Three Online Additions

A busy day for online releases. First up, we have a new spell: Master's Touch. This is a 1st-level spell for either bards or sorcerer/wizards. It's quite handy for casters who fancy themselves combat-ready. It lasts for one minute per level, and it makes the caster proficient in one weapon or shield that he is currently holding. Only one item, and only that specific item. So, if a bard is holding a small shield in one hand and an elven thinblade in the other, he can cast this spell and be proficient in one of the two items. Assuming he picks the thinblade, he will remain proficient with that weapon for the duration of the spell. However, if for some reason he drops the thinblade and picks up a different thinblade, he will not have the proficiency. If he picks the original thinblade back up, he's good to go until the spell expires. So, it's very specific. And it can be cast multiple times in order to use more than one item. Seems like a waste of spell slots to do it that way, but it can be done.

Next we have Monster Mayhem, Tricks for Tackling Ettins. This is a loredump rather than a crunch article; there are no stats, just tactics to use when fighting these two-headed giants. It's told in a narrative style from an older, wiser adventurer, and mostly he says, 'don't do what I did, because it was stupid to do that'. Well, that's certainly a choice.

Finally, we have a web enhancement for Monsters of Faerûn. I still have most of that book to go through, but here's the web enhancement for it. It comes in two parts, both of which expand on the 'In the Realms' sections of the main book. First up is Ogres of the Ice Spires. This one features the ghour, a demonic creature, and their service to the demon lord Baphomet. There's an adventure arc that starts with PCs around 3rd to 5th level. They will begin by encountering ogre barbarians from the Ice Spire mountains near Citadel Adbar. They'll graduate to fighting a raiding party of ogre barbs later on, ogres tough enough to present a real challenge to the party. Eventually, they'll have to head into the Ice Spires to find the ogres' lair and take out their leader, the ghour Khurgroth. Not a bad little sequence, but it won't be done in a single evening's play. This is a longer campaign arc, a 'proto-adventure path', if you will.

The second part is called Ripe for Colonization. This one focuses on stingers, in particular one 5th-level stinger ranger named Tikkir. She's a lone wolf except for her two salamander companions and her pet mephit, but she doesn't like hanging around her own kind. Can't blame her, really. Anyway, there's no big adventure plan here, just some sketches for adventure seeds, really.

And that's it for today. Tomorrow we can head back into the Monsters of Faerûn and see what's cooking there.

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