DOTA and D&D
I have finally been able to go on vacation so that the articles will be shorter than usual for the next two weeks. Stephen has kindly offered to write them, but since he won’t let me do a GM is Always Right post unless he was dead (and even then he might not), I’m trying to do them myself. I’ll probably fail.
I’ve recently gotten back into DOTA. I could write a novel on the previous/current issues with the game (loss of tourney teams, stagnant development, still the most toxic game out there), but we are a blog about Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, I wanted to talk about a couple of things that could translate into D&D and look at one or two hero builds, with the possibility of doing more in the future. These won’t be as detailed as the builds I’ve previously done. Maybe they’ll have some practical use in the game, and perhaps they won’t. Then again, that’s pretty much every build, so I figured why not give it a try.
Building Magic Items
Something I think could and should be incorporated into the game is building into magic items. I’m not talking about combining the hand and eye of Vecna or adding runes to a weapon to make it more powerful. It is a simple concept. Start with a simple common or uncommon magic item. I don’t know about your campaign, but we rarely use these items. Some are minorly entertaining but serve little purpose other than to say that they have a magic item. Sure, owning a Dread Helm can make you look frightening with your red eyes, and a feather token can save you from going splat, but you’ll drop them the second anything better comes along.
Let’s say you have a Longsword +1, which is an uncommon weapon. It’s pretty dull, but at least you can now hit creatures with immunity from plain old weapons. Using this idea, you’d know that if you can locate a Gem of Brightness, you can use the two items to craft a Sunblade. From there, you find a Hellfire Weapon and craft your Sunblade into a Blast Scepter. Heck, your might have to go on an epic quest to get the needed items for an artifact you’ve been coveting.
The items don’t have to be the same type or even have powers that would seemingly be required to build into the new thing. Take the Black King Bar. It’s constructed from an Ogre Axe and a Mithril Hammer. Two items that provide additional attack damage, some regen, and health, are combined into one that does all of that plus applies spell immunity for the duration and a basic dispel when cast. How did this magical transformation happen? Well, that brings us to recipes.
To build many of the items in DOTA, you’ll need a recipe. Many of the recipes don’t come cheap, and why should they? You’re taking multiple items and transforming them into a potential game-changing item, so it makes sense that there would be a decent cost involved. In D&D, why not take it one step further in the construction of a new item. You need the magic items, a recipe, and someone that can craft it. They might have the recipe, or you may have to provide it. Providing a recipe could get you a discount on the crafting process. As you get to higher levels, maybe you can learn the crafting process to build your items or have a second career waiting for you in retirement if you live that long.
This will also reduce the number of powerful magic items that players can expect to find, whether in a treasure hoard or a magic shop. The overall number of magic items can remain the same, just not crazy powerful ones. In addition, it gives the players something to do with all the gold they find. The gold economy in D&D is broken in many ways, so now they will need it to do more than just but components for a true resurrection spell. No matter what you decide on, there is the potential to create quests to obtain items for your legendary weapon, a new skill the characters can learn, and a way to spend all that gold you stole from Orcus.
Heroes as Characters
With a bit of work, you can create a character based on your favorite DOTA hero. You have more options to create monsters from the heroes, so maybe that could be a future post. Nothing is ever perfect in life, and these are as close as I could get. As always, share your thoughts and suggestions
Axe (Mogul Khan)
Race: Half-Orc. Thinking about culling blade, savage attack helps when you crit.
Class: Battle Master Fighter
Art Credit - Valve
Bezerker’s Call - Sweeping Attack Maneuver. Combine with an extra attack to hit as many targets as you can within range.
Battle Hunger - Grappling Strike/Trip Attack.
Counter Helix - Riposte.
Culling Blade - Know thy Enemy combined with a Berserker Axe. Sure it’s cursed, but it fits in with an always angry Axe.
Juggernaut (Yurnero)
Art Credit - Valve
Race: Tabaxi. Dexterity bonus and speed bonus fit with the flavor of the hero.
Class: Gloomstalker Ranger
Fighting Style: Dueling. Juggernaut is all about speed and damage.
Blade Fury - Dread Ambusher. Increase speed, extra attack. Add in stoneskin spell later to provide resistances. I am still working on the magic resistance it provides.
Healing Ward - Healing spirit spell. It’s only a 2nd level spell, so you get it quickly, you can cast it at a higher level to do more healing, and you can move it around as a bonus action.
Blade Dance - Dread Ambusher/Dueling.
Swift Slash - Steel wind strike spell. This is about as close as anyone will get to Juggernaut’s insane jump-around ability that has everyone running in different directions to avoid. Another option is the conjure barrage or conjure volley spells.
I’m hopeful that there will be more to come, but that’s if I can remember to mute people when they are toxic in a DOTA game. Otherwise, I’ll most likely walk away for a second time.
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