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Rick posted:of course we ended up only having a couple viewers I always wonder who those people are. Why are they following some (presumably) crappy stream when there is so much well-produced content out there? As a follow-up, do those people sit around wondering what the conclusion to that story is?
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Mar 16, 2022 14:48
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Anyone have some thoughts on how the outcomes of a battle between a Beholder and an Adult Red Dragon would play out? For background, my party is punching well above its weight at level two as we are in the service of some sort of good-aligned Beholder. He sets us out with a mission to investigate why some farm animals have been disappearing from the town that he administrates in some capacity. That turned into an Adult Red Dragon using some sort of magical locator gemstones to track us to that town which is overtop of the Beholder's lair. So, regular stuff, yeah? The lair can only be visited by way of teleporting in via what amounts to a Star Trek-style communicator pin affixed to a creature. Our plan is to have my archer fire an arrow into the dragon with the communicator pin tied to it, then the party "beams" ourselves and the dragon into the Beholder's lair. Assuming that works, there will be a clash of titans with my party of gnats also buzzing about. Side A: Beholder in Lair, level 2 Fighter (ranged, a.k.a. me), level 2 Cleric (Life domain), level 2 Rogue (halfling), level 2 Warlock (eldritch blast specialist in the making), level 2 Sorcerer (has magic missile). Side B: Adult Red Dragon. It should be noted that the Beholder has agreed to this plan and hopefully is on the up and up with his intentions. Assuming the dragon gets there, the lair is rather large, but should still limit the dragon's ability to fly. The lair has a magic exit of sorts through which is big enough to allow the party passage, but neither the beholder nor dragon would fit. As a fun twist, the party will get to "control" the Beholder. Which basically means rolling dice for it since the eye stalks it uses are randomly selected and it has only a single target, so not much deciding to be done. Lair actions, I guess, but even then, not many to pick from. My guess is that the beholder + party should be able to defeat the dragon. I suspect the party members will peace out pretty quick once the teleportation happens, but in that hasty retreat might manage to pop off a couple of attacks, for whatever that will be worth. We hope that the dragon will focus entirely on the beholder since it is a far, far greater threat. But even if the beholder dies, the dragon is still stuck is some exit-less cave deep underground, so that seems a win as far as some still wet-behind-the-ears level two characters should be concerned. Thoughts on who wins?
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Mar 21, 2022 16:13
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Mr. Lobe posted:What's the plan if your archer misses? Also, dragon fire can probably outright kill most level 2 characters. Don't get in probable line of fire. pog boyfriend posted:the struggle with this battle is sides aside and the arrow potentially missing aside (dragons are hard to hit!!) Valid question/points, to which the answer is try again. We have a box full of the transporter pins, so there will be a many arrows prepared with them. Since the dragon is flying into town (or walks, doesn't really matter, though this would be notable for how weird it would be if it came in on foot) the plan is to have the archer at a high vantage point (I think we decided on a clocktower) and just let the arrows fly once in range. It also bears mention at this point that the DM had us roll up rather super-heroic characters. With racial bonuses as an elf, I'm at 20 DEX, so with the archery fighting style and the proficiency bonus I have a +9 to hit. Bounded accuracy be dammed, this is what the DM likes. Down to the math of it, I'm only going to need a 10, which becomes a 9 once I get the bonus of a Bless spell. Assuming the dragon dashes every round (and why wouldn't it?) I'll get shots with disadvantage at 600', 440', 280' and then one round at regular range when it hits 120'. And if it is a weird dragon that decides to walk in, we'd get even more shots. I'd probably use Action Surge at the 120' range to get a second shot off. That is a minimum of five opportunities to land an arrow and on two of them I'd only need a nine or better. Others can try to shoot their bows/crossbows as well as it gets closer, but obviously they aren't built to be as ranged focused. On the balance of probability, someone should be able to land a hit. But in the case of everyone failing to land an arrow, we have a couple of backup plans. One involves our halfling rogue popping out of a haystack and trying to pin one on the dragon like the sticky grenade in Saving Private Ryan. That shouldn't surprise the dragon as much as our characters think it will since dragons have blindsight, but they don't know that so... we as players are hoping it doesn't come to that. At the same time, the sorcerer will try to use mage hand to stick one on. This has ever more downsides than the rogue's plan, but it at least shows that everyone is willing to try. Ultimately, we are just playing the numbers and hoping for the best. In the town, we have the benefit of being able to spread out in different directions and can achieve full cover inside the buildings. That should mitigate the breath weapon's effect since it won't be able to hit all of us at once. It would probably be ideal if the dragon did waste its breath weapon before getting teleported. It gets less good once the dragon is in melee range, yes. And certainly within the beholder's lair things probably won't go well for everyone. Someone is likely going to die, there is no doubt that an adult dragon can smoosh a level two anything with ease. Someone brought up siege weapons in the lair, which would be ideal. The sad thing is we don't have that kind of time to prepare. A magic amulet we have that glows when in proximity to dragons (what a handy item in a campaign full of the drat things!) indicates we have mere minutes to get ready.
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Mar 21, 2022 19:30
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El Fideo posted:This is like the exact opposite of the shooting a dragon bit in Discworld. Yes, it is a certainty to get the dragon to the beholder. We don't doubt that aspect as we have it covered by in-game plausibility that gets the DM past just having to wave his hands and make it happen. The uncertainty is who will win between the beholder in its lair (with whatever help a round or two that five level two characters can provide) and an adult red dragon. Moose King thinks the dragon wins, I don't, but does anyone else have a guess? Reveilled posted:I’m hoping to find some magic poo poo that super fucks me up, like replacing my blood with quicksilver; additional eyes that weep black, astral ichor; a prehensile tail with a hand on the end, etc. If you're looking for inspiration, check the tables in Dungeon Crawl Classics. There are about a dozen pages things that can go wrong, plus specific mishaps that can happen for every spell. Lammasu posted:I could swear I read about gnomish clockwork armor in some 2ed book but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I've checked the Complete Fighter's handbook and the Gnome and Hallfling handbook. I have an idea for a gnome paladin and I would like to work some of that into it. Arms and Equipment Guide? I can check my copy if you don't have access to one.
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Mar 22, 2022 14:28
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TheDemon posted:I know my current crop of players are atypical but they are of the "we kick down the door" type. It always was the best way to find the traps. Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon to buy a small quantity to herd animals to run ahead of the characters in a dungeon to try to trigger as many traps as possible. Not having to eat iron rations that night was just a bonus.
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Mar 25, 2022 15:39
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Oldsrocket_27 posted:As they act, the inspiration strikes them in the midst of battle (as they act in cool ways if you want) and their level up pops! I'm with you 150% on this. Just from doing stuff in my non-goblin-killing life I've noticed that I get better at tasks within the same day, I certainly don't have to toddle off somewhere to "train" or "reflect" or whatever reason some designer put in their book for leveling up to be a downtime-only activity. People just figure out stuff in the moment. But I would never, ever do this at a table because I feel like everything would go sideways for upwards of a hour as everyone undertakes some bookkeeping on their record sheet. Maybe if you have the right players who have already sorted everything out for their next level, but in my experience there is always someone who doesn't even think through to their next turn in combat, let alone what will happen at their next level.
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Feb 9, 2023 16:21
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BattleMaster posted:It's like they forgot the "hookers and blackjack" part of "making your own game" Are you telling me that you aren't excited about the bump to the digits in the standard array, the chance for humans to be small sized or the fact that you advance to both level 4 and 5 at the same time when you hit 6500 experience points?
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Feb 14, 2023 15:59
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Outrail posted:Got back into d&d after a decade hiatus and running through lost mines with a mixed group of newbie to experienced. So far if there's any complaints it's that the combat isn't challenging enough, but it's been fun all the way through. Combat in 5e is hard to get to a point where it feels interesting, and it doesn't help that the provided CR system doesn't work quite as well as advertised. By level 5 or 6, the PCs can bulldoze just about anything that shows up by itself since they have so many more actions than the monster. Especially if they are coming in fresh off of a long rest. There is basically no point in tossing in a random overland encounter if it is going to be the only action the PCs will see that day, it is just combat for combat's sake as there is nothing that will carryover in effect to the next day's adventuring.
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Feb 20, 2024 15:54
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dwarf74 posted:Honestly - this is why 5e needs a funnel I love funnels, but 5e characters take too drat long to create to have them so casually tossed aside. Sure, digital tools speed that up (as it can for DCC or whatever) but beyond that 5e characters are such supermen/women based on high average stats to make it narratively sensical to have so many offed in the sometimes cheap ways that funnels do.
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Feb 23, 2024 20:00
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Kaal posted:This is doubly true in a heroic fantasy game, where dying to mundane things like dysentery [...] isn’t part of the genre. E. Gary Gygax devotes a page and half to diseases of the sort, and very early in the book. Like, page 13, which is before he says what a character's ability scores mean. That would seem to indicate it was very important to him. Further evidence of that is relatively lengthily Appendix J of the ADandD DMG which reads like a homeopathic shopping list.
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Feb 27, 2024 20:12
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Zurreco posted:The simplest response is "the DM calls for rolls, not the players." We used to have a house rule that any time a player rolled before getting confirmation incurred a +5 to the DC. I had a DM that wanted us to do that during combat as well. Like, what the hell else would we do after someone says they will attack the orc? It really just made the tedious process of 5e combat take even longer.
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Mar 9, 2024 18:11
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scary ghost dog posted:i thought it was strange they were responding to a joke with a serious request, but i thought there was an actual 5e call of cthulu so i glossed over that detail and missed the connection There is , it came out in the 90s. They are on their seventh edition.
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Mar 20, 2024 15:43
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Hollismason posted:Oh so there are old modules for fifth converted? Goodman Games converted quite a few of the old B/X adventures into Fifth. I wouldn't exactly call them affordable, but if you really don't want to put in the work of converting Castle Amber yourself, they will have you covered.
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Mar 27, 2024 15:56
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