KingKalamari posted:

Man, the more and more details that get revealed about The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, the more and more it sounds like something out of Changeling: The Dreaming. There's obviously a market for something like that among the consumer-base, but it definitely does not sound like my jam...

Also to the topic of mounts: Mounted combat is a very cool concept from a narrative perspective, but rarely ends up working out in D&D from a mechanical perspective due to the system's focus on highly specialized characters. This usually means a character geared for mounted combat is going to end up sacrificing some amount of mechanical utility when off their mounts to make the build work mechanically, which puts the DM in the tricky situation where they have a character heavily geared towards a type of combat that doesn't often come up at the table unless the DM heavily gears the campaign around it and if they gear the campaign around mounted combat you're going to end up with a situation where all the other players who didn't build their characters around mounted combat are going to be at a regular disadvantage. My own personal advice is that if you want to build a mounted combatant in D&D you should be going into character creation with the underlying assumption that there are going to be regular points in the adventure that the mount is going to be unavailable to use and build out the mechanics of the character so they are still viable while unmounted.

quote:

These mechanics are replicated in the world of the Witchlight Carnival itself, utilizing an included poster map of the carnival to not just track the time a party spends there, but also the vibe of its revelers. “Every single time it gets unfurled, it can have different configurations—but essentially, [the poster] is kind of a standard configuration. [It’s] done in a style of a lot of amusement park maps that you get that you’ve probably seen, and it shows all the key attractions,” Perkins explained. “It’s got two features that make this poster map interactive—one is a time tracker in the top left-hand corner and the other is a mood tracker in the bottom right-hand corner. These are devices that the DM uses to keep track of how much time has actually passed during an evening at the carnival and how the characters can, by their actions, affect the mood of the carnival, which can have benefits or drawbacks.”

theironjef posted:

This is gonna sound like a shitpost, but it isn't. Why not just say your character is eternally mounted on a special mount that can do whatever? Once you cross a threshold where your mount is climbing ladders and going in the dungeon and present at the royal court when the assassination happens, there's not much mechanical difference between being mounted and not being mounted anyway, and there's nothing stopping you from skinning a character as perpetually sitting astride a hyperintelligent pig that that can climb ladders and ride a horse itself. You could just get the land speed bonus by saying that your mount counts as a regular mount during the rare portions of a D&D game where overland travel or mounted combat actually come into play.

Toshimo posted:

This is how you get asked to leave the table.

Bell_ posted:

Thank you! I wasn't in a position to pick it up for a while, and I've been looking forward to it. I'll probably post questions and ideas itt

Enjoy posted:

Is this too emo? I can't use Oathbreak or Oath of Conquest because they aren't in the SRD!

It's meant to be like a Chick Tract where it's an atheist who believes God exists but really hates Him and does sins to spite God

Ravenfood posted:

I mean, even off your horse a horse archer is still going to be an archer. A custom ranger subclass seems like it would work best so you're still a good archer if you get dismounted for whatever reason but you also don't get superpowers just by being on a mount either.

quote:

Characteristically, each man carried a short bow for use from the saddle and a long bow for use on foot. The former, firing light arrows, was for skirmishing and long-range harassing fire; the latter had the advantage in killing power at medium ranges. The saddle bow was probably capable of sending a light arrow more than 500 yards; the heart of the long bow’s engagement envelope would have been about 100–350 yards, close to that of the contemporary English longbow. Each warrior carried several extra quivers of arrows on campaign. He also carried a sabre or scimitar, a lasso, and perhaps a lance. Personal armour included a helmet and breastplate of iron or lacquered leather, though some troops wore shirts of scale or mail.

Quarterroys posted:

What are some good podcasts for newer DMs? Or for DMs running homebrew content?

I have loved Matt Colville’s Running the Game YT series, so looking for more in that vein - it’s a great mix of high level advice on specific components of running DND (NPCs, villains, politics, etc), and the campaign diaries outlining some cool examples of how the planning works out in real sessions.

My group seems to prefer to continue with the homebrew setting i spun up around the Delian Tomb adventure vs jumping into something pre-built, so figuring this all out on the fly!

Narsham posted:

Quarterroys posted:

What are some good podcasts for newer DMs? Or for DMs running homebrew content?

I have loved Matt Colville’s Running the Game YT series, so looking for more in that vein - it’s a great mix of high level advice on specific components of running DND (NPCs, villains, politics, etc), and the campaign diaries outlining some cool examples of how the planning works out in real sessions.

My group seems to prefer to continue with the homebrew setting i spun up around the Delian Tomb adventure vs jumping into something pre-built, so figuring this all out on the fly!

Luigi's Discount Porn Bin posted:

I've picked up a few good ideas from Dael Kingsmill's youtube channel. Not Colville quality levels but she knows her poo poo pretty well. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMZ04s0SU1glq6SrAVQCbHwFeFXGko_v0

Facebook Aunt posted:

A mongol horse archer might have been a "better" archer on foot on foot than on horseback. While on horseback they use a shortbow and light arrows. They'd also carry a longbow and get off the pony to use it.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/military-technology/The-horse-archer

I'm not sure 5e has flight arrows, so they would be using the normal arrows at the 80/320 range limits of a shortbow. IRL 50 guys shooting light arrows for harassment is a great tactic. It doesn't matter if most the shots miss because even a few 2 point hits will damage and demoralize in real life. Mongol horse archers were very skilled, but what made them super dangerous was that there was a hell of a lot of them.

In D&D one guy with a shortbow firing wildly is barely a nuisance against armored targets. They can just ignore him while they kill his friends, then pull out a couple longbows or heavy crossbows to outrange him while he rides around. If he gets off his mount to pull out his own longbow then he's just a normal archer in a sniper battle.

I'm not sure it would even take a special subclass. Maybe require 2 skill point specialization in Animal Handling to be able to control a mount in combat without disadvantage while both hands are busy with a simple ranged weapon. Mongols were good archers, but they were exceptional horsemen.

Trivia posted:

You'd probably like the Animated Spellbook by Zee Bashew on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/zeebashew/videos

It's not super in depth but it is short and fun. You could probably get a few good ideas out of it though.

Rutibex posted:

I love animated spellbook, especially the Clone and Animate Dead episodes

100YrsofAttitude posted:

Fascinating. It's funny how by virtue of how the combat is structured certain successful real-life tactics wouldn't translate well.

Azathoth posted:

Also, one of the biggest advantages of mounted combat, particularly with horse archers, is that at no point do you need to actually fight enemy infantry unless it is extremely advantageous to do so.

change my name posted:

This has been all about shooting a bow while mounted; are there any mounted caster builds? I guess you could take Find Greater Steed as a bard and have a winged unicorn or something, but I'm guessing magic negates the need to ride anything?

Enjoy posted:

Oh yeah another influence was Scientologists who quit the org but keep saying "the tech is good"

Trivia posted:

Those two are excellent but I loved the storytelling from Cold Road.

quote:

Introduces two races—play as a fairy or as a harengon, a race of humanoid rabbits.
All encounters in the adventure include a non-combat option, allowing players to think and roleplay their way through the adventure if they wish.
Classic 1980s Dungeons & Dragons characters return, including Warduke, Strongheart, and Kelek.

Yusin posted:

Huh these are a few fun little details about Witchlight the upcoming adventure.

change my name posted:

I missed it the first time, but that means owlfolk got nixed. Probably because they were too powerful

Arivia posted:

Owlfolk are a Strixhaven thing I think.

quote:

All encounters in the adventure include a non-combat option, allowing players to think and roleplay their way through the adventure if they wish.

quote:

The upcoming sourcebook will also contain several new player options, such as new magic spells, feats, and magic items designed to make players feel like they're integrated with whichever magical college within Strixhaven their character is attending. If players run through the Strixhaven campaign found in the book, their character is automatically given a free feat that can be spent on a Strixhaven-related feat. The new book also contains a new playable race - the owlin, which resembles and anthropomorphic owl. However, the book will not contain five playtested "class-agnostic" subclasses tied to each of the colleges due to negative feedback.

quote:

The book also contains rules for building up relationships with other students, which affects the narrative, but also has mechanical impacts on the game. There are personality profiles for 18 NPCs spread across the five colleges, and players can interact with them during relationship encounters such as an improv festival, house party, or Pitch Perfect-style singing competition. The decisions players make during these encounters could earn them new allies, or rivals who will try to interfere with their plans.

BrianWilly posted:

Get your 90s anime dating sim needs right here babey

Libertad! posted:

Matt Coville's Kingdoms & Warfare book just dropped to backers and buyers today.

theironjef posted:

Based on twitter alone I'd say negative feedback is probably not a good reason for WOTC to not do anything, since the whole book seems to be absolutely hated.