Player Resources for Novus
This page contains resources designed primarily for character generation. It will include additional options for players when putting together their characters.
Race Options
Players can choose to be one of the two races in addition to any other reaces recognized by official 5e sources (not tied to a specific setting). They are:
Class/Subclass options
Novus is a setting that leans into technology far more than traditional 5e settings. Multiple 3rd party sources exist and give options such as the Machinist class from Dark Matter, or the Blackpowder Cleric from Tome of Heroes. If you are interest in any of these, let me know.
Feat Options
Whenever you take feat, the following options are open to you:
Firearms Expert
Thanks to extensive practice with firearms (guns, pistols, muskets), you gain the following benefits:
- You are proficient with all firearms
- Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls made with a firearm.
- When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to make a ranged attack with a loaded firearm you are holding. You can use this feat for any firearms you are carrying that are loaded.
Blacksmith
Having honed your talents at the forge, you gain the following benefits:
- You gain proficiency with smith's tools. If you are already proficient with them, you add double your proficiecny bonus to checks you make with them.
- While crafting items using smith's tools, you can work in 10 gp increments, rather than 5 gp increments.
- Over the course of any short or long rest, you can sharpen one nonmagical melee weapon that does piercing or slashing damage and give it a bonus to damage rolls equal to your proficiency bonus. Once you have dealt damage witht he weapon a number of times equal to your level, the bonus goes away.
Backgrounds
We will not be using backgrounds in our campaign. Instead, you will build your character's backstory and personality using A Game of 20 Questions. Please fill out your answers to these questions, and send your responses to me as it will help me plan for the campaign and plot storylines rooted in your characters
Gear
To reflect the steampunk setting, there are additional options for weapons and armor. Many of them have special rules and abilities. Here are some rule clarifications:
- Ammunition - Ranged weapons require ammunition. For most weapons, this is obvious. Bows need arrows and crossbows need bolts. For guns, each shot requires both gunpowder and shot (either lead shot or pellets). The exception to this is rifle rounds. All gun ammunition is destroyed on use, meaning you will need to keep supplies of it on hand to use.
- Loading - Loading weapons must be reloaded between each shot. This means that these weapons cannot be used with multiattack features. You may only fire one shot from a loading weapon per action (or reaction if you use your weapon for an opportunity attack). The Gunner and Crossbow expert feats allow you to ignore this property.
- Reload - Reload weapons are like loading weapons except that have a number of shots that can be fired before the loading property takes effect. For instance, if a weapon has the property Reload (2) it can fire two shots before it reloads. If you have access to a multiattack feature, you may fire two shots per turn. Some weapons have larger reload capacity, meaning you can go multiple turns before the loading property takes effect.
The following are options for equipment related to the setting:
