#and a homebrew D&D race dullahan

[harboretum]

What else have you forgotten?

[d20-dimwit]

One of my favorite monsters in real life folklore. The headless horseman was sort of the grim reaper of Irish stories but regarded them as a fae so I made them a fey creature

My Ko-Fi

[juiceboxman]

NEW D&D SOURCE BOOK OUT

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft came out a few days ago. I bought it an read through it. The book expands stuff in the classic module the Curse of Strahd, a Gothic Horror centred campaign in which a party are pitted against a very powerful Vampire and other types of horrors in a cursed land.

Most of the book’s content details these things:

How to make a horror centred campaign

How to make scary encounters

How to scare your players while also not crossing personal boundaries

I have to commend the book on how informative it is on how to maintain a healthy playing environment. Such as having a thorough discussion with the players before you begin about what players are comfortable with and what they aren’t, so you have topics and themes in the story that you know not to touch upon as it may upset players and ruin the fun. The book also recommends that you avoid using players irl phobias in the game as it ruins gameplay experience as well. For more advice on how to run a healthy fun playing experience, I recommend checking out Dimension 20′s Adventuring Academy podcast. Its a great advice podcast on all things table top.

All the stuff in the Source Book is horror specific, so if you’re not into horror or any scary stuff in D&D, the book is not for you and that’s fine. For those that like horror, the book does a great job of helping set the tone for a horror game and how to build and maintain tension.

It also sets out a guide for how to adapt elements of Curse of Strahd into homebrew games. So say you love the vibe and mechanics in Curse of Strahd, but you don’t really care with the BBEG being a Vampire. The source book lists at least 16 adventures with varying genres of Horror with different creatures and encounters. 

So in one adventure, you can play in this accursed desert where the BBEG is a powerful Mummy Lord. Or in another you can play in a strange carnival in which the BBEG is a Fey creature. There’s zombie outbreaks, mindflayers- everything you can imagine, you can create and play and the book will help you to do so.

The book polishes up some Unearthed Arcana stuff, namely three new playable races. Dhampir (a watered down vampire that you can play as a PC), Hexblood (a humanoid mutated by Hag magic) and Reborn (an undead or construct reincarnation) all of them are pretty interesting.

They also sort out two UA subclasses, namely College of Spirtits Bard and Warlock patron of Undead. he latter of which you can have someone like Strahd be your patron.

There’s also some new backgrounds that are interesting and a new Dark Gift feature that is also pretty cool. A character can choose to receive a Dark Gift from a Dark Lord, an example being Strahd, so that they get some benefits but also some negative impacts as well. It can make some very fun game play for those who are interested.

But, the main thing I buy source books for is the classic DM stuff. NEW MONSTERS! Here are some of my favourites. 

Dullahan, a headless horseman. Very spooky and potentially lethal

Death Head, very interesting monster that can be flavoured to a DMs whims. ou can have a flying medusa head or a flying nothic head, or any type of flying head. The head is your oyster. They go well with the Dullahan and there is a specific adventure in the Source Book that includes both of them in case you wanna play a sleepy hollow esque game

Gallow Speaker. Picture a mix between an Oracle and a Spectre, you have one very creepy monster that can also make a very spooky NPC

Gremishka. A very creepy monstrous cat that is like the opposite of a familiar. In fact, its whole existence is just to be the bane of Spellcasters. Very creepy and has some interesting features, though I think you’d have to juice it up if your Wizard is higher than lvl 3.

Inquisitors. You have three separate Inquisitors whose whole lore mixes with Curse of Strahd but I won’t get into. There are; Inquisitor of the Mind Fire, Inquisitor of the Sword and Inquisitor of the Tome. If you like elements of the Githzarai but don’t know how implement them into your campaign, Inquisitors are a good alternative

Jiangshi. A very interesting undead. Basically a mix between a Ghoul and a Vampire, would make a very interesting monster for low level PCs

Loup Garou. An alpha werewolf. For werewolf fans like me, I imagine you’re disappointed that werewolves are only a CR 3. With Loup Garou though, you now have a werewolf with legendary actions. Very interesting monster and there is a very cool adventure in the source book that features the monster. It also has some very cool werefwolf mechanics if a PC gets infected with lycanthropy and also has a magic item linked to it thats pretty cool

Nechricor. Imagine if a Lich failed at Lichdom and accidentally turned themselves into an ooze; that’s Nechricor. I always love the tope of very powerful villains trapped in like a bottle or a knife or a statue, so a Nechricor is right up my alley

Nosferatu. Very much like a Vampire Spawn but a hell of a lot grosser. They have a feature where they can hurt people by projectile vomiting blood on them. Very nasty. If you wanna remove the romanticism from vampirism, Nosferatu are the way to go. Also if you wanna use vampires with lower level PCs, Nosferatu can be very good alternative

Vampire Mind Flayer. Enough said

And that’s most of my favourites. There’s plenty more, such as the Relentless Slasher- which is great if you wanna play a murder mystery campaign or a Friday the 13th one shot- very interesting monster.

There’s a lot of other monsters that are also really cool but I don’t really want to share them cause they’re so gross or creepy. There’s a monster called the Boneless which is literally just a bunch of skin that chokes people. There’s a bog star spawn monster that is just super gross and horrifying. There’s also a monster called a Carrionette, which is just a doll that can steal your soul- super creepy! The artists definitely outdid themselves on this source book.

If you wanna check the, out or get a hold of the stat block of these monsters above, check out Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft

[persephoneggsy]

i found a homebrew race for dullahans, which are among my favorite mythological creatures, so i started planning a new D&D character (and it’ll probably take me five years to actually play her but making characters is fun so it’s whatever) Her name’s Bronagh Armitage, she’s chaotic neutral, a grave domain cleric, and my current backstory for her is that she was a part of the Wild Hunt until she got kicked out for ~mysterious reasons~. Her head detaches and can morph into a Ghost Rider-style flaming skull bc that’s cool. 

Dullahans use whips made from spinal cords as their weapons, so my idea was that she does too, but she can also attach her skull head to the whip to make it a flail.

[creativerogues]

I’m Making a Player’s Guide!

Chapter 0: Welcome to the World!

History of the World: A brief history of the world’s events from the foundings of each country to the sealing away of the gods to the War Underground between the Elves of the West and the Drow of the Himmelblas...

Life on the Continent: A brief section on what it’s like to live in the world as it is today, still recovering from a war over half a century ago, and tensions ever rising in the east as new magics are being created and studied in the west...

Chapter 1-ish: Character Creation

An in-depth explanation of where in the world you might find each race and class from the PHB and other Source Books.

Introducing Gemstone Dragonborn as a new Subrace for Dragonborn, from MCDM’s Strongholds & Followers, as well as an explanation of how the Gemstone Dragonborn came to be in this world...

A List of potential Group Patrons that Adventurers could work for, from the Silver Charge Mercenary Company to the Archmages of Capitol to the State Azures of Zokend...

Chapter 2-ish: Gazetteer of the World!

Nations of the Continent: An explanation of each of Nation, from the high elves of Capitol and Western Carthisia to the small western isle of Mocrait, from the great and ever-spanning Himmelblas Mountains to the mysterious southern Wolfwood and the Shadow Empire that lies buried beneath the world’s surface...

Explore Western Carthisia, Mocrait, the Himmelblas Mountains, the Wolfwood, Valdor, Laumador, Zokend, Unter & Vuul!

Distant Lands: Learn of the forgotten continent of Harac, and the sand-blasted deserts of Rassumurait...

Chapter 3-ish: Faiths of the World...

An explanation of the Core Pantheon, as well as a list of the outlawed gods...

A list and explanations of the many famous cults of the world, from the Cult of the Blue Wyrm King to a strange group calling themselves Mephistopheles...

Learn of new gods and powers within the world, from the Haracan Pantheon to the vast Pantheon of Rassumurati Gods, Lesser Gods and Divine Servants...

Chapter 3-ish: Capitol!

Life in Capitol: A commoner’s perspective on life within the Capitol.

Baron Casmong: A explanation of Baron Casmong and his seemingly endless wealth after his success...

The Archmages of Capitol: A look into the Archmages of Capitol, who they are, and how exactly magic works within the Capitol’s walls...

The Royalty of Capitol: An explanation of the royal drama within Capitol and of how King Randor the Second wishes for nothing more than a successor better than his daughter...

The Edhel Halls: An explanation of the Edhel Halls Library of Excellence, a library famous for being the birthplace of many spells and many famous mages that still roam the history books of today...

The War College: An explanation of the Capitol’s War College and their working into new War Magics...

Important Locations in Capitol: From King’s Street to The Goose & Gander all the way to Bilgrim’s Menagerie of Scrolls and Miscellaneous..

Chapter 4-ish: Building Adventures...

Plot Hooks for every Nation: From the Dullahan of Bluemite to the Ancient Dragon that sleeps beneath the Blackhorn Volcano, from the forgotten Noble of Capitol to missing Archmages, run your own (mis)adventures in the world!

Heroes of the Past: A Section dedicated to the Legendary Heroes throughout History! Some still alive today! Such as the mighty Quindan of Carthis Randor, now hand to the new King, or Shadowdancer Yang Black, now master of his own monastery..

Chapter 5-ish: Homebrew!

A Whole Lot of New Spells!: All new homebrew spells to use in your campaign! From False Sending to Swift Reading to powerful new magics like Mass Haste and Psychic Clap.

A Whole Lot of New Magic Items!: All new homebrew magic items from Arrows of the Bull to the Amulet of Weave-Seeing to the Backstabber Blade and the all now-famous Potion of Dragon Control...

A Whole Lot of NPCs!: Stat Blocks for Silver Charge Mercenaries to Mages of the War College and the Edhel Halls to Haracan Mystics, Red Dagger Assassins and even the Ghost of a Fire Giant King!

A Whole Lot of Monsters!: From the Treasure Golem that guards the Royal Vault of King Unter, to the fearsome Purple Worm Matron that nests deep within the Himmelblas Mountain Range, find a whole bunch of new monsters to throw at your Players!

A Whole Lot of Backgrounds!: Maybe your Character was a member of the Silver Charge? Or perhaps a famed Red Dagger Assassin for the Emperor? With a bunch of new campaign-specific backgrounds, you can create some pretty awesome characters...

What other stuff is it gonna have?

A Pronunciation Guide: Because words are hard sometimes...

A Calendar: A Calendar noting specific Holy Days, Rituals and Celestial Events...

Important Teleportation Circles: Circles to the War College, the Edhel Halls Archives, the Library of Saturnity and more...

Reincarnation Table: A whole new Reincarnation Table that now includes Races from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes!

A Wild Magic Surge Table: A Variant Wild Magic Surge Table to add even more chaos to your games!

Name Lists: A List of Male, Female and Gender-Neutral Names for People from each and every Region...

Is this Ambitious as hell? Aw, Yeah!

Which is why having the community help out when they can is so great! From creating People, Places, Homebrew Content and More!

So, if you’re interested in helping create some content, or just wanna flex your D&D knowledge, shoot a message to @creativerogues and let me know!

What’s been written so far?

A heck of a lot, that’s what!

With over 10 new homebrew spells, 10 new magic items, 8 new backgrounds and a bunch of new homebrew monsters, the homebrew section is looking good.

My personal favorite part of the Player’s Guide as it is right now are the Distant Lands of Harac and Rassumurait, and writing them has been a blast!

And a HUGE (like, waaay huge!) credit to @bxrtimaeus on Tumblr for all the knowledge and lore on ancient Egypt that’s really helped build Rassumurait as a desert kingdom, and for being my personal “English to Ancient Egyptian” Translator! XD

Overall, even though the Draft isn’t even an 1/8th of the way written, it already totals almost ~30 Pages of just my DM World-building Notes, with some notes from Friends and other people that are much better writers than me...

Oh yeah, and big note: I’M NOT AN ACTUAL PROFESSIONAL WRITER!

I’M DOING THIS FOR THE GIGGLES!

How can I help?

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, I’ll be posting little snippets from the Player’s Guide as it’s being written, from New Spells that need testing to New Monsters, Backgrounds and NPCs that I want you’re help making!

You can also just literally message me directly at @creativerogues and ask! Any help is gonna be appreciated!

When do you expect to get this finished?

I have no figgin’ clue! :D

[ourshyartcollection]

D&D CHARACTER: Tavish the Dullahan

I just randomly started to reminisce about one of my D&D characters after a few years, also just to note this is all in a homebrew/non-canon campaign.

Name: Tavish 

Race: Dullahan (undead)

Class: Dark-Paladin/Executioner/Soul-bounty hunter

Alignment: Lawful Neutral {later transition} Chaotic good

Background: Ex-Knight

Story: In life, Tavish was a low ranked knight tasked with protecting a spoiled and fat duke castle, total jack-ass I might add. On one unpleasant day, Tavish started his patrol through the halls of the Duke's castle an explosion was heard on the east side as a hoard of armed bandits decided to attack the castle, you’d think this is where Tavish would lose his life and become what he is now right? Wrong, as he ran towards the fighting sword and shield in hand, he slipped in a wet spot on the floor and accidentally got decapitated by a wall mounted battle ax that became unhinged from the explosion. 

As his spirit entered the afterlife he was greeted by a laughing Death God named Kelemvor was replaying Tavish’s embarrassing death over and over in an ebony obsidian mirror. After Tavish made his presence known Kelemvor stopped his laughter and turned all his attention towards Tavish; at this moment Kelemvor gave his a choice, to either pass on to the afterlife or make up for his mistake by becoming his agent on earth, and not wanting to leave the mortal plane in such an embarrassing way he accepted Kelemvor’s deal. 

As his soul was sent back to his lifeless body dark violet chains and fire began to erupt from both the neck of his decapitated body and his severed head, the ethereal chains started to connect together connecting his head and body once again, though it’s detachable it does fall off easily, his hair and skin also started to become white and his eyes turned back and violet leaving behind wisps of light as the moved. As he awakened to the land of the living his hands gripped his new weapon, a whip made from a human spine and reinforced with a multitude of thin serrated blades, I gave the weapon the ability to extend its length and change direction in mid-air to hit its targets, later on, it gets an upgrade allowing it to vaporize targets in a ball of violet fire. Anyway, after coming back to life he rushes towards the battle only to find that its already over and that they had won. His boss arrives to greet him with insults and degradations, including some anti-undead slurs. Tavish started to see an aura emanating from the Duke it was like pitch-black smoke coming off of him and like instinct, he knew what it meant and swiftly launched his whip towards the Duke's body in a very badass fashion, like Simon Belmont in Castlevania. The whip then changed direction as it exited the Duke's body turning around to stab him again fifteen times in a row and when Tavish pulled out his whip he also pulled out the Duke’s soul which was immediately dragged to hell. Tavish then summoned a pitch-black horse with a skull where its head should be, wrapped in chains connecting it to its body. Tavish mounted his new steed and rode off into the dark forest chased by the castle knights he once called his allies confident in the task Kelemvor bestowed upon him, to become an executioner for those who must be judged and to be a bounty hunter for the dead who escape their punishment.

This was a quick overview of one of my many D&D characters hope you enjoyed reading