Wednesday, May 22, 2024

ToV PDF Thoughts, Part 14

The Nerrath campaign from D&D 4E is something of my Holy Grail campaign to play again. I initially felt Level Up Advanced 5E was the game to play with, and it would work well since it has all the 4E "toys" and concepts.

Then Tales of the Valiant came along.

Then, as if to test our mettle, I encountered the 25-hp Orc in the Monster Vault. Its presence reminded me of the challenging and thrilling encounters that awaited us in the game, sparking a renewed sense of excitement and anticipation.

Back in 4E, the monsters were tough, and this is why we played. Goblins were not pushovers anymore, and Orcs were more level 3-5 monsters who showed up like the main forces of the Red Army when the demon lords were so angry they sent in front-line troops to clean up, kill everything good-aligned, and corrupt the land for Hell.

The ToV Orcs are those Orcs.

While doing a fully supported 4E Nerrath campaign with ToV is possible, a few things will be missing. Dragonkin is a race in Midgard, so having "official support" for those may be a while. But they can be simulated with our choices, or if you do your character sheets by hand, you can just port them in and use the 5E versions.

Remember, ToV does not do racial ability score modifiers - drop ALL of them! Your scores start higher, so you need not modify them for lineage choices.

In Level Up, ability score modifiers are dropped, too. They are a part of a character's background, and you only get 2 points. Personally, I like ToV's higher starting stats and no modifications after character generation better than D&D's race-based modifiers, or LU's background-based modifiers.

Simplify it! And the newer way in D&D (add 2 points to anything, because of any reason) is just as dumb. Why am I adding ability score points after generation? Factor them out, and add them at generation. Otherwise people may need to go back and adjust modifiers and other derived stats.

Using Hero Lab or other tools without custom lineage choices, you can simulate the missing 4E lineages. Now, this is only for Hero Lab. If you are doing sheets by hand, you have everything at your fingertips and can import anything except for the ability score modifiers (and most of the dark-vision).

Dragonborn, until we get the Midgard Dragonkin, can be the Beastkin (sturdy) lineage. This "good enough" substitution will work until ToV and Hero Lab do the official Midgard support.

Drow can be an Elf lineage with a stone heritage.

Even some Midgard races can be simulated, as the Ravenfolk in Midgard is really the Beastfolk(avian) lineage. The Gearforged in Midgard (and the Warforged out of 4E) will be a problem, and another Beastkin replacement will serve as a placeholder, or maybe a Human with that extra talent serving as a specialization.

The ToV Orcs can substitute for Gnolls, Trolls, Ogres, Bugbears, and others. It is "close enough" until more choices appear.

The ToV Humans, with the extra talent choice, can simulate a lot of races, from shadow kin to elemental lineages and many others - once you get creative. You can even override the lineage name in Hero Lab so everything appears correctly. Above is my "Orc as Gnoll" character, even though Gnolls are unavailable in ToV Hero Lab.

With ToV taking that +2 ability score modifier out of races and factoring it into ability score selection, whatever shape you become, it is a matter of selecting a race that is close enough or gives you a talent that sort of matches your lineage concept.

This is how we did it in the old ways.

Are you playing a ghost? Use the Human lineage with a necromancy focus. We will make you resistant to physical damage during play; put a note on your sheet.

Close enough is good enough.

You do not need perfect or an official paid-for selection in an online tool. If I were doing this by hand (which in ToV is easy enough to do), I would have anything I want. With online tools that don't have all the options, just get it close enough and say, "It works."

Hack it, make it work, and get playing ASAP.

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