Mail Room: Northlands Saga (Worldbook & Sagas)

The hardcovers for the Northlands Sagas and Worldbook came today, and I am impressed. These are very nice books, and they don't try to paint a modern veneer on what should be a brutal and savage world. They don't go out of their way to shock us with violence or gore, but the art does present the setting in a respectful, culturally appropriate, and non-modern way.

If this were 5.5E, Wizards would purposefully do things to annoy you with the art, take shots at old-school players, and then sanitize classic monster lore to the point where nobody has a reason to fight anyone. ToV is my 5E for the foreseeable future, and D&D 5.5E let me down.

Despite all my struggles with 5E, I do keep up with all the Kobold Press crowdfunding, so I am happy I jumped in on this even though my ToV books are in the closet during my last shelf reorganization. They are out now and occupy two of my premium display shelves, next to the three I have for DCC.

We get character options, a gazetteer for the Midgard setting, and new spells and monsters. We also get detailed rules for cold survival, which part of me wanted in the corebooks, but I understand why they were placed here. The rules are here and keep parties from walking straight lines

We also get a book of adventures, a complete adventure path for this land. The adventures are well-written and look fun, and are themed around the new setting.

You could also use these books to play a ToV version of Gods of the Forbidden North, an excellent OSE adventure across three huge books, but if you wanted to play this with ToV and a version of Open 5E, these books are your best bet. This would be a fun campaign with a lot of monster swapping, but worth the effort if Open 5E is your system of choice.

Monsters Hit Hard

Another reason to love Tales of the Valiant over D&D 5.5E is that the monsters hit hard.

From the SRD 5.2.1, the Ancient Red Dragon, actions:

Multiattack. The dragon makes three Rend attacks. It can replace one attack with a use of Spellcasting to cast Scorching Ray (level 3 version). 

Rend. Melee Attack Roll: +17, reach 15 ft. Hit: 19 (2d8 + 10) Slashing damage plus 10 (3d6) Fire damage.

Fire Breath (Recharge 5–6). Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 24, each creature in a 90-foot Cone. Failure: 91 (26d6) Fire damage. Success: Half damage. 

Spellcasting. The dragon casts one of the following spells, requiring no Material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 23, +15 to hit with spell attacks): 

At Will: Command (level 2 version), Detect Magic, Scorching Ray (level 3 version) 

1/Day Each: Fireball (level 6 version), Scrying 

-SRD 5.2.1, Wizards of the Coast, p319

Legendary actions (3, 4 in lair) are Commanding Presence (level 2 command), Firey Rays (level 3 scorching ray), and Pounce (free Rend attack). The dragon also has 4 or 5 Legendary Resistances that allow the beast to make a saving throw. It is a pretty simple monster, but it feels underwhelming.

Let's look at Tales of the Valiant, from the Black Flag SRD:

Multiattack. The dragon uses its Frightful Presence. It then makes one Bite attack and two Claw attacks.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (2d10 + 10) piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) fire damage.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d6 + 10) slashing damage.

Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target.

Hit: 19 (2d8 + 10) bludgeoning damage.

Frightful Presence. Each creature of the dragon’s choice that is within 120 feet of the dragon and aware of it must succeed on a DC 21 WIS save or be frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s save is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the dragon’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.

Fire Breath (Recharge 5–6). The dragon exhales fire in a 90‑foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 24 DEX save, taking 105 (30d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. 

-Black Flag SRD, Kobold Press, p276 

The dragon can "Boil Over" if it hasn't used their breath weapon, and do a 30-foot AoE that inflicts 2d6 damage on a DC 24 CON save, and inflicts a level of exhaustion. Legendary resistances are 3/day. Across the board, damage is more serious, and the Kobold Press version has a bite attack with fire damage, and claws that do not have that.

The dragon also has access to special "lair attacks" and regional effects.

The legendary actions are where things take a hard turn into lethality. The Kobold Press dragon gets an auto-Detect feature, so it cannot be snuck up on or trapped. A tail attack can be made, along with a wing attack that does 2d6+10 and a DC 25 DEX save, or be knocked prone. The kicker is the Elemental Roar, a DC 21 CHA save to all within 120 feet, and failure makes the character vulnerable to fire damage or removes fire resistance until the end of the next turn.

Yes, this means you take double damage from fire attacks

Instead of being a bag of hit points for level 20 heroes to humiliate, the ancient red dragon in Tales of the Valiant can TPK and entire party and incinerate them all in an elemental roar and fire breath combo. Who cares about the 5.5E scorching ray and single fireball spell at level six? Characters will laugh this damage off.

Hit points in ToV are less: 507 for D&D 5.5E, and 382 in BF-SRD, but in general, the Kobold Press monsters hit harder, but go down faster, leading to faster combats that are more lethal. Kill them quick before they kill you. In D&D 5.5E, we have a lower-damaging dragon that dies much slower, leading to a long, boring, and pretty much easy fight before it even begins.

ToV combats are significantly tighter, faster, and better tuned than in D&D 5.5E. You feel the "squeeze" the designers put into the monsters; these are designed for fast, hard-hitting, brutal, and challenging combats. You will be encouraged to use the monster abilities early and as often as you can, which will address the notorious lack of lethality and pushover fights of 5E.

Do you want spellcasting? Apply a spellcasting template to the dragon. At CR 21, up to second-circle spells are at-will, 3/day up to 5th-circle spells, 2/day seventh, and 1/day 9th. The dragon just got insanely more powerful, and it could have a wish spell handy. Yeah, you're dead.

These are NOT the same games.

Tales of the Valiant is the better game, tuned to how I want things to play.

D&D 2024

I own the books now, so I can talk about this game.

The rules of D&D 2024 are fine, I have no issue with them, and the class designs are on par with Tales of the Valiant. They are solid and well-built classes, with ToV ending them on the balance with a better selection of 2014 abilities and the preservation of soft "role play" powers and abilities.

The largest difference lies in the game's lore, and nowhere is this more stark than in the 2024 Monster Manual. The Lizardfolk are sort of the prime example of the change, coming off in the 2024 Monster Manual as good-natured elemental Captain Planet nature defenders, and they are nothing like the Tales of the Valiant, original AD&D lore-derived, savage and fearsome Conan-style enemies that we know and love them as.

Many of the D&D 2024 monsters are progressive fan fiction. They have strayed so far away from the original AD&D lore that this could be any other fantasy heartbreaker game.

And Kobold Press, even though it is just as progressive a company as Wizards of the Coast, can keep those ideas out of its work and preserve the original AD&D lore and classic feeling that we have come to love about D&D. The preservation of D&D lore as D&D lore keeps the game from becoming fantasy slop. D&D 2024 is no different than Daggerheart or any other game that "reimagines lore" at this point, so why do people even stick with the game?

Kobold Press understands "the game is the game," and they can keep their personal feelings out of it. They don't need to rewrite AD&D lore to match some modern cultural zeitgeist that will change in 3 years anyway.

Tales of the Valiant remains a timeless game, with modern values woven into the spaces surrounding it. The game is the bubble, and outside of that bubble, we treat each other with respect and kindness. Inside the bubble is still the savage, Conan-inspired, and classic fantasy game that we know as D&D.

Kobold Press understands the job and delivers "the uncut product" far better than this current incarnation of Wizards of the Coast. This is very much a Breaking Bad reference, and Kobold Press preserved all the 2014 lore, even down to the Orcs still in the Monster Vault. Tales of the Valiant is that pure, blue, undiluted "product" derived from the chemical formulas of AD&D science and lore that we love and are addicted to.

With D&D 5.5E, there is no bubble. The modern and fantasy worlds blend into one reality. You are not supposed to hate Lizardfolk; they aren't cannibals anymore, they can't hold their breath underwater, nor are we supposed to see them as savage, Conan-style, violent reptilian monsters who worship serpent gods who demand human sacrifices. Lizardfolk are valid cosplay options in D&D 5.5E, and we should not make them feel excluded.

Most of the D&D 5.5E monsters are rewritten so heavily that they are not even "monsters" anymore, and they don't even belong in the book. In fact, putting Lizardfolk in a book titled "monsters" is likely a microaggression that is an unforgivable sin. When you have no walls between the real world and fantasy, this is what ends up happening. There is no bubble with D&D 5.5E. Everything becomes an allegory for something in the real world. There is no wall between fantasy and reality. Everything in that universe exists in the modern world as an assumed parallel.

At least in Tales of the Valiant, we can all sit down at a table, agree we are roleplaying in a savage Conan-style world, and all act like we were characters in a Robert E Howard novel. Around the table? Still very inclusive and respectful, as it should be. Inside the game? It is a different world, and we know the difference between fantasy and reality. We know things can work differently in this fantasy world, and it does not trigger us in the real world. If it does, we talk it over and adjust.

D&D 5.5E makes the mistake of mixing fantasy and reality, and it abandons all the classic AD&D lore in favor of progressive rewrites that align the game's lore and history with a 2024 ideal that is already dated. D&D 5.5E is no longer D&D.

ToV preserves the AD&D lore and DNA, which is the heart and soul of the game.

And we now see Wizards backsliding from the terrible mistake of 2024, trying to bring in all these old-school names and personalities. The world is fighting to ignore the mistakes made in the 2024 Monster Manual, and many players are stealth playing with 2014 lore like nothing happened except a rules update. Sad to say, D&D 2024 is no different than any other fantasy slop game at this point, if all you had were the 2024 books and no 2014 lore.

I doubt that Wall Street or corporate will allow the new D&D team to backpedal and adopt the original lore. This isn't allowed in the modern corporate world. Even admitting that D&D 5.5E was a misstep will hurt the brand and profits.

The heart and soul of D&D is baked into the lore and ecology of the 2014 Monster Manual. That has now changed. The king has lost his crown and scepter. Who sits on the throne has changed.

ToV is D&D to me.

Still Here, on the Crowdfunds

I am currently waiting to play ToV again, but it is in my upstairs closet while I am reworking my shelves. I still love the game, and it is one of the best Open 5E implementations out there, besides Level Up Advanced 5E. And I support the Kobold Press crowdfunding projects.

I am trying to cut down my Tales of the Valiant library and streamline and simplify the game. There is no way I can play this game with eight shelves of books; I need to cut this down to the best-of-the-best corebooks. Even the Midgard books will be kept in the closet; I just want the core books as a core game engine.

To rehabilitate a game, you need to minimize your library.

Currently, I am playing Level Up A5E again and re-reading the books. I like how they rebuilt the engine and rewrote the SRD to be their own IP. They made dramatic changes that were criticized, but these were the same things people held against ToV for being too conservative to make.

The changes in A5E make the game worth playing and increase depth through design, without contributing to bloat. A5E also supports all the pillars of play, including a robust exploration game, and adds some very nice enhancements to social gameplay support. There are rare spells that are used as found treasures. The martial classes and their Combat Maneuvers are a solid addition to the game. I wish some of the advancements in A5E were reflected in ToV, or that they had made more changes than they did.

But, keeping the ToV rules nearly 100% compatible with 2014 D&D was a solid design goal. I can see why they did that, but there is a feeling of "why switch?" I switched on principle, and to ensure that the 2014 version of the rules survives past the end of D&D 5E and 5.5E.

A5E is a different beast, a worthy game in its own right, and different enough that it is worth playing.