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Blooming Brilliant posted:This reminds me of a campaign I played in set in Turmish. Now I am just thinking of Frankie Peanuts: 
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Apr 11, 2020 13:54
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Not So Fast posted:Heck, set your campaign in Ravnica and play an Elephant. Hell, I talked my DM into letting me play a Loxodon Druid for Out of the Abyss. Who needs Darkvision when I've got a rad trunk.
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Apr 11, 2020 18:59
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Josef bugman posted:Oh yeah they were more shocked that I was able to do it than anything else. Ok, and we're positive they weren't making fun of you
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Apr 11, 2020 19:41
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As a DM how should I be looking at modifying written adventures to scale up to meet the level of my characters? I’m looking at transitioning into Tales from the Yawning Portal after finishing the Lost Mines. I know the first adventure in Tales is for Level 1. What are some of the best ways to move that up to level 5 while keeping it interesting?
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Apr 11, 2020 19:44
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With Sunless Citadel it wouldn't be too hard to up the damage on traps and just upgrade the statblocs of monsters. Like the regular Kobolds into the Volo Kobolds, could make the White Dragon wyrmling a YA and possibly more intelligent/involved in the plot. That said Sunless Citadel's charm is somewhat lost when you hit higher levels, a goblin encampment goes from an actual threat to a joke when you're Level 5. Obviously I don't know your campaign, but why not just run the second or third Yawning Portal adventures? They're closer level wise, and they're all pretty good (save the Thay and Tomb of Horrors ones).
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Apr 11, 2020 20:00
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Shlank posted:As a DM how should I be looking at modifying written adventures to scale up to meet the level of my characters? I like using Kobold Fight Club to quickly figure out appropriate encounter scaling. I throw in the written encounter and then look to see what I can change easily (Ie. changing a CR2 to a CR6 monster that is thematically equivalent). You may also be able to find homebrew adventure specific resources that can tell you what you need for specific levels.
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Apr 11, 2020 20:05
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I replaced all the goblins with bugbears for my level 6 group and it turned out pretty okay. The final confrontation I changed entirely but it shouldn't be difficult to upgrade that one, either.
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Apr 11, 2020 23:18
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That FR supplement I mentioned earlier is now available! https://www.dmsguild.com/product/244431/The-Border-Kingdoms-A-Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Supplement this is a completely canon supplement by Ed Greenwood on a part of the Realms that has never been completely detailed before. This is explicitly a place for your PCs to come and found their own kingdoms, build their own castles, so forth and so on, which means it's a great follow up to any adventure you've already done that you want to continue with the same group. (You'd want rules for castle building and ruling and so on, which I believe the best 5e rules for are going to be that stuff Matt Coville's doing? or maybe Courtney Campbell's Downtime and Demesnes, but buying that gives money to gross people) It's basically halfway between Baldur's Gate and Chult on the western coast of Faerun, to give you an idea where we're at. Note that like I said this part of the Realms has never really been detailed before. This is it. This is the only book you need. You could get some other sources to expand upon say maybe the gods mentioned that 5e doesn't do anything with, but this is the only book on the Border Kingdoms, period. Conversely, the same thing that makes it ripe for your PCs to build their own legacies in means it's also really easy to drop in your own homebrew or adapted nations, sites, and that kind of thing. If you're looking for one book to add to your copy of the SCAG to really give you a good starting place to make the Realms your own, this is it. PS: I think the tables for found and hidden objects are pretty cool, think like the 5e random trinket/giant's bag tables but with FR plot hooks attached to every one!
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Apr 12, 2020 05:10
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I wouldn't mind some opinions on how to handle summon spells. My current 5e character is running around with Animate Objects, wherein the most 'optimal' choice is ten tiny objects. However that is incredibly harsh on the DM and players whom have to wait on ten more rounds on each combat. I don't mind limiting myself to a certain amount but before I reach that possibility I was wondering if there was any one weird trick which allows me to A. Keep the potency of the Tiny Object Summon, whilst B. Not completely grinding combat to a halt. I know of the DMG mass combat rule I admit I have reservations about it.
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Apr 12, 2020 15:44
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If your friend is literally microing 10 tea cups and screwdrivers and candles or whatever you should just not play with them anymore
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Apr 12, 2020 15:47
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Could you run them as a swarm using the 5e rules for that? If the swarm rules don’t fit, just say they all have to attack one target, tell them the AC, have them calculate the necessary roll for the attack bonus (including +4 for advantage if applicable), then just drop 10d20 and see what hits?
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Apr 12, 2020 16:02
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Taking a quick peek at the mass combat rules, I can see why you might be hesitant, because it looks like it's meant for describing armies, not "there's the four of us and my ten harmonicas vs three bugbears". Reading the animate object rules, it looks like you give your swarm of inkwells commands, rather than the DM controlling them, so why couldn't you give them all the same command, and roll for them all at once?
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Apr 12, 2020 16:05
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SkySteak posted:I wouldn't mind some opinions on how to handle summon spells. My current 5e character is running around with Animate Objects, wherein the most 'optimal' choice is ten tiny objects. However that is incredibly harsh on the DM and players whom have to wait on ten more rounds on each combat. I don't mind limiting myself to a certain amount but before I reach that possibility I was wondering if there was any one weird trick which allows me to A. Keep the potency of the Tiny Object Summon, whilst B. Not completely grinding combat to a halt. I know of the DMG mass combat rule I admit I have reservations about it. as long as you have a fast way to calculate your 10d20 (be it a dicerolling app or just 10 dice) and your dm will work with you to give you a target ac to hit, i’ve found it to be workable i would say you should generally not spread them out a bunch over a bunch of different targets since that will slow down combat a lot, and generally treating your ten tiny objects as one ‘unit’ will make things easier on everyone involved (and will usually be the optimal choice in 90% of situations)
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Apr 12, 2020 16:48
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I've run into a similar problem with 'Conjure Animals' in the game I DM, and eventually had to make a rule that the player can only summon two (and preferably just 1)creatures, because otherwise they would summon 8 wolves every time with 8 trip attacks and completely gridlock the entire combat and it was no fun for anyone (except maybe that player) but they kept doing it. Before we outlawed multiple animals, we did make the rule that all the creatures basically had to act together and the DM would position them/execture the orders so it wasn't 20 minutes of not-very-tactical player trying to optimally position their 8 wolves. Basically the player told the wolves 'Attack that orc' and I moved their tokens around/towards that orc, and then players rolled attacks. They're also not the most prepared/with it player, and so the process was extra painful as they didn't have the stablock etc. ready. With the right player, I think it would be much less of a problem. Doing this on roll20 didn't make it any easier. I've thought about ways to do it differently, and I think the PF2e way of '1 concentrate action gets 2 summoned actions' works well, but I haven't figured out exactly how to port that into 5e with its different action economy. I've also considered treating the summoned things like spiritual weapon and abstracting a moose/bear/goat/demon/10 teacups into a generic level X statblock that you can move and attack with as a bonus action so you don't get so complicated (and slow) keeping track of 10 things and weird abilities. E: it looks like animate objects already does abstract the objects to generic statblocks and makes you use a bonus action to control them and is basically a much better-written version of 'Conjure Animals.' Roll all the dice at once, don't clog up the battle area too badly, and have all your numbers handy and it think you'd be fine. Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Apr 12, 2020 |
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Apr 12, 2020 17:30
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Roll all at once against a target ideally using a dice app, count the number of hits, and use average damage multiplied by number of hits. Don't use the objects to do multiple separate things.
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Apr 12, 2020 18:41
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Yeah I think the best way of dealing with summoned creatures is to keep them as abstract as possible. Keep their "tactical logic" fairly simple, especially if they have less than 6 INT. Feel free to have them exist entirely in the theater of the mind, rather than tracking individual movement or stats. Do group initiative and mass rolls, and embrace ideas like average HP and damage.
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Apr 12, 2020 18:50
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Oh man, my campaign as a first time DM is going so much better than expected. Me and the players are having tons of fun. So they shipwrecked on a tiny (newbie) island and I railroaded them a couple of sessions to get them to level 3 and the first tiny town/hub. They washed up at a beach during a storm, had some zombies en skeletons to deal with, found a cave to shelter in with some friendly/neutral myconids where they could take a short rest until the storm cleared. They traversed up the cliffs towards a lighthouse with a creepy green light (from which bolts resurrected the undead in the first encounter), found some more undead there as well as a wannabe necromancer that was corrupted by an evil shard of a meteor/thingy (part of the larger plot I'm developing) and dealt with that. They went back to the cave to have a proper long rest through the night, dinged level 2, end of first session. Next session theu explored the lighthouse further and saw that the only way off the cliff was through a forest, towards a lakeside village. Forest was cursed, had to stay on the path, through a dungeon. There was a way around the dungeon but the curse of the forest kept them from exploring it. (Not that they tried it, they just headed right on in.) Did a modified version of Sunless Citadel for them. Following spoilers are for Sunless Citadel, obviously. They ignored the troll(ish) corrupted elf cultist in the sarcophagus, made a deal with Meepo and Yusdrail to get the dragon back. The dragon wyrmling killed Meepo and they killed the dragon. They murderhoboed their way through the goblins (fine with me), dealt with Belak and his thralls. Before they go to Belak they met the Bugbear with his two pet rats, but the bard charisma'd their way past him, which of course made the final battle all the more challenging/fun because as soon as the Bugbear heard it he joined it, kind of surprising the rogue/fighter and bard by attacking them from behind. So much fun. It was close, one down and 2 others very nearly, with the two remaining decently hurt. If the Cleric hadn't had a lucky crit pretty much one-shotting Sir Braford they might have actually lost someone. After that they reached the tiny village of Lakeside (super original name, I know, but it fits.) They arrived at the tavern, met de dwarven owner and his half-dwarf son (human mother is the local cleric) with whom they had most of the conversations about everything that happened and told them of the fate of Braford and Sharwyn, so the whole village mourning thingy is gonna play out, given that they have elderly parents living on a farm nearby. I'm really going to try to create a sense of community so they'll start to love the place and want to become the heroes of Lakeside. The bodies of Braford and his sister are still in the Sunless Citadel, so maybe they'll go back to recover those and find that the kobolds quickly took over the whole place. The kobolds are obviously pissed that they didn't get the dragon back as promised, but instead the party killed it and just went on. Nice conflict there, should they choose to go back. They got some free meals and boarding (for three nights) for dealing with the goblins and warning them of the twig brights that might now be around town, went up to their rooms and dinged to level 3. Now things are getting interesting, and I gave them all inspiration for excellent roleplaying. For context, the party now consists of: Level 1 rogue/level 2 fighter High Elf (going into the Arcane Archer with sneak attack path). Level 3 human Bard Level 3 gnome warlock (Great Old One) Level 3 goliath barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul) Level 3 Dragonborn Cleric of Behamut (Life Domain) So I want them all to have some personalized, character driven sidequests, and boy, have the players provided! The arcane archer wanted to start the game having (sometime in the past) swiped a small orb of some kind from some shady characters. It didn't have to be magical, and he told me it was up to me to decide what to do with it, but it's a great hook. So I decided that he swiped to orb from some organized crime syndicate, who in turn stole it from an archfey. So now he'll have both agents from the syndicate on his tail, who want to orb back, as well as agents from the archfey. It'll be up to him to side with the syndicate to get them off his back, or the fey to do the right thing. Meanwhile, the Bard told me his character used to do work for a shady organisation. Using his abilities and spells to influence gambling nights to their favor. When they realized how good he was at this they wanted him to participate in a hit, which he refused, so ever since he's been on the run. Both players came up with these backgrounds on their own, but guess what? It's the same syndicate! So now the Bard will get the offer of bringing in the rogue/fighter, as a price to pay for his forgiveness. He'll not be the only agent/mercenary to be offered this, though. So he'll have the chance to warn/help the rogue/fighter before poo poo goes down. Then there's the warlock. He's already been given a pouch that he he's compelled to feed meat to, and he's been given the message (while tripping on the spores of the myconids in the first session) that his patron is grooming him for greater things, an upcoming battle/war between semi-deities that's part of the overarching plot. Also, the Path of the Wild Soul barbarian, who has random (arcane, aoe'ish) effect whenever he rages. Superfun, although we did agree to homebrew the effects a bit. (Weaker at earlier level so he doesn't accidentally wipe the party, more powerful at later levels so there's some progression as he levels up.) When he raged at level 1 he threw a d8 for the effect and corresponding color, but his eyes just glowed that color (which his party didn't notice, I threw dice for that.) At level two when he raged he got a noticeable aura of the corresponding color, but no effects yet. Now as they slept and leveled up to level 3, the Barbarian wanted to rage in his sleep, to show the aura and restlessness and stuff. The dragonborn freaked out and smaked him, causing a proper rage. The Barbarian rolled a 6, causing him to tap into the minds of those around him. Everyone resisted and made the save DC except for the warlock, who was asleep at the time and was in the midst of getting a message from his patron. So now the Barbarian kinda/sort of knows that there's something up. (The warlock got the message that his patron had another agent nearby that disappointed him, so as a test of strength he'll feel compelled to deal with it. The other patron has been causing minor issues for the villagers of Lakeside, so it was a sidequest anyway.) The only character I really don't have a hook for yet is the Dragonborn Cleric, but other than that, the plan is coming together very nicely. I want them to hang around Lakeside for a little while, but give them compelling reasons to do so, while also giving them some freedom to choose their own direction. So far I've got: The warlock-thing where there's a sea-hag (accompanied by deep-one type enemies) they'll have to deal with Going back to recover the bodies of Braford and Sharwyn An old wizard's tower that used to survey the crater of a meteorite A nearby mining town having issues (standard fare) I hope to think of two or so more interesting encounters/adventures for the next couple of sessions, but so far it's going well.
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Apr 12, 2020 19:00
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I've run into a similar problem with 'Conjure Animals' in the game I DM, and eventually had to make a rule that the player can only summon two (and preferably just 1)creatures, because otherwise they would summon 8 wolves every time with 8 trip attacks and completely gridlock the entire combat and it was no fun for anyone (except maybe that player) but they kept doing it. Before we outlawed multiple animals, we did make the rule that all the creatures basically had to act together and the DM would position them/execture the orders so it wasn't 20 minutes of not-very-tactical player trying to optimally position their 8 wolves. Basically the player told the wolves 'Attack that orc' and I moved their tokens around/towards that orc, and then players rolled attacks. They're also not the most prepared/with it player, and so the process was extra painful as they didn't have the stablock etc. ready. With the right player, I think it would be much less of a problem. Doing this on roll20 didn't make it any easier. Just tell him to hurry his rear end up or summon/animate less stuff. I limit my summons to one or two creatures for the sake of expediency, and I usually give them names and unique descriptions, so the summoning seems more personal, and you’re not treating them like cannon fodder.
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Apr 12, 2020 19:53
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if you want to speed it up just average everything out. or turn it into a swarm of teacups or wolves
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Apr 12, 2020 21:22
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Quick question for opinions or any rules smart folks: Does wildshape interfere with other magical affects granted by third parties? Basically, trying to figure out what to do about the possibility of a druid turning into a whale that then has flying added by the warlock of the crew.
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Apr 12, 2020 22:41
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buddy you got a flying whale right there
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Apr 12, 2020 22:43
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Yeah, gently caress. I mentioned it as a joke. It hadn't even occurred to the players yet....
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Apr 12, 2020 22:44
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yeah Wild Shape doesn't have a size requirement and neither does Fly. But yeah it doesn't stop any ongoing effects, except perhaps ones tied to items?
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Apr 13, 2020 00:17
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cowboy
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Arivia posted:That FR supplement I mentioned earlier is now available! https://www.dmsguild.com/product/244431/The-Border-Kingdoms-A-Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Supplement this is a completely canon supplement by Ed Greenwood on a part of the Realms that has never been completely detailed before. This is explicitly a place for your PCs to come and found their own kingdoms, build their own castles, so forth and so on, which means it's a great follow up to any adventure you've already done that you want to continue with the same group. (You'd want rules for castle building and ruling and so on, which I believe the best 5e rules for are going to be that stuff Matt Coville's doing? or maybe Courtney Campbell's Downtime and Demesnes, but buying that gives money to gross people) It's basically halfway between Baldur's Gate and Chult on the western coast of Faerun, to give you an idea where we're at. Awesome! Thanks for posting this. I'm very excited.
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Apr 13, 2020 01:12
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Man, my gaming group has started up some D&D now that we've run out of Imperial Assault and I missed this stuff. "Wait, the whole reason you were jumpy last week is because you misheard 'hood' as 'mask' and assumed we were talking to a Lord of Waterdeep?" "Yes." "That makes no sense." "That's why I was jumpy!" ------- "Do NOT put the ghoul heads in the same bag as your rations. That won't end well." ------ "Raptors of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist." *DM rolls* "16 velociraptors jump out at you. I swear that wasn't on purpose."
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Apr 14, 2020 02:37
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Wizards heard everyone making GBS threads on the last psionics UA, so here's some more stuff: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/psionic-options-revisited Wild Talent actually seems like a really good feat? It's literally the Soul Knife's core class feature stripped out and made available for everyone change my name fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Apr 14, 2020 |
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Apr 14, 2020 22:12
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The Fighter archetype was starting out vaguely interesting, until I got to the whole die size changes when you roll the max on the die or roll a 1. There is some interesting stuff there, but basically every single thing that talks about reducing the die size or making the die unavailable annoys me to no end. Also kind of BS that you can only use the die on one attack per turn. So there is some stuff that vaguely might make it mid tier, at best, but there is just so much garbage about limiting stuff to once a long rest or reducing the Psionic Talent Die. That lowers it to low tier at best. Soulknife. .... This is pretty garbage. There are a few vaguely interesting abilities, just like the Fighter archetype. But even the vaguely interesting stuff is crippled by the Psionic Talent Die decreasing in size upon use, or upon rolling the max number. And even if that wasn't the case I feel like this would have trouble being even mid tier. I think I might have to go and look at the last, likely garbage, attempt at these archetypes because this UA is so aggressively mediocre/terrible. The Sorcerer archetype is probably the best of the three, and it is still pretty dang mediocre. Again would still be mediocre even if it didn't have the whole reducing the size of the Psionic Talent Die thing that they all have.
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Apr 14, 2020 22:47
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But you could use a 2d6 weapon as a fighter and replace one of the d6 rolls with a d12 roll!
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Apr 14, 2020 22:51
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Looks...promising? Merging Psychic Warrior with Fighter is fine, making Soulknife a flavor of rogue is fine, making Wilders Sorcerers is fine. Psion absolutely deserves to be its own class tho.
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Apr 14, 2020 22:58
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I quite like the Soul Knife for matching up with the Dimir Rogue I am playing. It's certainly not the worst option.
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Apr 14, 2020 23:10
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Wild talent seems like a really good feat. Some of the telepathic stuff, both the feat and the class abilities, seems good but why is it always one person at a time? You can switch who you're talking with basically at will if you can see them, so why not save everyone the effort and just let the party talk without all the hoops as long as they're all in one place?
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Apr 15, 2020 00:52
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As a Eldritch Knight, only able to use Wizard Spells, is there anyway to be able to use Armor of Agathys, a Warlock spell without using a level to multiclass into Warlock?
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Apr 15, 2020 05:22
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SgtSteel91 posted:As a Eldritch Knight, only able to use Wizard Spells, is there anyway to be able to use Armor of Agathys, a Warlock spell without using a level to multiclass into Warlock? magic initiate, which also has the fun bonus of giving you eldritch blast and some other cantrip which is not eldritch blast
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Apr 15, 2020 05:23
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pog boyfriend posted:magic initiate, which also has the fun bonus of giving you eldritch blast and some other cantrip which is not eldritch blast Thanks! That actually works out pretty well with the rest of the class, since I'll need to take a long rest anyway to reuse spells
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Apr 15, 2020 05:28
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So hypothetically how would this new psychic stuff interact with character races like the Gith? I mean the short answer is "it doesn't" but if one were theory crafting?
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Apr 15, 2020 06:16
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pog boyfriend posted:magic initiate, which also has the fun bonus of giving you eldritch blast and some other cantrip which is not eldritch blast SgtSteel91 posted:Thanks! Be aware that this is only going to give you 5 Temp HP and 5 Damage which isn't really noticeable in the grand scheme of things.
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Apr 15, 2020 06:47
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A friend of mine is planning on running a game soonish, and I was gonna think about being a Charisma gish, some combination of Shadow Sorcerer/Hexblade/Conquest? Paladin, just embracing being an evil rear end in a top hat (and also going loving nova at a moment's notice). As such, I was contemplating what race to be, and found that fey-ri (half sun elf, half demon) would be right up the alley for something like this, exceeeept there isn't a playable race yet. So I wanted to run this by the topic, see if this would be too OP for a homebrew fey-ri race. Charisma +2, Intelligence +1 same stats as tiefling, sun elf subrace naturally offers intelligence anyway so that fits, and compared to a half-elf this loses out on stat flexibility 30' walk speed no fly speed, because that's kinda really loving good at 1st level Darkvision Advantage to resist Charm and Fire spells don't want to give them both the Fey Ancestry and Hellish Resistance traits, but this seems fair enough? Tiefling spells (thaumaturgy/hellish rebuke @ 3rd/darkness @ 5th once per long rest), but replacing thaumaturgy with feather fall (self only) representing the wings still being used without giving an actual fly speed Counts as both half-elf and tiefling for anything that would care about that kind of stuff mainly Elven Accuracy, tbqh The only thing I'm not 100% on is the feather fall stuff, but that's because I can't really find decent rules for gliding. Technically, fey'ri are also supposed to be able to shapeshift into a non-demonic form as well, but I don't want to have so much poo poo going on. As it is, it almost feels like a half elf that swapped skill proficiencies for a handful of spells, and sleep immunity for advantage resisting fire spells. Doesn't feel like it's any more powerful than a half-elf already is, but I just want to get another opinion before going to my DM about it.
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Apr 15, 2020 06:59
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Toshimo posted:Be aware that this is only going to give you 5 Temp HP and 5 Damage which isn't really noticeable in the grand scheme of things.
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Apr 15, 2020 16:46
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The lvl 5 rogue at my table has some spectral essence and is the only one without a magic attack option. I'm thinking of letting him find a smith that can infuse it into a dagger with a once per rest ability to convert a hit into a critical hit. I'm unsure whether it should recharge on a long or short rest. Other party members are Celestial blade pact warlock (what if Aladdin but a sword?), life cleric, and storm cleric.
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Apr 15, 2020 17:00
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Rogue crits hit very, very hard due to how many dice they roll. That's a long rest ability for sure.
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Apr 15, 2020 17:05
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