In which we create a trick-shot artist that takes advantage of the Battle Master archetype’s lack of melee-only restrictions.

From a look at the D&D NEXT playtest material, one of the features I most looked forward to were the combat maneuvers. They had tinkered around with various ways of using martial dice with various classes to various effect. In the finished rules the martial dice are gone, replaced by “superiority dice” that are the purview of one Fighter archetype, the Battle Master.

The Battle Master strikes me as a nod to how Fighters and Warlords played in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. They can do tricky stuff that makes their allies more effective and their enemies somewhat useless, they can take a beating, they can hit hard. An excellent addition to any team. In 4th edition the Fighter and Warlord classes were heavily invested in being right up in the thick of it, scrapping toe-to-toe with the bad guys. You could use a polearm or whip to keep a little distance, but most of their features required an up-close-and-personal approach.

Which of course makes me want to fiddle with the 5th Edition D&D Battle Master as a ranged specialist, hanging back with the squishy spellcasters and such. Let the Blade Pact Warlock get his hands dirty, the Archery Master likes to phone it in from afar.

To start things out, we select a race. Ideally we want something that is dexterous and charismatic. This is neatly filled by the Drow and the Lightfoot Halfling, but light sensitivity is a serious drag and small creatures are no good with heavy weapons like the Longbow. That leaves us with High Elf or Wood Elf to get the full +2 to Dexterity, or Half-elf or Human to get a simple +1. Let’s hold our noses and take Half-elf. From the standard heroic spread we put the 15 into Dexterity, 14 into Constitution, 10 into Strength, 12 into Wisdom, 13 into Charisma, 8 into Intelligence. We get a +2 racial bonus to Charisma and +1 to each of two others, so we end up with a statline of Str 10 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 14. We select Perception and Medicine as our racial skills.

Our Archery Master isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed academically, but is wise, charming, nimble, and hale. Let’s select the Outlander background. This gets us the Athletics and Survival skill proficiencies, which would already have been ours to take as a Fighter, but we also get the opportunity to dispense pithy proverbs and back-woods wisdom to our civilized allies. For our first level we select Fighter and take the Archer fighting style. We select Acrobatics and Insight for our class skill proficiencies. We have 12 hit points, have an AC of 15 with leather armor, and attack at a +7 for 1d8+3 damage with a Longbow or at +5 for 1d8+3 damage with a Rapier. As a bonus action we may get a second wind, recovering 1d10+1 hit points once per short rest.

We continue with the Fighter class at second level, gaining the Action Surge feature.

At 3rd level we select Battle Master as our Fighter Archetype. This confers a few benefits. We gain three maneuvers from a list, four 1d8 superiority dice, and proficiency with an artisan’s tool. As an archer, woodcarver’s tools seem appropriate. Some maneuvers provoke saving throws, the difficulty for which is 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Dexterity Bonus, or 13 for us at the moment. For the moment we’ll select the following maneuvers:

• Commander’s Strike – spend a superiority die to let an ally take an attack out of turn. This can be used without engaging the target in melee, and can be used to allow the party Rogue to gain additional Sneak Attack chances. Note that Sneak Attack is limited to once per turn, not once per round. It isn’t the Rogue’s turn any more when this is used.
• Rally – spend a superiority die to grant temporary hit points to an ally. The number of hit points granted benefits from Charisma, hence the prioritization of Charisma earlier.
• Trip Attack – spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Strength save or be knocked prone. Depending on the target, this is better than a normal shove-to-trip attempt in melee. You also do your normal attack’s damage plus a little extra.

At 4th level we face a tough choice. Attribute improvement or feat? We bite the bullet and bump Dexterity up to 18, gaining a +1 to initiative, attack, and damage rolls, and improving Dexterity saves and checks. We currently attack at +8 for 1d8+4 damage with the Longbow, +7 for 1d8+4 with the Rapier. Saves against our Trip Attack are at DC 14.

At 5th level we gain an extra attack and our proficiency bonus goes up to three. At 6th we finally take the Sharpshooter feat. This lets us choose to attack at +9 for 1d8+4 damage or at +4 for 1d8+14 damage. We also ignore cover, can fire into melee or at extreme range without disadvantage. This allows us to support our close-combat allies more effectively.

At 7th level we gain the Know your Enemy feature, which is handy outside of combat. What, a Fighter that can do something useful outside of a fight? I know, right? We gain a fifth superiority die. We also get two more maneuvers and can swap out an old one. We drop Rally, as everybody we roll with should have a few hit dice on them finally, and grab three new ones.

• Commander’s Strike – spend a superiority die to let an ally take an attack out of turn. This can be used without engaging the target in melee, and can be used to allow the party Rogue to gain additional Sneak Attack chances. Note that Sneak Attack is limited to once per turn, not once per round. It isn’t the Rogue’s turn any more when this is used.
• Disarming Attack – spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Strength save or drop an object he’s holding. Shield? Weapon? Spellcasting focus? A double-scoop ice cream cone? On the ground you go. Particularly useful if you already know that one of your allies will get a turn between the disarm attempt and the target. No need to let the evil wizard pick his staff back up, right?
• Menacing Attack – spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Wisdom save or get frightened. This serves to keep enemies away from us personally and forces disadvantage to attacks and ability checks, improving our allies’ survivability.
• Pushing Attack – spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Strength save or get pushed fifteen feet away. Good to brush an opponent off an ally or nudge somebody into a spell effect or other hazard.
• Trip Attack – spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Strength save or be knocked prone. Depending on the target, this is better than a normal shove-to-trip attempt in melee. You also do your normal attack’s damage plus a little extra.

At 8th level we get another feat or attribute bump. We top off Dexterity because that’s the kind of thing you do. We now attack twice at +9 for 1d8+5 damage or +5 for 1d8+15 damage with the Longbow or at +7 for 1d8+5 damage with the Rapier. Our maneuvers have a DC 16 to resist.

At 9th level we get Indomitable. We get to re-roll a failed saving throw once per day. Also our proficiency bonus bumps up again.

At 10th level our superiority dice goes from 1d8 each to 1d10. We also get two more maneuvers. This is where the Battle Master model of character progression comes apart a bit. We already the five maneuvers we think are the most useful for us. So we get to pick up two of the also-rans. We choose Maneuvering Attack and Precision Attack because those are useful from time to time.

At 11th level we get our cherished third attack per round.

Please feel free to use in your own adventures, with or without attribution or even remembering where you got the idea. Games are made to be played.

In which we brew up a Sword & Board trip specialist that leverages Barbarian and Rogue class features to improve performance.

Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts frequently think of the Barbarian as an unarmored hulking brute that lashes out mindlessly, heedless of his own safety. The Fighter is frequently thought of as a heavily-armored knight or mercenary with a sword and shield deftly and methodically beating down his foes. Putting the two together is generally not the most efficient way to take advantage of either’s strengths. Let’s see what we can do to harness the fury of the Barbarian for a classic Fighter approach to things, with a side trip to Rogue for a little something extra.

To select a starting point, we look at the facets of a class that differentiate by multiclassing benefits. Both have proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, so no difference there. You start with full hit points, so the Barbarian’s d12 edges out the Fighter’s d10. The Fighter has a somewhat more broad selection of skills to choose from. The Fighter has proficiency in heavy armor only as an initial class. If we want to go with a heavy-armor sword & board approach, this is important. We’re going to skip that, so it’s immaterial. A point to consider at low levels is survivability. We cannot get a Fighter/Barbarian character until 2nd level, and 1st level characters are rather fragile. The Barbarian Rage feature grants resistance to non-magical weapons a 1st level, which along with a higher Hit Point value gives our Savage Duelist a better chance at living to see level 3. We start with Barbarian.

Traditionally a Barbarian is strong and wields weapons that benefit from this. In order to multiclass to Fighter we’ll need a 13 Strength, so from our Heroic Spread we put a 15 into Strength and 14 into Constitution. Our 13 goes to Wisdom, our 12 into Dexterity, our 8 to Intelligence, and our 10 to Charisma. We will be bouncing around a bit between character classes, so trying to beef up to take full advantage of Unarmored Defense probably isn’t going to pay off for us. We select Human because we are already enough of a special snowflake as it is, and we want an extra feat early on. +1 goes to Strength and +1 to Wisdom bringing our statline to: Str 16 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 10.

We have 14 hit points and an Armor Class of 17 with a chain shirt and shield. Our feat is Shield Master, which will be important mostly for the generation of bonus actions. To take best advantage of Shield Master, we make sure to select Athletics as a skill proficiency. The second goes to Perception because you never know when you’re going to need that one. The Outlander or Soldier background is a bit on-the-nose, so let’s select the Acolyte background, gaining Insight and Religion and two additional languages. Proficiency in Athletics will give us a +5 total to our Strength (Athletics) checks to shove or knock down opponents and when raging we gain advantage on all of our Strength checks, so we should be quite competent at that. We use a Rapier as our primary melee weapon. We attack at +5 and deal 1d8+3 damage on a hit. While raging this improved to 1d8+5 damage. Whenever we select the Attack action we get a free attempt to shove a target within five feet courtesy of the Shield Master feat.

At second level we switch straight away over to Fighter, gaining a Fighting Style in the process. As a Sword & Board specialist, Dueling makes a lot of sense with +2 to damage done when attacking with a single-handed weapon. We now attack at +5 and deal 1d8+5 damage with that rapier normally, 1d8+7 damage while raging. We also gain the Second Wind feature, allowing us to recover 1d10+1 damage as a bonus action.

We stick with Fighter for the next four levels, gaining the formidable Action Surge feature at Brb1/Ftr2, selecting Champion as our archetype for the Improved Critical feature at Brb1/Ftr3, bumping up our Strength to 18 at Brb1/Ftr4, then finally gaining the coveted Extra Attack class feature all Martial characters covet at Brb1/Ftr5. We could have picked Battle Master for the tremendously-useful combat maneuvers and superiority dice, but we already have a good go-to trick for the heat of battle, so why not leverage frequent advantage on attack rolls for a little taste of critical hits?

At sixth level we switch to Rogue for a little while. Sneak Attack damage is nothing to sneeze at, even at 1d6, but more importantly we can select Athletics for Expertise. This doubles our proficiency bonus for shoving and tripping. At Brb1/Ftr5/Rog1 we attack with the rapier twice at +7 for 1d8+6 damage and can trip as a bonus action at +7 with advantage while raging. If trip is successful, we’re attacking with advantage, allowing +1d6 sneak attack damage, improving our odds of hitting significantly, and scoring a critical hit worth 2d8+2d6+8 19% of the time. A little under once every other round.

Starting at seventh level we return to Barbarian, getting back to our roots for three levels. By Brb4/Ftr5/Rog1 we’re approaching the end of most actual Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. We select the Bear Totem archetype, gaining resistance to everything but Psychic damage. We finally bump our Strength to 20, and at this point we attack twice at +9 with our rapier for 1d8+9 damage, trip at a +13 with advantage, have an 18 AC with a Breastplate and Shield. We can rage three times per day.

Once we reach our eleventh character level we can resume advancement as a Fighter. This gets us another feat or a stat boost, but unlike our pure Fighter brethren it will be a long time before we pick up a third attack per round, not hitting that milestone until Brb4/Ftr11/Rog1, but that’s the price you pay.

At 10th level, while raging, we stand a 91.88% chance of tripping or shoving a creature with Strength or Dexterity of 20. Such a creature proficient in Athletics or Acrobatics stands only an 18.70% chance of keeping its feet under it.

Please feel free to use in your own adventures, with or without attribution or even remembering where you got the idea. Games are made to be played.

Since 2nd Edition AD&D there have been a few reasonably good ways to create a character whose primary distinction was “does skills well.” Those were to create a Thief (Rogue), a Bard, or a Ranger. From 3rd edition onward you could pull a few tricks to gain access to more skills, but would generally have to sacrifice effectiveness in some core skill competence to do so. In 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons the skill system is significantly different, as are the multi-classing and class feature rules, allowing for a formidably-effective skill specialist. Once you have proficiency in a skill, your bonuses on rolls keep improving regardless of class. Adding skills does not decrease your effectiveness in any of the ones you already have.

Let’s take a look at one approach, from character creation on:

Attributes: You’ll need at least Dexterity 13, Wisdom 13, and Charisma 13. With the standard Heroic Spread Str 8, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 14 can do the trick.
Race: Half-elf. Two skills, your choice. Nice. Charisma bumps up by two to 16, nudge Dexterity to 16 and Wisdom to 14.
Background: Any. you get two skills.

1st Level: Rogue 1. Four skills from a pretty heft list. Expertise lets you pick two of your eight skills to get a double proficiency bonus.
2nd Level: Cleric 1. Select the Knowledge domain. Gain two languages and two academically-themed skills from a short list. Gain double proficiency bonus on those two skills. Make sure your Cantrip list includes Guidance, which grants a +1d4 bonus to a single ability check. Skill checks are a subset of ability checks.
3rd Level: Bard 1. Gain one skill of your choice.
4th Level: Bard 2. Jack of All Trades gets you a bonus on the few skills you don’t have yet, tools, initiative, and ability checks your DM rules aren’t covered by a skill.
5th Level: Ranger 1. Gain one skill from a reasonably big list.
6th Level: Bard 3. Select College of Lore and gain three skills of your choice. Select two more of your skills for Expertise.
7th Level: Bard 4. Now that you have four levels in a single class, you can finally take the Skilled feat and pick up the whatever three skills are left. You are now proficient in every skill in the PHB and get double your proficiency bonus in six of them.

This quadruple-class approach has the virtue of gaining proper always-applicable proficiency as opposed to relying on limited-use or conditional effects to achieve basic competence. Availing yourself of two classes worth of Expertise has some appeal as well.

From here it’s tempting to level up as a Rogue, taking the Thief archetype. This gets you Cunning Action on your 8th character level, Fast Hands on your 9th, an attribute bump (or feat) at 10th 14th 16th and 20th, another two Expertise skills at 11th, Supreme Sneak at 15th and Reliable Talent at 17th. With an ever-growing list of proficient skills and a smattering of Bard and Cleric spells at your disposal you stand to become and remain the go-to guy for anything that doesn’t directly involve stabbing or blasting something. With Dexterity-based weapons and either the Archer or Duelist fighting style (from your level of Ranger) you aren’t a total liability in a scrap, dishing out Sneak Attacks worth about 3d6 less damage than a single-classed Rogue. There’s a price for anything.

Alternately you can just carry right on with the Bard progression, if stabbing fools isn’t your style. Bardic spells frequently solve problems indirectly, which suits the skillmonkey theme to a tee. Peerless Skill, gained at Bard level 14, isn’t as impressive as the Reliable Talent feature from Rogue, particularly considering how late you pick it up, but again there’s a price for anything.

You’re welcome to continue pursuing Cleric or Ranger, as well. The Knowledge Domain’s 2nd level Channel Divinity feature (Knowledge of the Ages) lets you act like you’re proficient in a skill or tool, which is only half-useful to the fully-fledged Skillmonkey. For campaigns that spend a lot of time in the wilds, Ranger is a strong traditional relied-upon-out-of-combat character class.

Relating almost entirely to the situation and typical attitudes of the people of Cach and its satellite city-states.

The people of the city states think themselves civilized, the masters of their surroundings and bringers of order and prosperity to an unruly world. And with good reason. Their walls are tall and strong, their fields and fishing fleets are bountiful, their mines are rich and deep. The markets and caravans make all available in plenty to those with the means to buy. Meanwhile the barbarians nomads and hill-people scrabble by desperately in squalor and ignorance, binding themselves to fickle sprites and pixies and what-have-you. It is no wonder that they envy the comfort and wealth of the cities. That they have not abandoned their foolish, crass ways and accepted proper culture and laws is truly a tragedy.

Cachic society is diverse, with several distinct races living side by side under common principles of mutual tolerance and support. Healthy rivalries between craftsmen, families, mercenary companies, and cities result in a noisy but functional meritocracy of sorts. Social mobility between classes is somewhat rare due to the various native gifts of the laboring poor, the artisan, the lesser gentry and high nobles, but within these rough strata competition is nearly constant and excellence finds itself rewarded. The incompetent and unlucky must sometimes serve as motivational examples, ground up and spat out by the process as cautionary tales. In the past sixty years or so a shift towards the creations of guilds with legal monopolies over specific fields has taken root in Cach itself, providing some protection and structure not previously seen. This dismays some of the more conservative citizenry who prefer motivations of personal ambition, family, and state to remain dominant forces.

The exertion of military power is handled at three scales: the mercenary company, the house armsmen, and the state militia. Mercenary companies are entities created through legal contract, with charters filed in the public records of the city they operate out of. Individual soldiers, officers, and other agents enter into contracts with the company just as the company enters into contracts with patrons. Companies range in size from banner of less than ten to entire battalions of three hundred or more. A mercenary company will typically operate until the retirement or death of its captain, sometimes re-incorporating under new leadership under a new charter. House armsmen are gentry and nobles loyal to a particular noble house that can be called upon to fight for the interests of that house. Some will participate personally, some hire mercenaries to accompany them, and others send mercenaries in their stead. An ambitious gentleman will almost always personally serve in conflicts as a matter of reputation. The state militia is almost always a hodgepodge of house armsmen and a few mercenary companies under long-term garrison contracts. The cities of Cach, Hamza, and Sergeli maintain standing military fleets crewed by such mercenaries with local gentry serving as officers.

Dwarves – Few in number, the Dwarves are perhaps the most insular of the civilized folk. Over the generations they have gravitated toward each other, their nobles feuding almost exclusively with each other until only a single noble line, House Binici, remains. The common Dwarves tend to live and work in the same neighborhoods as each other, and primarily stick to the cities of Bektemir and Cach. Dwarves can be found elsewhere during their professional lives, but nearly all of them raise their children in the Dwarven enclaves. House Binici holds a disproportionate number of seats in the Cachic Council of Elders, in part due to simple Dwarven longevity and in part due to centuries of skillful political maneuvering and alliances that last entire generations for the shorter-lived people.

Halflings – The Cachic city-states are positively overrun with Halflings. They work the fields, staff the shops and bureaucracies, fill the slums, work the manufactories, and generally the salt of the earth citizenry that keep everything working. Halfling politicians have somewhat less influence than the sheer number of their people would suggest. This is largely due to an inclusive attitude among the Halflings regarding the other civilized races; they don’t much care if their leaders are from some other race. They have five major noble houses scattered across the civilized lands, with sixteen seats on the Cachic Council of Elders. They are not known to vote as a bloc.

Humans – Less numerous than the Halflings but nearly as ubiquitous, Humans play a similar role in Cachic society. Individual Humans are somewhat more likely to indulge in ambition and great endeavors than their smaller counterparts. They currently have seven major noble houses with a massive twenty-four seats on the Cachic Council of Elders. The interests of their houses are diverse and often in conflict internally and against each other. Even individual noble families, particularly Houses Yilmaz and Uzun, don’t vote as a bloc, with split votes being the norm. Perhaps for this very reason is is common to see a Human as Lord High Executioner; it is typically expected that a Human will put his ideals and personal interests before that of nepotism.

Tieflings – More numerous than the Dwarves, but only just, the Tieflings have a particular rapport with the infernal forces that make magic broadly available to the settled peoples. Tiefling children are raised with expectations of becoming merchants, cult functionaries, or politically active in some way. The great House Kasabian of Cach, with its nine seats in the Council of Elders, is a Tiefling family renowned for its cunning use of alliances and favors. Many prominent Warlocks and Paladins have been Tieflings, with several of today’s most influential and popular cults being run by both common-born and noble horned men and women.

For use in a Dungeons & Dragons setting largely devoid of “monstrous humanoid” races. Due to a surplus of civilized noble races in the Player’s Handbook, half have been designated as less-civilized exotic people to fill the role of the menacing Other.

Before the first foundation stone was laid on Burkant Hill, before the sedentary folk of Cach or Abadan set sail to clear the forests and terrace the hills and harness the rivers, the lands were already long peopled. Four great tribes have lived here since the gods first set the sun and moon alight. They are people slow to change but quick to move on, abiding by ancient traditions. The sedentary folk of the cities erect their walls and think themselves civilized, building their society around stone and industry and coercion. The Great Peoples, though they vary greatly in their appearance and history and particular customs, build theirs upon family, honor, and hospitality, pillars far more durable.

Each of the Peoples organize themselves very loosely, largely by extended family, with no formal governments at all. Trade is largely done with neither currency nor barter, with most goods trading hands in the form of gifts between households and an informal credit and debt system. Between different Peoples and the sedentary folk barter and coin are common. Raiding between Peoples and families for livestock, goods, and women is common enough to form a continuous tradition of warrior culture stretching back thousands of years. Rarely these raids escalate to full-blown wars over territory. Casualties are typically minor, as the Peoples have nomadic tendencies and will generally withdraw when faced with overwhelming odds. In this way their lands have been gradually ceded in the face of the city-builders.

The names for each of the Peoples here are those used for diplomatic and legal purposes in Cach. Each has its own language, in which the word for themselves is translated roughly to “the true people” or “the great people.”

Dragonborn
The Dragonborn range primarily to the South, migrating North in the late spring to bring their herds out of the parched savanna, then returning just after the monsoons pass. They are perhaps the most exotic of the Peoples, dwelling briefly and rarely encamping in one place for more than a week. They tend to flocks of domesticated drakes, and often have access to goods hailing from distant lands. Their prolonged absences from territory they consider theirs can lead to misunderstandings and friction with homesteaders and expansionist city-builders. Dragonborn men and women dress very conservatively, veiling themselves when visiting or entertaining outsiders. They segregate between genders almost continuously.

Elves
The Elves hold a large portion of the Northern lands, dwelling in the forests and hills. Not as nomadic as the Dragonborn, not as settled as the Gnomes, Elven families move their homes to follow the growing cycle of plants they cultivate, sowing crops one season then leaving for months at a time before returning. A typical Elven family will rotate between five or six locations over a cycle of three years. They sometimes keep horses, but are most famous for their tame elk, which their warriors ride on raids but are never used for plowing.

Gnomes
Gnomes are the most settled of the Peoples. It is thought they were once city-builders themselves, or were wholly subjugated to some long-lost city-building race. Their oral tradition tells of a great immortal tyrant that was slain, his temple ruined and his followers put to the axe. The location of such a temple is unknown, for the Gnomes have lived in small mountain villages for as long as any other People can remember. Gnomish families are reckoned matrilineally and raiding for brides is rare. Gnomish settlements are strongly averse to interacting with other Peoples or city-building folk. Whenever the location of one of their villages is known to non-Gnomes, the people will almost immediately take up the debate to either silence the interlopers or move. Approaching a Gnomish settlement is extremely hazardous. Gnomes subsist on hunting, gathering, and small-scale gardening.

Orcs
These are the most physically imposing and least refined of the Peoples, in the eyes of city-builders. Raids between Orcish families are common, and trade with them is somewhat hazardous, as they have a long history of deciding (after the fact) that they have been cheated or disrespected in some way by a deal. This often leads to a surprising retaliatory attack, with dozens of fearsome Orcs on their Terror Birds pouring out of the hills, howling as if possessed. The Orcish diet relies heavily on hunting, supplemented by foraged vegetation. The needlework on Orcish textiles is world-reknown, with many brave merchants having made fortunes and lost their lives trading dyes and thread to secure samples for wealthy patrons.

Orcs as presented here use the rules for Half-Orcs found in the Player’s Handbook. Their Terror Birds are Axebeaks, as presented in the Monster Manual. Subraces are considered part of the same tribe, though of different family lineage.

The Bottomless City, the Eternal Colony, the Red Jewel, and a dozen other appellations apply to the city of Cach. The original census records and founding charter were lost long ago when the city was sacked, but legend has it Cach was the result of five separate settlements colonized by ancient civilizations beyond the Great Sea. All five were wracked by famine, plague, hostile natives, and ravenous monsters until only a few dozen survivors remained. They banded together atop Burkant Hill, where they erected a sturdy rampart, drove a well deep into the earth, and clung together for dear life. Half of them died during the first five years, but nearly twelve hundred years later their desperate fort has grown into a mighty citadel overlooking a vast, dense city with sturdy walls, fearsome armies, and a bustling port.

The city states of Bektemir, Hamza, Mirobod, and Sergeli were all originally outposts of Cach that have since won for themselves political independence. The nobles of Cach have a long history of infighting, and many of its Lord Mayors have spent their entire reigns focusing their attention inward. This leaves its satellite cities to their own devices. While now fiercely independent, these smaller states look to Cach as an economic and cultural center, and each maintains active embassies here.

Cach is situated around a hill overlooking Olmazar bay. An artificial harbor and series of lighthouses provide shelter for a fishing fleet and trade ships carrying exotic goods and passengers from far-flung lands. Canals cut across the delta plain of the Green River and through massive locks that double as the Northwest gates in the city walls. The inland hills are extensively terraced and irrigated by massive screw-pumps. The Cachic justice system and armies provide a steady supply of laborers for the great locks and pumps. Hundreds of craftsmen and professionals ply their trade inside the city walls, operating mostly from small shops; there are no large-scale manufactories.

The national defenses consist of a fleet of mothballed war galleys and the Mayor’s Guard. Individual noble houses maintain their own cadres of soldiers. Technically only the Mayor’s Guard are allowed to bear military arms in public places, but entire neighborhoods fall within the property boundaries of some houses, and are heavily patrolled by private armies. There are currently two mercenary companies under contract with the Lord Mayor. A special dispensation exempts members of these companies from the city’s arcane and sometimes draconian sumptuary laws. The Lord Mayor is elected to a twelve year term by a congregation of representatives of the founding families. It is widely believed that the bona fides of many of these electors are the result of fabrications and that nearly all of their loyalties are bought and paid for by a deep and broad network of special favors, blackmail, and bald-faced cronyism. It is considered extremely uncouth for an elector to ever stop backing a Lord Mayor he has previously voted for; the elections are nearly always a formality, the results known long in advance.

The city-state Abadan lies roughly one hundred thirty miles north by northeast along the coast, connected by caravan roads and sea lanes. The nation of Konjikala is a hundred miles south, separated by the Leviathan Channel. Sea trade between these three is frequent, and each has been known to raise massive navies for use against each other. Konjikala recently lost a war against Abadan and is burdened with reparations and tribute. Their official delegation to Cach goes to great lengths to conceal how thin their budget has stretched.

For use in a Dungeons & Dragons setting with a very low incidence of full-caster character classes. Each of the deities listed here grants any domain listed in the Players Handbook or Dungeon Master’s Guide and may have followers of any alignment.

Many temples and shrines have been built and scrupulously maintained or left as crumbling ruins over the ages. The gods of Man are commonly understood to be tremendously powerful and personal entities that take a direct interest in the lives of mortals, bringing calamity, prosperity, joy, and sorrow in varying measure. Unlike the Fiends and Fey Lords, their influence on grand-scale world events is subtle or nonexistent depending on who you ask. The gods act directly and personally, rarely affecting more than an immediate family with their interventions. They make no binding contracts with their followers, accepting or ignoring their petitions as suits their own inscrutable desires.

They walk the earth, unnoticed by most, listening to or ignoring the appeals of their faithful, accepting offerings, granting boons, and dispensing punishments themselves. Their motivations are obscure and unique to themselves. The clergy are not miracle-workers, but shrine-tenders, teachers, bureaucrats, and intellectuals. They have no more direct access to the gods than the laity, but have developed various means of reading the signs and portents the gods are known to leave for them so they may better guide the faith and appease their divine patrons.

Akunbek, a very old god thought to have been a warrior long ago. When the world was young he killed the goddess of storms and the god of steel, taking their secrets and their power for himself. Now doddering in his old age, Akunbek no longer answers prayers for rain or calm seas, imparts no secrets to craftsmen, and is known as the god of rust. Common prayers to him are uttered when using metal tools, embarking on a sea voyage, sowing crops, or preparing for battle. Those that can see him describe a withered, gray-haired man with a whispy beard, tired eyes, and threadbare noble regalia. It is thought that he rarely strays from his holy places, and it is typical to see a small shrine dedicated to Akunbek in seaports and near armories.

Karluk, a clever young man thought to be the most knowledgeable of the gods. There is some difference of opinion regarding his backgound. Some tales report him as the son of Mahatbek and Akunbek, others place him as the child of Sanira. It was Karluk that taught the Elves and Dwarves how to speak and invented written language. Through his gifts, useful information and gossip can spread like wildfire among mortals. Many stories of Karluk paint him as the god of fear. His faithful seek answers from him, but when he obliges they often come to regret it. He is revered by scholars, respected by the clergy generally, and his favors are often sought out by the desperate. Reports of his appearance are conflicting, with most divinely-inspired Clerics who have laid eyes on him declining to describe him. Some say his is a slight, frail man with shifty eyes and ink-stained fingers. Others report him to be a hulking brute of a man with a heavy beard calloused knuckles. It is common practice to inscribe a prayer to Karluk inside the binding of every book, making any collection of written works a shrine of sorts to him. A notable exception to this practice is the spellbooks of Eldritch Knights, Warlocks, and Wizards, who fear a prayer in such a book may provoke Karluk’s wrath.

Mahatbek, a wise old woman thought to be responsible for plants and fungus of medicinal value. Also the goddess most closely associated with pestilence. Myths involving Mahatbek tend to center around barbers, witch-doctors, and midwives suffering from hubris and bringing disaster to those under their care. She is thought to punish the proud with illness. Those that have seen her report she appears as an inscrutable middle-aged woman in simple attire. Prayers to her are uttered when preparing food for winter storage, when a ship arrives from a foreign port, and when doing business with courtesans. She is thought to travel widely from place to place, and her shrines are typically found in the homes of people that are frequently in contact with the ill.

Rostem is thought to be this age’s thriving and vital warrior god. In recent times it has become increasingly clear to the clergy that he may never have been a god of strength and martial valor as originally thought, but rather a spirit of deception and lies. He is portrayed as dashing, athletic, and valiant, eager to rush headlong into battle for a worthy cause. Those that have seen him in recent years believe this image is actually Rostem’s shadow, reshaped to distract and confuse those around him. Rostem negotiates in bad faith and manipulates his followers and fellow gods continuously. Prayers are frequently offered to him in times or crisis or to bolster bravery. Increasingly the laity is accepting the notion that their warrior champion god is a liar, and many gamblers invoke him before picking up dice or cards.

Sanira is the every-woman of the gods. Stories about her are nearly always parables of gender role expectations, with various other gods taking on the male role but Sanira always at the middle weathering abuse and doling out justice to suit the needs of the storyteller. Many of the popular tales are likely falsehoods, but she remains a cultural cornerstone. She is often thought of as the grieving mother, as any story about a fallen god places her in this role. Of all the gods she is the mostly frequently depicted in artwork, generally shown as a grey-haired matron with sad eyes and a kind smile. Prayers to Sanira are frequent, and offered to comfort her as often as to seek her help. Of all the gods, her mortal champions are the most likely to perish early in the execution of their duties. Her Clerics, when they arise, are mourned even as they live.

There are various other gods that appear in the folklore of the world, but these are the five most commonly venerated and the most likely to interfere with or assist mortals, and the only five thought to grant divine spellcasting. Several of the less notable gods are actually dead, victims of squabbles among themselves or even the machinations of the Archfiends or Fey. As a whole they are a fractious lot, and prominent servants of one god will often run afoul of the others.

Note that in this setting the magic used by Druids, Paladins, and Ranger are all of fiendish or fey origin. Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, and Wizards are exceedingly uncommon, with perhaps a dozen of each alive at any given time.

Back in the 1980’s I swindled my mom into fronting the money for a series of strange purchases, including a funky red, blue, and green cardboard boxes filled with odd little saddle-stitched books, bizarre dice, and all manner of crazy ideas. In the back of one of these books was a sheet of paper covered with a blank hexagonal graph paper and guidelines for building your own fantastical world. I hadn’t been exposed to Greyhawk or Lankhmar or the Forgotten Realms yet; this was simply how you went about making a world for your evil sorcerers and hobgoblin armies and chromatic dragons to threaten. For other kids to explore. For adventurers to save.

It suggested you start in the middle of the page with the location of your first adventure and its nearest village or city. Fill in the immediate area with some terrain, and expand outward as needed. Sprinkle in some rivers and oceans and mountain ranges, and plant some points of interest as the locations of future adventures and quests and plots and schemes. You’re off to the races.

As I grew up a good portion of how a D&D game unfolded evolved, refined, and perhaps corrupted. Random encounters were ridiculous, as they don’t contribute to the elaborate story the Dungeon Master and players were weaving together. Wandering monster tables were immersion-breaking and had no place in a serious game. Adventure locations should make internal sense. If the original inhabitants didn’t have the resources or motivation to put a giant boulder trap in a hallway, it doesn’t belong there. Giant carnivorous monsters shouldn’t dwell where there are no prey. Monsters and villains should be carefully crafted to ensure the player characters have a solid chance of defeating them in a fight. The plausibility of fantastic treasures must not be compromised by random generation tables.

When I type all that out it becomes clear how hampered the role of Dungeon Master had become. How pampered and stifled the players. No clever 3rd level Fighter was going to accidentally find a +2 Flaming Ranseur. No 10th level party was going to have to run for their lives from an angry dracolich whose lair they accidentally camped in en route to another location, leaving one of their own behind for dead. I’m not sure where the desire to not have a slapstick Monty Hall campaign turned a game of swords and sorcery into Serious Business, but it did. Randomness in a roleplaying game isn’t just a tool for spicing up a success/failure mechanism. It is also an opportunity to force improvisation.

Time to dial it back a bit. Brew up a map with Hexographer. Brew up a few villainous NPCs with bad intentions and some random encounter tables and see what happens. I’m not going full-on OSR, just treating the release of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons as an opportunity for a clean break and a fresh start.

Depending on your background and tastes, there are many places where Dungeons & Dragons may have taken a bad turn. For some it’s when weapon speeds and casting times were thrown out. For others it was when spellcasters got useful abilities they could use all day every day. Others feel the whole game was misconceived from start to finish and it’s just plain thoroughly bad.

Let’s take a look at the original four-person adventuring party: The Fighting Man, the Magic User, the Priest, and the Thief. What’s wrong with this list? The Thief. This wasn’t originally part of OG D&D. When you’re looking to play a bunch of tomb-raiding murderhobos delving through dungeons, slaying monsters, and taking all their stuff, isn’t everybody a lowercase-t thief? Who is responsible for finding traps? Everybody. Who is responsible for locating and bypassing perilous traps? Everybody. By introducing the Thief as a separate class, more recently called the Rogue, you take some of the core functionality of the other classes away from them to build a special little Thief-shaped niche in the genre that doesn’t belong there. Why should Conan the Cimmerian have to switch character classes midway through his career? He didn’t suddenly become a master of the arcane arts or the chosen miracle-worker of some god or other. He was an adventuring Fighting Man straight through his career, whether as a savage tribesman, pirate, mercenary, or urban thief.

So how about we just straight-up kill the Rogue as a character class and give its goodies back to those with whom they belong: everybody. In Type 5 Dungeons & Dragons, the Rogue is a middle-sized hit die character with four skill proficiencies instead of two that gains access to sneak attacks, cunning bonus actions, and some skill perks. Its subclasses are the Thief, the Assassin, and the Arcane Trickster. Thief gains benefits that, as discussed above, should be available to just about everybody. The Assassin is every bit as bad of a character class concept as Thief; a murderer for hire is an assassin. Whether this is accomplished by poison, steel, or spells the person is still a lowercase-a assassin. Really this is just a sneak attack specialist. We’ll keep that in mind. The arcane trickster is just a Wizard that’s a dick about other folks’ private property. We can probably ditch that outright. Get your Wizard Sleight of Hand proficiency and call it a day.

Let’s take a look at what to do with all these class features:

• Saving Throws: leave them be. Everybody else already has two proficiencies here.
• Proficiencies: Grant three skill proficiencies to every class that doesn’t include full (1st – 9th level) spell progression.
• Expertise: Grant Expertise to a single skill to every class that doesn’t include full (1st – 9th level) spell progression. All character classes (including full casters) may select an additional skill to have Expertise in at 6th level.
• Sneak Attack: Grant Sneak Attack to every class. Full casters get 1/3rd their character level from the existing Rogue table, everybody else gets 1/2 character level.
• Thieve’s Cant: This is dumb and shouldn’t be included in anybody’s game. Drop it.
• Cunning Action: Grant Cunning Action to everybody, with the following modification. The bonus action can be used only to perform a task directly related to a skill you have Expertise in. Disengage is related to Acrobatics, Dash is related to Athletics, Hide is related to Stealth.
• Roguish Archetype: At 3rd level a character that has not already selected an Oath, Domain, Archetype, or other subclass may add Assassin to the list of subtypes available. A character selecting Assassin gains Sneak Attack at full class level on the Rogue table, in addition to the benefits of the Assassin archetype.
• Uncanny Dodge: Starting at 5th level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Uncanny Dodge instead.
• Evasion: Starting at 7th level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Evasion instead.
• Reliable Talent: Starting at 11th level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Reliable Talent instead.
• Blindsense: No. Drop it.
• Slippery Mind: Starting at 15th level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Slippery Mind instead.
• Elusive: No. Drop it.
• Stroke of Luck: No. Drop it.

Now for the subclass features:

• Fast Hands: This is mostly covered by the changes to Cunning Hands above. Mostly. Leave this out.
• Second-Story Work: Starting at 3rd level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Second-Story Work instead.
• Supreme Sneak: Starting at 9th level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Supreme Sneak instead.
• Use Magic Device: Starting at 13th level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Use Magic Device instead.
• Thief’s Reflexes: Starting at 17 level, whenever your character class or subclass grants you a new feature, you may select Thief’s Reflexes instead.

For Arcane Trickster, each of the archetype features are made available to Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizard characters in lieu of an equal or higher-level subclass feature. Clerics that are associated with a trickster God may also gain access to these features, and add Mage Hand to their list of available spells.

This has the overall effect of dropping the class count by one, the subclass count by two, and expanding the complexity and options for the remaining classes tremendously.

Revisiting the Muscle Rogue:

The Muscle Rogue is clearly a Fighter at heart. We start out with the same race, background, and attributes as before. Essentially this is the same character. For Fighting Style it seems Dueling has some appeal. We can buy him an extra attack with his Strength bonus with Two Weapon Fighting, but he generally isn’t using his off-hand to attack; he’s using it to trip. Duelism it is. We select Athletics for his single Expertise.

At second level he gains an Action Surge, which is a great Fighter ability. An additional action that can be used for basically any purpose? Quite nice. But now we have a choice between Cunning Action and Action Surge. We can set aside Cunning Action for later, but who wants to wait to actualize their character concept? Cunning action at 2nd level, at the cost of never getting an Action Surge.

At 3rd level we normally get to pick a Fighter Archetype. His reliance on wits and tricky maneuvers suggests he will be adopting the Battle Master archetype, but I want to keep him focused on his Sneak Attack damage, so we borrow the Assassin archetype from the now-defunct Rogue class. He is now proficient with the disguise kit and poisoner’s kit, and gains the Assassinate feature and full Rogue progression for sneak attacks.

At 4th level we get the standard ability score improvement, which we use to level off Strength and Constitution at 18 and 16, as before.

At 5th level our Muscle not-Rogue gets an extra attack. Alternately we may select Uncanny Dodge. Being more stabby is much more appropriate for where we’re going here, so we select Extra Attack.

At 6th level we gain access to our second Expertise selection. Depending on how the campaign has been going, it may be a good idea to pick Perception. We also use our Ability Score Improvement to top off Strength at 20.

At 7th would have gained Evasion as a Rogue, but there is no feature gained by Fighter nor Assassin here. This will still be an option at 9th level, when Assassin grants Infiltration Expertise and Fighter grants Indomitable. We’ll drop the Assassin feature and pick up Uncanny Dodge from back at 5th level.

At 8th level we can bump Constitution up to 18 and effectively gain eight hit points. Instead we take the Alertness feat.

At 10th level we can bump Constitution up to 18 and effectively gain ten hit points. Very tempting. With proficiency in Constitution saves, we may as well take Tough for twenty extra hit points and +2 per level going forward. Alternately select Dungeon Delver, depending on how the campaign is going.

At 11th level we must choose between Reliable Talent or a third attack. At this point we should have a strong feel for how the actual campaign is running. Considering that we already have two or three chances to gain sneak attack damage per round, but can only benefit from it once, I select Reliable Talent. Getting an opponent prone is important to everybody in the party, while an additional attack is only worth so much.

The resulting character feels significantly less thief-like. His skill list is short and notably absent of Thieves’ Tools. His Expertise is in two fifths of his skills, not two thirds. He has an additional chance to land a sneak attack every round, and does slightly more damage. His Cunning Action is more broadly useful, letting him attempt to trip or grapple or shove an opponent without leaning on Two-weapon Fighting to glean a bonus action. The additional attribute bump gets him an additional feat, which we could have used to pick up more skills if the party is really missing the presence of a dedicated thief. To make a dedicated Thief with this house rule, you would want to pick a more suitable background (one with Thieves’ Tools proficiency, perhaps) and lean more heavily on the Rogue and Thief class features, selecting the Champion or Battle Master as the Fighter Archetype.

In which we brew up a muscle-bound Dwarven Assassin that specializes in athleticism that, by 11th level, can deal 2d8+12d6+5 damage on the first round of combat if he has surprise.

With the removal of the five-yard-long list of causes for opportunity attacks and the general removal of piddling little minor “feat” character options in Type V Dungeons & Dragons, several interesting options seem to open up before us. Let’s consider, for a moment, the Muscle Rogue. The Thief is the original add-on character class from OG D&D, expanding the list from Fighting Man, Magic User, and Priest to what many consider the iconic four core classes. Generally the Thief (now called Rogue) is sneaky and nimble and weak. Typically your best attributes would be Dexterity and Intelligence. What if we treat the Rogue instead as a variation of the Fighting Man (now called Fighter) class, and prioritize brawn?

One of the key mechanical concepts of the Rogue is his Sneak Attack. This can be performed with only with finesse or ranged weapons, allowing the Rogue to take advantage of his normally-high Dexterity for attack and damage purposes. It turns out that the finesse quality doesn’t compel you to use Dexterity, so you’re welcome to wield, for example, a Rapier with brute force, applying your Strength bonus for attack and damage purposes. This doesn’t change the fact that it’s a finesse weapon. So it’s still eligible. So far we’ve lost nothing by switching to Strength.

Dexterity considered a highly useful attribute for any character. It applies to initiative, armor class, and several very useful skills. Clearly this is much better than Strength, which only applies to attack and damage with certain weapons, and a single skill. Oh, but what a skill. Athletics is used for climbing, swimming, running, jumping, and generally doing adventurous stuff. You wanted to do adventurous stuff, right? You’re playing Dungeons & Dragons, so hopefully that’s an unqualified “yes.” Athletics is also handy in a scrap, being used in opposed ability checks for grappling, shoving, tripping, and other improvised actions that stray from “I strike with my weapon” or “I cast a spell” bread & butter of your typical character. By opting for proficiency in Athletics and prioritizing Strength, any character can become a big bad bag of tricks in a fight.

That applies to any character, including character classes that already lend themselves to high Strength. Barbarian, Fighter, and Paladin come readily to mind. Why focus on it for a Rogue, our nimble backstab-monkey? Because Rogues and Bards have a lovely little class feature called Skill Expertise. It allows a 1st level Rogue to pick two skills to get twice the normal proficiency bonus. A +2 for Athletics checks becomes a +4. At high levels a +6 becomes a +12. Later on Rogues get the Reliable Talent feature, letting them treat any roll of 9 or less on any ability check involving a skill they’re proficient in. So an 11th level Muscle Rogue, with a 20 Strength, would have +5, +4, and +4 to any Athletics checks, treating his minimum possible roll as a 23. At the same level a Fighter would have a +9 and could run the gamut from a 10 to a 29 for his result.

Unfortunately actions like tripping or grappling an opponent are just that, actions. Rogues get a lot of possible bonus actions from their Cunning Action feature, but not for these purposes. Happily any character can wield two weapons and gain a bonus action to make an additional attack. Attacks can be swapped out for maneuvers like grapples or shoves, so our stalwart Muscle Rogue, armed with a Short Sword in one hand and a Dagger in the other, may use his normal action to attack with the Short Sword, gaining for himself a bonus action to attack with the Dagger, which he then uses to trip. You get to choose when in your turn your bonus actions happen, so he trips before actually rolling his main attack. If the target goes prone, the Muscle Rogue (and anybody else within five feet) gains advantage on attack rolls, so the Short Sword attack is at advantage, with sneak attack damage. This means sacrificing the use of the Cunning action to dash, disengage, or hide, but the option was there if he wanted to take it.

Please note that you need to take a feat to get Two-Weapon-Fighting benefits with non-light weapons, so our Muscle Rogue will need to use a Short Sword if he wants to take advantage of this kind of bonus action. Maybe he’ll opt for a Brace of Rapiers fighting style later in his career.

This still leaves initiative and armor class as possible problems. Initiative can be helped through the Alert feat, among other things, grants a +5 bonus here. This would come at the cost of an improvement to attributes, which may or may not be worth it. If the Muscle Rogue opts for the Assassin archetype, he will benefit greatly from winning initiative, so that should be taken into consideration. Regarding armor class, Dexterity is normally a big factor in a Rogue’s ability to withstand rough treatment. Having Studded Leather armor and a high Dexterity can pump your armor class to 17. If the Muscle Rogue only has a 14 Dexterity, that’s going to be limited to armor class 14. That isn’t going to feel very safe when a Bugbear is breathing down your neck. The solution? Be a Mountain Dwarf. In addition to a +2 racial modifier for both Constitution and (hey!) Strength, Mountain Dwarves get proficiency in medium armor. He buys himself a Chain Shirt at character creation for a 13 base armor class, then saves up for a Breastplate or Half-Plate to bump that up to 14 or 15 later on. Half-Plate gives him disadvantage on stealth checks, but being sneaky isn’t really the Muscle Rogue’s thing.

With a standard attribute array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 as suggested in the Player’s Handbook, a Mountain Dwarf Muscle Rogue can start with a 17 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 15 Constitution, 12 Wisdom, 10 Intelligence, and 8 Charisma. Switch the Intelligence and Charisma to taste, but keep the Wisdom for perception and saving throws. At 4th level he can bump up to 19 Strength. At 8th level he can bump up to 20 Strength and 16 Constitution. He may want to delay either of these ability boosts to pick up Alertness earlier. It’s okay, he’ll have another chance at 10th level to top things off.

At 11th level, using a Breastplate to avoid disadvantage on Sneak checks, he Muscle Rogue attacks once at +9 with his Short Sword for 1d8+5 damage, plus 6d6 sneak attack damage. With Two-Weapon Fighting he may also attack at +9 with his Dagger for 1d4 damage or attempt an Athletics-based maneuver at +13 as a bonus action. With the Alert feat, he has a +7 on initiative checks, and during the first round of combat he automatically has advantage against opponents that haven’t acted yet. This means he may want to use his Cunning Action to dash into the fray, moving 50 feet to close the gap instead of his normal 25 feet of movement. If the target is surprised, the attack is automatically treated as a critical if it hits. The Muscle Dwarf at 11th level does 2d8+12d6+5 damage on a critical sneak attack with a Rapier, 14d6+5 with a Short Sword. To increase the odds of winning that precious automatic critical hit and the oodles of accompanying dage, the Muscle Dwarf has Expertise and Reliable talent in effect, granting a +10 to sneak checks with a minimum effective roll of 21.

Please feel free to use in your own adventures, with or without attribution or even remembering where you got the idea. Games are made to be played.