|
ReapersTouch posted:I wish I had remembered to look up traveling speeds for groups, to determine how long it would take them to go from location to location, instead of just rolling for encounters and having my players just sit there while I look up what they found. Then after they had the encounter, they were just instantly there. Groups by default should be able to move 20 miles a day going by the PHB.
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 03:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 16:35 |
|
|
I'm running Storm Kings Thunder and I've just stopped bothering rolling for random encounters. When travelling I just give an off the cuff 60 second travelogue and *bamf* they're there. We've limited time to play, it's a long campaign, why waste the time. Particularly since if it is a combat encounter, it'll be the epitome of the 15 minute adventure and they'll just unload with everything they have. I will occasionally run a 'something interesting/dangerous/drama' happens en route, but scripted in advance, never random stuff.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 11:46
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:We've limited time to play, it's a long campaign, why waste the time. Particularly since if it is a combat encounter, it'll be the epitome of the 15 minute adventure and they'll just unload with everything they have. That’s a good call. I enjoyed random encounters as a lvl 10+ caster because it was a good chance to blow my wad with little risk but combat takes so drat long. I’m running a table of 5-7 players and I’m so glad they don’t murderhobo everything they come across. I do feel silly avoiding combat when those are the majority of the rules aside from spell descriptions but 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 12:52
|
|
|
Ryuujin posted:Removing the minis of Invisible units is probably a bad idea because Invisibility doesn't do what a lot of people assume. 99% of the time you still know EXACTLY where an Invisible enemy is. Unless they use an Action to Hide. I would argue that in 5e, the rules for being hidden vs. invisible are stupid as gently caress. Invisible things might make noise, but knowing exactly where that noise is coming from? In a dimly lit, echoing dungeon? In a giant field of soft grass?
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 14:52
|
|
|
Yeah when my party travels its via modded fishing boat and the captain asks every time if the party wants to go fast or quiet. If they pick Fast he turns on the engine and I throw an encounter foreshadowing the point of the adventure. For instance there's an ancient white dragon trapped in a big dragon golem at the bottom of the dungeon they're currently in. So I had a regular white dragon attack the ship becaise she was also hunting for the dungeon and saw the party when she got hungry. The party doesn't know that information but hopefully when they meet Ancient Dragon Golem it'll click that I didn't just throw a Random Dragon at them. If they had chosen Quiet and sailed to the dungeon I would have had the rival NPC school there with a team before the party. Rangers, surveyors, maybe an arcane excavation vehicle that would be nasty boss fight.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 15:59
|
|
|
Hello guys, me and a group of friends are newbies to D&D and I was hoping for some clarification on the monk's unarmed strike as me and the DM aren't really sure about something. Do I still get the dex bonus for unarmed strike if I use it as a bonus action? Right now we're all low level so my main attacking strategy is to whack 'em with my sword and then follow up with an unarmed strike as the bonus action. Up till now my DM has said I don't get the dex bonus if I use it as a bonus action but 1d4 seems like a pitiful amount of damage.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 16:21
|
|
|
Frankston posted:Hello guys, me and a group of friends are newbies to D&D and I was hoping for some clarification on the monk's unarmed strike as me and the DM aren't really sure about something. Do I still get the dex bonus for unarmed strike if I use it as a bonus action? Right now we're all low level so my main attacking strategy is to whack 'em with my sword and then follow up with an unarmed strike as the bonus action. Up till now my DM has said I don't get the dex bonus if I use it as a bonus action but 1d4 seems like a pitiful amount of damage. You do, there's nothing special about bonus action unarmed strikes. They're just unarmed strikes but you get to do them as an unusual action type.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 16:27
|
|
|
If you were anyone else using two weapons to fight then by default the bonus action attack would be without the modifier.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 16:52
|
|
|
Frankston posted:Hello guys, me and a group of friends are newbies to D&D and I was hoping for some clarification on the monk's unarmed strike as me and the DM aren't really sure about something. Do I still get the dex bonus for unarmed strike if I use it as a bonus action? Right now we're all low level so my main attacking strategy is to whack 'em with my sword and then follow up with an unarmed strike as the bonus action. Up till now my DM has said I don't get the dex bonus if I use it as a bonus action but 1d4 seems like a pitiful amount of damage. Your DM is grossly misinterpreting the Two-Weapon Fighting rules found on page 195. Point out to him that denying the ability modifier to damage applies specifically to the Bonus Action attack you're permitted to make when you're holding a melee weapon in one hand, which you use for an Attack action, and are also holding a melee weapon in the other hand. Nothing else. No other source of Bonus Action attacks (Martial Arts, Flurry of Blows, War Priest, Frenzy, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Crossbow Expert, etc) is mentioned by nor references this rule.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 16:55
|
|
|
Frankston posted:Hello guys, me and a group of friends are newbies to D&D and I was hoping for some clarification on the monk's unarmed strike as me and the DM aren't really sure about something. Do I still get the dex bonus for unarmed strike if I use it as a bonus action? Right now we're all low level so my main attacking strategy is to whack 'em with my sword and then follow up with an unarmed strike as the bonus action. Up till now my DM has said I don't get the dex bonus if I use it as a bonus action but 1d4 seems like a pitiful amount of damage. That only applies when a class is attacking with an off-hand melee weapon. Monks are a special case in that right out of the gate they can attack using an unarmed attack as a bonus action when they take an attack action. Their damage for unarmed attacks is based on the table included in their PHB section. They always add their DEX Mod. to their damage for these attacks. Also, for what it's worth, you should be two-handing a quarterstaff for d8 + DEX Mod. damage, then using your bonus action to kick/headbutt/elbow/whatever, for your follow-up d4 + DEX Mod. attack. Monks actually start out as some of the best melee damage dealers in the game and gradually transition out of that role into an enemy debuffing, or super stealthy trickster type as they level up into their archetype of choice.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:50
|
|
|
You know what's a neat and thoroughly under-explored area of D&D poo poo? Hags and their connection to IRL traditions of "cunning folk" and midwifery and medicine and infanticide and all that. Anyone know of any neat homebrew/third-party material that goes into that without being the Witcher's loving "botchlings?"
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 21:21
|
|
|
Nehru the Damaja posted:You know what's a neat and thoroughly under-explored area of D&D poo poo? Hags and their connection to IRL traditions of "cunning folk" and midwifery and medicine and infanticide and all that. I was about to say Volo's Guide to Monsters, but then noticed you said third party. So my best offering is mythological sources of Hags. Black Annis, Jenny Greenteeth, the Old Hag (The Old Hag being a inspiration for Night Hags a being that sits on your chest and gives you nightmares.) I know 2e had an article on Night Hags called the Pox of the Planes. But I can't really think of any third party material.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 21:38
|
|
|
doctor 7 posted:Also, for what it's worth, you should be two-handing a quarterstaff I have a question about monks using quarterstaffs two handed: the martial arts section does specify that monk weapons are simple weapons without the two handed tag (quarterstaff is Versitile), everything in this category is d6 except for the quarterstaff when used two handed. For my Monk I had assumed the spirit of the rule was that my damage dice were smaller than your average martial, but my double (or triple) attacks allowed me to apply my ability modifier as damage way more frequently than... any other class? Obviously the quarter staff is a monk weapon, so by the rules as written it satisfies the criteria of martial arts no matter which mode you attack in. Using it in two hands and then kicking things is plenty fitting for a monk as well, I suppose.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 22:58
|
|
|
BurlapNapkin posted:For my Monk I had assumed the spirit of the rule was that my damage dice were smaller than your average martial, but my double (or triple) attacks allowed me to apply my ability modifier as damage way more frequently than... any other class? Obviously the quarter staff is a monk weapon, so by the rules as written it satisfies the criteria of martial arts no matter which mode you attack in. Using it in two hands and then kicking things is plenty fitting for a monk as well, I suppose. Fresh out of chargen a human Fighter wielding a quarterstaff can outdamage your Monk while enjoying more HP and AC, so don't you worry about the spirit of the rule. Dungeons & Dragons: The Fifth One is so shoddily designed that attempting to interpret designer intent should be reserved for schadenfreude purposes only. These are guys that contradict each other all the loving time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 23:10
|
|
|
BurlapNapkin posted:I have a question about monks using quarterstaffs two handed: the martial arts section does specify that monk weapons are simple weapons without the two handed tag (quarterstaff is Versitile), everything in this category is d6 except for the quarterstaff when used two handed. If anyone tells you you can't 2 hand that staff, hit them with the staff, and never ever let it go. Unless you're Kensai
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 23:10
|
|
|
I've played a druid character that was effectively a presentation of the good village witch archetype and you could fluff your way there via some conceptual cleric.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 23:30
|
|
|
CaPensiPraxis posted:I've played a druid character that was effectively a presentation of the good village witch archetype and you could fluff your way there via some conceptual cleric.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 23:38
|
|
|
Necromancer who is more of a therapist to the restless dead than a cackling master of skellingtons.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 00:01
|
|
|
Razorwired posted:Necromancer who is more of a therapist to the restless dead than a cackling master of skellingtons. I had a similar concept for a character but then we moved the characters into Storm King's Thunder and it felt like I rarely came across any dead.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 00:30
|
|
|
There was a brief flash of "necromancer as conduit between positive and negative planes" back during the 2e/planescape era. (Or whatever language works for you.) That gave space to let them move into a more hybrid healing/lifeforce-moving kind of thing instead of just "Skeletons and vampire touch all day".
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 00:46
|
|
|
I really wish there were more options for spectre-summoning necromancers that DIDN'T explode the game by letting you get an army of self-replicating shadows.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 01:06
|
|
|
Pets just don't work under 5e.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 01:43
|
|
|
Conspiratiorist posted:Pets just don't work under 5e. At this point my friends that want to “try dungeon and dragons” might get to have me DM them a game of Shadow of the Demon Lord with how many times I’ve read a post along these lines about 5e.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 01:50
|
|
|
Razorwired posted:Necromancer who is more of a therapist to the restless dead than a cackling master of skellingtons. FRINGE posted:There was a brief flash of "necromancer as conduit between positive and negative planes" back during the 2e/planescape era. (Or whatever language works for you.) That gave space to let them move into a more hybrid healing/lifeforce-moving kind of thing instead of just "Skeletons and vampire touch all day". I've had this concept for clerics of a god of the dead who is more in line with the classical representation of Hades as a manager of the dead. There's a plane/realm/whatever for the living, and one for the dead. Bad things happen if a spirit lingers in the realm of the living, and the clerics have a duty to go around and set things right. The idea would be that creating skeletons/zombies/undead-of-choice is more like checking out a piece of equipment, and that there are consequences for those who don't follow some rules with the undead they make.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 02:07
|
|
|
Mr. Humalong posted:At this point my friends that want to “try dungeon and dragons” might get to have me DM them a game of Shadow of the Demon Lord with how many times I’ve read a post along these lines about 5e. Well, SotDL is aware pets are cancer and so heavily restricts them: there's only a few, and they're high level features.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 02:12
|
|
|
Nehru the Damaja posted:You know what's a neat and thoroughly under-explored area of D&D poo poo? Hags and their connection to IRL traditions of "cunning folk" and midwifery and medicine and infanticide and all that. Nanny Pupu from Tomb of Annihilation gets a bit of a blurb in that regard but yeah, this is a relatively unexplored area.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 02:22
|
|
|
BurlapNapkin posted:I have a question about monks using quarterstaffs two handed: the martial arts section does specify that monk weapons are simple weapons without the two handed tag (quarterstaff is Versitile), everything in this category is d6 except for the quarterstaff when used two handed. It's fine. Confirmed via. Crawford it is working as written and intended. Quarterstaff is even listed as a weapon for monks to use in their synopsis. Really they have gone to lengths to say an unarmed attack is not limited to having an empty hand. You can headbutt, elbow, kick, knee, whatever so long as it makes sense. When you actually calculate out damage Monk two-handing a staff will only out damage everyone else at level 5. After that it is a two weapon fighter (using Dual Wielder feat) until level 11 or so when GWF evens out with TWF.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 03:07
|
|
|
Nehru the Damaja posted:You know what's a neat and thoroughly under-explored area of D&D poo poo? Hags and their connection to IRL traditions of "cunning folk" and midwifery and medicine and infanticide and all that. You could splice Plansescape Torments ideas of Really Major Hags with some of the white wolf concepts around Baba Yaga. (Story wise, obviously the mechanics are not useful for this.) Thats more the demigod end of the spectrum than "scary old women in the woods" though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 03:35
|
|
|
doctor 7 posted:When you actually calculate out damage Monk two-handing a staff will only out damage everyone else at level 5. After that it is a two weapon fighter (using Dual Wielder feat) until level 11 or so when GWF evens out with TWF. Feats are a thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 03:41
|
|
|
I'm angling toward the cunning folk thing because I want my Feywild campaign to include stuff about how mundane human society interacts with the Fey. Since nearly all of it is actually taking place on the fairy plane, the idea is that most "civilized" visitors from the material plane who either want or have to make a living in the Feywild have moved to the domain of Autumn, a place with prosperous human villages, bountiful harvests and a seasonal throne that is mercifully empty. So that's where players will run into the spookier end of folklore and fairy tales. I'll definitely have some proper hags, but I wanna have some more ordinary cunning folk so they can interact with that kind of stuff without imminent fights and so that when they meet proper hags, it's grisly and alien and horrifying.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 03:57
|
|
|
Do the Discworld witches, who are all Warlocks in universe, and who owe their patronage to a Baba Yaga like figure, or figures (a big bad or bads if you want to develop it that way). Since it is Fey, make the witches more nuetral than good and you can have them do something like always collect the bodies of the dead, including from childbirth, and present them as gifts to their patrons. I feel like you could get a lot of mileage out of tgat premise/setup.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 11:54
|
|
|
Dameius posted:Do the Discworld witches, who are all Warlocks in universe, and who owe their patronage to a Baba Yaga like figure, or figures (a big bad or bads if you want to develop it that way).
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 12:50
|
|
|
So after like 20 years of DMing and playing D&D I'm finally in a party that has found an Immovable Rod Regale me with all of the cool poo poo we can do with it that I might not be thinking about
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 13:37
|
|
|
Waffles Inc. posted:So after like 20 years of DMing and playing D&D I'm finally in a party that has found an Immovable Rod
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 13:41
|
|
|
Waffles Inc. posted:So after like 20 years of DMing and playing D&D I'm finally in a party that has found an Immovable Rod
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 13:50
|
|
|
Splicer posted:Ask your GM what reference frame it's immovable in. I once asked this in a Hackmaster game. The answer was "The fates frown on a smartarse."
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 14:00
|
|
|
Waffles Inc. posted:So after like 20 years of DMing and playing D&D I'm finally in a party that has found an Immovable Rod Which version? I know one that can only take certain amount of weight before it gives in. If no such limit put it inside a boat underneath waterline for shits n giggles. Also if no weight limit build a castle in the sky on it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 14:00
|
|
|
Valtonen posted:Which version? I know one that can only take certain amount of weight before it gives in. If no such limit put it inside a boat underneath waterline for shits n giggles. It's 5e, looks like 8k pounds Splicer posted:Ask your GM what reference frame it's immovable in. I laughed out loud at putting the rod in place and having it immediately fly off at the planet's rotational speed
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 14:07
|
|
|
So many think about planetary rotation speed, so few think about speed of the world as it moves about the sun, or overall solar system or galaxy. That said I guess in DnD most worlds don't take place in proper planetary systems - at least not in a way that most characters can reasonably figure out. I dunno how orbits work in Spelljammer!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 15:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 16:35 |
|
|
Waffles Inc. posted:I laughed out loud at putting the rod in place and having it immediately fly off at the planet's rotational speed Or slam straight down through the planet at atrociously high speed, causing massive explosions and volcanoes on both sides.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 15:18
|
|
