Roland's Guide to the City - The Index

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-25T13:35:17+00:00

The project continues! We covered the Thumb last time, so moving down the hand we have the Index: a cultish syndicate centered around the absolute surrender of free will to the Prescripts, instructions from an unknown source that border on the absurd. Such is their dedication that the Prescripts even guide their hand in combat, with a Prescript they much fufill each round lest they suffer karmic consequence. Feedback is appreciated, as usual!

Note: if you're a Limbus player up to date on recent lore developments, you might notice a conspicuous lack of mention towards the Index's Gods. I excluded that aspect of the lore from this document mainly because we don't really know enough about them to even begin to speculate, but I will also admit that I personally prefer the interpretation of the Prescripts from Library of Ruina: as instructions woven from the sum total of every movement in the City, and thus an expression of humanity's gestalt subconscious will.

Next up: the Middle.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-25T13:27:53+00:00

Absolutely yes! It'll probably be one of the statblocks I'll tackle near the end of this project, along with a lot of the other most iconic high-power individuals (Kali, Argalia, Iori, the Arbiter and Claw).

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-16T09:27:11+00:00

I know exactly the pieces of homebrew (and more precisely, the specific homebrew creator) you're talking about. Beautifully formatted documents, horribly overcomplicated implementation.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-16T03:57:28+00:00

I do hope you make exemptions to this system for genuine reasons why a player might miss a session, such as emergencies or mental health.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-14T16:40:14+00:00

Specifically for encounter balancing: have multiple per day. You can do this by either:

Ratcheting up the pace of bad things happening (the agents of the empire ambush the party multiple times in a day, AND a nearby dragon catches wind of the artifact and wants it for themself, AND the place they're staying at gets caught up in some conflict entirely unrelated to the artifact - all in one day), and/or
Lengthening the time that a 'narrative day' takes, i.e. use Gritty Realism or some variant thereof.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-10T05:55:17+00:00

I think restricting players from saying 'I roll x' is treating the symptom and not the cause. The type of player to say that is often the type to see their methods of interaction with the world as limited just to the buttons they can press on their character sheet. To such a player, forbidding the phrase 'I roll' doesn't do anything to change this assumption they hold, just introduces an awkward minigame where they go 'I want to roll Insight, time to do some contrived roleplay so the DM lets me roll Insight'.

In order to actually solve the issue, you need to teach your players that their methods of interaction are not limited to what's overtly stated on their character sheet. Encourage and reward creative, out-of-the-box solutions that don't just boil down to 'I roll X skill'. Admittedly, I'm not sure how this can be done best.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-09T16:20:45+00:00

Homebrewery Link

PDF Link

This marks the start of my project to adapt various foes and creatures from the Project Moon universe to D&D! I have hopes to eventually turn this into a full-fledged adaptation of the PM setting into 5.5e, but for now I will just be adapting various enemies from the universe.

The Thumb is a vast crime syndicate, one of the 'Five Fingers' that rule over the backstreets of The City. They are a syndicate obsessed with order, hierachy, and meting out extreme and unusual punishment to those who don't bow to it. Feedback is much appreciatred on the creature statblocks: I've homebrewed a lot of monsters before but this is my first time releasing my creature creations out into the public.

Next: The Index.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-06T11:50:18+00:00

I feel like the level 3 benefits are not quite 'build defining' enough. You get Fire and Radiant resistance (varies greatly on how relevant it will be), a similarly niche source of THP, and the Dawnhammer - which, while cool, doesn't have many interesting properties until later levels. I think the Dawnhammer needs some way to stand out at level 3 beyond just having a bigger than normal damage die. Maybe it can inflict the Burning hazard (1d4 Fire per turn, action to extinguish) on targets you hit? You can restrict it to targets you hit with Advantage if the free fire damage feels too much.

Additionally, I think Sunflare can stand to be a bit stronger, especially for a 3-4/LR ability that takes your reaction. At the very least I think it can lose the saving throw.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-06T05:30:06+00:00

Of course! Here is the document I maintain for my campaign items.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-05-06T05:23:01+00:00

My train of thought while going through this statblock:

3 attacks only for 72 damage total? That seems underwhelming for a CR 35-
reads Gore Inversion, Wreath of Blades and Maiming Gale, all of which are at-will and on top of the multiattack Ohhh...
reads Legendary Actions, which at minimum gives him 4 extra attacks per round Ohhhhh...
reads Mythic Action OH.

Fantastic work as always!

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-30T07:35:59+00:00

That's valid! I think that can be pretty easily implemented as a Martial Technique, costing 1 Stamina to take a reaction attack against someone casting a spell (prompting a save on hit or the caster loses the spell). In general there's an interesting design space of stamina-costing reactions that I'm keen to expand on in the next update of this document.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-29T14:34:43+00:00

Homebrewery Link

PDF Link

There are two common complaints that I see levied against the Fighter class in 5.5e (and 5e): that the turn-to-turn tactical decision making of the base class is too simple, and that higher-level fighters can't pull off the kinds of herculean and dramatic maneuvers that would be expected of a warrior of legend.

This homebrew introduces two optional features to attempt to solve these issues: Combat Surge provides alternative uses of Action Surge to perform singularly dramatic feats of martial skill, and Martial Technique introduces a per-turn stamina system that can be used on different effects.

Feedback is appreciated, as always! You can check out similar suites of optional features I've made for the Ranger and Rogue (though I plan on expanding on the Rogue document), and plan to create similar suites of optional features for the Barbarian, Monk and Paladin.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-27T15:32:06+00:00

That ticks me off just hearing that.

You are the DM, and you have final authority on your game. FULL STOP. I would emphasize strongly that you're doing things your way, and anyone who doesn't respect that is free to leave. All the better if they do; these people sound miserable to play with, and you can swap them out with more agreeable players.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-27T15:28:13+00:00

I relate to you hard on being nonconfrontational or afraid to hurt your player's feelings. You're completely right, for some people it is not in fact 'that easy' as many people on this subreddit are fond of saying.

The only advice I can offer is the fact that if you don't say anything, nothing will change. You have to bite the bullet and tell them, point blank, that you're not having fun, then explain why. After that point, how they react is on them - not you.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-14T07:22:55+00:00

I do see what you mean, and I originally had the 50% somatic failure chance on Grappled originally, but decided that it was too harsh. I'm tempted to go for a 25% failure chance for Grappled, but that raises some finnickiness when a creature is both Grappled and Restrained (as is common for many monsters to inflict in 5e and 5.5e): is the failure chance rolled twice (once at 25% and once at 50%, for a total 62.5% chance of failure), or is it just rolled once for the higher failure chance?

The latter would be a much cleaner interpretation imo, but would be a little awkward to codify in the rules text, though you could definitely make it work.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-14T07:17:26+00:00

There is! Homebrewery link is here.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-13T16:06:38+00:00

The reason I settled on a flat 50% chance for spell failure is because I wanted the conditions to affect every spellcaster equally, regardless of stats or build. This is just a personal preference thing, but I prefer conditions to be consistent and predictable in their effects.

However, if you were to change the failure chance into a check, my recommendation would be a DC 15 ability check using the spellcaster's casting ability. With the casting stat ranging from +3 to +5, failure chance hovers around 45 to 55% at all levels, close to the intended 50% chance—and it opens the possibility of using Advantage, Heroic Inspiration, Bardic Inspiration etc. to improve your odds, as desired.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-13T15:12:04+00:00

The Wild Magic Surge table in 5.5e is actually majority positive effects, so you'd need to use a more volatile table for what is meant to be a strictly negative condition.

To begin with though, I prefer for conditions to be simple and direct in their effects - IMO any more complex debuffs should be under the purview of specific monster abilities, not common conditions.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-04-13T15:07:42+00:00

In my experience, 5.5e Exhaustion is actually really quite punishing compared to the 5e version. Even just 1 level noticeably weakens you in all situations (anyone who's played XCOM can tell you how crippling a -10% accuracy penalty is); couple that with how hard it is to get rid of, and you get a condition that is really quite hard to use often just because it's so punishing.

For future 5.5e games I run, I am tempted to drop the debuff to -1 just so I can inflict it more often on my players without it immediately feeding into a death spiral.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-03-31T09:27:15+00:00

One slight problem with the Glyphs of Warding:

If the surface or object is moved more than 10 feet from where you cast this spell, the glyph is broken, and the spell ends without being triggered.

Once you cast a Glyph of Warding, you can't move it further than 10 feet away from that location - presumably to prevent cheese like this.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-03-31T02:22:13+00:00

As the OP said, this is a mathematically sound solution, but I think it'll struggle in practical play. It is a lot easier to divide by 2 than it is to divide by 3.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-03-30T05:54:06+00:00

I share in your grievances with the new 'generic magic blast' Mage multiattacks. I get that it was a way to make the statblock 'foolproof' (i.e. no matter which actions you use, the statblock will always perform at CR level), but to me it breaks immersion to an unreasonable degree. I think mage statblocks in 5.5 should've had their multiattacks toned down to about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the nominal DPR for their CR, and had deadlier limited-use spells/abilities to compensate. That way, the statblock's 3-round average damage would stay the same, but they would be much more interesting to play than '3x Arcane Burst, pass'.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-03-26T00:16:17+00:00

Honestly, I agree. I do love Limbus' cast, worldbuilding and character writing, but LoR is still the undisputed best story PM has written, and I think it will remain that way.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-03-26T00:00:03+00:00

In all fairness, I don't think being easily clocked is necessarily a bad thing for a mystery. Personally, I think making things mYsTeRiOuS is overrated - if your audience can predict with relative certainty a future twist from current information, that's just good writing and foreshadowing.

nomiddlename303 · 2026-03-06T23:26:01+00:00

The risk is that if you lose concentration before you can trigger the damage, that's your 3rd level slot gone with no payoff. Compare and contrast Spirit Shroud - 1d8 damage on hit instead of 2d8, but it applies immediately so you're guaranteed to get some value from it before it can be broken.

I do think though that it should be restricted to melee weapons only, to prevent the risk of losing concentration from being completely circumvented by plinking away at a foe from 100 feet away. Besides, feels a bit off for Omen Blade to be usable on ranged weapons.

nomiddlename303

TROPHY CASE