Thursday 24 July 2014

A Great Fighter in Into the Odd

D&D Fighters grow in power as they level up. Their bonuses increase, they become mountains of HP, and in later editions they get incredible powers worthy of mythical heroes. They can go toe to toe with a dragon and battle hordes of orcs without breaking a sweat.

Into the Odd characters don't get that luxury. So what makes a great fighter?


Meet Polina Lawd, a renowned highwayman, duellist, and sometime mercenary. She's known to be one of the most formidable combatants in the world. And why?

Polina Lawd 
STR 18, DEX 9, WIL 13, 20hp.
Ivory Pistol (d8), General's Sword (d8), Modern Armour (Armour 1), Smokebomb, Poison, Steed.

The raw numbers are good, and she has nice equipment, but she isn't going to face down colossal monsters on her own. She doesn't even have an Arcanum.

She knows there's strength in numbers, and vulnerability when alone.
She knows the benefits of a horse when in open field, and cover when on foot.
She knows when to retreat or surrender to fight another day.
She isn't bound by honour and won't hesitate to fight dirty.
Most importantly, she knows who to fight and who to avoid.

You don't need feats, powers, and a character optimisation forum to be a good fighter. You just need to be more like Polina.

Monday 14 July 2014

D&D 5e to Into the Odd Conversion Guide

Ever an opportunist, here's how to convert D&D 5e Monsters to your Into the Odd game.

HP: 1hp per HD. Maximum of 30.
Armour: Noted Armour grants Armour 1, and any extra noted extreme resilience boosts this to 2. Being Large adds a further point of Armour, being Huge adds two, to a maximum of 3.
STR and DEX: These scores are directly transferable. Maximum of 20.
WIL: Use CHA. Maximum 20.
Attacks: Start at d6. Increase by 1 die for each size category above medium and a further step if they wield a heavy weapon. For example, a large creature with a heavy weapon gets 2 increases, from d6 to d8 to d10. No multi-attacks.

Replace Advantage/Disadvantage and Vulnerability/Resistance with Enhance/Impair respectively. Abilities that grant extra damage or protection also use these two qualities as appropriate.

Advantage/Disadvantages on certain saving throws (e.g. Dwarfs vs Poison) can grant more interesting, outright immunities, or generally just be handled in a better way (e.g. Dwarfs are immune to natural poison, or only feel minor versions of the effects on a failed Save).

Make their description scarier.

Example (trimmed down from the full MM entry to the stuff we need)

D&D 5e Adult White Dragon
Huge Dragon
Armor Class
18 (natural armour)
Hit Points 200 (16d12 + 96)
Speed 40ft
Str 22 Dex 10 Con 22
Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 12

Ice Walk: The dragon takes no penalty to speed while traversing ice or snow.
Immunities: Cold.
Bite: +11 to hit (reach 10 ft.; one creature). Hit: (2d10 + 6) piercing plus 1d8 cold damage.
Frightful Presence: All within 120 Feet. DC14 WIS Save or be Frightened for 1 Minute.
Cold Breath (recharge 5-6): 60ft Cone. 12d8 Damage. DC19 CON Save for half damage. 

Into the Odd Adult White Dragon

STR 20, DEX 10, WIL 12. 16hp, Armour 3, Bite (1d12).
Wants to hunt big prey, and keep its lair hidden from greedy explorers. Effortlessly crosses ice and snow. Breathes freezing cold for d10 Damage to all in the blast, freezing any liquids and creating an icy surface.

Want to convert Into the Odd monsters over to your D&D 5e game? Clearly there's been a mistake. Give it some more thought while you run another Into the Odd game.