Marandahir
Crown-Forester (he/him)
I especially like the supernatural gifts - they remind me of 4e Themes.
In 4e, Dark Sun introduced themes as a way of emulating that 3rd level start - essentially you got an extra encounter power (in 4e, your second encounter power was at 3rd level). Later on, Dragon Magazine introduced Themes for the standard Nerath-assumed setting, and not only had a single power granted at 1st level with the taking of the theme but had a series of features throughout the Heroic tier of play, a sort of equivalent extra layer of gameplay to that of the Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies for higher-tier gameplay.
In 5e, we got Backgrounds, which took on some of the traits of the Heroic Themes from 4e in their story-roles and having one critical roleplaying feature. But they're ultimately more benign and purposed towards giving you a ribbon link into the story of the game, and less about giving you a super special awesome power like many of the 4e Themes were. In that sense, they are like half-way between a 4e Background and a 4e Theme.
I've long considered the answer to the "Dark Sun characters are tougher", and likewise for similar settings, to be: give everyone a bonus feat. Humans get 2 if they choose variant human. And that, in essence, is what Supernatural Gifts are, though they are clearly designed around 1st-level characters rather than something you can come into over the course of your adventure. Even then, the sidebar says that on a rare ocassion, you might be gifted later on (of course, at the DM's purview). To that end, these are akin to the Epic Boons from the Dungeon Master's Guide, though clearly designed for the lower tiers rather than for the highest of highest tiers of gameplay. And in that sense, they harken back to the 4e Themes.
It's a really cool module that partially answers the promise of D&D Next's plug-in modules of gameplay to turn it into different types of game.
I think for my game, I might link supernatural gifts & feats with races and give every race a power boost of sorts. In my setting, rather than warforged, the dwarves are literally created in the forges of their parents' household, build as a child rather than born aux natural. In that sense, I'd add the anvilwrought feature to the dwarf racial characteristics. At the same time, if a player had a really interesting story like for some reason they were transformed from metal into a flesh being like the humans are, then they could substitute it with a separate feat or supernatural gift and the game would work as normal.
To compensate for higher powered heroes, I would wonder if it's worth raising the CR of encounters by 1/4 or 1/2 or 1, though I'd guess that in Theros, the point is that you're so heroic that you can bash up the same challenges with less difficulty, so rather than making the encounters harder, one might add an additional encounter to the adventure day or just leave the heroes less exhausted by the end of the day. In Dark Sun, I imagine the point would be that the heroes are harder AND the encounters are harder, for example.
In 4e, Dark Sun introduced themes as a way of emulating that 3rd level start - essentially you got an extra encounter power (in 4e, your second encounter power was at 3rd level). Later on, Dragon Magazine introduced Themes for the standard Nerath-assumed setting, and not only had a single power granted at 1st level with the taking of the theme but had a series of features throughout the Heroic tier of play, a sort of equivalent extra layer of gameplay to that of the Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies for higher-tier gameplay.
In 5e, we got Backgrounds, which took on some of the traits of the Heroic Themes from 4e in their story-roles and having one critical roleplaying feature. But they're ultimately more benign and purposed towards giving you a ribbon link into the story of the game, and less about giving you a super special awesome power like many of the 4e Themes were. In that sense, they are like half-way between a 4e Background and a 4e Theme.
I've long considered the answer to the "Dark Sun characters are tougher", and likewise for similar settings, to be: give everyone a bonus feat. Humans get 2 if they choose variant human. And that, in essence, is what Supernatural Gifts are, though they are clearly designed around 1st-level characters rather than something you can come into over the course of your adventure. Even then, the sidebar says that on a rare ocassion, you might be gifted later on (of course, at the DM's purview). To that end, these are akin to the Epic Boons from the Dungeon Master's Guide, though clearly designed for the lower tiers rather than for the highest of highest tiers of gameplay. And in that sense, they harken back to the 4e Themes.
It's a really cool module that partially answers the promise of D&D Next's plug-in modules of gameplay to turn it into different types of game.
I think for my game, I might link supernatural gifts & feats with races and give every race a power boost of sorts. In my setting, rather than warforged, the dwarves are literally created in the forges of their parents' household, build as a child rather than born aux natural. In that sense, I'd add the anvilwrought feature to the dwarf racial characteristics. At the same time, if a player had a really interesting story like for some reason they were transformed from metal into a flesh being like the humans are, then they could substitute it with a separate feat or supernatural gift and the game would work as normal.
To compensate for higher powered heroes, I would wonder if it's worth raising the CR of encounters by 1/4 or 1/2 or 1, though I'd guess that in Theros, the point is that you're so heroic that you can bash up the same challenges with less difficulty, so rather than making the encounters harder, one might add an additional encounter to the adventure day or just leave the heroes less exhausted by the end of the day. In Dark Sun, I imagine the point would be that the heroes are harder AND the encounters are harder, for example.
