Hammer of Thunderbolts Redesign 2

The hammer of thunderbolts is an unusual magic item in 5e, in that it doesn’t do much at all until you have and attune two other magic items: gauntlets of ogre power and a belt of giant strength. (The traditionalist in me insists on girdle.) This is a thorny situation, […]


alchemist, alchemy

D&D 5e: New Metamagic Options 2

I like it when sorcerer subclasses support theme and a gameplay loop with a new metamagic option. The core metamagic options are usable for a large number of expected spells, though they don’t need to work for allof them to be valid. For this post I’m working on narrower options […]


LARP Design: A Further Five Field Battles

It has been more than two years since my last post in this series, in part because we spent two years not LARPing. We’re back at it now, and that makes it easier to write. In the first two posts, I talked about ten field battle models I’ve seen. Today’s […]


Ruby Talon Deeps: Locations 3 4

I’m working on a number of different adventure-writing projects for publication right now, so maybe it’s weird that working on yet another one feels like my easy go-to here. I’ve been struggling with a few different ideas lately. Brains are weird. Map | Locations 1 | Treasures | Locations 2 | Locations 3 Hall of Masques […]


Treasure as Arcane Focus 1

In the new UA packet, the Create Spell spell requires expensive material components that are consumed on use: an arcane focus worth 1000 gp per level of the spell you’re creating. In my breakdown article on it, I pondered what a 9,000-gp arcane focus even looks like, if you’re not […]


Six Spells from the 4e Files 3

My last set of 4e spells converted to 5e was in October of last year, so I figured it was time to get back to that project. Even with the progress I’ve made, there are tons of cool ideas left to play with.  Part One | Part Two | Part Three Essence […]


Artificer Specialist: Bloodcrafter 4

A conversation on the bird site a week or so ago got me thinking about a genetic-manipulation artificer subclass. I let the idea sit for a week to see if anything bubbled up as an idea, and… here we are. Let’s find out, together. To be clear, it’s called “Bloodcrafter” […]


Twenty Crewmates for the High Seas 3

Whether you’re using Seas of Vodari and Tribality’s Naval Combat supplement, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, or just sending the characters on a sea voyage, you can add more interaction and texture by focusing on individual crew members. You can’t give time to every sailor on a larger ship, sure, but even […]


Gunpowder Traps for 5e 2

For that upcoming Tribality project that I’ve mentioned, I’m writing traps based on gunpowder and firearms for use in D&D 5e. Er, without just making a numbers-bolted-on collection of gunpowder bombs and land mines, I guess. If you want those for your game, that’s fine, but you can read the […]


Session Postmortem: The Battle of the Blockade 3

On Sunday, 19 February, I ran the 122nd session of the Aurikesh campaign, in which the PCs gathered a rag-tag fleet of ships and led it against the blockade at the mouth of the river that leads to their city. I used the same essential approach here as in the […]