D&D 5E Homebrew: Monk Subclass: Way of Body
The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master shares another one of his homebrews. This time the Strength Focused monk path. The Way of Body!
Cover Image by Lord-Of-The-Guns.
Tabletop
D&D 5E Homebrew: Terramancer Sorcerous Origin
The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master shares another one of his homebrews. This time the Earth elemental focused sorcerer. The Terramancer!
Cover Image by Nargyle.
D&D 5E Homebrew: Level 20 Druid Features
The Paladin’s have a unique feature where their level 20 class feature is based on their class archetype. (sub-class) These are far and beyond my favorite as it makes it so you could have two paladins in your party and yet they would feel completely different from one another. So I’ve always liked to think about what archetype based level 20 class features I would make for each class. So I’d like to share my homebrew for the guardian of nature, the Druid. I’m going to have one for each of the subclasses except Moon since Archdruid is already a perfect fit.
Circle of the Land:
Archdruid being the Level 20th ability always bothered me. The Moon Circle gets significantly more out of unlimited beast shapes. So it only seems right that I correct that here tonight.
One With The Land:
At 20th level, when you are located in an environment similar to the land where you became a druid you can cast a 9th level spell without expending a spell slot. Adding an additional 1 hour to the casting time.
You can use this again after finishing a long rest.
I like the idea of the Land itself granting the Druid power, almost like Goku’s spirit bomb. Like the land itself is rewarding the Druid for their devotion and protection.
This feature focuses on the land specifically unlike many of the other features. The Druid will have to understand their landscape to make the most out of this feature.
Circle of Dreams:
Decided to continue and add 20th Level Features for the new Subclasses in “Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.” First off here’s the Circle of Dreams a subclass that focuses on using the good parts of the Feywild to heal and support their allies.
Dreaming Chronomancy:
At 20th level, when you take a short rest you maniputed and warp the flow of time around you. You can all other creatures within 120ft gain the benefits of a long rest during the duration of a short rest.
One of my favorite aspects of the Feywild is how time there is convoluted. So it made sense to me that a Druid of this strength might be able to utilize that power. Being able to turn all Short rests into Long Rests is an insanely strong ability, and one deserving of a 20th Level skill.
I wasn’t specific about how much time was saved as I’d like the ability to be compatible with variant rules on Rest Time.
Circle of the Shepard:
Arch-Summoner:
At 20th level, whenever you cast a spell that summons/conjures a creature, it is not considered a concentration spell for you. If there is a downside to losing concentration on the spell the downside is ignored. The creature remains loyal to you.
However you can still only have one instance of that particular spell active at one point.
I dig this ability because it it cements this subclasses’ role as the summoner. Since the spells are no longer concentration spells it means you can have multiple summons of different types up at once.
This is potentially dangerous as it could clog up initiative but with the right DM /player relationship it can work out.
Alright that’s it. Lemme know what you think in the comments or @TLCStageHazard. If you’re interested in other homebrews here’s one that turns The Legend of Zelda’s Link into a 5e Ranger.
Cover Image by Takeda11.
Dan’s Deck Tech — Budget Black/Red Aggro
My favorite part about Magic: The Gathering is absolutely how varied and interesting deck building is. With 25 years worth of cards and mechanics, pretty much anything is possible. As of late, I’ve been updating a few of my decks, and I decided that I want to share some of them. Today I’ll be talking about one of the first good decks I’ve ever used, a budget black/red (Rakdos) aggro deck that I affectionately call Super Weenie Hut Jr.
And when I say budget, I mean REALLY budget. It’s composed of nothing but commons and uncommons, but I’ve been able to make it see a good amount of success over the years. This is the most recently updated version of this deck.
The Decklist:
Creatures:
x4 Rakdos Cackler
x4 Tormented Soul
x4 Rakdos Shred Freak
x4 Spike Jester
x4 Minotaur Skullcleaver
x4 Mogis’s Marauder
Instants:
x4 Lightning Bolt
x4 Go For The Throat
Enchantments:
x4 Untamed Hunger
x4 Madcap Skills
Lands:
x4 Dragonskull Summit
x9 Swamp
x7 Mountain
Pretty straight forward strategy here. Play good value, low cost cards throughout the game and swing in with them as consistently as you can. Eventually use one of the menace-giving auras to make creatures harder to block and/or play Mogis’s Marauder and win the game. Let’s get into the meat of it, starting with the one-drops: Rakdos Cackler and Tormented Soul.
This deck wants to attack a lot, so these two offer some really good advantages. Rakdos Cackler is a super versatile card. Early game, you can Unleash and get a 2/2 on the board on turn 1, or later in the game, it’s still a solid card to play quite simply because it adds to your field of weenies and is mana efficient. The fact it loses its ability to block if unleashed doesn’t really bother this deck because it’s not going to do much blocking to begin with, plus if you ever have to be cautious, you can just not unleash it. That said if you’re playing defensively with this deck, you’ve probably already lost. The reasoning for Tormented Soul is the same. The fact that it can’t block is made up for by the fact that this deck doesn’t block much, and being an unblockable 1/1 that we can pump later with our auras is super good for how aggressive we’re trying to be here, especially since this card can help us get past threats that are simply too big for this deck to handle otherwise.
For our two-drops, we have Rakdos Shred Freak and Spike Jester.
Again, reasoning here is quite simple. Rakdos Shred Freak is a 2/1 with haste, and Spike Jester is a 3/1 with haste. Fast, easy damage. But let’s take a look at the board for a minute here. Let’s say turn 1 you play Rakdos Cackler and unleash it. That means if you play Spike Jester the following turn, you’re swinging for 5 damage on turn 2. Between the 1 and 2-drops in this deck, you pretty much never run out of ammo to throw at someone.
Finally, our 3-drop creatures: Minotaur Skullcleaver and Mogis’s Marauder.
These two are quite honestly some of my favorite cards ever printed. Minotaur Skullcleaver is a hyper-aggressive monster, coming onto the field as a 4/2 with haste. Skullcleaver is scary because it’s not only 4 damage raw the turn you play it, but the turn it’s played, it can deal with threats the deck otherwise couldn’t handle. Those threats being literally anything with 4+ toughness. He’s hard to block, super cheap and efficient. Mogis’s Marauder is this deck’s win condition for when you’re facing a deck that either doesn’t run red or black, or runs them but isn’t swarmy. That is, if you haven’t already won from repeatedly bashing your opponent’s face in. When Mogis’s Marauder comes into play, it gives X creatures haste and intimidate until end of turn where X is your devotion to black. Notice something about the cards in this deck? The only permanents that don’t count towards devotion to black are Minotaur Skullcleaver and Madcap Skills. Chances are when you play this, you’ve got enough devotion to black to pretty much give your whole side of the board intimidate, which you use to swing in and win the game. So long as your opponent isn’t running black. Generally speaking, if you’ve been playing well and drop Mogis’s Marauder on turn 4, you can probably win the game. If you’ve been playing well and drop him on turn 5, you definitely win the game.
Now as for instants, it’s quite simple. This deck is running two instants: Lightning Bolt and Go For The Throat.
So uh, what is there to explain? Lightning Bolt is an amazing card that can help keep your tempo going or just smack your opponent in the face for 3 damage. Go for the Throat is amazing removal for every threat that isn’t an artifact. Creatures in this deck don’t really go past 4 power, so if any really big threats show up, Go for the Throat can generally handle them.
As for enchantments, this is where the deck becomes really mean. Fun, but mean. We’re running 4 copies of both Madcap Skills and Untamed Hunger.
Menace has always been a really cool ability, in my opinion. It doesn’t make your creatures unblockable by any means, but it makes them incredible frustrating to deal with. being forced to double block is always something players dread, and when you’re being as aggressive as this deck, it makes it even more frustrating. Madcap Skills gives a creature +3/+0 and menace, and Untamed Hunger gives a creature +2/+1 and menace. By the time you end up playing these auras chances are you’ll have built up a solid board state of 3-4 creatures. Putting menace on any of them will make them terrifying, and force your opponent to deal with your offensive pressure in ways they probably didn’t want to. Generally speaking, Madcap Skills is preferred on cards like Rakdos Cackler and Minotaur Skullcleaver and Untamed Hunger is preferred on Spike Jester and Rakdos Shred Freak. But any combination of aura and creature work. Tormented Soul makes menace not important, but a 4/1 or 3/2 unblockable is still scary. Untamed Hunger also helps with Mogis’s Marauder by adding to your devotion to black. Menace also helps in conjunction with Mogis’s Marauder. If your opponent has a way to get through intimidate, you can still mess with their blockers by having a menace or two on the board.
Our mana base is quite simple, with 9 Swamps, 7 Mountains, and 4 Dragonskull Summits. Really basic setup because quite frankly, this is all you need. You could replace the check lands with better ones like, say, shock lands, but then this deck wouldn’t be as cost-effective.
For a super budget version, you could run only basic lands and still have the deck function well, cutting the price of the deck down to about $30 USD. Just replace the 4 Dragonskull Summits with 2 swamps and 2 mountains. Roughy 1/3 of your creatures are hybrid mana, so getting mana stuck generally isn’t an issue.
Total price of this deck is just under $40 USD, $30 USD for the super budget version, and for that price, you get a fun, aggressive deck with interesting abilities.
D&D 5E: Link, Hero of the Goddess
The Lifecast’s DM Greg Fernandes, D&D-izes The Legend of Zelda’s Link. As well as created usable version of his impressive arsenal.
D&D 5E Homebrew: Dexterity “Nerfs”
The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master shares a homebrew about balancing the powerlevels between Dexterity and the D&D 5E’s other statistics.
Magic the Gathering Color Theory: Red
And we’re back with more lore behind the colors of Magic: The Gathering! This time, we’re going to cover Red. The absolute definition of aggro, red is fast and to the point with its style of play. With cards such as Lightning Bolt, Goblin Guide, and more recently, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, red is synonymous with aggression.
Red wants freedom. Freedom from others, freedom from authority, freedom from personal restraint. Red is the color of passion and emotion, and believes that one should never let their emotions be restrained. Red believes that everyone is on a particular journey in life, and that the only way to go through this journey successfully is to let your emotions lead you to your destination. If you want something, you don’t wait for it to come to you — You go out and get it yourself. Right now. Live in the moment, and live to your fullest. Normally, people associate red with anger and love. In regards to the color pie, that is incorrect; It is a color of all emotions. Yes, it has parts of it related to anger and love, but on the other side it also represents happiness, sadness, camaraderie… Anything that one can feel passionate about. So when I say red is an “aggressive” color, that does not inherently mean that red represents only aggression. At the end of the day, red is about recognizing what makes you passionate, and acting on it regardless of what others may think or do.
Red, mechanically, is fairly simple to relate to its beliefs. As red is a color that lives in the moment and chases down what it needs in an instant, it is obvious that it’s going to have a lot of cards focused on getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. In this case, point A being the start of a game, and point B being winning. There are 4 major mechanics I see in this ideology: Haste, card draw, First Strike/Double Strike, and direct damage.
First off is haste, which is fairly simple to understand. In Magic, as well as many other card games, there is this thing called “summoning sickness”, which basically means a creature cannot attack the turn it’s summoned. Creatures with haste bypass summoning sickness, and can attack the turn they’re played. Haste represents red’s want to go out and do what it needs to right away, as opposed to preparing at all. Red lives in the moment, and the moment doesn’t involve waiting around.
Card draw with red is very different from card draw with blue. In blue, as I mentioned in this article, card draw represents the search for knowledge, where as in red, card draw comes with a price: Most of the time, when you draw a card, you must also discard a card along with it. This is because of Red’s mentality towards accomplishing its goals. If something you have in the moment isn’t helping you, throw it away and get something better. You need to win right now, and what you currently have isn’t accomplishing that.
First Strike and Double Strike are probably the hardest abilities to explain in Magic. When two cards fight each other, they deal their damage to each other at the same time. If a card has first strike, it means that when it fights another card, it deals its damage first, and if the damage is enough to kill, the opposing card does NOT deal its damage to the card with First Strike, because it dies before it can do that. Double Strike is when a card attacks with First Strike, and then attacks a second time at the same time as the opposing card. Basically, it does its damage twice in one attack.
How does this relate to red? Quite simply, it relates to red’s “shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality. Red is impulsive. Red acts on what it feels right from the get-go, so of course it’s going to be the one to swing first. As for double strike, well, who says it stops swinging after the first attack? That’s not how you win a fight.
Finally. there’s direct damage. Do I really have to explain this one? What’s a more efficient way of winning the game than hitting your opponent in the face or blowing up a creature that’s in your way? The answer: Literally nothing. Like I’ve been saying, red wants to get things done, and get them done quick. Direct damage is the purest example of this.
In relation to its other beliefs, there is one sub-theme of red that it touches upon: love. But not love in the romantic sense people tend to use it as. According to red, love is caring for anyone who is important to you. Family, friends, romance, pets, anything. If they’re important to you, to any degree, they’re worth keeping in your life. End of discussion. Red tends to get abilities that focus on camaraderie, such as Battalion, Bloodrush, and Battle Cry, and flavor in cards like Cathartic Reunion, shown above.
Well, that’s red in a nutshell. As always, I’ll leave you with the card I think represents red as a whole: Lightning Bolt, The Best Card in Magic™. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times in this article, simply because it’s too important and iconic NOT to be talked about. Lightning Bolt is simple and to the point: 1 mana, deal 3 damage to target creature or player. It can take out a creature early in the game for more damage, hit your opponent’s face for 3, or help take down a bigger creature none of yours can. Its goal is to help you finish the job as fast as possible, just like red wants to do. It’s also just a generally amazing card and if you’re in red you absolutely play it 100% of the time.
D&D 5E: The Restorer, Circle of The Green Druid
The Lifecast’s DM shares another one of his D&D 5e homebrews. This time a Heal-focused Druid. The Restorer.
Magic The Gathering Color Theory: White
It’s time for another Magic the Gathering color theory! Last time, I talked about MTG’s most iconic color, blue, but this time, I wanted to talk about white: The color of many iconic cards such as Serra Angel. Like I said last time, the colors of MTG each have different sets of beliefs and ideals, and each card in that color is created with these beliefs and ideals in mind. White is no different.
White wants peace, though its methods of attaining peace are rather militaristic. It believes that in order to attain peace, one must first abide by a strict set a laws to keep the peace, and second, put the majority above the individual. If the sacrifice of one means the success of the many, then that’s good. White is ultimately looking out for the greater good at the expense of individualism. It builds up huge numbers of followers through law and religion, and these numbers swear towards the ideals of white. Amass large numbers and fight for white’s ideals. If a few soldiers die in the process, that’s fine, because they’re just soldiers. So long as the end of furthering their idea of order is met, the means are justified. To say white is self-centered wouldn’t be far from the truth. This is shown by through one of white’s staple mechanics, token generation. As with blue and card draw, token generation isn’t an ability exclusive to white, but white certainly has the best. White generates more 1/1 tokens than any other color, mostly through cards that have some sort of religious affiliation or renowned war heroes. Note how even the renowned heroes such as Hero of Bladehold still aren’t referred to by name, again, showing the “just a soldier” mentality.
The tokens that are generated are nameless soldiers whose intent is to simply swing in and get damage. Because you can consistently make tokens due to effects like Hero of Bladehold and Elspeth’s +1 ability, you’re less inclined to care about your tokens dying because you can simply make more next turn. They’re just soldiers.
Keep in mind, this is not some Orwellian dystopia of a color like you may be thinking. Beings in white are in white because it’s their ideal as well, not because white is forcing them to think that. Gideon Jura, the current face of white in MTG, is literally putting the lives of the entire MTG multiverse before his own in the current story. Not because white is forcing him to, but because he believes that is what needs to be done to keep the peace. Prioritizing the many over the individual.
While white seeks peace and protection for all, it will prioritize peace and protection for its own. This is shown in its vast array of spells that either give its creatures protection from a certain color or source (A creature with protection from a color/source cannot be targeted or blocked by said color/source), or cards that give buffs to other creatures in white. The best token creation is in white, the best buffs for those creatures are also in white. At the end of the day, you’re either with white or against it, and if you’re against it, it wants nothing to do with you.
We’ve talked a lot about what white does to further itself and how it protects its people, but what about those against white? This is where the other ideal of white comes in: Law. White believes that in order to keep the peace in the world, one must abide by a strict set of laws that keep everyone safe. A lot of white’s enforcement of these laws come from religious backing. White is the color of God, angels, priests, clerics, etc. because it traditionally represents purity. Divine intervention and religious figures is how white deals with those who oppose it. Most of these abilities involve keeping the opponent oppressed in some way shape or form, be it through preventing the opponent from using certain cards, keeping creatures tapped, or simply removing cards from play.
There you have it, white’s philosophy. It used to be mostly just about protecting people and healing the weak, but as of late it has also adopted a much more militaristic, group think kind of approach to peace. A quick note, not all cards in a color symbolize everything about the color. White doesn’t have to exclusively be about furthering ideals. There are cards that just care about protecting those who can’t protect themselves, regardless of if they’re for or against white, like Gideon, for example.
As for cards that do fall in line with all ideals, there is one card that I feel symbolizes everything about white: Wrath of God.
It only has one effect, but that one effect symbolizes everything white is about. The advancement of peace for everyone at the expense of the few, through divine intervention. Wipes the board against white’s opponent, and while it also wipes white’s board, white doesn’t care because its units are expendable. The effect seems fair, but since it doesn’t cause white as much of an inconvenience as its opponent, it’s actually a move in white’s favor.
D&D 5E: Inquisitor, Anti-Mage, Paladin Subclass
One of the things that always bothered me about many D&D worlds was how rampant magic tends to run. Heroes tend to go from novice to master magician in only a few years time. Magic is extremely powerful. Where is the fear? Where is their check? Enter the Inquisitor.
Inquisitors are based on the real world equivalent by the same name. The men of the Church who would go around and destroy things they considered unholy whether they be text or people themselves.
Magic in many worlds are sort of viewed as an equivalent to science. So the Inquisitor coming to destroy arcane documents fits well thematically.
Inquisitors can play a interesting role in many worlds:
- Maybe a party member is an inquisitor and they have to deal with a fellow party member who is a caster of the arcane. Will they let their fear of the arcane prevent them from doing the greater good?
- Maybe a major antagonist is an Inquisitor. They could potentially spread anti-arcane propoganda across the entire world. Making your mages feel unsafe wherever they go. Your players could argue with the Inquisitor stating the hiprocracy of the Inquisitor cast spells of their own.
- Inquisitors could make an interesting opponent for a heavy mage group as they might need to resort to other means to win a confrontation. Maybe the fighter switches to a more defensive role attempting to keep the Inquisitor away from his spellcasting allies.
I hope this class really sells that idea and allows for a true check of the arcane. Leave critique here in the comments or @TLCStageHazard.
If you’re interested in other D&D 5E Homebrews, here’s one about a more Pious Bard.
Oath of the Inquisitor:
High Ranking Inquisitor | Art by: Wes Schnieder
Oath Spells:
| Paladin Level: | Spells: |
| 3rd | Detect Magic, Identify |
| 5th | Silence, See Invisibility |
| 9th | Counterspell, Dispel Magic |
| 13th | Fire Shield, Locate Creature |
| 17th | Circle of Power, Dispel Evil and Good |
Channel Divinity:
When you take this Oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Martial Counterspell: When a target casts a spell within your melee attack range you can spend your Channel Divinity and reaction to immediately interrupt the their casting (wasting their spell slot and action) and take an attack of opportunity.
Focus Rupture: As an action, you can make a special attack with an attack bonus equal to your Intelligence or Charisma modifier(choose one). If the attack lands any spell the target was concentrating on is immediately ended.
Inquisitor reflecting on the night’s events. | Art by : Kim Junghun
Aura of Null:
Beginning at 7th level you and allies within 10 feet gain a bonus to saving throws vs spells equal to your Charisma or Intelligence modifier.(Choose one) This effect does stack with Aura of Protection.
Eternal Watchman:
Beginning at 15th level, whenever you use your Divine Sense feature you also gain the effects of the Detect Magic spell. This does not use up a spell slot.
Arcane Eradicator:
At 20th level, as an action, you can emmit an aura of anti-magic. You gain the following effects for 1 minute.
- You emmit an aura of silence in a 30ft radius centered on yourself. This is effectively the Silence spell but it cannot be dispelled.
- You can use your Channel Divinity effects any number of times.
- When you cast the Dispel Magic spell it is considered to be cast at an 8th level.
Magic The Gathering Color Theory: Blue
One of my favorite games ever is good ‘ol Magic: The Gathering. I’ve grown a pretty large attachment to it over the years, to where I’ve reached a point where I’m watching deckbox reviews on youtube for fun. Though, when it comes to Magic, I feel like something that goes widely underappreciated about it, at least in my community, is the lore of the game. Especially when it comes to the meaning behind the big 5 colors of the game. A lot of players brush over the colors, thinking they’re just an arbitrary means of organizing different play styles, when they’re actually much more than that. The colors of MTG each represent different sets of beliefs and ideals, and each card in that color is created while keeping those beliefs and ideals on mind. This time, I’ll be talking about the most iconic color in Magic, blue. The color of MTG’s own posterboy, Jace Beleren.
In MTG there’s this thing called the color pie. It’s an image showing the colors in alignment/opposition with each other, and what each one represents in terms of ideology.
The Color Pie (via MTG Wiki)
Blue wants knowledge. Blue believes that the pursuit of knowledge is the most important thing in life. Blue believes that the world is ever-changing, and because of that it always wants more information. How will it know what to do in a situation if they don’t know every single possible outcome? Unlike other colors which hold things like morality, emotion, the self, etc. above all else, blue doesn’t care about that. All blue cares about is learning. What’s the most optimal move? What knowledge will it gain from this? So long as blue comes out in the end knowing more, it’s a good trade-off. Blue wants to know anything and everything about the world. This search for knowledge is shown in a lot of the staple cards in blue.
Drawing cards represents this search for knowledge. Each individual draw allows the player to gain more knowledge about the current game, allowing them to better assess the situation. While card draw isn’t an ability exclusive to blue (that would be way too powerful), blue certainly has the best (and probably just more) versions of the ability.
Blue is not just about the pursuit of knowledge, though. Keep in mind, blue doesn’t just look for knowledge; it retains all of it. By searching for so long and learning so much, it knows how to come out winning in many, many situations, to the point where blue has effectively solved Magic. Blue is incredibly smart; borderline omniscient in some cases. Knowing how to beat everything is exactly where another staple abilities of blue come in: scrying and counter spells.
Scrying is a mechanic that allows you to look at the top card(s) of your deck depending on how much the effect lets you, and decide whether or not you want to keep the cards on the top of your deck, or put them on the bottom. Looking at what cards you’re going to draw, and literally changing that if you please, is pretty much as omniscient as you can get in MTG, considering you’re more or less seeing the future. It’s also paired with other beneficial abilities a lot, like a creature with evasion or card draw.
While scry looks into the future, counter spells are the definitive form of blue’s overwhelming knowledge. Blue is able to stop pretty much anything in its tracks because it knows exactly how it works and how to beat it, hence why you have cards that literally just prevent other cards from working. Scry still has to assess some kind of situation, hence why a lot of the time it comes out at sorcery speed (can only be played on your turn). It’s only used at a time where you have the time to assess what to do. Counter spells happen at instant speed (can be played whenever), meaning that blue already has the necessary knowledge to know how to deal with the situation.
There is one card that I feel embodies everything blue is about, and it’s a little card called Cryptic Command. For 4 mana, it lets you do pretty much anything you’d ever want to do while playing blue. Stop an opponent from hurting you, counter literally anything, draw a card… It’s great. And you get to pick two of the effects.
And there you have it, blue’s philosophy in a nutshell. It wants to know literally everything. Because of this, it’s generally agreed upon that in terms of sheer consistency and power, blue is the best color in the game. It’s hard to beat something that knows everything about you.