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While I figure a lot of people are rightfully hooked on Baldur's Gate 3, the publishers of the prior big 5e video game, Solasta, are having a survey to gauge reader interest in their campaign setting. The setting sourcebook was originally a limited edition reward for a KickStarter pledge, but may look into putting up a reprint for general sale. As someone who played the video game, I did like it. Even though it was clearly the effort of a small studio and not a big company, it had a lot of good points like faithful adaption of ttrpg combat and tactics along with an intricate custom campaign creator. Here's a link to the article in question. And the survey itself.
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Feb 10, 2024 07:12
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My players (level 5s) had the party paladin solo a CR 7 Dragonborn of Tiamat and basically one shot them. 
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Feb 11, 2024 02:00
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Raenir Salazar posted:My players (level 5s) had the party paladin solo a CR 7 Dragonborn of Tiamat and basically one shot them. Smite bombs are pretty crazy
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Feb 11, 2024 02:17
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Yeah you basically can't beat a Paladin on full resources for sheer damage nova at any scale, even at Level 5. Thought OneD&D/5.5e/etc is looking to curtail the extreme edge-cases, which is probably for the best.
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Feb 11, 2024 10:03
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The easiest way to curtail Paladins absolutely negating fights is to require them to call their smites before rolling attacks. However, that's super lame and sometimes you gotta reward your players for their nat 20s.
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Feb 11, 2024 19:56
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Zurreco posted:The easiest way to curtail Paladins absolutely negating fights is to require them to call their smites before rolling attacks. However, that's super lame and sometimes you gotta reward your players for their nat 20s. D&DOne/5.5e has a different change, where you're still allowed to call smites afterwards, the big change is that now all Smites, including bog-standard Divine Smite, are spells, which means a Paladin no longer gets to double dip by setting up Banishing Smite, hit, and then burn another Spell Slot to Divine Smite and do an absolute metric fuckload of damage. It seems a reasonable enough change, to me.
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Feb 11, 2024 22:14
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My point was that the vast majority of the magical weapons and armors in the DM guide have no to hit/CA bonus. And as a DM that loves gives magical items, when you give a magical weapon with to hit bonus you REALLY feel it. The monsters CAs just don't scale fast enough to keep up with the players. YggdrasilTM fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Feb 12, 2024 |
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Feb 12, 2024 12:26
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Monathin posted:D&DOne/5.5e has a different change, where you're still allowed to call smites afterwards, the big change is that now all Smites, including bog-standard Divine Smite, are spells, Having it take a bonus action is an interesting limitation. I wonder how this will impact Warlocks with Eldritch smite. One of my friends made a build that was levels 1-2 paladin, and then sorcerer from there out. I don't even think they bothered memorising any spells except a concentration buff or two, they just used them all for Smites. Sort of falls behind at level 5 when it doesn't have the extra attack, but for a level 3 campaign it's nuts.
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Feb 12, 2024 13:26
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I really, really don't like the requirement that smites consume a bonus action. Paladin action economy is VERY tight already and that change radically reshapes it while also making it impossible to try to crit-fish in any meaningful sense. Dumbs down the class.
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Feb 12, 2024 13:36
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I really, really don't like the requirement that smites consume a bonus action. Paladin action economy is VERY tight already and that change radically reshapes it while also making it impossible to try to crit-fish in any meaningful sense. Dumbs down the class. Wasn't that change rolled back already? At least for divine smite.
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Feb 12, 2024 15:09
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Rubberduke posted:Wasn't that change rolled back already? At least for divine smite. Honestly I've totally lost track. My 5e campaign just imploded and we're planning on trying something totally different next anyway. If and when I go back I'll probably just lobby to stick with 5e.
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Feb 12, 2024 15:37
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YggdrasilTM posted:My point was that the vast majority of the magical weapons and armors in the DM guide have no to hit/CA bonus. By my count, 28 out of 49 magic weapons in the DMG have a bonus to attack rolls. Eight of those that do not are staves. This also doesn't include the generic +1/+2/+3 weapons. Only 6 out of 13 armors have an AC bonus, though. Still wouldn't call that a vast majority.
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Feb 12, 2024 19:00
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Thinking in terms of if we had a chance to redesign Paladin, I'm wondering if smites should maybe be limited to paladin spell slots only, or something like that. Or even decoupled from the spell system completely. I'm not sure how decoupling it from the spell system completely would actually help. The two big factors that made Smites insane were: 1) A Paladin would usually hold a smite for a crit, meaning they got huge crit damage. This, afaik, is being changed by how crit damage is changing in OneD&D, where the crit damage is restricted to the weapon's damage only (unless they said they were reverting that somewhere, but I haven't seen a different version of that in the playtests, but I assume not since this was also to help limit how a Rogue SA crit could invalidate an encounter). 2) Double-dipping a 'spell' smite with a 'non-spell' smite, as I described above. Setting up something like a 4th-level Wrathful Smite or a Banishing Smite and then doubling down with consuming your highest spell-slot for massive damage. This is what normalizing all the smites is actually doing: Searing, Wrathful, etc Smites already took a bonus action, so this is just normalizing Divine Smite's action cost with those so that you can't use it and the other Smites at once, while giving the other Smites the unique activation clause so any of them can be used after you hit so Paladins don't lose the hit-confirm. re: Eldritch Smite, I assume it'll get rewritten to reflect the changes in smite language for Paladin, since Eldritch Smite was also used to double-dip. It'll probably cost a Bonus Action now like all the other Smites. Hieronymous Alloy posted:I really, really don't like the requirement that smites consume a bonus action. Paladin action economy is VERY tight already and that change radically reshapes it while also making it impossible to try to crit-fish in any meaningful sense. Dumbs down the class. There was basically no way Paladin's ceiling was not getting lowered. A well-built Paladin (or a Rogue) can essentially run circles around an encounter just based on how much damage they can throw out on a single crit. Paladins are still better than they've ever been so I'm more than willing to accept a few nerfs for the sake of trying to maintain even a half-baked illusion balance. Monathin fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Feb 12, 2024 |
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Feb 12, 2024 19:09
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Monathin posted:I'. That's already more than addressed by the other changes. All the bonus action requirement does is simplify and stupify paladin play and character building. Feats like polearm master or shield mastery become a waste because they compete too strongly with the smite slot, etc. Sentinel is weaker because you can't smite on opportunity attacks. Etc. It's an unnecessary and bad change and duplicative of other better solutions implemented at the same time.
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Feb 12, 2024 19:18
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I guess I don't see that as dumbing down Paladin at all. The thing is because Smites were so loving good there was basically no reason not to use them as much as possible and, conversely, little reason for a Paladin to not start immediately whining for a Long Rest the second they ran out of smite juice. Things like Polearm/Shield Mastery do compete with your BA slot, sure, but now you have to make more meaningful choices about your BA slot on a turn-to-turn basis, and those feats now act as a way to pad out your Smites and extend your day. The Smites are still your "best" option but now that they're chained to the action economy in a more meaningful way, you have to actually think about what scenarios they're worth using in. Losing Smite on Reaction sucks, I'm not gonna lie about that, but Sentinel and Polearm Master were already two of the biggest must-pick feats for anyone wanting to be a frontline defender, they don't need the help of letting you burn a Smite on top. Shield Master still gives you a shitton of benefits beyond the bonus action shove, so it's not like it's a waste.
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Feb 12, 2024 19:26
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Monathin posted:I . Things like Polearm/Shield Mastery do compete with your BA slot, sure, but now you have to make more meaningful choices about your BA slot on a turn-to-turn basis, This ignores how characters are built. People don't make the choice of how to use their BA slot turn to turn; they make it before combat during character building, by picking options with which they can use those slots. And in practice now that means people aren't going to pick as many things that compete with the BA slot. They're just gonna smite and rest even faster because that will be most optimal, and spend their feat slots on stat points instead, for the most optimal boring play.. If anything the new changes push towards a dual weild build for paladins now since that's the only way to get extra attacks that doesn't consume the BA. What they should have done was improve the shield master feat a bit Then you'd have several different real choices in paladin building. As it is all they've done is dumb the class down. (Various rulings have reduced the utility of Shield master considerably. Mostly the requirement that it target you, so no benefit vs aoe attacks).
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Feb 12, 2024 19:38
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Zurreco posted:The easiest way to curtail Paladins absolutely negating fights is to require them to call their smites before rolling attacks. However, that's super lame and sometimes you gotta reward your players for their nat 20s. Well, another easy way is monsters with radiant resistance or, on rare occasions, immunity. 5E should do a lot more with monster hp/AC/resistances/immunities than it does now, and especially needs a better mix of monsters that shrug off spell damage to those immune to non-magical weapons. The other easy way would be this: L1 Paladin Spell Smite 1st level evocation Casting Time: 1 Reaction, which you take when you hit a creature with a weapon attack Range: Self Components: M (the weapon used in the triggering attack) Duration: Instantaneous You channel divine fury into a weapon, dealing additional damage to your foe. Add 2d8 radiant damage to the damage from your triggering attack. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the additional damage increases by another 1d8 to a maximum of 5d8. Can't be countered, because it has no verbal or somatic components. Can only use it once per round, unless you want to give paladins additional reactions at higher level. Probably can't be used with spell weapon attacks any more, which is fine. A once per round smite triggered on a crit is going to shorten a fight but probably won't end it like a paladin dropping smites on every attack can. Eating up reactions hurts a paladin's "stickiness" in combat, but I don't mind seeing rogues be the masters of the offensive reaction and fighters be the masters of the defensive reaction, especially if you gave them all battlemaster maneuvers.
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Feb 12, 2024 19:48
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Finally news about upcoming stuff this year. https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1660-dungeons-dragons-turns-50-see-how-were-celebrating Release dates of the various books and Vecna Eve of Ruin for Pre Order. Monster Manual will be coming Early 2025. Vecna's is a 10 to 20 Adventure, and will be visiting Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Spelljammer, Eberron, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk. 
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Feb 12, 2024 21:19
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I'll just be clear that I'm more than happily surprised that the paladin player basically 1 Hit-KO'd a BBEG; he deserved the win. D&D 5e in particular I felt hasn't been great about having out of the box "Samurai Duels" where two characters can have a Dark Souls/Bloodborne human invader style duel, and seeing that this alledgedly difficult fight was something he could breeze through was exciting.
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Feb 12, 2024 22:18
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Trip report: In tonight's campaign, our party with my level 10 Forge Cleric has closed in on a Ziggurat that a Yuan-Ti cult is operating out of. Once we went through a set of skill checks to navigate our way through the jungle to the structure, I asked if my cleric noticed any signs of bonfires or cooking fires from the structure. The DM replied that from this distance, we didn't seem to see any. I then announced to the party that we should be okay, but to be on their guard, because according to the surgeon general, smoking Ziggurats are hazardous to your health. After much pained groaning, I did get the DM to agree that I had earned Inspiration for that one.
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Feb 13, 2024 09:07
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How often do y’all do out of game reviews? Stuff like the short rests NADDPOD puts out. I want to know all the behind the scenes stuff - clues we missed or times we threw our DM off with our actions.
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Feb 13, 2024 16:59
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Democratic Pirate posted:How often do y’all do out of game reviews? Stuff like the short rests NADDPOD puts out. I want to know all the behind the scenes stuff - clues we missed or times we threw our DM off with our actions. Once something is resolved like a dungeon is officially cleared or a big NPC dies I will always offer players the chance to ask questions after session wraps. If it's something that is super cool and I want to share it, I'll offer it up between end of sesh and scheduling next. As it pertains to frequency its probably once every 4 sessions. If you aren't doing big stuff at that frequency you are either slogging through content or your party is busy dungeon delving to hit plot points.
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Feb 13, 2024 17:30
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The discussion about encounter design on the last page is really appreciated. It got my thinking about my current homebrew campaign, and how much more difficult it's been to build encounters at higher levels (my group just hit level 20). I'm definitely an adaptable DM - I'll modify HPs or add more monsters when it's clear the party is in a cakewalk battle. When I have to keep in mind two party members with Wish and a meta-optimized warlock though, it seems that I'm underestimating every single encounter. Been leaning heavy into environmental hazards as a way to endanger the party without adding more enemies or other elements that slow the combat down. My future campaigns probably won't go beyond level 12 or so; its so much easier to design a tight and engaging encounter at the lower levels. Hopefully they can fix some of that in the upcoming 5.5 books. A formula to use between gold and magic items would also be super handy. Until then, I'll have to rely on DM fudgery, house rules, and advice from this thread.
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Feb 13, 2024 19:31
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DarkLich posted:
Magic Items are supposed to get Example Prices in the new DMG from memory.
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Feb 13, 2024 19:34
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Having NPCs the players met already popping up to give the next quest is actually working really well at keeping the players on track. Also was a pleasant surprise that "staying the night at an inn" turned into like a set piece narrative moment that was at least half the session; wasn't expecting that, but the players were having fun and taking their time. One started exploring their room which turned into an imprompto escape room challenge of finding keys to unlock locks to find keys to unlock more locks culminating in a side quest. 
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Feb 15, 2024 00:20
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I'm running a one shot for my irl group and I'm adapting one of the arcs I did for my online campaign. It's a combat heavy tournament arc thing but for the original campaign it was for characters at level 13 who had magic items/equipment by then. I'm going to adjust the level for the one-shot version so that it's for level 10. What would y'all recommend they start with, equipment-wise? I was thinking giving them a gold amount and letting them pick a rare magic item, but I dunno.
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Feb 15, 2024 03:14
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Cartridgeblowers posted:I'm running a one shot for my irl group and I'm adapting one of the arcs I did for my online campaign. It's a combat heavy tournament arc thing but for the original campaign it was for characters at level 13 who had magic items/equipment by then. I'm going to adjust the level for the one-shot version so that it's for level 10. What would y'all recommend they start with, equipment-wise? I was thinking giving them a gold amount and letting them pick a rare magic item, but I dunno. You can create an elaborate point buy system to purchase custom magic items so half the fun is them theory crafting what items to buy before even starting the first session 
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Feb 15, 2024 03:18
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X amount of gold, no more than one Rare (+2) magic item per person seems about in-line with what I'd expect for Level 10s. iirc either the DMG or Xanathars' has a list of PC wealth by level and Level 10s are at like 17,000 gold, so I'd run with that but you still probably need to eyeball pricing on magic items, etc.
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Feb 15, 2024 03:19
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I'm not sure the right way to phrase this post. I had an idea for dwarf culture for one of my PC's. The idea being that as part of their culture, Dwarves thread or braid little metal decorations through their beards (or hair) which have carved in them the lineage of their ancestry. Accurately displaying those lineages are sacrosanct, it would be a major cultural taboo to display a false lineage in ones beard. However, given the inherent doubling of parents with each generation back, that would quickly become impractical, and I'm unsure how I should adjust the idea. There's a couple things I'm using that idea for. It will turn out that that the PC's fiancee (who vanished under questionable circumstances) was doing just that - displaying a false lineage in her beard. The second thing is that after a falling-out with his family, the PC would cut off his beard, lineages and all and abandon his family name for the name "Shornbeard" which is used as a catchall for Dwarven outcasts and banished criminals. (Usually for formal or criminal banishment, the chin is ritually scarred, but in this case the PC did it voluntarily and spontaneously, so no scarring.) So I'm trying to figure out a more practical way to keep the lineage-displayed-in-beards idea without the number of decorations going exponential. Thoughts?
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Feb 15, 2024 23:03
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Each dwarf only displays two lineages: the mothers on their mother’s side, and the fathers on their father’s side. Because of this, it behooves parents to have multiple children to ensure both lines stay in the living beard record. If you want more than that, apply the same rule but starting the collapsed line approach back one or two generations, thus capping the lines in a given beard at 2^n.
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Feb 15, 2024 23:22
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Every 10th generation is marked by a ritual that compiles the most historic accomplishments of the previous 9 and their own so that they can be combined into a single bead, and the same is true for 100th generations. Each of these events is a massive week or month long gathering at which dwarven historians engage in spirited debate and ritual combat over arguments (and no small amount of illicit greasing of palms). Most major dwarven ghost hauntings have been over anger at being left off a generational bead.
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Feb 15, 2024 23:36
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I'm not sure the right way to phrase this post. I had an idea for dwarf culture for one of my PC's. The idea being that as part of their culture, Dwarves thread or braid little metal decorations through their beards (or hair) which have carved in them the lineage of their ancestry. Accurately displaying those lineages are sacrosanct, it would be a major cultural taboo to display a false lineage in ones beard. However, given the inherent doubling of parents with each generation back, that would quickly become impractical, and I'm unsure how I should adjust the idea. You could do the Warhammer/Terry Pratchet thing and just embrace the ridiculousness to its fullest. Otherwise you could do a "Casual vs Formal" thing, where most dwarves when doing about their day to day only display the last N generations, and do the full impractical wear during formal occasions, like marriage/knighthood/etc. Or the length of your lineage you display is tied to your social standing, Kings do the full thing, and commoners only do like the last couple of generations?
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Feb 15, 2024 23:40
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Certain societally-crucial roles actually require the divestment of one’s lineage, thus occasionally resetting individual records. These positions are of great honor and import, but the need to become bald of chin for a generation and give up one’s ancestry can, indeed, make for some very interesting and awkward misunderstandings.
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Feb 15, 2024 23:46
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Bad Munki posted:Certain societally-crucial roles actually require the divestment of one’s lineage, thus occasionally resetting individual records. So beard-eunuchs, essentially
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Feb 15, 2024 23:49
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Asterite34 posted:So beard-eunuchs, essentially Just for a little while. As a treat.
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Feb 15, 2024 23:52
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DarkLich posted:The discussion about encounter design on the last page is really appreciated. It got my thinking about my current homebrew campaign, and how much more difficult it's been to build encounters at higher levels (my group just hit level 20). Encounter design requires effortposts, plural, but here are a few thoughts and augmentations of what's been discussed already: 1. Reinforcements. If a fight is overtuned, they don't show up; otherwise, they show up at a dramatic moment. The best part about having enemies who arrive later is that it's extremely difficult for the PCs to mess with them before they arrive, so there won't be one of those "we drop all our resources and kill the big bad in two rounds" situations when the big bad shows up in mid-combat. You can also have spellcasters arrive with spells running, which isn't as big a deal as in early editions of D&D but makes a difference. 2. Non-combat objectives. If the PCs care about innocents, the enemy has some ready to sacrifice, or menace, or there's just bystanders. Maybe the PCs are trying to uncover information and there's a non-magical book that gets set on fire by the bad guys. What you're looking for are things that require multiple combat actions and/or spells to resolve which will distract from the fight or require suboptimal play in combat terms. If the wizard opts to use a Wish to rescue the bystanders, that Wish isn't being used to win the fight. This can involve complex logistics, so feel free to simplify. X prisoners die on initiative 1 every round, unless saved; the following skill checks are needed to deactivate a magical trap that will kill the prisoners if they're cut loose. Abstraction is fine if you need it: the point is to redirect PC attention from "kill this target" to something else. 3. Active opponents. L20 play is the last place you want enemies to just sit around in their lairs waiting for the PCs to come kill them. By all means, let creatures with impressive lair actions set elaborate traps for PCs, but also have them strike first, whether against PCs directly or against things they value. Have the party girding up right outside the dragon's den when they receive multiple Sendings begging for help because the dragon's followers are attacking at multiple locations. Spending multiple Teleports plus resources neutralizing these threats will leave the PCs with the choice to return and face the dragon, or take a long rest and risk finding out that the dragon saved some of its followers to support it in launching a counterattack. Against most foes at this level of play, the PCs should either be concerned with stopping them from achieving their objectives or with covering themselves against attack. That cunning lich may announce as the PCs break through the last line of its defenses that it has spent most of its wealth hiring an order of assassins to kill all the NPC friends and family of the PCs, and then them, should it be killed. Was that a bluff? Will tracking down and attacking that order of assassins trigger a war that otherwise wouldn't have happened? If the lich spent its wealth but didn't hire the assassins, what did it do? Major threats should be major threats across time, even after they themselves have been defeated.
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Feb 16, 2024 00:11
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Thanks to all for the suggestions.Bad Munki posted:Each dwarf only displays two lineages: the mothers on their mother’s side, and the fathers on their father’s side. Because of this, it behooves parents to have multiple children to ensure both lines stay in the living beard record. I think this is the simplest and most elegant suggestion, combined with Raenir Salazar's idea of only displaying to the last N generation. I think that N should be left up to the particular Dwarf. Some Dwarves would be very proud and wish to display incredibly long lineages, others may wish to keep it simple with shorter beards (especially if a very long beard would be impractical for their career). I imagine though that most Dwarves go back at least three generations, and probably very few would go back more than 15. *** I think one quirk I want to give a character is severe seasickness, and so I want to define what that means mechanically, even if the situation never ends up coming up. How does this custom condition sound? Does it need tweaking? Should it also apply when onboard airships? Condition: Severe Seasickness Some people just aren't meant for boats. Even in the calmest conditions on water, the motion can send their stomach heaving. - When onboard a ship at sea, they have Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, and Disadvantage on Dexterity and Constitution Checks and Saving Throws. *** UPDATE: Condition: Severe Seasickness Some people just aren't meant for boats. Even in the calmest conditions on water, the motion can send their stomach heaving. - When onboard a ship at sea, when first leaving shore, or upon completing a long rest at sea, the character must make a DC 15 Constitution check. If the current weather is stormy, the check is made with disadvantage. If the character fails the check, they have Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, Dexterity Checks and Saving Throws, and Constitution Checks and Saving Throws until the end of their next short rest. At the end of a short rest, the character can repeat a failed check. This condition is temporarily suspended while swimming, but resumes if re-boarding a ship. The condition ends immediately upon stepping foot on shore or dock. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Feb 16, 2024 |
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Feb 16, 2024 02:09
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I’d have it go against a once-daily constitution check, allowing a re-check at rests to recover. Not EVERY day is a bad day. Make the DC whatever seems reasonable. Give them disadvantage on that check if you’re feeling cruel, or perhaps failing one check gives them dis on the next, that actually tracks with reality. Something like that.
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Feb 16, 2024 02:51
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Bad Munki posted:I’d have it go against a once-daily constitution check, allowing a re-check at rests to recover. Not EVERY day is a bad day. Make the DC whatever seems reasonable. Give them disadvantage on that check if you’re feeling cruel, or perhaps failing one check gives them dis on the next, that actually tracks with reality. Something like that. Okay, perhaps a once-daily DC 15 Constitution check (not a saving throw), with disadvantage on the check in stormy weather. And just to reiterate, I don't know if that character will ever end up going near a boat, I had the idea that in their backstory, they couldn't help adequately defend a shipment across a lake because they spent the whole trip green to the gills and thought it would make sense to attach mechanics to that flaw just in case boats do come up.
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Feb 16, 2024 04:10
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Also, not sure if you're aware, but there's a GM-specific thread that may be a good place for some of the advice you're after, with special attention to keeping it fun and practical for the game. Really good stuff in there. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3877675
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Feb 16, 2024 04:15
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