D&D 5E D&D in the Grishaverse
Neonchameleon
Legend
This is always a huge problem. Roughly 40% of the PHB of every edition except 4e is made up of spells, and if we're tearing out the D&D magic system and starting from scratch we're down to fighters, rogues, barbarians, and monks (and even there not every subclass).
Using a "least changes" approach we need our casters to have very limited spell lists by D&D standards. Fortunately there are four candidates; the Sorcerer, the Warlock, the Ranger, and the Artificer. Alkemi are Artificer (Alchemist)s, end of story. I'm not sure about durasts - but they should hack the Artificer rules.
The Corporalki and Etherialki on the other hand need a vastly pruned spell list and to work out whether they are primarily warriors/skill users (i.e. hacked ranger + subclass), mostly casters (sorcerer) or casters with spammy tricks (warlocks with custom invocation list)
CubicsRube
Hero
I haven't done any work on this due to real life concerns. Might at the end of the year look at cobbling something together.
For me the hardest part about tweaking D&D is the prevalence of magic and spells into so mamy class features. Where other RPGs might have a talent that let's you do something, in D&D is often a spell (looking at you hunter's mark).
I think it'd be best to use an AiME approach and create new classes reusing many of the class features in D&D classes.
Just brainstorming you could have as your mundane classes:
Scout (ranger equivalent)
Soldier (fighter)
Medic (non magic cleric type healing abilities)
Navigator (skills/bard equivalent)
And then you have your 2nd army grishas of course. I imagine their spells would be much more focused than d&d but perhaps have more versatility in how they are used. I feel warlock invocations might be a better way to handle this rather than a spell list, but who knows.
For me the hardest part about tweaking D&D is the prevalence of magic and spells into so mamy class features. Where other RPGs might have a talent that let's you do something, in D&D is often a spell (looking at you hunter's mark).
I think it'd be best to use an AiME approach and create new classes reusing many of the class features in D&D classes.
Just brainstorming you could have as your mundane classes:
Scout (ranger equivalent)
Soldier (fighter)
Medic (non magic cleric type healing abilities)
Navigator (skills/bard equivalent)
And then you have your 2nd army grishas of course. I imagine their spells would be much more focused than d&d but perhaps have more versatility in how they are used. I feel warlock invocations might be a better way to handle this rather than a spell list, but who knows.
DoomDwarf_347
First Post
I've often heard this said, that DnD isn't always the best system to base things off of when trying to create a game for any given piece of media, simply because it's one of the most popular systems. Obviously there are a ton of other rules systems out there, but I'm not personally familiar with many of them as DnD 5E is the only system I've played, and even that only sparingly. Would you be interested in connecting on Discord to discuss this further and possibly collaborate on some more ideas? That's where I spend most of my time. I'm not in any rush either, I'm currently DM'ing a campaign of my own for the first time so most of my creative efforts go into planning for that.
daddystabz
Explorer
Please post this to the public so we can all play in this setting!
Vaalingrade
Legend
I saw this and thought it would be about the characters in the show playing D&D. This is also good.
Gradine
The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
I'm imagining the Crows playing D&D now and the picture in my mind is hilarious.
daddystabz
Explorer
What individual abilities (spells) would each Grisha-type have?
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Grisha are essentially similar 2E AD&D Psionicists minus the telepathy - so stuff like body control, forcing the body to heal itself or stop living, moving molecules or even atoms around (they have pretty advanced science, seemly thanks to the Grisha), pushing air around, etc.
They don't cast spells. They don't do "magic". The practice what they call "The Small Science" specifically to differentiate it from magic. Also, unless something goes very wrong or very strange, you have one set of powers only - though it seems like some very powerful Grisha who have amplifiers might be sometimes able to gain another (Zoya is literally the only example I can think of though, and she has a powerful amplifier, is a prodigy and also other stuff has occurred). Also, using your powers doesn't necessarily tire you out - in fact if you don't use them, you'll get sick.
Inferni are absolutely not "fire mages", they're pyrokinetics. Squallers cannot reliably "summon lightning", not without Jurda Parem (a drug which lets them break all the rules), and Zoya can only do it reliably after a certain thing happens to her (no spoilers).
As for "flintlock and early repeating rifles", not quite - the Fyerdans have submachineguns, and nobody at all is using flintlocks except desperate peasants. Most firearms use cased ammunition. Not too many spoilers but by the end of the series the technology is roughly 1920s-ish.
Also bear in mind one of the major themes of the universe is that there ALSO is actual magic-magic, like D&D magic, but it's horrific stuff that damages you - Merzost - this can also warp Grisha powers, transforming them from psionic-style powers (all physical stuff) to things that are much stranger (again avoiding spoilers here).
Ruin Explorer
Legend
They wouldn't have any D&D spells, let's be clear - that's absolutely not how Grisha powers work, at all. They're explicitly not magic. They're not spells. There are no incantations or components or rituals. No spirits or other planes or anything. Most Grisha need to have their hands free, though it's established later on that they don't always have to (bizarrely in the show with a character who loses an arm, he gets basically a cyberarm, whereas in the books he learns to use his powers one-handed, which is kind of more impressive).
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