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Ramos posted:The way D&D is balanced, you're supposed to go through multiple encounters a day. So medium is supposed to be among a bunch of the easier ones that players aren't supposed to blow their supplies (read: spells) on. If you're looking do less encounters, you want to ramp them up. Ok thanks. I'll readjust and play test again.
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Aug 22, 2019 20:37
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More important than that though is that the encounter generation guidelines are kind of a shot in the dark and balance is all over the place.
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Aug 22, 2019 22:58
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Yeah I find it takes several combats to get a feel for what the real power of the party is.
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Aug 22, 2019 23:23
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Yeah my party has definitely blown through “deadly” encounters that I was wringing my hands over, and not because I went easy on them.
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Aug 22, 2019 23:26
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The combat building rules in the DMG are so bad that the designers don't even use them. They released updated rules in a ($40? $50?) book. Not sure if they're available otherwise, probably are.
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Aug 22, 2019 23:33
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Admiral Joeslop posted:The combat building rules in the DMG are so bad that the designers don't even use them. They released updated rules in a ($40? $50?) book. Not sure if they're available otherwise, probably are. Volo's? Or something else?
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Aug 22, 2019 23:53
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Saxophone posted:Volo's? Or something else? Xanathar's Guide to Everything, I think.
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Aug 22, 2019 23:55
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Do the updated guidelines still say you need 6-8 encounters per day?
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Aug 23, 2019 00:03
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Gharbad the Weak posted:Do the updated guidelines still say you need 6-8 encounters per day? It's just for building encounters. Resting and the adventuring day are not addressed.
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Aug 23, 2019 00:34
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I’m just going to post some thoughts on ttrpgs from the perspective of a newbie dm. I’ve recently put the effort in to organise a d&d group amongst friends after wanting to play for a decade. I was surprised at how keen everyone was to dive in and have run about 6 sessions of a 6 player home brew campaign so far. No experience and a rocky initial session, but everyone seems to be having a good time and I’ve finally gotten over the hurdle of trying to force everyone into a script. Last session was the least prepared one I’d run and definitely the most fun, going in directions Id not planned for but leading to some very funny and off the wall moments I’d never have written. My only experience with d&d has been listening to “not another d&d podcast” (which is a absolute ton of fun) and have been using that as a basic guide to running the game along with a lifetime of gaming and fantasy / history book knowledge. I’ve taken cues from that show and thrown out a lot of stuff that I don’t consider fun such as eating and drinking requirements, tracking of carrying capacity (within reason) and keeping track of non special ammo. It’s been great catching up with close friends every week rather then once in a blue moon and crafting a story together. We have two avid role players in the group, two power gamer types and two casual gamers and it’s proved a interesting mix. Overcoming my own reluctance to be silly has certainly encouraged others to start branching out a bit more and I’m trying to encourage it On worldbuilding / rant about my world: I’ve had a lot of fun doing this and will add to the discussion from a couple of pages ago despite it being reasonably well covered. My initial impulse was that I wanted the characters to have some form of amnesia, cliche but leads to fun possibilities rediscovering their past successes and failures. Working from here lead me to the idea of the awakening which wasn’t super fleshed out for the first couple of sessions but didn’t need to be. Things like geography of the world beyond the initial “starter island” has yet to be fleshed out in detail and I’ve been grabbing details from each player about their home town and race and how things work there. Letting them do the hard yards. So the overall premise is cribbed from the Terry Pratchett book “small gods”. The idea being that belief in gods is what grants them power. My world was a fairly normal standard fantasy d&d style place up until a powerful control sorcerer made a deal with a weak/small god to grow their power and control the world. Using magic and political machinations this sorcerer spread the idea of a “one true god” to the exclusion of all others, using manipulation in some places and force and violence in others the religion around this one true god grew and as it did so did the rate of its spread. The cult of the one god spread like a cancer across the land, taking many different forms in different civilisations and races but all ultimately worshipping the same god. The other gods ignored it as long as they could but were eventually forced to fight back. It seemed to be too late however and facing extinction they put aside their differences and did the unthinkable. Combing their still incredible powers they cursed the whole land and put all sentient creatures to sleep. Thus denying power to themselves and their enemies, they disarmed all the gods. Mutually assured destruction. Time passes, from within his cursed slumber in limbo the sorcerer slowly works to weaken the curse, eventually he succeeds and the great awakening occurs. Sentient beings awake in great alien like mausoleums with no memory of their past lives. These vast structures dotted the land and they emerged into a world that they recognised but knew nothing about. A land containing towns and structures, a land ripe for the taking. There after followed a period of great turbulence known as the reformation wars or simply the reformation. Gods were rediscovered and new ones emerged. Beings continued to awaken and disrupt local power until eventually tapering off once the gods has enough power to once again reinforce the curse and contain the sorcerers influence. The sorcerer worked from within limbo to escape his slumbering prison and to spread his corruption once again at full power. History seemed doomed to repeat itself. It is within this period that our party lived, their backstories play out in this period and they quest and explore and live their lives. Flash forward three hundred odd years. The party awakens inside a mausoleum, this is different from a standard awakening as they still have their memories, just not the specific ones that lead them to this moment. What they are following breadcrumbs to discover now is that they had been involved in major quest to stop this sorcerer re emerging. Eventually they ended up in limbo and tried to destroy him, though they failed they managed to strengthen the sleeping curse and ultimately set him right back to the start of slowly weakening the spell. In the act of strengthening the spell the party was struck by its effects and have been stuck in eternal slumber until once again the spell has begun to break down, leading to their awakening. They are now in a world where they are semi mythological figures to those that remember and must once again learn of the cause of the great slumber/awakening and the looming threat to the world. Eventually they will either enter limbo to confront this great evil a final time or he will emerge into the world and they will confront him there. I love the idea of an ancient evil being held at bay by secret societies and religious sects, desperately working in the shadows to stop or at least slow down this almost inevitable evil that most have forgotten. No idea if this is interesting to anyone else but talking about it helps me flesh bits out, the ancient power being guarded by old and forgotten figures comes from some half remembered Spider-Man it xman cartoon from the 80’s. A bunch of old superheroes in disguise protecting it however they can even as they age beyond their ability to protect it.
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Aug 23, 2019 08:30
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https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2019/08/dd-a-first-look-at-eberron-rising-from-the-last-war-artificer-news.html Speculation is that Alchemist didn't make the cut.
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Aug 23, 2019 14:46
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Of course it'd be the only one I'm interested in (and am currently playing)... That's frustrating. I was really looking forward to having the official rules and everything. 
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Aug 23, 2019 15:06
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BoLS isn't an authority they're just guessing from the survey results.
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Aug 23, 2019 16:00
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Personally I'd be surprised if the one they cut isn't artillerist or archivist, but w/e
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Aug 23, 2019 19:18
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Abongination posted:I’m just going to post some thoughts on ttrpgs from the perspective of a newbie dm. This is a very intriguing premise. Just as a bit of fun lore, the power of gods being dependent on mortal worship actually came to be in the Forgotten Realms during 2nd edition, as a result of the Time of Troubles. Before that, all gods were basically of equal power and could do whatever they wanted. Not surprisingly, over time they started to neglect their adherents and no longer reward mortals for their worship. Ao the Overgod was apparently already pissed off at them, but stealing the Tablets of Faith that delineated the duties of the gods was the last straw, and all but one was cast down. When the tablets were returned (by mortals who later ascended), he destroyed them and basically wrote new rules that dictated that a deity's power was based on the dedication and quantity of his worshippers, which shocked the gods and forced them to actually care about their mortal followers or risk weakening and dying. I always liked that because it made a great deal of sense, added a lot of interesting lore and shook up the cannon in a good way unlike a lot of the other "cataclysms" in FR that were clearly contrived only to mark the switch in editions and sell more poo poo.
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Aug 23, 2019 23:55
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Abongination posted:
90’s Spider-Man. Funny that you have six players because the storyline was called Six Forgotten Heroes. Good luck with your campaign. Glad you guys are having fun.
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Aug 24, 2019 00:05
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Thanks for the lore post! I wonder if Pratchett played d&d back in the day. I’ve got next to no knowledge on forgotten realms stuff and have been skating by making stuff up. Any guides or books you might recommend for general lore knowledge in a easy to read manner? There’s an intimidating amount. Open Marriage Night posted:90’s Spider-Man. Funny that you have six players because the storyline was called Six Forgotten Heroes. I’m constantly surprised at the extent of goon knowledge, this storyline really captured my interest when I was younger so thanks for pinpointing it. Might have to give it all a watch and see if I can knock off any more ideas.
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Aug 24, 2019 02:57
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Abongination posted:Thanks for the lore post! I wonder if Pratchett played d&d back in the day. The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is the 5e campaign setting book for the FR. After that your best source is Ed Greenwood Presents: Elminster’s Forgotten Realms, which is kind of an almanac with a ton of setting details to breathe life into your game.
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Aug 24, 2019 03:05
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Abongination posted:
Have a lighting focused sorcerer as Electro, who was Red Skull’s son in the show.
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Aug 24, 2019 05:27
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Arivia posted:The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is the 5e campaign setting book for the FR. After that your best source is Ed Greenwood Presents: Elminster’s Forgotten Realms, which is kind of an almanac with a ton of setting details to breathe life into your game. Speaking of the Realms Arivia. I am curious. Who would you say is the most powerful/notable Lich in the Realms after Larloch and Szass Tam? Like I know Larloch is largely considered the most powerful lich from what I know, and was wondering if there was any other notable liches between him and Szass Tam in power. You have some great realms knowledge so I felt you would be good to ask.
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Aug 24, 2019 05:28
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MonsterEnvy posted:Speaking of the Realms Arivia. I am curious. Who would you say is the most powerful/notable Lich in the Realms after Larloch and Szass Tam? Like I know Larloch is largely considered the most powerful lich from what I know, and was wondering if there was any other notable liches between him and Szass Tam in power. I thought Acererak was the strongest lich. Is he not in Realms?
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Aug 24, 2019 05:32
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Taciturn Tactician posted:I thought Acererak was the strongest lich. Is he not in Realms? No. He's a greyhawk native that took to planer travel. I recall his backstory being that he was a cambion student of Vecna. (Who is largely considered the most powerful lich in D&D.) Acererak eventually split off to do his own thing, namely being a huge dick to adventurers by creating death traps throughout the planes, and basically posting signs near them that say "here be treasure are you badass enough to get it?" But overall I recall that it was stated that some of Larloch's subordinate liches surpass Acererak. As while powerful he is not super ambitious for the most part, just an rear end in a top hat. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Aug 24, 2019 |
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Aug 24, 2019 05:48
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JustJeff88 posted:This is a very intriguing premise. Just as a bit of fun lore, the power of gods being dependent on mortal worship actually came to be in the Forgotten Realms during 2nd edition, as a result of the Time of Troubles. Before that, all gods were basically of equal power and could do whatever they wanted. Not surprisingly, over time they started to neglect their adherents and no longer reward mortals for their worship. Ao the Overgod was apparently already pissed off at them, but stealing the Tablets of Faith that delineated the duties of the gods was the last straw, and all but one was cast down. When the tablets were returned (by mortals who later ascended), he destroyed them and basically wrote new rules that dictated that a deity's power was based on the dedication and quantity of his worshippers, which shocked the gods and forced them to actually care about their mortal followers or risk weakening and dying. I always liked that because it made a great deal of sense, added a lot of interesting lore and shook up the cannon in a good way unlike a lot of the other "cataclysms" in FR that were clearly contrived only to mark the switch in editions and sell more poo poo.
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Aug 24, 2019 12:13
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Splicer posted:The Spellplague was also cool and good. While I agree that the premise of "Cyric kills Mystra, magic and the world falls into chaos" is internally consistent, after that the whole thing felt to me like it was shifting gears with an audible thunk. Granted, a lot of that has to do with the huge changes between 3rd and 4th editions, but I stand by my opinion. I know that nobody cares about Dragonlance anymore, but I felt that the transition during their (2nd) cataclysm was more sensible even if the War of Souls trilogy made no sense to me.
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Aug 24, 2019 16:57
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Conspiratiorist posted:At 5th you learn Conjure Animals and can now summon a Cave Bear, at 6 you can turn into a Cave Bear yourself for double the bear action, at 9 you can summon 2 Cave Bears at once for triple the bear action, and at 10 you can turn into an Earth Elemental. So, one issue with the conjure spells is that. There's a decent number of DMs that do not allow you to pick what you summon, and make it randomized. So you could use it to summon a single CR2 Beast, but it might not be any kind of bear. Mostly it's the spells that give examples, which line up with various dice sizes. Others people don't try to argue for the randomness, like Conjure Celestial, Summon Lesser/Greater Demon, and Infernal Calling.
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Aug 25, 2019 04:08
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Arthil posted:So, one issue with the conjure spells is that. There's a decent number of DMs that do not allow you to pick what you summon, and make it randomized. So you could use it to summon a single CR2 Beast, but it might not be any kind of bear. I had to laugh the first time I cast Conjure Animals. My boyfriend is DMing for the first time, and I think it was the third or fourth session that I cast it. I told him that RAW he needed to look up the list of options for the CR I picked because I didn't get to choose. He grabbed the PHB, read the spell like three times, then said that's stupid and let me do it. Honestly, he knows I am crazy organized and I already had stat blocks for the ones I planned on picking the most. So he was more than happy to be lazy and let me do all the work. It was win/win for us. Though I think that ruling will last exactly until I cast Conjure Woodland Beings for eight pixies.
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Aug 25, 2019 07:33
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I've never had a DM insist on randomizing conjured creatures. It would make sense for a wild magic sorcerer that somehow got it in their spell list, but it otherwise doesn't make sense for a character to deliberately summon but not know precisely what they're summoning. Caveat: fiend summoning should be strange and dangerous. But combat summoning shouldn't be random. "oh nooo you've summoned 1d8 octopodes to a fight on a cliffside, oh well"
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Aug 25, 2019 12:31
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cowboy
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FFT posted:I've never had a DM insist on randomizing conjured creatures. It would make sense for a wild magic sorcerer that somehow got it in their spell list, but it otherwise doesn't make sense for a character to deliberately summon but not know precisely what they're summoning. Yeah it doesn’t make sense from a fluff perspective, it was just a nerf basically shoehorned into a rules answer thanks to natural language: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_july2015 I don’t believe that was actually the intention originally but who knows.
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Aug 25, 2019 12:38
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Natural language is kind of crap imo.
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Aug 25, 2019 12:45
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BattleMaster posted:Natural language is kind of crap imo. It's a weird crutch that shouldn't be, they just hosed up the implementation.
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Aug 25, 2019 12:56
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The issue is that summon animals is extremely overpowered and can make absolute jokes of encounters.
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Aug 25, 2019 13:11
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Yeah but this was the balancing equivalent of one of those infomercials with the black and white footage of someone completely loving up with a narrator saying "there has to be a better way!"
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Aug 25, 2019 13:16
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There are a myriad of issues, and one of them is that they don't know how their own drat game works. They learned nothing from 36d20 rats. "Let's make an ability that turns one character into 9* characters! And not even specify what the other 8 characters are! So some of those other characters may have multiple actions or other such abilities that make things take even longer, or they may have abilities that act as force multipliers, who knows! Well we should know because we made the game and all the monsters they could choose to summon but eh that would cut into my all important "fellating <name removed for legal reasons>" time." *or 17, or 33...
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Aug 25, 2019 13:24
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Splicer posted:There are a myriad of issues, and one of them is that they don't know how their own drat game works. They learned nothing from 36d20 rats. "Let's make an ability that turns one character into 9* characters! And not even specify what the other 8 characters are! So some of those other characters may have multiple actions or other such abilities that make things take even longer, or they may have abilities that act as force multipliers, who knows! Well we should know because we made the game and all the monsters they could choose to summon but eh that would cut into my all important "fellating <name removed for legal reasons>" time." The problem is that they were clearly still tinkering with monsters when the PHB was released, just as they were in 3.0 (where the Summon Monster table included one monster that didn't exist!). If you haven't feature-locked your monster stats, it's impossible to balance a summoning spell properly. 5E they clearly decided that they'd just adjust CRs as they tinkered and adjusted, so it was best to use CR specifications. The concentration mechanic makes summons slightly less problematic than in previous editions. The biggest problem with summoning as a mechanic is that the intended procedure is so at odds with typical practice. Summons should be run as NPCs with the specified attitude towards the PCs who will follow orders, not as temporary PCs run by the summoner's player. The line in summon spells saying that the DM has the creature stats even implies that they're trying to make the best of imperfect balancing by expecting players won't even see monster stats (though by publishing some in the back of the book they immediately spoil that in favor of allowing limited play before the MM was released). I also think their decision to make that ordering mechanism uniform was foolish, and by Xanathar's they'd figured that out, sort of. Animals should only be able to follow simple commands, fey or not, and if you summon eight pixies getting them all to do what you want shouldn't be trivially easy. The alternatives aren't that much better. Animate Objects has the same action-economy problem. But having fixed stats for summoned things would solve some of the problems even if it infuriated players who hate system abstraction.
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Aug 25, 2019 15:08
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Narsham posted:The problem is that they were clearly still tinkering with monsters when the PHB was released, just as they were in 3.0 (where the Summon Monster table included one monster that didn't exist!). If you haven't feature-locked your monster stats, it's impossible to balance a summoning spell properly. 5E they clearly decided that they'd just adjust CRs as they tinkered and adjusted, so it was best to use CR specifications.
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Aug 25, 2019 18:49
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I bit of a niche question here with some wall of text. I have a running gag with the tiefling fighter (the player who unfortunatly after next session she plays), where a lot of the time when she kills an animal or a guard., the person or creature dies horribly, even when she doesn't attempt to kill he will fall unconscious and break his neck on a rock as an example, or yell out "I have a family" before being cut down. She once also killed an innocent priest she though was a culprit. So in my mind, even though its mostly me taking the piss, the character is committing acts (with good intentions) that is affecting her psyche and in some ways tapping into the part of her that is a devil. So my idea was, if someone used a spell on her that sort of made a replica of her, this replica is the same person, but contains the most evil thoughts and emotions that are otherwise repressed. She will be guided towards an unholy sanctuary, further turning her mind and body towards evil. She would also, to make it more interesting, gain some stat boosts (at least make her level 6 where they will likely be level 4). She will also gain 2 legendary moves. The reason I think it would be a good idea is that 4-5 PCs would dunk on her unless I gave her actual boss mechanics. I thought, that one of the abilities would be a fiery hand trying to grab players towards her while dealing damage. The second might be an aoe, called "inferno" or "Scorching floor", giving people disadvantage to attacks and taking some light fire damage (with a constitution save) while in that zone. Basically making melees life hard and being able to drag in people at ranged. The thing is, that is not enough. What my player does not know is that she has a sword that alters its abilities based on the person during emotional states, which the replica will take possession of. The last wielder died while being swallowed by a frog, so the sword could refract light since he was in pitch black in his last moments. He was weak, however, so the ability was not that powerful. However, if the replica wielded the blade, its abilities would change. What should the sword do in your opinion? How can I make a sword that is powerful enough to make a trumpet up PC into a real boss fight. How can I make someone that is so terrifying that no normal guards can deal with her, but the players can, with some wit. Midig fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Aug 25, 2019 |
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Aug 25, 2019 21:00
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Midig posted:I had a bit of a niche question when it comes to storytelling/gameplay. So one of my players will likely meet up for last time in two sessions. My group has defeated a secret cult from the leadership of the city, but since the rest of the city does not know this, they are likely in for deep poo poo in trial and will likely be killed if they are not convinced of their innocence. However, since two new people will join the group (Cleric and a paladin) from some sort of inquisitor order, they can find the occult symbols on the bodies of the former leaders and also interrogate the players and consider them innocent. This will allow them to be set free under the condition that they work as assets (not full-fledged members) for this group to root out the remaining cultists in the city and other towns. However, the PC that is gone next session and who wants one more game session after that is a tiefling. So my idea is that since she is a tiefling, she is not trusted, nor able to join the inquisitors despite the protests of the two new PCs. DON'T MAKE PCs INTO MONSTERS. EVER. Pick a monster from the monster manual that broadly fits your requirements, and reflavour it into what you want it to be. Probably give it som lair powers too, if it's this big a deal. Depending on level, guards not being able to deal with her is perfectly natural. The PCs are exceptional even at level 1-3, if they're much above that, even massed guards aren't going to do a huge amount.
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Aug 25, 2019 21:03
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Technically not the PC. An evil replica that she will have the chance to defeat.
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Aug 25, 2019 21:05
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Midig posted:Technically not the PC. An evil replica that she will have the chance to defeat. DON'T MAKE MONSTERS OUT OF PC CLASSES. EVER.
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Aug 25, 2019 21:06
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Splicer posted:Allow to me help rephrase Elaborate. EDIT: Although thinking about it, I could create a whole new tiefling character villain who could have some of the same back and forth dialogue that such a replica would produce, mocking her for helping the people who villanize her yadda yadda, grab the blade and use it for his own purposes, then freeing her out of amusement and desire to see her turn against humanity. Midig fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Aug 25, 2019 |
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Aug 25, 2019 21:08
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