The Player's Handbook rules for shields are simple, and easy to remember, but sometimes a little overly simplistic. They're fine, but for those who prefer a little variety, here are rules for a few different kinds of shields which you can implement in your games if you prefer a little more detail.
You can only benefit from one of these shields at a time. Bucklers: A buckler can be made from metal or wood, and can be carried in one hand or strapped to a wrist or shoulder (when worn on the shoulder, this is known as an ecranche). Wielding a buckler increases your Armour Class by 1. As a bonus action if you are using a buckler in your hand, you can choose a target, and gain +1 to your Armour Class against melee attacks by that target. Although it cannot be used as a weapon, wielding a buckler in one hand counts as using a light weapon. Small Shield: A small shield can be made from metal or wood, and is carried in one hand. Wielding a small shield increases your Armour Class by 1. As a bonus action, you can choose a target, and gain +1 to your Armour Class against attacks by that target. Medium Shield: A medium shield can be made from metal or wood, and is carried in one hand. Wielding a medium shield increases your Armour Class by 2. (This is the standard "shield" option from the Player's Handbook) Large Shield: A large shield can be made from metal or wood, and is strapped to one arm. Wielding a large shield increases your Armour Class by 2. As a bonus action, you can choose a target, and gain +1 to your Armour Class against attacks by that target. Tower Shield: A tower shield (also known as a pavise) can be made from metal or wood, and carried in one hand or strapped to an arm, which cannot be used for other purposes such as reloading. Wielding a tower shield increases your Armour Class by 2 and gives you disadvantage on melee weapon attack rolls. As a reaction when you are subject to an attack or effect that requires a Dexterity saving throw, you can set the tower shield against the attack, and gain three-quarters cover (+5 bonus to Armour Class and Dexterity saving throws) against the effect or attacks from that creature until the start of your next turn. You may also choose to shield another creature within 5 feet of you, giving both you and the creature half cover (+2 bonus to Armour Class and Dexterity saving throws) against the effect or attacks from that creature until the start of your next turn. If you use a tower shield to set against an attack, your movement speed is reduced to one-half for your next round. (Additional benefit for the Shield Master feat: If you use a tower shield, you do not take disadvantage on melee weapon attack rolls) Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 12 October 2021. Juggernaut plate is the heaviest kind of armour known, layering plates and covering every conceivable weak spot. It was originally invented by dwarven defenders, but the concept has spread to some other cultures as well. Some suits of this armour are magically augmented, making them even more impregnable to blows. All suits of this armour are worn only for a short time, as it is exhausting to move within and takes great time to don and doff. For this reason, it is usually kept in reserve until necessary, usually for a defensive action or final assault.
Juggernaut Plate (5,000 gold pieces) Proficiency: Wearing this armour requires heavy armour proficiency. Wearing this armour without proficiency gives the wearer disadvantage on any ability check, saving throw, or attack roll that requires Strength or Dexterity, and you can't cast spells. Armour Class (AC): Wearing this armour confers an AC of 22. Speed penalty: Wearing this armour reduces your speed by 10 feet. Dwarves instead have their speed reduced by only 5 feet. Reflex Penalty: Wearing this armour confers disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. Strength: Wearers with a Strength score lower than 17 have their speed reduced by an additional 10 feet. Stealth: Wearing this armour confers disadvantage on Stealth checks. Getting into and out of armour: This plate cannot be donned without assistance from at least two creatures, and takes 30 minutes to put on and fit appropriately. Taking it off requires just as much time, and requires assistance from at least one creature. Exhausting: At the end of any encounter wearing this armour, the wearer must spend 1 Hit Die or gain a level of exhaustion. It is impossible to take a short or long rest while wearing this armour. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 9 October 2021. At the peak of a mountain surrounded by crystal-clear skies and whipping winds, sits a solitary winged figure. They seem to be meditating, and disturbing their rest might be a welcome respite- or a deadly error.
This figure is Tirahnan, a Deva who has taken a sabbatical to regain some measure of calm following a particularly vicious battle against the forces of Evil. Tirahnan is titled the Guardian of the Gates of the East Wind, and a protector of innocent children. How you could use the Celestial on Sabbatical in your games: - Interrupting Tirahnan's meditation with any sort of violence leads to immediate retribution, while an offer of friendship or kindness may lead to welcoming discourse and company. Simply knowing the name of a powerful Celestial might be a very useful thing for later on, when people are able to cast spells like planar ally. - Tirahnan's help might be sought out by locals in desperate need of aid, and ask adventurers to call the deva to help them. The deva's meditation renders it unable to hear such calls (perhaps some force is interfering, or has trapped it upon the mountaintop?) for now. - Those who would wish capture or death of such a powerful being for some reason might offer some great bounty for this service. In particular, evil cults might hire bounty hunters or assassins, or have agents of their own who might be able to undertake such business. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 8 October 2021. As a Game Master, there's a fine line to walk when your players are planning some kind of heist. Do you pre-plan everything, and let them plan against it? Do you listen to their plans and make counter-plans to allow for intelligent opponents and competent guards? Do you let the plan go off without a hitch if it's well-enough done, or make it more dramatic so that it's an enjoyable caper? All of these questions are well worth considering if you have some kind of heist about to happen (and with most adventuring parties, some sort of plot is eventually likely to happen).
Blades in the Dark is a heist game, and has mechanics for this around choosing the kind of plan you'll use from six options (Assault, Deception, Stealth, Occult, Social, or Transport), and applying Details submitted by the players to expose vulnerabilities, cause interference, and so on. D&D handles this pretty poorly using rules as written, because it usually assumes a pre-written adventure and then the player characters happening "to it" rather than interacting with it. Remembering to be a fan of your characters, and to allow them to do cool things without just letting them run roughshod over your campaign setting, can help to strike a balance and let them have fun, while still allowing for random elements (additional guard patrols that weren't planned for, a mage friend of the target who has dropped by, and so on) to make things not run exactly as planned. It's quite important not to just hear your players' plans and immediately counter all of them, as much as just letting everything go off flawlessly and reduce everything to a series of "I cast this spell, then we do the thing, then I walk out again" - neither will be fun for you, or for your players. In addition, immediately countering what they have planned will reduce their trust in you as players, unless this is the moment that a traitor NPC in their midst reveals themselves, or some similar narrative reason for this exists. Even if they plan well, some poor die rolls can quickly derail a plan and cause some threat and narrative tension. The main lesson is: don't make this not fun. If your players are committed to carrying out a heist, let them- but remember that there will be be some threat, there will be some tension, and there will likely be consequences for what they do. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 7 October 2021. A curious and quiet merchant, the Unkindness Trader appears to be a young human woman of albino-pale skin and hair, marked by some paint on her face. Her garb is adorned with shiny black raven feathers, and she usually chooses an out-of-the-way corner of whatever market she happens to be in. Her stall is a simple affair of a canvas sheet over a wooden frame, but it is inevitably festooned with at least a dozen silent ravens who watch all passers-by, tracking their movements.
In person, the trader is pleasant, if shy, and offers a variety of exotic goods which seem to come from the Shadowfell itself. Among the goods sold are: 1 - Gloomcloak (250gp) - This seems like a single layer of insubstantial dark silk, but is hard for the eye to focus upon. When worn, this grants advantage on Stealth checks and allows a Hide check as a bonus action, even when not in cover. However, once donned, it begins to irreversibly fray, and entirely disintegrates within 1 minute. 2 - Ring of Ravencalling (500gp) - This plain metal ring is a glossy black in colour, and can be magically activated as an action by taking it off and reversing it. When this is done, the user is surrounded by a flock of ravens which grant them three-quarters cover for 1 minute (as Call the concealing horde). If the wearer attacks, the flock dissipates immediately. The ring's magic fades after this has been activated three times. 3 - Midnight apples (10 gp each) - These apples are a deep purple with white spots, appearing much like a night sky. When eaten, they are crisp and flavourful. More surprisingly, these can be eaten by (and interacted with) by incorporeal creatures, often granting them some human comfort in undeath. 4 - Bell of Safe Passage (750 gp) - This small tarnished silver bell can be rung as an action to cast Hold person, affecting only an Undead creature within range. Legend tells that there are seven of these bells, belonging to a special order of 'white necromancers', but the others have been lost. 5 - Feather Token (Raven) (1,500 gp) - This token can be unfolded to conjure an almost horse-sized giant raven (statistics as a Giant Eagle), which will follow your commands for 1 hour. 6 - Second Shadow (a favour) - This particular service costs the customer a favour to the Raven Queen herself, the terms of which are appropriately nebulous. For this favour, the Unkindness Trader uses special thread spun from moonlight to stitch an additional shadow to the customer's heels, meaning that they have double the usual number of shadows under an overhead light. However, when subject to any effect that would kill them instantly (a finger of death spell, or similar effect), the second shadow instead absorbs the curse and burns away, leaving the user with no ill effects. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 6 October 2021. Embermages are spellcasters of a particular persuasion, ones who drink too deeply and too long of destructive magics and give themselves over to Canaan, Lord of Destruction. They become no longer human and burn up from within unless they destroy other things- Canaan cares not what, only for the thrill of ruin. As the power overtakes them, their skin blisters and becomes as blackened embers, glowing from within with terrible heat. Their breath scorches the air, and even when they resume their ordinary form, the distinctive smell of charred flesh follows them wherever they go. Although their power is enhanced, they usually lose some common sense, driven only by their urge to see undoing of all around them. Embermages can sometimes be found in the wilderness, having at least moved themselves away from civilized regions, although some merely vent their wish to destroy on anything they see.
EMBERMAGE Medium humanoid (any), Chaotic Neutral Armour Class 14 Hit Points 58 (9d8+18) Speed 30 ft. Str 9 (-1); Dex 14 (+2); Con 15 (+2); Int 12 (+1); Wis 7 (-2); Cha 18 (+4) Saving Throws Con +5, Cha +7 Skills Arcana +4, Intimidation +7 Damage Resistances Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks; Fire Senses passive Perception 8 Languages Common, Primordial Challenge 7 (2,900 XP) Innate Spellcasting. Embermages are 9th-level spellcasters. Their spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit). Embermages can cast the following spells: At will: Fire bolt, shield 3/day each: Fireball, outburst 1/day each: Demon bolt (cast at 5th level), ragefire (If you do not have access to the above spells, consider substituting a 4th-level Shatter for Outburst, a 5th-level Lightning bolt for Demon bolt, and a 4th-level Fireball for Ragefire) ACTIONS Quarterstaff. Melee weapon attack: +2 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6 - 1) bludgeoning damage. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 5 October 2021. Player Characters generally tend to be the ones of the "taking" end of robberies than being the victims of one. And should they have some belongings stolen, you are more likely to have them swear a vicious campaign-derailing oath of bloody vengeance by taking their favourite +1 longsword than you are by having a villain burn a dozen orphanages. So, fair warning: use this sparingly and with caution, as a theft like this can very much undermine your players' confidence in their own safety, and make them personally feel attacked.
While a simple smash-and-grab certainly gets the effect across, a real proper master thief who can get in and out unnoticed will quickly earn their ire, and they will almost certainly drop everything they are doing to retrieve whatever has been stolen, plot be damned. The variety of spells that can quickly locate a stolen object or even a person are quite wide from about 5th level onwards, and can quickly derail most thefts from anything other than a dedicated team of magically-equipped burglars. However, you can put this 'on rails' somewhat by offering to steer their quest for vengeance- perhaps the thief has broken some law of the local Thieves' Guild, and they offer assistance (maybe with some strings attached) to help track down the thief and recover their belongings. Another option would be having this rash of thefts affect another NPC- perhaps a noble or mage who can pool resources with the PCs and offer a clue. If you are going to spring this on your PCs, it would be wise to foreshadow this by mentioning that thieves are common in the area, and to demonstrate the levels of guard activity on the streets as they pass by. If you want to add further complication, you could take a leaf from other heist stories, and add extra teams of thieves, bounty hunters, or archaeologists who are trying to recover artifacts (possibly even ones that the PCs have just 'liberated' from an ancient ruin themselves). Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 2 October 2021. Although not as powerful or possessed of the vile intelligence of a true dracolich, zombie dragons are nevertheless vile corruptions of the magnificent creatures from which they were created. Their leathery wings are torn and decayed, their breath debased to become a pestilent gas. Their limbs are still strong enough to tear a knight in half, and many have steel plates nailed into their bones to guard them from damage. They still possess some fell intelligence which lends power to their bones, and some enterprising souls have been able to bargain with them for their services.
While some have been raised by necromancers with powerful rituals, some are dragons who have died of (somewhat) natural causes and have not yet been able to leave their hoard. ZOMBIE DRAGON Huge undead, neutral evil Armour Class 14 Hit Points 207 (18d12 + 72) Speed 15 ft., fly 50ft. Str 22 (+6); Dex 7 (-2); Con 18 (+4); Int 5 (-3); Wis 6 (-2); Cha 7 (-2) Saving Throws Str +9, Wis +1 Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities poisoned Senses Blindsight 10ft., darkvision 50ft., passive Perception 8 Languages understands Common and Draconic but can't speak Challenge 8 (3,900 XP) Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie dragon to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie dragon drops to 1 hit point instead. ACTIONS Multiattack. The zombie dragon makes one bite attack and two claw attacks. Bite. Melee weapon attack: +9 to hit, reach 10ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10+6) piercing damage. Claw. Melee weapon attack: +9 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6+6) slashing damage. Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6). The dragon exhales a rotting cloud of foetid air in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (10d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that fails its saving throw is also poisoned for 1 minute. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 1 October 2021. |
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