Out Now on the DMs Guild
Wintry Blast |
I've become a fan of skill checks, but only when they are well done. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has a nice system for determining outcomes based on group checks, resulting in varying degrees of success and failure. The DMs Guild Supplement, Challenge Accepted, has a similar system. I was inspired tremendously by both these sources when constructing my own skill challenges for Wintry Blast. Whereas the challenges in Saltmarsh and Challenge Accepted can serve as full-fledged encounters, certain situations call for something a bit more nimble and streamlined. Below is one such example from Wintry Blast. Throughout that adventure there are five such tables to help DMs bring otherwise mundane skill checks to life. For a bit of setup, early on in the adventure the characters are challenged with retrieving a farmer's hogs whose enclosure was destroyed in a recent attack. Rescuing these hogs from the wild is a springboard into a grander series of events. In this scene, each character who is searching for the hogs make a Wisdom (Survival) check. Alternatively, only one character makes the check, at advantage, since they are receiving help from the rest of the party. Consult the table for outcomes. Regardless of the outcome of the check, the characters immediately find the missing hogs after Outcomes are resolved. This type of table allows for characters who roll really well to find an extra bonus, and it allows characters who roll poorly to fail forward. That concept of failing forward is an important one. I've kicked myself a number of times after a game session when a character's low roll resulted in a flat fail, not allowing the story line to easily proceed. Mike Shea of Sly Flourish has a great article about Failing Forward that I highly recommend. I've learned from those previous mistakes, and always build in a failing forward option where ever critical story elements are involved.
Looking for more great resources to enhance your game? Checkout the Toolkit page where I've listed some of my favorites. The Sly Flourish Blog is among them! Visit the Wintry Blast page to learn more about the adventure. It's available now on the DMs Guild.
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During the #PlayItForward event on the DMs Guild I picked up a number of titles. Among them, Legendary Bestiary from Christopher Walz, Christian Eichhorn, and Alex Clippinger. I'm so glad I did!
This supplement is amazing in a number of ways:
Allow me to elaborate. We've all ran encounters with a "leader" among minions. Think of Yeemik from Lost Mine of Phandelver as one example. This goblin boss doesn't get any special abilities in the adventure other than he has max hit points. That is boring. Very boring. It's one thing to give a goblin max hit points (from the standard 7 to 12). It's another entirely to give max hit points to an ogre chief (59 to 91). What a slog! When I run combats, particularly one's where there might be some potential roleplaying opportunities, I typically make one monster the defacto leader. Come across some hobgoblins in the wood? One of them is the interesting one, the others are background actors. Come across bandits on the road? Same deal. Often times I name these "special" NPCs just in case my characters ask or engage them with dialogue. My new rule after picking up Legendary Bestiary? If I name a low level NPC, its getting legendary actions. You can also grant legendary actions to "legendary" creatures. Is there an old, fabled owlbear living in the forest? Spice it up and make it unique from the general run-of-the-mill owlbear. This supplement covers all creatures from the Monster Manual that fall in the CR 1 to 3 range. The legendary actions found within add flavor and personality to your creatures. It adds a little something extra to your combat and keeps your players on their toes. Experienced players can easily metagame (accidentally or not) when they face a familiar foe. These extras abilities will keep them guessing. The extra abilities aren't game breaking, either. As long as you use them wisely, your encounters go from "Medium" to "Deadly" by incorporating this supplement at your table. Here's one example using that ogre I mentioned earlier: Angry Idiot. The ogre makes a melee weapon attack against a target that used words the ogre cannot understand (such as casting a spell with verbal components or speaking in an unknown language) this round. I find that fun! It makes the ogre boss more than a simple sack of hit points like the rest of his clan. You can also add these abilities to pets of your higher level monsters. Let's say you have a CR 9 evil druid as the big bad for your campaign. Maybe that druid has a pet direwolf, but this direwolf has been trained to destroy armor: Sunder Armor. The wolf tears away at an enemy’s armor, creating an opening for the pack. The wolf makes a melee weapon attack against a creature wearing nonmagical armor. The attack does not deal damage, but the nonmagical armor takes a permanent and cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. The armor is destroyed if the penalty reduces its AC to 10. Suddenly, the combat gets a lot more interesting. I wish I had this supplement while writing Wintry Blast. I definitely would have worked in some of these concepts. As I said earlier though, it's super easy to implement Legendary Bestiary at your table for encounters that are already written. Get it today. Use it at your next game. Looking for more great resources? Checkout the Toolkit page where I've listed my favorites. Legendary Bestiary is definitely among them! Anne Gregersen is my hero. Let me explain. Anne has cooked up a series of amazing supplements on the DMs Guild dealing with monster loot. We aren't talking about loot in the traditional sense (gems, coins, and trinkets). No, we are talking about harvested loot from creatures the adventurers fell in battle. We are talking about venom sacks, talons, scales, and the like.
If your D&D groups are anything like mine, there is always at least one person who wants to collect snake fangs or fashion a luxurious cloak out of a dire wolf pelt. I always struggled with how to handle these player requests. A Nature check? Medicine? Survival? I usually just ended up hand-waving it so we could move the story along without getting bogged down in the nitty-gritties of field dressing and taxidermy. The problems didn't stop there. Several sessions later, I'd have characters asking what they can do with the parts they harvest. Again, I was often at a loss. This is where Anne saves the day. She has created a rules system that is simple enough to implement, complex enough to be interesting, and rewarding for everyone involved. Her system includes a new item, harvester's tools, and mechanics for breaking down different types of creatures. For example, Nature checks are used when harvesting from Beasts, Dragons, Plants and other creature types. Religion is used when harvesting from the Undead, Celestial, and Fiends. Survival and Arcana checks also come in to play for various creature types. Anne has also accounted for creature size. Harvesting from a giant boar and a green dragon are two totally different endeavors. Your typical medium creature takes an hour to harvest, while that huge hydra takes 4 hours. Regardless of the time commitment, only one check is required. On a successful check, the characters get all the prescribed loot available. On a failed check, they get half. On a severely failed check, a mishap may occur (like piercing an acid gland or slicing open their own thumb). The amazing thing is that Anne has taken the time to assign loot to every creature found in the Monster Manual, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. There is a supplement available for each source book on the DMs Guild, or you can purchase them as a bundle. Mundane creatures like wolves and bears don't have very exciting loot, but once you get to gricks, basilisks, black puddings, and so on, the loot gets fun. For example, that back pudding yields vials of "ooze goop" that can be thrown to deal acid damage. Other creatures, like the young remorahaz, yield hide that can be crafted into gear. In the case of the remorhaz, characters can fashion a cloak that grants fire and cold resistance when worn. Of course, there are costs associated with this crafting (time and money), so you party can't start using the items without spending some downtime first. And that leads me to the icing on the cake. Many players love acquiring magic items. It's so much more rewarding to have them craft items out of collected materials then simply trying to purchase them in every town they visit. What's more, many of the items included in Anne's supplements are consumable or appropriately powered. The characters won't be able to fashion a +3 Vorpal Sword from collecting just the right parts. We also know that 5e has a money problem. Characters acquire vast wealth and have nothing really to spend it on. Anne's system helps solve that problem. That remorhaz cloak I mentioned? It takes 3,000 gp to fashion. That's the type of item that is perfect for filling in the narrative between campaigns. I can't recommend these supplements enough. Druids and Rangers will love harvesting from nature and leaving nothing to waste. Wizards will love collecting samples to help them in their research. Rogues always love finding a good source of poison. Even a Barbarian can find joy in finally putting some clothes on while showing off a trophied-fur from their epic kill. There's no better time to get this bundle since the DMs Guild has their #PlayItForward event going on. Between May 4 and May 17, 2020, 100% of the royalties go directly to content creators like Anne. If you have stuff sitting in your cart or languishing on a wishlist, go get it now! Monster Loot Products
PS. She even has smaller supplements specifically for adventures like Lost Mine of Phandelver and Descent into Avernus. |
AuthorD&D 5e enthusiast. Creator on DMsguild. Supporter of creators, content and good times. Follow me on Twitter @rjquestgiver Archives
July 2021
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