FfH D&D 5e

thx mega! For my blog I want to get ahead of the game. I'm trying start a column answering reader questions, and in a month I'd like to do another one in that series. So if you have a question on DMing or FfH as it pertains to D&D send me questions. I'll be including your question and my answer in the post, but I'll also answer any questions right away. Just putting it out there

On another note, I'd like to get an idea of what you think might be missing from the game in terms of D&D classes? Specifically, what character/unit/archetype in FfH isn't currently represented by 5th edition classes?

 

Random thought: In my game so far I've introduced mana as a crystalline source of magic to be used as raw materials for magic items. Wondering if there is a better way to do use it.

 

my idea is that mana is a really expensive natural resource, like horses, iron, oil. (call me crazy, but i distinguish between the mage unit spells in civ 4, and the mage class spells in DnD) Mana is used to cast "world spells" (the mage unit spells, which like fireball, can damage an entire stack of units, which i consider armies). Because the world spells are soooo powerful, the nations with access to mana and the training/tech required to learn these abilities safegaurd them very carefully.

i had a list of ffh classes to add to dnd, but i lost it, i may scroll through the civilopedia again and try to recreate it

 

That's a great idea. And it could be another way to bring the setting to D&D is to convert the mage unit spells and world spells into D&D terms, and allow them as Epic level rewards.

 

even seemingly week ones like water 2's water walk spell can affect an entire stack, and when you explain to the party that this water walking spell affects an entire army and can last for (1 day or more) it turns out to be really powerful

i have a bunch of ideas about how the various spell affects work, so if u r having trouble with some of the mana types i can give my opinion

 

yeah i'd love to hear em

 

back to the old research hut....
first let me preface this by saying that the casting of these abilities should take a decent amount of time to be balanced. (my original plan was for the casting time to be almost the same as the spell duration) but you could use the ritual casting rules as well (my idea of minimum cast time is 1 hour... although i think i had planned for it to take 8 or more and the spell would last 1 week (cast time included).... This sounds complicated, but it makes sense in my version of the FFH world, obviously you can tailor it to fit ur personal style.

I am basing these off orbis modmod which i am using for my campaign, so if they are different from base ffh, just change it.

Spells:
Air - 1. grants fair winds doubling ship movement 2. on a failed save enemy units lose 15% of total health to lightning damage 3. create air elemental (temporary)
Body - 1. casts longstrider on party/army 2. 2nd portion of the regenerate spell (1hp per turn) on party/army 3. you could create a flesh golem
Chaos - 1. would force the party/army into a rage like state 2. gives everyone a random mutation (since i haven't added this to my campaign the table hasn't been made) 3. just like the spell it would cast 3 random "world spells"
Death - 1. creates a skeleton 2. creates a specter (temporary) 3. creates wraith (temporary)
Earth - 1. would shift the earth to create a literal wall of stone (adding difficult terrain or solid walls to give your party/army a defensible position) 2. stoneskin on party/army 3. summon earth elemental (temporary)
Enchantment - 1. would enchant all the party/army's weapons into +1 weapons 2. Would enchant ammo into +1 ammo with +1d6 fire damage. 3. would create a staff that allows you to prepare a world spell in it (essentially you could cast 2 in the time it would take to cast 1... or cast 1 almost instantaneously)
Entropy - 1. grants all nonmagical (unfriendly... and there is a save) metal objects within the area a -2 (maybe -1) modifyer similar to the rust ability of the rust monster 2. create a spined devil (temporarily) 3. on a failed save, each soldier would lose 1d4x10 percent of their total health, that can't be healed except by magic.
Fire - 1. sets an entire forest ablaze (basically like the secondary effect of burning hands but much larger area) 2. on a failed save each unit loses 1d6x10 percent of their total health 3. create a fire elemental (temporary)
Ice - 1. on a failed save half speed for all hostile creatures within range. 2. create 2 ice mephits (temporary... note there is no ice elemental in 5e, so ice mephits it is) 3. on a failed save each hostile creature within range loses 30 percent of their health from cold damage.
Law - 1. grants advantage against charm effects to party/army 2. summons a host of 8 cultists (re-skinned as ghostly soldiers) 3. advantage on saving throws against magic.
Life - (life is the one i had the most trouble with and i think it sucks, but here is what i got) 1. turn hell terrain into normal terrain 2. reduces the health of undead within range who fail their save by 60% 3. Can resurrect a fallen party member for free (requires mana of course)
Metamagic - 1. summon a head sized flying eye which you can see through (good for scouting) 2. Cleanses an area (including enemies who fail their saves) of magic, and magical effects 3. create a night hag (temporary... re-skin as djinn)
Mind - 1. Grants advantage to intelligence and wisdom checks to city for duration 2. casts charm person on entire army of enemies 3. casts dominate person on army
Nature 1. casts spiderclimb on party/army 2. enchants party/army weapons to do 1d4 poison damage and grant enemies who fail their save the poisoned condition. 3. (can only be cast in a forest) creates a treant
Shadow - 1. advantage on stealth checks 2. advantage on dex checks and saving throws 3. create invisible stalker (temporary)
Spirit - 1. immune to fear to party/army 2. gives bardic inspiration to an entire city population 3. allows you to ask the dm 1 (very) specific question which they can answer with yes or no
Sun - 1. causes the sun to burn down on the landscape (simple heat based terraforming) 2. casts blindness on an entire army 3. create hill giant (temporary re-skin aurealis)
Water - 1. (basic terraforming) opposite of sun 1. 2. cast waterwalk on entire army/party (can also bless water [as a world spell] so that drinking it heals 1d4 hit points) 3. create water elemental (temporary)

i just realized that i said create instead of summon a bunch of times... if it is temporary, it is a summon... obvi... also if it doesn't say temporary, you cannot recast the spell until you either unsummon the creature or it dies.

 

I love seeing this thread! Glad the game is serving you well in RPG inspiration.

By the way, my favorite site for DMing advice is angrydm.com, for infrequent articles that really break down the DM's job at the table.

 

I like angrydm. Some of the most insightful things I've read on DMing come from thealexandrian.net

Can't get enough of FfH. Thanks for your part in making it what it is.

 

Got news. Just started a Youtube channel.

 

Looks like it's been a while since this thread was active, but sure is great to find others who used FFH2/Erebus as their 5e campaign setting.
I laboriously converted to HTML all the FFH2 lore from ‘FFHLoreCompendium_v3.pdf’ by Lucas Stonehouse and ‘FfH 2m Manual v1.pdf’ by Xienwolf. I did make a number of changes to the Erebus lore, filled out some hanging stories and myths with my own, etc. But any fan of FFH2 will recognize it immediately. We had our session 0 last weekend.

Campaign site: http://arcanearth.obsidianportal.com/
Credits page: http://arcanearth.obsidianportal.com/wikis/credits
It's all public for anyone to use.

I've been fascinated by the Erebus/FFH2 setting for many years now. The creators really made something special.

 

Great to hear, good luck.

 

Update: we finished our 24th session last weekend!
For anyone interested in reading the ongoing shenanigans of a FFH2-themed D&D5e campaign, start here: http://arcanearth.obsidianportal.com/posts?order_by=oldest&page=1

PS: that's our concept of Basium on the home page banner!

 

A year later and we've completed 57 sessions. The PCs are now 8th-9th level, about to reach 10th level.

Things are chugging along. It's around turn 360 in the 'strat layer' (a 600 turn game of FFH with 16 civs). Basium just got dealt a harsh defeat by Losha Valas leading a massive Calabim army. The Sheaim/Infernal alliance is attacking the Malakim (they already conquered the Luchuirp and badly smashed the Elohim). Armageddon counter has hit 40 and Stephanos just conquered a good part of the Hippus empire (with a little help from the worldbuilder).

PCs are engaged in a quest to destroy a lich helping the Sheaim. Little do they know the lich was just knocked out by Maros and his Order Legion in a battle north of the Malakim capitol (the PCs convinced Cassiel to allow Maros into Grigori lands, so I used the worldbuilder to transfer Maros and his army to the Grigori empire). So the lich will be reforming at it's phylactery, where the PCs happen to just now be entering! They have only a few days to get through the dungeon (i'm using Tomb of Annihilation) and reach the phylactery before the the lich reforms its corporeal body (the lich is actually the surviving remnant of Asmoday, discoverer of Entropy mana, who the PCs accidentally freed from his tomb way back in session 7).

Session 55-56 contain the PC's encounter with Eurabatres, in case anyone is interested in my take on this mythic gold dragon.