|
Doesn't really matter because no part of it works. The only reasons that you'd care about CR in the first place are XP and encounter building. 5e, at best, pays lip service to tracking XP but its broken without being generously throwing out bonus XP and at that point you're just doing more complicated milestone leveling. And no part of the encounter building rules actually functions for predicting how hard an encounter is going to be. Even the basic assumption that they claim CR is based on, that a monster with a given CR is an even match with 4 PCs of the same level, falls apart after like CR6 or 7. So from that logic at least the MM on a business card is more useful because it actually reflects the reality of the system and not what they pretend they made. The deva, however, was good. But the end of result of that is just, replacing the entire MM with things that are similarly good, and probably also rewriting a fair amount of the DMG, and then you've just made your own game.
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2023 02:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:24 |
|
|
homeless snail posted:Doesn't really matter because no part of it works. The only reasons that you'd care about CR in the first place are XP and encounter building. 5e, at best, pays lip service to tracking XP but its broken without being generously throwing out bonus XP and at that point you're just doing more complicated milestone leveling. And no part of the encounter building rules actually functionsm for predicting how hard an encounter is going to be. Even the basic assumption that they claim CR is based on, that a monster with a given CR is an even match with 4 PCs of the same level, falls apart after like CR6 or 7. So from that logic at least the MM on a business card is more useful because it actually reflects the reality of the system and not what they pretend they made. Actually it’s supposed to be CR is meant to be a medium encounter for 4 of the same level (aka fairly easy). But I get your point. It’s why the One D&D new encounter building rules and monsters interest me the most as a DM. Really want to see that.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2023 03:21
|
|
|
Hope they get it right this time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2023 17:28
|
|
|
I chose a weird time to start DMing again for the first time since high school but it's a blast. DND is pretty cool ngl
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 02:19
|
|
|
Was chewing over a thought experiment. In a duel between 2 people, would an allied battle master using commanders strike on one of the combatants be considered merely a very effective coach and cheerleader, or to actively be interfering?
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 04:13
|
|
|
Mr. Lobe posted:Was chewing over a thought experiment. In a duel between 2 people, would an allied battle master using commanders strike on one of the combatants be considered merely a very effective coach and cheerleader, or to actively be interfering? On that topic, what about people on the sidelines hitting one of the participants with Vicious Mockery? I mean, they're not casting fireballs or anything - they're merely honest hecklers!  It's definitely a grey area. I think if one participant (i.e. the player) was permitted a coach (like in boxing or something, where they might give their fighter a tip or two) then the opposing duellist should have one, too. (That or none at all, and all spectators must be silent and non-disruptive)
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 04:44
|
|
|
Mr. Lobe posted:Was chewing over a thought experiment. In a duel between 2 people, would an allied battle master using commanders strike on one of the combatants be considered merely a very effective coach and cheerleader, or to actively be interfering? From who's perspective? As the DM I would consider it interfering with the duel. The duelist being affected by vicious mockery or attacked via a commander's strike in the duel would probably consider it interfering (if they are aware of it). The crowd watching the duel may or may not depending on the culture and laws of the area, as would any officials who were monitoring the duel if it were sanctioned in one way or another. Madmarker fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Feb 2, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 06:04
|
|
|
I can't think of anything you could say that the Battlemaster was actually diagetically doing for the commander's strike that wouldn't be considered interference, or at least poor sportsmanship. And for Vicious Mockery, that's a spell. You're not just shouting mean things and rolling an intimidation check, you're warping the laws of physics to cause hp damage. Basically I don't think anyone outside of the two duellists would be permitted to do anything that would be considered an action. Whatever the participants both agree on beforehand, though. And of course gladiator combat or pit fighting is a different matter.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 06:14
|
|
|
Both Battlemaster Commander's Strike and Mastermind Master of Tactics are just you yelling out something like "he drops his shield right before he swings." If that is interference, so is being in someone's corner for a boxing match. Sanctuary requires a silver mirror as a material component, so that is effectively shining a light in a combatant's eyes. THAT is interference.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 07:13
|
|
|
Is it cheating for a duelist to use a magic item? Or to cast their own spells? Or to be benefiting from direct, divine influence/interference? Or to drink a buff potion in advance? Or to turn into a huge bear in the middle of the fight? Or to be from a species that is categorically stronger and fightier than their opponent? Or to be literally immortal? The idea of arranging a "fair fight" in human historical terms was always on incredibly shaky ground, and sometimes was literally supposed to reveal divine intention by the results; but in a magical/fantasy setting where people are actually aware of what's going on in their world, it's fairly absurd. A rule like "you're not allowed to get help during the fight" is far less important than like, no magic, no divine intervention, no shapeshifting, no drinking potions at least 24 hours before the fight, and you're not allowed to be a demigod or a dragon or trollish blood or a touch of the ol' vampirism. Figure out a way to actually test & enforce all of that poo poo and then we can get to having advice yelled at you by experienced friends on the sidelines that literally improves your attack dice or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 07:23
|
|
|
Coach gets the team to huddle up for a group prayer before the big game and gets thrown out for potential cheating. Nooooo I wasn't trying to exploit divine intervention, we were just hoping out loud.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 08:16
|
|
|
El Fideo posted:And for Vicious Mockery, that's a spell. You're not just shouting mean things and rolling an intimidation check, you're warping the laws of physics to cause hp damage. HP are so abstract though. And psychic damage is an especially abstract form of damage. Are you warping the laws of physics to cause brain trauma like lesions or something? Or are you just magically enhancing your trash talk to the point where it really gets someone in the feels and demoralizes them?
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 15:19
|
|
|
Don’t they kick out spectators in some sports if they are trying to distract any of the participants?
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 15:31
|
|
|
PeterWeller posted:HP are so abstract though. And psychic damage is an especially abstract form of damage. Are you warping the laws of physics to cause brain trauma like lesions or something? Or are you just magically enhancing your trash talk to the point where it really gets someone in the feels and demoralizes them? It's like piercing and bludgeoning damage, but to the ego instead of your organs and bones.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 15:39
|
|
|
PeterWeller posted:HP are so abstract though. And psychic damage is an especially abstract form of damage. Are you warping the laws of physics to cause brain trauma like lesions or something? Or are you just magically enhancing your trash talk to the point where it really gets someone in the feels and demoralizes them? As always use the context of the moment for descriptions, and I'm not above fudging things like multiple slashes to ultimately indicate only minimal "actual" damage but the correct amount of HP damage. If you're compelling the players don't care.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 16:18
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:As always use the context of the moment for descriptions, and I'm not above fudging things like multiple slashes to ultimately indicate only minimal "actual" damage but the correct amount of HP damage. If you're compelling the players don't care. Oh I'm not asking how to narrate the psychic damage specifically. I'm just adding a question to this thought experiment about what counts as undue influence upon the duel.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 16:34
|
|
|
Facebook Aunt posted:Attn: Rangers are hella good. The original beastmaster sucked but anyone who still thinks rangers are bad just isn't paying attention. The PHB ranger was the clarinetist of the PHB; it simultaneously sucked and blowed. Literally none of the class features other than spellcasting, fighting style, and extra attack are more than ribbon abilities - and the PHB ranger has very comfortably the worst spellcasting in the game because they know only two spells per spell level and can't change them (also a sorcerer problem); with the Ranger it's worse because almost every single ranger first grabs Hunter's Mark and either Cure Wounds or Goodberry for healing and grabs Pass Without Trace at fifth level - leaving only one discretionary spell slot by level 6. The icing on the cake was if you made the mistake of going beast master; your beast was so fragile and hard to heal or replace it was basically an escort mission in a subclass. Oh, and of the fighting styles in the PHB only archery is actually good; duellist would be good but rangers lack the self-healing to brawl well (paladins get lay on hands and fighters' second wind is a bonus action) and if they take hits it's concentration checks to keep hunter's mark. This meant that by level 6 not only was the Ranger weak but the major differences between about three quarters of rangers was their third first level spell, whether they chose +2 Dex or Sharpshooter at level 4 (or Vumans went Sharpshooter/X-bow Expert) and Colossus Slayer vs Hordebreaker at L3 which was a non-choice with many DMs. Weak, bland, and with basically a single dominant meta all capped by a complete trap of a subclass. They did however fix that. The spellcasting was first fixed by all post-PHB subclasses adding one spell per spell level to your class list and then in Tasha's replacing Primal Awareness with Primeval Awareness. The class features being bad was fixed by giving "optional" replacements that actually do things. And the big advantage of the Tasha's beastmaster is that you can bring back your companion for one spell slot in a minute. Tasha's rangers are possibly slightly overtuned.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 17:05
|
|
|
The new Heist book’s details and some videos are finally on Beyond. One of the Adventures can be claimed for free https://www.dndbeyond.com/claim/source/prisoner-13?icid_source=house-ads&icid_medium=prisoner-13&icid_campaign=redemption Writer credits https://mobile.twitter.com/kelly_knox/status/1621195214873571329 Yusin fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Feb 2, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 18:36
|
|
|
Remember the last heist book?
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 20:29
|
|
|
skimming through the free thing they put out it seems cool.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 20:38
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:Remember the last heist book? I'm glad the new heist book looks good but having some schadenfreude at all the butthurt dorks commenting on it because of timing. Give it to the end of the year all those dorks will be lining up to buy Planescape unless it's a truly bad reinvention.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 21:33
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:Remember the last heist book? Going by the free chapter they released it seems like actual heists. Edit More details https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1430-what-is-keys-from-the-golden-vault-13-heist These Adventures sounds fun quote:The Stygian Gambit (for 2nd-level adventurers): Case a Nine Hells-themed casino and steal the prize for the Three-Dragon Ante tournament that's currently taking place. Yusin fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Feb 2, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2023 22:47
|
|
|
OK, here is a complex solo monster design that I've tested in play. CR is wrong, obviously, and if you want to challenge four L15 PCs you should have unfavorable terrain for them, and you should give this thing some lair actions to play with. The central principles of this design are: give the monster some staying power; make it more dangerous on the PC turns; make a genuinely solo encounter scary; create some interesting tactical play for the DM. Against parties that don't employ piercing or slashing attacks at all, it's going to be a bit more fragile, and I'd suggest scattering some low CR incorporeal undead and having a few manifest during the fight as well. Anything that can lower maximum hp or drain strength is going to make this monster more dangerous. (I might post its companion monster, which is basically the ghosts of people buried in a mass grave while this is the bodies, but running them together is probably too dangerous even for four L15 PCs.) Keep in mind that one of the big advantages of running custom monsters against your players is that they don't know what they can do and have to learn during the combat. The bonepile is an undead monstrosity formed when the intermixed skeletons of creatures that died in extreme pain or fear are left unsanctified. It possesses a hatred of the living and wishes to absorb the skeletons of those it kills into its mass. It often operates in conjunction with other undead, especially incorporeal undead. It appears as the magically fused amalgamation of all the skeletons which make up its mass, sometimes turning into a whirlwind of swirling bones and sometimes forming a shell-like mass of bone to defend itself. Enemies are best off fighting it from range and relying upon its slowness to keep the distance, although it can close unexpectedly fast by using its Bonestorm ability. Bonepile Colossal undead AC 13 HP 338 (25d20+75) Speed 20 ft, Climb 20 ft Str 20 +5 Dex 10 +0 Con 16 +3 Int 6 -2 Wis 8 -1 Cha 5 -3 Saves Con +8, Wis +4 Damage Resistances Piercing, Slashing, Necrotic Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned, prone Senses Blindsight 10 ft, darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perp 9 PB +5 CR 15 Squeeze: The bonepile can move through openings as small as 1 foot and can end its movement in other creatures’ spaces so long as it has at least one empty 5 foot square within its space. Turning Resistance: If the Bonepile fails a saving throw against Turn Undead, it becomes frightened but suffers none of the other effects. Very Reactive: The Bonepile regains its reaction at the start of any creature’s turn, not just its own. Legendary Resistance: 2/day ACTIONS Multiattack: The bonepile can make up to four attacks in any combination of Bone Spike, Crush, or Bone Spear, but can take no more than one Crush attack on any single target. Bone Spear. Ranged Wpn Att (the bonepile does not suffer disadvantage from adjacent enemies): +10 to hit, range 60/240 ft, one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) piercing damage and the target must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or lose 10 feet of speed until the end of its next turn. Bone Spike. Melee Wpn Att: +10 to hit, reach 20 ft, one target. Hit: 18 (2d12+5) piercing damage. Crush. Melee Wpn Att: +10 to hit, reach 0 ft, one creature grappled by the bonepile. Hit: 14 (4d6) bludgeoning and 14 (4d6) piercing damage. Bonespray (recharge 6): The bonepile hurls forth a cone of bone shards and fragments. All creatures within a 30 foot by 30 foot by 30 foot cube adjacent to the bonepile must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, suffering 35 (10d6) piercing damage on a failure or half that on a success. In addition, any creature failing its saving throw has bone shards embedded into itself. At the start of each of its turns, it suffers 7 (2d6) necrotic damage and must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be unable to recover hit points until the start of its next turn. This effect lasts until the creature suffers radiant damage, recovers hit points, or it or an adjacent creature spends an action to remove the shards. Bonestorm (recharge 4-6): The bonepile turns into a whirlwind of bones. It can immediately move or climb up to 30 feet, moving through other creatures and triggering no attacks of opportunity. All creatures it moves through must make a DC 18 Strength save. On a failure, the creature takes 19 (4d8+5) slashing damage and is flung up to 20 feet away from the bonepile in a direction of its choice and knocked prone. If the creature strikes an object, it suffers 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown. If it is thrown at another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or suffer the same damage and be knocked prone. On a successful save, the creature suffers half the slashing damage and isn’t flung away or knocked prone. REACTIONS (1/turn) Absorb Skeleton: As a reaction when a creature with a bone skeleton drops to 0 hit points within 30 feet of it, the bonepile can attempt to absorb that creature’s skeleton. The creature must make a DC 18 Charisma saving throw. If it fails, it is killed and its skeleton is absorbed, healing the bonepile for 5 hp/size category (10 small, 15 medium, 20 large) plus 1 hp/HD the creature had. The bonepile must be reduced to 0 hp to recover the creature’s skeleton. Envelop: As a reaction when the Bonepile hits an adjacent creature with an attack, it can attempt to envelop that creature. The creature must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw. If it fails, it is moved into the bonepile’s space, grappled, and restrained. When the bonepile moves, it moves all enveloped creature with it without penalty to its movement. An enveloped creature can escape with a DC 18 Acrobatics or Athletics roll. Fragmentary Summons: As a reaction when suffering 10 or more points of damage not caused by necrotic, psychic, or radiant damage, the bonepile can summon either 3 skeletons or 1 swarm of skeletal limbs in an available space within 30 feet of it. The bonepile cannot use its Absorb Skeleton ability on these summons. Lash Out: As a reaction when hit by an attack, the bonepile can make a Bone Spike attack against the creature that hit it. Volvation: As a reaction when hit by an attack, the bonepile can roll itself into a defensive ball. This immediately improves its AC to 18, which can cause the triggering attack to miss. Once rolled into a ball, the bonepile cannot take reactions until it spends a legendary action to revert to normal or until the start of its next turn, but it retains the increase to its AC until it does so. LEGENDARY ACTIONS (2 actions total) Bone Cage (2 actions): The bonepile hurls a cage of bones at one target of size large or smaller within 30 ft of it. The target must succeed at a DC 18 Strength save or suffer 13 (3d8) piercing damage as well as becoming encaged. An encaged creature suffers 10 (3d6) necrotic damage at the start of its turn and is restrained. The cage is a large object with AC 13, 25 hit points and immunity to poison and psychic damage. Bonestorm (2 actions): If Bonestorm is charged, the bonepile immediately uses it. Revert: If the bonepile has used Volvation to roll itself into a ball, it can unroll itself and regain the ability to spend reactions. It loses the AC improvement when it does so.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2023 05:28
|
|
|
Currently in a party running through Candlekeep. My character is a Fairy Rogue Inquisitor, and the party ended up in the Feywild. A fae NPC managed to steal the names of two of our party members. My character bartered his two pinky toes in exchange for the names, but then opted to keep them for himself. He now gets to give the two commands that they have to follow if they lose a wisdom saving throw against my spell DC (charisma). I'm not abusing it because I don't want to be a PvP dick, but it's a fun little RP hook. I'm going to give them back eventually, but I'm having a lot of fun playing a fae.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2023 06:45
|
|
|
My players are now level 2 after 8 sessions. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 18:56
|
|
|
Raenir Salazar posted:My players are now level 2 after 8 sessions. Playing in 30 minute chunks over your lunch break?
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 19:06
|
|
|
keeping players at level 1 that long is a crime against gaming
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 19:09
|
|
|
Raenir Salazar posted:My players are now level 2 after 8 sessions. Honestly, that’s rad.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 19:32
|
|
|
Azathoth posted:keeping players at level 1 that long is a crime against gaming I'm playing in a campaign that started three and a half years ago and my PC just became L9. I've run mini-campaigns that lasted a year real-time where the PCs gained a level every 1-4 sessions. If everyone is having a good time, who cares?
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 19:49
|
|
|
It's going to be session 5 this week of my campaign and I reckon this, or the next, is where they hit level 2. This is because sessions 1-3 were pretty much pure RP and character building with no combat, major world exploration or encounters outside of organic "party get to know each other and go around making new friends and contacts", so it just so happened it took that long to hit the first event that would give them a milestone (finding the key to the dungeon and exploring it). In a more proactive game I'd probably not keep people at level 1 that long, but in game terms only a week of in-world time has passed and most of that has been spent effectively in downtime actions, setting the scene so that when the adventuring begins the party have a strong rapport and are properly prepared.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 21:39
|
|
|
Pvt.Scott posted:Playing in 30 minute chunks over your lunch break? 4 Hour sessions. So about 30ish hours in total. Azathoth posted:keeping players at level 1 that long is a crime against gaming Well part of why is because of the module; which is divided into three parts (so 1 level up per part for a Level 1-3 one shot) and the first part is as open world as it gets so they spent a long while exploring and looting everything.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 22:14
|
|
|
Azathoth posted:keeping players at level 1 that long is a crime against gaming Yeah, I'd quit that campaign. Unless it was ~*amazing*~
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 22:29
|
|
|
Session 1: Intro to 5E Session 2: Character building Session 3: Session 0, finalizing character sheets, explaining spells Session 4: Introduction to the setting, major plot, character meeting Session 5: First combat Session 6: Revisiting combat rolls and spell slots. finishing combat Session 7: Interplayer RP and shopping(!) Session 8: Players do everything in their power to avoid their long rest. As long as the players and DM are having fun and learning, that's all that really matters. Only thing worse than DND dragging on is running out of DND to play.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 22:52
|
|
|
Narsham posted:I'm playing in a campaign that started three and a half years ago and my PC just became L9. I've run mini-campaigns that lasted a year real-time where the PCs gained a level every 1-4 sessions. If everyone is having a good time, who cares? Speed isn't the issue. That pace is absolutely fine, but if you want to play that pace, for the love of Gygax start at level 3
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 23:01
|
|
|
If their group is fine with how things are going, then it’s fine.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 23:45
|
|
|
Verisimilidude posted:If their group is fine with how things are going, then it’s fine. Yeah generally they're pretty happy and having fun; they were definitely excited/relieved to finally get their level up though and the next two parts are much more contained/straight forward/faster so they'll get through the next part probably in just 1 session, max 2. I think part of the problem so far was I made the maps way too big which I then filled with pods of enemies so exploring (and also making) the maps took a long time which was probably unnecessary. Over those 8 sessions was probably 15 combat encounters.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 01:02
|
|
|
yeah my pcs took 2 sessions to level up to level 2, basically clearing cragmaw cavern (playing lmop). but i think we've done 4 more sessions and the pcs are so rp heavy that they're just getting into tresendar manor now, so they probably won't hit level 3 for another maybe 1 or 2 sessions. they spent basically a whole session interrogating the townmaster and then locked him in jail while they set off to tackle the redbrands lol. some sessions are just pure story development and stuff i guess
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 01:15
|
|
|
Raenir Salazar posted:Yeah generally they're pretty happy and having fun; they were definitely excited/relieved to finally get their level up though and the next two parts are much more contained/straight forward/faster so they'll get through the next part probably in just 1 session, max 2. What adventure are you playing that it takes so long to level?
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 01:20
|
|
|
15 combat encounters to get from level 1 to level 2?! I'm glad your group is having fun, but wow, is that not for me.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 01:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:24 |
|
|
Verisimilidude posted:If their group is fine with how things are going, then it’s fine. Yeah, this. Levelling up and getting more abilities is cool, but it's not everything. Especially if it's a new group - getting a feel for things at L1 is probably new and exciting enough at that point, as it is! Sounds good, in any case - everyone loves a good shopping spree! EDIT: Oh, yeah geez - didn't see the bit about 15 encounters, though. That's a pretty beefy amount of fighting! I assume they were mostly fairly small-scale, but drat, I imagine that's a lot of XP worth of guys the party slew, regardless. Either way, if everyone's happy, that's all that matters! Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Feb 6, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 01:23
|
|