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MonsterEnvy posted:One of the Monsters from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes got it's page previewed. Treacherous WotC! Thats obviously a Greater Ethereal Dreadnought.!
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 09:44 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 13:25 |
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gandhichan posted:Not sure if this is the right place for Original Content but I thought it'd be fun to share, at least as a testament to our group's kind of scary dedication. My girlfriend's an artist, and she took it upon herself to do portraits for the PCs/key NPCs of the heavily homebrewed/expanded LMoP game we're in. Enjoying Ed Sheerelf and Idris Elborc
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 14:02 |
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AlphaDog posted:...how do the so-called normal ones grab on, then? Ballfingers
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 14:55 |
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I'm glad that to this day they never altered the face of the Dreadnaught so every time I look at it I just see a cacodemon. Thank you Id for ripping off your influences in style.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 17:04 |
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Is it just me or apart from the fluff, is that monster kinda... dull? Strip away all the Astral Plane bits and you have a big sack of hit points that claws, bites, has a beholder antimagic eye and sometimes does a little psychic damage burst. I guess the banish part is unique.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 21:48 |
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Being able to grab people out of sstral travel and then disable all their magic poo poo and snip them in half is pretty cool. I'm a wizard and I expect to die that way.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 21:52 |
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Razakai posted:Is it just me or apart from the fluff, is that monster kinda... dull? Strip away all the Astral Plane bits and you have a big sack of hit points that claws, bites, has a beholder antimagic eye and sometimes does a little psychic damage burst. I guess the banish part is unique. It's always been a brute. The issue is that you will be fighting it a in place that you can't easily fight it in. It can disable all of your magic, banish troublesome characters, and eat people which can leave them dying in a place the party can't aid them in. The fact that it flies and has powerful attacks means that it's really hard to hit back, as most flight relies on magic that won't work if the beast is looking at you. There is also the risk of it instantly killing you if you came via Astral Projection, or of it destroying your ship if you are traveling by Astral Ship. In terms of hit points it actually has lower then average for it's CR, instead focusing more on it's offence. Edit: It can also be a great complication to an already going Astral Plane encounter. Like say if the party is currently in a ship to ship battle against some Githyanki pirates and this thing comes in to make the fight even more complicated. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Apr 12, 2018 |
# ? Apr 12, 2018 22:02 |
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Seems pretty rad to me but I have no clue what the cutting of lines is all about
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 22:53 |
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Novum posted:Seems pretty rad to me but I have no clue what the cutting of lines is all about
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 22:57 |
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Novum posted:Seems pretty rad to me but I have no clue what the cutting of lines is all about "...this chord is your tether to your material body. As long as the tether remains intact, you find your way home. If the chord is cut- something that can only happen if an effect states it does- your soul and body are separated, killing you instantly"
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 22:59 |
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Razakai posted:Is it just me or apart from the fluff, is that monster kinda... dull? Strip away all the Astral Plane bits and you have a big sack of hit points that claws, bites, has a beholder antimagic eye and sometimes does a little psychic damage burst. I guess the banish part is unique. Strip away all the fluff and you're pretty much always just left with a bunch of numbers.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 23:11 |
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:When you use astral projection, there's like, an invisible cord from your body to your astral projection, and if it somehow gets found and cut, you die. It's a source of narrative tension for that campaign setting certainly, not that I've played it myself. Really high-ranking gith have swords that can cut them, etc. Yeah the cord is nearly invisible and incorporeal. And only like three things I know of are capable of cutting it. The Githyanki Silver Swords like you mentioned, The Astral Dreadnought, and some types of the psychic storms in the Astral Plane. Other then those Risks Astral Projection is one of the safest ways to travel the planes, as it's not your actual body being hurt. Also the Astral Plane looks really cool what with the corpses of Dead Gods floating around and such. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Apr 12, 2018 |
# ? Apr 12, 2018 23:37 |
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What's a good premade intro adventure to run that isn't Phandelver, which I basically can't run when half my players have listened to The Adventure Zone
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 23:58 |
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Blockhouse posted:What's a good premade intro adventure to run that isn't Phandelver, which I basically can't run when half my players have listened to The Adventure Zone Sunless Citadel works pretty well, gets you up to level 3.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 00:20 |
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Enjoying Ed Sheerelf and Idris Elborc I don't know. I think the bottom one is more Daveorc Bautista?
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 10:09 |
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kidkissinger posted:When you use Astral Projection: Being severed from your body should leave you playing but all hosed up and maybe on a time limit to fix it before something worse happens. Again, it's possible this already happens, not up on my plane deaths. If so I withdraw all objections. e: this is not a 5e specific complaint e2: the donjon legendary action is cool Splicer fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Apr 13, 2018 |
# ? Apr 13, 2018 11:16 |
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Blockhouse posted:What's a good premade intro adventure to run that isn't Phandelver, which I basically can't run when half my players have listened to The Adventure Zone You can probably run it anyway. TAZ skips like 2/3rds of LMoP and changes the rest to be barely recognizeable. inthesto fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Apr 13, 2018 |
# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:02 |
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Splicer posted:This kind of thing makes me for two reasons. 1) "if this thing happens YOU DIE, if it doesn't it's not a thing ignore it" is such a non-thing. It does nothing until it goes full nuclear. 2) unless there's something extra bad about dying on the astral plane (possible!) by the time you're tooling around the astral plane death is just a speedbump. So what should be a cool mechanic boils down to "As an action, the GM can make you sit out the next two sessions". It's like you're trying to find something to complain about it
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:10 |
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Raar_Im_A_Dinosaur posted:It's like you're trying to find something to complain about it
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:35 |
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Yeah I'd probably do something other than instant death, even if it was permanent/irrevocable.Like your spirit wanders the plane separate from your body or something.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:37 |
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How about while disconnected you are unable to regain hp by any means and take 1 hit die worth of damage each time you long rest? That makes it dangerous and eventually fatal while potentially giving you time to fix things. I wish my gaming group did more planar stuff.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:42 |
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Astral projection and the silver cord are really just narrative things. You can make a kind of horror adventure around it: A wizard takes the party to the astral plane for some reason, insists that it is perfectly safe as long as your cord remains intact, and he's never seen it cut. Later, cue some astral horror swooping in and cutting the wizard's cord in a single stroke. Now the party is being stalked by a thing that can instantly kill them.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:44 |
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Yeah, that seems like a great sense of urgency monster or a way to punish arrogant high level wizards.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:49 |
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Let's say I wanted to start a game of 5e. What books should I get? I'm thinking PHB + MM. Or PHB + Starter Set. Or PHB + 1 adventure book. The DMG is just magic item lists and creation rules, but if I primarily wanted to play WotC modules, what is the best bet? Do the adventures tend to stat monsters, or just refer to a page in the MM? Is Lost Mines in the Starter Set, or is it just a demo of it, or what? I absolutely will get the PHB, but I'm wondering how much mileage I could get out of the other books. ... Is LMOP sold by itself somewhere? Firstborn fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Apr 13, 2018 |
# ? Apr 13, 2018 16:06 |
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Firstborn posted:Let's say I wanted to start a game of 5e. What books should I get? Get the PHB + 1 Adventure book if you don't want to build your own campaign. You can buy LMOP on D&D Beyond for like $15. I would say that if you do want to make your own campaigns that you should pick up the DMG and MM, but I'm pretty sure you'd be fine without them if you have an adventure book. My personal favorite is Curse of Strahd.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 16:22 |
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If you don't own a single 5e book and are just testing the waters with a group, just get the starter set. It includes everything you need to run Phandelver. You don't even need the PHB since it comes with premade characters. Though if you are getting the PHB anyway your group can make their own characters for it.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 16:23 |
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/\/\/\ Yeah, the idea is to make custom characters. Getting the PHB for sure. I just don't know if I want to run LMOP or jump straight into a module, I guess, is what I'm asking. Yeah, I noticed that there are apparently free indices online of the monsters not included in the adventure appendix. So I'm going with PHB + 1 book, and I'm thinking Hoard of the Dragon Queen for it's generic high fantasyness for a noob group. Would anyone recommend running Lost Mines first before a module? Or perhaps a better starting point that isn't Dragon Queen (with plans to play Tiamat)? Tomb of Annihilation looks like it might be too niche, same with Curse of Strahd though I'd love to run it.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 16:25 |
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Hoard of the Dragon Queen has some rough edges - I wouldn't do that one. I think both Strahd and Tomb are stronger though I admittedly haven't read through the whole tomb itself in case I play it before I DM it. I don't think you ought to worry about the different tone. I'm doing Storm King's Thunder now and it's structured pretty strangely. It starts very open and relies on the DM to make the players care about any of the goings-on, and then switches gears in the back half to very scripted railroady setpieces. A mix of both playstyles throughout would have been better at my table, but oh well.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 16:32 |
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Hoard of the Dragon Queen has some rough edges - I wouldn't do that one. I think both Strahd and Tomb are stronger though I admittedly haven't read through the whole tomb itself in case I play it before I DM it. I don't think you ought to worry about the different tone. I've read a few things here and there, and immediately thought as cool as SKT looks, the adventure hooks are pretty weak. I love how Tomb seemingly provides an adventure hook tied to the PC's backgrounds. I will say that I see everyone poo poo on the dragon ones. Can someone articulate what exactly is wrong with them? I'm not defending it, I'm genuinely curious and can't seem to find more than "it's not balanced" or something to that effect.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 16:36 |
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Firstborn posted:/\/\/\ Yeah, the idea is to make custom characters. Getting the PHB for sure. I just don't know if I want to run LMOP or jump straight into a module, I guess, is what I'm asking. Alternatively to the Monster Manual, you can use the SRD. I personally prefer having the physical book, but you could technically run an entire campaign using the SRD.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 17:26 |
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You will need the Monster Manual eventually. Only Tyranny of Dragons and Princes of the Apocalypse include the Monster Manual Monsters in a free supplement. Volo Monsters are included in the Adventures however. Hoard of the Dragon Queen can be pretty fun so long as you make a few edits and make the Caravan trip pretty short. The Biggest problem with Dragon Queen is a few rough issues from being the first adventure, and Chapter 4 which involves the characters going on a long caravan trip. The Adventure is pretty decent other then that. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Apr 13, 2018 |
# ? Apr 13, 2018 17:47 |
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Hoard uses Volo's monsters??
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 17:58 |
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Firstborn posted:Hoard uses Volo's monsters?? No not Hoard. Just all Adventures that feature Monsters from Volo's Guide reprint them rather then asking you to check that book.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 18:00 |
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Is Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes going to be something akin to the Monster Manual 2 of previous editions?
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 18:01 |
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Mearls said it would not be a monster manual 3.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 18:16 |
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Beelerzebub posted:Is Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes going to be something akin to the Monster Manual 2 of previous editions? It's going to be like Volo's Guide to Monsters, which was pretty much a different type of Monster Manuel 2. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is going to focus more on the High End threats. Book appears to have three major parts Part 1 a largely fluff section which focuses on ongoing conflicts throughout the D&D Multiverse. (Blood War, Elf war, Gith War, Dwarf Conflict, and some others.) Stuff like the Blood War section will also include new optional rules and stuff. Like Diabolic and Demonic Cults which give monsters and npc's related to those cults extra powers to be used in battle. Part 2 some extra races and fluff on those races. Part 3 a Bestiary of a bunch of new monsters largely much stronger then the ones in the other books. With over half the monsters being CR 10 or higher. Including guys like Demon Lords and Archdevils. kidkissinger posted:Mearls said it would not be a monster manual 3. It's a Monster Manual 3 in the same way Volo's was a monster manual 2.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 18:23 |
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if D&D's new jam is to make Volo's the template they build their extra Monster Manuals off of I'm 100% here for it.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 19:35 |
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From the Astral Dreadnought being part of chapter 6. We can more or less understand the contents of the book. Chapter 1 Blood War, Chapter 2 Dwarves and Duregar, Chapter 3 Elves, Chapter 4 Gith, Chapter 5 Halflings and Gnomes.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 19:58 |
I've just started playing a 5e campaign, not having played 5e before. I only really know 5e as 'the edition that rolled back 4e's mmo design philosophy'. I'm playing the party wizard, going for a very 'utility spell rather than damage' build. Mostly I just wanted to check if there's anything spell-wise (or build-wise) that's grossly over-powered (or under-powered, but lol ) or niche-stealing, I don't want to accidentally make things unfun for other players. Doesn't help that I got absurd rolls on stats (18/17/13/12/10/9 or something. My dump stat is a 9.) The others are playing Cleric/Ranger/Druid, just to make it really loving hard not to tread on each others' toes.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 20:45 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 13:25 |
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Razakai posted:Is it just me or apart from the fluff, is that monster kinda... dull? Strip away all the Astral Plane bits and you have a big sack of hit points that claws, bites, has a beholder antimagic eye and sometimes does a little psychic damage burst. I guess the banish part is unique. It's not just you. The Dreadnought is level 21 - literally, an epic level threat from beyond this world. What's it do? It just sort of claw/claw/bites a bit. Plus a refluffed Swallow Whole and an antimagic cone. And that's... sort of it, really? I guess it can't be banished from the astral or do a weaksauce AoE that can't even take out most 2nd level characters? Woop-dee-doo, how amazing. We're surely facing an epic-level threat now boys! Worst thing is, Donjon Visit does basically nothing. The target just readies an action to take when they re-appear, so they can do whatever they wanted to anyway. You lose nothing. (Unless you were relying on Extra Attack, in which case God help you.)
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 20:54 |