Welcome back to the weekly D&D and Tabletop Gaming thread! Here’s a place where we can talk about Dungeons & Dragons or any other tabletop games that you nerds might be into. Tell us about the games you’re playing, speculate about future expansions, recruit your fellow Avocados into new groups, whatever you want.
In addition to the Cleric class, the latest One D&D Unearthed Arcana playtest document also contains 3 updated player races (or “species” as they’re calling them now). The Ardling and Dragonborn have been revised after feedback from the first One D&D playtest came through, and they’re also included a new take on the Goliath.
The Ardling was originally introduced in the “Character Origins” UA as counterpart to the Tiefling, a half-celestial race with bestial heads and limited flight, plus a feature tied to whatever specific Upper Plane you chose. In this UA, they’ve reimagined it as leaning more into the bestial side than the celestial side. As an Ardling, you still start with the Thaumaturgy cantrip, but you can switch it out for any cantrip from the Divine spell list after a long rest. All Ardlings gain proficiency in Perception, thanks to their keen senses. And you choose which type of creature you’re aligned with, choosing one of four options. As a Climber, you gain a climb speed and can add your proficiency bonus in damage to Unarmed Strikes once per turn. A Flyer gains advantage on the Jump action and can negate falling damage with their vestigial wings. A Racer can increase their speed by 10 times their proficiency bonus when they take the Dash action. And a Swimmer gains a swim speed, resistance to cold damage, and can hold their breath for 1 hour.
The Dragonborn has been updated to fix the problems with the Breath Weapon. In this UA, you can use your Breath Weapon in place of any attack you make with the Attack action, and you can choose whether the effect is a 30-foot line or a 15-foot cone. You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. You also gain Darkvision, and resistance to one type of damage depending on your choice of ancestry. And at 5th level, you can use a bonus action to sprout spectral wings and gain a Fly speed equal to your walking speed for 10 minutes. I do like the note that your wings appear to made of whatever type of energy your breath weapon uses.
Finally the Goliath is given un update to allow you to chose what type of giant your character is descended from. There are 6 options (Cloud, Fire, Frost, Hill, Stone, and Storm), and each gives a special ability that is usable a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus pr long rest. Cloud’s Jaunt lets you teleport 30 feet as a bonus action. Fire’s Burn lets your deal an extra 1d10 fire damage on any attack. Frost’s Chill adds 1d6 cold damage to any attack and reduces the target’s movement by 10 feet. Hill’s Tumble lets you knock a target prone after hitting with an attack with no saving throw, as long as the target is Large size or smaller. Stone’s Endurance lets you use a reaction to reduce incoming damage by 1d12. And Storm’s Thunder lets you use a reaction when you take damage to deal 1d8 thunder damage to the creature that hit you. Finally, at 5th level all Goliaths can use a bonus action to grow to Large size, giving them advantage on STR checks and increasing their speed by 10 feet.
Our group started up a new adventure this past weekend. We’re starting in Eberron and running through the Light of Xaryxis module that was released as part of the recent Spelljammer set for D&D 5e. Josephus Brown is taking the reins as DM, and our new characters include:
- The Wonderful Wizard AN (Plasmoid Divination Wizard) The Wasp
- Delilah Delethorn (Satyr Swashbuckler Rogue) TheHayesCode
- Geenie Crambits (Halfling Undying Light Warlock) Spiny Creature
- Okassaath Ch’katroth d’Tharashk (Half-Orc [Mark of Finding] Arcane Archer Fighter/Stars Druid) CleverGuy
- Tekili-Li (Wildhunt Shifter Twilight Cleric) Otto
- Ximon (Fire Genasi Swords Bard) Wafflicious
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No time for a full in-character write-up this week, but I will give a quick recap of events below!
First, we were attacked by a giant black space-shark (or ‘void skavver’), which managed to surprise most of us on our way back to the Second Wind. It almost dropped Geenie in one hit, but Deliliah managed to reduce the damage with her shield just enough to keep Geenie from going down. After a couple rounds of combat, it managed to swallow AN, but as it tried to swim away through the Astral Sea, it tore itself open on the thorny vines produced by Kass’s Grasping Arrow, releasing AN as it died, along with a partially digested dwarf wearing a Fishsuit (a magic item that lets you swim in water and/or fly in the Astral Sea). I don’t remember if anyone claimed that or not.
After we defeated the space-shark, Topola offered to introduce us to Grimzod Gargenhale, a pirate she had a previous relationship with who owed her a favor and might want to help us fight the Xarxians. She took over the spelljamming helm and flew us to Grimzo’d fleet, only to find that it had been largely destroyed in a battle with some Xarxians already. Grimzod’s flagship wasn’t among the debris, but we did pick up two Vampirates who were part of his crew. Krux wanted to kill them on sight, but we managed to talk him down and they were able to point us in the direction that Grimzod himself was last seen heading.
We eventually found Grimzod’s ship, the Last Breath, hiding in a nebula. The Vampirate captain came aboard the Second Wind to talk, but while we were negotiating, his crew deicded to abandon him and take the Last Breath for themselves. Grimzod said he had a secret weapon aboard that would help us defeat the Xarxains, but we had to recover it from the stolen vessel. He turned our whole ship invisible so we could sneak up on the Last Breath and board.
Once aboard the ship, we had to fight through eight vampirates, one vampirate mage, and an ogre zombie to get to the brig where the secret weapon would be. We quickly discovered the vampirates were vulnerable to radiant damage, which is something we have a lot of. We also discovered that they exploded when they were killed, hurting creature close by. But with Tekili, Geenie, and Kass all pumping out various forms of radiant damage, Delilah and Ximon’s swordplay taking down the ogre zombie, and AN turning one of the pirates against his companions with Enemies Abound, we eventually made it to the lowerdeck and toward the brig.
Lying in the brig as unconscious Astral Elf woman, who Grimzod told us was the daughter of the Xarxian emperor. This was his secret weapon! It was about that time though, that Kass was possessed by a ghost among Grimzod’s old crew, and forced to pick up a cask of alchemist’s fire and use it to destroy the Last Breath. We barely managed to escape with the Astral Elf princess in time before the whole vampirate ship exploded!
