Weekly Homebrew: Axe of Thraxxor

I was inspired to create this axe from a couple of different sources. For my vision of how the axe looks I used the Felguard's axe from World of Warcraft.

And a righteous axe at that!

For the origin of the axe I was inspired by Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, specifically this video which is not safe for work. Look for the Demon Thraxxor in an upcoming Weekly Homebrew. Once again I am not sure the power of the axe lies within aceptable parameters, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I would love to hear some feedback on it, whether general comments or how you end up using it in your game. I am finally starting to get the hang of using Power2ool to make magic items. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Until next time remember don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes, and...?"

Created on Power2ool

Weekly Homebrew: Goggles

I make these look good!

I made this on Power2ool which is an excellent website

This post inspired me to create this item. I realize they are probably not balanced, but Chris Perkins says that's ok. I'd love some feedback on this item and maybe some other ideas for steampunk inspired magic items. Until next time remember don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes, and...?"

Weekly Hombrew: Dominated Cultist

This weeks Weekly Homebrew is a cultist minion that is a much larger threat than it first might appear. The dominated cultist was made on the Wizards of the Coast Monster Builder using the Human Lackey as a base. The dominated cultist works great as a generic minion of a cult. Having a Mind Flayer at the center of the cult would work great. One thing that could work really well is having a familiar npc, preferably one the players like, be one of the cultists.

The dominated cultist works like any other minion while alive, doing a small amount of damage on a hit and generally being a nuisance. It is not until it dies that it really comes into its own. Any time a Dominated Cultist dies anyone in a cultist's Mental Feedback aura takes a small amount of psychic damage. If someone is standing in multiple auras the damage can really start to ramp up. If you can make the party vulnerable to psychic damage either through a terrain effect or another monster such as Zindriel, Sand Bride that's even better. The best is that the domination is insidious, attempting to dominate whoever kills the Dominated Cultist. Note this ability only works when the cultist is killed so a smart party would be encouraged to knock the cultists unconscious and look for another way to end the domination. This is all to the good since the players likely know the cultists and would probably feel bad about killing them outright. 

When using these you will want to be careful, because it would be easy to overwhelm the party especially if they kill a lot of cultists with close burst effects. You should definitely give the party some clues as to the nature of the cultists so that the first Mental Feedback isn't a total gotcha. I hope you enjoy using these cultists as much as I did. Until next time remember, don't let your DM tell you no. It's always "Yes, and...?"

Weekly Homebrew: Syrantharax

As promised Syrantharax an Epic tier Solo Monster. I have divided him up into two parts.

The first part of the encounter he is polymorphed into human form. It would be interesting to have him be another type of humanoid for example elf, and then you could just give him Elven Accuracy or whatever other racial power you wanted him to emulate. You will want to start the encounter off with Tides of Despair so he has the aura available throughout the encounter. Once Syrantharax is bloodied he should transform into Dragon form.

Once there you should allow the players to attempt to dispel the aura either with dispel magic or some creative skill use. Hopefully by switching forms in the midst of combat Syrantharax will remain interesting throughout the entire encounter. However he should not fight to the death so if it gets to be a grind, simply have him start to try to negotiate with the players. If they seem averse to negotiation you can have him fly away to fight another day or simply surrender and beg for mercy if you don't want to bring him back later.

I hope you find a use for Syrantharax. If you have any thoughts on design or want to report how he worked in play feel free to leave a comment, or find me on Facebook or Twitter. Until next time remember, don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes, and...?"

Coming Attractions

Stop in the name of Love Before I eat your heart!

It looks like another exciting here at Prone Ooze. First I have part two of my Party Optimization Article. I hope you enjoy part one, which can be found here. For Secret Warlock I am going to do a post on the importance of understanding the rules behind the world. For Weekly Homebrew I am working on an Epic Level Solo. The plan for it is to either cap the paragon tier or be a threat early in the epic tier. Other articles I am thinking about include a detailed post on backgrounds and motivations, a look at how women are portrayed in D and D versus how they are portrayed generally, and some ideas for hooking evil characters inspired by Malvan, my other warlock. If you have a request for a homebrew monster or an article please post in the comments or find me on twitter or facebook. I do have a poll for the future of my Weekly Homebrew column. Thanks to the two readers who voted. Everyone else please vote for what you would like to see. Until next time remember, don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes, and...?"

Weekly Homebrew: Player run town WIP

A friend of mine is working on a system for a player run town. I think it is an awesome idea and would love to try something like this out in my game. I ran a short lived epic game using something like this, but I never really detailed it much. Anyway You can find it here, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Until next time remember don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes and...?"

Coming Attractions

I suppose as long as I'm here I
can play Benedick for you

I have had a really good week. I had my first day off in two weeks, which I used to get some content loaded on my blog, and also a guest post on A Single Step. I also watched a hilarious rendition of Much Ado About Nothing staring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. I am going out of town for a couple of days so I am going to schedule a few posts in case my hotel doesn't have free wifi. I am going to try to stick to the schedule I am outlining here, but I may end up with some more filler. I promise I will get some content up at the end of the week if I don't get any before then.

For Secret Warlock I am still working on the short story, but I don't think I'l get it finished in time so I am planning on posting about Evil Pixies, being careful what you wish for, and the importance of the rules behind the world.

Ok I'd like play the level three Executive.

For Weekly Homebrew I will try to get some more posted about the village of Bristle. This is the most likely to be cut, but I have found a system for a player run town that is in outline form right now I may post some stuff about it as well.

For the rest of the week I am planning an article dealing with the idea of creating a party that works well together mechanically and thematically. I still want to do something about skills, and I will likely have a few thoughts on DnDnext as we keep hearing more about it. As always if you have ideas for articles or would like to see something here please post in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. Until next time remember, don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes and...?"

Coming Attractions

Coming up this week I am hoping to have a little more time than I did last week. I have three or four posts started that I would like to finish and get up here. I have a good start on a post on rituals, I am still thinking about a post on skills, especially after today's seminar at D and D XP. I have a few more thoughts to share on DnDnext as well.

Hint: If the person to your left is a
 hatter you might be at the wrong party. 

For Secret Warlock I am hoping to finish the origin story of Aramil at least and perhaps share Aramil's encounter with an icy room of doom and the epic party I immediately regretted wishing for. I may also have some thoughts on making sure you have an understanding of how the world actually works.

For my Weekly Homebrew I am going to keep working on fleshing out Bristle in preparation for running it again this Saturday. If I get the chance I may share completed stats for the fingerbone of St. Cuthbert but I will at least give a character sketch for another npc, perhaps the mayor this time.

As always if you have ideas for articles or requests for homebrew items, post in the comments or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter. Until next time remember don't let your DM tell you no. It's always, "Yes and...?"

Weekly Homebrew: A long day

I have another really long day today, and had a long day yesterday. I am hoping to have some actual content this week, but I've only got two paragraphs actually written so far. I am very glad to be working again though. I'l give you a taste of what I had in store for the my Weekly Homebrew post.

Father Stephen and the Fingerbone of St. Cuthbert:

A bit of inspiration for Father Stephen

Father Stephen is the village priest. He is in charge of a small chapel. In my game it is simply dedicated to God since it is an Arthurian game. However any good deity would work. Bahamut or Pelor would make especially fine choices for this. Father Stephen is a devout worshiper and genuinely cares about his flock. He would work well as a patron of a divine PC. In my game he also has an assistant the players haven't met so that I can provide them a companion character if they need one or to give them a tie to the world if they decide to create a new PC who uses the Divine Power source.

Father Stephen is a ritual caster and can provide a blessing to the PC's which could include a small mechanical benefit. As an example in my game the players suspected they were going to be fighting fey creatures so I allowed Father Stephen to bless them with a +1 to attack rolls and damage rolls against fey creatures until their next extended rest. I was planning a tough encounter and the bonus certainly aided them, even if it wasn't the difference between life and death.

Cadwr

In addition to his responsibilities as a chaplain, Father Stephen also guards a powerful relic, the Fingerbone of St. Cuthbert. The Fingerbone of St. Cuthbert is all that remains (or is it?) of a powerful paladin who was later sainted. So far the only mechanical benefit I have shown the players of the fingerbone is it's ability to somehow negate Fey Magic. I'm not exactly sure how I want to describe it in game terms, but the players had found some coins that were being used as scry sensors by a powerful fey creature and the fingerbone was able to destroy the link the fey had to the coins. One thing I am considering is to allow a PC who is carrying the fingerbone to use a holy Smite as an encounter power as a Cavalier of their level. I think Cadwr my friend's questing knight would enjoy a touch of the Divine in his character.

As I get more of the fingerbone detailed I will share it here. I am looking at trying the Power 2ool that the robed guy uses, to flesh it out. I am still planning to provide more details for the banking clan as well as fulling fleshing out Bristle, but those will have to wait for another week. Until next time remember don't let your DM tell you no. It's always "Yes and?..."

Weekly Homebrew: Balasar

This edition of Weekly Homebrew will focus on Balasar a warehouse manager for the banking clan I introduced a couple of weeks ago. I am still working on a name for the clan so if anyone has some good ideas please feel free to let me know. Balasar manages the warehouse that Seamus would report to so if the players are tracking down the stolen item it could lead them back to there. If however the party overcame Seamus and kept the item they could try to track down whoever sent Seamus and the trail could lead them here as well.

Balasar, created on the Monster Builder from the Wizards of the Coast website, is an Elite Soldier. Balasar would be a good for challenge a party of 8^th level Characters. Coupled with some other Dragonborn, or perhaps some humans he would make a good end of adventure “boss.” I do have an idea for making Balasar into an end of tier boss which I will get into near the end of the post.

Balasar has some features that make him a really good a soldier. First he has a Defender Aura. I have already talked about the benefits of a Defender Aura in my post about Defenders. His best feature is the ability to knock prone any enemy who provokes an opportunity attack or who ignores his aura. This makes him extremely hard to get away from. His signature attack is a finishing move which can recharge. It does a lot of damage against a bloodied enemy and also gives his allies a hefty bonus until the end of his next turn.

As he is written Balasar makes a pretty good end of adventure boss monster. You could make an arc where the players find an item, have an encounter with Seamus then either lose the item or become curious about why he attacked them. After that you could design a skill challenge to track down the clan which would lead the players to Balasar’s Warehouse. The Warehouse would make an excellent site based adventure, or you could round the skill challenge out with a few combats to make it play more like an event based adventure. Either way an encounter with Balasar should be a good climactic end to the adventure for 7^th or 8^th level players.

However if you wanted to make Balasar more of a tier ending threat, you could foreshadow him a bit by having him appear at the warehouse and leave the characters being attacked by the other dragon born. After some time away and a good deal of investigating the party could track him down again. Then after another long fight, once he is bloodied or even dying, have him transform into a dragon. I would recommend an adult Orium Dragon, but others could be appropriate as well. Depending on how the fight has gone you could allow the players to recharge an Encounter power or perhaps spend some healing surges, but I would not allow the use of a short rest. If the party is in truly dire straits you might even allow them to regain all encounter powers or one daily.

I hope you find Balasar as interesting as I have. If you end up using him or Seamus I would love to hear about it. Taken together Balasar and Seamus make a good introduction to the clan at the heroic tier. Going forward be sure to keep in mind that the clan is a world spanning operation and has many resources to use against the characters. If you wanted to use the clan as more of a patron of the characters you could use Balasar as a test to the characters worthiness in much the same way. Until next time remember don’t let your DM tell you no. It’s always “Yes, and…?”

Coming Attractions

I have had a bit of a hard time coming up with content for my daily post schedule. It doesn't help that my first inclination is to write a Master's Thesis on each topic so I usually wind up writing like mad in the last few hours before I post. I have decided to add some structure to the blog which will hopefully make it easier to provide content.

Coming Attractions:I am going to start each  workweek with a Coming Attractions post. It is here that I will preview what is coming throughout the week or possibly even farther in the future. If you have something you would like me to look into here would be a great place to talk about it.

Secret Warlock: Starting this Tuesday I am going to chronicle the adventures of Aranis my spoony Bard, who is actually a Warlock in disguise. I am not sure if it will be fictional from my characters persepctive or more of an overview from my perspective. In fact I may occasionally do both.

Weekly Homebrew: On Thursdays I will post custom created monsters and other homebrew materials. This week I am going to continue with my idea for a Banking clan of Dragons.

Saturday Chainmail: Of course I will continue posting weekend chainmail updates.

I am going to keep the other days free for articles or other things I feel the need to write about. I am currently thinking about an article about sexuality in D and D, an article about balancing work, family and gaming and finally an article about what I have learned in my year of Virtual Table gaming. If you have ideas for articles or things you would like me to review feel free to comment below or find me on Facebook  or Twitter. Until next time remember, don't let your DM tell you no. It's always "Yes, and...?"