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Look up one-shots by Arcane Library. I think Skyhorn Lighthouse or Basilisk Cult are both well-received.
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Sep 29, 2023 03:15
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Mederlock posted:Alternatively You can play Warhammer on Tabletop Simulator and not bankrupt yourself. okay sweet I'll check out Tabletop simulator before buying in. In the meantime, I'll try to make it for the 4 session D&D campaign the DM / store owner has planned. I'll actually be able to use the PHB I bought to make a character, too. I've always been drawn to Druids. Apparently they are not new player friendly but eh, screw it, how complex could it be for levels 1-3 or 4 or whatever.
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Sep 29, 2023 03:33
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For a game like WH40K.. unless your yearly income is fabulous enough to afford a crazy amount of minis and time spent painting and paying for painting supplies, it's just not a game I'd recommend to play physically
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Druids aren't the easiest class to start with since you got a lotta different things to keep track of but I've played at several tables with players who were starting out with Druids. Never posed much of an issue during the game and they were able to pick it up pretty fast. It probably won't be too hard at that low of a level, too. Hope it's a blast!
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Sep 29, 2023 04:10
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stratdax posted:okay sweet I'll check out Tabletop simulator before buying in. In the meantime, I'll try to make it for the 4 session D&D campaign the DM / store owner has planned. I'll actually be able to use the PHB I bought to make a character, too. I've always been drawn to Druids. Apparently they are not new player friendly but eh, screw it, how complex could it be for levels 1-3 or 4 or whatever. Just play a Circle of the Moon druid and you'll be fine. Print out your spells on little cards or write them out on index cards, use some kind of little tokens to help keep track of your wild shapes and spell slots, and abuse the gently caress out of shillelagh-sticking folks, wild shaping into a brown bear, and otherwise loving poo poo up. Moon Druids kick rear end
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Sep 29, 2023 06:07
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Circle of the Moon druid owns so much. You can become almost unkillable with the wild shape healing and the improved shapeshifts.
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Sep 29, 2023 14:22
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stratdax posted:Apparently they are not new player friendly but eh, screw it, how complex could it be for levels 1-3 or 4 or whatever. None of the classes are unfriendly to new players. I think what a lot of people mean when they say a class isn't new player friendly is that a new player won't be playing the class to optimal effect.
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Sep 29, 2023 15:19
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Moon druid is excellent as a multi-purpose flexible gap filler and fantastic meat shield. I took one from level 3 to 12 in a campaign that (so far) ended with a heavily modified Curse of Strahd run and the only thing I didn't entirely appreciate about the class was the recurring gap in melee attack bonus. You're stuck with the beast's attack stats as-written, so every couple of levels you'll lag behind other physical fighters on the offensive as their stat and proficiency modifiers increase while you're on the lookout for another animal at your max wild shape CR. You'll still have a bigger heap of effective HP than almost any other class, but presenting enough of a threat to force enemies into focusing on you can be a challenge.
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Sep 29, 2023 22:09
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One way the rest of the party can help make a moon druids wild shape more effective is having the party's casters use crowd control abilities or buffs/debuffs to help the wild-shaped druid hold the front line effectively. Sentinel is also a great feat to take, as it will make you more "sticky" to enemies with all of the opportunity attacks you'll be taking against hostiles
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Sep 29, 2023 22:16
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Mederlock posted:One way the rest of the party can help make a moon druids wild shape more effective is having the party's casters use crowd control abilities or buffs/debuffs to help the wild-shaped druid hold the front line effectively. Sentinel is also a great feat to take, as it will make you more "sticky" to enemies with all of the opportunity attacks you'll be taking against hostiles This was basically my play as well. I got the killing blow on the final monster of the campaign by shifting into a fire elemental and letting big bad eat me. I burned it alive from the inside out with my aura. One cool thing my DM let me do was make the fire elemental form take the shape of a saber toothed tiger, like I had been doing with all my previous forms. It was a purely cosmetic RP move, but it really tied into what I had envisioned in my head as how my druid would look and fight.
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Sep 29, 2023 23:49
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oh yeah baby, this is what I'm talking about. I'm taking mental notes on all these posts. Animals are the best, and that's why I want to be a druid.
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Sep 30, 2023 00:39
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https://twitter.com/Sachieehkun/status/1707854079580422547 look at these freaks.
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Sep 30, 2023 05:31
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Dexo posted:https://twitter.com/Sachieehkun/status/1707854079580422547 I don't understand what I'm supposed to be 'getting'.
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Sep 30, 2023 13:08
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I don't understand what I'm supposed to be 'getting'. oh I posted it in the wrong thread. It's Dragon's Dogma.
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Sep 30, 2023 19:44
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I mean, no adventuring party is complete without a busty lass in a bikini top.
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Sep 30, 2023 23:41
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That's every pawn in DD though.
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Oct 1, 2023 01:02
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Sighs in Enemies having +16 to hit against out APL 10 party when my character only has 17 AC because one of our party members has 30 ac...
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Oct 1, 2023 23:48
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Raenir Salazar posted:Sighs in Enemies having +16 to hit against out APL 10 party when my character only has 17 AC because one of our party members has 30 ac... poo poo, AC 30?? How? Anytime someone leans that hard into a specific part of the game (most games, really) things start breaking down in unpleasant ways.
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Oct 1, 2023 23:55
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Raenir Salazar posted:Sighs in Enemies having +16 to hit against out APL 10 party when my character only has 17 AC because one of our party members has 30 ac... APL = Average Party level? Also, how do you get to 30 AC?
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Oct 2, 2023 00:21
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Signal posted:poo poo, AC 30?? How? Pathfinder would like a word. 
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Oct 2, 2023 00:28
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Full plate + Shield + Defensive style is 21. Magical armor and shield can give up to +3 each, so 27 just from gear. You can buff further with spells or boons. Obviously no one should have that AC until late late game because it just makes everyone else a more appealing target. That, or the DM just starts adding Magic Missile monkeys.
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Oct 2, 2023 00:30
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Signal posted:poo poo, AC 30?? How? They're a Bladesinger (homebrew version?) and had haste, I think there was some other things. The big result is I start looking at spells like Blink (only works 50% of the time!) and Mirror Image or Greater Invisibility to try to get ahead in layers of the Survivability Onion. It's a little frustrating that Stoneskin is basically worthless, because all enemies have magic attacks and I just don't seem to have a lot of good options to mitigate damage. The enemies to hits tend to be so high like +9 on average, so Shield or Silvery Barbs aren't that useful, the later mainly for filtering out crits, or if I'm desperate.
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Oct 2, 2023 00:37
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Raenir Salazar posted:They're a Bladesinger (homebrew version?) and had haste, I think there was some other things. Either your bladesinger friend is cheating or the homebrew is unbalancing the game, or they are massively overleveled to the group and have more resources. With max dex and int and bladesinging that's 20AC. No med armor or shield is allowed (notwithstanding homebrew rules), so there's another +3 ac in studded leather, that's 23. Throw in haste, there's another +2 for 25 AC. That last 5 AC is going to be a bit tough for level 10. Also if your AC is around 17, then your job is to not get targeted by attacks or take the occasional one, but not be the focus, like your busto friend with the 30 AC.
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Oct 2, 2023 01:49
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Legit Businessman posted:Either your bladesinger friend is cheating or the homebrew is unbalancing the game, or they are massively overleveled to the group and have more resources. With max dex and int and bladesinging that's 20AC. No med armor or shield is allowed (notwithstanding homebrew rules), so there's another +3 ac in studded leather, that's 23. Throw in haste, there's another +2 for 25 AC. That last 5 AC is going to be a bit tough for level 10. Shield spell gets you to 30, no homebrew or cheating. You're blowing a lot of resources to get there though. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Oct 2, 2023 |
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Oct 2, 2023 01:57
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For a pure Bladesinger at level 10, AC starts at 13 with Mage Armor, with another 2 maybe from Bracers of Defense, 5 from maxed INT, another 3 from DEX, and 2 more from Haste, which adds up to exactly 25, or 30 with Shield, and all this assumes just one magic item. It's not sustainable indefinitely, sure, but by level 10, those low-level slots aren't doing much anyways so it doesn't sting so much to burn them for ablative armor. Having good AC isn't particularly hard for anybody, regardless of class, and perversely it's the dumb muggles that struggle more than casters, since they're more likely to have both hands occupied with a weapon, with none to spare for a shield.
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Oct 2, 2023 02:05
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If it's 25 AC+shield, then yeah I'd say that's fine. You're still either going to take some hits or have to burn spell slots. If it's 30 AC without shield, then there's a problem. That's either the homebrew, or... rolled stats with dex maxed out too, Staff of Power, and a cloak of protection? Or a ring of protection and +3 studded leather instead of the staff and bracers, and +1 from... somewhere. 22 int from a tome? In any case, pretty busted, especially if he also has Shield on top of that. (Honestly Shield is too good in general, but that's a separate discussion.)
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Oct 2, 2023 02:15
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To get the last 5 points of AC to "passively" hit 30, you could get, say, 1 apiece from: Cloak of Protection, Ring of Protection, Staff of Defense, maybe another +1 or 2 points from enchanted (non-armor) clothing, and one more if you rolled really well on your stat array? It's definitely pretty exceptional to have all that at once, and requires a tiny bit of homebrew (but BG3 had enchanted clothing! And 4e too, of course), but it's also not grossly out of bonds. Anyways, the point is the game shouldn't lie about having "bounded accuracy" when there's so many little greebles around that break the bounds of accuracy!
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Oct 2, 2023 02:28
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I think the Bladesinger is now that I think of it is not homebrew, but the GM added Styles that they could learn, like Kungfu styles (Dragon, Hare, Bull, Turtle, Etc) with different pros/cons, one of them I think maybe adds at least +1 AC while its active, I think their AC with Shield is 31, I remember it being a running joke most enemies need to crit to hit them. How they did their build isn't really the problem, its more that a lot of encounters its like Astral Dreadnaughts because the power level of the party is kinda above our level but my character which was fairly inoptimal until around level 9* (I got to fix my build then and swap out most of my spells), is still not really matching the curve for the rest of the party so I'm pretty squishy. I prioritized "lots of fun mechanics" when picking rewards/magic items, so I have a lot of options/choices and some of these do help but they don't really overcome the fact that on average the to hit is like +9 for most of our enemies and when they do hit they hit pretty hard. *As a Psionicist character I wanted a build/character that felt unique so I avoided most staple spells like Fireball and especially spells that the other spellcasters got to take like Psychic Lance. Hence why I agree I wish we had better more unique feeling psionics as a class.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:02
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The Bladesinger having a super high AC is nice for them, but typically the DM response is to bring in other types of attacks rather than simply doubling-down on high to hit enemies. A typical CR7 or CR8 enemy, which would appropriate for a level 10 party, would have an attack of maybe +9 at most. Pumping up that to hit emphasizes the Bladesinger’s abilities, which is good for individual combats but shouldn’t be a routine. Hopefully they’ll be able to broaden their approach moving forward. Are you playing a Mystic or some other psionic class? It might be possible to enhance some of your fun by tweaking your character a bit more so you don’t feel so vulnerable.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:24
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Kaal posted:The Bladesinger having a super high AC is nice for them, but typically the DM response is to bring in other types of attacks rather than simply doubling-down on high to hit enemies. A typical CR7 or CR8 enemy, which would appropriate for a level 10 party, would have an attack of maybe +9 at most. Pumping up that to hit emphasizes the Bladesinger’s abilities, which is good for individual combats but shouldn’t be a routine. Hopefully they’ll be able to broaden their approach moving forward. Raenir Salazar posted:How they did their build isn't really the problem, its more that a lot of encounters its like Astral Dreadnaughts because the power level of the party is kinda above our level but my character which was fairly inoptimal until around level 9* (I got to fix my build then and swap out most of my spells), is still not really matching the curve for the rest of the party so I'm pretty squishy. I prioritized "lots of fun mechanics" when picking rewards/magic items, so I have a lot of options/choices and some of these do help but they don't really overcome the fact that on average the to hit is like +9 for most of our enemies and when they do hit they hit pretty hard.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:35
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Staltran posted:An astral dreadnought is CR 21. Given that it also has a +16 attack (high even for CR 21 I think, but not that unusual), it sounds like they fought one in their last session. They're usually not fighting typical level 10 threats at all from what it sounds like. (Which is, from a certain point of view, not really weird since they're mucking about the Astral Plane for some reason.) The rest of the party is apparently just very optimized, unlike RS's character. Yeah I have the same thought. An Astral Dreadnought should be wiping the floor with a level 10 party. A Bladesinger having high AC would do squat against one (for one thing, the anti-magic cone would deactivate all their abilities). I’m guessing that there’s more going on here. That being said, feeling like your character isn’t as good as you think it should be is a very normal problem in D&D. It’s a rather poisonous issue, since it can become a bit of a brain worm that impacts your enjoyment throughout the game. It sounds like the DM is reacting to it a bit, but maybe some suggestions would help the OP become the best psion they can be, and that will alleviate some of that problem.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:47
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It's a CR 21 Gargantuan-sized monstrosity with 28 STR. The GM should just be grappling the Bladesinger and throwing them into the abyss rather than playing rollies with their AC. It's hard to comment on this specific version of PC to PC comparison issues when we don't know anything aside from their relative AC values. Every character should have inbuilt flaws and strengths and both are super valuable. Playing to your weaknesses is usually more rewarding than playing to your strengths and the DM should reward that. There are also plenty of survivability options for a 10th level caster that they don't need to be concerned about AC, especially when you have someone else who seems alright with being the frontliner. Also also 17 AC for a caster is still well above the average.
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Oct 2, 2023 05:29
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I don't trust any advice that features grappling
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Oct 2, 2023 17:03
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Ah, nonono, the Astral Dreadnaught was just something we fought during a fishing trip.  Yesterday's boss fight was against a NPC bladesinger who two-hit KO'd me, the first hit was about 50 damage, the second hit did 28 (I think it was maybe their legendary action?) when I had 72 hp and they I think could just teleport next to an enemy as part of their turn or legendary action I'm not sure I don't quite remember. So the rest of the fight was mainly being given a potion, getting one spell off and then being green flame bladed back down. I did DO things that fight, I counterspelled a Cone of Cold, and I helped bring back up another party member, and forced them to use a counterspell against a Shatter I casted and I cast Burning Hands (I was low on spell slots going into the fight); they saved against Mind Whip though. They were a squishy enemy underneath its mountain of AC so I imagine the "save for half" spells were still useful for whittling away their HP. I'm a Owlfolk Psionic Soul Sorcerer with Aberrant Mind thrown in due to weirdness around Tasha's being released mid campaign, so I benefit from both subclasses and get to use the better Psionic die stuff from the former with the latter; albeit some stuff like the related feats I had to upgrade via downtime activities. I have a magic item that gives me displacement passively (but disadvantage on +16 attacks doesn't do much), it also gives me 2d10 temp hp and advantage on all saves once a long rest for a minute; but I had used it on a previous boss fight already that day. (It has six charges to cast spells, but I was down to 1 charge as I already used the 5 charge Heal it has) I have the Blood Tear Vial which gives me +3 to my spell attacks and DCs so I have a spell dc of 20 (I have 20 CHA). And a homebrew "Green Mage Set" which is a Hat, Gloves, Cloak, Robes, and Boots. It gives me together some minor stuff like a wild magic surge if I roll a 6 on a d6 of other random effects whenever I fire a cantrip; and can subtract a d4 from someone's saves against a non damaging spell, and I can attempt to transfer the effects of a non-damaging spell from myself to an ally within 5 feet of me; it makes me AC 14+DEX; lets me see through illusions and illusory terrain and gives me advantage on Wis/Int/Cha saves. I mainly have it for the Wild Magic Surge. For feats I have a improved counterspell where I can add my psionic die to my check which I got from downtime activities, I can also add my d8 to my damage rolls (which decreases the die to a d6, etc), I have a Misty Step as a feat I can do as a bonus action which moves me d8*5', and when I get reduced to 0 hp I come back to 1 hp once per long rest as a Divine Boon I got. I picked Telepathic and Telekinitic as my feats and I get to use my psionic die to shove people 1d8*5+5' in any direction (I got to shove someone off a cliff 2 sessions ago). I can also spend a Sorc point to let an ally reroll a check; so a lot of "Support" or Utility abilities. So my build has a lot of little things and a lot of options, but only a couple add to survivability. For some of my defencive spells, I have Shield, Silvery Barbs, Greater Invisibility, Mirror Image, Blink, Telekinesis and Bigby's Hand, which all potentially can help in different ways, but an enemy that has +16 to hit means they have to roll a 4 for Shield to save me and Silvery barbs is mainly to filter away crits. I lost concentration on my last Bigby's during that boss fight was attempted to grapple the dude with but he teleported out of it and then I got downed. I could Blink, although this fight I think I was out of 4th level spellslots and was down to 1 level 3 spell slot so I think I wanted to save that slot for Dispel Magic or Counterspell. A problem though is I often get poo poo for casting Blink first thing when a fight starts because it means spending a spell doing something to protect me and not doing anything useful to the enemy or helping an ally. An encounter that starts "Okay I activate my magic item for temp hp and then quicken Blink" is a turn where I ultimately did not a lot other than try to nudge my own survival; and only a 50% chance of it actually protecting me anyways. Mirror Image probably would've helped that fight but things kinda went bad very quickly and I ultimately didn't think of it. So for this fight there's a reasonable bit of circumstance where I was just out of most of my resources and didn't think to cast Mirror Image first thing which I ostensibly could have but I've yet to cast it since taking it so I don't quite have that muscle memory so to speak. But it is the case that a lot of enemies hit a lot harder and hit way more often and I feel like I don't have very many options for dealing with it; which in addition to feeling a little pressured to not do those things I feel like more and more resources are getting sucked into surviving some fights or otherwise feeling like a tax. Like there are fights where I'm just keeping my distance and slapping enemies around with Bigby's and that's fine, but some of those fights kinda feel more like the exception.
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Oct 2, 2023 18:23
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I'm sure anyone reading this thread has already played LMoP but, just a heads up they're gonna delist it from Beyond at the end of the week (because it constitutes the first quarter of the Phandelver book they just published lmao) and replace it with part of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle which is a way worse adventure imo. If you have a Beyond account, you might wanna claim it if you haven't yet just to have it. https://www.dndbeyond.com/claim/source/lost-mine-of-phandelver
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Oct 2, 2023 22:49
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Have there been any early takes on the Planescape books or does that stuff not show up this early.
Macdeo Lurjtux fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Oct 3, 2023 |
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Oct 3, 2023 05:34
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Have there been any early takes on the Planescape books or does that stuff not show up this early. Some people have copies and have shown some stuff. Early Access on Beyond starts in about nine hours so I can share stuff when I wake up.
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Oct 3, 2023 05:49
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Does anyone use Sending Stones as written? I feel like most DMs just let them be used like phones/walkie-talkies
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Oct 3, 2023 13:48
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change my name posted:Does anyone use Sending Stones as written? I feel like most DMs just let them be used like phones/walkie-talkies I'm strict about the word limits. My players like to come up with code phrases to get the most out of those limits.
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Oct 3, 2023 13:52
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I've been running them as written for a while but it ended up being too much of a hassle. I found that most of the time me and my players would focus more on how many words are left rather than the message itself. In the Spelljammer game I'm running now I just handwaved it as "rockie-talkies are all the rage across Wildspace and the tech is good enough to work better than ye olde Sending Stones of yesteryear. Treat them like phone conversations instead of instant telegrams charging by the word."
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Oct 3, 2023 13:53
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| # ? May 29, 2024 07:39 |
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change my name posted:Does anyone use Sending Stones as written? I feel like most DMs just let them be used like phones/walkie-talkies I have, yes. If they want to chat long distance they better have someone cast telepathic bond or something IMO. PeterWeller posted:I'm strict about the word limits. My players like to come up with code phrases to get the most out of those limits. I like this a lot, I'd be very pleased if my players showed this kind of innovation
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Oct 3, 2023 13:59
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