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Nehru the Damaja posted:Okay I know there are people who hate shopping sessions as much as I do but how the hell is not an extremely loud and powerful majority? That poo poo is the worst. If I could convince everyone else to just offscreen this poo poo with a list of things they want to buy and sell and do sticker price for everything, we could save so many goddamn hours. For my games I make print outs or pdfs of the mundane items list from the PHB and distribute them to the players. I tell them if there is anything you want off the list look it over and next time you are in town we'll see if it's available. If the player wants to haggle they get a chance for a persuasion roll but I'm clear up front that I don't want to waste half a session arguing over the difference of a dozen gold. The merchants have thin margins and are just trying to get by after all. Rarer items or exotic stuff I'm good with more interaction since it's a bigger investment. Some people really take the initiative and have a little list ready before the session and I can get it all resolved in a few minutes.
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May 12, 2017 17:35
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Just thought I'd drop by to lay down my STONE COLD LOCK on what the next hardback campaign book will involve. We'll know for sure during the "Stream of Annihilation" event June 2nd - 3rd, but for now here's what I think the campaign will heavily feature and involve: Chult, Ubtao, Dinosaurs, Dendar the Night Serpent, Artus Cimber, and the Ring of Winter. Also, some circles seem to have mistaken the Tomb of Horrors style branding of the streaming event for a hint at the new hardback. Wizards literally just gave us a 5E Tomb of Horrors in "Tales from the Yawning Portal", why would they double down on that poo poo for an entire hardback? At most, Acererak might pop up, cackle at your characters, give up some vague information, and then die for real but not. Boob Marley fucked around with this message at 19:18 on May 12, 2017 |
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May 12, 2017 18:58
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JBP posted:I'm playing a charlatan bard right now. He's a tiefling masquerading around as a lawyer. And I'm playing one for an Out of the Abyss campaign; he's a Drow commoner who impersonates nobles from out of town and swindles the local nobility out of their fortunes. Hence why he started the campaign in a jail cell with a bunch of surface dwellers awaiting delivery to the last matron mother he swindled and, no doubt, horrible execution.
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May 12, 2017 19:20
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Boob Marley posted:Just thought I'd drop by to lay down my STONE COLD LOCK on what the next hardback campaign book will involve. If we don't get some classic gonzo pulp like Isle of Dread or Hollow World, I'm out.
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May 12, 2017 19:42
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St0rmD posted:If we don't get some classic gonzo pulp like Isle of Dread or Hollow World, I'm out. Yeah, I'm getting a little tired of the broader "we can work together for peace if we just unite" undertones myself. The best friendships at the table come from being put through a meat grinder together, and sharing a constant state of dread.
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May 12, 2017 19:53
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Boob Marley posted:Just thought I'd drop by to lay down my STONE COLD LOCK on what the next hardback campaign book will involve. This, except Acererak is the BBEG of the book.
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May 12, 2017 20:05
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I am still pretty new to DMing and next week my players are likely going to meet a recurring enemy that I know they can not beat at their current level, and already have a good idea for how they may be able to escape if they do run into it, but my question is: Without a straight up demonstration of the enemy's abilities, how do I indicate to them that they should book it ASAP rather than try to take it down? I want to give the player this enemy is after enough rope to hang himself with, but I don't want to have him drop dead because I didn't give the party enough information to work out that running away is a good option and that an all-out fight will likely be lethal for at least one player.
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May 12, 2017 22:29
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Depends on the circumstance of running in to the villain of the campaign. If they're just meeting him in the bar he can just swat them down to 0 and saunter out, point proven without having to put much effort into it.
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May 12, 2017 22:37
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His sole motive as a revenant is to kill one member of the party, so sadly that won't work out.
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May 12, 2017 22:40
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Have the revenant give them some trinket or item that they're supposed to keep with them. He can tell them that it marks them for passage to some weird place, or protects them from some horrible fate. The real reason to have it is so the revenant can keep a magical or psionic link to the party to determine which of them is the most powerful or most desireable in terms of his sacrifice/consumption/posession/etc.
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May 12, 2017 23:18
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Have an NPC come in at some point, and save your asses by being super strong and amazing. Then a short while later, your BBEG comes along and squashes them like it's no big deal.
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May 12, 2017 23:41
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Are there any NPCs that are reasonably good in combat that you can sacrifice? Take someone who can give a PC a run for their money and, when he tries to interfere, punch a hole through his chest. Noxin of Shame posted:Have an NPC come in at some point, and save your asses by being super strong and amazing. Then a short while later, your BBEG comes along and squashes them like it's no big deal. argh Edit: If the guy is simply numerically better, roll out in the open if you can and don't already. When they find out this guy has +bonkers to hit, they'll get the hint.
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May 12, 2017 23:42
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Lori posted:Without a straight up demonstration of the enemy's abilities, how do I indicate to them that they should book it ASAP rather than try to take it down? Ooh, ooh, I learned this trick in the last session I ran. If the dude has henchmen/minions/slaves or anything to that tune, have one or two of them be a doable but exhaustingly mean rear end fight for the party. Then when the big bad guy shows up, he has dozens of that thing with him. Describe him as being more visually terrifying and clearly in charge of the poo poo that's already made the party sweat once.
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May 13, 2017 03:17
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Man it's wild how many subclasses in SCAG are abject failures in terms of being exciting or having any kind of adoption. It's like... Swashbuckler, Arcana Cleric and sometimes Storm Sorcerer and everything else fuckin nobody seems to play or care about. Unearthed Arcana didn't even bother adding invocations for Undying Warlock, presumably because zero people give a gently caress about it.
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May 13, 2017 03:23
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Lori posted:I am still pretty new to DMing and next week my players are likely going to meet a recurring enemy that I know they can not beat at their current level, and already have a good idea for how they may be able to escape if they do run into it, but my question is: Without a straight up demonstration of the enemy's abilities, how do I indicate to them that they should book it ASAP rather than try to take it down? You could tell your players, "Hey this guy is pretty tough. You should probably think about booking it ASAP." If you're going to play the overwhelming villain card, don't be coy. You owe it to your players to at least own up to it.
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May 13, 2017 03:46
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When I introduced a recurring enemy the players couldn't beat at their level, he immediately locked them all in place, cast 9th level geas on them, and sent them through a portal to another dimension. I like demonstrating abilities.
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May 13, 2017 03:59
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You could have him appear because of a time-limited summoning effect of some kind, so he's around for a round or two to put the pain on before vanishing. (not before declaring that he'll return when the Mystical Event occurs, of course) Or let the players in on a scrying session so they can watch the revenant chew through their same-level colleagues.
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May 13, 2017 04:14
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If this party doesn't figure out they need to run from this guy, the next party will. No biggie.
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May 13, 2017 04:45
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Hold up a sign that says "cutscene" when he shows up
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May 13, 2017 04:57
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For all your "man I wish we had more spells" woes. http://nerdist.com/a-neural-net-created-a-bonkers-list-of-dungeons-dragons-spell-names/
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May 13, 2017 07:05
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:Depends on the circumstance of running in to the villain of the campaign. If they're just meeting him in the bar he can just swat them down to 0 and saunter out, point proven without having to put much effort into it. Ah, the Final Fantasy technique.
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May 13, 2017 07:17
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Have your strong man cast mansion and step through the door saying hoho no my friends.
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May 13, 2017 08:06
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AlphaDog posted:The hidden method is "Do whatever you like as long as your modifiers are either +3, +2, +2, +1, +0, -1 or +3, +2, +1, +1, +0, +0" when the game starts. As I recall, the 4e Rules Compendium was like "If you roll stats and your ability mods don't add up to at least +8, then gently caress that poo poo." (paraphrasing) As for random rolling options, I'm always a fan of "roll 3d6 six times, treat 1s as 6s" because gently caress rerolling and gently caress dropping. Gives you a minimum of 6 with an average of 13. Even then, the "every player rolls, and you can use any rolled array" should probably be mandatory; it blows when someone gets like 13s across the board, and someone else has two 18s. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 08:36 on May 13, 2017 |
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May 13, 2017 08:30
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Lori posted:I am still pretty new to DMing and next week my players are likely going to meet a recurring enemy that I know they can not beat at their current level, and already have a good idea for how they may be able to escape if they do run into it, but my question is: Without a straight up demonstration of the enemy's abilities, how do I indicate to them that they should book it ASAP rather than try to take it down? It is almost a never good idea to convince the players to run away from an enemy. They rarely get the hint, it leaves them feeling like they failed somehow, and takes agency and choice away from them and instead bludgeons them with the only safe option the DM has (perhaps somewhat poorly) communicated. Instead, just have the NPC depart when its his time to depart, rather than the other way around. Demonstrating how much more badass an NPC is just isn't a lot of fun, most of the time. Show them the consequences of the NPC's power, if you must, rather than having them be the targets. "You can't win this fight" is an encounter the players can't do anything with. It's DM grandstanding time.
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May 13, 2017 08:43
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Lori posted:His sole motive as a revenant is to kill one member of the party, so sadly that won't work out. Well that's a problem, the only interaction you CAN have with someone like that is a fight. I guess making a super-obvious environmental kill set up so a building drops on him, then he puts his hand up from the rubble like he's rising from another grave. Or just have him continously just watching in the background, planning his move, otherwise... Mendrian posted:It is almost a never good idea to convince the players to run away from an enemy. They rarely get the hint, it leaves them feeling like they failed somehow, and takes agency and choice away from them and instead bludgeons them with the only safe option the DM has (perhaps somewhat poorly) communicated. Instead, just have the NPC depart when its his time to depart, rather than the other way around. Demonstrating how much more badass an NPC is just isn't a lot of fun, most of the time. Show them the consequences of the NPC's power, if you must, rather than having them be the targets. "You can't win this fight" is an encounter the players can't do anything with. It's DM grandstanding time. Hence why all my recurring villains tend to be manipulators who always have Dimension Door/Word Of Recall on standby for villain exiting stage left.
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May 13, 2017 09:07
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As someone coming from Pathfinder this all seems familiar enough (I guess it helps I played through the beginner's box). Do you really not get any skill points at each level up? I don't have my own player's guide yet (it's in the mail). Just asking because I'm using a character I didn't make but the GM said I could make some changes if I wanted, and I've decided to mostly roll with it since it was a pretty well made NPC, but if I'm not going to get a billion skill points every level as Wizards usually do, then I will shuffle those around a bit.
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May 13, 2017 09:28
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Lori posted:I am still pretty new to DMing and next week my players are likely going to meet a recurring enemy that I know they can not beat at their current level, and already have a good idea for how they may be able to escape if they do run into it, but my question is: Without a straight up demonstration of the enemy's abilities, how do I indicate to them that they should book it ASAP rather than try to take it down?
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May 13, 2017 09:43
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Rick posted:Do you really not get any skill points at each level up? Yes, really. You're down to bumping skills through your ability score increases, but your proficient skills bump themselves up as you level. If you want more skill proficiencies, you can take the Skilled feat (or MC shenanigans.)
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May 13, 2017 09:46
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Lori posted:I am still pretty new to DMing and next week my players are likely going to meet a recurring enemy that I know they can not beat at their current level, and already have a good idea for how they may be able to escape if they do run into it, but my question is: Without a straight up demonstration of the enemy's abilities, how do I indicate to them that they should book it ASAP rather than try to take it down? Don't do this, players are incredibly unpredictable and will either treat this as a challenge or a gently caress you. Make it a proper villian and have them Unleash their Dreaded Pet Zombie Owlbear, who hasn't fed for days, Muhuhahahahaa
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May 13, 2017 11:25
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Rick posted:Do you really not get any skill points at each level up? Indeed. Ask if your game uses feats and multiclassing (they are optional). If those are available, there are ways to get some extra trained skills. Otherwise you just use what you have.
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May 13, 2017 12:05
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Heck, my DM has often used encounters we have to run from and even then a guy who's played with him for over a decade got angry the obviously unkillable boss was unkillable and tried to suicide his character. (said player quit the next session when told he had to use roll20s rolling instead of reporting the rolls he did at home on our online sessions) As long as youre OK with that it should be fine
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May 13, 2017 12:10
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Yeah, don't do the unbeatable villain thing for all the reasons already mentioned. If you absolutely must have the villain grandstanding and being unfightable, have some minions appear and fight while what is an obviously remote-projected vision of the main villain mocks them along the lines of "These 3 are the weakest dudes in my massive, massive army. You're already having trouble. Give up now, dumbasses". You can also use this to give unsubtle hints like "You won't even manage to get within 100 miles of me. How do you expect to trek across the Vast Empty Desert Of Certain Death when you can't even make it 2 days out of Startertown without someone dying?" Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 12:17 on May 13, 2017 |
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May 13, 2017 12:14
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mastershakeman posted:Heck, my DM has often used encounters we have to run from and even then a guy who's played with him for over a decade got angry the obviously unkillable boss was unkillable and tried to suicide his character. (said player quit the next session when told he had to use roll20s rolling instead of reporting the rolls he did at home on our online sessions) "Look at me, I'm the best and won't hear otherwise!" players are the worst.
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May 13, 2017 12:45
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D&D doesn't really have any mechanics that make escaping interesting, especially since it struggles with splitting parties. It's got decent stuff for circumventing fights before they start, but not after.
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May 13, 2017 13:24
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Rick posted:Do you really not get any skill points at each level up? The idea is that because your proficiency bonus increases automatically, you'll get better at the things you're good at while people who aren't good at them will stay pretty static, which emphasizes your own skill in that thing. So if you're proficient at Deception, you're going to get better at telling lies throughout the game but there's no amount of dead orcs that will suddenly make you good at Animal Handling. Your ability score increases and your proficiency bonuses are how you improve at something and by doing that, it ensures that anyone other than a skill-monkey character is good at a handful of things without everyone being so good at everything that skills don't matter.
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May 13, 2017 17:18
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Rick posted:As someone coming from Pathfinder this all seems familiar enough (I guess it helps I played through the beginner's box). Do you really not get any skill points at each level up? I don't have my own player's guide yet (it's in the mail). Yeah I'd go ahead and shuffle. 5e is closer to a binary 'yes/no' model with regards to skills, tagging good ones and giving a flat bonus based on level/ability score. I think it's probably an improvement over 3.5/PF since in practice very few characters want to a +3 to a skill by level 9 or whatever, usually you just pump your favorites as high as you can. The only tricky thing is that you gotta remember, particularly at early levels, that your ability score is probably adding at least as much as your proficiency bonus, so if you're a Wizard and you want to be good at Athletics you're going to be middling at best. There are some things you can do with Feats to get around this though.
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May 13, 2017 17:56
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Do clerics get unlimited castings of their domain spells, or one cast per day? The description seems really vague to me.
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May 13, 2017 23:48
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Quixzlizx posted:Do clerics get unlimited castings of their domain spells, or one cast per day? The description seems really vague to me. Neither. Domain spells are counted as always being Prepared, and don't count against their limit on how many spells they can Prepare in a day. That is all.
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May 13, 2017 23:54
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Ryuujin posted:Neither. Domain spells are counted as always being Prepared, and don't count against their limit on how many spells they can Prepare in a day. That is all. Indeed. I suspect Quixzlizx was thrown by the word "prepare" because it doesn't mean in 5e what it meant in 3e. In 5e you prepare a selection of spells but this is not done with the spell slots you have. When it's time to cast a spell, you use a slot. This doesn't un-prepare the prepared spell. All it does is use up the slot, nothing more. To put it another way: preparing a spell says nothing about how often you can cast it per day. Quick example to show how it works. Let's say I'm a first level Cleric of the Life Domain. As you can see in the PHB, I have three 1st-level slots per day. (Or per long rest, whatever.) Now it's time to prepare spells. This is [Cleric Level + Wis modifier]. For the sake of argument, let's say I have Wisdom 16 so that's four spells. Let's call them simply A, B, C, and D. On top of those, I also get Bless and Cure Wounds from my Domain. So where do those three spell slots come in? Well, when it's time for my to cast Bless, I simply say I do and cross off one of the slots. That's it. That's all there is to it. Now I have two slots left. I could cast Bless again later that day, or I could cast Cure Wounds, or "Spell C" or whatever else I like. Just out of those prepared spells, I can cast three today. And I don't need to choose which ones those will be until I'm actually casting one.
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May 14, 2017 00:24
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Using the word "slots" in this context is really confusing. Something like "castings" or "uses" or just calling them "Spell Points" would be better.
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May 14, 2017 01:13
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