https://shop.mcdmproductions.com/produc ... dcover-pdf
Earlier today, somebody linked me to this 3rd party book for 5E. This particular attempt at stronghold rules gives them the ability to directly boost PC combat ability, in addition to granting you strategic-scale options. That sounds pretty reminiscent of... I think Phonelobster was working on a system like that for a while, where you could have fancy armories in your base to get directly better at swording fools.
If it's well implemented, I like the idea of a gold sink that gets you more invested in the setting as a faction. I also like the idea that murder hobos have a reason to consider this, because it makes you better at regular adventuring. Less incentive for just one person to want to get involved.
Has anyone else looked at Strongholds and Followers in depth? I'm considering giving it a serious read on my next day off, but I'd welcome other people's insights.
[D&D 5E] Strongholds and Followers (MCDM)
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
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I have (not a backer, bought it normally) but I read it a while ago.
I cannot go into it in-depth, but one of the bigger criticisms was that a lot of the "domain management" stuff is incomplete, particularly in regards to ruling mass combat. A book in product (Kingdoms & Warfare) is frequently referenced. That, and a rather large portion of the book is dedicated to new monsters and magic with clear grounding in Matt Colville's home setting.
As for the "stronghold/follower" rules themselves, their rules for cohorts and minions journeying alongside you are better than WotC's own attempts and from my reading they look to be a promising means of doing "DMPCs with a short list of abilities instead of a full stat block."
There's also various in-game mechanical incentives to spending money on building up a base of operations, but nothing really for expanding a 'network' of such things or mobile bases beyond a one-page sample pirate ship stronghold.
The Stronghold Actions which work as Lair Actions but for PCs vary differently in overall power level. For example, the Paladin can summon entangling chains to bind a chaotic or evil foe, force flying creatures to land, or add their Charisma bonus to an ally's AC. Nice, but two of the 3 are kind of situational.
Meanwhile, the bard can treat any Inspiration Die rolled as their max value for one round, force all enemies rolling saves against your abilities to roll d20 three times and use the worst, or automatically regain all inspiration dice.
The bard's feature is a lot more open-ended. Particularly with Lore Bards who can gain access to other class' spell lists.
I cannot go into it in-depth, but one of the bigger criticisms was that a lot of the "domain management" stuff is incomplete, particularly in regards to ruling mass combat. A book in product (Kingdoms & Warfare) is frequently referenced. That, and a rather large portion of the book is dedicated to new monsters and magic with clear grounding in Matt Colville's home setting.
As for the "stronghold/follower" rules themselves, their rules for cohorts and minions journeying alongside you are better than WotC's own attempts and from my reading they look to be a promising means of doing "DMPCs with a short list of abilities instead of a full stat block."
There's also various in-game mechanical incentives to spending money on building up a base of operations, but nothing really for expanding a 'network' of such things or mobile bases beyond a one-page sample pirate ship stronghold.
The Stronghold Actions which work as Lair Actions but for PCs vary differently in overall power level. For example, the Paladin can summon entangling chains to bind a chaotic or evil foe, force flying creatures to land, or add their Charisma bonus to an ally's AC. Nice, but two of the 3 are kind of situational.
Meanwhile, the bard can treat any Inspiration Die rolled as their max value for one round, force all enemies rolling saves against your abilities to roll d20 three times and use the worst, or automatically regain all inspiration dice.
The bard's feature is a lot more open-ended. Particularly with Lore Bards who can gain access to other class' spell lists.
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Stubbazubba
- Knight-Baron
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I backed it. It has some good things and some very incomplete things, and several of the options are wildly more beneficial than others, so it's not really ready for primetime plug-n-play experience, it'll take a watchful eye and a further tinkering to make it fully work. Then again, that's true of almost every edition of D&D, so, I honestly can't fault it too much for that.
There is one reference to rules that won't exist until Kingdoms & Warfare (the kickstarter for which just ended in, like, November or something), and a promise of more detailed mass combat rules. The ones in there are very abstract, but the units produced for them seem to make sense, so I am interested to see the full mass combat rules in K&W (though I did not back it).
Overall, it's worth a read (the writing is actually quite entertaining at times), there are good ideas in there, and there is what I would call a framework for a system in there, though the outputs are sometimes pretty half-baked. When they are fully-baked, though, it delivers big power-ups for players and concrete ways to interact with the local world.
It's very Matt Colville-y, so I'd watch a few of his YouTube videos to get a sense of what to expect.
There is one reference to rules that won't exist until Kingdoms & Warfare (the kickstarter for which just ended in, like, November or something), and a promise of more detailed mass combat rules. The ones in there are very abstract, but the units produced for them seem to make sense, so I am interested to see the full mass combat rules in K&W (though I did not back it).
Overall, it's worth a read (the writing is actually quite entertaining at times), there are good ideas in there, and there is what I would call a framework for a system in there, though the outputs are sometimes pretty half-baked. When they are fully-baked, though, it delivers big power-ups for players and concrete ways to interact with the local world.
It's very Matt Colville-y, so I'd watch a few of his YouTube videos to get a sense of what to expect.
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