For today's thread, let's talk modular species design! The design idea isn't a complicated one: give the players choices about how they make their PCs. Spellbound Sea has 7 species, but we'll focus on just one: Serpent's Children. #dnd #dnd5e #spellboundsea 1/7 - ThreadSky

somanyrobots.com • 3 days ago

For today's thread, let's talk modular species design! The design idea isn't a complicated one: give the players choices about how they make their PCs.

Spellbound Sea has 7 species, but we'll focus on just one: Serpent's Children.

#dnd #dnd5e #spellboundsea
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somanyrobots.com•3 days ago

Serpent's Children are inspired by WotC's yuan-ti, but a) not horrifically unbalanced, and b) going *hard* on the "snake-mutant" idea. (If you're going to put snake-people in your game, they need snake legs.)
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somanyrobots.com•3 days ago

Serpent's Children can choose one Form (snake-legs, snake-head, basically-human), and two Heritage options (9 options, from "more poison" to "talk to snakes" to "shed your skin at will"). It provides a lot of customization while coloring within the snaky lines.
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somanyrobots.com•3 days ago

That customization isn't necessarily needed. In particular, I think every Serpent's Child I've seen to date has chosen the snake legs - clearly seems to be the coolest form. But the choice helps the species represent a lot of ideas, especially since "mutation" is core to the theme.
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somanyrobots.com•3 days ago

There are downsides to modularity. It's a *lot* of options - I haven't playtested every Serpent's Children combo, let alone all 72 Bloodrager ones. And if the features aren't each chunky enough, then it can lack meaning; it should feel like baking a cake, not just pouring sprinkles on top.
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somanyrobots.com•3 days ago

Some people don't like the choice because it slows down play, but this is misguided. There's a difference between turn-by-turn choice, day-by-day choice, and one-time choice. Species options are a one-time choice, something you consider during char creation and never again.
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somanyrobots.com•3 days ago

Similar to options-menus in a subclass, modular and choice-based species features help you cover more themes and cater to more player ideas without dramatically increasing the amount of *stuff* you have to write.

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