D&D 5E Tiny flavor tweaks

[SigmaOne]

This is something I thought of last night. I didn't play any 3e or 4e; had a 20 year hiatus from 2e and got back into 5e with the playtest. So I don't know if the spell Witchbolt existed prior to now. But I find it especially awesome since it really recalls to me the kind of magic duals made so popular by movies --- two wizards facing off with rays of power, until one finally overwhelms the other. Honestly, I can't think of any more popular "magic combat" trope than this. And D&D never really supported it. But seeing Witchbolt, and seeing how they now made Shield a reaction, it occurred to me that Witchbolt could be an action -or- a reaction. You can cast Witchbolt as a reaction when another wizard casts Witchbolt at you --- this initiates a contest (Either Arcane vs. Arcane or probably just Spellcasting Ability Score vs. Spellcasting Ability Score). It can be a simple contest, with the winner canceling the other's spell and dealing damage. Or, more complicated but more interesting: one could really draw this out... with one wizard having to defeat the other by a certain margin before defeating them, canceling their spell, and doing damage, and with a stalemate until that happens. Then you get the full cinematic effect. Is it likely to happen frequently? Maybe not. Or maybe this kind of thing is built into the culture of high-magic societies.

In principle, it's super cool (to me), and something the new concentration/reaction combination allows for, which I don't think was workable in the early editions.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I'm making a Jedi for Gen Con. As part of the process, I realized at 4th level, if an Eldritch Knight takes Warcaster and wears a shield, one could describe a mundane shield as a "magical shield of force" with minimal balance implications. It takes the same amount of time to doff/don and the character pays 25gp for a ritual to create it in the first place.

Thaumaturge.

 

[doctorhook]

I'm making a Jedi for Gen Con. As part of the process, I realized at 4th level, if an Eldritch Knight takes Warcaster and wears a shield, one could describe a mundane shield as a "magical shield of force" with minimal balance implications. It takes the same amount of time to doff/don and the character pays 25gp for a ritual to create it in the first place.

Thaumaturge.

That's juicy.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Mentioned in another thread, but IMC wizards' daily spell preparation actually requires tattooing mystic symbols on their bodies.

 

[random.brown]

In the RAW there's no way to have a Longsword + Short Sword two-weapon fighter without using the "optional" feat rules.

Since my group isn't fond of feats, I'm ruling that the two-weapon fighting style selection allows for the use of a non-light weapon in the main hand, in addition to the existing style features.

 

[Rune]

Mentioned in another thread, but IMC wizards' daily spell preparation actually requires tattooing mystic symbols on their bodies.

I ran a game in 3e where sorcerers did this.

 

[Klaus]

Okay, so what little alterations are you thinking of making, not for mechanical reasons, but purely flavorful ones? And I do mean "little." I'm not talking about rewriting classes or adding new sub-systems.

For instance:

The Oath of the Ancients paladin: I'm removing Raise Dead from its spell list and adding Reincarnate. Just seems to me to fit a lot better.

The Nature Domain cleric: Why does Nature grant a bonus proficiency in heavy armor? I'm going to replace that with a few of the druid's or ranger's minor "wild-focused" abilities, like Land's Stride and the like.

(Also, this is not a flavor tweak, but it's not worth its own thread, and I gotta comment somewhere: Holy crap, you can build a warlock sniper who can Eldritch Blast a target, ignoring cover, from six-hundred feet!! )

From my someday-I'll-get-off-my-ass-and-publish-this setting:
- Half-elves and half-orcs are subraces of human;
- Gnomes are the largest of the brownie family of fey (pixie, grig, brownies, quicklings, spriggans);

 

[Sir Brennen]

From my someday-I'll-get-off-my-ass-and-publish-this setting:
- Half-elves and half-orcs are subraces of human;

I did something similar for my setting, too.

IMC, during the age of myth, a war amongst the gods shattered one of the world's moons. Part of the moon crashed down, punching a hole all the way to the lower planes. The fallout caused several of the races living on the fringes of the damaged area to become corrupted, tainted by the extra-planar energies. Their corruption carried to their offspring and later generations, thus giving rise to many of the evil humanoid races. Elves gave rise to orcs, haflings to goblins, and humans to the giant races.

The area around the still-existent crater is also a great place to collect aberrations for your dungeon.

 

[Mouseferatu]

IMC, during the age of myth, a war amongst the gods shattered one of the world's moons. Part of the moon crashed down, punching a hole all the way to the lower planes. The fallout caused several of the races living on the fringes of the damaged area to become corrupted, tainted by the extra-planar energies. Their corruption carried to their offspring and later generations, thus giving rise to many of the evil humanoid races. Elves gave rise to orcs, haflings to goblins, and humans to the giant races.

Man, you just reminded me of a campaign I started years ago, but never got far into. I also had the "all the classic monstrous humanoids were corruptions" thing going, but mine wasn't a crater like that. (Love that idea, though.) It was a mystical "cauldron" (really the size of a caldera) created by the Eternal Empire of Gosa Vindur. They were basically a high-magic culture similar to Melnibone, if Elric's people had gone utterly, Reavers-from-Firefly levels of psychotic.

I really ought to dust that off and give it another go.

 

[Sadrik]

Druids are witches

Monks use mystical weapons that they create/summon with their minds. They don't punch and kick. No rules changes, just their attacks themed differently and perhaps cause a different damage type than bludgeoning.

Wizards get their spells from gods too. They just steal it from them or tap into it while clerics are granted it.

Warlocks are clerics of evil gods.

Alternately, clerics and warlocks are cursed to feed off of ley lines "divine energy", but in that process they are granted powers. Every morning they tap into them for their granted powers and begin to wither and die if they do not.

Paladins are possessed by good celestials. Granting them two personalities.