Greetings, valiant adventurers! Prepare your spellbooks and ready your ki, as Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer Magazine Issue 37 has arrived, bringing a wealth of new content to enrich your campaigns. This issue delves into the advanced features of monks and warlocks at 4th level, expands your journey through the Underdark, and introduces a thrilling encounter with a gem-hungry xorn. So, gather your party, sharpen your wits, and let’s dive into this captivating edition!
Monk Features: 4th Level
Mastery of Martial Arts
At 4th level, monks continue their journey towards becoming living weapons. This level provides the crucial choice between improving their ability scores or taking a feat, both of which can significantly impact their combat prowess and survivability.
Key Monk Features:
Ability Score Improvement (ASI): Enhance Dexterity for better attacks and AC, or Wisdom for stronger ki abilities.
Feat: Mobile: Increase your speed by 10 feet, ignore difficult terrain when dashing, and avoid opportunity attacks after making a melee attack.
Unarmoured Movement: Boost your speed by 10 feet, making you a whirlwind on the battlefield.
Roleplaying the Way of the Open Hand:
Monks of the Way of the Open Hand excel in unarmed combat, using their ki to manipulate and control their enemies. As a monk, consider how your training in a secluded monastery shapes your worldview and interactions with others. Do you seek out tournaments to prove your prowess, or do you uphold a strict code of honour that guides your every action?
Warlock Features: 4th Level
Pacts and Power
Warlocks at 4th level delve deeper into the powers granted by their otherworldly patrons. With the choice of an ASI or a feat, warlocks can either enhance their spellcasting abilities or gain unique talents to complement their eldritch invocations.
Key Warlock Features:
ASI: Boost Charisma for more potent spells and invocations, or spread points across multiple abilities for versatility.
Feat: Shadow Touched: Gain the invisibility spell and a 1st-level spell from the Illusion or Necromancy schools, reflecting the dark gifts of your patron.
Pact Magic: Increase your spell slots and learn new, more powerful spells.
Roleplaying Your Pact:
Warlocks are bound by pacts with powerful beings, from fiendish lords to eldritch horrors. Explore how this relationship influences your character’s goals and behaviour. Are you a willing servant, or do you seek to undermine your patron’s influence?
Into the Underdark: Encounter Tables and Hazards
Navigating the Depths
The Underdark is a perilous realm, filled with strange fungi, treacherous terrain, and lurking dangers. Issue 37 provides detailed encounter tables to help DMs create dynamic and challenging experiences for their players.
Underdark Encounter Table:
Gap in the Path: A 15-foot-wide gap requiring a Strength check or creative problem-solving to cross.
Gaseous Fungi: Poisonous spores that cloud the air, requiring Constitution saves to avoid damage.
Webs: Sticky strands that restrain characters, creating opportunities for strategic movement and attacks.
Singing Crystals: Glowing crystals that react to sound, adding an eerie ambiance and potential hazards.
Black Moss: Sound-dampening moss that aids stealth but hinders perception.
Waterfall: A bioluminescent waterfall that heals those who drink or bathe in its waters.
The Fungi of Faerûn
Mushrooms and Moulds
The Forgotten Realms are home to a diverse array of fungi, from the edible to the deadly. This section provides a mycologist’s guide to the most notable specimens adventurers might encounter.
Notable Fungi:
Bluecap: Edible spores used to bake nutritious but bland bread.
Ripplebark: Delicious fungus resembling rotting flesh, best when roasted.
Shrieker: A mushroom that emits a loud scream when disturbed, often used as an alarm.
Timmask: A toadstool that releases poisonous spores causing confusion.
Violet Fungus: Aggressive fungi that attack with necrotic tendrils.
Meet the Xorn: Gem-Eating Elementals
Burrowing Behemoths
Xorn are strange creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth, known for their insatiable appetite for gems and precious metals. Peaceful by nature, they become aggressive only when threatened or starving.
Xorn Features:
Earth Glide: Move through earth and stone without disturbing it.
Stone Camouflage: Advantage on Stealth checks in rocky terrain.
Treasure Sense: Detect precious metals and stones within 60 feet.
Adventure: Xorn and the Portal Puzzlers
Puzzle Solving in the Underdark
The latest adventure module challenges your party to help a Xorn reopen a portal to its home plane. This encounter requires both combat prowess and puzzle-solving skills, making it a well-rounded test of your party’s abilities.
Adventure Highlights:
Encountering the Xorn: A lost xorn seeking help to return home.
Puzzle Room: Solve the puzzle by placing magical spheres on the correct plinths to reopen the portal.
Reward: Assist the xorn and receive a magical wand and other treasures.
In conclusion, Issue 37 of Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer Magazine is a must-have for any DM or player looking to enrich their game. With detailed class features, perilous Underdark encounters, and a thrilling xorn adventure, this issue is packed with content that will keep your campaigns exciting and your players engaged. So, gather your dice, muster your courage, and let the adventure continue. Happy gaming, and may your rolls be ever in your favour! - Malrus
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