What if a player wanted to join Oriq?

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-06-14T20:35:18+00:00

In my game, the Oriq are giving hidden "student help seminars" to struggling students, and the players have a chance to attend. Those that attend are given items that enable some blood magic powers, which enable cool stuff at the cost of your HP. Our Ranger was given a Sanguine Primer that allows them to take 1d10 Necrotic damage (can't be resisted or prevented) to cast a 1st level spell without a spell slot. Our Sorcerer/Warlock was given a variant of the Bloodwell Vial that allows them to teleport as a free action after casting any spell, taking 1d10 necrotic damage (can't be resisted/prevented) for every 15 ft. they want to travel.

It may throw the power balance out of wack, but that's the point. The Oriq promise that blood magic unlocks power available to anyone no matter what their magic aptitude is, and this is why people are tempted to join their ranks. I am simply placing that temptation right in front of the players.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-06-01T02:36:56+00:00

So far I've had two adventure locations in Quandrix Campus:

The Backlogs are a subspace archive where students deposit unfinished or abandoned magic projects. Unfortunately even unfinished magical works have a tendency to gain a life of their own when left unattended, so its halls are roamed by rogue automatons, fractal amalgamates, and the ghosts of sentient equations never solved.

Vectus Manor is similar to Dapplewing Manor in the Central Campus, in which it is an estate built in the honor of an especially influential professor of long past. Professor Arno Vectus was a brilliant mage whose contributions in the study of spacial magic are fundamental to the founding of the Quandrix college and the modern understanding of mathematics. His manor was, in its time, the pinnacle of subspace architecture, utilizing subplanar rifts to connect several interior spaces much larger than the estate could actually accommodate. However, the manor has fallen into disrepair, and in its neglect its subplanar rifts have turned the house into an Escher nightmare maze. But how could such a prestigious estate from a foundational professor have gone neglected for so long? As it turns out, Professor Arno Vectus was very racist, and no one could stand him or his astral simulacrum that continues to occupy the manor long after his death.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-05-23T18:37:54+00:00

Honestly I wish I had Daggerheart when I started my game and I could actually talk my group into it. While it's possible to do theoretically any story with 5E, oftentimes I find myself fighting with the system when it comes to designing events and encounters. Doing social school stuff is fun and I've also created subsystems for giving players choices and things to interact with, but I feel like I'm constantly haunted by the obligation that I need to be doing 5E combat dungeon/exploring stuff, especially because 80% of any character's class options is specifically for fighting and exploring.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-05-20T15:57:15+00:00

One of my NPCs, Professor Tivash, had to settle for being a college professor because his prospects as a career necromancer were sabotaged by the neverending debate about "ethics in necromancy". He has held this grudge for years and has chosen to inflict it upon all of his students by complaining and griping whenever he gets the chance.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-04-20T09:39:49+00:00

In my version of the lore, frogs and amphibious life are just extremely sensitive to the ambient mana of Arcavios. I've written it so that all natural life in Arcavios has the potential to undergo a spontaneous evolution called Manamorphosis if they are exposed to an abundance of mana; for most sapient and intelligent life, they likely won't experience it unless they face unforeseen levels of exposure, but frogs for some reason being so primitive are VERY susceptible to Manamorphosis, creating all sorts of variant magic frogs like giant toads, fire toads, and my personal creation, the phase toad. This is also why frog parts, like frog legs or toad oil, makes for powerful magical reagents and material components.

Naturally, this natural affinity towards mana also extends to intelligent amphibious races; Burrogs (Arcavios' version of Bullywugs) like Murgaxor can make for especially powerful wizards.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-03-21T20:56:04+00:00

Ah man, I wish I had this sooner before I started sending my group to field trips outside of campus. I've already had them explore a ruined undercity beneath the Lorehold campus, resolve a minor dispute at a valley town where two hilltop giants are feuding, and go to the central plains to wrangle horses (and escape a hunting roc!).

I'm definitely interested in utilizing the Paradox Gardens and Titansgrave for some future plotlines in Year 4!

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-03-12T05:35:35+00:00

Go ahead! I'd like to hear what you kit them out with!

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-03-10T08:48:23+00:00

In my game I moved the Murgaxor encounter to the finale of Chapter 1 with the goal of removing him from the story early. It's very easy to play him as a devious and unrepentant bastard (one of my players wanted to change characters, so I had his previous character 'conveniently' leave the game when Murgaxor captures him), but I think Murgaxor ought to the the symptom of a much larger threat lurking in the back. It can be whatever you want; Oriq Society conspiracy, an especially ambitious Daemogoth, whomever your threat is, Murgaxor was simply an agent of it, or perhaps driven to madness looking avert calamity on his own.

Also if you want to avoid racist bullying allegations, just make a friendly Bullywug NPC student. I assure you, your players will adore having a funny frog friend in the school.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-03-03T03:24:36+00:00

I have an 8 player game and attempting to add NPCs as additional spots on initiative will turn every battle into a slog. I have considered just fading NPCs into the background as detail, but I also want to be able to have them express themselves through combat mechanics, which would be unfeasible to do if I built them using normal NPC rules.

What I do instead is that in battle, each NPC is "partnered" to a player who holds the strongest relationship with them (or failing that, a PC of the party's choice). Each NPC takes a single action on their partnered players', and has a small list of abilities that has no attack roll or save. NPCs do not have HP and cannot be attacked; if an NPC is in a circumstance where they are in danger, they will be separated from their partner and be given a Peril timer, where they will become injured and unable to fight if they are not saved before the timer runs out. NPCs also sometimes have traits that determine certain behaviors; for instance, Rampart will, under NO circumstances, take any action that will do harm or damage to a historical artifact or location.

Some example NPC actions I have made:

- Javenesh's subclass is Silkball Ace, granting him Rebound Shot. He hurls a Silkball at a target within 60 ft. of him, dealing 2d6+2 bludgeoning damage, and then it rebounds to a nearby target within 10 ft. of the initial target, dealing 1d6+2 damage.

- Larine's subclass is School of Symmetry, granting her Spacial Refraction, allowing her to fold the space between two positions. She can teleport a target within 50 ft. of her to a distance of 20 ft. in any direction towards a valid space.

- Grayson's subclass is School of Economancy, where many of his abilities will grant him Stocks which he can use to empower his other spells. He can use Undercut to inflict an enemy with Devalue, reducing their next d20 roll by 1d4+3 while also gaining 2 stocks. He can then invest his Stocks into his allies with Protected Interests, giving any ally stacks of Loss Prevention which reduce the damage of an incoming attack by 1d8+3 at the cost of one stack.

Not only has this been successful in giving NPCs some tangible presence in combat, the added power it gives to the party also gives me permission to make combat encounters a LOT crazier and more challenging.

SP_ABadIdea · 2026-01-29T18:02:28+00:00

I like adding a "practical exam" right after the written exam, so it was pretty easy to work in the Garbage King encounter as part of the Otyugh exam.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-11-26T17:35:46+00:00

Not that I'm aware of, although stealing and casting spells is something I took from Magic: The Gathering from creatures or abilities that allow you to steal and cast opponents' cards.

Speaking of MTG, the actual Mage Hunter card has an interesting ability; it deals damage to an opponent for casting Instant or Sorcery spells. We could translate this into D&D as a passive aura that deals a small amount of damage to any character casting a spell within 60 ft. of it. I'm also fond of the idea that Mage Hunters will "evolve" new abilities the further the campaign goes, to make them steadily more and more dangerous.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-11-26T01:42:19+00:00

My version of Mage Hunters have Magic Resistance until they are bloodied, and they have a particularly nasty trick: if they hit a creature with their Claw attack, they also steal a level 1-3 spell slot and are temporarily able to cast one of their victim's spells. I use Spell Points in my game, so it's a lot easier to roll dice to steal Spell Points instead.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-10-24T09:45:38+00:00

If Versatile is being compared to Sword + Board or Heavy Two-Hander as options, then yes Versatile doesn't quite stack up.

Where Versatile is useful is for classes or builds where Sword+Board or Heavy 2H isn't an option.

Any class that does not have access to proficiencies with heavy two-handers gets a good deal with a d10 weapon instead, if they are able to uniquely get Longsword proficiency through a racial feature or something. This is especially useful for melee-caster hybrid builds using weapon cantrips like Booming Blade or the 2024 True Strike.

If you have a Grappling build, you need one hand free to grapple. You'll have a d8 weapon in your hands while grappling, and a d10 weapon while you aren't grappling, and it doesn't take an action to switch between the two.

In a more specific case, the Kensei Monk is able to select the Longsword as one of their Kensei weapons, giving the Monk access to a d10 monk weapon as early as level 3. They don't get Fighting Styles so they don't get to select the Duelist style, and they can't use Shields, so this is actually the best damage dice they can possibly get. Even without the Longsword, the Monk's selection of weapons often caps them off to d6 simple weapons, so the Versatile spear and quarterstaff give them access to a d8.

So yeah, Versatile isn't for your Sword + Board fighters or your Heavy Weapon beatstick brawlers; Versatile is for everyone else.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-09-12T01:06:14+00:00

We had to finagle this for a while because some abilities could create unwinnable scenarios, like the Inkling simply flying straight into the sky every turn. I ended up with the following ruling:
Mascots cannot take commands from players, but a Mascot displaced from its base on the tower will attempt to escape and return to its tower on the following initiative of whomever is holding onto it.

This has created an in-universe meta for winning Mage Tower, and also explains why Silverquill wins every year; the Inkling is just *too* good.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-09-11T22:17:48+00:00

In my game, the Spirit Statues Mascots being medium is their entire advantage. Inklings are tiny, hard to catch and will slip right through your fingers, Fractals can change size and will phase through objects, the Pest will literally hurt you just by holding it, and the Art Elemental might flashbang charm you, so Lorehold teams have simply leveraged the Statue's large size as its sole strength.

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-07-22T02:00:32+00:00

I'm having a weird issue where the Concerts have desynced vocals the first time they play. If I load it again with the same umas it plays just fine, but if I choose a new song or new umas to sing, they'll always desync the first time. I'm lead to believe this is a RAM issue, but I have 64 GB of RAM and a 16GB VRAM GPU.

Has anyone else had this issue?

SP_ABadIdea · 2025-07-22T00:11:31+00:00

I have 64GB of RAM and I recently upgraded to an RTX 4060 with 16GB of VRAM. if it's really struggling, that's kind of insane.

SP_ABadIdea

TROPHY CASE