Adapting Dreams of Fire for 5E D&D Plus a New Feat for Sorcerers

Council of Geeks is a nerdy YouTube channel where Author Nathaniel Wayne discusses everything from Doctor Who to the Marvel multiverses, Netflix series, movies and general nerd-dom. But Nathaniel just couldn’t stop at talking about their favorite geeky stories — they needed to write their own! Enter the new electropunk fantasy novel with a fey twist: Dreams of Fire. Having shared my review of the book I feel it’s fairly apparent I enjoyed Dreams of Fire thoroughly. As such, of course my mind began swirling around how to adapt Dreams of Fire into fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons play.

How to Play Dreams of Fire in 5E D&D

Nathaniel is a good friend and I was provided a free advance reading copy  of Dreams of Fire in exchange for an honest review, which I did on my YouTube channel. All of the opinions I shared about the book are my own and are completely true, regardless of my connection to the author.

Before the book even released, Nathaniel graciously gave us the inside scoop on their new novel a while back and with the book’s release now live it’s occupied more than its fair share of my brainspace. Make sure to read to the end of this post where I share a brand new homebrew 5E D&D feat to help capture the elemental magic vibes from Dreams of Fire.

Some of the core elements to be addressed for setting a 5E D&D campaign in the Dreams of Fire setting include:

• The technology and weaponry available in the world
• The unique creatures and races inhabiting the world
• The magic systems, particularly the existence of elementals and fey magic

Dreams of Fire Electropunk in 5E D&D

At the forefront of Dreams of Fire is the conflict between technology and the natural world. Electropunk is the name of the game here. For those who might not be familiar with the various x-punk genres, Electropunk occupies a similar thematic space as Steampunk and Dieselpunk. However, while the former imagines a historical or fantasy world with wildly advanced steam powered technology and the latter does the same with gasoline fueled technology, Electropunk imagines a historical or fantasy world with greatly advanced technology deriving its power from electricity.

For my part, firearms can easily be reflavored with an electropunk twist by removing requirements for ammo or replacing ammo with charged batteries. If you really want to spice up your electropunk 5E D&D game, Nerdarchist Ted even devised a couple of easily reflavored firearm magic items in a previous article that might be worth a look. Besides these, many elements from Eberron fit neatly into an electropunk setting especially if the mystical flavors are replaced with electrical ones.

Dreams of Fire Creatures in 5E D&D

Much like the firearms, creatures can be reskinned and reflavored fairly easily using existing stat blocks. Specifically, I think of Garion being a reflavored tabaxi, with his claws and agility tied to his fey mutation warping him into a half-breed creature.

Otherwise, any number of fey creatures could easily fit into this world. Avoiding spoilers, I would love to see the main monster of this book get a stat block for 5E D&D. Maybe this should be another future post, hmm?

Dreams of Fire Magic Systems in 5E D&D

The magic systems at first threw me for a bit of a loop. Dreams of Fire possesses two wildly different yet tangentially related magic systems, whereas all spellcasting magic in 5E D&D operates more or less from the same rules.

But then it hit me: Wild Magic.

I’m fully aware many Dungeon Masters out there abhor Wild Magic with a passion but the more I thought about it the more I realized the Wild Magic tables easily answer many of the plot holes created by Dreams of Fire’s fey magic.

As I continued pondering the fey magic in Dreams of Fire I also began to realize many fey magic elements in the book correspond to the way magic is treated in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. It’s alien and weird and breaks the rules of conventional understanding and science. Mining the section on the Nature of Ravenloft was particularly helpful when devising how to imagine Dreams of Fire’s fey magic.

As for the existence of elementals in the world the Elemental Mutation Sorcerer feels like a good base, possibly with some additional Elemental Manifestations, which I hope to introduce in a future post — stay tuned!. There’s a bit more to playing an elemental in Dreams of Fire’s world though.

It should be specified how elementals in Dreams of Fire are not the same as the elemental creature type in 5E D&D. Elementals are essentially sorcerers whose magic is tied to a single element and builds over time before releasing in explosive outbursts, unless vented steadily and frequently. As such, I devised a new feat that would allow player characters to really dive into that elemental vibe.

Elemental Nature

Prerequisite: Elemental Mutation Sorcerous Origin

Your body is infused with the essence of elemental magic to the extreme. When you take this feat you choose a damage type associated with this feature from the following: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, radiant or thunder. You gain a pool of Elemental Dice. These dice are d8s. When you finish a long rest, you gain one Elemental Die. You gain another Elemental Die every hour you are conscious and for every round you participate in combat.

Every time you gain an Elemental Die you must make a concentration check. The DC equals 13 + your number of Elemental Dice. On a successful save you experience intense pain, retain your pool of Elemental Dice and nothing else happens. On a failure you release your elemental energy in an explosive, uncontrolled burst. The radius of this explosion equals 10 feet for every sorcerer level you possess. This explosion is magical and cannot be manipulated by Sorcery Points.

When your power explodes in this way, every creature within the radius must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC or take damage equal to your amount of accumulated Elemental Dice. On a success, a creature takes half damage. After this explosion all of your Elemental Dice are expended. If you fail a concentration check as a result of this feature you drop concentration on all spells and abilities and you cannot move or take actions or reactions until the beginning of your next turn.

How punk is your electro-fey campaign?

Have you read Dreams of Fire by Nathaniel Wayne? How would you adapt this wild electropunk fantasy into your own 5E D&D games? Let us know in the comments. If you’re looking for a way to play some quick and easy adventures in Dreams of Fire or your favorite fantasy setting look to Out of the Box Encounters, Nerdarchy’s original 5E book full of encounters ready to drop into nearly any campaign setting.

*Featured image — A creature called a Morrighan confronts the main character, Farris in the midst of a burning city in this image from the pages of Dreams of Fire. [Art by Benjamin A.E. Filby]