In the Trenches of the Mages' War PDF Bundle

Return to the Mages’ War, the centuries-long conflict between the magic-hunting Order of the Blank and the scattered spellcasters of the Arcanuum. But this time, the war has crawled out of the shadows.

Across the frontlines, armies have dug themselves into the earth. Trenches stretch for miles through blasted landscapes as artillery, gunfire, poisonous gas, magical bombardments, and anti-magic weapons turn entire regions into killing fields. Blank soldiers hunker beneath barrages of fireballs while Arcanuum mages burrow toward fortified positions. Every few feet of ground gained can cost hundreds of lives, and some soldiers have spent so long beneath the smoke and mud that they barely remember a world beyond the battlefield.

Neither side is clean. Neither side is willing to surrender. And the longer the war continues, the harder it becomes to tell the monsters in the trenches from the monsters they were sent there to fight....

This 90+ page war-torn PDF includes:

• The Arbiter class and 3 subclasses converted to 2024 5e, in addition to a brand-new Arbiter subclass - the Attrition Directive. Control combat and destroy spellcasters as teh ultimate weapon of war!
• Nihilite species - converted to 2024 5e + a new subspecies of nihilite, the oxisis - a warbred machine of death and destruction!
• 2 new backgrounds - the Arcanuum Trencher Haunt (a magical assassin) and Blank Cannon Fodder (a zealous, firearm-wielding combatant!)
• 10 new feats to dig or crawl your way through combat like a veteran.
• 4 new deficiencies + 1 deficiency converted to 2024 5e. Struggle through the muck and mire. You have adapted to the trenches... but not without consequence... These deficiencies allow you to take on bonus feats, but at a cost...
• 5 new stat blocks: the Arcanuum Breacher, Trench Drake, Blank Trench Walker, Blank Torcher, and Blank Trencher. Populating the fields of war with enemies and corpses galore!
• 5 one-shot adventures to bring your muddied fields of battle to life!
• Expanded warps and warping (scientific anomalies to thwart spellcasters!) rules + 33 total warps (5 new warps and 28 converted warps).
• 5 new spells to keep you alive (or to unalive someone) in the trenches
• 5 new sigils to work your way through the battlefield.
• 4 grafts + 1 converted graft to keep your body functional far past its limits.
• 18 new items + 2 converted items to wage war
• 2 new epic casting spells to crush technocrats
• Lore and hazards to bring your trenches to life!

One-Shot Adventures

This month brings five separate one-shot adventures set across the trenches of the Mages’ War, each designed to be dropped into an existing campaign or connected together as part of a larger battlefield story.

Meet the seemingly invincible Mahamut Nel in “The Immortal Diplomat,” where Blank soldiers and Arcanuum mages have gathered beneath a white flag to hear an impossible promise: an end to the war. Cross a battlefield littered with magical mines and entrenched enemies in “No-Man’s Land.” Decide whether the helpless soldier calling for aid in “The Broken Soldier” is truly a victim of the battlefield or something far more dangerous. Descend beneath the fighting in “Something in the Tunnel,” where poisonous gas, desperate survivors, and the creatures of the trenches await. Then take the fight directly to a fortified position with “Bunker Busters.”

Stat Blocks

This supplement includes 5 new stat blocks drawn straight from the bloodiest fronts of the Mages’ War. The Arcanuum Breacher is a militant spellcaster trained to turn walls, bunkers, and fortified Blank positions into rubble, wielding destructive fire and force with little concern for what happens to the surrounding battlefield. The Blank Trencher represents the rank-and-file soldiers holding the Order's defensive lines, while the Blank Torcher brings one of the oldest solutions to trench warfare to a magical battlefield: fire.

Towering above them is the Blank Trench Walker, a heavily armed mechanical battlefield platform capable of navigating the trenches and bringing overwhelming firepower against enemy positions. And then there is the Trench Drake, a grotesque Arcanuum creation bred from stolen dragon eggs and warped specifically for the battlefield. These enormous creatures crawl through trenches and tunnels while vomiting poisonous gas across enemy positions, their altered bodies producing so much toxic material that even killing one can cause its organs to rupture into a deadly cloud.

Player Options

One of the biggest additions in this release is the complete Arbiter player class, rebuilt for our move into the 2024 rules! Arbiters are specialists of the Order of the Blank who wield technology, science, and reality-bending Warps instead of magic. Every Arbiter carries a Warp Tablet filled with schematics that allow them to reproduce impossible effects through machinery and arcanhile, from anti-magic weaponry and advanced surveillance to devastating battlefield technology. Their signature Containment Field allows them to lock enemies inside an arcanhile-powered enclosure, restricting dangerous targets while the Arbiter and their allies determine how best to neutralize them. Complete with its three previous subclasses and rounded out with the debut of our Attrition Directive subclass - soldiers shaped by prolonged warfare that have learned that victory sometimes means simply being the last person still standing, transforming their Containment Fields and Warps into brutally efficient tools for grinding enemies down.

The release also brings back the Nihilite, rebuilt as a player species for the new rules.

Nihilites are reconstructed beings created through the science of the Order of the Blank. Their former lives and identities are stripped away as their bodies and nervous systems are rebuilt for a new purpose. Depending on their chosen Augmented Adaptation, a Nihilite can possess heightened mental precision, unnatural focus, or a nervous system capable of ignoring injuries that would overwhelm an ordinary creature.

Alongside the base species comes the Oxisis Nihilite, a variant designed specifically for the meat grinder of trench warfare. Their bodies are reinforced for direct combat, with reconstructed musculature and battlefield augmentations allowing them to serve as breachers, shock troops, and expendable front-line soldiers.

You'll also find two new backgrounds representing opposite sides of the conflict. Become an Arcanuum Trench Haunt, striking from the darkness between artillery barrages, or a Blank Cannon Fodder, one more soldier fed into the machinery of an endless war.

Items

War requires equipment, and this release comes loaded with new gear designed specifically for life in the trenches. Protect yourself from choking clouds with Gas Masks, send supplies soaring across enemy lines with a Blank War Balloon, outfit yourself with an Elite Trencher’s Pack, or bring one of the battlefield's most infamous weapons to your table with the Flamethrower. The release also includes advanced firearms, specialized military equipment, armor, and arcanhile-powered technology built around the fighting styles of the Order of the Blank.

And some equipment is a little more permanent. The 5 included Grafts allow characters to surgically or magically alter their bodies with specialized augmentations. Embed an Arcanuum crystal directly into your hand, replace flesh with battlefield machinery, or transform your body into another tool of the war.

Spells and Warps

The Arcanuum has adapted its magic for warfare as thoroughly as the Blank has adapted its technology. Dig defensive positions almost instantly with Create Trench, carve out emergency shelter with Create Foxhole, or fill the battlefield with razor-sharp obstacles using Create Barbed Wire. These aren't spells designed for a wizard's tower. They're magic created for soldiers who need cover before the next barrage lands. And at the other end of the scale comes Epic Casting, where magic stops changing individual encounters and starts changing wars.

The Order of the Blank may hate magic, but that doesn't mean they intend to fight it with swords and crossbows. This release massively expands Warps, reality-altering effects created through science, machinery, and arcanhile rather than spellcasting. Arbiters can Burn Magic from enemy casters, Disable Grafts, Disrupt Healing, create an Instant Trench, blast apart fortifications with Bust Bunker, erect an Antimagic Wall, or unleash increasingly destructive arcanhile-powered weapons against magical opponents.

Maps

We've also got 10 total battle maps ready to bring the trenches, tunnels, bunkers, no-man's-land, and blasted battlefields of the Mages’ War directly to your table!

Tokens

And lastly, this supplement comes with 21 VTT-ready tokens for all of your online needs!