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Kaysette posted:I haven’t done it but I’ve thought about a town that works like the one in Hot Fuzz. Idyllic on the outside because of homicidal psychos maintaining the Greater Good. I think there was a Fallout 3 settlement like that too. This is pretty much it. You'd maybe have a regional law guy, which might be a local Lord, a Sheriff (of Nottingham), town magistrate, whatever. For minor stuff it's probably just complaints delivered, one person's word against another unless someone has proof. Depending on the exact laws and the person overseeing, that could mean things are lawless, super strict, corrupt as hell, etc. In DND, you might see a Cleric or some other divination type as part of the system, someone able to actually determine the truth. For violent criminals though, maybe a local watch exists that's effectively a mini militia that would respond to fires or any other big disturbance? Maybe they have a couple people at the gates at night, if there even are any for the town?
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Jan 10, 2018 22:01
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The Gate posted:You'd maybe have a regional law guy, which might be a local Lord, a Sheriff (of Nottingham), Please no cops.
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Jan 10, 2018 22:27
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I asked Reddit for ideas or experiences running towns that don't have "town guards" i.e. modern cops dressed up in a historical fashion. That mode of policing is ahistorical and while I don't think it's necessary to be accurate to medieval history, I was curious to see what it was like for people who ran worlds without cops. Consider something like the Frankpledge (and also the Hue and Cry), which was a sort of neighborhood watch/good bevahior system in Norman-controlled Britain. It does presume the existence of some sort of feudal official appointed by a local lord to work.
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Jan 10, 2018 23:06
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He means a pseudo-neighborhood watch, I think. Citizens that organize among themselves. Not cops.
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Jan 10, 2018 23:07
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We're doing something like this: Feudalism, more or less. The "town watch" or "city guard" doesn't exist as a discrete organisation. If you're not a noble, it's unlikely that you'll interact with any kind of law that's not enforced by a noble's soldiers or houseguards. If you're in trouble with them for any reason, punishment will be arbitrary and harsh. Outside of cities, officials are tax collectors, census takers, record keepers etc. If enforcement is needed, the local noble will send troops, and that's usually a disaster. Local custom keeps most folks more or less in line, and you will be socially shunned if you keep on loving up. Serious crimes usually involve locals hauling the offender to whatever official is nearest, and then in front of the lord, where "justice" is swift and harsh. Inside cities is much the same, with different noble's house-guards "patrolling" different areas. Official law enforcement consists of "You were unlucky enough that someone's houseguards were around and hauled you in because you were obvious about it and/or didn't bribe them properly". There's a set of unwritten rules for both law-abiding and criminal citizens. Think of "the game" in The Wire. It's far more likely for the average citizen to fall afoul of a local gang's rules than it is for them to have any interaction with "official" law enforcement. So poo poo keeps moving in the countryside because everyone knows what's expected of them and the people more or less police themselves. poo poo keeps moving in the city for the same reasons, but instead of being beaten up and run out of town by a group of farmers and laborers, you'll be beaten up and told to stay away from the south west side by a group of organised criminals. I use "criminals" in a loose sense here, to mean anyone who's somehow getting by without being a peasant/serf and also without being a noble or a noble-owned business, because those people pretty much count as organised criminals by definition. Also people who run a noble-owned business that's not OK with the next noble up the chain. This makes the line between "a government owned shipping company" and "a gang of fences, smugglers and dealers" very blurry indeed. That said, the whole theme of the game is about rebelling against the incredibly hosed up system, so it might not work real well if you want to do a game about slaying actual dragons to save the world. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Jan 10, 2018 |
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Jan 10, 2018 23:48
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Kor posted:So, I've got some questions about a character build. Dual-wielding doesn't work with Hexblade's CHA to melee by the rules. From an optimization perspective, my recommendation on a half-elf would be STR 10, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10 and CHA 17, using the free feat for either Elven Accuracy (adding the +1 to CHA) or Polearm Master. DEX 14 for the best AC on Medium Armor, CON as high as possible for better HP and concentration checks, and CHA is of course your main combat stat. STR/INT/WIS you can swap however you wish but WIS saves are the most common and STR 10 is required to jump 10ft gaps. INT is the most useless stat in the system. A quarterstaff + shield setup works perfectly with Hexblade's CHA to melee feature, with the Sword Bard Dueling Fighting Style, and Polearm Master's functionality while giving you more AC to shore up your defenses. As for when to dip Warlock, after Bard 3 or Bard 6 are both good spots. Lastly regarding how many Warlock levels to get, just the 1 works well giving you the Hexblade features good combat spells like Eldritch Blast/Hex/Armor of Agathys, and delays your Bard progression the least, but 2 levels grants you access to invocations - Agonizing Blast if you want to improve your ranged combat ability and something else for utility like Devil's Sight. I'd personally go with 1 for this kind of build.
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Jan 11, 2018 01:15
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I wish there was some similar feat to polarm master for swords. I love the functionality of PAM but hate that to get it I have to be a paladin with a stick. I know you can reflavor and stuff but you're still doing bludgeoning damage so I'd have to hope DM is cool with me re flavoring it as a smaller Warhammer. The way that polarm master is written really seems like an oversight was made by allowing quarterstaffs to use the feat. I feel like it should only be for reach weapons. Alternatively, it should also apply to spear.
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Jan 11, 2018 01:35
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What's the general verdict on the Shepherd and Dream Druids from Xanathar's? I don't know the system well enough to assess whether they do anything especially cool. (Yes I know Moon Druid is the big thing)
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Jan 11, 2018 01:47
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Conspiratiorist posted:Dual-wielding doesn't work with Hexblade's CHA to melee by the rules. This is not entirely true. While generally true, as you can only have one weapon set up as your Hexblade at a time, there is an exception. Hexblade specifically calls out Pact of the Blade. Your Pact Weapon from Pact of the Blade always counts as a Hexblade weapon. Even if it is a weapon type that Hexblade doesn't normally work with like two-handed weapons. It also means if you set a weapon as your Hexblade weapon, then use Pact of the Blade to create another weapon both would count as Hexblade weapons, both would use Cha for attack and damage, and if they are light or you have Dual Wielder you can dual wield.
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Jan 11, 2018 01:48
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evenworse username posted:What's the general verdict on the Shepherd and Dream Druids from Xanathar's? I don't know the system well enough to assess whether they do anything especially cool. Play Shepherd if you want to give your DM ulcers while also slowing down the combat so much the rest of the party will hate you, while also not being terribly effective after the early game. Dream Druids are ok but not terribly exciting, it mostly focuses on utility powers. Good if your DM is planning for a big long dungeon or if he's the type of DM that LOVES springing ambushes on a party if it dares to even take a short rest. While the stuff they get isn't necessarily BAD, a wizard could do much the same stuff they could while ALSO being better at blastin' and such.
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Jan 11, 2018 03:43
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Raar_Im_A_Dinosaur posted:I wish there was some similar feat to polarm master for swords. I love the functionality of PAM but hate that to get it I have to be a paladin with a stick. I know you can reflavor and stuff but you're still doing bludgeoning damage so I'd have to hope DM is cool with me re flavoring it as a smaller Warhammer. Yeah, neither of my groups use damage types and basically just re-skin whatever weapon's mechanically good into whatever we're imagining. One of my PCs is a pimpin' landsknecht. His doppelhander counts is a reskinned halberd, because hey, it's about 6' long, same as a halberd, and there's no good reason it shouldn't do much the same stuff. My other guy carries a warhammer that's a reskinned halberd, for similar reasons. Another PC uses a "spear" that's a reskinned quarterstaff, and yet another uses a chakri dang (again, a halberd). Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Jan 11, 2018 |
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Jan 11, 2018 03:45
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What do you folks think about allowing fighters and such to just take a second archetype at, say, 5th level (or w/e is best balanced) as a simple patch to give them some more options vs casters? I could look into what others have changed / write a ton of homebrew but then i also have to get players to take the time to learn it.
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Jan 11, 2018 04:49
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Axxslinger posted:What do you folks think about allowing fighters and such to just take a second archetype at, say, 5th level (or w/e is best balanced) as a simple patch to give them some more options vs casters? One of my groups gives fighters Champion + one other archetype. I'm not DM, but it seems to work out OK from the players perspective and it doesn't seem to make it much tougher on the DM (that said, the DM there has been running RPGs for something like 20 years, so experience might play in a bit) . If I were DMing, I'd let people do Battlemaster + one other archetype instead, which I've heard quite a few people do. I'm pretty sure some of them post here. Both of my groups start PCs at least at level 3, usually level 5, so "when should they get it" isn't really a thing, but I'd think you could give out the (whichever you choose) stuff when the other archetype is chosen. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jan 11, 2018 |
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Jan 11, 2018 04:57
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Axxslinger posted:What do you folks think about allowing fighters and such to just take a second archetype at, say, 5th level (or w/e is best balanced) as a simple patch to give them some more options vs casters? The issues with martials are simplicity of play (lack of meaningful combat options) and lack of declarative narrative power. Just blanket giving them a bonus archetype makes them stronger in combat but does little to address the former issue and nothing towards the latter.
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Jan 11, 2018 04:58
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Conspiratiorist posted:The issues with martials are simplicity of play (lack of meaningful combat options) and lack of declarative narrative power. Just blanket giving them a bonus archetype makes them stronger in combat but does little to address the former issue and nothing towards the latter. On the other hand, a lot of groups do most (or all) of their rules interaction during combat, so broadening the fighter from "I hit" can help quite a bit. e: You can do that by giving everyone Champion so that they've got a baseline increase in effectiveness and their choice of archetype can then be about what looks/feels cool, or getting utility, or whatever. Or you can give everyone Battlemaster, which increases effectiveness and provides a broader ability base and then let them go for +numbers with Champion or +cool with whatever other thing from wherever. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jan 11, 2018 |
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Jan 11, 2018 05:02
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Axxslinger posted:What do you folks think about allowing fighters and such to just take a second archetype at, say, 5th level (or w/e is best balanced) as a simple patch to give them some more options vs casters? I'd turn it around: everyone gets Battlemaster at level 3.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:05
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Axxslinger posted:What do you folks think about allowing fighters and such to just take a second archetype at, say, 5th level (or w/e is best balanced) as a simple patch to give them some more options vs casters? I gave the samurai fighter in my campaign the Battle Master archetype with 2 maneuvers of his choice and 2 maneuvers I made to fit the Samurai flavor. This was the best solution I came up with without major overhauling homebrew.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:07
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I asked Reddit for ideas or experiences running towns that don't have "town guards" i.e. modern cops dressed up in a historical fashion. That mode of policing is ahistorical and while I don't think it's necessary to be accurate to medieval history, I was curious to see what it was like for people who ran worlds without cops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohortes_urbanae quote:Their primary role was to police Rome and counteract roaming mobs and gangs that often haunted its streets during the Republic. The urban cohorts thus acted as a heavy duty police force, capable of riot control duties, while their contemporaries, the Vigiles, policed the streets and fought fires. A lot of "cities" in games are more like city-states, and would have something like an actual military anyway. If the local rulers want to keep order then they would be patrolling (even if it was perimeter/roadways). tldr: For me, usually: Small village settings no real guards. Big cities yes guards.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:09
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AlphaDog posted:On the other hand, a lot of groups do most (or all) of their rules interaction during combat, so broadening the fighter from "I hit" can help quite a bit. It'd work okay if the Fighter was the only martial in the party.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:09
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Conspiratiorist posted:It'd work okay if the Fighter was the only martial in the party. Giving all martials the Battlemaster archetype would not be a bad start.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:12
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Conspiratiorist posted:It'd work okay if the Fighter was the only martial in the party. Because it'd make them a whole lot better than say a rogue? Yeah. It seems like you could give the maneuver/dice Battlemaster features to every martial character (I'm thinking fighter/rogue/barbarian and maybe monk), but then fighters would still be the most boring class. Maybe "most boring" isn't an issue as long as it's not as dull as a Champion?
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Jan 11, 2018 05:13
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Honestly, give all marshals maneuvers, spice them up by making custom ones unique to their archetype. My custom samurai ones were: When you take the dodge action on your turn, you can expend one superiority dice to increase your AC by the rolled amount until the beginning of your next turn. If a creature makes an attack roll against you and misses during that time, you may expend your reaction to immediately make one melee attack against that creature. When you take the dash action during you turn and move atleast 10 feet in a straight line towards a creature, you may expend a superiority dice to make a melee attack against that creature. You add the superiority dice to the attack's damage roll and move up to 10 feet past that creature.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:34
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evenworse username posted:What's the general verdict on the Shepherd and Dream Druids from Xanathar's? I don't know the system well enough to assess whether they do anything especially cool. Dream Druid is pretty good for party support. What you are really getting is Healing Word as a bonus action multiple times per day, for free. It's almost like it says "You have your druid level in extra 1st-level spell slots". It's analogous to the land druid's extra slots they can recover, but front-loaded. And it doesn't count as a spell so you can still cast normally - a restriction that sucks when using Healing Word, since you can only cast a cantrip afterwards. So you could pull off a decent burst heal of Balm plus a Cure Wounds, or a Balm and a debuff/attack spell of choice. You won't need to prepare Healing Word, so that's like +1 spell known. The higher level stuff like teleports and the short rest invisa-sphere is neat too. Their capstone is basically a WoW hearthstone, able to teleport the party back to wherever you last slept. That means no one has to waste a slot on preparing and casting Word of Recall (6th level). What dream druids don't get is an enhanced spell list. So you would have to weigh the slot recovery and bonus spells of a land druid vs the slots saved from not spamming Healing Word. Shepard is ok at first, but then it buffs summoning spells which are already a pain in the rear end for everyone at the table. Their 'speak with beasts' ability is normally a 10-minute ritual (and a prepared slot lost) but it's always-on for shepards. Prepare animal friendship and you'll always have cool pets, be able to talk to dogs about what's going on, chat with the birds about how many kobolds are in the area, etc. Spirit totem is good too. Unicorn basically turns your Healing Word spell into a mass heal, starting at level 2. If no one's hurt, you still have the versatility of either THP from Bear totem or advantage from Hawk. After that, it's all bonuses to summoning spells. If you play one, for the love of god have your poo poo together and have the statblocks ready, use average damage, and strongly consider using the mob rules in the DMG if you have 36 rats or whatever. Both druids get wild shape but it's more of a problem-solving ability instead of a combat ability for them. Dream druids will probably use it to solve exploration things, turn into a cat to spy on a room full of people, a mouse under the door to unlock it from the other side, that sort of thing. It's more of a social ability for shepards (turn into bird, talk to birdies).
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Jan 11, 2018 06:02
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AlphaDog posted:We're doing something like this: Sooooo Bretonnia from warhammer (Even if it isnt theres some good rear end ideas to crib like crafty farmer villages who trick their lords into pointing their swords and attention away from the village so they can actually get some farming done, and merchants who are, by definition of law, criminals and the nobility are forbidden from such work, but the country needs them to function so you get nobles publically insulting and demeaning them, but then begging them for money in secret.)
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Jan 11, 2018 13:06
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gradenko_2000 posted:Giving all martials the Battlemaster archetype would not be a bad start. On this very subject I've just updated Nort's Universal Martial Maneuvers to v1.1 on DM's Guild. You'll see in that document all martials given superiority dice and maneuvers.  The main feedback from my table and others including Magil Zeal was to make maneuvers distinctive for each class, so I've added ability and class prerequisites as well as bonuses for possessing exploitable skills and to a lesser extent weapon types. The next update will be the big work of new maneuvers tailored to classes and new maneuvers for the fighter in the social aspects of the game with a view towards developing the fighter as a military leader. I've also added a Basics version which is pay what you want. It's the v1 version which will not update as frequently. I'd love to hear more feedback from some of you that are calling for this kind of thing. If you think it's on the right track leave a positive review and I'll work harder at it. clusterfuck fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Jan 11, 2018 |
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Jan 11, 2018 13:22
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Sooooo Given the DM's background it wouldn't surprise me if it was either a fairly high-effort extrapolation of some obscure part of Europe or cribbed directly from warhammer. I wouldn't be able to tell either way.
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Jan 11, 2018 13:30
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AlphaDog posted:We're doing something like this: I'd take it one step further. Tax officials operate under an official token from the crown that they purchase, ala the British system. Sheriffs operate the same way, but they get their muscle from noblemen's personal guards. In cities, various nobles fight over the prestige position of bribing the sheriff to let their guards be used because the guarss can wear the noble's tabbard to promote their house over others and also be in place to collect and share bribes with the sheriff, etc... In smaller towns, there'd be the one sheriff and noble who'd be covering for a larger geographic region that inclused multiple towns and probably, at most a single "guard" that is really a local farmer or smith or something who geta to cosplay soldier every now and then. Regardless, have that system all tie into your, "Justice will be swift, harsh, and arbitrary," system, because the Sherriff has total atonomy under fiat of the Crown to keep peace and order. But this way you can easily get a ton of plot hooks on demand by doing even a shallow dive into the political backstabbing and maneuvering that'd be going on.
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Jan 11, 2018 13:46
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I asked Reddit for ideas or experiences running towns that don't have "town guards" i.e. modern cops dressed up in a historical fashion. That mode of policing is ahistorical and while I don't think it's necessary to be accurate to medieval history, I was curious to see what it was like for people who ran worlds without cops. I understand you're looking for RPG experiences here but this is almost exactly what my PhD was about so if you're interested I can write some words.
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Jan 11, 2018 15:17
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The DM for my campaign helped spice up Champions a bit by giving them the option for several weapon-focused feats not in the PHB.quote:Blade Mastery – You have mastered long-bladed weapons, including the shortsword, longsword, scimitar, rapier, and greatsword. You gain the following benefits when wielding one of these weapons: While the downside is that picking one of these feats really locks you into using that class of weapon for the duration of the campaign, I feel it adds a little bit of Battlemaster to the Champion class (or any other martial class).
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Jan 11, 2018 16:31
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CobiWann posted:The DM for my campaign helped spice up Champions a bit by giving them the option for several weapon-focused feats not in the PHB. I like the UA these are from because they include the designer’s logic behind them. Not that you’ll necessarily agree with it...
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Jan 11, 2018 16:48
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evenworse username posted:I understand you're looking for RPG experiences here but this is almost exactly what my PhD was about so if you're interested I can write some words. I would be really interested
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Jan 11, 2018 16:50
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evenworse username posted:I understand you're looking for RPG experiences here but this is almost exactly what my PhD was about so if you're interested I can write some words. poo poo yes I'd be interested
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Jan 11, 2018 17:28
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Nehru the Damaja posted:poo poo yes I'd be interested Not an empty quote.
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Jan 11, 2018 17:29
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evenworse username posted:I understand you're looking for RPG experiences here but this is almost exactly what my PhD was about so if you're interested I can write some words. I'm not that guy but holy poo poo  please
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Jan 11, 2018 17:31
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Throwing my "Yes please" on the pile.
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Jan 11, 2018 17:34
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Kaysette posted:I like the UA these are from because they include the designer’s logic behind them. Not that you’ll necessarily agree with it... Ah! I didn't realized they were from a UA. I see where the designer is coming from though - the abilities with the feats do tie in with what the weapon "can/should" do. My 1st level Fighter has Blade Mastery and I do like the fact that I have some kind of option to use my reaction early on in the character's life.
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Jan 11, 2018 18:18
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I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm finding the CR system for setting up encounters...wanting. Any tips for calibrating encounters for players?
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Jan 11, 2018 18:52
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Radio Talmudist posted:I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm finding the CR system for setting up encounters...wanting. Any tips for calibrating encounters for players? gradenko provides: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?action=showpost&postid=465469711
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Jan 11, 2018 19:34
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Thank you for this!
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Jan 11, 2018 20:05
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evenworse username posted:I understand you're looking for RPG experiences here but this is almost exactly what my PhD was about so if you're interested I can write some words. Also yes!
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Jan 12, 2018 00:30
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