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If you're saying some of the players want to kill off their characters, and instead you melt their limbs or destroy their magic items, they're just going to hate their character even more.
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Feb 9, 2020 01:46
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Farg posted:I'm designing an upgrade to a player's signature magic item. Give it a grapple winch - it's the kind of thing you can do lots of flexible and interesting non-combat stuff with as well as the combat abilities. Drag in small enemies, pull yourself to larger ones, swing around, tie down boats, grapple your way up to airships, lay cable traps, etc. Lots of flexibility and room to expand further.
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Feb 9, 2020 02:11
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When you've got ten fuckin players you can afford to disintegrate one or two
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Feb 9, 2020 02:16
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Raenir Salazar posted:I want to change characters in my campaign for a bit, and I'd like to try out something *like* the weab idea of a samurai/swordsmaster but the actual samurai class I googled seemed poo poo. Advantage and temp HP on demand 3x/long is lovely? I mean, Kensai Monk or Hexblade also seem to fit, but...
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Feb 9, 2020 04:27
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My brother and I are wanting to get into D&D. We bought the starter kit. I probably just need to actually spend more time reading the handbook it came with, but I'm having a hard time grasping all the rules of the game. Like I can read something and technically understand it, but knowing how it all fits together is eluding me it seems like. Is this just a thing that needs patience and practice? I feel like if we could find a DM or someone who is experienced to jump in with, it wouldn't be too bad. That's a possibility for the future of course, but my brother has been pretty eager to get started. There are a ton of resources out there as far as tutorials and such, but do you guys recommend anything in particular for absolute nitwits?
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Feb 9, 2020 04:37
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:My brother and I are wanting to get into D&D. We bought the starter kit. I probably just need to actually spend more time reading the handbook it came with, but I'm having a hard time grasping all the rules of the game. Like I can read something and technically understand it, but knowing how it all fits together is eluding me it seems like. Is this just a thing that needs patience and practice? I feel like if we could find a DM or someone who is experienced to jump in with, it wouldn't be too bad. That's a possibility for the future of course, but my brother has been pretty eager to get started. Which parts of it are you specifically struggling with? The most base components of the game (that I assume you have already worked out) is that the DM sets the stage and describes the world, the players say what they want to do, and to determine how successful or not at doing that they roll a d20 and add a relevant modifier to their roll. The DM then describes what happens based on that success or failure and the cycle continues.
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Feb 9, 2020 04:56
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First, you aren't nitwits. The rules have been built up into something that's unintuitive to learn over the past 40+ years, but is intuitive to run in the moment once you are familiar with how d&d generally works. Second, the best way to learn is to play. Find a group through discord or your friendly local game store, and see if you can sit in for a session or two. They probably run something called the Adventurer's Leauge which is designed for walk-in style play. It often attracts lovely people, but if you can deal with the strangers and weirdos for a couple hours, you will get to see how the game works, which will give you all the context you need to understand the rules. You can also find actual play podcasts or streams, but they usually do not explain the rules. Tenik fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Feb 9, 2020 |
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Feb 9, 2020 05:01
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Tenik posted:You can also find actual play podcasts or streams, but they usually do not explain the rules. Listening to actual play podcasts where the players are also learning the rules is basically how I learned to play, but you're right that most assume a basic understanding of the rules. Dragon Friends and The Adventure Zone do start out with the players not knowing anything at episode 1 though, so the first few eps introduce rules to the players (and listeners) in a pretty approachable manner.
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Feb 9, 2020 05:21
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:My brother and I are wanting to get into D&D. We bought the starter kit. I probably just need to actually spend more time reading the handbook it came with, but I'm having a hard time grasping all the rules of the game. Like I can read something and technically understand it, but knowing how it all fits together is eluding me it seems like. Is this just a thing that needs patience and practice? I feel like if we could find a DM or someone who is experienced to jump in with, it wouldn't be too bad. That's a possibility for the future of course, but my brother has been pretty eager to get started. Like the others have said, it seems more overwhelming than it actually is. Like most games, the best way to learn is just to play. You'll make some mistakes, but you'll figure it out along the way, and you won't be derailed if you realize that you made some sort of minor error that you can correct in the future. As long as you're having fun, you're doing it right. I'd suggest just doing a Session 0 with your brother where you two sit down with some character sheets, figure out what you want your characters to be, talk about what led them to Phandelver and then run through the goblin ambush battle. Roll some dice, have some fun, and figure it out as you go. Oh also, when you're starting out it can be nice to have a cheat sheet to help remind you about what you can do - both as a player and as a DM. Here's some decent ones: https://www.dnd-compendium.com/player-guides/cheat-sheets Kaal fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Feb 9, 2020 |
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Feb 9, 2020 05:49
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Dndbeyond has some basic getting started blogs and quick start guides for each class, too.
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Feb 9, 2020 05:58
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Farg posted:I got nothing but respect for that. This weapon looks dope, and I really liked how you wrote it up. I was a bit dubious about the charge concept, but you made it seem really cool. Well done!
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Feb 9, 2020 06:06
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Remora posted:Advantage and temp HP on demand 3x/long is lovely? I dunno about that, what came up from googling was something about advantage on persuasion checks and not a whole lot of "things to do" I kinda want to have options/actions I can take each turn beyond just hitting something with a sword. Marathanes posted:A katana in 5e is just a longsword, so that's not a problem for most classes. Kensai Monk is probably the closest you'll get to that overall archetype. However, you have some options: an Eldritch Knight skinned that way could also work, as would a Hexadin for gishy goodness with some spells and smiting. A Battle Smith Artificer might work? If you want more spell side stuff, a straight Hexblade, a Bladesinger or a Stone Sorc might work? It all depends on what facets of the weeb samurai swordsman are most important to you. lightrook posted:Paladin and hexblade can both be magical sword fighters. If you go for a spell heavy build with sorcerer, you'll also have magic to do all the cool weeb swordsman stunts. Most importantly, with sorcerer in the mix, you blow through your sorcery points and spell slots and tell your party, "forgive me sensei, but I must go all out just this once" and drop two Blade cantrips and two big smites in one turn. Thanks I'll consider these! We already have a Paladin though so I'd prefer not to overlap. I already had an artificer but I've kinda stumbled into pledging myself to serving an evil god and I kinda want to take a break from that character. (Don't identify every single magic item you come across folks, sometimes it brings your mind to the Far Realm)
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Feb 9, 2020 06:29
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Just identifying the item got it cursing you? That’s weird. Curses in D&D usually come from using the item, so you made the choice and risked the consequence.
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Feb 9, 2020 06:35
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I identified it, failed a save, and got my sent somewhere it shouldn't. Finding myself surrounded by eldritch monsters I tried to bluff my way through and it didn't really work.
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Feb 9, 2020 07:13
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Raenir Salazar posted:I identified it, failed a save, and got my sent somewhere it shouldn't. That seems legit to me. Cursed items are tough to do well as a DM. If you foreshadow then players treat the session like a minefield, and if you don't then they feel railroaded. I remember having difficulty with that when running both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Waterdeep Heist, and basically decided that Rule of Cool really needs to be your guide in these affairs. If the item has neat mechanics then someone is probably going to get to play with them; if it's a boring curse then give players extra opportunities to be clever about avoiding it. Kaal fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Feb 9, 2020 |
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Feb 9, 2020 08:04
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Just flat out tell them they're cursed at the end of the session: "You're cursed" "What?" "You hosed up and now you're cursed". "From what?" "A curse". "How can we tell?" "You feel cursed". "Cursed?" "As balls". Then do nothing else, at all.
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Feb 9, 2020 08:36
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Save or die is deprecated for a reason. Use an alternate version of the spell that just does massive damage, and if that damage causes death, death save or be dust on the wind. Make them burn off hp first, anything else is cheap as hell.
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Feb 9, 2020 08:49
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:My brother and I are wanting to get into D&D. We bought the starter kit. I probably just need to actually spend more time reading the handbook it came with, but I'm having a hard time grasping all the rules of the game. Like I can read something and technically understand it, but knowing how it all fits together is eluding me it seems like. Is this just a thing that needs patience and practice? I feel like if we could find a DM or someone who is experienced to jump in with, it wouldn't be too bad. That's a possibility for the future of course, but my brother has been pretty eager to get started. I would be remit in my duties if I didn't mention there are easier games to learn out there. Are you looking to get into RPGs in general or D&D specifically? Is there a genre (space, horror, modern day etc) you'd be more interested in than tolkeinesque fantasy?
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Feb 9, 2020 08:56
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I mean, maybe read the actual class?
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Feb 9, 2020 09:32
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Remora posted:I mean, maybe read the actual class?
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Feb 9, 2020 10:02
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Just flat out tell them they're cursed at the end of the session: In my Stone Thief game they found a perfect, red apple in a dungeon corridor. It was perfect, as I told them whenever they asked.
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Feb 9, 2020 11:00
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sebmojo posted:In my Stone Thief game they found a perfect, red apple in a dungeon corridor. It was perfect, as I told them whenever they asked. I did something like that with a completely rust-free horseshoe. It had no rust on it whatsoever. None. Let it go on for a couple of sessions, dropped "what horseshoe?" when they asked, and left it at that. Game ended before I got around to working it back in.
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Feb 9, 2020 12:36
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Splicer posted:Who is this in response to? I'm worried it's me and I'm very confused. My bad, yo, in response to Raenir.
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Feb 9, 2020 14:19
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Well in this case the curse has me doing errands, which nominally I wouldn't be opposed to. Because my character is slightly insane from PTSD from The War and I went above and beyond always trying to save the NPC cohorts that were helping us. We had an NPC rogue checking for traps and he'd keep getting downed in encountered and I'd jump over his body to protect him from fireball explosions and the like. Eventually he went off with the party when we got split and he died being turned to stone by a Basilisk, so my character found his petrified head after his body crumbled and now is on a mission to frankenstein him back to life. So any form of necromancy magic item I've been "needing" in loot rolls, so all of this could in theory work out. The problem is some of the other players are kinda metagamey fuckwits who literally forget conversions that have already happened so I can't really do anything interesting with it because they ask questions their characters probably wouldn't be asking. So I'm taking a break from that. Remora posted:My bad, yo, in response to Raenir. I don't know what the actual class is, I went with the first result in google that didn't seem homebrewed.
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Feb 9, 2020 16:40
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Our cleric had no issue just popping on the only cursed item the party's found so far (a choker that physically embeds itself into the wearer's neck) without identifying it, I kind of feel like I should instill some more caution into them?
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Feb 9, 2020 16:45
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change my name posted:Our cleric had no issue just popping on the only cursed item the party's found so far (a choker that physically embeds itself into the wearer's neck) without identifying it, I kind of feel like I should instill some more caution into them? My party assumes everything they see is cursed to the point I literally cannot use cursed items for fear of them never equipping something again. I've only ever used one "cursed" item in this game, and they never actually found out what it was.
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Feb 9, 2020 16:49
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My players did a favor for a hag in exchange for their choice of a couple magical items from her stash. All the items were cursed, and I made sure my players felt stupid for thinking the hag would just give them a good deal like that.
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Feb 9, 2020 17:10
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My party recently found an amulet that was clearly magic but ‘identify’ had no effect on. They still fought amongst themselves over who was going to wear it.
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Feb 9, 2020 17:20
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:My brother and I are wanting to get into D&D. We bought the starter kit. I probably just need to actually spend more time reading the handbook it came with, but I'm having a hard time grasping all the rules of the game. Like I can read something and technically understand it, but knowing how it all fits together is eluding me it seems like. Is this just a thing that needs patience and practice? I feel like if we could find a DM or someone who is experienced to jump in with, it wouldn't be too bad. That's a possibility for the future of course, but my brother has been pretty eager to get started. It seems daunting when you’re just reading the rules, and it all seems to congeal into a mush inside your brain. If you want to get ahead of things before you play with your brother, make or grab a pre-generated character, and put them through scenarios. Run through a mock combat while referencing the rules, or practice skill checks. Climb a rope, fight a goblin, and everything else will grow from there.
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Feb 9, 2020 17:26
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Farg posted:I got nothing but respect for that. This looks fantastic. My one bit of feedback is that the cone of wind attack should deal half damage on a successful save, like similar spells do.
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Feb 9, 2020 17:43
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:This looks fantastic. My one bit of feedback is that the cone of wind attack should deal half damage on a successful save, like similar spells do. Good catch, didn't mean to leave that out
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Feb 9, 2020 18:40
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I've got the opposite thing where my players get really excited at the concept of cursed items, like I seeded an adventure with an over powered sword and their result was "sweet, and I'm angry all the time." The warlock seems to be hunting for them as well so the end result is I'm seeding minor downsides on most magic items because they find it fun.
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Feb 10, 2020 00:28
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Sorry guys, I had so many responses I'm not sure I can answer them all individually right now but off the top of my head - I understand the very basics. It's just how all the systems interact with each other, the rules themselves basically. Like one person said, it feels like it all turns into mush in my brain when I try to string it together. Character stats, modifiers and proficiencies seem to be the things that make my eyes want to glaze over. The only thing worrying me about just saying gently caress it and playing is it would wind up being like 2 or 3 minutes of actual play for 45 minutes of looking poo poo up, so I suppose I was looking to have at least a basic grasp.Open Marriage Night posted:It seems daunting when you’re just reading the rules, and it all seems to congeal into a mush inside your brain. This seems like the way to go actually! I'll try this, and I'm sure when I get stumped I can just pester you guys with questions. I mean, I've played WoW before and understood it's systems fine, this shouldn't be too different. I think the problem was I was just trying to read through stuff and immediately get a grasp on it all, whereas I need to jump in and figure it out pieces at a time, just as you would do in a video game or whatever. e: If it comes down to it and we have a hard time stringing a group together, is there any reason my brother and I couldn't go through Mines of Phendelver(I forget the exact name atm) just the 2 of us? DMs sometimes play a character to in cases like this don't they? We both work a lot, and would like to spend some time together hanging out and he's especially been super eager to play and I'm going to feel bad if I don't get this thing rolling soon. Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 01:12
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From a queer inclusivity perspective, I just got something really important: the details, straight from Ed Greenwood, of how physical gender transitioning works in the Forgotten Realms: https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1226676374125056002?s=20 This thread tries really hard to be inclusive, and that's great, so I thought some people here might like to see this.
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Feb 10, 2020 02:33
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:e: If it comes down to it and we have a hard time stringing a group together, is there any reason my brother and I couldn't go through Mines of Phendelver(I forget the exact name atm) just the 2 of us? DMs sometimes play a character to in cases like this don't they? We both work a lot, and would like to spend some time together hanging out and he's especially been super eager to play and I'm going to feel bad if I don't get this thing rolling soon. LMoP is tuned towards a party of 4, so two might be hard without the encounters being toned down a bit. This can be tricky if you haven't built encounters before, so try plugging the enemy lists into this: http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder then subtract enemies until the difficulty is hard or just barely deadly. This might be tough for some encounters where there isn't really anything to subtract. Make sure one or both of your characters comes with heal spells, or be super generous with health potions if you are using only two guys. Either that or both of you could control two characters.
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Feb 10, 2020 03:01
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:
I don’t know if there’s a goon D&D discord, but I’m on there as GreatOdinsRaven. I had so much anxiety about the mechanics of D&D, but it’s really more about the amount of information than it is about complexity.
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Feb 10, 2020 03:52
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Arivia posted:From a queer inclusivity perspective, I just got something really important: the details, straight from Ed Greenwood, of how physical gender transitioning works in the Forgotten Realms: https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1226676374125056002?s=20 for all his dumbass moments Ed does seem to be fairly genuine in being all 'no see I think EVERYONE should be fuckin, it don't matter who you are or what you wanna be' deeply 70's rear end flavor of inclusiveness, yea. Like I would be shocked to hear he had actual lovely views about that stuff. Him being all 'oh yea, the gods don't give a gently caress about you wanting a different body as long as you're devout to them' is 100% on brand.
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Feb 10, 2020 03:59
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sexpig by night posted:for all his dumbass moments Ed does seem to be fairly genuine in being all 'no see I think EVERYONE should be fuckin, it don't matter who you are or what you wanna be' deeply 70's rear end flavor of inclusiveness, yea. Like I would be shocked to hear he had actual lovely views about that stuff. Him being all 'oh yea, the gods don't give a gently caress about you wanting a different body as long as you're devout to them' is 100% on brand. Yep! When a bunch of bigots got upset at the trans character in Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear he went OFF on them to the effect of "there have always been trans people in the Realms, MY Realms, one of the first authors was trans, and if you don't like it, get out of my world and out of this hobby." I was never doubting he would be inclusive and accepting; it's been the method that I've been wondering about all this time. And the truth is a bit surprising: we all thought Selune would be popular for it, but she's too quick-transforming for her to be a good provider of it, unless you're super genderfluid and want to wake up each day in a differently gendered body.
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Feb 10, 2020 05:38
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Arivia posted:From a queer inclusivity perspective, I just got something really important: the details, straight from Ed Greenwood, of how physical gender transitioning works in the Forgotten Realms: It's kinda funny bc that's just like, the absolute most logical thing in the world for a fantasy game.
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Feb 10, 2020 08:11
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:Character stats, modifiers and proficiencies seem to be the things that make my eyes want to glaze over. You have six ABILITY SCORES. Generally these will be between 8 and 20. The actual raw ability score number is used for almost nothing and is fairly vestigial. You have your ABILITY SCORE MODIFIER (or just ability modifier). This is your ability score less 10 divided by 2 rounded down (8 and 9 = -1, 10 and 11 = 0, 12 and 13 = 1 etc). Plugging into the above it's generally between -1 and 5. This is the number you actually add to dice rolls. Some things, like your race or your level four bumps, change your ability score. These change the base ability score, then you recalculate your modifier. So if you have 10 dex and you pick elf then your +2 dex from being an elf is added to your dex score, bringing it to 12. This brings your modifier from 0 to +1. (If you're thinking this seems unnecessarily convoluted and you must be missing something, don't worry it's not you. Basically when you start the game you make your guys, tot up your ability scores, calculate your ability modifiers, then ignore the base ability scores during actual play except for some very niche situations. If you're not sure, use the modifier. Everything but base ability scores is added straight onto your roll. ) The next big thing is Proficiency. It starts at 2 and increases by 1 every four levels. If you're proficient in a skill or a save or a weapon then you add your proficiency score to your d20 roll. If you're not you don't. Simple! There's also expertise which is literally just double proficiency. Then theres various situational modifiers, again you always add these to your roll. Like a +1 weapon or the bonus from the guidance cantrip. So if you're level 1 with 16 dex and you're proficient in stealth then you roll a d20 +3 (dex mod) +2 (prof). You rolled 9, so your result is 14. Not great, not terrible. You're probably fine. Final common edge cases: Being proficient in armour DOES NOT let you add your proficiency bonus to your AC. You DO add it to proficient SAVES. Being proficient in a weapon does NOT allow you to add your proficiency bonus to DAMAGE. You DO add your ability mod to damage. You add both mod and prof to hit.
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Feb 10, 2020 10:08
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