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The best parts of 3.5e came from the tail end of its lifespan. If WotC did actually listen to forum nerds overanalyzing and dissecting poo poo, thank loving god
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Aug 9, 2016 07:06
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| # ? Jun 15, 2024 15:18 |
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bewilderment posted:(downside of the above link: does not contain the phrase "If you roll your number, you have Dungeon Dragons")
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Aug 9, 2016 07:16
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The best Dungeons & Dragons is the one that I've been making out of a Star Wars RPG of all things, just so that I don't have to GM 5th edition again.
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Aug 9, 2016 08:14
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Thumbtacks posted:why the gently caress do spears have a 20 foot melee range? How big are these spears? A few very limited snippets from a huge and boring-to-most topic: Chinese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiang_(spear) quote:The length varied from around 9 feet long, increasing up to 21 feet. According to general Qi Jiguang, the Ming military categorized spears above 9 feet as short spears, 14 feet as long spears, and spears below 9 feet as spiked staffs, which were used more for hitting than stabbing. Japanese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yari quote:Around the latter half of the 16th century, ashigaru holding pikes (nagae yari) with length of 4.5 to 6.5 m (15 to 21 ft) became the main forces in armies. European/MiddleEastern: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear quote:The Macedonian xyston was 12–14 ft. (3.6–4.2 m) in length and could be used with one or two hands. The use of the two-handed kontos by heavily armoured soldiers on horseback, known as cataphracts, was developed first by nomadic eastern Iranian tribes and spread throughout the ancient world. quote:The thrusting spear also has the advantage of reach, being considerably longer than other weapon types. Exact spear lengths are hard to deduce as few spear shafts survive archaeologically but 6 ft. – 8 ft. (1.8m – 2.5m) would seem to have been the norm. Some nations were noted for their long spears, including the Scots and the Flemish. Spears usually were used in tightly ordered formations, such as the shieldwall or the schiltron. To resist cavalry, spear shafts could be planted against the ground. So for western style stuff "generic footman spear" is probably something like 7-8 feet. After that just call it a pike (or a lance for cavalry) so that everyone knows what each other is talking about.
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Aug 9, 2016 08:21
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ProfessorCirno posted:Mearls ... Mearls Mearls Mearls
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Aug 9, 2016 08:24
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Well, why wouldn't we talk about the current head of D&D making a statement about the current and future state of D&D, in the D&D thread?
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Aug 9, 2016 08:39
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Oh no Mearls said a thing and I commented on it in the thread specifically about the thing he is talking about. How obsessive of me.
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Aug 9, 2016 08:48
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FRINGE posted:For someone that was upset that a few of us criticized the Fallen London guy because it was "obsessive" and whatever to comment on his bad attitude, you have been spending a lot of hours for years now doing this. Everyone else pretty much left so there's no one else to talk about.
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Aug 9, 2016 08:49
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gradenko_2000 posted:Well, why wouldn't we talk about the current head of D&D making a statement about the current and future state of D&D, in the D&D thread?
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Aug 9, 2016 09:15
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Indolent Bastard posted:As D&D players are the most likely to have what I'm looking for I'm posting here and not in the SA-Mart and hoping nobody minds too much.
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Aug 9, 2016 09:56
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Splicer posted:I can't send you one but I'm pretty sure this is the generic d20 WotC still ships with all their things. It looks like the one from my 4e boardgames anyway. Now that you mention it, it does remind me a lot of the d20 that was in a then-friend's 3.5e starter set.
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Aug 9, 2016 10:11
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Splicer posted:I can't send you one but I'm pretty sure this is the generic d20 WotC still ships with all their things. It looks like the one from my 4e boardgames anyway. Can confirm. I have the ToEE Board Game and just checked. The included d20 is pretty much identical to the one in the picture.
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Aug 9, 2016 10:19
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DrSunshine posted:So... are there any good versions of D&D?? What I'm getting from this thread is that every edition of D&D is bad. 4e and 5e are both good and fun and playable but with different strengths and problems. People just like to be grump around here.
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Aug 9, 2016 14:08
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Has there ever been any attempt to hack the clearly-defined combat rules of 4e with the 5e "ethos" together to form some kind of "4.5e" or "5.4e" system? I mean, I've only been DMing 5th edition for about 9 months now (it's my first D&D!!) and I get the whole vagueness thing, but on the other hand I like how fast and easy it is to figure stuff out. I'm unnerved at the progression and power of WIZARDS!!! and I've been looking at 4th edition and liking how all the classes get more heroic and the ability to still be relevant at higher levels. So a system that hacks both together somehow, I think, would solve all the problems that people are grumbling about.
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Aug 9, 2016 14:34
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A post-4th Edition D&D that retained all of the the foundational relationships between class archetypes that prevented any one class from being so much better than the other, the power system that allowed every class to make interesting decisions turn after turn, the math structure that made adjudicating skill checks and creating monsters and encounters piss-easy, while also cleaning up the number/bonus bloat and cleaning up the feat bloat, was theoretically what people (who already liked 4e) probably wanted to happen before anyone knew anything about what 5th Edition was actually going to be like. But the D&D Next design team deliberately turned away from that (and an argument could be made that they were turning away from 4e as early as halfway through 4e via the Essentials line to begin with). The closest thing you'll get to such an amalgamation is 13th Age, which does compress most checks to d20 + ability modifier + level, and does have a fully supported and fully working "no-grid" combat system, and does have character classes with a power and progression spread that isn't as bad as 5th Edition's. But it only really marginally succeeds at that last bit.
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Aug 9, 2016 14:54
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DrSunshine posted:Has there ever been any attempt to hack the clearly-defined combat rules of 4e with the 5e "ethos" together to form some kind of "4.5e" or "5.4e" system? I mean, I've only been DMing 5th edition for about 9 months now (it's my first D&D!!) and I get the whole vagueness thing, but on the other hand I like how fast and easy it is to figure stuff out. I'm unnerved at the progression and power of WIZARDS!!! and I've been looking at 4th edition and liking how all the classes get more heroic and the ability to still be relevant at higher levels. So a system that hacks both together somehow, I think, would solve all the problems that people are grumbling about. And yeah, gradenko_2000 makes a good point. There was actually a movement during the lifespan of 4e to simplify it and purge a lot of the cruft (the whole "Death To Ability Scores" thing). It just never really got off the ground because the character builder was so goddamn convenient. Plus redesigning a game as tight as 4e would be a shitload of work.
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Aug 9, 2016 15:29
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Also, a big part of my enjoyment of 4e was when I realized that you can reskin to taste without actually damaging the math. As long as you aren't married to the class and race names on your character sheet being gospel truths, you can do basically anything you want.
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Aug 9, 2016 15:37
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ImpactVector posted:It takes about as much from *World as D&D, but Strike! could be what you're looking for. If you plotted out the precise, per-level progression of the total of [half-level bonus + magic item/inherent bonus + feat tax bonus (+ weapon proficiency bonus for [W] powers)] and used that as your "proficiency bonus", you could get a basic model that's maybe 60% of the way to cleaning up 4e's excesses. Shoot, while you're there you might as well "automate" the ability score bonus too, unless you really want to duplicate 5e's behavior where basic rolls are [d20 + ability modifier + proficiency]. It's just that, yeah, any rebuild bigger than that is going to be a huge task. EDIT: Some goon who's name has been lost to time made this thing and I think it's a fine little mini-4e: 
gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Aug 9, 2016 |
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Aug 9, 2016 15:39
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gradenko_2000 posted:If you plotted out the precise, per-level progression of the total of [half-level bonus + magic item/inherent bonus + feat tax bonus (+ weapon proficiency bonus for [W] powers)] and used that as your "proficiency bonus", you could get a basic model that's maybe 60% of the way to cleaning up 4e's excesses. The 4e-derived Gamma World cut out the middle man too and just gave you +1/level with no increasing ability scores. Buy at that point, the next logical step is to just remove increasing numbers and have a static target number for everything, regardless of level. And then, if we don't have a bunch of fiddly +1s everywhere, why do we need to roll a d20? 60% hit ratio is the same no matter what die you use. Let's use a d6 instead. And that's basically the core mechanic of Strike! in a nutshell.
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Aug 9, 2016 15:59
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ImpactVector posted:When everything works right, that junk adds up to literally just +1/level to all your d20-related numbers. They kind of screwed up with NADs, even with all the feat patches, but that's the basic underlying math of the game. I should contact Jimbozig about licensing Strike! to make a percentile-based derivative, just 'cause.
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Aug 9, 2016 16:07
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FRINGE posted:Spears had a variety of sizes based on use, but in DnD they are usually classified differently than pikes etc... Spears are cool as hell and it always bugged me D&D classified them almost exclusively as a two handed weapon.
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Aug 9, 2016 16:53
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D&D has preferred the sword, axe, hammer triumvirate recently.
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Aug 9, 2016 17:05
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Any recs on a character generator?
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Aug 9, 2016 18:20
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http://whothefuckismydndcharacter.com
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Aug 9, 2016 18:23
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I have to click that link every time it comes up.quote:FLIRTATIOUS HUMAN WIZARD FROM AN UNDERWATER CITY ONCE DRY BY A MAGICAL FORCE FIELD WHO IS IN WAY TOO DEEP WITH THE WRONG SORT OF PEOPLE
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Aug 9, 2016 18:33
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ImpactVector posted:I have to click that link every time it comes up. Conversely, it's my cue to skip 2 pages of the thread.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:41
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Alright, an update in the PotA adventure I'm in. We had a completely combat-free session which was super good and we met a lot of people in town and got a few hooks. We started on one in the next session, some big rock with a cave that is totally a necromancer's lair but I was the only one who seemed to realize this. We handled the first encounter pretty well despite the paladin falling victim to the rock trap. The second, against three skeletons, not so much. The ranger accidentally shot the cleric for max damage putting her out immediately. I recommended retreat but the paladin rushed in and got whomped on. Me and the monk push and clean up but in this time the ranger was knocked out and the paladin failed all three stabilization rolls. Me and the monk pile up the mummified bodies in the room in the door and make a fortification and wait until the cleric and ranger wake up. We high tail it out of there and back to town. Since someone had died I knew I had to say something. The DM and I went back and forth for a bit on how these encounters are way above level 1. He claimed that this is what the boom says is appropriate and I claimed that the book was wrong. Nothing really resolved, hoping for a little more survivability at level 2.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:50
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Cat Face Joe posted:Spears are cool as hell and it always bugged me D&D classified them almost exclusively as a two handed weapon. I'm less mad at that than I am they're not finesse weapons.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:53
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Cat Face Joe posted:Alright, an update in the PotA adventure I'm in. We had a completely combat-free session which was super good and we met a lot of people in town and got a few hooks. We started on one in the next session, some big rock with a cave that is totally a necromancer's lair but I was the only one who seemed to realize this. We handled the first encounter pretty well despite the paladin falling victim to the rock trap. The second, against three skeletons, not so much. The ranger accidentally shot the cleric for max damage putting her out immediately. I recommended retreat but the paladin rushed in and got whomped on. Me and the monk push and clean up but in this time the ranger was knocked out and the paladin failed all three stabilization rolls. Me and the monk pile up the mummified bodies in the room in the door and make a fortification and wait until the cleric and ranger wake up. We high tail it out of there and back to town. If this is the necromancer's cave I'm thinking of, you aren't really supposed to be fighting there at level 1, no. You're supposed to bum around red larch and fight bandits until at least level 2.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:56
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CaPensiPraxis posted:If this is the necromancer's cave I'm thinking of, you aren't really supposed to be fighting there at level 1, no. You're supposed to bum around red larch and fight bandits until at least level 2. Yeah, reading around, 3 seems to be the recommended level for it.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:58
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Cat Face Joe posted:The ranger accidentally shot the cleric What the gently caress is this?
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Aug 9, 2016 19:56
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P.d0t posted:What the gently caress is this? This group has always treated critical failures as extremely dire.
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Aug 9, 2016 20:05
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Cat Face Joe posted:This group has always treated critical failures as extremely dire.
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Aug 9, 2016 20:07
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ImpactVector posted:lovely for the martials making multiple attacks per round, and rarely affects spellcasters? Perfect. Yep. Admittedly this wasn't as severe when it was instituted back in the OD&D days.
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Aug 9, 2016 20:09
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ImpactVector posted:I have to click that link every time it comes up. CRABBY HALF-ELF WIZARD FROM WATERDEEP WHO IS A FORMER BARE KNUCKLE BOXER Cat Face Joe posted:This group has always treated critical failures as extremely dire. The thing with critical failures is that it turns combat in campaigns into The Three Stooges, Epic Fantasy Edition.* *Which honestly, might be fun for a comedy-based campaign.
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Aug 9, 2016 20:48
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re: Barbarian's Unarmored Defense I'm thinking a good house-rule for this would be "Use 10+prof+CON mod for your AC calculation" or just "Use your CON score for your AC calculation" I've brought it up before, and consensus seemed to be that unarmored is a poor choice compared to using Medium Armor (unless you're building toward being a particularly stealthy Barbarian) The Monk version works better, since DEX is their god-stat anyway; Barbarians have too much MAD going on, comparatively. Monks are using DEX for AC, attack, and damage, meanwhile unarmored Barbarians are using CON for AC but STR for attack and damage 
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Aug 9, 2016 21:18
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The best version of D&D is whatever one you play on Roll20.net because gently caress every running on poo poo on pen and paper again. I need macros, drat it Honorable mentions to NWN/NWN2
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Aug 9, 2016 21:53
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Cat Face Joe posted:This group has always treated critical failures as extremely dire. Rolling 1s played to comedic or dire effect can be really great, especially in cases of PCs swinging for the fences at stuff they shouldn't. Playing every 1 as a dire critical failure is idiotic. PCs are typically trained, skilled adventurers, not buffoons. Maybe talk to your group about that. Olympic archers don't have a 1/20 chance to shoot themselves in the dick every time they draw, maybe neither should your ranger.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:31
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Natural 1 is supposed to just be a miss, and I feel like more people than not houserule it into a special failure, but somehow it never occurs to them to balance the effects of it. Natural 20? Double damage! Actually, a little less because the modifiers don't get doubled. Natural 1? Your weapon breaks and now you can't deal any damage! Or worse, you just shot the healer in the back, and now he's bleeding out and you're on the verge of a TPK.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:39
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I think a nat1 risking a chance to hit another party member is fine if, say, you are recklessly shooting an arrow or a firebolt into a melee fray from a bad angle in which your party members are involved. Even then I prefer to have them roll a second time to see if they beat the unintended target's AC to make it more fair rather than completely and unavoidably punishing a player for another player's fuckup. I pretty much never have them risk full out hitting themselves though outside of rolling a nat1 in already crazy circumstances like fighting on top of a moving animal or some poo poo. In most cases I prefer something along the lines of falling prone overextending their swing or losing their grip on their weapon and sending it flying so many feet.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:45
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