aquatic Archives - Tribality

Three New Diseases of the Deeps

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 15:13:35 +0000

More like diSEAses, amirite? This is a collection of new diseases for Under the Seas of Vodari’s GMing section. Diseases are tough to use well in D&D, unless you’re comfortable with a clause like “lesser restoration has no effect unless cast with a spell slot of level [something well above 2].” I don’t know where this is going yet because it’s still the first paragraph, but a communicable curse may also be on the table. Gillscour This disease affects creatures […]

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Aquatic Traps

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 12:00:58 +0000

You see “aquatic” in one of my article titles, you know I’m working on stuff for Under the Seas of Vodari. Today, I’m thinking about how water, buoyancy, cold, darkness, and pressure might influence the construction of traps in dungeons. This might be a more direct window into my imagination and thought process than usual. I’m aiming for at least two standard traps and at least one complex trap. Now, there are a lot of standard traps that still work […]

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The Devil of the Deep Blue Sea

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 12:00:19 +0000

One of the exciting things about writing an aquatic setting is that there are whole creature types that don’t have a single aquatic or swimming creature in the Monster Manual, VGTM, or MTOF. Fiends, for instance. There have been aquatic fiends in D&D – the 3.5e Fiend Folio has four – but they’re rare. To get the obvious thing out of the way, you can just bolt a swimming speed, the amphibious quality, and some gills and fins onto existing […]

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Aquatic Hazards

Brandes Stoddard — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 12:00:12 +0000

I was so happy to have Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything expand the collection of hazards in 5e that I jumped at the chance to write some for Under the Seas of Vodari. I’ve gone for a mix of real phenomena and fantastical things, though I think the overall weirdness level is still fairly tame. There are also a few important Vodari lore nods showing up here. Aquatic Hazards Tangle Kelp Kelp forests grow in shallow waters at medium temperatures, ranging […]

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The Magic Aquatic: Five Spells

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 12:00:33 +0000

Over in Harbinger of Doom, I wrote a collection of six spells developed by underwater peoples, intended for Under the Seas of Vodari. In this article, I’ve created five more, tilted more toward utility than combat. Many thanks to Shawn Ellsworth for initial concepts on all but the first of these spells. Kharaste’s Bitter Prison 4th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action Range: 60 feet Components: V, S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You attempt to encase a creature that […]

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Underwater Magic

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 12:00:38 +0000

As you may know, we’re working on “Under the Seas of Vodari,” a Kickstarter stretch goal supplement for Seas of Vodari. D&D has rules for magical interactions underwater, but if all or much of the campaign takes place there, maybe you want to cut out things that underwater spellcasters never would bothered to hand down from generation to generation. (Reposted from Harbinger of Doom.) Ground Rules I’m only covering the SRD here, because this is for an OGL-based product. I’m […]

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New Druid Subclass: Circle of the Deeps

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 12:00:10 +0000

We’re working steadily on Seas of Vodari, and today I’m showing the first draft of this work. Nothing shown here is at all guaranteed to be in the final version – I just thought that you, ever-faithful readers, would enjoy a sneak peek at work-in-progress. Or: I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. The stone is made out of content. Circle of the Deeps Most of the world is ocean, and the druids of the Circle of the […]

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Ghosts of Saltmarsh Review

Brandes Stoddard — Fri, 31 May 2019 02:34:34 +0000

At the request of readers, I’ve picked up a copy of Ghosts of Saltmarsh for today’s review. Okay, we can be real with each other and say that I was going to buy this anyway – I am an absolute sucker for their alternate covers – but whatever, don’t judge me. I’ll be covering setting and adventure content only lightly. In the main, I’m here to talk about Appendix A: Of Ships and the Sea. Chapter 1: Saltmarsh The book […]

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Get to Know the Merfolk

Colin McLaughlin — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 12:00:33 +0000

It might seem like just a few days ago, I was talking about spooky creatures and practices in honor of Halloween. Well, now Halloween is behind us, and our next holidays in the US are Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving. To that end, I will be covering the wide variety of militaristic and martial turkeys that dot the Dungeons & Dragons landscape. We’ll first cover the turku, a kenku variant, and then move into the gonzo stuff, like the turketaur and […]

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Aquatic Allies: Karkinoi (aka What Makes a Race?)

Rich Howard — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 13:00:05 +0000

There are a number of excellent blogs and podcasts about creating campaign worlds, from our own Shawn Ellsworth’s World Building series, to James Introcaso’s World Builder blog, and the Dungeon Master’s Block Creation and Inspiration episodes. Not long after joining Tribality I had a number of readers ask whether I’d be publishing my own aquatic campaign setting. My standard answer was to aim them at the brilliant Cerulean Seas from Alluria Publishing. Why reinvent the wheel, I thought? Then someone pointed out that there are scores, […]

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