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And now for something a little different: here’s a progress gif of my Uncaged Anthology vol 1 illustration! (Is this something people are interested in seeing more of?)

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A Human warlock and her Imp familiar.

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wife

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The Center for Puppetry Art's Labyrinth

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Born of Two Bloods – Personal plot for half-elves

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Ever since I read about Elrond Half-Elven back in Tolkien’s works, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of half-elves. When I graduated into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I found half-elves waiting for me as an option. They seemed to be relatively common, and I played a few in my day.

Role-playing a half-elf provides a player with a unique opportunity to straddle two worlds. While you can definitely take some of the advice from my previous articles about personal plot for elves or humans, this article will focus specifically on half-elven specific plot.

Before you even contemplate plot for a specific character, you should probably ask the question of what your campaign’s attitude towards half-elves are. By the D&D default, half-elves are seen as valuable go-betweens for elven-human relations. They have a natural charisma that attracts members of both races, and they’re often treated as natural diplomats. This doesn’t have to be the default, however. In Eberron, for example, half-elves have become essentially a race unto themselves, complete with their own dragonmarks. In the Dragonlance setting, half-elves are generally seen as objects of distaste (as evidenced in the way elves treat Tanis Half-Elven). Looking to Tolkien, half-elves are incredibly rare, and they’re almost always the product of difficult and strife-filled situations (as seen in the difficulties that Beren, Luthien, Aragorn, and Arwen face). You might decide to emulate one of these ideas, or you might go your own way altogether.

The first question to ask when contemplating a half-elf character’s intrinsic plot is what the circumstances of the character’s birth were. Was the PC a wanted child? Unwanted? An accident? Do they have one parent each of human and elven race? It’s suggested in earlier supplements that the child of half-elves is half-elves, as is the child of a human and a half-elf, or an elf and a half-elf. All of these are possibilities, and they may influence the story elements. Does your half-elf know both parents? In one game I ran, the half-elf knew his elven mother, but not his human father, and his personal quest was to meet his father, or learn about him. It made for some awkward moments when he later met his fully human half-brother. In my current campaign, the half-elf knew his human mother, and he knew an elf who visited her often. He assumed this was his father and treated him as such. Much later he learned that her visitor was his uncle, who had been betrothed to his mother. His real father was a thoroughly evil warlock that his uncle pursued. Much later, his father began to appear as a recurring villain, one who was very satisfied to finally destroy.

How does your half-elf feel about elves and humans? Do they favor one over the other? Do they try to balance the two halves of their nature? Also, what do humans and elves feel for each other? If the two are at war in your campaign, perhaps the half-elf will be the diplomat to help make peace. Perhaps the rift between elves and men stems from something that each side believes the other side is keeping from them, something akin to the Arkenstone or the Nauglimir in Tolkien. If the half-elf makes it their personal quest to restore the McGuffin to its rightful place, they can bring peace between the two peoples, thus balancing the two halves of their heritage.

One half-elf trait that probably doesn’t get the love it deserves is Skill Versatility. Gaining proficiency in any two skills is quite a potent trait, almost as powerful as the Skilled feat. Depending on which skills the player picks, this could help dictate some story as well. A character who choosing Acrobatics and Survival, for example, is likely a very different person than someone who picks Arcana and Religion.

I hope this article has helped spark a few idea for your half-elf players, or even the nature of half-elves in your campaign. Feel free to share your own ideas for half-elf plots!

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Vivien’s Arkbow

To help support my work, to request card conversions of your own, or to download the .pdf file for this artifact, feel free to visit my Patreon, whose link can be found in the description on my page.

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Divine Artifacts of Theros

To help support my work, to request card conversions of your own, or to download the .pdf file for these artifacts, feel free to visit my Patreon, whose link can be found in the description on my page.

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D&D Merrow - by Deathshead13

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So the first of my monthly Patron Conversions is actually a double-faced card, which is appropriate since we’ll be getting to those pretty soon in the original Innistrad, which means you all get a glimpse at how the Transform mechanic translates. The card itself is Thing in the Ice from Shadows over Innistrad, which is interesting. It starts as basically a big, hard-to-kill but low-damage threat meant to be protected by other creatures, but if it gets freed, its becomes a weaker and more psionic version of the 5e kraken.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

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So with only two votes (almost no one participated surprisingly), the winner of the Patron-chosen Set is the original Innistrad! I, for one, certainly won’t complain. This set is very different from both Dominaria and Arabian Nights, meaning more variation for me. Plus, I love doing horror-themed homebrews. 

This is the first card, Abattoir Ghoul. Given the number and variety of zombies in Innistrad, I decided I would put these all into one thing like I did with the Alpha Walls, once the Compendium hits. Until then these (and probably Vampires and Werewolves) will just get smaller lore for each creature.

Keep reading

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Innistrad has more than a few griffins, which should be fun. Like sphinxes, griffins rarely appear in fantasy games except as a one-of, so making more of them that feel like they have variety should be a good challenge. But Innistrad does help with the types it offers.

Keep reading

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Altar’s Reap (2nd level, Necromancy)

Casting Time: 1 action (ritual)

Range: Self

Components: V, S, M (a dagger, and the corpse of a humanoid killed in the last 24 hours)

Duration: Instantaneous

Classes: Wizard

Those practiced in the dark arts of necromancy know that there is power to be found even in the dead. When you cast this spell, you mutilate a fresh corpse, inscribing arcane glyphs into its skin with a ritual dagger. When you finish casting this spell, you automatically regain 2 expended 1st level spell slots. A corpse can be used for this spell only once; after it has been marked by the spell is can not be used in the same way again.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

Keep reading

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It’s a snake. A cool snake, don’t get me wrong, and a little shit if you don’t see it before stepping next to it. But it’s a snake. I’m not gonna write any lore for a snake.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

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The first of many angels from the Innistrad set, which means that they will also appear in one collected section in the eventual Innistrad Compendium. Unlike the zombies, however, there’s plenty to say about angels, which means they’ll be getting full lore write ups for each.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

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Another angel to go along with the first from earlier. Writing up lore for angels that aren’t just servants of the deities is actually pretty fun. Making story seeds for these that don’t deal inherently with Innistrad is also gonna be very interesting.

I wanted to ask, how would everyone feel if I didn’t include the lore write-ups in the text on tumblr posts? While they are hidden under a Read More, they’re pretty long, and transfering them takes time that I’m starting to think isn’t super necessary- its all in the above pictures after all. Let me know what you all think.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

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Another Innistrad creature, another zombie. This is the first skaab we see though, which is fun since they’re a much different breed of zombie, giving them a few different abilities. This one specifically can cancel out critical hits, making it just a little bit harder to take down.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

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This card was a bit of a challenge to do- its pretty much just a hell hound, only it looks a little different. But Magic as a whole has several hell hounds, and I’ve always love hell hounds as a monster, so I ended up hitting on the idea of just making it one of several planes-aligned variations. The normal hell hound is from the lawful-evil plane of Baator, but this one is from the neutral evil Hades instead. Its also a CR less than the normal, so it works as an earlier introduction to the creature, or as back up for some bigger fiends.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.