Laughing Leviathan

Path of the Warboss The half-orc that chooses the Path of the Warboss is the strongest, and the meanest of his tribe. More than just an exceedingly powerful warrior fueled by a thirst for battle, the Warboss exudes control over the battlefield through sheer might. A Warboss will usually rise to power in his tribe through sheer brute force. Once in position as the leader of a tribe, he holds dominion over all he surveys, and will use a heavy hand against anyone who says or thinks different. Restriction: Half-Orcs Only Only half-orcs can follow the Path of the Warboss. The warboss is a rare title among a unique few orc clans. Your DM can lift this restriction to better suit the campaign. Biggest and Baddest Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, your rage surges through your muscles causing you to grow to an immensely terrifying sight. While you are raging, you begin to grow in size and gain the following benefits: Double in all dimensions, and weight ...

The Spirit of Primal Fury Some barbarians are able to be so overcome with rage, that connection to magic beyond the physical world is made. This is the way of the Primalist. Through raw emotion and rage, these barbarians are able to call forth powerful magic to aid them and bolster their abilities in battle.   These barbarians learn very few spells, but are able to cast them at full power. Spellcasting When you reach 3rd level, you can channel your emotions to cast spells. See chapter 10 for general rules of spellcasting. Cantrips You know two cantrips of your choice from the druid spell list. When you reach 10th level, you learn an additional cantrip of your choice. Spell Slots The Path of the Primalist table shows how many spell slots you have. The table also shows that the level of those slots is; all of your spell slots are the same level. To cast one of your barbarian spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a spell slot. Spells Know...

An aromatic mix of finely ground tables featuring magically-adjacent items for all flavors of D&D, Knave, or your favorite OSR blend. All of these take up 1 Inventory Slot unless otherwise specified. You can find more fun items here . Books (one use per day) 1.  Book of Cranes . Tear out a sheet and make a Wisdom save. On a success, after 10 minutes you make an animated crane that fits in the palm of your hand and obeys your command. On a 1, the book loses its magic. 2.  Everscroll . It can roll out up to 1d6 pages of blank paper. 3.  Invisible Ink . Ink that can only be seen with red light. 4.  Magic Quill . Name someone and write a message on paper, parchment, or an otherwise dry surface. Only they can read it. 5.  Sheet of Immovable Parchment. Becomes magically fixed in place upon reading the words written on it out loud. Can hold up to 100 lbs. Reading it out loud returns it to normal. The parchment loses its magic if damaged in any w...

Although these tables were written with for  Knave , they are pretty much OSR compatible. Well, probably compatible with your preferred rules system too. It's not that deep. I just really love the idea of character specialization being done through their equipment and limited inventory space as opposed to special abilities gained upon levelling. I haven't played many role playing games that adopt that kind of advancement, but the one's I have (like Knave ) have been particularly fun.  More General Gear 1. Abacus 2. Bag of Flour ( 2 slots) 3. Ball Bearings 4. Basket 5. Bell 6. Block of Clay 7. Canteen 8. Catnip 9. Chest (2 slots) 10. Empty Pouches (3) 11. Flask 12. Flint & Steel 13. Handkerchief 14. Hourglass 15. Jar of Wax 16. Parchment / Paper (10) 17. Pitons 18. Set of Fancy Clothes 19. Set of Plain Clothes 20. Sledge hammer Martial Equipment 1. Knuckledusters . Brass or iron. Worn on hands 2. ...

This is part 2 of my series where I explore magic in Dungeons & Dragons 5e that manages to be everything but magical. You can read the first post here . Today's entry is going to be focused on magic food and drink, and how to make what's mundane into something fun. Whining and Dining For the purpose of this series, I'm going to ignore the Outlander background and half of the Ranger traits, even though my primary complaint about these spells could probably apply to those things too. My main issue with these spells, is that they can completely trivialize a part of the game that can be oh so fun for some groups: survival. Finding food and drink while in the wilderness, or a mile underground, or even on another Plane of Mild Existence can lead to some amazingly fun situations, or even prop up an entire adventure on its own, assuming you actually use and enforce inventory slots, scarcity, and food / water requirements in your game, that is. I'm not even sure that...

This is the beginning of a series of posts that addresses what I like to call, "No-Fun Magic". To me, "No-Fun Magic" are spells and abilities that don't necessarily add anything to the game, interact in any meaningful way, and whose purpose is solely to skip a part of the game or act as a specific answer to another magic spell. Although this can be applied to any game where these spells exists, this series is a direct response to my time spent playing Dungeons & Dragons 5e, so take that as you will. First up on the chopping block is the 3rd level Abjuration spell Dispel Magic. I like it because it's a classic, both in D&D and fantasy fiction in general. Wizards cast spells and sometimes those are bad spells. Other wizards then casts spells to undo those bad things. Or vice versa, good and bad are just words. Whatever. What I don't like about it (at least, in D&D 5e) is how boring it is. If there's a magical barrier or trap, then as lon...