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you can play a high intelligence wizard who reverse engineers spells into their unique somatic/material technique of yo yo tricks, explaining to every other wizard how hard it is to translate arcane textbooks into yo-yo and then flexing on them with stuff that seems to defy the laws of gravity and physics as we know it
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Nov 9, 2022 18:52
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pog boyfriend posted:you can play a high intelligence wizard who reverse engineers spells into their unique somatic/material technique of yo yo tricks, explaining to every other wizard how hard it is to translate arcane textbooks into yo-yo and then flexing on them with stuff that seems to defy the laws of gravity and physics as we know it Totally, I love the idea of a yo-yo "Spellbook." That sounds like a lot of fun and since you can find yo-yo's going back to like 1000 BC China, you can easily justify it existing in most DND worlds.
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Nov 9, 2022 18:56
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Divorcing the mechanics from the flavor is fine for DnD 5e I guess, being the generic system for all people. But I think it's better game design to have a lot of flavor and roleplay potential baked into the classes.
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Nov 9, 2022 18:57
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pog boyfriend posted:you can play a high intelligence wizard who reverse engineers spells into their unique somatic/material technique of yo yo tricks, explaining to every other wizard how hard it is to translate arcane textbooks into yo-yo and then flexing on them with stuff that seems to defy the laws of gravity and physics as we know it I'd just like to let you know that the mental image of somebody doing a sick yoyo trick while a bunch of mighty wizards stare slack-jawed and mutter "Impossible!" and "How do they do it???" made me giggle like an idiot
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Nov 9, 2022 19:00
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megane posted:I'd just like to let you know that the mental image of somebody doing a sick yoyo trick while a bunch of mighty wizards stare slack-jawed and mutter "Impossible!" and "How do they do it???" made me giggle like an idiot When you think about it, a yo-yo trick is just an especially flashy form of tracing a sigil,
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Nov 9, 2022 19:25
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Sit on my Jace posted:When you think about it, a yo-yo trick is just an especially flashy form of tracing a sigil, We're getting dangerously close to Summon Skate territory here, and I for one am all for it
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Nov 9, 2022 19:34
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Rutibex posted:Make Paladins a fighter subclass, make the subclass powers better than typical, but force them to follow their oath. This is an awful idea, unless the oath relates purely to power deployment in the face of game-mechanical challenges and resets each encounter. For instance, the stuffy, orderly, and honorable oath gives you very strong bonuses that shut off for the next hour if you ever move diagonally, attack with combat advantage derived from a debuff on the enemy rather than a buff on you, or allow yourself to become hidden or invisible without immediately announcing your location and heading to everyone present.
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Nov 9, 2022 19:35
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Zurreco posted:Once again, Artificers get forgotten. Bards should go back to being INT casters.  As for wizard RP, I think the only things it really requires are that your dude is at least smart about their magic stuff and has some sort of "spell book", be that an actual tome of arcane scribbles, a repertoire of sick yo-yo skills, or like all these little rats that live in your pockets and whisper their magic secrets to you.
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Nov 9, 2022 20:15
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This is part of why I think tying 3 ability scores to your capacity to RP and 3 to your capacity to lift is a bit of a bad idea in the first place. But by that point we're neck deep in barbecueing sacred cows.
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Nov 10, 2022 05:58
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Asterite34 posted:We're getting dangerously close to Summon Skate territory here, and I for one am all for it Heelies as a cantrip, more wheels for upcasting
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Nov 10, 2022 09:42
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https://twitter.com/boymonster/status/1590306041665064960 Cam Banks, one of the more prolific writers for the 3rd Edition line of Dragonlance products, expressed interest in making 5e updates of the setting as a personal project. I've reviewed a lot of that line's work here on FATAL & Friends around 3 years ago, and for official sourcebooks they rate quite highly. Furthermore, Dragonlance will be an approved setting to make content for on the DM's Guild December 6th, the same release date as Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Between Banks and Whiteman who also expressed interest in helping work to update the setting, I'm heartened to see its most passionate fans and writers eager to carry the setting forward for 5th Edition. I'm also interested in seeing what smaller indie creators make, too.
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Nov 10, 2022 10:47
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The Bee posted:This is part of why I think tying 3 ability scores to your capacity to RP and 3 to your capacity to lift is a bit of a bad idea in the first place. But by that point we're neck deep in barbecueing sacred cows. replace str/dex/con with upper body, lower body, and cardio
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Nov 10, 2022 14:26
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The Bee posted:This is part of why I think tying 3 ability scores to your capacity to RP and 3 to your capacity to lift is a bit of a bad idea in the first place. But by that point we're neck deep in barbecueing sacred cows. Except all six can tie into RP. Raistlin is the prototypical “how low Con influences RP” example. I know several clumsy people IRL whose personalities are identifiably affected by that trait. And RAW, there’s no requirement that your RP be connected to your ability scores. INT 10 can mean average intelligence, or brilliancy in a few specific areas counterbalanced by a lack of general intelligence. Real-life example: I’d wager most of us have had at least one math teacher who was really good at math but very bad at translating from math into another language (English, say) and actually helping other people learn. Is that an example of high Int, low Cha? Or is it an indicator of average Int but highly specific knowledge of mathematics? Why not one in some cases, and the other in some cases?
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Nov 10, 2022 16:21
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The Japanese RPG Sword World, a kinda-sorta D&D-clone which split from the main branch in the '90s and has evolved into its own thing, allows you to choose your race and class to get your base scores in three meta-stats, Skill, Body, and Mind. Then you roll dice and add to those scores to get the SW equivalents of DEX/AGI, STR/CON, and INT/WIS. That way, you always have sane, guaranteed minimums, rather than potentially rolling a STR 18/CON 3 outlier. It's a little roll-y-chart-y, but I like the concept. WotC would never go for it, of course, except maybe as an alternative chargen system in some late-edition supplement. (Plus you'd have players screaming "WHERE'S CHARISMA? HOW DO I KNOW IF I'M HOT?")
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Nov 10, 2022 16:21
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Spelljammer errata was posted: https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/errata/SAiS/SJA-Errata.pdf
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Nov 10, 2022 18:03
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Shes Not Impressed posted:Spelljammer errata was posted: But... why? Most of these are just renaming things for seemingly no reason
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Nov 10, 2022 18:42
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change my name posted:But... why? Most of these are just renaming things for seemingly no reason Guy who writes the errata found out layoffs are coming
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Nov 10, 2022 18:54
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change my name posted:But... why? Most of these are just renaming things for seemingly no reason They lay out their logic here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1375-leveling-up-our-creative-process-learnings-from
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Nov 10, 2022 19:23
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I've run Spelljammer Academy fully twice, and the second group just got started with Light of Xaryxis so, ask me any questions about those. I'm really liking the flash gordon stylings of LoX. SJA could use some extra stuff to pad it out if you really wanted to run it for a while.
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Nov 11, 2022 02:21
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Elendil004 posted:I've run Spelljammer Academy fully twice, and the second group just got started with Light of Xaryxis so, ask me any questions about those. I'm really liking the flash gordon stylings of LoX. I mean....they quite literally padded it out with 2 extra book covers and a slipcase...if it had been one book like Curse of Strahd or Waterdeep Dragon Heist, it would have been the thinnest product they've released so far!
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Nov 11, 2022 15:26
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St0rmD posted:I mean....they quite literally padded it out with 2 extra book covers and a slipcase...if it had been one book like Curse of Strahd or Waterdeep Dragon Heist, it would have been the thinnest product they've released so far! They even used heavier weight paper! And on the content side, they padded the monster book out with a bunch of Dark Sun beasties.
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Nov 11, 2022 15:37
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Narsham posted:Except all six can tie into RP. Raistlin is the prototypical “how low Con influences RP” example. I know several clumsy people IRL whose personalities are identifiably affected by that trait. And RAW, there’s no requirement that your RP be connected to your ability scores. INT 10 can mean average intelligence, or brilliancy in a few specific areas counterbalanced by a lack of general intelligence.
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Nov 11, 2022 19:06
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Drakyn posted:Hilariously, in the OG modules Raistlin's Con score was 10. He suffered the crippling and debilitating wasting disease of being exactly as sturdy as average. He was however level 3 with 8 HP so he was pretty weak in that regard. As well him getting average stats was a change from the original Raistlin's sheet, in the original campaign the Dragonlance adventures and novels were based on, Raistlin's player rolled the mimimum 3 for Con, and so played him as super frail.
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Nov 11, 2022 19:13
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St0rmD posted:I mean....they quite literally padded it out with 2 extra book covers and a slipcase...if it had been one book like Curse of Strahd or Waterdeep Dragon Heist, it would have been the thinnest product they've released so far! Which is just the height of laziness, its a multi million dollar company! You can't pay someone to port over content from the Astromundi Cluster? You can't pay someone to write up some space travel rules?
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Nov 11, 2022 19:27
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If you want your players go down Path A but there's in actuality a Path B, how do you do it? I am thinking just making Path B locked until they get the McGuffin for it. The idea being Path A leads to the first third of the adventure but Path B in theory lets them skip it. The module I am going off of seems to have a Path B that goes to Part 2, and a Path A that goes to Part 1, which then either goes back to Path B or a Path C either of which goes to Part 2. I think I'd prefer it if they are likely to overlook Path B, and then later on when they get more information get a "fridge lightbulb" moment of realization that they in theory could've gone for Path B "had they realized" but in reality it was probably actually not on the table. I don't think I'm clever enough to pull that off though and maybe will just be an obvious and magically locked door instead. Otherwise what could I do, I feel like making one path obviously more dangerous will just make them investigate it more; and having two obvious paths might tempt them to backtrack after finding the exit for 100% completionism. So I feel like it has to be something that mentally they'll just obviously overlook. Like a room that on the map goes nowhere but if they had throught to investigate it find a hidden door?
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Nov 11, 2022 19:55
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Yusin posted:He was however level 3 with 8 HP so he was pretty weak in that regard. As well him getting average stats was a change from the original Raistlin's sheet, in the original campaign the Dragonlance adventures and novels were based on, Raistlin's player rolled the mimimum 3 for Con, and so played him as super frail.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:18
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Raistlin makes sense as someone with a anti feat/flaw "Frail" that gives disadvantage on con saves and checks and deals 1 point of damage on crit fails. Those coughing fits were dibilitating.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:36
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Raenir Salazar posted:If you want your players go down Path A but there's in actuality a Path B, how do you do it? I am thinking just making Path B locked until they get the McGuffin for it. The idea being Path A leads to the first third of the adventure but Path B in theory lets them skip it. Have a worm pop out of the wall and tell them to go down the wrong path.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:07
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Rather than drive then away from Path B, entice them to take Path A. Put something desirable on that path, or at least have an NPC talk it up. If that doesn't work, a difficult obstacle at the start of Path B is a good way to demonstrate that it is an option for a stronger party. Third option is to just not mention Path B just yet. If you give more attention to A and little to none on B, players will notice.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:29
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Raenir Salazar posted:If you want your players go down Path A but there's in actuality a Path B, how do you do it? I am thinking just making Path B locked until they get the McGuffin for it. The idea being Path A leads to the first third of the adventure but Path B in theory lets them skip it. if it looks like they are about to go down path B have an npc that sounds like cuno disco elysium say "look at these brave heroes too CHICKENSHIT to go down path A!!! whats the matter? scared? gonna cry?"
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Nov 11, 2022 21:30
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pog boyfriend posted:if it looks like they are about to go down path B have an npc that sounds like cuno disco elysium say "look at these brave heroes too CHICKENSHIT to go down path A!!! whats the matter? scared? gonna cry?" lmao
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Nov 11, 2022 21:32
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If they go down path B, turn it into path A. It's not like they'd know.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:25
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This reminds me of a module I played one of the first times I played D&D, where we were captured by the town guard and forced to explore some haunted mansion. The first door we picked at random just led us all the way out of town which meant we didn't actually get to do anything fun with that module. It seemed like really outdated and pointless design at the time. I never really ran modules myself when I was a DM but I think it's your call whether to make adjustments to this one as you see fit. In the case where you just want them to do part 1 followed by part 2 then I would just remove that choice, if you're afraid it's too rail-roady to do that then maybe give them other smaller choices that effect how things play out in smaller ways. I would think the "reward" of skipping half the module should at least have to do with some clever sleuthing/challenge solving by the party, but this sounds like it comes down to a coin flip decision which doesn't sound all that interesting, so it seems fine to remove it. Although again my vote would be to just give them one path rather than the false illusion of choice.
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Nov 11, 2022 23:44
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Anarcho-Commissar posted:If they go down path B, turn it into path A. It's not like they'd know. 
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Nov 12, 2022 00:51
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Yeah the explanation is pretty brief, I think the main goal in the adventure design was for replayability so there seems to be a bunch of forks in the road, but I think its more interesting to explore more of the content and there's lots of adventures to play after this one. I'm already planning on adjusting things, so I think what I'll do is have that path there if they can find it but its inaccessible.
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Nov 12, 2022 01:49
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genuine word of advice - never do the 'if the party does the thing you dont want them to do, actually the thing you want them to do is there!' trick. stuff like this sometimes gets called quantum ogres but no matter how it is implemented, you really ought not to be doing this to your players. it is very bad for a number of reasons - undermining your players agency is not only a dick move, but its also bad because it casts doubt on all future decisions and retroactive decisions("when we agreed to stop the villains sidekick first, did we agree to this, or was this just pre planned?" ... or next time they are given a choice they might just go "well whatever we choose the DM will pick the part where we fight the out of control golem so we might as well just go with it"), and also just it deprives the entire game of the unique reason to play TTRPGs which is just unique scenarios being the result of player choice taking the game into unplanned directions.
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Nov 12, 2022 02:21
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pog boyfriend posted:genuine word of advice - never do the 'if the party does the thing you dont want them to do, actually the thing you want them to do is there!' trick. stuff like this sometimes gets called quantum ogres but no matter how it is implemented, you really ought not to be doing this to your players. it is very bad for a number of reasons - undermining your players agency is not only a dick move, but its also bad because it casts doubt on all future decisions and retroactive decisions("when we agreed to stop the villains sidekick first, did we agree to this, or was this just pre planned?" ... or next time they are given a choice they might just go "well whatever we choose the DM will pick the part where we fight the out of control golem so we might as well just go with it"), and also just it deprives the entire game of the unique reason to play TTRPGs which is just unique scenarios being the result of player choice taking the game into unplanned directions. Agreed, I'm much more of a fan of "Xanatos Speed Chess" DM'ing; where instead of your plans hinging on what the players do; what the players do is the plan.
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Nov 12, 2022 03:14
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I just don't have any plans or story in mind. Its easier on me and lets me focus on the important part of DMing, designing deathtrap/puzzles and new magic items
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Nov 12, 2022 03:26
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A lot of it comes down to the fact that if there's a choice, like a fork in the road or whatever, but the choice being made is so vague that you can effectively substitute one outcome for the other, then it wasn't a real informed choice to begin with. Like if the options are 'harder, more rewarding path' and 'easier, less rewarding path' then that is the information that should be conveyed to the players somehow, if it's just 'do you go left or right' without any other context then it's kind of meaningless.
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Nov 12, 2022 04:32
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Doctor Zaius posted:A lot of it comes down to the fact that if there's a choice, like a fork in the road or whatever, but the choice being made is so vague that you can effectively substitute one outcome for the other, then it wasn't a real informed choice to begin with. Like if the options are 'harder, more rewarding path' and 'easier, less rewarding path' then that is the information that should be conveyed to the players somehow, if it's just 'do you go left or right' without any other context then it's kind of meaningless. Yea this, and agree with the above about the quantum ogre thing but this really nails why the typical “quantum ogre” setup is usually bullshit in the first place. If you have two paths that have some kind of actual choice - like going to the big city or to a forest, or doing something difficult versus a safer choice, or going a longer path versus a dangerous shortcut etc etc - then that’s a worthwhile addition to your game. If the choice is 2 generic paths in the forest - or the stupid “three generic groves with unknown contents” in the original quantum ogre example - then they might as well be anything.
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Nov 12, 2022 06:18
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