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Okay so I'm currently obsessed with Castlevania. How would one build Richter Belmont, the dnd character? Just a fighter that uses a whip and keeps holy water and various improvised weapons?
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Oct 29, 2018 19:40
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paladin/sorcerer multiclass question: is it worthwhile to take PAM to fill up bonus actions and maximize crit opportunities? Looking at a paladin 6/sorcerer 14 for an extended campaign, so beelining paladin for aura and extra attack, then just picking up additional slots and wider spell list from sorcerer. I was considering going human and using a quarterstaff, but it seems like you're spoilt for choice as to how to use bonus actions once you get metamagic and it might be better to have the additional stats from half-elf or something else.
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Oct 29, 2018 19:41
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RC Cola posted:Okay so I'm currently obsessed with Castlevania. How would one build Richter Belmont, the dnd character? Just a fighter that uses a whip and keeps holy water and various improvised weapons? You'd have to give him a magical, exceptionally overpowered whip to make it useful, but yeah probably edit: Oh wait I take this back I thought whips were still complete garbage like in 3.x apparently they're now just not very good, not literally unusable. Glagha fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Oct 29, 2018 |
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Oct 29, 2018 19:44
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RC Cola posted:Okay so I'm currently obsessed with Castlevania. How would one build Richter Belmont, the dnd character? Just a fighter that uses a whip and keeps holy water and various improvised weapons? Um....Variant Human Dex Paladin...reflavor the spells as various powerups you have picked up. Oath of Vengeance. At least that is what I would do at first glance.
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Oct 29, 2018 19:44
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RC Cola posted:Okay so I'm currently obsessed with Castlevania. How would one build Richter Belmont, the dnd character? Just a fighter that uses a whip and keeps holy water and various improvised weapons? e: Nevermind. Looks like holy water is used like an improvised weapon rather than being a regular object you can use. nelson fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Oct 29, 2018 |
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Oct 29, 2018 19:54
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I like the idea of a dex paladin that uses a whip
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Oct 29, 2018 20:11
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Valentin posted:paladin/sorcerer multiclass question: is it worthwhile to take PAM to fill up bonus actions and maximize crit opportunities? Looking at a paladin 6/sorcerer 14 for an extended campaign, so beelining paladin for aura and extra attack, then just picking up additional slots and wider spell list from sorcerer. I was considering going human and using a quarterstaff, but it seems like you're spoilt for choice as to how to use bonus actions once you get metamagic and it might be better to have the additional stats from half-elf or something else. If you're going Paladin 6 then PAM is good. You'll be very SP limited for a long while, so you'll only really be quickening as your opening move (say, Quickened Bless + CD activation or ranged attack cantrip while positioning) and twinning valuable buffs (ie Protection from Evil, Haste) that won't let you Bonus Action cast on the same turn anyway.
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Oct 29, 2018 20:12
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I actually agree with other folks here as far as paladin goes. The Belmonts frequently use somewhat to full-on magical abilities and I think using smite to slay vampires is 100% on point.
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Oct 29, 2018 20:13
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Gonna be starting Tomb of Annihilation here soon as a player, just finished DMing SKT for my group. I want to play a Paladin eventually wearing plate armor, but the last campaign I playing in was Curse of Strahd and we were so dirt poor the entire time I was never able to actually get plate before we finished it. So without spoiling too much, does this campaign at least give me the opportunity to acquire plate in someway at least before the halfway point? I don't want to design a character that just doesn't work out because the written book forgot about classes that might want that kind of stuff. SKT was very open world, but I understand some of the other written campaigns are more or less on rails.
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Oct 29, 2018 20:36
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LeSquide posted:This is really cool! Yeah, I decided to make the temperature for the Underdark vary a lot since it's supposed to be a hostile high-magic place and I figure that could be represented partly through temperature. IRL temperature underground is based largely on depth but there's also less demons.
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Oct 29, 2018 20:44
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DarkAvenger211 posted:Gonna be starting Tomb of Annihilation here soon as a player, just finished DMing SKT for my group. Theoretically, the campaign discourages wearing plate and my DM made a really big deal about it when we played but honestly I don't think there was a single situation where it would have actually mattered. You should have access to a town where you can pick some up pretty easily throughout though.
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Oct 29, 2018 20:46
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Splint is 17 AC for just 200 gold anyway.
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Oct 29, 2018 20:48
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I don't think it's a spoiler saying; yes you can get heavy armour easily, but do you really want to be wearing heavy armour in a jungle? Mechanically, your more likely to get exhaustion from lugging through the jungle with heavy armour. That depends how closely your DM follows the intended rules. I had a Cleric of the Forge player, and I hand-waved him suffering no penalties cause his entire thing is enduring the heat of the forge for days-on-end. If you didn't know ToA takes place in a jungle, sorry 
Blooming Brilliant fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Oct 29, 2018 |
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Oct 29, 2018 20:55
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Conspiratiorist posted:Splint is 17 AC for just 200 gold anyway. Same AC. Half the cost of mundane full plate. None of the "Suddenly, I care about armor encumbrance and material costs!" baggage. It's worked for me with people going so far as to suggest I spend downtime to learn blacksmithing so I might be able to craft some at reduced cost if I want FULL plate.
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Oct 29, 2018 21:49
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RC Cola posted:Okay so I'm currently obsessed with Castlevania. How would one build Richter Belmont, the dnd character? Just a fighter that uses a whip and keeps holy water and various improvised weapons? Go Swordlock with a whip, whip dudes with a magic whip made from your SOUL all day every day. Go Dexadin with a whip, whip people for Jesus all day every day.
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Oct 29, 2018 22:06
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So my copy of Curse of Strahd finally came in and I have been reading it nonstop and loving it. It feels like it was made for me with all of the weird psychological stuff and gothic horror tropes. The only problem so far the depiction of the Vistani, who seem to be a hodge podge of every racist roma stereotype the authors could dredge up. Once I go through and make my notes I'm gonna try and remove as much of the more overt stuff as I can but I'd love to hear from other DM's who ran the campaign and what they did with this stuff.
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Oct 29, 2018 23:58
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You're going to have to work hard to make Ireena a compelling character.
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Oct 30, 2018 01:35
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Conspiratiorist posted:You're going to have to work hard to make Ireena a compelling character. My group left her at the first village to die. Nothing was lost.
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Oct 30, 2018 01:47
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Conspiratiorist posted:You're going to have to work hard to make Ireena a compelling character. It's easier if you're willing to give her space to be a person outside of her identity as Tatyana reincarnated. If you go in with the idea that Tatyana's soul is merely sharing her body, rather than being all of who she is, you can let her have her own thoughts and goals (outside of "please protect me" and "bury my dad") which the party can relate to. Then if she makes it to the end, Tatyana's soul can leave to be with Sergei, and Ireena becomes free to live out her own life as a free woman, unbound from her past and the horrors of Barovia. I think the easiest way to separate the Vistani from the lovely Gypsy stereotype (beyond removing their ability to curse and/or evil eye people) is to flip how they and the townsfolk relate to Strahd. Strahd owes them a debt of gratitude because their ancestors helped him in the past; nothing about that requires that they serve him in any way, and gives you a pretty obvious out in allowing them to quietly oppose him. If the soulless villagers work as dutiful toadies to Strahd rather than just being empty husks who are mostly unworthy of note, thus giving the party reason to avoid towns once they realize this, they might find some common ground with the friendly Vistani who find themselves drawn back to Barovia out of a sense of guilt over how things have turned out. They have a strong community culture, and one of their ancestors was not only responsible for aiding Strahd, but also for leading him down the path to becoming the monster he now is. There are plenty of ways you can go towards incorporating the vistani in ways that aren't gross, or you can excise those portions entirely. I don't think either option would require so much work as to defeat the purpose of buying the module.
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Oct 30, 2018 02:23
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nelson posted:Sounds like it would be ridiculously useful outside of combat. Yeah. It would only be able to be used in combat. As for making it only usable in dim light, the paladin in our party walks around with a flaming sword, so I dunno how useful it will be. There would also probably be some kind of range limit, like 10 or 15ft. But y’all probably right. I’m just sortof stumped as how to make it unique and flavorful for an assassin without save-or-die, or some sort of murderteleport. I could make it “crit on sneak attacks on 19-20” but meh. DJ Dizzy fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 08:24
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DJ Dizzy posted:An artifact weaponset (daggers) for my party's rogue that allows him to "shadowstep" behind enemies and deliver an immediate sneak attack with both daggers as a full round action? Yes/no? quote:
If the daggers become too powerful, then they can begin to begin to seem subtly evil and push the character to constantly get into altercations and perhaps give the impression the item is cursed vs magical. Could also scale them up as in a legendary weapon set over time by adding features (i.e. advantage on stealth rolls, etc) Image source
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Oct 30, 2018 11:42
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Simple, easy, and potentially cool dagger thing to give rogues is to let them kill light from a distance. To get around rules bullshit, say it can "cut" out any non-celestial light source - so it can absolutely remove magic lights, but not like, the sun. As for the teleport, I say you make the catch permanent. You can only teleport by actually stabbing into another person at your destination. Gotta be a person too, so no keeping a bag of tricks with you for unlimited animal cruelty powered shankaports. Why's it work that way? Because wizards have no sense of right or wrong. The rogue will probably be tempted plenty often to stab an innocent person to teleport somewhere, giving you the whole corrupting the rogue into evil bit, but instead of it being you talking in a creepy voice or passing menacing notes, the rogue very gleefully corrupts themselves over the chance to be slightly more powerful, which, let's face it, is how this poo poo should've always worked. Combine the two and you got a pretty good assassin's tool; the first enchantment ensures a hidden approach, the second gets you past any security twice over. For extra fun, ditch the evil wizard making it, state none of this poo poo pings as magic, the gently caress? You know, this is good enough at killing people, maybe this isn't something a wizard made, maybe this crazy-rear end fantasy world includes just a shard of Murder, as a proper noun, hanging out in dagger form.
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Oct 30, 2018 12:05
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ProfessorCirno posted:Simple, easy, and potentially cool dagger thing to give rogues is to let them kill light from a distance. To get around rules bullshit, say it can "cut" out any non-celestial light source - so it can absolutely remove magic lights, but not like, the sun. These are all good ideas. The Daggers are called Daggers of The First Murder.
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Oct 30, 2018 12:09
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DJ Dizzy posted:Yeah. It would only be able to be used in combat. As for making it only usable in dim light, the paladin in our party walks around with a flaming sword, so I dunno how useful it will be. There would also probably be some kind of range limit, like 10 or 15ft. Advantage is plenty. And just because it can be abused outside of combat doesn’t mean you should restrict it, just prepare for it. If the power is used for evil purposes that should have unique consequences, like upset ninja monks coming after the player because he disgraced their clan by abusing their holy power or something.
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Oct 30, 2018 12:51
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ProfessorCirno posted:For extra fun, ditch the evil wizard making it, state none of this poo poo pings as magic, the gently caress? You know, this is good enough at killing people, maybe this isn't something a wizard made, maybe this crazy-rear end fantasy world includes just a shard of Murder, as a proper noun, hanging out in dagger form. More of this sort of thing. nelson posted:If the power is used for evil purposes that should have unique consequences, like upset ninja monks coming after the player because he disgraced their clan by abusing their holy power or something. Just reward them every time they're evil and they'll dig themselves a deeper hole than you could ever make, and then cheerfully leap to their doom. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 12:55
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Blooming Brilliant posted:I don't think it's a spoiler saying; yes you can get heavy armour easily, but do you really want to be wearing heavy armour in a jungle? Heh yeah, I did know it takes place in a jungle and anything else on the back of the book. I figured it'd be pretty funny to play your typical do gooder paladin stumbling his way through a jungle trying to save everyone from evil monsters and stuff. The plate armor just matched the aesthetic I was going for. I don't entirely know the rules for exhaustion even though I did just finish DMing a whole campaign, unless it's just extreme cold/heat, I've got proficiency in athletics/survival in case that's used at all.
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Oct 30, 2018 13:46
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If you are playing a paladin and you arent wearing full plate, regardless of environment or activity, then you are doing it wrong.
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Oct 30, 2018 15:14
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DJ Dizzy posted:If you are playing a paladin and you arent wearing full plate, regardless of environment or activity, then you are doing it wrong.
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Oct 30, 2018 15:23
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Toplowtech posted:Dex paladins with low strength and high dex disagree. DEX Paladins are inferior.
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Oct 30, 2018 16:25
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DJ Dizzy posted:These are all good ideas. The Daggers are called Daggers of The First Murder. Innocence: You may retain the Daggers of the First Murder in most situations where they would otherwise be considered suspicious. At the GM's discretion you may need to provide a plausible explanation for their presence, in which case you have advantage on any required rolls. This ability does not work on anyone who has previously witnessed you use the daggers for their intended purpose. Innocence Lost: You may choose to give an enemy you attack with the Daggers of the First Murder the surprised condition, if they have not yet acted. This ability recharges on a short rest. This ability also does not work on anyone who has previously witnessed you use the daggers for their intended purpose. The First Murder: While attuned to and in possession of the Daggers of the First Murder you may grant yourself advantage on initiative rolls, and you may choose to ignore the surprised condition. You must make a best effort attempt to murder a creature on the turn you used this ability or the daggers will be... displeased. The Second Murder: If you are wielding both daggers you can attack with these weapons twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
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Oct 30, 2018 16:35
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I saw this and thought of you, forums doofus gradenko_2000: 
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Oct 30, 2018 16:40
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I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place?
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Oct 30, 2018 17:27
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DJ Dizzy posted:But y’all probably right. I’m just sortof stumped as how to make it unique and flavorful for an assassin without save-or-die, or some sort of murderteleport. I could make it “crit on sneak attacks on 19-20” but meh. I think a lot of the questions can be answered by answering "what's the story of the first murder?" Maybe there were once two forgotten gods and one killed the other and the corpse became the land and the living one immediately regretted the action and chose to watch vigil over their kin and turned into the heavens, everything reaching above and watching over the planet. But the daggers remained in the earth's wound, and the tears from the survivor became the current pantheon. Or whatever, idk your cosmology~ To choose not to use the daggers is to attune yourself to the sun and stars and sky, to choose to watch vigil, and in return it grants powers related to those domains. So say you gain the produce flame and spare the dying cantrips, can cast gust of wind and feather fall once/long rest, and never suffer any kind of penalty to your attacks or skill checks from natural weather/inclement conditions (including natural darkness) as long as you're under open air. These should not really be combat power enhancers, and should only work as long as you possess the daggers and keep them sheathed. The idea is that the daggers themselves should assert that cause to murder is something that should be contemplated, and that drawing them and using them is a significant choice. So once you draw the daggers, you lose all the above powers and must kill a sentient creature before putting them away. This is a divinely powerful compulsion, and something that has to happen quickly - you can't just draw one and hold it for a few days until you get ambushed by goblins, these are murderous. Once you do kill something with the daggers, you gain a new set of powers tied to the nature and cause of the first murder. Not shadow powers, since the first murder wasn't just ~xXxSePhIrOtH420xXx~ but a murder tied to a flash of anger and regret and creation. As the First Victim became the earth, any sentient victim of the daggers decomposes extremely fast, becoming unbelievably rich and pure soil within a week - and minor necromantic tricks like gentle repose do nothing to halt this. Then you need things that reflect what the murder was or why it happened, and it should break all kinds of rules to bring those ideas to reality. Maybe the murder was out of jealousy, where the First Murderer saw the things the First Victim excelled at and wanted to become better by bringing their companion down. So one major ability might be that if you're facing a sentient creature with any higher ability score than you, you gain advantage on every attack against them, and when you kill them you gain +2 in one of those higher ability scores (doable once per ability score, and mandatory if possible). If you need something specifically themed for the assassin kit, maybe the murder was an incredible act of betrayal committed by convincing the First Victim to come in for a hug and killing them when they were most vulnerable. So once per short rest as a bonus action you can make a contested int(deception) check versus the target's passive perception and a success lets you act out the rest of your turn as if the target was surprised (including the target not getting reactions). Then there should be drawbacks to really emphasize the choice, maybe you're always seething so you have disadvantage on charisma checks and saves, or you've got such bloody visions in your head that you lose proficiency in perception, and you refuse to allow any quarter against your enemies. Maybe once you've stolen +2 in all six attributes you start needing to kill a sentient creature once every 2-3 days or you lose 1 point in all your attributes, as you begin to doubt your superiority. Maybe using the surprise round ability also costs you one maximum hitpoint as you lose an essential part of yourself in the betrayal. Then there should also be a way to switch back, so to re-attune to the aspect of watching vigil you have to spend time in contemplation at the end of each day. Make a charisma check (at disadvantage) at the end of every long rest, and once you've accumulated 3 passes since you last used the daggers, you switch attunements. This also causes you to lose the +2 ability score bonuses while regaining your lost attributes or max HP. So it's a constant juggling act of powerful depravity and useful levity and choosing when to dive into one or when you hope to have the breathing room to back out towards the other (triggering the assassinate and death strike kit abilities). Also ofc have stuff like +1d6 sneak attack damage or making it a +3 or whatever if you want to pad the weapon out, but with a name like Daggers of the First Murder its extremely dope to have the story baked directly into the mechanics. Especially if they see the mechanics first and have to figure out why they are what they are and when they do they can go "OOOOOOH, I get it now!!!"
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Oct 30, 2018 17:29
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Fruity20 posted:I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place? A dungeon.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:36
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Fruity20 posted:I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place? A Wyvern maybe. Out of curiosity why don't you want to use a Dragon.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:37
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Fruity20 posted:I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place? Giants are always fun. What are you trying to do anyway?
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Oct 30, 2018 17:39
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Fruity20 posted:I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place? Explaining why you want to avoid using a dragon might help.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:39
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Fruity20 posted:I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place? a really big goose
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Oct 30, 2018 17:41
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mormonpartyboat posted:a really big goose 100 goose-sized dragons
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Oct 30, 2018 17:42
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Fruity20 posted:I wanna avoid having my PCs fight a dragon. what other creature should use in its place? A Drow gun, if you will.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:45
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