Reskinning for Fun and Profit – Mount Edition (Hippocampus, Centicore and Chrysomallus)!

Disclaimer: These are not reskins in the strictest sense of the word.  There are some slight alterations made to the reskinned kits.  The changes are minimal and should be fairly easy to implement though.  Enjoy!

Hippocampus

Shipwreck!  The merchant vessel Prosperity has collided with a reef off the shores of a grand port city, caught in a freak summer storm.  The port authority should be panicked – there is no way any of their vessels can be readied in time to mount a rescue operation.  And even if they could, what would prevent their ships from meeting a similar fate?

There is no hysteria here though.

Immediately, twenty of the city’s elite hippocampus riders spring into action.  Riding a giant fish should be tricky business, but what if that fish had the upper body of a horse?  Throw a saddle on it, and away you go!

And go they do.  In short order, twenty hippocampi and their riders are weaving among the wreckage.  Each one is nimble enough to maneuver amidst the waves and debris, and strong enough to carry multiple survivors to safety on shore.

In no time, the rescue is complete.  Casualties are light and spirits are high.  The hippocampi seem restless, however.  They whinny excitedly and their hooves agitate the water in their pens into a foamy froth.

The object of their excitement becomes clear.  The keeper of the stables is walking the length of the enclosure with a bucket, dispensing fishy treats – a reward for a job well done!

Reskin: Giant Sea Horse (Monster Manual, 328)

Alterations:

• Remove water breathing and replace with hold breath (15 minutes).
• If desired, add a hoof attack as from a pony (MM 335).

Centicore

A lone elf ranger gallops through the forest, mounted on what can only be described as a marvel of nature.  The creature appears to be an antelope or perhaps a gazelle, but with much longer, more ornate antlers on its head than would be normal for either of those species.  And protruding from its mouth are large, curved, menacing tusks.  It is a centicore.

The reason for the elf’s high speed becomes apparent.  In the distance are two men mounted on horseback: brigands carrying the spoils of a night raid on his camp.The horses are fast, but his centicore is too.  When the distance has been closed between him and the first of the cowardly thieves, the elf issues a command and the centicore sweeps its head to the side, goring the hapless man with a tusk.

The second outlaw proves to be more difficult prey.  He parries both the attacks of the elf and the tusks of the centicore with a pair of short swords.  He is unprepared though, for what the centicore has in store next.

One of its magnificent antlers swivels! It executes a full 360-degree spin on the head of the creature, taking the man by surprise and dismounting him.  He hits the ground hard and is knocked unconscious.

Beast and rider slow to a stop and collect themselves.  The elf offers the centicore a pat on the neck and a few words of praise – “Good job, Alvar.”

Reskin: Riding Horse (MM 336)

Alterations:

• Change hoof attack to tusks.  Change damage type to piercing.
• Add antler swivel attack: Melee weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 6 (1d6 +3) bludgeoning damage.  If target is mounted, must succeed on a DC 12 Strength or Dexterity saving throw or be unmounted and knocked prone.

Chrysomallus

A small group of dwarf adventurers find themselves in deep trouble.  Ambushed on a mountain pass by a party of orcs, they are outnumbered and outmatched.

Only one hope remains.

The party’s leader removes an ornately carved horn from his belt and blows, sending a deep bellow echoing throughout the peaks above and chasms below.

“I only hope she’s close enough to return in time,” he says to his comrades.

The dwarves fight valiantly but are clearly no match for their attackers.  But just as their formation begins to break, salvation arrives overhead!

With a warcry from her throat and a bleat from her mount, the party’s advance scout, Dasras, and Inko, a chrysomallus, descend into the fray.

As a chrysomallus, Inko is well equipped to deal with the situation at hand.  He is the size of a horse, but with the body and features of a ram (plus a pair of resplendent pegasus-like wings).  He goes to work.

He dives at a group of archers clumped on a slope above the pass and butts them down the hill, sending them careening into the void below.

He wheels around and swiftly brings Dasras into range of an orc beserker who has cornered a lone dwarf.  She dispatches him with one swing of her warhammer.

And with that, the tide of battle has turned.  The orcs, routed, turn and flee into the mountains.

Reskin: Giant Goat (MM 326)

Alterations:

• Add flight speed of 60 ft.
• If desired, add hoof attack as from a riding horse (MM 336).

D&D ‘n OCD: What makes Dungeons and Dragons therapeutic for a person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (like me!)

So I thought we might do something a bit different today and get a little personal. I, like lots of others out there, suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (or OCD). It has been and continues to be a long and difficult road to travel on, but it has certainly not been a journey devoid of joy, hope and fun. And one of the most significant sources of fun for me has been playing and DMing Dungeons and Dragons. And, looking back on it, it makes perfect sense to me – D&D has so many facets to it that offer relief and catharsis to someone like me. I should say before I start though, I am not a health care professional of any kind – these are just my own thoughts and observations as someone who loves D&D and who also happen to suffer from OCD.

For example, one thing that OCD robs you of is agency and control. In trying to control everything, or one thing too much (e.g. your own thoughts, germs or obsessively checking that the door is locked), you effectively lose it. The obsessions are the driving force behind what you do or don’t do. D&D allows you to take some control back, albeit in a fictional world. That fictional world is where a lot of the power of D&D lies in this scenario though, as that’s what allows you to make decisions for yourself and reclaim some of your lost agency.

And this is because of another fundamental issue with OCD: the issue of stakes. Everything in the mind of someone suffering with OCD has life-or-death stakes attached to it. Didn’t wash that dish well enough? My daughter will get sick and die. Didn’t check the lock on the door 100 times before leaving? Someone will break into the house and murder my family. D&D allows you to engage in a fictional world and make decisions that feel meaningful, but that have objectively low stakes attached to them. You can go on a daring adventure to rescue captured villagers or hunt for lost treasure, but if you fail nobody gets hurt. This is great because it allows you feel like you’re actually doing something without triggering your OCD. The decisions you make have weight within the campaign you are playing (so you feel like what you are doing matters), but the stakes attached to them in the real world are low. This is very nice for someone accustomed to every choice they make having the possibility of ending the world attached to it.

Another issue for OCD sufferers is that of mental over-activity. It’s very easy for someone with an OCD type mind to lose themselves in the spinning out of mental scenarios that either wind up with them being a terrible person or with them doing something terrible (even if it is something they would never do). D&D can offer some relief in this regard as well, in that it has high potential for distraction. The numerous creative rabbit holes one can dive down (reading, world-building, art, cartography, session prep, character creation, etc.) offer multitudinous options for engaging an overactive mind. With that said, I do acknowledge that distraction is not necessarily an effective treatment path.  It can certainly offer some relief though, which is not always easy to come by.

D&D is also inherently social. It’s very easy to become socially isolated when you suffer from OCD. This is largely because of the depression that is frequently associated with it and also because you try to remove yourself from situations where you might accidentally do someone harm (through passing on germs you believe yourself to be carrying, for example). If you want to play D&D though, you have to do it with at least one other person, and the importance of remaining social while suffering with OCD cannot be overstated. Even if you aren’t able to play that often, the community surrounding D&D and table-top RPG gaming in general is robust and, for the most part, very welcoming.

All of these things, hopefully, will also be able to contribute to your self-esteem, another key issue when dealing with OCD. One thing that can contribute to OCD, as far as my understanding of it goes, is a lack of self-esteem and consequently a lack of self trust. You don’t believe that you’re capable of washing that dish properly, so you have to wash it for three hours to make sure your screw-up doesn’t hurt anybody else. This is by no means the only contributing factor with OCD, or even the primary one. It certainly has been a big one for me and for other sufferers I have talked to, however. Successfully making decisions and engaging with other people can make you feel at least a bit better about yourself, and show you that you are capable of doing some of those things you never thought you could.

That’s about all I can think of for now in terms of specific benefits of D&D for OCD sufferers. Again, I should stress that I am not trying to say that D&D is some kind of cure, or that I would even be qualified to say such a thing if I believed it, but I have found a lot of relief and a lot of help in the successes that D&D has allowed me to have. Thanks for reading.

Better Living through Lycanthropy

What if I told you that you could have it all?

You’d call me crazy wouldn’t you?

Crazy like a fox! Or a wolf maybe…

You CAN have it all. The answer is simple. The answer is this – Lycanthropy.

The world of Lycanthropy is wide, my friend, and the benefits it can bring to you many.

Benefit number one! You get to be an animal-person hybrid. I mean, please. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn’t have a ball running around as a half-bear/half-human. You can roar really loud, claw stuff, bite stuff, you name it. And it just feels so good. It’s visceral. So much more up close and personal than fighting with “civilized” weaponry.

Benefit number two! Lycanthropy is the ultimate 2-for-1 deal. Tired of hacking away with that short sword, or missing the mark with that crossbow? Mix it up! Turn into a rat-person and gnaw your opponent’s face off!

And the 2-for-1 bonanza doesn’t stop there! You can live a double life! You could be a super hero. A mild-mannered innkeeper by day, dispensing drinks to thirsty adventurers and a rip-roaring werebear by night, dispensing righteous justice to bloodthirsty villains.

“But what if I don’t want to be a lycanthrope, or get bitten by the wrong type? What if my lawful good paladin gets bitten by a ravenous, marauding, chaotic evil werewolf?”

So much the better! The double life you lead will be that much more interesting. A veritable Jekyll and Hyde story. The conflict! The intrigue! There’s nothing people love more than a strong leading character with a terrible secret. And your lawful good friend there will seem all the more lawful good when he wallows in regret for his heinous deeds commited under the light of the full moon.

But wait! What if I’m not one of your goody-goody heroic types? Is lycanthropy still for me?

You bet it is my friend, you bet it is.

This brings us to benefit number three! Lycanthropy can add weight to villains of any caliber. Having trouble making that lower-level BBEG pop? The ability to transfer a debilitating and lasting (independent of a couple of pesky spells…) curse to the PCs can give much-needed heft to any encounter. Even in defeat a lycanthrope can have a lasting and meaningful effect on a party.

So there you have it friends. Lycanthropy is the stuff dreams are made of. Use it, live it, love it.

– In all seriousness, lycanthropy is great. It adds variety to combat and great opportunities for RP of all types: evil-aligned, good-aligned, NPCs, PCs or BBEGs. It’s just good stuff. –

Why D&D?

In thinking about the best way to kick off a new D&D blog, I feel almost spoiled for choice. The world of D&D and TRPGs is so vast that even my own individual experiences within it are fodder for any number of (hopefully) interesting word-journeys.  Bearing that in mind though, it seems the only place to start is to talk about why Dungeons and Dragons is a part of my life and the lives of countless others. What makes it so great?

Let’s make a list!

D&D is fun. This one is a bit reductive maybe, but it’s pretty darn important. We play D&D because it’s a well-designed, fun game.

D&D is social. Not only is it fun, but it’s fun with other people. Humans love having fun with other people!

D&D is fantastic. In it’s lands of fancy, D&D opens up countless possibilities for ways to engage our minds and imaginations. As both a player and a DM, you can dream up scenarios and do heroic (or not-so-heroic) deeds that would be completely outside the realm of possibility in the real world. Not only is this a great imaginative outlet and encouraging of outside-the-box type creativity, but it allows us to feel a type of agency that may be missing from our real lives.

D&D is intellectually stimulating. With a veritable library of books and adventures to consume, stat blocks to analyze and rules to pore over, D&D is the perfect pastime for one looking to engage their brain.

D&D lets you play pretend.  I’ve heard this one countless times and it couldn’t be more true.  D&D gives you license not only to do the thing that was the most fun you could possibly have when you were a kid, but it makes it fun to do as an adult too.  And it lets you do it while pretending to be a heightened version of yourself, or someone (or something) completely unlike you.

D&D is emotionally engaging. Few things have made me sadder than the death of my beloved halfling monk, Roscoe Greenthorn. And few things had my table in more of an uproar than the indignity of the treatment of the mongrelfolk at the hands of the Abbott in Curse of Strahd. With her dying breath, before the insane Deva ended her life, the often self-interested, always prickly Martha Baker (also a monk, but a stodgy, conservative, older, British one) said how happy she was to have died in the pursuit of helping the downtrodden and less fortunate. Great stuff.

And D&D is so much more. I know that I am leaving a lot out, but the introduction has to end sometime or the exploration will never begin. Let’s get started!