The Magmarath Caldera — Update 1.1 (Patreon)

Both the setting and subclass documents have been re-uploaded with the changes listed in the update log at the bottom of the page. Be sure to redownload them!

Hey heroes! Coming up at the tail end of this month is the next setting and subclass release. Thank you for your patience, and you can expect the next one around its normal schedule in September. This month, I'd like to welcome you to the Magmarath Caldera: a blackened city inhabited by both demons and devils rife with managed chaos, violence, and opportunity. I hope you enjoy this latest location, and as they say in the Caldera: stay angry!

The city of Magmarath is a black-iron metropolis lining the flaming maw of a massive volcano of the same name. Found in the hellish Lower Planes, the city has grown into a strange nexus of law and chaos bound by a common creed: the value of anger. Unified under this shared ideal, the city serves as a home to both demons and devils—two fiends of typically diametrically opposed moralities, as well as other fiends with more relaxed notions. Here, under the watchful eyes of the Tribunal of Wrath and their Magma Militia, the city’s laws are enforced with ramifications imposed by a mixture of law and chance. The famed Iron Maw Arena colosseum serves as a place of unlikely respite from the heady political and moral conflicts that rage across the planes, allowing visitors to instead focus on what really matters: sating their desire for honest cruelty and violence through endless—violent—entertainment. 

Also known as The Cauldron, Magmarath presents a ferocious challenge to travelers from the Material Plane, both in and outside the Arena. Although its fiendish denizens aren’t usually openly hostile to mortals, many may be tempted to give into their impulses and take a chance with any ramifications that come from such transgressions. Even members of the typically orderly Magma Militia follow their natures around such visitors, taking great pleasure in fighting, eating, or finding reason to force their participation in the colosseum. Despite these hazards, Magmarath holds great value as a destination, allowing comparatively mundane humanoids from the Material Plane to gather mighty weapons, enlist unique services that can easily traverse the planes, and, potentially, test their mettle against the elite in the Arena.

What's Included:

• 14 pages of a uniquely populated city in the Lower Planes, filled with both demons and devils who've united under a common creed: the value of anger.
• Battle through the fiery landscape or in the ever-changing Iron Maw Arena!
• Quest and adventure hooks!
• Bonus maps donated by Cze & Peku!
• 8 new volcanic and fiendish monsters to heat up your encounters!
• New Barbarian subclass: The Path of the Infernal! Find your fury in the depths of hell and let lash out with a hellish, ashen claw wreathed in flames! Be the spark that starts the fire and lay waste to your enemies before you.

Credits

I was responsible for direction, design, and additional editing for this setting. However, this couldn't be possible without extra help. If you like this setting, consider supporting these other incredible 5e content creators:

Ty Christensen — Writing, editing

TheArenaGuy — Monster creation, editing

Cze & Peku — Maps

Fabian Saravia — Subclass illustration

Benjamin Sommeregger — Cover art

Jelke Ludolphij — Additional layout

Subclass Update v1.1:

• Revised Hellfire Claw damage and mechanics so it can no longer stack with meaty greataxe hits. Damage is now a scaling fire damage die that starts at a d6 and goes up to a d12 by level 14. You can have the fire lick up the weapon you're holding with the weapon or make a claw attack on a turn, combining an extraneous element from the capstone into the core of this feature.
• Revised the grapple effect so the damage you deal per turn to the held creature scales with your claw's fire damage.
• Removed frighten immunity from the level 6 perk.
• Revised Planar Conspirator to be farther removed from the Totem barbarian, allowing you to make miniature sacrifices to interested demonic parties to cast the detect thoughts spell, allowing you to really start to prey on the fears of the people you come across.
• Since the fiery weapon portion of the capstone was folded into the core level 3 Hellfire Claw feature, I increased the uses of the hellish rebuke you get at level 14 to 2 per rage instead of 1. I also adjusted it to be a static level 3 spell, so you never have to figure out what number of dice to use when your stats change.
• Changed spellcasting ability to Constitution.