Tiefling Heritage: Deomodand-Spawn for D&D 5th Edition

My conversion of Pathfinder's Blood of Fiends to DnD 5th Edition continues:

Demodand-Spawn Tiefling

(Unless otherwise noted, all traits are per the 5th Ed. Player's Handbook)

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Ungodly Resistance. You have resistance to radiant damage.

Ungodly Legacy. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip.  Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the armor of agathys spell once per day as a 2nd-level spell.  Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the crown of madness spell once per day.  Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 

Foulspawn Feat

Prerequisite: Demodand-Spawn Tiefling

• You are always considered to have proficiency when making saving throws against divines spells.

• You add your Charisma modifier to initiative checks.

A to Z of How I Learned to Love D&D: D is for Dungeons

Thank you stopping by for the A to Z of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dungeons and Dragons!

I'm going to let you guys in on something, aside from the time I ran players though a dungeon my first time being a Dungeon Master for ADnD 2E, I didn't really crawl through any dungeons until I got to play Keep on the Shadowfell for DnD 4E.


That is something like an 18 year gap.  I'm not going to say we didn't have fun, but we just didn't run dungeons.  In fact, as I began to explore the OSR, our group didn't really use most of the strengths of DnD.

I remember being very frustrated by the lack of customization in two characters of the same class in ADnD.  What I didn't know then, was that a large part customization sprang from of what magic items a character had.  Unfortunately, we didn't get magic items in our games...well, Kurt got them, but the rest of us didn't.

So playing through DnD 4th Edition's first adventure was pretty neat and in fact, I think its what started me down the path to the Old School Renaissance.  Then I OSR Blogs allowed me to discover the Basic Fantasy RPG, Swords and Wizardry, OSRIC, 13th Age and finally DnD 5th Edition.  Keep on the Shadowfell led me to finally explore the foundations of Dungeons and Dragons

And let's be honest, when your playing a game called Dungeons and Dragons, you need to face both.

Tiefling Heritage: Daemon-Spawn for D&D 5th Edition

My conversion of Pathfinder's Blood of Fiends to DnD 5th Edition continues:

Daemon-Spawn Tiefling

(Unless otherwise noted, all traits are per the 5th Ed. Player's Handbook)

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1, and your Intelligence score increases by 2.

Unholy Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic damage.

Unholy Legacy. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip.  Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the death knell spell once per day as a 2nd-level spell.  Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the ray of enfeeblement spell once per day.  Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 

Grimspawn Feat

Prerequisite: Daemon-Spawn Tiefling

• When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, they may only fail 2 death checks before they die.

• When a creature you have damaged dies, you may gain your level in temporary hit points.  You cannot use this ability again until you finish a short or long rest.

A to Z of How I Learned to Love D&D: C is for Crystal Sphere

Allow me to show you the A to Z of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dungeons and Dragons!

The first real DnD campaign I played in was Spelljammer, TSR's neat little attempt at Science Fantasy and Swashbuckling Action.  Basically, ships were powered by magic and sailed the sea of space, or phlogiston, a substitute for aether.

Me and my friends briefly had moments on our home worlds, before being recruited into service aboard a spelljammer.  As a bard, I could power the ship, but generally my buddy Barry did, as he was a red mage from Krynn.  

We tooled around a bit, went to the Rock of Braal and had some minor adventures.

Until Barry got kidnapped by Mindflayers and powered their Lifejammer ship (where most ships were power by the spells we memorized as spellcasters, a lifejammer used a beings life force).  

We chased after the Mindflayers and even rammed their vessel, just as the mists of Ravenloft opened up for us.

What I remember most was just acting goofy and having a good time with quite a bit of laughing.

That means we were doings something right.

Tiefling Heritages: Asura-Spawn for D&D 5th Edition

While I understand the decision for DnD 4th and 5th Edition to present Tieflings as a race, I miss the unusual and unique Tieflings from 2nd Edition, further I have a great fondness for the ideas that Pathfinder introduced.

This then is my conversion of Pathfinder's Blood of Fiends to DnD 5th Edition.

Asura-Spawn Tiefling

(Unless otherwise noted, all traits are per the 5th Ed. Player's Handbook)

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1, and your Wisdom score increases by 2.

Primordial Resistance. You have resistance to acid damage.

Primordial Legacy. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip.  Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the tasha's hideous laughter spell once per day as a 2nd-level spell.  Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the spiritual weapon spell once per day.  Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 

Faultspawn Feat

Prerequisite: Asura-Spawn Tiefling

• You add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any weapon attack roll that doesn't already include your proficiency bonus.

• Divine spellcasters taking damage from you have disadvantage on their Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration.

A to Z of How I Learned to Love D&D: B is for Bard

Here is the next installment of the A to Z of How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Dungeons and Dragons!

While my first DnD (ADnD Second Edition) character was a fighter named Garamond, I think I only played him one session.

This is the story of my first REAL character which I played  in Todd's Spelljammer/Ravenloft game.  I made a Bard, mostly because my stats weren't great, and in 2E it was a good way to use weapons and cast arcane (wizard) spells with the benefit of thief skills, to boot.  You were essentially, a jack of all trades.

And it sounded cool.  The icing on the cake is that Todd has just purchased the Complete Bard's Handbook and I chose the Blade kit.

If you don't know, when making a character, you choose a race and a class.  This basically lets you know what you can do (especially in ADnD).  The second edition of the game introduced kits to further specialize and distinguish yourself in different ways.

The Blade kit was basically that dude who whirled blades threateningly toward Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Except he used a katana, or at least was supposed to.  You see in Todd's games, if your name wasn't Kurt, you didn't catch any breaks--so no katana!

Overall, we had a ton of fun.  My Bard was an elf from Greyhawk (one of the many DnD worlds) named Kelvin tel'Rannitar Meticuli Verdell or Rann for short.  He was a good bloke with terrible luck and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn to save his life.  He was saddled with my buddy Barry's character, a red wizard from Krynn with an 18 Strength and a 13 Intelligence.  He summoned his familiar in Ravenloft, a murderous frog that nearly drowned us.  

Every now and again, I'm tempted to bring him back.  Maybe some day!

A to Z of How I Learned to Love D&D: A is for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Follow me as I show you the A to Z of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dungeons and Dragons!

Growing up in the late 70's and early 80's, the two Role Playing Games that caught my eye were from comic books and both were published by TSR:  Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Marvel Super Heroes Advanced.

I was intrigued with both, but didn't think I could play either of them because I wasn't "advanced" and didn't know where to start.

This was kind of poor marketing, now that I think about it.

I even remember looking longingly at the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (ADnD from here on out) 1st Edition Monster Manual, but still felt like I wasn't prepared for it--what's worse, I didn't know where to start!

Fast forward to 1991 and my sophomore year at the College of Mount Saint Joseph and I've just gotten into role playing via Champions from Hero Games.

We'd been playing about two months, when we headed over to Richard's apartment to play ADnD.  And I was still uncertain I was prepared for it.  I kept asking if there was a "beginner's version" (there was it was simply called DnD), but was assured I was qualified to play.

You see, after TSR produced DnD, they decided to form a set of rules for tournament play, mostly at conventions, that cut down on the need for individual Dungeon Master's (the person running the game and telling the story and adjudicating the rules questions) to make special rulings or "house rules" and let you take your character to any table for any adventure.  It was called Advanced DnD.  The down side was that some people, regardless of experience, stuck with Basic DnD or like we did at our group's table, merged them both (which was wonkier than it should have been, strangely enough).

But, I wonder how many kids my age that had the same questions I did?  How could they start if they weren't "advanced"?  I mean, essentially, TSR managed to split their market and possibly confuse or even drive off new customers.  I guess thats part of the legacy of a bunch of war-game designers trailblazing a whole new industry?  Or maybe it was just me.

In the end it worked out all right for me and eventually, after Wizards of the Coast bought DnD, they dropped the Beginner/Advanced distinction (although Basic DnD has returned as a free introduction on the web, and the "basic" is designed to offer a faster path into the game, but the uses the same rules).