With 2020 being a year of isolation and misery, I returned to Dungeons & Dragons as the bright light in my week. After the lock down, My wife and I changed our regular game with Tim and Cathe Post to a Zoom game and worked out the kinks after trying Roll 20.
As the year grew worse and work began to taint my soul, my wife allowed me to have one out of the bubble get together. So she and I began playing Dungeons & Dragons with Brehk and his family. First, we started in a semi-steampunk fantasy game I was running. Then, Brehk began to DM, so I could play.
Over the year, I have added different books and products to my collect, spending money I normally would on Infinity models and terrain. Curse of Strahd is brilliant. Hero Forge is a fun way to have the character model of your dreams and the cost is about the same as a GW model. The spell cards (home made in sleeves) are essential for casters. I even made the similar attack cards, so Brehk’s wife, who has never played before, can easily glance down and know what her attacks and rage bonus are. Warlock Tiles and its accessories add an upgrade to the playing experience especially if you track your battles and encounters on a grid like Brehk and I do. Christmas added TableTop Tokens to my collection, so I can place trees and rocks, pits and traps to my maps without the terrain getting in the way of the models.
This fall, I eagerly awaited Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. I hoped it would be a great source book adding fun spells, sub-classes, and DM tips. As a Christmas gift from my wife, I have been reading the books during the stormy days of winter.
The book is odd and quirky, much like the Tasha of D&D lore. For characters, it is not essential, but it adds another layer of icing to cake. The sub-class choices seem high concept fantasy. This is not Conan the Barbarian. If Spore Druids, Psychic Thieves, and Swarm Rangers are your cup of tea, this book is for you.
My favorite section of the book is on pages 4-5. I t reminds the reader this books is all optional and work out what works best with her group. How novel! Play as a cooperative ensemble. The next ten rules are guidelines on how ease rules into play.
Chapter One:
The first section allows you to customize your character. This is the you can have your cake and eat it, too, options. Want a weedy dwarf who played the lute to the delight of others? The optional rules allow you to opt out of a Dwarf’s +2 Constitution Bonus and allows you to take the bonus in Charisma instead as well as swapping out Dark Vision and other skills to make a Dwarf Bard more to your liking. Think of it as the exception to the general conception of what a Dwarf is.........
Next, Tasha’s adds the Artificer from the Eberron source book and adds it as an possibility for all campaigns. Now, with a lenient DM, you could do this already. My wife is playing a Rock Gnome Artificer in my Steam Punk-esque campaign. It only seems to fit. In Tasha’s, they add new spells the Artificer has access to (mainly from Tasha’s), a few new infusions, and the Armorer sub-class. Think of the Armorer sub-class as a way to play a fantasy Iron-man........ My wife loves this class, but it is not for every game.
Barbarians have two new sub-classes and a few optional class features. The features a are reasonable, allowing your barbarian to gain new appropriate skills with experience, and the ability to move as a bonus action when you rage. Now, one of the issues I have with Tasha’s is odd phrasing. One of the examples in the Instinctive Pounce feature. The rule reads, “As a part of the bonus action you take to enter your rage, you can move up to half your speed.” It is just awkward and imprecise leaving room for misinterpretation. The rule should read, ‘On the turn your barbarian starts his rage, as part of the bonus action, he may move a distance up to half of his normal speed.’ Since I am always tired and drained, I I have spent way too much to time wondering what I just read in this book and what it means. The other source books I have do not seem to have this issue, so I am left to believe this was a choice?
The first Barbarian sub-class is the Path of the Beast. It fits the class well. A primal spirit is in your soul and you can use it to adapt to the more around you with natural weapon attacks and means to travel faster.
The second sub-class is the Path of Wild Magic. This is spouse to be a option for non-traditional barbarian races, but I find the option silly, so I am skipping it.
More later......
