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Nehru the Damaja posted:What is a kenku name for a guy slated to be buried with a pharaoh to guide him into the afterlife
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Jun 16, 2019 13:44
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Nehru the Damaja posted:What is a kenku name for a guy slated to be buried with a pharaoh to guide him into the afterlife Rumble Slabslam. Bonus points if you get to confuse people into thinking you’re a dwarf at first. Real answer: Mastabas.
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Jun 16, 2019 14:48
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Splicer posted:How does he feel about this? Like a big drat deal. The patron is actually just a really rich guy and I said "pharaoh" to be quick in characterizing it, but said rich guy is gonna fall out of everyone's graces pretty quickly and that's why our would-be grave bird becomes a rootless adventurer instead. But he believes in the gods and the basic cosmology like anyone else, so it's not a terrifying ordeal but a great honor.
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Jun 16, 2019 15:53
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Like a big drat deal. The patron is actually just a really rich guy and I said "pharaoh" to be quick in characterizing it, but said rich guy is gonna fall out of everyone's graces pretty quickly and that's why our would-be grave bird becomes a rootless adventurer instead. But he believes in the gods and the basic cosmology like anyone else, so it's not a terrifying ordeal but a great honor. I don't know if you're interested, but the Magic: The Gathering - Plane Shift Amonkhet 5e supplement might interest you, since it sounds like there's a fair number of parallels. https://media.wizards.com/2017/downloads/magic/plane-shift_amonkhet.pdf One idea I liked that they had was to use MTG cards as a basis for character concepts. So for example taking a look at a list of Amonkhet creature cards and finding fun archetypes to build off of, for example "Aven Initiate" or "Oketra's Attendant". https://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog...d_select%5D=any
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Jun 16, 2019 17:47
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I'm just a player, not the DM. Our DM doesn't like Magic at all, so I'm iffy about poisoning the whole Egypt world thing to him with Amonkhet.
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Jun 16, 2019 20:25
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And Amonkhet was also a place in MTG that had a LOT of major plot stuff tied up in it. It's not just Egyptland, it's Egyptland after a jerkass dragon turned it into a giant eugenics program to make super terminator zombies to steal magic souls.
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Jun 16, 2019 21:25
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Omnicrom posted:And Amonkhet was also a place in MTG that had a LOT of major plot stuff tied up in it. It's not just Egyptland, it's Egyptland after a jerkass dragon turned it into a giant eugenics program to make super terminator zombies to steal magic souls. Yeah but all you have to do to make the story ready to import is subtract Bolas and make the afterlife genuine.
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Jun 16, 2019 21:40
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Adlai Stevenson posted:Yeah but all you have to do to make the story ready to import is replace Bolas with Bo'laz, a pharaoh that managed to become a lich lord.
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Jun 17, 2019 00:28
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Most of the MtG lore would make good fodder for a Spelljammer or Slider-esque campaign. Lots of good art to show as well.
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Jun 17, 2019 01:06
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MtG is canon in the D&D multiverse I believe, so I'm kind of curious whether they keep that in mind when charting out the lore. Also, speaking of, I'm building up to a reveal where the party gets a spelljammer further down the line. Does each universe typically have other inhabitable planets in most settings, or is it just like, you're in one solar system and anything beyond that is another universe?
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Jun 17, 2019 01:31
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Incidentally, Ranger starting gear is garbage. No shield option, no rapier, no replacement to the longbow if you're a small race unless you want to pick simple weapons in place of the shortswords. No component pouch even though you learn magic on the following level. Surely they have life hard enough.
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Jun 17, 2019 01:52
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change my name posted:MtG is canon in the D&D multiverse I believe, so I'm kind of curious whether they keep that in mind when charting out the lore. If your realm is in a giant glass sphere, or a flat plane, or riding on the back of a turtle...
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Jun 17, 2019 02:13
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change my name posted:MtG is canon in the D&D multiverse I believe, so I'm kind of curious whether they keep that in mind when charting out the lore. It depends, several of Toril's system's planets are habitable and some are also weird. For example the one farthest from the Realmspace sun is called H'Catha a wheel shaped planet ruled by Beholders with Orc slaves.
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Jun 17, 2019 03:03
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Hey all, I'm a relative D&D newbie -- played some 3.5 like 15 years ago and then relatively recently joined a group of other mostly-newbies in a friend's campaign. I'm playing wizard, and could use some advice on my spell picks because I have chosen some stinkers. I mean, I don't think my character is bad necessarily, but he could be better. My goal was to make a "gently caress with the bad guys" caster, who helps everyone else do their jobs better moreso than deals direct damage themselves. Unfortunately 5e makes that sufficiently not-straightforward, especially early on when we're fighting miscellaneous animals and zombies, that newbie me wasn't really able to figure out how to accomplish that. I took Charm Person and Disguise Self at L1 and we've yet to meet an NPC we would want to manipulate rather than either talk to as an ally or kill. Look into Suggestion as well, it completely incapacitates a target if they fail one save. That's generally what you want to focus on as a control wizard. Hypnotic Pattern and Fear are good, fireball is overrated with Mike Mearls' vile lust for HP inflation, and if you really want to do damage stop loving around with bad spells and grab animate dead.* You also want the ability to hit as many saves as possible, so grab int and cha spells even if they aren't outright save or dies. How creative are you at arguing with your dm over the image spells? *Seriously, monster hp are all over the place. Looking up math for average hp per cr indicates that cr 2 monsters have 49.11 on average (https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/2nn6ld/the_monster_quick_stats_by_cr_table/) and a fireball does 28 on average. You can waste a turn on fireball and still have all the monsters trash the monk, or cast hypnotic pattern and reduce incoming damage.
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Jun 17, 2019 16:11
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Everything TheGreatEvilKing said is correct but also any wizard who was looking at Misty Step, Web, Hypnotic Pattern, and Slow is already doing it right. Feel comfortable with your choices because you're doing it right. I will say though that Web is an all-star or an utter disaster depending on how smart your team is, and it might just get your Monk killed. It's one of the very best things you can do with a level 2 slot in the game, but it can't make him say "I think I will stay outside the web for this turn and take a dodge action."
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Jun 17, 2019 16:31
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ooh, that'll do it too
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Jun 17, 2019 18:21
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Look into Suggestion as well, it completely incapacitates a target if they fail one save. That's generally what you want to focus on as a control wizard. Hypnotic Pattern and Fear are good, fireball is overrated with Mike Mearls' vile lust for HP inflation, and if you really want to do damage stop loving around with bad spells and grab animate dead.* You also want the ability to hit as many saves as possible, so grab int and cha spells even if they aren't outright save or dies. quote:How creative are you at arguing with your dm over the image spells? quote:*Seriously, monster hp are all over the place. Looking up math for average hp per cr indicates that cr 2 monsters have 49.11 on average (https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/2nn6ld/the_monster_quick_stats_by_cr_table/) and a fireball does 28 on average. You can waste a turn on fireball and still have all the monsters trash the monk, or cast hypnotic pattern and reduce incoming damage. Fireball isn't going to kill things unless they were weak enough to be easily taken out anyway, yeah. But our party faces large groups pretty often, which means it can get me like 5+ turns' worth of damage right at the start of a fight. That's a pretty good rate of exchange and reduces the amount of damage we take in the long run (the best status effect is "dead"). This isn't at all meant to say that Fireball is better than Hypnotic Pattern, just that so far I've been pretty happy with my uses of it. It's sounding like I should definitely take Web as one of my two spells. Since it has a similar AOE as Hypnotic Pattern (i.e. indiscriminately-targeted cube), that suggests I shouldn't take that spell. I think Web and Misty Step are probably going to be my picks this level. And I'll hope to find a lab or somewhere to do research soon.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:39
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Suggestion looks really nice and I definitely want it, but I don't think it beats out my other options at this point. If your DM is rigid with interpretation, Suggestion is a 7th level strength spell. If your DM doesn't like making judgement calls, Suggestion is awful. That spell is 100% DM dependent. Also you'll either end up with an interpretation where the spell is nearly useless, or where it instantly takes care of every single encounter with an intelligent opponent. It's a loving awful spell. Table breaker.
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Jun 17, 2019 19:43
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dex_sda posted:If your DM is rigid with interpretation, Suggestion is a 7th level strength spell. I'm barding it up and we just reached level 4 and I took Suggestion. Before, I took Heat Metal since we were in the portion of the campaign that was clearly a dungeon delve. Heat Metal is really loving good if your enemy is wearing armor. Take your armor off or suffer potential disadvantage and 2d8 damage each turn.
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Jun 17, 2019 22:24
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Heat metal is dope.
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Jun 17, 2019 22:25
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OgreNoah posted:I'm barding it up and we just reached level 4 and I took Suggestion. Before, I took Heat Metal since we were in the portion of the campaign that was clearly a dungeon delve. Heat Metal is really loving good if your enemy is wearing armor. Take your armor off or suffer potential disadvantage and 2d8 damage each turn. Most armor takes like five minutes to remove so just enjoy melting your foes while they scramble to disrobe.
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Jun 17, 2019 22:51
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Malpais Legate posted:Most armor takes like five minutes to remove so just enjoy melting your foes while they scramble to disrobe. Even light armor (which isn't made from metal, but anyway) takes a full minute, a.k.a. longer than most encounters. An impossible-to-save-against 2d8 fire damage per round to one target plus imposing disadvantage on their attacks and ability rolls, at the cost of an L2 slot and your concentration, is a pretty drat good use of your resources.
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Jun 17, 2019 22:58
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On the flip side, and someone mentioned this being done before in this thread. You can just cut the harness/straps of your armor to get out of it. At least for myself a totally legit reaction when your breastplate begins trying to cook you. The problem as I recall is that DM didn't drop the enemies AC which was dumb.
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Jun 18, 2019 00:08
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Awful, and the DM is also very rigid in interpretation of the rules. He doesn't like making judgement calls. We've talked about this a few times, but I don't really want to get into rules fights so it's easier to just stick to spells that have clear game-mechanic effects. If I ever get the School of Illusion capstone, then illusions will become a lot more useful as they'll be real (at least in part), but that's a long ways in the future, if ever. You might want to ask your dm to switch schools. Illusion has been "argue with your DM" in almost every edition (even 4e had some of this) and you're not going to have much fun as an illusionist. Diviner is really strong, as is necromancer (though necromancers should be handled with care).
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Jun 18, 2019 01:52
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Arthil posted:On the flip side, and someone mentioned this being done before in this thread. You can just cut the harness/straps of your armor to get out of it. At least for myself a totally legit reaction when your breastplate begins trying to cook you. Still probably worse than just slapping the Wizard around until they gently caress up a concentration check.
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Jun 18, 2019 08:17
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Razorwired posted:Still probably worse than just slapping the Wizard around until they gently caress up a concentration check. Probably but trying to imagine the NPCs as understanding game mechanics can spoil the fun sometimes. On the other side, had my Saturday DM have a caster hit my EK with Heat Metal on his plate armor once... He laughed at them and kept on approaching, being a Fire Genasi and all.
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Jun 18, 2019 09:07
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Tibalt posted:Most of the MtG lore would make good fodder for a Spelljammer or Slider-esque campaign. Lots of good art to show as well. I’ve been rolling the idea around in my head since the Ravnica book came out. Having them later planeshift to different planes like the Aztec dinosaur and vampire conquistadors world, or late 90’s Rath to have them deal with Slivers. I’m the only Magic player in my group, so I have to make this actually fun, and not just me indulging myself.
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Jun 18, 2019 10:49
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Like a big drat deal. The patron is actually just a really rich guy and I said "pharaoh" to be quick in characterizing it, but said rich guy is gonna fall out of everyone's graces pretty quickly and that's why our would-be grave bird becomes a rootless adventurer instead. But he believes in the gods and the basic cosmology like anyone else, so it's not a terrifying ordeal but a great honor. As an aside would he have been able to fly in Egypt heaven?
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Jun 18, 2019 10:55
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'Inter these grave goods' in a chanted singsong tone. Would be a good name and a good way to give him a name that's actually pronounceable whilst still being a heard sound.
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Jun 18, 2019 12:38
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Call them Graves.
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Jun 18, 2019 13:10
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Glagha posted:Call them Graves. Go with this. Also the Kenku lore is dumb just let them talk and create things.
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Jun 18, 2019 14:34
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If they have heard enough people talk couldn’t they just mimic them to string together sentences ala transformers bumblebee with his radio?
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Jun 18, 2019 14:40
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I generally do kenku by giving them two or three people they've known long enough to sample a functional vocabulary from. So your main voice is already someone who was close to you, and you probably have another voice for code-switching, like when you need to talk academic or criminal or courtly.
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Jun 18, 2019 14:44
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Isn't that exactly what it says in Volo's about Kenku? Like, I'm pretty sure the default assumption is that have enough words to say pretty much whatever they want, they just sound kind of like a robocall because their sentences are strung together with words from different people's voices. Like I specifically remember a sidebar that says basically "Kenku have no problem communicating just say what you want to say don't be annoying with voices and sound effects"
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Jun 18, 2019 15:35
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The sidebar is more like "describe narratively what you're communicating." Like "Bangclang mimics a clock to indicate he's impatient." That's fine for whoever wants to do it but I think code-switching to different voices for different contexts captures the Kenku vibe and also helps you flesh out your personality and history.
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Jun 18, 2019 15:38
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My current group's Kenku gunslinger, Gunshot (the literal sound of a gunshot), grew up on cowboy stories so he's basically just cosplaying John Wayne/Clint Eastwood and reciting bad cowboy lines he thinks are cool. We don't particularly give a poo poo about the kenku limitations, it's just assumed he sounds like a spaghetti Western soundboard.
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Jun 18, 2019 15:55
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If he was to be afterlife butler, make his name a polite and unobtrusive cough.
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Jun 18, 2019 16:24
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It's meant to be a little more harrowing. He's a ranger, he fights the undead, he was trained by the temple to speak Celestial. When you're rich and powerful you don't skimp on hiring an afterlife guide.
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Jun 18, 2019 17:04
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Nehru the Damaja posted:It's meant to be a little more harrowing. He's a ranger, he fights the undead, he was trained by the temple to speak Celestial. When you're rich and powerful you don't skimp on hiring an afterlife guide. Then the first time he shoots a skeleton turn to the the party and do an exasperated "see???" hand gesture
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Jun 18, 2019 17:21
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Name your Kenku "Jahn" and he only mimics well known podcasts.
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Jun 18, 2019 17:31
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