Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
I mean, I generally bring 20 bucks or so of snacks to each session anyway.

In theory I wouldn't mind paying a share of production costs but yeah I'd probably want to take "my" minis home. For my prior tabletop group I gifted them all heroforge minis at Christmas.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
At the end of every campaign our group pays this amazing artist to make a group ensemble art piece printed on canvas and then we provide the DM with minis of all the PCs. It's good times.

Dexo
Aug 15, 2009

A city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.
Yeah I honestly don't have much problem with GM's asking to either get paid or have the players help carry some of the burden of materials needed if you are going to do some stupidly elaborate mini and map game experience.

It's a service that requires skill and preparation time just like any other service or job that one would pay for.

So long as it's not like sprung on someone last minute and they know this going in, and what you are spending the money on.


I don't ever ask for my players to pay for books or anything. But I've played in some paid GM games(like 10-15 bucks a session) when I've desired to actually be a player in a game, and not GM which all were pretty solid experiences.

avoraciopoctules
Oct 22, 2012

What is this kid's DEAL?!

Staltran posted:

Heightened spell isn't mutually exclusive with silvery barbs. And portent seems to synergize quite nicely with silvery barbs—instead of just using portent on an important save, let them roll and if they succeed, then you use silvery barbs and the diviner uses portent on the reroll.

Also, just because silvery barbs wouldn't work great with your spells doesn't mean it wouldn't be good for you. Does the diviner not have any spells that silvery barbs would be good with? Are you the only casters in the party? And sometimes silvery barbs could be good with martials too, like grappling or stunning strike.
The diviner does, in fact, have SB prepared. They focus on roll manipulation, pushing enemies around with Telekinetic, and summoning, though they also have various utility and staple battlefield control spells. I don't see a ton of reason to swap my flexible first level spell over to SB when I tend to be the mage who body-blocks enemies going for the other casters if things get dire. Shield is important to my layered defenses. The team also includes a druid and warlock, but they focus on summoning, healing, ranged damage/repositioning.

Staltran posted:

Shield is certainly very good, but other than that protection from evil and good is pretty situational, and a bit dubious to use your concentration on at that level, and alarm is a ritual... wait, sorcerers don't get ritual casting, do they? Are you casting alarm with spell slots...? Well, even if you are I'd much rather use the slot on silvery barbs (or shield).

Plus two sorcery points for another level 1 slot to cast barbs/shield with is always an option. It certainly seems better than heighten spell, which costs three sorcery points and takes one of your very scarce metamagic options.

The spells you have targeting multiple creatures/having multiple opportunities to save aren't that huge a deal either, I think. It's still nice to barbs someone that's breaking out of web. The bigger problem is that they're low level spells (other than banishment) so they're not that high impact. But that seems fairly unusual—are you focusing on twinned buffs or what?
OK, if you're curious I can get into the details, but fair warning that I can't endorse this as generic D&D advice. We spend a lot of time delving in dungeon complexes that have complicated layouts, and there are threats that can throw out lots of charm/frighten/possess attacks. If you have Protection From Evil and Good up, you can just be completely immune to that. Plus, being able to free a possessed person is useful enough that I get value out of scribing scrolls of it. XGE scribing rules make low level spell scrolls a great deal, though I can't justify spending 20 days and 5,000 gold on making a Wall of Force scroll.

If I spend a minute casting Alarm, and my buddy spends a minute casting Tiny Hut, we have created a really formidable defensive bunker the party can retreat to and also an advance warning system in case someone flanks us and blocks the route to safety. A minute is short enough that we can do it while someone else stalls for time in a conversation. The bunker is a sphere, and the ward is a cube, so if someone bumps into the bubble we should generally know. It can also be good for when we are chasing something, the alarm will tell us once the enemy have entered the ground we prepared for battle ahead of time.

Also, I should probably stress that both Alarm and Protection from Good and Evil are Clockwork Magic. I can retrain them, but SB is not an option for retraining those spells known. I believe the options for level 1 Clockwork Magic retraining are
1. Absorb elements
2. Alarm
3. Armor of Agathys
4. Catapult
5. Expeditious retreat
6. Feather fall
7. Jump
8. Longstrider
9. Mage armor
10. Shield
11. Snare

I might consider trading Alarm for AoA or Longstrider, but it isn't an obvious choice when Alarm is really good for maintaining information superiority in a maze of twisty little passages. I doubt I will ever give up immunity to getting mind-whammied when we enter the lair of a fey lord or open a sarcophagus.

For reference, here is my full Clockwork Soul spell selection:
lvl1: [Alarm] (Clock), [Protection from Evil and Good] (Clock) (C), [Shield]
lvl2: [Aid] (Clock), [Lesser Restoration] (Clock), [Phantasmal Force] (C), [Rime's Binding Ice], [Web] (C)
lvl3: [Dispel Magic] (Clock), [Hypnotic Pattern] (C), [Protection from Energy] (Clock) (C), [Sleet Storm] (C),
lvl4: [Banishment] (C), [Polymorph] (C), [Fabricate], [Freedom of Movement] (Clock), [Summon Construct] (Clock) (C)
lvl5: [Animate Objects] (C), [Greater Restoration] (Clock), [Wall of Force] (Clock) (C)

Arione
Aug 19, 2013

by Athanatos

Dexo posted:

Yeah I honestly don't have much problem with GM's asking to either get paid or have the players help carry some of the burden of materials needed if you are going to do some stupidly elaborate mini and map game experience.

It's a service that requires skill and preparation time just like any other service or job that one would pay for.

So long as it's not like sprung on someone last minute and they know this going in, and what you are spending the money on.


I don't ever ask for my players to pay for books or anything. But I've played in some paid GM games(like 10-15 bucks a session) when I've desired to actually be a player in a game, and not GM which all were pretty solid experiences.

Yeah, when I have to replace players its the first thing I bring up to prospects is time and money commitments, each campaign I read the book twice noting all the encounter characters and minis, cross reference my current inventory, and create a buy list on ebay of mini singles (im not buying tons of blind boosters) I screanshot that list and send it to the group chat with the breakdown of costs per mini, the # of minis required per monster type, total cost, and their individual required contribution. At that point they are free to say, "nah fam" and leave the campaign. once the money is collected I press buy it now and it comes within a few days.

Blue Labrador
Feb 17, 2011

So in my current campaign, I'm playing a lvl 3 Inquisitive Rogue/lvl 7 Knowledge Cleric, and he's absolute trash at combat... but he's also the most effective skill monkey I've ever played. Having (effectively) 4 expertises, knowing 5 languages, and being able to read minds is nuts and I'm loving it lol.

What are some other multiclasses people have enjoyed for non-typical reasons?

smarxist
Jul 26, 2018

by Fluffdaddy
I think I know the answer is "yes" but, I and my group don't really feel like wrangling multiple currencies, can we just flatten it to gold pieces?

If so anything to be aware of on my part? I figure if I flood them with gold accidentally, I can just fudge some prices on other poo poo or rare magical items to tax it back, I just don't want something they might need in abundance to be flattened to 1 gp and be annoying

also we're playing with infinite basic ammo, no upkeep on arms/armor (unless something plot related or a consequences damages objects), and infinite components for spells under whatever gold amount (10?)

edit:

also any tips for my first town sesh? (we're doing phandelvin)

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011

smarxist posted:

I think I know the answer is "yes" but, I and my group don't really feel like wrangling multiple currencies, can we just flatten it to gold pieces?

If so anything to be aware of on my part? I figure if I flood them with gold accidentally, I can just fudge some prices on other poo poo or rare magical items to tax it back, I just don't want something they might need in abundance to be flattened to 1 gp and be annoying

also we're playing with infinite basic ammo, no upkeep on arms/armor (unless something plot related or a consequences damages objects), and infinite components for spells under whatever gold amount (10?)

Yes. If something they buy a lot of frequently costs less than a gp let them buy it as a bulk deal - you get two or three of the thing for 1 gp.

El Fideo
Jun 10, 2016

I trusted a rhino and deserve all that came to me


My minis solution is custom tokens. I bought a massive bag of wooden discs from aliexpress, and hole punches the same size as those discs. Print, punch, glue, and I'm good to go. I started it when I picked up my Gamma World set.

Staltran
Jan 3, 2013

Fallen Rib

smarxist posted:

I think I know the answer is "yes" but, I and my group don't really feel like wrangling multiple currencies, can we just flatten it to gold pieces?

If so anything to be aware of on my part? I figure if I flood them with gold accidentally, I can just fudge some prices on other poo poo or rare magical items to tax it back, I just don't want something they might need in abundance to be flattened to 1 gp and be annoying

also we're playing with infinite basic ammo, no upkeep on arms/armor (unless something plot related or a consequences damages objects), and infinite components for spells under whatever gold amount (10?)

edit:

also any tips for my first town sesh? (we're doing phandelvin)

You could always just make up a name for a currency and do a copper standard. So a gold piece would be 100 fantasy dollars.

I'm not sure if there's any consumed spell components below 10 gp anyway.

e: Or you could keep gold and copper and only get rid of silver (and electrum and platinum, but those come up less often anyway, especially electrum). Having a gold piece divided to 100 copper should be familiar to your players, then just express prices below 1 gp as decimals. Of course this might feel too modern.

Staltran fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Sep 1, 2023

History Comes Inside!
Nov 20, 2004




Yeah “infinite spell components except for the expensive poo poo” already exists as a default mechanic with the spellcasting focuses or component pouch for the different classes, you don’t need to book keep that at all.

History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Sep 1, 2023

Verisimilidude
Dec 20, 2006

Strike quick and hurry at him,
not caring to hit or miss.
So that you dishonor him before the judges



Is there a supplement, other official or not, that has good rules for buying magic items? Not just proves, but perhaps additional items as well?

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Verisimilidude posted:

Is there a supplement, other official or not, that has good rules for buying magic items? Not just proves, but perhaps additional items as well?

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything has additional downtime rules for a variety of activities, including buying magic items, as well as extra items, item tables and suggestions for creating your own items. That’s what I’d start with. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has a bunch of items and item tables as well.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

Verisimilidude posted:

Is there a supplement, other official or not, that has good rules for buying magic items? Not just proves, but perhaps additional items as well?

https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicItems/

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

My new tabletop group are all very nice people but . . .they pretty much exclusively do theater of the mind

Don't have to worry about flanking. Don't have to worry about minis. I keep telling you guys. :v:


Cessna posted:

I make good money myself, but that's still a bit off to me. Like I said, I wouldn't be thrilled about buying someone else's toys, especially when there are other options available.

It doesn't sound to me like they consider it buying someone else's toys. It sound to me like they consider it buying the group's toys.


Arione posted:

Yeah, when I have to replace players its the first thing I bring up to prospects is time and money commitments, each campaign I read the book twice noting all the encounter characters and minis, cross reference my current inventory, and create a buy list on ebay of mini singles (im not buying tons of blind boosters) I screanshot that list and send it to the group chat with the breakdown of costs per mini, the # of minis required per monster type, total cost, and their individual required contribution. At that point they are free to say, "nah fam" and leave the campaign. once the money is collected I press buy it now and it comes within a few days.

How do you handle surprise foes when you've sent the players a list of all the minis you'll need?

Cessna
Feb 20, 2013

KHABAHBLOOOM

Arione posted:

Yeah, when I have to replace players its the first thing I bring up to prospects is time and money commitments, each campaign I read the book twice noting all the encounter characters and minis, cross reference my current inventory, and create a buy list on ebay of mini singles (im not buying tons of blind boosters) I screanshot that list and send it to the group chat with the breakdown of costs per mini, the # of minis required per monster type, total cost, and their individual required contribution. At that point they are free to say, "nah fam" and leave the campaign. once the money is collected I press buy it now and it comes within a few days.

As I said, if it works, go with it.

My first thought was to try to find a potential source of conflict that might be making that player act out. The fact that there was money involved got me to look there.

But, again, if that isn't the problem that's fine. Keep going with what works for your group.

poor life choice
Jul 21, 2006

avoraciopoctules posted:

If I spend a minute casting Alarm, and my buddy spends a minute casting Tiny Hut, we have created a really formidable defensive bunker the party can retreat to and also an advance warning system in case someone flanks us and blocks the route to safety. A minute is short enough that we can do it while someone else stalls for time in a conversation. The bunker is a sphere, and the ward is a cube, so if someone bumps into the bubble we should generally know. It can also be good for when we are chasing something, the alarm will tell us once the enemy have entered the ground we prepared for battle ahead of time.

This isn’t the point of this post, but it jumped out at me only because it’s come up for my twilight cleric: Tiny Hut ends when the caster leaves the dome. People other than the caster that were inside the dome can leave and return without issue.

Mederlock
Jun 23, 2012

You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it
Grimey Drawer

smarxist posted:

also any tips for my first town sesh? (we're doing phandelvin)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fhNpsMA7x0


This video by Sly Flourish is a pretty good start. Here's a few things I had in mind when I ran it and adjusted.(spoilers for Phandelver lol)
The town is currently under the oppression of the Redbrands, visualize how that'd look as you describe the vibe of the town as they're first walking in. How that takes shape is up to you, like what I did is think of them like mafia toughs swaggering sound town, bullying people when it suits their fancy. Businesses are being extorted for protection money, etc. And then think of the simmering resentment of the townsfolk at this treatment. When you look at each of the named NPC's make a little cheat sheet with their general personality traits (pick one or two) for each and what sort of voice or mannerisms you'd like to use for them, so it stays consistent. When the Redbrands are finally defeated, make sure that the vibe of the town makes a big shift for the better, once the people realize they're no longer under their boot anymore.

For the Redbrands hideout, this is a great opportunity to add some things in. If you think the players would like a puzzle, throw one in here somewhere, perhaps to get past the first room with the fountain/pool thing. Make the traps in the trap hallways more interesting, make the first one basically a gimme success that they just safely dodge, but then have a small gauntlet they've got to run once they know it's a trapped hallway, and let them get creative and fudge things in their favour if it's cool. Play up how creepy and weird the Nothic is, think Gollum in the Hobbit but even weirder, but fudge the stat block a bit and let it speak telepathically with the players ( if a PC knows under common, give that PC. A chance to shine, but if no one has it just let them understand it anyway), but have them like, drop mad cackling and whispers into the back of their heads and such.

On the quests, make sure you're regularly dropping in hints and hooks for the side quests in the area. If the characters aren't going to the one NPC that has clues for something, find a way to bring that NPC out to them instead in a way that's congruent and plausible. I'd avoid dropping hints about thundertree until they've levelled up some more, the green dragon can easily wipe them at level 2, so it's better to save it for until they're ready to face that(level 4, or if they're absolute combat monsters of a party maaaaybe level 3). Regardless, make sure to always be preparing an enticing menu of choices for the PC's to make by having the clues about them smack them in the face
.

Hope this helps. ::)

smarxist
Jul 26, 2018

by Fluffdaddy

awesome stuff, thank you!

Narsham
Jun 5, 2008

NeurosisHead posted:

You don't require advantage for sneak attacks. You only require that someone friendly to you is within 5 feet of the target. Several rogue subs have abilities to grant sneak attack as well, Investigator and Swashbuckler in particular come to mind.

"You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll."
Not only is it sometimes important that it isn't an ally but "another enemy," it is sometimes important that the enemy just needs to not be incapacitated. A foe holding someone hostage who isn't incapacitated can be sneak attacked thanks to the hostage (assuming the foe isn't within 5 feet of the hostage). No weapon or capacity to attack is required, and they can be restrained, so long as they aren't incapacitated.

MuscaDomestica
Apr 27, 2017

HellCopter posted:

I'm in the other camp that thinks Legendary Resistance is cool. Sure, it's a 'waste' of a spell that had no effect, but the DM usually interprets it as the boss going through some huge effort to resist it. It feels more like breaking down walls until the enemy is vulnerable. It helps that we're all aware that boss monsters usually have 1-3 of the things so it never surprises us.

I think the important part of Legendary Resistance is to make sure you tell your players when they use it. Then they can see their effects weakening the boss monster.

Verisimilidude posted:

Looking to start another 5e campaign. We're about to wrap up a WFRP campaign and would like to play something a bit less rules heavy and less intense for a bit, as a palate cleanser.

Thinking these will be the house rules/preferences:


One change I would do is giving the Players XP for spending the inspiration to prevent people from having the choice between doing something cool or getting more later. It will not be as bad as in some other games but bennie mechanics really shouldn't be traded for XP, was in a Deadlands campaign where that was an issue.

MuscaDomestica fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Sep 2, 2023

Major Isoor
Mar 23, 2011
Hey, I'm just after some opinions if anyone could spare some time. My group has finished our CoS campaign and now we're delving into Dragonlance, which I know nothing about, beyond evil clone minion dragonmen.

Anyway, I'm at a loss for what to play as. The GM wants us centred around a particular town, so I'd probably be best as a human or maybe an elf. We're starting at level 1 btw. One player is probably going to be a bow ranger, another probably an artificer (later dipping into rogue), one'll be a forest gnome druid I THINK, and the last will be a monk or melee ranger.

So anyway, the question: Me. I have a vague idea that I've been interested in trying out for a while - a polearm/reach melee guy. With the goal being that I dip in and out of combat behind other melee fighters, moving around to position myself more advantageously as required, due to the lack of opportunity attacks against me.
BUT the party also does kinda need healing... so I figure I should probably dip into paladin or divine sorcerer for a level, too... Not sure really - it's been years since I built a character. And msny more since I built a martial!

Rythian
Dec 31, 2007

You take what comes, and the rest is void.





Paladins with Polearm Master/Sentinel is a classically strong build. Lay on Hands and healing spells will give you what you need, and your auras will support the team as long as you're alive. You don't even need any multiclassing, just straight Paladin.

Azathoth
Apr 3, 2001

Rythian posted:

Paladins with Polearm Master/Sentinel is a classically strong build. Lay on Hands and healing spells will give you what you need, and your auras will support the team as long as you're alive. You don't even need any multiclassing, just straight Paladin.

This is a very fun build to play. I had a blast as an Oath of Conquest Paladin and even then I never felt starved for healing.

It would require you to tweak your idea a little bit, you'll be out front of the party poking things with a big fuckoff stick so they stop moving, but it is a very viscerally satisfying martial to play.

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.
One fun thing about Paladins is that they can pretty freely multi-class with any other CHA class, or stick to pure Paladin, and they’ll succeed. I once made a Paladin / Bard / Warlock / Sorcerer and he was great fun - just non-stop cantrips and Smites.

Mederlock
Jun 23, 2012

You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it
Grimey Drawer
Halberd/Glaive wielding Paladin , using the Sentinel and polearm master feats, with a 3 level dip into Hexblade Warlock is a great combination for that sort of play. Take repelling blast for your invocation so you can push people around to manipulate the battlefield even betterer or agonizing blast for great consistent ranged damage. Start with a spear(and shield if you need the AC early), and then when you finally get your Pact of the blade weapon you go full out. Or, only do a one or two level dip and stick with the spear and shield (but you won't get Reach this way which limits your PAM/Sentinel feat synergy).

Getting Hex Warrior lets you ignore putting a lot of stats into Strength, as it lets you add your CHA modifier to your weapon attacks but it's limited to weapons without the 2-Handed property(Spear is Versatile so it's still eligible but only 5' range). It also makes you crit on 19 and 20 with your hexblades curse, so your chance to do a Smite bomb after a crit lands doubles, which is great for nuking important single targets. Level 3 in warlock gets you the pact Weapon, that can be any weapon, including 2 handed weapons like Halberds with reach, meaning your Sentinel and PAM (you should Variant Human for a feat at 1 or if your DM lets you use Tasha's custom lineage rules to choose the race you want with a feat) will absolutely be a battlefield controlling menace when they both come online


As the forever DM of my group... now *I* really want to play this build :negative:

Mederlock fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Sep 2, 2023

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
If you are going Polearm, ask your DM if you can take Tunnel Fighter feat for maximum bullshit.

Sandwich Anarchist
Sep 12, 2008
Are attack rolls considered to be "ability checks"? Meaning, does something like Bull's Strength give you advantage on strength based attack rolls?

Dexo
Aug 15, 2009

A city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.

Sandwich Anarchist posted:

Are attack rolls considered to be "ability checks"? Meaning, does something like Bull's Strength give you advantage on strength based attack rolls?

Nope

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
All rolls fall into 4 categories IIRC: attack rolls(magic and weapon), saves (including death saves), abilities (skills and initiative), and everything else (damage, bardic die, etc).

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.
The Marshall Project put together a good, if bittersweet, article about D&D players on death row in Texas. It’s worth a read for the folks who want a little human-interest politics with their sword and sandals fantasy: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/08/31/dungeons-and-dragons-texas-death-row-tdcj

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


Rythian posted:

Paladins with Polearm Master/Sentinel is a classically strong build. Lay on Hands and healing spells will give you what you need, and your auras will support the team as long as you're alive. You don't even need any multiclassing, just straight Paladin.

Yup. Plus Dragonlance has a plot-relevant order of knights that a paladin would fit right into and that would give you a number of opportunities for fun flavor in this campaign.

hot cocoa on the couch
Dec 8, 2009

my pcs killed venomfang in lost mines of phandelver lol. much to my surprise. they were level 4, but only 3 PCs. i didnt expect them to fight him and if they did, for it to be a party wipe. i used a modified speech i found on reddit and had a long back and forth rp with them which they were suspicious of him the entire time about. basically he tried to connive them into grouping up to blast with the breath weapon. they were suspicious of him all along and basically used the cottage attached to the tower he was roosting in to soak up his first blast of breath weapon.

then, the druid in the party, using a philter of love i dropped from a random loot drop from a table earlier, bullseyed the dragon with it in the mouth when he was preparing his breath weapon. she prepared an action on her turn with the trigger to throw the philter if he opened his mouth to use the acid breath, i made her make a disadvantaged improvised thrown weapon check since she was going for accuracy, she used inspiration to negate the disadvantage, and landed the roll. we went into a hilarious back and forth where the little gnome druid was trying to seduce the druid and convince it to not hurt her partymates. a few failed checks meant he kept trying to kill the other PCs but he couldn't use his breath weapon as they stayed continuously clumped up around the dragons new love of his life and he refused to hurt her.

at half health he attempted to flee, but the cleric commanded him to return. they fought another couple rounds, nearly bringing him down, but also knocking the cleric out and reducing the wiz to 2 hp. venomfang attempts to flee again and the wizard pops the flying potion he took off the dragon cultist in the same town, flys after him and burns the last of his spell slots to bring him down.

it was so loving epic, best encounter of the whole campaign so far. took nearly the whole session and the PCs loved it. loving love this game

hot cocoa on the couch fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Sep 4, 2023

Fuligin
Oct 27, 2010

wait what the fuck??

hot cocoa on the couch posted:

my pcs killed venomfang in lost mines of phandelver lol. much to my surprise. they were level 4, but only 3 PCs. i didnt expect them to fight him and if they did, for it to be a party wipe. i used a modified speech i found on reddit and had a long back and forth rp with them which they were suspicious of him the entire time about. basically he tried to connive them into grouping up to blast with the breath weapon. they were suspicious of him all along and basically used the cottage attached to the tower he was roosting in to soak up his first blast of breath weapon.

then, the druid in the party, using a philter of love i dropped from a random loot drop from a table earlier, bullseyed the dragon with it in the mouth when he was preparing his breath weapon. she prepared an action on her turn with the trigger to throw the philter if he opened his mouth to use the acid breath, i made her make a disadvantaged improvised thrown weapon check since she was going for accuracy, she used inspiration to negate the disadvantage, and landed the roll. we went into a hilarious back and forth where the little gnome druid was trying to seduce the druid and convince it to not hurt her partymates. a few failed checks meant he kept trying to kill the other PCs but he couldn't use his breath weapon as they stayed continuously clumped up around the dragons new love of his life and he refused to hurt her.

at half health he attempted to flee, but the cleric commanded him to return. they fought another couple rounds, nearly bringing him down, but also knocking the cleric out and reducing the wiz to 2 hp. venomfang attempts to flee again and the wizard pops the flying potion he took off the dragon cultist in the same town, flys after him and burns the last of his spell slots to bring him down.

it was so loving epic, best encounter of the whole campaign so far. took nearly the whole session and the PCs loved it. loving love this game

Thats good poo poo. Fond memories of being the sole survivor of our prematurely ended phandelver campaign after the rest of the party wiped on him (i jumped out a window and legged it)

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


Venomfang seems to lead to some of the best stories. I think I've told this one before, but when I DMed Phandelver, I tried to hint to my players (who are certainly not min-maxers) that this is a small dragon but he's still a dragon, so you probably shouldn't fight him. They fought him anyway.

The sorcerer went first and Venomfang failed to save against Phantasmal Force, so he wasted his poison breath on the illusory party member who'd "snuck up" on him. That was a huge advantage to the party, and from there the action economy was in their favor. He was well below half HP by the time he tried to flee.

The druid was next in initiative and was, for reasons that now escape me, already on the staircase, wild shaped into a giant goat. She ran up the stairs to get above him, then finished her movement by flinging herself off the staircase into a flying headbutt. And, well, 4d4+3 damage was higher than his remaining HP.

This was over five years ago and it's still one of the two memories the group brings up most often.

Mederlock
Jun 23, 2012

You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it
Grimey Drawer
My group had a pretty epic fight with Venomfang too, my party cleared most of the town before they approached the tower(the dead giant spiders near the tower on the map I found on Reddit spooked them), so they had already had a conversation with the druid in town and got some loot and xp, long rested at the druids house, and then went to the tower. They went in through the cottage, and the dragon was hanging out in the ceiling of the tower. When they entered the tower, I had the dragon call them out and taunt them a bit. Well, the barbarian didn't like that and called him something obscene in return, and thus a fight ensued :black101:. They didn't have enough effective crowd control or ranged options to keep the dragon on the ground long enough, and I had to have the druid come running in and save them as the party hightailed it out of there. Now they've got a bone to pick with the dragon, and they owe the druid a favour that he's going to call in when we get back to that campaign after we finish Humblewood. Good times man

Government Handjob
Nov 1, 2004

Gudbrandsglasnost
College Slice
Two sessions of creepy "people are disappearing but nobody seems to notice except this deaf guy who is absolutely bonkers and can't talk, also you tripped over something that isn't there" and we ended the last session just before rolling initiative against a False Hydra.

Major bonus points to our DM for splicing the soundtrack from The Thing with a subtle Shepard Tone because we were extremely uncomfortable the entire time and he had the biggest poo poo eating grin when he could finally tell us what the music we'd been listening to for like ten hours over two sessions was.

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011
It’s so weird seeing Arnold K of the GLOG’s monster (the false hydra) become a 5e meme, lol.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Kaal posted:

The Marshall Project put together a good, if bittersweet, article about D&D players on death row in Texas. It’s worth a read for the folks who want a little human-interest politics with their sword and sandals fantasy: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/08/31/dungeons-and-dragons-texas-death-row-tdcj

Holy poo poo this story :smith:

quote:

When Ford first overheard the men on the old Huntsville death row playing D&D, they were engaged in a fast, high-octane version. The gamers were members of the Mexican Mafia, an insular crew that let Ford into their circle after they realized he could draw. The gang’s leader, Spider, pulled some strings, Ford recalls, and got him moved to a neighboring cell to serve as his personal artist. Ford earned some money drawing intricate Aztec designs in ink. He also began to join their D&D sessions, eventually becoming a Dungeon Master and running games all over the row.

:stonklol:

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

ColdIronsBound
Nov 4, 2008

Kaal posted:

The Marshall Project put together a good, if bittersweet, article about D&D players on death row in Texas. It’s worth a read for the folks who want a little human-interest politics with their sword and sandals fantasy: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/08/31/dungeons-and-dragons-texas-death-row-tdcj

Marshall Project article posted:

Arthaxx was, to some extent, a version of Wardlow whose mother was not shattered. Whose parents loved him and sent him to a prestigious school. Whose proficiency with electricity earned him a comfortable living. Whose best options never included running away. Whose worst mistake never landed him on death row.

Wooooooooof

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply