The Amethyst Dragon’s Hoard of Everything is a 575-page 5e supplement on Kickstarter. Over 250 backers are chasing its 1,700+ new options.
There’s a free preview for it (PDF) that teases volcanoes. Nathan Bruha, aka The Amethyst Dragon, has kindly given us the rest of it. First, though, here’s the pitch and video.
The book has new and revised rules for players, GMs and even worldbuilders, including but not limited to the following;
- 59 new ancestries/subraces
- 108 subclasses
- 46 martial techniques
- 20 diseases
- 115 monsters
- 528 magic items
… all made without AI.
The Amethyst Dragon’s Hoard of Everything is a 575-page book filled more than 1,700 original creations for adventurous 5e players and GMs to use in their games, including new subclasses, new species and ancestries, additional feats and added abilities, new items and equipment, hundreds of new spells and magic items, treasures, points of interest, plot hooks, unique NPCs, monsters, and more.
Volcanoes: More Than Just Liquid Hot Magma
by Nathan Bruha
Volcanic Hazards
In many fantasy settings, active volcanoes are relatively stable environments, with pools or rivers of liquid lava that might bubble and splash out once in a while and some hot air. Actual active volcanoes vary wildly, and they can be used as inspiration for making your game’s volcanoes more interesting and dangerous.
Lava
Some lavas have different textures and viscosities than others. Thicker, cooler lavas are often surrounded by mounds and walls of hot, tumbling rocks. Thinner lavas, like those most people likely imagine, can ooze and flow more easily but are still much heavier and denser than water. The Hawaiian terms for these can be used for fun (aa (ah-ah) for the former, pahoehoe (pah-hoi-hoi) for the latter) and ready categorization.
Because lava is so much denser than the body of a living creature, a typical character will never actually sink into, wade through, or be fully submerged in lava.
Hot lava is definitely dangerously hot. For simplicity, you can assume that even different types of lava have the same temperature of “really, really hot.” Just being close to it is dangerous to the unprotected, with the air near it heated to 4 to 5 times hotter than a typical oven can get.
Lava Walking. Walking is possible on hot lava. It is difficult terrain. It is not firm enough to be considered solid ground; parts of it may shift underfoot; the creature may stick to the lava; and the parts of the lava that may have solidified to form a thin crust may break and slide when stepped on.
A creature that can normally ignore difficult terrain, like some rangers, could still conceivably have trouble moving over lava because it’s not a landscape they’ve had a lot of practice traversing.
You can assume that creatures that live with lava, such as fire elementals, do not treat lava as difficult terrain.
When a creature first comes into contact with lava by stepping or falling on it, or when it begins its turn on lava, that creature takes 10d10 fire damage from the molten rock and the air that has been heated by contact with it.
Radiant Heat. Just being near lava can be dangerous due to the intense heat. A creature that gets within 30 feet of hot lava or starts its turn there takes 2d10 fire damage, while a creature within 10 feet takes 5d10 fire damage.
Lava Contact. If a creature is in the path of splashed pahoehoe or a burst of aa, it must make a DC 13 Dexterity throw and takes 1d10 bludgeoning damage and 2d10 fire damage, or half as much damage with a successful saving throw.
If a creature is somehow covered in hot lava, perhaps by being trapped under a sudden “waterfall” of lava, it takes 18d10 fire damage when it first becomes covered and at the start of each of its turns after that. You may want to have the creature take 4d8 bludgeoning damage each turn as well, due to the immense, crushing weight of the lava.
Pyroclastic Flow
When some volcanoes erupt, they release what’s called a pyroclastic flow. This fast-moving avalanche is a mixture of rocks, volcanic ash, and searing hot gases that moves down the side of a volcano. Everything within the flow is heavily obscured.
At the start of each of its turns within a pyroclastic flow, a character must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, it takes 5d10 bludgeoning damage, 5d10 fire damage, and 5d10 poison damage; it is knocked prone; and it is blinded until the end of its next turn. The creature takes half as much damage and is not prone if it succeeds on the saving throw.
Steam Blast
Water that comes into contact with very hot rocks or lava can immediately and violently explode into scalding steam and hot rocks.
One gallon of water turns into a 10-foot radius cloud of steam. Each creature within the area of the explosion must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw and takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage and 4d6 fire damage, or half as much with a successful saving throw. If more than one gallon of water reaches the heat source at once, the radius of the steam explosion increases by 5 feet for each additional 2 gallons of water.
The steam immediately dissipates as it rises and mixes with the air.
Lahar
When volcanic materials from an eruption mix with water, snow, or ice, it can create a lahar. Basically a volcanic mudslide, a lahar can travel for miles down mountainsides and along valleys, carrying not just water and mud but debris like trees and large boulders. When it settles, a lahar can trap creatures within it as if it were wet cement.
Like a flash flood, a lahar can catch characters that are unaware of its approach. Villages filled with NPCs are likely to be most affected by a lahar.
Poisonous Gases
Deadly gases bubble forth from lava, escape through vents in the rock, and are forced into the sky by eruptions. Volcanoes release a variety of gases that can cause difficulty breathing and can even affect creatures that come into contact with them.
These poisonous gases tend to accumulate in low-lying areas. If a character is in a space filled with a poisonous gas at the start of its turn, it must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw and takes 2d6 poison damage, or half as much damage with a successful saving throw. Creatures that don’t breathe have advantage on this saving throw, but they are still affected, as some gasses affect bodies on contact.
Poisonous gases erupting from a vent or bubbling out of lava will be very hot. In addition to causing poison damage, a creature caught in a vent of gases must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw and takes 6d6 fire damage, or half as much damage with a successful saving throw.
Bombs and Ash
When a volcano erupts, it can send rocks and molten rock into the air, where it cools and falls. Rocky bombs will fall within a mile or so of the volcano, while the ash is light enough to be spread for hundreds of miles by wind.
If a character is unlucky enough to be caught in an area when volcanic bombs are falling from the sky, it must make a DC 5 Dexterity saving throw at the start of each minute while it is not under some sort of strong shelter. If it fails, it is struck by a bomb and takes 5d6 bludgeoning damage.
The air in an area filled with volcanic ash is lightly obscured. Each creature in the area, unless it can breathe through a fabric mask or other material that can filter the air, takes 1d4 slashing damage at the end of each 10 minutes that passes. Volcanic ash is heavier than rain or snow, and the weight of accumulating ash can quickly damage vegetation and structures that are not designed to hold much weight.
Backing The Amethyst Dragon’s Hoard of Everything
The campaign runs until September 4. The estimated delivery is March 25, and retailer options are available.
The digital version of The Amethyst Dragon’s Hoard of Everything is available to backers at the $45 tier.
The hardcover of the large book is the reward for pledging to the $95 tier. A bundle with both the hardcover book and digital version is available at the $125 tier, as well as at $135 (in this level, the hardcover is autographed by the creator).
All tiers have access to the add-ons. The books can be sent almost everywhere worldwide, though the autographed The Amethyst Dragon’s Hoard of Everything only ships to the United States of America.
- Kickstarter: The Amethyst Dragon’s Hoard of Everything.
- Hoard of Everything preview (PDF).
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