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AlphaDog posted:The DM would re-skin the spell effects depending on where you'd got that particualr book from, so you might end up shooting bright blue fireballs or your magic missile might be a miniature flaming head that yelled obsscenities as it flew towards the target. A few little sub-plot things happened where someone would recognise their master's spell being cast by someone else, and know that their master was dead, and so on. This is great, I've been running Out of the Abyss and the PCs were able to raid the guard tower for equipment, however, due to unforseen circumstances they had to jump down from the bridge and go through the spider web. Luckily the Monk stealthed into Ilvara's quarters and found the Clerics focus and a new focus for the soceror (the Sorc's backstory had him wildmagic teleport into the cell in his pajamas). I'm planning on the Sorceror using an enchanted Lolth-Spider focus for his abilities and was thinking about how that would affect the spells!
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Mar 25, 2016 03:19
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AlphaDog posted:Ages ago, I played in a game where the spell memorisation worked in a way where you could memorise spells (of levels you're capable of casting) out of any spellbook, so the book would get stolen or burned or soaked or lost or whatever all the time but it didn't matter because every single enemy caster necessarily had their book (scrolls, crystal, flayed tattooed skin, whatever) nearby. AlphaDog posted:The DM would re-skin the spell effects depending on where you'd got that particualr book from, so you might end up shooting bright blue fireballs or your magic missile might be a miniature flaming head that yelled obsscenities as it flew towards the target.
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Mar 25, 2016 03:22
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BlueGhostie posted:I'm planning on the Sorceror using an enchanted Lolth-Spider focus for his abilities and was thinking about how that would affect the spells! Visual changes: * Any flashy combat spell throws off eeeeeeery black/green or black/purple (or whatever lolth colors) light. * Any "hold X" spell binds the enemy up in wispy sorcerous webs. * Anyone looking directly at you when your Shocking Grasp goes off will see, in the flash, a giant spider in your place, rearing up to attack * Acid Arrow shoots like a stinger looking thing instead of an arrow. * Feather Fall looks like not-really-there webs stretching from you to nearby surfaces to bungee your fall. * When you cast Cloud Of Daggers, each "dagger" looks like a spider. * Spider Climb causes a weird double-vision effect in anyone looking at you while it's active - they see your limbs and spider legs occupying the same place.
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Mar 25, 2016 05:32
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The spell scroll of shitshow discussion inspired me to develop this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MZ82TQil7jOUBUor0FU89Hh8Gnh3Pz5H4kcwylrrgNY/edit?usp=sharing
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Mar 25, 2016 23:11
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AlphaDog posted:Pretty sure it's just wizards (and higher level thieves) in 2nd ed. IIRC, there were two kinds of scrolls in 1E/2E: scrolls with stored spells, which you had to be an appropriate-class caster or a thief with Read Magic skills to use, and Scrolls of Protection from (thing), which anyone could use.
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Mar 26, 2016 01:13
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Selachian posted:IIRC, there were two kinds of scrolls in 1E/2E: scrolls with stored spells, which you had to be an appropriate-class caster or a thief with Read Magic skills to use, and Scrolls of Protection from (thing), which anyone could use. Yep, anyone can use protection from X scrolls in 2e, without any kind of read magic ability. I was responding to Rannos, who specified "...with stored spells". In detail for 2nd ed: Anyone can use "protection from x" scrolls, and don't need a Read Magic spell/skill/whatever. Scrolls with spells on them are Priest or Wizard specific, and you might need to Read Magic or Comprehend Languages them to find out what they are (and trigger any attached curses), but after you know what they are then you can cast them whenever. Bards and Thieves can use either priest or wizard scrolls with their % based ability. Being a ranger or paladin gives you access to priest spells but specifically doesn't let you use priest scrolls. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Mar 26, 2016 |
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Mar 26, 2016 01:50
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I didn't actually realize there was a difference. I meant "magic items that had spells in them and scrolls in general" but I probably worded that badly. Good to know my memory was at least partially right though I'm fairly sure we ignored those rules anyways, being basically kids at the time more interested in cool poo poo happening than following the rules.
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Mar 26, 2016 20:11
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So I just came back from a big session of 5e. From about 14:00 to 23:00 - minus time for dinner and general other stuff, call it seven hours of playing or so. Do you know how many combats we'd do in 4e in that time? Probably about three. Often 60 to 90 minutes per fight, plus of course time around that for exploration, social encounters, dividing treasure, discussing the plot, planning, general goofing around, and so on. Want to know how many combats we did now that we've switched to 5e, keeping in mind that we're all experienced players and this was not our first session? Three. Oh, we did a lot more rounds than we'd do in 4e. Oh yes, the rounds just flew by. Except we didn't actually do much in any given round. It does bear mentioning that our DM doesn't like doing meaningless "trash mob" encounters with just two goblins because it's just a waste of time to roll for that, but still. I often hear that 5e is supposed to be much quicker but so far I've yet to see it.
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Mar 27, 2016 00:36
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After we hit paragon level in 4E most of our combats started at 2 hours minimum with a 6 man party. I've never done a mid to high level combat in 5E so it might be more of the same. 60 mins is super short for a 4E combat though
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Mar 27, 2016 00:39
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alg posted:After we hit paragon level in 4E most of our combats started at 2 hours minimum with a 6 man party. Yarp seconding this. Unless your DM is very willing to call combats when they're definitely finished one way or the other, they can run super long.
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Mar 27, 2016 00:46
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alg posted:60 mins is super short for a 4E combat though Dunno know about that. We often manage two-hour combats... with ten epic-tier PCs. (To be fair, I only run that particular campaign for one mega-weekend per year.) I guess maybe we just clicked with the 4e system or something. Still, people kept bragging about how mega-fast 5e would be. And so far it's just a crushing disappointment. I suppose it would've been really lightning quick if we just encountered a handful of kobolds in an empty room, but by the same token a 4e combat would've been lightning quick if you encountered a handful of minions.
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Mar 27, 2016 00:46
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Sage Genesis posted:Dunno know about that. We often manage two-hour combats... with ten epic-tier PCs. Playing in the hyperbolic time chamber doesn't count. Jesus do you just not roll dice or something?
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Mar 27, 2016 00:49
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TheWyrmDude posted:Playing in the hyperbolic time chamber doesn't count. Jesus do you just not roll dice or something? No, they just annihilate the opposition (despite my efforts to the contrary). They're a well-oiled machine of death. They rarely miss, always push the monsters into hugely disadvantageous positions, and just unleash buckets of damage. And about the rarely missing part: the Expertise feats were a mistake, spurred on by armchair generals. It may seem as if attack bonuses lag behind, but in truth you get so much combat advantage, rerolls, and other sources of temporary bonuses that the static base modifier is only part of the equation. It's not uncommon for the party's Fighter to hit on a natural 2. Let me tell you, combats go a lot quicker when the PCs rarely ever miss.
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Mar 27, 2016 01:00
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Sage Genesis posted:No, they just annihilate the opposition (despite my efforts to the contrary). They're a well-oiled machine of death. They rarely miss, always push the monsters into hugely disadvantageous positions, and just unleash buckets of damage. All of these bonuses and rerolls and stuff are why our combats took at minimum 2 hours. Our Invoker had just insane AOE spells and every single person had an interrupt or reaction or whatever every round. It got way out of hand
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Mar 27, 2016 01:02
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alg posted:All of these bonuses and rerolls and stuff are why our combats took at minimum 2 hours. Huh. Not sure what to say about that. Oh! Hang on, maybe I do. We use the DnD 4e Combat Manager. https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/DnD4eCM Neat piece of software that we stream to a big tv. Shows the initiative order, tracks hit points, power usages, healing surges, action points, the whole nine yards. I'll admit that that helped a lot.
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Mar 27, 2016 01:07
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alg posted:All of these bonuses and rerolls and stuff are why our combats took at minimum 2 hours. Yeah, this. It takes a lot of bookkeeping to track all of the modifiers people are getting to hit and damage in high level combat with good buffs, let alone to resolve all the interrupts to interrupts to reactions to OAs etc etc etc. Although, if you're comfortable at a certain point just saying 'don't roll a 1', it can go quicker.
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Mar 27, 2016 01:08
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Just to throw another anecdote into the pile, I've been running a 4e campaign since December, we're up to level 5 now, and the longest any single combat has taken is one hour (excepting things like internet technical difficulties). Technology is definitely a factor though, since this is an online game, dice are rolled instantly and all my statblock stuff is macro'd in.
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Mar 27, 2016 01:22
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yeah i'm sure if we could have macros and stuff it would've been a lot faster. but we were totally tabletop, smart phones were just coming out at that time.
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Mar 27, 2016 01:27
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I recently took over DM'ing for the first time and had our group run the Lost Mines since I had it and it seemed the natural place to start. We are not all that far along and I’d like to start planning on the next adventure but I’d like some anecdotes and thoughts on what to pick next. Curse, Princes, or Abyss(no HotDQ)? Is one easier to play or continue for a new GM? Which one is the most interesting?
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Mar 27, 2016 04:13
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Live posting from a d&d 5e game shits so good. Rickityrickity-wrecked these wizards owl bear bartenders.
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Mar 27, 2016 05:31
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Harvey Mantaco posted:Live posting from a d&d 5e game shits so good. Rickityrickity-wrecked these wizards owl bear bartenders. The thread needs more poo poo like this. I think 5e is as poorly designed as the next goon but really killing owlbears is a sacred tradition.
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Mar 27, 2016 06:03
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Lukavi posted:I recently took over DM'ing for the first time and had our group run the Lost Mines since I had it and it seemed the natural place to start. We are not all that far along and I’d like to start planning on the next adventure but I’d like some anecdotes and thoughts on what to pick next. Curse, Princes, or Abyss(no HotDQ)? Is one easier to play or continue for a new GM? Which one is the most interesting? I recently started DMing for the store I play at and they started Rage of Demons. I'm finding the modules to be fun and better put together than some of the earlier stuff I went and read. For example the first module in RoD has five mini adventures that involve demon possessed goats and beet smuggling drow.
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Mar 27, 2016 06:11
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Sage Genesis posted:Oh, we did a lot more rounds than we'd do in 4e. Oh yes, the rounds just flew by. Except we didn't actually do much in any given round. It does bear mentioning that our DM doesn't like doing meaningless "trash mob" encounters with just two goblins because it's just a waste of time to roll for that, but still. I often hear that 5e is supposed to be much quicker but so far I've yet to see it. The funny thing is that 5e is "quicker" because the default 5e experience involves a lot of pointless, pre-determined speedbump fights that exist entirely to leech a dozen HP or a couple spells from the total party pool. The moment you focus on meaningful, challenging conflicts to the expense of speedbumps then you never see the speed gains.
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Mar 27, 2016 06:19
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LFK posted:The funny thing is that 5e is "quicker" because the default 5e experience involves a lot of pointless, pre-determined speedbump fights that exist entirely to leech a dozen HP or a couple spells from the total party pool. The moment you focus on meaningful, challenging conflicts to the expense of speedbumps then you never see the speed gains. Higher level 5e is just a lot of counterspelling, IME
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Mar 27, 2016 06:42
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Mendrian posted:The thread needs more poo poo like this. I think 5e is as poorly designed as the next goon but really killing owlbears is a sacred tradition. In positive 5e news: In my rotating game group one of the players has volunteered to run 5e as his trad rpg of choice. So in response I'm preparing to play the Wizard Mafia, the entire Wizard Mafia.
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Mar 27, 2016 06:47
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karmicknight posted:In positive 5e news: In my rotating game group one of the players has volunteered to run 5e as his trad rpg of choice. So in response I'm preparing to play the Wizard Mafia, the entire Wizard Mafia. Go on...
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Mar 27, 2016 06:57
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karmicknight posted:In positive 5e news: In my rotating game group one of the players has volunteered to run 5e as his trad rpg of choice. So in response I'm preparing to play the Wizard Mafia, the entire Wizard Mafia. They run a skeleton protection racket?
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Mar 27, 2016 07:25
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Trast posted:I recently started DMing for the store I play at and they started Rage of Demons. I'm finding the modules to be fun and better put together than some of the earlier stuff I went and read. For example the first module in RoD has five mini adventures that involve demon possessed goats and beet smuggling drow. Harried in Hillsfar is one of the better AL modules I've come across in 5E, and if you like it, the Hillsfar Reclaimed and Writhing in the Dark are both great adventures I enjoyed running afterwards. The Rage of Demons season is by and large the best of the three we've had so far, it's too early for me to tell with Curse of Strahd, but if the first AL module is anything to go by, it's going to be as poo poo as Elemental Evil's Season. Lots of glaring editing issues, weird referencing to non-existent sections and badly balanced.
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Mar 27, 2016 07:32
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Hi friends. Just started a dnd 5 game and am having fun! Is there a wiki that's actually accurate with class and race info? I built my monk according to 5edndwiki.wikidot.com but it didn't match up with what was in the book at all.
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Mar 27, 2016 17:12
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Sharzak posted:Hi friends. Just started a dnd 5 game and am having fun! Is there a wiki that's actually accurate with class and race info? I built my monk according to 5edndwiki.wikidot.com but it didn't match up with what was in the book at all. Ignore that website. It is based on the playtest version of D&D, as of october 2012. So it's not based on the actual game itself. There is no wiki I know of that contains full and accurate info on the real game's classes and races. That would breach copyright law and be illegal, meaning that Wizards of the Coast would stamp them out pretty quickly (they have done so in the past).
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Mar 27, 2016 18:26
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5e did release an SRD, so sites like http://www.5esrd.com/classes/monk have stuff copied directly from the book. Its not the whole book though.
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Mar 27, 2016 18:52
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ritorix posted:5e did release an SRD, so sites like http://www.5esrd.com/classes/monk have stuff copied directly from the book. Its not the whole book though. This site rules! Thanks very much. Much easier than passing a poorly organized book around.
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Mar 28, 2016 16:53
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Does anyone else playing a Bard create a playlist of songs to associate with their spells, or am I just taking my role a bit too seriously? I'm finding that Legend of Zelda songs work best, in case you were wondering.
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Mar 28, 2016 19:04
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Miz Kriss posted:Does anyone else playing a Bard create a playlist of songs to associate with their spells, or am I just taking my role a bit too seriously? I'm finding that Legend of Zelda songs work best, in case you were wondering. One of my players is the front woman in a metal band and he keeps a bunch of fantasy metal queued up on his phone.
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Mar 28, 2016 19:11
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Cat Face Joe posted:One of my players is the front woman in a metal band and he keeps a bunch of fantasy metal queued up on his phone. Oh man, that is awesome. My bard is skilled with the flute, lyre, and violin, and I specifically chose those so I can use Zelda music. I also went with the entertainer background. I now have the trouble of having to narrow down my playlist because there are too many good songs and not enough spells. However, I am only a level 3.
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Mar 28, 2016 19:35
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I have a list of insults from movies that I roll to select whenever I use Vicious Mockery 
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Mar 28, 2016 19:41
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When I played a Goblin bard in Pathfinder, my go-to song was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txjQHeQH5eY
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Mar 28, 2016 20:28
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I play a Bard that drops Flava Flav style "YEAH BOYYY!!"s every time one of my buffs leads to something noteworthy. His buffs are Don King rhymes about the target. If you wanted to just say "I cast Shatter  " you should have been a Wizard.
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Mar 28, 2016 21:58
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Our barbarian once shrunk down to tiny size via an "Alice in Wonderland"-style mushroom and had a wrestling match with a Quasit. He played the John Cena entrance music when he rolled to pin and I almost spit out my beer.Cat Face Joe posted:One of my players is the front woman in a metal band and he keeps a bunch of fantasy metal queued up on his phone.  Go on...
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Mar 28, 2016 22:05
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Kaysette posted:
Sometimes the mythical realms of dungeons and dragons allow you to pretend to be a fantastic creature you have no chance of encountering in reality, such as an elf or a girl
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Mar 28, 2016 22:10
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