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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9536279" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/sTWG2oE.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter Three: CharactersThis 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.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WId40Ur.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gEt84mA.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/paNavr7.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gbUQVx3.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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!</blockquote>

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