Donovan's Adventuring Academy

The DM has player AC's. They simply describe whether the attack hits or it doesn't, with focus on describing what the creature does. The players may react accordingly, casting defensive spells or features. No actual math should be revealed. (Ex. A wizard about to be hit by a slashing sword may or may not succeed in attempting to cast the Shield spell. A wizard may attempt to cast Counterspell or Dispel magic, but the DM will only reveal what happens narratively rather than mathematically.) Storytelling should be the focus; the stakes will be higher. Additionally, History and Insight checks will be rolled in secret, with the player letting the DM know only their modifiers. This allows for interesting mechanics such as the player forgetting/misremembering information or misinterpreting body language, resulting in a more diverse storytelling experience.

For players who reveal mathematically relevant information instead of using descriptive dynamics, such as sharing numbers of their stats, health points, spell slots left, tactics mid-combat outside the standard time frame or their character voice, ordering/suggesting other players how to play or what to do at any point of the game and the such, are to suffer an in-game penalty — Detention.Players who have Detention are bound to spend time cleaning the castle grounds, prohibiting them from learning skills and crafting. The first Detention starts the day after, and lasts for 7 full days. If the player infracts the same mistake, they get 14 days of detention. Additionally, any income and rewards are reduced by half for the next month. If there is a third infraction, the player will receive a month of Detention, and any rewards will be disabled during that month. Further infractions result in monthly Detention only. Once obtained, detention can't be lifted. And yes, they do stack and add up onto each other. At the DM's discretion, the DM may issue the same penalty if they deem it necessary due to other problematic player behavior.

Critical successes and failures now count for any d20 check. If a player critically fails ability checks, regardless of their bonuses, the resulting fail should lead to a catastrophic result such as taking minor damage for mundane tasks, or of greater narrative value if describing an important story moment, at the DM's discretion. Saving throws on a Nat1 now treat that specific instance of damage taken as if vulnerable to it, on a Nat20, treat that damage taken as if resistant to it. (Ex. Succeeding on a Fireball DEX save results in taking quarter damage)

Casting spells that require sight are unable to target creatures that are heavily obscured. If both creatures are blinded, all ranged attack rolls have disadvantage, while melee attack rolls are straight rolls. (Ex. Creatures that are somehow able to better navigate themselves in such situations don't suffer these penalties) Attacks of opportunity are impossible inside a heavily obscured space. Flanking: Two allied creatures directly opposing each other may flank a creature up to the size of Large, allowing advantage on melee weapon and melee spell attack rolls.

To craft a magic item that is not consumable, the player will require a special recipe obtained through questing and research. Additionally, they need to be proficient in Arcana and Artisan's Toolsrequired to craft the object. At the DM's discretion, the item may require special components that can be found on various adventures, in addition to the standard gold cost. You may have a fellow student help you, halving the crafting time (in hours). At the DM's discretion and situational factors, the time required to craft a particular item may be shortened. The standard work day lasts 8 hours. You have 3 crafting slots available that allow for parallel crafting. Two are for consumable magic items, and one is reserved for non-consumable magic item crafting or training.

Official material healing potions, poisons, antitoxins or other substances of similar nature are excluded from the campaign. You may only use the custom Alchemy brews.

• –Alchemist's Supplies – Allows anyone to brew potions. Bonus to d20 tests made for Alchemizing is equal to the square root of your total Alchemy points, rounded to a whole number. Proficiency with these supplies is treated as +6 Alchemy points that can be used in any category of the Alchemy Tree.
• –Herbalism Proficiency+Tools (Prerequisite: Fey, Elf, Harengon or Humblewood Races) – Harvesting your own grown plants has a chance to yield double the amount. This chance is equal to the number of your total Alchemy points, up to a maximum of 50 (Roll a d100 when you harvest). Proficiency in this kit grants you +6 Alchemy points to use in any category of the Alchemy Tree.
• –Poisoner Feat – Ignore resistance to poison damage. Treat any poison damage die on a 1 as a 2. You may add +8 Alchemy points in any category of the Alchemy Tree.
• –Reagents marked as Soulboundcan't be traded with other players, or they lose their magic property.

Latin is the standard spellcasting language in this world. Verbal components are encouraged to be spoken by the player when casting a spell. Somatic components involve tracing shimmering glyphs in the air with a spellcasting focus.

You have a limited carrying capacity which corresponds to inventory slots on your character sheet. You have 22 inventory slots, each worth 1 inventory point. By default, objects in sizes from a pebble to a coconut take 1 inventory point. Certain items may take up multiple slots, up to the DM's discretion (Ex. Dragon's Tooth may be worth like 5 inventory points) You may not carry more items in your inventory than set capacity, regardless of your strength score. This doesn't affect the character's ability to overload their strength capacity in terms of temporarily carrying or manipulating heavy objects. If you cross this threshold, you have disadvantage on every d20 test and your speed is halved. Reagent slots (10) don't take inventory points. You may carry up to 100 in each row of your reagent bag, tracking count in the rightmost column. A reagent stack (containing 1 up to 100 of the same reagent) can be placed in regular inventory, taking 1 inventory point. The Pouch (10) is reserved for material components used to cast spells (Ex. Gilded Skull), or special quest items.

Araxxi (Common), Sylvan, Infernal, Celestial, Draconic. If you learn oneof these languages on creation, you keep them along with common. If you learn common and a language not listed, you will only know common. Other official languages don't exist in this campaign, with the exception of Thieves' Cant and Druidic.