Gate Pass Gazette Issue #39 is ready for another round!

[Savannah Broadway]

The latest issue of the Gate Pass Gazette, the official magazine of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, is bloodied but unbeaten!
You can check it out on Patreon here.
See any errors? Please fill out this form.

Rollin’ on a River: A River Travel Primer
River travel is historic and flavorful, but often overlooked in campaigns. When implemented, however, it provides a refreshing mode of travel, new challenges, and vivid scenes for Narrators to describe. This article provides new mechanics and exploration challenges for those traveling rivers of all kinds. By Jim Temple.

Silent Plague: The Gloamer
The menace of the undead comes in all sorts, and on the opposite end of the spectrum of the necromancer leading a horde of the undead are the gloamers. Rather than brute force, these undead prefer subtle deception, embedding themselves in communities as merchants, healers, or advisors. They whisper to the desperate, offering wealth, power, or salvation. Through careful manipulation, they weave an intricate web of control, ensuring no one questions their influence—until it's too late. By Nick Roch.

Ferocity and Power: Pankration Synergy Feats and Combat Tradition
In ancient Greece, few competitions were more fiercely fought or hard won than pankration championship tournaments. A one-on-one contest decided by the submission of one athlete to another, the pankration match was the ultimate expression of personal will, fortitude, and virility. With only the barest measure of rules constraining pankratiasts, a wide variety of techniques were adopted, most of which involved inflicting pain via strikes, kicks, holds, throws, and locks. In many fantasy settings, a no-holds-barred gladiator pit or arena may give rise to such a combat tradition, and this article details some of the ways you can bring that energy to your game! By Anthony Alipio.

Familiar Faces from Far Afield
Across history, a few heritages have consistently prevailed over others. They have settled in countless corners of the world either by conquest or cooperation. Over time, they slowly diverged, developing distinct cultures and, occasionally, new traits. This article introduces new heritage gifts and paragons for dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, and orcs. By Jagger A Dillon.

Art by Julio Rocha

 

[Waller]

I was super excited about the new combat tradition. But I have questions…

Heady Lock — how do you make a grapple attack at advantage? Your target makes a saving throw. There’s no attack roll.

Digit Snap — wouldn’t that be better with the Agonized condition rather than Confused? Why would somebody with a broken finger start wandering round doing random things?

Painful Break — Wow! Disadvantage on all attacks until a long rest? That’s… insane! Also “On hit”.

Love the idea of more combat traditions based on different martial arts BTW! Also how about one for little people like halflings and goblins…using their small size to their advantage.

 

[Waller]

Bump? Any answer on those questions? Especially the Heady Lock one.

@Savannah Broadway

 

[Waller]

Hello? Is this thing on? It's been 10 days now.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I was super excited about the new combat tradition. But I have questions…

Heady Lock — how do you make a grapple attack at advantage? Your target makes a saving throw. There’s no attack roll.

Digit Snap — wouldn’t that be better with the Agonized condition rather than Confused? Why would somebody with a broken finger start wandering round doing random things?

Painful Break — Wow! Disadvantage on all attacks until a long rest? That’s… insane! Also “On hit”.

Love the idea of more combat traditions based on different martial arts BTW! Also how about one for little people like halflings and goblins…using their small size to their advantage.

I've been waiting for an unarmed combat tradition since the game released. Surprised it took this long.

 

[dm_fromscratch]

I was super excited about the new combat tradition. But I have questions…

Hi this is Anthony (author of the Ferocity and Power article). Sorry for the delay in responding. Hopefully I can answer most of your questions.

Heady Lock — how do you make a grapple attack at advantage?

You are correct, this should be disadvantage for the target's saving throw.

Digit Snap — wouldn’t that be better with the Agonized condition rather than Confused?

IIRC, when I first started designing this tradition, I think VRC and the Agonized condition weren't out yet. That said, I think either Agonized or Confused would work well here.

Painful Break — Wow! Disadvantage on all attacks until a long rest?

It is a 3rd degree maneuver, so minimum 8th level PC. The intent is it would take either resources or time to heal this wound, and I figure at that tier, enemies could have access to healing. Narratively it' s an incapacitated limb which should take time (or magic) to recover from. (And yes typo should be "On a hit" )

Love the idea of more combat traditions based on different martial arts BTW! Also how about one for little people like halflings and goblins…using their small size to their advantage.

These seem like great ideas! I'll see about taking one or more of these on in the future

 

[Savannah Broadway]

Hi this is Anthony (author of the Ferocity and Power article). Sorry for the delay in responding. Hopefully I can answer most of your questions.

You are correct, this should be disadvantage for the target's saving throw.

IIRC, when I first started designing this tradition, I think VRC and the Agonized condition weren't out yet. That said, I think either Agonized or Confused would work well here.

It is a 3rd degree maneuver, so minimum 8th level PC. The intent is it would take either resources or time to heal this wound, and I figure at that tier, enemies could have access to healing. Narratively it' s an incapacitated limb which should take time (or magic) to recover from. (And yes typo should be "On a hit" )

These seem like great ideas! I'll see about taking one or more of these on in the future

Thanks for fielding this one! Meanwhile, I'll log these corrections, and perhaps add a sidebar for the agonized condition