Available on the DM's Guild (pay what you want) at this link!
The dead rise yet again! Just like this blog, really.
This time, they come with reinforcements in the form of two additional subraces, plenty of rules-tweaks, and updated DM's Guild friendly public domain artwork!
Lots to love here, so why don't we take a look at what's different.
CHANGELOG:
- The Bloodless feature is now a core race feature, because that made much more sense.
- Revenant's Unnatural Vitality got a buff, no longer requiring death saving throws and instead functioning off the presence of temporary hit points.
- Ghost's Withering Touch has been nerfed, taking away the CON-mod bonus, so very sorry, ghost monks.
- Ghosts now have resistance to being grappled, because have you ever tried to hug a ghost?
- Ghouls have been added! Bringing with them two different flavors of natural weapon and an ability/unfortunate compulsion to feed.
- Mummies have also been added! With an additional feat it you really want to cuuuuuuuurse your foes.
CONCERNS:
- Most of these races still trend fairly strong, though they're definitely less powerful than a good deal of what Volo's offers. Looking directly at you, Yuan-Ti Pureblood.
WHAT I LEARNED:
- A few nifty Photoshop tips and tricks to make the art work better together, and that it's almost certainly time to bring some subclasses onto the DM's Guild as well!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAck! Sorry, accidentally deleted your comment, and blogger won't let me restore it. The "Delete" button and the place to click to reply are right next to each other.
DeleteAnyway: Ghost is definitely one of the most played subraces I've seen here, which surprised me. I always expected the skeleton or revenant to be more favored, but ghost is far and away what most people prefer playing.
Wondering if that's going to change with mummy and ghoul. I gotta figure the have-to-eat-your-friends bit of the ghoul will turn people off to it, but I never really know.
I'm surprised that with the focus on undead, the most notable version hasn't been featured.
ReplyDeleteZombies. Where are the zombies?
Earlier on I tried doing zombies, but they were pretty difficult to differentiate from revenants.
DeleteI might take another crack at it later, but at the time I figured just to let revenants be the playable proxy for zombies that they were probably intended to be in the first place.
Speaking of revenants, the main worry I have about them is that they effectively have a lifecycle of a year, and they die if their vengeance target dies. Sure, you can make the vengeance target the final final boss, but the year life cycle sounds weird at best.
DeleteYup, that's why I built them off their 4e incarnation. No year-long lifecycle there.
DeleteThis version also went the Ghost Rider/Punisher interpretation of vengeance: Even if you get revenge, there's almost certainly someone else who has wrong you out there to get your vengeance on.
For me there's a slight disconnect between Incorporeal Stride and Intangible in that one lets you move through creatures as difficult terrain and the other grants you merely advantage against being grappled. Would a more elegant (but possibly more powerful option) be to escape without a check at the use of your action. i.e. You have advantage on all checks to resist or escape a grapple. You can use your action to escape one grapple or non-magical restraint.
ReplyDeleteThis makes sense, as a ghost becoming intangible is presented here as a conscious manifestation of their will.
DeleteI'm not sure I'd make it be both advantage vs. grapples AND the ability to slip out with an action, though, as much sense as that makes. Both of those are individually pretty powerful, the action slightly less so than advantage in my uneducated opinion.
I'd phrase it in a way such that you can use your action to automatically succeed on a saving throw against a grapple. That way, it's a gamble - you might actually succeed on the saving throw if you roll it (and thus keep your action), but if you decide to roll it and you fail, you're stuck in the grapple for the round.
If I were to pick one based on balance I think I'd go with 'You can use your action to escape one grapple or non-magical restraint.' It's probably more balanced from an action economy perspective (you'll always lose at least one action to a grapple), but still more broadly useful to more classes (less dependence on proficiency).
DeleteIt also fits more thematically with Incorporeal Stride and the flavour text (in that becoming intangible takes conscious effort).
Escaping a grapple or grab always takes an action; so there's no gamble in using it. Resisting a grapple almost invariably happens on turns that aren't yours, so using your action then would be weird.
The most elegant and thematic solution I think would be to replace the Advantage mechanic for a simple 'Action to Escape' mechanic.
Bah, figures I would get that wrong. Grapple rules are one of the things I always have to look up.
DeleteIt'd be a slight buff overall, that being the case. I'd probably go with it, even if the ghost doesn't *need* a buff, really, because of its simplicity and the thematic sense it makes.