CoFS:A Hardcover Release Celebration!

Good day everyone!

As some of you might have heard, Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening has been released and is getting printed, as well as sent out, as I write this. Not to Europe yet, sadly, but soon I'll have my own hardcover. Until then, I figured that I could celebrate by making an archetype of my own inspired partially by the book, and by some Greek mythology.

What's there to like about CoFS:A?

Alright, let me start the answer to this question with another question - who here played Skyrim? I know I did. How about Oblivion, its sequel? Morrowind? Any other Elder Scrolls game? Well anyway, these games share several things in common, mainly the setting. Within the setting, you have lots of various beings - some are mere mortals, some are gods, some are chicken protected by the law apparently, judging by how many times the guards have chased me because of them. But... my favorite beings would have to be the Daedric Princes. I always liked the idea of beings that are on the power level of gods, but not really divine... and how close could they get with the mortals. Bestowing them with artifacts, having them do quests for them, telling them things, but also fighting each other and making alliances. The Compendium I'm talking about is all about a bunch of these beings, except they're called Alrisen instead of Daedric Princes. But I can see through their guises. Sheogorath, you won't fool me again!

Anyway, if I had to say what my least favorite of these patrons are, I always like to answer with "the ones I've read the least about". Seriously, they're well written and flexible enough to fit into any world I've ever ran with minimal changes, including Ethernet of Keys. Some of my personal most liked patrons would have to be:
- The Keeper of the Depths, a lovecraftian sea horror that invades the dreams and grants its followers forbidden knowledge;
- The Fallen Exile, a literal star that fell in love, and I guess one could say it fell from sky because of love too;
- The Shadowcat, the first ever nightmare that feeds on other nightmares, and can manipulate the powers of luck;

And the one who inspired my monk archetype...

Currency Conspiracy and Way of the Golden King

Who wants to get rich? Everyone who does raise your hand. Good, the conspiracy has taken note of you, you can lower your hands now. Actually, the currency conspiracy cabal is responsible for you wanting to get rich. They're responsible for money being as widespread as it is. But I shouldn't tell you much more, or else they'll notice me.

There is something I can tell you though. How many of you have heard of the king Midas? You know, the Greek legend, the king who turned things into gold with nothing but a touch? Alright. I figured that it would be cool if the king owned up to his curse, and made good use of it. You know, like certain other cursed royalties, hint hint. If his powers work only through touch though, he may as well throw away weapons. Hell, the armor will be made of gold, so he doesn't need that either. The best way to make use of his power is through martial arts.

This is roughly how I came up with the concept behind the Way of the Golden King. He was greedy, he got cursed, the unseen forces (that may or may not be Currency Conspiracy) gave him an offer, and now he's got his own monastery where he teaches his monks how to turn things into gold. Okay, maybe not real gold since this is players we're talking about, just false gold.

Way of the Golden King PDF

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Thank you for reading! Make sure to check out the Compendium, even the abridged version could give you an impression of what's inside. Alternatively, you can find GenuineBeliever on Reddit, Twitter, Discord and Facebook! But since I don't want to leave you with a barrage of links, I'll have to do with just one.

Webpage of Genuine Fantasy Press

This promotion was not paid in any way, I just wanted to make sure my readers see this. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

The Cursed Queens Compendium, v1

For quite a while now, I wanted to rework my original warlock patron, the Seven-cursed Queen Arcadia. I've given it good amount of thinking, and came to a conclusion: Why should it be just Arcadia? How could the things have been if she was not to win? Answers to these questions brought me more questions, which were like a pair of tickets for what was the best thought train I've ridden in a long time.

Reddit link
GMBinder link
Google Drive link

Originally, The Seven-Cursed Queen patron was too long and unwieldy for most people to really pay attention to, so I've split her up into six patrons. Eventually I plan to work out dynamic stat blocks for all of the queens so that this can be played out by a DM and players.

Design Notes

Since there's a ton of stuff, I will only address the parts that cause me concerns:

• Some of the ribbons given out from the winning queen, such as Arcadia's or Lia's ribbon, might be used for something a DM did not expect. For example, producing ashes until there's a heap tall enough to climb up a wall, or attempting to produce rare flowers by stomping on their seeds. Those abilities might need some clarifications depending on feedback I get.
• Most of the spell lists were constructed rather hap-hazardly without second thought, since I prefer not to add new spells into the game. If however there will happen to be choices that would make the warlock too strong, I will have no other choice.
• Beguiling Defenses are shared by everyone, because it is a trait I felt fits the queens. I hope people will not see it just as laziness.
• Names for other features are a bit repetitive, but I felt I should keep the theme between them as it was before to further confirm that these subclasses can really be combined.
• Healing effect of the cursed gloves might be too weak on higher levels. Bonus action to heal yourself or an ally 5 hit points would be pathetic at levels such as 10 or so, but I'd assume it would be done in case someone falls unconscious.
• Cursed earrings grant two expertises at level 1, which would play right into the wet dreams of all the skill monkeys out there. Then again, it's for two skills players can't really pick themselves.
• Capstone of the cursed eyes might be a bit too strong. Then again, it can be kinda weak compared to fiend, who gets their thing instantaneously, while this warlock risks their enemies succeeding on all three saves.
• Heart's level 1 and 14 feature are just rehashes of level 1 archfey and level 14 great old one features. But hopefully they are different enough.
• Artworks used don't really resemble the queens. Then again, finding all of those would be too big of a coincidence, and comissioning them for a project that might not even turn out that successful would be very expensive. I hope the Heart's steampunk painting is explained by that brief "queen of skies" note.

That would be all for today. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!