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D&December 2017 – W4D5 – Divine Magic – Fixing the Cleric Class

Divine magic is a part of Dungeons & Dragons that I think many of us have a love/hate relationship with. Running a cleric in an adventure can be both the most enjoyable and the most frustrating thing, sometimes at the same time. Clerics have an interesting feature set associated with them. They are the primary healers of the party. They excel in defending against undead creatures. They also have decent capabilities in melee combat.

Sunday, December 31, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W4D1 – Magic Weapons

Magic weapons have been a part of Dungeons & Dragons from the beginning. They are the prized possessions of virtually every character class. Even wizards love to get their hands on a magic dagger or staff to up the odds of a favorable outcome. Sword Magic by Conor Burke - source: DeviantArt Throughout my years and many characters across D&D, Pathfinder and so forth, the quest to find a magic weapon is the first priority more often than not. There are just so many foes in game that are only able to be damaged by a magic weapon. So it becomes an obsession for most of us to find the biggest, baddest weapon that we can get our hands on.

Friday, December 29, 2017 | 4 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W4D2 – Traps

Since I’ve talked about talked about Boxey before, I’ll talk about traps. Oh, how i hate traps. Well, as a player I hate traps. I’ve had several characters die as a result of traps over the years. The most memorable was my monk, Chojen Morg. He died within Nightfang Spire. A trap door opened, he slid down over several blades and was flung out into open space halfway up the tower. He didn’t have feather fall ring… or even feathers. And so he died. He had a rather short life. Not even a few months.

Friday, December 29, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D7 – House Rules

One of the things that’s as constant in the history of Dungeons & Dragons as the official rules are each group’s house rules. In the group I’m in, the Wyrmfang Chronicles, we have a few of our own. Here’s a couple of ours plus a few that I’ve seen elsewhere. Wyrmfang Chronicles House Rules The Werebear I don’t recall the origins of this rule, but we created a rule that applies at character creation. When you create a new character, you roll percentile dice. If the result is an 01, your character is a werebear. It’s happened exactly… never. There was a character in our campaign who was a werebear, but via other means.

Thursday, December 28, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D5 – Cities, Castles & Tomes – The Castle Guide

Castles have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. As an American, I grew up having no real castles anywhere near that I could visit. At least, nothing even close to what I pictured the word castle to mean. So I spent my time reading any book I could get my hands on and watching any show that talked about castles. The Castle Guide TSR2114 - The Castle Guide

Saturday, December 23, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D4 – Sword Coast

The Sword Coast is an interesting area. Our adventures in the Wyrmfang Chronicles never ventured that far west. We mostly kept to the Dales, Cormyr, Evereska, and the areas between those lands. There were a few trips elsewhere, mostly to the far north or the far south. But never really to the west. The only exception to that general statement is a couple of adventures that occurred in Undermountain, beneath Waterdeep. Those were usually one-off adventures, however, and not associated with the primary Wyrmfang Chronicles plot line.

Friday, December 22, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D3 – Forests & Wilds

Whether it’s elven homelands, mystical forests of dreams, wild tracts or cursed domains of evil, forests play a big part of fantasy worlds. Most fantasy worlds are reminiscent of magical midevil Europe in the nature and flow. There are great cities and small towns, each surrounded by some area of farmlands. But all the areas in between are typically forests and wilds. For adventurers, there is only so much that can be accomplished in a city. Sure, there may be sewers full of monsters, corrupt governments, evil guilds of assassins or the occasional aberration like Undermountain beneath Waterdeep or the Necropolis in Wati. But for the most part what they have to offer is fairly limited in nature.

Thursday, December 21, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D2 – Underdark – Time For The Drow To Go

The Underdark is a dark and dismal place, full of creatures good and evil, though mostly evil. Mindflayers and drow are among the worst of the worst, but by no means all that dwells therein. A couple of years ago we completed a run through the City of the Spider Queen module. The module was a lot of fun for me as it gave me the chance to bring back my wizard Endeleban. It was also a chance to perhaps redeem himself a little bit from the path towards evil he had trod as originally transitioned from PC to NPC.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D1 – Feywild/Shadowfell

The Feywild and the Shadowfell are two parts of D&D that we really haven’t delved into much in our campaigns. We’ve had some dealings with faeries and nymphs and dryads, but never any kind of extended campaign dealing with them. I wasn’t really sure what the interest in such things was. They always seemed more annoying than anything. Whenever they were introduced into an adventure, they seemed forced and didn’t really fit. That is, until I started reading the Dresden Files novels.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D7 – Oddities – The World Serpent Inn

This is a really tough one. The fantasy universe is full of oddities of various types and sources. In creatures we have strange beings such as the were-mole and aboleth. In magic items we have things like the belt of gender change. The list of odd planar locations seems to have no end. But there is one oddity that has endlessly fascinated me since I first came across it: The World Serpent Inn.

Monday, December 18, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D6 – Spooky/Undead – The Lich

I’ve mentioned before that my favorite undead was the bodak. Read my various posts about Thelisn to see why. So I’m going to take this time to talk about my least favorite undead, the lich. Like dragons, liches are an overused trope in Dungeons & Dragons. They seem to be the go-to creature type any time someone needs a major bad guy for a module or story. It’s gotten to be tired.

Sunday, December 17, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D5 – Humanoid

Humanoids suck. They are the most boring group in any campaign. Be it elf, halfling, human, orc, whatever. Boring, boring, boring. The only thing worthwhile was when humans got an extra 1st level feat. That’s about it.

Saturday, December 16, 2017 | 1 minute Read