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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Yeah encounter building seems really hard to me as a new DM. It's ridiculous how much rulebook space in the DMG is used for magic items compared to that. Combined with the high HP/low damage monsters, I'm kinda at a loss. I regret quickly leveling the party to 5 like SKT suggested, it's really hard to challenge them at all even with encounters way past "deadly". Though this doesn't address the art of making encounters (which I'm learning myself) there are some cool encounter makers out there for free. And I believe Grandeko made a really well regarded updated guide for measuring challenge.
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May 4, 2017 23:30
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DM wanted to try some poo poo that I think is homebrewed about magical effects from consuming dragon parts and it left my lore Bard with 13 wisdom. I'm feeling like between that and a set of magic shoes I found that push me to 30 feet and don't allow armor encumbrance, I ought to dip into Forge Cleric for one level for a suit of heavy armor, the Shield spell and magic weapon trait. It struck me as out of character until I thought about getting to use the background feature that we don't have enough RP stuff to get to flex -- the background feature I have where I keep a shitload of religious symbols on me to get in good with any clergy.
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May 4, 2017 23:31
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Mr Beens posted:LOL, 6-8 fights. Aside from the encounter building rules being so out of whack, the base health/damage economy has never supported this as a realistic goal unless you class fighting 12-16 kobolds in groups of 2 as an entertaining days adventuring. Yes, that's why we're talking about extra hit points and so on. Screwing around with what the expected encounters look like and how many of them you do per refresh is a better idea than screwing around with hit point totals and healing amounts, for sure. What does your game look like in terms of encounter difficulty and frequency?
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May 4, 2017 23:52
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Yeah encounter building seems really hard to me as a new DM. It's ridiculous how much rulebook space in the DMG is used for magic items compared to that. Combined with the high HP/low damage monsters, I'm kinda at a loss. I regret quickly leveling the party to 5 like SKT suggested, it's really hard to challenge them at all even with encounters way past "deadly".
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May 5, 2017 00:06
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The encounter building rules are so easy and streamlined that even Mearls doesn't use them.
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May 5, 2017 00:06
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Speaking of lethality, my lvl 3 Hexblade Warlock with her full 38 HP got critted by a black pudding in SKT and hit the floor last night. Then she started her turn in the space with the ooze, took damage (1 failed death check) then rolled a 1 for her actual death check and died. It was kind of funny to me, because I had always viewed 5e as a little less 'hardcore' than 3.5 or AD&D, due to increased hit die sizes, no negative hit points, and hit die to recover at rests. The monsters just do so much damage though, and player AC's are so low. I looked up the 3.5 version afterwards and the difference is kind of crazy http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Black_Pudding Challenge Rating 7 https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Black%20Pudding#content Challenge Rating 4 The 5e version has a lower challenge rating, and does more damage. Not that 3.5 was a paragon of balance, but it just seems crazy to me how often these things have happened so far in our campaign. Monsters do so much damage. In any case, the GM was willing to have an NPC cleric cast revivify (ignoring the 60 second limit), but I just said screw it and I'm making a cat-person bard now. SerCypher fucked around with this message at 00:13 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 00:08
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Just bought 5 5e books  they're the Forgotten Realms novels about the 4e-5e transition
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May 5, 2017 00:11
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I know the rules for 5e are kind of inflexible, but last night my crew encountered a large bronze golem thing blocking a bridge over fast rushing water. It was clearly a large threat and as it activated it revealed unfurling bronze arms with swirling warhammers and started to slowly plod towards us on the bridge. Our Dwarf Cleric who was not armed (don't ask) elected to try and throw it into the river, then he held his action as our other Dwarf cleric (don't ask) got into position with him. They rolled a 20 and an 18, the construct rolled a 1 and they hoisted it up slightly off the ground and dropped it into the water before it could attack. It was a good encounter. The DM set this up because we were crushing humans and undead so something that couldn't be charmed or blitzed by holy spells seemed like a tough challenge. He was also trying to force us to actually have a battle by placing the bridge there. What he didn't account for was dwarven ingenuity.
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May 5, 2017 02:13
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Tome of beasts is great, makes me laugh a lot too. There's a mind of flying eyes that telekeneticaly yanks at the players eyes, causing blindness or whatever, then if they fail the save again it rips the eyes out that go flying across the room and adding to its mass.
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May 5, 2017 02:48
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SerCypher posted:Speaking of lethality, my lvl 3 Hexblade Warlock with her full 38 HP got critted by a black pudding in SKT and hit the floor last night. Hey buddy -- I got one-shotted last night by that same pudding, but managed to get stabilized.
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May 5, 2017 03:07
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Subjunctive posted:Hey buddy -- I got one-shotted last night by that same pudding, but managed to get stabilized.  Wooo fellow ooze victium. If I ever run this campaign, I'm not running the 1-5 portion. It just feels really lazy as it throws huge encounter after encounter at you, all within the span of roughly 48 hours. I hear Phandelver makes a good replacement.
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May 5, 2017 03:31
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My party beasted that cave with barely a scratch, despite being level 2 instead of 3. I feel like I'm doing something wrong but I think it was just a clutch moon druid.
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May 5, 2017 05:13
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Arivia posted:Just bought 5 5e books Thats fine. The Sundering Novels I would be guessing.
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May 5, 2017 05:35
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SerCypher posted:If I ever run this campaign, I'm not running the 1-5 portion. It just feels really lazy as it throws huge encounter after encounter at you, all within the span of roughly 48 hours. IME the introductory levels of PotA were actually pretty good, it's just that the campaign then pulls the rug out from under you, because none of that content tied into anything at all, and the campaign itself is kinda poo poo. Other people here have basically said "it requires a DM who knows when/where to drop hints well" which is to say, the materials themselves do nothing to help the DM with that.
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May 5, 2017 06:03
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Speaking as a player, the whole 1-5 section of SKT is pretty boring, minus the section taking place on the giant's cool sky-tower. It then immediately heads into Sidequest City (lord help your GM if you rescue all the NPCs in the big battle) and our group went on break for the summer before anything interesting plotwise managed to happen.
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May 5, 2017 06:12
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Update on warlock insanity: I've got like 40 hours left of fuckin OCD until I can stop having to make wisdom saves to have my turns in combat. I don't know if there's a better way to implement the OCD thing in the middle-length madness table, but overall I'd consider that one pretty anti-fun. (We picked a really generous DC for it but I still made terrible throws and sitting out of combat rounds is pretty much the worst.) The indefinite madness has been fun. I rolled the one where you can't take anything seriously and laugh the worse something gets. Given the dire situation our story is in, it means my dude is pretty much in gallows-humor mode. People have described "New Varis" as being a little creepier than usual but overall more fun to be around than the dour, secretive warlock I was before I got my mind blasted by reaching across space and time to stare a great old one in the face. Pretty much everyone except the cleric likes insane me more than usual me. We can't fix my brain until we get access to a Greater Restoration effect. We're just on the cusp of level 4 right now. It's gonna hang around for a while.
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May 5, 2017 13:23
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Update on warlock insanity: I've got like 40 hours left of fuckin OCD until I can stop having to make wisdom saves to have my turns in combat. I don't know if there's a better way to implement the OCD thing in the middle-length madness table, but overall I'd consider that one pretty anti-fun. (We picked a really generous DC for it but I still made terrible throws and sitting out of combat rounds is pretty much the worst.) Jesus, that's pretty goddamned bad. My off-the-cuff idea for OCD would be a saving throw to let you do something else besides what you did the last turn. As in, failing means you just Eldritch Blast again, whatever, but I wouldn't make it be an outright stun.
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May 5, 2017 13:37
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I mean, it's phrased as "The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over, such as washing hands, touching things, praying, or counting coins" in the DMG so I can't think of a good way to implement that. Either it has to have some in-combat effect or it barely even registers to the point that it doesn't even feel like madness. I put the fault on the DMG here, but after experiencing it, yeah I'd probably make a custom madness table if I wanted to mess with this stuff as a DM.
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May 5, 2017 14:17
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If I had to pick a disorder for my D&D caster it would be pyromaniac. I like to watch the flames.
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May 5, 2017 14:21
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MonsterEnvy posted:Thats fine. The Sundering Novels I would be guessing. Yep. Needed more FR novels. Couldn't find the Companions to finish out the cycle and I only mildly care because I'm pretty tired of Salvatore.
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May 5, 2017 14:29
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I mean, it's phrased as "The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over, such as washing hands, touching things, praying, or counting coins" in the DMG so I can't think of a good way to implement that. Either it has to have some in-combat effect or it barely even registers to the point that it doesn't even feel like madness. I put the fault on the DMG here, but after experiencing it, yeah I'd probably make a custom madness table if I wanted to mess with this stuff as a DM. If it must have an in-combat effect, I think occasionally (or perhaps constantly) losing your turn is a little extreme. Instead, maybe something like "Make a wisdom save. If you fail, the compulsion to do [thing] distracts you from combat. Any of your attacks this round are done at disadvantage." It really sucks, and also doesn't rob you of actions.
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May 5, 2017 15:11
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Why would ocd rob you of actions? Are you a vampire and Mulder just scattered sunflower seeds vvv I know I'm saying it's stupid!! mastershakeman fucked around with this message at 15:25 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 15:17
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mastershakeman posted:Why would ocd rob you of actions? Are you a vampire and Mulder just scattered sunflower seeds? Nehru the Damaja posted:Update on warlock insanity: I've got like 40 hours left of fuckin OCD until I can stop having to make wisdom saves to have my turns in combat. I don't know if there's a better way to implement the OCD thing in the middle-length madness table, but overall I'd consider that one pretty anti-fun. (We picked a really generous DC for it but I still made terrible throws and sitting out of combat rounds is pretty much the worst.) mastershakeman posted:vvv I know I'm saying it's stupid! Sorry, I inferred the tone wrong. I agree though since a straight reading of the rules says no mechanical effect. SettingSun fucked around with this message at 15:33 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 15:23
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P.d0t posted:IME the introductory levels of PotA were actually pretty good, All the combat is really unbalanced.
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May 5, 2017 15:26
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I'm fiddling with these fancy ritual implements we took from a desecrated shrine. I figure that's sensible considering trying to reconsecrate it blasted my brains and I stared chaos in the face. If I'm gonna fixate on anything it should probably be that. I think the OCD entry is like like the only one in the DMG long-term madness table that doesn't explain its mechanical consequence, which is kind of stupid. Definitely agree with SettingSun that occasional disadvantage would be a lot better because this is pretty anti-fun. Fortunately we're traveling now so we're banging out the rest of these hours pretty quickly.
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May 5, 2017 15:28
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If you really want a mechanical, in-combat representation of OCD, then I'd go with making a Wisdom save at the start of every turn to avoid being forced to do the exact same thing you did the previous turn because you did it WRONG and they're still BREATHING and you NEED to get it RIGHT you don't UNDERSTAND just let me DO this. I'd also say you'd get advantage on the roll when doing the same thing is a blatantly terrible idea. As a DM, I would also constantly shower you with inspiration for playing your flaw in a way that actively hurts your character. But I'd never force you to play like this, since it's just a character flaw that sits next to the other character fluff descriptors on your sheet that have no actual mechanical effect.
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May 5, 2017 17:21
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It's just not D&D if you aren't attaching unnecessary mechanical penalties to every character flaw.
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May 5, 2017 18:21
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i only have half my players tomorrow, so instead of cancelling, im going to run a side-story where the remaining players get to play as semi-pregen characters apprenticed to an evil wizard, who has appeared in the campaign some weeks earlier to vex the main cast of adventurers. they still don't even know his name, so I thought it would be fun to give the players a giant lore dump that their characters will never see. Anyone have any advice for this sort of thing? I'm going to be running a more adversarial dungeon than I normally would, with the idea that the players are all evil, they're in an evil tower of an evil wizard that had been teased as end-of-story content, and they're playing as npcs, so if someone dies it's probably not a big deal. I'll be writing a recap of what happens and the surviving characters will all return, but I'm still kind of wary about it. Like, I'm doing the side story so that I don't run major story events with half my players missing, but i've gotten wrapped up in it and also made it into major story content.
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May 5, 2017 18:29
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Ah, heck, there's no real problem.
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May 5, 2017 18:32
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Scyther posted:It's just not D&D if you aren't attaching unnecessary mechanical penalties to every character flaw. The game itself does not attach any. So this is purely the player and DM.
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May 5, 2017 18:35
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It's learned behavior that comes from playing D&D.
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May 5, 2017 18:53
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Under the vegetable posted:i only have half my players tomorrow, so instead of cancelling, im going to run a side-story where the remaining players get to play as semi-pregen characters apprenticed to an evil wizard, who has appeared in the campaign some weeks earlier to vex the main cast of adventurers. they still don't even know his name, so I thought it would be fun to give the players a giant lore dump that their characters will never see. Anyone have any advice for this sort of thing? I'm going to be running a more adversarial dungeon than I normally would, with the idea that the players are all evil, they're in an evil tower of an evil wizard that had been teased as end-of-story content, and they're playing as npcs, so if someone dies it's probably not a big deal. I'll be writing a recap of what happens and the surviving characters will all return, but I'm still kind of wary about it. Like, I'm doing the side story so that I don't run major story events with half my players missing, but i've gotten wrapped up in it and also made it into major story content. Not exactly what you are asking about, but I was in a campaign one time where there was a session focused entirely on one PC, with the rest of our other PCs not present. It was an old PC who had died and this session was about her character fighting back from the afterlife to return to the party. Rather than the rest of us players just sitting around watching, we got to play one-shot evil characters who were basically twisted versions of our PCs (the Paladin played a Blackguard, the Cleric a Necromancer, etc.). We all had a lot of fun, even if the battles ended with the starring PC killing our characters. The evil characters all happened to be vampires, so some of them even survived to come back into the main quest as reoccurring NPC villains, and we enjoyed every time they would reappear.
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May 5, 2017 19:02
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Harvey Mantaco posted:Tome of beasts is great, makes me laugh a lot too. There's a mind of flying eyes that telekeneticaly yanks at the players eyes, causing blindness or whatever, then if they fail the save again it rips the eyes out that go flying across the room and adding to its mass. What level are you supposed to run into this nerd? This sounds like it'd be really unfun as a player.
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May 5, 2017 19:02
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Cat Face Joe posted:All the combat is really unbalanced. I only remember the tomb fight being problematic, but  magic missile
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May 5, 2017 19:42
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Starting a game as a Half Elf 1 Rogue / 2 Draconic Sorcerer. The rogue is a splash for skills and character background. Using the PHB loadout and I've got my stats picked except choosing between a +1 bonus in Wis or Con.
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May 5, 2017 20:57
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blastron posted:If you really want a mechanical, in-combat representation of OCD, then I'd go with making a Wisdom save at the start of every turn to avoid being forced to do the exact same thing you did the previous turn because you did it WRONG and they're still BREATHING and you NEED to get it RIGHT you don't UNDERSTAND just let me DO this. I'd also say you'd get advantage on the roll when doing the same thing is a blatantly terrible idea. Rather than the failed save forcing an action, I'd want to go with something like the failed save giving you disadvantage if you do a different action, because that gives the player a choice to make. "Take disadvantage" is usually a bad choice, but I can see situations where it'd be more appealing than repeating your last action again.
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May 6, 2017 00:02
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mango sentinel posted:Starting a game as a Half Elf 1 Rogue / 2 Draconic Sorcerer. The rogue is a splash for skills and character background. Splicer fucked around with this message at 00:08 on May 6, 2017 |
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May 6, 2017 00:04
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After playing some D&D and edge of the empire my friends have decided they want to try a game of Cyberpunk 2020. I've got the core rules and other resources, does anyone know of anywhere I can look for some help on running a game. I'm going to read the book today but I can already see that I'm going to want a little guidance. Is there a generic rpg thread idk? Sorry for being off topic a little. I bought a box of D&d models today in related news and find them to be of a very good quality. Do people ever paint them? I'm going to paint my guy this afternoon.
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May 6, 2017 00:10
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JBP posted:After playing some D&D and edge of the empire my friends have decided they want to try a game of Cyberpunk 2020. I've got the core rules and other resources, does anyone know of anywhere I can look for some help on running a game. I'm going to read the book today but I can already see that I'm going to want a little guidance. I'm sure nobody will be offended if you talk and ask questions about a specific system in the TG Chat thread
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May 6, 2017 00:22
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JBP posted:After playing some D&D and edge of the empire my friends have decided they want to try a game of Cyberpunk 2020. I've got the core rules and other resources, does anyone know of anywhere I can look for some help on running a game. I'm going to read the book today but I can already see that I'm going to want a little guidance. this thread's probably your best bet. Nobody is going to be annoyed if you created one for your question though.
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May 6, 2017 00:37
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