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inaconstantstateofchange · 4 months

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I come to you on my hands and knees (relevant to the topic right lol) begging for any and all info on Bane, Banites and how it all ties in with Gortash. I love you in advance. <3

Bane and His Cult

Alright, so after twelve and a half hours of research I still don’t fully feel like I have enough, but at a certain point I just need to get this out there, and if there is anything you – or anyone else – would like to see explored in more detail, please feel free to ask!

Note: I love getting asks like this! There is such a vast quantity of Realmslore that having some sort of specific focus for my deep-dives is a huge help, and knowing the topic is of interest to others is a huge motivator. I also greatly enjoy getting to put my training as a historian to work, as there is so much to interpret and archive alike.

As ever, these writeups will align with current 5e lore, and draw from 3.5e for additional supporting information. On rarer occasions – and always noted – I will reference 1e and 2e, but with the caveats that there is much more in those editions that is tonally dissonant with the modern conception of the Forgotten Realms, and thus generally less applicable.

We’ll begin with one of the most recent conclusive descriptions of Bane, from the 5e Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, an overview of the current world-state of, well, the Sword Coast:

Bane has a simple ethos: the strong have not just the right but the duty to to rule over the weak. A tyrant who is able to seize power must do so, for not only does the tyrant benefit, but so do those under the tyrant’s rule. When a ruler succumbs to decadence, corruption, or decrepitude, a stronger and more suitable ruler will rise. Bane is vilified in many legends. Throughout history, those who favor him have committed dark deeds in his name, but most people don’t worship Bane out of malice. Bane represents ambition and control, and those who have the former but lack the latter pray to him to give them strength. It is said that Bane favors those who exhibit drive and courage, and that he aids those who seek to become conquerors, carving kingdoms from the wilderness, and bringing order to the lawless.¹

This gives us the briefest summation of what draws people to the Cult of Bane: the desire for power and control, often deriving from a sense that they lack exactly those two things. Bane is the quintessential deity of lawful evil, which – if you’ve read any of my previous posts on the sociology of the Nine Hells – bears a striking similarity to Baator itself, the realm of lawful evil, and the place where Enver Gortash spent at least a portion of his formative years.

The majority of the following excerpts derive from 3e, which went into far more detail on the specificities of the Faerûnian gods, including their dogmas, holy days, et cetera. One important point to note, however: any discussions of Bane’s scope of power are no longer accurate, as the time period in reference is about one hundred and twenty years before Baldur’s Gate 3 is set, at a time when Bane had just returned to life – and godhood – as nothing less than a greater god. By comparison, during Baldur’s Gate 3, he is a quasi-deity, having abandoned most of his previous godly power in exchange for the ability to directly meddle with Faerûn – forbidden to the gods by the overgod Ao – and gambling that he would be able to regain his lost power and prestige in so doing.²

The dogma of Bane – that is, the core tenets and philosophies that his followers seek to emulate – is as follows:

Serve no one but Bane. Fear him always and make others fear him even more than you do. The Black Hand always strikes down those that stand against it in the end. Defy Bane and die — or in death find loyalty to him, for he shall compel it. Submit to the word of Bane as uttered by his ranking clergy, since true power can only be gained through service to him. Spread the dark fear of Bane. It is the doom of those who do not follow him to let power slip through their hands. Those who cross the Black Hand meet their dooms earlier and more harshly than those who worship other deities.³

Even were there nothing else to go off of, this would tell us a great deal about the group dynamics of any followers of Bane, whether established church or fragmented cult. Just as in the Hells, hierarchy is everything to proponents of lawful evil. Any cult of Bane would have a strict order to its power structure, and there would be limited – practically nonexistent – tolerance for any questioning or insubordination of that order. To the minds of Banites, such is simply the natural and superior ordering of the world. These interactions are detailed below:

Within the church, the church hierarchy resolves internal disputes through cold and decisive thoughts, not rash and uncontrolled behavior. Bane’s clerics and worshipers try to assume positions of power in every realm so that they can turn the world over to Bane. They work subtly and patiently to divide the forces of their enemies and elevate themselves and the church’s allies over all others, although they do not fear swift and decisive violent action to help achieve their aims.³

The manner of tyranny that Bane holds to is similarly calculated – he is not interested in mere shows of force, but rather in insidious plots that twist and make use of existing rule of law to legitimize tyranny wherever possible. A social tide operated ostensibly within the laws of the land is far more troublesome to fight back against than a simple army.⁴

As far as specific ritual and day-to-day workings of the cult, some can be evidenced here, in broad strokes:

Bane’s clerics pray for spells at midnight. They have no calendar-based holidays, and rituals are held whenever a senior cleric declares it time. Rites of Bane consist of drumming, chanting, doomful singing, and the sacrifice of intelligent beings, who are humiliated, tortured, and made to show fear before their death by flogging, slashing, or crushing.³

In this sense, rituals seem most likely to be used as a display of power and a test of subservience, leaving lower-ranked members of the cult at the whims of their superiors, expected – as noted previously – to attend to their commands with the same alacrity they would use were Bane himself to speak. The rites themselves are designed to reinforce and glorify the primary aspects of their god’s domain: the tyranny of forcing submission and pain from the weak.

Faiths & Pantheons, published a year after the Campaign Setting supplement, provides a similar description of the rituals of the cult of Bane, along with some intriguing and flavorful additions (noted in bold for ease of comparison):

Their religion recognizes no official holidays, though servants give thanks to the Black Hand before and after major battles or before a particularly important act of subterfuge. Senior clerics often declare holy days at a moment's notice, usually claiming to act upon divine inspiration granted to them in dreams. Rites include drumming, chanting, and the sacrifice of intelligent beings, usually upon an altar of black basalt or obsidian.”⁴

As, in the “present day” of Baldur’s Gate 3, Bane has lost much of his foothold on power and his Faith’s old domains, the specifics of architecture of Banite keeps are no longer quite so relevant. However, in times past, when his Faith worked far more openly and held much greater power, the philosophy of Bane was expressed through the architecture of his churches and strongholds:

Tall, sharp-cornered stone structures featuring towers adorned with large spikes and thin windows, most Banite churches suggest the architecture of fortified keeps or small castles. Thin interior passageways lead from an austere foyer to barrackslike common chambers for the lay clergy, each sparsely decorated with tapestries depicting the symbols of Bane or inscribed with embroidered passages from important religious texts.⁴

The social capital of a Faith – a broad term used to encapsulate all followers of a single deity – is often heavily intertwined with the power of its god, a mutualistic relationship that runs in both directions. More social weight behind the Faith means its god’s name and will is conveyed to more people, some or many of whom might apportion some worship or act in alignment with that god and empower them by so doing. More power for the god means more divine actions that can bolster their own image and the reach of their clergy. At its height in the late 1300s, the Faith of Bane was one of the most prominent and powerful, with comparable might to that of a small kingdom.⁵

Something that is important to bear in mind in a setting such as the Forgotten Realms, not only polytheistic, but an environment where the gods being worshiped are demonstrably existent, is that the followers of evil gods are not likely to be obtrusive with the less savory aspects of their dogma. Not only would that, in the majority of cases, do more harm than good to their deity’s long term goals, in the words of Elminster:

A dead foe is just that: dead, and soon to be replaced by another. An influenced foe, on the other hand, is well on the way to becoming an ally, increasing the sway of the deity.⁶

All of this aligns with what we see of the Cult of Bane and its operation in Baldur’s Gate 3. While it does not have the same sway and might behind it as it did a hundred years before, through manipulation of law and carefully applied pressure – of whatever form most likely to yield the desired results, be it threats, bribery, blackmail, or use of hostages – Gortash has enacted a steel web of delicate, ensnaring tyranny across the entire city.

We can even find present-day expressions of the interactions of the cult members, and find that they hold true to what their forebears experienced, further proof of the consistency of lawful evil. A personal note found on the body of a dead Banite guard at the Steel Watch Foundry calls the Black Gauntlet in charge of the Foundry Lab, Hahns Rives, a “disgrace to the Tyrant Lord”, and notes the writer’s intent to “compile a list of Rives’ shortcomings for the Overseers.”⁷ These shortcomings include:

1. Rives failed to reprimand Polandulus for making jokes about Lord Gortash! 2. Rives missed the morning mass to Bane - twice! 3. Rives didn't punish Gondian Ofran when she missed her gyronetics quota merely because she'd lost a finger that day in the punch press.⁷

We can see evidenced here the constant scheming for position and recognition consistent with this manner of lawful evil hierarchy. Both devils and Banites orient their day-to-day lives around how to prove themselves to their superiors, while also undercutting them at any chance they have to prove their own superiority, with hopes of being raised above them.

This is only reinforced further by another text found within the Steel Watch Foundry, Bane’s Book of Admonitions. Its text is not written out for us, but described as such:

A book of adages and precepts for Banites, providing the basic tenets of worship of the Lord of Tyranny, with suggested prayers for common situations. The heart of the book is Bane's Twelve Admonitions, a dozen rules for proper Banite conduct, with punishments specified for failure to comply. The book opens easily to a page with two of Bane's most popular admonitions, number six, the Reprimand for Leniency, and number seven, the Rebuke for False Compassion.⁸

The most likely scenario is that this book was used by the “Overseers” referenced by the anonymous Banite writing of Rives above. The exact position of the Overseers is not made clear, but from context and knowledge of Banite hierarchy, we can infer that they inhabit a place in the hierarchy above both the guard and Rives himself, and that their role is to ensure all those below them uphold the tenets of Bane at all times, never losing sight of his will.

In that context, it makes sense that they would both have a book of specific punishments for specific infractions – rule of law, after all – and that, given the attempted report on Rives, punishments (“admonitions”) for the crimes of leniency and false compassion – and all compassion is false when your conception of the world does not allow for its existence – would be those most referenced. It would be incredibly important to the unity of the cult, as well as to Gortash’s plans, to harshly punish any observed leniency or break from Bane’s law among members of the cult.

Not only would failure to control the situation at the Foundry potentially spell failure for the schemes of Bane’s Chosen, any unpunished step out of line by members of the cult would be seen as tempting others to do the same, a trickle of dissent quickly becoming a flood. Better to ensure that all adherents live in merited fear of the consequence of failure.

After all, it is said of Bane himself: “He has no tolerance of failure and seldom thinks twice about submitting even a loyal servant to rigorous tortures to ensure complete obedience to his demanding, regimented doctrine.”⁴

And, in an appropriately lawful hierarchy, the same rule must apply from the bottom, to the top.

¹ Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2014. p. 26.

² Descent into Avernus. 2019. p. 231

³ Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3E. 2001. pp. 237-8

⁴ Faiths & Pantheons. 2002. pp. 15-16.

⁵ Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3E. 2001. p. 93

⁶ Ed Greenwood Presents: Elminster’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms. 2012. pp. 135-6.

⁷ Rives’ Failures as a Banite. Baldur’s Gate 3. In-Game Text.

⁸ Bane’s Book of Admonitions. Baldur’s Gate 3. In-Game Text.

#voidling speaks #asked and answered #realmslore #meta #my meta #bg3 meta #bg3 #bg3 gortash #bg3 bane #enver gortash #bane #baldur's gate 3 #forgotten realms #cult of bane #d&d 5e #d&d 3.5

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aspiringfictionwriter · 10 months

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Ok, hear me out.

What if your D&D BBEG is a dragon and you just have an inflatable dragon set behind your Dungeon Master screen. Just imagine hearing that sound of an inflating dragon as it appears behind the DM.

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flightyquinn · 4 months

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Since I'm once again reminded about how D&D 3.5 specifically encouraged players to pitch ways that their character is different from the standard statblock to their DM, here's a bit of theorycraft;

Eitrik Goldenbrook is a half-orc, born in a large trade city. He is the only child of an orcish workman and an elven barmaid (he counts as Orc and Elf, rather than Orc and Human). As orcs typically don't have surnames, he and his father use his mother's, and even Eitrik's first name comes from his dwarven godfather, one of his father's coworkers and a good friend of both his parents.

Physically, Eitrik takes more after his mother than his father, inheriting her slender, graceful build (he trades the +2 Con half-orcs get for the +2 Dex given to elves). On the other hand, he still has prominent tusks and notable green skin, making him mostly just look like a particularly lank and gangly orc. He has been teased by his peers about this, and developed a bit of a temper about it, which along with his difficulty speaking around his tusks makes it hard for him to make good impressions. However, he has still received a proper education, even if living in the city means he is less "in tune" with the natural world than orcs raised in the tribes (he trades his -2 Int for -2 Wis, but keeps the penalty to Cha).

#tabletop gaming #dungeons & dragons #d&d 3.5 #homebrew #theorycrafting #fantasy races #orc #elf #poll

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honourablejester · 5 months

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Okay, that’s just cool.

Youtube is throwing random D&D related videos at me, and it recommended this year old video from Esper the Bard talking about cool 3/3.5e undead monsters that didn’t make the transition to 5e (in a lot of cases because they do damage to stats, I’m guessing). And one of them, the Boneyard, from the sourcebook Libris Mortis, is so cool.

Lorewise, it does have some similarities to 5e’s Gallows Speaker, in that it’s an undead that results from the combined dead of mass graves and charnel sites, but instead of a spectral combination, the Boneyard is a physical one. It’s, as it sounds like, a writhing mass of bones animated by the combined spirits of those who died.

And. I might be biased. Because that’s very similar to a Japanese Gashadokuro, and a gashadokuro was the star creature of an absolutely amazing Mushishi/Mononoke crossover fic I read called Dust & Bones by 7PhoenixAshes which made absolutely stunning creepy use of it. But. It’s such a cinematic monster, and one that comes with the story damn near pre-written for you.

The Boneyard is a creature born of massacres and charnel pits, mass graves and the dead left to rot unburied. It’s the dead of famines, the dead of plagues, the dead of genocides, the dead of battlefields left to moulder untended. A lot of undead have their backstory built into the fact of their existence, they’re great that way. And, as a D&D monster, it has an absolutely terrifying ability where if it manages to grapple you, and you’re still grappled next turn, it can start liquifying and absorbing your bones. Make them part of itself. It’s a writhing formless (but often serpentine) mass of bones animated by the massed souls of a great injustice, and it will pin your down and make you part of it.

That’s so easy to set up as an absolutely terrifying and creepy boss battle. (This thing was CR 14). Like. You can set that scene so easily. Twenty years ago there was a massacre in this village, or a famine, or a plague, and their greatest secret and shame was that the dead were never properly buried, whether deliberately, in the case of the massacre, or because there were too few left to be able to bury them, in the case of the famine or plague, and the bodies were instead thrown down a ravine or buried jumbled together in a pit, anything to get them out and away from the survivors. Now, twenty years on, animals and eventually people have started vanishing out by the ravine. People in the village hear bones rattling in the night. And they would get help, they need to get help, but getting help means admitting what happened back then. Admitting what was never laid to rest. So the villagers, at least the older ones, are being cagey with the party. Trying to skirt around it.

And then they get out there, to this strange, mist-shrouded dip in the ground. There’s bones lying scattered on the surface, even twenty years down the line. So many were thrown here that animals couldn’t scavenge them all. The ground is littered with bones.

And then, up ahead, they hear something alive. Someone alive. They hear a faint, reedy voice crying in agony. And it is. It is alive. It’s a person, a poor bastard of a traveller or merchant who no one warned not to come this way, and they’re gravely injured, but they’re frantically waving the party away. Not closer. They’re waving the party away.

And then there’s a rattling, the sound of bones rolling together in the mist around them. The wounded traveller’s eyes widen in raw terror. They attempt to shout out a warning, but a mass of bones shaped almost like a hand suddenly slams down over them from the mist behind them. A vast hulking shape looms out of the fog. Leans down over its pinned prey. And eats its bones.

Roll initiative.

Because. See. You want them to be wary of the bones. You want them to know something’s out here. You want to have that moment of surprise, the sudden horror looming out of the mist. But I think you also want them to know that the bone-eating thing is on the table. You want them to know that risk going in, you want them to know that they absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, let themselves get grabbed. You want that up front, so the fear of it is right there, so it shapes their tactics, and also so they can see it without having to deploy it on your players first. This thing is an absolutely lethal boss monster, and you want them to know that so they can plan accordingly, and also so they can be appropriately terrified of it, without having it feel unfair that the first time they know it can happen is when one of them dies to it.

(In 3/3.5, this did stat damage to all three of your physical stats, so it took a couple of turns to kill you, but it would kill you, and would be absolutely horrific the entire time. You’d have to jig this so it wasn’t doing stat damage for a 5e conversion, but the visuals should convey most of the horror, even if it winds causing less immediate and comprehensively lethal damage).

But. What a cinematic monster. Its backstory is already pre-baked for you, and you have an absolutely terrifying threat of an ability to alert the party to for them to plan around. And, if they’re a bit too low level for this, or just very melee oriented, the plan should absolutely be run. Just nope the fuck out, right now. And maybe go back and have a conversation with the village about what the fuck happened twenty years ago, and maybe you could have warned us, and maybe seek a less combat-oriented way to ease this horrifying creature past the shackles of undeath.

There were ten monsters in that video, and some of the others are cool, but this one just grabbed me. Some of that may be bias, that Mushishi/Mononoke fic made me very very fond of the gashadokuro and similar creatures as a concept, but as a high level undead who’s terrifying but also not some stripe of spellcaster, I do feel like it’s really, really cool.

Not something you could easily use in 5e, given that stat damage isn’t really a thing, and for good reason, Shadows and Intellect Devourers aside, but … something that emphasises ‘do NOT let this thing grab you, you will die’. Something that forces them to work out how to stay the fuck away from it and still bring it down, or makes them fully back out and try to work another way to lay these massed tormented souls to rest.

Also, what a fantastic plot line to have threaded through. What did happen twenty years ago? Was it an isolated incident, confined to a village in a mountain pass that got snowed in and did horrifying things to survive a murderous winter? Or was it a symptom of some much bigger part of your worldbuilding, an event that sowed mass graves across vast swathes of the land, and left thousands of guilty survivors to skirt carefully around the lingering horrors ever since?

Definitely one of the coolest parts of undead as monsters is that their sheer existence has plot and backstory built in. Especially a lot of D&D undead, because they’re so specific. Very specific things had to happen to produce a gallows speaker, or a boneless, or a deathlock, or a coldlight walker. And it does, it does remind me of Mononoke. What is this creature’s Form, Truth, and Regret? And how does the party interact with that?

(I mean. With a fireball. Repeated fireballs. Preferably from like 150ft feet in the air. Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. But. In the event you don’t have that option. Turn Undead is also riskier than usual, because it has pretty high mental scores, it’s an intelligent undead, it has a decent chance of making saves. I nearly would pull it on a lower level party, so they can’t fight it outright and have to work with its backstory. Lay it to rest like a normal ghost, by resolving the crime that led to its existence in the first place)

Anyway. That was a long diversion. But. Very cool monster? Thank you, Esper the Bard, for letting me know D&D did a gashadokuro back in the day, and did it in very cool (and rather cruel) fashion.

#long post #d&d #d&d 3.5 #d&d 5e #japanese mythology #mononoke #mushishi #fanfic rec #monster rec #undead #gashadokuro #i am not a dm #likely i shouldn't be #what an absolutely evil thing to drop on a party #but it's so cool

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thecreaturecodex · 11 months

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Dalya

“Rider” © Cindy Avellno, accessed at her ArtStation here

[And Monster Girl Summer is officially a Go! Part of my goal with Monster Girl Summer is to reflect on the games I’ve run in the past. And to sort of mentally catalog how many of the PCs started out monstrous, or became monstrous over the course of play. Like Dalya here. Dalya was originally a human, but ended up reincarnated as a gnoll. And was in the half of the party that survived their fight with Karzoug, as opposed to being wiped out in round 1. Time stop + reverse gravity + prismatic sphere, don’tcha know.

I ran Rise of the Runelords in 3.5. Dalya was originally built using the battle dancer class from Dragon Compendium. So making her a brawler was a easy choice for the conversion.]

Dalya CR 18 CG Humanoid (gnoll) This tall, lean hyena headed woman has her hair done up in a dyed fringe, and tattoos are visible beneath her fur. She wears leather armor and carries a buckler and spear.

Born to an exiled Shoanti father and a Varisian merchant mother, Dalya was used to living on the road. But she didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did. Visiting the Swallowtail Festival in Sandpoint, she was caught up in a goblin raid, which rapidly turned into investigating the growing power of the Sihedron cult and, eventually, opposing the forces of Karzoug. Underneath Thistletop, Dalya was slain by the barghest Malfeshnekor, but her allies were able to fight the beast back long enough to recover her body. Possibly as a side effect of being slain by one of Lamashtu’s chosen, Dalya was returned to life as a gnoll when brought back through a reincarnate spell. And Dalya couldn’t have been happier with her new body.

Dalya’s adventures continued from there, and she proudly brags that she’s never lost a fist fight with a giant. She was instrumental to killing Karzoug and preventing Varisia from being overrun by an army of lamiae and other monsters. But Dalya is not one to rest on her laurels, and she is in no way retired. Her current mission is to help a few packs of non-evil gnolls to settle in the Storval Plateau without causing too much conflict with the Shoanti quahs living there already. Her allies in this mission include a quartet of advanced crocuttals and Krojun Eats-What-He-Kills, a powerful warrior of the Sun Clan, himself reincarnated into a monstrous form (a bugbear) following a fatality in combat.

Dalya CR 18 XP 153,600 CG Medium humanoid (gnoll, human) Reincarnated gnoll brawler (battle dancer) 18 Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +18 Defense AC 33, touch 20, flat-footed 26 (+6 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural, +6 armor, +6 shield, +3 deflection) hp 200 (18d10+90 plus 7) Fort +20, Ref +21, Will +13; +2 vs. fear, despair Resist fire 30 Defensive Abilities dancing dodge (9/day), hopeful Offense Speed 35 ft. Melee +4 evil outsider bane unarmed strike +34/+29/+24/+19 (2d8+16), +4 evil outsider bane bite +32 (1d6+5) or +4 evil outsider bane unarmed strike +32/+32/+27/+27/+22/+22/+17 (2d8+16), +4 evil outsider bane bite +32 (1d6+5) or +2 returning distance spear +30/+25/+20/+15 (1d8+17/x3), +4 evil outsider bane bite +32 (1d6+5) Ranged +2 distance returning spear +26 (1d8+17/x3) Special Attacks awesome blow, brawler’s flurry, brawler’s strike (magic, cold iron, silver, chaotic, good, adamantine), martial flexibility (12/day, 3 feats as swift action or 1 as immediate), rolling flurry, sparring partners (3/day) Statistics Str 30, Dex 22, Con 21, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 16 Base Atk +18; CMB +28 (+36 trip, +35 grapple, +30 bull rush, +29 disarm); CMD 48 (56 vs. trip, 55 vs. grapple, 50 vs. bull rush, 49 vs. disarm) Feats Acrobatic Steps (B), Combat Expertise (B), Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Fleet (B), Improved Grapple (B), Improved Trip, Improved Unarmed Strike (B), Iron Will, Mobility, Monkey Moves, Monkey Style, Nimble Moves (B), Power Attack, Snapping Bite, Vicious Stomp (B) Skills Acrobatics +27, Climb +16, Intimidate +17, Linguistics +0, Perception +18, Perform (dance) +11, Ride +12, Sense Motive +12, Swim +16 Languages Common, Gnoll, Shoanti SQ close weapon mastery, dancer’s cunning, legendary, maneuver training (trip +4, grapple +3, bull rush +2, disarm +1), martial training, reincarnated Gear manual of gainful exercise +4 (expended), tome of leadership and influence +2 (expended), amulet of mighty fists +5 (+4 evil outsider bane), belt of physical perfection +4, +4 brawling leather armor, +5 buckler, +2 returning distance spear, winged boots, pliant gloves, cloak of resistance +4, ring of major fire resistance, ring of protection +3, potion of cure serious wounds (x3), potion of haste (x3), 500 gp worth of mundane jewelry, 36 pp. Special Abilities Dancer’s Cunning (Ex) A battle dancer can treat her Charisma score as her Intelligence score for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites of combat feats. In addition, she can attempt a Perform (dance) check instead of a Bluff check to feint in combat, and her unarmed strikes are considered to have the performance weapon special quality. Dancing Dodge (Ex) When an opponent attempts a melee attack against Dalya, she can expend one use of an attack of opportunity as an immediate action to move 5 feet, granting the battle dancer a +3 dodge bonus to AC against the triggering attack. The attack is still resolved normally, even if the battle dancer’s movement takes her out of the triggering attack’s reach. This movement is not a 5-foot step and provokes attacks of opportunity from creatures other than the one that triggered this ability, though the battle dancer can attempt an Acrobatics check to avoid provoking the attacks. Dalya can use this ability nine times per day. She can use this ability only while wearing light armor or no armor, and while carrying no heavier than a light load. Hopeful (Ex) Packmaster gnolls gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against fear effects and emotion effects such as despair, grief or boredom. They do not gain this bonus against rage effects, or other types of emotion effects, such as an unnatural lust or overwhelming presence spell (GM’s discretion). Legendary Dalya’s statistics are built using 25 point buy, and she has the gear of an 18th level PC. This increases her CR by +1. Reincarnated (Ex) Dalya was born human, but transformed into a gnoll due to a reincarnate spell. She has the bonus feat of a human, and bonus skill ranks for levels 1-4. She does not have the racial Hit Dice, or mental ability bonuses, of a gnoll. Rolling Flurry (Ex) When a battle dancer uses her brawler’s flurry, she must move 5 feet before each melee attack or combat maneuver. If she is unable to move 5 feet, she can’t attempt any further attacks or combat maneuvers. She can’t exceed her maximum speed. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity if the brawler would be able to take a 5-foot step normally; if she would be unable to (for instance, if she were in difficult terrain), the movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal unless she succeeds at the appropriate Acrobatics checks. While using this ability, she can still take her normal 5-foot step before or after making her attacks. Sparring Partners (Ex) When Dalya gains a flanking bonus on an attack while using her rolling flurry ability, the ally providing the flank gains a flanking bonus on its next attack against that opponent, even if the battle dancer moves out of a flanking position. If either the opponent or the ally moves more than 5 feet before the ally’s attack, the flanking bonus is lost. This ability works only if the ally is on the opposite side of an opponent during the battle dancer’s attack, not if a flanking bonus is gained in some other way, such as through Gang Up. Dalya can use this ability three times per day.

#dalya #gnoll #pathfinder 1e #monster girl summer #rise of the runelords #pathfinder rpg #D&D 3.5 #D&D #monster girl #battle dancer

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aboleth-eye · 5 months

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D&D Homebrew Class: the Valiant

In your own D&D 3e/3.5 campaigns, have you always wanted to fight with the powers of light and big elemental explosions? A pretty protector leaping over enemies to rescue your friends from the forces darkness? Channel the powers of goodness through awesome kickboxing and unique bursts of fire, water, earth and/or air?

Then check out the Valiant! A homebrew monk/battle dancer-based class inspired by the classic anime/tv genres of Mahou Shoujo (Sailor Moon/Pretty Cure/Cardcaptor Sakura/etc) and Sentai Tokusatsu (Power Rangers/Super Sentai/etc)!

Just did a major overhaul and expansion to the Valiant class recently! Added in tons of new options such as the Wildheart, Lostheart and Planar Valiant!

All homebrew is free to use and play in your own games! (Though a shoutout would be nice lol) -- Love, @aboleth-eye

#aboleth eye #aboleth workshop #valiant #d&d homebrew #homebrew classes #my homebrew #d&d resources #dungeon & dragons #tabletop resources #d&d 3.5 #3rd edition #3.5 edition #magical girl #mahou shoujo #super sentai #power rangers #tokusatsu

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probablyfunrpgideas · 7 months

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Idea

The Dungeon of Dorian Gray

Everyone remarked on how tidy and fashionable the Gray manor house was. Dorian Gray could host three demonic summonings each week, with a tragic spectacle of death on special occasions. And yet, his estate was not haunted in the least! It remained stubbornly free from ghosts or dimensional rifts, never showing the slightest sign of a toothy maw in the ceiling. In one locked room, however, Dorian Gray kept a picture of his house. And for each dreadful thing that happened in the real building, a new streak of ichor or pallid face at a window would appear on the painted image. Eventually it grew to be a ghastly sight.

But progress marches on, and the wealthy Mr. Gray found the means to stave off the corruption of his home's soul. With a certain ritual, people can be sent into a painting, and he intends to hire some desperate and determined adventurers and pay them very well to exorcise the artwork. It will take a truly stalwart group to face what is probably a more haunted and eldritch mansion than any three other dungeons combined. But bragging rights and a million gold pieces are on the table...

#idea #d&d #d&d 3.5 #d&d 5e #pathfinder #call of cthulhu #tabletop rpgs

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aboleth-workshop · 5 months

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D&D Homebrew Class: the Fiendknife

Posting more regularly about my homebrew classes! Welcome to my latest class, the Fiendknife! A living weapon class for D&D 3e/3.5 edition, inspired by the Hybrids from Chainsaw Man!

Tear into your opponents with blades, arrows, bombs and more from your own infernal body! Includes several combat styles for your bladelimb weapons, and a class variant just for Tieflings!

All homebrew is free to use and play in your own games! (Though a shoutout would be nice lol) -- Love, @aboleth-eye

P.S. Have fun with this homebrew class! I made it in an coldbrew coffee writing frenzy. lol

#aboleth eye #aboleth workshop #fiendknife #my homebrew #d&d homebrew #d&d 3.5 #tabletop games #d&d #dungeons & dragons #tabletop resources #chainsaw man #csm #3rd edition #homebrew classes

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zunadahalforcbarbarian · 1 year

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#dnd #d&d #zunada #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #d&d 5e #d&d 3.5 #dnd 3.5 #loot #harvest #spider #wolf #pirate #kobold #giant #pirates

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thirdtofifth · 5 months

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Famine Spirit Medium undead, chaotic evil Armor Class 18 (natural armor) Hit Points 333 (29d8 + 203) Speed 30 ft. Str 16, Dex 11, Con 24, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 15 Saving Throws Con +9, Wis +7 Damage Immunities poison Damage Resistances necrotic Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, stunned, unconscious Senses truesight 60 ft. passive Perception 12 Languages Common Challenge 19 (22000 XP) Aura Of Pain. The famine spirit emits an aura of excruciating hunger. Whenever a creature starts its turn within 60 feet of the famine spirit, that creature must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or be incapacitated until the start of its next turn. A creature that succeeds on its save is immune to the Aura of Pain of all famine spirits for 24 hours. Keen Smell. The famine spirit has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell. Actions Multiattack. The famine spirit makes three attacks: two with its claws, and one with its Vorpal Bite. It can use Devour in place of its Vorpal Bite. Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 14 (2d10+3) slashing damage plus 27 (6d8) necrotic damage. Vorpal Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 22 (3d12+3) piercing damage plus 16 (3d10) necrotic damage. If the famine spirit scores a critical hit, it rolls damage dice three times, instead of twice. A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a famine spirit, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed. Devour. The famine spirit devours one Small or Medium corpse that is within 5 feet of it, destroying it. If it does, it regains 30 hit points.

These corpulent undead have bottomless appetites. A famine spirit would be able to consume all of the food in a magnificent mansion and be hungry for more within hours. Some are known to consume a hundred corpses in a single day. Famine spirits, sometimes called ravenous ghouls, can unhinge their jaws in order to swallow particularly large meals. The only creatures a famine spirit will not try to eat are undead, so packs of ghouls sometimes follow in their wake.

Originally from the Monster Manual II.

#d&d 3.5 #d&d homebrew #d&d #dnd 5e #dungeons and dragons #dnd #d&d monster #d&d 5e #dnd 3.5 #thirdtofifth CR 19 #thirdtofifth undead

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inaconstantstateofchange · 3 months

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Hi!

I'm so glad i found your blog, your deep dives are making my brain tingle in the best of ways! It's so difficult to really find all the info your curious about with the many different editions and histories of everything so you are an absolute lifesaver for understanding all these intruiging lore aspects.

I've been very curious about Asmodeus for a while now but am kinda struggling finding out more about him, I know he's very strong and apparently a large snake?? But I was wondering if you at some point feel the motivation to if you could tell me some about him, he seems so interesting to me and I just wanna know more about who and what he is.

Again, you are so awesome and I vow to devour all your writing!

Asmodeus: An Origin

Thank you so much for the kind words - and for your patience as I worked on this one. If there's any question you had about him that feels like it's not wholly answered here, feel free to let me know! There's still a lot that I was not able to include.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more succinct introduction to Asmodeus himself than in the following passage, from 3e’s Book of Vile Darkness:

Asmodeus the Archfiend, the overlord of all the dukes of hell, commands all devilkind and reigns as the undisputed master of the Nine Hells. Even the deities that call that plane home pay Asmodeus a great deal of respect.¹

As to his current position, 5e’s Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide features Asmodeus among the list of gods, naming him the “god of indulgence”, and crediting to him the domains of knowledge and trickery. His symbol is “three inverted triangles arranged in a long triangle”, as seen in the image below.²

While his active circle of worshippers remains small, he is one of the gods habitually turned to by those in need, particularly those who have done something to earn them the displeasure of another god:

After transgressing against a god in some way, a person prays to Asmodeus for something to provide respite during the long wait. Asmodeus is known to grant people what they wish, and thus people pray for all the delights and distractions they desire most from life. Those who transgress in great ways often ask Asmodeus to hide their sins from the gods, and priests say that he will do so, but with a price after death.³

Asmodeus is particularly appealing to those who fear what awaits them after death, or have arrived to find the reality does not match their hopes. For these souls, even the hazards of Baator might be preferable to long centuries of solitary wandering on the Fugue Plane.

All souls wait on the Fugue Plane for a deity's pleasure, which determines where a soul will spend the rest of eternity. Those who lived their lives most in keeping with a deity's outlook are taken first. Others, who have transgressed in the eyes of their favored god or have not followed any particular ethos, might wait centuries before Kelemvor judges where they go. People who fear such a fate can pray to Asmodeus, his priests say, and in return a devil will grant a waiting soul some comfort.³

The worship of Asmodeus attracts staunch individualists, who desire a future unaligned with the domain of any of the other gods, and are willing to choose self-determination in any form that might approach them.

The faithful of Asmodeus acknowledge that devils offer their worshipers a path that's not for everyone — just as eternally basking in the light of Lathander or endlessly swinging a hammer in the mines of Moradin might not be for everyone. Those who serve Asmodeus in life hope to be summoned out of the moaning masses of the Fugue Plane after death. They yearn for the chance to master their own fates, with all of eternity to achieve their goals.³

Asmodeus achieved his current official status of godhood during the Spellplague, which lasted from 1385 to 1395 DR. After this, for reasons he has unsurprisingly chosen not to reveal, he performed a ritual to alter the metaphysical categorization of all existing tieflings, giving them features that highlighted this connection.

Due to this shift, tieflings are often perceived with wariness by those who believe that Asmodeus is able to exert control over these newly-determined “descendants” of his. While this is an unwarranted suspicion, as tieflings are no more bound to his will than any other individual of another race, the mistrust remains unfortunately pervasive.⁴

The true origins of Asmodeus, particularly from 3rd Edition on, are kept rather ambiguous, seemingly quite by design. This is both for Watsonian reasons – that a supreme being of evil such as Asmodeus would not carelessly leave information about his origins (and, potentially, weaknesses) floating around – as well as Doylist: it is a more elegant solution than eternal retcons, and leaves it up to the individual scholar or DM which explanation they ascribe the most veracity to.⁵

On the charge of Asmodeus’s true form being a giant serpent, we have Chris Pramas to thank for that bit of lore, stated in 2e’s 1999 Guide to Hell, but rarely mentioned - and not in any definitive manner - from 3e onward.⁶ 3e’s Manual of the Planes, published in 2001, does reference this account, but as a whispered and shadowy theory about the Archdevil Supreme, rather than objective truth.

Brutally repressed rumors suggest that there is more to Asmodeus than he admits. The story goes that the true form of Asmodeus actually resides in the deepest rift of Nessus called the Serpent’s Coil. The shape seen by all the other devils of the Nine Hells in the fortress of Malsheem is actually a highly advanced use of the project image spell or an avatar of some sort. ... From where fell Asmodeus? Was he once a greater deity cast down from Elysium or Celestia, or is he older yet, as the rumor hints? Perhaps he represents some fundamental entity whose mere existence pulls the multiverse into its current configuration. Nobody who tells the story of Asmodeus’s “true” form lives more than 24 hours after repeating it aloud. But dusty scrolls in hard-to-reach libraries (such as Demogorgon’s citadel in the Abyss) yet record this knowledge. Unless it is pure fancy, of course.⁷

One can see from the framing of the above excerpt that there is no attempt made at certainty. Perhaps it is mere conjecture, or perhaps a secret, hidden truth that few may know. It is impossible to say for certain.

Another story of Asmodeus’s possible origin is found in 3e’s Fiendish Codex II. This text, again, does not frame the information given as universal truth, but rather takes pains to emphasize its ambiguity.

The best way to understand devils and their ways is to listen to the stories they tell about themselves. The most famous of these tales have propagated as myths throughout all the worlds of the Material Plane, becoming familiar to mortals of all sorts. But as is often the case with legends, contradictions abound. For example, the tale of the Pact Primeval is the accepted version of the multiverse’s creation. But an alternate story claims Asmodeus as the fallen creator of the universe. Countless cultures have their own versions of the Pact Primeval legend. The names of the deities featured in it change depending on where it is told, but the names of the devils are always the same. Perhaps this fact is what inspired Philogestes, the accursed philosopher of evil, to pen his famous proverb: “The gods exist in multiplicity, but Asmodeus is unique.” As is the case with any myth worthy of the name, the following tale is true — whether or not it actually happened.⁸

In this account, Asmodeus began as a celestial embodiment of law, formed from the concept itself to fight against the embodiment of chaos — demons.⁹ Over time, as he and his followers became more akin to the enemies they were facing, those celestial beings not engaged in the fight grew leery of what they were becoming, and took him to trial, to account for himself. The god of valor spoke first, laying out the concerns of those gathered against Asmodeus. In response:

Asmodeus smiled, and the smoke of a thousand battlefields rose from his lips. “As Lord of Battle,” he pointed out, “you should know better than any that war is a dirty business. We have blackened ourselves so that you can remain golden. We have upheld the laws, not broken them. Therefore, you may not cast us out.”⁸

Despite their efforts, the gods were able to find no laws that Asmodeus had broken. Unsurprisingly, as he himself had helped write them. This conflict between Asmodeus and his host and the remainder of the unsullied gods continued on, with the gods unable to get rid of him, and free themselves of the constant reminder of the Blood War.

With time, the concepts of “good” and “evil” entered the world alongside law and chaos, and Asmodeus was able to argue for dominion over those souls that chose evil. The gods loathed the reminders of this fact, however, and when Asmodeus volunteered to move to the empty plain of Baator, they enthusiastically agreed. It was only years later, when the number of souls arriving at their own planes after death began to sharply decrease, that they thought to travel to Baator themselves, where they found a robust operation based around encouraging mortal souls to take to the path of evil.

“You have granted us the power to harvest souls,” replied Asmodeus. “To build our Hell and gird our might for the task set before us, we naturally had to find ways to improve our yield.” The war deity drew forth his longsword of crackling lightning. “It is your job to punish transgressions, not to encourage them!” he cried. Asmodeus smiled, and a venomous moth flew out from between his sharpened teeth. “Read the fine print,” he replied.⁸

While the recorded story implies a simple act of one-upmanship, a later section of the Fiendish Codex tells us that Asmodeus’s split from the other celestial deities was not so amicable.

Once he had committed himself to residing in Baator, the deities physically cast him out of the upper realms, and he fell — and fell, and fell. Upon reaching the plain of Baator, he plunged through the nascent layers he had begun to shape. (In some versions, his fall created the layers, breaking the formerly featureless plain into nine pieces, which then arranged themselves into floating tiers.) At last he hit solid ground but continued to fall, spiraling through rock and soil. The protesting earth of Baator tore at his flesh, opening scores of gaping wounds. Still he fell, until he could fall no farther. The point where he finally stopped was the deepest part of Baator — the Pit. The wounds that Asmodeus suffered in his dramatic fall have never healed. Though he manages to appear blithely unperturbed by his injuries, they still weep blood every day, and he has been wracked by constant pain for millennia.¹⁰

This casting down and its associated injuries is corroborated in other texts as well, including 3e’s Manual of the Planes.

5e’s Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes seemingly follows on from the Fiendish Codex’s account, sharing one conception of the fallout of Asmodeus’s stratagem, positioned as an in-universe account penned by the aasimar bard Anodius in a work titled “The Trial of Asmodeus”.

At some point after Asmodeus broke from Celestia to rule Baator, he was brought up on trial for unspecified crimes and trespasses. Asmodeus claimed the right to speak in his own defense, and a court was gathered, arbitrated by Primus, a being intrinsically aligned with Neutrality and Law. From Asmodeus’s recorded arguments in his own defense, we can surmise that those on Celestia had accused him of acting outside of the law in actively working to turn mortals to evil.

The case stretched on, with neither side ceding ground, for weeks, until finally Primus declared his judgment. While Asmodeus could not be convicted of any true crime – for he had acted within the law in all things – he was to take an artifact, the Ruby Rod that is synonymous with his position, which would “guarantee his adherence to law”.¹¹ A quote from Anodius’s in-universe text is helpfully provided by Mordenkainen:

“I literally sit beneath eight tiers of scheming, ambitious entities that represent primal law suffused with evil. The path from this realm leads to an infinite pit of chaos and evil. Now, tell me again how you and your ilk are the victims in this eternal struggle.” – Asmodeus addresses the celestial jury, from The Trial of Asmodeus¹¹

In a manner similar to his contested origin, Asmodeus’s appearance is described in several varying ways — a fact that seems in line for a principal schemer such as himself. This seeming discrepancy could also speak to varying uses of aspects or projection spells.

The Fiendish Codex II in one instance paints him as “a horned, red-skinned humanoid with a tall, lithe frame” who “dresses in splendid robes and understated but elegant accoutrements.”¹⁰ A later section in the Codex corresponds to this description given in the Book of Vile Darkness:

Asmodeus stands just over 13 feet tall, with lustrous dark skin and dark hair. He is handsome in the same way that a thunderstorm is beautiful. His red eyes shine with the power of hell, and his head is crowned with a pair of small, dark red horns. He dresses in finery of red and black; a single garment of his might cost what an entire nation spends in a year. Of course, he is never without his Ruby Rod, an ornate piece of unparalleled jeweled finery and vast magical power.¹

Regarding his personality, he is most often described as “a soft-spoken, articulate, chillingly reasonable fellow who is confident in his status as one of the multiverse’s most powerful entities. Even when surprised, he reacts with supreme poise, as if he were already three steps ahead of his adversaries.”¹⁰ The Book of Vile Darkness notes correspondingly that:

The actions of Asmodeus are often mysterious to outside observers, but that is due to the short-sighted and dim-witted view most beings have. Asmodeus’s manipulations are labyrinthine and insidious. They work on a grand scale, although when it suits his needs he is willing to focus his attention even on the status of a lowly mortal soul.¹

¹ Book of Vile Darkness. 2002. p. 165-6.

² Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2015. p. 21.

³ Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2015. p. 24.

⁴ Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2015. p. 118.

⁵ “Watsonian vs. Doylist”. Fanlore.org.

⁶ In general, I try to stay in-universe with these lore writeups, but in this case it did feel like some out-of-universe context was necessary.

⁷ Manual of the Planes. 2001. p. 123.

⁸ Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells. 2006. p. 4-5.

⁹ While the description of these events found within the Fiendish Codex is too long to transcribe here in its entirety, I highly encourage you to read the full account for yourself.

¹⁰ Fiendish Codex II. 2006. p. 73-4.

¹¹ Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 2018. p. 9-10.

#voidling speaks #asked and answered #realmslore #my meta #bg3 #bg3 meta #tagging for the relevance to anyone writing about the infernal side of things relative to bg3 #bg3 raphael #baldurs gate 3 #meta #forgotten realms #baator #asmodeus #d&d asmodeus #d&d 5e #d&d 3.5 #long post #an understatement

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