Villainous Cookbook: The Superb Exemplar

I have to admit something. I'm afraid I've set the bar too high for myself with the first article. Memento Necromancer is a beautiful character that interweaves the mechanics with a theme. And that theme is to give the edgelords whose backstory says everyone they ever cared for is dead someone who they'd love to hate. I don't know if I can do that sort of thing again, especially since these days I have a hard time keeping up with homebrews people produce. With all that being said though, I have some ideas for at least two more villains, who I can publish here as soon as I figure out their themes. At the moment, I can only tell you that their dominant stats are Charisma and Intelligence, and they both revolve around staying hidden, in their own ways.

Preface

The purpose of the Villainous Cookbook is to offer cool villain ideas for DMs. It uses homebrew player options sometimes mixed with the official ones, but it bends the rules a little to work better. While sometimes restrictions breed creativity, other times it's nice to push the boundary a little to make the villain more interesting.

The stats are left completely up to the reader. You can make those anything you want, as long as it's within some boundaries, and you don't need to spend any ASIs or consider the stat bonuses provided by the feats unless you want to complicate things for yourself.

Each of the builds is split into 4 Tiers, to show how the villain grows in power over time. At any moment, the villain should be at least on the same tier as your players if not higher, since you want them to be challenging. Unless noteworthy, I won't mention the specific spells, ability scores, backgrounds, or skills. All that I leave up to you so that the villain is more customized.

One last word of caution - while these builds might seem overpowered, making the homebrews seem overpowered, bear in mind two things.

1. We're adjusting the rules a little to make the character builds work better. If this demands an in-world explanation, say that this is an exceptional person who figured out something others don't know, or has special bloodline/destiny.
2. We're crossing the homebrew streams. And that can oftentimes go wrong. I'm doing my best to use homebrews that I consider balanced and that I would actually allow my players to use in the games.

Alright! Let's get to the villain - the Superb Exemplar!

The Superb Exemplar

"After what you've done to me, I decided to train. To become better. While you raided the dungeons and crypts, I prayed to the divinities for knowledge. While you fought the wolves and goblins that ambushed you on your way, I was taught the way of being one with nature. And while you saved the king from the assassination, I served the one true Queen who sees all. All of this done to become better, the best I could ever be. And unlike you, I've managed to succeed."

I've always pictured this guy as a Sherlock Holmes type, who'd be a noble of some sorts. Extremely competent, popular, and studied.
Sherlock Holmes, by RadoJavor

Ingredients list

• Halfling race (PHB)
• Barbarian 3: Totem Warrior - bear (PHB)
• Bard 3: College of Lore (PHB)
• Cleric 1: Knowledge Domain (PHB)
• Rogue 11: ?
• Warlock 2: Mirror Eyes (Proph's Homebrew)
• Class Feature Variants UA

Tier 1

We begin our journey by starting with two levels of rogue, one level of warlock, and one level of cleric. Including the skill proficiencies from a background, this means that the exemplar has 10 skill proficiencies (2 from background, 4 from rogue level 1, 2 from cleric, 2 from warlock), and expertise in 6 of them: Insight, Perception, 2 Intelligence skills other than Investigation, and any 2 skills you're proficient in by now. For Intelligence, I would make sure to pick Arcana - it's not an important part of our build, just a matter of personal preference.

With all of this, we have a halfling who has an average amount of hit points, ability to bonus action Dash, Disengage, and Hide, and some spellcasting. Make sure to pick up the guidance cantrip if you want to add that extra bit of oomph.

So far so good! At the moment our exemplar sounds fairly average, let's get a bit more crazy.

Tier 2

We start by getting 3 levels in barbarian, as well as 3 levels in rogue. Say, since we're already proficient in Dexterity saving throws, and we'll soon get to reduce damage from them by half, why not swap that out for something more useful? Survival Instinct is a feature that replaces the Danger Sense, and gives us two skills, as well as expertise in them, out of a small selection. My recommended picks would be Animal Handling and Survival. Oh yes, and we also get to rage, and get to resist all damage except for psychic while raging.

This stacks nicely with rogues, who by now get Uncanny Dodge, as well as some other boons. At 3rd level, you get to pick an archetype. And, ... I'll be honest with you, I don't know what archetype to tell you to pick here. While Scout could be cheesed for 2 extra skills and expertises in them, we could also go with something more interesting. Inquisitive, Arcane Trickster, and Mastermind are very interesting picks, and there's definitely plethora of cool roguish archetypes out there that you could pick too. For example, the Maxim Master made by yours truly revolves around casting spells at their most ground level, and develops theoretical knowledge which could be used for arcane programming.

Either way, we end up with a total of 12 skills now, and 2 new skills to have an expertise in. Time to move on into the next tier where we really see what makes this build special, other than soaking damage.

Tier 3

All six levels we gain in this tier go into rogue. We get two new expertises, two feats, and the most important part of our build - Reliable Talent. Now, whatever skills is our exemplar proficient in, they can't roll less than 10 on a die for. This basically means that, for example, if our exemplar has a +3 in Charisma and expertise in Persuasion, the least they can roll at level 16 is 23. Let's not omit the fact that they can reroll 1's due to their race. I suppose there's also other benefits, like sneak attack or evasion, but... we're not really building a warrior here. Sure they can hold up decently in a fight, but their power is focused on situations outside of a fight.

Tier 4

Our exemplar becomes a cultural icon at this point. They gain 3 levels in bard, and 1 level in warlock. With the bard levels, they get 4 extra skill proficiencies in any skills they want, and 2 extra expertises. With the extra warlock level, they get 2 new skills thanks to an eldritch invocation. We'll turn a blind eye to this and assume that it says we can pick different skills if we have Persuasion and/or Deception. Let's also pick up Devil's Sight while we're here. So we get a total of 6 new skills, on top of the 12 skills we had up until now. And... that means we have ourselves a proficiency in every single skill. Plus, expertise in 4 skills from rogue, 2 from bard, 2 from barbarian, 2 from warlock, and 2 from cleric. Total of 12 skills, in which we get to double our proficiency bonus. On top of Reliable Talent. And guidance.

Remember though, even if they have 6d6 Sneak Attack, Rage, and Uncanny Dodge, they're still not built for just face-to-face battle. Make them sneaky and tricky. Always out of reach of the players - since they have such a high Insight roll, they'll always stay out of players' sight. Planning, scheming, hiding.

Expertises

This section will talk about what skills to pick an expertise in for each of the levels. I won't discuss the skills themselves, I feel like anyone could decide those on their own for themselves depending on the exemplar they wish to run.

• Tier 1 gives us Arcana, History/Nature/Religion, Insight, Perception, Stealth\*, and Investigation*.
• Tier 2 grants us Animal Handling and Survival.
• For Tier 3, you can pick 2 out of Athletics*, Sleight of Hand*, Deception*, and Persuasion*.
• Finally, at Tier 4 you can pick the last two picks from the selection above.

* These skills can be exchanged for anything.

Feats

This build gets one feat at Tier 2, and two feats at Tier 3. I highly recommend picking up Observant, since it gives their passive Perception an even better boost and makes it thus harder to sneak upon them. Other picks to consider are Lucky, Keen Mind, Alert, and Squat Nimbleness, though you can really pick anything here.

Story Background

The Superb Exemplar is a character fairly low on magic. 6 of its levels are invested into spellcasters, but that doesn't mean much since their highest level of a spell slot is 2. Seeing how many things they are competent at, I'd have them in an environment you would expect to meet a polymath: A noble court, an inventor's workshop, a gallery, a library, sky's the limit. Listed below are just some of the possible plot hooks to make the players' and exemplar's stories meet:

• One of the player characters has humiliated the exemplar publicly. Ever since, the exemplar took on a new name, holding a grudge against this person.
• The exemplar seeks the approval or acceptance from someone who's already party's enemy.
• The exemplar lost someone close to them because of a player character, but they blame themselves. They seek perfection so that this could never again happen.

The exemplar's greatest motivation is perfection of self, but this could be their ultimate downfall. While they are amazing at anything they can do, they're still a mere mortal, barely capable of magic of 2nd level. Their saving throws and Armor Class do not get any better than those of a 1st level character, unless you were to improve their stats.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

P.S.: If you want to use this as a player character in a party, please don't. Everyone at the table wants to feel useful, and being good at everything hogs all of the spotlight. I'm not doing this to give players ideas for cool builds, I'm doing this to give players cool villains to pursue.
However, you have my permission to try to play this in a solo game. All the spotlight is on you if you're the only player, and honestly I feel like this would be one of the best ways to play solo, other than playing a Charisma caster or a pure rogue. Which doesn't mean that any other classes are invalid, you do what you want!

Weave Magic and Unbound Magic

Magic is one of the biggest parts of the D&D system. Taking up over 80 pages out of the Player's Handbook's 300+ pages, it's fair to say it is important to most players. With the recent release of the new Psionic Options Unearthed Arcana, we've got some extra lore on the psionics. And while previously I found presence of psionics to be fairly pointless since it's basically fancy magic, upon reading this lore it made me realize that this is an untapped space of potential out there for everyone to explore. Quoting the Unearthed Arcana:

Is Psi a Form of Magic?

Psi is a supernatural power that emanates from the mind. Like other forms of supernatural power in D&D, it can be used to create magical phenomena, yet it can create other sorts of phenomena as well. In the game’s rules, only certain supernatural effects are classified as magical: magic items, spells, spell attacks, powers fueled by spell slots, and any other effect that the rules explicitly call magical. This distinction is rarely relevant in play, typically coming up only when something like an antimagic field shows up.
From a storytelling standpoint, some supernatural effects in D&D weave their power into a formalized form—a spell, for instance—that other effects can disrupt. In contrast, there are other supernatural effects that are so wild, formless, or subtle that it is difficult or impossible to disrupt them. In this article, some of the psionic powers create what the rules consider to be magic and some don’t.

Artwork from the TavernTales RPG

With that out of the way, I would like to propose that there are two types of magic in D&D. It's not just inborn vs. gained, or arcane vs. divine this time around. This time, we're looking at a much bigger picture—Weave magic, and Unbound magic. And while the original definition of the eight caster classes in the game stay for the most part the same, some rewording to the usual explanations is necessary.
(Note: After rereading and researching online, I found out that Unbound Magic is a term used in Guild Wars 2. But I don't think renaming it is a good idea for now, since this is the best term I could come up with for magic that doesn't rely on Weave. If anyone has suggestions for a better name, feel free to tell me in the comments!)

Weave Magic

For the sake of clarity, I'll begin with the classes that are already in the game. Notice that each of these is important in how they manipulate the Weave.

• Bard is characteristic for using their power of heart and/or soul through performing their art of choice to manipulate the Weave.
• Cleric harnesses the divine magic that comes from the deity it worships and uses that to manipulate the Weave.
• Druids live in harmony with the nature, which is why they can manipulate the Weave.
• Paladin magic comes from the power of their devotion. This is what lets them manipulate the Weave.
• Rangers have learned how to survive in the wilderness, and in doing so they learned how to access and manipulate the Weave.
• Sorcerers can manipulate the Weave because it's a talent they were born with. They just need to develop it.
• Warlocks have been given power to manipulate the Weave by an otherworldly patron.
• Wizards have studied how to manipulate the Weave by memorization and experimentation.

Sorry for so much repetition of "manipulate the Weave" line above, but it is important to today's article for one simple reason: antimagic field. This spell, or a magical effect (non-magical rather maybe?) is what is used for defining which magic comes from the Weave, and which is Unbound. Simple test of "does it work in antimagic field?" can answer our questions, because antimagic field literally prevents access to the Weave. To answer a possible question of "how can a spell do this?", I suggest a simple answer of the spell "pushing" the Weave away from the point of origin. There are of course dead magic zones and such too, but I'll just label it all antimagic field to be consistent.

Now we are finally ready to delve into the other type of the magic.

Unbound Magic

Since antimagic field cancels only spells, magic items, spell attacks, powers fueled by spell slots, and other effects that are explicitly called by rules "magical", that leaves some stuff that's not magic RAW, yet it is supernatural.

Our first example will be something already defined by the official rules: Monk. That's right, monk's abilities are our first case of the Unbound magic. Just as a proof, here's a short list of some of the supernatural effects level 20 monks can manifest even while fully inside of the antimagic field:

• running up the walls to a height of 60-ish feet in 6 seconds (120 if they Dash, 180 if they also use bonus action Step of the Wind to Dash),
• talking in all languages at once and understanding all languages,
• turning invisible for 1 minute.

Last time I've checked, someone running up a 50 meter wall in 6 seconds without falling and turning invisible were supernatural. The lore says it's magic. Yet, these abilities are not described RAW as magic. Previous editions have stated that monks basically use psionics. Some folks said that what psionics are to mind, monks are to body. I kinda like the latter explanation more, monks on their own don't seem psionic to me personally. The only things a monk can't do in antimagic field (ignoring subclass-specific stuff) are not being able to cast astral projection, and depending on the DM not being able to use Ki-Empowered Strikes.

Our next example, which doesn't really need much introduction or detail since it's still in a playtest form, is the various forms of psionics. They can be used to cast spells, they can also be used to do other supernatural effects without them really being stopped by antimagic field.

My final example that I'll talk about in a bit more detail is a full class made by Genuine Believer, which I decided I'll test out by including it in my current campaign's world. Icon is described as a martial class that wields magical masks that grant them various powers. Another interesting explanation for their power is this coming from a minor form of divinity. However, curiously enough, there aren't that many class features, which are described as "magical". The only spell present in the entire class write-up is the capstone feature of the Dragon mask, which allows the wearer to cast the shapechange spell, turning into a dragon. Some of the masks allow to deal magical types of bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage, so those could also arguably be rendered nonmagical while in the antimagic field. But other than that, this class can work just as well in the field. Here are some supernatural effects that Icon is capable of even while in the antimagic field:

• wearing a mask that can't be removed without its permission,
• healing through sheer willpower,
• cause creatures around you to identify some traits of your choice just by a glance,
• not aging, not needing to eat, drink, or breathe,
• and gaining immunity to four types of damage.

Some other examples of Unbound magic classes that I found for now but don't feel like describing in detail are the following:

• Castellan,
• Disciple,
• and depending on whether you see the ability to train dragons as magical or not, Dragon Knight.

Conclussion

Weave magic is only one side of the coin when it comes to the worldbuilding using D&D 5e. A far scarier side of the coin is Unbound magic. Magic that can't really be detected with detect magic, prevented with dispel magic or antimagic field, something beyond the regular rules. Whether it's psionic, iconic, monastic, or of some other nature, Unbound magic holds, just as the name suggests, unbound potential for exploration in homebrew D&D design.
One last note - if you liked this article, you might also like my four different takes on psionics!

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

1d12 Fantastical Fruits!

How about I try something for once? Here are 12 unusual fruits that I made up for my world(s). Apologies ahead of time for all the puns, and I hope you'll enjoy reading this!

1. Catapple. An apple with two growths on top that resemble cat ears. These ears are one of the reasons why the catapples make for really good projectiles. If you're a bad performer, expect some rotten catapples being thrown at you besides rotten tomatoes. Being thrown catapples at is referred as "being catappled", from which the word catapult comes.
2. Goblin bean. Green beans with a strong bad smell. Only the most avantgarde gourmets would ever use them in meals, some of them managing to make them taste good. However, no gourmet can save you from the smell that comes after the beans, which is way worse than the smell of raw goblin beans.
3. Dragonberry. This strange berry resembles raspberry, with three to five big berries, usually in colors of chromatic dragons., each one different. They all have spikes on them, so make sure to break those off before eating the berries.
4. Fairberry. They look like regular blueberries, but taste much sweeter. However, those who eat these berries are reduced to Tiny size for 1 minute, which explains their name.
5. Githberry. These yellow raspberries grant the one who eats them temporary psychic powers. After eating them, they can cast one cantrip of DM's choice once. However, after finishing a long rest this use is wasted, and one can't have more than one cantrip ready like this.
6. Grandmelon. The watermelons grown by the giants themselves. These huge melons are bigger than a pig, and curiously enough - sweeter on the edges, as opposed to regular watermelons that are sweet in the middle. From this comes a saying about activities that get less fun the longer they go, which are "like eating a grandmelon". Due to their size and the taste distribution, they are eaten from the outside in.
7. Kenkunut. A black coconut that produces a raven shriek when cracked in a right way. Tastes like a regular coconut, but it's got a licorice aftertaste to it.
8. Honeyfruit. This fruit resembles an orange that's a little more yellow than its namesake, and is filled with juice that tastes and feels just like honey.
9. Pineana. Deadly pineapple that needs to be killed before being eaten. Pineanas are the most dangerous fruit around that will try to devour you first. It tastes like a mixture between pineapple and banana.
10. Melon-lemon. A melon-sized sour lemon. What else is there to say.
11. Blood pear. A pear that's bloody red on the inside. Interesting fact is that it has the taste and nutrients of regular blood, making it perfect for vegan vampires.
12. Starberry. This metal-looking strawberry with dots organized in a regular grid taste like ozone and have a metallic smell. After it fully grows, it never rots.

Sorry for being inactive for such a long time, my real life kept me busy. I'll try to write here more often. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

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!

Faceless, my variant of changelings

Howdy, everyone!

This has been one busy summer. I started to work on several homebrews and several articles, but I didn't have time nor energy to finish any of them, up until now.

Behold, the faceless!

Carnival by Julia Zhuravleva
Pictured here: Not an Eberron changeling.

PDF Link
GMBinder Link

Faceless are my reimagining of Eberron's changelings. The key difference between the faceless and changelings is that changelings are half-dopplegangers, while faceless are a planetouched race, influenced by the Far Realms. In other words, they are to Far Realms what Tieflings are to lower planes of existence. I renamed them into faceless only recently due to WotC making Eberron into a proper official setting in 5e, so expect me to every now and then call my faceless changelings.

I also carefully constructed several racial feats for the faceless. My design philosophy while making this race and its feats was to give race's main ability lots of limitations, which could be avoided through feats. You can transform only into humanoids, except for when you achieve beastly, plant-like or object shapes with feats. You can't turn into something that doesn't have two legs and two arms, except for when you get the Beastly Forms feat.

In the future, I plan to write up a whole mini setting populated with faceless, a city called Masq. I already have some of the things written down, since I planned to do the whole project all at once, but it'll take me some time to finish. There will be stat blocks, magic items, and more things if I manage to make more things up.

Some other projects of mine include: rework of my old cosmology model, for which the article is nearly finished; designing hard magic system for D&D; possibly reworking one of the minimalistic RPG systems I've seen into something I could use when I'm too lazy to introduce people to 5e fully; wriitng up Worldwar minigame rules article here; and generator of the entire world's history I guess.

Yep, it's a lot. I don't know when and how will I finish all these things, but I guess I should do it one by one.

Thank you for your patience, sorry for the summer break, and have I want to wish you a nice day!

[EoK] Backgrounds and "Alignments"

I've got a confession to make. I don't really care much for backgrounds. I know, how could I do such a thing, right? Well... the problem is that most of them appear boring, or possibly even weak. And unlike a lot of DMs, I don't condemn power playing. Both because most of my games are solo, but also because I know players want to feel good about their characters.

Most of the background features presented in Player's Handbook rely on your adventurers traveling around the world a lot. Ethernet of Keys should be centered on a few big cities above anything else, with players solving problems that occur within them and maybe traveling out of the cities now and then. Paging through the book, I discovered that most of the backgrounds offer what amounts to the same benefits: You can sleep in someone else's house, they maybe even offer you food if you're a good guest, they are generally friendly to you and your group. Compare that to urchin, whose feature of moving twice as fast through the cities is very useful in an urban-centric game.

Most of the features listed in this document come from Player's Handbook and Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, as well as Backgrounds Omnibus, and Tribality. Few of the features I came up with myself, or boiled down from the official sources.

Download the PDF

Being a hockey player was just the beginning of his undead hunting profession.
Harry Dresden, by BrentWoodside

Reworked Backgrounds

As a player, you can choose two skill proficiencies and a total of two tool proficiencies or languages. You can't choose languages granted only by class features this way. You can also choose personal characteristics — personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws — from any background. All of these choices should be discussed with the DM to see how they fit PC's backstory.

The players also gain two background features — a group background feature, and an individual background feature. The group background feature shows how the character is related to the world and can give them a trinket that should somehow tie them to the organization, while the individual background feature gives the player something that makes them different.

Group Background Feature

Choose one group such as an organization, a small town or a district of a large city. You can find place to hide, rest or recuperate among other commoners in the chosen group, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them. They will shield you from the law or anyone else searching for you, though they will not risk their lives for you.
Additionally, if the chosen group can provide a service for you, such as sailing a ship or casting some spells, they are willing to do it for a reduced cost of small favor in return, depending on the task.

Examples of such organizations, other than small towns or city districts, include: religious groups, artistic groups, criminal gangs, medical centers, entertainment troupes, journalistic corporations, noble families, ship crews, armies, hacker cliques, ...

Do not try to fool the magical creatures.
Highly Flammable (reworked), by Greg-opalinski

Individual Features List

You can choose one of the following features as a background feature that characterizes you more personally. It is possible to gain or lose these features during play.

Authority. Whether it's due to your noble heritage or unnatural beauty, you are welcome in high society and people assume you have the right to be wherever you are. You have no troubles securing an audience with a local noble if you need to, and the common folk make efforts to avoid your displeasure, as long as they have respect for you.

Bad Reputation. People are afraid of you due to your reputation. You can get away with minor criminal offenses, such as refusing to pay for food at a bar or breaking down doors at a local shop, since most people will not report your activity to the authorities.

Black Market Contact. You know how to gain access to the local black market, where you can buy equipment you wouldn't be able to buy legally.

Citywise. When you are not in combat, you (and companions you lead) can travel between any two locations in the city twice as fast as your speed would normally allow.

Companions. Whether they are servants, companions from your group or fans, you have the service of three commoners who can perform mundane tasks for you. However, they will not follow you into obviously dangerous areas, and will refuse to fight for you. If they are endangered or abused too frequently, they will leave.

Curiosity. Through the curiosity you spark in others just by your presence through your accent, mannerisms, figures of speech, or perhaps even appearance, you can gain access to people and places you might not otherwise have, for you and your traveling companions.

Discovery. You have uncovered a great truth of some nature. It could be a truth about the cosmos, forces of nature, or a fact that has been long forgotten. Work with your DM to determine the details of your discovery and its impact on the campaign.

False Identity. You have created a second identity that includes documentation, digital profile, established acquaintances, and disguises that allow you to assume that persona.

Favor Exchange. You can call in a favor from a contact within your chosen group to perform a mundane task for you such as gathering information or arranging safe passage. If the favor puts your contact at risk, they will require an equally risky favor from you in return. The contact can refuse to perform tasks assigned to them before they manage to finish the first one.

Immortal. You can't die of old age. Work out with your DM the details of your immortality — how did your character achieve it, whether there are any side effects it has etc.

Innocent. When you are at the mercy of another, they always prefer to capture you rather than kill you, unless you resist capture to the point of death. If you offer yourself as a hostage (perhaps in exchange for another), almost any creature accepts this trade.

Landowner. You own a building larger than a regular home and a plot of land it stands on. Determine with your DM why you own it, what exactly it is for and some basic parameters such as the size or some rooms it has.

Oathbreaker’s Mark. Your soul is marked for your transgressions, and the magical beings can always recognize an oathbreaker mark. Encounters with the magical creatures are not necessarily hostile, but they are never trusting. When a creature breaks an oath or bargain with you, you can mark it as an oathbreaker if it is on the same plane of existence as you are. You can end a mark that you placed at any time, and you can sense oathbreaker marks on others if you can see them, and they are within 30 feet.

Pattern master. By observing a pattern you can predict what comes next, if advancing, or what came before if needing to predict in reverse order with 100% accuracy. This ability works with even irregular patterns, or ones that don’t seem to follow the same set of rules all the time. The more complex a pattern is, the longer it takes you to figure it out.

Researcher. If you don't know a piece of information you're trying to recall or learn, you know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this information comes from a library, university, or some learned person. Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an almost inaccessible place, or that it simply cannot be found.

Unprofiled. Whether through your own actions, or that of a benefactor, you have almost no digital presence. Almost all records of your history have been erased or sealed, and you are not easily recognizable by facial recognition or cameras. Your data is also extremely secure, and only your personal devices can access it.

Vigilant. Once per day, you can spend 10 minutes observing the settlement you reside in at the moment to get a significant observation about local culture such as a local taboo, legend or rumor.

Wanderer. You have excellent memory for maps and geography, and you can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day while in wilderness, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water and so forth.


In the future, I will expand the backgrounds by including the starting equipment players get from individual features. Until then, I will have to settle for the optional rule from chapter 5 of PHB.

This is what happens when your city doesn't have magical monster hunters.
Ghost Cat, by thegryph

... and Alignments

Lower your pitchforks, please. I know what I have said in the past about alignments, and I know I have ditched them for most of my other settings. But its box always sits at the top of the character sheets, ready to be used for something. That's why I've tried to experiment a little, and came up with something that could be a good use for it. One that the players would actually have to make anyway, and one that would not make their characters go mad, because their characters already acknowledge these alignments to be true. These alignments are about their personal philosophies.

The first axis talks about the character's awareness of the profiling and conspiracies behind the technology. There are generally three groups of people on this axis: people who are aware and worried about it, possibly even doing something against the system; people who are unaware and blissfully live out their lives not knowing anything about it; and people who are ignorant of it — they know about the system knowing their preferences, but choose to not do anything about it, feeling it's alright for the providers to invade their privacy.

Example uses: finding like-minded individuals on the ethernet annonymously, changes in the danger rating of an individual, general outlook on the society, ...

The second axis talks about the character's relationship to magic. The first group finds magic to be fine, and useful. For the purposes of the alignment, they'll be thus labeled as arcanists (unless I find a better name). Then there are those who are neutral about the magic, not minding it but not really trying to use it themselves. And finally, forsakers, who find magic to be repulsive and consider it a force working against the humanity and civilization due to how it works against the technology.

Example uses: fairies that can detect whether you do or don't hold magic, government keeping track of your stance of magic, your public stance affecting the profile companies have about you, access into the societies that work for or against magic, ...

I would of course advise players to agree before creating their characters on which of the alignments do they pick. With the second one, I have succeeded in not making it necessarily “good vs. evil”, but with the first one I can't quite say that, seeing how the system will rely on PCs that are hackers and those who fight for the privacy of common folk.

For my games, I recommend players pick either aware or unaware alignment on the awareness scale, and arcanist or neutral alignment as a stance towards magic.

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That should be all for today. Next up, expect the updated version of Legacy System, with some new features! Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

[EoK] Legacy, Racial System Replacement

Instead of races, Ethernet of Keys setting will use the Legacy System, in which players get to pick their racial traits in small packets, depending on their personal history and life. This post features a modified human from the PHB as a base for the statistics all humans share, expanding on them afterwards using the Legacy System.

To introduce the Legacy system briefly, it is a highly adaptable system ideal for single-race low magic settings (such as EoK), single-race no magic settings, or settings so high on magic it would be silly to try and document all the races to find there. Below is an extended list of pros and cons this system can offer to you:

+	each of the races created in this system is roughly on a same power level,
+	DM can easily remove or modify the options from their game to fit most settings,
+	DM can let players start with more legacy points if they want to let players become stronger (I would not recommend to lower the number of legacy points as that would make them weaker than most official races),
+	DM can easily modify how magical the players can get by allowing more or less Arcane calls to be picked (2 by default),
+	players are free to come up with their own flavor for final outcome, e.g. flavoring someone with flaming soul as either fire genasi, tiefling, flaming aasimar or just fire wizard's son,
-	some of the options are a little stronger than I would prefer (in particular: acid, cold and lightning choices in arcane calls section),
-	this system is not suitable for worlds where the DM wants all the races to be clearly defined.

Original artwork by Cristi Balanescu

Base Statistics
Regardless of your Legacy choices, most of the humans share the following traits:

Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
Size. Humans range widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Regardless of your position in that range, your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages. You know Common and one extra language of your choice.

Legacy

Players are usually considered human in this setting and thus can't really fit all into one neat race that gets a +1 to every stat, or gets a feat for free. Instead, the players get 6 legacy points to spend when creating a character. They can take any of the following Legacy options by spending the said amount of legacy points on them. You can take each Legacy option only once, unless the option's description says otherwise.

Major Ability Score Improvement
Cost: 2 legacy points
One ability score of your choice increases by +2.

Minor Ability Score Improvement
Cost: 1 legacy point
One ability score of your choice increases by +1. If you did not take the Major Ability Score Improvement, this option can be taken up to six times, choosing a different ability score each time.

Amateur Craftsman
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have proficiency with artisan's tools (tinker's tools), and you add double your proficiency bonus to checks using your proficiency with tinker's tools. Using those tools, as part of a short rest you can spend 10 gp worth of materials to construct a Tiny device (AC 5, 1 hp). The device ceases to function after 24 hours (unless you spend 1 hour repairing it to keep the device functioning), or when you use your action to dismantle it; at that time, you can reclaim the materials used to create it. You can have up to three such devices active at a time.
When you create a device, choose one of the following options:
Alarm. This device senses when a creature moves to within 15 feet of it without speaking aloud a password chosen when you create it. One round after a creature moves into range, the alarm makes a shrill ringing that lasts for 1 minute and can be heard from up to 300 feet away.
Automated Toy. This toy is an animal, monster, or person, such as a frog, mouse, bird, dragon, or soldier. When placed on the ground, the toy moves 5 feet across the ground on each of your turns in a random direction. It makes noises as appropriate to the creature it represents.
Calculator. This device makes doing sums easy.
Clock. This watch keeps accurate time, and it can be used to measure time.
Flashlight. You can use your bonus action to turn this device on or off. When it is turned on, it shines a bright light in a 15-foot cone and a dim light for an additional 15 feet.
Lighter. The device produces a miniature flame, which you can use to light a candle, torch, or campfire. Using the device requires your action.
Music Player. When opened, this device plays a single song at a moderate volume. The player stops playing when it reaches the song's end or when it is closed.

Athletic
Cost: 1 legacy point
You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag or lift. Additionally, your unarmed strike uses a d4 for damage.

Climber
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have a climbing speed of 30 feet and you’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to extremely cold climates, and suffer no penalties caused by them.

Poison Resistant
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have a resistance against poison damage.

Quick
Cost: 1 legacy point
Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.

Savage Might
Cost: 2 legacy points
Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level. Additionally, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Skilled
Cost: 1 legacy point
You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice and in one tool set or language of your choice. Alternatively, you can gain proficiency in any combination of four tool sets or languages. You can select this option multiple times. Each time you do so, you must choose different proficiencies.

Sprinter
Cost: 1 legacy point
Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your tum in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the tum. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.

Swimmer
Cost: 1 legacy point
You can hold your breath for up to 15 minutes, and you have a swimming speed of 30 feet. Furthermore, you have advantage on any Strength (Athletics) checks made to swim in difficult conditions.

Weapon training
Cost: 1 legacy point
You gain a proficiency in one martial weapon and two simple weapons of your choice. You can select this option multiple times. Each time you do so, you must choose different weapons.

Character Design study - modern clothing, by Rodrigo Idalino

Arcane Calls

Whether you were born with it, in contact with magic long enough, or contracted the magic in some other way, you are now innately magical. You can choose up to two of the following arcane calls when creating a character. After picking at least one arcane call, you automatically gain the Arcane Fate option for free.
When you learn a new cantrip through an arcane call you choose, you must choose one of the following ability scores: Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. You must use the chosen ability score as a spellcasting ability for the cantrips you gained through the racial features. If you ever gain levels in warmage class, you must use the same spellcasting ability for it.
Some of the calls may list an ability score as one of its prerequisites. This means that in order to be able to take this call, you must have a Minor or Major Ability Score Improvement, with which you have chosen that ability score.

Unusual Appearances
Those who have been called by magic usually develop physical features that set them apart from regular humans. It could be something small as eyes of unnatural color or pointed ears, or something as big as having wings on your back or your hair being a small flame instead. Players are free to take inspiration from other settings and encouraged to come up with their own distinguishing looks, as long as they provide no mechanical benefits beyond those outlined in the Arcane Calls.

Arcane Fate
Prerequisite: At least one arcane call
You are not seen as fully human anymore, and thus can be treated by some with suspicions. You gain disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks and advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks against such individuals. At DM's discretion, anyone's opinions on those with arcane calls may shift over time either way.

Aquatic Origin
Cost: 1 legacy point
You can breathe air and water, and you know the shape water cantrip.

Breathless
Prerequisite: STR and CON
Cost: 1 legacy
You do not need to breathe.

Cold Adaptation
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have resistance against cold damage, and you know the ray of frost cantrip.

Earthly Form
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the mold earth cantrip. Additionally, you can move across difficult terrain made of earth or stone without expending extra movement.

Electric Ardor
Prerequisite: CON
Cost: 1 legacy point 
You have resistance against lightning damage, and you know the shocking grasp cantrip.

Faeblooded
Prerequisite: CHA
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep. Furthermore, you don't need to sleep. Instead, you meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious for 4 hours a day. While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that others would from 8 hours of sleep.

Flaming Soul
Cost: 2 legacy point
You know the control flames and produce flame cantrips. Additionally, you have resistance against fire damage.

Fortunate
Prerequisites: INT and CHA
Cost: 1 legacy point
When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Grim Fate
Prerequisites: CON
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the spare the dying cantrip. Furthermore, you have advantage on saving throws against diseases and poisons.

Heaven Blooded
Prerequisites: WIS or CHA
Cost: 1 legacy point
As an action, you can touch a creature and cause it to regain a number of hit points equal to your level. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest. Additionally, you have resistance against radiant damage.

Light Bringer
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the word of radiance cantrip and your choice of either dancing lights or light cantrip.

Magical Trickster
Prerequisites: INT, WIS or CHA
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know prestidigitation and thaumaturgy cantrips.

Mental Connector
Prerequisites: INT or WIS
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the mind meld and telepathic lash cantrips.

Mind Coiler
Prerequisites: INT or CHA
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the blind spot and delusion cantrips.

Nightly Eyes
Prerequisites: WIS
Cost: 1 legacy point
You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

One with Nature
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the druidcraft cantrip. You can also communicate simple ideas through sounds and gestures with Small or smaller beasts.

Shadow Weaver
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the blind spot and minor illusion cantrips.

Shapeshifter
Prerequisites: WIS and CHA
Cost: 2 legacy points
As an action, you can assume a different form of a humanoid creature or change back into your true form, transforming your appearance. You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, sound of your voice, hair length, coloration, and distinguishing characteristics, if any. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your statistics change. You also can't appear as a creature of a different size than you, and your basic shape stays the same. However, your equipment does not change with you. If you die, you revert to your natural appearance. Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against any spell or effect that would alter your form.

Spirit of the Wind
Prerequisites: DEX
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone, and you know the gust cantrip.

Telekinesist
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the mage hand and mystic hand cantrips.

Thunderborn
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have resistance against thunder damage, and you know the thunderclap cantrip.

Toughened Body
Prerequisites: CON
Cost: 1 legacy point
When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use this AC to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor. Furthermore, you do not need to eat or drink.

Uncanny Projector
Prerequisite: INT
Cost: 1 legacy point
You know the arcane graffiti and magic ID cantrips.

Vitriolic Pith
Prerequisites: CON
Cost: 1 legacy point
You have resistance against acid damage, and you know the acid splash cantrip.

Winged
Prerequisites: STR and DEX
Cost: 2 legacy points
You have a flying speed of 30 feet. To use this speed, you can't be wearing medium or heavy armor.

Shadowrun Street Legends, by jasonjuta

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Sidenote - I am treating psionic talents as cantrips in order to allow magic users of my setting more spell options, seeing how they can't use spells of 1st level or higher. The psionic talents mentioned in this system are taken from the Psionic Handbook and I'll detail some other time on how they should function when considered cantrips. For now, assume they need Verbal and Somatic components, have action cost as mentioned in description, and have a duration of instantaneous and range of self unless other duration or range is specified.
Regarding cantrips presented in the Uncanny Projector feature, they come from Modern Handbook written by /u/AeronDrake.

Download the PDF

That should be it for today. 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!

Smartphone, v2.1

Finally I come back to some of my older projects that are used these days to rework them. Today I feel like taking a small break from the talks of lore and talking about the design decisions behind the Smartphone v2.1.

Introduction

The item is described in the beginning section as a device with unique number and 12 Memory Units that can run several preinstalled apps and download more. Compared to the previous versions, in this I have decided to remove the charges completely. They were yet another resource for players to keep track of, and personally while DMing, I was never too bothered with them, ignoring them for the most part. Instead, it is exchanged for a simpler rule of the smartphone lasting 12 hours turned on before it turns off by itself.
The number of Memory Units - 12 - is still in an experimental phase. I wanted the number to definitely be less than the entire amount of apps available, but big enough to allow some variety in-between smartphones.

Preinstalled Apps

Most of these are straightforward, so I will comment mostly on the changes.

• Calculator was removed because it's pretty useless. DMs and players could still assume the smartphone to have a calculator.
• Calendar and Clock are merged in one app, and I am starting to question their usefulness. For now I am keeping them as they are.
• I assumed apps that take an action to be actions where you have to be actively looking at your smartphone even for a small moment, concentrating, while the apps that are used with a bonus action don't require full attention.

Downloadable Apps

Same as above, speaking of changes unless I have something more to say there.

• Datcord is a reference to Discord, and it's a quick way for a group of people to communicate through smartphones. Compare to message that limits you to 25 words per message for one person at a time, without a requirement of Ethernet access.
• Encyclopedia Arcana is a rather risky move, but I don't think it will affect all that much. It can grant at most a +3 bonus to a knowledge-gathering skill check with Intelligence regarding some specific topics you choose.
• eSpellbook is an app that's a digital spellbook. Could make for a neat tool used by wizards and such.
• Snap'n'Chat is a communication tool for sending of videos that are temporary. The key advantage of it is that they could be used for some of the more shady businesses that are supposed to stay hidden, as well as photos/videos that one is not supposed to look at for too long. It's of course a reference to Snapchat.
• Superb is a tool for easier transportation, and a reference to Uber.
• Tweeter is an app that'đ a reference to Twitter. It's used for sharing of short messages with anyone with Ethernet access.

Smartphone Games

To make something less useful and more fun, I've included two kinds of games with this version of smartphone. They do not have any deeper meaning at the moment, though it could be fairly easy to come up with something (prestige from being the #1 on a leaderboard, secret message at the end of a long puzzle game, etc.).

• 100 floors is a reference to all those games where you have to solve one hundred miniature puzzles one by one. Simply enough, the skill check DC and skill that has to be used for solving it are randomly determined. I hope that the mechanics of "getting stuck on a puzzle" were written well enough. Also, this is an ideal world where a puzzle solution can't just be found online, so no ethernet option.
• Arena Myth Hunt is a game with a name that started as a reference and sort of devolved into this weird mess of a name. Which is fine, because the game itself should sound chaotic. AR shooter where you can plant digital bombs, shoot nearby people and regenerate your lost digital hit points, I think it's okay. Not something phenomenal, but far from the worst it could have been.

I might add more games in the future. Not sure if I'll add more apps, the list as I have it right now feels exhaustive enough to me. Until then though, I plan to revisit the mechas and rework/create subclasses that use smartphones and/or mechas.

Location Statblocks

I made a thing, and people seem to like it!

Long explanation made short: In D&D, exploration is underdeveloped as opposed to combat, and I wanted to try out making it better by treating environments as monsters according to suggestion of someone on reddit.

Here's the original version, and here's the version 2.
Direct link.

It seems to have become a trend.

Mecha Rules

I made mecha rules, and people seem to like them!

Short explanation is that one of my players wanted to have some sort of mecha option in D&D, and I wanted to provide as a DM. It is not perfect and it will probably be reworked in the future, but I'm okay with how the first version came out.

There's not much to say about them beyond what the rules themselves say, so here they are:

Reddit link
Direct link

Smartphones and Magical Creatures

Thanks to Emma and Ludume from Discord of Many Things, I got a neat idea. Magical creatures are magical, and I never really thought about all the implications of them and our electronics coexisting. What if they had some strange interactions with the modern technology? Let's have a look at what interactions I came up with that need a smartphone to work!

Status Update: This fight was tough, I could use a #SatyrParty right now.

Angels. Whenever you take a photo or a video of an angel, it seems to be staring directly at the camera, facing it at all times, even if it wasn't really staring at it, or if it had its back turned.

All creatures with False Appearance. Since they are motionless on photos, they appear as the things described in their respective traits, even in the middle of the action.

Anything naturally hot or wet. Do I even need to explain this? You don't want your smartphone melted or short-circuited, do you?

Banshee. The Banshee's wail can be recorded, and its effects are reproduced the first time it is replayed.

Beholder. Depictions of beholders are strictly forbidden anywhere on the internet or Digital Plane, because most of them can bring a new beholder into existence. Also, within one mile of a beholder radio broadcasts are interrupted and whatever the beholder (or beholders if there are multiple) says can be heard instead.

Chuul. If a recorded video contains chuul in it for any amount of time, even just part of it, the whole video will be corrupted into white noise. Same thing applies to aboleths.

Dragon. Dragons are creatures so magical that they radiate a certain aura detectable only by smartphones, and in a bad way. The smartphones within 120 feet of it can't connect to internet, make phone calls, or connect to any other smartphones. Same thing applies to death knights.

Drow. Drow find the light app annoying and will ask you repeatedly to turn it off. Unless they are hiding or something, they are not stupid.

Dryad. The first time someone looks at a video or photo of a dryad, they must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 14) or be charmed by the picture. They'll keep looking at it until someone uses an action to snap them back to reality, or the phone is turned off. Additionally, they are super photogenic, looking amazing in all photos, even ones they don't know were taken. This applies to all kinds of nymphs.

Fomorian. If you were unfortunate enough to have a video call with a fomorian, its Evil Eye and curse of the Evil Eye can be used through it.

Genie. If a smartphone was left in one of the Elemental planes and a soul that's currently collecting elemental matter stumbles upon it, the smartphone can become part of the genie. Most often it would be part of a dao.

Ghost. Neither cameras nor microphones can perceive ghosts, as well as all incorporeal undead, in any way. Ghost can also possess your phone, showing you disturbing pictures, playing weird sounds and writing creepy zalgo text messages.

Giant. A giant's voice is so powerful that whenever its speech is recorded, all audio sounds like a strange mix of a thunder and white noise.

Gibbering Mouther. Its Gibbering trait carries over a call if it can be heard.

Intellect Devourer. Intellect Devourers can detect the presence of smartphones, since they are so smart, and they can absorb information contained in them. A smartphone affected by the Devour Intellect action can't be turned on, and needs to be repaired at your local smartphone shop, going through a factory reset. The Intellect Devourer will feel disgusted by most of the knowledge, finding it less than worthwhile that it consumed all these ones and zeroes it can't quite understand. But, maybe if it ate enough smartphones...

Kraken. When you enter the area within half of a mile of a kraken, your phone just turns off for no reason. Same thing would apply for Liches, Tarrasques or Davy Jones, if he was real. It could mess with class features of subclasses that would use smartphone, so I'm removing this.

Kuo-toa. Don't ever give them a smartphone, they'll worship it and create more digital deities!

Lamia. If it uses its Intoxicating Touch on your smartphone, it won't be able to use its camera or microphone for one hour. This is why some hackers refer to apps that block a user from using these inputs as lamias.

Medusa. The first creature that looks at the photo or video of a medusa is affected by a hold person spell, but instead of the usual one minute, the duration lasts until the spell is dispelled or the creature's eye contact with the medusa is interrupted, either by intervention of another creature or by the smartphone turning off. This effect can only be used once per photo or video, despite the video being 30 pictures per second. Also during a video call, its Petrifying Gaze carries over. The last bit also applies to the Basilisk.

Mind Flayer. Mind flayers can naturally sense all the information your phone is sending and receiving. After ten minutes of observing the information, they will understand the information innately as well.

Modron. It can command the phone to do anything it can normally do, regardless of functions described in the smartphone PDF.

Night Hag. When you take a photo or a video of a night hag, it never looks like it should. Instead, it looks like a small or medium humanoid of its choice. That's right, the hag gets to decide how it looks in any photo or video. Furthermore, it can also change how it looks in any photo or video, though that is not done consciously. Same thing applies for Cambions, Doppelgangers and Succubus/Incubus.

Nothic. If a nothic gazes at your phone, it immediately finds out all the secrets you hide on it, as well as the unlock sequence or password. Also, its eye seems to occasionally blink in any photos taken of it.

Oni. Don't take a photo of an oni, it will haunt your phone from a distance. And I'm not just talking about haunting on that one photo. It will in fact disappear from the photo, and mess with your files and apps, sending unwanted creepy text messages to random numbers, distorting music and other photos... The only way to get rid of it is a factory reset. I'm dead serious, just don't.

Otyugh. For some strange reason, possibly due to the limited nature of its telepathy, it can send text messages to your phone if it's within the range. You don't even need to have signal on your phone, you could be underground looking up photos, and suddenly you get a message, that, well... with Intelligence of 6, try and imagine what an otyugh has to say. Even if you can respond to it, the otyugh won't receive anything.

Pixie. Taking pictures of Pixies is fine, and the vain creatures love to pose for them. However, don’t allow them to talk you into taking a video of them. A video of a pixie contains a copy of their prankster spirit, and while it is on your phone they will text your contacts in humorous (to them) ways, sending out embarrassing personal details you’d rather keep private.

Rakshasa. If a rakshasa holds your phone, it can choose to curse it never to recharge. Don't let rakshasas hold the phone! Only exception is if it's in a gold case and owned by a good creature... pffrt, yeah, sure. Good creature.

Revenant. If you take a photo or video of a revenant, its face is replaced by the face of whoever they were during their life, but looking decayed, and its eyes always glow. Even when its head is turned away from the camera.

Rust Monster. You know the drill. NO is a NO!

Satyr. Legends say that if you tweet a message containing phrase #SatyrParty using Tweeter, a satyr will show up within 7 days to get you drunk. It literally can't refuse a challenge to party. Or maybe it can, but nonetheless it can sense this somehow.

Sphinx. Sphinxes can willingly choose to appear distorted on electronics that record them. Also, since gynosphinxes have special eyes, they can actually see everyone who will ever watch the video. And can respond accordingly in real time. Unfortunately, she can't choose to change the video after it's recorded unless she abuses her time travel.

Sprite. In a strange twist, Sprites love to have video recorded of them and will often do acrobatic tricks and amusing poses. However, do not snap a photo of them, as they will appear in every other picture, both those you’ve taken before and those you take in the future. A factory reset can fix this issue.

Unicorn. Every time you open a picture of an unicorn, your screen cleans itself. Setting a picture of a unicorn (if you’re lucky enough to have one) as your phone background is extremely beneficial, but you must ensure that the picture is not covered by icons or anything, or the effect won’t work.

Vampire. Vampires of course can't be seen in photos or videos that are taken of them.

Will-o'-wisp. Your phone will produce faint or distant whispers as long as you have a photo, sound recording or video of a will-o'-wisp saved on it. These whispers are not loud enough to be heard beyond 5 feet.

Xorn. If your smartphone is within the range of its Treasure Sense and you have a banking app on it, it senses the state of your bank account. Good thing there isn't a banking app for smartphones... yet.

Yeti. Photos and videos of yeti will seem to depict a pile of snow shaped like a humanoid thing, or too blurry to clearly tell anything. Same thing applies to Displacer Beast, except for the snow part. It just appears blurred.

Thanks to Rhadamanth Nemes and Trau for doing the proofreading!

Feywild, Home of the Fey

This article was originally posted on /r/DnDBehindTheScreen , as a part of their Atlas of the Planes series. Since it was originally meant for my blog, I figured I should post it here too. Here's the link to the original article.

"Don't ever diminish the power of words. Words move hearts and hearts move limbs." -Hamza Yusuf

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DISCOVERY

Feywild. Home of fey, echo of the Material Plane, and source of some of the greatest, most powerful beings and things in the multiverse. It was only after the gods created the Feywild that they noticed time not moving as it should when compared to other planes. This lead them to abandon the plane, only leaving it with its own version of gods that manage and protect it in the gods’ stead - beings called Archfey.

There was a dramatic turn of events once mortals found out about the Feywild and the many ways of accessing it. You see, when mortals found the fey, they saw something that the gods granted to the fey but didn't grant to mortals - the Silver Flame. This caused the first feeling of jealousy in history, which eventually led to the first theft. Once the gods noticed the theft they did something about it - they granted the fey a Golden Flame, but it was too late, and the fey were changed forever.

Some of the fey accepted the Golden Flame and became overly warm. These would be later referred to as the Seelie fey. Some love fun, some like parties, some enjoy company of animals, mortals, other fey and anything else. They show bright colors, but do not understand mortals or emotions all that well.

Then there are the others, the dark cold ones, who rejected the Golden Flame. These hold grudges against the mortals to this day, can be merciless and generally are depicted as brooding loners. The Unseelie, as they have been referred to ever since, are mostly colored in faded colors, white, black and shades of gray.

However, there are some things both kinds of fey have in common - fascination with mortals. Some like to observe mortals from a distance, others like to confront them, even going as far as to steal back from them, hoping to get a piece of the Silver Flame that was stolen from the fey. Ever since mortals stole their flame, the fey see them as what the fey were meant to be, and try to emulate them to the best of their ability. This, as you will see, will be recurring theme of this article, where I will focus on the laws of the Feywild's nature.

SURVIVAL

At first glance, the Feywild appears to be just a wilderness untouched by civilization. Weather is more intense for the most part, water is abundant, and magic is mostly the same. However, once you spend enough time in it, you realize just how different and strange this place can be. While I could focus on wild magic, or how time fluctuates, I would like to leave that and focus on something different - food. Because not everything alive in the Feywild can do magic or cares about the passage of time, but almost everything needs or wants to eat.

You are what you eat.

All living things native to the Feywild that eat follow this proverb to some extent, whether they realize it or not.

Starting at the bottom, there are plants. Most plants don’t eat anything, and they are there to be eaten by others, so the rule does not apply to them.

Plants are eaten by herbivores, who slowly become more and more plant-like. Eventually, after a herbivore eats enough, it takes root and can't move from that spot anymore. This is why there are so many animal-shaped hedges in the Feywild - these are just old herbivores.

Carnivores are split into two groups - lower predators and apex predators. Lower predators go for low hanging fruit (figuratively speaking), mostly hunting the herbivores. However, after enough time spent hunting, they themselves will start to turn into what they hunt - their teeth become less and less sharp, their stomach become more adapted to eating plants than meat, and other changes happen as well. With a steady diet of herbivores, these creatures will eventually take the form of an omnivore.

Apex predators are a very specific breed that only gets stronger the longer they live, due to what they eat. This is the secret of the apex predators - they never consume anything less than themselves. They will always try to hunt creatures stronger than themselves, for they are intelligent enough to know that this is the only way for them to get more powerful, and to keep their power.

This seems to be a cruel world then, in which all beings will eventually turn into plants. Well, on one hand, that would explain why the Feywild is overgrown, with green everywhere. But, luckily there is a law that helps some of the lesser creatures to move up in the chain.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

If a lesser predator encounters an intelligent creature, and manages to kill it it would become more intelligent, and likely stronger. If, on the contrary, it didn’t manage to kill the creature and instead got hurt, it would still get stronger. Another way for a lesser predator to get stronger would be to feast on a freshly dead apex predator, before any other apex predator could eat it.

These laws do not affect most of the sentient creatures because because the fey realized that mortals do not change after every meal. This law was mostly removed, applying only to beasts, plants and monstrosities, as the fey jealously try to emulate mortals.

THE LOCALS

Birds of a feather flock together.

No man can serve two masters.

Fey are more cultured than beasts, trying to act as human as possible. They may not be affected by the food they eat physically, but it still changes them to some extent on a psychological level.

There are four major Fey Courts, based on the four seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These Courts split into Houses, each representing a preference of taste that the fey belonging to each House has. Any individual fey belongs to just one house, and the members of each house share some physical and mental characteristics with each other.

Spring Court is the court of desire. Houses that belong to the Spring Court are the Sweet House, the Savory House and the Spicy House. The Sweet House is what most think of when fey are mentioned - constantly smiling and overly optimistic. These fey are kind, childish and not afraid of being social. They can be vengeful, however, after all - Revenge is sweet. The Savory House belongs to fey whose love for meat is shown by the sharp teeth they like to bare at everyone. At first they may seem predatory and aggressive, but when you get to know them, they will show you their playful side. The Spicy House fey have hair that appears to be constantly ablaze, just as their minds are, their hair never stops burning until they die.Despite rumors to the contrary, their hair will not ignite anything else, though it is said to be overly warm to the touch. Spicy House fey are characteristic for their eagerness just as much as for their hot-headed, temperamental nature.

Summer Court is the court of wrath. Houses that belong to the Summer Court are The Sour House, The Fatty House and The Calcium House. The Sour House is made up of domineering fey who often try to boss around others and tend to have their mouth corners turned downwards in cruel frowns. They anger easily and often show signs of jealousy. The Fatty House, as the name suggests, contains some of the heavier fey. They are lazy and nervous, but also greedy, always asking and looking for more than they need and being angry when they don't get it. The Calcium House belongs to fey of pale skin, sometimes even albinos. They are steady, blunt and unpolished in their behavior, coming off as angry and rude.

Fall Court is the court of fear. Houses that belong to the Fall Court are The Salty House, The Minty House and The Bland House. Fey of the Salty House tend to passively show signs of unpleasantness. Often they are characterized as being passive, critical and sarcastic when trying to be funny or even when they're not. A fey of the Minty Houseis characterized by their ever present distant look. They try to be stylish and cool in all aspects of their life, but are emotionally distant and reserved. Bland House fey are suspiciously average in looks, and deliberately keep to themselves. They are monotonous and stoic, yet conscientious. Strangely enough, they capitalize on their blandness, and utilize it to their advantage, being easily forgettable.

Winter Court is the court of sorrow. Houses that belong to the Winter Court are The Burnt House, The Numbing House and The Bitter House. The Burnt House is home to fey whose skin is as dark as the overcooked charcoal-like foods they eat. Only ever feeding on the most burnt of overcooked foods, they tend to act burned out, miserable, and show self-destructive tendencies. Numbing House contains fey that are constantly flinching and twitchy. At first they seem merely indecisive, but this only conceals their sadistic side. However, if one becomes close enough to them, they show the inner conflict they're going through, trying to figure out how to show love without causing pain. Bitter House fey are characterized by the constant frown on the faces of its members. They are sad, jaded, and grumpy, and never try to hide their pessimistic outlook on life.

There is one House left that does not belong to any of the Courts. Fey of the Metallic House are the only house whose members are physically affected by the things they eat, with their members showing characteristic metal skin. They show no signs of emotions and are very strict and machine-like in nature, which is why they're alienated from other Fey, belonging to no Court.

With the Courts and Houses explained, let's take a step back and look at the fey in general, to see what they have in common.

Some of you may know that after a fey dies, it reincarnates. But, did you know that they don't ever reincarnate as the same being? This is because their soul is in fact made up of several fractured parts. Once a fey creature dies, these fragments scatter all around the Feywild, joining together with other soul fragments, forming clumps, and eventually reaching a high enough number to be reborn. To a fey, a parent is the fey they used to be previously, while a sibling is a different being that comes from the same parent.

Some people say that fey like to make deals. This is true for the majority of them, and for a good reason - they are able to twist the meaning of words in the deals without truly lying so that the deal sounds like something completely different. There's a small amount of mortals who also believe that with these deals they can gain magical powers, but there is very little evidence of that.

Now, let's continue the theme of looking up proverbs and seeing their consequences in Fey culture.

Believe in yourself.

Beauty is only skin deep.

A fey's appearance is a reflection of what it believes itself to be. If they think they are beautiful, they will appear beautiful. If they think they are hideous monsters for what they do to others, their physical appearance will reflect that. Some fey manage to learn how to change their appearance at will in a minor way, such as changing the color or length of their hair, changing some features of their face or body, or even their skin tone. A very few have mastered this art and can take nearly any form if they believe hard enough.

There's a darker side to this belief power as well. Fey are generally disgusted and harmed by Cold Iron and avoid touching it. Cold Iron has many interpretations depending on different settings - some believe it is metal worked without using heat, others think it is just iron. For the purposes of this article and my setting, I assume cold iron to be any human-made material (with exception of some metals like silver, gold or orichalcum). This is not limited just to metals, but includes other more unusual materials like plastic (which is not present in most settings, but I'll list it here as an example anyway). The reason why fey are disgusted and afraid of cold iron is due to the fact that it is deadly to the fairies. Other types of fey are harmed by it, but only because they believe it is harmful to them, perhaps remembering their previous life as a fairy.

Faith will move mountains.

The power of belief here is not limited just to individuals. If enough Fey believe strongly in something, it will eventually come true . Luckily for everyone else, this power is not used all that often, and is for the most part forgotten nowadays, seeing how this is a monumental task anyway.

He who laughs last laughs best.

You really do not want to be around the fey when they're collectively cracking jokes. Seriously, some of them take laughing to the next level, considering it competition as to who will laugh the longest. While they can contain themselves while with humans, away from them they'll laugh for hours upon hours, until they start to literally drop unconscious, or even die because of the constant laughter.

The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Most of the fey are female for this exact reason. Also, because they are prettier according to most, because "Courage is the measure of a Man, Beauty is the measure of a Woman."

All is fair in love and war

As long as fey can say they do something for the sake of love or war (which they do most stuff for anyway), they won't shy away from using dirty tricks. Making deals and twisting their meanings later on, kidnapping human children, luring mortals to stay in Feywild... all of this is done for either love or war (according to them).

Little things please little minds.

It is no surprise that fairies wear tiny clothes, use tiny weapons, and have other tiny adventuring equipment. But... did you know that they also have toys? And books? And lots of other tiny things that one would not expect them to have. Of course, mortals would expect it once they realize that the fey try their best to mimic them.

Speak of the Devil, and he is bound to appear.

Some fey have developed an ability to appear next to someone when their name is mentioned. This is usually limited to one plane of existence, however. This is restricted to an illusory image of them for lesser fey, through which they can also hear and see their surroundings (but they cannot utilize other senses). Interacting with the image reveals it to be an illusion. Lesser fey can do this only a couple times a day.

Archfey on the other hand, can use this ability at will whenever their name is mentioned, and can choose whether they appear personally, or their illusory image appears instead.

Home is where the heart is.

This mainly applies to nymphs - dryads, undines, oreads, and other nymph-type fey. Their heart - that is, their soul - is located in the object they are bound to. This is why they know the position of this object at all times, and can thus return to it instinctively.

On a broader scale however, some of the Fey have uncovered a great secret of gifting someone their heart. Most do it from love, allowing someone to take their heart out of their body once they die, telling them to bring it wherever they go. The power of this heart is to call the souls that held that heart once, allowing the one possessing the heart to one day meet with their beloved, even after their body has passed away.

MYSTERIES

24 True Fey.

There are twenty-four True Fey. Possibly. What these are, exactly, is not known to anyone. Maybe they are the gods of Feywild in the truest sense of the word, maybe they are just figments of someone's wild and cruel imagination, and maybe they are not real at all (merely rumors and whispers, tales that the fey tell each other). There are a few scholars however, who think that they must be the explanation for the great amount of Archfey that are in the Feywild.

One of the scholars, Gorgian Descret, believed he has documented them all. People consider him a deranged madman and maniac, a paranoiac who connects unrelated things and makes up conspiracies on a daily basis. Gorgian believed that in his writings he had described all 24 of these True Fey in a very detailed manner. Sadly, before they could be published, he died a mysterious death, and his books were never found. The only details that were remembered from his ramblings were that these True Fey have relationships with each other, and that all of the Archfey belonging to one True Fey bear a sign, symbol or some distinguishing characteristic that shows who they represent - from something as simple as the color red somewhere on them, to something as difficult to notice as eyes that never blink. Nowadays, most people do not believe Gorian's theory, despite the mysterious circumstances of his death, and the strange disappearance of his writings.

Archfey

The Lords and Ladies of Fey are most the powerful fey living in the Feywild. Archfey is a group name for any beings that are on a power level of a god, or something similar (e.g. demigod). Some of them are less powerful, some are more powerful, but there are no mere fey that are mightier than the weakest of archfey. While the weaker Archfey could be something as ordinary as a mortal who became strong enough to rise above all others, the strongest Archfey all have one thing in common - they can use the power of The Word.

Imagine for a moment that you are the strongest wizard in existence. You can cast the most powerful spells in existence that a mortal can access. Some of these spells require you to just utter one word. Legends speak of such wizards, and of these spells - the Power Words. The only problem with the Power Words is their rarity - there are very few documented Power Words. These mighty Archfey use a power similar to this, but the way they use it is impossible for a mortal to achieve.

What do they do to make these Words of theirs more powerful? They twist their meaning. Archfey of the highest tier each have one word, most often a verb, that they have complete control over. They can summon the power of this word just by uttering it aloud, and by interpreting it in different way they can cause effects limited only by their linguistic capabilities. If there was an Archfey with the power of the word Kill, they could use it to kill any creature they desire, but they could also use it to kill the mood of the party. The Archfey with the power of the word Steal could rob others of anything - something they hold, their belongings they left at home, their position, or even their thoughts. This is the exact reason why even the strongest of the wizards never dare to mess with the highest tier Archfey - because even these mightiest of wizards will eventually run out of their magic potential.

Eldest

Legends say that there was a time when fey did not reincarnate. Long ago, great archfey known as the Eldest ruled the Feywild, caretakers of the most important of all natural cycles - the cycle of life and death. According to this cycle, each being that is alive needs to die, sooner or later. This death is not only physical, but spiritual as well, causing the being's consciousness to perish. According to the myth, other archfey rose against this power, and defeated the Eldest, imprisoning them and freeing their kind from death.

In the present day, death is but a minor inconvenience to the fey. No matter how much they die, they will never fully disappear, because their memories will stay with their soul. However, this natural imbalance is threatened every 10,001 years, when the Eldest are fated to break free. During these times, the Archfey unite to send them once again back into their prisons.

POLITICS/RELIGION ECONOMICS

Instead of focusing on politics or religion in the Feywild, I would like to talk about a word people would not expect to be right next to Feywild - economics. Or rather, what economics means for the Feywild. As you have read, the majority of fey love to make deals. But, this means that they have to give something up too. So I'll dedicate this chapter to various currencies they use, and why they use them.

While bartering does work, it doesn’t work as effectively as an established currency. But what exactly do fey recognize currency and what don't they? Well, let's look at what human proverbs say about economic matters like this...

Speech is silver, silence is golden.

All that glitters is not gold.

Since silver is one of the metals they love and cherish the most, they consider spoken words to be a unit of measurement. Gold may seem beautiful and valuable, sure, but as one old tale of humans states, salt over gold. Even salt is more valuable than gold, since silence is golden, and silence comes when no words are said.

So, from all this we can deduce that they consider silver to have its price just like humans, but consider gold to be worthless. Then there is word, and word's price is equal to that of one silver coin in the eyes of fey. However, they don't use word as a currency - they use it to measure currency. Just like we would use one coin, or one kilogram.

But how exactly does one pack lots of words into something?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Every picture tells a story.

Art. Paintings, music, statues, stories, you name it. This is one of the few instances when humans were (according to the fey) very clear in their proverbs. This is why you could fit one thousand words into one good quality art-piece - fey would consider a good quality piece one that would take more than a thousand words to describe completely. You could have art-pieces that fit more words inside of them, but those are masterpieces of very high quality.

Then there are memories...

Memory is the treasure of the mind.

Memories are equivalent to or greater than the highest quality art, for they show many things that no art could ever reproduce, in the most real and vivid way. However, once the memories are given away, the one who lost them will find themselves having a hard time piecing their mind together. The more memories they give up, the harder thought itself becomes.

Above all other forms of currency lies respect. Respect is something one can earn by impressing Archfey themselves, and can be worth several high quality art-pieces. Nobody knows exactly how many, but one thing is certain of respect:

Respect is not given, it is earned.

Of course there are many other ways to pay fey. Barter, and the trade of services is not uncommon for them. For now, though, let's end with the last currency they use, time.

Time is money.

Fey who accept time as a currency do so either through draining life force of their customer, thus making them older (or younger, rarely), or by moving the customer forward in time.

Of course, if the customer does not have enough of whatever currency the shopkeeper requires, they can offer a favor. However, this has to be accepted by the shopkeeper, and they could require even more than one favor for their goods and services. Bargaining favors with fey is not something to be entered into lightly, as the fey are renowned for tricking and trapping mortals, sometimes forever.

TRAVEL

There are many ways of accessing the Feywild. Excluding the magical means adventurers themselves could call on, one way to enter and exit the Feywild is through Fey Crossings - naturally formed portals located where the Material Plane touches the Feywild. Some of these portals are permanent, but most are opened only under certain conditions - on a night when Moon is New, when someone brings a certain key to open it, by speaking a magical phrase, or maybe even by sleeping in a beautiful meadow. Most of the time, the traveler does not realize when they enter the Feywild, to them it seems that they have just walked normally and suddenly they are in a completely different place.

When leaving the Feywild, the traveler can be subjected to various effects of the Feywild, specifically finding that the time they spent in the Feywild differs from that spent outside, or that they do not even remember what did they did since they entered the Feywild. These effects are known though, so I will focus on a different kind of effect.

Once a traveler leaves the Feywild, there is a chance that they will come out changed. The world will seem boring to them, almost colorless, possibly even uninteresting. The only thing they will desire every day is to return to the plane that seems to them almost like a paradise. This has been dubbed as Fairy Homesickness, and some of the powerful mages are known to be able to cure it for a fee.

TOOLKIT

Changeling: The Lost's Player's Guide offers descriptions of the True Fae I mentioned in the article, and it was my main source of inspiration for them.

Changeling: The Lost is actually pretty good source generally, and I do recommend checking it out if you’re interested in running fey long-term.

Besides sources of inspiration I already listed once, I would say great dance performances (my personal favourite is The Lord of the Dance) can be inspiring, as well as mythology in general (Irish mythology influenced my current campaign a lot) and Dresden Files I still didn’t have time to look at.

Just because it was fun to figure out, below I list conversion rates of their currencies. Bear in mind these are not really logical, so use them at your own risk.

• 10 silver = 1 gold (fey find gold worthless)
• 1 silver = 1 word (Word itself is not a currency, just a way to measure currency. Just like kilogram - you wouldn't pay for something with 2 kilograms.)
• 1 artwork = 1000 words = 1000 silver
• 1 minute of memory = 360 artworks of same mood and quality = 360000 silver (The conversion can vary based on quality of artworks and memory, as well as mood.)
• 1 year of life = 2 years of memories = 189216000 artworks of the mood identical to the mood of the memories = 189216000000 silver (Because 1 year of life isn't just memories, you also affect other people and learn and do things.)
• 1 respect has to be earned, no conversion rate for this is thus known.

Optional Rule: Faerie Homesickness

If you spend an extended period of time in the Feywild, you must make a Wisdom saving throw. Upon failure, you miss the Feywild dearly once you leave it, and reality may become boring - everything will appear almost colorless, foods you eat will have no taste, life won’t seem as exciting. The Wisdom saving throw is made once you reach each period of time listed below with a corresponding DC.

1 day - DC 10

1 month - DC 15

1 year - DC 20

10 years - DC 25

100 years - DC 30

1000 years - DC 35

Write Your Own Atlas Entry!

Hi!

This post is me trying to make up some new non-canonical stuff for the Feywild, so if you can't really accept some of this stuff, feel free to remix it as you want. The canon Feywild did inspire me, as well as some other stuff. Thing that inspired me the most while writing this is fey taking things too literally and out of context, making some of the proverbs people use every day into something akin to laws of nature.

Thanks a lot to Jojirus and Rhadamanth Nemes for proofreading this document!

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!