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Conspiratiorist posted:Excuse me, but Killer Klowns from Outer Space is an excellent film and worth including in any halloween reel. Killer Klowns from Outer Space was a piece of poo poo movie. It's theme song however, was great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGVX033PiDA&t=40s
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Oct 6, 2017 23:36
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MonsterEnvy posted:Also the players won't actually know the time limit. I had Sindra say "I don't have more than two or three months left, I think", am keeping a big visible day tracker, and am reminding the players to track their supplies. They're very aware of the time and are avoiding going out of their way to sightsee. Of course, this means that they had to convince themselves that gaining the ability to fly over the jungle, saving literal weeks of trekking around obstacles, was worth a ten day trip to and from a place where they could gather components for the flight ritual...
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Oct 6, 2017 23:37
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blastron posted:I had Sindra say "I don't have more than two or three months left, I think", am keeping a big visible day tracker, and am reminding the players to track their supplies. They're very aware of the time and are avoiding going out of their way to sightsee. Though they also don't know were their goal is until they find the oracle or Valindra.
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Oct 7, 2017 00:56
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Destroying ancient and priceless elven books is good and cool. I'm sad my character in the next campaign is a goody two shoes
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Oct 7, 2017 03:29
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Bhodi posted:If you're talking about descriptions of places people enter, I write down a couple of adjectives "musty", "clammy", or objects "low-hanging moss", "rotted fabric", "stairs weathered uneven by traffic" I want to highlight in each section and just ad-lib the rest. Conspiratiorist posted:Fire Bolt as your main attack cantrip. Highly effective on Draconic Sorcerers. Thanks. Good to see that the old standbys haven't been nerfed.
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Oct 7, 2017 13:02
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Speaking of campaigns and characters, a friend has been setting up a campaign where it's "everything goes", including UA, variant human, extra books, etc. No homebrew, but everything from UA to Volo's is on the table from what I know. When it comes to Power options, what are my best picks? I know Diviner, Necromancer are good, as is Bard, but I also am curious about Sorcerer and Warlock, especially with how the Warlock has 'free' Detect Magic and other utility stuff, permanently. I used to play a Moon Druid, which wasn't THAT awesome at level 5 (and we never made it to 6 for the CR2 stuff, but that's another full caster there. Is variant Human + Lucky still the best pick? More interested in doing stuff than doing the most damage, so sharpshooter/crossbow stuff isn't at the top of my list, but if there's a tanking thing on par with the above power stuff, I wouldn't mind hearing of it. Entropy238 posted:Was wondering if someone in this thread can help me. As others have said, if you MUST play 5e, then the Starter is a good option. I'd personally recommend 4e, as far as DnD goes, if not an AD&D thing which I'm not familiar with. If your crew is more interested in RPGs in general, there's a LOT of options on the table, depending on what you're looking for.
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Oct 7, 2017 13:19
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Crits should come from a bingo card. Roll a D6 with every attack. 1-5 correspond to BINGO, 6 is nothing. Whatever number you roll on your attack/they roll on their save is the number you mark on the bingo card. Five across (no free space) is the only official way to crit but you can house rule in Squares, Four Corners, or even Full House, to adjust power levels to your liking. Wizards can even sell official 4-packs of paper bingo cards with a fantasy font, providing a steady income. Hire me, Mearls.
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Oct 7, 2017 14:45
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Admiral Joeslop posted:Crits should come from a bingo card. Roll a D6 with every attack. 1-5 correspond to BINGO, 6 is nothing. Whatever number you roll on your attack/they roll on their save is the number you mark on the bingo card. Five across (no free space) is the only official way to crit but you can house rule in Squares, Four Corners, or even Full House, to adjust power levels to your liking. Wizards can even sell official 4-packs of paper bingo cards with a fantasy font, providing a steady income. roll 1d6 for the row, and 1d6 for the column. The number on the corresponding cell is the multiplier on your damage. Bing bong so simple
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Oct 7, 2017 14:57
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gradenko_2000 posted:roll 1d6 for the row, and 1d6 for the column. The number on the corresponding cell is the multiplier on your damage. Wizards can spend a Bonus Action to change the number on one of the dice after rolling. Fighters have to take a feat to reroll both dice or none.
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Oct 7, 2017 15:07
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gradenko_2000 posted:roll 1d6 for the row, and 1d6 for the column. The number on the corresponding cell is the multiplier on your damage. Have an array of numbers and let players fill in their own grid.
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Oct 7, 2017 19:10
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Serperoth posted:Speaking of campaigns and characters, a friend has been setting up a campaign where it's "everything goes", including UA, variant human, extra books, etc. No homebrew, but everything from UA to Volo's is on the table from what I know. Since UA is in play, my pick would be Mystic. They never get some of the massively campaign-altering spells that conventional casters get in the late game, but for day to day adventuring, they have a ton of useful and unique abilities. They can be built many different ways, but my favorite is to make them a support-focused character. It brings to the table very efficient healing, group initiative bonuses, the ability to essentially peek into the monster manual against any enemy, a huge variety of skill bonuses, and disables tied to uncommon (and often low) saves. By level 9, they have access to a damage + stun AOE vs. int, and they can add +10 and advantage to their own initiative rolls, meaning they're all but guaranteed to shut down a combat before any enemy gets to act. I wasn't that impressed with the Soul Knife, Nomad, or Immortal orders compared to the other three. The discipline list is really long, so here are some of my favorites: Mantle of Joy, Aura Sight, Precognition, Psychic Assault, Psionic Restoration (paired with the level 6 Order of the Avatar feature makes that heal 1d8 + int per psi point spent), Nomadic Step, Nomadic Chameleon, and Mastery of Wood and Earth. Many others are strong as well, but less universally useful.
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Oct 7, 2017 19:20
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Storm king's thunder has a character where when you bump into them in town they say their daddy is "long dead", but when you save them later your job is to go find their not dead daddy. Instead of assuming it was an error I should've decided something about giants attacking gave them a keyser soze moment and make them want revenge.
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Oct 7, 2017 19:30
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Speaking of Storm King's Thunder, I agreed to run it for my group. Any tips? It seems pretty straight forward with varying paths. I figured I'd just print/write out NPC stats when it came time to use them.
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Oct 7, 2017 23:53
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At low level is there anything to do with Paladin slots besides a basic smite?
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Oct 8, 2017 01:10
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Razorwired posted:At low level is there anything to do with Paladin slots besides a basic smite? Bless if you don't have a cleric maybe.
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Oct 8, 2017 01:31
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Razorwired posted:At low level is there anything to do with Paladin slots besides a basic smite? Bless is pretty good. Three people get 1d4 added to all their attack rolls and saving throws until someone punches you hard enough to make you forget god loves you. Do you know how much it sucks for a melee attack to whiff at low level? It really hurts. You don't even get a second attack until 5 for the classes that get them so there's no balancing it out. Plus you can't smite before you actually make contact and 1d4 helps a lot in that. Shield of faith is a bonus action where you give 2ac to someone, anyone, yourself even. If someone is for sure out of position and about to catch twelve goblin knives before they can disengage or run you can give them a lil' boost and also run in to chop a goblin at the same time. I like command, I feel like there's a lotta creative things you can do, but low level your DC to beat is gonna be about 12 unless you rolled for stats and chose to be charismatic as all hell. Basically anything that requires a saving throw is not going to be your friend, low level. I'd take it anyway and try to go for the story-based hail mary play. None of my paladins ever could hit poo poo so smiting was never really a thing I worried about. If it happens, it happens.
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Oct 8, 2017 01:35
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PicklePants posted:Speaking of Storm King's Thunder, I agreed to run it for my group. It's a little strangely structured. The book has a bunch of "beginning", almost no middle, and a lot of big setpiece endgame stuff. Instead of a concrete middle, it has a big open world with descriptions of tons of locations all over the place, without necessary much pushing the players there. The opening area ends with some quests but they're a little weak imo. What I've done so far was figure out what I wanted the players to figure out and sorta dribbled it out over time. Where they go is kinda up to them and seems a little out of my hands, I only am so convincing before it becomes railroading. The book seems to expect them to be gathering information as they go so make sure they find some stuff. That powerscore blog has a really good guide to running it. Making the random dragon who attacks the cloud castle in chapter one be the same dragon who gets captured be the cloud giants in the end has been really fun, my group ended up liking that character and going on another adventure with him later so I think they'll care when he's kidnapped.
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Oct 8, 2017 02:23
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Almost done with our CoS game and something happened during the last fight with Strahd that I had to come up with on the fly. Adding spoiler tags just incase someone is playing it. One of the players found a luck blade with 2 wish spells loaded. During the encounter, he used a wish that would take away Strahd ability to cast magic. I know the spell interpretation is up to the DM and I didnt want to just tell him that the spell failed, so I came up with a bubble of anti-magic field is centered around Strahd. Is that a fair call? I wanted to have the spell work, but also a monkeys paw kind of situation in terms of magic items now not working against him.
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Oct 8, 2017 03:20
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A fine call, in the grand old tradition of giving players exactly what they wished for, and giving it to them good and hard.
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Oct 8, 2017 04:04
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ReapersTouch posted:Almost done with our CoS game and something happened during the last fight with Strahd that I had to come up with on the fly. Adding spoiler tags just incase someone is playing it. That seems pretty fair. As bad as evil genie wish stuff can be, you've got to be a little restrictive, and this hit a good balance.
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Oct 8, 2017 05:19
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Bhodi posted:If you're talking about descriptions of places people enter, I write down a couple of adjectives "musty", "clammy", or objects "low-hanging moss", "rotted fabric", "stairs weathered uneven by traffic" I want to highlight in each section and just ad-lib the rest. I can never use the word "dank" anymore to describe a dungeon or a room because the group always dissolves into giggles.
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Oct 8, 2017 05:22
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gradenko_2000 posted:I can never use the word "dank" anymore to describe a dungeon or a room because the group always dissolves into giggles. One time, our GM was describing various temples in town. He mentioned the "Temple of Frig" and our group of teenagers couldn't stop laughing to continue.
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Oct 8, 2017 06:52
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Slippery42 posted:Since UA is in play, my pick would be Mystic. They never get some of the massively campaign-altering spells that conventional casters get in the late game, but for day to day adventuring, they have a ton of useful and unique abilities. They can be built many different ways, but my favorite is to make them a support-focused character. It brings to the table very efficient healing, group initiative bonuses, the ability to essentially peek into the monster manual against any enemy, a huge variety of skill bonuses, and disables tied to uncommon (and often low) saves. By level 9, they have access to a damage + stun AOE vs. int, and they can add +10 and advantage to their own initiative rolls, meaning they're all but guaranteed to shut down a combat before any enemy gets to act. Oh that's definitely on the table, I had no idea about the Mystic. Not too sure about how much I want to go for support rather than shutting stuff down, but it's a good recommendation regardless, much appreciated.
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Oct 8, 2017 09:54
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gradenko_2000 posted:I can never use the word "dank" anymore to describe a dungeon or a room because the group always dissolves into giggles. Sounds like a table-win for the gm.
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Oct 8, 2017 10:27
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gradenko_2000 posted:I can never use the word "dank" anymore to describe a dungeon or a room because the group always dissolves into giggles. Use this by making it a dungeon full of weed. They'll go in thinking it was just funny word choice and leave set on becoming dealers.
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Oct 8, 2017 11:47
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ZeroCount posted:So I'm joining a new 5e campaign in order to hang out with a guy but I know next to nothing about 5e beyond whatever experience with 3.5/Pathfinder gets me. I'll be playing a sorcerer. What are the best spells to grab early to make sure I'll be useful and effective in a variety of situations? Conspiratiorist posted:Fire Bolt as your main attack cantrip. Highly effective on Draconic Sorcerers. I'd like to offer some modifications to the suggested list. Shocking Grasp is your "Get Out of Melee Free" spell. As a primary caster you'll get that one quick enemy, often a flyer, who gets past your frontline meatshields to get in your face and ruin your ranged attacks by imposing Disadvantge, as well as you know, trying to kill you. Shocking Grasp lets you whack that guy for some damage and then, since it canceled his Reaction, run the hell away without taking an Attack of Opportunity to do so. Chill Touch is okay, but is much more situational than Shocking Grasp. Granted, as a Sorcerer you get a pile of cantrips so you can get both eventually, but unless you're in a campaign with a lot of Undead or Trolls, I'd take Shocking Grasp first. For the love of Mystra, take Shield. +5 AC on demand is a huge bonus that will save you tons of hit points over the course of a campaign. Similarly, the +3 AC bump from Mage Armor is really handy...unless you're a Draconic Sorceror in which case you'll get the Dragon Scales thing which is just as good and doesn't burn spell slots. Don't sleep on Levitate as an offensive spell. You can neutralize a melee-only combatant by dangling them like a pinata. Kill his buddies then use the floater for target practice. Not to mention the fact that you can also use it as a discount fly for your own team too! Hold Person is okay, but it allows your opponent a save every turn until he's free. On the other hand Suggestion only allows a new save if the target takes damage. Which mans you can use Suggestion exactly the same as a Hold Person ("It's too dangerous, I Suggest that you stand still and don't move!") except that you control when to start hitting him and giving saves. What's more, Suggestion allows so much more utility. Want to get your enemy gone? Suggest he run away. Want him to switch sides for a while? Suggest one of his buddies betrayed him. Not to mention virtually endless non-combat uses. Granted, it does depend on the player/DM interaction on what you can sell as "reasonable", but generally Mind Control is more useful than simple Paralysis. Counterspell should be one of the first two third level spells you get at 5th level. The ability to neutralize enemy spellcasting as a Reaction may not come up every fight, but when you need it you really need it. And while stretching the definition of "early" spell, one of your first fourth level spells should probably be Banishment. Almost nothing short of Angels (which you hopefully won't fight much) has a good Charisma save, so you can neutralize one enemy entirely while you beat down his friends. Extra-planar foes can be eliminated entirely if you can keep the spell going for the full minute! One thing to be aware of, though, is that you only get one Concentration spell at a time. So you can't Suggest out one guy and then Banish another without dropping the Suggestion. So as much as I like the various neutralization spells (Suggestion, Levitate, Banishment, etc) it doesn't pay to have too many of them on tap at a given time since you can't use them all at once. Mix and match as suits your playstyle. Definitely get Shield and Counterspell, though. 
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Oct 8, 2017 16:57
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As a DM, arbitrating the power of Suggestion (or related spells) is probably the one thing that gives me the biggest headache.
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Oct 8, 2017 17:44
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jng2058 posted:I'd like to offer some modifications to the suggested list. Shield is good but you have very few spell known spots early. Definitely something to pick up for 5th+ when your lowest level slots will start being relegated to utility and SP fuel. Shocking Grasp is garbage. You're a sorcerer: if an enemy gets in your face then cast a spell on it or Misty Step or just walk away - protecting yourself from the Attack of Opportunity with a Shield if it beats your AC. Or even just tank the hit if you have the HP to afford it. It's far too niche to warrant one of your cantrip slots, and cantrips cannot be exchanged later.
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Oct 8, 2017 19:59
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PicklePants posted:Speaking of Storm King's Thunder, I agreed to run it for my group. I'm literally DM'ing its starting this Wednesday. Changes I'm making, straight of the bat. I'm moving the village of Nightstone into the Sword Coast, not far from Bryn Shander. So there's no "Say do you mind taking the bad news 1000 miles away for me basically a total stranger you just rescued". I'm making the Nightstone itself a Giant Rune Magic artifact that most of the Giant factions would want and whose ownership will matter. Xolkin Alassander becomes a fire Genasi servant of the Fire Giants who comes to late to buy the artifact. Yep, he has a large credit note drawn on a reputable Dwarven bank and he's plausible and charming and going to be a reoccuring foil for the party. The Iceclan orcs who then attack will naturally be servants of the Frost Giant Jarl also coming late to steal the stone, and the party and Xolkin will (probably) team up to defeat them. Moving Nighstone means no randomly meeting Zephyros. Incidentally this is the one section of the book I really disliked . Cloud cuckoo lander giant arrives, declares you the chosen one's but won't help you but can also be persuaded to travel a 1000 miles out of his way. Also there's no way my players would agree to enter his castle without me basically telling them 'Yeah, I know this looks incredibly suspicious, but the plot says you have to, to further the adventure". They will encounter him later, but they'll actively have to track him down to find out what he knows. I'm thinking Archmage Roaringhorn in Waterdeep might be a good person to point them in that direction, but we'll see. Finally, as this is already running long, I'm also not keen on the whole God of Giants going "Bored now, let's shake things up". I'm making the Giant Gods distant and uncaring and in fact non-interference in 'small folk' affairs is the policy of the Storm Kings/Queens. A policy they are able to enforce not by the Wyrmskull throne, whose powers frankly I'm not that impressed by, but him having the 'Mantle of Rulership'. A Divine powerup which gives him strong Empyrean level stats. Which is why he's not been killed, the mantle and it's power would then pass automatically to his daughter. Her perceived weakness is what prompts certain giant lords to start pushing boundaries and enacting long held plans of their own. Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Oct 8, 2017 |
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Oct 8, 2017 20:34
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I made a Drow Eldritch Knight archer and got eaten by a kraken and died in the first session welp that's my story
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Oct 8, 2017 20:44
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Reene posted:I made a Drow Eldritch Knight archer and got eaten by a kraken and died in the first session gg close
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Oct 8, 2017 23:10
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SettingSun posted:As a DM, arbitrating the power of Suggestion (or related spells) is probably the one thing that gives me the biggest headache. Suggestion definitely isn't something my group allows as any kind of combat spell. It's used specifically as 'jedi mind trick' - "these aren't the droids you're looking for", "you want to go home and rethink your life", "leave me alone", etc.
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Oct 9, 2017 00:16
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Slippery42 posted:The DM's combats are probably most hosed. Bard + Monk is a lot of disable after the party hits level 5 (hypnotic pattern + stunning strike), and the whole party has fairly respectable damage to melt anything that doesn't get shut down in the first round of combat. To comment on this from a page back. I'm the GM and I really don't think its going to be too crazy to deal with mechanics, there just doesn't look like theres enough moving parts on the players end to really make things unwieldy. Plus since monsters are dull and uninteresting by default and the CR system is a joke I'm already yanking stuff from 4e to make fights more dynamic. It's a pain but it's better than having 'I attack' fights. Ranger is a first time rpg player so I'm definitely not getting her to change. Plus I would be embarrassed to recommend someone play a garbage warlord. I mean I could maybe accept it if the maneuvers were all just things you could do on your turn with no resource expenditure but using commanders strike as your special action just feels like a reminder that your special thing is just to make use of someone else's special thing because you're just a dumb fighter. Plus by just looking at it, the Arcane Trickster is going to be the only one making use of scrolls and wizard stuff in the group so while yeah he's still playing a rogue rather than a game changer class its a niche im not seeing too much overlap with the valor bard who is going to be likely all in on the combat stuff with a very different spell list.
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Oct 9, 2017 01:59
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Conspiratiorist posted:Shield is good but you have very few spell known spots early. Definitely something to pick up for 5th+ when your lowest level slots will start being relegated to utility and SP fuel. Pft, you should always have a melee option available. You're going to need one way more than you are a "mildly inconvenience an undead/thwart healing" spell. Most monsters don't even have a healing option! I'd also much rather do damage then walk away with a Cantrip than blow a 2nd level teleport to get out of melee at need. Also note that Shocking Grasp eliminates the target's Reactions full stop. Reactions like, say, being able to cast Shield or Counterspell or that Parry ability your more martial monsters have. It doesn't protect just you the way Misty Step does, it means you can get allies out of Opportunity Attacks too. Oh sure, if you're wandering into Ravenloft and you can expect scads of undead, Chill Touch can be handy but between the two I've seen Shocking Grasp get used and be more useful than Chill Touch by a mile. When to get Shield is a reasonable point to consider, and speaks to playstyle, but you definitely should get it before too long. jng2058 fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Oct 9, 2017 |
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Oct 9, 2017 05:39
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Any recommendations on good dice and counters? There are heaps so I don't know where to start but would like to get something a little unique.
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Oct 9, 2017 07:33
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Red_Fred posted:Any recommendations on good dice and counters? There are heaps so I don't know where to start but would like to get something a little unique. Lots of fancy dice here: https://q-workshop.com/en/ I have a set of the Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Oct 9, 2017 |
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Oct 9, 2017 09:47
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Make sure you get a set with an easily readable number. Staring at a dice for five seconds trying to read it is boring for everyone.
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Oct 9, 2017 12:06
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Admiral Joeslop posted:Make sure you get a set with an easily readable number. Staring at a dice for five seconds trying to read it is boring for everyone. I know several people who practice the opposite and have tough to read dice so they can obfuscate their rolls and just say whatever. Annoys the crap out of me but the DM never makes an issue of it. Your mileage will vary.
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Oct 9, 2017 13:23
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AlphaDog posted:Lots of fancy dice here: https://q-workshop.com/en/ Yeah, I hate most of this company's dice. I bought a set of these as gifts for my newbie D&D players, as well as another set for myself: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M9F9AA7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They look nice and they work. 
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Oct 9, 2017 13:27
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I get Gamescience dice because I like spending money, but also because they're very readable and have really clean edges like casino dice. Colors aren't that interesting but they're definitely bright.
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Oct 9, 2017 15:50
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