Welcome, initiate, to the Order of Binding and Summoning. While the undead make for cheap and tireless laborers, they are unsuitable for complex tasks. Slaves can be trained to perform many skills, but their bodies are fragile and easily broken. When there is a need for servants who are as cunning as they are mighty, that’s where we come in!

The planes below are home to a variety of dreadful and dastardly beings. Some will serve us eagerly, negotiating their services in exchange for payment or favors. Others are less keen, but with the right invocations we can make them serve us nonetheless. Be careful though, initiate, for many are your predecessors who were eviscerated by their own summon after their bindings proved insufficient.

These spells serve as an introduction to conjuring fiends.

Cantrip

Direct Minion (cjr): Direct your summoned minion to attack or move.

1st-level

Minor Fiendish Ally (cjr):Summon an imp or quasit to bargain for services.

2nd-level

Conjure Abyssal Hordelings (cjr): Summon up to three minor demons.

3rd-level

Conjure Lesser Devil (cjr): Summon a lesser devil to do your bidding.

Embody Fiendish Spirit (cjr): Invite a planar being into your body to use its knowledge.

Even in a spacefaring age there will always be a need for planetside vehicles. The following vehicles are distinct from spacecraft and follow the basic rules for vehicles as presented in the Adventurer’s Guide, with new additions as we advance from sailing ships and wagons to helicopters and hover cars.

SIZE

Technological advancement brings a host of new vehicular possibilities. Small vehicles like scooters, and truly massive vehicles like shuttle crawlers and mining machines exist alongside cars, trucks, boats, and planes.

Small. A Small vehicle has Strength and Constitution scores of 10 (+0), can carry 1 passenger along with the driver, up to 10 Supply, and up to 2 bulky items in addition to 300 lbs. of carrying capacity.

Medium. A Medium vehicle has Strength and Constitution scores of 12 (+1), can carry up to 2 passengers along with the driver, up to 15 Supply, and up to 5 bulky items in addition to 500 lbs. of carrying capacity.

Large. A Large vehicle has a Strength and Constitution score of 14 (+2), can carry up to 3 passengers along with the driver, up to 40 Supply, and up to 10 bulky items in addition to 2,000 lbs. of carrying capacity.

Huge. A Huge vehicle has a Strength and Constitution score of 18 (+4), can carry up to 6 passengers along with the driver, up to 80 Supply, and up to 20 bulky items in addition to 4,000 lbs. of carrying capacity.

Gargantuan. A Gargantuan vehicle has a Strength and Constitution score of 22 (+6), can carry a number of additional passengers equal to the minimum required crew, up to 800 Supply, and up to 200 bulky items in addition to 40,000 lbs. of carrying capacity.

Titanic. A Titanic vehicle has a Strength and Constitution score of 26 (+8,) can carry a number of additional passengers equal to the quadruple the minimum required crew, up to 4,000 supply, and up to 1,000 bulky items in addition to 200,000 lbs. of carrying capacity.

COLLISIONS

If a vehicle enters the space occupied by a creature or another object, a collision occurs. Both the vehicle and whatever it impacts take bludgeoning damage according to the other’s size:

If the object or creature impacted is the same size as the vehicle or larger, the vehicle immediately stops and loses momentum. If the object or creature impacted is smaller than the vehicle, it is shunted into the closest unoccupied space that allows the vehicle to complete its movement unimpeded.

MALFUNCTIONS

When a vehicle is reduced to half its total hit points or less, it is damaged and suffers a malfunction. Roll 1d6 on Table: Malfunctions to determine the nature of the malfunction. Vehicle malfunctions can usually be fully repaired during a short rest by a proficient user with an engineering toolkit.

Hotwiring a Vehicle

Unlike the humble wagon, technological vehicles can be hotwired, allowing a voidrunner to go for a ride—for a time, at least. In a futuristic setting, this calls for a hacking check, as these vehicles are operated by computers. Civilian vehicles typically have a hacking DC of 12, while military vehicles have a hacking DC of 18. See Contested Hacks in Chapter 4: Hacking for more information.

Military Vehicles

• Land
• Air
• Water

Civilian Vehicles

• Land
• Air

Vehicle Properties

Vehicle Weapons

At the Narrator’s discretion, the following additional rules may be added to the system described above, either individually or all together.

Dialects and Coded Speech

When a character encounters a dialect other than their native dialect (or the dialect they predominantly studied), they treat their language rank and associated language bonus as one rank lower than usual, or two ranks lower if the dialect is particularly unfamiliar, even if they are fluent in the language. Coded speech such as Thieves’ Cant can be mechanically treated as an unfamiliar dialect.

A character can learn a new dialect (or treat an unfamiliar dialect as a standard dialect) for 1 language point, or learn an unfamiliar dialect for 3 language points. What dialects exist within each language depends on the Narrator and the setting, but in general, different cultures use different dialects.

Low-Complexity Languages

Some languages (such as pidgins used primarily for trade) are not capable of expressing the same range of nuance and complexity as others. It is not possible to use low-complexity languages beyond the rank of advanced, or possibly even intermediate. To increase the importance of languages in your setting, consider making Common and Undercommon low-complexity languages.

Distant Relatives

A character that learns a language to the rank of Fluent only considers unfamiliar languages to be standard (instead of familiar) if they are distant relatives.

Further Granularity

At the Narrator’s discretion, characters who are interested in learning a language in such a way that significantly restricts the extent to which they can use that language may treat an unfamiliar language as standard or treat a standard language as familiar for the purposes of determining point costs. Examples include only learning to read a language but not how to speak it, or only learning to sign a language. Discounts should only be given if the restriction imposed is narratively significant; e.g., characters learning a language with no writing system don’t receive a discount for not learning how to read.

Reaching the fluent rank in a language in which a character has such a restriction only affects the classification of related languages if a character learns the related languages with the same restrictions. A character may remove such restrictions by investing a number of language points equal to 1 + 1/2 their current language points in the relevant language, rounded up.

Let’s apply this system to Varia, the elven berserker from Chapter 1 of the Freelinking: Node title Adventurer’s Guide does not exist . We need one language from Varia’s culture to be her native language, so we’ll chose Orc. She could also become fluent in Common, but we’ve spoken to our Narrator and the other players about Varia not being as comfortable in Common and obtained their approval, so instead we’ll roll 4d4 for language points. We get 14, and we’ll invest 6 into Common to bring Varia to the Advanced rank. That leaves us with 8 points, which we’ll hold on to for now.

Varia also gets a language of her choice from the Soldier background, so we’ll roll 4d4 again, getting 9 new points for a total of 17. We want Varia to be fluent in Sylvan, which is an unfamiliar language in her setting, so it will cost 15 points. However, if we have her learn Elvish first for 10 points, we can treat Sylvan as familiar instead, and it will then only cost us 6 points to achieve the fluent rank. We will therefore spend 16 points to learn both Elvish and Sylvan.

This leaves us with 1 point. Looking through the list, we note that Goblin and Gnoll are familiar languages for Varia. If we invest 1 point into Gnoll, we can bring it to an intermediate rank, making our final list of languages as follows:

Beginner: Goblin (0 points, +0 bonus)

Intermediate: Gnoll (1 point, +5 bonus)

Advanced: Common (6 points, +15 bonus)

Fluent: Elvish, Orc, Sylvan

Later in her travels, Varia enters a tavern where another patron attempts to speak with her in Gnoll. Varia is of intermediate rank in Gnoll, and mostly holds her own in the conversation, often leaning on Orc to fill in the gaps. Once the patron asks Varia for directions to the next town however, the Narrator decides that there’s an interesting chance for failure in this interaction and calls for a Survival check using Gnoll. We would like to use Varia’s Survival proficiency on this check, but we can’t do so reliably with intermediate rank, so we choose to make a language check first. Gnoll is a familiar language for us, so we only need to meet a DC of 15 to be able to use our proficiency bonus while speaking it.

We roll and the d20 shows an 8. We add Varia’s –1 Intelligence modifier and her +5 language bonus for Gnoll for a total of 12—below what we hoped for. Not only can we not use our proficiency bonus for the upcoming check, but we can’t even use our +1 Wisdom modifier! Bracing ourselves, we roll the Survival check. We breathe a sigh of relief when we see a 19. Although Varia would have gotten a 22 if she’d been fluent in Gnoll, the 19 is sufficient. Varia knows the route well, and so even though she realizes she doesn’t know the Gnoll words she would want to use in this situation, she gets the main points across to the traveler.

Whenever you want to make an ability check, the Narrator decides whether the activity described requires the use of a particular language. Examples include rousing a crowd to action with a speech, researching in a library, or eavesdropping on a conversation. If so, you can choose to either make a language check or rely on their language rank. If the latter, you simply find your rank for the given language on the Language Modifications table below and apply the corresponding modifications to any ability checks you make using that language.

At any point, however, you can choose to push their abilities by making an active language check. In this case you add your Intelligence modifier + your language bonus for the language in question, then compare the results to the DC column of the Language Modifications table. Until the end of the scene, encounter, interaction, or until the Narrator decides circumstances have changed sufficiently, the character applies the modification corresponding to the highest DC they met to any checks using the relevant language, even if doing so would be worse than relying on their rank.

Neither skill specialties nor proficiency bonuses apply to language checks. If multiple languages apply to a check (such as when translating), characters make the check using the language in which they have the lowest rank.

Table: Language Modifications

* Add +5 to the DC for unfamiliar languages and -5 for familiar languages.

** Checks may still benefit from temporary expertise dice , such as from a sage follower or the guidance cantrip.

Alternative Communication

Methods In place of using language, you can attempt a skill check to try to communicate in other ways. Typically, a Culture check is used to convey information without using language, while a Insight check is used to understand the gist of what a creature using language is saying without actually understanding their words. Narrators might also allow other skills and abilities, such as Performance to sing a song in another language without knowing what it means, or Religion to identify common prayers in a holy text. You do not add your language bonus to skill checks.

Adjusting Existing Rules

Although it is impossible to anticipate every language-related feature which may be added to the game in the future, the following adjustments to existing features can guide Narrators toward reasonable equivalents when using these advanced rules.

• Features that allow rudimentary conversation or basic language skills allow a character to temporarily advance one rank and add +5 to their character’s language bonus for a given language. Examples include the ranger’s Studied Adversary feature or the Vox savant’s Ear for Languages (see Adventures in Zeitgeist ).
• The herald’s Bestowed Understanding divine lesson allows a character to treat any language as familiar.
• When using these rules, the bonus to Insight checks granted by the comprehend languages and fey tongue spells also applies to language checks.
• The Forgotten Language result on the Facts and Discoveries Critical Success table (see Chapter 6: Ability Scores in Adventurer's Guide ) instead grants 5 language points.
• The Archaeologist savant’s Philologist feature from “Exemplars of the Academy 2: Seekers of Secrets” in Gate Pass Gazette Issue #18 allows them to make a History check in place of a language check.
• Certain items may allow a character artificial skill in a language. For example, the phrasebook from “Well-Equipped: Cultural Gear” in Gate Pass Gazette Issue #19 , allows a qualified user to be considered a beginner in the translated language as long as as they are able to consult it, at the cost of taking additional time to communicate.

Effects Requiring Shared Languages

Features and effects that require two creatures to share a language, like the modify memory spell, work if both creatures are at least beginners in the language. However, saving throws against such effects are made at advantage if both creatures are not of intermediate rank or higher.