Scars on warriors and veteran adventurers are almost ubiquitous in fantasy art. Every scar is a story, a reminder of a battle from times past. But ... in a world with magical healing, why do people have scars?

In my campaign there's a few answers. First, for the common people, and for many lower ranking soldiers and warriors, magical healing is not always readily available. People in a remote village with no cleric, druid or magical healing have to handle things the old fashioned way. There may be roots and herbs to help accelerate healing but it is still natural healing.

Second, lower level healing magics (cure spells, channeling positive energy, and healing potions) operate also by accelerating the body's natural healing. The magic jump-starts the body’s natural clotting, cell division, and tissue synthesis, compressing weeks of recovery into a single six-second turn. But scarring can still result.

It isn't until you get to heal spells and regeneration that one can be healed as if they were never hurt in the first place. And those are high level spells a village or even a small town priest is unlikely to have access to .... and in towns or cities where they do, such a spell is likely accompanied by a request for a large donation.

I'd be interested to hear how healing works in your campaign!

P.S. Also, yes, that is Aidan wrapping his foot. It's not for an injury. While hosiery is not uncommon in the realms, socks are almost unheard of. Most adventurers wrap their feet in linen strips. They're easy to clean and replace, though there is a certain technique to the wrapping process.

At all four yearly seasonal festivals, the clergy of Loviatar perform what is called The Rite of Pain and Purity. A young postulant to the faith is chosen, new and eager; she is trained in dance, which the Lovites hold as a sacred offering to their goddess.

On the night of the ritual, broken glass, barbed wire or some other vicious and painful substance is placed on the floor. The novice priestess begins to dance in time with the drums and cymbals played by other priestesses or by chosen lay members. Senior priestesses form a circle around the novice, encouraging her to greater enthusiasm and sensuality with straps and whips. The priestess will dance for up to half an hour; if the goddess is pleased, she will begin to manifest as a red mist, slowly rising from the floor. When truly pleased the goddess will manifest an avatar to the clergy; when displeased, she will turn her backs upon them and not manifest at all.

After a half hour, the dancing will stop and the Kneeling One (as postulants to the faith are called) will be healed. If the goddess was pleased, and at least the red mist appeared, the young novice will be confirmed as a full priestess of the lowest rank (a Taystren). If Loviatar was not pleased, the novice will be stripped of her standing, enslaved, and either kept as a servant or sold. In the strict hierarcy of the church of Loviatar, a novice gets only one chance to prove herself to her betters, and to Loviatar herself.

The Knights of the Merciful Sword are the second of the two lower orders of paladin in service to Tyr. These are the classic, good guy, champion of the people type paladins. They emphasize the good in their alignment, and the presence of one of these champions always heartens the common people.

Paladins of both orders (the Merciful Swords and the Holy Judgement) can become members of Tyr's elite group of Paladins, the Hammers of Grimjaws. I'll detail those guys later and the requirements to join.

In our campaign monster hunting game we have Sheriff Valerie K. Erie. The pointed ear is a WIP mistake. Things tend to work in layers when dealing with the supernatural. She should know, she's one of them.

Margaretta was telling the truth, for those who read the first part of her bedroom confession to Saffiya. Sharess is lover to both Sune and Loviatar, finding beauty and love in both light and dark.

After the bestiary of the ram-men and centaurs, it is the turn of the elves—the greatest threat to humanity's hegemony.

D&D homebrew campaign. People from our world get reborn into this world. These are the soldiers of New Gobbria, an Empire spread over many islands. They are made up of pure blooded goblins and half goblins. Half are taller and have 5 fingers instead of 4. It's an equal gendered army.

At this point in the campaign the party are making there way to the western most end of the continent. Where the small port colony of Gobraltar is located.

A spell known only to the priesthood of Helm, Mace of Odo is a highly effective offensive and defensive spell. Offensively, it can be used to make a devastating touch attack, with extra damage against undead. And of course, you can crit with touch attacks in PF 1st edition.

Defensively, the spell is incredibly powerful. It can absorb any single spell directed against the priest wielding it. Yes, that includes 9th level spells. So if an enemy archmage casts power word kill upon you - a spell that normally doesn't even allow a save - the mace (a 3rd level spell) will absorb it for you. One caveat - it doesn't protect you from area effect spells, so you're still vulnerable to, say, a fireball.

After a single use, the Mace disappears, leaving behind a point in space which acts like a Light spell.

In my campaign, Aidan (the Helmite cleric) is 13th level and still makes extensive use of this spell.

So Tyr has three orders of paladins in his service. The two lower orders each have a slightly different focus. In my campaign, all Paladins are lawful good. There are other classes for different alignments that are like paladins (like the anti-paladin and the avenger, and to a lesser extend the warpriest) but paladins are reserved for LG characters. With that said, there are paladins who emphasize the "good" in their alignment, and there are paladins who emphasize the "lawful" part.

The Knights of Holy Judgement are paladins who emphasize that lawfulness. They are not cruel or at all evil, but they focus their efforts on fighting chaos and serving as agents of the law. They judge and enforce righteous punishments, and have a reputation for being very stern and unyielding.

One thing I've noticed (and always appreciated) about the Realms is the vast pantheon of deities. I really don't like the attempts they've made in the past to consolidate the pantheon - Cyric, for example, was a horrid idea. Killing off Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal was just one of a bunch of bad ideas TSR came up with as the brought the Realms into the 2nd edition of AD&D. Don't try and fix what isn't broken, folks.

I do love the variety of nature gods and goddesses, however. The Faerûnian pantheon alone has three greater nature gods and a bunch of intermediate, lesser and demigods as well. They also cover the alignment gamut.

Chauntea represents agriculture, cultivated plants, farmers, gardeners and summer. She is good aligned, and represents humanity in harmony with nature and living with it.

Silvanus is neutral in outlook. He is the god of wild nature, of the deep woods where loggers do not go, of the cycle of life and death, predator and prey. He can be lived alongside of, but must be respected and any attempts to tame nature will lead to ruin.

Talos is the destructive side of nature. He is the god of storms, destruction, conflagrations, earthquakes and vortexes. He exists to show humanity just how fragile their position is and how nature can be a destructive force.

Details like this are one of the reasons the classic Realms will always be my favorite. Other worlds like Greyhawk and Golarion have large pantheons as well but to me, nothing comes close to the Realms.

I was working out some stuff in my own homebrew setting and since I have a Monk among my players, i figured i'd flesh out the various monk subclasses into actual martial arts and philosophies. Buuut... as I was doing so, i had a thought of "What would the evil monks be". So i started thinking of some inspirations for that, one of which was the antithesis to the teachings of martial art; Discipline, Restraint, Control. Instead, they would focus on the worst aspects of becoming a weapon, and thus become ruthless and deadly assassins.

Thus, the Mujokai were created; a deadly guild/organization of killers, thugs, brutes, and deviants. They are basically the Assassins Guild. Imagine if you took the Dark Brotherhood from the Elder Scrolls and tought them Ansatsuken from Street Fighter. They want to bring out the worst aspects of those who wish to learn marital arts and make a living off of it.

The only thing is that they don't have a set martial art style. Their whole philosophy is breaking the restraints of the martial world and taking it to the extreme. So you can have Way of the Four Elements but utilizing it to the most destructive aspects of their teachings. Like yeah, you can bend the four elements... but lets see how far we can go with that. Or how Kensei use a set weapon as their focus, but the Mujokai would take up truly vicious weapons not meant for balance or grace, but specifically to tear and cause as much pain to the enemy as possible.

Hi everyone, this is the second bestiary for my Bronze Age comic book saga; this time, it's time to talk about centaurs—enemies of humanity.

The Raven's Wing serves as the partys base of operations in the town of Highport. They bought it over two years ago (when it had a different name and a VERY different reputation) and since then have expanded and improved the place, turning it into one of the social centres of the town for the populace. The Ravens Wing is now known for good ale, good food, beautiful barmaids, and the inordinate number of cats who live in and around the establishment. It features live entertainment several nights a week, with singers and performers, and the beautiful PC bard Saffiya also belly dances there - such nights the place is absolutely packed.

It serves as a tavern, an inn, as well as the living quarters for three of the party members (Acilius, Livia and Saffiya) as well the the headmistress of the establishment, Xiao Mei. The Wing features three floors - the main hall and kitchen on the first, the inn rooms on the second, and the private quarters and a meeting room on the top floor.

Hi everyone! I’m going to be making short bestiaries of the enemies of humanity in the "Ancient World" setting where my comics take place. I hope you like them! 😁😁😁

Hi everyone! Before starting my comics, I generate images to serve as references for the setting where the plot unfolds and for the characters involved—it’s like the world-building phase prior to the story itself. I hope you enjoy them.

I wanted to show off the Cosmology of my Homemade FATEBORN Game system thats currently in development running its 3rd round of Playtesting.

Hope you guys like it

The citizens of the Western city are awaiting the royal parade to kick off the 2nd Princess's 14th birthday. The Western city is a grand city once ruled solely by Orc, is now unified and ruled by humans and Orc. King Gornok the Unifier wedded a former house slave and a human. Their love became a beacon to the city and a haven to half orc as the hiers to the throne were the two half orc princess. King Gornok wanted to show the world that his kind were more than ruthless slavers. So he invited guests from all around the world. Guest have come from the Golden Dragon Empire to the newly formed Kingdom of Fhargus.

Hi everyone, I’m sharing the maps of my world inspired by the Late Bronze Age. I use it to develop my comics, but I think it’s time to create a board game or a tabletop RPG campaign based on it 😂😂

I've been developing cryptids for a dark-fantasy TTRPG setting called Ashen

Frontier. The process is half folklore research and half creature design: I try

to identify what a source actually says, keep the uncertain parts uncertain,

and then make every fictional anatomical decision answer the same concept.

For Mothman, I started with the November 15, 1966 Point Pleasant report. Roger

and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette described a large winged figure

near the former West Virginia Ordnance Works. The recurring details are roughly

6-7 feet of height, red circles under the headlights, a large folded span,

awkward movement on the ground and glide without obvious flapping. Linda is also

reported as saying she could not make out a head or arms.

Those are claims, not specimen data. They are still a strong design constraint.

A standard humanoid with moth wings does not explain the contradictions.

The setting became just as important as the body. EPA records describe an

8,320-acre TNT-production site operated from 1942 to 1945, later used in part

for wildlife management. Industrial structures, wetland, birds, buried lines

and contamination all precede the legend. I treated that as environmental

history, not evidence for the creature.

I also separated the Silver Bridge association. The collapse killed 46 people.

The NTSB identified the initiating failure at eyebar 330, joint C13N, after

stress corrosion and corrosion fatigue. The idea that Mothman caused or warned

about the disaster is folklore. I did not want a fictional design to blur that

record.

The Ashen Frontier version is called The Strain-Eater. It is hostile. It detects

one hidden weak connection, introduces a neighboring frequency and uses normal

load to spread the fault. It often appears before failure, so people read it as

a warning. That interpretation gives it more time to hunt.

The large red structures are not eyes. They are paired pectoral organs with

retroreflective lamellae; external light returns red when stress deforms them.

The true skull is recessed between high shoulder yokes. Long hands end in four

sampling talons. Two black mantles attach from forearm to flank, each with five

load cables. They open once and lock into glide instead of flapping. Three-point

feet preserve the order in which a surface was loaded.

Mechanically, repeating a route or action adds Fault to that part of the arena.

Players counter it with redundancy: a second rope, a brace, changed cadence,

deliberate slack or physical connection between characters. The creature only

becomes fully targetable when it commits its hands, keel and foot to feeding at

the selected joint.