Search results

  1. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) What do Derro sound like?

    They're kinda "medium toned." Not "deep and gravelly" like dwarves. Not "high pitched melodic" like pixies. More a scratchy quality than "gravel." Like a Tenor that's smoked too much. Oo! Or a late years Lucille Ball or Phyllis Diller. Kinda "deep for a human female"...but that's the males...
  2. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) Which "iconic" racial trait for the PHB races would you pick? (+)

    Dwarf - Stonecunning Elf - Keen Senses Halfling - Naturally Stealthy Human (Variant) - NONE. Humans are the baseline. There's nothing special about them, "variant" or not. Dragonborn - Breath Weapon Gnome - Speak with Small Beasts Half-Elf - Skill Versatility Half-Orc - Relentless Endurance...
  3. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) How many more characters (full PC rules) have you made than you have played?

    This. ...though I'm still 49 for a few more months and didn't start til 10. ;) But, yeah, this rings extremely familiar.
  4. steeldragons

    D&D General War Mounts for the Different Fantasy Races/Monsters

    Some (predominantly woodland or mountainous) goblins ride wolves/worgs. Some (predominantly plains, hills, or swamps) ride a homebrewed long-legged scaly bird (a dinosaur, really, I suppose, these days. Since now we think lots of them had feathers) -think a reptilean-ish axe beak or feathery...
  5. steeldragons

    TSR What is your physical old school module/adventure filing system?

    I actually organize by character/adventure levels. Then by "Basic"/D&D ones before AD&D ones. Then alpha-numerically ("module code") within that level grouping. So the 1-3rd level modules together. Then, 2-4, 3-5, 4-7, etc... up to "Demonweb Pits" and "Tomb of Horrors"... actually I guess the...
  6. steeldragons

    D&D General How many mechanical features does a race need to feel "right"?

    hmmmm...42? Nah. I'm going to say...a species needs... what did I do in my own system/setting?... I think I do a solid 4...but then a couple of those have multiple "sub-elements"...and the Ability adjustments...so, let's say, 6. I think that's enough/solid to make non-human species FEEL (and...
  7. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) What Do You Think Is Essential in a Bare-Bones Character Sheet?

    I mean - and I voted for several more criteria than this, but - honestly, for any dice-based conflict resolution game, all you need is HP and AC. Or, that is, what number does the opponent need to "hit" you and how many times can you be hit. Everything else is window dressing. You can be...
  8. steeldragons

    D&D General What is the Single Worst Person or Entity in Your World/Campaign?

    Cool topic for a thread. I don't know if I can compete with "the Abomination." That is some serious Big Badiness to live up to. I tend to think, for my setting, along a few different axes. So, the "single worst entity/person" in the setting is dependent on the campaign, the PCs, their choices...
  9. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) (Deleted)

    How many pages ya got? Homebrew classes? Check. Homebrew races? Check. Rewritten/revamped established/traditional classes? Check. Old and homebrewed class mechanics? Check. Homebrew setting/world? Check. Languages? Check. Cultures? Check. Pantheon(s) and established religions from the Vatican...
  10. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) Simplifying Wildshape using Summon Spells/Ranger's Beasts as templates

    Druids in my homebrew have a few things going on for their shapeshifting that is not the same as 5e (or PF or the last few iterations of D&D). For the one: Shapeshifting (not "wildshape") doesn't kick in as a class feature until 5th level. It begins, as is generally understood, with small and...
  11. steeldragons

    D&D General The cosmology of your homebrew campaign

    My world of Orea follows...mostly....basically....the Great Wheel with a few tweaks and additions. There isn't a ton of planar jumping around...but there need to be places for various critters, challenges, and powerful entities to come from. The Prime Material Plane includes all of the various...
  12. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) Brainstorming/Worldbuilding: A Land of Lost Hope

    Seems like Rangers, Druids, and Sorcerers would be your default "Rebels" characters. Those individuals with magical power who would be the only ones capable of masking their activities from magically prying eyes and sensors in such a society...and/or outside the society. You could also use...
  13. steeldragons

    Worlds of Design: The Rules of Magic

    I use a combo of what, apparently, are termed "hard" and "soft" magic. The soft part -if I'm getting this- is generally about the in-game descriptions -visuals, sensations, and such. For arcane casters, I generally let the players choose their preferred visuals. Magic Missile creates shards of...
  14. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) Charm, the evil spells

    Arguably, "charm" spells (Friends, Charm Person, et al) are not "mind control" so much as mind/emotion/perception "influencing." You can not force them to harm themselves or do things that are intrinsically against their nature. The target knows they were ensorcelled when the spell wears off...
  15. steeldragons

    D&D General What kind of class design do you prefer?

    OO! OO! <raising hand> SIX! Arcane. Divine. Nature. Psychic. Eldritch/Forbidden, and "High Magic"/ Translevel. The latter. Mage [Wizard]: incantation, gesture, eyes glow. You see the auras of the magical things before you. Cleric: invocation, mini-rite, eyes glow. Your deity has deemed fit to...
  16. steeldragons

    D&D General What kind of class design do you prefer?

    Agreed. If the goal is to divvy things up by the classic [traditional] abilities. I'd think an even spread is best. It, at least, appears most "balanced" and fair. Ideally, there should be a caster and mundane class for each, but that may not always be possible (in a way that makes sense)...
  17. steeldragons

    D&D General What kind of class design do you prefer?

    I see. Well, if I must...then I guess my take is that the number of classes can be more "narrow" with the great breadth of options of other layers (skills, archetypes, feats, backgrounds, themes, prestige classes...even, perhaps, things like fighting styles and arcane specialist schools as...
  18. steeldragons

    D&D General What kind of class design do you prefer?

    These choices are too limited/limiting. There is no reason it has to be one or the other. Equally, there is no reason "narrow list with narrow choices" or "wide open with tons of choices" need be the only alternatives. You can easily have a list that is "both and"... all things to all people...
  19. steeldragons

    D&D General Rethinking the class name "Druid".

    While everyone is spending such time and effort in "rethinking"...druids, shamanism, animism, what folds into what, and what makes more sense as the umbrella class, and [meaning], and [function], and, and, and... I will simply throw in my two coppers that it behooves us all, from time to time...
  20. steeldragons

    D&D 5E (2014) What is Force Damage?

    We can define it...It's Magic. Raw -otherwise undefined or generating or controling some other form of energy or radiation- magic energy. Call it "sorcery." Call it "mana." Call it "abracadabranium." It's "raw magic energy." "So it's energy." Yes. "But not positive energy or fire or psychic...
Top