[EN5ider #42] Heroes of the Night

New for EN5ider patrons! We continue our Halloween-inspired month with a selection of horrific new archetypes for barbarians, fighters, and warlocks! Barbarian lycanthropes can master the Wolfsblood path; The Haunted are fighters with spectral companions; and The Evil Eye is a pact for warlocks. By Brandes Stoddard; illustrated by Dan Nokes.

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[Shieldhaven]

Hmm, obviously subclasses are a very popular article idea, but I was really hoping for some bad guys for my game during October.

I find some of these features confusing. Rage and resistance has been dealt with/given errata. (Though it is effectively just reducing damage further). The wolfsblood - do we need a separate mechanic for lycanthropy? You have it but you don't. Immediately turning others into werewolves just does not sit well with me. I like the overall idea though.

A fighter having a spirit companion. I am not really a fan of spectral companions, but I like the flavour of this, strangely. Though again, the 'companion' can manifest as a 'ghost' but it is not the companion, or at least it doesn't take damage? I was a little lost. I can see players liking this in specific settings, though it seems a bit to track. I like the easing of an action to initiate and the spirit continues the action. Though I always wondered what would happen if the fighter couldn't take an action and the spirit is right there 'watching' the fighter get mauled. (Another prob with the ranger too of course).

Evil Eye pact - a cool idea. Though you can impose disadvantage on one save with hex, but those that have protective wards get advantage. So they just cancel your disadvantage?

Thanks for the feedback!

You absolutely could use the Monster Manual's rules for lycanthropy, but I would suggest that the Wolfsblood makes being a werewolf a more central part of your character and gameplay experience. I also tried to reflect some of the style of higher-powered werewolves in fiction - if you treat the MM's werewolf as the baseline, what sorts of horrible things can more powerful werewolves do?

On the Haunted - damage to the companion and damage to the ghost are separate hit point pools because I wanted to spare the player some bookkeeping, and because the ghost is subject to more kinds of attacks than the spectral companion. That is, I wanted to avoid getting into a situation where you never use the ghost because you're worried that it will end its duration too damaged to be useful.

If you wanted to justify the spectral companion's failure to act while the fighter is denied actions, I would say that the spectral companion is somewhat disrupted and confused while the fighter is under this negative effect, unless the spectral companion had standing orders from the fighter that it could follow. I would emphasize the tenuous nature of its tie to the mortal world, because that focuses attention on the fighter PC's importance in the relationship.

Evil Eye pact - yes, if you're using that ability on someone who has a protective ward against the Evil Eye, you wind up back at a straight roll. DMs who do use the optional rules for the ward against the evil eye are well-advised not to make them as omnipresent as they are in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures of the real world.

Thanks again for the questions and comments!

Brandes Stoddard

 

[Connorsrpg]

[MENTION=23427]Shieldhaven[/MENTION]. Thanks for the reply.

I certainly did not mean to come across as harsh. I am not sure why I am being so wary/sceptical on adding so many subclasses to the game. I guess I was coming from the 'bloat' side, but I need to relax I am actually a very open DM willing to give many things a go. (I am not the sort to bar things - I have already added every subclass etc to our website as options). Besides, not all options have to be available all the time. Setting can dictate that. (And I am surprised we haven't had a monster Halloween article yet, but that is not your fault I was sounding way too bitter ).

I am more inclined to use these now, I just found some a little confusing on the first couple of reads. But I am sure it would be sorted during play. Not really worried about the mechanics of the 'ghost' - just the wording. Is it separate to your 'spirit' companion? Does your spirit advance to ghost? Does it revert back to companion when the hps run out? Do you have both operational at once. (I probably need to read it again ).

Re mechanics around requiring an action. I really dislike this... but it is not your doing. The ranger set a very poor precedent in my mind. We have NEVER had a problem with players having animal companions and action economy. I just think the whole, 1 of you doing nothing is not a good rule or relationship.

I liked the idea of lycanthropy being linked to rage. I can see that. Actually a cool and original idea for a subclass. Well, actually, at least something I never would have come up with, and I am sure it would be very interesting to play.

I just have a concern with things like 'instant' transformation in werewolves. maybe I haven't watched enough of the genre, but I see these things taking some time. Just threw me is all. But for others, this may be the ideal capstone.

In any case, congratulations on the article. I really like the EN5ider stuff. I am just a little concerned subclass articles seem to rate so highly, which will mean a lot more of them. But perhaps that is a good thing. I have written several myself, and I guess it is what players want. Keep up the good work

 

[Shieldhaven]

[MENTION=23427]Shieldhaven[/MENTION]. Thanks for the reply.

I certainly did not mean to come across as harsh. I am not sure why I am being so wary/sceptical on adding so many subclasses to the game. I guess I was coming from the 'bloat' side, but I need to relax I am actually a very open DM willing to give many things a go. (I am not the sort to bar things - I have already added every subclass etc to our website as options). Besides, not all options have to be available all the time. Setting can dictate that. (And I am surprised we haven't had a monster Halloween article yet, but that is not your fault I was sounding way too bitter ).

I am more inclined to use these now, I just found some a little confusing on the first couple of reads. But I am sure it would be sorted during play. Not really worried about the mechanics of the 'ghost' - just the wording. Is it separate to your 'spirit' companion? Does your spirit advance to ghost? Does it revert back to companion when the hps run out? Do you have both operational at once. (I probably need to read it again ).

Re mechanics around requiring an action. I really dislike this... but it is not your doing. The ranger set a very poor precedent in my mind. We have NEVER had a problem with players having animal companions and action economy. I just think the whole, 1 of you doing nothing is not a good rule or relationship.

I liked the idea of lycanthropy being linked to rage. I can see that. Actually a cool and original idea for a subclass. Well, actually, at least something I never would have come up with, and I am sure it would be very interesting to play.

I just have a concern with things like 'instant' transformation in werewolves. maybe I haven't watched enough of the genre, but I see these things taking some time. Just threw me is all. But for others, this may be the ideal capstone.

In any case, congratulations on the article. I really like the EN5ider stuff. I am just a little concerned subclass articles seem to rate so highly, which will mean a lot more of them. But perhaps that is a good thing. I have written several myself, and I guess it is what players want. Keep up the good work

I absolutely agree that not every campaign or setting needs every subclass to be available - you can make really compelling statements in a campaign by blocking off particular races, classes, subclasses, or just about anything else.

What I had in mind with the spectral companion/ghost thing is that the spectral companion usually doesn't have a lot of ability to exert full force independently (while they are in normal, spectral-companion mode), but sometimes the Haunted fighter can boost them to full ghost status (so they can't do normal spectral-companion stuff, but they can act independently). I'm not the guy to justify or condemn 5e's approach to action economy for pet classes - I was writing within the established paradigm. If you want to alter that paradigm, go forth and hack these ideas, with my explicit blessing. =)

Once the ghost is no longer present (perhaps by dropping to 0 hit points), your spectral companion can behave normally again. While the ghost is out and active, it has its own set of action, bonus action, reaction, and object action every round, separate from the Haunted fighter's.

Thanks again for taking interest in this work. I hope my remarks here are helpful to you!

 

[Connorsrpg]

Yeah, so spectral companion becomes the ghost. Got it. That part was confusing to me. Cheers, C.