Villians: Lich

Villains are a crucial part of any story—including those told at the table. This post, and other villains post like it, pick a monster from the Monster Manual for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons to discuss in detail. It starts with an examination of its stats as shown in the Monster Manual, followed by how it behaves in combat and general tactics the party can use. It also goes into various ways to use the monster as a villain in a campaign.

I started with liches as they are my favorite fantasy villain, and I needed to research them before adding into my current campaign. I put it into a PDF because the post was simply becoming too large, this way it takes up less page space. It also looks much nicer.

The figures where screen captures from a pdf of the Monster Manual. All other images used where gathered with the Bing Search engine using the "Free to Share and Use" license. They where then changed by having their Black and White percentages modified, horizontally flipped, resized, and/or cropped. I claim no ownership over the images.

Hope you enjoined the read.

New Page: Abilities and Skills

A new page has been posted going over the basics of Abilities in Dungeons and Dragons, along with a list of the base Skills said abilities affect.

Three Pillars of Dungeons and Dragons

Three Pillars of Adventure

Whether one is running a game or playing it the pillars of adventure are a crucial aspect to the game Dungeons and Dragons. The Player's Handbook for fifth edition states and explains these concepts on page 7 in the Introduction chapter. The designers of the game mean this because the Dungeon Master's Guide also speaks of these pillars. "Creating an adventure involves blending scenes of exploration, social interaction, and combat into a unified whole that meets the needs of your players and your campaign. " (Dungeon Master's Guide, pg. 71). That quote is from the third paragraph of Chapter 3 in the book, Creating Adventures. But why? Why are these three pillars so important to this game?

Starting with Exploration. . . "Exploration is the give-and-take of the players describing what they want their characters to do, and the Dungeon Master telling the players what happens as a result." (Player's Handbook, pg. 7). This means it is the interaction with the environment. One of the fun things of fantasy, an any fiction, is looking into this alien world.

A key concept of creating adventures in the game is 'how do you get the party there?' Without reason there is no adventure, environment is a way of providing this. Say the party comes across a corpse in the road, they investigate and see tracks leading into the woods. They follow and find a wolf den. They have now engaged with the environment, and explored part of the world. Their curiosity was rewarded with a discovery, rewards are important to games as it enforces behavior and interest.

Keeping in line with 'how do you get the party to the adventure', is Social Interaction.  It means what it sounds like, the player characters reacting with non-player characters. This is an important part of the game as shown in the genre title of Table-top-Role-Playing Game. This is where the bulk of the role-play enters Dungeons and Dragons. Most reasons for adventure also come from social interactions, like a shopkeeper offhandedly mentioned orcs to the south or a bounty on a criminal.

Numerous skills also deal with social interactions, the character sheet has a skill called Performance. "Your Charisma (Performance) check determines how well you can delight an audience with music, dance, acting, storytelling, or some other form of entertainment." (Player's Handbook, pg. 179). There is even a class that specializes in Social Interactions, the Bard.

Pages 244-247 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for fifth edition deals with running social interactions. The idea of giving the players the ability to use their minds rather than just break down a barrier and smash things is a uniqueness to the game. It takes advantage of how freeform this game can be. For example there was a session on January 15, 2017 where my group was having a stake-out for some rustlers at an owlbear ranch.

Thing is the party decided that they didn't want to do combat this time. Instead they used some spells to add to the shock and awe effect increasing the impressiveness of the cleric's persuasion attempts on small band of Orcs, converting them to the cleric's religion. The party role-played that their characters would be too tired for more fighting as they recently finished a tough dungeon.

The cleric, Father Marks, usually tries to convert sentient creatures before fighting anyway so it was perfectly in character. This created a social interaction where they by passed an entire combat section. This in and of itself was an impressive feat of cunning, creativity, and just general humor. Being able to talk, pry, and coerce the characters of the world gives a level of depth and immersion to the game.

Finally comes Combat. Combat is one of the most extensively described pillars of the game because the original Dungeons and Dragons by Gary Gygax focused heavily on the dungeon crawl aspect. The original game had the other pillars but combat was a key focus. That's part of the reason why random encounters exist, exploration and making it back to town from the dungeon was meant to be a feat within itself.

Pages 211-289 revolve around different types of spells alone, that's 78 pages or approximately 24% of the entire Player's Handbook devoted just to spells. Pages 189-198 in the very book is Chapter 9: Combat. Classes also focus heavily on their combat mechanics, though to be fair they start off stating the role-play aspects of the class as well. The point is that a large portion of the game's mechanics focus on this pillar. This is from its origins, and the fact that its easier to outline what a player might do in a fight than in a free form social interaction.

The Dungeon Master's Guide also goes into more detail on combat is suggested to be done by the DM and players, focusing on movement, creature size, if miniatures are used, hex and square gridded maps, and so on. (Dungeon Master's Guide, pg.247-257). Combat is useful to adventure as it provides a clear goal, survival. It also feels really rewarding to fight a monster and slay it with your friends.

None of these pillars can hold up an adventure on their own though. An adventure without a sense of interaction with the environment feels empty, without combat dull and tensionless, and without social interaction the world has no soul. The ratios certainly don't need to be exactly the same, but good adventures need a bit of each.

"Creating an adventure involves blending scenes of exploration, social interaction, and combat into a unified whole that meets the needs of your players and your campaign." - Dungeon Master's Guide, pg. 71

Works Cited
Crawford, Jeremy, et al. Dungeon Master's Guide. USA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Print.
Crawford, Jeremy, et al. Player's Handbook. USA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Print.

Atypical Characters: Noble Barbarian

Salutations! This is a new series I plan on doing. Uploads will be infrequent with this serial, unlike the Dungeon Craft one which was every week. In this series I will go through the character creation process. More importantly, as the title suggests, I won't be making common character types. Rather than the spry female elf ranger, or dumb brawny barbarian from the north, we'll have more unique characters.

This is to show that while there are archetypes within the role-play and fantasy communities, the game Dungeons and Dragons doesn't have to be played with them. Any class, gender, race, and background combination is allowed. The Player's Handbook does offer fast track builds which create these common archetypes, its tutorial sections go through making a dwarf fighter because most people recognize that as a key staple of medieval fantasy media, and would be comfortable with that as their first character.

Archetypes exist for a reason, they are common due to popularity in other media, ease of role-play, and many mechanics fit well together. A Dragonborn sorcerer is quite powerful, hence the Player Handbook suggests that for new players as well. Yet, as I've been repeatedly stating we can do more interesting things.

Warning: Being the first post in this series it will be much longer than other ones as it will need to elaborate more on the character creation process. Sequential posts won't do this though.

PDF: Fillable Character Sheet

This is the character sheet both I and my group members use. It can be downloaded along with other sheet types from the Wizard of the Coast's here. There are a number of ways to create new characters. First you can form the backstory and expand from there, or you can create the character from the dice rolls. It's whichever one feels like working on at the time, the role-play or the mechanics of the character. I tend to flip flop when making my own, but to keep things cohesive I'll go in a clear order.

I shall begin with the rolls. This is to form the abilities of a character, put in the far left boxes of the PDF's first page. They are Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex), Constitution (Con), Intelligence (Int), Wisdom (Wis), and Charisma (Cha). Each one affects your proficiency in the skills to the right of those ability boxes. Someone with a lot of Intelligence would be good at scholarly skills, even if they never trained extensively/ have proficiency. A beefy fighter would be great at Athletics, but not Acrobatic actions which require more finesse.

Proficiency and Modifiers are arguably the most arduous part of character creation. This is why the fast build method in the Player's Handbook give average ability results for new players to plug in at their leisure. There is also a point buy system, but that can be done another time. For this character I will roll the numbers from scratch. When doing this method, if you don't have your own dice use the official Wizard's of the Coast Dice Roller.

NowI will roll 4d6, which means 4 Dice that have 6 sides. Pick the highest numbers out of 3 of those four dice rolls and combine them. I rolled 5, 1, 3, and 2; the three largest numbers add up to 7. This process is done 6 times, once for each ability score.

The ability scores are 7, 10, 10, 17, 8, and 15. Notice how these aren't applied, yet that's the point. One gets the scores first and then decides where to add them on the abilities. An atypical character is being crafted. I don't know what class or race the character is yet so let's put these abilities in arbitrarily. It can be changed later as more idea bubble up.

Strength =10
Dexterity = 15
Constitution = 17
Intelligence = 7
Wisdom = 10
Charisma = 8

Now the ability score boxes have circles with them. It doesn't matter where, just be consistent, either the box or the circle will have the ability score. The other shall have the modifier. This is another concept which can be confusing. What is an Modifier? It is to determine how much a character's ability score affects their skills. The math is you take the ability score, subtract by 10, divide by 2, and round down.

(Ability Score-10)/2 = Ability Modifier <rounding down>

Time for race. In Dungeons and Dragons there are several races  along with race subclasses. Each main race has its own page dedicated to it, yet page 12 has a table which shows the bonuses each race gives to ability scores.

Figure 1

Personally I really like to play as humans, the nature of them being such an abundant race lore wise can be useful for relating and persuading NPCs in role-play situations, and they have good bonuses. Yet, I have a better idea why not a Half-Elf? What the chart doesn't show, but the page of the Player's Handbook that does, is that they can also add an extra point into two other ability scores. (Crawford, pg 39). This will also give the character a couple of useful passives.

Darkvision - the character can see up to 60 ft in dim lighting, with the objects being in grayscale.
Fey Ancestry - character has an Advantage (+5) to saving throws against being charmed, and they're immune to sleep spells.
Skill Proficiency - being more long lived the character can learn two extra skills of their choice.
Languages - the character will be able to read, write, and speak Common, Elvish, and one other language of our choice.

Our ability score changes from race are added in, I'm also switching the numbers of Wisdom and Charisma, along with Strength and Intelligence, now since I'm getting a better idea of what the character will be like. I'm also going to add the ability modifiers in the list as well.

Strength = 7 = -2
Dexterity = 16 = +3
Constitution = 18 = +4
Intelligence = 10 = +0
Wisdom = 10 = +0
Charisma = 12 = +1

So the character can be seen as below average in Strength, yet very Dexterous and with a lot of Constitution, and a bit of Charm. Now we come to class. I'm sure this set of numbers would work well for high dexterity classes like Rogue, but this is an atypical character. I've decided to do a Barbarian. Barbarians rely on Strength and Constitution. Strength modifies are added to melee weapon damage, and Constitution is added to rolls the player does to increase the character's health every level.

This class also has skills it can be proficient in. Proficiency is something all classes have that apply to certain, armor, weapons, and skills depending on the class. Barbarians have a proficiency in light and medium armor for example. That means their Armor Class (AC) gains that Proficiency Bonus if they wear that armor. Example, padded armor give a base of 11 AC, a level 1-4 character has +2 Proficiency Bonus, so now they have a total AC of 13, which means an enemy needs to roll higher than 13 to actually hurt the character.

Now Barbarian skills to be proficient in are Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Survival. We can only pick two for now, so I'm choosing Intimidation to compliment our +1 Charisma modifier, and Athletics to make up for our poor Strength.

Remember being a Half-Elf gives two other skills to be proficient in. We need the character to be different, to use their mind perhaps. Investigation will allow them to find clues, and for fun let us add Stealth. With out high dexterity it will allow the barbarian to scout with rangers and/or rogues of the party for added protection.

Now we get to something very fun, backstory. The Player's Handbook has a few different backstories/backgrounds in it already, which give more skill proficiencies and extra starting equipment. Because the same handbook suggests Half-Elves are great for diplomacy I feel it makes sense if character has the Noble background giving them proficiency in History and Persuasion. Along with proficiency in a game set type, and another language. (Crawford, pg 135). Meaning the character will have 4 languages by the end.

It also has suggested Personalities, Bonds, Flaws, and Ideals. (Crawford, pg 135-136). These are simply core aspects of the character to keep in mind. Just like Alignment, they aren't strict guidelines simply reflections of their actions and aspirations. Barbarians rely on a mechanic known as rage, which increases their battle prowess. The character should have their Flaw be wrath, they have a noble upbringing yet are full of anger thus prone to violence.

Now the character is a Half-Elf with anger issues, why? Perhaps because they are a bastard, meaning they aren't fully accepted by either race, nor the classes the parents come from. This would make the suggested Bond "I will face any challenge to win the approval of my family" very telling.

Yet the character isn't well liked by anyone, hence the anger issues, so the suggested Noble background ideal of Power to force that approval is fitting as well. This can be very little power, power of becoming leader of the family, general political power, whichever fits the player and campaign best.

With this all in mind they should have a vengeful personality something that reflects how they have something to prove and anyone getting in the way is dealt with brutally. Remember the suggests can be rolled randomly, one can pick like I did, or even make up their personality traits and background. Give yourself two extra skills to be proficient, and maybe a none ability score based skill as well for flavor, and a few special miscellaneous items if you create a custom background.

Now the Player's Handbook states what alignments certain races and classes tend to be. That's a discussion for another time, but alignments aren't guidelines just reflections on how a character generally acts. For instances evil characters are likely to kill and torture to get their way, chaotic characters might have their own personal code but generally ignore the laws of society. This step can be decided during the backstory.

Naturally a character likely to lash out and hurt, or worse kill, others would lean towards the Evil alignment, being of a Noble background they would also be very pro Law especially with them at the top. Yet, they aren't at the top. In fact the character doesn't now where they stand. They are a Half-Elf so neither Human nor Elven society accepts them fully. They are a Noble, but they are a bastard. Making them above most other classes, yet still not fully accepted into their class structure. Hence the character has deep seeded anger towards their lot in life. They have a bond to win the approval of their family, to be accepted fully for once. Thing is they require power, at any cost, in order to gain the respect they desire. This makes the character relatable which can make it easier to role-play and more fun. Now we have a Lawful Evil Alignment.

There are still a few things that need to be wrapped up. First we need perception. Perception is a passive Wisdom check that determines weather a character might notice something. According to the rules of D&D, all passive ability checks are 10 + the ability modifier related to it. (Crawford, pg. 175). With a Wisdom modifier of 0 this means the character's passive perception is 10. Now a character can still roll to perceive something, which would be a normal 1d20 plus Wisdom modifier. Perception of 10 also means any enemy sneaking up on the character only needs to roll higher than 10 on a Stealth check to avoid detection.

Next the other proficiencies need to be filled in. This includes languages, being a Half-Elf the character instantly gets Common and Elvish, along with another of our choice. Having the Noble background the character also gains an additional language, so which two languages? Well I'm thinking Orc, because that is an intelligent enemy that is fairly common, this gives the character a chance to use their Persuasion and Intimidation skills to thwart any Orcs with words. Draconic will also be added, which allows talk with Dragonborn, Half-Dragons, and actual Dragons. Being able to communicate with immensely tough monsters could prove useful.

On to equipment. One can use the fast build equipment offered, or roll a certain amount of gold and go through the various tables in the Player's Handbook and spend the money as seen fit. I'm lazy, so I'll take the Explorer's Package for miscellaneous items, the items that come with the Noble background, ignore armor, and also one martial weapon the Rapier.

Why the rapier? Well it has finesse which means the character can add either their Strength modifier, like most melee weapons, or Dexterity modifier. This means their attack bonus, chance to hit, can be Proficiency Bonus from the Rapier being a martial weapon and Dexterity bonus. We also gain 4 javelins from the starter items. Those are melee weapons, so they use Strength modifiers. They can be thrown, but their range is 30/120 ft. That means their normal range is 30 ft; 31-120 ft you have Disadvantage (-5 to roll) on hit, and the character simply cannot attack outside the maximum range of 120 ft.

Picture of Character Sheet

I'll leave the Spell list page of the PDF empty because Barbarians don't tend to use those unless they have a specific item or trait given by the DM. Furthermore I'm leaving the second page of the PDF blank as well. I've gone through the process of creating the actual character mechanics and general personality and background. If you use that feel free to fill in the blanks and modify how you think the character should look and what sort of allies/enemies they'd have.

Character creation can be difficult, especially for first timers. Take it at your own pace.

Work Cited

Crawford, Jeremy, et al. Dungeon Master's Guide. USA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Print.

Dungeon Craft Page Up

There is a new page up that goes over dungeon creation. It goes over several aspects of dungeon making, and has my own homemade dungeon Wraithrest as a viewable pdf for referenceing.

Dungeon Craft Link