D&D 5E [Let's Read] The Islands of Sina Una: 5e Fantasy inspired by Filipino legends

Libertad

Legend
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Storefront Page, PDF

Storefront Page, Hardcover

When it comes to non-European fantasy counterpart settings, Dungeons & Dragons has traditionally been rather sparse. 2nd Edition onwards saw an increased amount of such settings, be it regional examples like with particular domains and city-states in Ravenloft and Dark Sun, and the inclusion of entire lines like Al-Qadim, Kara-Tur, and Maztica. But such lines struggled to get any support as complete self-contained settings in later Editions. Indeed, it was often left to fans' homebrew content to keep these lines alive, to say nothing of original worlds. By the advent of 5th Edition, we’ve seen a surge again of writers and designers eager to move beyond the Western standard, both on the part of Wizards of the Coast as well as gamers making use of the OGL. Furthermore, it’s increasingly the norm to have people from aforementioned cultures play a role in the creative process, like we’ve seen with Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.

The Islands of Sina Una is one such book in the latter category, the finished product of a team of Filipinos (both residing in the country and the diaspora) who sought to take their culture’s legends, history, and folklore and turn it into a campaign setting for 5th Edition. Meaning “those who came first,” Sina Una is not a term used in-universe so much as a meta-reference to the pre-colonial eras of the Philippines. Sadly, a lot of Filipino history has been lost after colonization, with what survives persists largely via oral folklore, so the book was made to remember and celebrate their ancestors by collecting such fragmented pieces to shine a spotlight on the beautiful tales still remembered. The designers also included an appendix and cited sources on their historical research and how they adapted certain things into a fantasy RPG format, and also what they chose to leave out and why.

Before we start, I should note that the book contains Content Warnings for discussion and references to visual depictions of cannibalism, gore and spiders listed by page number. Unfortunately, one of the page references is mislabeled: the book mentions that “there is an extremely large spider on page 143 and 258,” but in both the PDF’s designation and the corner page reference the latter number reference the wrong monster. 258 has a picture of a Minokawa, a monstrous eagle-like being, and page 259 after it has a picture of a Tambanokano, a monstrous crab. In fact, the spider monster illustration (the Tambanokua) is on page 260. A rather unfortunate mistake.

Chapter One: Introduction goes over the major themes of the Islands of Sina Una, and what distinguishes its world.

Welcome to the Islands paints the setting in broad strokes, covering universal aspects. The known world consists of seven major islands in an archipelago in the middle of a vast ocean. Seafaring is an important means of trade and contact between peoples, although the skill and time conducted to voyages depends upon one’s lifestyle. Most people spend the majority of their lives in their local village, but traders, nomads, those living near the coasts, and of course raiders often stay on the waves for long enough that it becomes second nature. The climate is tropical, which has shaped the common tools used. Particularly for weapons and armor, as the heavy metal common to other settings rusts easily and imposes exhaustion on its wearer. Almost every settlement speaks Common, and a simple form of sign language for nonverbal communication has developed.

Every creature and object has its own spirit. Spirits are an important part of the world’s cosmic underpinnings. For mortals they are one’s soul, which moves on to the afterlife upon death. Spirits are also the source of magic, where various traditions of spellcasting have their own methods of using spirits to achieve wondrous feats. While most are unseen and immaterial, spirits can also manifest physically in the world, and every island has particularly powerful and famous spirits that act as figures of importance who locals pay homage to in exchange for favors and protection. People are aware that they’re never truly “alone” even in the desolate wilderness and middle of the ocean, so it’s common to conduct rituals and respectful greetings as a means of acknowledging one’s trespass. For instance, sailors might petition the sea and sky for fair weather and guidance, while a hunter one walking through the grove of a balete tree may politely ask the plant to pardon their steps as they walk.

The islands may share a common language and customs, but governance takes place at the local level. Most settlements are led by a figure known as a datu, who acts as a lawmaker, judge, and administrator of protection and resources for the community. Warriors known as timawa defend the datu and enforce their laws in exchange for their patronage. Higher-ranking figures known as rajahs lead larger settlements, with multiple communities having their own individual datus who pay tribute to the rajah. The position of a datu is most often hereditary, making them similar to nobles in other settings, but upon reaching old age they often step down to advisor status in a local council to let their adult children rule.

Foods vary wildly depending on local resources, although rice and tubers are staple crops, seafood is common, and spices are used to add flavor. Meals are an important means of social bonding, whether it’s something as small as having a friend over or larger feasts to celebrate holidays and achievements. The betel nut in particular holds a special place in island culture, where fruits from an areca palm are sliced and then wrapped in a leaf from a betel piper vine. People carry tools for this method of preparation at all times, and the betel nut is shared whenever a serious discussion is to happen or someone is invited into another’s house in order to solidify social bonds.

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We get a list of Ingredients and Dishes for common meals, such as taro (root vegetables used to thicken stews), luya (ginger plant spices used to flavor dishes and tea), malunggay (leaves used for soups and medicinal recipes), biko (popular snack and dessert made from glutinous rice, coconut milk, and brown sugar served in an oiled banana leaf), lugaw (rice porridge with chicken, ginger, and garlic often topped with a boiled egg and chopped green onions), and ube halaya (jam made from purple yams and coconut milk, either eaten on its own or put on other desserts).

This section ends by covering the History of the Islands, which is surprisingly quite short. It begins with the creation of the world, which was originally fragments of land within a churning sea. The god Bathala began to shape reality into something more cohesive, and fashioned the people of the world out of various natural features and spirits taking mortal form, such as the elves who were original plant and flower spirits, or the gnomes who rose from the very earth itself. A few spirits went on to join Bathala as fellow gods,* having children of their own who then went on to form the various celestial objects. They lived as one big happy family, eager to protect the new land they all helped create.

*Gods in Sina Una are basically very powerful spirits rather than being uniquely distinct categories of being.

Sadly, the gods and the world would soon come to know sorrow, as there were monsters lurking in the dark corners of reality, dating from before creation. They were jealous of Bathala’s works, and one such entity was a shapeshifter known as Bakunawa who sought to devour Mayari, the moon. One night, when Mayari shone bright, Bakunawa emerged as a titanic serpent. He was repelled by Haliya, one of Mayari’s younger siblings, and forced to retreat into the deep reaches of the ocean. The gods, now aware of this new danger, prepared for the next time that Bakunawa would emerge from the waves, and emerge she did. They fought a grand battle across the islands and the heavens, with Haliya dealing a deadly blow to Bakunawa. This eldritch horror would be the first of such Celestial Eaters, so named for their desire to consume the moon and other creations of Bathala. Haliya formed an order of mortals known as the balat-kayo to call upon her blade when the time came to fight such entities. The gods otherwise retreated, leaving mortals among a broken world, who then turned to spirits in order to rebuild and survive. From this came the emergence of the umalagad, dragonborn who are reincarnated ancestral spirits, as well as the shamans known as the babaylan who act as intermediaries between mortals and spirits of the land. Kaylahon was a particularly famous babaylan who helped found the port town of Timanduk, which still stands to this day. But one day, she left for unknown horizons but not before appointing a new leader for her home. Some say that she’s looking for a way to defend against the Celestial Eaters. Kaylahon has reason to be concerned, for all manner of monsters and curses scour the lands, giving rise to the need for healers, warriors, and petitioners of spirits to make the world a safer place.

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The book then briefly touches on common kinds of adventures and character-building. The book notes that life in the islands emphasizes connectedness of all kinds. Beyond the ties people have with their families and hometowns, they petition ancestors for insight because they are “connected to those who came before you.” People respect and provide offerings to spirits in exchange for aid because the spirits need mortals’ help as much as mortals need spirits. Faith and worship, thus, is seen in similar terms, of one's relationship to family and community.

When it comes to running a campaign, the book is rather vague on this count. It mentions the idea of PCs being traveling monster-hunters who may eventually work up to fighting the Celestial Eaters themselves. For other kinds of campaigns it mentions PCs traveling between the islands as they get involved with the conflicts of the gods, but little in regards to specifics on the gods and their particular conflicts. There is more text devoted to a gaming group’s concerns of doing “something wrong” when it comes to portraying Filipino culture, and that everyone makes mistakes and that the most one can do is to learn from them and strive to do better. The book says that the fact that one is willing to treat these stories with respect is already a step in the right direction.

We then get a pronunciation guide, a reference to an appendix for common words and names, and a d100 table of names for those who need help choosing ones for characters. Names don’t have gendered connotations.

Chapter One’s final major section concerns Spirits & Religion, particularly the 22 gods of the world. Sina Una’s cosmology is an animist one, meaning that every object, creature, and even natural phenomenon, has an animating soul. Thus, the term “spirit” is much broader in definition than your typical incorporeal undead. Even those who aren’t babaylan take pains to do their part in ensuring that they stay on the spirits’ good side, for respect and offerings earn their aid, while disrespect and apathy can bring their ire in the form of various misfortunes. People reserve special houses and altars for such offerings, and the kinds of offerings depend on the local spirits’ tastes and desires. But some common offerings in the islands are wine, gold ornaments, betel nuts, and animal blood. Salt and spices are one of the few universal dislikes, so such things are almost never offered.

Spirits of nature are self-aware, meaning that they have their own names and desires. While they may seem inanimate at first glance, spells and the proper rituals can be used to communicate with them. Some of these spirits can create manifestations of a person or animal in order to properly converse. While spirits of related things can share features in common, each spirit is unique and can have the gamut of personalities and moral outlooks as mortals do.

Ancestor spirits are the souls of mortals who still continue to exist, looking over the households of their descendants. Such spirits can interact with mortals via possessing a willing host or an object carved in their likeness, as well as entering the dreams of their descendents. A rare few can reincarnate in the mortal world as umalagad.

How does death and the afterlife tie into things? Well, it’s believed that a body can remain alive even without a soul, and that sometimes the soul can temporarily leave the body during sleep or via special magic and talents. True death occurs when the physical body expires and the soul starts its journey to the Underworld. Food, drink, and personal possessions are buried with the corpse during funerals as a means of helping their spirit’s journey by having such things take form alongside them. All souls who die share the same path: they travel northward along forest paths and rivers to Lalangban, a gateway sitting at the edge of the world. While such a place can be physically journeyed to by the living, it is a waterfall spilling into an endless abyss, with jagged rocks and a whirlpool that can destroy inbound ships. Souls enter the whirlpool to go on their next journey to the Black River, whose current is bathed in total darkness designed to cleanse souls of fear and attachment to their prior lives. The goddess Magwayen watches over this river, using a glowing beacon to help guide souls to her boat and thus to the dreamlike Underworld, a paradise-like place where spirits go to live among their departed loved ones.

Souls who don’t wish to move on must swim upstream, and mortal barbarians empowered by the Black River itself* are tasked with ensuring that such reluctant souls don’t make their way out. But those spirits who manage to rescape reincarnate as umalagad but lose all memory of their former lives as a result of the ordeal. Spirits unable to make their way to Lalangban in the first place become ghosts, trapped in a pitiable state of aimlessly wandering a world in which they can no longer truly live and experience.

*a subclass detailed later in this book.

As can be expected, necromancy is a major taboo, for it is a disruption of the natural process of dead bodies returning to the earth which helps ensure the flourishing of new life. On a similar note, magic that brings back the dead is viewed as disrespectful to the deities Siadpa and Magwayen, albeit not to the same extent as the creation of undead. That latter kind of magic is forbidden under any circumstance.

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Gods of the Islands covers the most well-known spirits who embody universal forces and concepts. They do not have listed alignments or favored domains, their info being in the realm of flavor text as well as half-page or full-page artwork. They include Bathala, the creator god and god of the sky who is known as a merciful protector. He prefers to act as a guide and takes a less active role in the world, knowing that his children have a good handle on things. Then there’s Apolaki, a stubborn yet compassionate spirit of the sun who shines upon the world every day. She once fought Mayari for control over the sky, but the duel was called off when she lost her eye in the fight, and the two opted to govern half the sky every day as a compromise to avoid further bloodshed. Mayari the moon goddess is known for her wisdom and beauty, and the Moon Siblings are a pair of twins (half-sisters to Marayi) who protect her by enshrouding part of the moon via lunar phases. Mayari’s sister Tala helps manage the stars so as to help the lost find their way home at night. Mayari’s other sister Hanan presides over morning, decorating fields with dew and encouraging roosters to wake people up for another day’s work. For those wondering, Mayari and her sisters are the daughters of an unnamed mortal woman, while the Moon Siblings came from the goddess Anagolay.

Anagolay is the spirit of lost things, who fell in love with Bathala and beget their son Apolaki. Bathala would later become consumed by his work as creator, so they parted ways. Anagolay later wed Dumakulem, spirit of the mountains, and spends her days helping people cope with loss and giving guidance for those searching for something or someone. Dumakulem created mountain ranges with his own hands, to help provide shelter for those who explore such regions. Those unable to care for children began leaving them up in the mountains in hopes of having the god provide them protection. People also entreaty the god in order to safely travel through mountains, before an auspicious hunting expedition, or to better defend others.

Dian Masalanta is the spirit of lovers and childbirth, and is known for being a peace loving being who people pray to for relationship advice, how to love oneself and others, and to ensure healthy conceptions. Sidapa is the god of death and mortality, a rather introverted, reclusive god who primarily acts as an archivist of those who passed on. People pray to him to make the most of their lives rather than for longer ones, as that’s considered a disrespectful and selfish wish. Magwayen has a similar role as a ferrywoman of souls making their way to the Underworld, and people pray to her to ensure peace for those grieving and to help their dearly departed on a safe journey to the afterlife.

Lakapati is an intersex goddess of harvests and fertility, who taught people how to farm the land and observe the changing seasons, and is petitioned by farmers for fruitful harvests and to safeguard their herds. Maylupa is the god of the earth, sometimes taking the form of a crow. He once ate the flesh of a corpse out of curiosity, which angered Bathala who then covered his once-bright feathers with black ink. Eventually Bathala met Maylupa again, and the two reached a compromise: Maylupa would live closer to the earth as a means of penance, but also help encourage his curious nature in exploring the world.

Okot is a spirit that prefers to live in forests, his songs sometimes heard but all its inhabitants step to his tune. He is an odd ally of hunters, who often find the spirit guiding animals to them either to lead them out of the woods faster or be more easily caught. Haik is the god of the ocean, but he shares this territory with many other spirits and is more of a respected coworker than an overlord. He works with Anitun Tabun, the goddess of storms who is much less reasonable and is known for her fickle and stern nature, but those who please her are often blessed with rain to help crops grow and cool the lava of volcanoes. Maklium Sa-Bagidan is the god of fire, who encourages mortals to treat this element as a tool to be respected. Dangerous, yet useful for the many functions of civilization, from cooking food to clearing forest for farmland. Lalahon is the goddess of volcanoes, simultaneously an entity of creation and destruction. Destruction for a volcano’s ability to smother and burn all that stands in its way, but also creation for the ash spewed forth which fertilizes soil for farming and cooled lava that becomes obsidian.

Ribung Linti is the god of lightning and thunder, an upbeat and energetic deity who knows the danger of his domain so he sends dark clouds ahead of time as a warning. He wields lightning as a precise instrument to quickly and mercifully kill evildoers. Amanikabli is the god of hunting, ever on the move for the next great endeavor. When he is not chasing after a creature, he spends his spare time building and experimenting with new weapons and traps, and emphasizes mortals to perform ethical means of conservation. Those who act foolishly or cruelly find their hunts marked with misfortune, with the god manipulating events so that they’re unable to catch their quarry.

Thoughts So Far: The Islands of Sina Una’s opening chapter does a good job in giving us the broad strokes of the setting. The focus on spirits as a common glue connecting things together is a strong theme running throughout the book, and in covering topics such as government, food, and seafaring the reader already has a strong mental image of day to day life. The history section is very brief, but quickly sets up the Celestial Eaters as the main antagonists of the setting. By having their war against the gods be a recent event, it’s something that hits closer to home rather than being an obscure footnote in the distant past.

In regards to weak parts, I think the book should more concretely define what kind of adventures the setting wishes to emphasize, rather than saying that fighting the Celestial Eaters doesn’t have to be the default. Defining oneself by what one is expected to do is just as important as departures from the norm.

Join us next time as we cover the first few islands in Chapter Two: the World!
 

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Chapter Two: the World

As the longest chapter in this book, the World details each of the seven major islands, along with the ocean and stranger places. The island descriptions follow a format: a broad-focus view on the geography and climate along with demographics and culture, followed by major settlements and the most important spirits. The text makes use of in-character narration for first-time arrivals at the islands and settlements as a means of setting the mood and what PCs might first notice upon approach.

Timanduk is our first island, serving as a diverse trade nexus and pilgrimage site, with the volcano spirit Nulkab towering over the horizon and a beautiful coral reef as the most notable features. Kaylahon is the first of the major settlements, a port town founded by people who made a deal with the ocean spirit Tualylupa to gain food, safe passage, and fair weather. Ashen Fields is our second settlement, a tiefling-majority nomadic community so named for making use of Nulkab’s eruptions and their own fire magic to do slash and burn agriculture. Termite nests and dirt mounds pose a danger as being the homes of vengeful spirits, and their presence causes work to halt. Lastly, we have the River Village of Nadasaloy that uses bamboo to build stilt houses and for fashioning into spears to catch fish. It is in a rather fragile peace with the local nature spirits, given the village’s last datu got too greedy and mounted a failed invasion of the forest for its resources. The current datu is doing what he can to restore goodwill, and while most spirits have accepted there are still a few vengeful ones that take out their anger on the residents.

The prominent spirits of Timanduk include Nulkab the Volcano, who has many rumored origins but whose sole constant is being cursed with never-ended hunger, and it is through the babaylan of Kaylathon that the spirit hasn’t consumed the entire island in a sea of fire. Tulaylupa is the spirit holding sway over this section of ocean* who was around since the world’s creation, and being split up by many new islands made the spirit angry from loneliness. They found a new community via a deal with the babaylan of a traveling community, who would provide the spirit companionship in exchange for safety and ease of travel. People help keep Tulaylupa’s sense of isolation from coming back via songs and stories along with daily prayers and offerings at sea.

*The ocean doesn’t have a single spirit so much as a family of related spirits.

The bulul are ancestor spirits who possess wood and volcanic rock, so mortals carve them into humanoid likenesses along with food offerings as a means of helping them connect to their descendents, and in exchange they help ward away pests from fields. The tree spirits of Patpatayin are located in groves where animal sacrifices are performed as part of making sacred oaths, and people use such groves for important promises between each other. There is one type of tree spirit known as the Balete, who is actually one of many and whose trees can be used as gateways between the mortal and spirit worlds. It’s common for large concentrations of spirits to be found around them.

Kandaya is our second island, famed for its mangrove forests whose wood bears various magical functions when repurposed for craftsmanship. Such forests, and in fact all plant life on the island, share a common ancestor in the spirit of Malahom, and there’s a pair of small yet dangerous islands off the coast known as Twin’s Folly rumored to be home to aswang. Kandaya’s people live among the coasts, moving inland during monsoon season brought by Habagat the Southwest Wind. Foraging among the mangrove roots for shrimp and fish is common to all communities here, but the northern communities farm taro, rice, and ginger due being less affected by the monsoon and whose rain is more beneficial to the area.

The Mangrove City of Pahinga is located in Kandaya’s center. While its location is common knowledge, entry is restricted as the forest and rivers warp the landscape to lead the unworthy astray. The city was formed by a mortal figure known as the Child, who was raised by the river spirit Tagaampon. The Child became curious about the world and left to explore. During that time they made many friends and learned valuable knowledge, but also that the world was full of suffering. Gathering various down-on-their-luck people and helping them live better lives, Pahinga was formed as a place of healing.

Another notable community includes Hanapin, a settlement whose homes and gates are formed from blocks of salt harvested from tidal pools. The community was made by people who were continually hunted by aswang, and tired of being prey sought to find ways of harnessing the sea’s salt to turn them into weapons. Tidal pools were built, trapping water which evaporated under the hot sun and left the salt intact. Hanapin is now known as a village full of dedicated warriors, and uses its most precious resource to aid them in fighting the aswang wherever they may be found. While it will be covered in a later chapter, aswang are a new category of monsters in the setting, and share a common weakness against salt. Thus, it is common for people to use salt-encrusted weapons when fighting them.

The first of our final two centers of Kandaya includes Taonglupa, a majority-halfling xenophobic community that refuses trade with everyone else and are rude and disagreeable to outsiders. However, this attitude is but an act, for they seek to help protect their patron spirit Malahom. The townsfolk believe that they were born from that spirit’s seeds, and must look after other plants as siblings who are largely unable to move or defend themselves from all manner of animals and people. We conclude our tour with Sininga, famous for being the island’s chief producer of textiles and dyes which is located on the secluded smaller island of Timogtalon. They used to be isolated from the rest of the world, but after a particularly deadly monsoon brought them into contact with outsiders, they found many eager trading partners wanting to purchase their beautiful fabrics.

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Kandaya has three major spirits. Sakawayan is a large freshwater lake which is actually an ancient sea spirit who became trapped after lands rose up from the sea. Its anger at being caged caused the island’s water sources to be tainted with salt. When mortal settlers later came upon the island, they first contacted the spirit in hopes of obtaining fresh water. After a rather negative first impression, a more respectful relationship was fostered after people began giving it things from the ocean, such as seashells and coral remnants. This soon turned into an annual ceremony known as the Festival of Exchange, where people bring gifts to Sakawayan in the belief that this prevents it from forgetting old memories and becoming angry once again. Many people regard the spirit as the kind of entity one appeases for safety, but this isn’t universally held. Some people contemplated the idea of freeing Sakawayan and returning them to the ocean, but as nobody knows what ramifications this will have on the environment, no attempt has actually been made. Which honestly feels like quite the missed adventuring opportunity.

Tagaampon is the second major spirit, a more beneficent-minded entity who was created by Malahom to help grow plant life across the island, but found an equally meaningful purpose in raising an orphaned mortal known as the Child. As a protective parental figure, the river manipulated the terrain to keep outside threats from finding the Child, but understood their desire to go out into the world and was happy to see them return with more people. Tagaampon currently serves as Pahinga’s guardian patron.

Malahom is a spirit who used to be a giant who became a tree after praying for some rain to soften the hard, dry land he was walking on. After slipping and falling, he was unable to remove himself from the mud, and his body eventually became a mangkono tree. Needless to say this was maddeningly lonely, and his sadness caused him to grow fruits whose seeds grew into all sorts of plant life, as well as the first halflings of the island. Malahom occupies the role of a spirit of fertility and life in Kandaya: farmers beseech him for rain and good harvests, while parents pray for successful childbirths. The people of Taonglupa are his most ardent followers, who honor him by asking every plant for permission to harvest them and take only what they need.

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Image used for the book contained text, textless version can be found on artist’s Deviantart.

Puthawanan is our next island, and one of the largest. Its communities are typically coastal settlements of fishers and warriors who set sail to raid other places along trade winds, while those living at the island’s south carved citadels out of limestone to form the city of Himpapawiran. The island is known for its iron mines, a material that is overall rare. Local piracy is tolerated by villagers, for they also help protect communities and bring them treasures from other islands, which they donate to local traders to ensure good will.

But Puthawanan also has a more sinister reputation as being the once-frequent abode of Arimaonga, one of the Celestial Eaters. This gigantic lion-like entity tore off pieces of mountain as it played around the land, which has also helped unearth ore deposits and cut a vast RIdge through the island. Although it has been a century since Arimaonga was last seen here, its presence in the Ridge manifests in the form of effects akin to Lair Actions, such as a 10% chance per hour of an earthquake, claw marks dug deep into the earth, and dry thunderstorms.

Puthawanan has three major settlements. The first is Himapapawiran, a city nestled in the mountains home to mines and smithies. The second is Agusan, a northwestern coastal city situated at the mouth of a river, and its people supply Himapapawiran with fish and other goods in exchange for terrace crops and iron. Piracy has generated resentment from the nearby islanders of Nasirakna, and retaliatory raids have become yearly events. Sumilong is the last settlement, a coastal town with half its buildings carved from limestones in the adjacent cliffs. The settlement was founded to avoid having to migrate inland during every monsoon, using stonemasonry to make long-lasting structures for its people. Its location makes it a vital trading hub with the island of Timanduk, and most outsiders prefer to dock here where local warriors and guides offer their services for traveling around the rest of the island.

Puthawanan’s three major spirits also have fancy titles to go along with their names. Paglipad is the Mountain Traveler, who chose to remain uninvolved during a great war between air and earth spirits. They became an outcast for their neutrality. Spending long, lonely nights traveling around Puthawanan’s mountain range, mortals took note of the spirit and began leaving offerings of fruit for Paglipad to find later, who is still too ashamed to show themselves directly and instead helps people from afar.

The second spirit is the Jeweled Hawk, a materialistic entity who is eager to take advantage of luxurious goods and controls access to mines along the mountains. The bird takes the finest portions for his own and gifts for a favored few, while selling the rest. Unlike virtually every other major spirit, the Hawk has no priests nor maintains other lines of communication with mortals, so people seeking to earn his favor need to physically find him up in the mountain forest and accompany the spirit on one of his fanciful hunting expeditions. Or attending one of his exclusive Parties in the Sky in a manor up in the mountains.

The last spirit is Kamatayan the Iron Serpent, who is said in legend to have once slept in the mountain, but her scales were mistaken for ore deposits. Taking violent revenge on the miners who woke her, nine days of prayer and offerings by surviving friends and family convinced her to let them meet their loved ones. As the islanders at this time were immortal and never knew death before, their fate was a great shock to many. Kamatayan now serves the role of a spirit of death and revenge, where people ask for her favor in order to make contact with the dearly departed or to guard themselves from and/or take revenge against foes.

Nasirakna is the fourth island, known for being home to many larger-than-normal sized animals as well as water spirits and a multitude of inland rivers. As most wind spirits avoid the land, it is up to the water spirits to manage the climate, resulting in omnipresent fog and mist with no dry season. A species of manta rays native to Nasirakna are capable of flying in the air, and are large and strong enough to bear human-sized riders on their backs. These animals have been domesticated for travel around the island.

Sangdaangalon is a nomadic settlement made up of flotillas whose ancestors acted as traveling truth-tellers who helped chart and name the many animals and features of the island. Their demographics are diverse due to their society originating from all walks of life. Sangdaangalon has a tradition where their datu is appointed by anyone who braves the dangerous waters of a spirit known as the Blue Maw for a week, and should they survive they are deemed worthy. The town ended up with two datus because the people wrongly believed that the first challenger died, and the second one also survived. Another interesting feature is the oldest karakoa (a type of enchanted boat that is self-assembling) in the community, which bears many valuable items intended as offerings to the Blue Maw. Anyone who attempts to steal or defile the offerings are executed.

The second settlement is the lakeside fishing community of Ingatan, whose original settlers were able to gain the protection of the lake spirit Lisuga to offer them her natural bounty in exchange for sharing stories. Ingatan is also home to a well-guarded artifact known as the Alaala jar. It is said to have been created by the founding babaylan to act as a multi-generational repository of knowledge, and anyone who attunes to it gains access to literal lifetimes’ worth of memories.

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Nahulog is the last settlement of Nasirakna, which is where the island’s few wind spirits congregate as can be seen by kites in the air. Threaded cloth criss-crossing between buildings and giant mushrooms serve as good luck charms, and the air is alive with music. The village’s founding babaylan was led to the area by a trickster spirit, who she managed to befriend by locating its cave and playing a nice tune on a flute. Nahulog’s people bear magic in the form of songs that help defend their community,* as well as talismans that can direct the flow of winds if placed on a kite.

*no details are provided as to the specifics.

All three settlements maintain good relations with each other. During the anniversary of the Eve of Parting, when the original settlers voluntarily broke up into three groups to form their own communities, people from every settlement come together to reenact Nasirakna’s history through song, dance, and stories.

Nasirakna has three major individual spirits and a major grouping as its own category. The first major spirit is the Blue Maw, real name Anino, a pool whose bottom is unseen and unknown. It is actually the mouth of a gigantic turtle originally trapped here by its parents, who viewed him as ugly and unworthy. Anino quells with anger at this injustice, which manifests in the form of harsh weather and poisonous animals, and so the island’s inhabitants do what they can to ease his sorrow via prayers of thanks for being able to live on the land and also giving sacrifices and music. If mollified, Anino visits people in their dreams to thank them.

Makulit the Trickster Wind is said to be responsible for the splitting up of Sky and Sea, jealous of the two spirits’ bond together and sought to cause the two no end of mischief. One day, the wind spirit stole their treasures of drifting clouds and colored stones. Sky threw a rock at Makulit but accidentally hit Sea, and clouds spilled from the latter’s mouth in pain that formed the mists of Nasirakna. Makulit took the opportunity to hide in a cave, which it still lives in to this day, still troublesome as ever. Even so, people still seek to appease Makulit in hopes of distracting the entity, and weavers in particular earn the spirit respect for their skills at kite-making.

Ingkang Putik is the third spirit, a representation of the act of change in all its forms. She was once a large yet sedentary female bullfrog who lived upon the island before the first mortal settlers, and learned that the wind and water spirits were enacting rituals to bind Anino the Blue Maw to the island. Presuming that this was a necessary act to keep the island intact, she started to perform the rituals as well, eventually becoming a hybrid earth and water spirit. When mortal settlers arrived, Ingkang Putik became a male, taking a humanoid form made of mud and living life as an adventurer for a while. Eventually, Putik returned to their old self and now lives among their fellow bullfrogs in the mud. Nobody knows why they gave up their more exciting life, but everyone has their own theory. People still venture into the mudflats in hopes of gaining Ingkang Putik’s favor to change something else or something about themselves. But this is a dangerous journey, for the frog spirit is just as apt to eat the pilgrim as they are to listen. Needless to say, Putik and Anino dislike each other given that the former still supports the latter’s imprisonment.

Tutubi are a group of related ancestor spirits who take the forms of flying insects along Nasirakna’s waterways. Souls who die on the island don’t truly move on, and are bound to the area. They devote their afterlives to various vocations, but the tutubi’s duties are to help give safe passage to travelers who pay them proper respect. And hinder those who don’t. How they fly is also a good means of predicting weather, as they fly high when skies will be clear and low when it will rain.

Thoughts So Far: The first half of this chapter does a good job in providing a distinctive feel for the various islands, and treating spirits as named figures with important societal roles helps reinforce Sina Una’s animistic themes. Each of the four islands has detailed climates, resources, and cultural traditions to help them feel different from each other and highlight how its people live.

But one weakness in this chapter so far is that while there’s several adventuring opportunities presented, said hooks for conflict tend to be vaguely-detailed. For instance, we know that the village of Hanapin created its own cottage industry of salt to fight aswang incursions, but we don’t get much detail on exactly what kinds of monsters are menacing the village. Or how Arimagona’s Ridge still bears spooky remnants of the Celestial Eater’s presence, but we don’t get any sample dungeons, monsters, or sources of conflict coming from the region. While there are some sources of conflict, like Puthawanan’s piracy causing retaliation from nearby islands or termite mounds in Ashen Fields being a threat to farming, many of the locations provided feel that they’re in a relatively peaceful status quo, waiting for trouble to happen to them. As opposed to troubles already happening, where the PCs are needed to put things right.

Join us next time as we cover the remaining three islands and what lies beyond the archipelago in the rest of Chapter Two!
 

many of the locations provided feel that they’re in a relatively peaceful status quo, waiting for trouble to happen to them. As opposed to troubles already happening, where the PCs are needed to put things right.
That was one of my two major problems with the book, too. It's .. idyllic. Community leaders are generally wise, benevolent, and doing their jobs well, guiding contented people. It comes across as a setting where the problems have been solved and there's no need for the PCs. It could have desperately done with a few pages on antagonists and antagonist groups, who they are, what they want, how they come to the PCs attention, etc etc. I mean, the Celestial Eaters are very cool, and the book mentions they have cults or followers ... but what do these cults DO all day? What are their plots all about?

It seemed to me like the book was written by someone who had a deep love for precolonial Filipino society, to the point of maybe romanticising it a bit. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about precolonial Filipino society or history, but I kinda assume that every society everywhere has internal and external conflicts from time to time). A D&D setting needs problems for PCs to put right, and the book just has too few of them. I think the follow-up adventure book probably would have helped in this department, but the development team for that product imploded messily a while back after the KS funded, and it's looking a lot like vapourware now.
 

I've played a bit in this setting! And yeah, the idealism left me a bit out of sorts. I was a tough warrior type (a head hunter, trying out some of the novel archetypes) and was...not suited for most of what went on in terms of conflict (which mostly had to do with an unhappy spirit who needed to be befriended and appeased, as opposed to hunting any heads).
 

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Chapter Two, Part Two: Rest of the World

Adlawadto is a humid island covered in rainforest where much of the flora is poisonous, the fauna is fiercer than normal, and spirits guard much of the interior from trespassers. But even so, people found ways to live here, be it advanced knowledge of herbalism in identifying the right plants to sticking close to the shorelines. Most of the island remains unexplored, and in the rest of the archipelago it has a reputation of being an unknown frontier. Linawan is the first major settlement, a gathering of hunters that meet once every full moon to share resources and knowledge, and its Bagsakan marketplace eagerly trades rumors as much as they do goods.

Tasulog is a mobile community of boats that serve as living residents for its people, who are fishers, pearl divers, and foragers of shellfish, coral, and turtle eggs. They have been known to visit farther shores, but they regularly return to this island. Every boat of Tasulog houses an ancestral spirit who acts as administrators for resources and labor.

Badbaran is the third major settlement, located deep in the rainforest which are protected by Sasayaw, a benevolent lake spirit whose presence deters predators. Descendants of an escaped Tasulog people enslaved by an unnamed group, their current community doesn’t permit the entry of outsiders unless they prove their goodwill by finding and returning rare fruit elsewhere in Adlawadto.

The island has four major spirits. The first is Sasayaw the Giant Turtle, who shares a common relationship with Badbaran in having been on the run from hunters, and controls the water level and rain. While people still give offerings the turtle returns in favor, he isn’t very trusting of mortals in general. The other two spirits are Aponipalayok and Huni, the former a little girl who befriended the latter who is a bird spirit. The two met when Aponipalayok was gathering medicinal leaves in a forest. After getting injured, Huni was healed by Aponipalayok over a period of several days, and in gratitude the bird made it so that formerly poisonous fruits would be edible by Aponipalayok and her relatives.

Dian Anay is the final spirit, a title rather than a unique being. Dian Anay represents an entity who holds sway over all the termites of the island, and has good relationships with other kinds of insects as well. The first Dian Anay was the child of a human woman and calanget, a spirit of elemental earth. With the human’s community rejecting their relationship, they eloped into the wilderness and were adopted as a found family by a colony of termites. The humans believed that the termites kidnapped the woman. Ever since, humans and termites have been enemies. It’s only been in recent times that individuals among the two groups are finding ways to humanize the other, particularly among children who fostered secret friendships with the other group’s newest generation. Such children learned that the horror stories and propaganda told by their community aren’t founded entirely in truth.

The people of Talunan make their living from trade and seafaring, more so than the other islands, as its active volcano makes most people stick to the coast and by rivers. Its bay holds a continuous bounty of fish and thus a source of food. Baga is the first major settlement, a Hidden City on the Water that requires a complicated process of clue-searching among a ghost town to find it. Baga is so hidden due to earning the wrath of a powerful spirit known as the Red Woman. This isolation hasn’t hurt outside relationships with other communities, for its people are still traders despite their hidden nature. Their goods are highly desirable, being pearls, obsidian, and oil and natural gas harvested from undersea volcanic fissures. Iraga is the second settlement, next to a hillside with a castle providing a vantage point of the entire town. The founders were a tribe of the same name who sought to perform daily offerings to pacify the volcano, and other tribes provided them with trade so they can better maintain this duty. Duyan-Duyan is the final settlement, an agricultural village who uses the volcanic ashfall to harvest crops.

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The three spirits of Talunan are all women of mortal origin. The first two, Panganoran and Pagtuga, were warriors who sought the favor of Magayon, a datu’s daughter, in order to get her hand in marriage. But Pagtuga, the victorious warrior, ended up killing both her rival and Magayon, and from their corpses sprung the natural features that became the spirits. Panganoran is a cold wind that is the manifestation of the suitor grieving for her beloved, and sometimes her winds end up possessing mortals who can only be freed in one of three ways depending on the spirit’s mood. Some babaylan seek to gather up all of Panganoran’s remnants to unify, hoping that this will provide the spirit with some measure of peace. Pagtuga, by contrast, is a being of earth and stone, but is also equally sorrowful and manifests as a giant stone in a forest surrounded by a pool of saltwater. It is unconnected to the ocean and thus the water is believed to be her tears.

Galit Ni Magayon is the third spirit, also known as the Red Woman, for her vengeful ways. Manifestations of Magayon swing between overly fawning to those who are kind to her, but can turn to being hateful seemingly on a dime. The islanders appease Magayon twice a week, along with an annual ritual of blood offerings, food, and a marriage between two mortals. But villagers started to sabotage these rituals in recent times, believing that somehow this will earn her favor but in reality will spell disaster.

Kotabalon is the final island, the one physically closest to the Underworld’s gateway and thus sees a high proportion of traveling ghosts and dragonborn. It is a rocky, resource-sparse region home to chilly winds and rainfall. Too many ghosts end up lost in Kotabalon, and the island is home to many mortals running from their past or hoping to reunite with their departed loved ones. There’s also merfolk who hunt the ghosts, using magical nets to drag them into the abyssal depths of the ocean for unknown purposes. As though Kotabalon’s reputation couldn’t get any more sinister, Tambanokua, one of the Celestial Eaters, once weaved her web in the sky around here. The silk remains just as strong, and can trap physical bodies as well as souls.

There are only two settlements here. The first, Tungkulin, is home to warriors who stand vigil over the volcano of Mount Balaon, watching for signs should Tambanokua rise from it given that the pit within is her last known prison. Like other Celestial Eater locations, it also has lair-style environmental changes, such as less hit points healed from Hit Dice during a short rest. Makusog is the other settlement, located in a trap-filled cavern with an omnipresent silver light from the goddess Mayari. The people here are also guardians standing watch for the Celestial Eaters and other monsters, and have learned much of the ways of spiders in how they construct their traps.

Kotabalon is home to three spirits. The first is Dalagang Balaon, a pit far up in the mountains that can create an avatar of a ten foot tall dragonborn. She has given contradictory stories over her origin and purpose, sometimes claiming to be the spouse of the Celestial Eater hoping to keep the spider asleep, being the spider’s mother and hoping they can both take revenge on the gods, or even a captor seeking to prevent the apocalypse. But what is known for sure is that Dalagang Balaon’s presence keeps Tambanokua asleep. The second spirit is Aguahi, an oceanic spirit who watches over the Underworld’s entrance and for any signs of the returning Celestial Eaters. It maintains a close friendly relationship with the people of Makusog. Pagakpak is the final one, a rather optimistic and mischievous wind spirit who seeks to enliven people’s morale in such a forlorn realm. He often takes the form of a rooster and is one of the easiest spirits in Kotabalon to gain access to, as he loves being in the company of mortals although his non-stop talking quickly wears out his welcome.

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The Ocean and Beyond is the final section of Chapter Two, covering the places of the setting beyond known civilization. We first open up with a common overview of sea-dwellers, a broad term for those who spend most of their lives on the waves rather than land and who most often gather in community flotillas. There’s an elite order of warriors known as the Mandaragat who watch over Bakunawa’s Grave, an impossibly calm region of the sea that regularly spawns all manner of monsters which come from the depths to menace the surface world. Should one dive deep enough, one can see the Celestial Eater’s body, or rather its head and throat sticking up from the abyssal plains. The rest of its form is buried in a trench, surrounded by a crater. It is a creepy place, filled with coral that rhythmically glows in tune to the monster’s every unconscious breath, and poison continually leaks from its body and an undertow brings sunken ships to trap and crush unlucky swimmers.

Tambanokano’s Basin is another region home to a Celestial Eater of the same name, a giant crab whose movements cause bubbles to rise to the surface. Upon popping when in contact with air, sudden waves and whirlpools cause the otherwise-gentle sea to turn violent. Rocky atolls with cliffs surround the basin, and the trees are strange-looking, warped things unknown elsewhere in the world, and are also home barnacles that sing when people approach. Omnipresent seagrass clings to the body of people swimming inside the atoll, its accumulated weight drags swimmers to a watery grave. Tambanokano fortunately spends most of his existence sleeping, and the seaweed’s disposition (and thus its threat to others) changes depending upon whether the Celestial Eater has nice dreams or fearful nightmares.

And even further than that, the Celestial Eater Minokawa makes its nest that is larger than any island. Many believe that the mortal world is fashioned in the likeness of a partially open clamshell, with the bottom half containing the ocean and islands and the top half containing the sky and starry heavens. The sky and sea used to remain close and thus “closed,” but the gods raised the sky after Bakunawa’s rampage in order to prevent the land from being destroyed. The area where the “lips” of the clam are closest is said to be home to Lalangban, and mortal voyagers find all manner of naturally-impossible calamities assaulting their vessel should they come near this threshold. The only things known to safely travel “beyond the clam” are the legendary boat Salimbal, which has since been broken into many pieces, and the Celestial Eater Minoakawa who has a nest and eyrie in a massive tree growing beyond the known world.

Thoughts So Far: Concluding the World chapter, one major weakness I notice about the setting is that most of the islands lack substantial sources of conflict. What conflict does exist, such as the termite/human wars of Adlawadto, the covert sabotaging of the Red Woman’s rituals, or the ghost-napping merfolk, are bare-bones in detail. In the first case we might know that these groups hate each other, and that a particular spirit is a dangerous entity in the second case, but we don’t get specific names of instigators or how these troubles can play out in a typical adventure. And in the termite/human case, it’s implied to be a problem that will eventually solve itself via the passage of generational time.

Kotabalon is the island with the most danger and thus potential adventuring material, but its inhabitants are instead mostly standing guard for a danger that might come rather than one that is already here. The ghost-napping merfolk are perhaps the most adventurer-worthy material, but they get hardly more than a brief mention in a single paragraph.

Regarding highlights, I do like how Sina Una plays up the cosmic horror angle of the Celestial Eaters. Particularly in how the places that they reside are eerily quiet, unnatural territories as though the very land itself is wounded. Where going there is a dangerous ordeal, even should the resident Celestial Eater be asleep or absent.

Join us next time as we take a look at character options in Chapter Three, the People of the Islands!
 

That was one of my two major problems with the book, too. It's .. idyllic. Community leaders are generally wise, benevolent, and doing their jobs well, guiding contented people. It comes across as a setting where the problems have been solved and there's no need for the PCs. It could have desperately done with a few pages on antagonists and antagonist groups, who they are, what they want, how they come to the PCs attention, etc etc. I mean, the Celestial Eaters are very cool, and the book mentions they have cults or followers ... but what do these cults DO all day? What are their plots all about?

It seemed to me like the book was written by someone who had a deep love for precolonial Filipino society, to the point of maybe romanticising it a bit. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about precolonial Filipino society or history, but I kinda assume that every society everywhere has internal and external conflicts from time to time). A D&D setting needs problems for PCs to put right, and the book just has too few of them. I think the follow-up adventure book probably would have helped in this department, but the development team for that product imploded messily a while back after the KS funded, and it's looking a lot like vapourware now.

It's a shame to hear that about Tales of Sina Una, although I'm not entirely aware of all the details besides being well over a year past the deadline. An adventure anthology is what this setting can most benefit from.

The Celestial Eaters feel a lot more like end game level threats, and the aswangs are more low to mid level threats. But in terms of writeup in the World chapter the Celestial Eaters get a lot more discussion than the aswangs.

I've played a bit in this setting! And yeah, the idealism left me a bit out of sorts. I was a tough warrior type (a head hunter, trying out some of the novel archetypes) and was...not suited for most of what went on in terms of conflict (which mostly had to do with an unhappy spirit who needed to be befriended and appeased, as opposed to hunting any heads).

Yeah. Given that the bestiary chapter is so big and so many of the monsters are related by theme, Sina Una feels most appropriate for "seafaring monster hunters" as a PC campaign style. It reminds me a lot of Beowulf: Age of Heroes, just...not as done as well in terms of conflict in its world-building.
 

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Chapter Three: Characters

This chapter covers practically everything relevant to PCs in a Sina Una campaign. This post will cover the first half, going over races and classes.

The People of the Islands covers the common races of Sina Una. They are all derived from the Player’s Handbook, but with some changes to flavor and in some cases mechanics. Orcs do not exist in the setting, so half-orcs are reflavored as Balat-Kayo, people formed in emulation of Haliya’s tusked mask. They’re a relatively new people who have blessings from the god to be more in tune with the natural world. They are proficient in simple and martial weapons, get +2 Charisma, and their choice of +1 Strength or Dexterity. They also begin play being able to cast Alarm, Detect Poison and Disease, and Identify once per long rest, but as rituals. At 3rd and 5th level they can learn another spell of their choice to cast in such a way, provided that they too have the ritual tag. The half-orc’s Menacing and Savage Attack are traded in for these benefits.

As for the dragonborn, they trade in their draconic breath weapon and damage resistance for blindsight of 30 feet, know the Guidance cantrip, and learn Sanctuary and Warding Bond at 3rd and 5th level to cast once per long rest each.

Dwarves are pretty much the same as fantasy dwarves in being originally born out of stone, but also volcanoes. We have a new subrace for the latter group, who get +1 Intelligence and once per long rest can summon hardened magma to cover their bodies for 1 hour, giving them temporary hit points equal to their level and those who strike them in melee take the dwarf’s level in fire damage.

The elves are similar to dwarves in that they are people who were born from spirits of balete trees who later took on mortal forms. This is represented as a subrace that grants +1 Wisdom, a d4 bonus on all Nature and Survival checks, and they learn the Druidcraft, Entangle, and Barksin spells at 1st, 3rd, and 5th level. Half-elves aren’t born from the union of humans and elves, but instead represent people whose ancestral spirits were wild flowers rather than balete trees. Strangely, the book doesn’t tell us what they’d be called instead, rather than half-elves. Unless this is some form of in-setting case of floral heightism.

Gnomes have a niche in the setting different from other fantasy worlds. They are known for being amazing artists, particularly for goldsmithing. The Gold Gnome subrace grants +1 Charisma, proficiency in Perception, and they can enhance one of three item types during a long rest: gold trim on armor to grant its wearer temporary hit points, gilded tools that let the user substitute the gnome’s proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier in place of their own if it’s better, or enhancing a nonmagical weapon to count as magical and the first successful hit is an automatic critical hit.

The halflings, by comparison, have a less exciting-seeming subrace option of Mangrove Halflings, with +1 Intelligence and the Mending cantrip. But they can use Help as a bonus action, which makes up for it.

The tieflings are perhaps the race that gets the most complete of a makeover in terms of both lore and mechanics. Fiends still exist but don’t interact much with the islands, so instead tieflings have connections to deer and carabao as stewards of the land. Their resistance to fire comes from the use of flame and lava as part of the ecosystem’s natural cycle. In terms of mechanics they are pretty much a new race: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution, advantage on saves to avoid being prone, shoved, grappled, and restrained, are proficient in Athletics, and a number of times per long rest equal to their Strength bonus they can choose to deal the maximum possible amount of damage on a melee attack rather than rolling the dice.

Thoughts: The race and subrace options are overall very strong. The half-orc is the exception, as the bonus spells are more situational, and the normal benefits of ritual casting are obviated given that they still need to spend 10 minutes to cast but can only use said spells once per long rest. Beyond just getting a very useful cantrip, the Umalagad’s blindsight is extremely strong as it basically lets them pinpoint nearby unseen creatures and objects. The dwarf’s lava armor is decent, but as it’s a limited resource the Hill and Mountain dwarf subraces still have appreciable options in comparison. The bonus spells for Balete Elves are more situational, but Entangle is very good. The Tiefling race is perhaps the most potentially overpowered when used with Paladin and Rogue builds given it’s a multi-use max damage option. Now imagine combining it with the Gold Gnome’s weapon enhancement! The tiefling, along with the dragonborn blindsight, are the two things I’d nerf.

Next up, we cover Classes and Subclasses. We have one new subclass for each of the core options, and two outright new classes.

The Babaylan is the first class, representing people who communicate with spirits and channel their power. They can occupy a variety of roles in islander society, but become leaders, medics, and defenders in addition to their spiritual duties. Babaylans come upon their powers via training, usually under a more experienced tutor. Completing the training involves finding a particular kind of spirit known as an abayan who is a lifelong guide and peer, and it is through this abayan that a babaylan gets their magic.

In terms of mechanics, the babaylan is first and foremost a primary spellcaster, getting up to spells of 9th level. They’re sturdier than arcane casters with a d8 Hit Die, but being proficient only in light armor and a few weapons beyond simple means that they aren’t physical fighters by default. They use Intelligence for their magic, and their skill list is primarily derived from scholarly stuff. Their spell list is quite broad, having a mixture of utility, battlefield control, healing, and offense. A lot of the spells are derived from stuff on the Cleric and Druid lists, plus new spells from this book.

The abayan is similar to an animal companion or familiar, but more of a peer relationship and the player doesn’t have complete control over them in play. The abayan is nonetheless an ally in most circumstances and will listen to the babaylan’s requests. An abayan doesn’t have a full stat block, but they are incorporeal Medium-sized transparent creatures, are immune to all damage, and cannot be dispelled by magic means. Furthermore, they have truesight out to 60 feet, act as a spellcasting foci for a babaylan’s spells, and grant the babaylan a metacurrency of Spirit Dice which range from 4d4 to 8d4 depending on level. These can be spent to increase a spell’s save DC, add to attack rolls, or damage rolls. Only a maximum number of dice equal to one’s proficiency bonus can be spent at once.

The babaylan doesn’t really have any unique class features beyond these at low to middle levels, but at 10th and higher they start gaining some distinct abilities. Like being able to speak and read all languages, immunity to necrotic damage and advantage on death saving throws, and the 20th level capstone lets them recover 20 hit points whenever they have less than half their total and can choose to auto-succeed on a death save up to 3 times per long rest.

The babaylan’s subclasses are known as Callings, representing being chosen by particular spirits to fulfill a purpose. They have three Calls: the Call of Clairvoyance makes them expert diviners, where they learn such things like a concentration-free True Strike cantrip that can be cast as bonus action, can let their abayan temporarily possess them to recall past information better and get free castings of particular low-level divination spells, gain truesight themselves and immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions, and their 15th level capstone lets them perform psychometry on objects and creatures to learn about their past. The Call of Sacrifice enhances their healing capabilities, such as adding their proficiency bonus to hit points restored with healing magic, a short-range aura that grants +2 on saves vs damaging effects, and can sacrifice their own hit points to restore the spell slots of either themselves or a nearby allied creature. Their 15th level capstone grants them a multi-use per long rest healing touch that can remove a wide variety of conditions. The Call of Wrath turns the babaylan into a gish, granting them proficiency in more weapon and armor types (basically everything but heavy armor), can substitute their Intelligence modifier for weapon attack and damage, their abayan can make a melee spell attack dealing force damage against a target whenever they take the Attack action, treat their weapons as magical, can use Spirit Dice to add to weapon attacks and damage, and never lose concentration on a spell due to taking damage. And that last one’s not their capstone! The capstone is being able to spend an action to get possessed by a great warrior for 1 minute, where the babaylan gains temporary hit points, anyone who attacks them takes force damage, and has resistance to all damage types and immunity to nonmagical physical damage.

Thoughts: The babaylan is an overpowered class. Their Spirit Dice can be used to to break bounded accuracy, they gain access to an invincible incorporeal ally with a permanent half-range True Seeing effect, and two of their subclasses have extremely strong features just about any casting build would kill for. The features in question being the ability to sacrifice hit points for spell slots, and auto-success on concentration checks whenever you’d take damage.

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The Headhunter is our other new class, representing a specialized kind of warrior in Sina Una. They are tasked with hunting down criminals who breach major taboos, where they make use of spirits to find their quarry. To prevent revenge-killings and blood feuds, a headhunter undertakes a magical ritual of absolution after killing the criminal, cutting off their head and letting them join their community’s ancestors. The reason this is done is that the crimes of the wrongdoer also befell their community in being unable to prevent their wrong behavior. In so doing this ritual, the headhunters communicate that justice has been done and that the criminal’s community had thus “paid the price,” so to speak.

In terms of mechanics the headhunter is quite predictably martial, having a d10 Hit Die, proficiency in all weapon and armor types besides heavy armor, and can choose a Fighting Style at 2nd level. Like a ranger they choose from physical and outdoorsman style skills, but we also throw in History, Intimidation, and Religion reflecting a more social and “folklorist” approach. They gain Conviction Dice which deal additional force damage on a single weapon attack once per round, starting at 1d4 at 1st level and goes up to 4d8 at 20th. Unlike the babaylan’s Spirit Dice the uses are otherwise unlimited. Curiously the headhunter doesn’t get Extra Attack like most martials, so I presume that the Conviction damage is meant to be their main method of offense to make up for this.

At low levels, the headhunter mostly gains defense and information-based class features, such as resistance to the charmed and frightened conditions, can designate one creature they know to be their quarry and ask the spirits three questions about it (including finding out specific game statistics), and can perform a ritual over a recently-deceased corpse to ask it up to two questions. At middle levels they gain quite a bit of immunities, such as immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions at 9th level, immunity to exhaustion from forced marches at 11th, and no longer provoke opportunity attacks at 13th level due to movement. At 9th and then 18th level they increase their critical threat range by 1.

The headhunter’s subclasses are known as Omens, representing a spirit-granted collection of knowledge to better refine their purpose and skills. The Omen of Knowledge represents one who learns from the dead over time, including those they kill. They can learn unique techniques known as Memory Options as they gain levels, choosing from a list of 11. They rang from persistent benefits to rest-based uses, such as gaining darkvision or increasing that sense type’s range, using a bonus action to add their Intelligence modifier to their AC, can rend a foe and cause them to have disadvantage on attack rolls for one round on a failed Constitution save, or gaining proficiency in Stealth and being able to Hide as a bonus action. Their non-Memory features involve gaining temporary knowledge after a rest, such as gaining proficiency in a saving throw, skills, tools, or even resistance to one damage type.

The Omen of Strife heavily emphasizes offense and psychological warfare in harming the morale of wrongdoers. They start out with proficiency in Intimidation and heavy armor, and their various class features revolve around debuffs. Such as being able to slow an enemy’s movement and gain advantage on attacks against them as a bonus action due to the headhunter’s presence, bonus force damage when using Conviction Dice, and reducing an enemy’s AC by 1 cumulatively with each attack (but can do this only up to their Charisma modifier per long rest).

The Omen of Swiftness is the Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster equivalent for the headhunter, representing magical favor from the god Amanikabli. They choose spells from the Cleric list and can learn up to 4th level spells. Their other abilities include gaining temporary hit points whenever they use their Conviction Dice, treat their weapons as magical, can teleport as a bonus action once per long rest but only to get closer to their quarry, and a capstone that lets them use a bonus action to gain two weapon attacks with advantage whenever they score a critical hit with a spell attack.

Thoughts: Technically speaking a Paladin is still better at “burst damage” than a headhunter, and a Rogue’s Sneak Attack increases faster in the damage department. But with the bonus damage being force, headhunters rarely have to worry about contending with damage resistances and immunities. Their information-based core class features are nice, but they’re still outshone by actual spellcasters with divination spells when it comes to more general matters. The immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions stand out the most, particularly in getting it at the relatively low level of 9th, but given that the class doesn’t get much else by default it doesn’t feel as overpowered as it would be for most others. In regards to their subclasses, the Omen of Swiftness looks the weakest and least appealing, as their spell progression is quite minimal. Their ability to continually restore temporary hit points is a nice feature, but that’s not enough to make up for the rest of the rather subpar features. Knowledge and Strife look rather serviceable, with the former likely the most appealing due to its large selection of Memory Options.

So, how do the core classes fit into Sina Una? Well, the book doesn’t really go into detail on things like what separates a cleric from a druid if they both call upon spirits, or what sorcerous bloodlines are the most common on the islands. Instead we get thrown immediately into subclass descriptions.

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Barbarians who follow the Path of the Black River serve a purpose where they ensure the natural flow of souls to the afterlife, and act against those who would defy this. The subclass is overtly supernatural, beginning with the ability to impose limited blindness on a target upon entering a rage (lose sight of anything beyond 30 feet, undead fail the save automatically). At higher levels they can choose to lose hit points in order to end various condition types, cast Dimension Door once per long rest, and a capstone ability where they can become spectral while raging which grants undead-like abilities such as becoming incorporeal and reducing a struck target’s maximum hit points.

Thoughts: Very strong yet balanced subclass. The limited blindness is a great way to hinder long-range attackers, Dimension Door helps the Barbarian close the gap across vast distances, and choosing to lose hit points to end conditions is a small price to pay given the class’ hit point reserves.

Bards of the College of Siday act as historical lorekeepers, undergoing training in memorizing all manner of poems and legends, and many join adventuring parties to chronicle epics as they happen. The subclass is very much a team player, with their main feature being expending Bardic Inspiration to perform Folkloric Epics. They are minute-long short-range boons that require concentration. They benefit nearby allies in a variety of ways, such as granting the bard’s Charisma modifier to attack rolls, the Bard’s level as bonus force damage, or +1 bonus to Armor Class and can blind enemies who miss a character in melee. The bard can also cast Enhance Ability a number of times per long rest equal to their Charisma modifier, and their capstone grants them the ability to turn an ally’s missed attack roll into a hit once per turn when performing a Folkloric Epic along with personal resistance to all damage types and advantage on Dexterity saves.

Thoughts: This subclass looks fine on an initial read, but it doesn’t stack as highly against other bardic subclasses. As Folkloric Epics require concentration, they don’t synergize well with many bard spells, and their short-range aura of 15 feet means that the bard has to be more front-line or clustered near allies rather than hanging in back and helping from afar.

Volcano Domain Clerics understand not just the power of these mighty mountains, but also their capability to change and create. They honor both sides and learn to tap into this power. Their domain spells lean mostly towards defensive and thematic battlefield control options. They gain Light and Mending as cantrips along with proficiency in either Medicine, Nature, or Survival, and Channel Divinity lets them cause lava and ash to erupt around them as an AoE, but allies are healed instead. At 6th level they can cause a nearby ally to heal damage whenever the cleric makes a critical hit, at 8th and 14th level their weapon attacks deal bonus fire damage, and their 17th level capstone is a 1 minute 30 foot radius aura of erupting magma and ash that can stun hostile creatures, grants +2 AC to the cleric and their allies, and a concentration-free one use casting of Beacon of Hope.

Thoughts: In terms of theme I like how this subclass reflects the multi-faceted aspects of a volcano’s impact on the ecosystem. Its offensive options aren’t so impressive, as fire damage is a very common resistance for enemies, and as for healing they are outshone by the more specialist Life Domain. What we get is a subclass that tries to do two things but excels at neither.

Druids of the Circle of Tides view the ocean as something that cannot be controlled, and to truly gain its favor one should instead study it in order to adapt to its ways. At 2nd level they can gain an hour-long buff that grants themselves and allies bonuses on Stealth checks to hide in natural terrain (Wisdom modifier) as well resistance to one of the elemental energy types. The book notes that this requires a use of Wild Shape, but as it says it near the end and only in the context of replacing an energy type rather than adding to the energy resistances, it could be made more clear. They also can expend Wild Shape to gain sea-themed enhancements for 1 minute rather than changing into an animal, such as tremorsense out to 60 feet or granting themselves or a creature they can see a bonus to AC equal to half their Wisdom modifier rounded down. At higher levels they can spend a reaction to take no damage from an attack and regain half the hit points the damage would’ve ordinarily done, swap initiative counts with a hostile creature when combat begins, and gain more powerful adaptive features to spend Wild Shape uses on, such as a fly speed or ending a condition and gaining immunity to that particular condition for the duration.

Thoughts: The reaction-based ability to negate a damaging attack stands out as the most powerful, as its use is based on Wisdom modifier per short rest. So not only is it something the druid can use multiple times, they regain them all with just an hour of resting rather than at the end of the day. Furthermore, while it’s not as powerful as Pass Without Trace, granting the party bonus to Stealth checks is also very good when it comes to triggering surprise on foes, and being able to swap initiative counts with an enemy can make the Druid act quicker a lot more often. For these reasons, this is an incredibly powerful subclass I’d be reluctant to approve.

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The Kawal is a special type of Fighter, one who acts as a defender of their local community to ensure that any harm directed at their loved ones will instead fall upon them first. Their initial features include gaining the maximum amount of hit points possible for Second Wind, advantage on saves and ability checks on a broad variety of conditions, and once per short or long rest can let out a roar as a bonus action that targets three creatures. This last ability imposes disadvantage on attack rolls vs everyone but the Fighter. At higher levels they can parry damage dealt to them back to an attacker if they succeed on a Constitution save, gain immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions, can take 2 reactions per turn and 3 as their 18th level capstone, and their 15th level feature lets their ancestors buff them for a minute once per long rest, granting them a variety of beneficial features.

Thoughts: There aren’t many tank/taunt abilities in 5th Edition, with the closest being Compelled Duel and enemy lockdowns such as Sentinel and Polearm Master combos. The Guardian Roar is good because it’s multi-target and doesn’t cost an Action, and being able to “reflect” damage does a good job in ensuring that enemies will be punished one way or another whether they attack the Fighter or someone else. Of course, the Fighter is still limited in that more mobile enemies can go around them or stay out of reach, but I think this subclass looks fine for what it does.

The Way of Kaluluwa for Monks teaches not just physical and mental perfection, but learning how to split the body and soul apart so that the two can act in tandem as partners. This way, they can accomplish far more than what they could while stuck together. Their initial features include causing all of their unarmed strikes to deal psychic damage by default (this can’t be turned off), and can spend ki points to cause their soul to be “summoned” for 1 minute or until they’re incapacitated. This soul effectively acts as a clone of the Monk, but they share the same pools of hit points and action types. When they’re within 10 feet of each other, they both gain advantage on attack rolls as well as Strength and Dexterity based skill checks. At higher levels they can use their Deflect Missiles against ranged spell attacks and spend ki points to further reduce the damage, can spend ki points to grant either their soul or physical form resistance to a wide variety of damage types. Their 17th level capstone ability lets them spend 3 ki points to grant their physical form and soul their own separate actions, bonus actions, and reactions for one round.

Thoughts: The ability to lower the damage of ranged spells is nice, and psychic damage is one of the least-resisted damage types. The summoning of a “split soul” is a bit more situational on account of sharing the same action economy, and the 1 minute duration makes it of limited use for scouting purposes. Curiously, the psychic damage replacement makes the monk unable to damage objects via unarmed strike, which is a bit of an unstated debuff. This subclass might be effective if played right, but at the moment it doesn’t look as attractive as some existing ones.

A Paladin’s Oath of Blood encourages one to dedicate themselves to another. The moral outlook, means, and ends of their charge aren’t as important as living their lives for their sake, and the paladin’s tenets reflect this. The bonus spells are geared heavily towards defense, such as Revivify, Death Ward, and Remove Curse. Their Channel Divinity options let them either move up to and attack creatures who attack their allies, or grant temporary hit points to an ally. Their higher level features include an aura where they deal additional damage on their next attack every time an ally within the aura’s damaged, regain hit points once per long rest whenever both they and a designated ally have less than half their total hit points, and their 20th level transformation lets them substitute their Charisma save for Dexterity and Constitution saves vs damaging effects, can regain uses of Channel Divinity by voluntarily losing hit points, and treat spell slots spent for Divine Smite as one level higher.

Thoughts: This subclass is going to be inevitably compared to Oath of the Crown, given that they both focus on protecting allies. However, I believe that Crown does a better job at this, for several of the Oath of Blood features take effect only when an ally gets hurt. So in a weird way, this class sees the best use when allies are placed directly in danger. Additionally, while Blood gets some good spells like Revivify and Wall of Force, I still think that Crown wins out by getting fan-favorites such as Spirit Guardians and Banishment.

Mangangayaw Rangers are pretty much monster hunters in theme, so what differentiates them from the Monster Hunter subclass is mechanics. Starting out they gain a bonus proficiency in a Charisma skill besides Performance and can substitute Wisdom for Charisma ability checks. Additionally, the ability Strider’s March increases their movement speed by 15 feet whenever they’re targeted by a creature’s attack. When so increased, they avoid opportunity attacks triggered by movement and can reroll one weapon attack. At higher levels they can perform a bleeding strike once per turn that deals additional damage until an action is spent to staunch the wound; can choose to spend a reaction to shield a creature from a damaging AoE to have them take no damage in exchange for the ranger auto-failing; and a capstone that lets them benefit from Strider’s March at all times and add their Wisdom modifier to their AC when wearing medium armor.

Thoughts: The Charisma-based initial abilities are a poor person’s Fey Wanderer, as it replaces Charisma with Wisdom rather than adds on top of it. As for the other features, the ongoing damage can be useful, as while it doesn’t do much individually (1d4 to 3d4 based on level), it cannot be cured by magical healing and only the bleeding target can staunch the wound. Adding Wisdom to AC has the potential to push them out of Bounded Accuracy, but as the best medium armor in the setting is equivalent to half plate and Rangers rarely push their Wisdom beyond 16 at best, they won’t really outperform typical heavy armor tanks. And since being targeted by an enemy attack is a very common trigger, the Ranger should be getting bonus speed and weapon rerolls all the time, so this is a very strong subclass.

A Rogue who becomes a Graverobber has trespassed against one of Sina Una’s great taboos, and in so doing was touched by a curse. However, unlike most of their unlucky peers they managed to turn this curse into a strength. Their initial features let them learn three warlock cantrips, which they use Charisma for. They also choose whether their curse manifests as Pestilence, Avarice, or Destruction, which determines the specifics of subclass features They can also manifest their curse as an Anathema whenever they use a Cunning Action, which can deal Sneak Attack to an opponent who fails a Wisdom save if Sneak Attack hasn’t already been dealt on the Rogue’s turn. At higher levels they gain one feature and a once per rest based spell to cast depending on their manifestation, such as Destruction granting resistance to nonmagical physical attacks and the Lightning Bolt spell. At 13th level they can curse a target as a bonus action, increasing their critical threat range by 1 against said target, imposing disadvantage vs their Anathema abilities, and can spend a reaction after damaging the target to regain hit points equal to half the damage dealt. Their 17th level capstone grants them a powerful offensive ability, such as making their weapon attack paralyzing and deal bonus poison damage via Pestilence, or Avarice letting them apply half the damage they take from an attack to a target within 30 feet.

Thoughts: This subclass looks pretty strong and compelling. Being able to trigger Sneak Attack via Cunning Action can make for a nice rebound if their regular Attack action misses, and their defensive features are pretty broadly useful. Destruction is a lot better than the others for most builds, as the damaging abilities involve force damage which is the least-resisted damage type in the game, and resistance to nonmagical physical attacks is extremely common.

The Diwata Bloodline of Sorcerers trace their ancestry from a mighty spirit, such as one of the celestial bodies or an ocean or volcano spirit. Their 1st level features grant proficiency in Nature, can speak Sylvan and advantage on Charisma checks when speaking to creatures with that language and understand them, and can pick spells from the druid spell list in addition to the sorcerer list. Their higher level features involve spending Sorcery Points to summon an icon of their ancestral spirit, which is immune to all damage and can be used to deliver touch attacks, but requires 1 Sorcery Point for each turn after to maintain its existence. At 14th level they can teleport to any square within 30 feet of their icon, and their 18th level capstone lets them spend additional Sorcery Points while their icon is present to gain a variety of buffs, including immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, auto-succeeds on concentration checks when they take damage, and restore hit points to themselves and nearby allies.

Thoughts: This subclass grants the Sorcerer access to a good variety of druid spells such as Entangle, Fire Shield, Pass Without Trace, Revivify, Lesser/Greater Restoration, and Heal. As for the rest of its features, it’s very reliant upon the icon, which can get expensive to maintain given Sorcery Points must be dumped into it on subsequent rounds. Its real good features only come into play at tiers of play beyond most campaigns, so this subclass will mostly be used for druid spell access, which isn’t as impressive.

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The Mooneater Patron ties a warlock to one of the BBEGs of the setting. Unlike other patrons this can be an unwilling partnership, and often comes about by a Celestial Eater taking advantage of a would-be warlock’s fear, anger, or desperation. The expanded spell list focuses heavily on offense and control, such as Inflict Wounds, Dominate Beast, and Planar Binding. Their initial abilities let them add Charisma to initiative rolls and gives them a pool of d6s equal to 1 + warlock level that refresh every long rest. The dice can be spent on weapon attack and spell attack rolls (maximum number equal to proficiency bonus), which add to the d20 roll and also add as bonus force damage. At 6th level they can absorb a dead creature’s essence as a bonus action once per short rest to gain some pretty nice buffs for one minute, such as adding half their warlock level rounded up to attack rolls and gaining resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage. At 10th level they are immune to the frightened condition, and any attempts to frighten the warlock let them reflect the effect back on the creature as well as dealing psychic damage. Their 14th level capstone grants advantage on initiative rolls, and once per long rest on the first turn of combat, they can spend their action to target a number of creatures equal to their Charisma modifier who suffer force damage on a failed Constitution save.

We also get five new Eldritch Invocations, each themed after one of the Celestial Eaters. Crab’s Wrath lets them summon shell-like armor for 1 minute that grants them various buffs such as a swim speed and a spectral crab claw that attacks as a bonus action; Eagle’s Rapacity lets them summon a pair of wings for 1 minute that grants a flying speed and can shoot out an aura of sharp feathers; Lion’s Revelry grants proficiency in Acrobatics, can Dash as a bonus action, and whenever they Dash in such a manner they generate an AoE roar dealing thunder damage; Serpent’s Ire grants proficiency in Intimidation, and can summon a fearsome image over themselves for 1 minute that gives buffs such as psychic damage to nearby enemies as a reaction and can add their proficiency bonus once per turn to the damage of a weapon or spell attack; Spider’s Cunning grants proficiency in any two skills, and as a bonus action the warlock can target a creature within 30 feet with ethereal spider webs, restraining them on a failed Dexterity save.

Thoughts: Cool concept, overpowered execution. The pool of d6s and essence-devouring buffs let them easily hit targets by breaking bounded accuracy, making the DPR-intensive class even more so. Adding Charisma to initiative is not as OP but still really strong, so it makes this subclass practically a no-brainer for most warlock builds. As for the invocations, none of them seem strong enough to be worth selecting over existing mainstays like Agonizing Blast, although Spider’s Cunning is perhaps the most tempting on account of bonus skills and an at-will debuff as a bonus action.

The Mentala school of Wizardry teaches a mage how to inscribe spells on scrolls of bamboo, inspired by that plant’s strong and versatile properties. Their initial features let them add their Intelligence modifier to AC when unarmored and on Constitution saves to maintain concentration, and as part of a long rest they can make a number of bamboo scrolls equal to their spellcasting ability modifier (also Intelligence). They must be spells they know but don’t have to be prepared, and their combined levels must be equal to half of their wizard level, rounded down (cantrips count as 0 level). The scrolls function much like regular scrolls, but a creature doesn’t have to be a spellcaster or know the spell in order to use them, and they use the Wizard’s spell attack bonus, save DC, and Constitution modifier for maintaining concentration.

At higher levels the subclass grants more varied abilities, such as cursing a target once per short rest at 6th level to deal psychic damage, and the cursed target subtracts a d6 from attacks and saves for the next hour or until the curse is removed; at 10th level they can modify a spell a number of times per long rest equal to their Intelligence modifier, increasing its AoE, range, or having a damaging spell ignore all resistances or do half damage if immune; and the 14th level capstone lets them gain a minute long buff once per long rest as a bonus action after they cast a leveled spell. This buff includes a radius of damaging sunlight, doubles their movement speeds and grants a flying speed of 30 feet, and can spend a reaction whenever a target within 30 feet reaches 0 hit points to have them regain hit points equal to the wizard’s class level.

Thoughts: Another overpowered subclass, this effectively grants bonus spell slot castings each day for the wizard, but with the added benefit that the castings can be performed by their allies. The higher-level features are also broadly-useful, particularly the 10th level means of enhancing spells.

Thoughts So Far: The race and class options for this setting hew towards the higher end of the power spectrum, in several cases being far too much. More so than usual, a DM would need to be careful in what they allow for PCs given the higher than usual amount of unbalanced options.

Join us next time as we finish this chapter by covering everything from naval vessels to spells!
 

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Chapter Three, Part Two: Rest of the Character Options

With race and class covered, the remainder of this chapter covers smaller yet still relevant features for character creation.

Pretty much every Background from the Player’s Handbook can be adapted without much trouble, but we still get six new ones with more explicit ties to the setting. The Lorechanter is akin to a Sage but chooses from History, Nature, or Religion as their bonus skills. They are flavored to be more of a collector of their own people’s tales, and thus have advantage on checks to recall histories and legends of their home island. Mangangalakal are merchants who conduct inter-island trade, and are proficient with water vehicles, two trade-related skills, one bonus language of their choice, and their feature gives them advantage on haggling and discerning the value of goods. A Panday is an artisan who dedicates their life to mastering one particular type of craft. They get three bonus skills instead of 1 (Perception, Performance, and Sleight of Hand) along with one set of artisan’s tools, and their feature lets them spend half the usual cost of materials for their specialization. A Sea Raider is basically a warrior experienced at naval combat and not necessarily a pirate. They get proficiency in Athletics and Intimidation along with water vehicles and a bonus language, and their feature lets them reroll one damage die when making a successful attack against a boat. A Voyager is a more generic traveler of the oceans, and gets Perception and Survival along with proficiency in a hunter’s kit (new tool type) and water vehicles, and can hold their breath for a minimum of 5 minutes regardless of their Constitution. The final background, Aswang Lineage, is explicitly supernatural, representing someone whose family tree contains an aswang monster, and some of that lineage has rubbed off on the character. They are proficient in Deception, Stealth, a single tool of any type, the Abyssal language, and have advantage on any checks made to instill fear in someone else.

Thoughts: The backgrounds overall look more or less balanced, although the Panday’s half cost might need consideration if the DM is using a dedicated crafting sub-system, and Aswang Lineage’s feature makes it really good for Intimidation and fear-based abilities. I do like it when Features are made to give explicit benefits, and giving half the backgrounds water vehicles proficiency is also a good choice given the setting.

The Feats section is short, with 5 new ones all fitting on a single page. Adept Conduit can only be taken by spellcasters, representing someone who managed to gain the favor of some spirits even if they’re not a babaylan. They get +1 Intelligence, learn a babaylan cantrip, and gain 2d4 Spirit Dice which they can use like the babaylan’s class feature. Cannoneer represents one who makes the lantaka (handheld cannon) their weapon of choice, where they ignore that weapon’s loading property, don’t suffer disadvantage on ranged attack rolls when adjacent to an enemy, and roll one bonus weapon damage die when they get a critical hit with a lantaka. Headhunting Master grants proficiency with the bunang (axe with a point on the butt of the axehead), lets the user ignore its two-handed property, and adds their ability modifier when making a bonus action attack with the pointed side of the weapon. Oceanborne Warrior grants a swimming speed equal to walking speed and ignores disadvantage on weapon attacks when underwater. Unrelenting Hunter increases Strength or Dexterity by 1, grants proficiency with the hunter’s kit, and as a free action on their turn can apply a substance on a single melee weapon or three pieces of ammunition.

Thoughts: Adept Conduit is a great feat given its granting of Spirit Dice. Oceanborne Warrior is more situational, but is likely to be useful in the setting. Unrelenting Hunter is ideal for quickly poisoning weapons while in the middle of combat. As for the weapon-specific feats, the latanka is a very strong ranged weapon so ignoring its loading property really ups the damage potential. As for a bunang, it’s clearly inspired by Polearm Master but the weapon isn’t as good (1d8 with the axe, 1d6 with the pointed side) given that it lacks reach.

Equipment provides us with new armor, weapons, and adventuring gear. While some kinds of warriors can go unarmored, most people choose such protection before heading off into battle. An armor’s weight and ‘breathability’ are highly important, as gear that can weigh someone down risks drowning and heatstroke. Since metal tends to be reserved for weapons and tools, most armor is made from bamboo, bark, and animal hides and parts, with corded fibers used to make some armor waterproof. We get a list of armor types in the setting along with new ones, and the good news is that heavy armor lovers still have options in the form of Chain Mail (costs twice as much) and Pakil armor (AC 18, made of interlocking bamboo/hardwood/ebony plates, costs 800 gold). For light armor we have Reinforced Leather which is basically Studded Leather. Habay-habay replaces normal Leather but is half that armor’s price. For medium armor, Chain Shirts still exist but cost 4 times as much and has a base AC of 14, Carabao Hide is AC 13 at 30 gold, and Barote is akin to half-plate’s 15 AC but costs 400 gold, imposes no disadvantage on Stealth checks, and is made from abaca fibers or bark cords and is waterproof.

As for weapons, almost everyone has access to ones that can be easily used as tools or for hunting, and spears and swords are the most common melee weapons. Shortbows, blowguns, and spears with tied cord to serve as harpoons are the most common ranged weapons. Headhunters are known to wield the bunang which is ideal for beheading someone, and the latanka portable cannon can be mounted on ships. Some weapons are designed specifically for fighting aswang. While any weapon can be plausibly coated in the substance, it degrades iron quickly, so people typically forge anti-aswang weapons from materials found in the sea.

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We have 18 new weapons, 5 of which are Simple Melee, 2 Simple Ranged, 7 Martial Melee, and 4 are Martial Ranged. Several of them are made to substitute for or are modifications of existing PHB weapons, such as the baladaw which is basically a dagger that cannot be thrown, a kris which is like a shortsword but is simple instead of martial and deals slashing damage, the kalawit is a 1d4 throwing spear that has the Harpoon property which lets you bring it back to hand as a bonus action, and the Sumpit is a blowgun whose ranged attack deals 1d8 but has a sharp blade that can be used in melee for 1d6 damage.

Regarding some of the more interesting options, the Stingray Tail Whip is akin to a regular whip but is permanently treated as though it’s salt-imbued, and the Coral-Tipped Spear has this same property but is otherwise a spear that costs 5 gold. The Astinggal is a matchlock rifle that deals 1d10 piercing and has a range of 100/400. The Songil is a big spear that deals 2d6 damage and has reach and the finesse property, so you can easily play as an agile polearm-user in this setting. The Lantaka is a hand cannon made out of a large segment of bamboo or bronze, and its ammo is gunpowder-propelled arrows and stones. It deals 2d8 piercing damage and has a range of 120/480.

Adventuring Gear covers everything else, a lot of which includes setting-specific flavor touches on existing items such as arcane foci. Some of the more interesting pieces include new poison types like the buta-buta leaves that can blind someone if they touch bare skin; tambal bundles which can be used with a herbalism kit for specific remedies (mostly flavor, but lists real-world plants and their common medicinal properties); and common forms of gaming sets such as spider-fighting where two spiders are placed on the ends of stick and they try to knock each other off, or sungka which is a board game similar to mancala where players move small shells or stones between pits.

The book has a sidebar discussing what existing core equipment can be adopted to Sina Una easily, but otherwise says the classic “talk with your DM” when it comes to more culture-specific stuff like rapiers and scale mail.

Thoughts: The armor replacements more or less cover the AC ranges well enough, although there are no bludgeoning weapons so I do feel that the weapons don’t cover all bases. There’s still quite a bit of neat and innovative ones, and given the cheapness of salt-imbued weapons PCs shouldn’t have a hard time finding stuff to harm aswang.

Sailing the Seas of the Islands covers common water vehicles and pre-colonial Philippines had all kinds of vessels, but this section simplifies the many types into three general categories. Baroto are dugout canoes without sails and are designed for river travel, balangays are seafaring fishing vessels and merchant ships, while the karakoa are huge warships that can hold up to a hundred people. We also get expanded rules for seafaring action and adventure, such as boats getting increased speed when commanded by someone proficient in water vehicles, applying modifiers to AC, hit points, and damage threshold based on a ship’s intended Purpose, and new condition types to apply to vessels based on weather. We even have optional rules for ship conditions should they be damaged by a critical hit, such as a flooding hull that increases the DC of movement-related checks.

Thoughts: The new rules are quite light and relatively undetailed. I feel that this section was unfinished, as I spotted two times where the book refers to “see page xx” when referencing something, and we don’t get sample gold piece prices for ships and Purposes. It’s just enough to make seafaring encounters feel deeper, but other rulesets and sourcebooks dedicated to naval combat and travel are a lot more detailed in covering this type of stuff.

Magic Items is self-explanatory, and provides us with 28 new pieces of supernatural gear. In terms of rarity we have 5 each of Common, Rare, and Very Rare, 7 Uncommon, 3 each of Legendary and Artifact, and 12 of the 28 items require attunement. Some of the more interesting items include Anklets of the Trembling Earth, which grant tremorsense of 60 feet to the attuned; a Bamboo Messenger, which allows a letter or small item to be inserted to magically teleport to a target landbound creature in 1d10 days, as a bamboo shoot with the contents magically grows next to them; a Black Egg which is spawned from an aswang and one who eats it is cursed undergo a transformation process into such a monster over 2d10+10 days, but the eater gains immunity to nonmagical physical damage and can speak Abyssal; Enchanted Limbs are typically made from wood and clay to serve as prosthetics, and can even have muted tactile sensations and are immune to dispelling effects; Piercings of the Wind Spirits are similar in function, which use air spirits to allow deaf people to hear; a Golden Death Mask can be placed on the face of a recently diseased humanoid, copying their memories which can then be transmitted to someone who then wears it; Mango of the Pure Maiden is a magical fruit which requires an Arcana check to identify, and can be sliced into 6 pieces which if consumed individually can immediately cure the charmed, frightened, or poisoned conditions, but the eater is unable to lie for an hour on a failed Charisma save; Salimbal is a unique balangay boat which can fly, cast Plane Shift once per day, and has a host of damage immunities and resistances; Singing Spears, which are +1 weapons that can sing as a bonus action, the music summoning a local nature spirit that grants +1d4 damage whose type is determined by the environmental spirit in question; and Sword of the Earnest Moon, an artifact kampilan sword that is a +3 weapon, can cast Moonbeam at will, Celestial Chaos (new spell) once per long rest, grant a use of Legendary Resistance once per day, and deals 2d12 bonus radiant damage when the attuned’s current hit points are half or less than their maximum.

Thoughts: There’s quite a bit of interesting magic items here. I do like the worldbuilding implications of several of them. The ear piercings and limb prosthetics are of common rarity, showing that the islanders have easy access to magical aid to help disabled people. The bamboo messenger is also common, which allows for relatively quick long-range communication between islands. The Singing Spear is perhaps my favorite, even if it’s simplistic in concept, as it encourages the party to take into account their surroundings to better understand what enhancements they can get.

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We have 24 new magic Spells as well as a handy table showing what classes get access to them, as well as the complete Babaylan spell list. Clerics, Druids, and Wizards get the most, the Sorcerer a decent amount, and the Bard and Warlock don’t get too many. The Paladin and Ranger, predictably, get the least.

Like several of the subclasses and races, quite a bit of these spells are higher on the power scale, but a few deserve mention for being easily able to break the game, particularly the rituals. Bonded Spirits is a 2nd level spell which grants +1 to saving throws and +1d6 weapon damage based on the spirit type, and the damage die increases by 1 for every spell slot above 2nd. It lasts for 1 hour, so it’s enough to last for a few combats. Colors of Hanan is also a 2nd level ritual lasting 1 hour, conjuring a magical tattoo on the target which can either grant +1 AC, have their weapon attacks count as magical, gain advantage on Dexterity and Constitution saves, or have them heal 1d4+1 hit points per turn as long as they aren’t incapacitated. As a minute has 10 turns and 60 minutes are in an hour, this ritual spell pretty much obviates the need to spend Hit Dice to heal during short rests. Mayari’s Embrace is a 4th level ritual that lasts 8 hours, conjuring a tattoo on the target based on one of the moon’s phases. Some of them are fine, like being able to see in magical and nonmagical darkness and granting advantage on Charisma saves and saving throws, but Crescent Moon and New Moon are strong to the point of being build-defining. Crescent conjures an illusory double, granting the target advantage on all melee attacks given the double’s distracting nature, as well as a 15 foot boost to all movement types they have. New Moon allows the target to turn invisible until the end of their next turn as a bonus action, and they gain immunity to all effects that can read or sense their thoughts and emotions.

Lastly, there’s Tropical Paradise, a 5th level ritual. It is akin to Tiny Hut but is 15 foot radius, can hold up to 10 creatures, and has plants growing magical fruit that increase a consumer’s hit point maximum by 1d8 + spellcasting modifier as well as immunity to poison. Doesn’t specify if this is poison damage, the poisoned condition, or both.

And none of these rituals require concentration, so a party with time on their hands can easily buff everyone with powerful magic!

As for the other spells, some interesting ones include Apolaki’s Light, a 1st level spell cast as a reaction to an attack, dealing radiant damage and also blinding the attacker should they fail a Constitution save; Celestial Chaos, a 9th level spell that summons moonbeams and solar flares as an AoE attack, dealing radiant damage and blinding people in the storm, and the caster can choose up to 8 creatures to be immune to the spell; Control Lava, a 4th level spell that can control up to 100 cubic feet of lava to overflow, part, or redirect; Coral Cage, a 3rd level spell that deals force damage and restrains a target who fails a Dexterity save, and aswangs automatically fail the initial save; False Self, a 1st level spell cast as a reaction to being grappled or restrained as the caster replaces themselves with an effigy and teleports to an unoccupied space within 5 feet; Lizard Skin, a 2nd level spell that grants temporary hit points and +1 AC to a target for 1 hour, and can shed skin upon being grappled or restrained to end the condition and move 5 feet away; Ride Lightning, a 4th level spell where the caster zips to a point up to 90 feet away, dealing lightning damage to all those in their path; Viper Eyes, a 1st level spell that grants the target the ability to detect heat signatures and thus grants blindsight 60 feet for 8 hours, but the effect is ended early if they take fire or radiant damage and fail a Constitution save; and Wrath of Lalahon, an 8th level spell requiring a consumable material component up to 500 gold, but in exchange the caster gains a protective rocky shell that grants temporary hit points, immunity to the elemental damage types as well as thunder damage, can deal fire damage against up to 10 creatures within 30 feet once per turn, and auto-succeeds on concentration checks to maintain spells that deal fire or radiant damage.

Thoughts: This section of the chapter is perhaps the lowest point, as quite a bit of the spells here are just way too strong. Even for the non-ritual spells, we have some potent choices like the Viper Eyes that grants long-term blindsight for a 1st level spell slot, and given Colors of Hanan and Lizard Skin don’t require concentration they can easily be stacked with other AC-boosting spells such as Shield of Faith and Warding Bond. While there are quite a few spells here which I like, particularly Coral Cage, the overpowered ones weigh the rest down.

Thoughts So Far: I’m fond of the backgrounds and items, feel a bit mum on the ships, and am unimpressed with the balance of the spells. Chapter 3 as a whole is thus a very mixed bag, and DMs would do well to prune the more broken options from play.

Join us next time as we review the first half of the bestiary in Chapter Four: Monsters!
 

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed with the mechanical aspects of the book. Too much of the material was just flat-out unusable. Babaylan isn't just overpowered to the point where it makes other players feel useless, it's overpowered to the point where the game maths simply don't work any more. Adding 4d4 to your spell save DC from level 1, my bum. Oh, and we'll toss in an invincible blindsighted familar too. Sheesh.

This is something that can sometimes happen in these real-world-inspired products I think. The writer makes a subclass or class representing the sort of character who is the hero of all the stories, and because that sort of character is always the hero, the character options go ... way over the top. The Prophet cleric domain from Adventurer's Guide to the Bible had the same problem.

Real pity, because some of the least usable options here are the most interesting. The Moon Eater warlock pact is a great idea, but its very first ability is just game-breaking from maths perspective again, and that's without the extremely potent, at-will 6th level ability stacked on top of it (and its bonus spells lack a bit of focus). The Graverobber is an exceptionally cool concept, but again, a bit overtuned. I think they could have safely removed the three free cantrips at 3rd level and still had a potent class. Pestilence is clearly the most interesting one. I don't think it's as simple as 'Destruction is the most powerful' though - from 9h level a Pestilence graverobber has poison attacks that ignore poison immunity and resistance, and the free Haste once per short rest from the Avarice curse is nothing to be sneezed at either. Not sure I'd allow switching between curses at player option though. Choose a doom and stick to it!
 

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