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Manticores and Manicures: a Well Groomed Table Top Thread.

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    DE?ADDE?AD Registered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »
    I explicitly have zero interest in druid shapeshifting

    like, I've used it for sick flanks and speedy maneuvers

    but I kinda prefer casting every round, instead?

    I guess if Zephy ever hit a high enough level I could do both but *shrug*

    This is almost the exact opposite of my Druid Opinion.

    Let's both play a single druid - you handle the spells, I'll do the shapeshifting.

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    JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    A couple of years ago my FFG Star Wars group got together during December and I had a surprise for them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcIpBhcqMwI

    For the occasion we switched systems from FFG Star Wars to Retrostar, which is a cute little indie RPG for doing 70s-style TV sci-fi. One of the PC stats is "cheese." Characters have a special FX budget that limits how often they can use their flashiest moves, and you can get bonuses to rolls for including Very Special Messages.

    3783663.jpg?312

    Ryan Seacrest played the bad guy. The players had access to Bea Arthur and Grand Funk Railroad as resources they could deploy. It ended with the heroes saving the "Light Day" festival and having a big disco roller party.

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    i think 4e, once again, had one of my favourite druid set ups.

    as a caster it was kind of wizard with some different ways to push things around, but then you could turn into a tiger and maul people meaning getting you cornered didn't mean as much where as a wizard it could be a bad time.

    I kind of wish 5e instead of doing "you can shape shift twice, for an increasing number of hours" it was "you can shift a number of times for a period of time equal to hours (rounding up) getting knocked out of beast form consume X number of additional hours"

    or something along those lines.

    my current druid idea is very shape shifting focused, and and only being bale to go beast mode twice a day is kind of a drag.

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    DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    edited December 2018
    DE?AD wrote: »
    Doobh wrote: »
    I explicitly have zero interest in druid shapeshifting

    like, I've used it for sick flanks and speedy maneuvers

    but I kinda prefer casting every round, instead?

    I guess if Zephy ever hit a high enough level I could do both but *shrug*

    This is almost the exact opposite of my Druid Opinion.

    Let's both play a single druid - you handle the spells, I'll do the shapeshifting.

    oh, handle a druid like a vehicle with a gun turret?

    hell yeah

    make it a kenku so we have an easy explanation on why they have two voices they switch between

    Doobh on
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    StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Jacobkosh wrote: »
    Tube wrote: »
    Druids are very much my "pick a class to be in real life" pick, so I'm defensive of them. I don't see them as clerics of the nature domain, more that nature is its own weird, primal thing separate from the politics and machination of the gods. Druids are the defenders of that concept, and the idea that nature as a concept gets a seat at the table when the massive, powerful forces of magic, war and gods are clashing.

    I also think they're one of the only representations of "neutrality" as a D&D alignment concept that really works. A lion isn't being evil when it chases down a gazelle, and a druid wouldn't see any reason to interfere with that. A druid isn't necessarily going to step in when a villager gets lost in the forest, because stay out of the forest, dumbass. They might step in if hungry wolves have begun attacking a local town, because reprisals from the town are likely to wreck the local ecosystem. They're inherently small C conservative, fighting an inevitably losing battle against encroaching civilization, and the inherent idea that the natural world is something that needs to be advanced past rather than worked with. That doesn't mean they're a milquetoast vegan, because nature isn't generally milquetoast or vegan. There's a huge possibility space for playing druids with different approaches to balance and neutrality.

    That all seems different to me than "Sylvania is a nature god, I worship the nature god".

    I 100% agree with all of this in terms of, like, flavor and perspective, and honestly your take on the druid's neutrality is a better and more succinct explanation than I've encountered in some of the actual rulebooks. But from a rules point of view I feel like calling down the storm and thunder, or talking to the birds and foxes, or turning into a wolf with a big wolf dick are all basically magic things. They're not things that I would think of as being out of bounds for a nature priest to do. It seems like the big difference is in how the two kinds of characters would behave rather tnan the kind of stuff they can do moment to moment.

    I feel like my ideal class system would be one where you have very broad archetypes and then a menu of options within the archetype you can pick to create the flavor you want. Like you could build a druid by picking "talks to animals," "herbal healing," and "summons vines" and sacrifice more traditional cleric stuff like "turns undead" or the sort of Moses-style wrath of god magic.

    Conceptually I think this all follows, and the idea that D&D magic is just a unified system used to represent the Druid's command over nature, or the Bard's songs, or the Wizard's spellcasting makes a lot of sense to me.

    But then I personally run into the stumbling block of D&D magic not being fun for me at all. It's not fun to play, it doesn't feel magical, it feels like ordering food off of a menu instead of cooking.

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    ElddrikElddrik Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    I kind of wish 5e instead of doing "you can shape shift twice, for an increasing number of hours" it was "you can shift a number of times for a period of time equal to hours (rounding up) getting knocked out of beast form consume X number of additional hours"

    or something along those lines.

    my current druid idea is very shape shifting focused, and and only being bale to go beast mode twice a day is kind of a drag.

    Wild Shape uses recover on a short rest, so it's pretty easy to get more of them when needed.
    Jacobkosh wrote: »
    I feel like my ideal class system would be one where you have very broad archetypes and then a menu of options within the archetype you can pick to create the flavor you want. Like you could build a druid by picking "talks to animals," "herbal healing," and "summons vines" and sacrifice more traditional cleric stuff like "turns undead" or the sort of Moses-style wrath of god magic.

    This is basically what i'm doing with Against the Fall of Night. A druid would be a caster of Material magic (instead of Arcane/Divine, I've split magic into Material/Spiritual) who has selected nature-manipulating spells and such, and feats that give them things like wild shape instead of picking traditional wizard feats. (Druid itself would probably be an advanced class, but you'd be able to pick between the three spellcaster classes and make each of them druidy simply by picking the druidy spells/feats.)

    I'm a big fan of broad archetype classes that can be customized, though I do think it's important to keep out of the over-broad trap that can be presented there, where your class doesn't really mean anything because it's all defined by your customization options. Every member of X class should have some core similarities, but there should also be room to make it your own. I think the ideal result is one where players can create new 'classes'/archetypes out of combinations that the designer had never foreseen by selecting available options (and that these new combinations are still fairly balanced with the other choices).

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    MaddocMaddoc I'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother? Registered User regular
    Druid's shapeshifting restriction always makes it feel like I'm holding it in my pocket just in case, unfortunately the thing about Druid that I'm most interested in is the shapeshifting

    Shapeshifting twice a day just doesn't feel incredibly impactful

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    AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    edited December 2018
    sometimes I feel like the one big thing Pathfinder got right to some degree is Druid shapeshifting

    you can do it for a certain amount of time per day, and you can divvy that time up as much as you like. I think there's a limit on how many times you can shift but it's pretty generous and a lot of the time if you focus on shifting you just stay shifted a lot of the time

    my Dad is playing a Druid in our Kingmaker campaign and his character has consistently been one of the most useful party members in non-combat situations, since she can just turn into a bird and fly around to scout, or get into small places unnoticed

    I think the funniest thing they did recently was have her fly into a castle's larder as a small bird and then had the cleric and bard teleport in via a telepathic description of the place, and the bard proceeded to use magic to make all of the food in the larder spoil overnight

    also the bard cursed a bunch of the mercenaries guarding the town to be physically grossed out by the sight of ravens, so the druid would shapeshift into a raven and scare them away whenever they needed to go somewhere unseen

    Anzekay on
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    never dienever die Registered User regular
    Maddoc wrote: »
    Druid's shapeshifting restriction always makes it feel like I'm holding it in my pocket just in case, unfortunately the thing about Druid that I'm most interested in is the shapeshifting

    Shapeshifting twice a day just doesn't feel incredibly impactful

    To be fair, its twice per short rest. In most adventuring days, if you are going on long enough for it to be an issue, normally you will have short rested at least once during that time.

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    descdesc Goretexing to death Registered User regular
    may the force Bea with you

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    oh, two per short rest, this changes some things.

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    SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited December 2018
    Like I said it's kinda the expectation that you're going to use shape shifting all the time. Both for combat and utility. That's kinda the druid's thing. Like a rogue and sneak attack.

    Maybe talk to your DM and see how flexible they are on spell lists in the face of the concession that you're looking to almost never use shape shifting.

    The ravnica book opens up an interesting design space for backgrounds. Which it's understandable if someone wouldn't want to transfer that design element to their game. As it expands the power of backgrounds a bit.

    Sleep on
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    Theodore FlooseveltTheodore Floosevelt proud parent of eight beautiful girls and shalmelo dorne (which is currently being ruled by a woman (awesome role model for my daughters)) #dornedadRegistered User regular
    i like that simple delineation of druid/ranger being "would supervise a traveler within the forest"/"would lead a traveler through the forest"

    I don't think this is, y'know, profound, i guess i just realized in reading tube's post that, in liking more granola survivalist-type rangers (versus like, dual-wielding choppermen, i guess) i often was left not really sure where my idea of druid fit in alongside it

    nature's advocate versus humanity's advocate in the wild, i suppose (or substitute humanity for whichever people they advocate for, saying "civilization's advocate" certainly sounds wrong)

    f2ojmwh3geue.png
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    SleepSleep Registered User regular
    i like that simple delineation of druid/ranger being "would supervise a traveler within the forest"/"would lead a traveler through the forest"

    I don't think this is, y'know, profound, i guess i just realized in reading tube's post that, in liking more granola survivalist-type rangers (versus like, dual-wielding choppermen, i guess) i often was left not really sure where my idea of druid fit in alongside it

    nature's advocate versus humanity's advocate in the wild, i suppose (or substitute humanity for whichever people they advocate for, saying "civilization's advocate" certainly sounds wrong)

    The druid is the forest and its denizens

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    NullzoneNullzone Registered User regular
    Yeah my bad I confused Wild Shape with True Polymorph. @astrobstrd @Sleep

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    SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Nullzone wrote: »
    Yeah my bad I confused Wild Shape with True Polymorph. astrobstrd Sleep

    Frankly i had to re look it up to make sure i hadn't just been letting my players do it cause it's a classic play.

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    StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Talkin' 'bout druids yesterday got me to the point where I decided to think about what my ideal set of classes for a European medieval fantasy RPG would be.
    Bard: Social butterfly and performer, although not necessarily a musician. Her musical powers are not necessarily magical, but some bards pick up a few cantrips as well along the way. Also tends to know their way around a couple of weapons - typically these are just as showy as everything else she does.

    Brawler: Halfway between the barbarian and the monk, this is someone who learned how to fight incidentally. Grappling, unarmed combat, improvised weapons, and a little bit of pocket sand. Also tends to have a smattering of other skills - intimidation, athleticism, or trade skills that probably still use her physical strength.

    Champion: A paladin without some of the connotative elements of the paladin. Always in service to something, frequently a deity or an ideal, although sometimes through the medium of a more earthly church or order. A trained combatant, and frequently a competent healer on the battlefield as well. There's a bit of the classic D&D cleric in here as well probably, so turning undead wouldn't be out of the question.

    Druid: A lot of what Tube was saying fits into my idea of the druid as well. The druid has explicitly supernatural abilities - shapeshifting, talking to animals, bending trees and streams - but their only magic comes in the form of extended ritual magic. Many of their non-survival skills are actually social, as their ability to seemingly shape the natural world to their whims is actually based around a system of bargains with the spirits who live there.

    Ranger: Often just an elevated hunter or woodsman, the ranger is someone who knows the woods like the back of her hand without the supernatural connection to it that the druid has. Stealth and archery make a lot of sense, as would an animal companion of some sort, but probably not a whole lot of the two weapon fighting. Definitely more of a crunchy survivalist type than a woodland warrior.

    Rogue: Essentially the same as you might think for a modern D&D rogue, with maybe a little bit less combat focus. A thief and a spy who can absolutely handle himself in a fight if he has to and also has the drop on you, but the more combat focused rogue might fit better as a brawler.

    Soldier: The soldier is someone who learned how to fight intentionally - typically through being enlisted in some sort of organized military service. Weapons skills galore, as you might expect, but also frequently some sense of tactics and the ability to command their allies into formations.

    Warlock: The only real combat caster - Druids and Champions both have supernatural abilities, but they're not spells in the way that the Warlock wields them. She's sold her soul, or something of equal value, in order to gain the level of abilities that a powerful magical entity would have - manifesting magic on a nearly instantaneous timescale. Everyone else is pretty much stuck with ritual magic, but the Warlock can make much of that same magic happen quick, although the costs she has to pay might be slightly magnified as well.

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    Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    Guess who single handedly fought off two avatars of death from the deck of many things last night?

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    ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    Blake T wrote: »
    Guess who single handedly fought off two avatars of death from the deck of many things last night?

    Elminster?

    Was it Elminster?

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
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    Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    I pulled the comet in the deck of many things which is win the next encounter by yourself. My friend drew the skull which summons the avatar of death.

    So when you interfere you summon a second avatar. So I fought both.

    I also burned a legendary item.

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    ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Okay

    But

    Hear me out

    Twitter! | Dilige, et quod vis fac
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    ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    Ah, the Deck of Many Things.

    I lucked out with some early draws from the DoMT. I got the card which gave me an extra two stat points (!!!) and another one that made my arms tingle, and actually I'm not sure if that one was positive because I don't think it's paid off yet?

    Everything else after that has been a fucking disaster. The next time I drew I ended up with my soul banished to hell and had to be wished back, then last night I was physically banished to some undisclosed dungeon and had to be wished back again, but still lost all my my money and non-magic possessions. My noble adoptive family lost all their wealth too, although I don't think my character knows about that part yet.

    On the plus side, the side-effect of the card gave me enough xp to level up for the second time that session, but 'fucked up, got rescued and then had to borrow money to buy pants' isn't quite as cool a character moment as 'became a giant bird and defeated two avatars of Death'.

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    AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    edited December 2018
    yeah I am sort of amused that the very first thing that happens after the Storm Giant King gives the party a potion of Giant Size is Blake pops it so he can get ahead of the party on levels

    well, I guess someone is gonna feel out of place during the final chapter when all his friends are huge size xD

    also Blake left out the funniest/best part of it. he actually went down; knocked unconscious and dying by the Avatars (one of them was actually attacking Pimento at first, but once it become clear the cleric wasn't doing anything to attack back, it went after the ranger as well) and his wolf had to finish off the last avatar on his own

    so then Blake was like "quick help stabilise me someone" and I snickered mildly, since it'd count as interfering and not only break Blake's card but also spawn another avatar. So he had to roll his death saving throws and survive.

    He rolls 2 fails, 2 successes, and then a 20. hah!

    Anzekay on
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    DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    down to the fucking wire

    amazing

    Miss me? Find me on:

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    Curly_BraceCurly_Brace Robot Girl Mimiga VillageRegistered User regular
    I ran a 5th edition session for my family (parents, sibling, one of my cousins) this evening. It went immensely well! It seems like they all had fun, and wrapped their heads around the mechanics pretty well. They all had cool character concepts, and even role-played some. I personally had a blast! I'm so glad this went well

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    TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    How do y'all feel about the sentinel feat for a barbarian? Or mage killer? I'm trying to think, once I get 20 constitution (and thus 22 unarmored ac with the bracers) of what to spend the rest of my feats on? Charger and great weapon master are on the list for sure.

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    InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    Uriel wrote: »
    How do y'all feel about the sentinel feat for a barbarian? Or mage killer? I'm trying to think, once I get 20 constitution (and thus 22 unarmored ac with the bracers) of what to spend the rest of my feats on? Charger and great weapon master are on the list for sure.

    Sentinel is very good for a protect the party style Barbarian. We have that on our ancestral guardian Barb and we are very hard to kill as a result.

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    ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    Uriel wrote: »
    How do y'all feel about the sentinel feat for a barbarian? Or mage killer? I'm trying to think, once I get 20 constitution (and thus 22 unarmored ac with the bracers) of what to spend the rest of my feats on? Charger and great weapon master are on the list for sure.

    Sentinel is basically tailor-made for barbarians and very worth taking for most campaigns. Mage-killer might be a better choice if you're in a campaign that has a lot of spell-caster enemies. It's kind of a case where MK is better when you can use it, while sentinel is moderately good in comparison but can be used in literally every fight.

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    BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    I'm trying to make a few lower level magic items for my crew but I can't find a list of things online anywhere that lists different magical properties of items. Its very frustrating!

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    BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    Bucketman wrote: »
    I'm trying to make a few lower level magic items for my crew but I can't find a list of things online anywhere that lists different magical properties of items. Its very frustrating!

    It's cursed

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    ElddrikElddrik Registered User regular
    Bucketman wrote: »
    I'm trying to make a few lower level magic items for my crew but I can't find a list of things online anywhere that lists different magical properties of items. Its very frustrating!

    Here's a generator that I like to use for minor magical properties! I'll often just fire it up and use the properties as inspiration, whether or not I take them entirely as presented.

    http://www.lordbyng.net/inspiration/results.php

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    NarbusNarbus Registered User regular
    Bucketman wrote: »
    I'm trying to make a few lower level magic items for my crew but I can't find a list of things online anywhere that lists different magical properties of items. Its very frustrating!

    Is this for D&D? What are your players? Where are they gonna find these items?

    I enjoy makin up magical items.

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    TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    Ok

    Sentinel, gwm, or plus two con at level 8??

    I have like 60 some hp and 21 ac already at level 6. 2 con will get me more hp and more a bit I barely get hit much less damaged by my dm's kinda underpowered encounter design (his wife gets... Frustrated with challenging encounters... Which makes it a fine line to walk for him. Plus the parrty has so much ranged damage its nuts sometimes I don't get up to the fight to swing more than maybe 1 time. I bought a bow for that.)

    But gwm will make my hits harder and sentinel will make me get potentially more hit opportunities (though that depends on if anyone decides to actually get into melee that day or not. Even the fighter is an eldritch knight... A whole table of people who have no imagination about fighting without spells...)

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    SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    gwm

    gcum67ktu9e4.pngimg
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    ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    You should also consider the "Tough" feat, which boosts your hp by twice as much as if you'd just put two points into CON. The downside is your CON doesn't actually go up, so you won't do any better with checks and saves.

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    DnD needs more dinosaurs for lower levels. like T-Rex is cr 8, which means you can't use it as a druid. there needs to be a cr 3 to 6 carnivores.

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    BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    are there no jurassic park raptor monsters

    BahamutZERO.gif
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    BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    DnD needs more dinosaurs for lower levels. like T-Rex is cr 8, which means you can't use it as a druid. there needs to be a cr 3 to 6 carnivores.

    Well what kind of dinos?

    I know world building is hard but I really do question putting a lot of the monsters in worlds as why would they not be wiped out by the humans or orcs

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Brainleech wrote: »
    Melding wrote: »
    DnD needs more dinosaurs for lower levels. like T-Rex is cr 8, which means you can't use it as a druid. there needs to be a cr 3 to 6 carnivores.

    Well what kind of dinos?

    I know world building is hard but I really do question putting a lot of the monsters in worlds as why would they not be wiped out by the humans or orcs

    thoughts include carnataurus, maybe the smaller t-rex relatives. you know, good dinosaur ass dinosaurs.

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    never dienever die Registered User regular
    The Tomb of Annihilation has stat blocks for a brontosaurus, deinonychus, dimetrodon, hadrosaurus, stegosauras, and velociraptor.

This discussion has been closed.