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Book of Binding (Patreon)

Published:
2016-06-01 06:14:51
Edited:
2024-10-03 21:29:31
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

This class is the result of a year-long collaboration on the Giant in the Playground boards, which is actually where I (the Finger) and Submortimer (the Palm) met. We've poured countless hours into its development, and it's finally time to call the Binder complete.

The binder represents a new type of spellcaster. Rather than learning spells, a binder negotiates with vestiges, remnants of spirits that exist in the void outside reality. In exchange for sharing his body and soul with these spirits for a short time, the binder gains some of the powers they had in life. Essentially, the binder can switch and choose his powers, and party role, daily.

Now, I understand this class might be intimidating to pick up due to the sheer number of vestiges on display, so we've included a number of tools to make it easier: at the beginning of the Vestige Codex chapter, there's a table detailing every vestige and its powers to help you familiarize yourself with your choices. Then, at the end of the PDF, there are printable Vestige Cards, which summarize the powers and abilities offered by vestiges. These can be printed out on standard 8.5"x11" paper and put in trading card sleeves to play the class with only a one page character sheet and a small deck of cards.

License: Unlike much of the other material to be released by Mage Hand Press, this class presents no license, OGL or otherwise. This is because the vestiges presented for it represent characters owned by Wizards of the Coast, and are therefore exempted from the Open Gaming License. However, due to the restrictions of the DM Guild license, we've opted to simply release this without any license whatsoever, completely free to everyone. You lucky patrons simply get it early!

The material included within is regardless up to our OGL standard - it includes only original, public domain art, and can be played using only the SRD and a set of dice.

Changelog:

6/1/16: Ipos: Flash of Insight: Copy duplication error

Chupoclops: Monstrous Bite: Copy duplication error

Xanathar: Advantage on saves to resist magical conditions, not checks

Cards: 9th level DCs fixed

Haures: Incorporeal Movement: no hard movement limit but no dashing either

6/3/16: Sealed Fate: Patron Vestige: Clarification added

Gustling: Ranged spell attack required

Otiax: Fog Hammer: Opp attacks are against targets within 5 feet

Acererak: Undead Healing: Any source other than cantirips

Geryon: Acidic Gaze: Action to use

Kas: Black Blade: Clarification on adding Charisma modifier twice

Tenebrous: Grave Darkness: Effects only affect creatures you choose. Your summoned undead can see in darkness.

Exorcist: Only disables binders for 1 minute

Teeth of Dahlver-Nar: Savnok: mage armor instead of shield

Comments

Altanius

Holy 55 pages! I'll definitely have to examine this in depth tomorrow, but at a glance, it looks awesome. Nice work guys!

Mage Hand Press

Yeah, this has totally been a year in the making and I've been playtesting it for months. It's really exciting to get it out there!

Richard Belmont Potts III

Just an FYI, Ipos prince of fools has a typo. Flash of Insight shares Rends text. Good work though. I've been looking for lore on a lot of the vestiges.

Mage Hand Press

I'd be amazed if that was the only copy duplication error with the length of this thing. Glad you like it so far! Let me know if you find any more!

Dathan

Chupoclops' Monstrous Bite currently has the same text as Andromalius' Ancient's Jig. I spent about 3 hours reading every word, and I've loved it. Keep up the amazing work! Edit: Also, the 9th Level Vestige Cards have 8th Level Vestige Pact DC's

Mage Hand Press

I'm glad you like it! I'll have a fixed version up in a few hours, when I'm not AFK

Altanius

Haures's incorporeal Movement(pg 25) is broken. Limit if 5 foot move per turn and inability to linger inside objects means it's useless. Might wanna make it ten feet.

Mage Hand Press

I think you're totally right about this -- I've been meaning to mess with that feature for a while, and even had a version of it written up, but not implemented. Check in soon to see the changes.

Altanius

Marchosias's silent and sure(pg. 36) is pretty underwhelming for an seventh level vestige. Maybe you could give proficiency with stealth, or expertise with stealth if the person already has it, instead.

Darion Diaz

Are you not worried about the damage potential of a mid to late game Sealed Fate Binder with Kas as their trusted vestige and Andras? As early as level 9 you could, assuming a +4 to Dexterity and Charisma, hit twice per round for 1d8+4+4+2 (Average total of 29 over the two attacks), critically striking on a 19 and adding Smite foe would increase the damage by 6d6 (~21) per swing. Granted, the attacks would be at a disadvantage, but it still seems to be quite high. At level 13 you would add your charisma modifier an additional time. Was this intentional? Or am I misunderstanding a feature? I can understand that the rest of the class doesn't have a terribly large amount of straight damage features, but in my mind the numbers seem quite high. I have been wrong before though, and would love to hear your thought process when it came to designing the more damage/melee oriented vestiges.

Mage Hand Press

I can think about messing with this, but note that vestiges don't really give skill proficiencies, so doing that probably won't be the solution I take on it.

Altanius

At 13th level, a 10 stealth may as well be a 0. Most people specced in skills at that level will be hitting a flat 10-11 as is (5 proficiency plus 4-5 attribute) at that level. If vestiges don't use skills, that's fair but it should be something other than what it is. I'll let you know if I think of something.

Mage Hand Press

Let's compare this to a fighter of the same level using a greatsword: 12 (2d6+5) slashing for each attack, for a total of 24, over two separate attacks, critically striking on the same range, without feats or other things which grant higher damage. The average damage from a fighter using great weapon fighting still outpaces this on average. At 9th level, like you mentioned, the Sealed Fate will outpace a fighter a little in damage, but will have a hard time maintaining that damage in combat without good AC and HP. Moreover, the fighter gets a 3rd attack at 11th level, and the binder is trapped at two. You can't add Charisma to damage twice -- once it's added it's added -- so the binder has a hard time getting more damage from melee from then on out. (Smite foe gives a little more, but disadvantage is a very tangible risk for most players.) In general, the goal was that you could do about as well in a particular field as other classes if you specialized in that field and dumped literally everything else you could do. Here, the Charisma damage was to counteract the lack of massive weapons, and to make this desirable for non-Strength builds. Plus, this offsets the fact that you don't have the heavy armor and HP survivability of a fighter or paladin (unless, of course, you put a vestige into Savnok.)

Darion Diaz

I see. I wasn't aware that you could only add your Charisma modifier to damage once, I assumed that since it came from two different sources and dealt different types of damage, they would stack. Now that that is cleared up, I can understand what you were intending.

Altanius

Savnok's tooth(pg. 44) is really powerful (especially for a rare magic item.) Being able to cast shield at will is, for most intents and purposes, a flat +5 to AC.

Altanius

Ok, my loooong review/response. I'll start with the good stuff first, then move to the errors I spotted and design questions I have, so if you prefer your veggies before your dessert, skip down The Good: Let me say unequivocally that this is a masterpiece. You've successfully made what I would call the most interesting class of 5E, including the base classes. The sheer breadth of the class, combined with its adaptability is awesome. The various vestiges are all interesting and it's pretty cool/fun to see how switching around vestiges could let you switch party roles at the drop of a hat. I'm actually jumping into a new campaign in the next week or two, and now I' probably gonna have to beg the GM to let me play this :P. The Veggies: This is what I've found so far: The Sealed Fate spec is a bit odd at the moment. The precise criteria for selecting your favored vestige isn't really specified. Do you have to be able to channel the vestige when you pick the feature? Can you change your favored vestige at higher levels? FWIW, I would seriously want it to be changeable, since most of the low level vestiges go out of fashion pretty quick, and picking a higher level one and having to wait for your class feature is bad. The Magical Interaction sidebar (Pg 7) seems incomplete it says 'Effects like Antimagic field and Dispel magic' but only describes the effects of Antimagic field The Gustling Minor Spirit (Pg. 10) just deals flat damage. No save or attack roll necessary. Not sure if this was intentional, so I thought I'd point it out. The Karsus Null Magic Ability (Pg.26) is fine, but the language could use some work. I'm assuming that the Dispel and Counterspell share 'charges.' However, as written it's a bit confusing For Kas's Black Blade (Pg. 28,) you should probably specify it doesn't stack with the Sealed fate pact's CHA stat bump. I also wonder if there isn't some other benefit you could give to prevent the conflict of interest and to not steal Sealed Fate's thunder. Not sure though. Otiax's fog cloud ability (Pg. 29) seems like it should be castable on a bonus action, just going by the things around it. I'm curious as to why it's a full action instead. Also, does the 'Fog Hammer' legitimately give reach? I'm assuming not but, especially since it can be used as an opportunity attack it's a bit confusing. Tenebrous's Grave Darkness (Pg. 30) I've got like 3 points here, so I'll break them down 1) It seems like the Binder should be immune or resistant to the special effects of his own darkness, including the extra effects. Maybe that's just me though. 2) Are the extra effects supposed to be at will? Because it reads that way at the moment. I DO think the Darkness spell should be at will, but the other effects seem odd. 3) The 'Animate Dead' effect is a bit odd at the moment. The undead animated would be blinded by the darkness (Even Shadows, ironically enough.) Now, because of the way darkness works, two blind people in it basically roll at each other with flat die rolls. However, it seems odd that the undead aren't aclimated. Geryon's acidic gaze (Pg. 33) Is this supposed to be a nonaction effect, because no action is specified for using it, which makes it seem like none is required. Acerak's Undead Healing (pg. 34) I'm curious why you specifically made this 'Spell Damage' instead of necrotic damage in general. The Exorcist Feat (Pg. 43) mentions you can exorcise Binders to banish their vestiges. It doesn't mention how long this lasts however, other than maybe the '24 hours.' I'd sincerely hope you wouldn't make that long though because you'd basically be giving one feat the potential to literally shut down an entire class. There's also the Savnok shield thing I mentioned below. That's all I've got for the moment though. Seriously guys. Wicked. Awesome. Class. -Matt

Mage Hand Press

Woo, I love quality feedback! If it's fine with you, I think I'll respond to this in several parts, as I patch the class around the errors you've spotted. (Thank you so much for the detailed response!) First up: Sealed Fate. Your patron vestige is just an extension of your Trusted Vestige feature, which is detailed in the class chassis feature. You can change this vestige when you gain a level in the class. I'll add a sentence to clarify that ASAP Gustling: Should be a ranged spell attack -- will fix ASAP.

Mage Hand Press

Acererak: This was something I thought I updated. It should be any source other than a cantrip, since I'm trying to keep it from being abused as completely free healing. I'm not sure if that makes it watertight, and I'll revert to only spell damage if there's a way to turn this into free healing all the time. Otiax: Fog Hammer: I've clarified the attack to only deliver opportunity attack to adjacent targets. (It attacks at reach, but doesn't give it to you passively, all the time.) Geryon: Acidic Gaze: My bad; this is an action to use. Exorcist: Should only shut down the class for 1 minute. Teeth: Savnok: I clearly didn't think that particular spell through. I'll find something else to replace it with. (Probably mage armor.) Tenebrous: Grave Darkness: The dakrness spell is at will, and you can use an extra effect each time you cast it. I'll go ahead and make the binder (and his summoned zombie dude) immune to these effects -- it just never occurred to me before now to do that.

Mage Hand Press

I'll clarify in Black Blade that they won't just to be super watertight. Thanks for the input!

Mage Hand Press

Here's some stuff I'd love your opinions on: Magical Interactions Sidebar: I have no idea how dispel magic should be used with vestiges. I'm considering cutting the reference, but I kept it in for fear of people thinking spells cast by vestiges are immune to dispelling or counterspelling. Specifically, I'm not sure how to phrase the intended interaction here -- that vestiges themselves shut down in antimagic fields, but can't themselves be disabled by anything less. Otiax: Obscuring Mist: We've gone both ways on the bonus action / action debate here. Last time it was changed, it was because Submortimer wrote the vestige too well, and it was more useful and powerful than almost anything else. I'm not sure if it should be switched or not. Karsus: Null Magic: So, I tried my very best on this wording, and it's revision number four or so. I actually don't know another way of phrasing it so it doesn't imply that you can use each of the spells multiple times. If you have a particular wording for this, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Altanius

Magic Interactions: How about something to the effect of 'While spell effects produced by vestiges(Such as Sacred Flame or Lightning Bolt) can be dispelled or counterspelled as normal, the vestiges themselves are far too powerful to be effected by such trivial magic, and their pact with the binder is unaffected. Only antimagic fields can interfere with vestiges, suppressing all effects except bonus proficiencies, physical signs and influences while the binder is in the area of the effect. However, the powers of the vestige return in full when the binder leaves the anti-magic field. Otiax: Well, FWIW you've got Tenebrous's darkness on bonus action cast, so those should probably run the same way. I'd vote for changing it and I suppose the best I can lay out is the Pros/Cons. So, my vision for this vestige (and Tenebrous as well) is the classic horror movie where the fog rolls in and all you hear is screams of the people being dismembered/whatever. The problem is, if it's cast as an action whoever is in the area will just move out, robbing the Binder of that aesthetic and the benefits of being able to fight in the mist(Which is the one of the major advantages of Otiax.) Additionally, I think the disadvantages of the mist are nothing to sneeze at as is. You're using up a bonus action, which is a precious commodity for binders (If admittedly not as useful as an action, but still.) Plus, you're cordoning off a section of the battlefield from your allies as well. Any enemies in the area effectively become the Binder's problem and his alone. IDK if you played much fourth edition, but it's basically like the Drow's darkness cloud from that edition. I remember party members getting annoyed when I dropped that and that was a 15 diameter cube, not a 20' radius one. So, all things considered I think bonus action is the way to go. Karsus: How about: Null Magic: Twice per day you may use this ability to cast either Dispel Magic or Counterspelling without expending spell slots or material components. These spells are cast at a spell level equal to the highest level vestige you can bind. You gain a third use of this ability at 12th level and a fourth at 19th level.

Altanius

Make the Karsus 'twice per long rest.' And as for Acerak what about 'necrotic damage from hostile creatures.' Maybe tack on 'or environmental damage' but I'd have to think about that. Because the other abuse that occurs to me is friendly summoned undead. Or your party's Warlock hexing you, then punching you. (1 bludgeoning, 1d6 necrotic.)

John Hoffman

Are Ronove's Fist (pg.15) and Malphas' Sneak Attack (pg.20) supposed to scale with Binder level at half the rate of a monk and rouge without the levels in the other classes or only with? Because it currently only scales if you Multiclass, it seems.

Altanius

Also, for exorcist maybe it should convey immunity for 24 hours if the binder saves, like possession (oh, irony.)

Mage Hand Press

Ronove should scale as a monk of your binder level -- it currently has a typo, which I'll fix ASAP. I reread Malphas, and I'm pretty sure it's correct and states that your Sneak Attack increases as a rogue of half your binder level.

Mage Hand Press

Alrighty, I made a whole bunch of additional changes based on your suggestions! (I didn't go with some of your exact wording in a lot of cases for a few reasons, but I think things should be clearer now.)

John Hoffman

Ah, I see that now, sorry. Another thing I have noticed is that the Naberius card near the end references an Ability to Sense the Most influential Creature around and that isn't something Naberius can do.

Altanius

Hey Finger, Spotted a few other things. 1) Should Ipos's rend (Pg. 19) be a bonus action? 2)You might want to specify how the Universal Seal(pg. 44) interacts with one's trusted vestige, since I'm assuming it doesn't translate to an auto-success on all of them.

Mage Hand Press

Rend: Nope, this is just something that automatically happens when you make two successful claw hits in one turn, but it /used/ to be a bonus action in earlier drafts. Did I miss a reference somewhere? Universal Seal: Good point. I'll mess with the wording.

Mage Hand Press

Actually, looking closely at the RAW here, nothing is actually wrong, since a Trusted Vestige doesn't have you make a check at all. The Universal Seal just asks you to look at the highest Pact DC, which isn't affected by anything here.

Altanius

@Seal Fair enough. @Ipos I ask because ATM it's one of the best damage dealers of the vestiges (2/3 attacks per round at 1d6+str and if 2+ attacks hit deal an extra 2/3d6) at its best it can land 6d6+15 in a round, which is on par with an 11th level fighter, and still leaves the binder with a bonus action to use minor spirit or something.

Mage Hand Press

The second melee attack does require a bonus action, actually, but I think you might be right, this damage might be too high. Let's do some math: At 7th level, it's 1d4+1d4+2*Dex+2d6 = 18 (assuming +3 Dex). A fighter at this level can swing a heavy weapon for 2d6 each hit: 4d6 + 2*Str = 22 (assuming +4 Str.) So, the fighter is winning out, but it's not really fair to compare it to /one/ vestige alone. If you can add your Charisma modifier, this starts getting powerful. I think I'll remove the ability score modifier from the second attack to reduce the total damage, then see where we are.

Altanius

Actually unless I'm missing something I think it uses Str by RAW. Also should note the disadvantages are that it's not magical which weakens it later on and that it doesn't get the THB or bonus damage of a magic weapon.

Mage Hand Press

You're right, it's Strength (This has gone through literally half a dozen drafts -- I sometimes get them confused off the cuff.) I'm gonna have to take a close look at this to make sure its in the right ballpark. Turns out, you can only get Charisma to damage with it using Sealed Fate, and that's all the way into level 13, so it might not be as bad as I thought. Twisted Fate gives +1 to hit and damage at level 3, plus bigger damage dice later, but that's still not crazy. I think I still need to cut the second attack's ability score to damage, just so Rend doesn't make it alone too powerful, but after that, I think it'll be fine.

Altanius

In light of E3 this week it occurred to me that if you're looking for another vestige, the outsider from Dishonored fits the bill pretty well...

Mage Hand Press

We have a bunch of non-core vestiges sitting around (I even have one of The Dude from The Big Lebowski, if you can believe it). One day we'll probably release them too, but we really want to make sure the rest of this book is pretty rock-solid.

SeraVictoria

Will this class also receive an update like the complete classes series?