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Arthil posted:Are you incapable of making a post without sounding like an overly aggressive rear end?
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Oct 12, 2018 00:14
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I feel like Sword would be best if like Weapon it did not require concentration, and did a bit more damage (Like maybe 4 or 5 d10.) A 2nd level spell that does more or less the same thing should not out damage it when cast as the same level. D&D put out a survey recently that asked if you felt certain spells were broken http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/2018-dd-rpg-survey And Mords Sword was one of the ones I commented at in this fashion.
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Oct 12, 2018 04:16
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As a new DM for a new group of players, which book should I be buying to continue on past Lost Mines of Phandelvar? We will be level 4/level 5 at the end of it. I'm not clever enough to home-brew - but I can adapt encounters and story if needed if the level scaling range is slightly out. Some thoughts based on the research I've done. - Storm Kings Thunder: Seems like the right type of adventure, but I'm not too interested in the setting (giants seem a bit boring compared to all the other cool poo poo in the monster manual) and apparently it's quite a hard campaign to run which I might fumble through. - Hoard of the Dragon Queen + Rise of Tiamat: Seems like a logical follow on from LMoP - but reviews seem mixed. - Curse of Strahd: Leaning towards this campaign. I like the idea of things taking a bit of a weird turn to try and encourage the players to RP a bit more and not just fall into generic fantasy tropes that tend to exist in LMoP and beginner players. - Princes of the Apocalypse: This seems like it fits the bill - however there's a lot of bad reviews online from when this came out so I'm not sure if some of it's problems have been figured out and can be sorted with some research and prep on my part. The rest I don't know much about. In terms of flavour - the players seemed to really enjoy both travelling and exploring the world, and engaging in scheming and politics rather than pure dungeon crawling. The players aren't particularly adventurous in combat, but have a lot of fun in the social aspects with NPCs so cool characters and scenarios are a big plus. Thoughts?
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Oct 12, 2018 11:41
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I'm not gonna comment on the rest because I'm extremely unlikely to enjoy running any published adventure and the other DMs in my groups don't use them. But this? sc0tty posted:I'm not clever enough to home-brew... Yes, you are! I'll accept that you or anyone else might be too lazy, time-poor, or nervous, but you are definitely clever enough to create and run a D&D adventure. Also: in context of RPGs "homebrew" usually refers to making up your own rules, rather than your own stories. Making up your own good stories is, in most ways, way easier than making up your own (good) rules. Check out the GM advice thread!
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Oct 12, 2018 11:53
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And if you aren't clever enough to wrangle encounter design, good news there's a bunch of assholes hanging around in the thread with nothing better to do, like me. just ask and we'll hit your ideas with a hammer until they're ready.
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Oct 12, 2018 11:55
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Strahd is probably your best bet, I'd just make your party aware they're about to move from a standard fantasy intro, into a horror adventure. Otherwise if you're wanting a more standard follow up, HotDQ+RoT are a good fit. PotA is alright, but it's a bit too open-ended which dampers the overall experience (that said, I was able to make a campaign out of the side quests PotA offers, which the players enjoyed.) I'd almost recommend Tomb of Annihilation, given it's opportunities for travel/exploration/interesting elements, but it's definitely not beginner friendly.
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Oct 12, 2018 11:56
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AlphaDog posted:I'm not gonna comment on the rest because I'm extremely unlikely to enjoy running any published adventure and the other DMs in my groups don't use them. Good advice. The main issue is being time poor as there is still a lot of hand-holding to level up characters and teaching players out of game the rules. Its becoming less of an issue but it's been nice on occasion to fall back onto something thats pre-written and only needs some short prep to run a good session. Encounter design I can manage as its very modular and theres lot of resources online to get the basics right - where I'm struggling is the politics and social encounters which the players love - still some work to be done there. I think I'm still leaning towards grabbing a book, but you've perked my interest enough to check out the DM advice thread.
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Oct 12, 2018 12:06
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Wrestlepig posted:And if you aren't clever enough to wrangle encounter design, good news there's a bunch of assholes hanging around in the thread with nothing better to do, like me. just ask and we'll hit your ideas with a hammer until they're ready. Also, learn to just eyeball encounters and then and adjust on the fly. It's often easier than getting it "right" and it's a good thing to be able to do when you get it "right" but for some reason* everything goes wrong anyway. *For example: You accidentally got something wrong anyway (easy enough to do), so it's all going wrong. You got everything right according to the rules, but the rules are wrong so it's all going wrong. You got everything right and the rules are right, but your party composition is weird so it's all going wrong. You got everything right and the rules are right and the PCs are normal but your players are either particularly clever or particularly stupid so it's all going wrong. e: In this and practically every other game ever made there's also the more-or-less occasional but always controversial "This is exactly what's supposed to happen and also it's extremely dumb and bad". Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 12:10
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So we did a one shot where 3 level 3 PCs fought through 3 deadly encounters our DM set for 4 level 4 PCs. We have a fighter, cleric, and wizard. First we killed two purple wurm looking things with a sting and bite attack each. Then the DM gave us an npc warlock to help us(we found out later) Then 6 archers were going to ambush us but our perception was high enough to spoil their surprise round. We killed 5 of them and went to interrogate the 6th. He had a weird lamprey thing on his neck. We took it off and apparently it had been controlling him. Then we slapped it on our npc friend and killed him for being shifty. I healed up the generic mook and he joined us. We fought some weird dragon after that. The mook we named fumbles when he missed his first shot. Then he hit a crit with his longbow and did max damage. We somehow killed the dragon even though it got 2 breath attacks that did above average damage. Then our DM rolled a 99 on the horde table. We ended up with a +2 weapon, +2 shield, +1 elven chain, and a helm of teleportation. It was our fighter's first session ever and he was super pumped about killing a dragon. Also we got land out of it and are now going to play 'clear out mines and hire miners to mine and make money' for reasons???
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Oct 12, 2018 13:20
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RC Cola posted:So we did a one shot where 3 level 3 PCs fought through 3 deadly encounters our DM set for 4 level 4 PCs. Wow, that sounds awful. Sorry to hear that.
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Oct 12, 2018 13:25
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Toshimo posted:Wow, that sounds awful. Sorry to hear that. It was very fun. But it could have gone bad very easily.
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Oct 12, 2018 15:23
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Our dual-weilding Lizardman got his arm... annihilated by a Sphere of Annihilation trap. I think the DM is gonna let me build him a new one using some adamantine ingots and Creation tho
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Oct 12, 2018 17:02
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kidkissinger posted:Our dual-weilding Lizardman got his arm... annihilated by a Sphere of Annihilation trap. I really like how your DM thinks.
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Oct 12, 2018 17:12
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Example: I was doing a very short 3rd party prewritten thing for a group I had never DM'd before. They were going way off course and I didn't like them enough to put much effort into it, so when the 6 person 3rd level party wandered off, I waited until the lowest perception person was on watch and threw a troll at them. Which they immediately dropped 2 crits on, one with some fire spell. What was supposed to be a fairly major encounter was trivialized. So on turn 2... surprise he has a mate. Next session they fought the big bad of the adventure, an ogre with a shaman backup. Ignored the shaman, could not hit 13ac or roll above 2s on the damage dice to save their lives. Literally. Shaman had his hp cut in half and never used his healing spells, bluffed and had him fail a couple of save DCs he legit made. Always use a DM screen and think of it like directing a movie scene. You need to balance out the action, and keep the challenges challenging but not overwhelming. People are usually okay dying to a orc warlord riding a dragon in a fight on top of a castle. Less so to a random kobold crit before the group has built an emotional attachment.
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Oct 12, 2018 17:14
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Alternatively, don't start campaigns at "why even bother with a backstory" low levels.
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Oct 12, 2018 17:25
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SettingSun posted:I really like how your DM thinks. Considering how lovely the magic item rules are it doesn't seem too much of a stretch for a level 11 wizard to make something like this.
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Oct 12, 2018 17:41
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Magic Jar seems like it could be really easily abused and/or create really good situations.
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Oct 12, 2018 20:45
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kidkissinger posted:Magic Jar seems like it could be really easily abused and/or create really good situations. I want someone to use it to build Captain Ginyu in 5E.
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Oct 12, 2018 20:52
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The Bee posted:I want someone to use it to build Captain Ginyu in 5E. He can't exist in a universe where there's a chance his dances would fail.
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Oct 13, 2018 01:29
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So I think that we've settled on Lizardman ranger getting a magical prosthetic that does d6 damage and requires him to wear the helm of telepathy to communicate with it.
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Oct 13, 2018 03:49
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kidkissinger posted:So I think that we've settled on Lizardman ranger getting a magical prosthetic that does d6 damage and requires him to wear the helm of telepathy to communicate with it. Maybe make it so over time the arm can be powered up with magical gems to get, e.g. super strength or shocking grasp? Nice flavoursome source of plothooks.
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Oct 13, 2018 04:07
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dreadmojo posted:Maybe make it so over time the arm can be powered up with magical gems to get, e.g. super strength or shocking grasp? Nice flavoursome source of plothooks. We're towards the end of ToA so I think this will be the end. Also, I don't know if my DM would go off-script that much but it would be sweet.
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Oct 13, 2018 04:42
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My argument for why I should be allowed to create this prosthetic is that I can already cast Animate Objects, Magic Jar, and Fabricate PLUS we have some adamantine ingots to make it from. I think if we use those and some expensive gems that's a reasonable material cost.
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Oct 13, 2018 05:22
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Gonna give a player tomorrow-ish a magical weapon that just shouts dumb tokusatsu gadget catchphrases. Current plan is a Shovel Blade that asks "CAN YOU DIG IT!?" every time it's used to attack, in the hopes that eventually, when in a life-or-death situation, the player will respond in the affirmative.
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Oct 13, 2018 05:30
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DoctorWhat posted:Gonna give a player tomorrow-ish a magical weapon that just shouts dumb tokusatsu gadget catchphrases. Current plan is a Shovel Blade that asks "CAN YOU DIG IT!?" every time it's used to attack, in the hopes that eventually, when in a life-or-death situation, the player will respond in the affirmative. This is a terrible idea unless you have Booker T's entrance music ready to go at all times.
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Oct 13, 2018 13:13
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It was time. On this overcast, rainy day we would put an end to the shadow of death and tyranny that had haunted this land for centuries. Our party plus entourage crossed the outer gates of Castle Ravenloft and, blessed be our rare moment of cautiousness, by walking around its courtyards we spotted windows on the cliff face. After some deliberation we opted to avoid the surely danger-fraught chambers and corridors of the castle by breaching into its dark depths through there. As luck would have it, we found ourselves close to one of the goals of our expedition. Using the dark necromantic arts of the Amber Temple, our ally Kasimir proceeded to revive his long-dead sister Patrina, who proved an even more powerful wizard herself than her already quite talented brother, while we raided the various chambers for artifacts that could seem of use, notably finding a Staff of Power. However, after a bad encounter with an apparition which proved a concerning drain on our stamina, we were confronted by one of those dusk-skinned elves who inhabit this land. After the fact we learned he was of some notoriety among the many servants of the Dark Lord, but at the time we found ourselves far more concerned by the coven of Night Hags accompanying him. It was no matter. With strength of arms and magic, and our allies proving their worth, we felled the manservant and his crones, and then found ourselves in the tomb of Sergei von Zharovich. It took some deliberation among ourselves once the idea was floated, but with the urging of brave Ireena and after some exchange of favors among ourselves, we resurrected him using the Amber Temple's power, and returned him the Sunsword to its rightful wielder. Thus armed, we proceeded to 'liberate' the contents of more tombs in spite of Sergei's misgivings, one which proved a kind of teleportation trap that transported us into a chamber permeated by disquieting evil. As we laid eyes on the single ornate coffin within the room, and the man casually sitting atop it, realization dawned on us that we truly had no choice but to immediately confront the vampire lord Strahd, who had been fatefully awaiting for us in his crypt. His 'brides' accompanied him, crawling out of the loose earth like vermin. Perhaps the chamber's pale occupants intended to taunt us, or at the very least partake in the customary brief exchange of acknowledgement as is proper in such encounters, but immediately the radiance of the Sword of Sunlight sizzled their undead skin, and the battle was joined. Our sorceress, a young lass with talent beyond her years and the occasional brashness to match, was the swiftest to react. I will quote. "22 initiative, Bubble of Force, you can just get hosed, Dark Lord of Barovia." As the transparent, impenetrable field of mystic energy enveloped him, I could see the sneer on Strahd's face be replaced by blank shock. We had obtained a good measure of his power during our past confrontations, and knew he had no direct means of attack, nor a manner of escape, so long as the force field held. He could not reach through it - but the radiant sunlight could. "What can We what followed was gauntlet as the Dark Lord summoned all the creatures of the night, every single one of his minions still remaining in the castle (which was, well, all of them) to come to his aid. Bats, vampire spawn, hellhounds, werewolves, all poured into the crypts of Castle Ravenloft. He even convinced Patrina to turn on us, as did Kasimir in her defense. It was to no avail. His beasts rushing in through the corridors ran into an unconquerable bulwark of sword and sorcery. Those that had manifested directly into or turned on us in the fetid chamber were felled. His attempts to charm and divide us failed. We elves have a way around that. But then we heard the sound, heavy metal footsteps against the cold stone floor, and soon we saw them: A pair of iron constructs, towering over the rest of creatures. They pushed and crushed their way through as they- "No, gently caress that. I recast Wall of Force to block the entrance," yelled our sorceress, in so doing releasing Strahd from his imprisonment. Thus freed, the vampyr- "I grapple him with my +11 Athletics at advantage. Oh, nat 20," yelled my friend Erevan as he laid his powerful arms on our enemy. "He huh... yeah he can't make that. He's grappled," I found myself thinking. "I use my other attack to shove him prone. 28." Erevan added. "You smash him down on top of the coffin," I idly mused as those very events unfolded. What happened next is best left undescribed in these notes, but it suffices to say that thanks to our actions that day the maddening mists parted and the sun once again shined its light over Castle Ravenloft and beyond, for we had freed Barovia from the Curse of Strahd. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 18:14
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Conspiratiorist posted:It was time. On this overcast, rainy day we would put an end to the shadow of death and tyranny that had haunted this land for centuries. Hell ya.
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Oct 13, 2018 19:06
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Congrats to your party.
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Oct 13, 2018 19:18
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Conspiratiorist posted:It was time. On this overcast, rainy day we would put an end to the shadow of death and tyranny that had haunted this land for centuries. Basically this, but instead of luchador pinning Strahd to a coffin, do a top-of-the-cage-style suplex of Ascerak into a pool of lava and that’s how we beat Tomb of Annihilation. He may have at-will counterspell, but he never expected the Goliath barbarian/swashbuckler with focus on grappling checks using the environment to beat him.
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Oct 13, 2018 20:38
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Conspiratiorist posted:It was time. On this overcast, rainy day we would put an end to the shadow of death and tyranny that had haunted this land for centuries. gently caress yeah! I can't wait to get back to running my Strahd game and I can only hope their final showdown is as cool!
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Oct 13, 2018 22:32
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I'm starting a Waterdeep Hardback campaign next week and I'm working on character ideas. These duders will probably be used only for 1-5 (or maybe they'll want to do the 6-20 after, but no promises). Standard array with rolled wealth. Here's my ideas so far, give me some feedback:
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Oct 14, 2018 01:10
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I like the Lizard. Though are you sure you don't mean Death Domain. Cause Grave Domain is not really about Doing Harm.
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Oct 14, 2018 01:35
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MonsterEnvy posted:I like the Lizard. Though are you sure you don't mean Death Domain. Cause Grave Domain is not really about Doing Harm. Nah. We weren't using DMG as a resource. Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave is pretty DPS-focused and dropping (4d6)x2 Guiding Bolts is where I want to be.
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Oct 14, 2018 02:28
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Toshimo posted:Wow, that sounds awful. Sorry to hear that. *Really fun, if kind of hectic as most sessions tend to be game story* "So awful" In other news, there is a particular DM for the Friday table games ran locally who is doing a really good job. We're also making choices which give him pause, in a good way, and also confuse a couple of others that are joining the table. Sure making friends with a creature based off of a Retriever(giant metal spider capable of capturing demons) isn't normal but it's better than being horribly killed. This week when we chose a particular task you could almost see the grin on his face, and while it took us a little while to get to it... Him busting out a big, wooden multi-layered ship to act as the airship we were looking for was fantastic. Arthil fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Oct 14, 2018 |
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Oct 14, 2018 03:08
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Our pirate crew got put into a super religious group's arena inorder to prove our worth. We were to just fight one round for it. Our group is - Glamour Bard, Circle of Dream Druid, Eldritch Knight Fighter, Battlemaster Fighter. All level 4. Our first round was 6 CR .5 'frilled deathspitters' who were pretty drat difficult for us. 4d8 poison damage spits are scary, even if you can save for half. We beat them and were pretty well off... so my Bard and the two fighters started being big in our briches... and they told us we'd continue on for honor, though our lives were assured. Second round was 3 Ankylosaurus (Cr3). We beat it and when asked if we wanted to give up, we said no. Third round was a CR8 T-Rex and 1 anklyosaurus. Through luck, entangling roots, dissonant whispers (which was allowed to work because it was a trained battle beast and thus smarter than average), and the battlemaster getting some lucky Frighteneds and then using my Mantle of Inspiration stuff to let her retreat just far enough to make use of 'will not willingly move closer'... we managed to beat it. We were entirely out of spells, the eldritch knight had gone down TWICE, but we managed to kill the T-Rex. We were 100% supposed to lose, and even the DM was impressed that we strategied out a way to win, without excess OOC talking (I actually made use of actions in game to ICly do planning and strategy talk). So impressed that the Battlemaster, who had also killed 4 of the death spitters, and 1 of the anklyos AND did most of the actual damage to the T-Rex via opp attacks + gwf... suddenly had a burning sun halo around her, and was visibly chosen as a hero of the god, turning us into literal celebrities in a society where we should be hated. There would have been no penalties to losing to the T-Rex, but I'm pretty happy about the fact that the DM didn't feel the need to bullshit a reason or way to 'force' our lost. I've had that happen a few too many times with bad D&D DMs, who when they realize their badass 'supposed to lose' challenge is losing they suddenly pull out a new ability and stomp everyone.
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Oct 14, 2018 04:55
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Toshimo posted:I'm starting a Waterdeep Hardback campaign next week and I'm working on character ideas. These duders will probably be used only for 1-5 (or maybe they'll want to do the 6-20 after, but no promises). Standard array with rolled wealth. depends how much your DM knows about waterdeep, and if he reads the whole book before running it, alot of these characters including the rogue would have great hooks for the city already. the yuan ti especially works if you limit his ambitions into a more broader 'power' goal for the time being.
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Oct 14, 2018 11:11
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What's a good task some new players can do for a hag in return for information? I was thinking something like give/say something that seems innocent to a guy in the nearby village, but the point was to remind him that he failed to save his kid from drowning because he can't swim. I like the part about their goal being to make peoples lives miserable rather than any material benefit.
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Oct 14, 2018 11:35
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CJ posted:What's a good task some new players can do for a hag in return for information? I was thinking something like give/say something that seems innocent to a guy in the nearby village, but the point was to remind him that he failed to save his kid from drowning because he can't swim. I like the part about their goal being to make peoples lives miserable rather than any material benefit. fill his shoes (left outside the door) with water every night for a week
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Oct 14, 2018 11:52
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Toshimo posted:Nah. We weren't using DMG as a resource. Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave is pretty DPS-focused and dropping (4d6)x2 Guiding Bolts is where I want to be.
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Oct 14, 2018 14:04
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Splicer posted:Are you casting Path to the Grave one turn then Guiding Bolts the next? Because on a Grave cleric you'll outdamage that chain casting Toll the Dead by 5th level. 28 average damage vs 30 average damage (or 26 damage if your initial target dies) without using up a spell slot or a channel divinity. Path to the Grave is best used to stinkeye at the guy the Rogue is about to get the drop on. Ah, whoops. Read that as a bonus action for some reason.
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Oct 14, 2018 14:06
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