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MelvinBison posted:dropped a flying city on the party  The Assassination of a lich Thessalar’s fortress is located on a pinnacle of rock thousands of feet above the surrounding floor. An immense steeply sloping bridge of stone connects the top of this spire to the canyon rim thousands of feet up. Perched on the edge of this pinnacle is a strange, squat fortress made of red marble, its low walls smooth and polished, giving the fortress an almost organic look. I longdoor us to the mesa outside of the fortress and we approach the front gate whose portcullis is more rust than metal. We pause to figure out how to circumvent the rusted mass of bars, but Snakeeyes simply grabs a hold of a section of gate with both hands and pulls, resulting in a large chunk of it to come crashing down in a cloud of red dust. A moment thereafter a pale and sickly voice calls out from within, inquiring about our business. “We come for you Thessalar!” shouts Ospar. “We come on behalf of Zulshyn the Lilend to rid her of your nuisance.” At that we rush under the gatehouse into a courtyard where we are met by a pair of four-legged, pincer-tailed, thirty-five-foot-long monsters, lumbering towards us with a rumbling, bone-shaking roar. These beasts are red with darker orange underbelly, and look vaguely draconic in shape, save that in place of a head they have an enormous central acid-spitting maw surrounded by a ring of eight snake-like heads. As Laenaya, Snakeeyes, and Ospar charge into the fray, a black-robed figure floats down from the inner tower who conjures a bolt of fire at me. My wards deflect the attack and we are engaged. There are two battles, really: Laenaya and Snakeeyes and Ospar fight a battle of maneuver, moving and orienting themselves to give others a chance to attack from the flank, while Severance and I engage the lich in a battle of spells. The thessalhydras are tough, mean and stupid, fighting in a straightforward manner that is no match for the coordinated assault of the trio. The lich, on the other hand, proves to be quite a challenge and various spells and hexes are flung about the courtyard, like some kind of storm run amok. Bolts of lightning, great gouts of fire, spears and darts of piercing ice are flung about and the booming cacophony is sure to draw the attention for miles around. Severance gets a weird gleam in his eye as we are crouched behind the wreckage of a stone table and mutters some incantations under his breath. He says, “distract it!” then sprints, hasted, away from the fight around the back of the tower. “Like I can do any more,” I mutter and fling another bolt of ice at Thessalar who is now circling the courtyard and alternately blocking my bolt of elemental energy and sending harrying spells at the melee combatants to my left. Snakeeyes has faced off against one of the thessalhydras and has managed to cut off several of the tentacles, while a battered Ospar keeps the other occupied while Laenaya stabs at it in the flanks. I catch a glimpse of movement towards the top of the tower and see Severance running up its side, crawling over the crenellations and disappearing over the top. A roar of pain announces a mortal blow from either Ospar or Laenaya and one of the thessalhydras goes down, and Thessalar is momentarily distracted by the noise. And just as suddenly, a silvery shape falls from the top of the tower, veering towards Thessalar. A violent impact in midair. A long blade explodes from his chest and two figures slam into the ground. Severance stands up on wobbly legs, pulls his no-dachi out of the wreckage that was Thessalar and limps towards me, holding his ribs with a grimace. I start to sing, “He flies though the air with the greatest of ease…” “Wha’…?” “Nothing. Nevermind. Come here quick and let me heal you so we can help the others.” But after my spells of healing are cast, our urgency proves unnecessary as Snakeeyes, Ospar, and Laenaya have slain the second thessalhydra. We plunder Thessalar’s body and recover magical relics centuries old. Ospar, more of an expert in all things dead and undead than even me, says, “How many liches is this for us? Two? Thessalar and Darl Quesos?” “Cheesy name, but it's Quethos. Three,” I say as I put on the wizard's black robe and circlet. This Robe of the Archmagi smells musty and gross and could use a good wash, nevermind the largish hole in the middle of the back, but it radiates power. Evil power, yes, but power nonetheless. “You forget Loris Raknian turning into a lich after he summoned the ulgurstasta.” “Two.” Ospar tsks at me. “Raknian turned into a Death Knight. Not a lich.” “Okay, so Dragotha will make three.” “Who gives a drat?” says Snakeeyes irritably. “But Quethos was a living human, Raknian became a Death Knight. Only Thessalar was a lich. The bigger question is should we bother finding Thessalar’s phylactery and destroy him forever or leave him be?” Severance shrugs. ”Th’s be Pepper’s contract so th’ terms be on h’m. But I says we’ve destroy’d th’ lich per our agreem’nt so Pepper’s girlfriend needs t’ honor her barg’n.” And so she does. “I imagine we won’t be seeing Thessalar again,” Zulshyn says upon our return to her fortress. She has started a new statue that looks disturbingly like me and is working on it as she speaks. “Thessalar is old. Very old. And, despite of his dogged pursuit of me, rather conservative. I imagine he won’t be in a hurry to seek revenge on those who have already successfully destroyed him once. No, our Thessalar will reform from his phylactery somewhere and will set up shop far from here.” We spend the day resting and recuperating in the front entranceway to Zulshyn’s fortress while she puts together fetishes and charms that she says will aid us in our battle against Dragotha. Then we depart: an archmage, a half-dragon swordsman, a street-urchin-cum-priest, a warrior mage, a vampire, a serpent-human sorceress and three of her plodding stone golems.
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Mar 18, 2021 21:21
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In odd adventuring experiences today, me and my fellow band of
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Mar 25, 2021 03:30
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MadDogMike posted:the bed revealed that it was in fact possessed by an evil spirit that wanted very much for us to let it kill us all if that wasn't too much trouble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01l1WIC9mBo
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Mar 25, 2021 03:42
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Came a hair's breadth from a TPK in our Undermountain game. The situation: we are about to attack a huge temple complex held by the Drow. We attacked just the outskirts of it before, got hosed up real bad, and retreated to explore the rest of the level before returning. They have had that time to reinforce their defenses, but we have reconnaissance about their numbers and positions. Still, they know we are coming, and they are as ready as we are. The cast: Tana: NG Shadar-Kai Monk Althea: LG Half-elf (Drow) Paladin of Elistraee Felix: CN Human Warlock Siofra: CG Halfling Bard of Lore We begin the assault on the Temple of Lolth from the north side. We encounter a group of mundane and psychic Quaggoths almost immediately and fight them back into a vestibule next to the spider hatchery part of the temple. As we finish them off outside of the locked door to the hatchery, Siofra hears many voices gathering on the other side of the door. Tana helps her fend off a Phase Spider attack behind the line, while Althea presses past the vestibule into the prison complex south of the hatchery. She encounters some Grimlock guards and fights them while retreating back toward the vestibule to regroup. Felix and Tana have only taken minor damage at this point, so while there was still a couple Grimlocks being blocked by Althea, the whole group masses in the vestibule while Siofra bluffs that the group is moving on by loudly talking about moving south. She is setting a surprise attack on those amassing behind the door, and stands back to aim her Wand of Fireballs at the door. The door opens to reveal a bunch more Quaggoths, and the sound of Drow voices beyond them in the hatchery. A Drow wizard launches a similar surprise attack on Felix, hitting him with a lightning bolt as soon as the door is open. Siofra launches a fireball into the hatchery, wounding or killing a few Quaggoths and Drow. Right after that, Felix lays down a Hunger of Hadar inside the Hatchery to block the door. As giant spiders and Quaggoths mass at the edge of the hunger, Siofra launches yet another fireball into the room, further in this time and hitting those massing to attack. It is unclear how many are wounded or killed, but it seems like a lot, more than the first fireball. Meanwhile, Tana blocks the door to the hatchery and Althea continues to fend off the Grimlocks. Then comes the Cloudkill. That fucken Drow wizard drops it all over the vestibule, bleeding a bit into the hatchery. It deals 8d6-ish to everyone, but Siofra and Althea save for half damage. Felix is KO'd by this. Tana starts her turn in it, and takes the damage again at the start of her turn. She also goes down. The Grimlocks also die to this SO EVERYTHING IS COOL AND GOOD. Althea gets the gently caress out of the vestibule carrying about 30 damage (of 55-ish HP), charging alone into a hatchery still full of wounded Quaggoths, Drow, and giant spiders. She gets about halfway to the head priestess at the far end of the room before she slams into a group of Quaggoths. Siofra also takes damage again from the Cloudkill at the start of her turn, going down to 1 goddamn HP. Tana and Felix are goners next to her, and Althea has decided that the way out is through. Siofra physically can't run fast enough to escape, and can't bring herself to abandon Althea. So she casts Polymorph, takes for the form of a giant ape, picks up Tana and Felix, and charges into the room. She places them down at the edge of the hatchery, outside of the Cloudkill where they can hopefully start passing death saves. lol Tana stabilizes automatically due to an item she has. Felix fails one death save. (1/3) A giant spider ensnares Siofra, immobilizing her and forcing her to take a future action to free herself. But she's drawn fire from some of the spiders and Drow snipers. Althea makes a hard call to lean into her Oath of Vengeance rather than fall back to heal Tana and Felix (which would have been iffy anyway). So she teleports out of her melee with three opponents and charges the priestess of Lolth. We're betting both in and out of character that the Drow are bootlickers enoguh that if we kill their mistress, we all go home. It's a gamble, but we don't have the resources for mch more than such a bet. Althea hits twice, spending LV2 smites each time and tacking on a bardic inspiration for damage. She nearly kills the priestess in one turn, but leaves her mortally wounded instead. I got the impression the priestess had <5 HP. The priestess' concentration also fails, dispelling several of her summoned giant spiders. She mass-cures herself and a few Quaggoths, but unless Althea is neutralized it won't be nearly enough. Felix fails another death save. (2/3) Siofra also makes a hard call. She leans away from her Hail Mary options (to attack the priestess at range with disadvantage), opting to free herself from the webbing. She begins moving down the long, large room, drawing more sniper fire and Quaggoth attacks away from Althea. She goes from 157 HP to about 120 as many small attacks land for damage. She continues to pass her concentration checks to maintain her Polymorph form. Because if that goes down, Siofra goes back to a Halfling with 1 HP in the middle of a platoon of angry Drow. Felix passes a death save. (1/3) The Drow mage flies away and throws another lightning bolt at Althea in an attempt to save the priestess. This reduces Althea to 5 HP. The paladin then kills the priestess with her next attack, and now the die is cast for that rout we were gambling on. Before the enemy can even notice that their mistress' head had begun rolling across the floor, Siofra decides to improve our odds for a rout. She takes a bunch more damage from attacks of opportunity to break from melee, pick up a huge paving stone, and hurl it at that fucken wizard. The attack just about kills him, and his concentration breaks and he takes a bit more damage from falling out of his flight. But the motherfucker is still alive and I hate him still to this moment. Siofra takes the opportunity to bellow, as a giant ape is wont to do, so as to cow the surviving baddies. It largely works, with the exception of one Drow sniper who very unwisely takes one last shot at Siofra before she climbs up above his perch and murders him with her next action. Meanwhile, Felix fails his third death save. He's gone. Combat ends. Althea heals herself while Siofra rushes to Tana and Felix. She finds Tana stable but Felix dead. She reverts from polymorph to administer healing to herself and begin using the single means we have to revive, a Scroll of Raise Dead, to bring Felix back. As she is beginning to spam healing spells, Althea hears from the maimed wizard whom she is about to execute: "There are more coming. They could be here any moment." We scramble to shut the locked door, and tend to our wounded. Next game is on Saturday. 
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Mar 25, 2021 12:39
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MelvinBison posted:and dropped a flying city on the party. We did this once in a campaign when thought of "killing a dungeon" overrode thinking through the consequences. Basically we walked through a portal into what was clearly inside a creature so we went back through the portal and just started stabbing through it under the theory "each attack does some hitpoints of damage, and it will die eventually" It was a soarwhale and it did die and fell on a town.
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Mar 25, 2021 13:20
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Railing Kill posted:drow drow drow Goold old-fashioned tense combat is never not fun to read.
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Mar 26, 2021 03:39
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According to my DM, my Cutting Words spell may not include the phrase, "we have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty..."
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Mar 28, 2021 18:13
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, my Cutting Words spell may not include the phrase, "we have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty..."
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Mar 28, 2021 18:57
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, my Cutting Words spell may not include the phrase, "we have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty..." What about their carriage? Or their Warforged?
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Mar 28, 2021 19:16
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Hi! It's Jenny
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Mar 28, 2021 19:26
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the_steve posted:What about their carriage? Or their Warforged? Sadly, there are no Warforged on Tanicus. Yet. I introduced my DM to the new Iron Kingdoms 5e Monsternomicon this weekend and his eyes went right to the Deathjack. However, this actually just happened in our campaign... quote:Cobi - "OK, Viktor lets out an unearthly sigh and pops his wings (uses Necrotic Shroud).
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Mar 28, 2021 19:49
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“We are experiencing higher than normal spell volume. Please hold. Your death is very important to us.”
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Mar 28, 2021 20:57
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'At the tone, the time will be the end of your life.'
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Mar 29, 2021 21:56
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JustJeff88 posted:'At the tone, the time will be the end of your life.' Considering my Warlock is now a Revenant thanks to an inconvenient case of death on Sunday, my DM laughed longer than he should at this.
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Mar 30, 2021 02:57
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CobiWann posted:Considering my Warlock is now a Revenant thanks to an inconvenient case of death on Sunday, my DM laughed longer than he should at this. I am glad that he enjoyed it. It was from my D&D days, but I can't remember the context. One of my cousins was invoking the speaking clock, which amazingly still exists.
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Mar 30, 2021 04:04
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Tabernacle of Chaos (part I) Our ranks now numbering four humans, one vampire, one lillend, and three stone golems, we use Zulshyn’s knowledge of the Rift to make our way to one spur that will lead to Dragotha’s lair- what she calls the Tabernacle of Chaos. We follow the spur deep into a ravine until it eventually opens onto a relatively narrow ledge that overlooks an immense subterranean cavern lit by a nauseating green glow. The walls, ceiling, and floor shimmer here and there with phosphorescent fungi, but the predominant source of lighting is the sloshing lake of thick green slime at the far end of the cave. Several turgid waterfalls of the stuff drool from openings high up on the far wall of the cave, and now and then thick shapes of the things that dwell within the slime lake ripple against its surface. On the closest shore of the lake of nightmares, yet still nearly a half-mile from the ledge, looms an immense pole of stalagmites and upthrust pillars of green rock that form a natural castle. A huge central pillar of stone rises up from the fortress to merge with the roof above. Upon our arrival at the shore, a pair of figures mounted on flying steeds appear over the walls of the fortress, and from the ooze of the lake crawl intelligent amoebae, forming shapes as chaotic as anything in the Abyss, simultaneously forming and reforming almost any shape out of their near-transparent bodies, including legs, eyes, mouths, huge bludgeoning weapons, grasping pale tentacles. The pair of flying creatures come close enough to make out. One pair is a ragged and pale derro riding on the back of a wyvern, but the other is more familiar: I spy the one-time director of the Thalos Arena, Loris Raknian, reborn as a Death Knight riding on the back of a nightmare. I see the duo beginning incantations so I manage to erect a shield just as their fireballs explode at us and the battle is joined. They are fierce and skilled opponents, capable of serious damage and mayhem, but we are a fell lot ourselves. With Severance, Zulshyn and I sending spells skyward, we force the duo to the ground where they join the shoggoths in the melee against Ospar, Snakeeyes and the three golems where they are eventually overwhelmed. “And so ends Loris Raknian. A skill’d gladiat’r in his day,” says Severance as he cleans ichor off his blade. “I didn’t know he was a gladiator. Let alone a good one,” I say as I pick through the bodies of the death knight and the derro. “’t’s all ‘n the Library of Thalos,” responds Severance. “An’ even more in Lucas’ and Marja’s library in the keep. Spend time there an’ there’s much t’ learn.” Zulshyn bushes against my arm and purrs into my ear, “There’s a better library in my tower, my pet. You shall see.” We gather ourselves up and head around the lake of ichor towards the fortress, battering down its gates and wreaking havoc within. We slaughter many minions of the Daughter of the Night, who scream exultations even as they die, and fight our way deep into the fortress. Finally we find ourselves entering a large rough-hewn cavern whose only feature is a massive black ziggurat crowned with a large black obelisk. Around the ziggurat is a sea of thousands of coins. Thousands of thousands. The Great Horde of Dragotha the Dracolich. And lying on the top of the ziggurat, next to and partially curled around the obelisk, is Dragotha himself.
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Mar 30, 2021 04:37
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Agrikk posted:And lying on the top of the ziggurat, next to and partially curled around the obelisk, is Dragotha himself. 
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Mar 30, 2021 06:45
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CoS continues to almost be boiling over. Maxim (who murdered the former burgomeister of Vallaki without the party’s knowledge after subduing him) continues to accumulate wear on his body and mind. We fought more werewolves today, including their leader, who just utterly wrecked Maxim, including biting off part of one of his horns. Once the leader eventually died, the party started cleaning up the remaining lesser werewolves, and the final one surrendered, saying he was just following orders, that he didn’t ask to be turned, and so on. The man is definitely being sincere. Maxim, still processing the guilt from having secretly killed a man (even if he is an unrepentant rear end in a top hat), angry at the redemption paladin, Lum, for being so determined to show mercy indiscriminately, and in actual pain from, you know, losing a horn, approaches the man with a mean look: “Your boss took something of mine, so now I’ll take something of yours” and makes to chop off one of his fingers. He’s stopped at the last moment by Lum, and storms away to talk to the Druid, Silas, who successfully cools him off, but reveals that the werewolf hunting party brought back the corpse of the burgomeister, and that he’s discovered that the burgomeister was killed by magic, but he can’t tell by what spell or who might have done it.
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Mar 31, 2021 22:35
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I almost got into a D&D campaign today. Almost. Then the DM demanded that I prove that I was a real "D&D Player" by proving that the class i wanted to play was well balanced as Fighter. So I told him to gently caress off and left. Then people told me that I'll get into a good game that doesn't attack my pride or self esteem constantly, but that they wouldn't help me find it or that i should just pay a paid DM to run stuff. I told them to gently caress off as well for giving empty platitudes. I just want my Sisyphean nightmare to end and play good games, for the love of god.
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Apr 4, 2021 06:06
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Fivemarks posted:Then the DM demanded that I prove that I was a real "D&D Player"
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Apr 4, 2021 06:40
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Fivemarks posted:I almost got into a D&D campaign today. Almost. Then the DM demanded that I prove that I was a real "D&D Player" by proving that the class i wanted to play was well balanced as Fighter. So I told him to gently caress off and left. Then people told me that I'll get into a good game that doesn't attack my pride or self esteem constantly, but that they wouldn't help me find it or that i should just pay a paid DM to run stuff. I told them to gently caress off as well for giving empty platitudes. Obligated to ask if you were bringing a homebrew class to the table.
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Apr 4, 2021 07:19
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SkyeAuroline posted:Obligated to ask if you were bringing a homebrew class to the table. Sure, but he specifically demanded that I prove that I was a "real player" because "Real Players" don't use homebrew classes. They also, if they want to be useful, play spellcasters and not martial classes according to this DM. The only really strong thing about this class is that they got Firearm proficiency natively, and the GM declared that overpowered. He even said "I'll allow any homebrew class you want", then allowed this other player's full caster who also got fighter's full line of Extra Attacks. What, do I have to prove that I'm a real player here as well? Should I feel bad for not liking base Ranger too? Fivemarks fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 07:24
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Fivemarks posted:Sure, but he specifically demanded that I prove that I was a "real player" because "Real Players" don't use homebrew classes. They also, if they want to be useful, play spellcasters and not martial classes according to this DM. The only really strong thing about this class is that they got Firearm proficiency natively, and the GM declared that overpowered. He even said "I'll allow any homebrew class you want", then allowed this other player's full caster who also got fighter's full line of Extra Attacks. Nope. I hate base Ranger as well. Just clarifying what you were saying so I fully understood. While it loving sucks to deal with that sort of GM, it's better it happens now when it's easier to walk away and the investment isn't as deep yet. That's not a great answer, I know. I don't have any great LFG resources to point to that would help find better options.
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Apr 4, 2021 07:29
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Fivemarks posted:Sure, but he specifically demanded that I prove that I was a "real player" because "Real Players" don't use homebrew classes. They also, if they want to be useful, play spellcasters and not martial classes according to this DM. The only really strong thing about this class is that they got Firearm proficiency natively, and the GM declared that overpowered. He even said "I'll allow any homebrew class you want", then allowed this other player's full caster who also got fighter's full line of Extra Attacks. lol I think you dodged a bullet not being in this group. I know you're hard-up for a game, but sometimes not playing is better than playing in a game potentially this bad. This is neither here nor there, but I don't think the 5E Ranger is as bad as the 3/3.5/Pathfinder Rangers. It's not great, but not as unusably terrible. That said, playing an old school Final Fantasy game recently gave me an idea to cook up a home brew for Ranger from the bottom up. You make their major class ability like Blue Magic: they copy monster abilities right out of the Monster Manual. When you kill a monster, you can pick one ability on its stat block that you can use in the future. You could accumulate an increasingly long list, so maybe this would be limited to a certain number and you would "forget" some as you add new ones to a full list, or maybe it just keeps adding up. I dunno. You'd spend from a pool to actually use the abilities, not unlike Ki Points of Bardic Inspiration, so you'd get these points back at a Short Rest. You could only run one ability at a time, but maybe as you level up you could run more abilities simultaneously. You'd also probably limit the CR to level, or level +1 or +2, just to keep things from getting broken, but that kind of thing might need testing more than the none I've done in this fever dream of an idea. Besides being a Blue Mage, this version of the Ranger would keep the ranged physical weapon specialty of normal Ranger, as that is kind of unique to them amongst the other classes. So like Druid and some other classes, they have two development arcs: ranged attacks, and monster abilities. Your subclasses could focus on one or the other, again like Druid's subclasses focuses on either spells or Wild Shape. I think this Ranger would lose spellcasting altogether because I've always hated how half-assed Ranger spellcasting has been in every single edition of this game. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.
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Apr 4, 2021 11:34
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Railing Kill posted:lol I think you dodged a bullet not being in this group. I know you're hard-up for a game, but sometimes not playing is better than playing in a game potentially this bad.
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Apr 4, 2021 15:27
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Underpowered or not, I'm planning on running a Ranger next time I play in a 5e game, just because after seeing Swarmkeeper I can't shake the image of a Firbolg with a beard made of bees. E. Actually that may be a lie, as I've been invited to jump into a Dungeon of the Mad Mage game if I'm willing to play an up-until-now NPC Cleric of Tymora that the players have been alternating control of via follower rules. I'm not opposed, but I've never taken over for an NPC before so it's a new experience for me. MelvinBison fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 16:06
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Last night I jumped into a random online game that was starting up. It was to be my second foray into playing with strangers, my first online. Came with a bog-standard fighter with an elaborate, if not outright overly detailed gear list (“holy symbol in leather belt pouch on belt over left hip” kind of thing) per DM instructions. Fifteen minutes in the three of us players were told for some vague reason to attack the barracks of the city guard of Generic Town. After our “why the gently caress would we do this?” queries were stonewalled the group says fuckit and goes ahead with the “assault” that quickly results in all of us rendered unconscious. We come to with all of us naked in a room with one of us chained to a Saint Andrew’s Cross and two of us lying on the floor with whips and floggers and crops and whatnot on racks, with the GM listing them all out in exact detail. To help us figure out what was supposed to come, the ceiling had a holy symbol to Loviatar inset. I immediately dropped the game. Ended up reading a book instead. Thank you thread for the oft-repeated mantra that no gaming is better than bad gaming. But in other news, my group of friends have been playing bi-weekly sessions for the last few months and it’s been awesome to chill with friends I’ve known for 35 years, laugh a lot, and bring a Traveller campaign to a close that we started when I was twenty. If there was one good thing about covid, it was that everything moving to zoom gave us the idea of running our game over roll20 in addition to our twice annual get togethers from all over the country. (For my detractors I promise there will be no campaign journal posted for that one.  )Agrikk fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 17:45
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Tasha's made Rangers pretty lit. I'm having a lot of fun with my Horizon Walker sniper.
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Apr 5, 2021 00:21
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I will admit I did not have that much fun when I played a Ranger with a monster scholar theme around it in a 5e campaign, and then I used the improved one from the UA supplements. Nothing wrong with the campaign but I did feel a bit superfluous when my main deal of being the pathfinder for the group got almost handled better with by the druid in the group a lot of the time. Granted, could also been me being very un-imaginative as well. v  vThis was way before Tasha's and I think even the previous class splatbook too.
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Apr 5, 2021 00:28
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Cooked Auto posted:I will admit I did not have that much fun when I played a Ranger with a monster scholar theme around it in a 5e campaign, and then I used the improved one from the UA supplements. Nothing wrong with the campaign but I did feel a bit superfluous when my main deal of being the pathfinder for the group got almost handled better with by the druid in the group a lot of the time. The optional abilities from Tasha's are less about ranging around specific terrain and more about pure traversal, like +5 move speed, getting a climb and swim speed. You can recover exhaustion on short rests and give yourself temp hp because you're a tough wilderness person. You also get a bunch of spells that are always known and you can use once per long rest without burning a slot, like Speak with Plants and other stuff you'd normally never memorize with a Ranger. It creates a very different feel from Druids; Shade for example is always chatting up squirrels and trees and poo poo because she isn't wasting resources to do so, and she's ridiculously mobile whether in a fight or navigating rough terrain. Reclaimer fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 5, 2021 00:49
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Man, that would've been good to have since the campaign was themed around exploring unknown lands so there was a lot of walking, and in some cases climbing too. A bit late now but neat either way.
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Apr 5, 2021 01:18
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Reclaimer posted:Tasha's made Rangers pretty lit. I'm having a lot of fun with my Horizon Walker sniper. Horizon Walkers were Xanathar's. But the Fey Wanderer has some interesting abilities (including being able to be the party face with only a mediocre charisma) and I like the idea of the swarmkeeper.
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Apr 6, 2021 01:04
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neonchameleon posted:Horizon Walkers were Xanathar's. But the Fey Wanderer has some interesting abilities (including being able to be the party face with only a mediocre charisma) and I like the idea of the swarmkeeper. Oh I know, but I'm using the Tasha's features for the ranger chassis.
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Apr 6, 2021 01:10
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Reclaimer posted:Oh I know, but I'm using the Tasha's features for the ranger chassis. Ah, thanks. Hadn't spotted those. And who'd have thought that the way to fix the ranger was pull out almost every one of the core class abilities and replace them with something actually better and more interesting...
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Apr 6, 2021 08:16
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So, we just got into a surprisingly nasty fight in the Traveller campaign that recently got restarted. We've got 3 ships, an 800 tonner, a 1200 tonner, and a 5000 tonner, vs a slew of enemy ships. One 2000, a pair of 600's, and one who's size I don't remember. A few other things: Most of the player characters (all of them except mine actually) are "Vanu", a very aggressive, artifically created species with generally superior technology, but some issues with creativity and a very direct... perhaps not 'simple', but very straightforward mentality. Really they mostly want to be left alone. The exception is my character, an Antourian, which is a quadrapedial species that only relatively recently has made contact with other species when some humans and Makattans (bascially Aslan in the setting, but with different traits) dropped a colony on their planet in an out of the way island. The enemies in this are the Ta'qrute (Ta-crewt), a wild, reckless species that have an almost religious fevor toward piracy. You can think of them as secular jihadists pirates, in a way. (What a great name for a rock band) Our 1200 tonner (that our characters are in command of, the other two are GM controlled) got hit really badly by drones that the last enemy ship launched and burned towards us. We shot down a few of them, but one of them got a 4-stage crit into our manuvering drive with a mass driver. We got it going, and between our ships we killed the drones, but not before two of them rammed us and exploded on the hull, which did us (and our life support system) no favors. The 2000 tonner, after two salvos of 10 particle beams carved up our 800 tonner, bascially forced it to retreat since literally one more salvo would more likely than not kill it outright. It did a short-warp away. (The GM has slightly bent some Traveller rules: normally ships take a week for any jump, but he rules it that jumps within a solar system happen within seconds). We, on the other hand, fired a slew of missiles, and then short-jumped within a few kilometers of the 2000 tonner, and engaged in dogfighting with it. Yes. Two bigass ships in a dogfight, for whatever that counts as. We exchanged fire, ripping it up with plasma and fusion barbettes, and keeping most of it's weaponry from being able to engage us in return. It launched some ramsleds (bascially capsules with boarding parties) and two of them succeeded in latching onto us and carving into us to drop boarding parties inside. We collectively thought "Good luck with that, we have a lot of marines with us", but after we'd effectively disabled the enemy ship by killing a lot of it's power and damaging it's engines, and started pulling away, the GM dropped a bomb on us. Literally. The boarding parties went through and instead of a bunch of dudes, there were a few dudes, and a robot carrying a nuke. The command was clear: surrender or they blow the entire ship up. The session was pretty much over at this point, but I had an Idea. It's a bad idea, but given the options we have are limited, it's the best worst idea. I said we should blow up our own EMP torpedoes inside of our ship; that'll catch the robots and if the robots power down they won't be able to blow the nukes. We're starting the next session at this point. The best part about this idea though? Way, WAAAAAY back, when my character was on a completely different crew's ship (both in game and also mostly out of game, the character was imported from a different group), she encountered this species before, and they used a similar trick when she was part of a boarding party against their ship; they rigged missiles to explode when a tripwire was crossed. The same person GMed both campaigns, and the look on his face when I told him that I thought of this after remembering that trap he pulled was amazing.
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Apr 8, 2021 02:21
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neonchameleon posted:Horizon Walkers were Xanathar's. But the Fey Wanderer has some interesting abilities (including being able to be the party face with only a mediocre charisma) and I like the idea of the swarmkeeper. Swarmkeeper was a lot of fun when I tried it out. I only got the PC to fifth level but Hunter's Mark + Gathered Swarm is a nice chunk of damage and fun party-wise depending on what swarm you choose. Also, being able to move 5 extra feet is a fun bonus but being able to move an enemy 15 feet, say over a pit or a campfire, has its' advantages. I would have no problems continuing to play the subclass. Also - according to my DM, there's a big difference between having Unicorn as your Warlock's patron and Unicron as your Warlock's patron. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 11:46
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Tabernacle of Chaos (part II) The mighty skeleton of a red dragon rises up, exposing a sickly green glow within. Dragotha’s skeletal visage regards us, greeting us with a deafening roar that echoes around the chamber as we approach, coins crunching and sliding underfoot. “Well, well, well,” rumbles Dragotha as he sweeps his glowing gaze across the group of us. “Lashonna’s lapdogs finally arrive to meet the hour of their demise. Isn’t it ironic that you have been sent here by the very evil you seek to stop?” Severance can’t resist being Severance. “Wha’ d’ye mean?” “I know that you are here on Lashonna’s suggestion. I know that you know she is a vampire. But are you aware of her little band of Deceivers?” Severance again, “Huh?” “Oh ho! So you really aren’t aware that Lashonna and the Exile are one and the same? No?” Dragotha chuckles and the sound is like boulders falling down a hillside. “Lashonna was my lieutenant until she got delusions of grandeur, betraying me and striking out on her own in a pathetic attempt to curry favor with the Daughter of the Night.” He nods towards the obelisk. “It is Lashonna, not I, who seeks to free the Daughter of the Night. Lashonna and her band of Deceivers to have thoroughly infiltrated the city of Thalos and have primed it for the Daughter’s return. While I, the guardian against such efforts, have remained here to fulfil my duty these past centuries.” Ospar murmurs, “When Lashonna fell at the battle of Pesh, she must have been coopted by the agents of the Daughter, working all this time against us even as she pointed us at her enemies. Dammit.” Dragotha continues, “Why seek your death here when your real enemy is at this very moment preparing for the end of the world?” Severance brandishes his blade. “I s’ppose we’ll get t’ ‘er in due time. Bu’ we deal w’ you now.” Dragotha roars again. “So be it.” He sends forth a jet of incandescent fire and we leap behind the apocalypse golems that we’d positioned for just such a contingency. The front of each golem are glowing red hot as Zulshyn sends them marching forward, like mobile bunkers for us to use as cover. When we get close enough we scatter in attempt to surround the beast. We spellcasters pummel it with spells long enough to allow Ospar and Snakeeyes the opportunity to close in. As we engage with Dragotha, he uncoils himself from around the obelisk to better maneuver himself, and as the fight progresses he moves off the top of the ziggurat, parts of him on fire and parts dripping ice. Severance and Zulshyn and I are hiding behind the golems and launching spells at Dragotha, which he must evade or counter, giving Laenaya, Ospar and Snakeeyes cover to move in and physically attack. Despite his size Dragotha is quick on his feet, deftly lashing out with his claws and tail which slams down like a thunderbolt at our skirmishers even as he breathes fire and spells at our protective golems. I am running up the Ziggurat to get a better shot when a shimmering portal slices the air and opens wide. I stop short in surprise as three black-garbed figures leap through followed by a fourth figure dressed all in crimson. Lashonna looks around, spots me and laughs, then spins around to send a quick charm at the obelisk. It lurches and tips over with a thunderous boom and, as if rehearsed, all four Deceivers levitate the block and whisk it back through the gate, where it collapses shut behind them. Dragotha sees the gate through a haze of fiery death and bellows a cry of disbelief. Although momentarily distracted by Lashonna’s brazen theft I whirl to face the dracolich and see a roiling flame building in his jaws. There is a gout of flame and I dive out of the way even though I know it is too late. I am engulfed in searing pain and then there is only nothingness.
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Apr 9, 2021 00:45
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So do you rename yourself to Banjo after getting played like that?
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Apr 9, 2021 00:55
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So remember when my Dungeon of the Mad Mage group came 6 HP split between 2 characters of a TPK? We murdered a Drow priestess and her flock, and barricaded ourselves in her temple. We scrambled to heal and revive our party members, not knowing how many were left outside. Well, after we get our feet back under us, we do a bit of thinking on the intel we had going into the attack. We have reliable information that tells us about how many of each Drow, Quaggoth, and Phase Spider were deployed to defend the temple from our attack. We subtract the many, many that we just killed and decide to fight our way back out. This plan was in lieu of sneaking out, or negotiating our way out. As it turns out, their defense was extremely front-loaded. All that is left was about eight Drow and a couple giant spiders. Fully half of the remaining Drow were the priestess' gently caress bois and they are... apparently more lovers than fighters. Suffice it to say, we're all set now. This finished off level three of Undermountain for us, so we head back to Skullport to regroup (and level up!). My character has a personal sidequest waiting for us there. Her reason for going into the dungeon originally was to find her BFF, who went missing in the dungeon just under a year ago. So we decide to take that up, having just received some solid intel from the Harpers in Skullport about the BFF's whereabouts: she was last seen going into a Xanathar Guild (a crime syndicate run by a Beholder) holding, an inn run by a Guild lackey. My character is very anxious about this, as the intel said that lots of people go into the building, but usually only Xanathar Guild people come out. We have also encountered XG operatives who were ridden by Intellect Devourers, so we are prepared for the worst if and when we find her. My character cuts a deal with our warlock: he will use his magic to probe her mind if we find her, to assure she is not lost to an Intellect Devourer. In exchange, he wants a cursed item that I am carrying around whose use will kill him. His Lovecraftian patron has told him that he needs the item, and will not take no for an answer. My character has told him straight-up that "this will kill you, Felix," but his patron speaks to his mind saying, "she doesn't understand it, Felix. You need it. You need it." I agree to his terms without a real plan to dispose of the item, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. My character is a pushover physically, but is ready to storm into the XG building like the end of Taxi Driver. Just with less .357 rounds and more mind-crushing magic. But she is wisely dissuaded of this in favor of a more cautious approach. We send our Shadar-Kai monk in as a scout, figuring if things go sideways, she can teleport out, or sneak out. She gets us the layout of the building, and the names and faces of the gatekeepers on the first floor. We use our warlock's memory and my bard's disguise kit to draw some convincing Xanathar Guild tats on ourselves. Our cover story relies on good lies being close to truth: we will be reporting as XG deep cover spies, there to report that the Drow on level 3 just fell to some adventurers. Knowing exactly who to go to, and where to go, we waltz in like we belong there, flash a couple tats, and are whisked into the secret wine cellar. A trap door there eventually leads to a hallway outside of a pit-fighting arena. Elsewhere in the complex is The Xanathar himself, apparently, as he was delivering a speech to his followers and magically broadcasting it all over the complex. (The DM affected an excellent imitation of Donald Trump's voice for the grasping, self-absorbed, paranoid Xanathar, which I thought was  .) Besides that, we start to hear the an announcer closer to us, in the arena just off our hallway. We sneak in and were milling around unobtrusively behind the spectators when the announcer begins to introduce the night's fighters: a minotaur, and my character's BFF.At hearing her name, by bard casts invisibility. The crowd didn't notice this, but my comrades do. They creep up to get ready to rush the arena. Tana, our monk, teleports next to the minotaur and tries (but fails) to stun him. The BFF is also confused by this, but then she hears a particular bird's whistle from the stands: it is the signal whistle of the group fo orphans we grew up with together in Waterdeep. She hears the whistle, and then my character lets loose with a fireball from her wand, straight into the dense crowd of Xanathar Guild gangsters in the stands between her and the arena. There are 13 enemies in the 8x8 target area. All of them died. Looks like I did do a Taxi Driver after all! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The rest of the combat is a matter of keeping the way clear for the BFF to escape toward us, fending off the guy running the arena (who is more of a boss than the minotaur), and keeping the BFF safe. She gets grappled at one point, which gives the baddies enough time to deploy another huge monster from the arena's lower gates. My bard is absolutely not having that poo poo. I aim my shiny new Next up: the joyous reunion and/or tragic realization of whether or not the BFF still possesses her own mind, and I have to decide whether or not to hand over an item which will almost certainly kill a fellow PC due to his shockingly low Wisdom score. 
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Apr 9, 2021 02:05
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Xanathar having a DJT voice is perfect
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Apr 9, 2021 05:26
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