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Tactical Bonnet posted:So instead of a "Large Beast" a celestial warhorse would be a "Large Celestial"? Yep. Generic Octopus posted:He took Resilient: Con as a Human. My mistake, I didn't notice he was a variant human. He still should be proficient in Wisdom and Charisma though, being a Paladin.
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Oct 28, 2014 16:35
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Gerdalti posted:As mentioned in another post, I'm about to play my first game of D&D in about 18 years. We're going to use 5e. I've built a character, but wouldn't mind a once over by some of you more experienced people to see if I've made any terrible glaring mistakes.
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Oct 28, 2014 16:35
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Power Player posted:Looks mostly fine, I would probably go with a two-hander over a sword-and-board for a Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Mind if I ask where that character sheet is from? Fun fact: If you take the dueling fighting style at level 2 then you will almost always have a higher (or equal) damage average than with any 2h in the game. 1d8+2 average is 6.5, higher than the 5.5 average of a 1d10 weapon and the same as the average of a 1d12 weapon. You only get beaten by weapons that naturally deal multiple damage dice, of which there is currently one. The Maul, which deals an average of 7(2d6), but is half a point of average damage worth losing 2 AC from a shield? Tactical Bonnet fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 16:41
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Tactical Bonnet posted:Fun fact: If you take the dueling fighting style at level 2 then you will almost always have a higher (or equal) damage average than with any 2h in the game. A greatsword does 2d6 damage, which has an average of 7. And that's without any fighting style. Being allowed to reroll 1s and 2s raises it even further, with a distorted bell curve pushed towards the upper end. If it's pure damage you're after, you go with the big weapons.
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Oct 28, 2014 16:45
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Sanglorian posted:Languages: Disguise kit This is the most amazing thing I've read. But yeah, RPGs are really bad at explaining their mechanics to newbies, in part because it's generally accepted that a new player coming into a game will be taught the mechanics by someone who's been playing the game for ages already. I wish more RPGs actually had sections dedicated to how to best teach mechanics (start with basic ideas, move on to more complex ones once you've established the basics), or even stuff like the original B/X Red Box had where there was basically a Choose Your Own Adventure that taught you the mechanics as you went through a very basic dungeon. I mean, poo poo, this would be really easy to do with a truly modular system. At first you introduce the idea of Ability Scores and how to derive modifiers. Then you explain the idea of the Ability Check ("Roll a twenty-sided die, add your modifier, if it's higher than the target number of the check you succeed!"), and from there you can move on to stuff like Proficiencies and Attacks and poo poo like that. You could easily do it in 5e, but at the same time there's a few too many mechanical bits to handle and too many instances of there being no internal consistency that it'd be quite a pain to pull. ("Okay, sometimes an attack is you rolling a die and adding your ability modifier and proficiency bonus, but other times you don't roll anything and the enemy rolls something we can call a saving throw.")
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Oct 28, 2014 17:13
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Ratpick posted:But yeah, RPGs are really bad at explaining their mechanics to newbies *World games generally are great for new players and GMs alike. A player only really needs to know the rules on their own playbook and the basic moves lists. And the GM sections for both Dungeon and Apocalypse World are pure gold for teaching how to run a collaborative, improvisational game. They both even have "First Session" sections that give great advice for setting up a campaign and teaching new players. Ratpick posted:I mean, poo poo, this would be really easy to do with a truly modular system. At first you introduce the idea of Ability Scores and how to derive modifiers. Then you explain the idea of the Ability Check ("Roll a twenty-sided die, add your modifier, if it's higher than the target number of the check you succeed!"), and from there you can move on to stuff like Proficiencies and Attacks and poo poo like that. So it's definitely possible to have materials that teach even reasonably complicated games. D&D's lack of that is really just another indicator of who their target audience is.
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Oct 28, 2014 17:44
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So our group of friends decided to get together and take a stab at 5E. Our experience with DnD thus far has been 2 with experience in other roleplaying games 1 person who buys the books but never plays (likes the pretty pictures I guess) 2 with no experience but understands the concept. Now I'm in the latter category and was drafted to be the DM. Any advise on resources that I could look at to get an idea of how to roll out this campaign with as little cluster fuckery as possible?
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Oct 28, 2014 17:49
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ImpactVector posted:I feel like you guys making blanket statements like this about all RPGs need to check out some other games. Yeah, I was generalizing. As a broad statement I do feel that it does apply a large number of RPGs on the market, but I know that there are exceptions to the rule. Dungeon World and Apocalypse World are both really good at teaching you how to play them, but I think Monsterhearts does them one better by actually having an entire section dedicated to how to teach the game. A section like that wouldn't be completely amiss in D&D 5e.
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Oct 28, 2014 17:57
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I was in a similar boat, I had played maybe once before and was then picked to be DM (and stayed there all these years) so my only advice is read the rules till you have a good grasp of them. You think that'd go without saying but I've played plenty of pick-up games with supposed A+ local DMs who just made poo poo up on the fly rules-wise for whatever got them hard.
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Oct 28, 2014 17:59
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m.hache posted:Now I'm in the latter category and was drafted to be the DM. Any advise on resources that I could look at to get an idea of how to roll out this campaign with as little cluster fuckery as possible? If anyone in your group has the 4e DMG, it's probably the single best resource for new DMs in your situation (regardless of system / edition.) There's also SA's own GM advice thread, which is great for specific questions / suggestions.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:00
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Thanks for the input. I think we're going to start with the starter set adventure to get going and I'll nab the 4E DMG for some "light" reading.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:07
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moths posted:If anyone in your group has the 4e DMG, it's probably the single best resource for new DMs in your situation (regardless of system / edition.) Thank you for this just got it on PDF apparently the DMG for 5 is not out until December ?
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Oct 28, 2014 18:26
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Ratpick posted:But yeah, RPGs are really bad at explaining their mechanics to newbies, in part because it's generally accepted that a new player coming into a game will be taught the mechanics by someone who's been playing the game for ages already. I wish more RPGs actually had sections dedicated to how to best teach mechanics (start with basic ideas, move on to more complex ones once you've established the basics), or even stuff like the original B/X Red Box had where there was basically a Choose Your Own Adventure that taught you the mechanics as you went through a very basic dungeon.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:29
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Sage Genesis posted:Yep. Thanks, totally missed Wis/Cha save proficiency. Power Player posted:Looks mostly fine, I would probably go with a two-hander over a sword-and-board for a Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Mind if I ask where that character sheet is from? I debated 2hander, but having the holy symbol on my shield seemed too thematically awesome to pass up. Plus that AC bonus and the math on damage didn't make me feel that bad about passing up the larger damage. Character Sheet Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2do2an/treat_yourself_to_a_tall_cold_glass_of_current/ Gerdalti fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 18:32
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crime fighting hog posted:I was in a similar boat, I had played maybe once before and was then picked to be DM (and stayed there all these years) so my only advice is read the rules till you have a good grasp of them. Seconding this. I don't know if this is common but I basically study the rules until I can run all of it myself and just ask the players what they want to do and roll the dice and the rest is me doing the processing, although I will grant that this might not work for more complex games.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:39
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Piell posted:Of course not. Haha, I don't know what I was expecting I guess. Are they like KotS and Pyramid of Shadows bad? Or do any of them have at least a FEW redeeming qualities, like....uh...were there any 4E adventures with redeeming qualities? I've apparently got some people interested in a game and with no DMG for over a month I'm kinda scrounging for whatever's out there.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:46
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Ryoshi posted:Haha, I don't know what I was expecting I guess. Are they like KotS and Pyramid of Shadows bad? Or do any of them have at least a FEW redeeming qualities, like....uh...were there any 4E adventures with redeeming qualities? Actually, people have been pretty positive about Horde of the Dragon Queen. From what's been said around here, there are some rough encounters, but it has a pretty solid story with some interesting twists.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:53
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Sanglorian posted:I'm just back from DMing my first game of 5th edition, for people who'd never played 5E. About half hadn't played D&D before. Not wrong really, but as a general rule for any new rpg players you should give them a pregenerated character. The starter set comes with five, and they are even tied into the story. Never bog down a complete newbie with chargen unless it's Dungeon World style "circle three options". Even that takes explanation of game stats and moves, time better spent diving into the game. If you must do chargen with a total newbie, keep the sheet in front of you and fill it out as they answer general questions about their character (theme and concept, not mechanical specifics). Hand it to them when complete. A "session 0" done like this still takes a few hours but you end up with usable sheets and some player investment in their character concepts.
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Oct 28, 2014 19:32
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PeterWeller posted:Actually, people have been pretty positive about Horde of the Dragon Queen. From what's been said around here, there are some rough encounters, but it has a pretty solid story with some interesting twists. The other thing I'm reconciling now as a DM running this is the players all have some great backstories and plot hooks thanks to the background & personality section of 5e (not that D&D is first to provide crunchy backgrounds hooks, but still it's nice that they've done so). But it's difficult to work that into HotDQ because it moves forward in such a narrow route that you kind of have to put the module on pause to let some character stories happen. I'm reworking mine so that around midway the module will have a break worked in that will let the party feel like they're not in hot pursuit of maguffins for a while. Then we can have some character arcs, work in other plots, get a level or so and then if appropriate have them pick the thread back up for the module's endgame. Bhaal fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 19:37
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Do we need to split d&d up into advanced and regular again. If i were ever to run d&d again i would probably dig out my old boxset, the one with zanser tems dungeon. Theres just to much cruft in the new editions.
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Oct 28, 2014 20:03
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I wish I still had my Zanzer's Dungeon map mat. That poo poo was dope.
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Oct 28, 2014 20:11
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E: Sorry, thought I was in the 4e thread!
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Oct 28, 2014 20:42
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Sage Genesis posted:Not really. In fact, would you mind if I save this post so I can quote it if I happen to run into someone who tells me 5e is really super-easy to pick up? Go for it! ritorix posted:Not wrong really, but as a general rule for any new rpg players you should give them a pregenerated character. The starter set comes with five, and they are even tied into the story. Never bog down a complete newbie with chargen unless it's Dungeon World style "circle three options". Even that takes explanation of game stats and moves, time better spent diving into the game. I was doing world generation at the same time as character generation, so as someone chose to play a tiefling they'd draw a little tiefling town on the map. I wouldn't have wanted pre-gens. The world gen part was really successful, and I think got them in the mood to add colour and be self-motivated throughout the rest of the game - one of them framed a scene that started a sub-quest for his character, and the others fleshed out world details, rival clans, set their own quests, etc. However, what would have worked much better is if I had pre-generated characters for each race and class combination. Then as one of them chose to be a tiefling bard, I could have handed over the sheet, and the only thing left for them would be to pick and apply a background. That would also have focused attention on traits, bonds and flaws, which were mostly skipped with the way we did things.
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Oct 28, 2014 23:34
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That doesn't sound so bad then, just the sheets need some cleanup and you should be good for session 2 (if you are continuing). Having a pregen for most combinations isn't really feasible. A pregen database would be a cool idea though. Pick race, class, focus (2h, dual wield, tank, etc) and it spits out a sheet.
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Oct 29, 2014 00:21
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Sanglorian posted:Go for it! Does Next actually include rules or advice or whatever for this sorta world generation or was this something you just picked up or homebrewed?
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Oct 29, 2014 00:57
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Sanglorian posted:I was doing world generation at the same time as character generation, so as someone chose to play a tiefling they'd draw a little tiefling town on the map. I wouldn't have wanted pre-gens. The world gen part was really successful, and I think got them in the mood to add colour and be self-motivated throughout the rest of the game - one of them framed a scene that started a sub-quest for his character, and the others fleshed out world details, rival clans, set their own quests, etc. I like it, very Dungeon World. If you don't mind, I'd love to hear what GMing 5E is like once you get a session under your belt. I'm enjoying playing in Horde of the Dragon Queen, but from what I've seen about the stuff behind the GMing screen, I don't think I'd like running it very much.
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Oct 29, 2014 01:07
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The Rise of Tiamat Online Supplement is out. Which is cool if only for giving out more magic items. http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/rise-tiamat The DM's basic rules have been updated as well. The building encounters section has apparently changed but I have not read over it myself yet. The monsters by CR List is included with it. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
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Oct 29, 2014 01:48
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MonsterEnvy posted:The DM's basic rules have been updated as well. The building encounters section has apparently changed but I have not read over it myself yet. The monsters by CR List is included with it. Since the DMG is currently at the printers, I'm assuming that these are the final rules. They changed some of the wording about how to use the numbers. The tables, formulae, and process are the same as they were. They didn't even try to fix it.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:03
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AlphaDog posted:They changed some of the wording about how to use the numbers. The tables, formulae, and process are the same as they were. No I'm sure it'll be fixed in the final version I mean in the next module I'm sorry I meant 6e.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:05
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Rannos22 posted:No I'm sure it'll be fixed in the final version I mean in the next module I'm sorry I meant 5.5e. ftfy Also I can just repeat how dumb items that set stats to a certain number are. They are so completely nonsensical and incompatible with everything else in the game.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:16
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kingcom posted:ftfy Yep. And our wannabe wizard rogue got the headband of intellect from expeditions. So now they have an Int of 19. :O
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Oct 29, 2014 02:27
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Cassa posted:Yep. And our wannabe wizard rogue got the headband of intellect from expeditions. So now they have an Int of 19. :O Which he will throw out and give to the fighter once he gets 20 int at level 8.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:28
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AlphaDog posted:Since the DMG is currently at the printers, I'm assuming that these are the final rules. It's personally fixed for me with the line about no including Lower CR Enemies in the multiplier unless they actually up the difficulty. My only real problem with it in the past was that the multiplier went too high even when including wussy stuff like Goblins in high level encounters that would not change anything. I will tell you this I have actually been using the earlier encounter building rules and other then my issue with the multiplier it is working well for my group. The monsters and encounters are working as intended. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 02:32
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kingcom posted:Which he will throw out and give to the fighter once he gets 20 int at level 8. According to the rules of expeditions you can you can rebuild your character however you like up to level 4. Meaning if you got the Headband before level 5 you could just drop your Int down to 8 buff your other stats and use it to give yourself 19 int.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:34
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MonsterEnvy posted:According to the rules of expeditions you can you can rebuild your character however you like up to level 4. Meaning if you got the Headband before level 5 you could just drop your Int down to 8 buff your other stats and use it to give yourself 19 int. Why is this a good thing. So you dump to 8, bumb con until level 5, then switch back to 18 int (same as the headband gives you) so you can cap out at 20. "Item that is useful if you rebuild your character."
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Oct 29, 2014 02:37
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kingcom posted:Why is this a good thing. So you dump to 8, bumb con until level 5, then switch back to 18 int (same as the headband gives you) so you can cap out at 20. I did not say it, was a good thing. It's just something rather cheap that you can do.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:39
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Yeah, never mind the several pages of math talk about this topic which weren't addressed at all, that's completely irrelevant in the light of this following piece of genius game design. quote:When making this calculation, don’t count any monsters whose challenge rating is significantly below the average challenge rating of the other monsters in the group unless you think the weak monsters significantly contribute to the difficulty of the encounter. So I shouldn't include any monster with a CR "significantly" (what's that) below the average CR, except for when I should. Perfectly clear. Fixed everything.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:41
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AlphaDog posted:Yeah, never mind the several pages of math talk about this topic which weren't addressed at all, that's completely irrelevant in the light of this following piece of genius game design. Never said it was genius. It just fixed my problem. It just means the muptiplier only increases when the monsters are actually making this more challenging. An Aboleth and 6 Goblins are not the equivalent in difficultly value as two Aboleths are. This just means your own judgement matters.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:47
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Do they even have mook rules like 13th age if you want a bunch of weaker enemies that don't slow gameplay down to a crawl?
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Oct 29, 2014 02:48
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Dungeon master pro-tip: if a monster does nothing to affect the encounter, remove it from the encounter. You should focus on the things that do matter so you can run them well.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:49
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