Creature Preview: Wurfrur and Vocoeur

The blink dog and the displacer beast are two of the creatures I most remember falling in love with when I started playing D&D. Good-aligned extradimensional dogs ? Predatory phasing cats? An ancient enmity between them? Sign me up!

An interesting thing about blink dogs is that they’re sapient, meaning they’re not only intelligent but they have their own language. In AD&D, displacer beasts didn’t speak, but they gained that ability and an evil alignment in the 3e days, both of which they retain in CORE20. When I shared the ohoomwi, I mentioned that CORE20 is making a point of having all sapient creatures named according to what they call themselves, so that CORE20 names the blink dog as the wurfrur and the displacer beast as the vocoeur. But the naming of the vocoeur actually has an interesting side story to it.

Back in the early 2000s when Wizards of the Coast opened up D&D to third-party development by way of the Open Gaming License, that license called out elements of so-called “Product Identity” that were declared absolutely off-limits for third-party products. If you wanted to make material compatible with D&D using the Open Gaming License, you couldn’t use the name of the game or the titles of the core rulebooks, or the names of a bunch of planes, or a dozen specific monsters — including the displacer beast. 

Thankfully, with CORE20 built around the Creative Commons version of the Dungeons & Dragons SRD rather than the OGL version, the limitation on using the displacer beast no longer holds.  But what I and a lot of other people found hilarious about the displacer beast being in WotC’s list of “we own this and are protecting it so you can’t use it” monsters in the first place is that the displacer beast was stolen by Gary Gygax when he created it for the AD&D Monster Manual. As Gygax himself talked about openly, the creature’s appearance and abilities were lifted from a short story by science fiction author A.E. van Vogt, in which the creature’s name was Coeurl — with both those names giving the vocoeur their CORE20 identity.

(Click on the stat block header below to download the full stat block in PDF.)

Creature Preview: Peryton

You know you’ve done a good job at bringing a horrifying monster to life when your developer tells you, “Please don’t ever use this in a game I’m playing in.”

A feral magical predator, the peryton is known for their predilection for feeding on hearts — and for the fear that instills in characters who fight them, even before the fight begins. They are a creature both old (in game terms) and new (in real-world terms), having been around since the AD&D Monster Manual. But they were sourced not from ancient mythology (as many of the creatures of early D&D were) but from Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings, written in 1957. 

The peryton’s hunger for hearts has traditionally been mostly flavor, with versions of the creature from AD&D through 5e detailing how a peryton will bite out the heart of a hero only once that hero is dead. But for CORE20, I thought it would fun (for the GM; players’ opinions may vary) to tie the peryton’s heart harvesting to the mechanics for death and dying — allowing the peryton to take a fallen character from dying to dead with unforgiving speed.

(Click on the stat block header below to download the full stat block in PDF.)

Creature Preview: Ohoomwi

I am digging into a final pass through a bunch of new creatures, getting ready to add those creatures to the CORE20 Playtest Creature Package v1.1 update. While that’s happening, I thought I’d post a few choice creatures here, giving folks a playable preview of a few favorite monsters of mine, and offering a smattering of thoughts about what goes into a CORE20 monster, design-wise.

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The giant owl has been a mainstay of campaigns since the AD&D days, where they were noted both for their ability to surprise prey 83 percent of the time, and for being intelligent creatures who spoke their own language. But that second part has always raised the question for me of: Why does a creature with their own language not get to use that language for the name others use to refer to them?

For me, the answer in a very broad sense is a) lazy writing, but also b) colonialism. Because the colonialist mindset lurking at the heart of D&D via its evolution from tabletop wargames works very much around the idea that the fantasy realm is human-centric, and that humans decide what place all other creatures have in “their” world. And though the names of classic D&D monsters are absolutely the least of colonialism’s evils, they’ve always nagged at me, so CORE20 has taken a shot at fixing them.

As with the eapachni (from the giant eagle) in the first version of the CORE20 Playtest Creature Package, the ohoomwi is understood to be named from their own language, as is true of all other sapient creatures. When coming up with the name (because I don’t speak Ohoomwi, unfortunately), I wanted something that not only had an owl-like echo to it but felt intrinsically non-European. At some point, I tripped across a reference to “hohomisiw” as meaning “owl” in one of the Cree languages, and from my childhood, I remember “ukpik” (which I learned as “ookpik”) as the Inuktitut word for the snowy owl, and “ohoomwi” fell out from that.

(Click on the stat block header below to download the full stat block in PDF.)

Divination With a Kick

A thing that’s been pretty common over the ten-plus years that CORE20 has been slouching its way from house rules to alpha playtest to proper playtest is that things get added to the rules that are pretty cool. And then a year or two later, I notice something else in the rules that I hadn’t thought about at the time of creating the New Cool Thing that suggests all kinds of potential for a Newer Cool Thing.

That was the situation I noted earlier this year when fine-tuning the “Lineages”chapter of the CORE20 Players’ Guide, and checking the setup of the eldritch affinity trait:

Eldritch Affinity

Choose a school of magic. You have a +1 bonus to the challenge throw for magic you channel of that school, including from spells and magic items. The most common schools for dwarf eldritch affinity are abjuration, evocation, and transmutation, but you can select any school of magic that fits your character’s backstory.

Eldritch affinity provides a nice mechanical benefit for spellcasting characters to boost the saving throws against certain of their spells. But it also provides a bit of suggested story by having each lineage’s version of eldritch affinity talk about the most common schools of magic tying to the spellcasting traditions of that lineage. (As with all such suggestions in CORE20, however, you’re always free to choose a different option that makes sense for your character.) 

Over a few iterations of the trait, I divided up the schools of magic between the twelve worldborn lineages in ways that touched on some of the broad themes underlying how characters of a particular lineage connect to the traditions of their past, and it all eventually felt pretty good. Except much later, I then took another look at human, lizardfolk, and orc eldritch affinity, all of which suggested divination as one of their schools of magic — and thought to myself, “Wait… how many divination spells have saving throws?”

The answer, traditionally, is “Not many.” Detect thoughts and scrying have always been the big two (and scrying in CORE20 loses the saving throw in favor of the caster making a Magic check to connect to their target). So I thought I’d fix that.

Glimpse of the Future

The following divination spells are brand-new to CORE20, and are set to appear in the version 1.1 playtest rules update, coming soon!

Blood Tell

Divination

Level and Sphere: 2 — druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic
Range: 60 feet
Area: 15-foot-radius sphere
Targets: Each living creature in the area
Duration: 1 minute per caster level

Saving Throw: Will negates

Magic taps into the prophetic power of blood for each living creature in a 15-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet, forcing them to succeed on a Will save or reveal their weaknesses when gravely wounded. When an affected target is bloodied, you learn their lowest saving throw modifier and any immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities they have. While the target remains bloodied, you know how many critical points they have, and they have disadvantage on defense rolls, saving throws, and opposed skill checks against you.

Broken Will

Divination

Level and Sphere: 2 — animys, druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic
Range: 60 feet
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round per caster level
Saving Throw: Will negates

Visions of inescapable fate sap the willpower of the target creature, which must succeed on a Will save or have a d12 bane on Will saves for 1 round per caster level.

Harrowing Fate

Divination

Level and Sphere: 3 — animys, arcane, druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic
Range: 60 feet
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round per caster level
Saving Throw: Will negates (refocus at end of turn)

One creature within 60 feet is harrowed with visions of their own misfortune. The target must succeed on a Will saving throw or have disadvantage on all d20 rolls for 1 round per caster level, refocusing the save at the end of each turn. 

Arcane Material Component: A pinch of black sand.

Malicious Tell

Divination

Level and Sphere: 6 — animys, arcane, druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic, material
Range: 120 feet
Area: 15-foot-radius sphere
Targets: Each creature in the area
Duration: 1 minute per caster level
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (refocus on taking damage or having another condition imposed)

The power of grim fate permeates each creature in a 15-foot-radius sphere within 120 feet, forcing them to succeed on a Fortitude save or grant other creatures prophetic warnings of their intended physical actions. While the spell is in effect, each target has disadvantage on attack rolls, defense rolls, challenge throws, and skill checks using Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. A target can refocus the save on taking damage or having a condition imposed on them.

Arcane Material Component: The torn corner of a playing card.

Mind Dart

Divination

Level and Sphere: 3 — animys, arcane, druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic
Range: 60 feet
Target: One creature
Duration: 10 minutes per caster level
Saving Throw: Will negates

A tendril of divinatory power lashes out at one creature within 60 feet, who must succeed on a Will saving throw or have their presence bound to you. On a failed save, the target takes 1d6 psychic damage per caster level (maximum 5d6) and gains no benefit against you from concealment or total concealment for 10 minutes per caster level. 

Open Mind

Divination

Level and Sphere: 4 — animys, druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic
Range: 60 feet
Area: 15-foot-radius sphere
Targets: Each creature in the area
Duration: 1 minute per caster level
Saving Throw: Will negates

Magic assails the thoughts of each creature in a 15-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet, which must succeed on a Will save or reveal themself to you. You immediately learn each affected target’s attitude toward you and your allies — friendly, indifferent, unfriendly, or hostile — and you have advantage on Persuasion checks involving them.

Uncertain Fate

Divination

Level and Sphere: 6 — animys, arcane, druidas
Components: Lexis, somatic, material
Range: 60 feet
Area: 15-foot-radius sphere
Targets: Each creature in the area
Duration: 1 minute per caster level
Saving Throw: Reflex negates

Shadowy visions of the future attempt to bind themselves to each creature in a 15-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet, forcing them to succeed on a Reflex save or have their fate temporarily unbalanced. Whenever an affected creature obtains a clear success on a skill check or saving throw, or a clear hit on an attack roll, they become overwhelmed by uncertainty over their next actions and are dazed until the end of their next turn.

Arcane Material Component: A copper piece.

The Old Magic

The spellcasting and magic system in CORE20 will be familiar to anyone who’s ever unleashed a fireball in a d20 fantasy game. But with the baseline rules of the game built on a mythic foundation in which gods and deities aren’t real, extant figures constantly messing around with the mortal realm, I knew that I wanted to do something different with the idea of animyst domains (the cleric domains of D&D, with clerics rebranded for a “no gods, all monsters” kind of milieu).

Bonus Spells! Huzzah!

The first iteration of domains in the CORE20 alpha playtest (version 3.0, back when the game was still called d20 CORE) detached them from the portfolios of deities to make them more about the philosophy or focus of a particular animyst or animyst order. They used the model of domains in D&D 3.5e (which look a fair bit like domains in 5e), granting a special power and a number of bonus spells at different levels. They also inspired the creation of an analogous setup for druidas casters called dominions at the time (now druidas creeds). 

However, this setup had a problem right from the get-go, insofar as bonus spells are cool and all, but the utility of bonus spells falls off unless your character is a dedicated caster focused on hitting as high a caster level as possible. And although that kind of singular focus works fine in a class-based game, it really works against the “be whatever you want to be” ethos of CORE20 character building.

What Came Before

For version 7 of the CORE20 alpha playtest — which is the same exact ruleset as version 1 of the open beta playtest — I rebuilt domains and creeds from the ground up by looking to have them fill a space in the magic rules that I hadn’t yet filled. One of the things that’s always bothered me about D&D spellcasting is a lack of any sense of what the history of magic and spellcasting looks like in the game world. The D&D baseline of “Gods! More gods!” is part of this problem, with any number of standard campaign settings talking about how magic and spellcasting were gifts of one or more deities, who dropped that knowledge and art into the world ready-made.

I love the idea of history underpinning an RPG and its worlds. I love the idea of magic being a part of the world that evolved over time, starting small then improving and expanding in the same way that language and science and culture and politics evolve throughout history. So I asked myself the question: If spellcasting as we know it in the game is the current end point of the evolution of magic, what came before it? And I realized that domains and creeds could answer that question.

In CORE20, animys domains and druidas creeds represent an older magic, predating spellcasting by more than a millennium. A kind of personal and limited magic, the features granted by domains and creeds were the basis on which spellcasting was later developed. The spellcasting arts came to be because of the limited power and personal nature of domain and creed magic, and a desire to create a codified system of magic that would increase in power. (“Magic Among the Worldborn” in the “Introduction” section of the CORE20 Playtest Magic Grimoire talks at length about the history and evolution of magic in the game.)

Excerpt

The following excerpt from chapter 10 of the CORE20 Playtest Player’s Guide introduces animys domains and shows off a few common domain powers to set up the look and feel and domain and creed magic. The Player’s Guide features a whopping forty-six domain feats, each of them a unique magical power. Druidas creeds feature the same number of feats, with a bit of crossover to underline how animys magic evolved from druidas magic way back. And because domains and creeds are meant to represent a personal approach to magic, they make great fodder for players and GMs who want to expand the range of domain and creed feats in their games.

• • •

Animys Domains

An animys domain is a magical and philosophical doctrine that provides a focus for an animyst’s magic and spellcasting. A domain might represent the training of an animyst order or temple, a certain aspect of one of the old gods or the tenets of a new cult, or an entirely personal devotion to specific principles of magic and life.

A character takes the Domain of Faith feat to select a domain, then can take additional feats to gain unique magical features or specialized spells related to their domain.

The Old Magic

In the oldest records of druidas and animys traditions, formally recorded millennia ago but older by far, druidas creeds and animys domains were the earliest means of manipulating life magic. The magical abilities bestowed by creed feats and domain feats predated the development of spell magic, and the relatively limited power of creed and domain magic is thought to have inspired the initial development of life magic spellcasting.

In their earliest forms, creeds and domains were often part of complex cultural and faith traditions that limited their use, restricting domains to the followers of deities thought to control the power of those domains. However, such strictures are all but unknown today. Characters who are part of an organized faith or magical association might be directed by custom to take up only certain domains — for example, a member of an order of animyst healers who exclusively take the good, healing, or protection domains. There are otherwise no restrictions on what creeds or domains a character can select.

Animal Domain

The animal domain embodies the power and spirit of all beasts of forest and tundra, plain and sea. Animysts who choose this domain are drawn to the tenaciousness and dignity of animals, whether they demonstrate that as noble strength or feral fury. 

Chaos Domain

The chaos domain embodies the chaotic and unpredictable nature of existence and the inexorable march of time and decay. Those who follow this domain are agents of change and upheaval, creation or destruction, whether they tear order down to see what new order forms in its place, or revel in the sheer joy of disorder.

Death Domain

Those animysts who follow the death domain are fascinated by the mysteries of mortality, seeking always to understand the balance between death and life. Some see themselves as agents of death, protecting the sanctity of life until such time as creatures who meet their end can do so on their own terms. Others are agents of death, bringing an end to those they judge as deserving it.

Fire Domain

The fire domain embodies the fierce power of flame, and those who follow it are often driven by emotions whose energy fuels their actions and beliefs. They seek to control and direct fire in all its mundane and magical forms, and understand that the cleansing power of flame must sometimes be allowed to scour the world clean.

The philosophy and magic of the clerical fire domain are identical to that of the druidas fire creed.

Trickery Domain

The trickery domain embraces deception and cunning. Those who follow this domain use their magic to outwit adversaries and weave protective artifice around those they defend, and often support that magic with natural gifts of diplomacy and duplicity.

War Domain

Combat and martial prowess are the province of animysts who follow the war domain. Their study of magic focuses on force of will and skill at arms, whether they strive to protect allies in battle, to vanquish foes, or to stand up for those whose lives war would destroy.

The philosophy and magic of the animys war domain are identical to that of the druidas war creed.

• • •

Animal Aggression

Your magic controls the temperament of animals around you in combat.

Prerequisites: Domain of Faith (animal) ×1.

Benefit: As a minor action, you incite a shift in the belligerence of each animal within 30 feet of you. You choose whether to grant a target animal a d6 boon on attack rolls and combat maneuver skill checks, or to impose a d6 bane on attack rolls and combat maneuver skill checks, with either effect lasting for 1 minute.

You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum three times). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. 

This is a magical feature.

Mastery: You can take this feat once, at a cost of 1 feat slot.

Chaos Burst

A chaotic surge of energy courses through nearby foes.

Prerequisites: Domain of Faith (chaos) ×1.

Benefit: One creature you can observe within 15 feet takes 1d4 damage of a random type, rolled for on the following table:

d10    Damage Type 

 1       Acid

 2       Cold

 3       Fire

 4       Force

 5       Lightning

 6       Necrotic

 7   Psychic

 8       Radiant

 9      Thunder

10     Choose

If the target takes less than 4 damage, another creature you can observe within 15 feet of the previous target takes 1d4 damage of the same type. You repeat this process until a target takes 4 damage or you run out of targets. A creature can take damage only once from each use of Chaos Burst.

You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum three times). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

This is a magical feature.

Mastery: You can take this feat once, at a cost of 1 feat slot.

Death Touch

You drain the last dregs of life from a dying creature.

Prerequisites: Domain of Faith (death) ×1.

Benefit: As a standard action, you touch a dying creature to automatically impose three failed death saves on them. If the dying creature is not immobilized or unconscious, you must hit them with an unarmed strike to touch them.

You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum three times). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. 

This is a magical feature.

Mastery: You can take this feat once, at a cost of 1 feat slot.

Fiery Rebuke

Adversaries who challenge you feel the heat of your wrath.

Prerequisites: Creed of Nature (fire) ×1 or Domain of Faith (fire) ×1.

Benefit: When you are hit by an attack, you can use a reaction to deal 1d6 fire damage to one adversary you can observe within 30 feet of you. 

You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum three times). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. 

This is a magical feature.

Mastery: You can take this feat once, at a cost of 1 feat slot.

Trickster’s Spirit

Your natural proclivity for trickery is temporarily honed by your magic.

Prerequisites: Domain of Faith (trickery) ×1.

Benefit: As a minor action, you gain a d6 boon on skill checks made using Charisma for 1 minute.

You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum three times). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. 

This is a magical feature.

Mastery: You can take this feat once, at a cost of 1 feat slot.

Warrior’s Aid

Your magic lets an ally evade the most potent attacks.

Prerequisites: Creed of Nature (war) ×1 or Domain of Faith (war) ×1.

Benefit: When an ally you can observe within 30 feet is subject to critical hit, you can use a reaction to turn the attack into a regular hit.

You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum three times). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. 

This is a magical feature.

Mastery: You can take this feat once, at a cost of 1 feat slot.

Illustration by Eric Pommer

Death by Healing

Though you can play CORE20 any way you like, as should be the case with any RPG, the game is written from a baseline perspective of the world as a place where magic is everywhere. As would be expected in a such a milieu, magical healing is everywhere. Restorative potions and spellmarks are available for purchase in the public markets of any town or city, and restorative spellcasting services can be found in healing houses, temples, and spas across the land. Even in villages and hamlets too small for healing magic to be ubiquitous, mills and communal barns might keep a potion of cure light wounds on hand in case of an injury mundane healing can’t deal with quickly enough, and experienced adventurers know that it’s not uncommon to find a healer or midwife in the smallest thorp who can cast lesser restoration in exchange for a favor.

But as players and GMs of every fantasy game with ready access to healing magic understand, too much healing magic can quickly undermine the sense of peril that comes from a life spent fighting evil and monsters. For such characters, the threat of injury and even death needs to feel real. But if healing magic is too easily accessible, that threat can quickly become hollow. As CORE20 underwent its evolution from D&D 3.5 house rules into something bigger, I wrestled with this dilemma for a long while, and eventually hit upon what seemed like a cool idea: 

If one wants easy access to healing magic but easy access to healing magic reduces the threat that’s important to the narrative of the game, what happens if you replace that threat with a different threat? And so it is that in CORE20, every character understands that making use of healing magic can eventually kill you.

Life and Magic

Focusing first on the narrative angle — because for me, that’s always the best way to approach game design — magical healing in CORE20 revolves around that idea that magic is… well, supernatural. Which is to say, magic is unnatural. And even though magical healing has the incredible power to reverse injuries in moments that might otherwise take days or weeks to heal, it does so in a way that ever-so-slightly corrupts the natural health and healing ability of the body.

In CORE20, hit points are divided into two different pools of protection — critical points and defense points. I’ve talked about the narrative and design ideas underlying critical points and defense points (and how that system is actually the oldest part of the CORE20 rules). But to precis from the “Hit Points” section of “Chapter 9: Combat” in the CORE20 Playtest Player’s Guide, critical points measure your capacity to withstand physical injury, while defense points represent your ability to turn potentially lethal damage into minor damage through defensive prowess, innate hardiness, or raw instinct.

Defense points are a buffer that protects your more important critical points from getting knocked down, with damage-dealing attacks wearing down defense points first. Critical hits are a potentially nasty exception to this, so named in CORE20 because they deal damage directly to a creature’s critical points regardless of how many defense points the creature has remaining.

When an injured character takes magical healing, that healing restores critical points first, then defense points, rebuilding your body’s physical vigor and integrity before bringing your defensive acumen back up. But whenever magical healing restores critical points, the creature receiving that healing takes a −1 penalty to their critical point maximum. The unnatural process of magical healing leaves a kind of physical deficit that can add up over time, effectively lowering critical points each time magic is used to bring an injured character back from the brink.

Critical Thinking

In most cases, the downside to magical healing feels minor compared to the benefit. For a character down to their last 3 critical points, restoring 3d8 + 5 hit points from an ally’s cure serious wounds spell is more than worth the −1 critical point penalty that spell imposes. But over time, the regular use of magical healing plays into the campaign story as a thing that characters and players need to think about. 

In the short term, the differences between the different healing spells in the game and the potions and spellmarks that channel those spells’ magic take on an unexpected importance. A potion of cure light wounds restores 1d8 + 1 hit points. A potion of cure moderate wounds restores 2d8 + 3 hit points, bestowing about the same amount of healing as taking two potions of cure light wounds. But for a character with a severe critical point deficit, taking two of the cheaper potions of cure light wounds imposes a −2 penalty to critical points, where the more expensive potion of cure moderate wounds incurs only a −1 penalty. (If a character has lost only defense points, they can chug potions or crack spellmarks indiscriminately. Only healing magic that restores critical points imposes a critical point penalty.)

Critical point damage and a critical point penalty can both be restored during a downtime rest — and only during a downtime rest. CORE20 breaks from the increasingly laissez-faire attitude that D&D has taken toward healing up during long rests over successive editions, and the long rest that heals up one hundred percent of a character’s injuries is nowhere to be found in the game. (This is a big part of the reason why magical healing needs to be commonplace in a CORE20 campaign.) As such, anytime a character is badly injured (as represented by taking critical point damage), they get an automatic invitation to take downtime at some point in the near future. The character’s player gets to think about whether it’s best to take magical healing and later restore a critical point penalty during downtime (a relatively slow process, but usually a relatively low number) or push on injured and plan to later let natural healing restore those lost critical points during downtime (a faster process, but often a high number).

Injury in CORE20 is thus something a character is always thinking about, with each bout of critical point damage setting up the question of how best to deal with it. Short-term gain in the form of magical healing is easily had. But it comes with the long-term pain of a critical point penalty and the reduction of overall physical hardiness that represents. Critical injuries also allow characters and players to naturally embrace the idea of letting downtime play an important part in every CORE20 campaign, as an alternative to the movement toward breakneck speed-adventuring that’s become the norm in D&D over the last couple of decades. I know it’s tricky to talk about “realism” in a game about dragons and wizards casting fireball, but part of the narrative goal that inspired CORE20’s approach to magical healing was to bring back a degree of verisimilitude around the idea of injury. Characters having been beaten to within an inch of their lives is a big part of the narrative cycle of fantasy games, and having injury be something that isn’t just forgotten about after 8 hours of sleep serves that narrative well.

Art by Dean Spencer.

Battle Magic

CORE20 originally started as a set of homebrew rules for D&D 3.5, and even though the current playtest version of the game draws a lot of inspiration for 5e D&D (and even 4e D&D) in its approach to play and its language, the mechanical guts of much of the ruleset is set on a firm foundation of third edition — the first “modern” version of the game’s venerable ruleset.

One of the things 3e did that I loved unreservedly when I first dug into that edition in the heady days of the early millennium was a rethinking and drastic expansion of the place of magic items in the game, and specifically magic armor and weapons. AD&D (both 1st and 2nd editions) worked with a limited slate of armor and weapons imbued with specific types of magic. Elven chain mail, plate mail of etherealness, a sword +2 (dragon slayer), or a sword +1 (flame tongue) were all treasures that a player might expect their character to seize as a reward at some point. And if you’ve never looked at AD&D but those magic items still sound familiar to you, it’s because 5e’s setup for magic items looked back to AD&D for inspiration, with a relatively small number of types of armor and weapons with fixed properties.

I don’t find that approach as much fun as I found 3e’s approach, though. And thus was CORE20’s approach to magic weapons and armor born.

Armor and Weapon Features

Magic armor and weapons are a mainstay of the game for most CORE20 campaigns built around the fun of seeking out and fighting evil that must be vanquished through combat. In a world filled with monsters and suffused with magic, it makes sense that the breadth of magic available to heroes willing to stand up to evil should be pretty vast. As such, CORE20 borrows from D&D 3e the idea of weapons and armor being bestowed with magical properties that cover the widest possible range of utility. The baseline property for armor and weapons is the magical bonus that improves your character’s defense rolls and attack rolls, respectively — and which runs from the common +1 to the extremely rare +5 in CORE20. But that bonus-based boost is almost always the least interesting thing of all the things your hero’s armor or weapon can do.

Part of the reason I loved 3rd edition D&D’s approach to magic armor and weapons is the way it lends itself to customization. And given that fully customized characters is the foundation of CORE20, being able to customize armor and weapons is a powerful tool for players building characters and GMs building out the magical world through which those characters move. Sometimes armor or a weapon has a single specific function. Etherealness armor or a greatsword of defending both do what you’d expect. But armor and weapon features can be combined in any number of ways, with the increased cost of multiple features boosting the item’s rarity (and thus determining both how likely the GM is to give it out as treasure and how difficult it is for a character to create or commission it). 

This approach to magic armor and weapons creates a fertile foundation for a mainstay of fantasy — the hero known for unique weapons or armor wielded only by them, as opposed to every tenth adventurer having elven chain and a stock flame tongue longsword. So if your master thief has a hankering to build part of their reputation around the sanguine imprecation energy lash rapier they flourish in battle, you’ve come to the right place.

The table above and the table below detail the features available for armor and for melee weapons. (Similar tables in the CORE20 Magic Grimoire break out the features for shields, thrown weapons, ranged weapons, and ammunition.) Write-ups for a number of my own favorite features (including a few features new to CORE20) follow.

Selected Armor Features

Charging

This utilitarian armor is solidly made but features a dull finish. While you wear charging armor, any successful charge attack you make deals an extra 2d6 bludgeoning damage.

Transmutation; unusual; cost +750 gp

Feral

The face of this shield is scribed or engraved with the image of talons or claws. As a minor action, you can perform a command signal to have the shield make a melee attack against a creature within 5 feet of you. The shield has an attack bonus of 10 + your Strength modifier and deals 2d6 slashing damage. You can use this feature three times per day, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest. 

Conjuration; common; cost +400 gp

Ghost Guard

Armor or a shield with the ghost guard feature shimmers ethereally under bright light. While you wear it, this armor or shield protects you against incorporeal creatures, negating the advantage an incorporeal creature has on attack rolls against you.

Unlike most physical objects, armor or a shield with the ghost guard feature can be picked up, moved, and even worn or wielded by an incorporeal creature. While using the armor or shield, an incorporeal creature gains its full defensive bonus, and can still pass freely through solid objects.

Transmutation; unusual; cost +800 gp

Morphic

A suit of armor with the morphic feature appears to have the texture of cloth when first touched. When you perform the armor’s command signal as a standard action, it changes shape and form to assume the appearance and feel of a set of clothing of the same scope and coverage as the armor (so that a hauberk or breastplate becomes a shirt, armored leg pieces become leggings, a helm becomes a hat, and so forth). 

The armor transforms into the same set of clothing each time, whose appearance is set when the armor is created. The armor retains all its usual properties (including defense bonuses, weight, armor hindrance, and so on) and any magic bonuses and features while transformed. 

If you remove any piece of the morphic armor, that piece reverts back to its true form until it is donned again. The truesense special feature reveals the true nature of the armor while it is transformed.

Transmutation; unusual; cost +2,300 gp

Warding

This armor gleams with a faint glow each time you are struck in combat, hinting at the protective power it holds. When you are hit by an attack, you can use a reaction to give yourself advantage on subsequent defense rolls until the end of your next turn. You can use this feature three times per day, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Abjuration; common; +750 gp

Selected Weapon Features

Brilliant Energy

This weapon appears to be composed mostly of light, appearing translucent even though its heft is solid. When you use a brilliant energy weapon to attack a living creature wearing armor or bearing a shield, that attack bypasses those protections to focus its power on the corporeal essence of your target, imposing disadvantage on the target’s defense roll.

This feature can be applied to melee weapons, thrown weapons, and ammunition.

A brilliant energy weapon can’t harm undead or constructs, and can’t be used to damage any object. The weapon always has the glowing feature, but its light can’t be deactivated.

Transmutation; unusual; cost +800 gp 

Defending

This weapon feels especially sturdy in the hand. While you wield a defending weapon, you can use a free action at the start of your turn to focus its magic on defense at the expense of offense. Until the start of your next turn, you have a d4 bane on attack rolls with this weapon and a d4 boon on defense rolls.

This feature can be applied to melee weapons.

Abjuration; common; cost +200 gp

Energy Lash

Traces of energy of a specific type — acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder — appear to flow out of this weapon each time it hits in battle. While you wield an energy lash weapon, you can use a standard action to perform a command signal and choose a creature within 30 feet of you. A bright tendril of magical energy erupts from the weapon to reach out for the target. Make an attack roll as if you were making a melee or thrown attack with the weapon. If the attack hits, the target takes 4d6 damage of the weapon’s energy type. You can use this feature once per day, regaining its use when you finish a long rest.

This feature can be applied to melee weapons and thrown weapons.

Evocation; common; cost +300 gp

Imprecation

This weapon feels strangely cold when first handled. Whenever you score a critical hit with this weapon, you can impose a curse of your choice on the target, as if they had failed a saving throw against the bestow curse spell.

This feature can be applied to melee weapons, thrown weapons, and ranged weapons.

Necromancy; common; cost +700 gp

Nimble

This weapon feels unnaturally well balanced when first handled. A nimble weapon can be wielded more easily when making multiple attacks, with a two-handed weapon treated as a one-handed weapon and a one-handed weapon treated as a light weapon for the purpose of determining that weapon’s bane on attack rolls. A nimble weapon isn’t considered a different weapon for any other purpose, and none of its other statistics or features change.This effect can be applied to one-handed and two-handed melee weapons.

Transmutation; common; cost +200 gp

Sanguine

This weapon’s tip gleams faintly even in the absence of light. When you hit with an attack using a sanguine weapon, you can use a free action to have the attack drain the vitality of the target, who takes a −1d4 penalty to their critical points. You can use this feature three times per day, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

This feature can be applied to melee weapons that deal piercing damage.

Necromancy; unusual; cost +500 gp

Subtle

This weapon is dull gray in color, and seems to disappear when not directly observed. Whenever you use a subtle weapon to attack with advantage, the attack has favored damage.

This feature can be applied to melee weapons.

Illusion; common; cost +50 gp