Ite's FF7 D&D Variant

[Ite]

Thanks for the quick reply I appreciate it, looking forward to the finished product, btw i wanted to start with a party of shinra fighting in the wutai war, subbing the wutai soldiers for MPs was easy enough but for foulanders i figured using the guard dog stat block and replacing tentacle whip with fire dance (basically just casting fire on every visible player) would you say that sounds about right?

That's a great idea for a campaign!! Oh it makes me so happy to imagine campaigns being run in this world.

If they're going to be low-level, using my formula to make the Foulander might present a massive challenge for them:

Definitely a boss monster for your Shinra grunts!

Looking at the Flame Dance MP cost and spell power, it's essentially a Fire2-All spell, aka the classic Fireball spell. It gets three uses of this spell before its exhausted its MP (in the video game, it would get six uses! I think the natural limitation on MP in my system would encourage the creature to use it more sparingly, mimicking the OG's more random AI). If your characters have 15 HP or less, this monster should be considered a party-killer. Of course, that could play into the adventure -- the Shinra team might have to trick it into "wearing itself out" before moving in to attack directly. Without the fireball spell, its biggest challenge is the high HP.

note: Since I haven't made a monster this far into the game as of yet, I'm noticing that my CR calculator is wayyyy off. This is definitely not a CR 20 monster, even with 3 fireballs up its sleeve. I took a wild stab and made it a CR 5, which is the same as a Night Hag or the specialist wizards from Volo's Guide to Monsters. Just... watch the fireball

edit: Of course, you could just as easily halve the levels of this creature. I've rigged up a "young foulander" which is a more appropriate challenge for a Level 1 party:

 

[shaned94]

That's a great idea for a campaign!! Oh it makes me so happy to imagine campaigns being run in this world.

If they're going to be low-level, using my formula to make the Foulander might present a massive challenge for them:

View attachment 6830

Definitely a boss monster for your Shinra grunts!

Looking at the Flame Dance MP cost and spell power, it's essentially a Fire2-All spell, aka the classic Fireball spell. It gets three uses of this spell before its exhausted its MP (in the video game, it would get six uses! I think the natural limitation on MP in my system would encourage the creature to use it more sparingly, mimicking the OG's more random AI). If your characters have 15 HP or less, this monster should be considered a party-killer. Of course, that could play into the adventure -- the Shinra team might have to trick it into "wearing itself out" before moving in to attack directly. Without the fireball spell, its biggest challenge is the high HP.

note: Since I haven't made a monster this far into the game as of yet, I'm noticing that my CR calculator is wayyyy off. This is definitely not a CR 20 monster, even with 3 fireballs up its sleeve. I took a wild stab and made it a CR 5, which is the same as a Night Hag or the specialist wizards from Volo's Guide to Monsters. Just... watch the fireball

edit: Of course, you could just as easily halve the levels of this creature. I've rigged up a "young foulander" which is a more appropriate challenge for a Level 1 party:

View attachment 6835

Man, you're a hero

 

[shaned94]

That's a great idea for a campaign!! Oh it makes me so happy to imagine campaigns being run in this world.

If they're going to be low-level, using my formula to make the Foulander might present a massive challenge for them:

View attachment 6830

Definitely a boss monster for your Shinra grunts!

Looking at the Flame Dance MP cost and spell power, it's essentially a Fire2-All spell, aka the classic Fireball spell. It gets three uses of this spell before its exhausted its MP (in the video game, it would get six uses! I think the natural limitation on MP in my system would encourage the creature to use it more sparingly, mimicking the OG's more random AI). If your characters have 15 HP or less, this monster should be considered a party-killer. Of course, that could play into the adventure -- the Shinra team might have to trick it into "wearing itself out" before moving in to attack directly. Without the fireball spell, its biggest challenge is the high HP.

note: Since I haven't made a monster this far into the game as of yet, I'm noticing that my CR calculator is wayyyy off. This is definitely not a CR 20 monster, even with 3 fireballs up its sleeve. I took a wild stab and made it a CR 5, which is the same as a Night Hag or the specialist wizards from Volo's Guide to Monsters. Just... watch the fireball

edit: Of course, you could just as easily halve the levels of this creature. I've rigged up a "young foulander" which is a more appropriate challenge for a Level 1 party:

View attachment 6835

okay last question for a while, how do you make your statblocks? do you make a txt file and then make an image file using the info or do you have a template you reccomend?

 

[Ite]

There are two websites I use. For years I exclusively used the Homebrewery but I’ve recently switched to the more stable GM Binder. Both emulate the 5e style pages and have their ups and downs. The monster packs here were made using GM Binder (and they’ll continue) but the rest was done in Homebrewery (as was my 200-page encyclopedia for my regular D&D world).

I am super down to take monster requests as they come — I’m gonna get around to all ~350 eventually but that’ll take a while. I’d love to hear all about your game! Are you going to be using the materia rules?

 

[shaned94]

There are two websites I use. For years I exclusively used the Homebrewery but I’ve recently switched to the more stable GM Binder. Both emulate the 5e style pages and have their ups and downs. The monster packs here were made using GM Binder (and they’ll continue) but the rest was done in Homebrewery (as was my 200-page encyclopedia for my regular D&D world).

I am super down to take monster requests as they come — I’m gonna get around to all ~350 eventually but that’ll take a while. I’d love to hear all about your game! Are you going to be using the materia rules?

absolutely. how do you reccommend players start as far as materia slots, i was thinking everyone starts with 2 linked slots and one common materia of their choice

There are two websites I use. For years I exclusively used the Homebrewery but I’ve recently switched to the more stable GM Binder. Both emulate the 5e style pages and have their ups and downs. The monster packs here were made using GM Binder (and they’ll continue) but the rest was done in Homebrewery (as was my 200-page encyclopedia for my regular D&D world).

I am super down to take monster requests as they come — I’m gonna get around to all ~350 eventually but that’ll take a while. I’d love to hear all about your game! Are you going to be using the materia rules?

Btw I'll take any statblocks you have finished if you don't mind.

 

[shaned94]

There are two websites I use. For years I exclusively used the Homebrewery but I’ve recently switched to the more stable GM Binder. Both emulate the 5e style pages and have their ups and downs. The monster packs here were made using GM Binder (and they’ll continue) but the rest was done in Homebrewery (as was my 200-page encyclopedia for my regular D&D world).

I am super down to take monster requests as they come — I’m gonna get around to all ~350 eventually but that’ll take a while. I’d love to hear all about your game! Are you going to be using the materia rules?

hey, could i get a couple blocks for leviathan, 1 as an early game boss and one as a proper summon?

 

[Ite]

Heyo! 2 slots to start sounds great! I designed it so that the expense/rarity of materia creates a soft cap for low level party, but all creatures start out able to attune to the max 16 materia. (My reasons were: I wanted to match the Amano concept art, and I didn’t want to create a bunch of lore as to why you had to use weapons and armor, when it’s very clearly just a video game mechanic — I don’t think Aeris’ white materia has a slot!) So slots were relegated to cosmetic preference, but there’s nothing stopping DMs from limiting the number of slots available to players — that’s a really clean way to set hard limitations for your game, and (despite what they say) players love limitations.

Re: Leviathan, here’s a quick and dirty version, pending a more thorough look at the monster. Leviathan already has a monster entry in 5e, on page 198 of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. (I was able to google and find the statblock.) I think it’s well-suited for CR20. As a summon materia, I would turn its Tidal Wave ability into its mythic ability (making it all happen in one action instead of 5 rounds) and I would give the summon and the mythic ability the same MP Costs as the Bahamut summon materia.

I would have no idea how to make a statblock for a low-level boss Leviathan. @_@ You sure you want low level adventurers to defeat The Leviathan?

I made some more tweaks to my formulas and have now completed/tweaked the monsters up to Bottomswell. I’ll be uploading them soon! Just check that WIP folder in the first post.

 

[Erotic Materia]

I'm still a bust-ass newbie with regard to D&D (plus I've never been a DM), so I can only barely follow any of this. That being said, if y'all ever want to do a test run like via zoom or what have you, I volunteer as tribute ?

 

[Ite]

I'm still a bust-ass newbie with regard to D&D (plus I've never been a DM), so I can only barely follow any of this. That being said, if y'all ever want to do a test run like via zoom or what have you, I volunteer as tribute ?

I totally would run a test game for y'all, as long as both "mayko" and "mahko" are considered acceptable pronunciations (don't judge me, lol, it's, er... it's regional?). I don't know if I've got the time to write a deep adventure right now, but I could run a few one-shots testing out the various dungeons, with original characters hacking their way through monsters and bosses. Anyone else interested?

 

[shaned94]

Heyo! 2 slots to start sounds great! I designed it so that the expense/rarity of materia creates a soft cap for low level party, but all creatures start out able to attune to the max 16 materia. (My reasons were: I wanted to match the Amano concept art, and I didn’t want to create a bunch of lore as to why you had to use weapons and armor, when it’s very clearly just a video game mechanic — I don’t think Aeris’ white materia has a slot!) So slots were relegated to cosmetic preference, but there’s nothing stopping DMs from limiting the number of slots available to players — that’s a really clean way to set hard limitations for your game, and (despite what they say) players love limitations.

Re: Leviathan, here’s a quick and dirty version, pending a more thorough look at the monster. Leviathan already has a monster entry in 5e, on page 198 of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. (I was able to google and find the statblock.) I think it’s well-suited for CR20. As a summon materia, I would turn its Tidal Wave ability into its mythic ability (making it all happen in one action instead of 5 rounds) and I would give the summon and the mythic ability the same MP Costs as the Bahamut summon materia.

I would have no idea how to make a statblock for a low-level boss Leviathan. @_@ You sure you want low level adventurers to defeat The Leviathan?

I made some more tweaks to my formulas and have now completed/tweaked the monsters up to Bottomswell. I’ll be uploading them soon! Just check that WIP folder in the first post.

I was thinking it would be good as a thematic boss for the wutai area but now that you mention it it is kinda dumb. ill figure something out

 

[Ite]

I was thinking it would be good as a thematic boss for the wutai area but now that you mention it it is kinda dumb. ill figure something out

I didn’t meant to make it sound dumb, my dude! I think thematically, it’s an awesome notion. And low level characters coming across a powerful artifact can make a really interesting story — just ask Frodo lol. For my own personal DM style, I like making my legendary creatures so legendary, that out-of-game irl generations of players talk about challenging these creatures and failing — but thats only one approach. At your table, you and your friends get the tell the story you want. There are no dumb ideas.

Along the thematic lines of Leviathan as like a patron boss fight of Wutai: a Water Elemental is a CR 5 monster that one could reskin as Leviathan or an avatar of Leviathan. Someone on reddit made a variety of water elemental enemies to use for all levels. Also: The giant constrictor snake (Monster Manual) is a CR 2, and has a Constrict ability that’s very serpent-like.

 

[shaned94]

I didn’t meant to make it sound dumb, my dude! I think thematically, it’s an awesome notion. And low level characters coming across a powerful artifact can make a really interesting story — just ask Frodo lol. For my own personal DM style, I like making my legendary creatures so legendary, that out-of-game irl generations of players talk about challenging these creatures and failing — but thats only one approach. At your table, you and your friends get the tell the story you want. There are no dumb ideas.

Along the thematic lines of Leviathan as like a patron boss fight of Wutai: a Water Elemental is a CR 5 monster that one could reskin as Leviathan or an avatar of Leviathan. Someone on reddit made a variety of water elemental enemies to use for all levels. Also: The giant constrictor snake (Monster Manual) is a CR 2, and has a Constrict ability that’s very serpent-like.

thanks man, sounds like a plan

 

[shaned94]

I totally would run a test game for y'all, as long as both "mayko" and "mahko" are considered acceptable pronunciations (don't judge me, lol, it's, er... it's regional?). I don't know if I've got the time to write a deep adventure right now, but I could run a few one-shots testing out the various dungeons, with original characters hacking their way through monsters and bosses. Anyone else interested?

id be down if the timings right

 

[shaned94]

Heyo! 2 slots to start sounds great! I designed it so that the expense/rarity of materia creates a soft cap for low level party, but all creatures start out able to attune to the max 16 materia. (My reasons were: I wanted to match the Amano concept art, and I didn’t want to create a bunch of lore as to why you had to use weapons and armor, when it’s very clearly just a video game mechanic — I don’t think Aeris’ white materia has a slot!) So slots were relegated to cosmetic preference, but there’s nothing stopping DMs from limiting the number of slots available to players — that’s a really clean way to set hard limitations for your game, and (despite what they say) players love limitations.

Re: Leviathan, here’s a quick and dirty version, pending a more thorough look at the monster. Leviathan already has a monster entry in 5e, on page 198 of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. (I was able to google and find the statblock.) I think it’s well-suited for CR20. As a summon materia, I would turn its Tidal Wave ability into its mythic ability (making it all happen in one action instead of 5 rounds) and I would give the summon and the mythic ability the same MP Costs as the Bahamut summon materia.

I would have no idea how to make a statblock for a low-level boss Leviathan. @_@ You sure you want low level adventurers to defeat The Leviathan?

I made some more tweaks to my formulas and have now completed/tweaked the monsters up to Bottomswell. I’ll be uploading them soon! Just check that WIP folder in the first post.

Hey, not trying to rush you, but i was curious what the eta on those bestiary pages was, i've been watching since you posted this and i was just curious if you had a a time frame in mind

 

[Ite]

Hey, not trying to rush you, but i was curious what the eta on those bestiary pages was, i've been watching since you posted this and i was just curious if you had a a time frame in mind

Heyoooo. Here's the most updated all-in-one collection of all the statblocks I've done (including our Foulander experiment!) Since this is a .pdf snapshot of a WIP document, it will quickly become outdated, but for your purposes this is what I can give you right now:

Monsters!

 

[shaned94]

Heyoooo. Here's the most updated all-in-one collection of all the statblocks I've done (including our Foulander experiment!) Since this is a .pdf snapshot of a WIP document, it will quickly become outdated, but for your purposes this is what I can give you right now:

Monsters!

awesome man, i was planning to have the party lay over in junon so i need the first continent. your the man

 

[tamsynnimogen]

im really liking your materia system seems to me to be the best one for dnd5e out there. hope to see the other modules mentioned on the spreadsheet when there ready.

 

[tamsynnimogen]

ok so after looking over the document in more detail. its still my fave materia system for 5e just a quick question in regards to things like mp turbo how would the % increase in cost and damage work on spells that dont quite have the ability to do so eg
1 star mp turbo increases cost by 10% and damage output by 10% if linked with a level 1 fire materia how would you add 10% to 4mp would it be a min of 1? also with the damage being 1d10+mb if that was say a roll of 1 and MB of 1 so total being 2 would the min increase be 1 extra damage or would it work out as something different ?

 

[Ite]

You're absolutely right it should read "xx% (rounded up with a minimum of 1)" in all cases. Good catch! I should probably also add something like "If the linked spell inflicts multiple damage types, this bonus is applied to each of them separately."

The general rule says round down, so maybe I originally intended it to be rounded down? From where I’m sittin right now, rounding down with this combo sounds like no fun.

I've not yet had this materia in play (it's one of the more math-heavy ones and players didn't really go for it) so it's kind of just a straight port of the FF7 mechanic. I imagine it's the kind of materia that sucks at low levels but has a major return on investment as you level up, especially since a player character's Magic Bonus increases the damage output for all spells every level up (mwa ha haaaa!). It's listed as common, which means that whenever I ported it I didn't think it was too OP...

Spoiler: Deep Dive on MP Turbo

Okay, to determine MP Turbo's usefulness, let's take four examples: the worst possible use, an average, a powerful, and an epic:

_________________________________________
Acid cast by a level 1 character Wisdom 3 (-4) (MB: -3)
Base Cost: 4 MP
Damage: 1d6-3 acid damage
Minimum: 0 acid damage
Average: 0 acid damage
Maximum: 3 acid damage

With MP Turbo (at each star-rating)
Cost: 5/5/6/6/6
Mininum: 0/0/0/0/0*
Average: 0/0/0/0/0*
Maximum: 4/4/4/5/5

Verdict: totally useless, but if you are choosing to build a character this way, that’s on you lol

_________________________________________
Fira cast by a level 5 character Wisdom 14 (+2) (a spellsword or some other kind of all-rounder).
Base Cost: 15 MP
Damage: 6d6+7 fire damage
Mininum Roll: 13 fire damage
Average Roll: 25 fire damage
Maximum Roll: 43 fire damage

With MP Turbo
Cost: 17/18/20/21/23
Min: 15/16/17/19/20
Avg: 28/30/33/35/38
Max: 48/52/56/61/65

Verdict: Working as intended, a decent bump across the board. MP Turbo allows you to start one-shotting dragon wyrmlings even with average damage, and the bump on max damage now makes you a threat to ogres, werewolves, hags and Pegasi, previously out of your one-shot range.

_________________________________________
Harm cast by a level 13 character Wisdom 20 (+5) (a dedicated mage type).
Base Cost: 45 MP
Damage: 13d6+18 necrotic damage
Mininum Roll: 31 necrotic damage
Average Roll: 57 necrotic damage
Maximum Roll: 96 necrotic damage

With MP Turbo
Cost: 50/54/59/63/68
Min: 35/38/41/44/47
Avg: 63/69/75/80/86
Max: 106/116/125/135/144

Verdict: Seeing some heavier risk/reward here. Up to 23 extra MP cost for (worst-case-scenario) a measly +16 damage? OUCH. But, on the higher end, you could now one-shot a lich, a bone devil, or a young green dragon, which is pretty dang impressive.
_________________________________________
Cometa (Magic Bonus doesn’t apply, you only need to have the MP for it).
Base Cost: 85 MP
Damage: 20d6 fire damage + 20d6 bludgeoning damage
Min: 40
Avg: 120
Max: 240

With MP Turbo
Cost: 94/102/111/119/128
Min: 44/48/52/56/60
Avg: 132/144/156/168/180
Max: 264/288/312/336/360

Verdict: If you roll 40 dice and they all come up 1s, please take a picture. In such a situation, even if the enemy makes the save, the normal spell is guaranteed to kill a crocodile outright, and a linked Master will bump that up to include CR 2 monsters like gricks and cockatrice. However, the steep increase to MP Cost makes rolling poorly more punishing. At max damage, though, MP Turbo makes the difference between one-shotting Adult Dragons and one-shotting Ancient Dragons. I’ll repeat that: one-shotting Ancient Dragons — plural — with a single cast. As this is the most powerful spell in the game (damage-wise), I would say this is working as intended.

*something I didn’t account for: how do you calculate percentage when the spell does negative damage? It’s not something a self-respecting roleplayer would build for themselves, but it IS something a shit-disturbing wangrod would do in a pretzel-league game lol. Hopefully the “minimum of 1” thing will resolve any negative percent shenanigans. ???

 

[tamsynnimogen]

thanks for the reply. im currently designing a campaign that uses both this and silentsorens ffxiv classes and races. im using the magic points varient rule with a slight change which is an slightly alternate version of your everyones magic rule were spell casters use their spell casting stat instead of wisdom and the mp their generates their mp for class spells and spell dice is determined by the hit dice so a d12 hd give d6 sd, d10 hd give d8 sd, d8 hd gives you a d10 sd and d6 hd gives you a d12 sd wich works out as if a level 20 wizard has 20 intelligence they'll end up with 135 mp which is 2 more than what the dmg states which maybe op with the fact they can use their dice to regain mp on a short rest but could also work out will let you know how the game goes with the changes

 

[Ite]

thanks for the reply. im currently designing a campaign that uses both this and silentsorens ffxiv classes and races. im using the magic points varient rule with a slight change which is an slightly alternate version of your everyones magic rule were spell casters use their spell casting stat instead of wisdom and the mp their generates their mp for class spells and spell dice is determined by the hit dice so a d12 hd give d6 sd, d10 hd give d8 sd, d8 hd gives you a d10 sd and d6 hd gives you a d12 sd wich works out as if a level 20 wizard has 20 intelligence they'll end up with 135 mp which is 2 more than what the dmg states which maybe op with the fact they can use their dice to regain mp on a short rest but could also work out will let you know how the game goes with the changes

That sounds awesome!! I’d love to hear all about it.

 

[tamsynnimogen]

so we've played the short oneshot (well was 3 sessions) and it worked great for full casters kindda odd for half/3rd casters due but not too baad as they were capped from the stronger spells but did have too much mp so may have too look at it and it makes warlocks really screwy. but all in all wasnt bad experience

 

[Ite]

so we've played the short oneshot (well was 3 sessions) and it worked great for full casters kindda odd for half/3rd casters due but not too baad as they were capped from the stronger spells but did have too much mp so may have too look at it and it makes warlocks really screwy. but all in all wasnt bad experience

Glad it went well! Thanks for your feedback.

 

[tamsynnimogen]

your welcome its a great system imho and my players its the best materia system for 5e

 

[Ite]

First update in a while. I haven't had time to work on this in a bit, but I'll have some time in the next few days and I hope to get another big chunk of the bestiary drafted out. Here's some of the work I'm proud of today:



As I mentioned earlier, these tables represent the random encounters of the world map zones. Versions of battles that have back attacks, pincer attacks, etc. are reflected in the higher chance of encountering a particular enemy group (true to the OG) but the arrangement itself isn't reflected because D&D is a bit more varied in battle setups, ambushes, and the like.

I compile the tables using data from DynamixDJ's Enemy Database and Calculator, which is also where I get a lot of the info on enemy abilities, spells, etc. For the types of chocobos (great, good, etc.) I reference Mike's Chocobo Breeding Guide which is the best chocobo guide there is. At the moment, I don't have any mechanical function for the chocobo types, but it's good to have them (if not for some kind of chocobo breeding expansion, then just as a reference for when you're playing the OG lol)

My goal is to finish the West Continent this week, which would add a new pack to the google drive folder (see OP) but more importantly it would mark the halfway point of the bestiary project! Considering how many other hobby horses I'm ridin' through this pandemic, I'm making good time on this