Surveys are out. Play-Testing Update. Partnership with SceneGrinder.
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 12:18:04 AM

BackerKit surveys are live. If you haven't yet, take a moment to confirm your pledge. 478 of you have already confirmed, so thank you so much!

Play-Testing Material. Play-Testing Sessions.

If you've backed a tier that includes access to the play-test material, you will be getting a survey in the next couple of weeks to get feedback on what you're interested in play-testing. We'll be starting up our play-testing sessions shortly thereafter. Here's a render of one of the maps we're working on for the games. If you'd like to switch to one of these tiers, update your pledge in the pledge manager.

We will also be running a short play-testing campaign kicking off in August which will be streamed online by one of our partners. We'll be sending out invites to the auditions in the next few days to backers in the play-testing tiers, so if you want to be a part of the Steelguard Wardens Campaign make sure your pledge is updated!

Browser-Based 3D Virtual Table Top That Will Include the Summoner!

We've partnered with SceneGrinder to include Creed's Codex: Arcane Secrets of the Summoners in their rules compendium for backers of both campaigns!

SceneGrinder is the first browser-based 3D virtual tabletop that manages your role play game system rules with no server setup or app download. SceneGrinder is mobile friendly, available 24/7 and supports all your favorite games - like 5e. Bring your summons forth in 3D by importing your own models in GLTF/GLTB or STL formats, or choose from their existing library of free painted models! Check out their campaign page to see the awesomeness in action!

Next Survey. Vote on your Favorite Illustration Sketch. Summoner Update.
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 03, 2022 at 11:08:05 PM

We had over 1,000 ideas submitted for eidolon adaptations! 

Those of you who took the time to share your feedback, thank you so much! If you didn't get a chance, we'd love to hear from you and what you're looking to see. If you suggest something awesome, and we can fit it in this book or add it as an add-on to BackerKit, we'll do it! If we can't squeeze it in this time around, that just means it will have to make it into one of our future projects!

Here are all the surveys we ran during the campaign if you didn't get a chance to fill one out yet:

•  Survey 1: What stretch goals do you want to see? 
•  Survey 2: What unlocked artwork would you like? 
•  Survey 3: What type/level spells do you want? 
•  Survey 4: What content do you want in the Eidolon Subclass? 
•  Survey 5: What add-ons would you like? 

Next Survey: Additional Illustration and Evolutionist Updates

We've had 5 options submitted for the initial illustration. These are in varying levels of completion, so vote for whichever you like best recognizing that it will undergo additional definition/updates. We'll move forward with the top selection to be fully rendered and completed.  We also are including feedback questions on what we've defined below for the Evolutionist so far.

Evolutionist Breakdown and Math

These are the initial features and will likely adjust as we move through play-testing and running the subclass through mathematical-model testing.

Level 3 Features:

• You gain 1 adaptation point per level in summoner (so when you choose the subclass at level 3 you will gain 3 points which could get you 3 minor adaptations, or a major and a minor adaptation)
• You are able to bring forth a single eidolon when you summon. It's strength is dependent on how many summoner points you spend

Level 6 Feature: 

• You gain the Mind’s Eye force augment (let's you observe through your eidolon's senses). If you already know this augment, you may instead choose one you do not know, but you must still meet the prerequisites. You have advantage on any perception checks made while you and your summon can both perceive the subject of the check.

Level 10 Feature:

• You and your eidolon become immune to psychic damage.

Level 17 Feature:

• Gain an additional 4 adaptation points

By level 20, the evolutionist will have 24 adaptation points. This will allow them to:

• Get 24 minor adaptations (cost 1 point each)
• Get 12 major adaptations (cost 2 points each)
• Get 6 epic adaptations (cost 4 points each)
• Get 3 legendary adaptations (cost 8 points each)
• A combination of some of the above adding up to no more than 24 points

At the moment, we're shooting for a level 20 eidolon to be an approximately CR (Challenge Rating) 16 creature. This would keep them inline with a fighter on the power curve. This may be adjusted with additional testing.

• Minor adaptations should provide no or minimal bonus to CR.
• Major adaptations should provide 1/2 CR benefit. This equates to a +1 to AC, additional damage less than 6 per round, additional hit points less than 15, etc.
• Epic adaptations should provide 1 CR benefit. Epic adaptations are where you start to see things like flying, resistance to damage, expertise in a skill, multi-attack, etc.
• Legendary adaptations should provide 2 CR benefit. Several of the suggestions might be too powerful and require a reduction of stats such as health, AC, attack bonus, etc. in order to keep the math balanced. We'll investigate further. A few examples of legendary adaptations would be a breath weapon, absorbing creatures to gain benefits, immunity to a damage type, etc.

Evolutionists and Their Eidolon

We're still compiling all of the adaptations suggested by you all in addition to the ones we were already planning. In total we're looking for a final count around 70 adaptation options with the following breakdown:

• 35% Minor Adaptations
• 30% Major Adaptations
• 20% Epic Adaptations
• 15% Legendary Adaptations

These may adjust further as we go through play-testing.

Depending on your particular play style, the campaign you're in, or your vision for your eidolon there would be a variety of different routes to build around eidolon themes and continue to evolve as you level. Here are a few examples to get those creative juices flowing:

*all names are works in progress

A level 5 summoner evolutionist who has started down the path of creating their unstoppable juggernaut:

• Stench = chance to poison adjacent creatures
• Relentless = if dropped below 0 hp instead is reduced to 1 hp
• Sure-Footed = advantage against getting knocked prone

Depending on the route the evolutionist pursues, they could pick up a grappling tentacle for more crowd control, resistance or immunity to a specific damage type for greater damage mitigation, or grow another head for advantage on crowd control effects such as frightened, stunned, or blind.

A level 7 summoner evolutionist who fancies himself a pirate with the eidolon as the boat:

• Swimming Speed = provides a swimming speed
• Powerful Build = usable as a mount
• Size = increase the size to gargantuan
• Amphibious = can breath air or water
• False Appearance = can take on the shape of an inanimate object

The summoner could choose to add a ranged attack to get a "cannon", pick up "Siege Monster" for extra damage against other ships and structures, or grab a multi-attack for their own tentacle attack.

A level 12 summoner evolutionist who has an eidolon they've dubbed the "Attractive Distraction":

• Increased Attractiveness = The characteristics of your eidolon lead it to be generally seen as attractive
• Spotlight = can assist a player with a performance check granting advantage on the check
• Fortune Teller = foretells the future correctly 67% of the time
• Illumination = can shed light 
• Adaptable = When you summon your eidolon you may choose 4 minor adaptations, 2 major adaptations, or 1 epic adaptation that last until you take a short or long rest.

The "Attractive Distraction" can be the decoy the party needs to slip into the prison and free their ally, the backup dancer for the bard's performance to win the tavern's competition, or the innocuous looking man who suddenly apprehends their query. As the evolutionist grows in power they may pick up additional adaptations such as an elemental damage aura, pack tactics, keen senses, or even a breath weapon.

A level 17 summoner evolutionist who has created a stealthy infiltrator for an eidolon:

• Dark Vision = can see in dim/dark conditions
• Mimicry = can imitate sounds/smells
• Ability to Speak = can speak
• Spider Climb = allows climbing on horizontal or vertical surfaces
• Stealth Expertise = double proficiency in stealth
• Ranged Attack = attack gains range
• Shadow Stealth = While in dim light or darkness, the eidolon can take the Hide action as a bonus action

Focusing on infiltration, the evolutionist could add additional movement options such as flight, increased movement speed, or a climbing speed. The evolutionist could also choose to go a few different routes such as picking up frightful presence to keep others at bay, grab a multi-attack for increased damage, or regeneration for increased healing between stealthy ambushes.

Subclass Comparison

We had quite a few requests for examples and more details on the different subclasses. Here's an example scenario and how each of the subclasses could respond:

The summoner is level 6, has just been ambushed by 4 orcs, and decides to spend 4 summoner points.

•  The colossus decides to summon a bandit captain based on an encounter from 2 sessions ago. He knows the captain gets 3 attacks and can start mowing through the orcs.
•  The hivemind decides to summon 4 orcs of their own, dropping one next to each of the ambushers to pin them down.
•  The convergent rolls their d4 and d6 to see what they get. Here are some example outcomes:
    - They roll a 1 and a 4. They summon 5 Warhorse Skeletons.
    - They roll a 2 for both rolls. They summon 2 Copper Dragon Wyrmlings with 1 enhancement each.
    - They roll a 3 and a 5. They summon an imp with 3 enhancements.
    - They roll a 4 and a 6. They summon an ochre jelly with 1 enhancement.
•  The evolutionist brings forth their eidolon, which looks like a giant stone construct in the shape of a tiger with a tentacle instead of a tail and giving off a chilling aura.

Subclass Details

• The colossus gains benefits from a single creature and is continually questing for stronger creatures adding them to their repertoire.
• The hivemind gains benefits from having multiple creatures, and often will attempt to control the battlefield with the swarm ability to restrain a creature with their summons. 
• The convergent has no clue what they are going to get. Their summons are stronger for the points they are spending, but they do not have the luxury of choosing the exact perfect creature for the encounter. They may end up with a ton of weak creatures, two moderately strong creatures, one weak creature pumped full of enhancements, or one extremely strong creature. They do however have access to creatures they haven't seen, where as the hivemind and colossus are limited by what they've encountered.
• The evolutionist has a single, highly customized eidolon they are bringing forth. They can choose the strength that they'd like to summon, but the creature itself remains the same each time based on how they've customized. They can change the customizations when they gain a level.

Out of Combat Scenarios

Here are a few out of combat ideas that have come up in our play-test sessions:

• Bringing summons in to help with mobility such as scaling a wall, crossing a gap between buildings, or swimming across a swift flowing river
• Summoning multiple workers to help construct fortifications on short notice
• Summoning a creature useful for gathering large swathes of raw materials
• Summoning the focus of an epic hunt as a distraction to send everyone off chasing the summon thinking it's the creature of legend
• Having a summon that can assume the form of an inanimate object such as a chair, which is used by the player or even potentially the BBEG

Pledge Manager

The pledge manager through BackerKit should go out in the next couple of weeks. This will provide you an opportunity to modify your pledge, provide the email address you'd like digital rewards sent to, etc. If you're interested in participating in the play-testing and did not originally back a tier that included early access, you can upgrade at that time as well.

Another One Joins the Party!

So real life jumping in here for a minute. My son was born on Wednesday. This was a couple of weeks earlier than expected, but everyone is healthy and doing well, though a bit sleep deprived. I've been telling his sister about their DND adventures for months now, so she's super excited to see if Daisy the Druid brings her and her brother an Easter Egg with a potato inside, or if they will need to help Amy the Artificer bargain with the troll for his flux capacitor. The troll has a weakness for marshmallows. 

I will have limited availability the next couple of weeks, so if I'm taking a little longer than usual to respond, don't fret I will be with you shortly. 

We're working behind the scenes to get the play-test material updated for the next set of play-test sessions, continually working with the artists to bring in additional illustrations for the additional material, and down in the trenches moving the giant wheels forward on the campaign through administrative tasks. We have several exciting updates in the queue we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks, so stay tuned and let us know what you think of the latest update in the survey!

-Brendan

We unlocked the final stretch goal with only a few minutes remaining!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 19, 2022 at 11:38:08 PM

You've done it! We've unlocked our final stretch goal adding the Half Elf Artifact of Power Mystery Gift. For those of you who filled out the latest survey it's probably not such a mystery: we're adding a summon focused subclass to one of the existing classes for all of you! At the moment that looks like the warlock, though that may change based on votes in that aforementioned survey. 

If you're just joining us or didn't get a chance, we'd love to hear from you and what you're looking to see. If you suggest something awesome and we can fit it in this book or add it as an add-on to BackerKit we'll do it! If we can't squeeze it in this time around, that just means it will have to make it into one of our future projects!

Here are all the surveys we ran during the campaign if you'd like to have your voice hear:

• Survey 1: What stretch goals do you want to see?
• Survey 2: What unlocked artwork would you like?
• Survey 3: What type/level spells do you want?
• Survey 4: What content do you want in the Eidolon Subclass?
• Survey 5: What add-ons would you like?

So what happens next?

Kickstarter will process pledges and get everything sorted over the next couple weeks. Once that's done it will kick off the BackerKit pledge manager which will provide you an opportunity to pick up additional add-ons or make adjustments to your pledge. We'll be working in parallel to get the play-test material ready for the play-test sessions and early access pledge tiers. We'll be sending out regular updates, at least monthly, as we march towards our publish date in December.

Projects I've Been Watching

The Ultimate Treasury looks like it's jam packed full of goodies, not mention they have a few monsters guardians that would make super interesting summons! They are in their final hours if you want to check them out.

It's the Final Countdown!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 19, 2022 at 03:06:38 AM

New Survey

We've put together a survey to get your feedback on the expanded add-ons, new add-ons, and provide an opportunity for additional feedback.

Previous Surveys

For those of you just joining us, fill out the surveys if you have any opinions you'd like to share on the content. We love to hear from you!

•  Survey 1: What stretch goals do you want to see? 
•  Survey 2: What unlocked artwork would you like? 
•  Survey 3: What type/level spells do you want? 
•  Survey 4: What content do you want in the Eidolon Subclass? 

Those of you who have filled out the surveys so far, thanks for the awesome feedback; we've incorporated tons of it already with more to go!

Free Shard Tabletop Summoner Class Included With All Digital Copies

As the clock approached midnight we furiously worked with Hal, a founder of Shard Tabletop, to create a partnership where all backers who have a pledge that includes a digital copy of Creed's Codex will also get free access to the summoner class on Shard Tabletop.  We're still working out the details, but we're super excited to be able to deliver this to you all! We truly appreciate all the feedback, ideas, and general enthusiasm you all have shown and wanted to show that appreciation!

Early Release. Play-Test Material. Play-Test Access.

If you backed a tier that includes the Early Release Content, Play-Test Material Access, and Access to Play-Test Sessions, you'll be invited to provide feedback on content early and often both through use on your own as well as organized play-testing.

Early Release Content. We will be providing access to content as soon as it's ready. You won't have to wait for the entire project to complete in order to get access to the portions that are done.

Play-Test Material Access. We will be providing sign ups for what content you'd like to play-test. Depending on the feedback, we may have multiple rounds. This will be released this summer in batches.

Access to Play-Test Sessions. Knight Vision Creative will be hosting a series of one shots that you'll be able to sign up for. We'll have both prebuilt characters as well as opportunities for you to build your own characters. Those of you who participated in our alpha testing are familiar with the process. We'll be primarily focused on testing the combat mechanics to ensure those are clear and balanced, but will have a variety of different scenarios for you to explore with a variety of different player levels available. 

If you'd like access to participate in the play-testing process and don't have those rewards in your tier, Creed's Campaign Special is still available.

Additional Add-Ons

We unlocked the $45k Stretch Goal and will be bringing additional add-ons your way. We had an extremely humbling amount of requests for content that wasn't a good fit for the current book or would have delayed our timeline. With that in mind, we've rolled out two additional add-on options to help meet some of those requests:

One Shots. We're putting together a series of encounters designed for 3-4 hour play sessions that can be dropped into an existing campaign or could be stand alone. 

NPC/Villain Summon Statblocks. We're putting together a series of statblocks for use at all tiers of play as NPCs or Villains. Each summoner subclass will be represented. The final count will be at least 15 statblocks.

If you're interested you can add these now, or you can add them in BackerKit about two weeks after the campaign ends. Based on the survey we may be adding additional ones that will be available in BackerKit.

Additional Artwork Concepts

We recently paired up with the talented Eve who has been working on some of the artwork for the new cantrips you all unlocked. She was so quick, the Shard Announcement above includes her final version of Aegis, a protective barrier you can erect around allies. Two of the initial drafts are on the left.

Project That I've Been Watching

Rivenstone is an alternating activation, skirmish-style tabletop wargame designed to appeal to players of all experience levels. The rules are easy to understand and play, with loads of strategic depth to explore and experience on the tabletop. Reinforcement mechanics prevent a player from losing to attrition, creating a game focused on tempo based decisions and tactical planning instead.

Every Rivenstone Faction Starter Box even comes with a playable warband of hobby miniatures along with a rulebook and every game component required to challenge an opponent on the tabletop—all for $99!

I thought their miniatures looked extremely cool and would make some excellent summons as well! 

Stretch Goal Unlocked. Additional Stretch Goals Added. Ideas for Evolutionist Artwork.
almost 2 years ago – Wed, May 18, 2022 at 05:59:21 PM

Surveys

We're going to keep the survey links at the top of our updates to ensure those of you just joining us get a chance to have your voices heard:

•  Survey 1: What stretch goals do you want to see? 
•  Survey 2: What unlocked artwork would you like? 
•  Survey 3: What type/level spells do you want? 
•  Survey 4: What content do you want in the Eidolon Subclass? 

Those of you who have filled out the surveys so far, thanks for the awesome feedback; we've incorporated tons of it already with more to go!

Stretch Goal Unlocked and Additional Ones Added

Thanks to you all we'll be expanding the point of convergence table from 50 options to 100 options! The next stretch goal will unlock additional add-on options. This was overwhelmingly asked for, so we'll be working through our list of requests and compiling some options for you all. This will also expand the count of the existing add-ons bringing forth more magic items, more tokens, etc.

If we can somehow make it to $50k, we'll also throw in a mystery gift for all of you! This seems extremely unlikely given we have just over 50 hours remaining, but you all have surprised us before. 

Evolutionist (Eidolon) Art

So for something extremely customizable, we're soliciting artwork ideas for the Evolutionist. We've had some great suggestions so far on how to visualize this, but would love to hear from more of you if you have any feedback on how you'd like to see this subclass depicted. Leave a comment and let us know what you're thinking!

Project I've Been Watching

Gold Project - A karma based metroidvania is almost fully funded with only 60 hours to go! They have a cool mechanic where you can either give into avarice and increase your strength, or stay true in the light and gain additional spells. Both paths change the levels and unlock different locations.

They have a playable Demo if you'd like to check it out. I loved the artwork style and escaped for a few minutes as I jumped, dashed, and repeatedly died over a particularly challenging spike pit. I did unlock the bow which gave me a few more options on how to approach and where I could get. I was really thinking about a shadowy summoner as well...