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Zurreco posted:"ChatGPT, make me a fun and immersive DND5e character." It never misses.
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Jun 10, 2023 03:55
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Our party finds a magic tree today, growing with fruit, offering wisdom in exchange for a sacrifice. I'm like. Oh no. Because my character is basically kinda like Odin from GOW. Curious for ultimate knowledge. I think I have to do it, do the thing. Gotta give up some depth perception for perspective. 
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Jun 12, 2023 05:02
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Raenir Salazar posted:Our party finds a magic tree today, growing with fruit, offering wisdom in exchange for a sacrifice. Time to sacrifice yourself to to yourself.
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Jun 12, 2023 10:40
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Hoping to in person DND game for the first time in over a decade. I only have experience with 3.5/4e but from what I understand there’s not much to worry about as far as rules are concerned. I’m hoping to integrate the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak material and was wondering about if anyone has any advice about NPCs or encounters that could make the adventure more interesting. Any twists or wrinkles you cooked up for your game.
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Jun 12, 2023 14:25
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Still prepping for my first DM of Strahd and I was wondering if any DMs have ever done stuff out of game to reinforce the setting they're in? Im having all of my players write their characters names on a slip of paper and giving it to me without telling them why. If they die, I'll lead them in a prayer to the Morninglord at the end of the session for a quiet death, then have them burn their character's name in a candle I spoke with one of my players who's going to create a dummy character in my Session 0 that's going to get murdered (PCs will be taking a carriage to Barovia, carriage gets ambushed, and something big will burst out of the woods and drag that specific PC away and get killed offstage) so I figure wrapping up the very first session with something like that would really put the mood in. Also, currently reading Dracula on top of the Strahd book, but any other materials people recommend for me to read to help set the tone would be great!
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Jun 12, 2023 15:06
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Business Gorillas posted:Also, currently reading Dracula on top of the Strahd book, but any other materials people recommend for me to read to help set the tone would be great! I'm always in the belief that less is more. Think about the monsters in a literary sense and think about how you can build encounters and situations around that. Like paranoia and bloodshed of werewolf times in a small town. Also play Castlevainia for the nes because it's basically the same vibes. Oh and also look at the game dread for some fun change ups it slots in nicely for the Strahd setting
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Jun 12, 2023 15:39
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Business Gorillas posted:Still prepping for my first DM of Strahd and I was wondering if any DMs have ever done stuff out of game to reinforce the setting they're in? It isn’t exactly the same canon but https://www.amazon.com/Strahd-Memoirs-Vampire-Ravenloft-Covenant-ebook/dp/B00BABT0W2
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Jun 12, 2023 16:06
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Business Gorillas posted:Still prepping for my first DM of Strahd and I was wondering if any DMs have ever done stuff out of game to reinforce the setting they're in? You could look into classic Romanian folklore that inspired Dracula or look at the traditions and customs for people around Wallachia. I don't think Dracula is actually based on Vlad the Impaler, but Stoker used a lot of folklore. Like Ominous Jazz said above, I would really look into Dread, it's a good one-off game but works really well with the suspense of Straud. It's just pulling from a Jenga tower while telling a story, but it's suprisingly fun and suspenseful.
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Jun 12, 2023 16:44
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Strahd is a good setting because you get to fight draculas wolfmens and mud men
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Jun 12, 2023 17:10
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More noob questions I've run into: When do characters gain feats? The only thing I can find RAW is that you can opt to take it instead of ability increases when those happen, and certain races start with extra. However, my players say they get to start with one no matter what. Is this true, and where is it written? Also, I've let one of the kids play a Grung Fighter, but we've agreed to nerf it on the poison side. What would be a fair effect of a PC grungs skin poison? I've considered stunning one opponent once per long rest, but I don't know if it scales or measures up to other races fairly, as I haven't done a lot of homebrew.
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Jun 12, 2023 17:58
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A feat at first level was a somewhat common house rule, and/or backgrounds include a feat at level 1 in playtest packets from One D&D/D&D 2024/Definitely Not D&D 5.5 (which only applies to the feats newly categorized as level 1 feats).
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Jun 12, 2023 18:08
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Tias posted:More noob questions I've run into: Not that I can find in the PHB, and in fact RAW, feats are an optional rule placed with multiclassing. I want to say the free feat on char gen was a 4E thing, so your players may be used to house rules allowing it.
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Jun 12, 2023 18:08
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In Adventurer's League there is a free feat now. Maybe they read that? But that isn't just any feat, you pick from Tough, Skilled, or Magic initiate https://yawningportal.dnd.wizards.com/blog/new-rules-updates-and-additional-campaign-options/ quote:Player's Guide Update In another document it specifies the settings of forgotten realms, eberron and ravenloft can also take Magic Initiate. I can see someone reading an official memo like that and thinking that "player's guide update" refers to the players guide in general, not just AL play.
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Jun 12, 2023 18:14
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In 5e as it stands now, the only way to get a feat is to take one instead of taking the Ability Score Improvement (ASI), which occurs at different points determined by class, or to do Custom Lineage or another race choice during character creation that gives a feat. As Caphi said, it is common to see DMs implement a house rule that everyone gets a feat at level one because a lot of cool builds require one feat or another before fully coming online. Before Tasha's implemented Custom Lineage, it was super common for people to choose the variant human simply because they gave a feat and would thus bring those builds online way faster. This would lead to a lot of more minmax players feeling like they "couldn't" take the suboptimal racial pick so DMs compensated with the free feat house rule to "allow" them to play something more interesting than a human.
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Jun 12, 2023 18:15
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So in 5e D&D players don't get feats at all. Unless the DM allows them to trade out Ability increases from level ups. Feats are an Optional rule. There is the Variant Human which starts with a feat. The Variant Human is also an Optional rule. Later on there was the Custom Lineage where you built your Ancestry based off specific rules instead of using one of the specific ancestry options, this also allowed a feat at 1st level. Custom Lineage is also an Optional rule. That said most DMs seem to allow feats and Variant Humans. Some even allow everyone to take a free feat at 1st level, some banning Variant Human if they give everyone a free feat and some not. Some may come up with other houserules like making the feats/ASI character level dependent instead of class, though that runs into issues with Fighter and Rogue, or letting someone take a feat and an ASI at the same time. But those are getting into houserules.
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Jun 12, 2023 18:16
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Business Gorillas posted:Still prepping for my first DM of Strahd and I was wondering if any DMs have ever done stuff out of game to reinforce the setting they're in? I really like the Carrion Crown module series from Pathfinder, which has many similar themes to Strahd that you can pull from for your game. There's great atmosphere tracks on YouTube you can play in the background. Stolen from Paranoia: Pass notes to players during the game. Most of the time they should be info they would specifically know, such as from background or skill checks ("You recognize that name from gossip you heard at the tavern.") or general ambience ("You feel tingles on your neck, like you are being watched."). Sometimes they shuld be general creepy stuff, like a goth fortune cookie ("The InkRaven opens one of its six mouths and sings of children crying. Are you the raven, or the children?"). Sometimes they should be weird instructions such as, "When you finish reading this, laugh for 5 seconds then resume as if nothing happened."
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Jun 12, 2023 18:17
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Plus feats are fun and most campaigns don't last long so if you're gonna play a feat character you might as well start it early.
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Jun 12, 2023 18:19
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Allright, thanks guys! Any ideas on the Grung PC brew? Tias fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jun 12, 2023 |
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Jun 12, 2023 18:23
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5e making feats an "either or" thing with ability score increases was a bad call
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Jun 12, 2023 18:24
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Some of the 5e Campaign Settings already give a level 1 Feat. The idea is not completely new even from WotC published material.
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Jun 12, 2023 18:59
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Level 1 feat is a very good idea because it fleshes out your early game PC and gives you more poo poo to do. Players should appreciate when it is offered but expecting it outright is a bit much. Also, I am a firm believer that any feat including the word "master" should not be available as a level 1 feat because come on, you're level 1, you aren't a master of anything yet.
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Jun 12, 2023 19:04
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Grung seems pretty powerful and would need some nerfs. I would limit Poisonous Skin to once per short or once per long rest and lower the DC. Standing leap of 25ft and 15ft up seems pretty strong too. And a climbing speed is also pretty strong. Are you going to enforce the water immersion part?
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Jun 12, 2023 19:17
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imagine dungeons posted:Grung seems pretty powerful and would need some nerfs. yeah, I intend to.
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Jun 12, 2023 19:27
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I do level 1 feats for my game too, I feel like it really gives the martials a chance to flesh out a build without opportunity cost from their ASI at level 4. In general it's only a minor power increase and makes everyone feel a bit better about their character choices. A lot of them wind up picking the racial feats that they otherwise ignore. I do tend to ban Lucky as that level 1, though. I just find it kind of disruptive as a feat in general but that's just a personal opinion.
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Jun 12, 2023 19:28
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Ominous Jazz posted:5e making feats an "either or" thing with ability score increases was a bad call 100% this. My house rule is that you get an ASI of +1 on every even level (or sooner if your class allows) and a feat every 4th level, plus one to start with. Is it powerful? Sure, but I can adjust the encounters and realistically my highest level campaign was 12 so it’s done before players could REALLY break things over their knee anyway. They’re heroes and I want them to do cool poo poo.
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Jun 12, 2023 19:37
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Yeah, the strong number go up choice really shouldn't be in conflict with the more fun "now you can do interesting stuff" option. If you're going to have your vertical character progression be that strong than it shouldn't be a choice between that and your horizontal progression.
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Jun 12, 2023 21:18
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I suppose I should add that in addition to what I stated, the other accompanying house rule is that feats don’t increase stats, they just do their interesting thing.
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Jun 12, 2023 22:03
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Saxophone posted:I suppose I should add that in addition to what I stated, the other accompanying house rule is that feats don’t increase stats, they just do their interesting thing. Do you rebalance the half-feats to be stronger in that situation? I.e the ones that give a +1 plus an effect, like Telepathy or Telekinetic.
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Jun 12, 2023 22:50
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I give a +1 to a stat plus a feat (so you still get +2 total if you take a half-feat). I also give half levels at 6.5 and 10.5 (and would do more at higher levels if I played them) that are just a +1 attribute increase plus a feat without any HP or class features. It lets players still have fun new character toys while slowing progression into higher level spells.
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Jun 12, 2023 22:55
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Zurreco posted:Level 1 feat is a very good idea because it fleshes out your early game PC and gives you more poo poo to do. Players should appreciate when it is offered but expecting it outright is a bit much. Also, I am a firm believer that any feat including the word "master" should not be available as a level 1 feat because come on, you're level 1, you aren't a master of anything yet. Pathfinder 2e feats are level coded, so you can't get something that's Feat 4 until you've hit level 4. But then part of the intention of Pathfinder feats is to take the place of a lot of, but not all, class features (hence there being Class Feats, and hence you getting more feats overall).
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Jun 12, 2023 23:44
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Raenir Salazar posted:Do you rebalance the half-feats to be stronger in that situation? I.e the ones that give a +1 plus an effect, like Telepathy or Telekinetic. Nah, but honestly at that point most of my players are just picking cool things instead of trying to get the most out of a feat or something. I DM for very chill players.
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Jun 13, 2023 00:02
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Saxophone posted:I DM for very chill players. inshallah we all will
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Jun 13, 2023 00:05
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Also feats is still a terrible name for them. Truly the curse of 3e lives with us to this day.
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Jun 13, 2023 00:19
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what would you call feats and why is it talents
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Jun 13, 2023 00:23
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Ominous Jazz posted:what would you call feats and why is it talents I prefer Flexes. Being able to do double poison damage? That's a flex. Charge and deal extra damage? Flex. Interrupt a spallcaster within 5 feet of you? FLEX IT.
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Jun 13, 2023 00:25
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Ominous Jazz posted:what would you call feats and why is it talents Oddly enough, 13th Age has both Talents and Feats.
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Jun 13, 2023 00:46
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Perks 
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Jun 13, 2023 05:11
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Raenir Salazar posted:Our party finds a magic tree today, growing with fruit, offering wisdom in exchange for a sacrifice. You tear out your eye (4d6 damage roll please) and offer it to the tree. It snickers at you "here's some wisdom for ya, don't mutilate yourself for a random talking tree". The spirit inhabiting the tree fades and you hear malevolent laughter echo around you. (Wisdom increases +1, as your character has indeed learnt an valuable lesson. Ranged attacks are now made at disadvantage).
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Jun 13, 2023 06:10
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Where can I get 5e Character sheets with both all the skill proficiency AND equipment space I need? Those in the PHB suck.imagine dungeons posted:Grung seems pretty powerful and would need some nerfs. How's this: PS is once per long rest, lower DC and gives the stunned condition? I don't know if it makes sense to alter the leaps, though the player already sprung it on me one by hippity hopping over a wide river. Tias fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jun 13, 2023 06:49
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Apocron posted:Hoping to in person DND game for the first time in over a decade. I only have experience with 3.5/4e but from what I understand there’s not much to worry about as far as rules are concerned. I’m hoping to integrate the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak material and was wondering about if anyone has any advice about NPCs or encounters that could make the adventure more interesting. Any twists or wrinkles you cooked up for your game. hi i'm running lmop now and can give a bunch of interesting twist and wrinkle that i put on my game. i considered running icespire peak after as well so i"ve thought about that. Unfortunately i'm in quebec this week on a company trip and they keep me plaster every day after work. i've set an alarm for myself when i get back to respond to.tbis in earnest. 
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