The Dungeons and Dragons stereotype that every party is the most chaotic bunch of adventurers you’ve ever seen has basis. Even the sleekest of campaigns will inevitably see adventurers making high-risk moves to end an encounter with style. More often than not, these moves end the player far before it does the encounter. Even so, adventurers are comfortable in the knowledge that a cleric can bring them back with a snap.
This tome of medicinal wonders aims to “fix” that assumption.
Liber Mortalis: A Guide to Vitamancy is a sourcebook that expands upon the healing magics of DnD. It does so primarily through its addition to the DnD classes, the Vitamancer. These masters of rejuvenation dedicate their lives to healing, blending arcane magics with mundane healing practices. To emphasize the Vitamancer’s importance, Liber Mortalis overhauls DnD 5e’s hit point system.
Instead of health being a fixed number, wounds have much more meaning. Near-fatal injuries can’t just be magically healed away by novices. Liber Mortalis aims to make DnD feel dangerous again, while giving non-combat oriented adventures a much more important role. For example, proficiency in the newly-added Surgery Tools grants players the ability to perform mundane healing on any of the DnD races.
Fun fact, all these Liber Mortalis additions were created with the help of actual medical professionals, so you know they’re taking it seriously.
As for the Vitamancers, they currently have three sub-classes. The Plague Doctor is a master of curing (and creating) poisons, diseases and other strange maladies. The Fleshbender shapes flesh like clay, closing open wounds and fixing mangled limbs with ease. Finally, the Haruspex is a mystical practitioner, able to perceive the fates of suffering souls and use such knowledge to their whims.
I am so excited to bring a Vitamancer to the homebrew for nostalgic reasons. One of my first attempts to move away from DnD’s combat-oriented playstyle was through my Thief Rogue/Grave Cleric character, Surgeon. I would re-flavor all of his spells to be “mundane healing infused with magic” and even made it a rule that all my spells had to be short range. It added so much fun and tension to that campaign, and Vitamancer looks to channel that energy.
You can support Liber Mortalis: A Guide to Vitamancy on Kickstarter here.
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Source: Wargamer
