Sins of Our Mother goes well. The word count has climbed again in the course of editing, reaching over 50,000 words. These additions have filled plot holes, added nuance, and clarified information. Here’s the writing that’s been edited and finalized:
Vow of Beauty (class)
Medusite (class)
Flesh Singer (class)
Pantheon of Truths (the intro)
Crisis of Faith (living scripture)
Red Mass (ritual feats)
Traitor Duchess & the Estate of Undeath (narrative dungeon)
Sickle City (narrative dungeon)
Lich Star Race (narrative dungeon, renamed Race for the Silver Tower)
The narrative dungeons have seen a lot of work. These are the biggest, most complex chapters in the book. They sport NPCs, plot lines, quests, and more. Everything has to be measured with an exacting eye. This results in rewrites upon rewrites. For example, Hospital of Quiet Minds has gone through several drafts. Here’s a general look at their progress:
Hospital of Quiet Minds (narrative dungeon) - 50%
Everything gets better with each pass. Thank you for your patience as I put the polishing touches on Sins of Our Mother. I’m proud to announce that the PDF will be released in March, and the other rewards will come soon after. In the meantime, let’s take a look at one of my favorite classes.
Meet the Flesh Singer
Flesh Singer
The Flesh Singer has been really important to me ever since the beginning. I knew right away that I wanted something that both delivered on the fantasy of creating music and meddled with the meta aspects of Dungeons & Dragons. Nothing in vanilla D&D comes close to offering either.
I played an all Bard campaign a while back. We roleplayed a travelling band, wrote hit songs, and generally had a great time. But I never felt like I was making music. I was really just playing a utility spellcaster with a bit of flavor. Bardic Inspiration, while powerful, didn’t sell me the class fantasy. I wanted that feeling of piecing together notes to build towards something unique and interesting. Thanks to my good friend Tyler who kindly took time to explain musical theory, this’ll be possible with the Flesh Singer.
Music, Fantasy, and the Realities of Game Design
Composers string notes into various combinations that coalesce into a song. That’s what the Flesh Singer wants to do: combine notes into unique combinations that result in an effect. The problem is that the nigh-infinite combinations of notes that make music so rich are impossible for tabletop. That many permutations would not be fun (trust me, I tried). So, how can we streamline this design? Luckily, there’s a few rules in music we can use to reduce our choices. Let’s look at the Flesh Singer’s bread and butter ability: Blood Notes.
Blood Notes
1st Level - Blood Notes
You give your blood to shape into sound that cruel beauty which haunts your dreams. You may spend your bonus action to weave pain and emotion into a new art. Expend a Hit Dice. Roll it and add your Charisma modifier to the roll result. Distribute that many Blood Notes to any creature(s) within 200 ft of you.
These Notes last for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), and expire at the end of your turn. A creature may not have more than 3 Blood Notes at a time. Also, you cannot give yourself Blood Notes.
There are a total of seven notes, each associated with one of the seven deadly sins. This fits perfectly with the theme of the book, and it also mirrors the seven notes in a basic scale. Here they are:
Lust (1): +/- 1 attack rolls
Envy (2): +/- 1 to Insight checks and 25 ft of darkvision
Sloth (3): +/- 5 ft movement speed
Pride (4): +/- 1 AC AC (maximum 20, minimum 8)
Gluttony (5): +/- 1 hit point at the start of their turn
Wrath (6): +/- 1 damage (minimum 1)
Greed (7): +/-1 attribute score of their choice (maximum 20, minimum 1)
Low-level Flesh Singers will spend and roll their Hit Dice, and then parse out that number of Blood Notes to their allies and enemies. No creature can have more than three Notes at a time, so no doom stacking Sloth or Pride.
Instead, Flesh Singers will weave together Notes to affect the tempo of the battle. You might beef up a frontliner with Lust, Pride, and Wrath while giving a backline caster some extra oomph with Greed, Greed, and Sloth.
Spending Hit Dice like candy though can be rough. D&D combat is not just a question of tactical choices, but also logistics. Flesh Singers have a few class features to help the player keep up with their comrades. One of these is Will to Flesh.
1st Level - Will to Flesh
Your creativity sustains you. When you take a short rest, you recover a number of Hit Dice equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). You cannot gain more Hit Dice than you have Flesh Singer levels this way.
So we have Blood Notes and a way to keep chugging along. What’s next? The Flesh Singer’s marquee feature comes at level three: Flesh Chords.
Birth Blood Framed
3rd Level - Flesh Chords
Some combinations of Blood Notes produce harmonies that make the heart quiver. You may spend your action to orchestrate any of your Blood Notes. If you do, you may distribute Blood Notes among creatures within 200 ft of you.
When you arrange a set of 3 Blood Notes that harmonize (see below), you create a Flesh Chord. The creature loses the benefits of the Blood Notes, but gains the Flesh Chord’s effects. Chords last for 1 minute. A creature may have only 1 Flesh Chord at a time, and cannot benefit from Blood Notes while affected by a Chord.
The number of Chords a Flesh Singer can keep simultaneously active is limited by another ability (Instrument of Flesh), but they possess a unique Chord for each Blood Note. Let’s look at three for now:
Pain – Envy / Pride / Wrath
The creature attacks 1 extra time the first time they take the attack action on their turn.
Creation – Gluttony / Greed/ Envy
The creature may spend their bonus action to regenerate a spell slot of their choice. The level of spell slot must be equal to or less than the Flesh Singer’s proficiency bonus. Then, destroy this chord.
Asymmetry – Greed / Envy / Pride
The creature chooses and gains a feat for which they meet the prerequisites. They lose the chosen feat when this Chord expires.
With Flesh Chords, the class’s gameplay loop shifts from handing out minor buffs and debuffs to building powerful Chords. Some of these Chords make a creature more dangerous (like Pain), others offer utility (like Creation), while a few change the very nature of a creature (like Asymmetry).
At this point, the Flesh Singer comes into their own. They’re no longer dabbling in music, but full composers whose gameplay choices weave together to create original works. With luck (and a few other class features not shown here), player symphonies will become more than the sum of their parts and take on a life of their own.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Sins of Our Mother. Stay tuned for next time, and thank you for your support!
