Magical Dungeon Archetypes
Added 2017-05-21 16:06:35 +0000 UTCThe bard's College of the Passage, the cleric's Labyrinth divine domain, the druid's Circle of the Worked Stone, the sorcerers Oozemancer bloodline, the warlock's Enigmatic Eye patron, and the wizard's School of the Inside Out are all new archetypes based around the delving of dungeons and the exploration of the dark places. By Mike Myler; illustrated by Sade.
Comments
[ARCHETYPES]
Keovar
2023-03-08 23:28:45 +0000 UTCThanks for the feedback Fiona! :D College of the Passages: I'm not sold in them being as underpowered as you might first think. Using bardic inspiration, over the course of two rounds a bard in this college can turn their sentries into grenades that get tossed out as bonus actions (which is essentially small burst effects similar to spells at a x1.5 rate higher than normal for a bard or wizard right?) As for the rarity of Bardic Inspiration vs. spell slots that's a matter of play style--if short rests are not plentiful, then absolutely spell slots are the way to go. This is for a dungeon-based archetype though and that assumes that short rests aren't in short supply, which means the party could take several in the course of a day (and after 5th level the bard recharges those Bardic Inspiration dice each time). Labyrinth Domain: Blessed Exploration - A number of allies equal to your Wisdom modifier each gain a Blessing Dice (which is 1d6). Insightful Knack - If you walk into a random dwelling and make a check using this feature, you will find something that helps further the adventure or is otherwise special. If you don't have the feature, the GM is moving things around to suit your characters and literally just rewarding you for doing random things. In my time playing (and GMing) I haven't received or dispensed any rewards for randomly going into places and making checks to find things. That said, I've also not played a cleric devoted to finding things and equipped with a feature to do so at random even when the the GM decides there is nothing to be found there. Circle of the Worked Stone: Wall Waker - It is indeed equal to your walking speed. Sorry about that! Deep Sight - Tremorsense only tells you what is also touching the ground (a creature in mid-air becomes invisible, a flying creature is invisible) whereas blindsight gained while touching the ground tells you where these things are located. They are *definitely* similar but not quite the same thing (I think tremorsense even mentions not being able to see flying creatures). Oozemancer: Chimatulaka - It's true! You can roll around with your pockets stuffed to the gills with ooze food. In the same fashion, you could roll around with your pockets stuffed to the gills with salmon in bear country, or whatever other things predators like to eat in their native territories. It's definitely useful, but it's also very specific and situational, designed with the wild magic sorcerer abilities in mind (which is to say that it's only going to be as useful as the GM says it's going to be, unless you're in some kind of [awesome] ooze land where oozes reign supreme). To touch on the power of oozes - These things have low ACs, no ranged attacks, a slow movement speed (even upped to 25 ft.), are going to soak up maybe 4 or 5 hits from equivalent challenge monsters/NPCs or less the higher up the enemy's damage output is (all of which are more than likely to hit and become a sure thing very quickly), and then die so you're burning spell slots and a combat round to get it back again. They do have some nice damage output with the pseudopods but for the gray ooze the corrosion bit is the only thing that makes it CR 1/2 (far less important for disposable NPCs) and you're either going to have to be amping it or lucky to reliably get a hit in with a +3 bonus to attack. It continues on like that down the line. Mostly it's cool, you should be able to occassionally get to ambush with it, and it can sub in as tank (because as mentioned in a comment above, oozes tend to be treated fairly high on the threat level) but a summoned ooze is not nearly as powerful in practice as the numbers might initially lead one to believe. Enigmatic Eye: All-Seeing Eye - Warlock's have true seeing on their spell list already and everything about the class archetype's features are about sight or eyes or vision. While I love the Closed Eye feature it is limited both by the small number of spell slots warlocks get at a time and proficiency bonus, Occult Eye is only slightly better than a standard Eldritch Invocation and Superior Sight is literally just an Eldritch Invocation (or an improvement), so that leaves some weight on the scales and true seeing at will seemed like the right choice because otherwise it's an archetype with one pretty cool feature and three and a half Eldritch Invocations--in the end I think as a warlock I'd feel cheated on a limitation to true seeing as my archetype capstone. School of the Inside-Out: Disorient Sense - I would agree that it's too powerful, but then there's the Enchantment wizard school and the infinite charm duration (and uses, similarly limited on a creature-by-creature basis). I like Disorient Senses, but in the hands of my wizards the former is far more dangerous. Otherverse Disjunction - That was the idea, a bigger risk and a potential bigger payoff, with one randomization on the duration of the target's absence and another on its vulnerability/damage dealt. The target takes 3d10 psychic damage each round it is disoriented (which is 1d4 rounds). Thank you for your spirited feedback! I look forward to more and hope that my answers are to your liking. :D
Mike Myler
2018-03-04 00:16:55 +0000 UTCThe climb speed you gain is equal to your character's walking speed.
Mike Myler
2018-03-03 23:23:00 +0000 UTCWe do indeed have an editor, thanks! :) I believe that particular sentence is correct. It's present tense, no direct object. No direct object is lie, direct object or past tense is lay. You lie in the passage, but you lay something in the passage. The secrets lie guarded in the passage; I lay the secrets in the guarded passage. I lie down on the bed; I lay the sick man down on the bed.
DnD EN5ider
2017-05-24 15:37:18 +0000 UTCPlus, there's a grammatical error in the first sentence: "The secrets of true power often LIE guarded in passages...." Do you have a proofreader? I'm a professional freelance copyeditor and would be willing to help out if you need someone.
Juliet Youngren
2017-05-24 00:19:09 +0000 UTCYou guys really need to hire some QA staff because this article is just beyond lousy with errors and imbalances. College of Passages: Extremely underpowered, you could use a Lore Bard with Find Familiar to gain largely the same effects, using spell slots instead of the much rarer bardic inspirations. Labyrinth Domain: Blessed Exploration: Do your allies gain 1d6 Blessing Dice (which are also 1d6s) or do they each gain 1 1d6 Blessing Die? Insightful Knack: That is literally what an Investigation or Perception check is for. This isn't a feature this is a Negative Feature. Circle of the Worked Stone: Wall Walker: What is the climb speed? It needs to be equal to something. Deep Sight: Blindsight while connected to the ground is already an ability in this game. It's called Tremorsense. Oozemancer: Chimatulaka: There's no limit to the amount of ooze food you can make. The ability to stun an ooze with your infinite pockets of food is ridiculously overpowered. Even if your ooze goes berserk (which it shouldn't, you have all the ooze food in the world), it is still a familiar and your ability to dismiss it is not revoked in the feature. And of course, this isn't even taking into consideration that the gray ooze is too powerful for a familiar even with balancing mechanics. Maybe a custom Tiny ooze companion that grows in size and power with you might be more ideal. Ooze Minion: CR 2 creatures should not be summoned by a 1st level spell. Ever. Enigmatic Eye: All-Seeing Eye: Maybe limit True Seeing to once per long rest, like similar warlock features? School of the Inside-Out: Disorient Sense: This feature is way too powerful to use a theoretically unlimited number of times per day. Otherverse Disjunction: This is the Warlock's Hurl through Hell but better on every level save that you won't be sure if it'll work. When does the creature stop taking 3d10 psychic damage? When it makes the save and comes back? When it stops being disoriented? When it dies? The heat-death of the universe?
Fiona Elliott
2017-05-22 20:25:24 +0000 UTCWall Walker Beginning at 6th level, you gain a climb speed and are able to cling to stone or rock with only one limb (be that a claw, foot, or hand) even while using wild shape. //What does your climb speed become?
Benjamin Pheloung
2017-05-22 09:31:55 +0000 UTCNevermind, you get saving throw for the engulf, thought it was automatic.
Galdran
2017-05-21 18:01:04 +0000 UTCQuestion, the movement speed of the oozes, doesn't carry over to the Gelatinous Cube or Ochre Jelly right? Because the Cube, having the ability to move 40' and engulf anyone automatically would be extemely over powered. Heck, summoning a familiar with 80hps that does 3d6 points of damage seems a bit over powered as well.
Galdran
2017-05-21 16:44:33 +0000 UTCBones of Stone When you choose this circle at 2nd level, your bones become denser and increase your AC by 1. This bonus increases by 1 at 9th level and again at 18th level. This needs to be completely redone. This breaks bounded accuracy. You should instead give them an unarmoured AC of 11+Dextery, 12+dexterity and then 13+dexterity.
Galdran
2017-05-21 16:34:20 +0000 UTCI'm looking forward to reading about the Bard's College of the Passage!
Dr. Mary C. Crowell
2017-05-21 16:17:22 +0000 UTC
