NOTE: Thank you all for being a HUGE help this year with the tokens! Y'all gave us some great ideas, and then you provided some passionate feedback for the preliminary token designs. You have made a great contribution to this year's token set, and for that I am very grateful. As we draw to a close the final designs of the 2019 token set, I just wanted to say how much your help means to me. It means a great deal. Thank you.
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I hope everybody enjoyed the new and improved True Dungeon experience that premiered at Origins and GenCon this year. I hope it is clear to everybody just how much I love running True Dungeon for all you awesome gamers. I may have doubted True Dungeon staying power initially but now it is clear to me that this game has a bright and glorious future. I can’t wait for all of you to see some of the even more amazing ideas I have in store for you in the future.
Also, with the recent passing of my brother Greg, I realized that I need to set a good foundation for True Dungeon to continue on without me at some point -- hopefully far down the line. So, some of these changes are meant to help get TD to a better future -- with or without me.
The UR token "Gregor's Tome of Focus" is a remembrance token for my brother -- and his big influence on TD by being my first DM.
As the game grows I am able to take a more long-term approach than I used to, and as part of that I need to make sure that the tokens compliment the game and make it more fun for everybody without causing unnecessary dungeon design complications. I know that some of you will not agree with some of these changes, but I hope that you can appreciate my desire to keep the game you love balanced and healthy far in to the future.
Wands
The first thing I want to address are the “chargeless” wands first printed in 2018. Although we loved seeing more wands being used, we feel that unlimited-use wands are not the ideal path going forward. Starting at Origins 2019, all wands will now be consumable, but wands will no longer have a fixed number of charges. When a player wants to use a wand (old or new), they hand the wand token to the DM. Actions permitting, the player may use this wand as much as they desire for the rest of the room. At the end of the room the wand is placed in the consumables bucket.
If you have a
Medallion of Mystic Mouth you will only have to place ONE Wand on the combat board so that you can use each one -- each round. At the end of the combat, the Wand token is consumed.
Changes to URs
There are two Ultra Rare tokens that have been in use for five years now and have continued to create challenges for balancing the difficulty level of the dungeons. As a result, we are going to make an errata for both of these tokens:
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Lenses of Divine Sight: +2 pts to ALL healing Spells. Also, you may split Spell or Scroll between two players with (now no WIS req)
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Cloak of Shadowskin: +1 saves & immune to one successful melee or missile hit (1/game) – your choice.
We will also be reprinting these tokens as 2019 Ultra Rares with the corrected text and new artwork. Starting at Origins 2019, you will have to turn in the old tokens for the new 2019 versions. If you would prefer to replace the old token with a completely different UR token, you may turn your old token in for any 2018/2019 Ultra Rare. Either way you will receive a 10x treasure draw chip as a thank you for your understanding during this rebalancing. The old versions of these tokens will no longer be usable after Jan 31st, 2020; you must exchange your old token before that date. The old tokens will have the new power starting at Origins 2019.
Note that the
Lenses of Divine Sight will no longer have a WIS requirement and will apply to scrolls as part of this errata. Please know that I have big plans for the non-primary stats as part of the token and character design process for the 2020+ season.
Eldritch Set Changes
With two new Eldritch items coming in the next few years it is obvious we need to adjust the Eldritch Set powers to be more in line with the growing quantity Eldritch tokens. I really hate to do this now, but I feel we need to re-align these tokens to allow for better combat scenarios. With that we are changing the Eldritch Set bonuses as follows:
o All set bonuses will grant a level (no stacking of level bump).
o All set bonuses grant an amount of targeted healing (or pooled if AOE healing)
o All set bonuses grant a damage bonus to all character class augmentable damage sources: Melee/Ranged/Spells (not wands, scrolls, etc.)
There may or may not be any bonus for equipping all 5 Eldritch pieces that will be announced when the 5th (Tooth of Cavadar Transmute) becomes available.
Examples
If a character has equipped the Rod of Seven Parts, the Supreme Ring of Elemental Command, and the Boots of Four Winds (all available today) they would get a level bump and +6/+2 points of healing/damage capability.
Old versus New Set Comparison
Summary
Eldritch set now gives everyone a level bump with only 2 items equipped. The set no longer offers any Spell or Damage Resistance. The Eldritch set does less healing initially but scales up. The Eldritch set now provides a damage bump to all classes. I understand if folks are upset about the doing away with Spell and Damage Resistance, but it is just a complication I am trying to remove from the front end – as now we have to plan for these two Resistances when we set the monster stats at Nightmare+…so by doing away with them on the set bonus, we can no longer add them in on the monster stats. That just makes for a cleaner game while not affecting the net combat stats at all. I just felt this was a more honest way to do it – and it keeps it less cumbersome for new players and DMs.
These changes will go in to effect starting the 2019-2020 TD season at Origins.
2019 Ultra Rare Notes
Shaman’s Belt (Druid & Wizards) – This token’s full effects won’t fit on the token, so additional info can be found on tokendb.com. The token text reads: Lose 1st level Spell to polymorph into Elemental
Additional Info: The druid can choose one form per room and gain these abilities:
Fire Elemental: Gain -5 Fire resistance and Fire damage subtype
Frost Elemental: Gain -5 Cold resistance and Cold damage subtype
Air Elemental: Gain -5 Shock resistance and Shock damage subtype
Earth Elemental: Gain -5 Sonic resistance and Fire damage subtype
This UR does not grant any special polymorph abilities – like being able to cast spells or transform as a Free Action.
Shoes of the Sneak – This token grants the Rogue the ability to sneak attack the same monster a 2nd time (this only works with a Melee attack). This can only occur 1 per game.
Relic Notes
Greater Shaman’s Necklace (Druid) – This token’s full effects won’t fit on the token, so additional info can be found on tokendb.com. The token text reads: Polymorph into Elemental is Free Action
Additional Info:
This token allows the Druid to change into an elemental instantly as a free action without using a 1st level Spell, but it does not confer the ability to cast Spells in elemental form.
The druid can choose one form per room and gain these abilities:
Fire Elemental: Gain -10 Fire resistance and Fire damage subtype
Frost Elemental: Gain -10Cold resistance and Cold damage subtype
Air Elemental: Gain -10 Shock resistance and Shock damage subtype
Earth Elemental: Gain -10 Sonic resistance and Fire damage subtype
Necklace of the Sneak – This token extends the critical hit range on ALL SA attacks made during an adventure from "20" to "19-20", and it allows them to SA without a one round delay. No other Keen effects will stack with this item. It also allows the Rogue to sneak attack the same monster a 2nd time with a melee attack. A Rogue with
Lenses of Vital Sight could make either SA's with a Missile weapon, and a Rogue with
Bracers of Guided Strike could ignore any Critical and Sneak Attack immunities of any SA attacks. At the UR level this 2nd SA attack ability can be used once per game, but at the Relic level it can be used twice per game.
Legendary Notes
The design concept around the legendary tokens is to combine class-oriented tokens to one sweet legendary class specific token.
Iktomi’s Shaper's Necklace (Druid) – This token’s full effects won’t fit on the token, so additional info can be found on tokendb.com. The token text reads: Polymorph into Elemental as Free Action (w/Spells)
This token allows the Druid to change into an elemental instantly as a free action without using a 1st level Spell, and it does confer the ability to cast Spells in elemental form.
The druid can choose one form per room and gain these abilities:
Fire Elemental: Gain -10 Fire resistance and Fire damage subtype
Frost Elemental: Gain -10 Cold resistance and Cold damage subtype
Air Elemental: Gain -10 Shock resistance and Shock damage subtype
Earth Elemental: Gain -10 Sonic resistance and Fire damage subtype
May use any Polymorph Potion as above with all restrictions lifted (free action & Spells), and when they do so they do not have to turn in the token.
Raven’s Sneaky Necklace – This token extends the critical hit range on ALL SA attacks made during an adventure from "20" to "17-20", and it allows them to SA without a one round delay. No other Keen effects will stack with this item. It also allows the Rogue to sneak attack the same monster a 2nd time with a melee attack in every room. A Rogue with
Lenses of Vital Sight could make either SA's with a Missile weapon, and a Rogue with
Bracers of Guided Strike could ignore any Critical and Sneak Attack immunities of any SA attacks. At the UR level this 2nd SA attack ability can be used once per game, at the Relic level it can be used twice per game, but at the Legendary level the 2nd SA attack ability can be used once per room.
Widseth’s Legendary Lute – Bardsong is increased to +2 to hit/+2 to damage which brings a 5th level Bard to +4/+4. The bard may take other standard actions (slide, cast spells, read scrolls, activate wands) as normal. When the party makes a saving throw and a “1-3” is rolled the bard may call for a re-roll (1/game).
SPECIAL NOTE about Relics and Legendaries
Now that every class has at least a few generic legendary tokens, starting in 2019 we will be producing class specific ones. Every Relic and Legendary class specific token, barring some thematic exceptions will occupy the neck slot so as not to interfere with any previous Eldritch items. The two classes that will not be in the neck slot are the Bard and Paladin. This puts all the classes on a roughly even slot impact basis. I hope you like the new 2019 legendaries for the Bard, Druid, & Rogue! Next year we plan on Neck slot items for the Barbarian, Monk and Ranger -- while the +2 Holy Avenger (from 2019) can be transmuted up to a +5 Holy Avenger! We wanted to add the +2 Holy Avenger in this year -- since Paladins will be venturing into the Infernal Pit!
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