Elemantist Class

This is my take on a sorcerer class, I'm working with some fundamental assumptions in place but I by no means think the numbers represented here are fixed. One of the primary mechanics of the 5th Edition Sorcerer is their ability to use sorcery points to be more flexible casters.  In this class I want to embrace the idea behind 5th Editions Sorcery Points while shedding the vancian spell slots system entirely.



The Elements
There are 4 primary elements, Earth, Fire, Air, and Water but elementalists have specialized in any countless sub-elements, from Ice or Lightning Elementalists to Light, Sand, and Metal Elementalists, rumor has it there was once an Elementalist who specialized in wielding a liquid metal similar to Galium.

Elementalists are unlike other classes in that they choose their path at first level instead of third. Each path has it's own minor drawback. Elementalists gain +3 to their saves vs any spell that involves their element. (Pyromancers get +3 to their dex save vs fireball, the Air Bender gains +3 to his save against lightning bolt spell because lightning is a subdomain of Air)

Pools of power 

Elementalists draw on a wellspring of elemental power within themselves in order to manifest different effects. This wellspring of power is represented by a pool of Affinity Points as laid out below. When creating a spell effect the Elementalist describes what they are doing and the GM will determine how many Affinity points the effect would cost. An Elementalist can also cast any spell from the traditional sorcerer spell list that contains their element for a number of points equal to the level of the spell.

1 point damage moves are usually maxed at 2d6 on a single target or  1d8 in an AoE, in practice I would want to let players describe their actions and about how much damage/AOE they are aiming for before the DM determines the cost/viability of such a manifestation. Keeping in mind that the math of how the DM chooses to ration points directly relates to how powerful the class is.

The Elementalist Class

Level 1 - 2 Affinity Points - Choose Primary Element 

Level 2 - 3 Affinity Points

Level 3 - 8 Affinity Points - Signature Move
Level 4 - 10 Affinity Points -  Ability Score Improvement
Level 5 - 16 Affinity Points
Level 6 - 19 Affinity Points - Elemental Bonus
Level 7 - 23 Affinity Points
Level 8 - 27 Affinity Points - Ability Score Improvement
Level 9 - 36 Affinity Points
Level 10 - 41 Affinity Points - 2nd Signature Move
Level 11 - 47 Affinity Points 
Level 12 - 47 Affinity Points 
Level 13 - 54 Affinity Points 
Level 14 - 54 Affinity Points 
Level 15 62 Affinity Points 
Level 16 62 Affinity Points 
Level 17 71 Affinity Points 
Level 18 77 Affinity Points 
Level 19 - 84 Affinity Points 
Level 20 - 90 Affinity Points 

Element List- 

- Earth: +3 Saves vs  Acid and Poison, Constitution Casting Stat, Cannot Cast if not on the ground or in a stone building that is touching ground. 

- Water: +3 Saves vs Ice and Forced Movement effects, Wisdom Casting Stat, Cannot cast while dehydrated

 - Fire: +3 Saves vs Fire Effects, Charisma Casting Stat, Cannot cast while soaking wet or in water.

- Air: +3 Save vs Lightning effects, Dexterity Casting Stat, Cannot cast without access to the sky (defined by whether or not a crow could fly from their mouth to the sky unimpeded)

Signature Move - 
At 3rd, 5th and 10th level you have developed habits in your interaction with your chosen element. Choose a particular manifestation you have been favoring and reduce its AP cost by 1, this is the only way Elementalists can manifest cantrips, however a pyromancer elementalist could also make a 3 point fireball type spell his signature move and reduce its AP cost to 2, making it much more spammable.
Design Note - This is also a way to reward players for creating a distinct style in combat, allowing for smoother combat interactions and to solidify a players arsenal, however, the sheer amount of points at higher levels should assure that players will continue to find ways to creatively use their points without feeling pinched. 



Elemental Bonus
Earth: Earthen Defenses- Your default AC Becomes - 10 + Con + Dex. In addition you may spend an action during combat to pull earth and dirt towards you, increasing your armor class by +1, this can stack to a maximum of +3

Water: Water Healing - You can spend a minute and a point of AP to grant someone (1d4 + Wis) temporary HP. This consumes a full rations worth of water and works best in lakes, rivers, ponds, wells, oceans, etc. (3d4+Wis/AP over the course of a minute in such places)

Air: Airmasters Acrobatics - You gain resistance to all falling damage. In addition you can spend a single AP to gain 10 feet of movement and not invoke attacks of opportunity until end of turn.

Fire: Cloak of the Pheonix - You can ignite most flammable objects with a touch, requiring 0 AP. In addition you may spend 3AP to enter a stance with a duration of 10 minutes. This stance wreathes the user in flames, requiring concentration and granting the following benefits -

• The Elementalist sheds bright light out to 15 feet and dim light an additional 15 feet.  

•  Any creature which hits the Elementalist with a melee attack takes damage equal to double the Elementalists charisma modifier.  

•  Whenever the Elementalist spends AP to deal fire damage they may add their charisma modifier to the damage rolled

Sample Shenanigans --- 

Earth - 

The Door Maker - After taking a few deep breaths the Earth Elementalist shoves a section of stone wall aside, if nothing is behind the wall then a hole is blown through it wide enough for a medium sized creature to pass comfortably. - 4AP

Anklecrusher - Send a small tremor through the earth between you and an opponent, causing the earth to swallow and then crush their ankle. Dex save vs 2d8 bludgeoning and movement speed reduced to zero. Can either spend a full round action digging their ankle out or can yank it out, dealing an additional d8 of damage - 2AP (Single Target CC + 3d8 Damage)

Boulder Hurl - Sling a small boulder at a nearby enemy (floor tiles, large earthen clods, bricks and masonry) spell attack vs AC for 2d8 bludgeoning damage - 1AP

Hail of Stones - Sharp stones rain down in a 5 foot radius circle dealing 1d6 piercing damage Dex save for half - AP 1

Water - 

Phase Change - A water elementalist can change the phase of the water they are manipulating at will (free action, can occur on enemy turns etc.) - 1AP

Water Jet - A stream of water bludgeons and knocks enemies prone or backward (caster choice) 1AP/Round to pin enemies to the ground, hamper movement and generally create a bad time, an additional 1AP / round deals 2d6 bludgeoning per round. Concentration, combos nicely with phase change.

Water Cloak - Wielders use their water as a form of armor with tentacle-like arms. The Elementalist can use these arms to grab objects or enemies, blast enemies with water, etc. Depending on how much water they have very experienced water masters might have up to 8 water arms. (Bashing an enemy with an arm deals 1d8 damage. Creating the cloak with one are is 2AP a minute and an additional 2AP per extra attack up to 8 attacks / round, at 8AP/Minute. Concentration duh.)

Water Shield - Reaction vs Attack against caster or an adjacent ally, granting disadvantage on the attack. 2AP

Note - I avoided talking about ice manipulations because I feel like those are easier to think of than liquid water manipulations but this doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use ice. 

Quaya Part 2 Trystero and Salendar

Monkeyrats -

In the cities and towns of Quaya, you'll find very few of the huge, diseased rats found in other parts of the world.  Instead you'll find monkeyrats.

Monkeyrats are the same size as rats, but they're better climbers, and most importantly, they're smart as hell. They're rare in the wild, but extremely common in the cities,  living in huge troops of up to 100 individuals, usually inside roofs or in the drier parts of the sewers. They're smart enough to figure out ways to subsist on human excess, by stealing a couple of nuts here, eating some garbage here, and avoiding people whenever possible. Some Trysteran Lenguamancers claim the Monkeyrats are smarter than the average peasant, although whether this is meant as a compliment to the tiny beasts.

They fight a constant, invisible war with rats, which they usually win (by virtue of cooperation) and also with cats, which they usually lose (because cats are murder machines).  Still, cats in Trystero frequently die when they get surrounded by monkeyrats, or when the monkeyrats drop a brick on them from 3 stories up, so owners beware.

The cities have a complicated relationship with monkeyrats.  They're seen as pests, but they're a bit too intelligent to treat like vermin.  And they're too numerous to ignore.  Huge extermination attempts have been enacted in Salendar with partial success.  But whenever the monkeyrats are killed, normal rats jump up to replace them.


Trystero the city that never thirsts-

The gleaming city of Trystero is surrounded by a gleaming sandstone wall, the stones of which were mined over 80 miles south long before the Moon Emperor descended to the earth. Fragrant fields of hops and wheat grow alongside ginger root beds and raspberry vines grow along the warm hillsides past the west wall of the city, the eastern wall protects the Trysteran Citrus Grove, a sprawling grove with over 15 varieties of lemon grapefruit and various citrus trees as well as a large stand of cocoa trees.

There are 3 major factions in the city of Trystero:

The Casque Masters Guild, where beer masters of renown the world over make finely crafted, often magically imbued ales and wines. The head of the Guild is Mug Brewington, famous for his Eisbock, a strong lager style beer made by partially freezing the beer during fermentation and removing the ice that forms before finishing the brewing process.

The Confectionaires Guild: Where sweets and cakes of a thousand varieties are made, where chefs come to study the art of sugar blowing and chocolate making. There are whispers that the confectionaires guild sometimes dabbles in dangerous and rare ingredients such as the infamous Red Honey and Underdark Cocoa Beans, which must be grown and harvested in the flesh of still living slaves.

The Lenguamancers College, where mages study the magic of the Tongue. The lenguamancers have an ongoing rivalry with the confectionaires guild over who can construct the most universally appealing and ecstasy inducing flavors. They had a brief rivalry with the Casque Masters, but lost miserably as Mages have no idea what people find appealing in their alcohol.



Salendar the city of chimes -

The road between Salendar and Trystero is 40 miles longer when you travel northward from Salendar to Trystero than it is when you travel south from Trystero to Salendar. No one is really sure why, a number of mages have investigated it and believe it might be related to a long dead a lamellar labyrinth of hypertoroidal tissues.

Salendar is known for it's uncountable chimes. Homeless children build chimes of broken glass and junk string, while the richest nobles and merchants build massive chimes from entire buildings. The chimes are all dedicated to the wind spirits who call Salendar home, there's a great cliffside at the edge of the city wear the veil between realities wore thin thousands of years ago, now it's a minor gateway to the elemental plane of air, and air elementals of all sizes and dispositions pass into and out of our reality with relative ease.

There was once an elementalist college here,  mages studied how to bind and control the spirits of the wind now it's great halls and towers lay in ruins, a reminder of the past. A great tempest elemental was summoned and then bound by the elementalists long long ago, but it escaped it's bondage and destroyed the mages, shatteand leveled half the city before becoming entranced with childlike joy over a childs wind chime. Ever since the city has lived in awed respect and admiration for the great creatures and view mages with distrust. 

Quaya Part 1 - The Warm Hills

The Warm Hills 

Sometimes called the Yellow Hills for the variety of wild wheats which grow abundantly in the rocky soil there, the Warm Hills are home to 2 major populations.

The first group call themselves The Dwarven Common Grace, a half dozen villages of mostly hill dwarves who are essentially Dwarven Calvinists. They worship a god of labor and humility which they have dubbed Armok, God of Sweat and Blood. To labor and toil is to praise their God, and most things outside of honorable labor are considered sinful in someway or another. The dwarves of the common grace are notoriously dull and uncreative creatures, as creative endeavors are often sinful and children are taught what they must know to shepherd the great goat herds or work the fields.


Their villages usually consist of a handful of communal dwellings in hollowed out hills, where the dwarves sleep in triple bunk beds packed tightly together with neither personal aesthetics nor privacy allowed. These are usually built in a ring  around a central meeting area and communal dining hall.  On the surface of these holowed out hills the dwarves usually grow wheat or else pen their great goat herds. A dwarven great goat can grow to be massive, some growing as large as 8 feet tall at the shoulder. The dwarves use them as beasts of both labor and warfare.

The largest dwarven community in the warm hills is the town of Great Mill, (the common grace dwarves detest fancy names and believe a thing should be named for what it does) so called because of the massive millstone the town is built around. The stone has a radius of just over 40' wide and weighs several thousands of pounds. It's operated by 20 massive goats, the largest goat from each village is sent to help pull the millstone. A village which sends a small or weak goat to pull the millstone is generally considered shameful and dishonest. The dwarves pay nicely for fertilizer and produce a vast ammount of flour which they sell far and wide. Despite all this seemingly impressive economic activity, the dwarves own no luxuries, and store all of their communal wealth in neatly stacked gold bars beneath their hills, a rainy day fund they'll never actually use.

The second group living in the Yellow Hills are the Great Goblin Encampment of Thanorek Thanorek is one of the least powerful goblin encampments in terms of its ability to wage war, but it is widely regarded as a place of pleasure and excess where those with the coin can purchase all manner of intoxicants and carnal experiences. Thanorek is run by a Hobgoblin named Niu Bo Wei.

Niu Bo Wei is a sybarite and hedonist; he does not care for the responsibilities that leading the Thanorek encampment imposes on him, but he does thoroughly enjoy the pleasures that his position allows. Niu Bo Wei maintains power mostly through his intense charisma and charming decadence—he sees his encampment as the worlds greatest brothel,  where all are welcome and where all appetites are satisfied.

While most goblin hordes move from place to place the Thanorek encampment, is more permanent having been built around The Brazier; a fire pit made of rune-etched iron in which an efreeti is bound by magic. The goblins of Thanorek worship the “Flame Lord” as a god, but the efreeti wishes only to be fre
ed. The majority of Thanoreks population are goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, but all races are welcome and it is not uncommon for people to come to Thanorek to disappear or hide frome their troubles. The goblin locals live in low round yurts, and live a hunter gatherer lifestyle for the most part. The pleasure domes, decorated in garish colors, some laced with magic pigments that sear into the eyes of those who view them, are large and varied. It is said there is no pleasure in the Material Realm that Thanorek cannot provide, and few pleasures beyond the material which it cannot find for the man with the right coin.

Moonfolk and The Emperor of The Moon

The moonfolk are the de-facto ruling class, and have been for as long as most people can remember. There are few who can remember how it had happened, how the world had fallen beneath the shadow of the moon, how these strange pale folk had risen to power. What we know now is likely little more than propaganda, and should be taken with a grain of salt. We're pretty sure they come from the moon, they claim to have lived there a long time, but we have no idea how they got here, if they can return, or how many of them there really are. We know they are biologically immortal, able to live for thousands of years, and we know that almost all of them are highly capable spell casters. At first, it seems they had individually risen to power within their respective nations as powerful advisers and commanders, wielding their prodigal magics for the benefit of the local king or baron., but when the Moon Emperor revealed himself, they all swore fealty to him, and so each nation weakened by internal strife, fell rapidly under his domain. This last part, is whispered history, passed down in hushed bed time stories while nobody is listening.


Magic has been heavily licensed since the mage rebellion 60 years ago, when a desperate terrorist by the name of Esterdarrei the Black, unleashed a spell which destroyed an entire city, killing half a dozen moonfolk who had gathered for a conference, and hundreds of regular citizens. The entire landscape for a dozen miles in every direction was twisted and scarred by the magical backlash from the spell, and ever since, the law has made it virtually impossible for a commoner to become a licensed magic user.

Those who are reported as magic users tend to simply vanish, those in power having decided that it would be simpler if they just disappeared than to deal with the mess of convicting them. After all, everyone agrees mages are dangerous. Some, in mad, hushed whispers, would tell you of factories filled with mages, all casting spells, repeatedly, until they drop of exhaustion, sometimes even dying on their feet. Some might whisper about some great machine, some massive magical contraption that these imprisoned mages are powering.

But those are the whispered words of malcontents. All of this has been done in the name of safety, in the name of law and order. In the name of peace. Everyone knows mages are dangerous.

D A . R U L E S !

Rules For Players --- 

1. None of the following will be tolerated at my table - Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, etc. I shouldn't have to say it but there it is. In the same vein, please refrain from harassing other players or their characters for any reason, and note that sexual content belongs outside the game.
2. We are all here to play a game together, so while the game is in session please focus on the game and refrain from scrolling facebook or playing other games in the background. We all think we can do both, and many of us probably can, but the truth is, it's still splitting your attention and detracting from your engagement with the people and story around you.
3. Metagaming to a certain extent is expected and even encouraged, the DM will however remind the players that almost none of the monsters they encounter will be identical to printed monsters. Metagaming comes with inherent risks of it's own.
4. Giving tactical advice and communicating with your party will be key to survival, but there is a difference between advice and micro managing. We are all here to have fun, and not everyone's version involves maximized efficiency... I don't give a fuck how good your idea is, let people play their own character not your idea of their character.
5. The group story and group enjoyment supersede any individual characters story, "my character would go against the entire party's interest and derail the whole fucking campaign, so that's what I'm going to do" simply won't fly at this table. Your relationships with the people at the table are more important than your character.

Rules For Characters --- 

1. There will be plenty of racist NPCs but I will ask that players refrain from creating racist or sexist characters. It's a worn out trope and results in unnecessary tension in parties that have enough of that to begin with. No one cares about your "I hate elves" schtick.
2. NO Evil Characters, you don't have to be the most goody goody hero of all time, but no blatantly evil characters, this will be enforced throughout the campaign, not just at character creation. There will be plenty of morally grey moments provided by the nature of the campaigns, no need to go looking for children to scam or nuns to kill.
3. You ARE going to be in a party together, so find a reason your character would want to be here, with these people, or make a new character that wants to join the merry group. This also means no infighting.
4. The edgy silent guy who leans against the tavern wall and only cares about himself, The barbarian who is just here to murder people and has no patience for roleplay, are great examples of characters that you should avoid. d&d isn't a video game and should never be played as such. There's a time and place for playing out power fantasies of steamrolling mindless goons, or being the edgy anti-hero, but that's not the table I'm running; it's Skyrim.
5. The group story and group enjoyment supersede any individual characters story, "my character would go against the entire party's interest and derail the whole fucking campaign, so that's what I'm going to do" simply won't fly at this table. Your relationships with the people at the table are more important than your character.

Rules For Play at the Table --- 

Probably a section for later with shit like... don't fuckin roll until you're supposed to, and pay attention to the turn order, and shit like that. I dunno. 

Bloody Badlands

The Bloody Badlands

There's always a badlands, some kind of desert, and this one is no different. It's vast, it's dry and, for the most part it's pretty empty. Nomadic bands of gnoll druids rove about slaying creatures, intelligent or not, to feed the hungry desert, goblins, as always, have found their own near suicidal means of existing in the desert. Darkly oppressive things lie at the top of this desperate and razor wired food chain. 

Giant Succulents 

Dotting the desert every hundred or so yards are massive succulents with fleshy water storing pods easily the size of a halfling. Some are passive, relying on their massive reserves of water to see them through dry spells between druidic visits or the infrequent drenching.

Many have evolved more active means of acquiring water.

Crawling Doom

The cactus commonly reffered to as "Crawling doom" typically preys on unobservant goblins and the occasional bird. It has a movement speed of 15'/round and will attempt to Engulf any creature it can reach. (DC 14 Dex or 8d4 piercing/round, anyone attempting to pull free a trapped ally makes a STR check and takes 4d4 piercing unless they're smart enough to not fucking stick their god damn arm into a writhing mound of cactus) when it remains still the only chance you have of distinguishing Crawling Doom from a normal cactus is probably going to be a goblin corpse tangled in the center.

Dart Fruit

The Dart Fruit is a (relatively) small cactus, it only grows to about 3 feet across and 4 tall, but it's dark purple quills can grow as long as 6 inches. The dart fruit gets it's name from it's ability to hurl these quills up to 60' Dart fruit quills are a slow and painful way to die, each quill is sticky with a long lasting and powerful anti-coagulating poison. (Range 30'/60', plant fires 1d4 quills, at +4 to hit, dealing 2d4 piercing damage, DC 16 Con Save (once) or take additional 2d4 piercing for 1 hour or until you regain 1HP or are bandaged in some way, as bleed damage. Bleed damage incurred this way stacks.) Dart fruit is easy to spot and avoid, if you know what you're looking for, but the fruit which grows atop this cactus is a near miraculous cure all. Anyone with advanced enough herbological or alchemical knowledge could use Dart Fruit to cure plagues or do all kinds of weird maguffiny shit. 

Too bad the fruit is rendered useless if the cactus takes any damage before the fruit is harvested.

Gnolls

Can't have a desert without Gnolls! As I mentioned before, I don't believe in racial alignments and the same (this time) is true of the humble desert gnoll. In the Bloody Badlands, gnolls serve as nomadic druid clans. These druids tend their desert plants with blood and bone meal, but how they acquire these resources varies clan to clan. Some tribes prefer to war with desert goblins or occasionally fight the warlords of the steppe, using the fallen from both sides of these battles as ample offering to the desert food chain, others, near the edges of the vast expanse, prefer ambushing the few trade caravans and wayward travelers that pass through the deserts outer edges. Deeper, in the heart of the desert, powerful gnoll archdruids will often barter in slaves blood (usually goblin slaves but they really don't see much of a difference between human or dwarven blood and goblin blood, elven and gnomish blood however is especially valuable for it's latent magical properties.) Usually the slaves are alive during this bartering process, but that's not inherently important since the currency is more about their blood as a resource than them as slave labor. Few but far between you will find druid enclaves who prefer taking down great beasts and unintelligent wildlife, though their traditionalist cousins would mock them as "civilized." This won't seem important until later, but Gnoll druids will always know if a cloud of Floating Mage Death is nearby and will factor this into tactical decisions at all stages of combat. They prefer not to fight when this threat is nearby. 

Goblins

As always, goblins manage to exist here through semi-suicidal and incredibly stupid lifestyle adaptations, keep in mind that goblins, as a race, are basically chaotic stupid. They average about 6 year lifespans, and female goblins breed INCREDIBLY fast (Matrons have gestation periods of 20-30 days and will birth up to 9 goblins at a time, and can be impregnated again minutes after giving birth. Yea. Goblins are gross.) so they can, as a species, afford to take more risks, more often, than most species around. This leads to things like Goblin rough riders (Goblins who "ride" giant geckos in what can only be called half deadly drag race, half rodeo style bull riding) in the desert. They've also developed an ingenious tactic of running directly perpendicular to Dart Fruit Cactus while just inside their range in order to harvest Dart fruit spines. Usually only one or two goblins die during such events, and if a Matron was paying enough attention to send a shamanic healer then it's basically just free stuff. Goblins of course weaponize these spines as blowdarts that they use in their typical hit and run tactics, making them especially deadly (stacking bleed damage hitting you from stealth is not a fun way to die) Rumors say some goblins have even "Tamed" a Crawling Doom mount. But people say a lot of shit about goblins.

Goblin shamans can probably figure out how to cure like strokes and heart attacks and shit using anti-coagulants.

The Floating Death 

The floating death are the pinnacle of evolution in the desert, they come in two varieties, Floating Mage Death, and Floating Red Death. Both strains are nearly the same, they're large semi-intelligent carnivorous plants with lighter than air bladder which allow them to float. When they're flowering the floating death can form beautiful red or blue "fields" in the sky. Whether they're flowering or not, floating death hunt by floating through the air at heights as high as 200 feet up. The main difference between the two types lay in how they find and consume their food. 

Floating Red Death can detect blood at up to 150' away, and will shower down like needles from the sky, their hollow stems stabbing down at anything within reach, hoping to drain victims to death via dehydration and rapid blood loss. If Red Death is above a battlefield (DC 10 to spot, only if asked) they will rain down on any creature which ends its turn "bloodied" in an AoE with a radius of 1d4 * 5', each creature in the radius that isn't wearing the equivalent of full plate is punctured by 2d4 plants, each one dealing a d4-1 Con damage per turn as they suck the life out of them. Dex save DC 16 for half the number of plants to deal with. Removing a plant requires a bonus action, removing any additional beyond the first requires a full round action and only removes a total of 1d4 plants) 

Floating Mage Death has a limited form of Detect Magic running at all times, and can detect spell casting up to 60 feet away. Floating mage death is much more single target oriented and will pierce any spell caster they detect for 3d4 plants, Dex save for half. But each plant will instead deal 1d4-1 damage to the casters casting stat as his or her magical essence is drained. If a plant rolls a 4 on die, it will also consume a random spell slot as though you cast the spell that was in it. 

Bullywugs, Professional Fly Farmers.

This is one of those rambling posts. I'm gotta talk about Bullywugs.

I don't have a defined "Primary Campaign Universe" like most DMs do, but it sounds fun so I think I'm gonna start working on something like that but I'm not even gonna pretend to name it yet because that's not how my brain works. So for now, let's call these kind of posts "Canon" posts. 

Bullywugs

Bullywugs aren't evil, I don't think I believe in racial evils. (Goblins might be chaotic af but they're just as likely to be chaotic good robinhood types as they are chaotic evil dungeon dwellers) But if I did believe in racial alignments I think Bullywugs would end up being neutral good. They aren't ambitious or greedy, they have a deep sense of community and they aren't especially xenophobic. They are however, very simple minded. Most bullywugs (8 in 10) don't even have the intelligence to learn a second language. Bullywugs aren't especially large, infact I'd be willing to argue they're about the same size as a halfling. But what they lack in quick wit or stature they make up for in spades as garbage connoisseurs and fly farmers. 

Bullywugs are professional composters (and remember, before the industrial revolution cities produced very little garbage which wasn't compostable) they buy trash from large cities, and then raise flies like cattle in the garbage. They harvest their cattle in mosquito nets, many of which can hold swarms reaching as high as 500 heads of high quality flies. The results for the compost are rapid turn around times and yield for fertilizer, which comes at a high premium when sold back to farming villages. Many Bullywug villages rely on specific breeds and strains of flies, and large scale farmers often pride themselves on having diverse and hearty swarms.

The bullywugs natural predator is primarily the swamp harpy. Swamp harpies are malicious ambush predators who volley bullywugs from range and then swoop in to drag away the dead and dying for an easy meal. Bullywugs aren't very good with violence, and even the few spear wielding warriors that exist in any given tribe have a tendency to look away when jabbing (flat 10% miss rate on any successful hit vs AC) 

Many tribes have tamed giant toads as mounts and harpy deterrent. These toads are at the very upper edge of large sized. Capable of jumping up to 30 feet straight up, the toads tongue can then reach an additional 20 feet. This creates a 50' threat range from which a toad can leap up, snatch a harpy from the air and gobble her up whole. Giant toads are not to be fucked with lightly.

Bullywug adventurers are usually sorcerers, and as far as I care, npc hirelings are probably mediocre sorcerors of the Undying Light. Bullywugs make great healer support and their amphibious nature make them excellent scouts, purchasing (or stealing) a trained battle toad would also be a huge boon. Bullywugs trade mostly in trash however, and are in fact connoisseurs of trash, they'll exchange gold for things they want, but they've no need for gold when it comes to something as valuable as a battletoad. Bullywug hirelings never make loyalty or desertion type checks unless asked to commit heinous acts.