u/AlwaysDragons

Image 1 — 5e-But-Better Recs: Last Arc: Tactics Analogue
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5e-But-Better Recs: Last Arc: Tactics Analogue

Hey wait a minute, I'm still doing these? You thought Daggerheart was my last one? Well it was... until a new challenger in the Fantasy TTRPG space decided to pop out of the woodwork.

Last Arc seems to be slowly getting attention in my feeds. What is it? Well, its a game thats tries to combine 5e and pathfind-- OH GOD DAMN IT NOT AGAIIIIINNNN! -- actually wait, no, actually reading it, its based on 3.5e and 4e with a dash on final fant-- er JJRPGS!... Ok lets be real, this is a Final Fantasy inspired system. THOSE HALFLINGS ARE LALAFALLS, I KNOW YOU PEOPLE PLAY 14!

So what is special about Last Arc? Lets see, Its a d20 system, check, the 6 dnd stats but renamed, check, 20 levels, check, mana system, check, group initative, check. Fort, Reflex and Will Saves, check, Oh hey Second Wind, check. Action... minor-Action and movement? Not a fan of those, I perfer standard three-action systems but ok, Ooo, Explosive die on everything, thats sick! You all know me with Nimble

The class system is very 3.5 and 4e. Base class, every level pick a feat, no subclasses.

The art, yea, its so beautiful what the hell, they nailed the aesthetic of this book so much. The Nasha are my favorite.

Also side tangent, THANK YOU, LAST ARC, FOR ACTUALLY GIVING YOUR SPECIES NAMES. DO YOU GUYS KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE HOW SYSTEM AGNOSTIC SOME OF THESE SYSTEMS ARE? A LOT HAVE NO WORLD AND EXPECT YOU TO HAVE YOUR OWN. SO THE SPECIES NAMES ALWAYS END IN -born, -kin, -folk, or -ling STOP IT, ACTUALLY GIVE THEM A COOL NAME! GIVE THEM FLAVOR! GIVE THEM LORE, IM SO TIRED OF SEING BORN, KIN, FOLK AND LING ITS SO BORING AAAAAA

*ahem* sorry about that.

Honestly, there isn't a whole lot talking about with Last Arc.... Its 3.5/4e with final fantasy, I think thats a draw for most people here.

.... So then... What about this is worth the pick up over.... Draw Steel or Fablua Ultima? Not a whole lot. Honestly, its REALLY hard for me to say why play this over Fablua. Fablua is made with a ton of love and sets it apart from the d20 systems out there. THAT is a full on JJTTRPG. I honestly do feel the Final Fantasy aesthetic was put on this one to have it stand out more. Cause, dude, I'm so tired of D20 systems. Been loving 2 die and dice pools way more.

But hey, shout out to the dudes that have this on Gamefound and just GAVE US the whole ass rulebook as a demo. Well, the advanced classes aren't there but the whole damn game is just there.

But yea, that's kinda Last Arc. I personally find it just alright, the art is great but that's kinda it.

u/AlwaysDragons — 4 days ago

Classes in either video games and ttrpgs can be interesting. It defines how your character plays and their backstory in how they got there.

My favorite bit of reading other ttrpgs is how they all structure their class systems. 5e is your standard base class then subclass, weaker than 3.5's prestige class design, or how pathfinder and vagabond have your main class and rarely or no subclasses and let the feats customize themselves.

Or how WoW and ff14 go about their class and jobs. Wows also have specializations for their main class which I find more interesting than ff14's jobs.

Daggerheart and vagabonds are my favorite, vagabond has your standard class structure but no subclasses. Letting your feats taken anyway you wish as long as you met the stat requirements. And sometimes they can be as strong as a subclass.

Daggerheart has the class, subclass, but what I love most is the domain system where each class has two. I personally like the popular homebrew rule of letting a class take any two, but even at base, it allows more classes of domain pairs that haven't been done yet to take center stage in the future.

But what's your favorite class system in either games or ttrpgs?

reddit.com
u/AlwaysDragons — 9 days ago

Welp. Here we are. The probably final 5e-but-better ttrpg I have. And I must say.

Holy. Shit. Daggerheart Fucks.

Now, this could be a minority opinion. After the 4e and Draw Steel posts, I kinda thought "Oh man, there's a chance they may like those over Daggerheart." But do I need to explain what Daggerheart is? Probably. Daggerheart is made by darrington press, IE, the guys behind Critical Role. And Critical Role, much like with the rest of the internet, there clearly is no naunce and with Critical Role attached, you either REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE THEM or they broke into your home, kicked your table, threw pool noodles at you, kicked your dog and ruined your 5e games forever and forever because everyone wants to be matt mercer and changed what 5e was into theater kids projecting their life issues onto the game.... And there is no inbetween.

Daggerheart, alongside Draw Steel, was made during the ogl crisis. Stirring in playtests for a while before release and BOY did they COOK. Also, speaking of this game and Draw Steel, they shout each other out in the forewords! "If you like crunchy/narrative games, play Draw Steel/Daggerheart!"

But what is Daggeheart? Much like the creators namesake, this is a heroic, narrative-focused game. Similar to Dungeon World, as I said in that post. The game takes a fiction-first approach, encouraging players and GMs to act in good faith with one another and focus on the story they’re telling rather than the complexity of the mechanics.

See, that's probably why most don't like daggerheart. "Acting in good faith". Because one of the principles of Daggerheart is how its so DM focused. It teaches DMs how to tell a great story for the players benefit. But one thing it teaches is release. Control. Very often, it has the dm ask the players what is x detail like.

So many dm's that don't like Daggerheart, I found a tread; they don't like giving up control. Because Daggerheart takes that good faith playing and narrative focus to the extreme. In that the players also contribute to the worldbuilding and storytelling. And if you aren't playing in good faith with your friends.... Why are you playing with them in the first place?

Character building is very similar to most of these games: Race, Class (AND subclass this time.), Community. You pick your stat array and experiences. Experiences are vaguish terms that act as your skills. They start at +2 and you use a Hope to use it when the situation applies. It can be anything so make sure its vague enough to apply in most cases and not too situational enough. Also, with the classes, they do ask starter background questions relating to your class to get you wondering things about your character and your relationship to the party. Again, really focused on that narrative-first mindset.

You also have Domains. Domains are probably one of the coolest things about the character building. All classes have access to 2 domains and you pick your "Spells/maneuvers" from them.

Also the species art in the book is so incredible. The species section has sketches of what they could look like. Like some sort of "concept art" of forming a character in your mind. I love the draken and farie in particular. There's also a mix race rule where you take the top option of one race and the bottom of an other and mix them together. This is why you have so many unique characters in the books art. Because of this mixing rule.

Everything in daggerheart also fits on a card. This whole game is very tactal. Domain abilities are cards in particular that you "vault" when you use them. And can only call them back when you use stress.

Now for the actual gameplay, how does it play? Well, here's one thing you need to know; the action roll is 2d12+mod. Now, all these games I showed off had a lot of 2 die set ups. But Daggerheart changes things up by making 1 die hope and 1 die fear. And whichever is higher... Adds to one or the other. The players use Hope for their abilities... and the dm uses fear.

This is the single biggest and what makes Daggerheart work. Its what powers the whole system and its the best use of the 2 die roll I ever seen. There's a ton of things going on with these two; You have a max of 6 hope and your class abilities, when you get the hope die higher, you get one. The DM has a pool of fear and THEY use it to change things in the story, or enemy abilities. Wither its something like "And I will use a fear..." to signal to the players shits going down, "And out from the woods, an arrow flies by your head!"

In 5e, I could do this and get interrupted with the "UM ACCCCTTTUUUUALLLLLLYY I HAVE TRUESIGHT OF 345ft, THE ALERT FEAT AND 20 WISDOM WITH A PASSIVE PERCEPTION OF 25 AND THERE FOOOOORRRREEEE COULD I SEE THAT BEFORE IT HAPPEEENNNN--" NO. NONONO. SHUT UP. THAT SHIT AIN'T HERE.

Ok, I know Daggerheart isn't the first to do metacurrency, but its the first one to enter the mainstream. But with the DM having a currency the same as the players, it eases the pain of "something happens" because you can see the fear building up! The Dm can use it whenever to trigger something! So it makes sense for things to happen.

The hope and fear die also create a four quadrant degrees of success. On a success with hope? You get what you want a some extra, gain a hope, clear a stress. On a success with fear? You get what you want but came with a cost, dm gets a fear. On a failure with fear? Things go VERY badly. Your usual fail states. Now a failure with hope is what mixes people up... Cause the book says "Things don't go to plan. You don't get what you want and there are consequences but you gain a hope." Think this one that mixes a lot of dms up on how to narrate. I see it something like the "fills you with determination" from undertale.

Now for combat is when things are used to the extreme. And combat... is also rather narrative first; Much like all the games we talked about, Daggerheart has no initiative. Now, these games have some form of it, but more freeform. But Daggerheart is far more free in that "NONE AT ALL."

Weirdly, this is where most people don't like the lack of initiative. I played dungeon world a bit so this isn't weird at all to me. But, again, it is about acting in good faith and making sure everyone has had a turn. Players who often just stick in the back and don't do anything may end up not doing anything. Thats kinda on you as a dm to help them out here. Because this system does rely on the players to act when they feel they should.

But when should it be the enemy turn? A dm can spend a fear as usual, after all, players need to roll the 2d12 to attack in most cases. However, what happens when they roll with fear? Why, its the enemy's turn. That's right, you could keep doing your turn until your roll with fear but thats very unlikely and really gambling with the system. This method also balances itself. A player could not show up to a game but you don't need to rebalance the encounter, because this method does it self.

All together, it just flows. Everything just flows so nicely! No interruptions! The mechanics barely get in the way! Story is paramount! Theres so many dm tools in the core book to help you build that narrative and how to guide it! Theres a whole ONESHOT GENERATOR in here! And oh god one of my favorite parts of the whole gm package: The Campaign Frames.

Campaign frames aren't full adventures but adventure settings. Something to pitch to your players. Each frame does have rules on character building and how the setting functions. As well as how it should play and its goal.

Witherwild. Your bog standard fae forest setting. It cites princess monoke in its inspiration and its very much that. The forest is reclaiming everything. Figure it out. Pretty standard one.

Beast Feast. Ok, yea, this one is dungeon meshi. Its very clearly based on it. BUT, it comes with recipes and meals with effects to go with it. Apparently, this one is popular.

Age of Umbra. Dark souls. Matt, you ain't slick, you goth. Here, any divine casters are worshipped, and those that become umbra touched, get stronger but their form is warped. They can crit easier, but when a PC gets scars, they can deal extra damage for each scar, but they get more and more warped through the touch. A crazy dark campaign that I can see a lot use. And this one is streamed by Crit Rol themselves! Its really popular.

Motherboard. The scifi one and very Horizon Zero Dawn and Mortal Engines esc. They made their own... language of circuits? To use as puzzles? Someone even made a translator online for this. But everything is machine based. Beastmaster rangers have a mech panther instead for one. Though, it does have my favorite mechanic: Instead of any weapon, you get a Ikonis. A metal rod that you augment and upgrade as you level. You deal additional damage to your level but get so many augment options as you adventure, using scrap as you go.

Colossus of the Drylands. ALRIGHT NOW WE ARE GETTING TO THE HYPE SHIT. YOU WANNA FIGHT GIANT MONSTERS!? HERE YOU. COLOSSUS WITH THEIR OWN STATBLOCK ON EACH PART. EACH ONE IS A PUZZLE TO FIGHT AS YOU GO AROUND THE AREA SLAYING EACH ONE IN THIS WILD WEST SETTING. GOD I LOVE THIS ONE. PREP THE SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUSS AND MONSTER HUNTER PLAYLISTS CAUSE THIS GETTING NUTTY.

Five Banners Burning. Ok, this one is my personal all time favorite and one I plan to run. Colossus is labeled the hardest one but I personally believe this one is the hardest because of the premise. This is a political intrigue campaign. Where the five nations are about to go to war due to a prince of a warhero going missing. Each party member is loyally allied to one of the 5 nations and have to work together to find him before war breaks out, while loyalities compete, grudges span generations and villains take advantage of the chaos. This is a full on ADVENTURE for the sake of the country at stake. A la Avatar Last Airbender, ala Final Fantasy 14: STORMBLOOD deal. That's my main inspiration for this. Basically stormblood but focused on ala mhingo. You have to keep track of all the nations and how they process in their plans and reputation with the party.

Daggerheart really became a massive hit. Its now one of the only games that is competting with DND of all things. They sold out ALL their books on release, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins joined them after WOTC laid them off. (Genius move there, guys.) BUT LOOK, THEY LOOK SO HAPPY TO BE HERE! There with todd! Speaking of, todds a permanent on Ghostfire Gaming's Podcast, love that podcast.

Already, there's a ton of tools for creating out. Heart of Daggers becoming a creator first marketplace to sell and share homebrew and the foundry system is tight. Getting into Daggerheart is just so easy.

There are two things I actually don't like about it: Adversaries and creating them. THERE. ISN'T. ENOUGH. ADVERSARIES!!!! The core book is massive and helps a lot but there just not enough to stir the brain. And creating them... I'm sorry, but the book and homebrew guide doesn't help at all. It doesn't give you the numbers you need as you'd like and isn't as intuitive as Nimble's is. Thank god for RightKnighttoFight's Custom Adversaries for being what I want it to be. But I actually don't like making adversaries in Daggerheart. VERY ironically, the narrative first attitude in making enemies doesn't help me. I have a tendency to be video gamey when I try to make enemies and the system doesn't promote for that, infact, doing that will slow things down and thats the last thing it wants you to do. Maybe its something I need to do more when it comes to creating baddies in DH.

Thankfully, Hope and Fear aims to fix that with a MASSIVE amount of adversaries of 130+ dudes to throw, 4+ campaign frames, the Witch, Warlock, Brawler, and Assassin classes and... Ok this may be the best game ever. The four campaign frames, by the way because I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THESE.

Journey Horizon: The Westmarches/Hex crawl. Rules to help you create a hex crawl and encounters.

Reign of the WereDragon: Inspired by Sleeping Beauty. Here, you can collaboratively build the BBEG is a mechanic/mini-game in session 0.

Dark Heart of Andaloria: Romantic goth dark, bloodborne. Again, matt, you ain't slick. Great place for Transformations that were in the playtest.

Castle High: Strixhaven but better. Your "tower choice" dictates the gameplay style

I kinda get that this sub may like tactical crunch games a little better. I love them too. But I do need to remember that my players are far more into the roleplay than the fighting. Its really between Nimble and Daggerheart for my table but they are leaning toward Daggerheart.

But what makes Daggerheart so inviting is how it makes Dming not just easy but fun. It really paints it as the friendship bonding game that ttrpgs SHOULD be. It has the best dungeon master resources I ever seen, the best story guidance advice I ever seen, its so inviting in the type of game you want to make, most of the homebrew on the subreddit is for dms rather than players.

Many here may not like Daggerheart, there isn't a lot of crunch in it, it has some great character building, but none that may scratch that itch.

I ultimately think if you want to make Draw Steel, Nimble, Fablua Ultima, or Daggerheart to be your main game.... Fuck it, do all of them.

We have evolved beyond the need for the "One size fits all" that 5e thought it was. It shown it was impossible. You have a game idea? You play the game that fits it the best. You want a dark gritty game for a dark souls game? Is it narrative first? Daggerheart's age of umbra. Do you want crunch and darker themes? Shadow of the Demon Lord.

You want a grand old heroic fantasy game? Draw Steel. Want it to be quicker? Nimble.

You want your game themed like Final Fantasy? Fablua Ultima.

You want a heist game? Blades in the Dark. You want it fantasy based though? Daggerheart.

But you really have to know your players and habits. Are they multimaxing little munchkins? (Affectionate) Pathfinder for them. Do they like making ocs, talk about them, talk about the moments for them, make art for them? Like to act out the drama? Daggerheart.

Daggerheart really is my number 1 system right now. It is how I run 5e anyway. I full on plan to make the switch when my campaigns finish.

For now, this is my last post in this little series. At least, til another system comes out. I heard Last arc is good...

u/AlwaysDragons — 11 days ago

WILD CARD, BABEEEYYYYY. YEA, SAYING SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT 5e.... Ok no, I'm not insane.

But, lets be real, if you must play a fantasy game, people will flock to 5e because its what they know. Its the funny dice game referenced in Stranger Things, hey, coworker, you talk about that funny wizard and dragon game right? You think I can play?

But, even then, I never ever seen anyone run 5e by the book. Because its that awful. Before they made it a new rule, potions were a action, who thought that was a good idea? 5e has a ton of problems; classes get boring, magic is overpowered, martials are weak, monster challenge rating does not fucking work.

But its horrible design has opened the door to homebrewers. Over the years, the term went from cringe stuff you'd see on the horror stories subreddit to actual good game design. This is what this thread is for before I say goodbye to this trash system. The Homebrewers, the third parties, all those kickstarters of 5e homebrew books that are so cool and I'd totally make a game revolving those and not just collect dust on my shelf. This is for you! I hope you do move on to better systems or make your own. This is also what I allow in my home games, and just shouting out great stuff made by this community.

Player Side

Anything by Laserllama or Kibbles Tasty. These two are similar to each other. Very well known in the space; Laserllama is famous for his Alt Class series. You want martials to get their powers from 4e back? Play a Alt Fighter. You don't get the battlemaster maneuvers in the base class, nah, Laserllama gives them 5 ranks of exploits. THATS HOW YOU GIVE MARTIAL ABILITIES NAMES.

On the flip side, Kibbles brings a little 3.5e design with a ton of invocation style options to toy with their original classes. Also some stuff like Generic Elemental spells or crafting and artificer systems.

I'm more of a Laserllama fanboy. Peak design with everything (Minus sorcerer but we can't all be winners.)

Some of these exploits are great. Rank 1 is the usual battle master stuff, but getting higher and you get stuns, stances and just recruit a fucking mercenary to help you. My personal favorite is one from rogue where its literally just... plan with the dm on a contingency plan where you plan for a specific event to trigger to help you in your time of need. A spell scroll you got for this moment, a small troop to help, a airship ride to save you. Its insane and I LOVE IT.

Also, Laserllama does have original classes. My favorite is their Magus and its spellstrike. Its the best version of it I have ever seen. Its literally Pathfinder's and its the best.

Valda's Spire of Secrets. This book is MASSIVE. Also apparently divisive for some people. It comes with a ton of classes; Witch, Captain (you get a npc helper!), inventor, War Mage, Investigator, a ton of subclasses, races, and items that add to the weapon table like supermassive weapons from dark souls games. Also, some interesting rules like swapping a casting class's stat, taking ten to automatically succeed a skill check, advantage on hit die rolls, a TON of stuff.

Ultimate Adventure's Handbook. Similar to Valda's, just not as grand on the production. It has subclasses galore, and some popular dmsguild classes like accursed and puglist. Some new spells that really spiced some games I'm in. Played a prophecy cleric from here and forced a enemy to fail their legendary resistance and countered with a sunbeam, it was SO GOOD.

Grim Hollow. You want horror? But think VtM is too modern for you? Yea Grim Hollow is one of my favorite supplements. Transformations that are a separate stage system, horror based subclasses, A monster hunter class thats better than ranger in everyway but that's a low bar, GREAT monsters and even one shots. The recent transformed 5.5e they just released is so great.

Elf & A Orc Had a Baby. So you think the custom lineage rules are hot ass? Well say hello to the Custom Lineage she told you not to worry about. E&O gives you 16 points. You can dip with these points into a max of 3 races. Each feature having a point total. You can make some crazy custom lineages with this. There's also a upbringer option as well. (before your background) where its similar. I made a Elf/Gith with a caravan upbringing that became a investigator, a Dryad/Dragonborn Cleric of Prophecy, and a human raised by a hag. This one became a hit with my players in all tables.

DM Side

The Game Masters Guide Series. This guide of books are purely dm material. And its been a massive boon to how I approach campaign making. The legendary dragons one is a particular favorite. A BUNCH of legendary dragons to throw at your players with great art, hooks, tactics, and statblocks. Even some dragon hunting mechanics, airships, enemies and the Draken player option that involves random mutations and the DRAGON RIDER class. Also three oneshots to use these guys. (Also, all the books have 3 oneshots in them.)

A particular favorite was "Hold my Beer" a great oneshot that is strangely has room to be a whole campaign? Think the writer put their whole lore in the start of it of reclusive elfs, a dragon that likes making beer and a lich who wants their beauty back. This one spawned a enemies-to-lovers relationship with my fiance's monk and the head badguy for having a intriquing set up that the oneshot just kills off.

Also, this book has a level 17 oneshot. NOT MANY ONESHOTS EVEN GO THAT HIGH!

The random tables, towns and cities and legendary locations are all GREAT. All with roll tables for on the fly creation. NPC book has npcs to meet your players or roll one up. I'm just a massive sucker for roll tables.

Last one that is my all time favorite is Villains, Minions, and their Tactics. Just a book of all Big bads. Just a bunch of assholes for your players to fight. Foreword by... MAT COLVILLE???? Of course they did.

Favorite one is a reclusive ranger who's own delusions fight you, a dwarf cannibal (though, that wouldn't be shocking for my players... Why are dnd players into cannibalism???), a child that's a king but the crown is controlling them, a seductive ringmaster, a orc haunted by her ancestor's spirits, a mad inventor, a ghost pirate captain, you got so much inspiration to work with.

Flee Mortals. I would say its Draw Steel at home, but man, mom's a great cook. This is the predecessor to Draw Steel in my mind. It was a look into how MCDM would design their monsters by flexing on 5e's monsters. This one I remember broke containment for dms on twitter for a while. Even Matt Mercer loved it.

It has Matt Colville's love for 4e EVERYWHERE. Monster roles, retainer statblocks to help the party, CR that actually works, MINIIIOOOOOONNNNNNNNSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, VILLAIN ACTIONS. Sorry, Legendary actions that... "Lets them move.... and make an attack...." groundbreaking. Villain actions are legendary actions that are super strong effects as the rounds progress. They are usually ordered by weakest to strongest. You got the bbeg to quarter health, now he drops a massive fucking nuke on you for that. Also villain parties. Parties to rival your heroes. Dark reflections of the heroes to match them. I threw the Amythest Knifes at my strixhaven game, they barely won against three of them. They do NOT play fair. Flee mortals, absolutely love it.

It also completellllly redos legendary resistance, one of the most bullshit mechanics of the game. So legendary resistances for a lot of these monsters often come at a cost. Reduce speed, disable regeneration, give up a spellslot, deal flat damage, this single handingly fixes the controversal mechanic to actually show progress in the fight instead of having to go "Your spell is resisted." and suck the fun out of the room.

Flee Mortals replaces the base monster manual for many, and frankly, it should. Its that phenomenal and makes running the game fun. Flee Mortals + Laserllama and Valda's classes makes a grand time.

Monster Manual Expanded. After flee mortals, this one isn't that crazy. It expands the monster manuals with more options to fight. Humanoid enemies get spellcaster and martial variants like warlock, sorcerer and monks. 1 and 3 do have my favorites. There's hydra dragons in them, more dragon types, dracotaurs, more sphinxes, more ages of dragons, theres a lot to chew on here. Its just not as groundbreaking as Flee Mortals is. But I do love filling out a roster of monsters.

Giffyglyph. This chad came in, dropped some of the greatest DM material you ever seen, didn't elaborate and then disappeared. Giffyglyph makes monster creation actually doable with their monster creation guide with SOLID ass numbers, traits, and guidance that WOTC SHOULD HAVE FUCKING DONE BUT NO. Thank GOD for their monster maker app. Input the level of the party, select their rank and go to town. It gives you the exact numbers you need at that level to make great monsters.

Their darkest dungeons also have great help on dungeoneering and playing more gritty style of games. Their class compendium are class adjustments, they are cool. Ranger's get a trap salvage mechanic, that's really neat.

And a Couple Shameless Plugs

I frankly am inspired by people that just take the broken system of 5e and mold it into something else. It sucks to run, don't get me wrong, but when you do get into fixing it to a point you make something from it, there's pride in that. I also made a bunch of stuff. Feel free to skip to the end if none of this interests you

I've made Summoner, Oracle, and Optional Features for Sorcerer that actually uses their devil trigger ability in 2024. Summoner was the first thing I ever made that changed throughout the years to its best state. I have a summoner player in my strixhaven game and he said "Get ready for this campaign to turn into gurren laggan when I get to level 8." I have no idea what he's talking about it, but bet.

Currently, I have two massive projects before I depart from this system for good: Nightbringer: my first ever campaign I plan to release this year hopefully. Been working on this for 4 years now, and its come a massive long way. Basically: Think Baldurs gate 3 but vampires instead of squid. The vampire and hemomancy system is similar to Grim Hollow's, on purpose, you could replace it with that one easily if you have it.

And Riels's Guide to Stylish Combat: A overhaul of 5e's martial system. I have a couple players using this and both are in a party of casters. They put in WORK. One is a barbarian who was outperforming so much I had to nerf a lot of it. Another one is a eldritch fighter that is the lichpin tank of the caster party against the heavy hitters.

Weapon Arts, Fighting Styles scaling to actually grow with you, Armor that can use your STR instead of just DEX, Manuevers for all the martials, and magic weapons up the ass. One of my best works.

And All the House Rules

And this little misc section goes to all the house rules all over the web on how people make their games better. Wither its bonus action potions-- the classic--, no initiative/popcorn initiative/taketurn initiative-- My beloved--, the camp roles, take ten. All of it.

I also count Nimble's action system in here. It was originally meant for speeding up 5e games. Its just so drastic I put it as a maybe. One day, I will test out a "All laserllama/kibbles+Valdas+Flee Mortals+Nimble ruleset" game and it will go crazy.

This was less a system recommend and just a me gushing out my legal list and books I bought, but maybe to help other 5e dms for spicing up their games.

But please let me know YOUR tricks and brews! As we say goodbye to this trash system, rest in piss. Before I move on to my all time favorite system as the last one of these...

u/AlwaysDragons — 17 days ago