The Minds Of Almantha (Remodeling for D&D Next!)

[Landis963]

Clear! *BZZAP!*

So, a friend of mine is starting a D&D Next campaign soon, and is casting around for possible worlds. My group and I'll be discussing possible stuff we'd like on Monday, I thought I'd submit this world for consideration, and here we are.

Spoiler: Original OP

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Almantha is the last bastion of magic in the dying world of Therinos.

Geography

Unusually round for a continent of its size, it is home to four large kingdom-esque nations and the city state of Revien, at its center. To the north there is a mountain range, but concealed within those craggy peaks is a peaceful meadow, home to the entrance to Saalarann. This mountain range extends in a southeasterly direction, ending in a peninsula. The range abruptly stops at the edge of the peninsula, in a large mountain which houses the city of Obsidia. A large forest dominates the southern region of Almantha, and marks the territory of Dekonio. A large lagoon similarly dominates the western reaches, although the territory of Aquacor reaches nearly to the gates of Revien.

Major Cities

Aquacor:

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City of water. The entire city is made of it, held in place by high-power Control Water spells. The city is also made of ice and glass, as the high saturation of magic allows the city to change water to ice to glass and back. It is renowned for its heavy emphasis on the tourist trade, as well as for its university of magical theory and the many powerful casters that count among its alumni. It boasts a sizable population of humans and aventi, sleek, humanoid creatures with fins, naturally colored black and white.

Dekonio

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City of earth. A city in a giant tree. This tree can move its existing branches on its own whims (usually during the night or in districts without anyone around to fall down), with enough control to weave its smaller branches into rope bridges. The gems collect sunlight during the day and transfer it to literal sunflowers, providing light to the city’s inhabitants. 90% of Dekonio's population is elven, but these elves are different from the pointy-eared humans one would find elsewhere on Therinos. Their close affinity for and physical proximity to a nexus of earth magic turned them into a plant race, of physically green skin, barklike clothing, and the ability to grow a hard shell for protection while sleeping. The remaining 10% are humans and any being without the desire or aptitude for the hard theory taught at the University of Aquacor, studying sigils and more practical uses of magic.

Obsidia

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City of fire. One of the most normal of the cities in the nation, despite its location (inside a dormant volcano) and the mechanical constructs of various shapes that abound. Central tower is topped with a perfectly spherical ruby that seems to glitter as though being whirled at great speeds. Constructs are built for their functions, and have trouble “thinking” out of them. Most of them have a human face on what passes for a head, so that their organic overlords can have something to address. Human face is immobile, eyes are whited over. Entire face looks carved out of marble. Most are created by the nomon, a population of dwarf/goblin/gnome hybrids given to the city as part of an alliance with Dekonio, intended as Igors and servants for the city, but many of whom grew into brilliant scientists, engineers, and spellcasters in their own right.

Saalarann

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City of air. When one goes to Saalarann for the first time, they might be confused by the sight of a small domed pagoda in the middle of a rolling plain. This pagoda is but the door to Saalarann, in much the same way that the plain is merely an antechamber. The actual city is above the cloud layer, three concentric rings of buildings floating several hundred miles above the surface of Therinos. It is the nest of the kiria, a race of raptorans, and second only to Aquacor in the human tourist trade.

Revien

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City of balance. Home to Fissura, a religion deifying the powers behind each city, and its capital place of worship, the Noreun. also home to the Revien Freelancer Guard, a mercenary army that is contractually obligated never to march on the city where it was founded. Every full moon, there is also a black market hidden somewhere in the city, and it is considered a rite of passage for Freelancer grunts to sneak off and find it after their recruitment. As for the commanding officers, they turn a blind eye, some even going so far as to say "I do not recommend looking for the Moon Market, nor do I recommend looking in THIS area for it." Revien is unique among cities in that it is located in a canyon, with buildings crawling up the sides like bracket fungus. "Ravine" jokes are naturally frowned upon as being very, very lame puns.

Fissura

The Minds are the power behind the four elemental cities, referred to separately as Aqua, Dekon, Saala, and Obsid. They are the memories and characters of the founders of each city, transformed by an ancient and powerful spell into AI-esque beings.

With power akin to gods and their desire to protect their strongholds from any attack, it is small wonder that the population worships the Minds as gods. When the Minds want something, they ask for it, and it will be given to them - or they will take it themselves.

Magic

Almantha is drenched in magic, a continent of rainforest when all around is desert. As such, many races have magic built within their very beings, and all can cast spells without physical components (as SLAs). However, spellcasting is tied to the four elements, in that there must be water (or at least liquid) nearby in order to cast water-aligned spells.

The Minds have access to epic-level amounts of power, and have used it in long-lasting enchantments that keep themselves and their peoples safe. However, the enchantments have been slowly failing, as of late, due to a combination of age, neglect, and the machinations of an ancient enemy of the founders, a pioneer in the field of necromancy who has turned himself into a lich in order to continue to hound his enemies.

Sigils

A recent development is the creation of sigils. These are runes that have been imbued with a single spell (the type of spell depends on the rune) and the power to cast it once, with different triggers written into the binding circle.

Major things that prob. need to be changed:

• Spell Schools, as an idea, came out of designing a new system to fit this world. This is overambitious and as such has been dropped.
• Hybrid Spells, similarly, smack too strongly of Magicka and require too much coordination, although the Ritual spell casting rules would probably work in their place.
• Player Races/Classes need to be rejiggered to better match D&D Next's roster, and a few should probably be made to match the world.
• Adventuring Guild/Guilds a la PF's Pathfinder Society should probably be made (I'm dissatisfied as to how the Revien Freelancer Guard fits this niche).

Thoughts?

[Landis963]

Races

Originally, Almantha had 8 races, one for each city plus the 3 types of goblinoid. D&D Next has 10: the standard 8 plus Dragonborn and Tiefling, most of which have subraces which get slightly altered character score bonuses. The D&D Next races will be below, and I will be listing my rationale for including them (or not). (Because of my unwillingness to torrent, which I will not be discussing, this is taken from the 1d4chan D&D wiki).

Dwarf: Will probably be cut. Egregious offenders of the short, grumpy craftsmen with an affinity for stone stereotype (but thankfully without any mention of the drunkenness that's plagued their earlier versions, at least on the wiki).

Elves: Whether High or Wood Elves are available depends on the continent: All the elves that travelled to Almantha have grown into literally Wood Elves due to the nexus' influence. This neatly delineates between the two between High on Alabas and Wood on Almantha. (Dark Elves will probably be cut, despite the utility of Dancing Lights et al.).

Halflings: Stouts seem like blatant Sam Gamgee expies; toss. However, the halflings in general and the Lightfoot subtype in particular are a very nice fit mechanically for my version of kobolds. Stouts could easily be NPC civilians. However, as goblinoids, this means they get the saving throw advantage that Gnomes get ("...against magic that relies on Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma."). Furthermore, the kobolds are barred from spellcasting classes as per the lore.

Humans: Keep. There's no reason to toss the baseline as far as I can see.

Dragonborn: The existence of the dragonborn seems gratuitous to me, and raises several questions of physics, practicality, and desire. (Mainly revolving around the question "Why would you even do that?") The dragons in this world cannot shapeshift, therefore a dragonborn cannot be, well, born. These are not a race to be tossed aside lightly, IMO. They are to be thrown with great force.

Gnome: Rock Gnomes are a dead ringer for the nomon, so they're in. Hill Gnomes I'm less sold on, especially with the Doctor Doolittle racial ability. (It smacks unpleasantly of twee-ness, and the fact that they appear to be the recommended kender replacement makes them even less desirable.) I'd be fine with simply removing the talk to animals nonsense and having the Hill Gnomes merely be gnomes that focused on magic at an early age rather than mechanics.

Half-Elf: Only found on Alabas, as the biology is too different between humans and Wood Elves for such offspring to be viable.

Half-Orc: I see no reason not to make these the actual Orc, adding in the gnome resistance to magic and barring the casting classes from them.

Tiefling: These will be the Goblin, their resistance to fire replaced with the gnome resistance to magic.

Aventi: Zora race found here, no cantrips. (Thanks Ninjadeadbeard)

Raptorans: Rito race found here. (Thanks to Ninjadeadbeard)

Common vs. uncommon races: I'm cutting one common race (dwarf), and moving 3 others to semi-common status (the Tiefling as goblin and the half-orc as orc join the halfling as kobold in goblinoid status, and the gnome gains a similar population). I don't believe there's a mechanical bonus for being a common race, but just in case, there's the line up.

Thoughts?

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Ah, Almantha! I remember it like it was yesterday! Good to see an old standard back around the forum.

Aventi replacement, Raptoran replacement.

Hmmmm. I'm still a little hazy on picking up the old terminology, but Aventi are an Aquatic race? And the Raptorans are a flying one? I might recommend the Zora and Rito races found here. I recently used these for a Zelda 5E Game that went amazingly well, so I feel confidant in saying these are superb race mechanics to use.

On Dragonborn: Feels odd to toss an entire race out so vigorously. Perhaps you could limit their appearance? You could use the old fluff for them: Humanoids gifted the forms of dragons for services rendered to the Dragon cause. I believe that Obsid had many things to do with Dragons, and might have granted such a transformation on his palace/temple guards?

On Goblins: Seems like a lot of tweaking going on in the Halfling/Gnome department. Perhaps another round of Lore-Rewrites to better accommodate the mechanics would not go amiss? I try very hard these days to not limit/complicate racial mechanics if I don't have to when building settings.

On the whole, I'm super excited to see this again! I always hate to see Worlds getting no feedback on these (otherwise hospitable) forums.

[Landis963]

Ah, Almantha! I remember it like it was yesterday! Good to see an old standard back around the forum.

Glad to see you found this again.

Hmmmm. I'm still a little hazy on picking up the old terminology, but Aventi are an Aquatic race? And the Raptorans are a flying one? I might recommend the Zora and Rito races found here. I recently used these for a Zelda 5E Game that went amazingly well, so I feel confidant in saying these are superb race mechanics to use.

They sound pretty good.

On Dragonborn: Feels odd to toss an entire race out so vigorously. Perhaps you could limit their appearance? You could use the old fluff for them: Humanoids gifted the forms of dragons for services rendered to the Dragon cause. I believe that Obsid had many things to do with Dragons, and might have granted such a transformation on his palace/temple guards?

Obsid is a dragon, even after his ascension. Transformation doesn't fall under his purview. However, he could bestow an enchantment of sorts on his personal guards. Regardless, they'd be his personal guard, and as such would be NPCs. EDIT: Also, I hate the concept of the Dragonborn as being gratuitous and pandering, so there's that.

On Goblins: Seems like a lot of tweaking going on in the Halfling/Gnome department. Perhaps another round of Lore-Rewrites to better accommodate the mechanics would not go amiss? I try very hard these days to not limit/complicate racial mechanics if I don't have to when building settings.

Maybe. The problem I'm running into is that I can't really find goblin stats without torrenting the book (a friend of mine has it). It's the same reason I don't have the actual stats on the race page - my source doesn't list them out. Besides, the only real complication (AFAIK) is spreading the gnome spell-shield thing among all the goblinoid races. Everything else is just a new skin over preexisting stats, which, BTW, also make them better suited for players. Another problem is that Dekon wouldn't let the nomon out of his grasp if they were the only products of his experiments who could shrug off spells.

EDIT: I'm giving Lightfoot Halflings and Half-Orcs the gnome spell-shield and new paint jobs, I'm replacing the Tiefling fire resist with the Gnome spell shield and giving them a new paint job, and Gnomes themselves are left alone. It's a lot of tweaking, sure, but nothing too onerous, especially once/if we get character sheets.

On the whole, I'm super excited to see this again! I always hate to see Worlds getting no feedback on these (otherwise hospitable) forums.

Thank you for popping back in!

[Landis963]

Classes

Only majorly-changed classes (from my source) will be listed, otherwise not worth mentioning IMO.

The main problem with matching my world to D&D 5e's class roster (Matching it to D&D in general, actually) is the presence and nature of the Minds. They have the power of gods, they have the awareness of gods within their spheres, but they are very much not gods. As such, they do not get "domains", nor can they bestow spell use upon a supplicant or priest. No other gods exist.

Cleric: As such, no god-granted domains exist, which means that this is a roleplayed subclass of Wizard or Warlock. A certain aphorism about eggs and omelettes come to mind. On the Bright side, this allows Clerics to pick up smite spells at the right level if they so choose.

Paladin: As Cleric, but more martial.

Monk: Not quite sure what to do with these guys. I can either cut them, or weave them into a specific city's history somehow.

Warlock: "Clerics" of the four minds might be more similar to these in mechanics. However, there are currently no plans for Fiends, Archfey dealings, or Great Old Ones within the cosmology.

[Landis963]

Now that I've actually had a look at the PHB classes, it seems as though very little changes need to be made to adapt my world to 5e (or vice versa). The crucial thing is that no deity can "grant" spells in the normal D&D sense in Therinos, which means that the spell lists are "sanctioned" instead, by whatever authority figure is relevant to the class (Warlocks are taught spells Sith-style in secret enclaves, Paladins and Clerics would be given permission to, say, cast smite spells by the local heads of the sanctioned religion of the four Minds, multiclassing would require some DM cooperation to RP it out, but it would still be doable.) In fact, the existence of Warlocks as a non-godtouched faction means that there is a source of "usual enemies" that my world heretofore lacked.

The Cult of Rinos

This sect of illicit magic-users reject the influence of the Minds and instead place their faith in a "pantheon" of their own devising, to the confusion of any civilized person. They have three major gods, who they believe speak to them through celestial signs and portents. Their gods' names are only written in books where they might not see and take offense, and are only heard spoken out loud once during a cultist's career. They are instead referred to as the Head, the Hands, and the Heart, and their priestly orders can be identified by the spells they cast. [Roughly analogous to the 3 otherworldly patrons in vanilla 5e, spec. the ArchFey, the GOO, and the Fiend, respectively].