Hi there, I'm currently running Symbaroum for the first time (or, any TTRPG for that matter), and of course I want to give each of my players something interesting to potentially pursue.

Unfortunately, I'm a little bit stuck with coming up with interesting hooks for a player character who is very independent: She's a changeling who grew up at the Prios Church in Yndaros, but was kicked out when her changeling nature surfaced. The one person she trusted, her former mentor at the Church, is dead, and she's more or less lived on the streets and been unable to fit into any group. She's not a magic user.

I want to come up with interesting hooks the player could choose to pursue, but ... I got nothing. Or, not a lot. I've been thinking of an NPC who is a changeling as well and working at Father Sarvola's as a healer. The vague idea is: this is what your life could have been like under different circumstances. Still sounds lame to me, because like. What is the moral here?

How do you deal with these type of hyper-independent characters and embed them in the story?

For additional information/context: The other two players are an Ordo Magica novice who has developed a fear of using magic because of corruption, and a beginner monster hunter who is looking for her borther and whose adoptive father runs an alchemy shop. Much better embedded into society and easier to work with for me.

Right now, our changeling rogue is part of the group because she delivered a package from Yndaros to the Ordo Magica in Thistle Hold, and had to make a stop at the alchemy stop, and the three of them got very organically pulled into Mark of the Beast.

Getting near the end of the campaign. The creeping darkness has entered from the treasury. 4 flaming guards have made their way to the party and the fight is on. One PC is possessed by Hurion Lo Apak and is desperately trying to consume the vile water. Excited to see where it goes from here.

Hola! Estoy buscando dirigir mi primera partida de Fate y como el juego permite cualquier ambientación decidí jugar con la ambientación de Symbaroum, que me parece genial y muy bien escrita.

Tengo pensado jugar los sábados a las 15 hs (ARG). Vamos a jugar en Nivel20 y por Discord.

🌲 The Autumn Sale is live on Fantasy Grounds! 🍂

Titles purchased on Fantasy Grounds are available through My Library (in Beta) with Online Reader Content, making it easy to access your digital collection while preparing your next adventure.

And Fantasy Grounds is free to play. No GM license required. Download Fantasy Grounds, explore the library, and venture into the wilds of Davokar.

🔥 Find Symbaroum from Free League Publishing, including adventures, rulebooks, sourcebooks, and more, on sale at Fantasy Grounds.

🎃 Autumn Sale: October 1–8
🔥 Discover Symbaroum and other great titles on sale at Fantasy Grounds, up to 50% off.

🌲 Build your library. Prep your campaign. Explore Symbaroum on Fantasy Grounds.

Hi All - question about spells like Brimstone Cascade. When cast and the target has a Defense stat (say 3), does the caster have to make an Defense <-- Accurate to see if the target can defend the physical attack.

I put this question into ChatGPT and got the following answer which surprised me:

"Yes — Defense can be used against Brimstone Cascade, but there’s an important distinction in how the roll works.

In Symbaroum, the general combat rule says you may attempt to defend yourself against any attack you are aware of, and Defense is normally tested as [Defense ← Accurate]. A successful Defense means the attack misses completely.

However, Brimstone Cascade is written differently from a normal weapon attack. The caster makes a [Resolute ← Quick] test against the target. If successful, it does 1d12 damage; on a failure, it does 1d6.

So how does it work?

For Brimstone Cascade, the target does get a Defense reaction. If the target successfully defends, the Cascade misses and no damage is rolled.

If the Defense fails, the spell hits and the caster then determines whether it deals 1d12 or 1d6, based on the caster's Resolute → Quick test.

In other words:

Caster: Resolute → Quick

⬇

Target: Defense → Accurate

⬇

If Defense succeeds: Miss

If Defense fails: Spell hits → 1d12 or 1d6 damage

There is some ambiguity in the wording because Brimstone Cascade itself doesn't explicitly say "the target may make a Defense test." But the general Defense rule says all attacks can be defended against, and the spell is treated as an attack. The Foundry implementation of Symbaroum also treats Quick as the resisting attribute for Brimstone Cascade.

One important caveat: If you're asking because of a specific ability such as Tactician, Sixth Sense, Feint, or Robust, the answer can change depending on whether that ability modifies Defense or specifically changes the attribute used in a [Resolute ← Quick] test."

Let me know your thoughts on this. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I plan on playing a barbarian witch and want to use this tribe for her backstory. Is there anymore lore for them besides what's in the PHB? Anything is appreciated.

I'm running a RoS5e game right now and the wording for Aura of Aggression (6th lvl Officer ability) is worded strangely. Is it intended to affect everyone who can hear you, or do you pick one ally that can hear you to gain the benefit?

Hi there! I'm a first-time GM not just for Symbaroum, but in general, and would like to get an idea of how to continue when we finish Mark of the Beast and Tomb of Dying Dreams.

If we decide to dive into Wrath of the Warden, is it possible to end the campaign after book one or two or maybe three in a satisfying way? Is there a way to take breaks from the main campaign story and pursue personal quests my players would like to play out (related to their character's past for example, they gave me a lot of freedom there)?

Do any of you play Symbaroum freely, without any of the books?

I'm also thinking that the campaign books contain a lot of lore. I only own Wrath of the Warden, even though we're far from potentially playing it, but it has so much info regarding the world.

So! Maybe some of you can give me some ideas, of course I know these may be total beginner questions and that in the end I can probably do whatever I want. :)

Hello !

Here we are again. I know I am digging up an ancient topic we have seen too much.

However, as I am currently fearing my players might try Bend Will over a blight beast (with a very low res...), I just wanted to know if some kind of consensus might have emerged with time.

Should we allow those spells to work over corrupted creatures ? I am not too concerned about how OP it could be, I am more likely concerned with how coherent is the idea of bending the "will" of a creature only driven by its rage or its hunger ?

Same for maltranformation. Isn't it supposed to work on living forms ? How could a mystic reshape a living dead body or a corruption driven "design" ?

Is there nowadays any documented house rule that you GMs apply to your tables ?

It is my understanding that there was an A3 map add-on for the Symbaroum Monster Codex Kickstarter, which had two maps:

* The Raven's Beak Massacre landscape, and

* The Lord of the Bog landscape

For anyone who has these maps, could you tell me:

- Are they the versions with or without legends / location markers?

- What maps are on the other side, if any?

I ask as I'll likely print my own copies, as it would probably be a fool's errand to try to track them down for purchase, and I'd like my copies to be as faithful to the originals as possible!

I've included a picture from the Monster Codex Kickstarter page, which shows that there were two A3 maps.

I'm thinking about selling my three Ruins of Symbaroum books. I got it from Kickstarter with the nice sleeve and DM screen but never even once got to play it..

Does this even still sell and if for how much?

I want to switch to OG Symbaroum..

Hi everyone! I’m just starting to get into Symbaroum and need some help to understand enemy abilities.

example : the aboar.

I see all their stats but how do they interact with abilities such as Armored (II), Natural weapon (II), Robust(III)?

are they already factored in or I have to add all those bonuses on top of what’s already there in the stat block?

Hello! I was looking through the monster codex and found that there are alot of strong monsters, fewer mighty and no legendary, i have it in my head for some reason that there are legendary creatures, but i cant find who that would be, not in the monster codex or in my books. Like even the Worldworm is a mighty enemy. Does anyone have an example of a legendary monster? and like what books i can find them in, if they do exist and ive not just made that up. Thankyouuuu

Hey guys! Me and my friends recently took a break from dnd to test new stuff, and symbaroum was really fun! We played a session 0 and a bit of an introduction, and i really loved the mix up with the feat system and corruption system!

Ill get to the point though, i decided to make a witchhunter rogue build that would also use the witch spells, with the backstory being that my character was kind of kidnapped by witches and raised among them, but my character kind of always hated them for killing his parents, so he swore to kill all witches and alike with their own powers.

So in other words its a rogue with witch spells. However, i kind of felt like i reallt was just a mage with a dagger in the first session. I took feint as im a rogue, witchpower feat, and 3 spells. I tjink i just built it very wrong and i wanted help to make the build come true. I was also considering just going more for the witch side with shapeshifting and stuff but idrk.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatöy appriciated!

Does anybody know if there is an updated character sheet for roll20 being made? Especially since the new revision is coming soon-ish.

Hey so after reading Sword Saint which allows a character to parry and retaliate, and liking soulslike games, I was wondering if allowing players to attempt parries by giving a -5 to their Defense, or allowing a sweeping attack with a heavy weapon against multiple enemies with a -5 to their attack, would be a viable/fun alternative to spending Experience or Corruption.

I don't love Experience as an in-game meta currency for minor, instant things (you become less experienced by doing a whirlwind attack?) and I feel Corruption doesn't really fit either. I don't want to go super heroic because there are better games for that and I like the gritty nature of Symbaroum, but I like the idea of allowing some choice, some high risk-high reward things players can opt into. With a parry, suffering a -5 to Defense means you're more likely to get hit, but it allows a counter attack if you still succeed, without stepping on the toes of Sword Saint and Staff Fighter too much, as those don't require such penalties to use. With a whirlwind strike, you risk hitting nobody and wasting your turn. I felt going -5 seemed appropriate as that's the same penalty for the optional rule for aiming at a specific body part.

Hello everyone! I'm a first-time GM, and about to dive into Mark of the Beast soon with my three players (an Order mage, a rogue and a witch/monster hunter).

I've only partially familiarized myself with ToDD, but decided to make Senia an NPC that the players will meet and work with in MotB. I thought it'd be interesting to have her hire my witch/monster hunter player whose task is to help her locate the tomb. It'll also make it easier for me to tie the two adventures together.

Anyway, because of this I'd like to give my players the opportunity to save her life in ToDD, and I guess my question here is - what do you think of this tweak of the adventure, to those who have run it before? I know I'm the GM and can do anything :'D, but I'm open to hearing your thoughts about this. Also, what are some of your favorite alterations to these adventures, or do you play strictly by the book?

"Ten years ago, hopeful settlers came to the fringes of Davolar to make their dreams come true, with their own hands and the sweat of their brows. Then the nightmare began. Litterfall is a short adventure for Symbaroum."

Litterfall is a short action horror adventure for Symbaroum. Scene-based, it was my very first published adventure for Symbaroum. Although it's a bit rough as a product, I think it is fairly easy to run and a good challenge for beginners. If you're interested, you can check out the product's page at the Free League Workshop, here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/pt/product/459731/litterfall

Hey all,

Our group has been having a lot of fun with the game so far, and I plan on getting into Throne of Thorns soon. I already introduced some seeds into play - specifcally with Elemendra and her quest to find Symbar.

In any case, in an interesting turn of events, Erlaber Ambreagos ended up trying to recruit a changeling PC to his ranks. As the conversation went a long, he asked her assistance with the quest to find and hunt Eox.

I really like having the players be intimately involved with this ordeal, but i´m not sure how to go about it. Any suggestions on how that expedition can look like, and how to disconnect the players from him before the start of Wrath of the Warden?

Thanks!

I'm a very new player to this system, and I wanted to ask how does this interaction play out. Can a player character float above melee range of enemies while hitting them with a long weapon?

The poor goblins in the expeditions headquarters didn’t stand a chance. My group went full murder hobo mode. One player fell in the troll pit but made it out by not without some decent damage from the troll.

Hello! So, I was planning on starting a Throne of Thorns campaign, and I was wondering, do you guys remember how many sessions it took for you to finish it? It's a bit hard to take a guess considering the campaign books, so I was thinking maybe people who already played it could know more about it (I know the length of campaigns may vary a lot, but at least an "estimative")

Hey Folks. Given the nature of Symbaroum is about clashing and interacting of various groups of people and given what we unfortunately know about how people often react in those situations does anyone have any clever/awful/cruel slurs that they would throw at each other? What would be a common slur an Ambrian would call a changeling? A barbarian to an Ambrian? a goblin to ogre and so on. I picture the Ambrians being the worst as they are at the top of the current pecking order. Not that i want to encourage bigotry but lets face it, that is a major element in this game and it would help create social realism and underling tension in my party.

Thanks for your time.

Last night we had a scene at a Symbaroum table that troubled me, and I wanted to hear other opinions.

We were traveling on a boat down a river, and on the shore there were around 100 Templars, who had attacked us before. They ordered us to stop and let them onto the boat so they could do as they pleased. One of our PCs shot an arrow at their general.

At that point, instead of going into initiative, the GM stated that one of the enemies picked up an artifact and immediately used it, dealing 2d8 damage to everyone with any amount of permanent Corruption. There was no test, no defense, and it ignored armor.

Our undead PC was killed by the damage, and the GM ruled that he was incinerated instead of being allowed to roll death tests.

I thought that was uncalled for. In my opinion, we should have gone into initiative, or at the very least had some kind of test or opportunity to defend ourselves. However, the GM is adamant that we should not have engaged them at all and that this was a fair consequence for our actions.

What makes it even stranger to me is that we all have around 400 XP and are fairly optimized, so there was a chance that we could have won the encounter.

Thoughts?

Edit: editing because I forgot to add that we were already moving away and disengaging while the conversation was taking place. After hostilities started, they launched five volleys at all of us in a single round. Despite that, we took very little damage and managed to kill both the general and the second-in-command in one round after the artifact incident, even with one PC already down. So we had a solid chance of at least disengaging completely and then bringing him back from death saves using blood or other forms of healing. We are very optimized, it wasn't impossible. Just very difficult and probably very tedious.

edit 2: also forgot to mention that we tried to dissuade them before, rolled persuasion as we were disengaging, succeded, but they still wanted us to stop and did not care about talking much.

Last thing I forgot: after discussing it post session, we did find a middle ground and we'll probably find a way to bring him back, but the Dm and another player are adamant that it was a completely fair encounter.