"Do I get the bonus from the Sword of Ogre decapitation?" "Actually, that only works on ogres" (Later) "What did you turn him into!?" "An ogre" "Why!? Those things are dangerous!" "Sword... of... ogre... decapitation"
Will there be animal master or hound masters? To raise fighting hounds and mounts. Also sometimes my party finds the eggs of a creature like a Hooked Horror or a Basilisk, an animal master could train breed or take care of them for them.
These could also be part of units or mount for units, like Worgs in Lotr. And if the players find a breeding pair, they could even raise Giant Eagles to make flying units. If that area of the keep was very varied, with steep cliffs, it could be known as the Rookery or something. Not to mention having flying units is a big advantage.
Jackson Bockus it wouldn't be hard to reskin alchemist as tinker. Consumable items created based on materials gathered in the field? That manticore blood has special iron in it. It gets turned into a special flywheel that is going to work once. I don't know. We can swing anything, this is d&d!
Matt you are huge inspiration for me as a wanna-be creator and as a crap DM. Please keep up your amazing work and stay true to your original intentions. I'm so excited to see you grow and evolve.
You mean there's DIALOGUE? Dude. This book is PACKED. I get that there is a thought that a part of the success of this kickstarter is the support the community has been wanting to give to Matt Colville, but I think it's also because of the basic idea: "If the product is good, people will buy it" and this is a product that people really want.
The npc dialogue is not only useful for world building and a good starting point for fleshing out characters, it also provides inspiration for encounters: 1. The players are informed that the Miners have dug too deep and too greedily, and have unearthed an old tomb -> surprise dungeon time! 2. The players use their spy to recruit a different follower -> how does this work? Do the players enact the spy's plan, playing as a handful of low-levelled followers, diverting a blacksmith from joining a neighbouring keep? Or rescuing a talented prisoner from a couple of towns over? Great stuff, Mr Colville! Carry on the good work.
Hehe, yeah, that word. Si-jil is the correct pronunciation for the inscribed symbols. Siggle is the correct pronunciation for the Planescape city in the center of the multiverse. That's one of those words that I got wrong originally, too, because it was a word I read many, many times but never heard spoken aloud.
Hey Matt, just wanna say that the more info I've gotten about this book, the more and more it intrigues me. What my players do with the monster parts they collect, how the world around them reacts to their deeds, how they go about leaving a lasting impact on my world not just by what they kill but by what they build, these are all aspects of running the game I've struggled with. Thanks for pouring so much passion into this project, I can't wait to get the book in my hands!
Worldtraceur it's ok matt, my best friend constantly pronounces grimoire are "grimmory" and tome as tomb and tomb as tome It just makes him more interesting lol
Might it be reasonable for a Tailor to get involved in crafting enchanted robes, cloaks, shoes etc. and other clothing? I don't imagine that this would gel terribly well with the "harvesting monster bits" method of enchantment that you've described for other Artisan Followers*, but I think having a high-level tailor who, with the guidance of a spellcaster, can make you a sweet Cloak of the Bat or a pair of Boots of Elvenkind or a Robe of Useful Items would be pretty awesome. * I suppose blood, venom, or other monstrous bodily fluids could be used for dyeing the thread they're working with, or bits of bone, horn, scale, hide, feathers etc. could all be used in ornamentation, so maybe it's not as much of a stretch as I initially thought to make magical garments using harvested monster bits.
Consider that a tailor would have some skill involving quilting work, and that padded armor was often a quilted design, it's not a terrible stretch to even team a tailor and smith together for some weirdness in hybridizing armory with monster-bits... Dragon-scale could be tooled by an armorer quicker and easier and (likely) cheaper than by a tailor's shop, but the tailor could then use the tooled (and shaped?) scales for a far higher quality (looking) garment of protection versus the given breath weapon of the beast... (ie Red Dragon scales = fire proof) Just for a start... So it's not so much that a "full AC bonus" is necessary, but that the resulting cloak or robe would present a partial bonus AND the fire-proofing (or other proofing) while remaining fashionable or even inconspicuous... depending on Role Play needs/wants. ;o)
Dude some of this stuff is SO EXACTLY what i've really really wanted and felt like NEEDED to be fleshed out for D&D 5e but haven't had the time to really sit down and crack into and write for myself while simultaneously working multiple jobs and running and playing in a campaign and I really appreciate you taking the time to create it in such a comprehensive way. I will definitely buy your book.
With the harvesting of the monster brain, I would take it in a different direction for my game. The alchemist distill the memories of the monster into a potion which the player character can imbibe to gain the memories of that creature. This potion might give important plot details, or grant the combat focused characters a feat, or could give the caster of the group a new spell.
Totally lifted the +1/+3 weapon idea off of you for one of my players. Gave a Tiefling Monk the "Abyss Watcher Spear" that has a personal mission against Abyssal creatures. He loves it, even passed over a few +2 weapons because he gets to feel like such a badass against Demons. Thanks Matt :)
Love these ideas! Ever since my friends and I started playing in the early 2000's we were harvesting stuff from monsters and making weapons and whatnot - so I'm ready to see what Matt's ideas are and love that there's gonna be a system involved and that it involves multiple characters!
Strong positive reaction here. Loving the artisan followers so far, and I really like that you're gonna let the dials for granularity be easily adjustable.
I was skeptical on pitching in on this Kickstarter at first. After watching your updates, I am more comfortable with this and after this update i'm looking forward with excitement waiting for my hand to get my hardcopy.... keep up this good work.
One way to use these artisan followers I would really like for a regular campaign is to have services in a given town that are byond general store, blacksmith, magic shop, etc. I havent seen the final product yet, but some of these mechanics look like they could be turned around to make a living town.
I definitely love the dial mechanic you've included for the magic items: having different options for different campaigns certainly works well. I'm certainly looking forward to this!
I like the artisan followers so far. Have you considered adding traders/merchants to take on the tasks of selling/tracking down and buying magic items for party. Always something my groups find tidius.
Reining down power by specifying types of targets is brilliant! I also enjoy skill checks because it gives value to success rather than just an arbitrary time sink (do this = you get this)
i like that you're experimenting with your own rulings! my friend and i are sharing DMing a game we play @ lunch, we both worked together to create a spell research system that wizards can use during downtime to research spells, we scaled it so that 9th lvl takes AGES to do, and lower levels aren't as much, and we each adapted it to our own game-worlds. very fun stuff! so i think what you're doing with Alchemy is AWESOME! keep it up. sorry i didn't get on the kickstarter though. moving down to texas and getting used to new life down here exciting stuff!
Dan Chaparro perhaps put that under blacksmith but i thought you could have the tailor make magic items like the scarf of the raven, or the boots of dashing speed stuff a tailor could make
I love these videos, they increase my excitement for this book! On Alchemy checks, I can see it being done as an Intelligence (Medicine) check, if the group doesn't use skill challenges.
I would love to try and make monster weapons that were not strong against the monster that it was made from, but strong against creatures those monsters were effective against example: a giant blood sword would be +1 against everything but +3 against all all creatures who are either smaller than you or smaller than the giant you slew
I’m been running a game for 27 months now. Have one of my players hooked on a keep. This content is gold to me. I was floundering as to what to do now he has a keep. I’m going to push some politics and some followers. Great stuff Mr Colville. Thank you.
As a DM, this book really makes me excited. But as a guy who loves to watch stories unravel and specially to see you, Matt, develop stories and plots, I'm really excited about the stream. You mentioned many times that you could make a video about it. When you have the time, please do it. Tell us everything you can. I can't wait to watch.
I like it :D Love the prepackaged replies for that Man-at-Arms, I made some for a Cleric I played once and it really gets you in the right mindset as DM/player about what your characters should be saying and how they ought to behave.
I need these rules! Matt inspired me to give my players a Keep and a town, and followers. Now I can't wait for the rules to go along with that stuff to make it that much cooler for everyone. Everything is sounding great so far
As a DM and person who is better at revision than creation, I have to say, the example blurbs make thinking about the _person_ the follower is _much, much_ easier. I’d like as much of that included in my copy as possible. :P Thank you!
Will there be a special character sheet page to keep track of your followers? I don't know how many other people feal the same, but I love heaving all my character sheets look good and match each other.
Colville does love his HANDOUTs/props, so I guess it would be awfully disappointing for such a professional product to neglect that D&D/tabletop staple.
These all seem great! I love the character dialogue, those little nuggets are what I am going to enjoy between the meat of information. Also, the spy is what I hope my player's get, the option to alter between a few choices instead of having to only have what they roll is so appealing I may just give them a spy to be able to have that opportunity anyways
Just want to clarify how "sigil" (a magical symbol) is pronounced. "Sidjel" The middle bit sounds like sounds like "ridge" Your spelling "sijel" made it seem a bit like the "i" should sound like "eye", this is not the case
Yeah, if your group wants to play a civ-type meta-game, Kingmaker's a great model. What I found with an old group was that only a few were into that sort of game... and we kinda figured-out a way to build a highly efficient kingdom, so the die rolls usually went in our favor.
Having heard your explanation about the temporary abilities you get from certain followers, I'm afraid my players will find them too game-y. The problem isn't so much the bonus you might get, it's more the idea of it being like a form of ammunition that can be 'spent', especially for something that is essentially a social skill. Personally, I'd prefer if it was a time based ability. That way you get that buff for 'x' amount of time 'in game', framing it like spending time in the wild dulls your brain and you need to have a proper rest in order to reacquire such an ability. And for very high level followers, perhaps that buff becomes permanent. They truly teach you such a skill or piece of knowledge and it's as if you learned it by yourself. Maybe that's too powerful, but it sounds more believable when framed like that.
Think of it more like this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maester/Sage Berillius scratched his wisened head for a moment. His liver-spotted hand dropped back to the table with a dull thump. "Y-your Grace, I believe I have some information for you," he began as Lady NIghthawk entered the library. He moved to lift his old creaky bones from the chair he'd been occupying, but she raised a forestalling hand. "Rest, old friend," she intoned as she strolled to the table, lacing her fingers together. Looking relieved he sank back down and seemed to give a small sigh. "You were saying?" "Oh yes, of course," he sputtered, coming back to the topic of conversation at hand. "The information about the great fire drake Ignathrix is spotty at best. The record is limited, as by all accounts he is maybe a century old at best. However, the writings of the scholar Wilstis Cestus spoke of a number of encounters by his kind and apparent age. He recommended that if you can, you should soak yourself, head to toe, in water just before engaging. This is emphasized in particular for the padding under your armor. There is some research to suggest the Liedenfrost effect may have something to do with it. However, information is spotty at best." He paused for a moment then fished out another book from the pile, and opened it up , passing it to the Lady. "The writings of one Caedmus Cato have spoken on the hardness of dragonscale as you know. However, this fighting manual suggests a pattern to the scales, and recommended angles of attack for various parts. We do know that it is easier to free scales, harvest hide, and organs from dragons with certain approaches. When you engage your foe, shallow attacks against the grain of the scale should expose weaker points, and allow you to make follow up deeper strikes. You won't get many chances at it before the drake figures it out, and adjusts, so make them count." He took a deep breath then sipped from a cup of mulled wine gone cold. "Thank you for your efforts.They are most appreciated, and certainly will prove useful in the next few days. Keep at it, see what else you can dig up on the matter," she praised and commanded. He nodded and gave a small smile. "It was my pleasure, Your Grace. And If I may, I shall retire for the night." "Please, do so. The mind needs time to rest," She agreed, turning on her heel, heading for the library doors and to her own chambers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So not only might this grant advantage on saving throws against the breath weapon (should the advice be followed), I just included a mechanical explanation for how they would gain advantage, and then lose it again in a few strikes (dragon catches on... time for new tactics). So... I don't think it's gamey at all. Merely how you explain and work it out in the narrative.
Yeah, do it how you want. Tbh though, your idea doesn't sound any less gamey to me, and makes it less versitile, requires as much book keeping, but likely will push that more towards the DM rather then the player.
I think y'all are being too harsh on darkjim; I mean what's the point of asking for feedback if it's just going to be dismissed? Of course he can do whatever he wants at his table; you night as well tell him not to buy the book at all.
Everything sounds great, this book is going to be great. Additional artisan ideas: armorer for magical armor. And trader or merchants so the players can get someone to sell their items for them while they adventure or get items they can’t make.
I don’t know if it would add an unwanted extra layer of complexity, but could you have specialisations within some of the artisan roles? Blacksmith specialises into armorer, farrier, swordsmith and so on, and gate some boons behind the specialisation. It’s kinda like what you were saying with potions; giving people more power in specific situations is fun, and incentivises players to have personal goals. Could it also be fun to know that your guy can make fantastic armor but for the best swords you’ll need to travel?
Hi Matt, have you considered adding a gamekeeper/warden/hunt-master follower, or a falconer? As those would have been a part of any medieval lord's retinue. Maybe you could make it so that as the party gets to higher level, the game-warden could provide parts from lower level monsters that are native to the stronghold's surroundings as potions ingredients, in addition to the meat for the table that would be their primary job. That way the party could focus on collecting monster parts from higher level monsters, of large quantities of lower level monster parts.
I think a good artisan follower idea would be a gamekeeper/hunter type. Somebody who can hunt on your land and have access to supplies to do with that. They could also catch and/or tame animals or any other beast that invades the property. This is open to modification of course, just an idea that slipped into my head.
Do you think it would benefit people to put into the book a step by step on how to create an Artisan follower in the model that you have done the others?
I know i would find that useful, as i doubt most campaigns would need an npc specifically to bind elementals to things like in eberron, and an artificer to build the contraption in the first place.
I want to go into a thing on "My lord" vs "Sire" king/horse, blah blah, bullshit. The truth is, it's MY hangup and it's fun flavor text! Love this !Keep up the good work! I can't wait to get mine!
It was my birthday yesterday, so I finally (I was waiting for it) backed the KS. Minis, books, stickers, t-shirts, and a stream! I can't wait. To be clear, if it hadn't coincided with my birthday, I would have been in on day one...
Loved the video Matt. I wouldn’t do the crafting of blood weaponry that way, but I think my way is specific to my setting. I’d sort of do the opposite where blood of one creature grants powerful advantages over an opposite type. Such as dwarf blood giving advantage against giants, and orc blood being powerful against elves. The only one I’d have matched would be human blood, for man’s greatest enemy is himself.
Well, you got me. I need to get this! Shipping fee to South Africa or not( I know could have just got the pdf but books are great!). One of the biggest complaints I have had recently from my players is " Hey, what do we do with all this gold?" . I supposed I could have made a gold sink for them but I am lazy. Really excited to use this with a Hex crawler sandbox to transition in to world influence sandbox with level progress. Great Content Thanks!
I know I'm coming to this late and I am probably going to be buying the print version of the book when its ready but I LOVE the idea of an 'evil' pc with a blacksmith in his keep doing his best to churn out arrows of slaying vs elves and dwarves and GNOMES!
Tavern falls under "Establishment" which is a type of stronghold, specifically geared toward information gathering. Healers are clerics, and are dominated by temples/chapels, and similar. - This is already built in.
LOVE THIS! Love the killing of monsters to make magic items, but i hope that there is also maybe an equally cool, Finding rare minerals or plants and being able to bring them back to your artisans to craft magic items with. Maybe arcana/nature/ maybe history to know the thing and its importance, and survival/medicine to harvest the thing, maybe even athletics to be able to harvest carry it home. just a thought! keep up the good work!
Wow. All of this sounds great. So glad I backed the project. I'm especially interested in the alchemist rules and the idea of codifying what all the parts of a creature do. I did have a couple ideas on that front that I think might be interesting to include. One is power level of the creature. This would be especially important with dragons, but could also serve as another dial to tune for broader categories. So a potion of invisibility to giant kind were crafted from a stone giant's eyes, it would be more potent than a hill giant's eyes. That might mean that giants of a higher type get a saving throw to see through it while lesser types don't. "Power level" is a bit vague, but could be CR or Hit Dice. For effects that always get a save, it could impact the save DC (10+1/2 HD or CR for example) Another might be to base its effectiveness on the number of shared descriptors. For example, a Fire Giant might be susceptible to other giant-based alchemy, but also alchemy based on other fire-based creatures, like a Salamander or a Red Dragon. But the highest level of effectiveness would be alchemy that is based on another Fire Giant. That or it could be a decision that the alchemist makes. They decide whether they are using the part to make potion vs giants or a potion vs fire creatures. And the nature of the creature determines the options available. Some of these ideas could also carry over to weapon and armor smithing for that matter. ... and now I kind of want to fire up my copy of Dragonslayer ...
I really love the idea of having specific magical items like the potion of invisibility to Manticores, but I think it should also be possible (at the DM's discretion) to make a potion of true invisibility but which would require lots of different ingredients and probably higher quality ones too, which would mean questing for a really long time to harvest them.
I wonder if there will be a sheet for your Stronghold. Like a character sheet, but used to track building levels and what buffs are active and such. All this artisan stuff sounds awesome, but also quite a lot to track for a player that might not fully understand it.
I have an idea for the potions that you say. Of course, that was made 4 years ago but anyway. Depending on how good the alchemist is, the potion's result could vary. For example, if you bring him the eye of a black dragon, depending on his roll he could make it be of a higher tier potion that affects more creatures. So, if the alchemist rolled: 5 or less - The potion fails. 6 to 15 - The potion affects only black dragons (the exact creature it came from). 16 to 25 - The potion affects all evil dragons and black dragons in case you stumble upon one that is not evil (a larger group that includes the creature it came from). 26 to 35 - The potion affects all dragons (an even larger group). 36+ - The potion affects not only dragons but any subspecies of dragons like wyverns and whatnot.
One thing to remember is that players will find loop holes. If a DM chooses to make a potion of invisibility work for monster A,B and C, players might only kill and harvest monster A since it is small and weak, giving them a P.o.i for monster C. That might not be intended, or it might be necessary, depending on the game you run
Still wish the book were called Colville’s Codex of Castles
Or just colville's castle codex.
Colville's combat compendium.
@@dylanknight1237 Colvilles Cool Codex of Castle Commanders and Combat
"Do I get the bonus from the Sword of Ogre decapitation?"
"Actually, that only works on ogres"
(Later)
"What did you turn him into!?"
"An ogre"
"Why!? Those things are dangerous!"
"Sword... of... ogre... decapitation"
marder111 if you do that in my campaign you get instantly a truck full of inspiration.
Ah the Gamers. Wonderful movie. Very much D&D :)
Will there be animal master or hound masters? To raise fighting hounds and mounts. Also sometimes my party finds the eggs of a creature like a Hooked Horror or a Basilisk, an animal master could train breed or take care of them for them.
Seconded
Some sort of Beast-Master would be really cool, so you could raise rare monsters you come across as allies to your Stronghold.
I honestly just want a herd of puppies.
These could also be part of units or mount for units, like Worgs in Lotr. And if the players find a breeding pair, they could even raise Giant Eagles to make flying units. If that area of the keep was very varied, with steep cliffs, it could be known as the Rookery or something.
Not to mention having flying units is a big advantage.
I am with this! Do we???
If we can get a tailor and a spy, can we get a tinker and a soldier?
Or better yet, a time traveler and an octagon fetishist?
Well that goes without saying :)
Jackson Bockus it wouldn't be hard to reskin alchemist as tinker. Consumable items created based on materials gathered in the field? That manticore blood has special iron in it. It gets turned into a special flywheel that is going to work once. I don't know. We can swing anything, this is d&d!
I absolutely love the reference here. Thank you.
tinker would be cool for siege weapons for defending the stronghold
My only criticism is that there needs to be more cheesy npc dialogue!
blackmechawsome yes please
I concur
The cheesy dialogue was the best. More please.
I second!
Do you follow Seth Skorkowsky? King of cheesy NPC dialog.
Matt, after digesting all you’ve revealed so far I have to ask: Are you basically giving us 5th edition Birthright rules?
Because that’s awesome.
Careful... we don't want any legal trouble.
Nope, it's TOTALLY different- it's Rightbirth. And somewhere in my head I can hear this! th-cam.com/video/K5V0Fx50ViI/w-d-xo.html Of course I kid!
i would like but i dont want to tarnish ur 69 likes
Matt you are huge inspiration for me as a wanna-be creator and as a crap DM. Please keep up your amazing work and stay true to your original intentions. I'm so excited to see you grow and evolve.
You mean there's DIALOGUE? Dude. This book is PACKED. I get that there is a thought that a part of the success of this kickstarter is the support the community has been wanting to give to Matt Colville, but I think it's also because of the basic idea: "If the product is good, people will buy it" and this is a product that people really want.
The npc dialogue is so good this book gets me more excited each video.
Richard Weaver same here!
The npc dialogue is not only useful for world building and a good starting point for fleshing out characters, it also provides inspiration for encounters:
1. The players are informed that the Miners have dug too deep and too greedily, and have unearthed an old tomb -> surprise dungeon time!
2. The players use their spy to recruit a different follower -> how does this work? Do the players enact the spy's plan, playing as a handful of low-levelled followers, diverting a blacksmith from joining a neighbouring keep? Or rescuing a talented prisoner from a couple of towns over?
Great stuff, Mr Colville! Carry on the good work.
Hehe, yeah, that word. Si-jil is the correct pronunciation for the inscribed symbols. Siggle is the correct pronunciation for the Planescape city in the center of the multiverse. That's one of those words that I got wrong originally, too, because it was a word I read many, many times but never heard spoken aloud.
Matt, I love the concepts and dialogue. Keep up the great work.
Oh no, Matt caught the siggle illness from Matt.
Edit: I like how it sounds like Intelligence is going to be a bit more useful in this system.
Correct pronunciation: "Sidgel"
I read siggil. And them immediately read intelliggence (hard g) lol
Hey Matt, just wanna say that the more info I've gotten about this book, the more and more it intrigues me. What my players do with the monster parts they collect, how the world around them reacts to their deeds, how they go about leaving a lasting impact on my world not just by what they kill but by what they build, these are all aspects of running the game I've struggled with. Thanks for pouring so much passion into this project, I can't wait to get the book in my hands!
If you are curious, it's si-jil
Worldtraceur it's ok matt, my best friend constantly pronounces grimoire are "grimmory" and tome as tomb and tomb as tome
It just makes him more interesting lol
My friends says Schmittar (scimitar) and Zoo-ord (sword). We have all stopped cringing a long time ago.
Sea-jill?
Worldtraceur you know what I've been saying right and spelling sigil wrong till now.
Skimitar
Might it be reasonable for a Tailor to get involved in crafting enchanted robes, cloaks, shoes etc. and other clothing? I don't imagine that this would gel terribly well with the "harvesting monster bits" method of enchantment that you've described for other Artisan Followers*, but I think having a high-level tailor who, with the guidance of a spellcaster, can make you a sweet Cloak of the Bat or a pair of Boots of Elvenkind or a Robe of Useful Items would be pretty awesome.
* I suppose blood, venom, or other monstrous bodily fluids could be used for dyeing the thread they're working with, or bits of bone, horn, scale, hide, feathers etc. could all be used in ornamentation, so maybe it's not as much of a stretch as I initially thought to make magical garments using harvested monster bits.
Consider that a tailor would have some skill involving quilting work, and that padded armor was often a quilted design, it's not a terrible stretch to even team a tailor and smith together for some weirdness in hybridizing armory with monster-bits... Dragon-scale could be tooled by an armorer quicker and easier and (likely) cheaper than by a tailor's shop, but the tailor could then use the tooled (and shaped?) scales for a far higher quality (looking) garment of protection versus the given breath weapon of the beast... (ie Red Dragon scales = fire proof)
Just for a start... So it's not so much that a "full AC bonus" is necessary, but that the resulting cloak or robe would present a partial bonus AND the fire-proofing (or other proofing) while remaining fashionable or even inconspicuous... depending on Role Play needs/wants. ;o)
Dude some of this stuff is SO EXACTLY what i've really really wanted and felt like NEEDED to be fleshed out for D&D 5e but haven't had the time to really sit down and crack into and write for myself while simultaneously working multiple jobs and running and playing in a campaign and I really appreciate you taking the time to create it in such a comprehensive way. I will definitely buy your book.
With the harvesting of the monster brain, I would take it in a different direction for my game. The alchemist distill the memories of the monster into a potion which the player character can imbibe to gain the memories of that creature. This potion might give important plot details, or grant the combat focused characters a feat, or could give the caster of the group a new spell.
Not to mention spell-like abilities from magical beings and outsiders like mind-flayers, serpentfolk or devils
Oh good addition there. DM's could adjust the length of duration for their games as is needed.
Your voices sound like the Tiffany Aching audiobooks! Delightful!
Totally lifted the +1/+3 weapon idea off of you for one of my players. Gave a Tiefling Monk the "Abyss Watcher Spear" that has a personal mission against Abyssal creatures. He loves it, even passed over a few +2 weapons because he gets to feel like such a badass against Demons.
Thanks Matt :)
This... Might be the video that finally convinces me to back the kickstarter. That captain of the guard intro was just too good.
Love these ideas! Ever since my friends and I started playing in the early 2000's we were harvesting stuff from monsters and making weapons and whatnot - so I'm ready to see what Matt's ideas are and love that there's gonna be a system involved and that it involves multiple characters!
The quotes are wonderful
Strong positive reaction here. Loving the artisan followers so far, and I really like that you're gonna let the dials for granularity be easily adjustable.
I was skeptical on pitching in on this Kickstarter at first. After watching your updates, I am more comfortable with this and after this update i'm looking forward with excitement waiting for my hand to get my hardcopy.... keep up this good work.
One way to use these artisan followers I would really like for a regular campaign is to have services in a given town that are byond general store, blacksmith, magic shop, etc. I havent seen the final product yet, but some of these mechanics look like they could be turned around to make a living town.
This is cool. Even if I don't DM anymore, I just watch these videos for the great ideas that you present, and it's very satisfying :)
I definitely love the dial mechanic you've included for the magic items: having different options for different campaigns certainly works well. I'm certainly looking forward to this!
Before the video I thought it was going to be a good book. Now I think it's going to be incredible. Wow
6:58 * checks Discord *
I like the artisan followers so far. Have you considered adding traders/merchants to take on the tasks of selling/tracking down and buying magic items for party. Always something my groups find tidius.
Tedious*. We don't know wether there already are merchants in the system yet.
Willian Gabriel, whether*.
;)
Grayson Ohnstad Thanks, now I know
Speaking of tedious...
Just pledged. Thanks for the great YT content, and can't wait to get my hands on the book and work it into my campaigns!
That Young Ones reference blind sided me while I was only half paying attention
Monster Harvesting Rules and Gear Ingredients/Crafting Rules should've been in the books from the start. Well done on filling that design space, Matt!
"Broke through a tomb once, that was something to remember." bless this little dwarf's soul.
Ogres? Aww man, I've got an Ogre slaying knife it's got a +9 against ogres."
"You're not there, you're getting drunk!!"
Reining down power by specifying types of targets is brilliant! I also enjoy skill checks because it gives value to success rather than just an arbitrary time sink (do this = you get this)
i like that you're experimenting with your own rulings! my friend and i are sharing DMing a game we play @ lunch, we both worked together to create a spell research system that wizards can use during downtime to research spells, we scaled it so that 9th lvl takes AGES to do, and lower levels aren't as much, and we each adapted it to our own game-worlds. very fun stuff!
so i think what you're doing with Alchemy is AWESOME! keep it up. sorry i didn't get on the kickstarter though. moving down to texas and getting used to new life down here
exciting stuff!
One suggestion to consider adding to the Artisan Followers list: an Armorer.
Dan Chaparro perhaps put that under blacksmith but i thought you could have the tailor make magic items like the scarf of the raven, or the boots of dashing speed stuff a tailor could make
Armourers and Weapon smiths tend to actually be Blacksmiths that have chosen a more specialised field to work within.
Fletchers and bowyers too?
Those would be woodworkers. Different kind of craftsman, I should think.
At 6:09 I was hoping for a half second you'd launch into Graverobber's "Surgery... surgery." bit from the end of Repo Man.
Dude, this is perfect. Okay maybe not perfect per sé but it fits super well in my current campaign. Every video you release increases my hype level
I love these videos, they increase my excitement for this book!
On Alchemy checks, I can see it being done as an Intelligence (Medicine) check, if the group doesn't use skill challenges.
Love it! It’s like in depth strategy in D&D! MARVELOUS!
I would love to try and make monster weapons that were not strong against the monster that it was made from, but strong against creatures those monsters were effective against example: a giant blood sword would be +1 against everything but +3 against all all creatures who are either smaller than you or smaller than the giant you slew
Winster Languish Blade of the Bully
I’m been running a game for 27 months now. Have one of my players hooked on a keep. This content is gold to me. I was floundering as to what to do now he has a keep. I’m going to push some politics and some followers. Great stuff Mr Colville. Thank you.
The Captain Hor Black bit made me upgrade my kickstarter from the normal book to the collectors edition can not wait. More NPC dialogue please.
Holy cow a roger waters shirt! I thought I was the only one who liked is this the life we really want!
As a DM, this book really makes me excited. But as a guy who loves to watch stories unravel and specially to see you, Matt, develop stories and plots, I'm really excited about the stream. You mentioned many times that you could make a video about it. When you have the time, please do it. Tell us everything you can. I can't wait to watch.
Is it funny that hearing the splash for the man-at-arms is what's sold me on this project?
I like it :D
Love the prepackaged replies for that Man-at-Arms, I made some for a Cleric I played once and it really gets you in the right mindset as DM/player about what your characters should be saying and how they ought to behave.
5:00 >.>
But seriously, love the writing and dialogue, the tables, and granularity of the system! Cannot wait to crack open this book.
I need these rules! Matt inspired me to give my players a Keep and a town, and followers. Now I can't wait for the rules to go along with that stuff to make it that much cooler for everyone. Everything is sounding great so far
Dang...definitely wish I had seen this during the Kickstarter! Guess I'll have to wait until production puts product out to public.
All of this sounds awesome and sparks my imagination. Glad l backed at the Discord level, can't wait to see/help these rules come to life!
As a DM and person who is better at revision than creation, I have to say, the example blurbs make thinking about the _person_ the follower is _much, much_ easier.
I’d like as much of that included in my copy as possible. :P
Thank you!
Will there be a special character sheet page to keep track of your followers? I don't know how many other people feal the same, but I love heaving all my character sheets look good and match each other.
Nathan Hayes Ooh, and maybe it can track the arsenal of specialized weaponry too... And the stronghold in general I guess
Colville does love his HANDOUTs/props, so I guess it would be awfully disappointing for such a professional product to neglect that D&D/tabletop staple.
Great shirt man. Also you have no clue how much your videos have helped...in only 3 weeks of DM'ing...
Love the shirt! I saw waters in concert this past September!
That man at arms dialogue is so good. Love it.
I love this, no regrets on backing this kickstarter! Can't Wait!!!! \'0'/
I loved that Captain dialogue bit. That was a lot of fun to read, and kinda inspiring.
These all seem great! I love the character dialogue, those little nuggets are what I am going to enjoy between the meat of information. Also, the spy is what I hope my player's get, the option to alter between a few choices instead of having to only have what they roll is so appealing I may just give them a spy to be able to have that opportunity anyways
A "sigil" (a magical symbol) is pronounced sijel. But Sigil, the D&D city of doors, is pronounced with the hard "G"
Just want to clarify how "sigil" (a magical symbol) is pronounced.
"Sidjel"
The middle bit sounds like sounds like "ridge"
Your spelling "sijel" made it seem a bit like the "i" should sound like "eye", this is not the case
Yes, thank you from a fellow linguist.
Reminds me quite a bit of the kingdom making rules from Pathfinders Kingmaker. The rules for creating magic items from pathfinder as well!
Yeah, if your group wants to play a civ-type meta-game, Kingmaker's a great model. What I found with an old group was that only a few were into that sort of game... and we kinda figured-out a way to build a highly efficient kingdom, so the die rolls usually went in our favor.
Having heard your explanation about the temporary abilities you get from certain followers, I'm afraid my players will find them too game-y. The problem isn't so much the bonus you might get, it's more the idea of it being like a form of ammunition that can be 'spent', especially for something that is essentially a social skill.
Personally, I'd prefer if it was a time based ability. That way you get that buff for 'x' amount of time 'in game', framing it like spending time in the wild dulls your brain and you need to have a proper rest in order to reacquire such an ability. And for very high level followers, perhaps that buff becomes permanent. They truly teach you such a skill or piece of knowledge and it's as if you learned it by yourself.
Maybe that's too powerful, but it sounds more believable when framed like that.
Then, do it that way. As he said, it's your game.
Think of it more like this.
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Maester/Sage Berillius scratched his wisened head for a moment. His liver-spotted hand dropped back to the table with a dull thump. "Y-your Grace, I believe I have some information for you," he began as Lady NIghthawk entered the library. He moved to lift his old creaky bones from the chair he'd been occupying, but she raised a forestalling hand. "Rest, old friend," she intoned as she strolled to the table, lacing her fingers together. Looking relieved he sank back down and seemed to give a small sigh. "You were saying?"
"Oh yes, of course," he sputtered, coming back to the topic of conversation at hand. "The information about the great fire drake Ignathrix is spotty at best. The record is limited, as by all accounts he is maybe a century old at best. However, the writings of the scholar Wilstis Cestus spoke of a number of encounters by his kind and apparent age. He recommended that if you can, you should soak yourself, head to toe, in water just before engaging. This is emphasized in particular for the padding under your armor. There is some research to suggest the Liedenfrost effect may have something to do with it. However, information is spotty at best." He paused for a moment then fished out another book from the pile, and opened it up , passing it to the Lady. "The writings of one Caedmus Cato have spoken on the hardness of dragonscale as you know. However, this fighting manual suggests a pattern to the scales, and recommended angles of attack for various parts. We do know that it is easier to free scales, harvest hide, and organs from dragons with certain approaches. When you engage your foe, shallow attacks against the grain of the scale should expose weaker points, and allow you to make follow up deeper strikes. You won't get many chances at it before the drake figures it out, and adjusts, so make them count." He took a deep breath then sipped from a cup of mulled wine gone cold.
"Thank you for your efforts.They are most appreciated, and certainly will prove useful in the next few days. Keep at it, see what else you can dig up on the matter," she praised and commanded. He nodded and gave a small smile. "It was my pleasure, Your Grace. And If I may, I shall retire for the night."
"Please, do so. The mind needs time to rest," She agreed, turning on her heel, heading for the library doors and to her own chambers.
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So not only might this grant advantage on saving throws against the breath weapon (should the advice be followed), I just included a mechanical explanation for how they would gain advantage, and then lose it again in a few strikes (dragon catches on... time for new tactics). So... I don't think it's gamey at all. Merely how you explain and work it out in the narrative.
Yeah, do it how you want. Tbh though, your idea doesn't sound any less gamey to me, and makes it less versitile, requires as much book keeping, but likely will push that more towards the DM rather then the player.
Well, don't like it? Don't use it. - Come up with something better and submit that.
I think y'all are being too harsh on darkjim; I mean what's the point of asking for feedback if it's just going to be dismissed? Of course he can do whatever he wants at his table; you night as well tell him not to buy the book at all.
Everything sounds great, this book is going to be great.
Additional artisan ideas: armorer for magical armor. And trader or merchants so the players can get someone to sell their items for them while they adventure or get items they can’t make.
A Vyvyan Reference! It actually took my brain a few minutes to reach back for that one. Good work!
I love the dialogue. I try to come up with stuff but often it's time consuming and not very good.
I friggin loved that line of dialogue with the man at arms.
I don’t know if it would add an unwanted extra layer of complexity, but could you have specialisations within some of the artisan roles? Blacksmith specialises into armorer, farrier, swordsmith and so on, and gate some boons behind the specialisation. It’s kinda like what you were saying with potions; giving people more power in specific situations is fun, and incentivises players to have personal goals. Could it also be fun to know that your guy can make fantastic armor but for the best swords you’ll need to travel?
Hi Matt, have you considered adding a gamekeeper/warden/hunt-master follower, or a falconer? As those would have been a part of any medieval lord's retinue. Maybe you could make it so that as the party gets to higher level, the game-warden could provide parts from lower level monsters that are native to the stronghold's surroundings as potions ingredients, in addition to the meat for the table that would be their primary job. That way the party could focus on collecting monster parts from higher level monsters, of large quantities of lower level monster parts.
This is the kind of thing that gets me REALLY excited for this supplement.
I think a good artisan follower idea would be a gamekeeper/hunter type. Somebody who can hunt on your land and have access to supplies to do with that. They could also catch and/or tame animals or any other beast that invades the property. This is open to modification of course, just an idea that slipped into my head.
This is still one of my favorite videos.
Great video as always, oh also love your Pink Floyd shirt.
I'm still hoping for a section or chapter on personalizing this for "your" campaign!
This sounds awesome! I don't run 5e, but I'd totally use this as a resource for NPCs and ideas for abilities.
Do you think it would benefit people to put into the book a step by step on how to create an Artisan follower in the model that you have done the others?
I know i would find that useful, as i doubt most campaigns would need an npc specifically to bind elementals to things like in eberron, and an artificer to build the contraption in the first place.
I am feeling like a kid on Christmas about those dialogue clips!
OMG This sounds f$%&ing amazing. Like, way beyond better than what I expected.
The NPC dialogue is fantastic. I'm so friggin' excited.
Love the vids my dude, has encouraged me to find a d&d group in my city x
I want to go into a thing on "My lord" vs "Sire" king/horse, blah blah, bullshit. The truth is, it's MY hangup and it's fun flavor text! Love this !Keep up the good work! I can't wait to get mine!
It was my birthday yesterday, so I finally (I was waiting for it) backed the KS. Minis, books, stickers, t-shirts, and a stream! I can't wait. To be clear, if it hadn't coincided with my birthday, I would have been in on day one...
13:08 that sweet colvilleverse reference
Loved the video Matt. I wouldn’t do the crafting of blood weaponry that way, but I think my way is specific to my setting. I’d sort of do the opposite where blood of one creature grants powerful advantages over an opposite type. Such as dwarf blood giving advantage against giants, and orc blood being powerful against elves. The only one I’d have matched would be human blood, for man’s greatest enemy is himself.
Something cool you could do might be to have break out boxes for alternatives, like extra artisan followers or different abilities.
Well, you got me. I need to get this! Shipping fee to South Africa or not( I know could have just got the pdf but books are great!). One of the biggest complaints I have had recently from my players is " Hey, what do we do with all this gold?" . I supposed I could have made a gold sink for them but I am lazy. Really excited to use this with a Hex crawler sandbox to transition in to world influence sandbox with level progress. Great Content Thanks!
I know I'm coming to this late and I am probably going to be buying the print version of the book when its ready but I LOVE the idea of an 'evil' pc with a blacksmith in his keep doing his best to churn out arrows of slaying vs elves and dwarves and GNOMES!
Great new info! Taverns and healers perhaps, when a strongholds becomes a village?
Tavern falls under "Establishment" which is a type of stronghold, specifically geared toward information gathering.
Healers are clerics, and are dominated by temples/chapels, and similar. - This is already built in.
LOVE THIS! Love the killing of monsters to make magic items, but i hope that there is also maybe an equally cool, Finding rare minerals or plants and being able to bring them back to your artisans to craft magic items with. Maybe arcana/nature/ maybe history to know the thing and its importance, and survival/medicine to harvest the thing, maybe even athletics to be able to harvest carry it home. just a thought! keep up the good work!
Any ideas for if a wizard makes the arcana check and someone else actually physically extracts the parts and does the medicine check
LOVE the NPC dialogue samples! Queue Oliver Twist: "Please, Sir. I want some more."
Wow. All of this sounds great. So glad I backed the project. I'm especially interested in the alchemist rules and the idea of codifying what all the parts of a creature do. I did have a couple ideas on that front that I think might be interesting to include.
One is power level of the creature. This would be especially important with dragons, but could also serve as another dial to tune for broader categories. So a potion of invisibility to giant kind were crafted from a stone giant's eyes, it would be more potent than a hill giant's eyes. That might mean that giants of a higher type get a saving throw to see through it while lesser types don't. "Power level" is a bit vague, but could be CR or Hit Dice. For effects that always get a save, it could impact the save DC (10+1/2 HD or CR for example)
Another might be to base its effectiveness on the number of shared descriptors. For example, a Fire Giant might be susceptible to other giant-based alchemy, but also alchemy based on other fire-based creatures, like a Salamander or a Red Dragon. But the highest level of effectiveness would be alchemy that is based on another Fire Giant. That or it could be a decision that the alchemist makes. They decide whether they are using the part to make potion vs giants or a potion vs fire creatures. And the nature of the creature determines the options available.
Some of these ideas could also carry over to weapon and armor smithing for that matter.
... and now I kind of want to fire up my copy of Dragonslayer ...
I love all of this! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER(ish)
I really love the idea of having specific magical items like the potion of invisibility to Manticores, but I think it should also be possible (at the DM's discretion) to make a potion of true invisibility but which would require lots of different ingredients and probably higher quality ones too, which would mean questing for a really long time to harvest them.
I wonder if there will be a sheet for your Stronghold. Like a character sheet, but used to track building levels and what buffs are active and such. All this artisan stuff sounds awesome, but also quite a lot to track for a player that might not fully understand it.
I have an idea for the potions that you say. Of course, that was made 4 years ago but anyway.
Depending on how good the alchemist is, the potion's result could vary.
For example, if you bring him the eye of a black dragon, depending on his roll he could make it be of a higher tier potion that affects more creatures.
So, if the alchemist rolled:
5 or less - The potion fails.
6 to 15 - The potion affects only black dragons (the exact creature it came from).
16 to 25 - The potion affects all evil dragons and black dragons in case you stumble upon one that is not evil (a larger group that includes the creature it came from).
26 to 35 - The potion affects all dragons (an even larger group).
36+ - The potion affects not only dragons but any subspecies of dragons like wyverns and whatnot.
One thing to remember is that players will find loop holes. If a DM chooses to make a potion of invisibility work for monster A,B and C, players might only kill and harvest monster A since it is small and weak, giving them a P.o.i for monster C. That might not be intended, or it might be necessary, depending on the game you run
I think Spy sounds like the best follower to me since it opens up way more future choices.
I am SO looking forward to this book!
I'm so ready to delve into this book... September, please arrive quickly.