For many of us, feats are an integral part of our games. They give us interesting and dynamic options for our characters, which help us round out our builds and ground our characters with concrete personality traits.
In Feats for the Fearsome, we've designed a list of feats to complement characters of any class or build. Wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers can find excellent use out of the Metamagic Adept or Upcaster feats, whereas fighters and barbarian might like the Brutal Grip or Gatecr...
2018-01-01 05:50:10 +0000 UTC
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This month, we finally wrapped up the High Seas Update, which ended up at a sizeable 82 pages. However, thanks to that book taking so long, we don't have everything together for the Fey Folio, so we're rearranging the schedule somewhat:
At the end of this month, we'll release the Feats for the Fearsome book to ring in the new year, and the following month (February 1st) will be the Fey Folio. Fair warning, the Fey Folio's bestiary might be one...
2017-12-18 07:22:58 +0000 UTC
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Yo-ho, yo-ho; a pirate's life for me!
The High Seas Update takes place at a time when there are still holes in the map to be filled. These blank spaces are a canvas of adventure, realms of pure swashbuckling exploits, where buccaneers can raid unsuspecting merchants, explorers can struggle against epic sea monsters, and pirates can bury treasure far away from polite civilization.
Inside its pages, you'll find everything you need to construct your own pirate adven...
2017-12-15 10:42:32 +0000 UTC
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Due to a non-zero amount of internet outrage, Patreon isn't changing their fee structure. You can all breathe a sigh of relief!
Addendum:
To briefly explain how this works (as of now, the system is not changing, so this explains how the payment structure used to work, and will continue to work):
When you pledge, PayPal and Patreon each take a cut before it gets to MFoV. PayPal takes 2.9% + an extra 35 cents, and Patreon takes 5%. Because that 35 cents doesn't chang...
2017-12-13 20:09:28 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
Recently, Patreon has made some changes to the way pledges are handled that we think you should all be made aware of:
In addition to your normal pledge, Patreon will now be charging you a small additional fee of 2.9% + $0.35. So, a $1 patron will be charged a total of about $1.38 now, and a $3 patron will be charged a total $3.44.
The huge upshot of this changes is that, when you pledge $1, we get 95 cents. Before, this percent varied a lot more wildly -- we made onl...
2017-12-08 03:59:16 +0000 UTC
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High Seas is done (at last) and I've decided to finally make proofreading a more official process. If you're a detail-oriented person and would enjoy helping us proofread our books, send an email to middlefingerofvecna@gmail.com with the subject line "Proofreading". From there, you can get access to our book a couple of days (or hours -- these come down to the wire sometimes) early, if you're willing to read through it and help us spot typos, gram...
2017-12-06 02:14:17 +0000 UTC
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You ever get an idea stuck in your craw, then spend days working in an almost meditative state in GIMP realizing it? No? Just me?
Oh, well. I made the first page of a character sheet.
The general gimmick was to use a polygon stat array, so that your ability scores and skills in centered on the sheet. I can also release a version without the polygonal lines, so you can use it as a character portrait area instead.
Outside of that, I just tried to optimize it for things that I use mos...
2017-12-01 06:21:53 +0000 UTC
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Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?
Decisive leaders and brilliant strategists, marshals inspire their allies to greatness. Invariably, they stand alongside their cohorts, their devoted lieutenants, whom they entrust with their lives, and train for leadership. Marshals out-plan and out-strategize their enemies, overwhelming them with tight coordination and precise strikes. While these tactics rarely afford marshals the killing blow, it ensures they’re always o...
2017-12-01 06:09:28 +0000 UTC
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A reminder that we're running an AMA today on our reddit from now until 5 PM CST! Swing by and ask us questions!
2017-11-19 19:19:16 +0000 UTC
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Repeat after me: More Dark Matter.
This month, we're working on finishing up the High Seas update with monsters, spells, and diseases, and you'll also get to see our new class The Marshal, which is the first class in 5th edition to be all about having a cohort. All that comes out on the 1st of December. We'll be ringing in the new year with the Fey Folio, which promises to be very fun, indeed. The month after that, we'll be putting together a book a feats, Feats for the Fearsome.
<...
2017-11-16 20:43:28 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
We're holding a public Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) on our reddit a week from now, on Sunday, November 19th, from 1 PM to 5 PM CST (though some of us will probably hang around afterwards as well!)
This is a way for us to get to know everyone a little better, and is an opportunity to be as transparent as possible with the way we do things around here. So feel free to ask questions about literally anything, from our opinions about anime or the new Xanathar's Guide to Everything, to who d...
2017-11-12 08:49:35 +0000 UTC
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Here it is, a month late and a chapter short: the High Seas Update!
A lot of individual things hampered our productivity this month, but we've still managed to finish the core of the book, including the new ship combat rules. What we have here is a respectable 52 pages of swashbuckling fun, but we're still missing a proper chapter of monsters, a chapter of spells, and a short chapter of new diseases (which makes this book's sorcerer currently unplayable). The vast majority of everything to be ...
2017-11-01 05:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The High Seas Update is finally out! Well, kinda. Even though this book is currently the same length as the Weird West Update (which, at the time, I thought was a PDF of ungodly length), it's still incomplete, and will take another month to wrap up. Naturally, as our books get grander and more elaborate, they'll also probably get longer, and the time is takes to craft them will also likely swell. This comes with greater risk of delay, of course, as we've seen with High Seas and Dark Matter, but ...
2017-11-01 04:59:00 +0000 UTC
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Been a while since we've done one of these, huh?
Last month, we put the finishing touches on Dark Matter, the Shugenja, and the Channeler. This month, we've all been working super hard on the High Seas Update, which is coming out at the end of this month (November 1st). It's hard striking a balance between historical accuracy, digestability, and fun, but I like the direction things are taking.
In December, we're putting out a new base class (most likely the Marsh...
2017-10-18 19:19:02 +0000 UTC
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The most up to date version of this class can be found here.
Water, Earth, Fire, Air…
The Shugenja are elemental masters, unlike anything you've seen for at least an edition and a half. Rather than casting spells normally, shugenja are scroll-casters, preparing and casting their magic through ink and parchment alone. This radical departure from conventional spellcasting requires t...
2017-10-01 05:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Mal's sword flickered for a moment, sparks flew, and the frost giant fell twice -- first his torso, followed by his legs.
Skilled in sword and spell alike, channelers are dynamic and formidable mages who are entwined with the planes of the multiverse, drawing their power from arcane portals. They can channel this power into weapon strikes for explosive magical potential and concentrate on the various planes to bolster their strength.
The Channeler is the one true gish for ...
2017-10-01 05:30:01 +0000 UTC
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As you might have surmised, since this is a housekeeping month, we also won't be doing a poll (can't get too far ahead with those). Instead, I've been experimenting with some other little things:
Apps
First and foremost, we've heard lot of people ask for some app to make using our content a little more convenient at the table. We get it -- if you're used to digital aids, like online character sheets or apps, it's hard to go back to using pen and paper. So we've been experimenting w...
2017-09-19 07:30:08 +0000 UTC
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It's about time we do some housekeeping. Initially, we promised the finished Dark Matter book only a couple of weeks after the In Progress version was released, yet here we a couple of months later. We've also delayed the release of the Channeler class, which by now is complete and has gotten plenty of playtesting, and the Revised Shugenja, which fixes many of the issues we experienced during playtesting.
Now that we have a reasonable idea of how large High Seas is going to have to be (r...
2017-09-07 05:33:57 +0000 UTC
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Not all rituals are performed in the daylight, and not all magic was meant to be known…
The Complete Witch is the definitive version of our witch class, which has been comprehensively improved and expanded upon. We included a staggering 14 subclasses, running the gamut from White Magic and Black Magic to Blood Magic and Sand Magic (so you can be a sandwich), with so much in between.
Of course, being a witch is no fun if you have to be lonely. So we included a wh...
2017-09-01 05:52:55 +0000 UTC
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The Complete Witch, which comes out on September 1st, is rapidly coming together, and man, there's a lot of archetypes in there. The month after is the High Seas Update, which is bound to be something to see. After that, on November 1st, we're releasing a new class, the Marshal (which isn't much like the Marshal from 3.5 -- it's going to be more like the Warlord that we were playtesting on the Buried Treasures series.)
And somewhere in there, we want to release the completed Dark Matt...
2017-08-18 05:31:00 +0000 UTC
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Too often, the races which populate fantasy worlds are pulled whole-cloth from a Tolkienesque template, leaving little room for interpretation. Elves are intelligent and long-lived, but otherwise look like humans with pointy ears, dwarves are stoic and industrious, but otherwise look like squat, bearded humans. Halflings are lethargic and friendly, but otherwise look like very short humans. In absence of other works, these character archetypes are truly inspired, but with the march of fiction...
2017-08-01 05:43:43 +0000 UTC
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Lots of balls are in the air over here at Mage Hand Press, as we're simultaneously working on Men and Monsters (which is on schedule for release at August 1st, the beginning of next month), on completing Dark Matter (which is still coming, albeit a little later than we anticipated), and on finishing the last remaining pieces of the Complete Witch, which comes on September 1st. As well, we're gearing up for the High Seas Update, which just won the poll for Octo...
2017-07-18 19:49:42 +0000 UTC
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As we were compiling the November book poll (which is going to have shorter book options, after the much longer offering that will be High Seas), we decided it's high time that we ask all of you for some ideas for books that we can include in the future. Obviously, we have a lot of books we'd like to make happen, but we're also very keen to hear what everyone would enjoy reading and playing.
If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments below this post! If we think your...
2017-07-17 21:51:29 +0000 UTC
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This project was perhaps a little... overambitious.
Dark Matter proved to be a lengthier and more complex book than we could've pulled off in one month. This is the culmination of what we have so far: nearly the entire book, full of races, archetypes, and rules, but missing the all-important Introduction chapter which expands Dark Matter from a series of rules into a full-blown campaign setting. We promise we'll get that done as soon as humanly possible, and package all of Dark Matter together...
2017-07-01 05:31:00 +0000 UTC
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Right now, my life is: Dark Matter, Dark Matter, Dark Matter. Some rough estimates are putting this book at well over 50 pages, so there's a nonzero chance that we won't have it 100% done by the end of the month. If that ends up being the case, don't panic: you'll get like half the book on the 1st and the rest of it within the next two weeks. We're working really hard to get this out, and we're super excited to show it to you all! (Especially the art -- it's soooooo good.)
August is g...
2017-06-18 05:16:25 +0000 UTC
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Skilled in sword and spell alike, channelers are dynamic and formidable mages who draw their power from the Planes of the multiverse.
Because the Expansion Pack came out a little slim this month, I've got a preview of our next big class, the Channeler. It's missing some art, and it's still in playtesting, but we think it's coming along nicely and wanted to show it off.
I get a lot of people asking me about sword-mage characters (or "gishes", for those of you who are old-ha...
2017-06-01 05:30:01 +0000 UTC
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At Mage Hand Press, we publish a lot of subclasses. Just about two new ones every week, in fact! Between our efforts and those of others, players have been blessed with a wealth of choice when building their characters. The same cannot be said, however, about our in-house base classes. Even our Complete Class expansions can only include a handful of new archetypes, and they can always use more.
That’s where the Expansion Pack comes in! With thirteen brand new subclasses for our alchemist, cr...
2017-06-01 05:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Man, time flies when you're writing!
We've been working hard on the Expansion Pack, which comes out on June 1st. (Also on June 1st, I should have another little surprise for you all, so it should make up for the Expansion Pack being a little on the scrawny side.) By July 1st, we should have Dark Matter ready for you all. It's a labor of love, but this book is going to be a truly incredible thing to behold when it's complete. So many goodies I can't wait ...
2017-05-17 07:08:33 +0000 UTC
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The dwarf brings down his hammer, and a shower of sparks answer.
The Complete Craftsman is the definitive version of our Craftsman class, built from the ground up to be awesome on every level. It's full of new crafting techniques and has four new subclasses, the Gearsmith, the Gunsmith, the Arcane Maester, and the Thunderlord.
And that's only chapter one. This book has pages of tables, containing new weapons, armor, firearms, special ammunition, and explosives. Al...
2017-05-01 05:30:36 +0000 UTC
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By fortunate happenstance, the last few months of Patreon-chosen books have alternated between shorter books, and large, ambitious books. This is extremely helpful for us because it means we can really spend a lot of time preparing for those larger, more impressive books.
To wit, next month's book, the Complete Craftsman, will be one of the longest we've ever written, since it'll be full to the brim with new weapons and expanded crafting rules. Following it in June is the
2017-04-17 02:33:51 +0000 UTC
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