Campaign Chronicles

F amiliars are spirits that assist in all forms of magery, from research to potion brewing to spellcasting and the creation of powerfully enchanted items.   A familiar most commonly takes the form of an animal although experienced wizards can acquire more powerful creatures as servitors.   But, if you look at the Player’s Handbook, this is not what familars actually do and it has bothered me for a long time.   As presented, the familiar is a poor combatant (in 3e and 3.5e with a staggering number of hip points) that provides bonuses to non-magical skills, saving throws, or maybe some bonus health for its master.   With that in mind, I sat down and began working on something that I felt was a little more in keeping with the lore associated with the mythological version of the familiar. ”Familiar” is an acquired template that can be added to any Small or smaller Animal or Vermin with 1 HD or less (hereafter referred to as the base creature).   A familiar us...

The Battlerager is a snarling foaming-at-the-mouth paragon of dwarven deadliness.   Battleragers typically wade into the most ferocious of fights with axe, pick or hammer to lay waste to orcs, goblins, ogres and giants and even foes as deadly as dragons without a second (and in some cases, first) thought.   These lethal, bearded killing machines are renowned, or perhaps reviled, for their notoriously bad attitudes.   They spit, pick their noses, belch, fart, interrupt, talk in the theater and are generally contemptuous of anyone who isn’t one of their own. And then there was Bulmoor…. Bulmoor was a battlerager played in a campaign that one of my buddies ran back on the ship.   His player, while more than capable of getting loud and rowdy once you got him off of the ship and a few drinks in him, was pretty quiet at the table.   He played Bulmoor against type, keeping him quiet and low-key.   I often said that Bulmoor was the most polite Battle...

Players can get attached to the magical items that their characters acquire.   But, as those characters increase in level, sometimes they “outgrow” their favorite sword, staff, or armor.   One of my players developed this spell in 2 nd edition so he could take the abilities from new items he discovered and transfer them to his older gear.   When we converted to 3 rd and then 3.5, he wanted to make sure that the spell carried over as well so we sat down and worked out a “ritual” version based on rules in Unearthed Arcana. Meld Magic Item Transmutation Effective Level: 8 th Skill Check: Knowledge (Arcana) DC25 (1 success per item to be melded), Spellcraft DC25 (2 successes per spell used or enhancement bonus transferred from one item to the other) Failure: Disenchantment of both items Components: V, S, M, Xp, Backlash Casting Time: 1 hour/transferred enchantment Range: Touch Duration: Permanent Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No Th...

Humor is not that unusual in gaming sessions.   When it happens on accident however, it can create long-lasting memories. Once upon a time, I ran a solo adventure for a dwarf named Happy Jack.   Happy was a psychic and an inventor of sorts.   From the pressurized wooden keg full of alchemist’s fire worn on his back with the spray nozzle and sparker to his own brand of beer, Happy Jack was an innovator.   His player always made sure to take good notes of his adventures so he could review what had happened and plan Happy’s next move. For the adventure, I adapted the AD&D 2 nd ed module “Wizard’s Challenge”.   I placed my telling of this tale in Eveningstar in northern Cormyr.   The village, a favorite retreat of King Azoun’s was ruled over by Tessaril Winter.   She was known for mentoring mages of all talents and was a magnet for hopeful apprentices. Several years prior to Happy Jack’s adventures in the village, mysterious circumstances caused...