Bewitch both Players and GMs alike with this brand new supplement!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
September Update! The Coven Conclave - Ranger Guardian is here! AND! A new spell!
about 3 years ago
– Sun, Sep 19, 2021 at 08:40:44 PM
Hello everybody!
September is my birthday month! I've prepared a very special update because of it :) so let's get going, no time to lose!
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What we did in August:
The final adventure for Hexbound is almost done! Once this adventure is written, all 4 Hexbound adventures (which means the majority of the book!) will be done :)
Continues to work with manufacturers
Three of the four Hexbound adventures have had been edited and are now in their second pass!
What we will be working on in August:
Finish the last adventure for Hexbound!
Continue to work with manufacturers
Conclude editing for all Hexbound adventures
Start work on the backgrounds sections, one of the last sections to do before finishing the book in its entirety
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Playtest Material: Coven Conclave. The Guardian Ranger is here!
And now for the main attraction! It's another subclass for everybody to playtest! We want to finish adventures as soon as possible, so next month will be the 2.0 version of a bunch of subclasses we released before, so look out for that! But back to the ranger witch!
A lot of people wanted the ranger witch. It was one of our winners in the polls at the end of the kickstarter! The ranger class has gone through a lot of changes (and a lot of memes), so with this one I tried to bring back a new version of old abilities we've lost to changes, but also give something completely new to the ranger.
A lot of my design is inspired by my work in video games, and a staple of videogames that has seen very little use in DnD is the concept of the "ultimate". A huge, all or nothing attack that is incredibly powerful but leaves the user open to a world of hurt after. If you're an avid watcher of anime, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I wanted the guardian ranger's capstone ability to be a true ultimate, both in its flashiness and power, but also in its downside. Throughout your journey as a guardian ranger you make important choices for your build in the form of which spirits you choose to devote yourself to, and this will affect what ultimate you have access to: do you focus on one single spirit to give you a very distinct, focused playstyle? Or do you opt for versatility, giving you different abilities that don't necessarily go together but give you the ability to change strategies in combat on a dime? That's what the guardian ranger is all about!
A guardian ranger with the tree-horned stag spirit watching over them
Without further ado, here's the Guardian Ranger! As always, give your feedback on the survey, that's the place where we check for feedback and read when making the 2.0 version of the subclass!
(and yes, before you ask, this was extremely inspired by princess mononoke)
Since the spells are written (and it's my birthday month) I decided I would share another spell in Hexbound! Vile Visage is a spell that recreates one of the most common spells we see witches use in fiction. I remember checking everywhere to see if there was something similar to this, and I was surprised to find that there wasn't! How many times have we read about witches and enchantresses cursing someone to look ugly? It had to be done! This is also one of the new spells that will be accessible to the Circle of the Brew updated druid subclass in Hexbound, so it's also a little test of what's to come! I hope you like it :)
Vile Visage
2nd level illusion (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action Range: 90 feet Components: V Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
You pull on the base instincts of a creature you can see within range to twist their features into what they revile most. The target must make a Charisma saving throw (the target can choose to fail this saving throw), on a failure, an illusion is applied to the target’s face that reflects what the target considers ugly. The illusion does not change the creature’s intrinsic characteristic such as race, but rather twists their own existing features into shapes that the target would deem ugly. For the duration, the target has -10 to all charisma skill checks. A creature with an intelligence score lower than 4 or a creature that lacks a concept of beauty or ugliness is immune to the effects of this spell.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you extend the duration of the spend by 1 hour.
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Have Questions? Reach Out!
As always, you can direct all your questions to our incredibly talented Support Witches! Simply whisper an incantation in the center of your ritualistic space of choice, or send them an email!
And that's it for our september update! I hope you like both the ranger and the new spell. The month of october should be interested, it's spooky month after all! I hope the end of summer is treating you well if it's summer where you live, and I'll see you soon for another update!
Cheers,
Antonio
August Update! The Coven of Spirits Sorcerer is here! Plus! A new spell!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 02:09:55 AM
Hello everybody!
Welcome to the August update (and this time, I didn't mess up on the title...)! I come to you fully vaccinated and two weeks after my second dose, I couldn't be happier! We are currently in our own heat wave here in Spain, so it's not like I'm going out a lot, but it's good to feel safer. I hope everybody is doing well too wherever everyone is. Let's get to the update, we have a lot to talk about!
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What we did in July:
We continue with our monthly updates! I am once again extremely happy to say that we exceeded the goals set for us in June. Oh also, a little sidenote: if you go to our july updates, it says "what we will be doing in august". It's a mistake! It was supposed to read "what we will be doing in July", sorry about that! Let's get into what we accomplished in July:
An entire new adventure has been written! Covens and Courtiers is now done and ready for editing! I didn't think we could manage this in the month of June but we did!
This also means that all the art for Covens and Courtiers is also done, check some of it down below!
All spells have been written (and I will share one today with you below!)
Editing has started, one adventure has been edited once in its entirety, now going for the second pass!
Pío Galíndez, one of the members of the High Coven in Courtiers and Covens
What we will be working on in August:
Continue adventure writing, hopefully finishing the last adventure although this one is a bit longer than the rest, we'll see!
Continue work with manufacturers
Kick editing in full now that three adventures have been written.
Work specifically in the animated spell cards now that spells have been written.
Feroz Beliar, one of the members of the High Coven in Courtiers and Covens
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Playtest Material: Coven of Spirits - The Sorcerer Witch!
And now for the main attraction! So this month we have once again a new subclass to playtest for the coven! Because we focused so much on adventures, we don't have a 2.0 of the duskwalker, we will focus more on 2.0 subclasses when the main writing of the book is done. To tide you over until then, I've added a little extra to this update right after the subclass :)
The Coven of Spirits Sorcerer brings the "bloodline" aspect of the Sorcerer front and center. This sorcerer comes from an incredibly long line of witches. After changing their bodies with witchmarks for generations, this Sorcerer is always in contact with the spirits of their ancestors. This means access to a great deal of power as the spirits can protect the sorcerer and their friends, empower their spellcasting, and weaken the enemy's spells, but it also means that the sorcerer must be careful, as their ancestors ae always watching, and they have their own opinions as to what the sorcerer should be doing! This subclass highlights the inherited magic aspect of the sorcerer, which is what makes sorcerers unique, but also plays with some of the tropes that are usually reserved for clerics and warlocks: another being is looking over you and they have their own agenda. This creates fantastic roleplay opportunities that affect the choices the sorcerer makes: will they go their own path? will they follow the will of their ancestors? will they find a way to do both? It's up to you to decide!
Okay real talk here, this is my favorite subclass illustration in the book :)
I hope you like it! As always, you can find the subclass and the feedback survey where you can give your thoughts on it below! A reminder that we look at the survey when we do our 2.0 versions of subclasses, we don't look at feedback elsewhere! So the survey is the best way to go if you want to give your two cents regarding this subclass.
Since the spells are written, I thought it'd be fun to share one of them! Astral Reading is not a damaging spell, but rest assured, there will be both damaging and utility spells in Hexbound. I selected this one because I thought it's pretty emblematic of the whole Hexbound vibe!
Astral Reading
3rd level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 minute Range: Self Components: V, S, M (a small armillary sphere made of brass or a set of gold-trimmed tarot cards worth 50gp) Duration: Instantaneous Classes: Bard, Druid, Ranger, Wizard
You sit down and look at the stars for answers, for meaning, and for purpose. This spell can only be cast at night with a clear view of the sky.
Roll a percentile die to know whether a reading is successful or unsuccessful. A successful reading is always truthful, and an unsuccessful reading is always unclear.
Watchful Reading: You ask if a person you are familiar with is safe or in danger. If the person is within 60 miles, the reading is successful. If the person is not within 60 miles or is in another plane of existence, roll a percentile die. If you roll a number equal to or lower than 50, the reading is unsuccessful.
Introspective Reading: You ask if an action you took in the past 24 hours was the right action to take to achieve your goal. Roll a percentile die; if you roll a number equal to or lower than 30, the reading is unsuccessful.
Personal Reading: You ask how a person you are familiar with feels about you. If the person is played by one of the players at the table, they can choose to make the reading automatically successful. Roll a percentile die; if you roll a number equal or lower than 50, the reading is unsuccessful. If a reading is successful, you get one word that tells you how that person feels about you.
It's always good to have a reason to bust out that percentile die, don't you think? I hope you like Astral Reading! :)
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Have Questions? Reach Out!
As always, you can direct all your questions to our incredibly talented Support Witches! Simply whisper an incantation in the center of your ritualistic space of choice, or send them an email!
Another monthly update concluded! I hope you are enjoying these so far, they are fun to write! See you very soon in September for our next update, it's my birthday month so I'll try to make it special :)
Cheers,
Antonio
July Update - The Paladin Oath of the Coven is here!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 12:47:54 AM
Hello everybody!
How is everybody doing? Spain is finally rolling out vaccine shots for those younger than 40 which means I just received my first dose! I took it easy for the weekend after getting mine, which is why I'm coming to you on a monday! But enough chat about vaccines, we have a lot to talk about, so let's get to it!
What We Did in June:
This is our third monthly update! As a little reminder, I'll come to you every month to detail exactly what we've been working on, what we have accomplish, and what we want to accomplish next month in the process of releasing Hexbound.
In June, we set out to do plenty, and we accomplished plenty! Let's take a look:
We set out to write an entire new adventure, and we just did! Murder Witchery, a murder mystery adventure for Hexbound, is written and! surprise! fully illustrated too! Enemies and NPCs included! Here are some:
Some of the characters you'll meet in Murder Witchery, one of the Hexbound adventures!
We set out to illustrate additional monsters, and all monsters for the adventure Threads of Fate have been illustrated! You saw a big spider last time, so here's a small one for the same adventure!
We are continuing to work with manufacturers for things like pins, minis, and the like
We haven't started layout just yet! Now that two adventures are ready we will be ready to start that very soon though!
What we will be working on in August:
Continue adventure writing, hopefully finish a third adventure with illustrations!
Continue working with manufacturers
Start work on spells!
Start the editing process for the writing
This seems like a pretty busy schedule, but we'll do our best! We're at the halfway point when it comes to adventure writing, which means pretty soon we'll get to the finish line! As a reminder, all subclasses and magic items have been written, so that means that the book is past the halfway point!
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Playtest Material: Duskwalker - The Rogue Witch!
A new subclass coming your way! We have looked through all the feedback for the paladin, and there wasn't much to change! We've changed the wording on one or two abilities to clarify their intended uses, but the feedback was very positive, so 2.0 of the paladin will be going in the book itself! For now, let us turn our sights to this very unusual rogue:
The Duskwalker
This rogue subclass is extremely unique! Basically, it's two subclasses in one! This rogue gets a completely new set of abilities depending if they stand in light or in darkness. This means that it's not very beginner friendly, as you have to juggle two sets of abilities that could come up depending on the terrain! In playtest, experienced players loved the challenge and the mix of versatility with constraint, it's very, very different! Since the paladin was pretty straightforward I though it was time to release something quite different.
As always, we have the subclass and a survey where you can give feedback! Please! Keep your feedback to the survey!this is what we check when we look to make changes to the subclass in future versions, which means we won't be checking your feedback elsewhere!
And as always, if you want to discuss with other people the subclasses, share your thoughts with the community, hear what others have to say, you can head over to our discord where we discuss the latest release to the Coven in the coven channel! Click here to access our discord!
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Have Questions? Reach Out!
As always, you can direct all your questions to our incredibly talented Support Witches! Simply whisper an incantation in the center of your ritualistic space of choice, or send them an email!
I've said this like three times, but I love doing these monthly updates. I hope you like hearing from the project and seeing the art too! And of course our coven releases as well! See you in august!!
Cheers,
Antonio
June Update - The Paladin Oath of the Coven is here!
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 01:36:25 PM
Hello everyone!
We’re now finally starting summer here in the northern hemisphere! I hope that wherever you’re located the weather is nice! I recently moved to the Canary Islands and it sure is nice here! Well, enough talk, let’s get into it!
What we did in May:
If you remember our last update, we’ll be doing monthly updates for Hexbound explaining how everything is going and what we’ve been working on for the month! These updates will come between the 1st and the 15th of that month, like today! With that out of the way, let’s look at what we did in May!
We’ve now contacted and started to work on production for all aspects of Hexbound! Minis, pins, cards, everything!
All subclasses have been illustrated in full!
All subclasses have been written and have gone through their first pass
The One Shot adventure: Threads of Fate, is completely written and we’ve started illustrating the adventure!
We’ve started working on battlemaps. We have our very first ready to go.
One of the creatures you'll find in the Hexbound adventures! Scary!
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What we will be working on in June:
Continue writing adventures, finish the writing of one additional adventure.
Continue illustration work for adventures, including monsters
Continue working with manufacturers to keep the production process going
Start the work for layout
One of the NPCs you'll find in the Hexbound adventures!
I’m very proud of all that we accomplished during May! And also very excited to see how much we can do during June! But we all know the most fun part of these updates, so let’s get to that!
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Playtest Material: Oath of the Coven: Paladin Witch
That’s right, a new subclass coming to the coven! The coven is our version of unearthed arcana, that means it’s playtest material that you can give your feedback on for us to tweak it for the final book!
As a reminder, we always send the subclass with a feedback survey! You can take this survey to give us your feedback on the class. Please!Use the survey to give feedback! that way we have everyone’s opinions in the same place, which is much more helpful for us to actually take feedback into account when revisiting the subclass!
That’s right! In this update we revisit the intoner after your playtest feedback and change some stuff based on it.
So overall I’m extremely happy with the reception of the Intoner, and with the amount of people that played it in games! I’ve even gotten some messages saying that they are playing an intoner in full campaigns and that makes me so happy.
The most common piece of feedback we got for the intoner was that the auras were too small, so they are now bigger! That means that even with reduced movement your intoner will be able to get people more easily into their auras. Another common piece of feedback was that song of the thieves was not useful because the intoner would have to sing to give other people stealth advantages. I think the point of this song was not very clear: it wasn’t so that the bard and the party could go on stealth missions, it was so the intoner could distract a crowd with their singing so that the party could pass undetected, or steal from the crowd. Because this was a pretty common piece of feedback, we’ve changed songs around, deleted some, and added others. Now, the intoner has several combat-focused songs along with out of combat ones!
The biggest change, however, was to its 14th level ability. A concern was that the intoner would have to go through many uses of bardic inspiration. Not as much as a swords bard, since songs can be continued for several turns, but a way to gain back inspiration was something that could benefit the subclass, so that’s what the 14th level ability is all for! Remember, bards, like warlocks with spell slots, get their bardic inspiration back with short rest (after a certain level), so this 14th level ability means that if the intoner is good about positioning, they won’t run out of inspiration mid battle. There’s a bunch of other changes, but I’ve talked enough! Go take a look at the Intoner 2.0! If you have more feedback, there's a second feedback link right down below! Please use the survey for feedback!
So when the Intoner bard released last month, our discord was buzzing with people discussing it! Specially our coven channel! The coven channel is there to discuss the latest releases to the coven, and it was full of a lot of great discussions, people talking about their experiences running the intoner in-game, and more! People also post games they are running for people to sign up to, and more! If that sounds like something you'd like to take part in...
And that's all for June! I really, really love doing these monthly updates. When I'm working I think about ticking stuff out of that list I post for the month, and I'm excited to report back to y'all when I do! I think it's important to maintain communication while working on a big project such as this, so I hope these updates are fun for you too :). See you next month for the new one, and see you on the discord server to talk paladins and bards!
Cheers,
Antonio Demico
The Witch Bard College is here! - Start of Monthly Updates
over 3 years ago
– Mon, May 03, 2021 at 10:36:42 PM
Hello everyone!
I'm extremely happy to write this update today! Backerkit is up and running, i'm settled in a new city, work to start fulfilment on the many different pieces of Hexbound has started, the book is being written and illustrated actively... everything is up and running as it should be! In this update I'll talk about how we're gonna do updates in the future, and I'll be revealing the next class that is available for playtesting in the coven! So let's get right into all that!
Monthly Updates
So how are updates gonna work for Hexbound? It's very simple! Each month, between the 1st and the 15th, an update will be released detailing what was accomplished last month, what we will be working on on the next month, and if there's any content for you guys to playtest.
Of course, our support wizards are still available to answer all of your questions outside of that update schedule. Once again, you can contact them by sending an email here: [email protected]
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What we did in April:
April was a set up month, we talked to the different people that will be charged with making all the different parts of Hexbound: minis, cards, etc. We're still talking with different companies to get all of that ready to go, but very soon all that work will be taken care of
In terms of book production, I'm very happy to say that all the subclasses for Hexbound have been written in full, even the ones unlocked through stretchgoals, and most of them have also been fully illustrated by yours truly. That's a whole lot of illustration and writing done, it's a sizeable part of the book!
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What we will be working on in May:
We'll continue the work in the fulfillment set up process to get all that squared away.
We'll finish the illustrations for subclasses
We'll work on the illustrations for NPCs in the adventures
Writing on adventures will continue.
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Playtest Material! Bard College of Witchcraft: Intoner
That's right! Remember when we released the witchblade? Well, here's a brand new release for playtesting! This time, it's the bard's turn.
The Intoner : Bard College of Witchcraft
The Bard College of Witchcraft uses a mechanic that is seldom used by anyone but barbarians and paladins: Auras. This bard takes auras from a passive, set-it-and-forget-it ability, to an integral part of the bard's playstyle, shifting the way this bard plays and making positioning an integral part of combat for the bard. It's extremely customisable, with an enormous number of songs your bard can use in and out of combat, and gives inspiration a completely different twist.
This subclass article has entered the coven, which is our version of Unearthed Arcana. This means that along with the subclass there will also be a survey so you can give feedback on the subclass!
Please! Use that survey to give feedback! It helps me out a ton to keep everything in one place instead of having to hunt comments on several platforms. Replying to the survey is the best way to ensure that your feedback is heard.
Another important reminder is that in the Hexbound discord server we have an entire channel dedicated only to talk about articles in the coven. There have been some amazing discussions on how people have used the witchblade in games of their own, and it's really cool to see the community share their experience, feedback, and thoughts on the different articles. If that sounds cool, click here to join our discord!
As always, you can direct all your questions to our incredibly talented Support Witches! Simply whisper an incantation in the center of your ritualistic space of choice, or send them an email!
I loved doing monthly updates for Dragon Stew, and people seemed to respond very well to the clear schedule for updates and the constant stream of information. It's extremely important for me that everyone feels in the know as to how the project is going, so updates are key in that. I'll talk to you very soon, and I hope you like the bard!
