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I'm not sure how many people here use minis in their D&D campaigns, but just in case you do then feel free to check out my SA Mart thread for Reaper Bones minis. The guy I was splitting the set with bailed, so his loss could be your gain depending on what you might be looking for. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3556962&highlight=#post416945878 Thanks Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 04:24
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 09:20 |
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Is there a good tool or set of charts for damage averages? I see charts for "the" average, 2d6=7 average damage. But are there more useful or nuanced charts? I want to adjust monster damage so my Froghemoth doesn't one hit kill the players, but I don't want to nerf it too hard. 3d10+6 damage is way too lethal, but I worry that 2d6 is way too soft. My excuse is that the critter is absolutely ancient, so it's like grandpa trying to put up a fight. The monster suits the setting and is such a fun fit for a mid-game boss fight I want to use it, even if the as-written stat block is way too deadly. Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Jan 20, 2023 |
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Jan 20, 2023 01:47
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Siivola posted:Just to confuse Indolent Bastard further: This is true when you look at the difference between 3d6 and 1d6+8, but it gets complicated when you look at something like the difference between 1d20 and 3d6. The averages and maximum values are (broadly) similar, but the probability of rolling exactly 10 is much higher on the 3d6 than the 1d20 because of how the d6s add up. No confusion, it is all food for thought. Thank you. The fight is just supposed to be fun, so I may fudge to ensure the wacky running down a road Warcraft like boss fight stays fun. The thing that will make this difficult is if the players don't try to kite the monster. If they try a stand-up fight, it may not go well even with it nerfed. The way to run a Froghemoth was well laid out in this post I found. It can be played more like a video game boss than a standard D&D fight. It has attack patterns and behaviors that make it more interesting to me. https://www.themonstersknow.com/froghemoth-tactics/
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Jan 20, 2023 20:56
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The Froghemoth fight was interesting. It was awful in combat which was ok, but never actually managed to eat anyone which was surprising. The players were smart enough to run after a couple rounds of combat which was great and so the map switch to a road for running combat went great. The unexpected side effect was the players feeling guilty for killing some of the kobolds that unleashed the beast on them. The party thought the kobolds stole some food, but came to learn someone else stole the food and sold it to the kobolds who had families in the ruins they were camped out in. The kobolds did give lots of opportunity for the party to leave, but when one player magically compelled a kobold to approach him for a chat they unleashed the Froghemoth. My murder-hobos have a conscience, and a conscience over killing kobolds! Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jan 26, 2023 |
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Jan 26, 2023 15:07
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I'm trying to populate a mid to late adventure dungeon end boss. The trouble I'm finding is that everything either seems laughably easy for the party to destroy or they are some kind of lich that is going to absolutely tpk my players. Any suggestions? The crawl is taking place in a dungeon that has been sealed for centuries, so whatever exists there has to be able to do so without food or water. Therefore, I'm leaning heavily towards the undead.
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Feb 13, 2023 00:30
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Dwarfs, and Golems, and Demons oh my! Thank you all. I will re-work my "Oops! All undead" skeleton festival dungeon.
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Feb 15, 2023 13:07
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Found magic items. How do you deal with them? Do your players have to pay to get them identified, how much does casting detect magic reveal of the item, does attuning with the item give players "perfect knowledge" of the item, or do you leave it as somewhat of a mystery?
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Feb 21, 2023 17:39
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The Slack Lagoon posted:I have recently discovered my party really really likes puzzles and riddles. D&D 3.5 Book Of Challenges Puzzles, Predicaments, and Perplexities Puzzles, Predicaments, and Perplexities 2 There is a third PPP as well, but I don't think it is anywhere to take a look before you buy. DM Guild, for all of your PPP needs.
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Mar 23, 2023 15:41
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Speaking of Identify. How the heck do you maintain secrets (or at the very least avoid game breaking spoilers) in your world? Identify, detect magic, detect good and evil, charm person, friends. It is hard to make something that is mysterious when your players use the "know stuff" or "truth serum" spells. (Yes I am new, yes I am being a bit hyperbolic based on frustration.)
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Apr 6, 2023 17:35
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What is it with players and doors? My players found a stone trap door. In the area they found several torques hidden under big rocks. The stone trapdoor has two divots in the top that lined up the the ends of any/all of the torques. What do the players do? Shoot eldritch blast at it. Which triggers a magical defense that I gave it so they wouldn't just hammer through the stone and the warlock is zapped off his feet. Next, they bury it and ignore it for several sessions. When they finally come back to it, they investigate it to with in an inch of its life and find that it is a) magical b) made of stone c) can be safely touched in a non-violent manner d) has a beveled edge on one side suggesting a hinge e) has two divots on the top (which they already knew). With this new intel the Goliath seeks to lift the trap door straight up. Middling roles and the fact I don't want to have the door open that way results in failure. The best thing to do is get the dwarf to help, right? More mediocre roles and the door continues to refuse to be lifted. In the face of this failure the artificer states her intent to excavate the stone around the door and begins to craft tools that will facilitate this. (The player is an engineer, so fair play to him, but still...its a door, just open it!) I put my thumb on the scale and ask the dwarf to roll wisdom to have the flash of inspiration that the torques they unearthed (many real world weeks ago) would line up nicely with the divots. This revelation is met with deep suspicion. Dear players, if I wanted to make the earth explode beneath your feet and kill you all, I don't need you to do the thing I just suggested. I can just straight up explode you on a whim.  Eventually the dwarf musters up the courage to place a torque in the obvious divots. The edge opposite the "hinge" raises up a little. Pearls are clutched and breaths are held. Nothing happens. A glowing coin is tossed in and quickly the light disappears. The adventurers listen really hard at the hole. The edge of a hole can be seen, but nobody will touch this now unlocked door. The dwarf being suspicious removes the torque and the door closes. Applies another torque and the stone raises slightly. Remove, close. Apply new torque, open. Eventually a long stick and a rock are deployed as a lever and the door pivots up offering zero resistance. The dwarf feels more testing is needed and removes the torque. The door snaps shut which bashes the goliath in the face with the lever . Torque+rock=open yet again. The fact the stone moved with zero resistance is overlooked and a new lever is constructed. Finally they take a proper look and see a rough hewn hole in the stone that the door was sitting on, the hole is very much like a well. Forty-ish feet down they see a glowing coin. A flutter of excitement, until they remember they tossed it down there. A successful rappelling later and they have entered the dungeon that had a big obvious door on it, with a fairly obvious "lock" on it that they had the key for a brisk 20 minutes after they decided to go in. These are all experienced players. They have all run many games in the past, yet this door held them up like few things have in this adventure. Seriously, what is it with players and doors? VOX MACHINA vs DOORS 
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Apr 13, 2023 16:03
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Whybird posted:I mean, there was no indication to them that putting the torques (unless I'm misunderstanding what a torque is?) into the slots would open it up other than the video game logic "this is a door so it must have a key nearby" That is a mostly reasonable reply. It was 20 or fewer minutes, not "several hours". I wasn't frustrated, it just amused me. The actual unlocking wasn't too bad, but the investigating, testing and prodding took the bulk of the time. The trouble with the magical defender you propose is it would be what they expected and that isn't what I wanted. The tension of the unknown is the point, so having the dungeon go full red-alert is the opposite of what I want. There is no way you could know that, so I am not trying blasting you about it, I'm just fleshing out why I went the route I did. Could they have kicked down the door and been presented with a silent dungeon? Sure. But occasionally I would like to see folks figure out problem and not "solve" everything by tossing a fireball at it. I foolishly assumed leaving items around the door might inspire them to think that they might do something more than just exist since they had zero cash value. I had hoped video game logic would kick in, but that is on me. I felt it was fairly obvious without resorting to using a big brass key that had a label that said "For use on stone trap door". But I am learning that D&D seems to have trained people rely on the game to spotlight and over explain things to them. The artificer is a bit miffed that "Identify" told them about what an item does, but not how to recharge it as I find the "items recharge at dawn because that is how recharging works for all items everywhere" dull. (And apparently I am not completely alone in this). Rather than read the inscription on the item and then try to puzzle out the child's riddle that will reveal how to recharge the item they have just given up before even looking at it, so they have a magical item that doesn't work. Maybe I am a lovely DM, but it is my first time running the game. I guess it's on me for wanting some engagement and not giving players the Haynes Manual on the item just because they had a nap while holding it.
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Apr 13, 2023 17:44
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Reveilled posted:In fairness I could see my own "this is a trap" sensors going off if a magically sealed door which requires two magical devices (wtf is a torque by the way? I assumed you meant hinge but then "hinge" ended up in inverted commas) to open just happened to be hidden under rocks in the area. What sort of person constructs a magical trapdoor with a permanent magical trap and then hides the actual key under a nearby rock like it's an AirBnB? If this was built by some ancient high precursor civilisation the key would be buried deeper than just being under a rock, and if instead it was built by some powerful spellcaster, surely they'd just take the keys with them or hide them in a demiplane or something. It is supposed to be triggering their "This is a trap" sense. The game module expressly says: "Subverting Expectations Normally, in adventures of this type, unearthing an old circle of stones is obviously an extraordinarily foolish thing to do. In this scenario, it is the exact opposite. If the Characters unearth the ancient oghams [And explore the dungeon I put under the center stone because just uprooting megalithic rocks is a bit humdrum] , nothing but good will result. However, toppling the standing stones will horrify many veterans of RPGs as they will expect to unleash some ancient horror." For reference the whole area they are in is plagued with nightmares and ill omens. They have tracked it to this stone circle and have committed to fixing this evil. They have after days of work uprooted six 6ft tall stones under which were the torques and the larger 9ft center stone that was standing on the trap door. I provided the players with the following reference image of a torque. And when describing them noted the width of the gap which was exactly the same distance the divots in the stone trap door were apart.  The description of the "hinge" was a beveled cut on the back of one side of trap door "Which looks like it could act as a hinge". Which was yet another attempt on my part to say "It could be this" with out saying. "This is a trap door. It has a great big set of hinges on one side and a keyhole in the middle." "What sort of person constructs a magical trapdoor with a permanent magical trap and then hides the actual key under a nearby rock like it's an AirBnB? If this was built by some ancient high precursor civilisation the key would be buried deeper than just being under a rock, and if instead it was built by some powerful spellcaster, surely they'd just take the keys with them or hide them in a demiplane or something." The same sort of BBEG that has a secret backdoor tunnel into their "super secure" lair. Admittedly these rocks weigh a few tons and do require a little bit of effort to shift. I would like to suggest that if the key was hidden away in a remote land, or kept in a different dimension to ensure the security of the dungeon it might make the unlocking the door a little bit too difficult.  Could I have introduced a "find the key" quest? I guess, but no body even knew this trap door was under the huge standing stone as it has been there about 3000+ years, so who would know where the key might be? "Which suggests to me you're not giving players much context in your descriptions because the way I would describe that would be "about 40' down, you see the coin you threw in, which is glowing on a solid stone floor" Thanks for this. I will endeavor to get better at describing the world for my players. Obviously I am leaving them in the dark too much without intending to. Lamuella posted:I'm a cautious fan of the idea that whatever the actual solution to the puzzle is, a backup solution should be "whatever new thing your party tries after they've spend 10 minutes trying to solve the puzzle". It really makes me wonder when you hear about the obtuse clues, puzzles and traps that were the bread a butter of 1st ed. how D&D ever succeeded. The Tomb of Horrors has some of the most inscrutable and unforgiving BS I have ever seen. Who would make a dungeon and leave clues to help invaders succeed? Acererak the demi-litch apparently. 
Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Apr 13, 2023 |
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Apr 13, 2023 18:17
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My Lovely Horse posted:So was the trapdoor actually magically locked or anything in a way that required those specific torques? Because what I'm getting from the description right now is a fairly regular door that's missing its handle but the handle is on a nearby table, and yeah it should be obvious that this handle fits this door but it seems like manipulating the lock or pushing it open should also work. I didn't actually think whether it was magically locked or not but it didn't matter because nobody touched the divots in the top until they actually stuck the torque into those into the divots. Why this whole thing amuses me is imagining this scenario taking place in real life. You arrive at a warehouse. The door in front of you is missing a door knob. (You have a doorknob in your backpack). You elect as your first action to try and kick the door down. The door does not collapse under your kick and you fall backwards onto your butt. Your next course of action is to try and rip the door off its hinges with your bare hands. When that fails, your next course of action is to devise a way to carve a hole into the wall of the warehouse. The escalation that goes on in role playing games is always funny to me because if you were presented with a locked door in real life I'm going to guess you wouldn't try and find a nearby excavating machine to just rip a hole in the wall of the building. I understand role-playing is a power fantasy but I like rewarding insight and clever thinking. Can you fireball the whole tavern and win the fight that broke out? Sure. But I'm more impressed by the player that tries to de-escalate the situation and not rush to the nuclear option. Maybe I just suck and am no fun 🤷 I do check in with my players and ask them how they're enjoying the game and I try and get honest feedback and so far no major complaints and I have implemented the things that have been requested to change. Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 16:03
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Bad Munki posted:I don’t understand how a rock slab with two dents is supposed to be opened by a flimsy half hoop, and if so, how it would be obvious. Did you play Monkey Island? You rub everything on everything to see if it does anything. 😂 It is something that has been described as a trapdoor. The two dents are described as exactly 3 inches apart. You have found six pieces of metal surrounding this trapdoor. They have been described as having a gap exactly 3 inches apart and terminate in spheres that are the exact same size as the dents in the stone. I guess there is a reason that video games come with waypoint markers and glowing pick ups nowadays. Am I getting a bit exhausted? Yes I am! It has been a long week. I know this because I'm getting salty at bad munki a poster I've enjoyed for many years. I think I'm going to lock myself out of the something awful app for the rest of the day. Thank you for the input. I will attempt to apply what has been said by you all. I just need to try and find some kind of balance between giving them a challenge and not simply saying "yes and" to every plan that's presented to me, which feels like it removes all stakes. Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 16:19
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It is challenging to run a chase well in D&D. Making it feel fluid and tense is hard. I know it is on me to weave a story and make it fun, funny and exciting, but there are lots of moving parts and tracking progress and spent Dash actions. Add a grumpy rules guy that get annoyed by estimates of distance during a theatre of the mind scene and the difficulty goes up. Luckily one player "hired a cab" and spiced things up with good old fashioned drift race to catch an NPC juiced up on Haste.
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Jun 8, 2023 04:21
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admanb posted:Any one of those sounds like it could take 10 sessions all on its own. Does your group move really, really fast? In my experience no group moves that fast. I had a small map that was intended to help establish the marching order into the dungeon in a fun and visual way rather than just asking them "What is the marching order?". They spent 10 minutes searching and investigating a space that had no secrets as I don't like meta and just say "There is nothing here, quit looking". It is a rule, players will hyper-focus on a throw away line of description, a non-essential NPC or a useless item and ignore the biggest most obvious plot-hook or clue.
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Jun 16, 2023 19:33
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Has anyone run Shore of Dreams? It came up on some lists of great one shots and now that I am reading it I am unsure why. The main baddie is obvious from the start as they are the only fully fleshed out character and every single other NPC says go see the tavern keeper, she knows everything about your "mystery quest" and also she owns all the local transportation (for some reason). Then a major plot point is the party is drugged asleep or knocked out, which almost never works and takes away player agency when they wake up unarmed in a strange place (one of my least favorite tropes). Then once the party delves the dungeon it has multiple puzzles and doors with secret solutions for each. I know I should be a flexible DM and allow other answers, but I am annoyed that the finale is literally kept behind a locked door. I started to try and rewrite the worst bits like the party needing to be knocked out to progress the story, but I am wondering if anyone has tried it out and how the players liked it before I commit too much time?
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Mar 7, 2024 01:12
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Golden Bee posted:I’ve had great luck just taking premises and encounters from modules. Sometimes small changes make a huge difference. And Paul Williams “web of the spider cult”, one of the players finds their house broken into, with a dead explorer inside. This clue leads them on an adventure with a lot of fun set pieces* and too many fights), at the end they fight the spider cult… And that’s it. But that’s not a story, it’s a sequence of events. a story is about the circumstances that make a person change or not. Thanks for the advice. I feel like I ended up making stone soup. The module still exists deep in the core of what I made, but my adventure now involves one compelling plot hook (not three options that are weak in different ways), some actual searching and sleuthing in the village, a goblin raid not a failed abduction of an NPC the players just met that just didn't seem to fit the narrative. The obvious bad guy is now hiding behind two layers of subterfuge with the town mayor being the "obvious villain", and a follower of the BBEG playing as the BBEG so they can remain safe until the climax. No drugging the party and stripping off their gear. A bigger better map for the mini dungeon and the removal of all of the annoying tricks to open doors. Seriously, how un-fun would this be to run? Flavor text: Stumbling through the rubble and stagnant water, you find yourself in a large, man-made chamber. The walls are lined with a fresco that depicts humans riding giant sharks across breaking tsunamis. Standing guard and blocking the back of the room behind an altar is a reredos depicting a giant wave that seems to come crashing into this room. DM info: A DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check on the fresco reveals a small button behind a shell (see the Door to the Vault section for details). A DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check around the reredos reveals the occasional bubble arising from its base and strange currents in the water. A successful DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check on the reredos allows a character to find a small pearl, occupying a socket in the upper part of the wave emerging from the reredos and an empty socket next to it. If a second pearl is placed in the other empty socket, the reredos will begin to shift, revealing a submerged tunnel beneath leading to T5 (see page 16). A DC 20 Arcana (Intelligence) check will unveil that something is bound to the reredos. That is lots of necessary progress locked behind dice rolls. Could I figure out a way to nuance this and get the players through it? Sure I could, but I don't want to as rolling Investigation and Perception checks to move ahead is not fun. Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Mar 19, 2024 |
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Mar 19, 2024 15:02
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Any tips on how to run a BBEG? I don't want to steal the party's climax by having the baddie Dimension Door to get away or something similar. I also don't want the party to beat the BBEG down and then get access to the cool items they have. Specifically, the adventure ends with uncovering a powerful artifact. The BBEG snatches the artifact and I plan for it to bond with them in a horrific way that should dissuade the party from trying to use it, but players being players I worry that they will put the clearly evil crown on just to see how it goes. I am also not wanting to say "the powerful item sits broken on the ground" after the fight is over and remove player agency over what to do with this cursed item.
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Mar 25, 2024 15:16
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 09:20 |
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Working on how to get my BBEG some mooks. Did you know that Conjure Animal lets you summon eight CR 1/4 animals. Did you know giant poisonous snakes are CR 1/4. Did you know that casting Conjure Animal at 5th level doubles the number of animals summoned? Sixteen snakes in a 20'x70' room is a pile of attacks of opportunity if they try to run past the summoned animals. Especially if they get summoned across the available space and not neatly stacked in a corner. (I've also heard of conjuring cows above the target and calculating damage from eight or more plummeting bovines.) Being a DM is dumb and funny.
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Mar 27, 2024 22:17
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