Weekly Delve #2
Encounters with forbidden magic, among other things...
The Compendium of Forgotten Secrets by William Hudson King
Starting off strong with one of the most interesting supplements I have seen in awhile. The Compendium of Forgotten Secrets is a whopping 200ish pages of some of the most inspired homebrew this edition has seen. I recently rolled up a warlock in a friends game using this supplement as a base and the 4 sessions I have played as that character are by far and away the most fun I have ever had as a warlock. That's who this supplement is for, warlocks. Sure there's plenty of content for other classes, but the real fun this supplement brings is from the immense amount of wonderful eldritch-y goodness contained within it's pages. The Compendium boasts over 16 new patrons with wonderfully inspired deep lore that could reasonably fit within most settings, along with plenty of roleplay hooks that blow the PHB Patrons clear out of the water. In addition the compendium also contains 11 new playable races, a myriad of new spells, feats, and abilities for all classes, a bunch of new familiars, and a pint of the best inspiration fuel for your local DM I have seen this edition.
Now that I've sung it's praises, I'm going to rip into it a little. This might be one of the least balanced homebrew supplements that will ever be featured on The Delver. It seems that all the focus went towards creating cool lore, style, and flavor text instead of playtesting. The new spells seem amazing in concept, but are just far too strong to be used in their current state, and some of the familiars might also reach a challenge rating of 10 or higher if you sat down to do the math. I could not recommend that any of the spells/feats/familiars/ect… be used without some tinkering, but if you’re reading The Delver, chances are you like to tinker.
Much like a pact with an extraplanar entity there is much to be gained from this phenomenal supplement, if you accept the risk. All in all, this is one of my favorite pieces of homebrew content I have ever come across, and I recommend it fully to experienced Players and Game Masters.
The full work comes at a 45 dollar price tag, which it is absolutely worth. The creators have published an abridged sample version to give you a taste for what you’re buying, I recommend checking that out first.
Below is a link to the free abridged version of this supplement.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g1Yr215cfNyijpPiJotezUBgU_Mj-cLE
Here is a link to the full version and more work by the same creators.
https://www.genfantasypress.com/
Artificer Specialties & Infusions by Laser Lama Homebrew
As a general rule of thumb I stay away from artificers. Personally I don't think they fit most settings and when they do, they just end up feeling like wizards with a different set of clothing and a pair of steampunk goggles. Frankly I've never felt like they've differentiated themselves enough to justify their existence. To the rescue comes Laserllama with an all new supplement focused entirely on bringing the artificer the tools it needs to craft itself a niche within the 5th edition lineup. It includes 5 new subclasses, 20 new infusions, and some great flavor text and art to bring it all together.
With this document Artificers become much more versatile and can fill a larger variety of roles within the party than prior. The Aeronaut in particular, has me very excited. In our playtesting we didn't find any major balance problems, but I recommend carefully reading over the infusions before using them, just in case. Overall this is great work, I highly recommend this for anyone planning to play an Artificer. I’m looking forward to playing an Aeronaut and seeing more from Laserllama in the future.
You can find this document at the Google Drive link below.
Laserllama’s Artificer Specialties & Infusions - Google Drive
If you’d like to check out more of Laserllama’s work, you can find it at the link below.
https://www.gmbinder.com/profile/laserllama
Improvisational combat by u/DiemtheGM
Have you ever found 5e combat a bit lacking when it comes to combat? Are there not enough decisions to make? Has your turn ever come around bringing you nothing but the thrilling choice of whether to hit the thing or get hit yourself? If you answered yes to any of these questions, u/DiemtheGM has something for you. They have been hard at work creating a neat little ruleset to make combat more interesting. Improvisational combat provides a decent sized list of situational maneuvers that increase the number of choices you can make within combat, without slowing the game down at all. Diem accomplishes this with the great system of Adverb based modifiers to actions. When you perform an action you have the option to prefix it with an adverb to modify the execution of the action. Such as attacking boldly or quickly for different effects. The benefits are minor but if used in the right situations can be extremely useful. They fit seamlessly into the game flow and add choices that 5th edition combat desperately needs.
Improvisational combat also contains some rules for uncommon situations that aren't well described in the PHB and some high risk high reward maneuvers for desperate players. Overall it adds a good amount of depth to the gameplay and is certainly worth looking into. Aside from a questionable frequency at which players may acquire exhaustion, it seems to be reasonably well balanced too. This project is still in development and may require some tinkering to fit your table, but I absolutely recommend checking it out.
You can find this document here:
Arcane Tradition: Fleshwarping by Yorviing
A very interesting wizard subclass from creator, Yorviing. This wizard is less like your average arcane bookworm, and more like Alex Mercer from the prototype game series. A new wizard subclass and a whole school of grotesque body horror magic, this addition caught my attention instantly. The subclass boasts an impressive array of evocative descriptions, gut wrenching spells, and eye catching artwork that should satiate even the edgiest of wizards. The new spells offer a surprisingly high amount of mechanical depth and the class abilities feel right at home with the concept. Balance wise the subclass is quite well made with the potential exception of the 10th level subclass feature, which I believe could be abused quite heavily by clever players. I recommend a careful look before allowing this ability. This is part of a larger work in progress by Yorviing called Yorviing’s Guide to Yvarra. If it ends up being anything like the fleshwarper I think we can look forward to it. Overall this is a great piece of content absolutely worth a look. I recommend it for tables with dark settings and players who don't mind getting their hands a little bloody.
You can find this subclass here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nz2nnPVVRPlT5Lrx8EZ_sLFrsbLu8Tvd/view
If you’d like to support or follow Yorviing you can find their patreon below