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Crit Academy discusses Kobold Press' Deep Magic! This collection offers more than 700 new spells for your character or your campaign’s NPCs to enhance the richness of your adventures. That’s 700 new ways to explore, explode, manipulate, disintegrate, and master the fantasy campaign of your choice.
When you add in the subclasses, domains, and appendices, you’ll see that this collection broadens the
scope of what spells can accomplish.
If you enjoy magic in its endless variety, this book is a treasure trove of possibilities.
The contents of this book are so vast. We struggled to narrow our discussion to just a few choice topics. All I can say, it hands down some of the best bang for the buck. The spells and their unique styles such as clockwork or alkemancy are clever, fun, and enchanting. A great addition to any fantasy Dungeons and Dragons game. Watch the episode to hear our in-depth discussion Deep Magic.
Let’s talk about Blank!
Reconrangermc asks: Should a gnome be allowed to use a greatsword?
Raw answer? Pg 147 of the PHB: Small creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. So yes, they are allowed to. Just at a disadvantage. Here is the kicker though, you can easily build a character such as a Gnome/Barbarian. The reckless feature allows you to attack with advantage, which can be used to offset the disadvantage. But each table is different.
More than once I've allowed small races to wield enormous weapons, so long as they have strength score to accommodate. For me, the requirement was an 18 strength. So guess what the gnome did at 4th level? Put his ASI into strength, and at level four wielded a greatsword, and I didn't punish him for it. I mean, what really are you gaining by stopping them? In my opinion, absolutely nothing. So instead, I just roll with it. By adding the strength requirement prevents nonmartial classes from wielding them.
The Arcania digital tile set lets you make dark, shadowy dungeon maps, rich with the fumes of arcane secrets.
Winner: baron_of_rage
Didn’t win? Np, head to www.critacademy.com/loresmyth for a free set of digital terrain.
Class Options
Druid - Circle of Roses (pg 137)
Druids of the Circle of Roses use the power of nature to influence the minds and hearts of those around them, alleviating sorrow, spreading terror, and ensnaring hearts in equal measure. They create sweet and bitter perfumes that transmit their power to any who inhales the scent.
Cleric - Beer Domain (pg 125)
The disciple of the draught. The heady brew of fortitude, courage, and companionship is your nectar, and you share its blessings with those who need it. Settle down for a nice bit of Ale-dritch Blast
Fighter - Prescient Knight (pg 139)
The archetypal Prescient Knight is the culmination of long years of study and dedication to the craft of combat, supplemented by the use of magic that provides a glimpse of the future or makes it possible to turn back the hands of time.
Deep Magic
Alkemancy (pg 161)
Alkemancy practitioners combine their understanding of alchemical reagents and elixirs with their knowledge of spellcraft to create new and formidable magical effects.
Even more than this, though, alkemancy embodies a unique philosophy of life and nature. Alkemancers don’t concoct useful potions and philters as an end in itself. Ultimately, they seek to expand their minds past mortal limits or even to achieve true immortality, and alkemancy is simply the path they follow in pursuit of that goal.
Angelic Magic (pg 174)
Knowledge of angelic spells is rare, and it’s not possible for a spellcaster to develop or learn these esoteric spells without being trained in these specialized practices. Occasionally, the powers of light make a gift of a particular spell to a favored champion. Also, tomes containing the notes and experiments of the first angelic scribes still exist in hidden libraries and forgotten shrines.
Ring Magic (pg 229)
Ring magic is the dwarven art of forging metal into rings, often with runes inscribed on their surface, and using those rings to produce or bring about magical effects. Dedicated practitioners known as ring wardens channel their magic through specially prepared rings, increasing the devastation wreaked upon their foes, and they can even imbue spells into rings that they or someone else can unleash later.
Fight the Monster in its Den … If You Dare!
Book of Lairs brings you 24 great monster lairs for 5th edition! Each of these exciting and unusual battlegrounds comes with a complete short adventure, including a hook, area hazards, tactics, and treasures. Stage your 5th Edition fights in unforgettable locations like; Clockwork Tower, Branches of Yggdrasil, Sky Stairs of Beldestan and many more! Check it out here!
Character Concept:
Divine Oracle
“I have seen your fate, written in the waves of time.”
You are the voice of a god, nature, or some other prophetic power source. Full of prophecy and omens. When you use your prophetic powers such as Wizards portent, Lucky Feat, and Bardic Inspiration, your eyes glow with a silvery bright glow radiating the depths of fate. Your character is one who offers mystic readings and interpretations of one's future. You may use your power honestly to lead people to outcomes they desire, you may take advantage and fool them with promises of their deepest desires, or your power may be erratic and uncontrollable but you keep that part to yourself. Whether you do it out of the goodness of your heart, or as a con to get by. Your life is blessed with glimpses into the future, whether you like it, or not.
Monster Variant:
Naskar ‘Bottled Lightning’ Flashfoot
Origin: Unicorn
Lost features: Spellcasting, Healing Touch, Shimmering Shield, Healing Self
Changes: Hooves become Fist. Horn becomes Dagger/Rapier/Shortsword etc.
New Features:
Traits
After Image. Naskar’s movements are so fast it leaves a near-identical after image standing near its actual location, causing attack rolls against it to have disadvantage. If it is hit by an attack, this trait is disrupted until the end of its next turn. This trait is also disrupted while the orc is incapacitated or has a speed of 0.
Avoidance. When Naskar makes a melee attack against a creature, it doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether it hits or not.
Actions
Flash Time (Recharge 5-6). For a single instant Naskar moves so fast it's as if it can stop time, altering its order of initiative. As an action, it can move itself in the initiative order to any point of its choosing.
Uncanny Dodge. When an attacker that Naskar can see hits it with an attack, it can use its reaction to halve the attack’s damage against it.
Encounter:
The characters happen upon a small town during their travels in a desert, or plain like area. Lately, the town has been suffering frequent earthquakes. The area isn’t known for seismic activity. The town’s structures are falling apart and the townsfolk are unable to finish repairs before the earth trembles and they topple back down to the ground. Talking with the folks they are able to learn the tremors began a few months back.
Since it began the villagers have noticed strange happenings in the surrounding area. New monsters they hadn’t previously seen are stalking the lands. They also noticed mysterious tracks appearing in dirt and sand that lead to previously unknown water sources, hidden shelters all the while leading away from the village to the north. If the party investigates they learn the following about the events:
A character with a successful DC 20 intelligence (Investigation) check from a distance reveals the new monsters to be illusions. Any physical interaction with an image reveals it to be an illusion because objects pass through them.
A character with a successful DC 20 Intelligence (Nature) check knows that such mysterious tracks often magically form in a few miles of a brass dragon’s lair.
The tremors are the result of an adult brass dragon named ‘Glysvidyth, The Clever” burrowing underground from her lair she set up five miles from the town. She is expanding her lair to lay eggs. Her continued burrowing will likely cause the town to collapse. The characters can successfully locate Glysvidyth’s lair with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. Glysvidyth is a very talkative dragon and has a love of gossip. The characters can convince her to stop burrowing under the town with a successful DC 18 group Wisdom (Persuasion) check. A character who provides a bit of juicy political gossip gains advantage on the check.
Magic Item:
RUBY ELIXIR (Deep Magic)
Potion, legendary
This vermilion-hued elixir neutralizes all magical and nonmagical diseases and poisons, all curses of 8th level or lower, and all exhaustion effects, as well as restoring hit points as a superior healing potion. If this elixir is poured over a corpse that has been dead for no more than a year, it restores the creature to life (as the resurrection spell) even if the corpse could normally not be resurrected.
Ingredients. A mixture of purest cinnabar, the blood of a slain dragon of at least adult age, and the hearts of six celestial tigers willingly donated to the alkemancer.
Dungeon Master Tip:
Bribe immoral villagers and friends to betray the PCs.
Having a big bad villain guy is always fun and exciting, but they aren’t the only threat in town. Characters in the world can get desperate, greedy, or some combination of both. Because of this, their service is often cheap. Whether it’s gathering information from tavern discussions, stealing a critical piece of their property left behind at the inn during the adventure, or sabotaging their goals with false information and misdirection. Regardless of the tactic used, it can be a memorable experience to find out that they’ve been betrayed by simple commoners. Whether it’s to stall the characters, lead them down the wrong path, or just cause a simple inconvenience. Simple villagers and the PCs friends all have a price.
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick
Roleplaying a Tiefling
Every tiefling descends from the aristocracy. When the humans of Bael Turath damned themselves with devils’ bargains, only the heads of noble houses bound their families to hell. The common people retained their humanity. No one in Bael Turath who bore horns and a tail did not in some way relates to those who signed the original pacts.
Most tieflings alive cannot accurately trace their ancestry to any particular house. However, some tieflings actively seek the truth of their past, and a few among them find it. Being able to claim descent from a noble house can be a proud and powerful moment for any tiefling. Storytellers weave tales of terror about the noble tiefling houses. Is your descent of Achazriel, The Destroyer, Kahlir’s, House of Blood, or from Dreygu’s, House of Love? Whichever part of your ancestry is revealed, it is likely to make for a fantastic self-journey to unlock.
A masked menace terrifies the region. The adventurers stumble into her scheme: the kidnapping of a famous performer known as Devon Artis.
Winner: Rferrarie19
Didn’t win? Np, head to www.critacademy.com/jeffstevens for more phat lootz.
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