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Trojan Kaiju posted:Isn't there also Planescape foreshadowing in Tomb of Annihilation? I remember that was what everyone was expecting before they announced Eberron and Ravnica. There was speculation about a lot of things Eberron was one of the main guesses, Spelljammer was as well until it was deconfirmed. It would be cool if Planescape was the next one however. But the next one could be a lot of settings, as the only thing we know is that it is one of the old settings and not a Magic one. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Dec 23, 2018 |
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Dec 23, 2018 07:22
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Shameless promotion of various things I've written for 5e and D&D in general: A faster, more measured, and hopefully way of statting up monsters. And its partner: an even more abbreviated version derived directly from PC levels How to build encounters in 5e, using 5e's rules itself. I'm particularly proud of my work here because the revision of the encounter building rules in Xanathar's Guide matches this so closely that I have to assume that we came to the same conclusions regarding the original design. How to design "boss" monsters for 5e How to properly set skill check DCs for 5e General advice: Encounter Design: Have ways of attacking different player defenses General advice: Telegraph your monsters' attacks General advice: Risk and reward mechanics in dungeon crawling
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Dec 23, 2018 07:33
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Lucas Archer posted:I'm looking for a little advice on the Strahd campaign I'm running. Vallaki story element spoilers Personally I don't like the idea of Strahd taking Ireena away with little to no chance of the party being able to interfere. I also don't like it happening so soon after the PCs have arrived cause Vallaki has a lot of poo poo going on and it sounds like they just arrived. Unless you want to just dump the other plotlines running around you probably don't want them itching to leave right away. As for the Baron, he is a real shitlord so I don't think it's too over the top. However, if your PCs hear the moans at dinner they will likely want to do something RIGHT NOW and I don't know if you want to do that. You'd end up missing out on the Festival and it's scene with the laughing guard. If they've only been in Vallaki for a short while you may want to keep him in play for a bit so they can learn more about how much of an rear end in a top hat he is, not to mention his lovely wife and son and Izek. Presenting him and the Lady Watcher as rivals for the PCs favor could be interesting, especially since your PCs may go the route that mine did and got rid of both to install a new burgomeister in Vallaki. Do the PCs know that there are vampire spawn at the coffin maker's? That fight was tough for my group because of the regeneration ability and because my party's cleric forgot entirely how to play his class and just plain hosed up. They were also Level 4 at the time I believe. Proper use of Turn Undead may make the battle a lot easier but you may want to keep Rictavio or someone in you back pocket to save their bacon.
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Dec 23, 2018 07:34
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Trojan Kaiju posted:Isn't there also Planescape foreshadowing in Tomb of Annihilation? I remember that was what everyone was expecting before they announced Eberron and Ravnica. There's an acanaloth named anagram Gary Gygax whose glasses are a portal key from Sigil too Arcadia for no reason reason being easter egg. XtGE has the planer ranger. MToF has Gith. There's some moderate ground work being layed but I wouldnt hold my breath.
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Dec 23, 2018 07:36
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Reveilled posted:OK, initially I assumed there was some new simplified version of basic D&D you were talking about here and I was going to make some wilfully obtuse joke where I'd pretend I thought you were talking about early 80s Basic D&D. I'm glad now that I looked this up before posting that so I could realise that you really did mean early 80s Basic D&D. Holy poo poo. I don't think it'd be *that* much work if you wanted to do it in 5e, you'd probably come up with a monster HD to attack roll modifier convention in your head soon enough and work from there. There's been several projects to rewrite the Basic D&D rules with more modern formatting - I've been looking at B/X Essentials for that lately. If they want to do like, character build type stuff where they spec out a character and plan what to take at each level than 5e will be better but if your party of dads wants to just jump in the dungeon to kill some stuff and take their treasure I think basic would be pretty fun.
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Dec 23, 2018 08:33
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I'm running a killing game kind of campaign, where the players and many other people in the world have been given powers and compelled to explore ancient ruins for shards of power and/or murder others in the game and take their power. Every player in the game has a different power, a pretty common trope you see in things like Jojo's or Black Clover or any of the myriad similar stories, so I need to design a bunch of NPCs that have cool or interesting powers. My player's seem pretty hesitant to go on a killing spree at this point, and not every other player in the game is interested in murder either. The players power are weaker than the NPCs at this point because they split the power among the party instead of one of them taking it all. Some of the party powers include producing magical music that inspires and improves the abilities of the party members, and freezing small objects in place like an immovable rod. Some of the NPCs include a doctor named Pliny that has tremendous knowledge of fake medical remedies, made to work by his power, and a storyteller named Scheherazade that can bring elements of her stories to life. Basically, I would love suggestions for interesting NPCs and NPC powers that I can use in my campaign.
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Dec 23, 2018 08:52
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I don't know your references, but what about some scattered looking old dude who has the power to be exactly where he needs to be with the right item or other NPC so that a third party's planned event or course of action works out. It always works, but he can't use it for himself because he can't ever remember what it is that he should really be doing. He was a roadie for the gods, but he went on a god tier binge, blacked out, and got left behind. He can show up as an assistant-deus ex machina if the PCs get in over their heads, and/or he can show up for their enemies. Maybe he's called Igor.
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Dec 23, 2018 09:01
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mastershakeman posted:Are there any abilities that let you use your reaction for extra movement? A couple of pages late, but a Swords Bard gets this with their Mobile Flourish. We figured this out the other night when our wood elf bard, who is built as an archer, realized when they attack on their turn they have 35(base)+10(Blade Flourish)+45(Mobile Flourish as reaction).
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Dec 23, 2018 13:05
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CubeTheory posted:I'm running a killing game kind of campaign, where the players and many other people in the world have been given powers and compelled to explore ancient ruins for shards of power and/or murder others in the game and take their power. Every player in the game has a different power, a pretty common trope you see in things like Jojo's or Black Clover or any of the myriad similar stories, so I need to design a bunch of NPCs that have cool or interesting powers. My player's seem pretty hesitant to go on a killing spree at this point, and not every other player in the game is interested in murder either. The players power are weaker than the NPCs at this point because they split the power among the party instead of one of them taking it all. Some of the party powers include producing magical music that inspires and improves the abilities of the party members, and freezing small objects in place like an immovable rod. Some of the NPCs include a doctor named Pliny that has tremendous knowledge of fake medical remedies, made to work by his power, and a storyteller named Scheherazade that can bring elements of her stories to life. This is the D&D 5e thread.
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Dec 23, 2018 16:41
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mango sentinel posted:There's an acanaloth named anagram Gary Gygax whose glasses are a portal key from Sigil too Arcadia for no reason reason being easter egg. XtGE has the planer ranger. MToF has Gith. There's some moderate ground work being layed but I wouldnt hold my breath. Yeah I think weird teases are where it's gonna end. D&D honestly doesn't seem like the right system for Planescape anyway, but based on the modules, I don't think they have the ambition to even try it.
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Dec 23, 2018 18:03
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Conspiratiorist posted:This is the D&D 5e thread. And it appears he is going to run it in 5e weird as it is.
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Dec 23, 2018 18:13
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Epi Lepi posted:Personally I don't like the idea of Strahd taking Ireena away with little to no chance of the party being able to interfere. I also don't like it happening so soon after the PCs have arrived cause Vallaki has a lot of poo poo going on and it sounds like they just arrived. Unless you want to just dump the other plotlines running around you probably don't want them itching to leave right away. Yeah, I agree with your first point and decided not to do it. Ireena is going to stay in the church unless something else happens to make that a moot point. The party is really enjoying Vallaki and is looking forward to the dinner with the baron (mentioning it's going to be such a shitshow). I had Wachter invite them to dinner the night after the Baron's and she's definitely going to try and enlist their help. And they totally know there are vampires in the coffin shop. Henrik broke down and revealed everything. We played last night and I decided against having the vampires wake up - instead they'll be waiting for the PC's to attack, and if my group just ignores them, they'll bust out the night of the festival and wreak havoc. But they did go and keep an eye on the outside of the shop for a few hours in the evening - breaking into a nearby house for shelter from a thunderstorm and just barreled into five swarms of rats. Those things are nasty! The next day, my group has decided to go to the Winery to fetch some more wine - they think they can make it back before their dinner appointment. They convinced Rictavio to join them (just for the wagon), and I had Ismarck accompany them as well. Another element I dropped was Rictavio's tiger - this is particular for my group because I know some of them are very sensitive about animals, and it just wouldn't play well. Thanks for the advice.
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Dec 23, 2018 20:22
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Yeah I think weird teases are where it's gonna end. D&D honestly doesn't seem like the right system for Planescape anyway, but based on the modules, I don't think they have the ambition to even try it. Yeah this is my feeling. I assume if they do it at all they'll just farm it out to Zeb Cook to do digitally the same they did with Baker and Eberron.
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Dec 23, 2018 22:04
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Conspiratiorist posted:This is the D&D 5e thread. I sometimes can't tell if you do this stuff on purpose or not.
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Dec 23, 2018 22:07
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Arthil posted:I sometimes can't tell if you do this stuff on purpose or not. It was a lovely way to say it but I agree D&D is maybe a poor system for executing this vision.
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Dec 23, 2018 22:21
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Well we are not going to get new planescape material for any other system. Given that WotC owns it. No matter the case though if we get new planescape stuff I will enjoy it as I quite love the setting.
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Dec 23, 2018 22:55
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King of Solomon posted:Why is this even a sticking point for people? Dex as a damage scaling stat isn't even uncommon among games. Because Dex-to-damage makes Thieves/Rogues better in a fight, and until 4E it was their job to deal less damage than a warrior and randomly eat poo poo in combat
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Dec 23, 2018 23:10
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For sure, I want new planescape stuff. I just think it's a setting more ambitious than the system, and that makes it unlikely to me. We don't even have more than a couple paragraphs on the feywild yet.
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Dec 23, 2018 23:11
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 D&D Adventurer's League is the Organized Play program for D&D 5E. It's split into 2 divisions: Forgotten Realms and Eberron. The core conceit to Adventurer's League is that you are able to play a limited number of League-oriented modules with a consistent ruleset so that (a) you are getting as consistent an experience across tables as possible and (b) have a way for players without regular playgroups to drop into sessions at game stores and conventions. So, here's the rundown: Who can play/run an Adventurer's League game? Anyone. As long as your table abides by all of the rules for play and plays an approved module, you're good. You can play at a convention or game store, a local MeetUp, online via Roll20 or other virtual tabletop, or even just with your friends at home. A DCI number is highly recommended for tracking purposes, but not required, and they are free to sign up for on Wizards' website. How does Adventurer's League differ from a standard home game? The big changes are:
Adventurer's League isn't for everyone, but I'd recommend it for the following reasons:
Right now, in its 8th season, AL is in a bit of a transition. ACP/TCP is a new system and there's been some real problems with transitioning pre-S8 characters. They almost always come out way above or way below the current power band. Also, the new rules were largely not playtested, so you run into issues like Wizards getting the short end of the stick because downtime and gold are very limited, keeping them from scribing all the spells to their spellbook that they'd normally want. Also, the previous modules weren't retroactively changed to accomodate the new item/gold economy, so you'll occasionally run into stuff, especially at early levels, that doesn't work so well, like asking level 2 PCs for multiple hundreds of gold, or having level 3 PCs run up against mundane-immune or -resistant enemies before they can possibly have magic weapons. That all said, I'd like to start DMing some more AL stuff once we get past Christmas, so I'll be post here with more details if people want to try it out. Here's a set of links to AL resources:
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Dec 24, 2018 00:46
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That’s a v good post!
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Dec 24, 2018 01:02
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Wizards teased Planescape content which means there's a small chance of getting an unfinished book that counts as UA in 2021 or so woo
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Dec 24, 2018 01:29
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King of Solomon posted:Why is this even a sticking point for people? Dex as a damage scaling stat isn't even uncommon among games. There's a belief that it's overpowered because of a clash of genre expectations, D&D's refusal to update a lot of it's own dumb bullshit, and nerds being hilariously dumb. Basically, it's consistently presented as "strength is your melee stat" so when people are allowed to use something else, nerds get suspicious that someone's trying to pull something on them, because after all, strength is supposed to be the melee stat. This is completely unhelped by the fact that strength does near gently caress-all outside of it's position as a melee stat (carrying limitations rarely matter), and because D&D is filled to the goddamn brim with spells and effects that completely override brute forcing your way through stuff, not that it matters because both the game and nerds in general consistently assume that, due to their own pathetic bodies, actually performing even minor or every day acts of strength should be near impossible. Lastly: No. 1 Apartheid Fan posted:Because Dex-to-damage makes Thieves/Rogues better in a fight, and until 4E it was their job to deal less damage than a warrior and randomly eat poo poo in combat It turns out 5e's "three pillars" game design was straight up bullshit, and it's still trying to adhere to the idea that rogues are the "skillful" class and fighters are the "fighting" class, please ignore that every class can fight, often times just as good as fighters, and that it's criminally dull to be No Skills McGee when the rest of the party is out having fun in their non-combat situations. D&D fans have a blind spot the size of Jupiter's red spot when it comes to spellcasters, so the only real frame of reference is in rogues, and so you get the idea that rogues are supposed to be bad at combat, and dex to damage "breaks" this.
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Dec 24, 2018 03:16
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One of my usual  issues with Rogues (which was also an issue in 4th ed) is how they are reputedly the "Find traps guy". Then you get saddled with finding traps running off WIS, AND official print traps where the spot DC can end up as high or higher than the disarm. And then 5th ed double dips by reviving Investigate, which uses INT."But you get expertise!" does not feel particularly impressive when it is used to shore up the fact that by default, Rogues can end up not so hot at finding traps. Or a well meaning GM saying "But the cleric took observant! That means they can find the traps FOR the rogue!"
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Dec 24, 2018 03:42
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King of Solomon posted:Why is this even a sticking point for people? Dex as a damage scaling stat isn't even uncommon among games. It's uncommon in the sense that it never happened in AD&D (except I think in a really niche way), and was very difficult to acquire in D&D 3e (only under very specific feats or prestige classes), and it never happened for Pathfinder except for the Unchained Rogue which was very late in the game's lifecycle. Even in "other games", you can see this kind of influence in the way that World of Warcraft, of all games, was initially designed such that while Warriors get +2 Attack Power per 1 Strength, while Rogues got +1 AP (and some crit) per 1 Dexterity, and were expected to get "+AP" specific stat bonuses. Rogues getting +2 AP per 1 Dex didn't happen until much later. EDIT: To be clear, it shouldn't be a sticking point, and D&D 5e is correct in how liberally it can be acquired - I'm just explaining where the mindset is coming from. Even for players who don't have a history, it can still seem out of place if you've intuitively accepted that Strength is what's used for melee attacks, coupled by the feeling that a stat that adds to attack rolls, AND to damage, AND to armor class might be """overpowered""" gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 04:02
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If every video game rpg in existence can use Dex as a damage stat then D&D can too, grognards gonna grog
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Dec 24, 2018 04:25
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To be fair the fact that it does apply to attacks, damage, AC, initiative, a plethora of useful skills and one of the most useful saves as well does... make strength not anywhere near as useful. And this is coming from someone with a Level 20 Barbarian. To be fair a lot of DMs seem to not like the Big Muscle Guy be a Big Muscle Guy and instead be a Warf. Arthil fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 04:40
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Strength is easily the worst stat to have and Dex the worst one to exist.
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Dec 24, 2018 04:48
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Section Z posted:
Rouge's don't really need to be good at finding traps. If they are good at disarming them along with a bunch of other skills that is for the most part enough. And you can pretty much take one or the other for perception or investigation as they fill a similar role. For one of my last games, the Rogue was the party face, trap disarmer, and guy who knew how to vanish and sneak anywhere. The Ranger was the one who found the traps. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 05:56
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I really think this thread is off to a good start and we've had a lot of people post a lot of good links and resources and everybody's been largely chill and good to each other for a whole 24 hours and I really appreciate that. The only way I think it could really get to be the best thread it can be, though, is that if we all took a moment every time we read a real dumb MonsterEnvy take and went "nope, I don't need to respond to this, I can just let it float away like garbage on the tide." Namaste.
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Dec 24, 2018 06:03
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Section Z posted:One of my usual 3e kinda handled this via brute force: only the Rogue (and certain other Rogue-replacey classes) had the Trapfinding ability, which meant that they literally were the only ones who could find traps, even if someone else has better Wisdom/more ranks in Search. EDIT: the DCs were still problematic regardless gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 06:13
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Toshimo posted:I really think this thread is off to a good start and we've had a lot of people post a lot of good links and resources and everybody's been largely chill and good to each other for a whole 24 hours and I really appreciate that. Come on this is the second time you have dunked on me with little justification in the past week. I don't think I have posted anything worth making fun of in this thread even. Though I agree with you and like how chill the thread has been. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 06:32
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Toshimo posted:I really think this thread is off to a good start and we've had a lot of people post a lot of good links and resources and everybody's been largely chill and good to each other for a whole 24 hours and I really appreciate that. You aren't helping in the slightest, my dude.
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Dec 24, 2018 06:40
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Section Z posted:One of my usual I'm not sure I agree with any of this. First off, the PHB explicitly mentions that rogues can choose to be the "find traps guy" or they can choose to focus in other areas. Second, Rogues are almost completely focused on a single attribute (DEX) with their to-hit, damage, AC, Initiative, Stealth, and Sleight of Hand all coming from that single stat. So, if you want to be a "trap dude" you get your option of going secondary on either of the 2 trap-finding stats (Int or Wis), getting larger bonuses to that stat than anyone else (Expertise), eventually taking 10 on those checks, and getting an extra ASI/Feat slot to use if you really, really wanted to focus on this. All of that, does indeed let them choose to be "traps guy" in a way that basically anyone (except bards) can't really replicate. What it all does add up to, is letting the non-rogue classes do a minimum level of trap-finding, which isn't a terrible thing, as it removes the hard class requirements from parties.
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Dec 24, 2018 06:50
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Toshimo posted:I'm not sure I agree with any of this. I pretty much agree with all of this. It's what my earlier post was about you just put it better. Also are there two people using your account? MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 07:08
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Do traps even have any reason to exist as they do? I can't think of a system that feels less necessary and more harmful to the progress of the game. As implemented, you're telling your players "there's a mechanic that for the most part does not exist and will rarely exist. But if you forget that it actually *does* exist, I'm going to punish you. The only way to avoid this is to bring up the mechanic that functionally does not exist in every room when you go through a dungeon. Occasionally I'll decide if the mechanic exists and give you a *chance* not to get hurt by it." What's the fun in that? I like presenting big obvious hazards that create problem solving challenges, not a mechanic whose key function seems to be to slow everything to a crawl. It feels like (and I know this is super outta character for DnD, folks) a legacy system that has no purpose to stick around other than it being a legacy system. Does anyone do traps in a way that they feel adds to the game, other than the aforementioned great big puzzle solving hazard? In a group where I'm a player, I'm the person with the most Investigation and I basically never contribute to trap searches because OH MY GOD WHO CARES (and also I don't have Darkvision). Nehru the Damaja fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 24, 2018 07:12
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Do traps even have any reason to exist as they do? I can't think of a system that feels less necessary and more harmful to the progress of the game. As implemented, you're telling your players "there's a mechanic that for the most part does not exist and will rarely exist. But if you forget that it actually *does* exist, I'm going to punish you. The only way to avoid this is to bring up the mechanic that functionally does not exist in every room when you go through a dungeon. Occasionally I'll decide if the mechanic exists and give you a *chance* not to get hurt by it." BTW, this is almost word-for-word how I describe Encumbrance.
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Dec 24, 2018 07:20
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Do traps even have any reason to exist as they do? I can't think of a system that feels less necessary and more harmful to the progress of the game. As implemented, you're telling your players "there's a mechanic that for the most part does not exist and will rarely exist. But if you forget that it actually *does* exist, I'm going to punish you. The only way to avoid this is to bring up the mechanic that functionally does not exist in every room when you go through a dungeon. Occasionally I'll decide if the mechanic exists and give you a *chance* not to get hurt by it." I feel traps work best around puzzles. Mess it up and get punished, but someone who can detect and disable traps can make it so that failure won't have as much consequence.
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Dec 24, 2018 07:22
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Toshimo posted:BTW, this is almost word-for-word how I describe Encumbrance. Yeah, I feel like there's a pretty universal agreement among DMs though to the effect of "gently caress it, you get a Haversack or a Bag of Holding. I don't want to have to track this poo poo." And for some reason, this doesn't hurt Muscles Malone's feelings the way removing traps makes your Resident Thieves Tools Expert feel unwanted.
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Dec 24, 2018 07:25
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Maybe I've just been lucky with my groups in that no one is ever the "thing-guy". Someone may find a trap but solving it is either a group effort or whoever can strong arm or fiddle it open usually is the go too. If a door is locked give someone a chance to break it down before moving to trying to pick it open. Or knock an punch anyone on the other side. 
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Dec 24, 2018 07:25
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:59 |
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Yeah, I feel like there's a pretty universal agreement among DMs though to the effect of "gently caress it, you get a Haversack or a Bag of Holding. I don't want to have to track this poo poo." And for some reason, this doesn't hurt Muscles Malone's feelings the way removing traps makes your Resident Thieves Tools Expert feel unwanted. Hoo boy I made a rogue in AL and a bunch of the truest goobers were trying to get me to invest hard in increasingly large Belts of Giant Strength instead of pumping my Dex so I could just use STR for all my attacks while dumping it excessively and one of their go-to arguments was MAH ENCUMBRANCE. (To be fair, the default magic items in the DMG are really really bad and dumb and unbalanced and it's miserable trying to gear out a whole lot of builds using just those.)
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Dec 24, 2018 07:29
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