Category Archives: Game Design

Inflicted (Beta Version)

I’ve compiled the entire inflicted class into one convenient, excellently-formatted document. You can download it here. A few notes from the field: Pounce moved from L14 to L15. When I looked at everything together, L15 was a dead level with … Continue reading

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Creating a Monster: Evolutions

I’ve expressed a lot of love for “here are X options; pick Y of them” features. They weren’t terribly common in 3E and they were absent entirely in 4E, but Pathfinder has a fair number of them, and I used … Continue reading

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Creating a Monster: Monstrous Source

Yet again, feature names are proving to be the bane of my existence. I have no good idea for what to call the inflicted’s subclass options. Every class has its own name for its subclass, from the cleric’s divine domains … Continue reading

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Creating a Monster: Monstrous Form

The features in the last post don’t have a lot of points of divergence. There’s some that matter, like the condition immunities, and some that don’t, like whether an inflicted uses a slam or claws, but it’s still all mostly … Continue reading

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Creating a Monster: Meet the Inflicted

The main problem I’m having in designing a class around monsters is deciding what features the class should have. One nice thing about class design in 5E is that I can give only some features to the class at large … Continue reading

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Creating a Monster: Class Design Basics

5E is ripe for custom, homebrew add-ons. New material is coming out so rarely, it stands to reason that players themselves would feel a need to add the things they want into the system. The DMs Guild gives those players … Continue reading

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Creating a Monster: Points of Divergence

I intended to have this post closer to the original one on the Warlock Problem, but I really wanted to get that post uploaded on the correct day. Such are the hazards of linear time. It’s not a secret that … Continue reading

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The Warlock Problem

Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of one of my favorite video games of all time, Final Fantasy VI (or Final Fantasy 3 if you’re the type who hasn’t played a video game since 1998). I spent a … Continue reading

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Group Checks

Most rolls in D&D are made by a single character. Only the cleric makes a saving throw when she looks at a medusa. Only the rogue tries to disarm a trap. Only the fighter swings his sword at the goblin. … Continue reading

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House Rule: Guns

Concept: Alternate gun mechanics Tested in: Various Eight Arms campaigns What it is: D&D assumes a standard medieval fantasy setting, and Pathfinder assumes a medieval fantasy setting that likes to pretend it isn’t standard. The Eight Arms world time-advanced that … Continue reading

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