War Spear
This heavy reinforced spear is made to pierce heavy armor of battlefield troops, or the iron skin hide of the toughest beasts.
Superior Weapon
+3 proficiency bonus
1d8 damage
versatile, brutal 1
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: new weapon by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Byzozius
Byzozius is an ancient unicorn who lives in the Forest of Light on Solania, a subplane of Celestia, accessible from a portal in the center of Trangúll Dřevo, a giant elven forest in Farghoal full of fey creatures. It is by making connections with them, and serving them for a time, that he is able to be encountered.
Byzozius lives on, but has grown weak and withered without his horn. Byzozius’ horn was carved by Kardâsuan, an elven carver who didn’t know its origin.
Fully restored with his horn, Byzozius has the following stats. Without his horn, Byzozius is roughly as powerful as a heavy war horse. This makes his very vulnerable until restored with his horn.
Byzozius (Level 11 Celestial Charger)
Size/Type: Large Magical Beast (Extraplanar, Celestial)
Hit Dice: 8d10+11d8+75 (177 hp)
Initiative: +10
Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 27 (-1 size, +5 Dex, +7 natural, +5 bracers of armor +6), touch 13, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+26
Attack: Horn +24 melee (1d8+10)
Full Attack: Horn +24 melee (1d8+10) and 2 hooves +16 melee (1d4+3)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Turn undead 13/day, smite evil, ride-by attack, spells
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/magic, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to poison, charm, and compulsion, low-light vision, magic circle against evil, resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and electricity 10, scent, spell-like abilities, spell resistance 20, wild empathy
Saves: Fort +18, Ref +14, Will +20
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 20, Con 20, Int 13, Wis 29, Cha 22
Skills: Concentration +15, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (planes) +12, Knowledge (religion) +8, Listen +15, Move Silently +19, Spellcraft +12, Spot +17, Survival +15 (+17 aboveground)*
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Extra Turning, Improved Initiative, Improved Turning, Run, Skill Focus (Survival)
Environment: Celestia
Organization: Unique, solitary
Challenge Rating: 17
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic good
Advancement: 11 Cleric levels
Level Adjustment: +12 (cohort)
Byzozius is an 11 HD celestial unicorn with eleven levels of cleric.
A unicorn has deep sea-blue, violet, brown, or fiery gold eyes. Males sport a white beard.
A typical adult unicorn grows to 8 feet in length, stands 5 feet high at the shoulder, and weighs 1,200 pounds. Females are slightly smaller and slimmer than males.
Unicorns speak Sylvan and Common.
Skills
Unicorns have a +4 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. *Unicorns have a +3 competence bonus on Survival checks within the boundaries of their forest.
Combat
The save DC for this celestial charger’s neutralize poison ability (DC 20) is adjusted for its greater Hit Dice and altered Charisma score.
Byzozius’ natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Smite Evil (Su): Three times per day, Byzozius can make a normal melee attack to deal 15 points of extra damage against an evil foe.
Magic Circle Against Evil (Su): Three times per day, Byzozius can create a 20′ magic circle against evil, as the spell, with the larger area of effect.
Cleric Spells Prepared (6/7/6/5/4; save DC 18 + spell level)
0th: detect magic, detect poison (2), light, virtue (2)
1st: bless (2), calm animals*, obscuring mist, remove fear, sanctuary, shield of faith
2nd: aid* (2), animal messenger, lesser restoration, remove paralysis, shield other
3rd: prayer, protection from energy, remove curse, searing light (2)
4th: air walk, divine power, holy smite*, restoration
5th: atonement, flame strike, spell resistance
6th: blade barrier, wind walk
*Domain spell. Domains: Animal and Good.
Posted in Creature and tagged Celestia, farghoal, forest, solania, unicorn by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Death Knight Paragon Path
We came up with the following Paragon Path for one of the PC’s that will be available at the game we’re running at GenCon this year: For Love of Evil. In that game, the players will be playing evil 30th level characters trying to free the evil god chained in the depths of the abyss.
One of those characters is Kard Bad-Dorum, an orcish paladin who has become a death knight.
Path Features
- 11th Level: Become Undead
Giving yourself over wholly to evil, your life ends in a vile ritual and your rise – immortal!
Your type changes to Undead. Gain Resist 15 necrotic, Immune to disease & poison, Vulnerable 10 radiant. - 11th level: Terrifying Onslaught
When you spend an action point to attack, adjacent enemies take -2 to AC until the end of your next turn. - 16th level: Undeath Mastery
Your attacks ignore the resistances of undead creatures (but not immunities).
Powers
- Control Undead – Death Knight Attack 11
Encounter – Divine, Soul Weapon
Standard Action – Close Burst 5
Target: One undead creature within the burst.
Attack: Cha vs. Will
Hit: 2(w) + Charisma modifier psychic damage, and as a free action, the target charges your enemy nearest to it that it can charge and makes a melee basic attack. - Unholy Healing – Death Knight Utility 12
Daily – Divine, Implement
Minor Action – Personal
Gain Regeneration 5 until the end of the encounter. You do not regain hit points each round if you took radiant damage since your last turn. - Unholy Flames – Death Knight Attack 20
Diving, Fire, Necrotic
Daily – Close Burst 2
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 6d8 + Constitution modifier necrotic and fire damage to non-undead targets and you deal an additional 2d6 fire damage with melee attacks until the end of your next turn.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged creature type: undead, Paragon Path by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Unicorn Rampant Heading to GenCon
Just a quick note to let everyone know we’ll be there in Indy from the 12th-16th of August. Looking forward to 4 days of non-stop gaming.
We’ll post which games we expect to attend once we register for them.
See you there!
PS – One of the games we’ll be DM’ing at GenCon is “For Love of Evil”, an adventure for evil 30th level characters. Find out more here.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged news: convention by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Shan’n’nur Buckler
Also known as witchwarden shields, these small shields are made of the finest metals and engraved with the arcane symbols of Shan’n’nur warding. These bucklers grants the Inquisitors protection from the powers of the mages they hunt. They also leave the hand free to perform the arcane gestures needed to cast spells.
When the Shan’n’nur assemble to confront a rogue spellcaster, they do so en mass. They are a unnerving sight, dressed lightly beneath their long cloaks, wearing ceremonial masks, bucklers on their arms, and wand or sword in their hands. Seeing them, none can doubt that their prey are doomed.
Witchwarden Shield – Level 9
This small, rune-covered shield amazingly turns aside the torrents of wizard’s fire.
Level 9 – 4,200 gold.
Type: light shield
Item Slot: Arms
Power (Daily, Immediate Interrupt) – when you would be hit by an arcane effect, you can raise your defense against the attacking power by 4.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: magic shield by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Runes – Wizard Implement
Inscribed upon precious stones, dragon scales, specially made tiles or bones, these characters of power are collected and prized by wizardly folk, who use them to improve their spells.
Runes are a new type of secondary arcane implement. Characters can use runes to alter the effects of arcane spells they cast. There are specific runes arcane casters can acquire that add small bonuses to their spells.
They operate somewhat like stances, in that the character has a selection of available runes they have collected, and as a minor action they can draw and invoke a new rune each turn, which stays active while held until they draw and invoke another rune, or until the end of the encounter.
Runes are an “off-hand” implement, in that they can be used in one hand and their bonuses add to whatever other implement the arcane caster is wielding.
A player might start out with one rune and then gain more in their adventures.
Presented here are Heroic tier runes. Paragon tier runes bonuses are one higher than Heroic tier runes, and Epic tier runes are another one higher than Paragon tier runes.
Runes
Secondary Arcane Implement – can be used in the off-hand and the effect is in addition to the primary arcane implement.
Invoke (Minor Action) – draw and invoke a rune as a minor action to activate its effects. Only one rune can be active at a time. The rune’s effect remains while held. The effect ends when another rune is invoked, the encounter ends, or the caster ends the effect.
Effect – bonus as listed below to any arcane power used while the rune is active.
Heroic Tier Runes
Eye – add +1 to perception and insight skill checks – level 2, 520 gold.
Mouth – add +1 to charisma-based skill checks – level 2, 520 gold.
Fire – add +1 to fire damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Frost – add +1 to frost damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Lightning – add +1 to electricity damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Thunder – add +1 to thunder damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Sun – add +1 to radiant damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Water – add +1 to acid damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Dream – add +1 to psychic damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Night – add +1 to necrotic damage – level 3, 680 gold.
Hand – add +1 to any one defense (chosen when invoking the rune) – level 5, 1,000 gold.
Foot – +1 to movement speed while wearing light or no armor – level 9, 4,200 gold
Paragon Tier Runes
Water – add +1 to distance of a power’s push, pull or slide – level 15, 25,000 gold.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged arcane implement - secondary: runes by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Unicorn Rampant Heading to GenCon
Just a quick note to let everyone know we’ll be there in Indy from the 12th-16th of August. Looking forward to 4 days of non-stop gaming.
We’ll post which games we expect to attend once we register for them.
See you there!
PS – One of the games we’ll be DM’ing at GenCon is “For Love of Evil”, an adventure for evil 30th level characters. Find out more here.
Posted in convention, news and tagged upcoming by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Summon Elemental
Summon Elemental – Wizard Attack level 9
You call upon an ancient pact between your order of wizards and a tribe of primordials. An elemental appears, summoned from the Elemental Chaos, and it attacks your foes.
Daily – Arcane, Conjuration
Minor Action Ranged 5
Effect: You conjure either a fire, water, air or earth elemental. This elemental has your defenses and has hit points equal to your bloodied value.
Earth elementals have a move of 4, earth glide 4, and +3 to AC and Fort.
Air elementals have a move of fly 8.
Water elementals have a move of 4, swim 8.
Fire elementals have a move of 7.
As a standard action you can cause the elemental can make the following attack:
Attack (At-Will, Standard Action, Melee 1): Int vs. AC (earth), Reflex (fire, air) or Fort (water)
Hit: 2d6 + Intelligence Modifier fire (fire elemental), cold (water elemental), lightning (air elemental) or untyped damage (earth elemental).
Effect: Until the end of the encounter when the elemental disappears, as a standard action you can direct the elemental to attack. As a minor action you can direct the elemental to move using its move speed. As a minor action you can dismiss the elemental.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged power: heroic wizard by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Issue 16 Released!
In time for tax day, we’re happy to announce the release of Claw/Claw/Bite Issue 16 – Winter 2009.
Claw/Claw/Bite is a resource for storytellers and gamemasters to help create thrilling worlds of adventure for your players to test their mettle in. In each issue, you’ll find new characters, creatures, magic items, encounters, and locations for use in your campaigns. We also include little nuggets that will enrich your world with interesting details and intriguing features.
Our goal is to be a “one-stop shop” for you, the gamemaster. With little or no tweaking on your part, you will be able to drop any game element from Claw/Claw/Bite into your adventure setting and run it how you see fit. All of our creations are designed for d20 fantasy rules. And of course, everything is carefully reviewed and balanced to fit into your game without disrupting your play balance or awaking the dogs of war.
This issue of Claw/Claw/Bite includes:
* Campaign Flavor in the form of Traveler’s Tables
* Two new dieties, Saha Ra and Ohases
* One new spell, Cone of Silence
* Four new characters, including a Vanaran Shaman-Scientist
* Four new creatures, including the Dogs of War and Rug Rats
* Ten new magic items, including three new transport-reated Tomes
* Five new locations, including Dindle Keep and two towns in the Jaeruel
* Three new Ale Break editorials on improving the gaming experience
* And Session 2 of the new comic Trolls and Tribulations.
Download it here.
Posted in news and tagged CCB issue by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Ale Break: Debunking the Role-playing vs. Roll-playing dichotomy
I would like to take a moment to debunk the often-touted Role-playing vs. Roll-playing argument.
Let me start by saying that there are many things about RPGs that are enjoyable. There’s getting together with your friends and having social time, joking around, catching up. In most RPGs there’s also a significant tactical or combat game aspect to them – RPGs without a heavy focus on combat in the rules are the rare exception. Then there’s what many consider the holy grail of RPGs – the actual role-playing.
In my decades running and playing role-playing games, I have seen players that are good and bad at both. Sure, I’ve seen the powergamer who can’t come up with a name for his character. I’ve seen the roleplayer who lives for a well-developed, consistently played character – rarely. I’ve even been in a few games where I made characters purely for their flavor, ignoring what would make them effective within the rules, and not been able to get into character properly – I’ve been bad at both role and roll at the same time.
I’ve seen players that complain about the lack of role-playing in games completely fail to do any role-playing when presented with attempts to engage them directly.
And I’ve seen the player that is not much of a role-player and who’s characters are very effective within the rules turn into quite a role-player over time.
Some players are easy to engage, others not so easy.
It’s a given that in any game there will be people who are better, or more interested than others, in making characters that are powerful. Even in game systems like Amber, where there are almost no game mechanics, someone who is good at it can dominate the other players in overcoming the challenges presented. But that’s going to be the nature in any game: humans are very clever monkeys and will always be looking for better ways to succeed at what they do.
I think that setting expectations in games, both as a player and a DM, is much more important in determining how much role-playing is seen at the table than how good someone is at making characters that are very effective within the rules.
I had an interesting experience the other day. I wasn’t feeling up to DMing on Sunday, so Dan graciously ran a pre-written adventure on the fly. I made a 4e version of one of my reoccurring characters, Kylissa Flamebraid – a female dwarven sorcerer, who’s kind of a teenage runaway, rebelling against her father, with a magic powers she inherited from her maternal grandmother (usually skips a generation in dwarves). I have a small stock of characters I’ve worked out the backgrounds of because it takes me a while to come up with new ideas, and Kylissa is one of them.
Because it was a pre-written adventure that Dan was running on short notice, we were mostly sticking to the canned text and not doing a lot of role-playing. But a number of times during the adventure I found that if I stuck to talking in character, espically when talking to the other players about events in the adventure, they tended to respond in kind.
I’m going to try to find a way to gently encourage everyone in future games to stay in character. Roleplaying cam be a very contagious type of fun, and the more I have in my games the better I like it.
So, to those who are endlessly complaining about those who come only to “roll-play” my question is what are you doing, as a player or as a gamemaster, to draw those players into their roles, or to help them develop them?
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged ale break by Adam A. Thompson with 2 comments.