D&D for Kids: Magic and Spellcasting

Magic & Spellcasting

Some characters have classes that allow them to know words and gestures for casting magic spells. You may also find magical books or wands that give you magical powers. Below is a list of some spells you can choose from. You can only cast one spell per turn.

If you have an idea for a spell of your own, you can ask your Dungeon Master about it. If the spell is allowed, he or she will tell you whether it's a Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 spell. There are two kinds of spells: Arcane spells, which use power from the magic in the universe and the world around you, and divine spells, which use power from beings like spirits, angels, nature, and gods.

D&D for Kids: Combat

Combat

Adventures often involve heroes fighting evil monsters, and the same can happen to your character! The Dungeon Master will control the monsters, and your character will be able to use his or her abilities to fight with sword, shield, or sorcery to rid the world of them. You don’t have to fight monsters; you can try reasoning with them or sneaking past them. But in the event that combat begins, here’s what you need to know.

D&D for Kids (Bonus): Rare Races

Rare Races

Aasimar

Whereas tieflings are created from dark magic, aasimar (pronounced "awesome-ar") are born with heavenly powers. They are guided by angels who speak to them in dreams in visions, teaching them to use their powers for good. Aasimar mostly look like humans, but they are generally taller and more beautiful, sometimes with golden or jewel-colored eyes, alabaster skin, or silver hair. Aasimar can live up to 160 years old. Aasimar love to destroy anything evil. If you want to be an aasimar, choose one of the Racial Traits below:

• Light Magic. You can make light to shine in the darkness, and you can heal wounds. After you heal someone's wounds, you need to rest before you can do it again.
• Angel Wings. You can cause feathery, glowing angel wings to sprout from your shoulders so that you can fly for 1 minute. After you fly, you need to rest before you can do it again.
• Radiant Power. You can sense evil creatures like vampires, demons, and skeletons nearby, and dark magic can't hurt you.

D&D for Kids: Choosing a Class

Choosing a Class

Your character’s “class” involves their set of skills, what they’re good at, and their calling and job in an adventuring group. Do you want your character to be a knight in armor holding a sword and shield, a wizard with a magic staff, or something else? Choose one of the classes below, then pick a Class Ability to start with.

Each time you play D&D, you’ll gain experience that lets your character grow and gain new abilities. The more adventures and stories you adventure through, the more powerful your hero will become! Below are the classes you can be in D&D. Pick a class, and then choose one of the abilities beneath it as your Class Ability. Whenever you level up through experience, you can gain another use of your Class Ability or choose a new one. When you reach Level 10, you can gain your class’s Epic Ability.

D&D for Kids: Basic Rules & Choosing a Race

I recently joined a Facebook group called "Dads and Dragons," for dads like me who love roleplaying games and playing them with their kids. I've seen a few resources out there for adapting D&D 5e to kids, but none of them were good enough to be standalone publications. Below I've compiled a collection of rule adaptations to simplify D&D 5e for kids 6 and up, rather than 12 and up. I'm leaning on the side of opening the game for fun story opportunities and making kids feel satisfied, like making successes more likely and promoting "fun" abilities rather than decidedly "balanced" ones, but all feedback is appreciated!

Once I've gotten all the rules fleshed out and playtested, I'll release these rules on a PDF. More to come later!

Thoughts on Warcraft III Reforged (ongoing)

Well, my favorite PC game of all time has been remastered and reworked into Warcraft III: Reforged, and all my childhood dreams have come true... or have they?

Yesterday I streamed my first reactions of the Warcraft 3 Reforged campaigns and, while I remained as optimistic as possible throughout the first few missions, ultimately I ended the day in a disappointed funk. Though I like the game's models, the truth is, Blizzard got all their priorities wrong and delivered a straight-up underwhelming, misleading product. And I can't figure out why! This is the company that made modern masterpieces like Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm, both with amazing models, UI, gameplay, and features, but then they release something that feels like an unfinished beta project made by amateurs.

I'm trying to remain positive, even though the game's score on Metacritic was 1.9 yesterday and has dropped all the way down to 1.1 as of posting this. Blizzard can't ignore that, can they? My hope is that they listen to players (for once), refund us all their money, set Warcraft III's classic launcher back to its old self, and then just start over and try again. No harm, no foul. They can come back to us in a year or two when they've released a polished product. But until then, it just feels off.

Anyway, enough ranting. My purpose in making this post was actually more constructive. I'm here to make a list of the things I like and the things I don't like about Warcraft 3 Reforged as I play through it. This list will change quite a bit as I add things to it in the coming months, so feel free to check back. These may give useful data for a future video on the Abelhawk channel.

Six-Word Memoirs

Why is it I have to wait at least five years to write about my creative works on Pretzel Lectern? It's like this blog just oozes nostalgia and has some kind of requirement for the creative works to age a little to make sure they're good enough quality. Anyhow, here are some "six-word memoirs" I wrote when I learned about them five years ago. Most of them reflect the somewhat sad state of my life back then, which is comforting now that I'm happy, prosperous, and optimistic. A salary job, Wellbutrin, and D&D have definitely helped.