Race: Shardmind [First Draft]

When I make a race, I often think: What makes this different? Why would someone want to play this, when a human, an elf, or a gnome is right there?

Back in the old 4e days of yore, the Player's Handbook III offered a wide swath of races, introducing githzerai, minotaurs, and wilden to the game. Each of the subsequent PHB's offered a "power source" they focused on. PHB2 had Primal, whereas PHB3 offered multiple Psionic classes to choose from!

Alongside those were, of course, the shardminds. An enigmatic race of psionic living crystal, formed from the last line of defense against the nightmares of the Far Realms.

Lore-rich and with strong psionic ties, shardmind stood out from the other race offerings in the PHB3 by virtue of being so different. You could be a more established race, sure, or you could be a being of glowing, living crystal that speaks by imparting thoughts into the minds of others.

So, naturally, I had to carry that over to 5e, soon as I could!

FEATURES:

• A Depth of Lore that solidifies a shardmind's place in the world!
• Glow When You Want To! Turn it off when you don't.
• Turn into a Swarm of Crystal Shards and really mess people up.
• Two New Racial Feats! For manipulating your psionic crystal to cast spells, or conjure weapons!

CONCERNS:

• There's a lot in this race, but it doesn't necessarily feel over-powerful.
• I'm always unsure of feat balance. Feats are hard to manage, and I don't have as much practice with them as I'd like.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• KEEP. MAKING. FUN. RACES!

Race: Swarm [First Draft]

Sometimes, it's fun to make something profoundly different and gross. Something that makes my skin crawl just writing about it. Something equal parts fun and horrifying to bring to the table and play.

Hint: I'm talking about this race. This horrible, disgusting, pile-of-worms-or-rats-in-a-trenchcoat race.

A swarm is created one of two ways: Either arising by itself when a group of tiny animals or insects affected by magic bands together, or when a mortal is transformed into one by dark magic. Swarms are nightmares to behold, and a truly alien creature to step into the shoes of.

And, honestly, those are the characters that I like playing the best. The characters that see the world in a way I never could, that have opinions, thoughts, and motives that I the player find strange to contemplate.

Anyway! Here's what it does:

FEATURES:

• Break into an amorphous ball of nasty, to slip through grates and escape foes!
• Summon animals from the wilds, and add them to your horrible body!
• Eat people! Just, eat people.
• Two different feats, to give your swarm some fun magic to play with!

CONCERNS:

• This is a hard one to balance, but doesn't feel overly powerful. Playtesting is good.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• It's fun to do concepts that instinctively make me flinch away! Broadens my horizons, and I can really lean into what I find gross or unnerving about them.

Spells: Codex of Technomancy [First Draft]

I've always wanted to make another spell collection! Had a few drafts that I ideated on for quite some time, but never finalized.

Fun fact: I had a rough Codex of Alchemy at one point, but I fully cannibalized what I made there to make the Brewcraft and Imbue Potion features on the Witch class.

Anyway! Technomagic has always been one of my favorite ideas, the idea that in a world where both science and magic exist, there'd be a rather big overlap on that Venn diagram. I've also been a big fan of the mad science types that would take up such arcane practice, as well as the Actual Magic Scientists who'd look down their nose at exactly those kind of people.

Let's take a look at what this supplement has in store:

FEATURES:

• 16 New Spells, with something for every class!
• Spells to Craft Golems, take pictures, summon impossible machines, create traps, and more!

CONCERNS:

• The usual slew of small balance concerns that come with making lots of spells for just about any class

WHAT I LEARNED:

• YEP SPELL COMPILATIONS ARE ABOUT AS HARD AS I REMEMBER. I'll for sure make another one eventually, but it'll take a while.

Class: The Commoner [First Draft]

Level 0 play is a really intriguing option to me. I love starting the party in a position of relative powerlessness, and having them earn their stripes from there.

I kicked around how to do this for some time, experimenting with ideas like Level 0 Archetypes, backgrounds-as-classes, and other off-the-wall spitballing ideas before finally settling on the Commoner class, as you see it here.

The Commoner is a class unlike any other, not necessarily meant to be played alongside traditional fighters, rogues, wizards, or the rest. Commoners are by nature weaker to the point of near death, and exist entirely before 1st level. 

A commoner is a class about overcoming your flaws, getting stronger, and learning to survive.

FEATURES:

• Four Fractional Levels of Class Progression, culminating in your first level in an adventuring class!
• A Collection of Unique Flaws, to give each commoner character and something to struggle against.
• A Handful of Perks, illustrating how each commoner learns the tricks necessary to help them survive.
• A New Background, for any character, but particularly for aspiring commoners!

CONCERNS:

• As with any new game mechanic, will it work as intended?
• Are commoners too weak, or too strong?
• How to the flaws and perks measure against each other?

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Classes in D&D can be made to do a lot! Even things they're not really intended to do.

Subrace: Tabaxi Variants [First Draft]

Available on the DM's Guild (pay what you want) at this link!

Cats! Everyone loves cats! The people who tell you they don't are, frankly, liars.

Tabaxi are one of my favorite races in canon D&D, and they're a ton of fun to play. But one thing I noticed is how many people fluff their tabaxi out to be a certain kind of cat. You've got hairless cat tabaxi, big huge lion tabaxi, cute fluffy housecat tabaxi, the list goes on!

So, I thought, what if I went into the Volo's Guide to Monsters rules for tabaxi, and tweaked them, so that they'd be able to have subraces? 

What if I took the cats we already had, and used them to make even more cats?

Here's the result, with artwork from the fabulous Ashley Irelan, whose portfolio you can find by clicking her name!

FEATURES:

• Five new tabaxi subraces! From lions, to lynxes, to housecats!
• Distinct subrace features for each, to make different cats play like different cats.

CONCERNS:

• The core race may not have as much unifying meat left on its bones as I would like.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Turning a race into subraces is fun, and not as difficult as it would seem! I'll have to try it more often.

Teas and Tisanes [First Draft]

Available on the DM's Guild (pay what you want) at this link!

Sometimes, I don't want to make something big, crazy, and over-the-top. Sometimes, a mellow, laid-back bit of lore and character building is just what we need.

Teas and Tisanes is a collection of canonical teas and, well, tisanes, from multiple major D&D settings. Listed by location and biome, it even includes rules for brewing, drinking, and finding tea in your own games.

Have a character that'd like to brew a pot of tea over an open campfire, or conduct an elaborate tea ceremony? Then pour a cup, flip through this supplement, and enjoy!

FEATURES:

• 28 Teas and Tisanes to enjoy with your party, some of which have magical effects!
• A new toolset to brew tea with.
• Rules for finding, brewing and drinking tea!

CONCERNS:

• Balance isn't completely perfect, but none of the teas do anything outrageous so it shouldn't be too bad.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• When in doubt, ask Ed Greenwood and Keith Baker for help.