Dungeons & Delvers: Appendix D Issue 2

Just added the second issue of Appendix D to Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book. This issue contains the cambion and dwarf racial classes, the warlock class, and some new demons to kinda go with the whole cambion/infernal pact warlock thing.

The racial classes are based on something I kicked around during the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons playtest era, which were in turn kind of based on 3rd Edition's racial paragon classes except that you can take levels in them whenever you wanted to instead of at specific levels.

The racial classes in the Black Book have two functions.

The first is for those that just want to play "a cambion" or "a dwarf", maybe because you're nostalgic for earlier D&D editions where races were also classes, or maybe because it's exactly what you're looking for.

Like classes these go up to 5th-level and have their own class features and talents to choose from (though there can be some overlap: dwarf shares many similarities with the fighter at least class-feature-wise).

The second is to let players determine how much race effects your characters. So, you can start the game as a cambion warlock, and then at 2nd-level multiclass into the cambion racial class to pick up some cambion talents (like Scaly Skin, Infernal Wings, or one that beefs up your sin's bonus).

This requires also using the multiclass rules (found in the first Appendix D issue), and so is dependent on whether the GM is cool with it (and might result in the GM modifying/bannig one or more talents).

The warlock class (which I also talked about in this post) is largely what you'd expect if you've seen/played warlocks from 3rd Edition and up (but mostly like 4th and 5th Edition): you pick a patron (right now just infernal and star), and that patron gives you a bonus and magic powers like eldritch blast.

Where it differs is that by giving things to your patron and doing shit for it, you gain Boons. Boons are a currency that you can spend to make your eldritch blast more accurate and use certain powerful warlock talents. You have to choose a Boon talent (there are talent choices that just let you do things all the time, no problem), so if you don't want to deal with them you don't have to (you get the Boons-for-better-blast thing automatically, so there's always something you can do with them).

Really thinking of having warlock talents do one thing, and then you can spend Boons to make them better. For example, Bind would just immobilize a creature for a turn, but if you spend a Boon it would deal damage and restrain them for longer: what do you guys think?

The other thing is you have a sign, a physical feature that lets people know there is something wrong about you. It starts out small, but gets worse as you level up. Since the class only goes up to 5th-level it's not much, but I'm thinking at higher levels an infernal pact warlock would basically look like a demon, while a star pact warlock would be a tentacle cluster covered in eyes.

Also thinking of maybe giving the signs benefits and/or drawbacks, so when your star pact warlock gets a bunch of eyes you also gain a bonus to Perception and maybe can see in the dark, but having a bunch of mouths could penalize your Stealth and various social skills (because they won't shut the fuck up).

Finally, monsters. If you own A Sundered World a few are based on how I did angels and demons there. There's also an imp that can get you to do things as long as you think it'll make people like you, and a succubus but it's more like the mythological succubus so can get you in your dreams.

Announcements

Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book is out! It's our own take on a D&Dish/d20 game that features (among other things) simple-yet-flexible classes, unassumed magic and magical healing, a complete lack of pseudo-Vancian magic, and more mythologically accurate monsters.

Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!

Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).