Transparent Cobra

This cobra is misnamed it is in fact a teleporting cobra. The misunderstanding is mostly due to it's remote  jungle home and how few of it's victims get away. It will eat any meat at all, as long as it killed it. They come in a mated pair and either 3-30 eggs or 2 -20 young (50/50). The cobra's will recklessly attack a group of "dinner" no matter what the groups power or nature. When attacked the cobra's have a 75% chance of teleporting away and making the combatant miss. they typically teleport to a new position to attack from(max of 20 feet) The suggested stats:

HD 3
attacks as 8 hd
Damage 2d6 plus save vrs poison of take an additional 2-12
Ac 15 /05  plus 75% miss chance due to teleporting away

Fauna The Remember Bird

These birds come in 3 varieties(detailed below) but they all share the following. The bird will present a small token of what it is going to convey(the token will be directly related for the coming vision).This token(if held) will give a very brief flash insight in the brain of the holder.Their origin is lost to time. If speak w animals is cast the chirping will be revealed as"Take this Please!"i
The Common Remember Bird reveals insight about the past. For example it will give a view of a power king if you were in the ruins of his city Or maybe seeing ones grandmother you never met.

The Uncommon Remember Bird reveals the present. You might see the throne room of a noble you should see, Or maybe what your mother is up to.

The Rare Remember Bird will reveal the future. Not a possible future but the definite future. It will reveal an enemy(perhaps showing a weakness) Or you grown up son, who looks a lot like you

In all cases the visions are crystal clear, but fragmented


other than all of this, it is a just a small bird

DMs NOTE
These can be used to advance a plot or foreshadowing or to advance the player's back story


image

New "fauna", Living Spells.

OVERVIEW

No one reason will result in spells going wild like this and becoming living beings. Sometimes it is a botched casting, other times wild magic area or just the target making their save. All are at least average rodent level intelligence, unless otherwise noted. Hostility level varies greatly but only a very few will be helpful(but not unknown). Most also fly unless otherwise noted.

1 Charm Person

Manifests as baseball sized glowing green globe.Gains control of nearest sapient life form(No Save) Victim immediately melees nearest living being as it's eyes glow green.Physical damage is split 50/50 between Spell and target.Will move to other targets if first one is rendered unconscious.



2 Inflict Minor Wounds

One of the non-fliers, moves about 40 ft a min. slithering on the ground as a black irregulr square. It will slither up anyliving thing that it can catch.Will do damage as long sword(no save) as previous wounds of the target open up. Only killed by cure spells. Low Hit points.

3 Burning Hands

Spell is a 15' flat semi circle, 1 inch thick, living flame. Flaps like a bird to fly quickly. Attacks and damaged like normal low level creature with a 2 handed sword., takes double damage from water and cold spells, Low HP, moderate difficulty to hit them from high agility

4 Cure Light Wounds

When not attached to a weapon, looks like standing 2 D white shadow of a humanoid. It ataches itself to the most magical weapon in it's general vicinity and becomes invisible The weapon now in addition to inflicting it's normal damage now also casts a minor cure spell on whatever it hits. Only removed by curse effecting spells.

5 Pyrotechnics

This spectacular looking spell bursts into harmless mini fireworks about the size of a beach ball. Will follow you around like a puppy giving a beautiful and attention getting display .Dispelled by one full minute of applause from at least three individuals.

6 Shield

Looks like semi transparent tower shield. Interposes itself between combatants providing minor shield bonus to random individuals. Destroyed by moderate damage, Takes 1/2 damage from non-magical sources.

7 Warp Wood

Invisible force that creates impotence. easily cured with Dispel Magic or any curse effecting spell , but then moves on to nearest male after it reforms in 24 hours. Silly urban quest to permanently rid Royal Castle of it.

8 Knock

Silver Glowing fist of human intellect, that hates spellcasters. Will rap on spellcaster while they are casting, causing a moderate chance of spell failure. Only damaged by non-magic weapons.

9 Luck

Invisible force that causes wild fluctuations to the infected's luck. 50/50 chance every die roll will go up or down by d4(will vary with system used). Only way to rid yourself of it is to make 2 critical successes and or failure in a row. Force will disperse for 24 hours then will reform where it was dispelled, waiting for next target.

10 Levitation

This 2' square, 3 inch thick, pale blue Spell will go under your feet and either smash you into the cieling or drop you from 30'.Moderate HP and difficulty to hit.

11 Aid

One of the few beneficial Living Spells, this looks likes a giant transparent red bird claw. The force envelopes you and is visible while attached.It modifies all your die rolls by +1 untill you go to sleep or are knocked unconscious.

12 Bark Skin

This man sized green cloak looking Spell will envelope you and cause your clothing and armor to be ill-fitting and less effective as a green glow peaks out from them. It is dispelled when you take 1/2 your HP in damage in under an hour.

13 Magic Missile

This Spell lurks in dark, indoor spaces. It is of ape intellect and will iniate a hide and seek form of attack, striking quickly from shadow and speeding off. Moderate damage is caused by this. Damaged only by physical weapons, it is EXTREMLY difficult to hit but is of low hit points.

14 Gust of Wind

This unseen force is roughly horse sized and greatly inhibits movement in its area. Low Hp but both incorporeal and invisible.

15 cook

For decade's sages and mystic have been baffled by this one. A harmless cantrip that far too frequently manifests as a nuisence. Starting as a lemon brown gassy cloud that attacks it's targets mouth with moderate skill in an attempt to get inside. it has Low Hit Points and is difficult to hit.due to size. If it gets in the target has uncontrolled flatulence for 2-5 days.

16 Haste

This Very swift 30' diameter gassy globe is volume filling. It causes x3 movement and physical attacks to all within it., speeding up individuals till spellcasting is nearly impossible(High chance of spell failure) High HP, Only effected by magic and magic weapons. , Non-corporal. Attacks must be directed at it to hurt it. Area effect spells do double damage.

17 Lightning Bolt

Looks like it sounds. High speed, HP , damage and moderate difficulty to hit it.If grabbled by metal armored foe , can be grouded out.

18 Message

Causes targets ears to glow green and hear loud nonsensical whispers, greatly impacting hearing. Only damaged by dispels.

19 Light

as cook but attacks eyes, causing them to glow golden brightly . This causes a surprisingly mild loss of vision and enables target to make a gaze attack that inflicts moderate damage to undead. Dispelled by curse effecting spells or being knocked unconscious.

20 Mage Armor

As your systems living shadow but immune to light spells, double damage from cutting weapons.

21 Remove Curse

as cook but man sized and envelopes targets whole body, causing it to glow purple. Subject is 100% magic resistant and magic items do not function. No remedy, Spell dies after 2d12 hours.

22 Raise Dead

Invisible Spell that reanimates all the killed opponents of the target for 1d6 hours, then dies. Subject mildly regenerates while infected.

23 Erase

Attacks as cook but appears as blue egg. If it successfully enter targets body, thier vision causes non magical writing within 20 feet to disappear. Magic writing needs to make easy save(Once per approx. page of material) lasts for 2d6 days or until Spell fails save vrs. a dispel.

24 Dispel Magic

This Mage intellect spell follows casters and attempts to dispel all their castings, Invisible and non-corporeal, Immune to magic but not magic weapons Moderate HP.

25 Invisibility

Spell causes weapons to become invisible wreaking havoc with your ability to use them. Killed by remove Curse, dies after 2d6 hours.

26 Color Spray

Attacks as cook ,looks like rainbow colored dagger. Causes Target to change into solid random colors every d6 hours. Permanent.

27 Resistance

Attacks as cook,looks like yellow sheet of paper. Causes target to fail next d6 saves. Killed only by wish.

28 Mirror Image

attacks and looks like cook, cause target to be the recipient of Mirror Image spell. Dies as spell expires

29 Darkness

Literally living darkness(as spell) Causes minor damge to all inside, every combat round, moderate HP incorporeal,dispelled by anything that would effect base spell in system

30 Wish

Randomly appears as another Spell on this list ,Must be destroyed 3d6 times.

Silver Ivy (flora, magic item?)

this metallic looking plant acts most unusually. D6 feet will be found, to use it you cat one foot sections off and wrap it around your wrist, after d6 hours, the ivy will begin to inch round you. It absorbs one Hit Point per day and provides the following benefit
+2 on saving throws vrs poison, take one less point of damage from magical attacks
You only need half your normal water and food
It can be eaten to gain D8 HP
it dies after d6 plus 3 weeks, it may be plated before it dies and grow one foot a month if provided daimy a small bit of meat

Item> Ten Animal Cloak

Tens (they are called are made by nature priests from the hides of (surprise) 10 dif animals and then infused with arcane power by a wizard. they provide the ability to cancel mind effecting spells aimed at the Tens owner. after 10 levels of spells are canceled, the cloak disintegrates

A cool pest> Dragon Duck

http://ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com/thread/1593/dragon-duck

Tinker Blight A short world concept

On this plane, gnomes were not wierdos and fools, they advanced to a very high level of tech(about 1875) They depleted the resources of the the plane in their patchwork empire and the result was barren ash deserts everywhere. Elves and thier allies have retreated to the few remaining wilderness and protect them fiercely. Humans, hobbits and dwarves have formed a united front to keep civilization going and battle the remaining gnomes and elves to turn what little good land that is left to food production. "Magic Items" will often be of gnomish invention.

Boss Warlord Abilities

This list of abilities is primarily oriented to fantasy but with a little tweaking can be used in other genres. Mostly you are going to be using them with a boss monster with a bunch of mooks, a bugbear and a bunch of goblins or orcs is a perfect example. Dragons, ogres and giants all also make good warlord types. A boss using these abilities will usually stand out but this doesn't have to be the case, Care must be used in assigning these as your goal should always be a challenging encounter and not a TPK. Where these abilities originate are at the Keepers discretion: Intellect, supernatural leadership, charisma, commanding presence or my favorite go to, "It's Magic!"

SWIFT STRIKE

This boss grants additional attacks to his mooks. He gives up his action and commands another of his group to attack. This can be anywhere from one additional attack to all of the group gets an attack on the boss's action and their own

INSPIRING VOICE

After a failed morale check, this warlord tries to steel his legion, granting an additional morale check to avoid breaking and running. If the second check is made, perhaps a bonus or penalty is in order: Uriki might get a small bonus to hit for a couple of rounds, Ogres might get a small bonus to damage, while goblins might be left shaken and have penalties.

"THEY ARE ALL PUPPETS"

A warlord with this ability is normally a frontline fighter and uses his compatriots as meatshields. Any attack that would ordinarily hit him, instead the damage is passed on to the mook. This may or may not include spells and the mook might take more or less damage than would normally be assigned

"DO BETTER OR ELSE!"

When one of his mooks miss, they are granted a reroll, sometimes at a bonus or penalty..A good visual for this is to give the warlord a long whip that he either cracks or strikes the hapless mook. Warlords with this ability are often in the back of the fight ( a frequent ability for goblin or kobold warlords).

WOLF PACK TACTICS

Coordinating several mooks on a single foe, a bonus to hit, damage or both is attained. This can also render a disarming, tripping or sundering attack on the foe's weapon.This can sometimes be used to initiate a grapple, possibly without the normal penalties for starting such an attack vrs an armed foe.Another good ability for smaller sized mooks.

SHIELD WALL

The mooks are organized in such a way that their shields are over lapping and a defensive bonus is granted. Not necessarily an option for shield wielders only, sometimes groups with long spears and other two handed weapons can achieve this bonus.

OVERWHELMING PRESENCE

The mere example of the warlords standing on the battlefield inspires his mooks to greater en devour. Any combat bonus is possible. Normally associated with a front line, high charisma or terror inspiring boss.

PIN POINT STRIKE

While most of these abilities tend to be melee oriented, this ability applies to missile weapons. Several archer types are coordinated in an accurate volley fire. Special troops can be trained to disrupt spellcasters specifically.

GATHER ALLIES

This warlord is able to quickly replace combat losses with effective recruits.

"WE ARE ONE"

Many different types of monsters flock to this warlord's banner. Even monsters that are diametricly opposed to each other will follow this inspiring leader. Some are even able to command strange beasts such as giant spiders or ants and rust monsters

My "cleric" for Crypts and Things

Secret Priest of Hope

The god Hope is the sole remaining truly good god of C&T He is an ascended artifact/holy sword and appears as a gold glowing great sword. He has survived because his ultimate power was true, unending and absolute invincibility and immortality.This is the result of his being a real manifestation of the concept of hope, a spark of good that can never be extinguished. He has lost the vast majority of his power and only a tiny few of his servants survived with him(a very few avatars of holy great swords)


The Others are at this time  are only suspicious that Hope exists, it's just a question of time. It is your ULTIMATE goal that knowledge of Hope be kept from general knowledge.


He uses his meager power to give life to a very few covert clerics, holding on to the possibility of good triumphing ultimately, prob a doomed philosophy. Although LG , he has become a stark realist in his methods.(He has acquired Neutral tenancies).With the weakness of hope in the world, he is far far more limited in his abilities but not his goals.
Priests of Hope have the following abilities and restictions

In all ways they are sorcerers except as follows.

Their patron is automatically Hope and they may have no other.

They do not have spellbooks but do have all the limitations of number of spells known
They may learn spells from spellbooks in any way a sorcerer could

They have use of both great sword and long sword but as the great sword is a dead give away of who they are Hope suggests that they have their companions carry these and only use them in the direst of emergency
Like wise they may wear chain but it does nothing to further their disguise and is strongly advised against.

All of their white spells are actually grey.
They MUST know exactly ONE black spell and only one.There are no restrictions as to what it may be and it MUST be changed(IE Known) once a month. They may not use this spell if they are carrying a great sword or wearing chain mail. Public use of this spell is strongly advised.

The priests are FORBIDDEN from associating with one another, there thus may only be one in a party. Any gathering of priests can only be undertaken at the direct order of Hope.
At NO time may they preach the faith except under direct orders of Hope.

They suffer a -1 on Luck tests vrs magic and successful saves result in the loss of 2 luck points

The following new spells are automatically known to priests

Superior Magic Weapon(all spell levels)
summons spell L +1 magic great sword, this spell is never memorized and can be substituted for an appropriate level spell 3/ a week.

Dreamsend
L2 white(registers as grey)
This spell can freely be cast in your sleep it allows the sending of a 25 word message to Hope or to any one who you have cast Receive Dreamsend on. Receive Dreamsend is a varient of this spell and the spell must be memorized separately

Book Review: Songs of the Dying Earth

This is a fantastic and HUGE collection of short stories celebrating(and imitating) the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance(poss known to gamer's as the source of the memorization spell system of D&D) The variess big name authors of the stories do a fantastic job of imitating Vance's very unusual style. Except of course for Neil Giaman's close to the book which very arrogantly makes no attempt at channeling Vance. If you love Vance ,this is a must have. NOTE: Vance's style is a VERY peculiar take on wizarding and I would recommend getting a sample before you buy.

Some Thoughts on Familiers

I have a huge collection of minis. One of my sub collections is familiers. I have around 60. the Warhammer game used to have about 20 , which was the start of the collection in 1986.

So I've got all these cool little guys: what to do with them? I put a demi-plane of familiers in my game.
Even non-Wiz going there can get a familier. Surprisingly it was never a popular destination, but this is where my campaigns beasties come from.

I give them to lichs, dragons, whatever and often make them very tuff for a warm up fight for a boss fight.

Using the Pathfinder rules these days the lore of the bonded item is too great and pcs never take them

In my homebrew rules , I made them pretty powerful, but also allowed bonded item instead, again the pcs never take them. My rules even allow them to "respawn" after death like 4 times a day. Nope bonded item rules supreme(for those of you that dont know: the bonded item allows the wiz to once a day cast any spell they know spontaneously)

Some ideas on familier types (as most things on this blog, geared for low level play.

Wiz type casts spells at 1/2 L of owner

fighter tyoe 1/2 casters HP and fights as fighter caster L

messenger/ scout type Flies and is highly intelligent capable of independannt thought speech and can be any distance from caster

thief type 1/2 wiz L

cleric type can use CLW once a day

Another use I have for the minis is as "true goblyns". Goblyns more akin to western myth, fey type.

A look at Memorization and a new spell type.

As a huge fan of the spell memorization type of magic I did a lot of thinking on it. One of my first concepts was the idea of "pits"

The idea is that spell slots are divided into compartments that are filled when you memorize spells,
a cantrip takes up 1 pit , a first L spell takes up 4 a second L spell takes up 6 a third L spell takes up 8 and so on by two. This also explains what can be substituted for what.This a first L spell can be turned into 4 cantrips and a third L spell can be turned into 2 first.

This also led me to create 1/2 L spells or as I like to call them petty spells, they fill in two pits, but they are not on the spells allowed list. In the lore of my world they are not popular and there are not that many of them. The only one that caught on with my players is Shout, it allows you to yell super loud for L rounds.

Another aspect of spell memorization that is mostly of use in RPing situations is I attached emotions to the spell schools that you must place your mind into in order to memorize spells of that school. All mage carry around a book that is filled with very short stories that enable you to create the emotional state to memorize.
For example , you would read a story about your birthday party when you were young, it would lead you to wonder what was in the brightly covered box in front of you. This would evoke the curiosity necessary to memorize a divination spell. I know, I know its both kinda cool and mostly useless.

A fresh look at an old item: Ioun Stones(and a mini review)

A quik history lesson first. Ioun Stone come from Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. The series is mostly about super high L mages and their adventures. The stones are never defined but mages had them in the hundreds, I always assumed they were a power source. (This is also where the D&D memorization of spells come from). Some of it is a little hard to read but I can't recommend the stories enuf. There is a tribute book by various authors called Songs of the Dying Earth that is also quite good. Anyway, back to gaming.

When I re read the Vance stuff about 10 yrs ago, I thought: Wouldn't it be cool to have the players fight liches with like 20-59 stones (the idea of Them circling the mage tickles me.) The only way to do this is to make a bunch of low powered stones so the treasure doesn't get out of hand when they kill the beasty.Thus was born the frequently given out , very minor , Ioun stone. some examples
+1 to any roll once a day(by far the most common one I gave out, some of them can be cumulative ,some can only be used alone)
+1 to one spells DC once a day(-1 to saves OSR)
One use individual cantrips
More specific +1s, to hit ,damage ,saves
recharge 1st L spell slot once a day
extra spell slots
+1 ac or saves for one encounter
Just love the idea of peeps walking around in cities with a few of these floating around their heads

New Monster Giant Swamp Sloth

As big as a hippo, as fast as a pegasus , as ferocious as a wolverine , these apex predators are a highly dangerous combatant. There weak spot is their very low AC. They have nearly been hunted to extinction as the prime ribs of these can be labeled +2 meat, very very tasty. The meat is highly prized and can fetch a tidy sum from upper class eateries.

New Creature: Boshtok

These semi flightless, chicken sized bats are all the rage in cock fighting rings. They will angrily attack each other (the males) and the fans of the fight. Their bite is mildly poisonous and results in a poison ivy like rash.A nice business can be made of trapping them in the wild for the fight circuit. They can't be raised in captivity.

Flora: Sighing Grass

This average looking knee high grass makes a gentle sigh when blown by wind or stepped on. It is the remnants of a lost civilization. While somewhat disturbing it is harmless. In very large quantities, boiled down, it is a very useful component in sonic, thunder and speak w/ dead spells and potion.

Cool Encounter #4 AH AH E E TOOKY TOOKY

Ok dead of night in heavily foliage area. Your party is dead tired from a long day of travel in the wilderness. Suddenly the stillness is broken by a horrendous parrot cry: AH AH E E TOOKY TOOKY.
The party scrambles into the dark night as the elusive Tooky bird screams and screams. after an exhaustive night fight, the bird is blown up. Mated pair. Can anybody get any sleep!!

Tell me what to post?!?!

That is all

New Creature: Dragon Mouthed Duck

Other than the fact that it is TERRIFYING to see in flight(looks exactly like a dragon in flight), it is a normal duck

New spell

Summon indestructible goblin

L2 Conjuration

The rare goblin is born that is COMPLETELY indestructible, when encountered must be grappled and tied up.specific summons like this must only be used as stated. Otherwise it is a totally normal goblin.