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DeathSandwich posted:I've been curious about playing a bearbarian. Do you start level 1 as a Druid or Barbarian? I know the ultimate goal is Barbarian 5 / Druid 2 then 4 for the bigger nastier beasts. What's the ultimate balance point between Bear and Barain? Stop at level 5 barb and just focus on bigger nastier beasts or is it better off going deep into Barbarian for more/bigger rages and totem features? Why do you want to go to to 5 barbarian? Extra attack only works with the attack action, not multi attack. So you could take two claw attacks or two bite attacks as a bear, but it already has innate multiattack for a bite+claw. It's really sweet to turn into a raging bear but you don't get much other than the increased rages/damage from barbarian. You're obligated to pick pick up 3 levels of barbarian to get totem so you can go bearbearian though
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Sep 10, 2020 19:48
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Hackan Slash posted:Why do you want to go to to 5 barbarian? Extra attack only works with the attack action, not multi attack. So you could take two claw attacks or two bite attacks as a bear, but it already has innate multiattack for a bite+claw. Not all beasts have multi-attack, even some notable ones (Giant Sharks if you're on a pirate adventure for example, Rhino/Elephant/Mammoth/Triceratops can gore or stomp, but not both in the same turn.
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Sep 10, 2020 20:03
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A druid leaning Barbearian is actively worse than straight moon druid, at basically everything. With that in mind you should lean heavily into the Barbarian side, and just use the druid bit as a way to have some fun access to utility magic, and some occasional bear morphing as an ersatz emergency combat heal.
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Sep 10, 2020 20:27
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Spikes32 posted:I need to make a simple character for a player new to dnd to play who is only joining in for one session. Should I just give him a fighter? Lvl 2 so no one is very powerful. i would ask them what kind of character they want to play; if they don’t know, fighter is fine, but pretty much any martial at level 2 is going to be simple enough in terms of what they can do that it shouldn’t be too much for a new player to learn
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Sep 10, 2020 20:39
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DeathSandwich posted:Not all beasts have multi-attack, even some notable ones (Giant Sharks if you're on a pirate adventure for example, Rhino/Elephant/Mammoth/Triceratops can gore or stomp, but not both in the same turn. This is true, however they're all not bears. Commitment to the bit is paramount
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Sep 10, 2020 20:45
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Yeah I'm picturing a character who wears big baggy clothing so when they bearshape it still all fits, would rule. I'm not busting my threads to turn into some dumb shark Maybe I'll dip monk instead of barbarian and just lean in hard on dex when I'm not an animal... change my name fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Sep 10, 2020 |
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Sep 10, 2020 20:46
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I've been working on a custom background for a game and I ended up deciding to make it a proper writeup for other people to use, so I wanted to get some feedback on it, especially the feature. I'm not sure if it's too much of a just "skip a part of the quest" power. Maybe it would be better to make it some kind of information gathering power like a miniature version of Insightful Manipulator? https://pastebin.com/fBPeDUwU
Taciturn Tactician fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Sep 10, 2020 |
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Sep 10, 2020 21:16
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Just want to say thanks to everyone who chipped in on explaining the differences between the various forms of spellswords. Gave me a lot to ponder.
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Sep 10, 2020 21:17
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So, my wife and I are having an issue with our current group. It seems like they all want a video game, and we want to explore a bit. As an example, we needed to travel to Luskan to chase down a mcguffin, and when the harbor master in Neverwinter told us there were two boats headed that way, we talked to the captain of the first, and when I said we should talk to the other ship, everyone shouted me down, saying it was a waste of time. I have accepted the fact that we need to separate, but we'd like to keep playing, but aren't sure how to find a different group. Our current group was started by my brother in law, but he retired from DMing for the same issues( he wasn't having fun that the other players didn't want to be a bit more exploratory). Basically, is there any advice on finding new games in particular areas? We're both very used to D&D, but when I've googled, I haven't found much, which seems odd, considering I'm in a major metropolitan area. Makes me feel I'm googling wrong.
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Sep 11, 2020 07:59
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Imasalmon posted:Basically, is there any advice on finding new games in particular areas? We're both very used to D&D, but when I've googled, I haven't found much, which seems odd, considering I'm in a major metropolitan area. Makes me feel I'm googling wrong. I've found a place in a couple of really good campaigns from facebook groups organising D&D tables in my city, that might be a better place to start looking?
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Sep 11, 2020 12:03
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Imasalmon posted:So, my wife and I are having an issue with our current group. It seems like they all want a video game, and we want to explore a bit. As an example, we needed to travel to Luskan to chase down a mcguffin, and when the harbor master in Neverwinter told us there were two boats headed that way, we talked to the captain of the first, and when I said we should talk to the other ship, everyone shouted me down, saying it was a waste of time. I have accepted the fact that we need to separate, but we'd like to keep playing, but aren't sure how to find a different group. What's the rest of the group saying they should do when they shut down your idea for going to luskan? Are you guys just doing like one-off bounty hunter stuff or is there some sort of arc?
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Sep 11, 2020 13:07
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Get your brother-in-law to start a new campaign for you and your wife.
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Sep 11, 2020 16:30
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If you're willing to be creative, online spaces might be a good fit.
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Sep 11, 2020 16:39
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Our Sunday group rotates DMs and it's about to be my turn again. I want to run a series of one-shots/5 room dungeons in the format of a police vice squad in Waterdeep. I am thinking of the trope of some grumpy sergeant who sends out their loose cannon characters to investigate various stuff and then when they finish he yells at them for using excessive force, tampering with evidence, incorrect procedure, etc. Hoping to keep this funny and light, but I'm actually pretty lovely at homebrewing one shots. Does anyone know of a supplement or module(s) that would fit this "cop" vibe? 
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Sep 11, 2020 16:49
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DeathSandwich posted:What's the rest of the group saying they should do when they shut down your idea for going to luskan? Are you guys just doing like one-off bounty hunter stuff or is there some sort of arc? They didn't oppose going to Luskan, they opposed checking out the other ship that was also headed there. They just said I was wasting time, since "this boat seems fine. Why bother asking the other boat captain anything?" We're on an arc, trying to get revenge against a cult that trashed our keep. Bogan Krkic posted:I've found a place in a couple of really good campaigns from facebook groups organising D&D tables in my city, that might be a better place to start looking? Thanks, I'll try that!
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Sep 12, 2020 05:19
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nelson posted:Get your brother-in-law to start a new campaign for you and your wife.
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Sep 12, 2020 14:04
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Last week was our "session zero" where we asked questions, rolled up stat tables, and other things, such as average or rolled hp and so on. We decided on someone can choose between rolled or average hp but need to pick ahead of time. I decided I'm going to do average because when I rolled I had 40 hp but average would've given me 54 (at level 7 for the oneshot anyways). Me and my friend who I brought into the group decided on average largely because we both think we're just more likely than not to get utterly hosed on rolls. Everyone stat rolls, the way it works is we all roll a stat line and then we vote on the one to use. We rolled using (4d6k3+4d6k3+4d6k3+4d6k3+4d6k3+4d6k3) quote:10/8/15/16/12/8 (Rob's btw) Oh except I was a little late, so I arrived and rolled: quote:16,8, 13, 14, 18, 11 Saving the day from someone having a 3 as a dump stat. IIRC I rolled up basically the elite point buy array? Hell yeah.  (This DOES however mean that all enemies (or at least bosses and hirelings) use our stats, while if we had a more terrible stat array the enemies stat array would also be terrible and we'd have more opportunities for stat improving items) Then we got to pick from the list below for items: quote:Choose one from the Following List I went with the Clockwork Amulet and a Whalloping (Superior) Greatsword of Returning. The Superior quality on the weapon table meant it's exactly 5 lbs and deals 2d8 slashing damage. Combined with Catapults 3d8 bludgeoning is a total of 5d8 damage with a DC 10 strength check or they get knocked down and it comes back to me. I basically have Thor's Hammer (IF, it hits). I would've really liked the Wand of the War Mage for the +1 to hit but it was that or the Returning aspect and the Returning Aspect makes the build's action economy a lot better. DM has said he's generous with Mold Earth so I can probably rely on it as long as I'm not doing anything cheesy. My main use case is to make an obstacle/cover to stay behind so I try to avoid being sniped by archers. I've also been told I think I mentioned this but just in case, the following Sorcerer options are also available to me from UA: -I can switch a spell with a long rest. -I can spend 2 points for advantage on a check (how is this not way better than charm person?) -Embueing Touch, I think I can spend however many points, I think its 1? And make something magical for the sake of damage. So I'll likely use this on my greatsword. We did backgrounds but my character is young so mine didn't have all that much in terms of background, basically my powers awakened one day so I went for a journey to find someone to help train me and I found a monk who helped me control my mind powers which worked out and then for the purposes of the one shot probably was introduced to the party via the monk since everyone rolling their background life events MET. THE SAME. DANG. MONK. (Or at least that's the joke we're rolling with) I also had my character drawn:  Hopefully this campaign will be a hoot despite the rampant toxicity, part of why I roped in a friend of mine to balance things out. Raenir Salazar fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Sep 12, 2020 |
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Sep 12, 2020 16:01
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Thank you for your advice regarding guns. I'm going to be running a campaign a campaign soon myself and two things presented themselves to me which I wouldn't mind opinions on: 1. I am wanting this to be a reasonably low level campaign start and thus I was thinking between level three and level five. I find that level three is good as it avoids the 'made of glass' issues of levels one and allows the starting archetype to begin Level four is actually pretty tempting as it gives everyone their initial ASI /Feats whilst also allowing the next level up to be one which gives some cool stuff (Spell level & multi attack). 2. Has anyone here had any real experience with allowing racial bonuses to merely be put into whatever attributes people want? I suppose it reduces the 'identity' of each race but one of the larger problems I tend to see is character concepts just being undercut by the attributes of a race being in the wrong place. 3. I'm also toying with the concept of killing off Variant Human and just starting everyone off with a feat (with a few exceptions like Lucky, Weapon Mastery/Armor feats etc). I am wondering if it may be more a bit more flavorful and allow what would normally be suboptimal (and thus potentially shunned) feats a greater chance to shine. First time DMing in a while so I am a bit averse to making sweeping changes, but hopefully these make sense.
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Sep 13, 2020 08:38
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In a campaign going to 10. I have a level 8 paladin right now with a homebrew oath. Is it worth dipping 2 levels of Fighter, you think? I miss out on third level spells, but Crusader's Mantle is already an ability of someone's sword, so it's really just Aura of Vitality and better smites going missing. I suspect I can't get away with warlock without an RP reason that would be sorely lacking and I don't think 2 levels of sorcerer is deep enough to get much worthwhile other than Shield and Booming Blade.
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Sep 13, 2020 08:41
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SkySteak posted:3. I'm also toying with the concept of killing off Variant Human and just starting everyone off with a feat (with a few exceptions like Lucky, Weapon Mastery/Armor feats etc). I am wondering if it may be more a bit more flavorful and allow what would normally be suboptimal (and thus potentially shunned) feats a greater chance to shine. This is literally an optional rule in Theros and it's gone great for the campaign I'm in that uses it.
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Sep 13, 2020 08:46
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Fumbles posted:So I've got a balance question for people to make sure I'm not playing favorites. I'm a bit late responding to this but I wrote that supplement so wanted to respond. Just going by the abilities granted to the other players I would think 9 Tier 4 abilities at level 5 is way over powered, especially if you let them pick from the top tiers down. Bear in mind the tiers are designed so you can only swap out one maneuver every odd level, so a level 15 Fighter would have maximum 4 Tier 4 abilities and could only have 4 Tier 3 abilities. Even 4 Tier 4 abilities is very strong. An ability like Legend could be abused so be thoughtful about how the details of it's use play out, I would suggest a Fighter abusing Legend become the renowned tough guy everyone wants to take down. Superior Reflexes is also mad powerful for level 5 and alone would be out of balance with the boons you're offering the other players. I would limit the maneuvers offered to one or two to balance the other boons and probably limit that to Tier 3 and choose them yourself to suit the campaign. This would also mean the Fighter continues to get a feeling of progression unlocking new maneuvers and Tiers. e: just to be super clear: I really like the idea of the old fighter who's body is giving out but knows all the tricks, it's really cool. I just think in terms of balancing with the boons offered to others, it's pretty strong. clusterfuck fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Sep 13, 2020 |
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Sep 13, 2020 10:20
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Also if I may, if you're enjoying Nort's Maneuvers please consider writing a review or giving it some stars. It keeps selling slowly but consistently but there's almost no community feedback which has made it less engaging for me to keep updating. I had a look around and found a little reddit discussion from people seeking opinions and getting them from people who haven't used it. I don't mind criticism but it's much more interesting and useful from people who are using it.
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Sep 13, 2020 10:27
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Raenir Salazar posted:Last week was our "session zero" where we asked questions, rolled up stat tables, and other things, such as average or rolled hp and so on.
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Sep 13, 2020 12:34
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Nehru the Damaja posted:In a campaign going to 10. I have a level 8 paladin right now with a homebrew oath. Is it worth dipping 2 levels of Fighter, you think? I miss out on third level spells, but Crusader's Mantle is already an ability of someone's sword, so it's really just Aura of Vitality and better smites going missing. I mean, depending on your paladin concept, celestial warlocks are a thing as of XGE. The RP hook doesn't have to be terribly complicated.
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Sep 13, 2020 13:04
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Declan MacManus posted:i would ask them what kind of character they want to play; if they don’t know, fighter is fine, but pretty much any martial at level 2 is going to be simple enough in terms of what they can do that it shouldn’t be too much for a new player to learn I go the opposite way on this. Giving people Fighters as a newbie class is doing them a huge disservice because fighters have the smallest suite of ways to interact with the game mechanically and the least solutions to problems that aren't a monster to be stabbed. Fighter is a class for people who want to engage heavily with the combat mechanics, and is best played by people who already know they find that their main locus of fun in playing. My go-to starter for people is Cleric. They have a good selection of magic and decent martial abilities to back it up, and have a built in spot in the team dynamic.
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Sep 13, 2020 13:17
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Fighter gets so few premade, out of the box abilities that you need to be real creative to come up with things to do, yeah.
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Sep 13, 2020 13:22
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GHOST_BUTT posted:I mean, depending on your paladin concept, celestial warlocks are a thing as of XGE. The RP hook doesn't have to be terribly complicated. We're in Barovia, so it's about as unlikely as the rest. :/
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Sep 13, 2020 13:40
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Spikes32 posted:I need to make a simple character for a player new to dnd to play who is only joining in for one session. Should I just give him a fighter? Lvl 2 so no one is very powerful.
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Sep 13, 2020 14:18
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SkySteak posted:Thank you for your advice regarding guns. I'm going to be running a campaign a campaign soon myself and two things presented themselves to me which I wouldn't mind opinions on: do 2 and 3 and you can start at level one while avoiding the pitfalls of level one play... just be sure that most enemies are not fighting to the death and you will be fine (ie: the goblins arent killing people, they are taking prisoners)
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Sep 13, 2020 15:36
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So while I know what Legendary Resistances and Actions are supposed to do. Making dragons a threatening challenge and so on. But I find that every boss encounter my group has had last campaign came down to many of the same sort of plays in the broad strokes. Someone expending all their resources trying to burn off their legendary resistances, and us basically consistently going all in on that because the boss is usually dealing so much damage and in some cases quickly downing some of us, so we seem to be forced to double down on save or lose spells/abilities to try to beat it because if we don't it seems to be dealing so much damage (or in the case of the beholder) is able to attempt so many save or suck/lose stuff on us that it isn't like we can not do it because we're taking so much damage. I feel like Legendary Resistances should be more like, for example if Hold Person the legendary resistance lets them still take an action but not their whole turn, maybe they can burn a legendary action that turn to get an additional part of their turn?
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Sep 13, 2020 16:28
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That's been pretty much the answer to high-end monsters since AD&D. They are generally meat tanks with good resistances, so save or lose is pretty much the option. Another part of why there's such a late game power issue between classes, because martials don't get save or die abilities.
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Sep 13, 2020 16:34
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I feel like every game should kill off v. human and just give all players a free feat. I know it’s come up before but it really does help people pick things other than humans.
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Sep 13, 2020 16:35
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Raenir Salazar posted:So while I know what Legendary Resistances and Actions are supposed to do. Making dragons a threatening challenge and so on. But I find that every boss encounter my group has had last campaign came down to many of the same sort of plays in the broad strokes. you can use immunities to curtail this to an extent. high end superbosses are immune to basically everything for example. look at the rakshasa for inspiration on this. if you are designing an encounter for a party which has one guy who only has save or sucks for some reason and do not want to oppressively destroy them, look into doing group bosses(the "boss" is really 3 guys, that share legendary resistances, or something)
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Sep 13, 2020 16:40
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Saw this on the mostly-garbage /r/dndmemes today and ngl... I felt it: It puts a DM in such a difficult place when all the players want to do is be goofy custom deviantart OCs before literally anything else about the campaign is known. Like none of those ideas are terrible in isolate, but they demonstrate a fundamental problem a lot of D&D players (and DMs) have which is-- thinking solely in self-interested terms. D&D is collaborative. That's why I personally bar brand-new players from terribly exotic races/character concepts, especially homebrew. It's a bit like a baking student attempting macarons on day one instead of learning how to make cookie dough. Sometimes you really do need to start with the fundamentals and be willing to cede your personal hype to the rest of the group while you learn how to listen and collaborate. Then eventually yes, they can end up as part of the wacky insane party where every character concept is wild homebrew and an anime princess sky-pirate teams up with a half-silicon/half-preying mantis Psionic Knight and a pile of sentient rocks that use abacus logic to cast mathematical magic. That stuff can rule... but it's kind of a privilege and not something you bust out at Session 0 your first time because "I don't see the appeal of pretending to be a Dwarf."
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Sep 13, 2020 16:55
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homebrew can be badly balanced but otherwise lol at getting mad at players being excited about playing something fantastical before the reality of the banality that is D&D style "fantasy" crushes their spirit.
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Sep 13, 2020 16:59
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Some kids never had to make do with a limited number of toys and boy can you tell.
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Sep 13, 2020 17:03
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mind the walrus posted:Saw this on the mostly-garbage /r/dndmemes today and ngl... I felt it: We've gotten to the point where our wizard wants to use his flying monkey familiar to cast spells through a ring of spell storing (which I okay'ed, it kind of makes sense but is a bit annoying), but dang let people have fun in a game
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Sep 13, 2020 17:09
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I'm sorry what? What does someone wanting to play something interesting have to do with not having to do with a limited number of toys? That makes it sound like anyone who wants to play something interesting is an entitled only child who had everything they ever wanted. Which is obviously completely and utterly wrong. No offense but you don't sound like a fun DM to me.
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Sep 13, 2020 17:18
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my response to anyone wanting to do something weird and fun is generally “okay, let’s work together and see how we can make that happen for you” and maybe it’s just the crowds i roll with but in general terms it’s not people trying to powergame (because as powergamers know you should be relying on the rules as written because the more say the dm has in things the worse off you’ll be) or people trying to go lol wacky OC DO NOT STEAL; instead it’s usually someone with a story idea for a character (which as a dm is a loving boon, a precious gift, a player that is giving me material that i can weave into the campaign to tie their character into the world and maybe give me some worldbuilding stuff) who either wants to reskin some mechanics or tweak some stuff that’ll have to be balanced to give their character more flavor anything that gets away from sword and sorcery cliches is generally more interesting to play in imo, but i guess it also depends on who your crew is. i think a piece of advice that gets ignored a lot is that if you don’t enjoy the people you play with, you should leave your group, even if it means no dnd.
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Sep 13, 2020 17:28
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I'm the guy whose going all in on a Bat theme.pog boyfriend posted:you can use immunities to curtail this to an extent. high end superbosses are immune to basically everything for example. look at the rakshasa for inspiration on this. if you are designing an encounter for a party which has one guy who only has save or sucks for some reason and do not want to oppressively destroy them, look into doing group bosses(the "boss" is really 3 guys, that share legendary resistances, or something) I don't want to make it harder! My problem is the immunities/resistances! I want them to be less immune so a turn by a player isn't, "I cast hold person... Okay they fail." "They eyes glow and they save instead." As the sum total of a turn! If instead of "nope" I am thinking its instead reduced down to a lesser version of that spell, so instead of noping away hold person it becomes something that still affects them, thereby not wasting the players turn, but doesn't cripple the boss and make the encounter trivial.
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Sep 13, 2020 17:34
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