Tasha's Cauldron and Freeport, Part 2: Everything Else

 For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.

Last time, I reviewed the new origin rules, the artificer class, 26 new subclasses, new feats, and other character options in Chapter 1 of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. This column tackles the rest of the book.

Chapter 2: Group Patrons

Patrons give a way to build connections between PCs through their shared relationship with a powerful organization or influential NPC. Having a patron grants a number of perks, and they can be the source of quests. This chapter also gives rules for being your own patron, for characters more interested in running a new organization themselves. Freeport has examples of every type of patron presented here, and the patron rules would be an excellent way to enhance a campaign centered around one of the city's institutions, whether a temple, guild, or syndicate.

Chapter 3: Magical Miscellany

Spells: A few cantrips presented here (booming blade, green-flame blade, lightning lure, sword burst) are reprinted from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Most of the others first appeared in Unearthed Arcana.

Psionic casters, like the Aberrant Mind, gain a few new spells fitting that theme, including intellect fortress, mind sliver, and Tasha's mind whip. The book's purported author also has two other spells in this chapter (Tasha's caustic brew and Tasha's otherworldly guise).

Several new summoning spells presented here come with a special stat block to use with that spell. The spell's level determines the summoned spirit's AC, hit points, and number of attacks. The caster chooses one of two or three options that determine some of its other stats; for example, a bestial spirit can be an air, land, or sea creature, with appropriate movement types. These spells provide an interesting alternative to the handful of summoning spells in the Player's Handbook, where the player needs to be familiar with the relevant Monster Manual entries. Summoning spells are frighteningly commonplace in Freeport, so using these spells could save the GM some effort when running summoner NPCs.

This section ends with a brief section about personalizing spells, which encourages players to get creative about the cosmetic manifestations of their spells.

Magic Items: This section presents a new type of magic item--magical tattoos--which take up an amount of space on the body determined by its rarity (from a few inches for common tattoos, or half your body for legendary ones). The sample tattoos presented include a variety of effects, from enhancing attacks to storing a spell to changing your appearance. Magical tattoos are highly appropriate for Freeport, where mundane tattoos are common among sailors, exotic martial artists, and other groups.

The other new magic items here include several artifacts, including Tasha's own Demonomicon of Iggwilv, and her adoptive mother Baba Yaga's mortar and pestle. Most of these artifacts are tied to a specific campaign world (the Crook of Rao belongs to Greyhawk, for example) so will need some adapting for Freeport campaigns not set in those worlds. Some, however, beg to be used in a high-level campaign that explores parts of Freeport's past, such as forging links between the Mighty Servant of Leuk-O and the Ironjack.

Other notable categories of new items include:

• Magic books could be found in the libraries of the Wizard's Guild or Temple of the God of Knowledge, or could be sought by those organizations, or by other lore-seekers. The atlas of endless horizons seems thematically appropriate for Freeport's mystic navigators.  
• Magical instruments of various types can enhance a bard's class abilities.
• Magical shards contain the essence of another plane, and give sorcerers the ability to add extra effects when using their metamagic options. 

Chapter 4: Dungeon Master's Tools

Session Zero: "Session zero" refers to the practice of using the first session of a new campaign to establish expectations, outline the group's social contract, and share house rules. Sometimes this also includes creating characters together, so that players will choose options that will useful in the campaign. 

Sidekicks: This section provides rules for sidekicks--creatures befriended by the PCs, who accompany them on adventures, and who improve by gaining levels alongside their PC friends. The sidekick must be CR 1 or less, but gains levels in one of three sidekick classes (warrior, expert, or spellcaster). Most of the class abilities are borrowed from PC classes, but are simplified. A few seem very powerful, and hard for even a PC to qualify for (such as the warrior's Improved Critical), but in general they seem to be in line with characters of their level. 

These rules seem overly extensive for someone who is essentially a henchman or follower. But these rules could be very helpful in providing stats to a knight's retainers, or a more robust animal companion for a druid or ranger. They also seem perfect for small groups of players who want to round out a party with more heroes, but still want to keep the focus on each player's primary character.

(Nitpicky rules note, because I'm "the errata guy": Creatures of CR 1 or less already have a proficiency bonus of +2, so that bonus will not improve until they reach 5th level in their sidekick class. That might not be obvious from reading the rules, but it is critical for preserving 5E's bounded accuracy.)

The urban setting of Freeport: The City of Adventure makes acquiring townsfolk as sidekicks rather easy to justify. (In some cases, perhaps too much so, if a new friend embodies the label "follower" too literally!) These rules could also be useful at sea, to detail a friendly ship's captain who helps the heroes out from time to time, or important NPC officers if the PCs have their own ship.

Parleying with Monsters: This section gives some ideas for adjudicating social encounters with monsters of various types. Of particular interest for long time players of other d20 System games is the Monster Research table, which lists suggested skills for learning more about monsters based on their creature type, with a DC based on CR. This kind of check is an integral part of the knowledge skill rules in D&D 3E and Pathfinder, but was conspicuously missing from the 5E core rulebooks.

Environmental Hazards: This section provides random tables of events that may happen in regions where the supernatural has a strong influence (such as haunted places, areas corrupted by the Far Realm, or a location with a powerful psychic aura). This is followed by rules for various kinds of magical phenomena, such as eldritch storms, enchanted springs, magic mushrooms, and even mimic colonies. A brief section on natural hazards introduces rules for a few new situations, plus a table suggesting spells to use to model other environmental effects or disasters.

Many of these hazards are well-suited to Freeport: the Far Realm and hauntings fit the setting's horror aspects particularly well, while travelers may have to weather eldritch storms or navigate unearthly roads, or simply survive falling into water on a not infrequent basis. 

Puzzles: Finally, the last section of the book presents some sample puzzles that can used as-is or as a template for your own puzzles. Suggestions are given for skill checks that will provide hints, which is a useful idea to remember when creating other puzzles. None of the examples strike me as being out of place in Freeport, but they will need some customizing to integrate them into the setting.