HOUSE RULE: ARACANE PRECISION

I love abstract combat in 5e its improved the games pace immensely. With only a few exceptions I use it for all my combats. However it is a little problematic when it comes to AOE spells and hitting allies. The sorceress in the party was specifically avoiding picking or casting AOE spells if she couldn’t […]

BOSS FIGHT: MAUKUI’S HOST 2.0

My group had just killed off Dweller-in-Dark-Places, and I knew next session, they would face off against Maukui. I wanted to make this an interesting fight and was turning over the idea of turning Maukui into a full-blown Boss Fight ™ since this was basically a dragon and all dragon fights should be memorable because […]

MENACE MANUAL: GUG

Valley of the Brain Collectors as a sandbox had plenty of optional encounters. However my players are very focused, it didn’t make sense to their practical hearted characters to disturb every nest in the Scar of the Spider. They stayed on mission. So they actually minimised and avoided contact with the inhabitants totally skipping the Cthulhu Mythos inhabited Fungal Cave. Here is the […]

MENACE MANUAL: RED MOULD OGRE SPIDERS

Valley of the Brain Collectors as a sandbox had plenty of optional encounters. Here is one which my players missed. RED MOULD OGRE SPIDERS Huge aberration, unaligned Armour Class 17 (natural armour) Hit Points 96 (12d12 +48) Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft. STR 25 (+7) DEX 11 (+0) CON 12 (+1) INT 2 (-4) […]

FEAT: CYPHER THIEF

I got this idea from video games actually, specifically the PS4 game Horizon. The idea here is that once a large enemy is damaged enough the Cypher Thief can yank bits of the robot apart and use it during the battle against the robot. The idea of Cyphers I “stole” from Numenera. Edit (14042019): I ended […]

From the Diary of Sylvanus the Monk: Iron Gods Session 26

The Crimson Lotus Gang: Charisma, a “human” -mutant- sorceress whose power source is Gamma Radiation which she was exposed to as a child. As a child of the Atom her hair goes green in the presence of radiation and she progressively gets greener the more powerful spells she casts (and as she gets angry). She […]

RANDOM ENCOUNTER: MUTANT TROLL!

Nothing fancy, but how could I have a post apocalyptic style game without a mutant two headed troll? Reminds of that old 1e chestnut – giant-two-headed-troll. This guy interrupted Isumi’s vigil when she buried her kin. MUTANT TROLL Large aberration, chaotic evil Armour Class 15 (natural armour) Hit Points 84 (8d10 +40) Speed 30 ft. […]

Ring of Forcefangs

5e version of Paizo’s ring. One of the treasures from Iron Gods that I needed to convert because my player wanted a 5e reference without me translating it for her on the fly each time. RING OF FORCEFANGS Ring, uncommon Appearing as a glowing band of blue~white energy the wearer of this ring gains resistance […]

From the Diary of The DM: Iron Gods Session 26

HOUSE RULES: Initiative

I have been experimenting with different rules for initiative over the past six months to move away from the role once everyone acts setup. I wanted something that was faster and more engaging. I initially used speed-factor initiative. This worked well but though it was faster it added too much ambguity to the combat system […]