Oath of the Risen Redeemer (5e Paladin Oath)

Typically, the Oath of the Risen Redeemer is only taken by Risen Demons or other kinds of Fiends. However, in rare situations, a mortal can take this oath. 

Risen Demons that swear the Oath of the Redeemer seek to atone for their previous actions by repairing the damage done by the evil forces they once allied with. While the Redeemer is not afraid to put his enemy to the sword, he believes that ending the cycle of violence is the best way to gain atonement and acceptance into the blessed.

Tenets of the Redeemer

Sacrifice – What you once took from others must now be offered back to them, even your very life.

Penitence – Remember where you came from, and why you left.

Compassion – Aid others, protect the weak, lift up the fallen, accept the penitent.

Humility – Do not regard yourself as above anyone. Oppose evil, but recall you were once worse.

Oath of the Risen Redeemer Spells

3^{rd –} Cure Wounds, Sanctuary

5^th – Calm Emotions, Prayer of Healing

9^{th –} Revivify, Beacon of Hope

13^{th –} Aura of Vitality, Death Ward

17^{th –} Greater Restoration, Circle of Power

Channel Divinity

When you take this oath at 3^rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Channel Demonic Essence – The Redeemer learns to convert his physical form into positive energy that may be used to heal the wounded and cure the sick. The Redeemer uses his own hit points to fuel this ability, taking damage in return for energy to power the healing. As a standard action, the Redeemer can heal any number of hit points to a willing target he touches by converting his own hit points (2hp lost for 1 hp healed.). Similar to the Lay on Hands ability, a Paladin may neutralize poison at the cost of 10 hit points using this ability.

At 9^th level: the Redeemer may now remove a disease or cure blindness/deafness at the cost of 10 hit points.

At 13^th level he heals at an even 1 for 1 conversion, and the cost to remove poison, blindness/deafness, and diseases drops to 5 hit points.

At 17^th level he can cast Power Word Heal at the cost of 50 points from his Lay on Hands pool, (or 75 of his own hit points.)  

Invoke Redemption – As an action, you present your holy symbol and offer peace and healing. Every opponent that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you (and can understand you) must make a Wisdom saving throw. Non-evil opponents have disadvantage on this saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is unable to engage in any hostile action for one round, and at the end of the round they will heal an amount equal to your Charisma modifier. Opponents can make a new saving throw at the end of each round. This effect endures until the opponent is attacked, or succeeds at the saving throw.

Aura of Healing - Beginning at 7^th level, the Redeemer’s mere presence is enough to heal the sick and maintain health. All allies within a 10 foot aura gain advantage to saving throws to resist disease, poison, and death effects, and also gain resistance to necrotic damage. In addition, allies within a 10 foot radius that fail a saving throw against disease, poison, and death effects (or are currently suffering effects from poison or disease) may immediately make an additional saving attempt. This second attempt can only take positive effect, if the save is failed again, the disease or poison do not take additional affect as per a normal failed save.

At 15^th level this aura extends to 30 feet, grants advantage to save vs magical fatigue and exhaustion, and grants resistance to poison damage

Calming Aspect – As the Redeemer masters the ability to transform his body into healing energy, at 15^th level, the Redeemer’s body changes and shifts in response to its exposure to pure positive energy. The Redeemer takes on a more angelic aspect, his demonic features fade, and even his mundane healing seems to be suffused with the divine. The Redeemer gains proficiency on all Persuasion and Medicine checks (or double proficiency bonus if those skills were already selected.) In addition, the Redeemer’s Lay on Hands healing pool is doubled to Paladin level x10

Redeem This World – At 20^th level the Redeemer can take the form of an Angel of Redemption. For one minute. You gain the following benefits:

*You emanate an aura of redemption in a 30 foot radius. The first time any enemy enters the aura or starts its turn there during a battle, the creature must succeed at a wisdom saving throw or become regretful for one minute. Regretful opponents have disadvantage on all hostile actions.

*At the start of each of your turns, you and all allies within a 10 foot radius regain 10 hit points.

*During this time, you can Channel your Angelic Essence to remove conditions (do we want to set this as any negative condition, even those that haven’t been included up to this point?) without paying the self-damaging cost.  – sure

*For the duration of this effect, your type changes to celestial. 

Special thanks to John Reddish for his work on this. 

Risen Demon (5e Race)

Risen Demon

Ability Score Increase: +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Taint of Evil: Risen demons are dogged by the taint of evil that marked their forms. Risen demons have the Fiend type, they are not humanoids. Spells and effects that target Fiends can target them. Spells and effects that specifically target Humanoids do not effect them. 

Darkvision: A lasting legacy of their infernal heritage, risen demons can see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. Risen demons cannot can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of grey. 

Fiendish Familiarity: Risen Demons have advantage on attack rolls against Fiends. Risen demons are intimately familiar with the various types of fiends. This experience, combined with their hatred for such creatures, makes them more effective in battle against them. Furthermore, direct attacks (including spells) from a risen demon against a Fiend bypass any damage resistance, damage immunity, and cannot be regenerated. 

Knowledge of the Struggle: Risen Demons are proficient in Religion. They are intimately familiar with the Cosmic struggle between good and evil. 

Language: Infernal or Abyssal. 

Comparative Red Dragons

First, I love the relatively short 5e stat blocks for monsters. I'm gonna ignore most of the details though and just stick with something that is consistent in every edition and more or less works the same in each.

Here is the 3.5 Adult Red Dragons Ability scores:
Str: 33
Dex: 10
Con: 21
Int: 16
Wis: 19
Cha: 16

Here is the Adult Red Dragon in 4e:
Str: 25
Dex: 19
Con: 22
Int: 13
Wis: 16
Cha: 14

weaker, more nimble, about as tough, and not as bright or charming.

And here we have the 5e Adult Red Dragon:
Str: 27
Dex: 10
Con: 25
Int: 16
Wis: 13
Cha: 21

Little stronger than 4e, weaker than 3.5. Back to 3e nimbleness. Toughest of the three. Not as wise, but relatively smart. Considerably more charming (or more likely awful).

Here's the really interesting note:

Challenge ratings:
3.5: 15
4e: 15
5e: 17

It doesn't look like the dragon got much more powerful, it just seems to have gotten much more relatively powerful.

Mini-6 Marked & Eruption

I'm fluent in d20 rules. I can do that off the top of my head. D6 kinda depends on which version and I've never really got married to any version of D6 (except for Star Wars back in the day). If I run a game today I'd just use Mini-6. It's easy, the core rules are limited and free, and I can add to it on the fly fairly easily. There are few weak spots in the rules, but that is typical for any minimalist system.

BTW, Link here: Mini 6

So, how does marked and eruption work in Mini-6?

A baseline, normal, non-marked human will usually only get 8d for attributes and only 4d for skills. Marked get 12d for attributes and 7d for skills. Marked get access to perks, very few unmarked will ever have a perk and never an esoteric perk. Marked can use Hero Points, unmarked never do.

As you gain character points, you track the total the character has earned. Every time the character earns 10 character points, roll a percentile die (d100). The odds of eruption are equal to your total character points. Do the same thing with hero points, but separately.

If the roll indicates the character is about to erupt, the character can accept a -1d penalty to all future damage soak rolls. This allows the character to delay eruption until they earn another 10 character points or hero points.  You can only do this as many times as you have dice in Might.

If the character is about to erupt and cannot or will accept the penalty, they can delay eruption using character points or hero points. 1 character point delays eruption for 1 round. Hero points delay eruption for 10 rounds.

When a character erupts, everything within a radius in feet equal to the characters total character points takes damage equal to the characters total character points. Additionally, everything within a radius in feet equal to the characters hero point total takes damage equal to the characters hero point total.

Marked within the radius of the eruption who survive gain a hero point. These characters may roll 1d6 and gain that many character points. Unmarked in the radius who survive have a chance to gain a mark equal to the erupting character hero point total.

Rules, Guidelines, and OD&D

I'm reading over a digital copy of OD&D. Interesting stuff. A few months back I read over the Moldvay red box, that was a trip. Figured I should at least read over the original of my hobby of choice.

Here's one of the most interesting sentences regarding the rules of the game from the Introduction.

"As with any other set of miniature rules they are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity - your time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination - the fascination of the game will tend to make participants find more and more time." (emphasis added). 

I don't believe that many modern games are intended to be guidelines that the players build upon. Certainly not 3e or 4e from WOTC. I enjoy both of those games...under some very specific conditions, but the rules are not presented as a framework or guidelines to build upon and both are already "tremendously" complex.

Here's another sentence that just rocked my brain.

"Number of Players: At least one referee and from four to fifty players can be handled in any single campaign, but the referee to player ratio should be about 1:20 or thereabouts." (emphasis added, underlining original). 

Two things. The first is, I haven't seen the term "Dungeon Masters", they use the term referee. I'm not sure that is significant, but may lend some idea of what the DMs actual role is intended to be.

Second, The number of recommended players is staggering. The most I've ever 'refereed' in a single game was about 10 or 12 and it nearly killed me. We we're playing 2e, but still. I cannot imagine the complexity of a 20 player 3e or 4e game. Think about that. The 4e XP budget for 20 1st level characters is 2000. That's a level 13 monster as a solo. An encounter would take hours and much of it would be players waiting for their turn.

It was a great session, we almost finished rolling initiative. 

The recommended equipment was kinda weird too. I knew about the "Outdoor survival" game that was sorta tied to OD&D and the chainmail rules. That was expected, but what was not expected was the suggestion to have up to 20 6-siders. Also, the rules suggest a 4-sider, 8-sider, 12-sider, and a 20-sider. No love for d10s.

bask in the glory of the first D&D campaign map

I did enjoy that "1 patient Referee" is listed in recommended equipment. Cute.

Going back to the "Referee" job, here are the steps OD&D has for preparing for the Campaign.
1. Draw out a minimum of half a dozen maps of the levels of his "underworld".
2. People them with monsters of various horrid aspect, distribute treasures accordingly, and note the location of the latter two on keys, each corresponding to the appropriate level.
3. Allow the players to make their first descent into the dungeons beneath the "huge ruined pile, a vast castle built by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses".

Really? That's it? That's all? I don't need a shiny plot line more than "crazy dudes made a thing, it's all run down now...go wreck that thing". Seriously? The whole thing is a paragraph long. the 3.5 DMG "Running a Game Session" section is 8 pages long, two columns. Tremendous complexity perhaps?

The whole classes section is somewhat familiar and immensely frustrating. Why can't dwarves be magic-users or clerics? grumble, hiss. Why are they limited to 6th level? grrrr. Why can't elves be clerics? limited to 4th level fighting-men and 8th level magic-user? ugh. The text even seems to wonder why anyone would want to play a halfling.

Alignment has no good/evil axis. Just Law, Neutrality, and Chaos...but really Law kinda equals good and Chaos kinda equals evil.

I'm in love with how simple the spells descriptions are. For comparison (and yes, hinting back to "tremendous complexity"), here is the entire description of Detect Magic from OD&D.

Detect Magic: A spell to determine if there has been some enchantment laid on a person, place, or thing. It has a limited range and short duration. It is useful, for example, to discover if some item is magical, a door has been "held" or "wizard locked", etc. 

Here's the 3.5 SRD for the same spell.

Detect Magic
Divination

Level:	Brd 0, Clr 0, Drd 0, Sor/Wiz 0
Components:	V, S
Casting Time:	1 standard action
Range:	60 ft.
Area:	Cone-shaped emanation
Duration:	Concentration, up to 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw:	None
Spell Resistance:	No

You detect magical auras. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.
1st Round
Presence or absence of magical auras.
2nd Round
Number of different magical auras and the power of the most potent aura.
3rd Round
The strength and location of each aura. If the items or creatures bearing the auras are in line of sight, you can make Spellcraft skill checks to determine the school of magic involved in each. (Make one check per aura; DC 15 + spell level, or 15 + half caster level for a nonspell effect.)
Magical areas, multiple types of magic, or strong local magical emanations may distort or conceal weaker auras.
Aura Strength
An aura’s power depends on a spell’s functioning spell level or an item’s caster level. If an aura falls into more than one category, detect magic indicates the stronger of the two.

Spell or Object	Aura Power
	Faint	Moderate	Strong	Overwhelming
Functioning spell (spell level)	3rd or lower	4th-6th	7th-9th	10th+ (deity-level)
Magic item (caster level)	5th or lower	6th-11th	12th-20th	21st+ (artifact)

Lingering Aura
A magical aura lingers after its original source dissipates (in the case of a spell) or is destroyed (in the case of a magic item). If detect magic is cast and directed at such a location, the spell indicates an aura strength of dim (even weaker than a faint aura). How long the aura lingers at this dim level depends on its original power:

Original Strength	Duration of Lingering Aura
Faint	1d6 rounds
Moderate	1d6 minutes
Strong	1d6×10 minutes
Overwhelming	1d6 days

Outsiders and elementals are not magical in themselves, but if they are summoned, the conjuration spell registers.
Each round, you can turn to detect magic in a new area. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
Detect magic can be made permanent with a permanency spell.

I give you, Tremendous Complexity.

Interesting note. The 3.5 player's handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide (cover-to-cover) are 964 pages. OD&D is 116 between the first 3 booklets and 8th of the length. I'd love to see 5e ripped down to 'guidelines', 'framework', and fit in under 150 pages. That would be groovy.

Table Top RPGs can be anything

A few weeks back I had a remarkably brief discussion about what is the greatest game of all time. It's a subjective topic, but you can try to tighten it up a bit by identifying what makes a good game. Things like "interaction, reward, story, skill development" or whatever. At first I kept myself limited to the classics (chess, go) or video games (super mario brothers, Final Fantasy 7), but then one of the folks I was talking too said "D&D" and I had no response.

Now, I feel D&D is no more the best game ever than any other table-top RPG than say d6, shadowrun, or rifts. But, I really had a hard time thinking of a good reason why they are not the best. There is precious little you can do in any other game that doesn't exist, somewhere, somehow, in a table top RPG, particularly D&D.

Seriously, we've been here for 2 hours, can we start playing now?

That was about the end of that conversation and I didn't think about it much until a few days ago.

I want to talk about how I want to design an RPG game. A campaign I suppose.

First, I like simulation games like Sim City and Civ 2. So, I want an aspect of that in the game. I want my character to be able to control and make decisions for developing cities and even nations. I want this to focus on the 4 Xs: explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate.

This, but, you know, more awesome.

Second, I do enjoy a good bit of strategy, but I don't want to get bogged down in the minutia of it. So whatever system I use needs to allow for quick, but functionally believable battles.

not. this.

 Third, I want my character to improve and I don't mind a good deal of random tossed in there. I don't want to spend hour upon hour "building" my character, but I do want some choices and a clear line of improvement. Quests and loot are fine, as long as you don't ask me to weight too many decisions because I tend to obsess and it ruins things for me. So keep the options limited, or make the options nonexclusive. That is, I can have it all, it will just take more time and work.

This is what I really want.

 Fourth, I want my character to personally kick some ass from time to time. Give me things that need a good beating and opportunity to do that beating. I don't need to be super powerful and getting clobbered from time to time is fine with me. I just want my chance in the ring against a good opponent.

I don't need to be Vader, just give me a chance to fight him - and his horde. 

 Fifth, I want a story. It doesn't have to be Shakespeare. It doesn't even have to be Michael Bay. I'm easy and very forgiving. But seriously, give me a setting, characters, a sequence, some exposition, some conflict, a climax, and some resolution. That's all I need. It doesn't have to be good, or even consistent. If it gets emotional and intense, awesome. I promise I won't claw at it too much and find all the inconsistencies. I've had my work critiqued too and it sucks. I promise, give me a story that makes any kind of sense on the surface and I will roll with it happily.

This picture damn near has everything I need for a 'story'. It has a setting, characters, suggests a sequence, implied exposition, conflict, you can assume a climax and a resolution.