Archmage Derek's Handy Dandy Resource Guide

So, today I figured I would point you guys in the direction of what I use to enhance my games beyond the core material and the WoTC's Unearthed Arcana.

Forged in Magic

Most notably as of late is Paradigm Concept's Forged in Magic, Reforged. You can find it on drivethrurpg.com. This is over 400 magic items that all work in 5e. There are a few exceptions as the main idea of the book is to supplement their own Arcanis campaign setting. So some changes and DM rulings are necessary but 97% of this book works with no changes. There are tons of great items here with great art that DM Starhelm and I took a fast liking to.

What is most notable and a really fun system to play with, Paradigm Concepts introduces an expanded rune system for augmenting items. It makes more common items more unique and creates the greater likelihood that magic based societies like Eberron can function in 5e. Attunement is a beast for a different day, but 5e sort of destroys the ease of magic items even in established Forgotten Realms canon. (We're looking at you, Jarlaxle Baenre!)

In a quick breakdown of this system, any mundane item has three rune "slots", uncommon runes take one, rare take two, and very rare, three. The two dozen or so runes that have varying levels of power. There are even an advanced way to combine runes together in a couple different fashions. The only oddity is that the rules acknowledge legendary runes but don't include examples of any. I tweeted at Paradigm Concepts they said left it open for DMs to craft their own legendary runes at their discretion. I really like that model for gaming. Were I to create my own game, I would be inclined to leave a majority of rulings open like that for the DMs and players to hash out together. So, kudos to them.

I have made my own adjustments to these rules as, to my knowledge, only mundane items are accounted for, so I rule in my game, based on the Dungeon Master's Guide's Moonblade, that legendary items have seven rune slots. Working backwards, I have established that uncommon magic items have four slots, rare have five, and very rare have 6. This opens up the variety of weapons/items you can have and is a fun time experimenting.

Matthew Mercer

I'm going to try to be as neutral about this as possible because I am a huge fan of the multifaceted talent that is Matthew Mercer. Matthew Mercer is a voice actor (most famous for Overwatch's McCree), nerd, and the DM/host of Geek and Sundry's popular livestream, Critical Role. Mercer has released several supplements onto dmsguild as pay as you want pdfs. These include the Maestro Bardic College, Gunslinger, and Blood Hunter. I've allowed players to use the Gunslinger fighter archetype once or twice, and one of our tech powered recurring big baddies, Imry, has been a gunslinger in a few incarnations. It isn't especially difficult to include it as it is basically a conversion of Pathfinder's Gunslinger. Ironically, he wrote Gunslinger before "High Noon" was even a thing. Blood hunter is a little more complex and not for any new player. It is well balanced as Mercer is an experienced gamer and has collaborated with the D&D design team before, thus I trust his work and judgement as a DM and designer. I haven't had the opportunity to play or DM for a Maestro bard. I'd like to see it in action, but no one has brought it up. Ultimately, use Mercer's materials at your own discretion with respect to your campaign setting and players. Guns in a D&D campaign is a touchy subject as is.

The Not Really Complete Series

The very talented Faolyn on reddit came up with The Not Really Complete Tome of Sells, and The Not Really Complete Encyclopedia Magica. These are conversions of a plethora of spells and magic items respectively from other editions of the game. I use the magic items more than the spells because my players tend to want a greater variety of items (or at least seem to appreciate it), and the introduction of new spells to classes beyond wizard can get a little messy. That is also a topic for another day. Since these are conversions from previous editions and pathfinder, they are easy to use and they very rarely will create that sort of weirdness that occurs when a homebrewed rule/item/class doesn't entirely fit the setting or tone of a game. I highly recommend them, there are some very fun items in the Encyclopedia Magica. I need to review the Tome of Spells more, but that may be a good topic for another day.

Incarnate: Last of The Lacers

I saw this supplement on r/Unearthed Arana some time ago, and was immediately intrigued by it. As I have expressed before, I feel like homebrew can be a hit or miss, but I am a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the creator of this supplement, Alex Tanner really does bring the feel of Avatar to life with this pdf. To be clear, I haven't used this yet, but I have taken a great amount of time to inspect this work, and it seems to be pretty solid, as long as you are not playing the "Incarnate" you should find yourself about on par with any other player. I would highly encourage the use of the lacers (Don't say bender, don't say bender) when anyone expresses interest in playing a Way of Four Elements Monk. I am not against the WoFE Monk, but it is probably the most hated on Monastic Tradition. There is even a lacer tradition for monks in the supplement. It is definitely worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra. The lore is pretty well defined, so as long as monks are in your game, lacers shouldn't be too invasive.

Tribality

Tribality Publishing's work is good. Mind you they have a number of writers on board, so content will vary, but currently I am using Tribality's Rich Howard's Alchemist in place of the Unearthed Arcana Artificer and added the Superior Attunement feature at 5th level, and again at 15th level. In a game of DM Starhelm's last night I used the class as is to create a poisoner forensic investigator, it may very well be one of the best characters and sessions I have ever played. Tribality's articles often include other interesting little additions here and there, like the Chrono Rogue archetype inspired by Overwatch's Tracer. Overall, they do good and interesting work.

Angry GM

The Angry GM may be one of the saltiest, most cantankerous writers in the tabletop community, but he knows what he's talking about. He has dozens upon dozens of articles there are all based on running a better game. He offers variant rules, and even just changes to the gaming mindset that are very insightful. If you're a DM, you should at least try to be familiar with some of his articles, and form your own opinions about the topics.

Wrapping Up

It isn't my job or purpose to tell you guys what to do, how to play your game, but these are, as a player and DM my strong recommendations of good 3rd party places to add more to your game. If you want more from me as a 3rd party source, in my article above this I will introduce you to one hell of a knife.

Find the resources here:

Paradigm Concepts on drivethrurpg

Matthew Mercer on dmsguild

Faolyn's Not Really Complete Tome of Magic Faolyn's Not Really Complete Encyclopedia Magic

Incarnate: Last of the Lacers

Tribality

The Angry GM DM_Starhelm