Well, I finally caught up with my purchased Assassin's Creed games. Now it's time to try Valhalla and maybe go back and play Assassin's Creed II to see who this "Ezio" character is all the other games keep referencing. Anyway! Except for the excessive number of hit points that all the enemies on this game had, I really enjoyed this adventure in Ancient Greece, and as always, it inspired some new mechanics and plot devices for D&D games.
Threatening Beasts
Let's face it: beasts are the most boring enemy type in D&D. I don't think it's because it's not fun to fight or hunt beasts; it's that there's nothing stronger in the game than a giant ape, except for dinosaurs (which are not common in my campaigns). Once your party is high enough, any sort of spell or ability involving beast types always seems like it gets nerfed. Odyssey, however, fixes that trope with legendary beasts. The game describes these beasts as being sent or created by the goddess Artemis, and from what I understand, the beasts sort of "reincarnate" or are brought back into the world whenever there's a hero to prove his or her worth to hunt them. This explains why I, as Kassandra, could hunt the Nemean lion even though Herakles killed it in his time already.
These legendary beasts are just that—legendary. Rumors surround their existence, and when you see each animal for the first time, the main character is in awe at its supernatural beauty and strength. The Lykaeon wolf is literally the Lykaeon wolf; the only one of its kind, bigger and more dangerous than any other wolf in the world.
I think D&D could benefit from having legendary beasts in it, even if it is just beasts with legendary actions, legendary resistance, lair actions, more hit points, higher DCs, and something special about it that makes it a worthy challenge. I was going to say that if you're worried about your druid character Wild Shaping into a legendary beast, maybe change legendary beasts' type to Monstrosity, but a more interesting way that doesn't defeat the point of this idea would be to let them do it only once every 7 days, and without legendary actions.
Below are some ideas for legendary beasts, based on the ones you fight in Odyssey:
- Kallisto the Bear. Huge polar bear with resistance to all damage except psychic damage.
- Hind of Keryneia. Giant elk with Evasion; regenerates 5 hit points each turn unless it takes poison damage.
- Nemean Lion. Honestly, the fleecemane lion from Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a great blueprint for any of these.
- Lykaeon Wolf. Dire wolf that can howl, casting conjure animals (wolves) once per long rest.
- Kalydonian Boar. Giant boar that crits on a roll of 19 or 20. Critical hits made against it become normal hits.
- Kretan Bull. Beefed-up (lol) cow with at least 45 hp and a hoof attack. Gains advantage on its next attack if it takes fire damage. If it starts its turn with less than half its hit points, it becomes permanently Reckless.
- Krokottas Hyena. A giant hyena that can use its reaction to Bite targets that get within its range. While it has at least half its hit points, attacks against it have disadvantage.
- Erymanthian Boar. Another giant boar, this time with immunity to poison and 2d6 poison damage added to its Tusk attack and Charge ability. Can cast stinking cloud once per day.
Bounty Hunter Mercenaries
You're not an assassin in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, you're a mercenary (or místhios). And there are lots of other mercenaries that wander Greece at the time. Some of them have bounties on their heads, which is something that translates well to D&D, but one thing I enjoy about Odyssey is that the mercenaries can become bounty hunters for you. A good way to get players to stop being murder hoboes is to have bounty hunters start hunting them down very soon after they commit a crime.
But the thing I like most about the mercenaries in the game is that there's a clear hierarchy of who's the better mercenary than who in all of Greece. Every five or so mercenaries form a "tier" in this hierarchy, and if you defeat the mercenary above you, you take their place, possibly entering a new tier and gaining the benefit associated with it. These benefits generally take the form of discounts on certain types of upgrades or purchases, which makes sense realistically, as your reputation precedes you.
For your players who like to fight, consider making a hierarchy of mercenaries, assassins, or better yet if you don't want to worry about these enemies wandering the world and randomly encountering the players, arena combatants. Every champion the player defeats could gain them a reputation point of some kind, and after certain amounts of reputation points are attained, they could gain a benefit, such as a discount, access to a prohibited area, or even a magic item that gets passed on to the victor.
Hiring Lieutenants for Your Stronghold
I'll admit this one is a little silly, even in the game, but it could be fun in some cases. Whenever you nonlethally defeat a human opponent in Odyssey, you can choose to "Recruit" them instead of kill them. This makes them a "lieutenant" of your ship, and each lieutenant has different abilities that improve the way your ship runs, if you pay them.
Recruiting defeated enemies would probably not translate well as a mechanic in D&D, but the idea of different lieutenants or chamberlains giving different benefits if the players hire them for their stronghold could be fun. There could even be a limit on how many chamberlains (and therefore benefits) the players could have depending on what level their stronghold was, which could offer a great gold sink for them to spend on making room for more. See my post on Assassin's Creed: Unity for more of my ideas on how strongholds can be done right in D&D.
Tracking Down Cultists with Clues
Spoiler alert: There's an evil cult in Odyssey that's trying to take over the world, and one of your goals is to hunt down each of its members and put them to your blade. I love the way the game handles the tracking down each cultist, as well as the rewards for defeating them.
The Cult of Kosmos is organized into several "branches." One gathers information, one specializes in piracy, one tries to undermine religion, and so forth, and each branch has five members and is led by a Sage. Cultists are identified as you move through the main story and campaign, and each one you defeat leaves behind a clue on who the next cultist in that same branch is. When enough clues are found, a cultist becomes unmasked and trackable. When all the cultists in a branch are defeated, there are enough clues to find the Sage of that branch, who drops the biggest reward. It's probably possible to accidentally find a cultist or to narrow down the wealth of incomplete, vague clues surrounding a Sage, but the real fun comes in taking down the cult one by one based on your current knowledge.
The rewards for hunting the Cult are great as well. Each cultist drops an "artifact fragment" which can be used to upgrade your most powerful weapon, the Spear of Leonidas, and each cultist also drops a piece of armor that is part of a set. Defeating an entire branch of cultists completes the set, which offers a "set bonus," and defeating the Sage rewards you with a weapon that synergizes well with the set.
Any D&D campaign that has a secret organization could benefit well from a system like this. It's fulfilling, intriguing, and the clues give players an endless supply of quest hooks to follow.
Engraving and Orichalcum
Lastly, Odyssey has an interesting customization system with its equipment, or in D&D terms, magic items.
Engravings
"Engraving" an item can be done at any blacksmith for a fee, and doing so adds an extra benefit to any piece of armor or weapon. You start with basic engravings to choose from, but gain additional ones as you level up and find them in your travels. You can engrave or re-engrave an item any number of times, but it can only hold one at a time.
Just like Feats add interesting aspects to character classes, engraving (or adding runes to items, or enchanting them, or having an artificer infuse them, whatever) could add an interesting way to subtly change magic items in fun ways. I think the key here is "subtly." An engraving that gives a +1 to a suit of armor or a weapon would be far too powerful unless it came with a heavy cost. It would also be less interesting. I'd go instead for engravings that, say, change the damage type of a flame tongue sword to something else, or add one of the Minor Properties listed on magic items in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Having a defeated drow give you an engraving for making any magic item "Drow" (half the normal weight but less functional in sunlight) or finding an engraving that makes a magic item "Unbreakable" would be much more of an interesting twist on an item.
You could find new engravings as rewards for quests, drops from enemies, or maybe you could simply learn how to replicate existing engravings if you found an already engraved magic item. You could even have "cursed" engravings that give a benefit that comes with a cost. There are lots of possibilities here!
Orichalcum
I actually don't use this system in AC: Odyssey because of the ease of already finding Legendary items throughout normal quests, but I thought it would be an amazing alternative to the crafting rules in D&D. There is one merchant in Odyssey who offers to trade Legendary magic items in exchange for a rare and mystical ore called orichalcum. This ore is found in remote, hard-to-reach areas and as a reward for certain quests. It's probably also found on cultists and other enemies as drops.
I love the idea of having a singular mystical material that all magic items in the world are crafted from. What if orichalcum, or some other material of your choosing, could be used to craft different magic items depending on how much you could find? Not only could you use orichalcum as a reward for quests to give the players options on customizing their own arsenal of magic items, you could make it so that existing magic items the players don't want could be melted down and destroyed to reclaim the orichalcum inside them. I would lean away from using this for consumable items, and assume that orichalcum is specifically for permanent items.
The worth of orichalcum per rarity of the item crafted or dismantled is probably just as loosy-goosy as the existing pricing system in the DMG. You could simply divide the magic item's worth by 100, or depending on how often you reward your players with orichalcum, you could follow a system like this:
- Common - orichalcum dust worth 1/5 of one unit of orichalcum
- Uncommon - 2 orichalcum
- Rare - 5 orichalcum
- Epic - 10 orichalcum
- Legendary - 20 orichalcum
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