NOW LIVE! -- Presents for Goblins: Festive Resources for 5E on Kickstarter! A festive softcover of holiday-themed D&D 5E resources, including the short adventure 'Presents for Goblins'.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwoSix" data-source="post: 8095246" data-attributes="member: 205">Basic idea:  Wizards defile by default (destroying plant life in an area of 5' per level of the spell, and doing spell level necrotic damage to every living creature in the area.).  There's a preserver subclass that lets the wizard not defile if they make an Arcana check.  if they fail the check, they can spend a hit die (and take damage equal to a roll of the Hit Die) to prevent the defiling, otherwise the spell defiles.  You can only preserve spells up to one level below your max.  (So a 5th level wizard can only preserve 2nd level spells.)  When a spell is cast defiled, it automatically casts as if it was cast one spell slot higher.  Wizards can prepare spells up to one level higher than their normal spell slot max (the same 5th level wizard could prepare and learn 4th level spells) and cast them using a defiled spell slot.This makes defiling a powerful, tempting option for ANY wizard, and only the strongest and most patient of wizards will actually become preservers.  Ideally, defiling is a powerful temptation for the PLAYER, as that emphasizes the allure of defiling (even if it's just this once because things look grim!)</blockquote>