Arcana Uncorked

Time magic is as awesome as it is potentially problematic. From the sheer strength of the possible effects to the amount of bookkeeping it requires to keep it all straight, there are plenty of reasons for players to avoid it. That said, we here at Arcana Uncorked think it is cool, Andrew even played a time mage in an old 3.5 game. And we think there are ways to do it that don't break either the meta or your DM's brain. Today we discuss three Wizard subclasses that bill themselves as Chronomancers, the mostly official one from Wildemount, and 2 homebrew takes. Which is best for your group? Only your future self can say!

The Chronurgy Wizard can be found in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, available at your local game store.

The chronomancy Wizard by the Middle Finger of Vecna can be found here:

https://mfov.magehandpress.com/2015/05/the-chronomancer.html

The Chronomancy Wizard by u/TehlaltheAllTelling (whose name we absolutely butchered this episode, sorry) can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/eywubu/arcane_tradition_chronomancer_finished_1_year/

Chronomancy Spells and the Circle of Time Druid by Old Gus (u/callmepartario) can be found in his Hero's of the Multiverse Compendium, here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Qv-U43kH066mbaeu9dLNeqmDpsdQW6CW

We talk a bit about the Valda's Spire of Secrets Kickstarter in the episode, a new expansion book by Mage Hand Press (the publishing arm of the middle finger of Vecna. I am sorry to say that the window to back the book has passed (Andrew was slow at editing). Hopefully in the future we will get episodes out in a more timely manner. That said, you can probably look forward to some content from that book being featured on the podcast soon, as we caved in and backed it ourselves.

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

At what point is a monster no longer a monster? If it is the size of a skyscraper what makes the heros think they can possibly kill it? It may have hit points, but if you can't hit a vital organ then HP doesn't make sense either. In this episode we look at two Titanic Homebrew monsters from the Haven Discord's All Beneath Yonder Sea and Streams (ABYSS) Compendium and talk about what you can do as a DM to make epic encounters with Gargantuan monsters make sense. While doing so, we also discuss how you can make aquatic combat more friendly for players, as these monsters come from deep under the sea.

All Beneath Yonder Sea and Streams by the Haven Discord server can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZ3WtWmN68tlpZpmgs8WBPaROyP4iUPL/view

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

Is there anything to be said about the Ranger that has not already been said many times? Probably not, but collating the thoughts of many into the opinions of the two must be worth something. So in this episode Pat and Andrew begin a series of talks about the Ranger with a very simple question "What is a Ranger?". We talk about the class features that make a Ranger feel like the fantasy character you want to play, while also noting where the published material falls short of that fantasy. In coming episodes we will drive into reworks of the Ranger, and see if any of them hit the themes we talk about today.

We mentioned a few homebrews in this episode that we will be diving deeper into later. But should you want them now here they are.

The Variant Ranger by u/VampireBagel_:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11wL00gNydG6yGmvgKxELCA9fpcZaLytW/view

Yet Another Ranger Variant by u/ImFromNASA:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9DFWcC7deE5Qkc2ZGFDVzlnaUk/view?resourcekey=0-s3qJCHVbwa59mImvXRjA8g

The Hunter by u/aeyana:

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LW8NwDOWv6U_41xQnsb

The Martial Ranger by u/agenderarcee:

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MTSf1NxHva3nZH6U45C

And should you want even more check out r/DND5CommunityRanger.

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

Monks are probably the most supernatural of the martial classes and it makes sense for them to have abilities that mimic spells. However, giving spellcasting to monks has resulted in the strangeness that is the Way of the Four Elements monk. Homebrew (and the popular media franchises that inspired it) has given us two possible fixes to make spellcasting monks better, that take essentially opposite stances on the issue. Between audio issues and a incredible lack of close reading skill, can Andrew and Pat get to the bottom of monk madness and come out with some good homebrew?

(Seriously, this episode was cursed, more that 20% of it got stripped in editing and it is kinda a miracle it made it out alive, have fun listening!).

The Way of the Elemental Bender by u/McKirby98 can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/n7ljl2/way_of_the_element_bender_final_version_a_mostly/

The Way of the Weave monk by u/TheWinkingWizard can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/j7d7pl/way_of_the_weave_jediinspired_thirdcaster/

Andrew's fix for Forseen Fighting (beta version):

"Your prescient abilities come to your aid to counter your foes in combat. Once per round when targeted by an attack you may choose to gain advantage on the next attack you make against the attacking creature before the end of your next turn."

Basically this encourages dueling with foes who want to get at you, which is both true to the Jedi way and is a bit different from the punch and run monks normally do. I would make it a reaction, but this subclass already gets two reactions (deflect missiles and flowing defense) and I don't want to have them miss out on those abilities.

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

What the heck does a Glass Golem do?

Golems are the ultimate friend to the squishy evil mage; large, obedient and great fodder for that troublesome adventuring party. However, without support golems don't have much else going for them. Today Pat and Andrew take a look at a take on making Golems encounters more dynamic with a revised quartet of golems from the Monster Manual and a bunch of new ones. They also dive into the real world folklore of golems and maybe get a bit too excited about ways to kill, rather, challenge your players.

So, Andrew was a bit daft and recorded his audio with the wrong mic. The quality isn't great for this and the next episode, but it should be fixed after that. Direct all angry memos to the email address below.

The Golems document by u/Kankerata can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sbdDCTKf2E0S1WMhHcm-fHdEBlHbi_ko/view

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

It's time folks, get your pitchforks ready. We are taking your purist fantasy setting and adding guns! Perhaps the most popular homebrew subclass out there, there is a ton to talk about regarding the gunslinger both about the subclass specifically and about how to incorporate firearms into your game without breaking balance. Additionally, we welcome Pat's partner Emma to the podcast. She brings with her Adorabella, her Southern Belle Owl person with a gun who has been a very fun litmus test for how the subclass performs.

The Gunslinger can be found on DMsguild for Pay What You Want here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/170778/Gunslinger-Martial-Archetype-for-Fighters?term=gunsl

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

Pet classes and subclasses have a, well, problematic history in official 5e content. How do you make a companion creature exciting to play while not having to nerf the PC into the ground for balance? The Soul Binder class tackles these issues head on with a class that is exclusively about having a best friend to adventure with. Dragons? Check! Symbionts? Check! A Beastmaster-style sublcass that might actually work? Wow, this class really does have everything!

The Soul Binder v.07 (Redux) by u/FragSauce can be found here:

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MYzYkeD3dtqq-kBBx9h

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

The 10th episode of Arcana Uncorked eschews well formatted, finely balanced homebrew. No, this time it is all about houserules. These are those on the fly rules changes that you and your DM made because it makes the game more fun for your table. We have a pile of them that we have used or considered for our home games and of course we are going to talk about them. 

Oh, and there is an actually word for the "realism" we keep talking about in the episode. "Verisimilitude" is when story elements are consistent with respect to the genre and tone of the world they are in. So, many of these rules are inconsistent with our lived reality, but still have verisimilitude because they are consistent with the expectations of how your game works.

Spell Driver and Bonus Action Potions can be found in the Critical Role: Tal'dorei Campaign Setting by James Haeck and Matthew Mercer, available at your friendly local game store.

The Resurrection Consequences Table by u/Jack_of_all_Tricks can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/b4bnc4/resurrection_consequences_tables/

The Critical injuries table by u/arnieisdabest can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/g2m8tj/oc_i_created_a_d100_critical_injuries_table_for/

And we know the DMG has a table like this, we like this one better.

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

In this episode Pat and Andrew get distracted for awhile talking about D&D races. Are races meant to more closely reflect racial cultures or actual genetics? Then we actually get to the meat of the matter and talk about fixes for two underwhelming Player's Handbook races. How do you make a human more than a boring set of stat boosts? Make their subrace speak to their culture! How do you make a Dragonborn feel more draconic? Make the mechanics more closely reflect draconic biology! 

The Alternate (Environmental) Human by u/AeronDrake can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4jAv0Wgv9taOEpaWnBwWjlSWms/view

The Greater Dragonborn by u/CaelReader can be found here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ttoyMfsaC7Y3lXS2hjWFdtQUk/view

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock

In this episode Pat and Andrew get distracted for awhile talking about D&D races. Are races meant to more closely reflect racial cultures or actual genetics? Then we actually get to the meat of the matter and talk about fixes for two underwhelming Player's Handbook races. How do you make a human more than a boring set of stat boosts? Make their subrace speak to their culture! How do you make a Dragonborn feel more draconic? Make the mechanics more closely reflect draconic biology! 

The Alternate (Environmental) Human by u/AeronDrake can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4jAv0Wgv9taOEpaWnBwWjlSWms/view

The Greater Dragonborn by u/CaelReader can be found here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ttoyMfsaC7Y3lXS2hjWFdtQUk/view

Intro and outro music is Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech.
The image in the title card is by Designdrunkard on Pexels.

Want to contact us, maybe with a comment or suggestion for a homebrew to look at? We can be found in the following places!
Email: [email protected]
Pat on reddit: u/ravenmaw
Andrew on reddit: u/aabrock