sterlingvermin

Playing Catch Up

Hello everyone!

Normally design diaries are limited to the Adventurer and Legend tiers but since the Patreon (and me, by extension) have been quite quiet the past few months I wanted to make this available to everyone.

To state the obvious, I'm behind on monthly exclusives. I'm hoping to rectify this situation in March clearing out the backlog of existing voted on exclusives (a Lovecraft inspired Thaumaturge and a Lycanthrope prestige class). I'm also planning to release the Baab...

Abracadaberrant Buster Corps: First Playtest

Hello patrons!

Linked here is the first playtest for Abracadaberrant Buster Corps. This game has been in development for a few months now (off and on) and it's starting to get into the shape where I need more eyes on it. I'm also hoping to recruit some of you as playtesters but more on that soon!

Abracadaberrant Buster Corps is wizards meets Ghostbusters meets Bee and Puppycat. It's a game of mage-librarians tracking down spells that have coag...

Zephyr Class Art Preview #2

Hello patrons!

I'm in the game design kitchen every night cooking up the final kinetic movements for the zephyr class. In the meantime, I keep getting art back on the ones that have already been completed and I'm excited to share it with all of you! Depicted here are the Spell Weaver and Dragoon subclasses. I was excited to finally commission a Sarchos Saurian (the Dragoon)!

Thanks as always for your ongoing support,

Benjamin

Zephyr Class Art Preview #1

Hello patrons!

As I'm busy tightening the screws on the final version of the zephyr and its public subclasses (as well as designing four new ones for you all to test prior to release), I wanted to share some of the artwork coming in for the class. Included here is the Martial Artist and Lashing Scourge art, both illustrated by Mick Cortes. I already have him booked for the cover and working on the Dragoon and Weave Dancer art.

Thanks as always for your ongoing support,

Be...

February '23 Exclusive: Catatumbo & Yeti Heritages

Hello patrons!

For February, I prompted Adventurers and Legends to pitch new heritages. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, heritages are the Sterling Vermin Adventuring Company’s evolution of the concept of race in 5e (species in 6e). I created heritages because I was dissatisfied with the implications of how race and species were handled in their respective editions and wanted to create an alternative that allowed each table to decide what components of their lineage were bio...

A, BAE, Z!

Hello everyone!

This here is my first ever design diary, a new benefit for those pledging at the Adventurer tier ($5) and up. Since the new tiers are official as of March 1st, this is both a reminder to all of you to update your pledge level according to the new structure AND a bit of a taste test for those wondering if the Adventurer or Legend tier might be for them.

Great news first, the OGL 1.0a is saved and, in the event Wizards of the Coast ever threatens it again,...

January '23 Exclusive: Floriography & Feats of Pugilism

Hello everyone,

For January we celebrated the release of the Thaumaturge class by voting on a new mystic custom for the January Exclusive. There was a tie at the time the poll closed so I gave both a long thought and Floriography’s Spellcraft feature solidified in my mind first so I went with that. You’ll also see this month I made good on the final submission for December, a revised and expanded set of Feats of Pugilism.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind ever...

State of the Sterling Vermin Adventuring Company

Hello everyone!

I hope your 2023 is off to a good start! It's been very busy for me with life generally, the OGL rollercoaster specifically, and launching a new chapter of the Sterling Vermin Adventuring Company with the site store. It's been a mix of good and bad so far but I'm feeling very optimistic about the future.

Speaking of, let's talk about the future. Without getting into all the details here, 3rd party publishers have always worked under the assumption that the OGL 1....

December '22 Exclusive: Probabilist & Infernalist

Hello patrons!

I got behind last month so I present, only 23 days late, your December exclusive. Last month I committed to creating everything submitted since it was a low submission month but there was one remaining submission that I'll instead be tacking onto January's update.

Included in this update is the Probabilist (for artificer) and the Infernalist (for thaumaturge). I had a lot of fun creating these and hope they're exciting to all of you as well! The Infernalist in par...

The OGL and Sterling Vermin Adventuring Company

Hello everyone!

I've been putting off this update hoping that Wizards of the Coast would provide clarity but they are, apparently, not in any hurry to provide us with that. Incase you haven't heard, Wizards of the Coast is pulling the Open Gaming License which allows 3rd party publishers (like Sterling Vermin) to exist. In its place, they are offering a new license with several onerous or exploitive clauses. This has caused a number of major 3rd parties to already announce their own ga...

Sterling Vermin Site Store Soft Launch

Happy new year!

As you all may know, I've been building up to this moment for over a year now and it's finally here: I've published my first work under the OGL and it's now available for purchase directly from my site store. As a patron, you've directly contributed to my ability to take this leap and I can't overstate how grateful I am for your ongoing support. Thank you!

The thaumaturge class's full release is next week but I wanted to soft launch the store by letting you all k...

November Exclusive: Heaven's Guard

Hello patrons!

For November, your Recruits, Adventurers, and Legends selected a defense oriented magus subclass for the exclusive. I've gotten a lot of requests to do a paladin-esque subclass for the magus and this seemed like the perfect prompt to lean into that! Two subthemes that came up in development were mounts (appearing in this subclass via spells) and a focus on wall spells (which seems odd in retrospect I haven't heard of many other subclasses that are wall spell focused). I ...

October Exclusive: Path of the Rust Eater

Hello patrons,

Happy spooky season! I hope you've all enjoyed the early fall, I know I'm loving it as the heat of summer slowly cools and I get to spend more time drinking hot tea. This month, your fellow patrons submitted monster-inspired player options and voted to get a new barbarian subclass inspired by the rust monster, something I've called the Path of the Rust Eater. It uses some new experimental mechanics I think are kinda fun. I hope you think so too!

Thanks as always fo...

September's Exclusive

Hello patrons!

For September’s exclusive I once again failed to revise the form to prompt themed submissions. Which, again, works out great for all of you because I decided to do the top two instead of just the most popular! This month we have the College of Doodling for the bard class, a subclass all about its modular animated and illustrated companion, and the Arcane Arm for the pugilist class, a brawler that channels arcane magic through the versatile medium of their own fists.
...

August Exclusive

Hello patrons!

This month we had a tie for monthly Patreon exclusive. Normally I grant myself tie-breaking powers in such a case but, this month, I decided I’d enjoy taking a crack at both of them—so I did! Please read on for a series of feats that alter / enhance the find familiar spell as well as an all new meteor themed fight club for the pugilist, Meteor Might.

Thanks as always for your ongoing support,

Benjamin

July Exclusive: Abyssal Farer, A Sorcerous Origin

Hello patrons!

This month your recruits, adventurers, and legends voted for an Abyssal, maybe gish player option for the sorcerer. I'm actually painfully clueless about a lot of D&D lore because I've been making my own campaign settings for every edition since the mid-90s and didn't know what Abyssal meant in this context. I did a bit of research and was very inspired when I saw mention of Demonwing, an entire layer of the Abyss that's been crafted into a ship that sails the river,...

June Exclusive: The Mandragora Heritage

Hello patrons!

This month's exclusive prompt was a new race and the winning concept was a plant-human hybrid. I toyed with a few different implementations here, including whether to use the old race rules, the new lineage rules, or my own heritage rules, and decided to go with the latter. I'm hopeful that in the coming months I will continue to refine the heritage system and add in a lot more options for it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the mandragora!

Thanks as always for yo...

The Thaumaturge Class, 4th Playtest

Hello patrons!

I'm so pleased to release the 4th playtest of the Thaumaturge class into the wild! This playtest marks the transition from open playtest (where I made the class publicly available) to closed playtest (now it's only available to patrons). This transition means that I'm happy enough with the class that I expect to make only very minor refinements from here on out, apart from the new content which will come in the final playtests (there will be either one more or two more, ...

May Exclusive: The Libragon

Hello patrons!

For this month's exclusive, the theme was a monster or NPC. We got great submissions but the option that won out was a book themed dragon—hence the libragon! I had a lot of fun writing this monster and I think the lore kind of immediately gives you some ideas about how you might include this creature in an adventure as an enemy or potential ally. If you're familiar with my book wyrm player race, I also think the libragon is a nice inversion of those folks. The stage is...

THE APRIL SURPRISE IS HERE!!!

Patrons!!!

Presented here is the Dervish class, the (honestly this time) last part of the April Surprise. The Dervish class is a highly mobile harrier class that gains extra reactions and additional ways to use them. This idea didn't even occur to me til about mid March but there were so many neat ideas to go with I got the whole thing out in just a few days.

I really hope you enjoyed the new classes today and, in case I haven't made it crystal clear, I appreciate your ongoing s...

The April Surprise Is Here!

Well hello again patrons,

Did you think that's all you were going to get for my birthday? Think again! I love my patrons too much to give them only one class so check out the Reforged, a fantasy take on cyborgs and the daring inventors who incorporate experimental augmentations into their own body. Linked in this and the vampyr class is a form where you can give feedback on each class after you've had the chance to digest them. I'll be using the feedback to improve the classes, of cours...

The April Surprise Is Here?

Hello patrons!

Today's my birthday which means it's time for me to give you gifts! I'm so happy to finally be able to reveal the April surprise: the Vampyr! Several months back I thought it would be fun to surprise you all with a new class that, unlike others, would go through most of its development entirely as a Patreon exclusive. I had a lot of ideas (as you know if you hang out in the discord) but eventually decided I wanted to iterate on this idea I had for non-undead blood magic ...

New Spells: Insectoid Transformations

Hello patrons!

This month we started a new format where the monthly exclusive submissions had to match a theme of my choosing. For April I selected "a themed set of spells" and your fellow patrons selected "Insectoid Transformations" as the theme! I had a lot of fun with this one and was fairly pleased to bring a 3.x spell back, modify a spell I developed for the Thaumaturge, plus create 6 totally original spells all on the theme.

Thanks as always for your ongoing support and, don...

Magic Items for the Pugilist Class

Hello patrons!

For March’s Patreon exclusive, there was a tie between a dunamancy inspired pugilist fight clube or more magic items for the pugilist class. As the official tiebreaker, I went with the latter since two (TWO!) of the former will be featured in my upcoming book, The Ultimate Adventurer’s Handbook. That said, I did create a few weapons along the lines of dunamancy for pugilists and I hope you all like them! You might notice some of the other magic items are ref...

Lethal Weapon Reloaded, A Revised Fight Club for the Pugilist Class

Hello patrons!

For February's exclusive, a familiar entry won—a "weapon master" archetype for the pugilist class. Long time patrons may remember that I wrote based on a similar prompt quite awhile ago but that the results, Lethal Weapon, weren't up to the standard set by other Fight Clubs. Maybe it was the best option, maybe it was my own pride, but I decided to use this opportunity to revisit that concept and make it (a lot) better. I hope you all enjoy Lethal Weapon Reloaded, the i...

Crow's Companion, a Pugilist Fight Club

Hello patrons!

I wanted to share a preview with you of a new fight club I am working on specifically for my character in an ongoing The Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign I'm playing in. I'm considering making myself available for commissions for subclasses and races and, if I do, this would be used as part of advertising that service. If you have any thoughts or feedback, sound off in the comments here or over on the discord!

Thanks,

Benjamin

January Exclusive: Zoologist, A Field of Study for the Scholar

Happy 2022 patrons!

For the very first patron exclusive of 2022, the recruits, adventurers, and legends chose a new scholar field of study: the Zoologist! As you might gather from the name, zoologists are scholars who specialize in identifying (and allying with) wild beasts. You'll notice this is a pet subclass with an absolutely bonkers pet feature, Beastly Menagerie. I'm going for a Dr. Dolittle-travels-with-his-own-small-zoo vibe but it will be interesting to see how challenging thi...

December Exclusive: Phantom Fist, a Fight Club for the Pugilist

Hello patrons!

Happy December! I hope you're ending 2021 on the upswing and have enjoyed being a patron this year. For December's exclusive, your Recruits, Adventurers, and Legends voted for a multiple mage hand (as in the cantrip) themed archetype. I originally started with a Doc Ock inspired Artificer Specialist but when I hit a wall I pivoted back to the old standby, the Pugilist, and everything came together pretty quickly. I hope you like the archetype and have a happy new year! 2021-12-10 23:06:26 +0000 UTC View Post

November Exclusive: Magical Damage Feats

Hello patrons!

For November’s patreon exclusive, your Recruits, Adventurers, and Legends voted for magical damage type equivalents to the Crusher/Piercer/Slasher feat set introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Combining those feats and the ones presented here, there are damage enhancing feats for every damage type in the game apart from force. I left that last damage type untouched so you could experiment with this format of feat in your own games. I hope if you do ...

October's Exclusive: The Jock, A Field of Study for the Scholar Class

Hello friends!

This month's exclusive is the Jock, a new Field of Study for the Scholar class.

"But wait!" some of you might ask, "Didn't the archetype using superiority dice win the vote"?

It did! And as I was thinking about how to do that, I thought the idea of a bunch of sports related maneuvers (named gambits here) would be the perfect vehicle for such an idea. I think the Athlete may be a bit overtuned with respect to the Scholar class but I'm really happy with how t...