BiFrost: Spell Effects and Flavor for my Organizations

For the past few weeks I've been working on a class quiz for 5e classes which acts similar to how I want the tailor to act in BiFrost. I've been working the alchemy to get it right with HelloQuizzy, but I'm hitting a lot of snags.

On the bright side, it has given me a lot of time to think about the different subclasses and how the differ. This led me down another path, which is the manifestation of powers and the effects they have. I like the idea that there are themes to the spell effects, but that they can differ based on person and on class/subclass. For example, Incarnates would have halos/circlets when they cast their spells and the effects would have similar qualities. An Incarnate of Light would gain a halo when they cast their spells, and any visual effects would be light-based, while an Incarnate of Knowledge would get a halo of runes and letters around their head, and their effects would be similar. 

I like this becaus it adds a little more magic to the world. Lets see if I can come up with a few effects while I'm here. 

Brawler - Auras: Power=White, Shadow=Black, Elemental=Shifts based off last ki power used

Dynamo - Monstrous gets crackles of energy, Wild gets 

Hero - Eldritch Knight looks like mage (Right triangle & Ovals)

Hunter - Change to bestial eyes

Incarnate - Halos (Runes, Fluid, Light, Horn and Leaf, Clouds, Smoke, Chakram)

Juggernaut - Bulging muscles like Dragon Ball Z for berserker, fur/feathers for totemist

Mage - Shapes within circles (Abjuration - Oval, Conj - Pentagram, Divination - Heptagon,

             Ench - Spiral, Evok - Right Triangle, Illu - Equilateral Triangle, Necro - , Trans - Pentagon)

Knight - Small Wings (Light for Devotion, Animal for Light, Smoke for Vengeance)

Naturalist - Land gets spectral plants, rivers, and mountains; Beast gets spectral beasts

Performer - Musical plays: melodious and playful for Lore, grand and aggressive for Commander

Prowler - Arcane trickster looks like mage (Spirals & Equi. Triangles)

Witch - Fey get faeries and bursts of chills and warmth; Infernal get smoke, cinders, and frost; Void get coiling shadows with hints of eyes and mouths. 

I also have the idea that the spellbooks wizards carry are books they pick and only other wizards and tome witches can see what is inside them. Stuff like that, to just give the world a little more flavor. 

Along the same lines, I've been thinking about how the organizations I came up with are great powers, but lack flavor. That is something I need to work on in the future, Mostly, this post is a reminder to me to not let those orgs be boring. 

TTFN

BiFrost: The Daredevil Effect & The Tailor

1) Sorry this is late

2) Like most people with Netflix, I have just finished watching Daredevil. I love it. I really enjoyed the gritty feeling, and the various skills everyone brought to the team. I actually liked that the plot of the "mundanes" and that of Daredevil ran side-by-side, especially getting to see all the villain stuff as well. Kingpin was a bit of a wildcard, but it was all very solid.

Something that the show did well is making the inclusion of the ninja's, the "fire-vision," the Stick, and the mystical Madam Gao, feel seamless. Even their offhand mentions of the events of the Avengers film fit in really well. Overall I think it was a good show, go watch it.

My real point is that it got me thinking about how surely some of the delvers in this setting would try to be vigilantes. I'm going to guess, to little success if they try and go the superman route of being out and proud.A good chunk of the police and villains can and likely will be delvers as well, so their acceptance of those outside the law will likely be little. However, it's nice to imagine a few vigilantes who are able to either successfully work from the shadows or are a dirty little secret of the local police.

So the real point of this post is to be a post-it note. There will be delvers who try to better the world from behind the scenes, and would likely take up superheroesque personalities. The Black Witch of San Diego, the St. Louis Hero, the Badger of Ann Arbor, etc.

3) I've been thinking and rethinking how characters will choose a class. And I keep thinking back to something like the Sorting Hat, but I want there to be a little more choice. I kept trying to do something where the characters choose from symbolic locations and items. However, everyone interprets things very different ways, and I hate the idea that someone would get the wrong thing just because they think differently from me.

My solution is an entity, similar to the sorting hat, who I'm calling the Tailor. He helps people find a set of powers that fits them best, he looks at their natural talent (ability scores) and makes suggestions and explains what's going on. He'll likely offer them symbolic items and energies and do a little explaining, but he'll still be enigmatic and mysterious.

The more I talk about this idea, the better I like it.

BiFrost: Modern Classes

Alright I've got a timeline and some organizations that I'm generally a fan of. This week WoTC had a cool article on Modern armor to go with the modern weapons rules in the DMG. It was pretty cool and reminded me about the Urban Arcana ModernD20 materials. I realize what I'm doing is fairly similar, except I'm more forcing D&D onto the world then having it integrate with folklore and such. I realize this had made my job really difficult because I'm trying to change the whole world instead of have it exist in a shadow world alongside it. Dresden files does a similar thing, creating its own courts and powers alongside the natural world and having most people be oblivious, rather than having everyone try to learn magic and protect themselves from vampires, necromancers, etc.

I think that is a good thing. It is setting up this setting in its own unique way; however it really isn't leaving enough room for adventure. I'm still not sure how much traditional adventure I want and I'm still looking at the Madadam series (pre-flood) to get a feel on using magic or tech heavy worlds for small stories. I feel like I also need to reread Transmetropolitan and Rat Queens, because that's honestly what I want it to be between.

Speaking of which, I had a bit of a mini-insight over the other night. I've been using the class names from the PHB the whole time, but if people just come out with these powers, without any labeling, there is no reason to call them these things. In fact, now, I'm thinking that the names for the sets of powers come from the people, and most likely the NDL (National Delver's League) to describe who is on their teams, etc.

I have planned on assuming everyone starts at Level 3, a pretty moderate power level for 5th, especially since I really want those who come out of the bifrosts to have a good chunk of new power on their hands.  So looking at what each class would have by level 3, I started coming up with some alternative names:

Barbarians get increased durability without armor and the ability to hit really hard. Basically they get really minor super strength and partial invulnerability. The rage likely turns on when they are stressed in combat and doesn't have any real mental negatives besides no spells, so I'm not worried about insane berserkers. Thus I'll call them Juggernauts.

Bards get some really cool spells at 3rd level, things like invisibility, suggestion, cure wounds, hold person. By then they also have some good inspiration abilities (that will probably work like a spell, like warmth or courage or some such feeling) and several skills with expertise. Given all this, they work well as a helper and a trickster. I think I'm going to stick with Performer for now.

Clerics differentiate pretty quickly with their domains. Some have great spells for support, others for blasting, and some for getting up in your face. Since the clerics take so many different forms, I'll call them Incarnates (which has nothing to do with how much I love the Incarnum system of 3.5...nothing at all).

Druids at level 3 are all about shape shifting and casting some kick ass elemental and nature-controlling spells. Druid is actually a pretty good name, as I'm pretty sure any nerds would immediately call them that (thanks to the visibility of WoW), but I'm going to assume the news and the NDL call them Naturalists. Which probably makes actually naturalists a little miffed.

Fighters are a little rough to give another name too. At level 3 they have some limited self-healing, fighting styles, extra actions, and either some magic, or some cool fighting skills. Considering their durability and flexibility I think we'd just call them Heroes. It's definitely classic and fighters totally have that traditional heroic feel.

Monks are by far the most useful non-spell casters because they don't need weapons to be good. All other non spellcaster will have to deal with subpar or improvised weapons in a public setting, but the monk can just walk around ready to fight, fall of buildings, jump great heights and maybe cast some sick spells. For this reason they'll just be known as Brawlers.

Paladins get some neat fighting and buffing spells, as well as smites, lay on hands, and a divine sense. Without context a paladin is a guy running around with a weapon charged with energy who heals people and chops others heads off. For know we're going to go with Knight,

Rangers are actually getting a bit of utility change from me pretty soon to improve the Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer traits. Until then they'd still be the masters of fighting with nature on their side. Ranger isn't that obscure of a word, but I imagine it'd be easier to just call them Hunters.

Rogues are going to be good at moving really fast, hiding, and getting out of dodge. They are the ultimate guerrilla fighters and have the skills and sneak attack to make it work. depending on their archetype they might have some sneaky spells to back it up, some assassination bonuses, or some acrobatic and dexterous skills. Because they stick to the shadows and work best when taking advantage, we'll call them Prowlers.

Sorcerers are getting a bunch of cool wizardy spells, but minus a lot of the utility. In exchange they et a lot more flexibility with their font of magic and metamagic. Considering the powerful spells and their opportunity to overpower them, as well as their origins manifestations looking pretty awesome, I'm going to call them Dynamos.

Warlocks are going to be called Witches. I think that is pretty easy, witch is a much more common term than warlock and warlock also has a bit of the picture of only the pactblade, where as tome and familiar fits witch better. Just call the pactblades something cool like a witchknight.

Wizards are going to be Mages. Despite Harry Potter, it is still a much more common term, plus I like the idea of using my own vocabulary for this world, it helps to set it apart in my mind from literal D&D. Besides I think it fits no matter what school they end up with, it also sets them up as a generic caster.

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER!
Brawler     Hunter         Knight       Performer
Dynamo    Incarnate     Mage         Prowler
Hero          Juggernaut  Naturalist  Witch

We'll see if this makes a difference, but in my head it does.