Tales of the Valiant

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Tales of the Valiant (formerly Project: Black Flag) is an upcoming Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition retroclone created by Kobold Press as their new signature system after Wizards of the Coast made their imbecilic decision to try and screw the third-party 5e publishers over with a revised Open Game License. Major changes include a new core class called the Mechanist, reworking the Race system into the two-part Lineage (biological race traits) and Heritage (cultural traits) system, and including things like beastkin and kobolds as "core" races.

Playtests

Playtest 1: Heritages & Lineages

Includes Races (under new labels) and Backgrounds as well as a rough overview of the game itself

• As a 5e-dericative game, a lot of the same mechanics are carried over.
  • One of the few semi-original ideas the game puts forth is Luck points, which were frustratingly only mentioned in the second playtest. You gain them from making cool ideas or by botching an attack or save each turn and you can spend 1 to bump a roll up by that much or spend 3 for a full re-roll.
    • In order to disincentivize luck-hoarding, you can only hold onto 5 luck points at any time. Whenever you gain any more, you have to roll 1d4 and reset your luck to whatever that roll is.
• Lineages (The new term for races) don't add to any stats as did One D&D with Heritages acting as subraces.
  • While the initial playtests made Heritages restricted to one Lineage, the big preview packet unbound those restrictions so any playtests can work with any Lineages. That said, the ones that were bound are "recommended".

Dwarves

• Remain slow but retain Night Vision, resistance to poison and now add +1 to max HP.
  • Fireforge:' Consummate crafts-dwarves, complete with fire resistance and double proficiency with either smithing or glassblowing tools. They also get Mending as a free cantrip, but it can only be used on metal objects.
  • Stone: Pretty much the OP Mountain Dwarfs of 5E. Weapon proficiencies, armor proficiencies that don't slow you down, a tool proficiency and adding your Proficiency Bonus on anything using stonework.
  • The preview packet made this a touch less OP by removing the armor proficiency and bonus.

Elves

• Remain as powerful as ever, with Night Vision, proficiency in Perception, resistance to charmed/sleep and less sleep.
  • Cloud: The magically-aligned ones with proficiency in Arcana and innate spells from one school as they level up.
  • Grove: Wood Elves by any other name. Have advantage to communicate with non-aggressive animals, a climbing speed and weapon proficiencies.

Humans

• Not only give proficiency in one skill, but also one talent (this game's version of Feats).
  • Cosmopolitan: City boys. Can't get lost in a city by mundane means and add proficiency bonus when studying unfamiliar cultures.
  • Nomadic: Farm boys. Proficient in Survival, advantage on resisting adverse weather and they can reduce exhaustion once per day.

Backgrounds and Talents

• Backgrounds give you two skill proficiencies, one or two additional proficiencies, some gear and a free Talent. Unlike what WotC did, these don't add to any stats.
• Talents as a common rule do not add to any stats. They're split up between Magical Talents (for casting), Combat Talents (for weapons and armor) and Technical Talents (for skills)

Playtest 2: Classes

Gives a level 1-8 preview of two classes (Fighter, Wizard) as well as to magic.

Fighter

• Gain a 1/day ability to immediately spend up to PB hit die to heal the moment an attack takes you below half health. While it's not useful for keeping you topped off, it's at least able to keep you alive regardless of whatever tries to kill you.
• Martial Action gives special QOL bonus actions to fighters (Aim for double proficiency to shoot one target, Guard gives the 5e Fighter's Protection fighting style, Quick Strike makes gives the Dual Wielding style except without the dependency on a main attack so you can do other things with your action, Wind Up to add double proficiency to hit with a two-handed weapon)
• Subclasses:
  • Spellblade essentially gives third-casting as an archetype as well as an ability to grant one weapon a +1 bonus so you can save some cash.
  • Weapon Master is 5e's Battle Master. No two ways about it. However, it does have some ability for improved crits as well as re-rolling damage for certain weapons.

Wizard

• Magic is now relabeled as "Rings" instead of levels. Rituals are also separated from the rest of the spell list and u can only learn a set number of them at a time.
  • While Arcane and Divine magic are obvious, there are also mentions of a Primordial circle (likely for Druids) and Wyrd circle (for Warlocks, maybe?).
• Sense Magic is a special PB+1/day ability rather than a cantrip.
• Subclasses:
  • Battle Mage is your fighting mage. They can make shields out of magic as well as control spells so they can miss allies and redirect misses towards other foes.
  • Cantrip Adept focuses on using more cantrips. One cantrip per turn adds proficiency to damage and you have multiple uses to speed up casting cantrips.

Playtest 3: Monsters

Gives a preview to monster statlines.

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External Links

• https://www.talesofthevaliant.com/