurry does nothing - you can already split attacks this way.
Gift of Kagyar seems really underwhelming. Maybe if it lasted longer? Even then, it's a smallish bonus to something that you're already succeeding at most of the time thanks to advantage. I would probably put blessing of kagyar at the lower level and maybe spread it to multiple people at the higher level.
Battlemaster would have to be the most boring archetype ever. Moar damage is an awful counterbalance to versatility. It just stops a DM from being able to provide interesting combats. Also the archetype puts the fighter ~50% above the rogue in damage, and that's before we bring in the current fighter builds with GWM and polearm mastery (which already push fighters above rogues by my understanding).
The order of the griffin's Aura of sanctity is quite poor. Most of the time it will do nothing even if you are within Karameikos.
Privateer is another welcome attempt to give fighters something to do other than hit things with other things... but the specificity of it makes it suck. If you're taking part in a seafaring campaign it's still likely to be unimpressive in terms of how much difference the mechanics actually make.
Rake is pretty cool, except for the skill proficiencies which seem out of place.
Shadow elf shamans 'gain' the ability to be unable to cast spells without an expensive focus at 2nd level.
Shamani and spirit shaman are quite good. I like them
Toa makai are another "more damage and nothing else" fighter archetype.
Treekeeper is pretty interesting. Druid spells as wizard spells is the main draw, but the other abilities are flavourful and situationally useful.
Wokani is ok. I feel it's missing something.
Craft circles and nordic runes seem to give you a benefit roughly equivalent to a spell that you could already cast. They just seem like unnecessary mechanics to represent concepts that already exist.
Wizard spells being taught only by specific guilds doesn't make sense, because spells are written down and stealable.
There's a lot of archetypes that give advantage with skills. This means that the DM can no longer give advantage with that skill. Consider giving expertise (ie - double proficiency) instead.
There's a lot of reference to turns, but I didn't see a definition for them.
Why are sidhe forbidden from being a warlock with a fey patron? Heck, why are they forbidden at all - does every demon and fey refuse to deal with them?
Aurumancer is an interesting concept, but compared with the benefits of other schools is incredibly weak. I imagine that someone wishing to go down that line would be far better off as a diviner.
Brave is a nice attempt to have a fighter archetype that's more than just combat, but I personally think it's a bit weak. Counting coup seems like an awful lot of effort for a very minor benefit. You could probably get the same benefit from a character flaw.
Diplomats get the ability to use skills less proficiently than normal, the ability to take a really long time to learn a language instead of an incredibly long time to learn a language, some feats anyone can take and finally advantage on some checks that it's easy to get advantage on.
Foresters... suck outside of forests. Which is going to be a lot of the time. They're not even particularly good inside forests. The spell crossover is nice.
When a heldannic knight challenges an opponent, that opponent's best strategy is to respond by attacking someone other than the knight, which seems odd.
Hin masters - just drop the spell requirement thing. Right now it's "for a while, you won't be able to use 3rd or 4th level spells".
The horse warrior's death flurry does nothing - you can already split attacks this way.
Gift of Kagyar seems really underwhelming. Maybe if it lasted longer? Even then, it's a smallish bonus to something that you're already succeeding at most of the time thanks to advantage. I would probably put blessing of kagyar at the lower level and maybe spread it to multiple people at the higher level.
Battlemaster would have to be the most boring archetype ever. Moar damage is an awful counterbalance to versatility. It just stops a DM from being able to provide interesting combats. Also the archetype puts the fighter ~50% above the rogue in damage, and that's before we bring in the current fighter builds with GWM and polearm mastery (which already push fighters above rogues by my understanding).
The order of the griffin's Aura of sanctity is quite poor. Most of the time it will do nothing even if you are within Karameikos.
Privateer is another welcome attempt to give fighters something to do other than hit things with other things... but the specificity of it makes it suck. If you're taking part in a seafaring campaign it's still likely to be unimpressive in terms of how much difference the mechanics actually make.
Rake is pretty cool, except for the skill proficiencies which seem out of place.
Shadow elf shamans 'gain' the ability to be unable to cast spells without an expensive focus at 2nd level.
Shamani and spirit shaman are quite good. I like them
Toa makai are another "more damage and nothing else" fighter archetype.
Treekeeper is pretty interesting. Druid spells as wizard spells is the main draw, but the other abilities are flavourful and situationally useful.
Wokani is ok. I feel it's missing something.
Craft circles and nordic runes seem to give you a benefit roughly equivalent to a spell that you could already cast. They just seem like unnecessary mechanics to represent concepts that already exist.
Wizard spells being taught only by specific guilds doesn't make sense, because spells are written down and stealable.
The Glen
Legend
To answer you questions in order:
Will look into the expertise.
In the background, Sidhe are the fey. That's why they get the large amount of bonus spells. They answer to King Oberron, becoming a warlock means they are double timing him and he'll know it.
Turns should mean 10 minutes, that's me unlearning previous editions. Killing references to them as I find them.
Aurumancer is the guild wizard from Darokin and Minrothad. In the original version they were merchant wizards that earned XP with profit. The two varieties were so close I merged them. They aren't as powerful in magic because they spend a large portion of their time as merchants as well. Trying to keep the original intent, back when the version had a lot more rules on trading.
Brave is a work in progress, not too happy with it. Any suggestions?
Diplomat strength is supposed to more skills and languages, with a focus on charisma. Suggestions?
Foresters are a direct port from the original version. They were supposed to be almost invisible moving at will. They also patrolled a single forest.
Will switch a spell for compelled duel. Should nip that in the bud.
Hin Master's spell problems is a holdover from the rules. Hin rarely leave the Five Shires. Originally they didn't get any spells. I'm trying to keep with the spirit of the source.
Horse Warrior- Missed that paragraph entirely. Will revise.
Gift of Kagyr gives you a quick bonus to saving throws against spells whenever you want. Especially when you double your proficiency at 6th level.
Battlemaster is another hold over from the original source. Improving weapon proficiency changed the damage of the weapon. Was an extremely complicated system as every weapon had it's unique chart. Will restrict it to a single weapon, so it's more a weapon master than multiple weapons.
Order of the Griffon will remove the region restriction. It's an ability holdover, the original Karameikos was crawling with wild animals.
Privateer goes back to two old gazetteers, and had much more complicated naval combat rules. Trying to write for a mechanic that isn't fleshed out yet.
The Rake's abilities skills are just my background in history showing. The characters they are based on were the courtiers of Byzantium, where knowledge of history and religion played a major part in their education. You wanted to be able to talk about the glory days or debate religion as best you could.
Will come up with some a little more tangible for the Shadow Elf
Toa Makai are Maori warriors, not even poorly disguised. Their combat style is more of just in your face smash mouth with a lot of intimidation.
Craft Circles and Nordic runes are from the original source material. They weren't used much then, I kept them in for completion.
The guild spells are all commerce related. They aren't the most useful spells, and aren't even that situational. I included them for completion.
Let me know if you have any other feedback.
Will look into the expertise.
In the background, Sidhe are the fey. That's why they get the large amount of bonus spells. They answer to King Oberron, becoming a warlock means they are double timing him and he'll know it.
Turns should mean 10 minutes, that's me unlearning previous editions. Killing references to them as I find them.
Aurumancer is the guild wizard from Darokin and Minrothad. In the original version they were merchant wizards that earned XP with profit. The two varieties were so close I merged them. They aren't as powerful in magic because they spend a large portion of their time as merchants as well. Trying to keep the original intent, back when the version had a lot more rules on trading.
Brave is a work in progress, not too happy with it. Any suggestions?
Diplomat strength is supposed to more skills and languages, with a focus on charisma. Suggestions?
Foresters are a direct port from the original version. They were supposed to be almost invisible moving at will. They also patrolled a single forest.
Will switch a spell for compelled duel. Should nip that in the bud.
Hin Master's spell problems is a holdover from the rules. Hin rarely leave the Five Shires. Originally they didn't get any spells. I'm trying to keep with the spirit of the source.
Horse Warrior- Missed that paragraph entirely. Will revise.
Gift of Kagyr gives you a quick bonus to saving throws against spells whenever you want. Especially when you double your proficiency at 6th level.
Battlemaster is another hold over from the original source. Improving weapon proficiency changed the damage of the weapon. Was an extremely complicated system as every weapon had it's unique chart. Will restrict it to a single weapon, so it's more a weapon master than multiple weapons.
Order of the Griffon will remove the region restriction. It's an ability holdover, the original Karameikos was crawling with wild animals.
Privateer goes back to two old gazetteers, and had much more complicated naval combat rules. Trying to write for a mechanic that isn't fleshed out yet.
The Rake's abilities skills are just my background in history showing. The characters they are based on were the courtiers of Byzantium, where knowledge of history and religion played a major part in their education. You wanted to be able to talk about the glory days or debate religion as best you could.
Will come up with some a little more tangible for the Shadow Elf
Toa Makai are Maori warriors, not even poorly disguised. Their combat style is more of just in your face smash mouth with a lot of intimidation.
Craft Circles and Nordic runes are from the original source material. They weren't used much then, I kept them in for completion.
The guild spells are all commerce related. They aren't the most useful spells, and aren't even that situational. I included them for completion.
Let me know if you have any other feedback.
The Glen
Legend
The flipbook has been updated, the PDF should be fresh tomorrow morning.
Strengthened Coup for the brave so it's advantage to all attacks for a combat if they can take down an equally strong creature singlehanded
Horse Warrior's ultimate doubles attacks if they follow a set pattern. Stole heavily from the movie Mongol for this one
Got rid of a few regional issues
FINALLY killed all the previous edition references I accidentally made
Diplomat gains a language a level after 9th level in addition to the bonus ones they already get. 17th level you get advantage on all charisma tests
Heldannic Knight can force a duel now
Master at Arms is now just a single weapon
Shadow Elf Shaman just needs spirit stone, ignores all other components
Strengthened Coup for the brave so it's advantage to all attacks for a combat if they can take down an equally strong creature singlehanded
Horse Warrior's ultimate doubles attacks if they follow a set pattern. Stole heavily from the movie Mongol for this one
Got rid of a few regional issues
FINALLY killed all the previous edition references I accidentally made
Diplomat gains a language a level after 9th level in addition to the bonus ones they already get. 17th level you get advantage on all charisma tests
Heldannic Knight can force a duel now
Master at Arms is now just a single weapon
Shadow Elf Shaman just needs spirit stone, ignores all other components
Last edited:
ExploderWizard
Hero
My only issues were with the archetype being so much better than other fighter options that it would become another ranger- only one archetype worth taking. I'm not too worried about comparing it to other classes. The fighter SHOULD leave the rogue, and most other classes well behind in dealing consistent damage.
The Glen
Legend
At the high levels it does a tremendous amount of damage, low levels you are looking at +1 damage on average for one handed martial weapons, since it's just a +1d2 increase. The extremely high levels you are rolled 3d10 for a long sword, but that's compared to a cleric with his divine increase, a rogue doing 8d6 on a sneak attack, or a wizard just nuking the board. Compared to other fighters it doesn't really compare to EK because of the magic, or the versatility of the battlemaster. The champion is kinda meh though.
Teflon Billy
Explorer
Wow...that is seriously fantastic 
ExploderWizard
Hero
That is kind of what I'm talking about. The champion is so much worse than "meh" when its big ability is to score double damage on a crit (natural 18-20) and the master at arms is right next to him getting TRIPLE damage on ANY hit. The versatility of the PHB battle master still keeps it possibly somewhat viable, but the champion is too weak against either of them.
I'm playing around with ideas to tweak the master at arms archetype to give them some cool stuff while maximizing regular weapon damage at 2 dice. I will post the ideas to this thread when I have finished.
The Glen
Legend
Trying to balance it. The Toa is a crit hit machine, but only with simple weapons. Since it's apologetically a Maori, you are attacking with clubs and spears rather than swords and axes. Lots of damage, but with subpar weapons. Horse Warrior does tons of attacks, but you gotta be on horse back. Great if you're on a Mongol, not so much in a dungeon crawl. Brave is a light fighter, no armor but lots of nature and dexterity stuff. Privateer needs naval rules to use, the UA mariner was pretty weak as their only ability +1 AC if not using a shield or heavy armor and a boost to swim speed.
The champions abilities are just an underpowered mishmash. Better change at a critical coupled with a better long jump distance? The extra fighting style is nice, but how often are you going to switch styles? The regeneration at the end is nice, but that's not till 18th level. It's hard not to make a fighter archetype better than the champion.
The champions abilities are just an underpowered mishmash. Better change at a critical coupled with a better long jump distance? The extra fighting style is nice, but how often are you going to switch styles? The regeneration at the end is nice, but that's not till 18th level. It's hard not to make a fighter archetype better than the champion.
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