Nothing says Karma like one one creature that answers the call and then communicates to the caster that answering their summoning spells means certain death to those summoned.
Hey 5e thread, some of my dudes and I were lamenting our lack of a campaign the other day, and when I said "yeah, I wish I had time to write one, but maaaaan" one guy was like "just use a premade one, you stupid moron." (He's a great guy; best friends). So I'm thinking I might pick up one of the 5e premades; any reccomendations? We're all familiar with 5e, so it doesn't need to be intro-level or anything like that, and I don't mind if it's a long one. I was vaguely thinking Out of the Abyss because I've always enjoyed running demons as villains, or Tomb of Annihilation because the title's cool, but I'm open to whatever.
Edit: Oh, shit, I didn't realize Tales from the Yawning Portal was a bunch of old-school adventures re-skinned for 5e. Figured it was Undermountain based on the title. That sounds like it could be cool.
Hey 5e thread, some of my dudes and I were lamenting our lack of a campaign the other day, and when I said "yeah, I wish I had time to write one, but maaaaan" one guy was like "just use a premade one, you stupid moron." (He's a great guy; best friends). So I'm thinking I might pick up one of the 5e premades; any reccomendations? We're all familiar with 5e, so it doesn't need to be intro-level or anything like that, and I don't mind if it's a long one. I was vaguely thinking Out of the Abyss because I've always enjoyed running demons as villains, or Tomb of Annihilation because the title's cool, but I'm open to whatever.
The general consensus seems to be that all of them are at least decent. A lot of people seemed to really dig the Ravenloft one in particular.
I just picked up Tomb of Annihilation for the exact same reasons, and it looks fucking sweet. I can't wait until we start playing it at our "dorky guys weekend" game sessions.
Oh and I think there was a big Tomb of Annihilation event thing with a bunch of different podcasters/streamers/whatevers playing through bits of the campaign? Might check those out to get an idea of what it's about.
There was. AQI did a big one at the most recent PAX, and the C-Team did a one shot. Given where we are all posting, I trust I don't need to provide links to that content, do I?
Edit: I'm sure other ones did too, but I don't follow the other shows so much. I would assume Dice Camera Action did something in ToA as well, considering Chris Perkins wrote it.
It is a pretty comical oversight that summoning creatures is done by summing up their total CR instead of saying "you may summon up to X creatures which combine for an encounter of CR Y or less"
Because then everyone would have to understand encounter math.
Anyway the real problem with summoning spells is needing the stat blocks for all the creatures. I don't think they're fun in combat because they slow things down.
Now outside of combat as a utility spell go wild. Then i don't really need statblocks(or to add up to 8 enemies to an encounter!) i just need to know how you're using the summon.
In practice I've never actually had summoning bog down an encounter in 5e, even adding 8 creatures to the board is fairly quick because all they are gong to do is attack, maybe with some kind of save inducing effect, and possibly provoke opportunity attacks if they are the first commanded to leave threat without dissengage, and then eat up a round or two of enemy attacks (The true benefit of conjure animal spells)
But I can also crush out a 40 member combat (including party and monsters with players multi sheeting) in under an hour so maybe my tables are just super efficient and the problem just doesn't present itself for us. I'm willing to admit that's possible.
I, too, am willing to admit that maybe I'm just too great and that I don't experience the problems others do because I am so skillfully effective. This confession is a sacrifice that I am willing to make, because I am also selfless, and humble
and devastatingly handsome
unfortunately I am told that lesser folk still play DnD and so the game still needs to be designed around their feebleness and not the limitless capacities of ubermenschen like us
If they made animal summoning a long cast time (like, a minute or more) I'd think that would also solve a lot of the abuse, while still allowing for cool non-combat uses and the occasional epic setpiece.
keep in mind the spell lasts for an hour - all a long cast time is likely to do is encourage players to summon their stuff pre-combat and start fights with the summons already out. And they're already often incentivized to do that anyway, both because it frees up their round 1 action and because it gives them warm bodies to soak up missed traps. (Or in the case of conjure fey and pixies, because you want out-of-combat access to their spells)
I don't really see why folks paint running this game as something that requires an ubermenschen to accomplish, it is literally one of the easiest systems to run.
I mean obviously the answer is for the DM to only allow the summoning of infinite fish
"I have drowned the tarrasque under an unimaginable pile of infinite fish, now, the rest of the party is likewise crushed, but I think we can agree to call that a win..."
I don't really see why folks paint running this game as something that requires an ubermenschen to accomplish, it is literally one of the easiest systems to run.
I consider myself an expert in the rules of whatever game I'm playing. This was true for 3.x, 4e, and 5e (though it's been a bit since I've played 5e now so I'm rusty) and I've literally never played any of the three of those versions where a combat was BOTH interesting AND took less than an hour.
Part of the issue is that players tend to be slow in taking their turns: they look stuff up, they discuss their actions with the group before taking them, they drop dice on the floor, they roll hit and damage separately, they add up any modifiers after they roll and every time they roll, they roll advantage/disadvantage separately instead of just two dice at the same time, stuff like that.
Part of the issue is that even with a grid (which I sometimes use and sometimes don't, though I usually used one during important encounters since I have one built into my table), it takes time to explain the situation to players who want to make sure they have a handle on their environment, which can't all be communicated via a map.
And part of the issue is that the game just takes time. If you can run your encounters in record time that's great, but the overwhelming number of people complaining that encounters take too long should probably be a clue that you're the exception rather than the rule.
Hey 5e thread, some of my dudes and I were lamenting our lack of a campaign the other day, and when I said "yeah, I wish I had time to write one, but maaaaan" one guy was like "just use a premade one, you stupid moron." (He's a great guy; best friends). So I'm thinking I might pick up one of the 5e premades; any reccomendations? We're all familiar with 5e, so it doesn't need to be intro-level or anything like that, and I don't mind if it's a long one. I was vaguely thinking Out of the Abyss because I've always enjoyed running demons as villains, or Tomb of Annihilation because the title's cool, but I'm open to whatever.
Edit: Oh, shit, I didn't realize Tales from the Yawning Portal was a bunch of old-school adventures re-skinned for 5e. Figured it was Undermountain based on the title. That sounds like it could be cool.
I've ran CoS and glossed through the ToA book.
CoS is really cool but requires a murderhappy DM. A lot of the campaign is about horror and suspense and really just trying to survive.
ToA looks great. There's so much stuff in that book, if I had to run another pre-made campaign I'd run that one.
Tomb of Annihilation looks pretty neat and has a lot of room for cool stuff. My one word of caution on it would be that the overarching metaplot of that campaign involves resurrection not working anymore for its duration, so you should take that into account before you start - 'people can't come back from the dead anymore' can really limit your options for returning a character to the campaign if someone gets killed
Yawning portal looked like some fairly awesome old school content.
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AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited October 2017
Random shit while DMing that I never could understand why was a persistent, recurring issue even when explained and with a grid right in front of you: the inability to move diagonally past blocking terrain (ie- doorways). Someone always tried to. Always.
Random shit while DMing that I never could understand why was a persistent, recurring issue even when explained and with a grid right in front of you: the inability to move diagonally past blocking terrain (ie- doorways). Someone always tried to. Always.
Eh, that's attention to detail generally and zero thickness walls and it looks like I can damn it!
Seriously though it's why I tend to draw such walls into the doorway a bit so it is clear it's a hard corner.
Random shit while DMing that I never could understand why was a persistent, recurring issue even when explained and with a grid right in front of you: the inability to move diagonally past blocking terrain (ie- doorways). Someone always tried to. Always.
Well a square is only 5ft on a side, no human is 5ft wide (ok, maybe there's one or two), there's wiggle room if the corner doesn't clearly fill the square the person wants to cross!
Also because players are always trying to get a leg up on the DM.
Summary of last week's dnd game.
I talked with the DM about my issues with the dice rolling, and he said he will try and do better, so a win, I guess.
This time around we had to go through the sewers looking for missing people, and after fighting a bunch of giant rats, we find this little thing tacked to a wall.
Hey 5e thread, some of my dudes and I were lamenting our lack of a campaign the other day, and when I said "yeah, I wish I had time to write one, but maaaaan" one guy was like "just use a premade one, you stupid moron." (He's a great guy; best friends). So I'm thinking I might pick up one of the 5e premades; any reccomendations? We're all familiar with 5e, so it doesn't need to be intro-level or anything like that, and I don't mind if it's a long one. I was vaguely thinking Out of the Abyss because I've always enjoyed running demons as villains, or Tomb of Annihilation because the title's cool, but I'm open to whatever.
The general consensus seems to be that all of them are at least decent. A lot of people seemed to really dig the Ravenloft one in particular.
I really regret buying the Princes of the Apocalypse book. Fucking terrible.
Summary of last week's dnd game.
I talked with the DM about my issues with the dice rolling, and he said he will try and do better, so a win, I guess.
This time around we had to go through the sewers looking for missing people, and after fighting a bunch of giant rats, we find this little thing tacked to a wall.
Cue me and two other players, "fuck..."
It'll be easy mode if you have at least one guy with decent intimidation.
Summary of last week's dnd game.
I talked with the DM about my issues with the dice rolling, and he said he will try and do better, so a win, I guess.
This time around we had to go through the sewers looking for missing people, and after fighting a bunch of giant rats, we find this little thing tacked to a wall.
The long and short of it is the city is doomed and depending on what we find next session will determine how much time i have to get friends out of the city.
Im still gonna try and attempt the impossible and convince those in charge that we have a Rat problem with a capital R. Gonna try to take a body back with us and im taking every left ear we can to show the numbers of just one hovel.
Id love to scry any hideout we find, but scrying tends to be about as effective at dealing with plot as the Dr Who's sonic screwdriver. (Not very well at all).
After the game, me and another player told the DM upfront what we were gonna try to be doing so plan for that happening if the dice go our way.
My apologies, @steelhawk .
Skaven have been on a popularity surge recently, with vermintide and Vermintide 2 and total Warhammer two, but it's not as ubiquitous as I thought it was.
Edit** hey that's neat, my phone's voice to text recognizes vermintide
But warlock is so fun when you get to level 9. You get anime run and jumping with Ascendant Step and Otherworldly Leap, especially if you can convince your DM to let you keep momentum with levitate, sure, you can't turn in midair, but if you are in a room or a cave, you can be pretty bonkers.
HOT DAMN WE GOT JUMPED UP FROM LEVEL TWO TO FOUR FOR OUR CAMPAIGN AND NOW MY WARLOCK HAS ALL THESE SPELLS I CAN’T WAIT TO CAST
Oh
That’s my limitation
I CAN’T WAIT TO CAST BOTH THESE SPELLS
If your game is getting at least 2 short rests or so per "game day" Warlock is gonna be a bit of a rough go.
Good news is that we're a bit light on healing so resting after encounters is the norm for us. Also I'm the only magic guy besides the druid so I assume my actions will be super impressive regardless.
After last session's "craziest plan ever", I thought maybe the group would take it easy, but instead today they stole an airship, managed to wrangle a haunting vision of the end of the world from the cleric's "god", unleashed an army of frost giants to rebuild their population and prepare for war against the Empire, and kidnapped a bunch of Imperial scientists so they can have them figure out the best way to make use of the horrifying being growing inside the planet's core.
Amusingly, they have yet to put much thought into stopping the undead horde that's currently ransacking at least one city, or the psionic sorcerer who has made it clear she's comfortable making an enemy of everyone in her quest to claim some kind of vague ancestral birthright (which is clearly related to the apocalyptic vision they just saw).
I'm looking forward to all the bad shit that's going on outside their very narrow view of the world.
Posts
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Edit: Oh, shit, I didn't realize Tales from the Yawning Portal was a bunch of old-school adventures re-skinned for 5e. Figured it was Undermountain based on the title. That sounds like it could be cool.
The general consensus seems to be that all of them are at least decent. A lot of people seemed to really dig the Ravenloft one in particular.
In case I do...
http://www.acq-inc.com/
Edit: I'm sure other ones did too, but I don't follow the other shows so much. I would assume Dice Camera Action did something in ToA as well, considering Chris Perkins wrote it.
I don't really see why folks paint running this game as something that requires an ubermenschen to accomplish, it is literally one of the easiest systems to run.
"I have drowned the tarrasque under an unimaginable pile of infinite fish, now, the rest of the party is likewise crushed, but I think we can agree to call that a win..."
I consider myself an expert in the rules of whatever game I'm playing. This was true for 3.x, 4e, and 5e (though it's been a bit since I've played 5e now so I'm rusty) and I've literally never played any of the three of those versions where a combat was BOTH interesting AND took less than an hour.
Part of the issue is that players tend to be slow in taking their turns: they look stuff up, they discuss their actions with the group before taking them, they drop dice on the floor, they roll hit and damage separately, they add up any modifiers after they roll and every time they roll, they roll advantage/disadvantage separately instead of just two dice at the same time, stuff like that.
Part of the issue is that even with a grid (which I sometimes use and sometimes don't, though I usually used one during important encounters since I have one built into my table), it takes time to explain the situation to players who want to make sure they have a handle on their environment, which can't all be communicated via a map.
And part of the issue is that the game just takes time. If you can run your encounters in record time that's great, but the overwhelming number of people complaining that encounters take too long should probably be a clue that you're the exception rather than the rule.
I've ran CoS and glossed through the ToA book.
CoS is really cool but requires a murderhappy DM. A lot of the campaign is about horror and suspense and really just trying to survive.
ToA looks great. There's so much stuff in that book, if I had to run another pre-made campaign I'd run that one.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Eh, that's attention to detail generally and zero thickness walls and it looks like I can damn it!
Seriously though it's why I tend to draw such walls into the doorway a bit so it is clear it's a hard corner.
Well a square is only 5ft on a side, no human is 5ft wide (ok, maybe there's one or two), there's wiggle room if the corner doesn't clearly fill the square the person wants to cross!
Also because players are always trying to get a leg up on the DM.
I talked with the DM about my issues with the dice rolling, and he said he will try and do better, so a win, I guess.
This time around we had to go through the sewers looking for missing people, and after fighting a bunch of giant rats, we find this little thing tacked to a wall.
Cue me and two other players, "fuck..."
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
I really regret buying the Princes of the Apocalypse book. Fucking terrible.
It'll be easy mode if you have at least one guy with decent intimidation.
But could you True Polymorph into a Vampire?
...... I don't know what that means.....
Its ratmen... specifically this kind of ratmen:
Spoiler for images
The long and short of it is the city is doomed and depending on what we find next session will determine how much time i have to get friends out of the city.
Im still gonna try and attempt the impossible and convince those in charge that we have a Rat problem with a capital R. Gonna try to take a body back with us and im taking every left ear we can to show the numbers of just one hovel.
Id love to scry any hideout we find, but scrying tends to be about as effective at dealing with plot as the Dr Who's sonic screwdriver. (Not very well at all).
After the game, me and another player told the DM upfront what we were gonna try to be doing so plan for that happening if the dice go our way.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
If anyone else is a dum-dum like me, I did some sleuthing on the image link and apparently that is a Warhammer Fantasy flavoured rat-person. A Skaven.
Yeah. The DM played the videogame Vermintide, probably.
Skaven have been on a popularity surge recently, with vermintide and Vermintide 2 and total Warhammer two, but it's not as ubiquitous as I thought it was.
Edit** hey that's neat, my phone's voice to text recognizes vermintide
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
No worries! You simply inferred something that I had no reference for. No harm, no foul.
But warpstone is warpstone and im betting we are getting the crack cocaine version of it.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Oh
That’s my limitation
I CAN’T WAIT TO CAST BOTH THESE SPELLS
Gonna be awhile before I have to pick lvl 3 options
If your game is getting at least 2 short rests or so per "game day" Warlock is gonna be a bit of a rough go.
Given that warlocks are still the kings of ranged dps I'm pretty sure he'll be fine.
Bored perhaps, but definitley fine.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Good news is that we're a bit light on healing so resting after encounters is the norm for us. Also I'm the only magic guy besides the druid so I assume my actions will be super impressive regardless.
Amusingly, they have yet to put much thought into stopping the undead horde that's currently ransacking at least one city, or the psionic sorcerer who has made it clear she's comfortable making an enemy of everyone in her quest to claim some kind of vague ancestral birthright (which is clearly related to the apocalyptic vision they just saw).
I'm looking forward to all the bad shit that's going on outside their very narrow view of the world.