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So im looking into dnd again and had a few questions since the last time played rise of tiamat had been released. 1. Did anyone ever fix the combat encounters in hoard of the dragon queen? I liked the adventure but when i accidentally wiped my players with a bog standard kobold encounter something was deeply wrong. 2. Are any of the new supplements worth it? 3. Is there a consolidated place where all of the unearthed arcana is? 4. Which adventure paths are good? 5. Any word on new setting guides? Planescape in particular is something I would love to see.
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May 1, 2018 05:04
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JohnLovely posted:i too desire to be a cocksucker Don't we all? Elysiume posted:In my PF game I had my DM roll a spellcraft check to see if an NPC could tell what spell I was casting. I'd already said it out loud, but traditional RPGs are already a morass of separating IC and OoC knowledge. It gets a lot harder once counterspells are in the mix. There's no way to both allow for a genuine decision over blind counterspelling and keep people honest short of having them write down the spell they're casting before anyone gets the chance to counter it. "I cast a spell" (intending to cast Fireball) > "Tate casts Counterspell" > "I was casting Magic Missile" is a tempting situation for an unscrupulous player. Ideally you only play with people you trust not to cheat, but things don't always work out. That was just an example. Obviously, I'm not going to make decisions for the NPCs based off information PCs tell me in confidence. If the players don't trust me to not do that, then I've failed as a DM.
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May 1, 2018 05:27
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Trent Squawkbox posted:That was just an example. Obviously, I'm not going to make decisions for the NPCs based off information PCs tell me in confidence. If the players don't trust me to not do that, then I've failed as a DM.
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May 1, 2018 05:51
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Elysiume posted:Oh, I wasn't specifically calling you out--it was an example I'd seen elsewhere online when I was poking around looking at the counterspell/identification stuff. If the players and DM trust each other you can safely expect people not to cheat, but it's still hard sometimes to know what your character would do if they didn't know some things you know. Definitely, it's just kinda annoying that counterspell has now introduced this new trust exercise that DMs and PCs need to practice.
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May 1, 2018 05:54
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AnEdgelord posted:So im looking into dnd again and had a few questions since the last time played rise of tiamat had been released. 1 is the system working as intended and i wouldn't bet on 5. at best you'll probably get bits and pieces strewn throughout other books
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May 1, 2018 06:00
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Trent Squawkbox posted:Definitely, it's just kinda annoying that counterspell has now introduced this new trust exercise that DMs and PCs need to practice.
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May 1, 2018 06:17
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AnEdgelord posted:So im looking into dnd again and had a few questions since the last time played rise of tiamat had been released. 1. There have been some fixes, but Hoard is a pretty old adventure, that was made before rules were even final and is not updated much. If run, It's best to tone down the first chapter and reduce the number of enemies so you won't murder the players. (And also not too spend too much time on the Road chapter, I am of the opinion you should only spend a session on it at most.) 2. Xanathar's and Volo's are super worth it. Volo's particularly for DM's. (The Upcoming Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes also is looking good.) 3. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana 4. I feel the best of the new 5e Adventures are Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd, though the rest Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, and Storm King's Thunder are all still good. I would rank them all higher then Hoard of the Dragon Queen which you liked. So I have a feeling you would like them all. 5. There was the Sword Coast Adventures Guide, but it's a different type of setting book. But other then that no news on new setting guides. Though there have been hints towards Planescape stuff. The next upcoming book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes will provide details on some planer stuff, like the Blood War and Gith War. and will have stats for lots of Planer creatures. There are apparently three more Books planned this year. So we could get some setting material.
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May 1, 2018 07:31
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Volo's is great, but Xanathar's is kinda bad. You'll probably want it for a handful of good classes, but you won't feel good about the money you spent for it.
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May 1, 2018 07:46
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AnEdgelord posted:So im looking into dnd again and had a few questions since the last time played rise of tiamat had been released. 1) They released an errata. It fixes the infamous "2 CR 8 assassins vs a level 5ish party" encounter, but not the kobold marathon in chapter 1. It's still up to the DM to dial back the difficulty, be fairly generous with surprise opportunities, or house rule a couple extra max HP to PCs at level 1 (probably a good idea regardless of adventure). 2) Xanathar's Guide to Everything has a bunch of additional player-facing options: 2-3 more archetypes for most classes, and a boatload of new feats and spells. It also offers some tips for DMs (downtime activities, trap ideas, common magical items, etc.), as well as spelling out how some oft-confused rules should work. Volo's might be useful if you're bored by what's in the Monster Manual. My DM likes his copy, but I haven't seen the need to pick it up to supplement my own campaign. 3) A lot of it ended up in Xanathar's after varying amounts of revision. If you want to see what hit the cutting room floor, someone compiled a list of all the articles they've released over the past couple years. 4) Haven't played either, but I see Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd often mentioned as the better official ones. If you're after large dungeons to slot into a homebrew campaign, Yawning Portal has one for just about any level range, with 5e's take on Tomb of Horrors as its capstone. 5) Sword Coast Adventurers' Guide is the only one released. I seem to remember hearing rumors that there might be another in the works, but it's not something I care too much about since my friends and I almost exclusively play/run homebrew settings.
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May 1, 2018 07:53
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Slippery42 posted:1) They released an errata. It fixes the infamous "2 CR 8 assassins vs a level 5ish party" encounter, but not the kobold marathon in chapter 1. It's still up to the DM to dial back the difficulty, be fairly generous with surprise opportunities, or house rule a couple extra max HP to PCs at level 1 (probably a good idea regardless of adventure). Isn't the Tomb of Annihilation book also a take on Tomb of Horrors? Either way, I have my first order of the 5th edition basic books (player's, GM's, MM) still en route because I'm using pauper shipping from Amazon. When I was looking yesterday I went ahead and picked up a set of metal dice by which to kill players with (if not from rolls, then by beaning them with them when they aggravate me), a dice box to put them in, and because I have no willpower I also picked up the Tales from the Yawning Portal book as well. I'm still debating how long it's going to be before I pick up Volo's and Xanathar's. I may hold off and just buy those in Beyond once I've actually got a campaign group ready.
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May 1, 2018 13:20
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DeathSandwich posted:Isn't the Tomb of Annihilation book also a take on Tomb of Horrors? Yawning Portal is the book with Tomb of Horrors in it.
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May 1, 2018 14:31
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Kaysette posted:Yawning Portal is the book with Tomb of Horrors in it. I know that, but what I read on the Amazon reviews for Tomb of Annihilation made it sound like that was also basically Tomb of Horrors with the serial number filed off.
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May 1, 2018 14:34
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DeathSandwich posted:I know that, but what I read on the Amazon reviews for Tomb of Annihilation made it sound like that was also basically Tomb of Horrors with the serial number filed off. That is not correct. There's some overlap but a ton of new and much better (and problematic) stuff.
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May 1, 2018 14:42
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Is ToA racist or something?
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May 1, 2018 14:46
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kidkissinger posted:Is ToA racist or something? I haven't looked at it but given that it's a jungle exploration adventure I'm going to err on the side of "at least a little, yeah" at least it gave us tortles back though
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May 1, 2018 14:55
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ToA definitely fits the definition of problematic but it is a really good adventure, especially if your party gets into the jungle exploration part of it.
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May 1, 2018 14:58
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kidkissinger posted:Is ToA racist or something? The indigenous civilization steers away from the "noble savage" thing but their mercantile society was basically set up and taught to them by travelers from Calimshan, a composite of Age of Sail Spain and Morocco. Chultans have lost a lot of their past culture from their ruined kingdom and are only uplifted thanks to a bunch of european style dudes showing up and teaching them how to properly live. That's part of a number of issues. It's well meaning, but not well considered.
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May 1, 2018 15:07
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can't forget about Nanny Pu'pu
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May 1, 2018 15:09
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Guess WotC is too focused on pricing books at 50~70 a pop to properly vet that their poo poo ain’t racist.
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May 1, 2018 15:27
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Pollyanna posted:Guess WotC is too focused on pricing books at 50~70 a pop to properly vet that their poo poo ain’t racist. Literally zero black people wrote or were consulted for the book.
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May 1, 2018 15:30
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Couldnt they have just modeled them on the Mali, aka the real world african mercantile empire?
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May 1, 2018 15:35
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AnEdgelord posted:Couldnt they have just modeled them on the Mali, aka the real world african mercantile empire? That would have been cool.
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May 1, 2018 15:52
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kidkissinger posted:Is ToA racist or something? We're about two thirds through ToA, and the only real racist caricature is Nanny puu'puu or however you spell it, which appears as an old woman tribal witchdoctor. If there's anything else like characterizations or book instructions that are racist, our DM has either taken it out or it hasn't really come up in our adventure. A better question is why a jungle island is full of furry cat people. They should have all died from heat exhaustion at least.
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May 1, 2018 16:15
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User0015 posted:We're about two thirds through ToA, and the only real racist caricature is Nanny puu'puu or however you spell it, which appears as an old woman tribal witchdoctor. If there's anything else like characterizations or book instructions that are racist, our DM has either taken it out or it hasn't really come up in our adventure. As we know there are no cats that live in hot climates.
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May 1, 2018 16:22
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Yeah, it’s not like cats came from the desert in the first place.
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May 1, 2018 16:23
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User0015 posted:A better question is why a jungle island is full of furry cat people. They should have all died from heat exhaustion at least. 
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May 1, 2018 16:40
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Pollyanna posted:Yeah, it’s not like cats came from the desert in the first place. Or tropical jungles, or savannahs.
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May 1, 2018 16:49
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User0015 posted:We're about two thirds through ToA, and the only real racist caricature is Nanny puu'puu or however you spell it, which appears as an old woman tribal witchdoctor. If there's anything else like characterizations or book instructions that are racist, our DM has either taken it out or it hasn't really come up in our adventure. the target should be a game with zero racisms
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May 1, 2018 16:52
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gradenko_2000 posted:the target should be a game with zero racisms look we know it's a fantasy book but cmon let's be realistic here
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May 1, 2018 17:04
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No racism allowed in my Heart of Darkness adventure, please.
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May 1, 2018 17:06
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I'm going to be running Curse of Strahd for my group sometime in the future and we'll be starting at Level 1 and so doing the Death House adventure. I'm unsure how to run Death House though, the first 2 floors of the house are just looking in doors into empty rooms and I'm not sure what to actually do with that part. It's not like there's anything to find, I feel like it's gonna be a lot of me narrating empty rooms with a couple creepy details. I don't want to lose my parties attention or anything. So how have people who have run it before handled it? Or if you've seen a good video of someone running it that could be helpful.
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May 1, 2018 17:21
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Let's not forget the click languages and pygmee people.
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May 1, 2018 17:27
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Epi Lepi posted:I'm going to be running Curse of Strahd for my group sometime in the future and we'll be starting at Level 1 and so doing the Death House adventure. I'm unsure how to run Death House though, the first 2 floors of the house are just looking in doors into empty rooms and I'm not sure what to actually do with that part. It's not like there's anything to find, I feel like it's gonna be a lot of me narrating empty rooms with a couple creepy details. I don't want to lose my parties attention or anything. So how have people who have run it before handled it? Or if you've seen a good video of someone running it that could be helpful. If you don't like the dungeon as written, change it. Make it a Resident Evil style Spencer Mansion where you've got to collect some archaic puzzle pieces to make progress while being harried by a constant trickle of lovely zombies and skeletons. Add a couple of minor villains like a death pact warlock or something as your Albert Wesker analogue that keeps defying death somehow.
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May 1, 2018 17:28
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make drow insanely white and all forest elves look like indigenous people I'm not kidding
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May 1, 2018 17:28
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i mean to be fair drow should be pale, eyeless and hairless mutants
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May 1, 2018 17:30
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mango sentinel posted:It's well meaning, but not well considered. Sounds like D&D.txt
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May 1, 2018 17:30
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Serf posted:i mean to be fair drow should be pale, eyeless and hairless mutants just use a bunch of stills from The Descent
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May 1, 2018 17:35
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slap me and kiss me posted:Let's not forget the click languages and pygmee people. A click language being in the book isn't inherently problematic, it's that lots of players attempting accents with it will have been conditioned by generations of people mocking the languages it's based on. Something the book should address. AFAIK there's no pygmies in the 5e Chult unless you mean the goblins or dwarves.
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May 1, 2018 17:44
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mango sentinel posted:A click language being in the book isn't inherently problematic, it's that lots of players attempting accents with it will have been conditioned by generations of people mocking the languages it's based on. Something the book should address. There are tribal cannibals I believe.
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May 1, 2018 17:56
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Anyone have any good ideas for a beast in the cr 9-12 range being hunted by a caveman-esque npc in the Shadowfell?
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May 1, 2018 17:57
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