|
what would you integrate from becmi or od&d with 2e? 2e needs a ton of stuff stripped out and revamped (psionics, kits) but what would becmi even offer? that said the homebrew Ive played intermittently for ten years now is a 2.5e clone so I do think it's a great edition.
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 19:08 |
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:It also depends heavily on what KIND of bard you are. Valor bards will want to join the fray with a polearm as their bread and butter (or stand in the back with a crossbow); a lore bard is more likely to stay in the back and use Vicious Mockery. If you don't plan on using a weapon as much (ie: bagpipes), go Lore and grab said Mockery cantrip. Fantastic. I'll probably go Lore then, if I absolutely need to hit things I'll figure it out. I think ideally she wouldn't be particularly good at actual melee combat and would go out of her way to avoid stabbing people. The backstory I've come up with is a bit silly, and she's proficient in bagpipes specifically because of the incident that gave her a limp, which was amusing, at least to me. But ultimately I want to focus more on supporting from range and letting other people stab/crush/grapple things instead of doing it myself.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:31
|
|
|
mastershakeman posted:what would you integrate from becmi or od&d with 2e? 2e needs a ton of stuff stripped out and revamped (psionics, kits) but what would becmi even offer? If we're looking at the entire stack then bring over the modules and some setting-neutral things. It also allows for the "I" end point for people that like that. Kits need re-writing and balancing, but I would definitely keep them. Psionics... eh. If you go all-out with it as a subgame with the creatures that use the attack/defense modes instead of just "spells that cant be dispelled" its alright. It definitely needs a lot of collecting/clarifying. FRINGE fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Jul 30, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:39
|
|
|
Thumbtacks posted:Fantastic. I'll probably go Lore then, if I absolutely need to hit things I'll figure it out. I think ideally she wouldn't be particularly good at actual melee combat and would go out of her way to avoid stabbing people. The backstory I've come up with is a bit silly, and she's proficient in bagpipes specifically because of the incident that gave her a limp, which was amusing, at least to me. But ultimately I want to focus more on supporting from range and letting other people stab/crush/grapple things instead of doing it myself. Inspiration dice and cutting words cannot be overstated in their value toward this goal
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:39
|
|
|
Fantastic. I might run my backstory by you guys just to see where you'd suggest I improve, I'm usually relatively decent at writing them but I've always been more of a comedic writer than a serious one so there's probably places to improve
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:42
|
|
|
FRINGE posted:If we're looking at the entire stack then bring over the modules and some setting-neutral things. It also allows for the "I" end point for people that like that. oh yea, the modules and what not are great. I wish I'd played them instead of just reading them (like keep on the borderlands )
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:44
|
|
|
I have it in my head to do a lore bard that steals the Sword Coast cantrips somehow (multiclassing seems easiest, despite the loss of class levels). My extremely dirty math says that they're slightly more than cantrip-equivalent at baseline and a little short of competitive with a mediocre attacking character if they get everything (the Booming Blade target moves, Greenflame hits twice). How foolhardy am I being?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 02:56
|
|
|
Caphi posted:I have it in my head to do a lore bard that steals the Sword Coast cantrips somehow (multiclassing seems easiest, despite the loss of class levels). My extremely dirty math says that they're slightly more than cantrip-equivalent at baseline and a little short of competitive with a mediocre attacking character if they get everything (the Booming Blade target moves, Greenflame hits twice). How foolhardy am I being? If you're not going to be in melee as a valor bard I'm not sure what the point is. Those cantrips aren't great and you may not have the required stats (since Charisma and maybe even another mental stat will be your primary) to hit with them. Also it's much easier to just pick up the Magic Initiate feat at level 1 (Variant Human) or 4 (everyone else).
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 04:45
|
|
|
Lore bards don't have the defenses to be in melee combat, valor bards already get extra attacks that clash with cantrip usage. Those cantrips are actually not all that useful for, uh, a lot of spell-sword types, because of how extra attacks work. The general rule of thumb is, if you got extra attacks, those cantrips stop being great. If you focus on a single attack, the cantrips become great again.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 05:23
|
|
|
I need a suggestion. What's the best deus ex machina to get a party out of the under dark? My players have all kind of decided the setting and campaign just isn't jiving and even I agree. How can I hand wave them out and onto another adventure?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 05:30
|
|
|
Yeah Bard doesn't get a lot in the way of "attack" cantrips, unless you pick some up from somewhere else. Lore Bard excels at how many skills they have, and the ability to grab a few more spells from other classes at an earlier point than Bards normally get them. Also on a totally different point I am going to try and run Curse of Strahd on the forums.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 05:32
|
|
|
Carteret posted:I need a suggestion. What's the best deus ex machina to get a party out of the under dark? My players have all kind of decided the setting and campaign just isn't jiving and even I agree. How can I hand wave them out and onto another adventure? Find an ancient teleportation circle? Abandoned elevator to the surface? Long dormant underground geyser, suddenly about to erupt?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 05:34
|
|
|
Carteret posted:I need a suggestion. What's the best deus ex machina to get a party out of the under dark? My players have all kind of decided the setting and campaign just isn't jiving and even I agree. How can I hand wave them out and onto another adventure? Crashed airship.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 05:45
|
|
|
Carteret posted:I need a suggestion. What's the best deus ex machina to get a party out of the under dark? My players have all kind of decided the setting and campaign just isn't jiving and even I agree. How can I hand wave them out and onto another adventure? Portals and wild teleportation effects are pretty common in Faerun's Underdark.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 05:51
|
|
|
Carteret posted:I need a suggestion. What's the best deus ex machina to get a party out of the under dark? My players have all kind of decided the setting and campaign just isn't jiving and even I agree. How can I hand wave them out and onto another adventure? - players find what appears to be a huge chimney shaft leading up for a long long way. After a harrowing climb they find themselves on a mountainside somewhere - as has been mentioned, some kind of "natural" portal effect that starts a one-shot adventure through the Astral or something (Or layer one of Baator/Hell (lots of portasl), or some portal-heavy layer of the Abyss... either way they need some way to identify a Prime or Astral portal and then race to it before they get eaten.) - players find some elven skeletons from a scouting group and accidentally trigger the escape device, dropping them in an elven city/forest with a lot of explaining to do
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 06:30
|
|
|
Bards are meant to be more of a support role, so they don't get potent attack cantrips. You can, however, just grab Eldritch Blast and Hex via the Magic Initiate feat. You could also spend only two levels multiclassing into warlock to get Eldritch Blast, Hex, and both the Agonizing Blast (add your Charisma modifier to the damage of your Eldritch Blasts) and Repelling Blast (every hit of your Eldritch Blast can push the target back 10 feet) invocations. Two levels of warlock on any Charisma-based spellcaster is some seriously munchkin bullshit. Pick up the Spell Sniper feat and you'll do more damage than any melee fighter from a safe distance. That being said, being absurdly effective in combat sort of obliges you to become the "I attack" character every round. Dipping 3 levels into Sorcerer for the Heighten Spell and Subtle Spell metamagics as a Bard makes things way more fun.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 06:32
|
|
|
Portal to Sigil, an uneventful night of carousing, and then a door to an alleyway in whatever city you want to dump them back to.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 06:35
|
|
|
So, I'm starting up my second campaign as DM soon, and I plan on pulling heavily from the early Mega Man games. As the creations of the Archmage Lumos, the party members will have been designed and built for one purpose, to My solution thus far is, during character creation, which we'll be doing in character, the archmage will only have so many crystals of certain types of classes. He is a forager living on the outskirts of civilization, after all. Further along, their all-Warforged party will start finding class crystals instead of accumulating generic XP, and then it will become a decision of, if there are four of you, and you only found three crystals, who gets to level up, or doesn't get to, and how are you as a group going to make it up to that person, or those people, in the meantime? If the party needs certain roles fulfilled, and everyone will probably have to multiclass eventually, will it be better at the start to let everyone take a level in Fighter, or will it be better to let one person use all six Fighter crystals? Etc, etc, etc. Am I setting myself up for failure? As a group, we've never really been driven by XP or gold, so that isn't much of a concern. I thought this might be a good way to test and maybe strengthen some of my players, both in game and out, but I would love to hear thoughts or suggestions or maybe alternatives I haven't thought of.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 06:47
|
|
|
My plan was to go cha/dex and lean on Cutting Words and/or try to steal Shield somehow. Lore bards get all the good stuff (a zillion skills, extra spells) and I'd be playing support for sure, but I want to try and squeeze minimum competence with a rapier out, to see if I can swing it. And I think if I'm going to ever be in melee, trying to make those cantrips work would be more fun than Extra Attacking, anyway. But it'd be my first 5e game so I'm checking what I've missed in my calculations. (ASIs aren't an issue with at least one GM I might be playing with.) If I ever do get to try it, I'll let you guys know how fast I died.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 06:48
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:So, I'm starting up my second campaign as DM soon, and I plan on pulling heavily from the early Mega Man games. As the creations of the Archmage Lumos, the party members will have been designed and built for one purpose, to The problem is that DnD class scaling is nonlinear for the spellcasters. A wizard 6 can wipe the floor with six wizard 1s. In addition, I always feel like passive +numerics are boring - even if you get something technically superior they're less *cool*, which is a problem for getting levels of fighter or whatever. I'd also recommend you go full megaman and let them steal unique powers from bosses If you've got a party of four, have each boss drop an attack / defense / mobility / utility And let the players decide who gets what. If they kill a zombie dragon, one guy gets cool grappling hook whip made out of a freaking spinal cord, one guy gets fire breath, one has wicked bone armor, and one gets unlimited floating dicks with edges made out of wicked bone spikes. Or something like that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 08:02
|
|
|
Caphi posted:My plan was to go cha/dex and lean on Cutting Words and/or try to steal Shield somehow. Lore bards get all the good stuff (a zillion skills, extra spells) and I'd be playing support for sure, but I want to try and squeeze minimum competence with a rapier out, to see if I can swing it. And I think if I'm going to ever be in melee, trying to make those cantrips work would be more fun than Extra Attacking, anyway. But it'd be my first 5e game so I'm checking what I've missed in my calculations. (ASIs aren't an issue with at least one GM I might be playing with.) If you want to do damage as a lore bard, it's probably best to multiclass - either two levels of warlock (grants some armor and the aforementioned hex/blast/etc) or a single level in Life cleric (heavy armor, massive boost to heals). Lore bard AC is legitimately one of the lowest in the game - technically higher then wizard, but wizard has ways to make up for it. Don't multiclass until later though, bard gets all their good goodies early on. It also gives you a chance to see if you DO need to multiclass; you might find you don't actually need to get a damage boost if the rest of the characters have that covered, you might find you don't need a defense/survivability boost if your GM doesn't target you, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 08:17
|
|
|
Tunicate posted:I'd also recommend you go full megaman and let them steal unique powers from bosses That's more or less what's on the menu, and I hope it leads to some interesting table interactions. "You've defeated the magirobotic dragon that just wouldn't stop flapping its wings and throwing foot-long daggers at you. After ripping open its chest cavity, removing its heart, and returning to the Archmage's workshop, he determines that he can upgrade one of the adamantine weapons you were given to deal an extra 2d4 slashing damage against vulnerable creatures. Who gets it, and which weapon? Talk amongst yourselves..." Tunicate posted:The problem is that DnD class scaling is nonlinear for the spellcasters. A wizard 6 can wipe the floor with six wizard 1s. There will be no Paladins, Sorcerers, or Wizards in the kingdom of Capricom. Period. Exceptions have been made for Bards, because Bards, Clerics, because why not be able to rain a little extra thunder down on people if you're a robot, and Druids, because if you can allow someone to turn from metal robot guy to metal robot bear, and you don't, you are fundamentally broken inside. Dungeons will be mostly straight-forward, (with I would prefer not to repeat that nonsense if I can avoid it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 08:48
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:So, I'm starting up my second campaign as DM soon, and I plan on pulling heavily from the early Mega Man games. As the creations of the Archmage Lumos, the party members will have been designed and built for one purpose, to if you're going Megaman My idea for it is to make everyone a fighter (let everyone use their highest stat for attacking though) and give them all a cool charge shot that corresponds to their weapon (not sure how to do this myself, sacrificing a turn is no fun so maybe make it a x per encounter power that costs a bonus action to use and x increases as you level up. Inkspot posted:Exceptions have been made for Bards, because Bards, Clerics, because why not be able to rain a little extra thunder down on people if you're a robot, and Druids, because if you can allow someone to turn from metal robot guy to metal robot bear, and you don't, you are fundamentally broken inside. Don't give them class powers innately but make those things part of the warforged master drops which you can give charges to that mimic an E meter
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 09:11
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:and they took nearly 100 total psychic damage in all to figure out that maybe they should be following the rules of chess to get across the room with the checkered floor and giant stone monuments that move like chess pieces. Did the game world even have chess as a thing? Maybe they were just being good roleplayers. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 09:18
|
|
|
Is there any errata that says a Monk's martial arts Bonus Action attack has to come after the attack Action? Or can it be in any order, as long as your turn consists of both?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 09:54
|
|
|
Ask your GM
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 10:46
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:That's more or less what's on the menu, and I hope it leads to some interesting table interactions. I mean, what you're really looking for is some kind of points based system but...
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 13:01
|
|
|
Yeah, we're pretty well married to 5e at this point. I'm hoping that messing around with vulnerabilities, resistances, and immunities in a substantial way will distract them from feats and +X weapons and all that. At least for a little while. Elfgames posted:give them all a cool charge shot that corresponds to their weapon Taking away innate class abilities would definitely not fly, but I didn't even think about E meters. That seems like a no-brainer. I gave them a pack of five Bolts of Slaying before and watching them decide as a group when it was a good idea to use one was a lot of fun. When their last Bolt was fired and missed, there was a palpable drop in morale. Next round, the guy carrying them sullenly reached for a regular bolt, crit, and, wouldn't you know it, there were six all along. That could work on a larger scale. Hello Sailor posted:Did the game world even have chess as a thing? Maybe they were just being good roleplayers. I wish that were the case. I really do.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 16:11
|
|
|
Carteret posted:I need a suggestion. What's the best deus ex machina to get a party out of the under dark? My players have all kind of decided the setting and campaign just isn't jiving and even I agree. How can I hand wave them out and onto another adventure? Our party got out by finding a portal to a surface temple of Elistraee. Not sure how that would work for you, but it's just my 2 cents.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 16:49
|
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:If you want to do damage as a lore bard, it's probably best to multiclass - either two levels of warlock (grants some armor and the aforementioned hex/blast/etc) or a single level in Life cleric (heavy armor, massive boost to heals). Lore bard AC is legitimately one of the lowest in the game - technically higher then wizard, but wizard has ways to make up for it. Don't multiclass until later though, bard gets all their good goodies early on. It also gives you a chance to see if you DO need to multiclass; you might find you don't actually need to get a damage boost if the rest of the characters have that covered, you might find you don't need a defense/survivability boost if your GM doesn't target you, etc. What are the AC benchmarks, anyway? I've been assuming that (pre-magic) 16-18 is ordinary and 20 is strong, but what is it in practice?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 17:03
|
|
|
Caphi posted:What are the AC benchmarks, anyway? I've been assuming that (pre-magic) 16-18 is ordinary and 20 is strong, but what is it in practice? Based on my analysis: 1. A Fighter will begin play with Chain Mail, which gives them 16 AC, which works out to a 40% chance to be hit by "on-level" monsters, who have a +3 attack bonus 2. They should expect to want to upgrade to Splint Mail 17 AC by character level 3 to maintain that 40% chance to be hit 3. They should expect to want to upgrade to Plate Mail 18 AC by character level 4 to maintain that 40% chance to be hit 4. After that, they can slap on a shield to get to 20 AC, which will let them maintain a 40% chance to be hit until level character level 10/CR 10 5. Beyond this, there are no more guaranteed upgrades. Armor +1 and Ring of Protection +1-type items exist, but the game does not assume that the player is "owed" them the way they were in 3rd/4th Edition. To keep that 40% chance to be hit up until level 20/CR 20, you would need 23 AC, which is (Plate Mail + Shield + [+3 worth of other AC bonuses])
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2016 17:43
|
|
|
Presumably, you can cast Vicious Mockery with a bagpipe focus by simply playing it louder in response to requests to tone down the droning.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 03:43
|
|
|
If you're a Bard who doesn't insult your opponents or tell jokes/sing little songs to perk up your comrades, why be a Bard?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 03:54
|
|
|
I'm trying to figure out if a better use of thaumaturgy for a bagpipe bard would be to make flames come out of it, or to make it ungodly loud we also might have a bard already so on the off chance two bards isn't idea, while I was driving home I had an idea to make the most regular person i could just a normal dude that owns a farm and runs his small town's militia and hasn't really seen the outside world very much and probably hasn't met anyone particularly outlandish who, for reasons, has to venture out into the world. That could be fun. Or possibly a monk who decides that his arms are the best fighting arms and every time he kills someone in hand to hand combat he rips their arms off and packs them in his backpack as arm trophies choices.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 06:32
|
|
|
Thumbtacks posted:I'm trying to figure out if a better use of thaumaturgy for a bagpipe bard would be to make flames come out of it, or to make it ungodly loud That's seriously a question? https://youtu.be/K-Op1Mng4oY?t=23
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 07:49
|
|
|
Bonus points if the normal guy is like... a sorcerer, with a set of refluffed spells that are all mundane events just happening to help him in battle.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 08:11
|
|
|
AlphaDog posted:That's seriously a question? That's true, but I'm pretty sure thaumaturgy just actually sets things on fire instead of giving off the illusion of fire and I don't want to actively set my instrument on fire.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 08:29
|
|
|
Hurdy Gurdy is the best Bard instrument by far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpmExgwV-hM
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 12:59
|
|
|
Dr. Doji Suave posted:Hurdy Gurdy is the best Bard instrument by far. It's the stringed version of a bagpipe, so yes.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 17:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 19:08 |
|
|
Inkspot posted:If you're a Bard who doesn't insult your opponents or tell jokes/sing little songs to perk up your comrades, why be a Bard? You could cut promos to do the same job. Like Rick Flair
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2016 22:40
|
|
