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AlphaDog posted:I'll be interested to see the morale rules. I liked them in BECMI, but I can't think of any other D&D where they were a good and fun addition to the rules. Wouldn't it have been a good idea in 4E (if they had existed there) because clean-up sucks and is boring?
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Nov 18, 2014 06:02
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The tactical module is literally "there are squares."
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Nov 18, 2014 06:09
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gradenko_2000 posted:Wouldn't it have been a good idea in 4E (if they had existed there) because clean-up sucks and is boring? It's honestly been a long time since I actually got to play 4e, but weren't the morale rules along the lines of "you can make a <whatever> check to make a dude run/surrender"? BECMI had more "by taking these actions (like spellcasting or killing the leader) or displaying overwhelming force, or killing <x/y/z> percent of the opponents, you force a morale check with <bonus/penalty>". Like, instead of being something you do, it was something that happened as you did your normal stuff.
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Nov 18, 2014 06:10
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AlphaDog posted:It's honestly been a long time since I actually got to play 4e, but weren't the morale rules along the lines of "you can make a <whatever> check to make a dude run/surrender"?
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Nov 18, 2014 06:19
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AlphaDog posted:It's honestly been a long time since I actually got to play 4e, but weren't the morale rules along the lines of "you can make a <whatever> check to make a dude run/surrender"? Masiakasaurus posted:Intimidate vs (Will + 10) could make a bloodied opponent surrender as a standard action. It was almost never worth doing from my experience since Will defense scaled faster than the skill, and if it failed you wasted your turn and couldn't try again. Oh, ok. Yeah if it was more like BECMI where it was a formalized "some of your opponents flee if you're already winning the battle" it would have been better. Hell, getting Bloodied is right there to trigger it.
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Nov 18, 2014 06:22
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gradenko_2000 posted:Oh, ok. Yeah if it was more like BECMI where it was a formalized "some of your opponents flee if you're already winning the battle" it would have been better. Hell, getting Bloodied is right there to trigger it. Minions can't be bloodied but you could force them to check when any monster dies and there's no leader, or something like that. Or just make it automatic: the next minion to act after one or more of their allies is killed while there's no leader flees. 5e could probably work like that as well, more or less, if the morale rules in the DMG turn out to suck.
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Nov 18, 2014 06:51
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quote:The rules [for creating magic items] are optional. A character needs a formula and possibly special materials and locations (left to the DM). Common items cost 100 GP and require 3rd level; uncommon 500 GP and 3rd level; rare 5,000 GP and 6th level; very rare 50,0000 GP and 11th level; legendary 500,000 GP and 17th level. So a rare item would take 240 nonstop days of work to create? Seriously? 
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Nov 18, 2014 07:13
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S.J. posted:So a rare item would take 240 nonstop days of work to create? Seriously? Well you've got to balance "I want to be able to create magic items" against "I created 27 staves of healing yesterday afternoon, we should probably just fire the cleric".
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Nov 18, 2014 07:35
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AlphaDog posted:Well you've got to balance "I want to be able to create magic items" against "I created 27 staves of healing yesterday afternoon, we should probably just fire the cleric". We both know there will be a way for the wizard to bypass that and just make the thing in a day.
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Nov 18, 2014 07:39
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S.J. posted:We both know there will be a way for the wizard to bypass that and just make the thing in a day. You mean "at the DM's option, a wizard can bypass...", right?
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Nov 18, 2014 08:07
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AlphaDog posted:You mean "at the DM's option, a wizard can bypass...", right? No, because spells are the only acceptable form of PC fiat, and your GM knows that 
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Nov 18, 2014 08:19
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This information is what I needed to make headway on my homebrew Artificer, with dumb ideas for features like:Some dumb houserules for Artificers posted:Craft Item I was also thinking about granting them the Find Familiar Ritual, and coming up with stat blocks for the old Homunculus creatures Artificers used to be able to create. Something like: More dumb Artificer Houserules posted:Craft Homunculus And as a bonus, two Homunculus options - one of which is basically a metal wolf: Homunculus Option Ideas posted:Crafter Homunculus EDIT: Kinda a fake edit: With the Artisan Features and a Crafter Homunculus helping out, a character could spit out an uncommon wand (like Wand of Magic Missile) in 3 days or 24 hours of work, instead of 20 days or 160 hours of work. Red Hood fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 08:24
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Also chiming in to say that morale rules are pretty boss. I think they were present in all editions of D&D up until 3.5, when they were just removed for seemingly no reason. The couple of BECMI and B/X games I've run were extremely enlightening in showing me that the games actually had quite a lot going on that allowed for more alternatives than just fighting. I mean, combat in BECMI can be hella deadly if things don't go right for you, but the combination of reaction checks, morale, and fleeing rules makes for a game where you don't have to kill every single living thing you run into in order to progress in the dungeon. Actually, reading all the stuff about D&D 5e is just getting my hyped to run BECMI or B/X again.
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Nov 18, 2014 09:32
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Ratpick posted:Actually, reading all the stuff about D&D 5e is just getting my hyped to run BECMI or B/X again. I ran Mentzer's Basic after getting all inspired during the Next playtest, and dungeon crawling with Basic was still as fun as it was in the 80s. It also kind of started me re-reading all my old BECMI/AD&D stuff, which slowly brought me to the realisation that what I really wanted out of 5e was an updated BECMI (even just the basic and expert books) not an updated AD&D. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 10:48
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AlphaDog posted:I ran Mentzer's Basic after getting all inspired during the Next playtest, and dungeon crawling with Basic was still as fun as it was in the 80s. 5e is better than 3.x in that respect, but there's still way too much cruft slowing things down.
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Nov 18, 2014 11:09
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^^^ TAAC fan represent! AlphaDog posted:I ran Mentzer's Basic after getting all inspired during the Next playtest, and dungeon crawling with Basic was still as fun as it was in the 80s. Whenever someone sings the praises of how much better Next is for being simpler and faster than 3.x or 4E, I always think that BECMI is already that, but better designed, too.
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Nov 18, 2014 11:11
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TAAC looks totally great, but I haven't been able to convince anyone to give it a try with me yet. gradenko_2000 posted:Whenever someone sings the praises of how much better Next is for being simpler and faster than 3.x or 4E, I always think that BECMI is already that, but better designed, too. I don't think BECMI is better designed, per se. It's much simpler, but it has screwy stupid elements like any game that old. It's more that B/X, BECMI, and RC are actually a very different game to AD&D, which is what 2-3-4-5 have been based on. There's simply much less to interact in weird ways with BECMI's BE component. Like, Mentzer Basic was a game that you could actually give to an 8 year old kid (like me!) who'd read the choose-your-own-adventure part, then read the "how to be DM" walkthrough, then run it for their friends and have a great time. Try that with AD&D or any of its sequels and watch what happens. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 12:00 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 11:49
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Masiakasaurus posted:Intimidate vs (Will + 10) could make a bloodied opponent surrender as a standard action. It was almost never worth doing from my experience since Will defense scaled faster than the skill, and if it failed you wasted your turn and couldn't try again. If you focus Intimidate in 4E, which is not at all hard to do with the right classes, you can make a bloodied enemy auto-surrender. This becomes more useful yet when you are dealing with many bloodied enemies at once.
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Nov 18, 2014 13:49
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Ryoshi posted:
DA2's repetitive environments are indeed repetitive, but I liked it more in a lot of ways. "Smaller" city-level story, more parity in the classes. My newest disappointment with 5e is the monk; the capstone is so lackluster, and some of the best magical powers come from going variant human + magic initiate feat (Guidance? holy cow).
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Nov 18, 2014 16:01
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ENWorld dude with a DMG came back and answered another set of questions. I'll start with the elephants in the roomquote:[To create monsters,] You can either start with an expected CR and look combat stats on a table, or assign stats such as HD and then look up the CR on a table. If you add character levels to a monster, the HD depend on the monster type and not on the class. Also, proficiency bonus depends on CR and not level. quote:[Morale rules] quote:[Optional Marking rule] quote:[Optional Flanking rule] quote:There are rules for granting a flat proficiency with all ability checks of a certain type (str, dex, etc.). There are also suggestions about adding further abilities such as honor or sanity. quote:No specific rules [for buying magic items]. Just a note that the default is that magic items are not for sale, but this can be changed. quote:1) +3 is the maximum bonus for weapons, armors, shields and ammunition. quote:You can use the lingering wound table when the target is critted, when reduced to 0 HP, or when failing a death save by 5 or more. quote:There are a few pages on traps, with several examples and tables that suggest save DC and damage. quote:Elven chain is a +1 chain shirt, which automatically grants proficiency, even of the wearer isn't proficient with medium armor. quote:So far, I haven't seen [any rules pertaining to wealth by level]. quote:[On the structure of the Planes] quote:Ravenloft is mentioned. The Domains of Dread are demiplanes, typically reached by the Shadowfell. There's also another official DMG preview out, this time talking about the Multiverse (direct PDF link)  
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Nov 18, 2014 20:21
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It's always hilarious to me how many games have a stat act as a 'courage' stat and then do not give incentives (or actively disincentive) to the actual front line fighter classes for taking them. Why, exactly, is Wisdom the courage stat in D&D, anyway?
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Nov 18, 2014 20:27
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Night10194 posted:It's always hilarious to me how many games have a stat act as a 'courage' stat and then do not give incentives (or actively disincentive) to the actual front line fighter classes for taking them. Why, exactly, is Wisdom the courage stat in D&D, anyway?
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Nov 18, 2014 20:34
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5e really is the lazy edition. 
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Nov 18, 2014 20:35
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Boing posted:5e really is the lazy edition. This should be hardly surprising seeing as Next is to pathfinder as pathfinder is to 3.5.
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Nov 18, 2014 21:33
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AlphaDog posted:It's just... 10d4? My whole table probably doesn't have that present on a normal night. We usually do, but then, we got a bunch of those 12-sided d4s that roll nicely, and have had at least 3 characters at the table using 4e spiked chains, so a bunch of damage dice for them are really useful. I personally have 6 12-sided and 2 caltrops in my dice box. Maybe I'm unusual iunno. But 10d4 is still a stupid number of dice to be rolling for whatever. Is any of that information about planes etc actually new? Is there any of it that's not in the SRD? If not, what's the loving point in wasting money and trees reprinting it?
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Nov 18, 2014 21:43
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thespaceinvader posted:what's the loving point in wasting money and trees reprinting it? Because then the current edition of D&D can be recognizably D&D — so the healing can begin.
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Nov 18, 2014 21:53
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d4s are a really annoying die. They're tiny, difficult to pick up, and sink to the bottom of my tin when I need to fish one out. They also don't really roll. I actually kinda hate them. That being said I have ten d4s by myself at my table, because collecting dice is something of a hobby of mine.
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Nov 18, 2014 22:15
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I've kept this on my phone since I didn't have die on my first play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dasa.diceroller&hl=en Easy interface, completely free.
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Nov 18, 2014 22:27
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AD&D had caltrops sold in sets of 10, so 10 d4s is just a standard set...
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Nov 18, 2014 22:33
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Sieje posted:AD&D had caltrops sold in sets of 10, so 10 d4s is just a standard set... After having played a bunch of different tabletops at this point I think fewer dice is always better designwise. I don't see why D&D should need more than say, 2 D20s for non-damage rolls and anything more than three or four d6/d8 for damage rolls. Oh well. I suppose there's something to be said for rolling gigantic handfuls of dice every once in a while, but not D4s...
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Nov 18, 2014 23:30
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Im thinking about running me some becmi. But the i really love from the newer versions are tieflings and dragonborn. Thinking about hacking tieflings as rogue/wizards, and i really have no idea for the dragonborn. A fighter with breath attack?
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Nov 19, 2014 01:12
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Sieje posted:AD&D had caltrops sold in sets of 10, so 10 d4s is just a standard set... Yeah, I probably have 10 d4s here if I search a bit, but I don't take all the dice I've bought over 20+ years with me when I go out to play a game. I generally take a small bag of dice with 4d6 and 2 of everything else. Most other people bring something like a single Chessex set with 2d10, 4d6, and one of everything else. vuk83 posted:Im thinking about running me some becmi. But the i really love from the newer versions are tieflings and dragonborn. For Tiefling I'd go with with some thief skills and some wizard spells, yeah. give it Fighter or Wizard progression, Thief hp, maybe use the Cleric spell progression but for wizard spells, and then perhaps keep the hide/move/climb thief stuff but drop the locks/traps type things? Or if you give it Elf progression and let it be a full wizard / full thief that would probably work fine too. For Dragonborn, what about going with Dwarf HP/progression, then giving them a small breath attack that either scales up with level or gains more uses/day with level? If you're new to BECMI, bear in mind that hp are generally much lower than AD&D-2-3-4-5, so an at-will autohit type thing will be much stronger than you'd think.
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Nov 19, 2014 01:25
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AlphaDog posted:Yeah, I probably have 10 d4s here if I search a bit, but I don't take all the dice I've bought over 20+ years with me when I go out to play a game. I generally take a small bag of dice with 4d6 and 2 of everything else. Most other people bring something like a single Chessex set with 2d10, 4d6, and one of everything else. Nice ideas. Thank you. Any ideas for warforged? Basic fighter but with warforged special immunities, mage progression?
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Nov 19, 2014 01:28
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vuk83 posted:Nice ideas. Thank you. Shamefully, I don't know enough about Warforged to give advice on this one. They're one of my favorite concepts, but I never had the opportunity to play in or run a game where they were a thing. Could you just reskin Dwarf? I mean, keep everything the same, but rewrite the immunities, resistances, and special skills to suit the warforged? e: Immunities seem like a bad idea maybe. Elf is immune to sleep/charm, so maybe it won't matter.
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Nov 19, 2014 01:38
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Warforged should be strongly susceptible to sleep/charm, just like my computer.
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Nov 19, 2014 01:41
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What other cool poo poo from the newer editions should be ported into becmi. I really like the shadowfell and the fey thingamagingi, so im gonna use that. I also really like the idea of concentration from 5edition. Maybe marking.
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Nov 19, 2014 01:54
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If there were BECMI warlocks I'd probably never play anything else.
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Nov 19, 2014 02:42
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Stuff I would do in a BE(cmi) retroclone: Classes: Warlock, Warlord, Tiefling, Warforged. Mechanics: Unify everything to rolls of 1d20 or maybe 3d6. 5e-style advantage or 4e-style combat advantage or some kind of combination of the two which would depend on the above. Grid-based combat or a better ToTM range system, again depending on how the previous alterations worked. Expand/Alter: Attributes-as-skills expanded and explained or skills-as-attributes as-in "you are <fighter>, roll <fighter> to do x". Cut back the weapons and armour list into something simpler/reskinnable, shift special weapon abilities into a combat feats system. Limit levels down to something sensible, like ~10-15. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Nov 19, 2014 |
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Nov 19, 2014 03:10
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moths posted:If there were BECMI warlocks I'd probably never play anything else.
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Nov 19, 2014 03:17
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I think I'm going to import BECMI morale rules, and encountering NPC rules, roughly based off On The Non Player Character.
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Nov 19, 2014 03:31
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