First, the bad news—I have never read anything about Incarnum before it won the poll last month so it will be a bit longer while I let ideas percolate. I do hope it will be out by next week!
Next, the good news—I'm looking for playtesters for my upcoming adventure! I'll be sending out playtest copies of the adventure within the next week. If you're interested in being a part of the playtest, please fill out the following form:
What's better than a four Patreon exclusive fight clubs? How about five! This month you guys voted in another new fight club, the Dragonheart. Dragonhearts learn to mimic the might of dragons in a series of esoteric techniques passed down from long ago. This was a fun one to develop and I hope you enjoy it! As always, thanks for your ongoing support!
This month you all voted for the druid equivalent version of the Hand of Dread archetype proving to me once and for all that you guys really, really like pugilists. This one took me a bit of time to develop because I've written many similar archetypes before (Skinchanger for barbarian, Green Heart for sorcerer) and I felt the need to kind of carve out as much unique of a niche as possible. I hope you all like it and let me know what you think in the comments!
Thanks as always for your ongoing support, Benjamin
For your October patron exclusive, the vote was nearly a perfect split down the middle between divine and druidic archetypes for the Pugilist. Divine just barely edged out in the end. When I got to work on the idea, I decided I'd continue in the vein of Hand of Dread where this new Fight Club would be magical but not a third spellcaster. With the Street Saint I made an effort to be more Paladin, less Cleric. With a few extra days to tinker with the idea, I think it really came together. I hope you like how it turned out!
I'm posting this poll to see if you all would be interested in getting non-D&D content in addition to the current stream of D&D content. In particular, I'm wondering if you'd like to get prototypes of tabletop games I'm working on or have developed in the past as well as entirely new RPG systems (some based on 5e, some wholly original or based on other systems). Just to be clear, this non-D&D content would be sporadic. I've tried to include an option for every stance but if you have a perspective not covered by the option feel free to comment and let me know!
For your September patron exclusive, the vote was split among the many excellent choices but a narrow majority of patrons voted for a new feats and spells to enable gish builds. Surprisingly, I found this a particularly challenging thing to tackle - partly because I'd already put most of my ideas of how a gish should work into the Magus class and partly because the topic was so broad I wasn't sure what to hone in on. That said, I'm particularly happy with the new "[Weapon] of [Elemental]" spells. They remind me a lot of Elder Scrolls games where you can summon magic weapons.
For your August patron exclusive, the (very slim) majority of patrons voted for a new Field of Study for the Scholar class. As I was working on this concept I kept going back to the phrasing of the original suggestion that this was a scholar who EXPLORED the multiverse not just studied it. It was an interesting challenge and one I think bore worthwhile fruit. The password for this post is: armstrong819.
Linked here is my early draft of a sorcerer archetype for an upcoming project I'm working on. I'm very keen to hear your thoughts! Please note that I was writing faster than my brain could keep up with me and the capstone feature, Twist of Place, should grant the targeted creature a saving throw to resist the teleportation swap. Other than that, I look forward to hearing what you think!
Linked here is the newest draft of the Summoner class. I've completely reworked the core feature which meant I needed to scale back everything else to get feedback honed in on how that's working. My goal with reworking the Summon Eidolon (previously Summon Esper) feature was to make it as simple as possible. Now you don't have to flip from stat block to stat block but instead there are basic mechanics for how all eidolons work and each eidolon modifies that a bit in their own way.
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts! If you get to try it in play, I'm EXTRA looking forward to it!
For your July patron exclusive, the (very slim) majority of patrons voted for a new mecha piloting archetype for the Artificer class. As you've no doubt figured out by now, bringing science fantasy elements into D&D is one of my favorite things so this was an exciting prompt to flesh out! The password for the post is: unit01719.
I'm putting together a few project proposals for collaborations and one of them is a project called Infamous Adversaries. The elevator pitch is that it's a collection of unique variations of the creatures introduced in the Monster Manual. Each adversary entry will come with plot hooks, battle strategies, rewards, and more.
To help potential collaborators get a sense of what I'm looking for, I put this example together. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out and looking forward to inflicting Scarlet Stone-Eater on some PCs of my own very soon.
Hope you enjoy the preview and please feel free to give me feedback on this entry in particular or the project concept as a whole!
For your June patron exclusive, the majority of patrons voted for a new race with the prompt, “A warrior race of half-human, half lizard (centaur-like) hybrids w/ Ancient Egypt inspired culture”. It’s funny how succinct that prompt is but how many ideas it opened up! The password for the post is: croc619.
For May, you all voted on the Lethal Weapon fight club for Pugilist - but I was completely stumped on how to execute it! By focusing on improvised weapons I think I've come up with something that's both interesting and fits within the Pugilist framework. I hope you think so too! The password for the post is: ladder0519.
For the May exclusive, one of you asked for a necromantic themed archetype for bard. This sounded familiar so I looked through some old documents and, sure enough, right when the Patreon started I had written a bard college just like that! While this suggestion didn't get the most votes, I wanted to honor it anyway by updating the work I'd previously done to create an all new, College of Mourning. The password for this entry is: dirge0519.
BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!
The option that won the May exclusive was the "Lethal Weapon" archetype for Pugilist that allows the Pugilist to master weapons the way a Monk Way of the Kensai does. I tried to come at this idea from a few different angles but none of them felt good to me so now I'm soliciting your suggestions for how to implement the archetype. My first inclination was to make it specifically a master of improvised weapons - is that in the spirit of the request or should I broaden it out? How should this archetype be different from Way of Kensai? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
This month we got a lot of great suggestions for Patreon backer exclusives! One that I was immediately interested in exploring, although it didn't win the vote to be the next exclusive, was the idea of optional spell components that enhance particular spells when consumed during casting.
Since it didn't win the vote I decided I'd write it anyway and make it public - so I have! Kudos to the backer who suggested it! As always, I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
For April, you chose the volcano dwarf subrace for the dwarf race as your patreon backer exclusive. This is actually a concept I’ve been kicking around for awhile and whenever I thought of it I knew I’d either want to pair it with a tundra dwarf subrace…so I did! And as birthday present to myself I decided to release these a couple days early. The password to check out these new dwarf subraces is: volcano0419.
I want you to be among the first to know that the final version of the Scholar class is coming to the DM's Guild on 3/26 - next Tuesday! Thanks for all the feedback and support you've given the Scholar!
Last month you said you wanted a new archetype for the rogue class, the Nightbinder. You can check out this password protected update on the blog by using the password: shadowfell319.
Last month you said you wanted more pact boons for the warlock class so this month, you got them! You can check out this password protected update on the blog by using the password: pact219.
Happy new year, patrons! In December the recruits, adventurers, and legends voted on January's exclusive. They chose, "a spellthief archetype for rogue or warlock". I hadn't ever really thought about an archetype like this before but I'm happy to say I was inspired by the prompt! I even went a bit overboard and wrote three new invocations and a new spell all on the theme of the archetype. I'm excited to hear what you think!
Thanks for all your support in 2018 and thanks in advance for your ongoing support in 2019. I'm excited to keep giving you previews of new material and patron exclusives!
Last month I put this month's patron exclusive to a vote and the winner was "a Rod of 7 Parts inspired set of magic items". I was excited to work on this prompt because there were so many ways to develop it. I settled on something with an astrological theme because I have had a twelve-sided die with each die facing being a star sign for years and have never once gotten to use it. Now I can!
I want to give a heads up that this is an EXTREMELY rough first draft. I have been working on this a lot (as often as my new son / tyrannical overlord will allow) but it's a complicated set of magic items with lots of moving parts. I do plan to hire an editor and have it go through proper layout so it looks nice for you all, but I wanted to be sure that you got at least some version of the magic item on December 7th as I had previously stated it would be out.
If you have feedback, I'd love to hear it. I enjoyed working on this prompt and, while I put a lot of work in already, I think there's a lot of room for improvement. I am particularly interested in hearing what you think of "profile" property of these magic items and how it works. I like the general concept but the execution may need some tuning before we call the sigils done!
As always, thanks for your support. $5 & up backers will have another opportunity to propose next month's content in about a week and $3 & up backers will get to vote on those options in two weeks. Hope you're all enjoying your winter festivities!
I wanted to let you all know that my son, Milo Finn Huffman-Byrne was born yesterday, 11/22 at 3:13 pm. He is happy and healthy and excited to help me write more D&D stuff!
If you're a $3+ backer, I will be closing the ballot today so if you haven't voted for December's backer exclusive do that ASAP!
As some of you may know, I am going to become a father this month - in fact, within the next two weeks! With this major life change, I had to think long and hard about how, and whether I would, continue to commit time to writing and game design.
After a lot of thinking about it I decided there was no way I could give it up. However, I do want to take this opportunity to chart a predictable course for all our benefit. To that end, I am shaking up the Patreon in a fairly major way. You will continue to see works-in-progress and early drafts as you have been but in addition to that I plan to write one backer exclusive piece of content each month.
With that change in mind, here are the updated pledge levels.
At $1/month, you will receive all patron previews and one patron exclusive on the 7th of each month.
At $3/month, you get all the benefits of the $1 a month pledge AND each month you’ll get to vote on what the patron exclusive content will be for next month.
At $5/month, you get all the benefits of the $3 a month pledge AND each month you can submit a class archetype, race / subrace, or theme for feats / spells / mechanic that patrons will vote on to be next month’s exclusive content.
At $10/month, you get all the benefits of the $5 a month pledge AND you will receive a complimentary pdf copy of each Sterling Vermin product published on the DM's Guild while you pledge at this level.
I’m open to feedback on these changes so if you have thoughts, please share them. My goal is to give my patrons a clear picture of what they get out of pledging and helping me feel that I’m consistently meeting your expectations of me!
Please take the time in the next two weeks to download the Spiritualist Class from the DM's Guild for free. Mid November I'll be doing a sweep of the class with an editor to improve the text, make balance changes, and probably add a couple more spirits at which point it will become a paid product - but everyone who has downloaded it already will get that and all future updates for free! The Spiritualist Class, like everything else, wouldn't have been possible without your support. Thank you!
And please rate and / or review the class if you have the opportunity!
Today I am very pleased to share with you the final draft of the printer-friendly version of my upcoming DM's Guild release, The Book of Uncommon Ancestry. In this book are twelve races (some new, some revised), over 30 new feats, and four dozen new magic items. This preview will remain up until the book launches on the DM's Guild, probably the first full week of November.
As always, I happily accept any and all feedback and comments you have on the product, including what races you might like to see in a volume 2!
Thanks for your support and for making projects like this a possibility,
I apologize for being a bit quiet lately - I'm chugging through the end of a few major projects and then I'll have a lot to show all at once. I've also spent a good part of the last week trying to quickly put together a thematically appropriate class for the season, the Spiritualist!
Every spiritualist has a brush with death that wakes an aptitude for magic and the ability to commune with spirits. The nature of their near death experience leaves a mark on the spiritualist and every spiritualist finds they have an aptitude for channeling spirits of a certain emotional persuasion.
Mechanically you'll see that much of the class is built from mechanics of the Sorcerer and Warlock classes. It also includes some of the mechanics from the Shaman class I previously worked on.
My goal is to have this class completed by the end of the month. I *never* finish classes this quickly but I believe that the foundation is solid enough that I might just be able to pull it off. This content will go up on the blog this weekend and will be widely publicized next week but I wanted to give you guys as much of a preview as I could (I only just finished writing this about 12 hours ago!).
Thanks as always for your support and, most of all, enjoy! - Benjamin
Linked here is the printer friendly version of the Sorcerer Class, Revisited as it will appear next week on the DM's Guild. Over the weekend we'll be finalizing the art & color version that will go up on the DM's Guild but I wanted to give everyone here the opportunity to get a look at it early. Thanks so much for all your feedback and support!
I recently got a chance to playtest the Sorcerer revisited and my findings were very useful. If you haven't seen the most recent version (before this one) it was posted on the blog a few weeks back. You'll note a few changes to this revised, semifinal draft:
- Increase in spells known - Increase in Metamagic options known - The "nova" quality of Font of Magic feature has been toned down dramatically in terms of options added to the sorcerer but has been increased in power in terms of raw output
Barring any major concerns, I believe this is the final draft of the class that will get pushed onto DM's Guild before the end of next month. Please let me know your thoughts and, if you get the chance to test it, let me know how it feels in play!
I hope you all are having a great start to your week (I am, I have Labor Day off!). Today we're previewing one of the monk archetypes from the upcoming book, The Complete Devout Handbook. The Sterling Vermin Recruits and higher got to vote on which one they wanted to get a look at and they chose this take on the monk with mystical tattoos.
