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Toplowtech posted:Same thing but with Smiting and ranged weapons. I mean, if you want to buff the strongest-at-combat class in the game by patching up the one thing they can't do good by default, sure.
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Jan 30, 2019 18:27
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Toplowtech posted:Same thing but with Smiting and ranged weapons. Don’t do this. Smite with unarmed strike makes a suboptimal choice stronger. Smite with ranged weapons gives one of the better DPR options even more damage with the potential for high alpha strike.
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Jan 30, 2019 18:44
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Besides, rangers need *something* that they can do slightly better than 80% of other classes.
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Jan 30, 2019 18:53
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deals acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage This little snippet makes me miss sonic damage. I suppose that it makes sense to fold it into force damage with Magic Missile, but I used to play with a bard who frequently used a spell of his own design called "Turn It Up to Eleven" and we once made a powerful enemy temporarily deaf by augmenting hundreds of times over the sound made by someone blowing an enthusiastic raspberry.
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Jan 30, 2019 19:56
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JustJeff88 posted:
Thunder damage is the equivalent of sonic damage.
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Jan 30, 2019 19:59
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Malpais Legate posted:Thunder damage is the equivalent of sonic damage. Yeah. We AC/DC now. 
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Jan 30, 2019 20:20
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New Annual Sage Advice Compendium is a bit light on rulings, but it does have my new favorite Xmas present:
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Jan 30, 2019 21:46
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I'm bored at work. What's a good YouTube channel with dnd stuff that isn't take20, nerdarchy or D&D stories (I hate those) or Treantmonk or Role Initiative (they're fine but I'm familiar already)
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Jan 30, 2019 21:59
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I'm bored at work. What's a good YouTube channel with dnd stuff that isn't take20, nerdarchy or D&D stories (I hate those) or Treantmonk or Role Initiative (they're fine but I'm familiar already) Dael Kingsmill does D&D content in addition to videos on mythology and folklore.
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Jan 30, 2019 22:02
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Reveilled posted:Dael Kingsmill does D&D content in addition to videos on mythology and folklore. Her Thieves Cant video was really good! I'll definitely be checking out more.
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Jan 30, 2019 22:27
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I'm bored at work. What's a good YouTube channel with dnd stuff that isn't take20, nerdarchy or D&D stories (I hate those) or Treantmonk or Role Initiative (they're fine but I'm familiar already) what's wrong with the take20 dude
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Jan 31, 2019 04:27
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Mr. Humalong posted:what's wrong with the take20 dude I assume the problem is that you have to wait for 10 minutes before he's any good.
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Jan 31, 2019 04:52
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Mr. Humalong posted:what's wrong with the take20 dude He's just more polish than I need and less substance than I'd like. Gotta wait around for those padded out videos to cross the 10 minute mark while sitting through in-video plugs and all that's for content that I don't find as valuable as with some of the aforementioned folks. I don't think he's like bad or harmful or anything but it's not for me.
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Jan 31, 2019 06:54
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Nehru the Damaja posted:He's just more polish than I need Definitely read this as Polish at first.
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Jan 31, 2019 07:24
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Kaysette posted:Don’t do this. Smite with unarmed strike makes a suboptimal choice stronger. Smite with ranged weapons gives one of the better DPR options even more damage with the potential for high alpha strike. I think the next player who chooses paladin will have the option to forego weapons as an oath to gain access to unarmed smiting. Would adding a Samson-esque edge to it be going to far? Like if a villain slipped a dagger into his bag to block them from smiting until the offending item was removed?
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Jan 31, 2019 09:19
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Yes, it's stupid. The point is that unarmed smiting isn't good in the first place, so it doesn't matter if you buff it like this. Why make the improvement conditional on an overall nerf to the class?
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Jan 31, 2019 09:55
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Mr. Humalong posted:what's wrong with the take20 dude He also had a minor scuff up recently. He put out a video at the end of last year, bitching about Roll20 not sponsoring a show he wanted to do with other youtube people, because they were all white dudes, and Roll20 is looking to promote more diversity in their sponsored casts. Which prompted a whole bunch of, "Get woke, go broke." Alt-Right poo poo, that he had to weakly denounce after he got called out for it, and let the comments go wild on the roll20 video.
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Jan 31, 2019 11:41
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TheSoundNinja posted:I think the next player who chooses paladin will have the option to forego weapons as an oath to gain access to unarmed smiting. I prefer restrictive oaths like this function like that one Edge from Deadlands where you forego tech for magic bonuses. Its a contract with a conscious divine being or force. So it won't give a poo poo if the Paladin carries a cursed dagger in his bag to destroy it or if some rear end in a top hat bandit slips a sling in his bag. But it also stops working altogether if the Player keeps trying poo poo like carrying a sword for fights he knows he won't smite in and dropping it on the ground for a battle it he wants to smite.
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Jan 31, 2019 17:49
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PicklePants posted:He also had a minor scuff up recently. He put out a video at the end of last year, bitching about Roll20 not sponsoring a show he wanted to do with other youtube people, because they were all white dudes, and Roll20 is looking to promote more diversity in their sponsored casts. Now to be fair Nolan or whatever his name from Roll20 was an idiot for expressing himself as he did. Basically crassly saying "lol no we don't need white dudes". But reality is in marketing 101 you learn you don't advertise to your base when trying to expand. DnD has the overweight white male with a beard already locked in. So them saying "sorry no, we're looking to expand but we'd like a visual minority presence on the show" when his idea was literally 5 white dudes. Cody made it out like he was this massive victim of a huge injustice while "not wanting to cause drama" or some stupid poo poo. Yeah, dude's a regular Rosa Parks. Now his videos are alright, I find him kind of annoying well before all the above and usually skip the first what? 5 minutes of his videos where he just talks endlessly like one of those recipes online giving you their life story instead of just the ingredients and instructions. But to get back to the original question I'd recommend Seth Skorkowsky: He needs a better camera/mic but gives great honest advice and clearly very experienced as both a player and DM. He's got a great handle on where the fun of tabletop games comes from by striking a balance. His top X lists are actually good too because he gives advice on how to avoid the bad things and how to employ the good things. Basically a great DM giving advice. WebDM: Two guys talk about a bunch of DnD poo poo. They go through rules, books, characters, schools of magic, spells, types of players, how to be a better player/DM, ideas for characters and basically just a poo poo load of content. They're also generally good dudes that subscribe to the "let's have a good time at the table" and basically another DM I would want at my table. Also they were involved in the whole Taking20 fiasco and publically stated it was blown out of proportion and they never felt victimized and understood Roll20's position. Downside is they throw out a lot of ideas for things and some are neat concepts for NPCs but would be super tiresome quickly as a PC. Matt Colville: I think everybody knows him at this point but in case you don't. He runs a YouTube channel where the goal is to get more people to be DMs and he actually got me into DMing. To be fair I doubt I would like him to be my DM based on how he says he runs games. But, that said, he's 100% on board with you play the game as your table wants so it's fun for everyone. Plus his entire "DMing isn't too bad, you'll be bad but then get good" mindset is very encouraging. Jim Murphy: Matt Colville's favourite DM. Not as many videos as the other people he has more of the practical advice for DMing. Where other people talk about the general concepts he goes in depth into physically prepping for DMing, as well as general advice on DMing. Jorphan: He has a shitload of DnD lore videos which is great when you're getting into DnD and have a no idea where to start in terms of lore. There are other history channel's but he doesn't do any cheesy voices or poo poo like that. Just straight up "hey this is a city/god/event" and he'll talk about it for 6-10 minutes to give you some basic information on it. If you like him you can try Forgotten Realms History it's visually more impressive but the guy running it does awful voices for it. AJ Pickett: Like Jorphan except he deals with monsters specifically. This is great if you want ideas on what monsters to include and how to include them. Production values are low but you can still understand him. WASD20: He's newer to DnD so his advice on how to run stuff is actually a bit more valuable than people who have run it for decades I think. He has a lot of map advice which is cool, both world maps and dungeons and I think that's his real strength. He's definitely a whole YouTube personality type though, so all thumbnails have that goofy face with black outline text. Skip the first few minutes when he talks about irrelevant poo poo. After that you can go to stuff for model and scenery painting like Runehammer, Black Magic Craft is a great one for scenery and painting too. There's also Luke Towan that does modern outdoor scenery but I can promise you if you did DnD scenery like him your group would have a stroke. doctor 7 fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Jan 31, 2019 |
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Jan 31, 2019 19:11
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Reveilled posted:Dael Kingsmill does D&D content in addition to videos on mythology and folklore. I'll second her stuff too! She does a lot of prep work. Her encounter video was great too! (..but, probably too much prep-work for me.)
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Jan 31, 2019 19:31
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Razorwired posted:I prefer restrictive oaths like this function like that one Edge from Deadlands where you forego tech for magic bonuses. Its a contract with a conscious divine being or force. So it won't give a poo poo if the Paladin carries a cursed dagger in his bag to destroy it or if some rear end in a top hat bandit slips a sling in his bag. But it also stops working altogether if the Player keeps trying poo poo like carrying a sword for fights he knows he won't smite in and dropping it on the ground for a battle it he wants to smite. Fair point. I'll probably use that restriction instead. On a different note, could someone do a ranged Smite if they picked up and threw the Paladin at a foe?
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Jan 31, 2019 20:29
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I let a player use ranged smites, but with the restrictions that they could only be used with thrown weapons, the spell slot was spent even on a miss, and the weapon was destroyed when it hit. Most of the time he would stick to his swords, since those were what he wanted to use and they were less risky, but every now and then he would chuck a javelin for a clutch kill on an enemy he couldn't reach on his turn. It seemed to work out pretty well... though saying that, he was pretty sub-optimal as far as builds go, and it's not like paladins need the help.
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Jan 31, 2019 20:45
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CeallaSo posted:I let a player use ranged smites, but with the restrictions that they could only be used with thrown weapons, the spell slot was spent even on a miss, and the weapon was destroyed when it hit. Most of the time he would stick to his swords, since those were what he wanted to use and they were less risky, but every now and then he would chuck a javelin for a clutch kill on an enemy he couldn't reach on his turn. It seemed to work out pretty well... though saying that, he was pretty sub-optimal as far as builds go, and it's not like paladins need the help. Yet again, "is it rad?" proves to be the best arbiter of rulings.
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Jan 31, 2019 21:31
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CeallaSo posted:but every now and then he would chuck a javelin for a clutch kill on an enemy he couldn't reach on his turn. This rules. Even if the paladin misses, you're making a statement if you are willing to break a weapon and preemptively use a smite for the chance of hitting a person. If that attack ever misses, totally bring that monster person back. Nemesis system this.
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Jan 31, 2019 22:50
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doctor 7 posted:
Did anybody watch his campaign stream last night? He killed one of the characters pretty gruesomely... like splatted him straight to death w/o saves. I don't think I'd like him as a DM, either, as some of the stuff smells like DMPCing, but I'm not sure as I wasn't giving the stream 100% of my attention.
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Feb 1, 2019 00:12
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Finster Dexter posted:Did anybody watch his campaign stream last night? He killed one of the characters pretty gruesomely... like splatted him straight to death w/o saves. I don't think I'd like him as a DM, either, as some of the stuff smells like DMPCing, but I'm not sure as I wasn't giving the stream 100% of my attention. First round of combat, single attack doing something like 46 damage to the level 3?(4?) pc and killed him. First round of the first combat of the campaign. It's so bizarre and while he seems like a friendly and encourage guy, his games seem like zero fun to play in.
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Feb 1, 2019 00:16
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Finster Dexter posted:Did anybody watch his campaign stream last night? He killed one of the characters pretty gruesomely... like splatted him straight to death w/o saves. I don't think I'd like him as a DM, either, as some of the stuff smells like DMPCing, but I'm not sure as I wasn't giving the stream 100% of my attention. I'm pretty sure that was planned ahead (at least by himself) as a means of showing his players that death is a possibility, as well as giving them a chance to balance their 4 melee, 1 arcane caster party to include a divine caster.
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Feb 1, 2019 00:17
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koreban posted:I'm pretty sure that was planned ahead (at least by himself) as a means of showing his players that death is a possibility, as well as giving them a chance to balance their 4 melee, 1 arcane caster party to include a divine caster. lol, maybe you should tell the player who is about to get crushed to dust that hes going to die for the party to learn a lesson lmao. Alternatively you could just sit down and tell your players that death is a possibility instead of pulling poo poo like that? Also he does a 4d6 down the line system for character creation so they are basically hoping dice rolls come up the right to actually get a divine caster in the group.
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Feb 1, 2019 00:28
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kingcom posted:lol, maybe you should tell the player who is about to get crushed to dust that hes going to die for the party to learn a lesson lmao. Alternatively you could just sit down and tell your players that death is a possibility instead of pulling poo poo like that? Also he does a 4d6 down the line system for character creation so they are basically hoping dice rolls come up the right to actually get a divine caster in the group. Oof 
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Feb 1, 2019 00:34
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I've heard a lot of people have great convention games with Colville but jesus that dude is up his own rear end
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Feb 1, 2019 00:37
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kingcom posted:Also he does a 4d6 down the line system for character creation so they are basically hoping dice rolls come up the right to actually get a divine caster in the group. Not arguing any point except this. He showed the rolls for characters on recorded video on stream and he allowed them to allocate the results to whichever stat they wanted.
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Feb 1, 2019 00:39
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They did not do down the line rolling, you are wrong there and it's sad that you'd try to spread misinformation when the VOD is freely available on the channel. Hell, Colville is even more kind than some DMs where if you roll below an 8 you reroll. If you somehow don't get any 15's, you reroll the whole thing. But yeah it was probably pre-planned, even up to the player being in on it. The table knew that things would be tough, and that the prologue of sorts was meant to give their organization a crushing defeat. What better way narratively than to lose the top of your chain of command? Even if it wasn't planned out with Lars, the player in question. It's still a really strong narrative moment. These people have been playing together for a long time, there's only one newer person at the table and even they've played in one of Colville's campaigns in the past. The world is known to them, they know how dangerous it is and some people at the table already had a reason to hate the villain, now their characters do too. People just love to project their own bullshit onto it for some reason. Arthil fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Feb 1, 2019 00:40
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3d6 straight down is the only way to go
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Feb 1, 2019 00:40
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mango sentinel posted:I've heard a lot of people have great convention games with Colville but jesus that dude is up his own rear end He seems like a really nice and encouraging person who wants people to not be afraid of trying new things but on the flip side his games just seem absolutely slogs to get through. I'm guessing he just found the style of game he liked ages ago and has stuck with that theme, tone and results forever regards of the group hes with. koreban posted:Not arguing any point except this. He showed the rolls for characters on recorded video on stream and he allowed them to allocate the results to whichever stat they wanted. Ah cool, so hes at least changed it up from what hes done before then. Still rolling and hoping the numbers come up good but at least its possible now. Arthil posted:But yeah it was probably pre-planned, even up to the player being in on it. The table knew that things would be tough, and that the prologue of sorts was meant to give their organization a crushing defeat. What better way narratively than to lose the top of your chain of command? No part of the rest of what you said makes any sense in any frame of mind. If they wanted to set a narrative tone with the audience, you have a chat with the player beforehand rather than make him feel like poo poo in front an audience. On top of that its a giant right hook attack that comes of as really bizarre and weird that smells very much of people running a pre-scripted narrative. Ironically because of that it feel like a very weak narrative moment that you are just waiting to get over before you can go and play the game. If you are trying to set a narrative tone to the players you can just like tell them whats going on and sit everyone down at character creation for that and make them aware of what you are doing and trying to do. kingcom fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Feb 1, 2019 00:41
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kingcom posted:No part of the rest of what you said makes any sense in any frame of mind. If they wanted to set a narrative tone with the audience, you have a chat with the player beforehand rather than make him feel like poo poo in front an audience. For a guy who's running on a lot of assumptions and clearly didn't watch the stream, you're sure assuming hard that he didn't do this either. His line to kick off gameplay after the introduction was something to the tune of "and now it's time to start telling the story of the last contract of The Chain." The Chain being the name of the merc company the players are all supposed to be officers in. quote:On top of that its a giant right hook attack that comes of as really bizarre and weird that smells very much of people running a pre-scripted narrative. Ironically because of that it feel like a very weak narrative moment that you are just waiting to get over before you can go and play the game. If you are trying to set a narrative tone to the players you can just like tell them whats going on and sit everyone down at character creation for that and make them aware of what you are doing and trying to do. He also said right at the outset that he was going to be running a sort of railroady bit for the first session or two until they get to Capital and then the game would largely open up, but he needed to get them in place and was looking to set the stage and the tone for them when they get there. That just drips of "this was preplanned" if you watched it. He dropped massive 120mm based models on the table, including dropping his villian "Saint Ajax, The Invincible Overlord" who was a main villain in his previous campaign that all of his characters were familiar with. None of this stuff should have been a big surprise. I'm sure the players could have played things out differently and refused to engage the summoned greater daemon that was represented by a GW Great Unclean One mini in close combat and the commander character would have gotten away. It's just a reasonable based on all of the things said and the little nods to metaknowledge that he intended to kill off a party character during a scripted sequence that has their merc group being decimated to set the stage for them to have to recruit a whole new army elsewhere as a main thrust of their game.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:15
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kingcom posted:He seems like a really nice and encouraging person who wants people to not be afraid of trying new things but on the flip side his games just seem absolutely slogs to get through. I'm guessing he just found the style of game he liked ages ago and has stuck with that theme, tone and results forever regards of the group hes with. You mean like the video where he describes how he did exactly that with all the players? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzK5xE2qwDg There wasn't any mention of character death that I remember, but he was pretty clear that this first session was more or less on rails and the real game would start when they regroup after their defeat, and that the players were all on board.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:17
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I've gotten to be the guy killed to show that "ok, this is dangerous and people are going to die." We went over it beforehand, and we got to carefully plan out how to ruin my dude's day, it was great
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Feb 1, 2019 01:19
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It's the major reason I think that he had them all set up retainers/junior officers as backups. If it wasn't entirely pre-planned and given they are a 5-person party, he likely rolled a d6 in the end to choose who was focused on. Lars, being the most veteran player at the table and knowing he could handle it, was probably assigned 5-6 while everyone else was 1-4. Loss of a character can feel bad even if you know it's coming, the main difference here compared to when it happens on Critical Role is Lars didn't get up and leave the room/camera area.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:28
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koreban posted:For a guy who's running on a lot of assumptions and clearly didn't watch the stream, you're sure assuming hard that he didn't do this either. His line to kick off gameplay after the introduction was something to the tune of "and now it's time to start telling the story of the last contract of The Chain." The Chain being the name of the merc company the players are all supposed to be officers in. I mean yeah if he and Lars chatted about it then absolutely thats less of an issue but I mean, that doesn't look like the face of someone who knew they were going to get beat down in one hit before they got a chance to do anything. Also yeah this is what I was saying the whole time, its this real on rails right hook that was just a rocket at a player to kill them. The problem is it feels like Matt preplanned to kill a player and not necessarily anyyone else. If the player and GM both talk and know this is happening behind then thats great work for Matt and great work for Lars who sold that really well, otherwise thats kind of a lovely way to kick that game of lol. Gharbad the Weak posted:I've gotten to be the guy killed to show that "ok, this is dangerous and people are going to die." Yeah I've done the same, its good fun when both the player and the GM are on board with it. In a star wars game we set my character up to become a campaign villain npc the party had to deal with and I'd already built a character that was ready to go after this switch happened. I've never seen it done where both players are informed and the player is then rolling stat gen dice and on their phone after the event but maybe thats me. dedian posted:You mean like the video where he describes how he did exactly that with all the players? I'll definitely give this watch when I get the chance, I'm not sure why there wouldnt be a mention of 'hey people are going to die, go into this game with a backup character and ideas even for session 1' though if that was the idea. My most optimistic guess is that this is trying to give something to get people excited about and talking about the campaign for the audience, hence why its not mentioned until it happened. kingcom fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Feb 1, 2019 01:48
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kingcom posted:I'll definitely give this watch when I get the chance, I'm not sure why there wouldnt be a mention of 'hey people are going to die, go into this game with a backup character and ideas even for session 1' though if that was the idea. My most optimistic guess is that this is trying to give something to get people excited about and talking about the campaign for the audience, hence why its not mentioned until it happened. Well in this case, there was. It's why everyone already have backups not only planned out, but literally following their current characters orders as junior officers in the mercenary company.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:00
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