Created as soldiers for a war that spelled the end of an age, Warforged are artificial beings that display a human level of intelligence and self-awareness. Warforged sentience developed as a side effect of their creators’ desire to have fully functional, adaptive battlefield units. With no great war to fight, no ancient legacy to claim, and only the vestiges of a culture developed within the past century, Warforged are an emergent people. Integrated into the societies of peoples more numerous than they, Warforged are famed for their endurance and focus, in labor as well as combat.
Welcome to Extra Action #3: Playing Warforged. Straight out of Eberron, this article's got everything you need to stick a warforged right into your game: racial traits, feats, and even a paragon path. If you were a fan of Eberron or feel that your game is missing walking, talking hunks of metal, look no further. So, let's get right to it!
Most of the racial traits, the first section of the article, are pretty straightforward: +2s to Strength and Constitution (as befits a walking metal construct) and various Living Construct features. For those of you prone to failing saving throws, you'll be interested to see that the warforged gains a +2 bonus to saving throws to ongoing damage. And that's not all. Get this: a +10 bonus to death saving throws. That's right; you can't die unless you get kicked while you're down. Nice. They also receive the Warforged Resolve racial power, an encounter healing power that grants 3+half-level temporary hit points and grants a saving throw. Useful, especially for a tank (see what I did there? Tank?)
The physical and "Playing a Warforged" sections are not too crazy, either. The description is nothing out of the ordinary, providing Warforged with a valid "Bloodied" state (they have pipes running through their body to lubricate them) and explaining their physical variation. Each Warforged has a rune on its forehead called a "ghulra", which is akin to a living being's fingerprint. In addition, many Warforged modify themselves to account for varying appearances. Their psyches are equally different: different Warforged may develop a sexed personality (though most don't), be curious about the whys of life, and have deep or shallow emotional ranges. The standard warforged is described as having a straightforward emotional range (though Chris Sims is quick to note that it doesn't make them overly different from other races, which seems to be an overarching theme in Wizards' products). This section ends with the names, which are amusing and interesting: they range from very mechanical-sounding names such as "Null" and "Three", while the more adventurous include "Zealot", "Graven", and even "Mark". I'd definitely name my mechanical companion Mark.
The next section becomes a little crunchier: feats. Sadly, there are only six feats spanning all three tiers (though only one each for paragon and epic). As I'm sure you're aware, there have been more feats released, which is good, because none of these are particularly good (the powers granted by the two higher-level feats are nice, but in most cases, an epic or paragon utility would be more useful.) The only one I'd consider is the "Improved Warforged Resolve" feat, which grants an extra 5 temporary hit points with your racial power. Not bad, but nothing great here either.
Flipping back over to the fluffy side of the pillow for a moment, we get some insight into how warforged might fit into our campaigns. I suspect that if you're ready to allow a warforged character into your game, then you might have an idea about where they might go, but this is pretty helpful nonetheless. There's a base story for those of you using the Points of Light setting from Wizards or if you're willing to cut and paste this into your campaign: it involves a king building them to be utopian servants, then his son takes over and has different ideas for them, employing them in an empire-consuming war. I like this story a lot, actually: it provides a lot of interesting adventure hooks, and some cool ideas for where Warforged PCs could come from. There are also a host of other ideas in case this one doesn't float your boat (your PC is the result of a Frankenstein-like experiment, etc.) Whatever your story preference, there's something here for you.
Back to the crunchy side for Paragon Paths! There are two, more than we usually see for races. The Warforged Juggernaut is yummy for Charge-barians, and for a lot of weapon-focused characters. There are a lot of goodies for charging and bonuses to endurance: one class feature grants +1d6 when you charge. Yes please. The Warforged Lifeseeker is more focused towards the healer/Warforged seeking life. This path is very flavorful: a Warforged searching for the spark of life inside themselves. The features and powers are nice, granting little bonuses for your leader Warforged to healing and social skills, but nothing game-changing. I might take this, but more for the flavor than the content.
The end of the article focuses on magic items, mostly on how the Warforged uses them. I love the concept of a Warforged smithing all of its equipment into itself (there's even an option to attach thieves' tools!). It also grants a few small benefits, like you being able to use the hand with a shield attached freely. There are also some given magic items. The Warsoul Weapon is cool, I guess, but I don't really understand why this guy needs initiative... I guess if you want your hulking piece of metal to be quick, then this is for you. Another cool on is the Shoulderbow, which pops up from your shoulder and shoots at your will. I assume you can hold weapons in your hands as well, but sadly, it takes a free action to fire the bow. Otherwise it might be a little broken, especially for rogues... The final messenger certainly is cool, although I can't see it being useful on a regular basis.
Overall, a solid article! There are a couple blips in the quality here and there, and some odd references, but overall, another good one. That makes three of three! If you'd like to check out the article for yourself, you can find it here.
Keep This! Most of it! The article was pretty good throughout, and it fits the Warforged nicely.
Retrain This! More feats please.
Leave This! Only the origin story, if it doesn't suit you.
Tune in next time (hopefully quicker than this one was) for Extra Action #4: The Ashen Covenant!
Have your own feedback on the article? Want to share your own Warforged PC? Post a comment!
Showing posts with label Dragon 364. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dragon 364. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Extra Action #2: Vor Kragal, City of Ash
"The hellish masters of Bael Turath once held control of large portions of the world—both above and below the surface. Their enemies shuddered at rumors of extraplanar holdings that dwarfed even their sprawling empire in the world."
This is our introduction to Vor Kragal, the City of Ash and the subject of our second Extra Action.
Before I get started, I'll just put this out there right now: this is a great article. You could just pluck this out of Dragon Magazine and throw it into your game. It's originally set in the Points of Light setting, the WotC default setting, but there isn't anything that you can't scrub the serials off of and put it into your campaign.
With that said, let's dive into the meat of the article. Before we're introduced to the current situation and inhabitants, we get a little history lesson. The three houses that ruled Vor Kragal before it was obliterated are outlined. Although the story is pretty cool in itself, my favorite part about this is that each one is very flavorful and gives a different spin on your standard tiefling. In addition, each has a reason to still be alive; though it's never specifically mentioned, I expect that's what the author had in mind. The first, House Barikdral, were basically necromantic masters. This gives an obvious solution, especially since the art (consistently wonderful, by the way) depicts the matron as a tall, almost skeletal tiefling. The second are the vampiric and bloodthirsty Kahlir House. While they're a little disgusting (they've dispensed with clothing altogether and feed off of hundreds of victims a day, I can definitely see them having a place in this long-lost city. The third are named House Zolfura, who were elemental mages, and the two heads of the house had become embodiments of fire and ice. The cool speaks for itself. Then the city was destroyed by the Arkhosian Empire, and that leads us to today, when Vor Kragal has again resurfaced through the ashen plain.
The remaining majority of the article outlines the interesting features of the city. Some are fairly generic (the exsanguination maze of the Kahlir), but nevertheless, each has a handful of unique hooks that could all lead the adventurers to this lost Turathi city. Although all of them are interesting, my favorites are the Pyramid of Lost Tales, which holds the entire history of the world (even after the city sunk under the earth) and could hold very interesting prophetic/future-telling possibilities, and the Charspire, the home of House Barikdral. Rumors are that it can teleport around the city, and it shows up in different places every day. Why is it doing this? That's a great adventure hook in itself. Also interesting are the Hellforge Crucible, a large crater-turned-forge run by a deranged pit fiend, and the aforementioned Vein Maze, filled with sacrifice alters and the like. It's also filled with Kahlir vampires (which are provided in the end of the article and feel very vampire-y) and various other scum. Another intriguing idea is that of "Bliss", an arboretum where exotic plants and animals roamed before the destruction. Now, the arboretum has been destroyed and everything is running wild in the district. Imagine New York City or London overrun by D&D monsters, plants, and add some fire. Very inspiring. The locations conclude with Yazadoun's Folly, a large marble fortress that got struck by a meteor. Now it's inhabited by a large, jaundiced tiefling that sells teas and provides a base camp of sorts for exploring the city. Perfect. This is just scratching the surface, too, of the great ideas in this article.
Finally, near the end of the article, we receive our meager player options (an improvement from last time, which contained NO player options, but that's a rant for another time). There was a little magic item, a shard of a spear thrown down to crush the city, which has a pretty nice at-will power (increase reach by 1 and deal lightning), but otherwise is rather standard. All of them together form up into an artifact whose story is rather basic (wants to kill the gods and conquest), but whose powers run the gamut from granting a 4 fly speed and +4d8 thunder damage on a crit, to, at low concordance, makes a melee basic attack once per day against an authority figure. The "Moving On" is also rather spectacular, with it exploding into a large battle if it's happy, and wreaking natural disasters on your hometown if it's not. This isn't an artifact that you want to get mad.
The other item, which I think is more interesting but isn't expanded upon, is the Black Tongue of Mabberaj. It's basically the oral equivalent of the Eye of Vecna, with necromancers and their ilk wishing to replace their tongues with it. It allows them to speak to undead with words of power and can even strangle people in their sleep. I wouldn't like my PCs getting hold of it, but the villain? Definitely.
So, to close:
Keep This! Pretty much everything you like about this article. You can grab the whole thing if you like and stick it into your game.
Errata This! Make it longer! I especially would have liked to see more monsters, such as the ones in "Bliss", or stats for the Black Tongue. I guess it gives more creative authority to the DM, though, which is good if you're just looking for inspiration here.
Retrain This! Nothing! Keep it all; this article is the best I've done (which to be fair, is only two).
Before I'm done, I'd like to note that this article is also great because it gives lots of places for the DM to expand on things. I also enjoy how they use "rumors" as a way to tell the reader, "This is our idea, but if you have another one, feel free to stick it in."
Tune in next time for another Extra Action, Playing Warforged!
This is our introduction to Vor Kragal, the City of Ash and the subject of our second Extra Action.
Before I get started, I'll just put this out there right now: this is a great article. You could just pluck this out of Dragon Magazine and throw it into your game. It's originally set in the Points of Light setting, the WotC default setting, but there isn't anything that you can't scrub the serials off of and put it into your campaign.
With that said, let's dive into the meat of the article. Before we're introduced to the current situation and inhabitants, we get a little history lesson. The three houses that ruled Vor Kragal before it was obliterated are outlined. Although the story is pretty cool in itself, my favorite part about this is that each one is very flavorful and gives a different spin on your standard tiefling. In addition, each has a reason to still be alive; though it's never specifically mentioned, I expect that's what the author had in mind. The first, House Barikdral, were basically necromantic masters. This gives an obvious solution, especially since the art (consistently wonderful, by the way) depicts the matron as a tall, almost skeletal tiefling. The second are the vampiric and bloodthirsty Kahlir House. While they're a little disgusting (they've dispensed with clothing altogether and feed off of hundreds of victims a day, I can definitely see them having a place in this long-lost city. The third are named House Zolfura, who were elemental mages, and the two heads of the house had become embodiments of fire and ice. The cool speaks for itself. Then the city was destroyed by the Arkhosian Empire, and that leads us to today, when Vor Kragal has again resurfaced through the ashen plain.
The remaining majority of the article outlines the interesting features of the city. Some are fairly generic (the exsanguination maze of the Kahlir), but nevertheless, each has a handful of unique hooks that could all lead the adventurers to this lost Turathi city. Although all of them are interesting, my favorites are the Pyramid of Lost Tales, which holds the entire history of the world (even after the city sunk under the earth) and could hold very interesting prophetic/future-telling possibilities, and the Charspire, the home of House Barikdral. Rumors are that it can teleport around the city, and it shows up in different places every day. Why is it doing this? That's a great adventure hook in itself. Also interesting are the Hellforge Crucible, a large crater-turned-forge run by a deranged pit fiend, and the aforementioned Vein Maze, filled with sacrifice alters and the like. It's also filled with Kahlir vampires (which are provided in the end of the article and feel very vampire-y) and various other scum. Another intriguing idea is that of "Bliss", an arboretum where exotic plants and animals roamed before the destruction. Now, the arboretum has been destroyed and everything is running wild in the district. Imagine New York City or London overrun by D&D monsters, plants, and add some fire. Very inspiring. The locations conclude with Yazadoun's Folly, a large marble fortress that got struck by a meteor. Now it's inhabited by a large, jaundiced tiefling that sells teas and provides a base camp of sorts for exploring the city. Perfect. This is just scratching the surface, too, of the great ideas in this article.
Finally, near the end of the article, we receive our meager player options (an improvement from last time, which contained NO player options, but that's a rant for another time). There was a little magic item, a shard of a spear thrown down to crush the city, which has a pretty nice at-will power (increase reach by 1 and deal lightning), but otherwise is rather standard. All of them together form up into an artifact whose story is rather basic (wants to kill the gods and conquest), but whose powers run the gamut from granting a 4 fly speed and +4d8 thunder damage on a crit, to, at low concordance, makes a melee basic attack once per day against an authority figure. The "Moving On" is also rather spectacular, with it exploding into a large battle if it's happy, and wreaking natural disasters on your hometown if it's not. This isn't an artifact that you want to get mad.
The other item, which I think is more interesting but isn't expanded upon, is the Black Tongue of Mabberaj. It's basically the oral equivalent of the Eye of Vecna, with necromancers and their ilk wishing to replace their tongues with it. It allows them to speak to undead with words of power and can even strangle people in their sleep. I wouldn't like my PCs getting hold of it, but the villain? Definitely.
So, to close:
Keep This! Pretty much everything you like about this article. You can grab the whole thing if you like and stick it into your game.
Errata This! Make it longer! I especially would have liked to see more monsters, such as the ones in "Bliss", or stats for the Black Tongue. I guess it gives more creative authority to the DM, though, which is good if you're just looking for inspiration here.
Retrain This! Nothing! Keep it all; this article is the best I've done (which to be fair, is only two).
Before I'm done, I'd like to note that this article is also great because it gives lots of places for the DM to expand on things. I also enjoy how they use "rumors" as a way to tell the reader, "This is our idea, but if you have another one, feel free to stick it in."
Tune in next time for another Extra Action, Playing Warforged!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Extra Action #1: Demonomicon of Iggwilv - Yeenoghu, Demon Prince of Gnolls
Alright, here goes. Post number one. Before I get started, I figured I'd outline the format for what I'll be doing here. First, I'll give a brief summary of the five or six page article, so you can take a look at what's in it. Then I'll give my two cents on the best parts to use, adapt, and just leave out. So, without further ado, I present you with your first Extra Action - Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Yeenoghu, Prince of Gnolls.
From the start, this guy sounds pretty nasty. He's got "leprous skin" with a bunch of yellow patches, red eyes, and spit flying everywhere. What's more, his weapons and armor are basically made of pieces of his enemies after he's killed them. It's a little gruesome for my game, I think, but that's what I get for going into demon lords.
Now that we know what he looks like, let's take a look at this guy in combat. First, there's a formatting issue in the stat block that threw me off a little; one of the lines is mixed up. It's not huge, but the appearance is just that it was a little cobbled together. As for the actual statblock itself, there's quite a lot I like, but a couple things I don't like as well. Now I haven't run a lot of combats in epic tier, so I'm probably not the best authority on this. For example, 3d6 for moving three squares seems like a lot to me, especially since he has a power that lets him do that at-will. That probably isn't all that much, though, in an epic combat.
Yeenoghu's movement based powers really work for me; the 3d6 extra damage just for moving and the 3 square shift give him movement options that hopefully will keep the battle mobile. What I don't understand, though, is him slowing down the PCs as well. When I look at Yeenoghu, I probably want a high speed fight where he's dancing from opponent to opponent and can't be pinned down. It goes against this idea to have an aura that slows, pretty much taking most movement off the table. I guess that's what you get for taking on a demon lord, but still...
The lore, another part of every monster presentation, works for me. Other than the fact that Yeenoghu used to be a primordial (maybe I have a misguided concept of "shapers of the world", but aren't they supposed to be stronger than a demon lord?), his story is cool. The Chained God awoke him and turned him into a demon lord, and his realm of the Abyss is called, what else, "Yeenoghu's Realm". The concept is cool - it's basically a twisted African savannah, which amuses me because the gnolls are based on hyenas. I don't see it having a lot of adventure potential, but one run-through could be cool. I'd like a better name, though.
Yeenoghu's aspect is next; I don't like this as much. First, he has more and higher variable resistance than the demon lord himself... I don't see that logic. He's pretty much the same, and they even go so far as to tell us that this is a fragment of Yeenoghu. Despite that, he apparently has a different agenda. I do like this rendition of the Fetid Cloud aura; this doesn't impair movement and I don't see why they couldn't have given this one to the demon lord as well. The lore is also a little lackluster; there's one sentence.
After learning about Yeenoghu's "ambitions" (basically to take over the world, obviously), we get to stuff we might actually use in our game: smaller villains that we might be able to use in any given adventure. The first of these is Nezrebe, an exarch. Nezrebe is an albino gnoll who has a beat up bastard sword and coughs up caustic pieces of his lungs. Ew. The story isn't bad, but this guy creeps me out too much for him to be useful.
The second of these unique villains is named Zaiden, the exemplar of Yeenoghu's tenants on the mortal world. She leads Yeenoghu's largest gnoll pack, and rightly so; she's a level 20 elite controller with dark powers and animal magnetism, apparently. She's got a page to herself, wherein we learn about her motivations (to earn Yeenoghu's favor so she can rule beside him) and how to use her as a villain. This works a little more for me, because they give me advice on how to use them for my game. When I look in Dragon Magazine, I'm looking for something that I can rip out and use, not for ideas for the most part.
There's also a lot of fluff in this article, mostly focused on the cults of Yeenoghu and his minions. The minions listed are mostly gnolls, some lowly and some higher up courtesans and lovers. It also talks about alliances that Yeenoghu makes. An interesting note: he's not respected by many in the Abyss, and is sometimes used by the other gods. That could be an interesting story. The information we get on Yeenoghu's cults is interesting too, albeit some of it is standard fare for demon cults. There's the usual mutilation and sacrifice of victims, along with the custom of smearing feces and other bodily substances on one's robes and hide. This is more than a little revolting, but I think it gets the point of the cults across well.
There's also some history from the Nentir Vale, if you're interested. My campaign is set in the Vale, Wizards's default setting, so it's cool to me. Take it if you want; it's not a bad story, though a little cliched.
The article closes with a description of Yeenoghu's realm and the sections: the Dun Savannah, Screaming Peaks, the Curseswallow, the Seeping Woods, and an unnamed salt wastes rumored to hold the remains of a great champion of the gods. All of this is solid, with stuff I'd use if my players ever went there. It mentions the inhabitants of each (though briefly), and the seas even have pirates and the like. It also mentions three cities, though Yeenoghu disdains all of them and prefers to cruise the plane in his rolling fortress.
Wow, that was longer than I expected. I hope you understand, at least a little, though, what Spend an Action Point is supposed to be about. I tried to summarize the article for you, and now I'll give you my succinct opinion on what's the best stuff in this article.
Keep This! Yeenoghu's lore, the fluff about the cults, history, and his minions.
Errata This! Yeenoghu's statblock (change out the aura), Zaiden (with a little tweaking she could fit right into your campaign.)
Retrain This! The exarch and aspect of Yeenoghu
I do have one question about this article, though. I was under the impression that Dragon Magazine was for players. I didn't see one feat, paragon path, or magic item for my character here. Why is this in Dragon?
Well, there's your first Extra Action! Tune in next time for another Extra Action, Vor Kragal, City of Ash.
Want to check out this article for yourself? Go here. Have questions or comments? Leave a comment!
From the start, this guy sounds pretty nasty. He's got "leprous skin" with a bunch of yellow patches, red eyes, and spit flying everywhere. What's more, his weapons and armor are basically made of pieces of his enemies after he's killed them. It's a little gruesome for my game, I think, but that's what I get for going into demon lords.
Now that we know what he looks like, let's take a look at this guy in combat. First, there's a formatting issue in the stat block that threw me off a little; one of the lines is mixed up. It's not huge, but the appearance is just that it was a little cobbled together. As for the actual statblock itself, there's quite a lot I like, but a couple things I don't like as well. Now I haven't run a lot of combats in epic tier, so I'm probably not the best authority on this. For example, 3d6 for moving three squares seems like a lot to me, especially since he has a power that lets him do that at-will. That probably isn't all that much, though, in an epic combat.
Yeenoghu's movement based powers really work for me; the 3d6 extra damage just for moving and the 3 square shift give him movement options that hopefully will keep the battle mobile. What I don't understand, though, is him slowing down the PCs as well. When I look at Yeenoghu, I probably want a high speed fight where he's dancing from opponent to opponent and can't be pinned down. It goes against this idea to have an aura that slows, pretty much taking most movement off the table. I guess that's what you get for taking on a demon lord, but still...
The lore, another part of every monster presentation, works for me. Other than the fact that Yeenoghu used to be a primordial (maybe I have a misguided concept of "shapers of the world", but aren't they supposed to be stronger than a demon lord?), his story is cool. The Chained God awoke him and turned him into a demon lord, and his realm of the Abyss is called, what else, "Yeenoghu's Realm". The concept is cool - it's basically a twisted African savannah, which amuses me because the gnolls are based on hyenas. I don't see it having a lot of adventure potential, but one run-through could be cool. I'd like a better name, though.
Yeenoghu's aspect is next; I don't like this as much. First, he has more and higher variable resistance than the demon lord himself... I don't see that logic. He's pretty much the same, and they even go so far as to tell us that this is a fragment of Yeenoghu. Despite that, he apparently has a different agenda. I do like this rendition of the Fetid Cloud aura; this doesn't impair movement and I don't see why they couldn't have given this one to the demon lord as well. The lore is also a little lackluster; there's one sentence.
After learning about Yeenoghu's "ambitions" (basically to take over the world, obviously), we get to stuff we might actually use in our game: smaller villains that we might be able to use in any given adventure. The first of these is Nezrebe, an exarch. Nezrebe is an albino gnoll who has a beat up bastard sword and coughs up caustic pieces of his lungs. Ew. The story isn't bad, but this guy creeps me out too much for him to be useful.
The second of these unique villains is named Zaiden, the exemplar of Yeenoghu's tenants on the mortal world. She leads Yeenoghu's largest gnoll pack, and rightly so; she's a level 20 elite controller with dark powers and animal magnetism, apparently. She's got a page to herself, wherein we learn about her motivations (to earn Yeenoghu's favor so she can rule beside him) and how to use her as a villain. This works a little more for me, because they give me advice on how to use them for my game. When I look in Dragon Magazine, I'm looking for something that I can rip out and use, not for ideas for the most part.
There's also a lot of fluff in this article, mostly focused on the cults of Yeenoghu and his minions. The minions listed are mostly gnolls, some lowly and some higher up courtesans and lovers. It also talks about alliances that Yeenoghu makes. An interesting note: he's not respected by many in the Abyss, and is sometimes used by the other gods. That could be an interesting story. The information we get on Yeenoghu's cults is interesting too, albeit some of it is standard fare for demon cults. There's the usual mutilation and sacrifice of victims, along with the custom of smearing feces and other bodily substances on one's robes and hide. This is more than a little revolting, but I think it gets the point of the cults across well.
There's also some history from the Nentir Vale, if you're interested. My campaign is set in the Vale, Wizards's default setting, so it's cool to me. Take it if you want; it's not a bad story, though a little cliched.
The article closes with a description of Yeenoghu's realm and the sections: the Dun Savannah, Screaming Peaks, the Curseswallow, the Seeping Woods, and an unnamed salt wastes rumored to hold the remains of a great champion of the gods. All of this is solid, with stuff I'd use if my players ever went there. It mentions the inhabitants of each (though briefly), and the seas even have pirates and the like. It also mentions three cities, though Yeenoghu disdains all of them and prefers to cruise the plane in his rolling fortress.
Wow, that was longer than I expected. I hope you understand, at least a little, though, what Spend an Action Point is supposed to be about. I tried to summarize the article for you, and now I'll give you my succinct opinion on what's the best stuff in this article.
Keep This! Yeenoghu's lore, the fluff about the cults, history, and his minions.
Errata This! Yeenoghu's statblock (change out the aura), Zaiden (with a little tweaking she could fit right into your campaign.)
Retrain This! The exarch and aspect of Yeenoghu
I do have one question about this article, though. I was under the impression that Dragon Magazine was for players. I didn't see one feat, paragon path, or magic item for my character here. Why is this in Dragon?
Well, there's your first Extra Action! Tune in next time for another Extra Action, Vor Kragal, City of Ash.
Want to check out this article for yourself? Go here. Have questions or comments? Leave a comment!
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