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gradenko_2000 posted:Okay, don't take this the wrong way, because the discussion is good, but isn't: In my mind, it's a matter of context and frequency. Flat Bonus: A PC is just assumed to have some expertise or ability that gives them an edge in this area. It should be general (a category of skill) and generally undeniable (the PC should be entitled to it by virtue of who the PC is). Situational +/- bonuses to skill checks are, to my knowledge, not a part of 5e in general, but I also prefer advantage because it's one less thing to add / remember. Giving a flat bonus additionally is more powerful because it can stack with Advantage. Advantage: So mathematically, it has a neat property of making easier DCs MUCH more likely to hit, and acts roughly as a +4 on average. It also tends to make scoring a 20 more likely (if you happen to play with that mattering for checks). Ergonomically, I think I like Advantage because it's something you can just throw to the player without having to think about the size of the bonus. There's also an ecosystem (however undeveloped) built around Advantage and Disadvantage -- Advantage cancels Disadvantage, multiple Advantage sources don't stack, players can acquire "story points" in the form of Inspiration that they can turn into Advantage. Basically, as a DM I feel like I could hand out Advantage frequently and having it be enough of a bonus to matter without having to worry about it unintentionally trivializing a check because of stacking. In terms of gameplay, Advantage is something that should be drawn specifically from the narrative situation, i.e. something the players can gain by taking a creative approach to the problem. Reduce the DC on a check: This is a style/judgement call. For me, I like to have a mental picture of what the DC is based on the thing being attempted, rather than adjusting the DC based on the character/player's actions. It's important to note that the DC is fixed, but per approach -- two characters trying to charm the bartender into another round of drinks will face the same DC, but another character trying to intimidate him will face an entirely different one. Mathematically, of course, this is identical to a flat bonus, but ergonomically I like the separation. Anyways, my gut is that: DCs should be intrinsic to the challenge Numerical modifiers generally be static and broad in scope Advantage should come from the context, and players should narrate themselves into gaining it. In other words, most of the play should be in terms of (a) finding a course of action that seems likely to succeed (i.e. has a reasonable DC) and (b) which fits the PCs skill set (i.e. their numerical modifiers) and then (c) maybe taking advantage of context to try something they might otherwise not, or creatively using the situation to bolster their chance of success (gaining advantage).
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Jan 26, 2016 02:01
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Hashishim.
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Jan 26, 2016 02:01
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AlphaDog posted:Hashishi 
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Jan 26, 2016 02:21
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Totem Animal Librarian. Every day you pick one short story about some happy little animal friends and during the course of that day you can use the characteristics they display during the tale. Fiend Patreon Warlock. You can do super-moves if someone will pay you for them, in souls.
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Jan 26, 2016 02:38
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Mij's Everyday Charms for the Unadventurous Magic User Crease (indispensable for drycleaning wizards) Litterdust (send away that cloud that fills the room when you change the cat box) Charm Parson (this one is somewhat situational, but not as situational as Enlarge Parson) Dime Stop (for when some change falls out of your pocket getting dressed and it's about to roll under the bed) Featherfull (for plumping pillows) Alter Shelf Fry Speak With Pants Pragmatic Spray Power Word: Kilt
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Jan 26, 2016 03:06
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This thread just took the most enjoyable turn it ever has.
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Jan 26, 2016 03:19
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Jimbozig posted:Pragmatic Spray Would spam the hell out of these.
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Jan 26, 2016 03:53
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Mortal Wombat
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Jan 26, 2016 04:04
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The Fighter's Campion archetype gains Expertise in Stealth checks
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Jan 26, 2016 04:10
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Cleric. Not a typo, just a misunderstanding at the temp agency. But he'll file your records and do your taxes while you slay.
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Jan 26, 2016 04:27
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I'm rather fond of Feign Invisibility, myself. If an opponent sees you they make a saving throw, and if they fail it, they're so impressed by your impersonation of an invisible person that they stand around and watch rather than attack.
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Jan 26, 2016 04:31
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So how about a new Sage Advice? There's more Natural Language to obfuscate. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-january-2016 quote:Does Unarmored Defense work with a spell like mage armor? Unarmored Defense doesn’t work with mage armor. You might be asking yourself, “Why don’t they work together? Mage armor specifies that it works on a creature who isn’t wearing armor.” It’s true that the target of mage armor must be unarmored, but mage armor gives you a new way to calculate your AC (13 + your Dexterity modifier) and is therefore incompatible with Unarmored Defense or any other feature that provides an AC calculation.
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Jan 26, 2016 04:47
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dwarf74 posted:So how about a new Sage Advice? There's more Natural Language to obfuscate. I cannot parse what I'm reading halp.
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Jan 26, 2016 04:59
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Eh, the Barkskin ruling makes sense. It just says that you should calculate whatever your current AC would be without Barkskin. If it is lower than 16, Barkskin kicks in and makes it 16.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:01
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One of my tables just invented the Ring of Bullshitting. It grants advantage on persuasion checks but if the character ever tells a lie it causes the character to poo poo their pants.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:14
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The first ruling makes sense. It sets your armor to a new value/formula. It's similar to how a Barbarian/Draconic Sorcerer multi-class can choose whether his AC is calculated as 10+DEX+CON from Unarmored Defense, or 13+DEX from Draconic Resilience. Including cover modifier to AC though in that Barkskin ruling, hoo-boy, that just sets off my verisimilitude alarms something awful.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:16
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gradenko_2000 posted:The first ruling makes sense. It sets your armor to a new value/formula. It's similar to how a Barbarian/Draconic Sorcerer multi-class can choose whether his AC is calculated as 10+DEX+CON from Unarmored Defense, or 13+DEX from Draconic Resilience. The first part actually makes more sense to me, "you get to choose which formula to use for your AC but you don't get to combine them." Barkskin is more annoying because to me the correct order of operations is applying Barkskin and then applying cover modifiers.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:24
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Jesus loving Christ. Cover. Is. Not. loving. Armor. Cover might affect your AC because it's the simplest way to do it that fits in with the existing abstractions, but making that apply before you think about Barkskin is a god drat loving awful, stupid, counterintuitive ruling.
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Jan 26, 2016 06:49
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Yes I would rule the Sage was wrong on that last bit of barkskin. Because that is outright stupid.
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Jan 26, 2016 06:52
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In 3.5e (and probably farther back, but I can't be arsed to check), being behind cover was in fact a +4 AC bonus, but I'm pretty sure it was universally understood, even if it wasn't explicitly stated, that that was a circumstantial bonus. It's incredible how super-misleading that ruling is the longer you think about it, because it's never been ruled like that.
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Jan 26, 2016 06:59
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AlphaDog posted:Jesus loving Christ. Cover. Is. Not. loving. Armor. Best way to do this is to treat cover as a negative on the attackers roll. That way people dont need to argue about dumb as poo poo stuff like barkskin. Obviously, this is one of those "best way to play 5E is to change it completely"
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Jan 26, 2016 07:04
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Uh, can we talk about the stupid temporary hp ruling? Your features can't play together and it might in fact turn off some spells if you try? Is their answer to everything literally "No part of our game may interact with any other part of our game, because that might make our game do something we didn't bother to think about ahead of time."?
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Jan 26, 2016 07:13
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Spiteski posted:Best way to do this is to treat cover as a negative on the attackers roll. Like 2nd ed, yes. Which doesn't interact at all with 2nd ed Barkskin's wording of its restricitons, which is "This spell does not function in combination with normal armor or any magical protection." Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 07:20
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CaPensiPraxis posted:Uh, can we talk about the stupid temporary hp ruling? Your features can't play together and it might in fact turn off some spells if you try? Is their answer to everything literally "No part of our game may interact with any other part of our game, because that might make our game do something we didn't bother to think about ahead of time."? It's fine, THP from different sources has always been treated as a separate effect. Just think of it as different buffs, you know, like in an MMO 
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Jan 26, 2016 07:30
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Spiteski posted:Best way to do this is to treat cover as a negative on the attackers roll. That way people dont need to argue about dumb as poo poo stuff like barkskin. AlphaDog posted:Like 2nd ed, yes. Just as a compare and contrast, I looked up how AD&D 1e did it, and in that edition cover serves as a bonus to AC instead of 2e's penalty to attack rolls. In fact, there's a whole paragraph on page 70 where it's laid-down that any change to the to-hit chance of an attacker must be made as an adjustment to the target's AC, instead of the attacker's die roll: quote:Important Note Regarding “To Hit” Adjustments: It's interesting because as far as I can tell, that thing it does with the attack matrices where you can have multiple "20" entries and only the first/earliest one is supposed to be read as "a final result of 20" while the succeeding ones are "a natural roll of 20" went away by 2e.
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Jan 26, 2016 09:50
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That's one of the truly  sections in AD&D, given that nearly everything that makes your attacks better is worded in terms of "+1 to hit".
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Jan 26, 2016 11:14
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gradenko_2000 posted:The Fighter's Campion archetype gains Expertise in Stealth checks The champignon fighter exploits a variety of common fungi to enhance his combat capabilities.
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Jan 26, 2016 13:16
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The Goon Druid drives away enemies with the combination of a foul odour and repellent scabs plucked from within his neckbeard.
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Jan 26, 2016 13:29
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College Brad walks around with a popped collar all the time and tries to play inspiring music on his mandolin, but he never gets farther than the first few lines of Wonderwall.
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Jan 26, 2016 13:33
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The Ent-Chanter wizard summons assorted treemen with the power of plainsong.
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Jan 26, 2016 13:39
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Payndz posted:The Goon Druid drives away enemies with the combination of a foul odour and repellent scabs plucked from within his neckbeard.
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Jan 26, 2016 13:56
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The Arcade Trickster watches the enemy from the crowd until they finally get to M. Bison, then jumps in as a new challenger to beat them in a head-to-head. Wisdom save to stop yourself from losing more quarters trying to get him back for it.
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Jan 26, 2016 14:01
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The Gland Druid - Actually you know what, never mind.
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Jan 26, 2016 14:12
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Forget cover as a modifier. Cover imposes Disadvantage. If you fumble, you hit the cover.
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Jan 26, 2016 15:02
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Bakery wizard casts Speak with Bread, Raise Bread and Scone too Fresh.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:49
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Gort posted:Bakery wizard casts Speak with Bread, Raise Bread and Scone too Fresh. Tenser's Floating Tortilla
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Jan 26, 2016 21:54
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Payndz posted:The Goon Druid drives away enemies with the combination of a foul odour and repellent scabs plucked from within his neckbeard. Could also have a Moog Druid, but he'd probably step on the bard's niche a little too much. The Arcane Brickster, meanwhile, uses his magical powers to create constructs from small colorful plastic blocks. The Tattlemaster Fighter gains bonuses for turning in the other players for cheating.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:54
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The Cham-pag-n Fighter, who is completely dumb and ineffective, and is constantly rescued by his smarter companio- oh.
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Jan 27, 2016 06:42
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My site now has the magic items, though I haven't done anything fancy yet with grouping by rarity or whatever. I think that next thing on the list may be organizing the "attunement by (class)" data so that I can add a class-specific equipment list to the class pages, like listing the holy avenger on the Paladin page.Selachian posted:The Arcane Brickster, meanwhile, uses his magical powers to create constructs from small colorful plastic blocks. This guy would have some kind of terrifying cantrip that scatters pointy-edged blocks underfoot wherever you're not paying attention.
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Jan 27, 2016 20:02
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 06:20 |
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It isn't cute like the other classes but makeing wizards species to jobs makes me happy. A necromancer that uses animal skeletons to work his farm. A sorcerer that uses his magic to be an exclent barber. An illusionist that mainly creates rad EDM and lightshows.
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Jan 28, 2016 03:41
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