Kala Kal'kanis for 5e

AsgardianMetal

So, here we have Kala Kal'kanis remade for 5e.  I have made her an eldritch knight, the closest thing to a sword mage I could find.  It is pretty close.  I have chosen to make whirling blade spell for 5e.  I had to come up with stats for Skast, a fey panther that follows her around.  The biggest problem I had in converting Kala was her vampiric nature.  In 4e, she had taken vampiric heritage.  I have got her bite and the rest is the all roleplaying.  Here I have her all ready for playing!

Kala Kal’kanis

Drow/vampire female, fighter (eldritch knight) level 8

Background: Noble (position of privilege)

Personality: confused between freedom and loyalty.  She wants to be free, but is consumed by her loyalty to her family and her wanting none of that.

Ideal: family.

Bond: nothing is more important that the other members of my family.

Flaw: I hide a scandalous secret that can ruin my family forever.  Her vampire heritage and her love for Itami.

Str 16, Con 12, Dex 14, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 12

AC 19 (half-plate, dex, ring of protection)

HP (8d10+8) 60

Proficiencies +3

• Skills: arcana (+7), athletics (+6), history (+7), intimidation (+4), perception (+3), persuasion (+4)
• Tools: dragonchess
• Armor: all armor and shields
• Weapons: all simple and martial weapons
• Saving throws: strength (+6), constiution (+4)

Drow Abilities

• Darkvision 120'
• Drow magic: dancing lights (cantrip); faerie fire and darkness 1/day.  Use charisma.
• Drow weapon training: rapiers, short sword, hand crossbow
• Keen senses 
• Fey ancestry
• Sunlight sensitivity
• Trance
• Languages: common, elvish, undercommon

Fighter Abilities 

• Fighting style: great weapon fighting
• Second wind: 1d10+8
• Action surge
• Extra attack
• Weapon bond
• War magic
• Spellcasting.  DC15, spell attack modifier +7.  Spells: 4/2
• Cantrips: fire bolt, ray of frost
• First: magic missile, protection from evil and good, shield, witch bolt
• Second: misty step, whirling blade

Feats: great weapon master

Attacks

• +1 greatword, +7 to hit, 2d6+4 (reroll 1s and 2s) damage
• Bite, +6 to hit, one willing creature, or a creature that is grappled by Kala, incapacitated, or restrained. 1d4+3 damage.

Gear: masterwork half-plate (no disadvantage on stealth), "Vicious"+1 greatsword, House Kal'kanis Insignia Ring.  Other equipment as needed.

Notes

• Received training in Arcana
• Vicious is a +1 great sword that was made especial for Kala.  On a critical hit, it will do an extra +2d6 of damage, in addition to the normal critical hit bonus.
• House Kal'kanis Insignia Ring is a +1 ring of protection that will also gives the wearer a +2 intimidation against other drow and spiders.
• Whirling Blade.  2nd level transmutation.  Casting time: 1 action.  Range: 30'.  Components: V, M (bladed weapon to be thrown, not consumed).  Duration: instantaneous.  You throw you bladed weapon at a target up to 30' away.  Using your spell attack modifier to hit, you will deal damage equal to as if you had wielded it and the weapon returns to your hand.  On a miss, repeat the attack against a second target within 30' of the first. If you miss, repeat the attack against a third target within 30' of the second. If you miss again, repeat the attack against a fourth target within 30' of the third. Your weapon then returns to your hand.

Skast, the fey panther
Medium beast, unaligned

AC 13
Hit Points (5d8+5) 35
Speed 50', climb 40'

Str 14, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 4, Wis 14, Cha 9

Skills: Perception +4, Stealth +7
Senses: passive Perception 14
Languages: -
Challenge 1

Keen Smell. Skast has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Pounce.  If Skast moves at least 20' straight forward toward a creature right before hitting it with a claw attack, the target must succeed on a DC12 Strength saving throw of be knocked prone.  If the target is prone, the panther can take a bonus action to make one bite attack against it.
Misty Step.  It can do misty step once per combat.

Bite.  Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5', one target.  Hit 1d6+2 piercing damage.
Claw.  Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5', one target.  Hit 1d4+2 slashing damage.

Gencon is over... can't wait for next year!

It is Tuesday, and I am back at, well home for the time being.  Whew!  Gencon was quite fun.  Now, I have moved from miniatures, which I ran for fifteen plus years and I am The Training Grounds, which we watch over the children, play with them and do arts and crafts.  I am planning on doing more.  Like a castle I am planning on building next year using hundred of boxes left over by the many exhibitors.

Pictures!  I have taken over a hundred photos.  I didnt get a chance to get everything I wanted to get picture wise.  I wish I got more of the costumes.

They had some good foodtrucks there this year.  Really liked Johnson's BBQ  and Little Eataly but there is one that I wanted to get to try but didnt get a chance to eat there.  I hope The Spice Box is there next year.

I got to see +Stephanie Bryant for a little bit to wish her a happy birthday.  She wont be going to Strategicon during Labor Day.  She said she will be there during President's Day.

Lets see... of course there is all of my family there.  Kevin told me about his new show on YouTube called Opinionated Monsters.  Looks pretty interesting, you should go over and check it out.  Tell him I say hello.  +Dana Renfrow is going to Japan as well in September.  I hope to meet him while he is there.  I met some new people like +Michael Benensky and his wife.  I met another couple and their two daughters who were dressed as a pair of tieflings.  They are the ones in my pictures.  I photobombed a couple of pictures and snuck away unseen!  muahaha!  And the Ottawa Red Shirts gave me some Quebec No. 1 Amber maple syrup!

There is a lot more that I probably forgot.  I got a bit tipsy on mainly sake one night.  It was strange because I have drank a bottle of sake before and didnt get drunk, but then I remember I am on medication as well and probably shouldnt mix them.  And there was the beer I had earlier.  And the reisling.  And the filtered sake.  I still had my mind to me, but I was a bit wobbly on my feet.

Well.  It was a good con and I cant wait until next year!

5e Gnome-in-a-Tank

A long time ago, back in the late 70's I was playing in my father's DnD game.  Let me give you a little background here.  My father had just gotten out of the army and settled in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, where he was going to school.  My father, though whatever greater good fortune fell into a group of young college students that had just gotten this new game called Dungeons & Dragons.  It all took off from there.  The games moved from the college to our large home.  There were games there just about every day when my father got back form work.  On Fridays that was when it got to be good.  The games would last from.  Friday until early Monday morning.  There were always people in the house and it was good, all to play this game, to study, to practice for many of them were in the SCA as well.  They're making chainmail as they waited for there their day.

One of the many encounters that we had a little gnome fighter.  He was built totally random manner.  He had wore platemail and had a potion of growth, among some others.  He eventually became to be known as the Gnome-in-a-Tank.  He became a fairly recurring character, always a little pissed off at everyone who was taller then him.  So here he is, The Gnome-in-a-Tank

Gnome-in-a-Tank
Rock gnome male, fighter (champion) 3
Str 15, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 13
HP (3d10+6) 28
AC 20 (platemail, shield)
Speed 25'
Languages: Common, Gnome
Gnome Traits: Darkvision, Gnome Cunning, Artificer's Lore, Tinker
Background: Soldier, Infantry (Military Rank)
Skills: Athletics, Intimidation, Insight, Perception
Tools: Dice set, Land Vehicles
Fighter Features: Fighting Style (Dueling), Second Wind, Action Surge, Improved Critical

Gear: platemail, shield, battleaxe, dagger, potion of healing, 2 potions of growth, dungeoneer's pack, light crossbow, quiver with 20 bolts, 114gp, 13ep, 2 garnets worth 50gp each

Potion of Growth acts as a enlarge spell with a duration of one minute.

Notes

• Attacks are as follows: battleaxe +4 to hit, damage is 1d8+4.  Not much in the way to hit, but he was in a tank and should be hard to hit.
• He was angry at all the taller people.  He could be a villain recruiting other gnomes, halfling and others.
• Gnome Cunning is a great trait.  It will allows the gnome to gain advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma saving throws against magic.  I will have to make a gnome just for the power!

5e Halfling Barbarian

A long time ago, when 3e came out, my good friend +Ron Edens wanted to play a halfling barbarian.  I just couldnt see  it at the time and nixed the whole idea. The idea however stuck with me but by the time I had come up with something for him to play, Ron had moved to Fresno.  So, I sat on the idea of halfling barbarians.

The idea I had way back then was on the Southern continent of Eave, there is a vast land made up of jagged jungles and low-lying swamps called Tanno.  It was home to vicious tribesman, forgotten temples, areas of blasted lands, dinosaurs and tribes of panther riding halfling barbarians.

So, the halfling tribes would be a separate subrace, but for simplicity sake, we shall just use the stout halflings.  So starts this series where I will make up a character using the new 5e PHB.  So Ron, here we have not the Slow-Monger, but his older brother, the Fast-Monger.

Grodget Fast-Monger
Halfling barbarian (berserker) 3
Str 13, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10
HP (3d12+9) 35
AC 18 (shield, Dex and Con)
Speed 25'
Languages: Common, Halfling, Orcish
Halfling Traits: Lucky, Brave, Halfling Nimbleness, Stout Resilience
Background: Outlander, Tribal marauder (Wanderer)
Skills: Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Survival
Tools: Flute
Barbarian Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense, Reckless Attack, Danger Sense, Frenzy

Gear: Bonesplitter, shield, dagger, shortbow, 20 arrows, ornate mask, Blodget the riding panther with tack and harness, blowgun, 10 blowgun darts, a vial with 5 doses of basic poison, explorers pack, tribal gear, bone flute, 57gp and 32sp

Bonesplitter is a used short sword blade put onto a crudely-made hilt.  It is a +1 short sword and on a critical hit the target is wracked with pain that he will have disadvantage on all attack rolls until the following round.

Blodget
Riding Panther
Medium beast, unaligned
Armor Class 14 (studded leather barding)
Hit Points 13 (3d8)
Speed 50 ft., climb 40 ft.
STR 14 (+2)  DEX 15 (+2) CON 10 INT 3 (-4) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 7 (-2)
Skills: Perception +4, Stealth +6
Senses: passive Perception 14
Languages —
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)
Keen Smell: advantage on all Wisdom (Perception) check that rely on smell.
Pounce: moves forward at least 20 feet straight toward a creature right before hitting it with a claw attack, the target must succeed on a DC12 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.  If the target is prone, the panther can take a bonus action to make one bite attack against it.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 4 (1d4+2) slashing damage.

Notes

• The panther is straight out of the back of the book.  The only thing that is different is the studded leather barding it has.  In Appendix D, they have Bat, Black Bear, Boar, Brown Bear, Cat, Constrictor Snake, Crocodile, Dire Wolf, Frog, Giant Eagle, Giant Spider, Hawk (Falcon), Imp, Lion, Mastiff, Mule, Owl, Panther, Poisonous Snake, Pseudodragon, Quasit, Rat, Raven, Reef Shark, Riding Horse, Skeleton, Sprite, Tiger, Warhorse, Wolf and Zombie.
• Frenzy is the new 3rd-level ability for the Berserker.  It allows a barbarian who is under rage to further go into a frenzy where he can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns after this one.  Nasty.  However, when the rage ends, the barbarian suffers one level of exhaustion.        

Markan using the 5e PHB

Well, I have just got the new PHB for the 5e DnD game and I pretty much like it.  It is still missing something, that special thing that makes it "wow."  So I am going to make up my character Markan, using the 5e PHB, updated from the playtest version.

First we are going to start of the race.  Looking in the PHB, we can see that several things are changed from the playtest.  First thing is the stats.  His Ability Score Increase in the PHB says at the Charisma bonus goes from +1 to +2.  The playtest also stated that they gain a +1 to any stat but in the new PHB they gain two bonuses of +1 each.  So in Markan case I added another +1 to Charisma and I put the other +1 in Wisdom.  The changed low-light vision to darkvision.  While I liked low-light I can understand why they changed it just plain darkvision.  I will miss low-light however.  The last thing listed under race is the they are no longer have Keen Senses.  They now have Skill Versatility.  I kind of like having the extra skills.

The next thing we should look at is his background.  He had the Noble background.  He loses a skill.  The background just have two skills that are linked to it.  They have also lost Mounts (land), and only have one type of gaming set.  The feature that they have is Position of Privilege replacing Retainers.  However it is still listed as a Variant Feature.

Classes.  There are some big changes in classes.  I will go and list the changes for the wizard and the cleric.  The remainder I will do in a later posting.  Now the big thing that they have changed is how they prepare spells.  Their spellbook gains six 1st-level spells, at 1st-level and they may prepare their Intelligence modifier + your wizards level.  Big change.  Markan, as you can see, can see may study and have prepared to cast five 1st-level spells instead of two.  It works the same for cleric spells, using the Wisdom modifier.  Now the Multiclassing.  In the playtest, when you multiclass, you gained all the proficiencies including skills and tools and armor and weapons and saving throws.  You no longer do.  They have a special table in which it has listed all the proficiencies you can get.  For a cleric, they gain light armor, medium armor and shields.

Proficiencies now start at a +2 instead of a +1.  Not bad.

Now some changes in the spells that I gained.  Shield goes from +4 to +5.  Mighty good.  Thunderwave works as a cube instead of a cone.  Healing has gone down from the playtest.  Now, Cure Wounds only does a single d8 in addition to your spellcaster modifier.  Inflict Wounds does 3d10 now, instead of 3d8.  Shield of Faith is increased to +2.

Well, that does it.  Markan has lost some stuff but has gained other.  All and all it is not too bad.

Markan Almavai

Half-elf male

Cleric of Vandria 1/Mage 1

Noble of the House of Almavai, Barony of Celene.  First born of Wyrmslayer.

Five-nine, 155 pounds, black hair, green eyes, 28 years old

Worships Vandria Gilmadrith

Str 11, Dex 14 (+2), Con 11, Int 18 (+4), Wis 16 (+3), Cha 14 (+2)

HP (1d6+1d8) 11

AC 16 or 18 with shield

Proficiencies +2              

• Arcana, history, investigation, medicine, persuasion, religion
• Gaming sets (playing cards)
• Light, medium and heavy armor, shields
• Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows and all military weapons
• Saving throws: intelligence, wisdom

Half-elf

• Fey Ancestry: advantage on saving throws vs charm and immune to sleep
• Darkvision

Noble: Position of Privlidege

Languages: common, elvish, +1

Spells per day: 3

Wizardry

• Spellbook
• Ritual casting
• Arcane recovery (regain expended spell slot equal to half level round up).
• DC 8 + int modifier (+4) + proficiency bonus (+2) [14]. 

Spellbook (* evocation spells)

• Cantrips studied
• Prestidigitation
• Read magic
• Shocking grasp* [dexterity save, 1d8 damage and no reactions until its next turn, disadvantage if wearing heavy armor]
• First level
• Alarm [ritual; twenty foot cube]
• Detect magic [ritual; concentration, up to ten minutes]
• Identify [ritual]
• Magic missile [3 darts, 1d4+1 each, 100’ range, extra dart per level above 1st level]
• Protection from evil [one action; touch; ten minutes; evil elementals, fey, fiends and undead, evil creatures get a disadvantage to strike, cannot be charmed, frightened or possessed and if already affected gets a new saving through with advantage]
• Shield [reaction; +5 AC and immunity to magic missiles]
• Thunderwave* [range fifteen feet in a fifteen foot cube; constitution save, 2d8 thunder damage and pushed ten feet away, on a successful save half damage and not pushed; unsecured items pushed ten feet way; additional 1d8 for every level beyond first]

Divine Casting

• Ritual casting. 
• DC 8 + wisdom modifier (+3) + proficiency bonus (+2) [13].
• Warpriest: attack a second time once per round a number of times equal to wisdom modifier (+3).

Casting

• Cantrips studied
• Light
• Spare the dying
• Thaumaturgy
• First level spells studied
• Bless [3 creatures add 1d4 to attack and saving throws; concentration up to 1 minute]
• Cure wounds [1d8+3; additional 1d8 per level above first]
• Divine favor (domain) [bonus action; weapon does an additional 1d4 radiant damage; concentration up to 1 minute]
• Guiding bolt [4d6 radiant damage; additional 1d6 per level above first]
• Inflict wounds [3d10; additional 1d10 per level above first]
• Shield of faith (domain) [bonus action; 60 feet range; +2 AC; concentration for up to ten minutes] 

Gear: spellbook, holy symbol, scalemail, shield, 3 daggers, warhammer [1d8, versatile 1d10], longbow [1d8, range 150/600] 20 arrows in a quiver, backpack, 10 days of rations, healer’s kit, mess kit, tinderbox, waterskin, 20 arrows packed, blanket, monies [38gp, 9sp, 6cp]

Other gear in chest stored in town at the St Cuthbert Temple: goblin spellbook [alarm, charm person, magic missile, hold person, blink, fireball], monies for the family [206gp, 9sp, 106cp], 131 arrows, my monies (25gp)

Signet ring and writ of nobility, want back!