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Is Sunless Citadel doable in a single session?
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Jun 24, 2018 16:21
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Toebone posted:Is Sunless Citadel doable in a single session? It can probably be done in ~6 hours by a 4-5 person group that's prowling through without dragging their feet on dead time like divvying up loot, looking up rules, or backtracking. So, no.
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Jun 24, 2018 17:27
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Kaysette posted:They’re by far the most used familiar in my experience due to the use of the help action and the flyby feature. Using that constantly is kind of cheesy in many people’s opinions. I gave my wizard a pseudodragon egg and he just dumped it because he couldn't flyby spam with it and kept using his owl. It was the saddest moment of my DMing career.
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Jun 24, 2018 17:39
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The owl can also teleport around, be shunted into hammerspace, and it only takes an hour and 10 gold to bring it back to life when it inevitably dies.
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Jun 24, 2018 17:48
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My group is in for a crazy night this saturday. We're in the middle of a lizardfolk civilization and, as we always do, we hosed up. We told them their god was false (which might be true), we insulted their customs, completely misread the room socially and our lizardman killed their leader in single combat and then their spiritual leader when he offered to help him out of this tough situation. -city of monsters to fight: check -party status: split -barbarian HP: like 4 -weather report: high chance of wrathful gods -X factor- lizards are at war with a bunch of white apes who have been moving on their territory for a week or so Its gonna rule.
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Jun 24, 2018 18:09
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aggressive negotiationCubeTheory posted:I gave my wizard a pseudodragon egg and he just dumped it because he couldn't flyby spam with it and kept using his owl. It was the saddest moment of my DMing career. 
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Jun 24, 2018 19:57
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Firstborn posted:What day you looking for? I could do most days in a pinch. As long as the hours aren't in the middle of the night in the EU.
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Jun 24, 2018 22:31
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hangedman1984 posted:Whats wrong with Owls?? Kaysette nailed it. I don't really see the huge issue since there's so many ways to gain advantage in 5E (especially if you're using that 'flanking/outnumbering allies' variant rule in the DMG ... It's only for that first and only attack until the Owl's next turn on that creature, and 90% of the time I was using it to help out a melee party member on their hit rather than myself. Honestly I think they should give all (or at least a lot more) their own equivalents of 'flyby' just to make them more even and let people pick different familiars for flavor while still feeling like they can be more of an asset mechanically. All the DM has to do is have one goblin fire at it once they feel the player has got enough use out of it in the fight and it dies. As it is, that's fine, I'm happy with my new flap cat.   CubedTheory posted:I gave my wizard a pseudodragon egg and he just dumped it because he couldn't flyby spam with it and kept using his owl. It was the saddest moment of my DMing career. Aww, that's a shame. I definitely am not putting my Tressym into the same flyby assist machine scenarios as I was with the Owl, but I'll probably end up doing some silly things like casting Dragon Breath on it for some surprise cone attacks .... but I can resummon the Tressym unlike that Pseudodragon, and I'd definitely try to make that special familiar work if I was introduced to one 
DKWildz fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Jun 25, 2018 |
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Jun 25, 2018 05:26
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DKWildz posted:Kaysette nailed it. I don't really see the huge issue since there's so many ways to gain advantage in 5E (especially if you're using that 'flanking/outnumbering allies' variant rule in the DMG ... It's only for that first and only attack until the Owl's next turn on that creature, and 90% of the time I was using it to help out a melee party member on their hit rather than myself. A lot of tables don't use variant rules, and even then, it only helps melee. Your owl can provide advantage on every ranged spell attack you make, and that's kinda busted, which is why WotC should have tried the bare minimum to balance different familiars (and also made familiars a class feature).
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Jun 25, 2018 06:11
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Toshimo posted:A lot of tables don't use variant rules, and even then, it only helps melee. Your owl can provide advantage on every ranged spell attack you make, and that's kinda busted, which is why WotC should have tried the bare minimum to balance different familiars (and also made familiars a class feature). That's fine. I don't claim to have the ultimate reasoning on whether it's balanced or not. I just don't feel it to be a problem myself, but I don't really care either way if it disappeared. I would agree that I'd love for the familiars to have a litttle more parity when it comes to 'fly by'. I think out of combat they're all pretty reasonably different. I used the Owl to give the melee advantage instead of myself because we have a dual wielder ranger with +2 main and +1 offhand weapons. My Wizard is mostly relegated to casting Slow, Hypnotic Gaze, and Blindness/Deafness to control, leaving me with a paltry 2d8 Ray of Frost to use once in a while. We don't really receive gold, or find spell scrolls or books, so my Tressym has been my only "fun" point for the campaign.
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Jun 25, 2018 06:31
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Owls are certainly the stand-out familiar, but really any familiar with casual flight is in a league of its own, of which owls are simply the best of the best. Even without Flyby, bats, hawks, and ravens are capable of a lot of the same tricks. Grounded familiars are a mixed lot: cats, weasels, and snakes (and maybe spiders) are all competent scouts, everything else kinda sucks. Then you get your underwater familiars which...well, I suppose if you're ever underwater for a protracted period of time, you'll get your money's worth. Very campaign-dependent. Granted, utility needn't be the rule of the day - if you want a frog familiar for the flavor, take it - and wizards already get a lot of goodies anyway, but so long as we're talking about it, yeah, familiars could use a bit of tweaking.
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Jun 25, 2018 06:56
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DKWildz posted:I used the Owl to give the melee advantage instead of myself because we have a dual wielder ranger with +2 main and +1 offhand weapons. Just to be clear, you do know that flyby (and the Help action in general) only apply to the first attack roll of the turn, so it doesn't matter if someone has multiple attacks or is dual-wielding?
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Jun 25, 2018 12:22
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I feel like the first thing that should happen after someone uses their owl's flyby is that one of the monsters shoots it out of the sky.
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Jun 25, 2018 13:56
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I just banned everything other than "I attack", and now nobody has anything unbalanced.
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Jun 25, 2018 14:33
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AlphaDog posted:I just banned everything other than "I attack", and now nobody has anything unbalanced. Fighter supremacy.
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Jun 25, 2018 15:23
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SettingSun posted:I feel like the first thing that should happen after someone uses their owl's flyby is that one of the monsters shoots it out of the sky. That's fine, it wasted an enemy turn in that case.
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Jun 25, 2018 16:17
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That's fine. I just imagine the complaint about flyby spam is the DM throwing their hands in the air and saying 'well now what am I supposed to do about this cheese?' That's probably just my own bias about the situation and that owls are fine.
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Jun 25, 2018 16:37
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SettingSun posted:That's fine. I just imagine the complaint about flyby spam is the DM throwing their hands in the air and saying 'well now what am I supposed to do about this cheese?' That's probably just my own bias about the situation and that owls are fine. Like when my DM thought about removing or heavily restricting my barbarian's rage damage resistance when it first came up.
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Jun 25, 2018 17:46
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There needs to be a sidebar in thr DMG that says, "when a player does something straightforward with a class feature, and it feels crazy, step away from the table and think really hard before trying to 'fix' it.'
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Jun 25, 2018 17:53
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Finster Dexter posted:Like when my DM thought about removing or heavily restricting my barbarian's rage damage resistance when it first came up. That's literally the only way barbarians don't die immediately.
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Jun 25, 2018 17:53
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Panderfringe posted:lol what Which is how I talked him down from it. Tbf it was his first time DMing 5e, I think. Like, literally his first session and everything.
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Jun 25, 2018 18:14
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Has anyone ever experimented with having a co-DM whose primary role is to play the NPCs? It's really atypical, but there's a few podcasts that do it really well, and it solves the issue of "DM has to talk to themself in two distinct voices" that's annoying as hell when it comes up.
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Jun 25, 2018 18:20
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I see new DMs posting online (not here) fairly frequently about how OP fighters or other martials are in LMoP with their high ACs that the DM can barely scratch. They don't know to use save effects to mess with them and they don't realize the power dynamic of martials versus casters switches so severely later on. Even for those in the know, people tend to forget the nature of the "linear fighter / quadratic wizard" means that most spellcasters do kind of suck at low level barring certain spells/abilities like sleep and wild shape. Trying to figure out what's OP or even optimal in 5e is a mess and I can totally see where these wacky-sounding nerfs and rulings come from.
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Jun 25, 2018 18:24
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inthesto posted:Has anyone ever experimented with having a co-DM whose primary role is to play the NPCs? It's really atypical, but there's a few podcasts that do it really well, and it solves the issue of "DM has to talk to themself in two distinct voices" that's annoying as hell when it comes up. That effectively makes the NPCDM a player if their primary job is to handle NPCs doesn't it? Maybe I don't understand how how the two DMs interact. I solve the the you're just talking to yourself problem by doing the videogamey thing of having the NPCs solely interact with the players and instances where they interact with each other are just a paraphrased description.
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Jun 25, 2018 18:43
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Finster Dexter posted:Which is how I talked him down from it. Tbf it was his first time DMing 5e, I think. Like, literally his first session and everything.
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Jun 25, 2018 18:50
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Elysiume posted:Someone on their first session of basically any game probably shouldn't be trying to house rule much of anything, honestly.
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Jun 25, 2018 19:02
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Kaysette posted:I see new DMs posting online (not here) fairly frequently about how OP fighters or other martials are in LMoP with their high ACs that the DM can barely scratch. They don't know to use save effects to mess with them Until the Paladin reaches 6th level and gets Aura of Protection and suddenly I feel like I can't remember the last time anyone failed a save.
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Jun 25, 2018 19:31
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inthesto posted:Has anyone ever experimented with having a co-DM whose primary role is to play the NPCs? It's really atypical, but there's a few podcasts that do it really well, and it solves the issue of "DM has to talk to themself in two distinct voices" that's annoying as hell when it comes up.
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Jun 25, 2018 19:41
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Hi, would someone please link that tool people said was really great for making your own monsters based off player levels? It had line a formula for what ac and stuff should be based on what levels it supposed to show up around Trying to Google for it but I can't remember if I'm looking at the right version.
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Jun 25, 2018 20:01
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Raar_Im_A_Dinosaur posted:Hi, would someone please link that tool people said was really great for making your own monsters based off player levels? It had line a formula for what ac and stuff should be based on what levels it supposed to show up around Trying to Google for it but I can't remember if I'm looking at the right version. https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/improved-monster-stats-table-for-dd-5th-edition/ ?
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Jun 25, 2018 20:16
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Razakai posted:https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/improved-monster-stats-table-for-dd-5th-edition/ ? That's it, thanks
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Jun 25, 2018 20:20
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Splicer posted:Could you point me at one of those podcasts? Sounds neat. Please advise if it's full of idiocy like complaining about someone's game-breakingly high strength score though. The more popular one would be The Dragon Friends, which is done as a live show. It's extremely loose with 5e rules (seriously, it makes The Adventure Zone look like it's playing by the book in comparison), but since the DMs have been doing creative stuff together for years, the "Dedicated NPC DM" dynamic works very smoothly. Neon Rival Presents Tomb of Annihilation is a fair bit more straight-laced (though still quite silly). You might recognize some of the cast from Godsfall. Unfortunately, it only has five episodes and updates very sparingly.
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Jun 25, 2018 20:42
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Anybody try to run the Variant Initiative rules? Specifically the, each turn, declare action, get modifiers based on how fast/slow action is, then roll, rules. https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#InitiativeVariants I think it would make combat more interesting, but probably slow it down. I was thinking of also reducing everyone's max hp to make up for the slower rounds.
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Jun 25, 2018 22:30
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They're garbage.
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Jun 25, 2018 23:31
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FWIW, the number one complaint from my players is that combat is too slow (even though they take forever to decide what to do and to roll dice  )
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Jun 26, 2018 00:17
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Quixzlizx posted:FWIW, the number one complaint from my players is that combat is too slow (even though they take forever to decide what to do and to roll dice Bring a chess clock to the table
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Jun 26, 2018 00:31
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I think any new 5e dm shouldn't gently caress with the rules at all. I mean I remember when I was first starting out with 5e and flipping through PHB and being like holy gently caress this is some powerful poo poo but then looking through the MM for the first time and being like ok I get it now. Our first campaign was a blast RAW. It was also difficult and rewarding. In comes new dm not just with 5e but in general. He wants to run Abyss. Changes up loving everything. Won't even let paladin use Find Steed. Won't let my swashbuckler use Rakish Audacity. I mean he cut a lot of poo poo and didn't replace with anything. Last and final session with him the final straw my PC was outside in the hall, fight breaks out in room with rest of group and he wouldn't let me roll initiative. After that I quit, then two weeks later everyone else did too. Now I'm running CoS again and we're having a blast. Newbie dm is still in group but as player. Things are better now.
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Jun 26, 2018 00:42
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GrumpyGoesWest posted:I think any new 5e dm shouldn't gently caress with the rules at all. I mean I remember when I was first starting out with 5e and flipping through PHB and being like holy gently caress this is some powerful poo poo but then looking through the MM for the first time and being like ok I get it now. Our first campaign was a blast RAW. It was also difficult and rewarding. In comes new dm not just with 5e but in general. He wants to run Abyss. Changes up loving everything. Won't even let paladin use Find Steed. Won't let my swashbuckler use Rakish Audacity. I mean he cut a lot of poo poo and didn't replace with anything. Last and final session with him the final straw my PC was outside in the hall, fight breaks out in room with rest of group and he wouldn't let me roll initiative. After that I quit, then two weeks later everyone else did too. Now I'm running CoS again and we're having a blast. Newbie dm is still in group but as player. Things are better now. I'm certain the Notable Gaming Experiences thread would love to hear about that.
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Jun 26, 2018 00:50
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Toshimo posted:Bring a chess clock to the table We used an hour glass. I put on the table at first and then after a few sessions I put it behind my screen. Now we don't need one at all. In a party of four it generally takes about less than a minute for all players. I don't allow table talk either though. I'll describe player hp like I do monsters so no one asks others about hp or ac or ki or whatever.
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Jun 26, 2018 00:53
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Gharbad the Weak posted:I'm certain the Notable Gaming Experiences thread would love to hear about that. Bookmarked. Thanks for new reading material.
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Jun 26, 2018 00:59
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