A thing to keep in mind: a gate needs to be created with the permission of a demon lord, and can't be used unless the *actual* name of the demon lord is known, I.E. it's true name, as per the spell description
you already had it happen on the bbeg but it's best to remember the limitations and incredible risks of something like trying to gate in a demon lord
(notably, a lot more more demons can run through, and demons can summon other demons) to prevent unmitigated player shenanigans
The BBEG in my first 5E campaign went down like a chump due to shenanigans from the party wizard. The wizard teleported solo into the BBEG's lair, Gated in a pre-established demon lord enemy of the BBEG to fight them, used a combination of Scrying and Plane Shift to pursue the BBEG after they themselves used Plane Shift to try and escape, and successfully Feebleminded the BBEG.
This all took place in about twenty minutes after the rest of the players had left following the normal group session.
I've since decided that my next BBEG is going to be much more proactive against the PCs and have way more defenses, allies, and escape plans:
Seghulerak’s Battle Plans and Stronghold Defenses
- Immunity to being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, petrified, poisoned, and stunned thanks to the Book of Vile Darkness.
- Glyphs of Warding
- Spell glyphs that target saves other than Constitution
- Buffing spell glyphs like haste
- Scroll of Protection
- Special serpent gates only allow teleportation between facilities either by reptilian creatures or a non-reptilian creature carrying one (such as a normal snake kept in a container).
- Allies prepare the expected battle chamber by lighting chaotic evil candles of invocation to aid Seghulerak and her allies and to enable more cure wounds spells.
- The air is filled with essence of ether inhalation poison to hopefully render intruders unconscious, either for capture or for execution.
- Seghulerak has established Forbiddance in such a way that she knows where she will still be able to cast Plane Shift. She trusted no one else to do this for her.
- Seghulerak forces enslaved wizards or warlocks to summons fiends whose true names she knows, using Command Evil if necessary to force their service.
- The marilith Zuvexus is summoned by a candle of invocation to accompany Seghulerak and summons more demon allies herself before entering the Forbiddance-affected area.
- The Riteknife has four souls stored in it through ritual sacrifice before having purple worm poison applied to it. During battle, it is used to try and store the soul of one enemy and prevent its revival before using the annihilation property to kill another enemy.
- Spiritual Weapon, Death Ward, and Spirit Guardians are cast beforehand.
- Stone Shape to get rid of the door the party enters through
- Several of the party's NPC allies incapacitated and ready to be sacrificed to recharge the Riteknife
- An ally casts Major Image to make a false target for the enemy to waste spells on
- Silence to hinder enemy spellcasters
- Variant oaken bolters that have a rechargeable Wyvern Poison bolt ability
- Divine Word to attempt to banish extraplanar enemies.
- Snake Antipathy coupled with other yuan-ti allies to frighten susceptible targets
- Globe of Darkness on the ceiling
- If in dire straits, Seghulerak flies above the reach of Forbiddance into the globe of Darkness to cast Plane Shift, which takes her to the secret demiplane known as the Serpent Reliquary.
- If the PCs are still in her lair in the Material Plane after she's escaped she Plane Shifts back to cast Earthquake on it and collapse the entire building on them
Is it overkill? Maybe. The PCs can always try to run away, though. I basically want to play her like that other player did his Wizard PC against my old BBEG.
If she's tracked down to the Serpent Reliquary after fleeing from the first fight I'll give her some Mythic abilities from the Theros book and a fallen Solar ally, too.
Legendary Resistance: Always. Even if they have a monk
Also worth noting that you might have too many "actions" prepared that aren't just damage unless most of these actions are glyphs. Though if you are full defensive it might work for them to let the allies deal dmg and it do non-dmging stuff until the allies are gone.
Spiritual Weapon is a 1 minute duration so isn't worth using until the players arrive. And it will also prevent you from using a std action spell on the same turn and its a bonus action use so it might have issues if you have other bonus action spells/abilities that would be more potent. Spirit Guardians is slightly better at 10 minutes but dinking around by the party can still flummox this.
Also worth noting that by RAW you probably cannot put buffs or debuffs in the glpyh. It does not say that the spell must harm the triggering creature but it does say the glyph does in total before it gets to the specifics. And area debuffs and buffs probably do not meet this condition. Otherwise the things you can put into the glyph are near limitless and 100% hot bull that will ruin the party far too easily.
On the other hand Glyph of Warding has some uses. To start with Glpyh of Warding has a 200 GP cost which is inconsequential to an elder evil. So you get as many of them as you want really.
The second thing is that Glyph of Warding can store ANY SPELL equal to or lower than the slot used to cast the glyph that you also cast at the time of the spell. This means that with a 9th level slot you can store an 8th level spell.(assuming you don't have 2 9th level slots then you could store a 9th level spell!)
Some good ones. (assuming the cleric spell list. Wizard also has some really good ones)
Earthquake(8th level): Conditions: Seghulerak is not on the plane and a good creature is in the area of the glpyh. [that is right i just made a load bearing boss via normal rules]
Firestorm(7th level)
Harm(6th level)
Contagion
Insect Plague (its concentration too and so auto succeeds for 10 minutes)
Unhallowing an area to give vulnerability to a damage type you expect to use is another good idea.
Edit: Also you forgot another BIIIG buff to pre-cast
Freedom of movement. Otherwise its going to get grappled or restrained and then can't fly away to its portal location
if your BBEG is a deity then Anti-magic field is also a good option though globe of invulnerability is also a strong option (as that will make you immune to dispel magic to remove your buffs)
you can put whatever you want in a glyph to throw against your players, in curse of strahd there's a glyph of warding that acts as a flameskull vending machine
I can't figure out why you can't put buffs or debuffs in the glyph, however, based upon its wording it looks like any spell should work fine as long as the triggering creature is a valid target
Edit: Better!
If you have players who don't have great wisdom saves, do the Symbol of Fear and a few glyphs of Conjure Woodland Beings at 8th level, each summoning 3 Sea Hags. One bad save on a feared player, high level or not, and they drop to zero hitpoints
A thing to keep in mind: a gate needs to be created with the permission of a demon lord, and can't be used unless the *actual* name of the demon lord is known, I.E. it's true name, as per the spell description
you already had it happen on the bbeg but it's best to remember the limitations and incredible risks of something like trying to gate in a demon lord
(notably, a lot more more demons can run through, and demons can summon other demons) to prevent unmitigated player shenanigans
This player was very dedicated to the campaign and was always thinking of ways to get rid of the BBEG, taking concrete steps over many sessions.
The BBEG was a lich. Knowing this, the player's wizard spent his downtime hunting down an amulet of the sphere and a sphere of annihilation to bring back to his lair. He succeeded and then cast a Wish phrased "I wish the BBEG's phylactery was in my hands".
The BBEG, as a water themed lich necromancer, had found out the true name of the demon lord Zuregurex, Lord of the Drowned Dead, long ago. He had used a ritual to bind Zuregurex's essence to a ship and embedded his phylactery within a compartment in the ship, siphoning minute pieces of the demon lord's essence to power his phylactery (as opposed to the more conventional way of feeding it souls). Over the course of millenia the demon lord possessed phylactery ship had reconfigured itself into a kind of "shipwreck golem".
So, after casting the Wish the PC wizard found himself holding the phylactery...which was attached to the interior compartment of a demon lord possessed shipwreck golem.
Undaunted, the wizard, while standing inside the demon lord possessed shipwreck golem, used the Amulet of the Sphere to cause the Sphere of Annihilation to fly towards the phylactery. The Sphere pierced the hull of this super golem and engulfed the BBEG's phylactery.
The phylactery was destroyed, Zuregurex was freed from the shipwreck golem to return to his layer of the Abyss that he had been separated from for thousands of years, and the golem fell apart around the wizard.
I was disappointed how this same player took out my BBEG for good so easily later, but this? This was fucking awesome and well-earned.
I was so impressed by this that later i said the wizard had managed to unearth the true name of an ancient and obscure demon lord himself that had been trapped in the Abyssal prison known as the Wells of Darkness for eons: Ushablator the Chaos Horror. This was the demon lord he Gated in to help take care of my BBEG for good.
I blame myself for the BBEG's failure, really. I had spent so much time coming up with his uniquely guarded phylactery, secret island storehouse of thousands of preserved corpses waiting to be animated as undead, and kickass tentacled plane shifting undead factory super fortress that I hadn't put sufficient thought into how he was protecting himself or who would be there to help thwart Feeblemind attempts against him or whatever. Plus I figured since his unique connection to the watery demon lord Zuregurex was severed he had lost many of his unique water-themed features (I still used the Acererak statblock from Tomb of Annihilation to represent him, though).
EDIT: I'm gonna draw a decent diagram of the BBEG's fortress to share here later when I have time. I didn't get to use it to the fullest, but I'm still really proud of what all I had come up with.
Here's a fun detail I hadn't considered until just this second:
- The BBEG bound Zuregurex and used Zuregurex's Abyssal layer, Guttlevetch, for personal use for millenia.
- The BBEG and his allies invaded Stygia, Fifth Layer of the Hells, and used giant maelstrom portals to pull icebergs full of damned souls into Guttlevetch for use in creating and empowering their own demonic forces.
- The BBEG's phylactery was destroyed, freeing Zuregurex to return to Guttlevetch after thousands of years away.
- Zuregurex arrived to find his layer now an ocean full of damned souls trapped in icebergs to use as he sees fit.
Basically, Zuregurex was captured from his home, enslaved, eventually freed, and went home to find an enormous stockpile of wealth that dwarfs anything he ever had before his enslavement.
It's like if a guy got out of prison after thirty years and found out he somehow became a millionaire through no doing of his own in the interim.
you can put whatever you want in a glyph to throw against your players, in curse of strahd there's a glyph of warding that acts as a flameskull vending machine
I can't figure out why you can't put buffs or debuffs in the glyph, however, based upon its wording it looks like any spell should work fine as long as the triggering creature is a valid target
Because the glyph must harm the target. Summons are explicitly called out as OK
"When you cast this spell, you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures, either upon a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a Treasure chest) to conceal the glyph"
"Spell Glyph: You can store a prepared spell of 3rd Level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way. When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast. If the spell has a target, it Targets the creature that triggered the glyph. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell summons Hostile creatures or creates harmful Objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and Attack it. If the spell requires Concentration, it lasts until the end of its full Duration."
There may not be a diagetic reason for it to only work on harmful spells but that is how i read it and not having it as such is... well insane. You could plane shift them! You could antimagic field them! You could dispel them (at whatever level you wanted!). So long as you had time to prepare you could have high level silences or darknesses. So that they might burn defensive spells futilely because they were cast with high level slots. And that is just cleric spells
Force Cage(no save!), Power Word Stun, Maze(no save!). You could simulacrum them!(this actually might be RAW since it technically might be a summon). You could teleportation circle them wherever you wanted (again with no save!). You could reverse gravity...
Was the lich currently dead when the phylactery was summoned? Because if he was not then he is still alive. Decaying into a demi-lich sure. But that doesn't mean he cannot want revenge on those who destroyed his intelligence with his last vestige of coherence. (there is no guidance as to how often a lich must consume a soul to maintain lichiness but i would suspect its similar to the lifespan of what was consumed? A few years at the minimum.)
The relevant section of the official PHB Errata PDF reads as follows:
Glyph of Warding (p. 245). The first
sentence clarifies that the magical ef-
fect needn’t be harmful.
According to Reddit, at least, later printings of the PHB remove "you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures" from the spell description (one poster asked "the description I've seen online says it has to be harmful but the PHB doesn't; what gives?")
I haven't been able to check myself, though, since I own an earlier copy of the PHB and don't have a newer one on hand to check.
Thanks for the suggestions, thread! But after wasting far too much of my working day falling down a rabbit hole of 4e modules, Dungeon magazine adventure paths and the like I gave my head a shake on how much time I was spending on something so "casual". So I'm going to run with my Nangalore idea as it fits my criteria to a T: Non-giants, non-dragons, non-cold Northern locale, a target (rare plants/spell components) that is not more valuable/powerful to the party than the reward they're getting for doing the job, a chance to get eaten by a T-Rex in the jungle and, most importantly the chance to revist this absolute baller map:
you can put whatever you want in a glyph to throw against your players, in curse of strahd there's a glyph of warding that acts as a flameskull vending machine
I can't figure out why you can't put buffs or debuffs in the glyph, however, based upon its wording it looks like any spell should work fine as long as the triggering creature is a valid target
Because the glyph must harm the target. Summons are explicitly called out as OK
"When you cast this spell, you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures, either upon a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a Treasure chest) to conceal the glyph"
"Spell Glyph: You can store a prepared spell of 3rd Level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way. When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast. If the spell has a target, it Targets the creature that triggered the glyph. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell summons Hostile creatures or creates harmful Objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and Attack it. If the spell requires Concentration, it lasts until the end of its full Duration."
There may not be a diagetic reason for it to only work on harmful spells but that is how i read it and not having it as such is... well insane. You could plane shift them! You could antimagic field them! You could dispel them (at whatever level you wanted!). So long as you had time to prepare you could have high level silences or darknesses. So that they might burn defensive spells futilely because they were cast with high level slots. And that is just cleric spells
Force Cage(no save!), Power Word Stun, Maze(no save!). You could simulacrum them!(this actually might be RAW since it technically might be a summon). You could teleportation circle them wherever you wanted (again with no save!). You could reverse gravity...
That's not part of the mechanical definition of what the glyph does, it doesn't "have" to harm the target, sage advice agrees. Spell glyph just says the spell has to target a single creature or an area and definitions are given for the level of spell that can be used, that's it. That seems to just be descriptive, the intent of the spell, which... the intent of the shape water spell is not to create a motorboat but you can
You cannot glyph a simulacrum spell because of the wording of the simulacrum spell, the rest though? Yeah (except anti-magic field, target: self, although I can and have had anti-magic field traps because the DM is constrained by no such rules)
I'm not sure why you're worked up out about that, have you looked at they symbol spell? nothing in the game could survive 10 overlapped symbols doing 10d10 damage each per round
Are you concerned about players doing shenanigans from a DM's point of view? Or a DM doing shenanigans from a player's point of view?
Because if it's the latter, uh... your lich's demiplane should probably have a thousand symbols in it, the fact that it doesn't is because the players have to be able to win
Ghosts make pretty good multiform bosses, especially if you let them act like their previous class whilst they possess someone.
So rather than gaining control of the wizard, the bound spirit of the BBEG's bodyguard suddenly goes all John Wick through the back line with the possessed mage having previously been a high level monk/battlemaster.
If they knock their own wizard unconscious, the Ghost then looks for a new host or fights the group in it's spectral form, having taken out the main magical threat.
I've got plans to use these ghosts in a more intrigue focused campaign, with a long dead elven empire looking to re-establish themselves, but with the main threat to the PCs being that it's a bodysnatchers scenario.
Anyone you talk to could have become possessed since then, or maybe was possessed before!
The risk to the ghosts being that if they try to draw on the memories of their host, it's potentially a two way street and the host might end up with some of the undead's memories as well.
Sometimes it might be something they don't even realise, until confronted with a dead language they have no idea they can read it. Sometimes it might be a powerful NPC and ally, the King's spymaster who has alerted his master that there is this new threat in the Kingdom.
Or things might be more complicated, once the PCs realise that there are multiple factions within the ancient elves who might not all want to see the Eternal King restored, a contact from their man on the inside might happen when the double agent ghost possesses some street urchin to flag down the PCs without drawing attention. However the girl is left with strange dreams of an ancient land, and the memories of a desperate mission to stop an ancient evil being reawakened that failed.
At first no one pays any attention to the strange doomsday cult that is starting to build amongst the beggars and pickpockets, but eventually a noble who's mind is no longer wholly his own might recognise this as being out of place...then have the sudden realisation that there's no reason the memory bleeds can't happen twice, and if he can find this forlorn prophet, then he'll almost certainly know who the traitor was within the undead's ranks.
Tastyfish on
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
Hypothetical question: What sort of feature or resource would have been for martials as spell slots are for spellcasters, i.e. an aggregated pool of resources determined by adding together "spellcaster levels", factoring in half-caster/third-caster class levels, and consulting a chart? I vaguely remember 3.5 ed's "Base Attack Bonus" functioning somewhat like this...?
Hypothetical question: What sort of feature or resource would have been for martials as spell slots are for spellcasters, i.e. an aggregated pool of resources determined by adding together "spellcaster levels", factoring in half-caster/third-caster class levels, and consulting a chart? I vaguely remember 3.5 ed's "Base Attack Bonus" functioning somewhat like this...?
e: I'm actually not sure what exactly you're asking for. "A resource for martial classes that worked like spell slots for spellcasters" as in? Something they could use with limited frequency for powerful effects? That'd be the stuff in Tome of Battle. If you mean something else, can you rephrase or describe what you're wanting/thinking of differently?
Like, BAB and saves all worked in a "scales differently depending on class" fashion, but that had nothing to really do with caster/half-caster levels (unless you got into UA)
Any time i want to spice up a fight without adding extra enemies i think "how would WoW do this knowing what i know from playing it since 2004".
Like when the party fought a golem inside a treasure filled vault in a weird old temple. I realized in the weeks leading up that they'll shit all over the golem, so... Now the vault floor and ceiling are magnetic and activate when the fight start. The following happens on initiative 20 each round:
First round: all coinage suspends in mid air as the players hear a loud hum
Second round: players hear a tap tap tap tap sound and the coins start whirling in the air in a circle around the golem. A few larger items (metallic plates, chains, crowns, that sort of thing) lift up in the air.
Third round: the heavy things start spinning too.
Every subsequent round: everything lifted keeps spinning. One round after the golem dies the noises stop and everything falls on the floor.
Everyone in the vault has to do dex saves to avoid the items. Harder to about the coins (higher DC) but they don't do as much damage (all damage is bludgeoning). I don't remember the numbers i used. These saves happen at initiative count 20.
Was a nice way to drain some HP while being very thematic. And they carted out a boatload of coins after.
you can put whatever you want in a glyph to throw against your players, in curse of strahd there's a glyph of warding that acts as a flameskull vending machine
I can't figure out why you can't put buffs or debuffs in the glyph, however, based upon its wording it looks like any spell should work fine as long as the triggering creature is a valid target
Because the glyph must harm the target. Summons are explicitly called out as OK
"When you cast this spell, you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures, either upon a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a Treasure chest) to conceal the glyph"
"Spell Glyph: You can store a prepared spell of 3rd Level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way. When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast. If the spell has a target, it Targets the creature that triggered the glyph. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell summons Hostile creatures or creates harmful Objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and Attack it. If the spell requires Concentration, it lasts until the end of its full Duration."
There may not be a diagetic reason for it to only work on harmful spells but that is how i read it and not having it as such is... well insane. You could plane shift them! You could antimagic field them! You could dispel them (at whatever level you wanted!). So long as you had time to prepare you could have high level silences or darknesses. So that they might burn defensive spells futilely because they were cast with high level slots. And that is just cleric spells
Force Cage(no save!), Power Word Stun, Maze(no save!). You could simulacrum them!(this actually might be RAW since it technically might be a summon). You could teleportation circle them wherever you wanted (again with no save!). You could reverse gravity...
That's not part of the mechanical definition of what the glyph does, it doesn't "have" to harm the target, sage advice agrees. Spell glyph just says the spell has to target a single creature or an area and definitions are given for the level of spell that can be used, that's it. That seems to just be descriptive, the intent of the spell, which... the intent of the shape water spell is not to create a motorboat but you can
You cannot glyph a simulacrum spell because of the wording of the simulacrum spell, the rest though? Yeah (except anti-magic field, target: self, although I can and have had anti-magic field traps because the DM is constrained by no such rules)
I'm not sure why you're worked up out about that, have you looked at they symbol spell? nothing in the game could survive 10 overlapped symbols doing 10d10 damage each per round
Are you concerned about players doing shenanigans from a DM's point of view? Or a DM doing shenanigans from a player's point of view?
Because if it's the latter, uh... your lich's demiplane should probably have a thousand symbols in it, the fact that it doesn't is because the players have to be able to win
My concern was mainly with the consistency of the game world as presented to the players. Saying that the DM isn’t constrained by the rules is incorrect. Its true that there can be modifications but modifications must be consistent. If the bbeg has a unique glyph then the players must be able to acquire that if they get the bbegs spellbook. If the bbeg is divinely powered they follow the spells as granted and so forth. The bbeg has a set of powers and items that the players can learn about. The monster in question is a cleric based spellcaster. They do not have access to special glyphs.
Re: mechanics
I have already been made aware that glyph was errata’d to remove that section and clarify that you can put any spell in it.
“Self” targets one creature and so is OK to put into a glyph*. The spell has a single creature (self) and so the glyph modifies the target to make it the triggering creature. Simulacrum absolutely works as well. The spell is cast immediately by the glyph so the target is in range the entire time. The spell has a target (one creature you touch) and so the glyph hits the triggering creature. Spells in end don’t have “targets” and areas like they did in 4e. Otherwise summons would not work. It targets neither a creature nor an area but summons are explicitly called out as OK... because they summon something to an area.
Symbol is the same spell and so cannot stack only the strongest effect can stack even if you arrange them such that they effect the same area only the most recently triggered symbol will effect anyone in the overlapping zone..
Similarly you cannot have two glyphs over the same area. The more recent glyph will overwrite the prior glyph since the same spell cannot effect the same thing twice. However, Glyph has an instantaneous effect when it goes off (it casts the spell) and so while you cannot have multiple glyphs on the same thing you can produce overlapping effects.
For instance you can set the glyph to trigger when you say shit and are in the area. So you run across a segment yelling shit shit shit shit shit and then you have all your buffs up for maximum concentration with no risk of losing them.
The effects of different spells add together while the durations of those spells overlap. The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don't combine, however. Instead, the most potent effect--such as the highest bonus--from those castings applies while their durations overlap, or the most recent effect applies if the castings are equally potent and their durations overlap.
For example, if two clerics cast bless on the same target, that character gains the spell's benefit only once; he or she doesn't get to roll two bonus dice.
Similarly if you’re in two overlapping cloud kill you do not roll two saves. And if you’re in the area created by overlapping symbol you do not take 10d10 twice nor can you be subjected to the damage and control effects (just whichever one was made last)
Your villain cannot stack symbols so as to not be inconsistent with the fact that players cannot stack haste.
*crawford says no to this in sage advice but his answer is nonsensical and breaks the both the rest of the game and the glyph. He says that the specific rule that lets glyph change targets does not apply to self spells because a specific overriding rule must explicitly say it’s overriding the general rule. He does this while citing a general rule that does not exist (there is no general rule that you may only cast self spells on yourself. The self restriction appears to be a specific restriction not defined in the general section). Additionally area spells do not generally target areas, they target points of origin (same link as above) so area spells are right out as they do not generally exist and glyph does not make them. It would also mean that the concentration effect from the glyph does nothing since the glyphs text does not explicitly say that the general rule of one concentration spell is overridden just that it lasts the full duration. But every concentration spell lasts the full duration unless you’re bitten by one of the general concentration breakers... and so on and so forth for every specific rule that was written in 5e to override a general rule because nothing has exacting language in this system.
A thing to keep in mind: a gate needs to be created with the permission of a demon lord, and can't be used unless the *actual* name of the demon lord is known, I.E. it's true name, as per the spell description
you already had it happen on the bbeg but it's best to remember the limitations and incredible risks of something like trying to gate in a demon lord
(notably, a lot more more demons can run through, and demons can summon other demons) to prevent unmitigated player shenanigans
A gate as in the 9th level spell? Or as in something else. The 9th level spell just works. You can go to a specific point or you can call a creature. If you have their name, no save they’re pulled through the gate.
Maybe they'll use this as an opportunity to buff the tarrasque.
Can currently be killed by a solo level (9? 7? Can't quite remember how low they got it) wizard.
Maybe they'll use this as an opportunity to buff the tarrasque.
Can currently be killed by a solo level (9? 7? Can't quite remember how low they got it) wizard.
How'd they manage that? Fly out of it's reach and pelt it with spells/cantrips until it died?
Maybe they'll use this as an opportunity to buff the tarrasque.
Can currently be killed by a solo level (9? 7? Can't quite remember how low they got it) wizard.
How'd they manage that? Fly out of it's reach and pelt it with spells/cantrips until it died?
The big guy doesn't have any Regen, so basically anyone who can stay out of range and get a +1 weapon can kite it to death. Anything that can get fly can do it.
This is why my tarrasque gets Regen and Godzilla's nuke breath. Make it spicy.
The (che)easiest route is to cast fly on yourself and spam the acid splash cantrip.
It has no resistance to acid damage and a pretty lousy dex score.
Per stat block, it can't hurl stuff, making its death a boring and drawn-out affair.
I'd make the tarrasque more .. well .. world ending.
More ac, more hp, regen, res to everything and the limited intelligence to realise throwing houses at flying opponents will be effective.
tip.. tip.. TALLY.. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
The (che)easiest route is to cast fly on yourself and spam the acid splash cantrip.
It has no resistance to acid damage and a pretty lousy dex score.
Per stat block, it can't hurl stuff, making its death a boring and drawn-out affair.
I'd make the tarrasque more .. well .. world ending.
More ac, more hp, regen, res to everything and the limited intelligence to realise throwing houses at flying opponents will be effective.
Yea, you gotta make the Tarrasque more interesting. I like Narbus' idea to turn it into Godzilla. You could also make it a multi tiered fight. Like the first time they think they've beaten it, it gets back up, and starts charging up it's breath weapon. after 3 turns it fires in a 180 degree cone. Also yea, much more intelligent.
It could also be it's own dungeon. It's so big that regular magic just doesn't work on it. Like someone shooting a bow and arrow at a main battle tank. The campaign then switches to finding the super magic/weapon to defeat it, and now the players are on a time crunch while the Tarrasque goes on a rampage. I know one of the map makers I back on Patreon did an "inside the Tarrasque" dungeon as well, which could be interesting.
Hypothetical question: What sort of feature or resource would have been for martials as spell slots are for spellcasters, i.e. an aggregated pool of resources determined by adding together "spellcaster levels", factoring in half-caster/third-caster class levels, and consulting a chart? I vaguely remember 3.5 ed's "Base Attack Bonus" functioning somewhat like this...?
e: I'm actually not sure what exactly you're asking for. "A resource for martial classes that worked like spell slots for spellcasters" as in? Something they could use with limited frequency for powerful effects? That'd be the stuff in Tome of Battle. If you mean something else, can you rephrase or describe what you're wanting/thinking of differently?
Like, BAB and saves all worked in a "scales differently depending on class" fashion, but that had nothing to really do with caster/half-caster levels (unless you got into UA)
I'll try to elaborate:
So, spell slots. A level four wizard has as many slots as a level 1 bard/level 3 cleric multiclass. But a 2 wizard / 2 artificer has less, because the artificer is a half caster.
What if, all martial adepts have something like the ki-points system, used for maneuvers. Full martials give out 1point every level, half-martials 1 every 2 levels.
Right now I don't have any idea what kind of uses it can do, though.
Hypothetical question: What sort of feature or resource would have been for martials as spell slots are for spellcasters, i.e. an aggregated pool of resources determined by adding together "spellcaster levels", factoring in half-caster/third-caster class levels, and consulting a chart? I vaguely remember 3.5 ed's "Base Attack Bonus" functioning somewhat like this...?
e: I'm actually not sure what exactly you're asking for. "A resource for martial classes that worked like spell slots for spellcasters" as in? Something they could use with limited frequency for powerful effects? That'd be the stuff in Tome of Battle. If you mean something else, can you rephrase or describe what you're wanting/thinking of differently?
Like, BAB and saves all worked in a "scales differently depending on class" fashion, but that had nothing to really do with caster/half-caster levels (unless you got into UA)
I'll try to elaborate:
So, spell slots. A level four wizard has as many slots as a level 1 bard/level 3 cleric multiclass. But a 2 wizard / 2 artificer has less, because the artificer is a half caster.
What if, all martial adepts have something like the ki-points system, used for maneuvers. Full martials give out 1point every level, half-martials 1 every 2 levels.
Right now I don't have any idea what kind of uses it can do, though.
You get rid of the battlemaster and apply it's maneuvers to the entire system, along with stealing from 3.5 tome of battle and 4e Warlord abilities. You could even have certain classes get some of these abilities as "free" maneuvers to help reinforce flavor.
Hypothetical question: What sort of feature or resource would have been for martials as spell slots are for spellcasters, i.e. an aggregated pool of resources determined by adding together "spellcaster levels", factoring in half-caster/third-caster class levels, and consulting a chart? I vaguely remember 3.5 ed's "Base Attack Bonus" functioning somewhat like this...?
e: I'm actually not sure what exactly you're asking for. "A resource for martial classes that worked like spell slots for spellcasters" as in? Something they could use with limited frequency for powerful effects? That'd be the stuff in Tome of Battle. If you mean something else, can you rephrase or describe what you're wanting/thinking of differently?
Like, BAB and saves all worked in a "scales differently depending on class" fashion, but that had nothing to really do with caster/half-caster levels (unless you got into UA)
I'll try to elaborate:
So, spell slots. A level four wizard has as many slots as a level 1 bard/level 3 cleric multiclass. But a 2 wizard / 2 artificer has less, because the artificer is a half caster.
What if, all martial adepts have something like the ki-points system, used for maneuvers. Full martials give out 1point every level, half-martials 1 every 2 levels.
Right now I don't have any idea what kind of uses it can do, though.
You get rid of the battlemaster and apply it's maneuvers to the entire system, along with stealing from 3.5 tome of battle and 4e Warlord abilities. You could even have certain classes get some of these abilities as "free" maneuvers to help reinforce flavor.
Yeah but absent the context of the hypothetical it reads like "what if I make the fighter worthless even sooner"
Any time i want to spice up a fight without adding extra enemies i think "how would WoW do this knowing what i know from playing it since 2004".
Like when the party fought a golem inside a treasure filled vault in a weird old temple. I realized in the weeks leading up that they'll shit all over the golem, so... Now the vault floor and ceiling are magnetic and activate when the fight start. The following happens on initiative 20 each round:
First round: all coinage suspends in mid air as the players hear a loud hum
Second round: players hear a tap tap tap tap sound and the coins start whirling in the air in a circle around the golem. A few larger items (metallic plates, chains, crowns, that sort of thing) lift up in the air.
Third round: the heavy things start spinning too.
Every subsequent round: everything lifted keeps spinning. One round after the golem dies the noises stop and everything falls on the floor.
Everyone in the vault has to do dex saves to avoid the items. Harder to about the coins (higher DC) but they don't do as much damage (all damage is bludgeoning). I don't remember the numbers i used. These saves happen at initiative count 20.
Was a nice way to drain some HP while being very thematic. And they carted out a boatload of coins after.
Stealing from Raid Bosses is a great idea.
...Note to self, do a version of Brute Justice from FF14 in 5e sometime (Robots that combine together into a super sentai robot... and RIIIIIIIIIIDERRRR KIIIIIICK! people)
Actually, given it's literally made out of four bots, and it's fight involves it splitting and recombining, this could be quite good.
I'm pretty sure that when 4E remade the Tarrasque later in the edition they gave it an aura that caused all magical flying to fail. So there's an idea.
I ordered a Tarrasque mini from Etsy and got it a while ago.
While it is a pretty big miniature, the DM of the group I play in had us enter a sleeping Tarrasque whose innards were the size of a dungeon. So now I'm considering that if I ever use the Tarrasque mini it will be exclusively to represent it on an overland travel hex map.
Seems appropriate especially for the 4E lore, where it was specifically made by the Princes of Elemental Evil (and a few other primordials who actually died constructing it, including a primordial of bone implied to have been absorbed into the Tarrasque as part of its skeletal system) at the end of the Dawn War as a final fuck you to the gods.
BTW, I've always found the use of the name "Tarrasque" for this D&D kaiju to be weird considering the real world French story of the Tarasque.
From Wikipedia:
The king of Nerluc had attacked the Tarasque with knights and catapults to no avail. But Saint Martha found the beast and charmed it with hymns and prayers, and led back the tamed Tarasque to the city. The people, terrified by the monster, attacked it when it drew nigh. The monster offered no resistance and died there. Martha then preached to the people and converted many of them to Christianity. Sorry for what they had done to the tamed monster, the newly Christianized townspeople changed the town's name to Tarascon.
So to sum it up, the D&D "Tarrasque" is an immortal kaiju, and the original French "Tarasque" was a monster that was tamed, killed anyway despite putting up no resistance, and the people of the city were so ashamed of brutally killing the poor animal that they renamed the town, put on festivals, and built statues in its honor.
Maybe whoever first came up with the D&D Tarrasque imagined a "Gorgo" style scenario, in which the tarasque of French folklore was just a baby and the D&D Tarrasque is the pissed-off mother.
BTW: I once had a Young Earth Creationist book full of gems like "maybe the Tarasque was a triceratops or whatever, who knows???"
I feel like explicitly making the fight for a level that can’t defeat it and having it be beat with music, good deeds/prayer or find something to put it to sleep is better than fighting it. It’s just a big wad of HP.
Here’s some add-ons to improve the tarrasque if you do wanna fight it (though I think making it a dungeon makes more sense if you’re going down a fighty route).
Ravage Earth
As an action, the tarrasque can burrow 30 feet through the earth below it, and is not hindered by even the most solid rock. When the tarrasque burrows, the ground out to 10 feet around the tarrasque falls in behind it at the end of its turn.
The tarrasque has a burrowing speed of 30 feet.
Improbable Jump
As an action, the tarrasque can jump a number of feet three times its Strength score (so 90 feet). When it lands it deals 3d10 bludgeoning damage to any creatures within a 60 foot radius of the tarrasque. The terrain out to 60 feet becomes difficult terrain.
The tarrasque can make a Legendary Action whilst jumping.
Adaptive Hide
When the tarrasque takes damage it can choose to become immune to the damage of that type for 1 minute. This trait recharges on a 6.
While immune to a damage type cracks along the tarrasque’s body glow.
Powerful Inhalation
As a bonus action, the tarrasque can force any creature within 60 feet to move 15 feet towards the tarrasque.
Bitter End
When the tarrasque is reduced to 0 HP it goes on a rampage for 1 hour. It loses all immunities and its AC is reduced to 0. After 1 hour it dies, dealing 20d20 force damage out to 1 mile as it explodes.
It cannot be further damaged, but can be affected by spells and will pursue whatever it deems most hostile to it.
If the tarrasque is healed during this period it recovers twice the usual amount of HP.
Just to add on to my last post, I can’t get the image of a death cult having built a fortress onto the oblivious tarrasque’s back out of my head. Perhaps they’re masking their presence or mind controlling it, so you have to fight an army and dodge artillery fire as you fight it.
I’m also imagining this taking place in Sigil, the City of Doors, so you’ve got Godzilla style city destruction, but also the locals are all minimum level 6 magic item using tiefling Cockneys and shizz like that.
Just to add on to my last post, I can’t get the image of a death cult having built a fortress onto the oblivious tarrasque’s back. Perhaps they’re masking their presence or mind controlling it, so you have to fight an army and dodge artillery fire as you fight it.
I’m also imagining this taking place in Sigil, the City of Doors, so you’ve got Godzilla style city destruction, but also the locals are all minimum level 6 magic item using tiefling Cockneys and shizz like that.
That first paragraph reminds me that I swear to Fuck that I saw a game being developed years ago that was an action tower defense in the vein of Dungeon Defenders, but your tower was a fortress on the back of a giant turtle or something. But Googling reveals nothing. So it was either a vivid fever dream, or it was so long ago and/or got scrapped early on that nothing remains of it on videogame news sites. Looked pretty cool tho
Just to add on to my last post, I can’t get the image of a death cult having built a fortress onto the oblivious tarrasque’s back. Perhaps they’re masking their presence or mind controlling it, so you have to fight an army and dodge artillery fire as you fight it.
I’m also imagining this taking place in Sigil, the City of Doors, so you’ve got Godzilla style city destruction, but also the locals are all minimum level 6 magic item using tiefling Cockneys and shizz like that.
That first paragraph reminds me that I swear to Fuck that I saw a game being developed years ago that was an action tower defense in the vein of Dungeon Defenders, but your tower was a fortress on the back of a giant turtle or something. But Googling reveals nothing. So it was either a vivid fever dream, or it was so long ago and/or got scrapped early on that nothing remains of it on videogame news sites. Looked pretty cool tho
Why didn't the designers make picking a lock a skill, or at least a subset of a skill? Fourth Edition had picking locks as part of the Thievery skill.
Tools in general are weirdly implemented and I think the designers STILL haven't figured out how they want them to work. Xanathar's says if you're proficient with both a tool and a related skill your DM can say you have advantage on the check.
For Thieves' Tools in particular, Xanathar's says:
Perhaps the most common tools used by adventurers, thieves' tools are designed for picking locks and foiling traps. Proficiency with the tools also grants you a general knowledge of traps and locks. Components. Thieves' tools include a small file, a set of lock picks, a small mirror mounted on a metal handle, a set of narrow-bladed scissors, and a pair of pliers. History. Your knowledge of traps grants you insight when answering questions about locations that are renowned for their traps. Investigation and Perception. You gain additional insight when looking for traps, because you have learned a variety of common signs that betray their presence. Set a Trap. Just as you can disable traps, you can also set them. As part of a short rest, you can create a trap using items you have on hand. The total of your check becomes the DC for someone else's attempt to discover or disable the trap. The trap deals damage appropriate to the materials used in crafting it (such as poison or a weapon) or damage equal to half the total of your check, whichever the DM deems appropriate.
Personally I'd rather just have a Thievery skill that all these possible uses could fall under.
While I'm on a rant, let me bring up a couple of other tools.
A poisoner's kit is a favored resource for thieves, assassins, and others who engage in skulduggery. It allows you to apply poisons and create them from various materials. Your knowledge of poisons also helps you treat them. Components. A poisoner's kit includes glass vials, a mortar and pestle, chemicals, and a glass stirring rod. History. Your training with poisons can help you when you try to recall facts about infamous poisonings. Investigation, Perception. Your knowledge of poisons has taught you to handle those substances carefully, giving you an edge when you inspect poisoned objects or try to extract clues from events that involve poison. Medicine. When you treat the victim of a poison, your knowledge grants you added insight into how to provide the best care to your patient. Nature, Survival. Working with poisons enables you to acquire lore about which plants and animals are poisonous. Handle Poison. Your proficiency allows you to handle and apply a poison without risk of exposing yourself to its effects.
You see what's missing here? HOW TO MAKE FRICKIN' POISON.
Thankfully, the most recent Unearthed Arcana gives us rules for making poisons using a poisoner's kit. Costs a feat, though, but thankfully the feat gives you proficiency with the poisoner's kit!
With one hour of work using a poisoner’s kit and expending 50 gp worth of materials, you can create a number of doses of potent poison equal to your proficiency bonus. Once applied, the poison retains potency for 1 minute or until you hit with the weapon. When a weapon coated in this poison deals damage to a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 2d8 poison damage and become poisoned until the end of your next turn.
Then we get to Cook's Utensils. Xanathar's says:
Adventuring is a hard life. With a cook along on the journey, your meals will be much better than the typical mix of hardtack and dried fruit.
Components. Cook's utensils include a metal pot, knives, forks, a stirring spoon, and a ladle. History. Your knowledge of cooking techniques allows you to assess the social patterns involved in a culture's eating habits. Medicine. When administering treatment, you can transform medicine that is bitter or sour into a pleasing concoction. Survival. When foraging for food, you can make do with ingredients you scavenge that others would be unable to transform into nourishing meals. Prepare Meals. As part of a short rest, you can prepare a tasty meal that helps your companions regain their strength. You and up to five creatures of your choice regain 1 extra hit point per Hit Die spent during a short rest, provided you have access to your cook's utensils and sufficient food.
Oh cool, 1 extra hit point per Hit Die, awesome.
Let's take a look at the new Unearthed Arcana again:
- As part of a short rest, you can cook special food, provided you have ingredients and cook’s utensils on hand. You can prepare enough of this food for a number of creatures equal to 4 + your proficiency bonus. At the end of the short rest, any creature who eats the food and spends one or more Hit Dice to regain hit points regains an extra 1d8 hit points.
- With one hour of work or when you finish a long rest, you can cook a number of treats equal to your proficiency bonus. These special treats last 8 hours after being made. A creature can use a bonus action to eat one of those treats to gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.
Much better. Again, the feat gives you the proficiency with the tools, AND you can increase Constitution or Wisdom by 1!
At least they're figuring this shit out six years later, I guess!
Tools are basically just skill proficiencies, they're just skills that aren't necessarily tied to specific ability scores. Making poison? Int check or a combination of int and dex checks, add proficiency bonus if you're proficient with the poisoners kit. Inspecting a door for traps? Wis or int check, add proficiency if you've got investigation, perception, or thieves tools. Trying to disengage the traps you found? Dex check, add proficiency if you've got thieves tools. Trying to pick the lock? Same as last check, or possibly break it into multiple checks, an int check to identify the lock and a dex check to get all the tumblers. When you run into a synergy where you've got both a tool proficiency and a skill proficiency that would apply, like inspecting the door for traps, gain advantage.
Tools are basically just skill proficiencies, they're just skills that aren't necessarily tied to specific ability scores. Making poison? Int check or a combination of int and dex checks, add proficiency bonus if you're proficient with the poisoners kit. Inspecting a door for traps? Wis or int check, add proficiency if you've got investigation, perception, or thieves tools. Trying to disengage the traps you found? Dex check, add proficiency if you've got thieves tools. Trying to pick the lock? Same as last check, or possibly break it into multiple checks, an int check to identify the lock and a dex check to get all the tumblers. When you run into a synergy where you've got both a tool proficiency and a skill proficiency that would apply, like inspecting the door for traps, gain advantage.
This is the first positive thing about the tool proficiency idea for me. I also don't think it was the design intent at all.
Tool proficiency felt like a way for them to balloon the skill list without making it obvious and to bring back some of that old school janky weirdness. They wanted only Rogues to really pick locks but didn't want to go back to it being class abilities.
I mean it was pretty obviously designed as extraneous skills that don't fit into the major groups, or singular stat association, and are far more niche in their use. The only toolkit and tools that comes up regularly in the course of adventuring and dungeoneering is thieves tools. Most tools don't come up in a standard adventure outside of maybe vehicle proficiencies, disguise, forgery, poisoners and alchemists. Those last two mostly get used in downtime. Other than that most tools are flavor that only help in very limited situations.
I don’t like the “gain advantage” construction because it makes incentives to stack things. I think it’s just better to leave them as tools and let them be overlapping relevant for skills. You can be proficient in history to learn about a building or you can be proficient in masonry tools.
Posts
you already had it happen on the bbeg but it's best to remember the limitations and incredible risks of something like trying to gate in a demon lord
(notably, a lot more more demons can run through, and demons can summon other demons) to prevent unmitigated player shenanigans
you can put whatever you want in a glyph to throw against your players, in curse of strahd there's a glyph of warding that acts as a flameskull vending machine
I can't figure out why you can't put buffs or debuffs in the glyph, however, based upon its wording it looks like any spell should work fine as long as the triggering creature is a valid target
Edit: Better!
If you have players who don't have great wisdom saves, do the Symbol of Fear and a few glyphs of Conjure Woodland Beings at 8th level, each summoning 3 Sea Hags. One bad save on a feared player, high level or not, and they drop to zero hitpoints
This player was very dedicated to the campaign and was always thinking of ways to get rid of the BBEG, taking concrete steps over many sessions.
The BBEG was a lich. Knowing this, the player's wizard spent his downtime hunting down an amulet of the sphere and a sphere of annihilation to bring back to his lair. He succeeded and then cast a Wish phrased "I wish the BBEG's phylactery was in my hands".
The BBEG, as a water themed lich necromancer, had found out the true name of the demon lord Zuregurex, Lord of the Drowned Dead, long ago. He had used a ritual to bind Zuregurex's essence to a ship and embedded his phylactery within a compartment in the ship, siphoning minute pieces of the demon lord's essence to power his phylactery (as opposed to the more conventional way of feeding it souls). Over the course of millenia the demon lord possessed phylactery ship had reconfigured itself into a kind of "shipwreck golem".
So, after casting the Wish the PC wizard found himself holding the phylactery...which was attached to the interior compartment of a demon lord possessed shipwreck golem.
Undaunted, the wizard, while standing inside the demon lord possessed shipwreck golem, used the Amulet of the Sphere to cause the Sphere of Annihilation to fly towards the phylactery. The Sphere pierced the hull of this super golem and engulfed the BBEG's phylactery.
The phylactery was destroyed, Zuregurex was freed from the shipwreck golem to return to his layer of the Abyss that he had been separated from for thousands of years, and the golem fell apart around the wizard.
I was disappointed how this same player took out my BBEG for good so easily later, but this? This was fucking awesome and well-earned.
I was so impressed by this that later i said the wizard had managed to unearth the true name of an ancient and obscure demon lord himself that had been trapped in the Abyssal prison known as the Wells of Darkness for eons: Ushablator the Chaos Horror. This was the demon lord he Gated in to help take care of my BBEG for good.
I blame myself for the BBEG's failure, really. I had spent so much time coming up with his uniquely guarded phylactery, secret island storehouse of thousands of preserved corpses waiting to be animated as undead, and kickass tentacled plane shifting undead factory super fortress that I hadn't put sufficient thought into how he was protecting himself or who would be there to help thwart Feeblemind attempts against him or whatever. Plus I figured since his unique connection to the watery demon lord Zuregurex was severed he had lost many of his unique water-themed features (I still used the Acererak statblock from Tomb of Annihilation to represent him, though).
EDIT: I'm gonna draw a decent diagram of the BBEG's fortress to share here later when I have time. I didn't get to use it to the fullest, but I'm still really proud of what all I had come up with.
- The BBEG bound Zuregurex and used Zuregurex's Abyssal layer, Guttlevetch, for personal use for millenia.
- The BBEG and his allies invaded Stygia, Fifth Layer of the Hells, and used giant maelstrom portals to pull icebergs full of damned souls into Guttlevetch for use in creating and empowering their own demonic forces.
- The BBEG's phylactery was destroyed, freeing Zuregurex to return to Guttlevetch after thousands of years away.
- Zuregurex arrived to find his layer now an ocean full of damned souls trapped in icebergs to use as he sees fit.
Basically, Zuregurex was captured from his home, enslaved, eventually freed, and went home to find an enormous stockpile of wealth that dwarfs anything he ever had before his enslavement.
It's like if a guy got out of prison after thirty years and found out he somehow became a millionaire through no doing of his own in the interim.
Because the glyph must harm the target. Summons are explicitly called out as OK
"When you cast this spell, you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures, either upon a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a Treasure chest) to conceal the glyph"
"Spell Glyph: You can store a prepared spell of 3rd Level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way. When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast. If the spell has a target, it Targets the creature that triggered the glyph. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell summons Hostile creatures or creates harmful Objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and Attack it. If the spell requires Concentration, it lasts until the end of its full Duration."
There may not be a diagetic reason for it to only work on harmful spells but that is how i read it and not having it as such is... well insane. You could plane shift them! You could antimagic field them! You could dispel them (at whatever level you wanted!). So long as you had time to prepare you could have high level silences or darknesses. So that they might burn defensive spells futilely because they were cast with high level slots. And that is just cleric spells
Force Cage(no save!), Power Word Stun, Maze(no save!). You could simulacrum them!(this actually might be RAW since it technically might be a summon). You could teleportation circle them wherever you wanted (again with no save!). You could reverse gravity...
Was the lich currently dead when the phylactery was summoned? Because if he was not then he is still alive. Decaying into a demi-lich sure. But that doesn't mean he cannot want revenge on those who destroyed his intelligence with his last vestige of coherence. (there is no guidance as to how often a lich must consume a soul to maintain lichiness but i would suspect its similar to the lifespan of what was consumed? A few years at the minimum.)
The relevant section of the official PHB Errata PDF reads as follows:
According to Reddit, at least, later printings of the PHB remove "you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures" from the spell description (one poster asked "the description I've seen online says it has to be harmful but the PHB doesn't; what gives?")
I haven't been able to check myself, though, since I own an earlier copy of the PHB and don't have a newer one on hand to check.
That's not part of the mechanical definition of what the glyph does, it doesn't "have" to harm the target, sage advice agrees. Spell glyph just says the spell has to target a single creature or an area and definitions are given for the level of spell that can be used, that's it. That seems to just be descriptive, the intent of the spell, which... the intent of the shape water spell is not to create a motorboat but you can
You cannot glyph a simulacrum spell because of the wording of the simulacrum spell, the rest though? Yeah (except anti-magic field, target: self, although I can and have had anti-magic field traps because the DM is constrained by no such rules)
I'm not sure why you're worked up out about that, have you looked at they symbol spell? nothing in the game could survive 10 overlapped symbols doing 10d10 damage each per round
Are you concerned about players doing shenanigans from a DM's point of view? Or a DM doing shenanigans from a player's point of view?
Because if it's the latter, uh... your lich's demiplane should probably have a thousand symbols in it, the fact that it doesn't is because the players have to be able to win
So rather than gaining control of the wizard, the bound spirit of the BBEG's bodyguard suddenly goes all John Wick through the back line with the possessed mage having previously been a high level monk/battlemaster.
If they knock their own wizard unconscious, the Ghost then looks for a new host or fights the group in it's spectral form, having taken out the main magical threat.
I've got plans to use these ghosts in a more intrigue focused campaign, with a long dead elven empire looking to re-establish themselves, but with the main threat to the PCs being that it's a bodysnatchers scenario.
Anyone you talk to could have become possessed since then, or maybe was possessed before!
The risk to the ghosts being that if they try to draw on the memories of their host, it's potentially a two way street and the host might end up with some of the undead's memories as well.
Sometimes it might be something they don't even realise, until confronted with a dead language they have no idea they can read it. Sometimes it might be a powerful NPC and ally, the King's spymaster who has alerted his master that there is this new threat in the Kingdom.
Or things might be more complicated, once the PCs realise that there are multiple factions within the ancient elves who might not all want to see the Eternal King restored, a contact from their man on the inside might happen when the double agent ghost possesses some street urchin to flag down the PCs without drawing attention. However the girl is left with strange dreams of an ancient land, and the memories of a desperate mission to stop an ancient evil being reawakened that failed.
At first no one pays any attention to the strange doomsday cult that is starting to build amongst the beggars and pickpockets, but eventually a noble who's mind is no longer wholly his own might recognise this as being out of place...then have the sudden realisation that there's no reason the memory bleeds can't happen twice, and if he can find this forlorn prophet, then he'll almost certainly know who the traitor was within the undead's ranks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tome_of_Battle:_The_Book_of_Nine_Swords
e: I'm actually not sure what exactly you're asking for. "A resource for martial classes that worked like spell slots for spellcasters" as in? Something they could use with limited frequency for powerful effects? That'd be the stuff in Tome of Battle. If you mean something else, can you rephrase or describe what you're wanting/thinking of differently?
Like, BAB and saves all worked in a "scales differently depending on class" fashion, but that had nothing to really do with caster/half-caster levels (unless you got into UA)
Like when the party fought a golem inside a treasure filled vault in a weird old temple. I realized in the weeks leading up that they'll shit all over the golem, so... Now the vault floor and ceiling are magnetic and activate when the fight start. The following happens on initiative 20 each round:
First round: all coinage suspends in mid air as the players hear a loud hum
Second round: players hear a tap tap tap tap sound and the coins start whirling in the air in a circle around the golem. A few larger items (metallic plates, chains, crowns, that sort of thing) lift up in the air.
Third round: the heavy things start spinning too.
Every subsequent round: everything lifted keeps spinning. One round after the golem dies the noises stop and everything falls on the floor.
Everyone in the vault has to do dex saves to avoid the items. Harder to about the coins (higher DC) but they don't do as much damage (all damage is bludgeoning). I don't remember the numbers i used. These saves happen at initiative count 20.
Was a nice way to drain some HP while being very thematic. And they carted out a boatload of coins after.
What the fuck is this adventure???
My concern was mainly with the consistency of the game world as presented to the players. Saying that the DM isn’t constrained by the rules is incorrect. Its true that there can be modifications but modifications must be consistent. If the bbeg has a unique glyph then the players must be able to acquire that if they get the bbegs spellbook. If the bbeg is divinely powered they follow the spells as granted and so forth. The bbeg has a set of powers and items that the players can learn about. The monster in question is a cleric based spellcaster. They do not have access to special glyphs.
Re: mechanics
I have already been made aware that glyph was errata’d to remove that section and clarify that you can put any spell in it.
“Self” targets one creature and so is OK to put into a glyph*. The spell has a single creature (self) and so the glyph modifies the target to make it the triggering creature. Simulacrum absolutely works as well. The spell is cast immediately by the glyph so the target is in range the entire time. The spell has a target (one creature you touch) and so the glyph hits the triggering creature. Spells in end don’t have “targets” and areas like they did in 4e. Otherwise summons would not work. It targets neither a creature nor an area but summons are explicitly called out as OK... because they summon something to an area.
Symbol is the same spell and so cannot stack only the strongest effect can stack even if you arrange them such that they effect the same area only the most recently triggered symbol will effect anyone in the overlapping zone..
Similarly you cannot have two glyphs over the same area. The more recent glyph will overwrite the prior glyph since the same spell cannot effect the same thing twice. However, Glyph has an instantaneous effect when it goes off (it casts the spell) and so while you cannot have multiple glyphs on the same thing you can produce overlapping effects.
For instance you can set the glyph to trigger when you say shit and are in the area. So you run across a segment yelling shit shit shit shit shit and then you have all your buffs up for maximum concentration with no risk of losing them.
From basic rules
Similarly if you’re in two overlapping cloud kill you do not roll two saves. And if you’re in the area created by overlapping symbol you do not take 10d10 twice nor can you be subjected to the damage and control effects (just whichever one was made last)
Your villain cannot stack symbols so as to not be inconsistent with the fact that players cannot stack haste.
*crawford says no to this in sage advice but his answer is nonsensical and breaks the both the rest of the game and the glyph. He says that the specific rule that lets glyph change targets does not apply to self spells because a specific overriding rule must explicitly say it’s overriding the general rule. He does this while citing a general rule that does not exist (there is no general rule that you may only cast self spells on yourself. The self restriction appears to be a specific restriction not defined in the general section). Additionally area spells do not generally target areas, they target points of origin (same link as above) so area spells are right out as they do not generally exist and glyph does not make them. It would also mean that the concentration effect from the glyph does nothing since the glyphs text does not explicitly say that the general rule of one concentration spell is overridden just that it lasts the full duration. But every concentration spell lasts the full duration unless you’re bitten by one of the general concentration breakers... and so on and so forth for every specific rule that was written in 5e to override a general rule because nothing has exacting language in this system.
A gate as in the 9th level spell? Or as in something else. The 9th level spell just works. You can go to a specific point or you can call a creature. If you have their name, no save they’re pulled through the gate.
I don't know, but I'm willing to find out.
And I'm definitely giving my players that scroll, either in that adventure if we ever run it (we won't) or in a one shot.
Can currently be killed by a solo level (9? 7? Can't quite remember how low they got it) wizard.
How'd they manage that? Fly out of it's reach and pelt it with spells/cantrips until it died?
The big guy doesn't have any Regen, so basically anyone who can stay out of range and get a +1 weapon can kite it to death. Anything that can get fly can do it.
This is why my tarrasque gets Regen and Godzilla's nuke breath. Make it spicy.
It has no resistance to acid damage and a pretty lousy dex score.
Per stat block, it can't hurl stuff, making its death a boring and drawn-out affair.
I'd make the tarrasque more .. well .. world ending.
More ac, more hp, regen, res to everything and the limited intelligence to realise throwing houses at flying opponents will be effective.
Yea, you gotta make the Tarrasque more interesting. I like Narbus' idea to turn it into Godzilla. You could also make it a multi tiered fight. Like the first time they think they've beaten it, it gets back up, and starts charging up it's breath weapon. after 3 turns it fires in a 180 degree cone. Also yea, much more intelligent.
It could also be it's own dungeon. It's so big that regular magic just doesn't work on it. Like someone shooting a bow and arrow at a main battle tank. The campaign then switches to finding the super magic/weapon to defeat it, and now the players are on a time crunch while the Tarrasque goes on a rampage. I know one of the map makers I back on Patreon did an "inside the Tarrasque" dungeon as well, which could be interesting.
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I'll try to elaborate:
So, spell slots. A level four wizard has as many slots as a level 1 bard/level 3 cleric multiclass. But a 2 wizard / 2 artificer has less, because the artificer is a half caster.
What if, all martial adepts have something like the ki-points system, used for maneuvers. Full martials give out 1point every level, half-martials 1 every 2 levels.
Right now I don't have any idea what kind of uses it can do, though.
You get rid of the battlemaster and apply it's maneuvers to the entire system, along with stealing from 3.5 tome of battle and 4e Warlord abilities. You could even have certain classes get some of these abilities as "free" maneuvers to help reinforce flavor.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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Yeah but absent the context of the hypothetical it reads like "what if I make the fighter worthless even sooner"
Stealing from Raid Bosses is a great idea.
...Note to self, do a version of Brute Justice from FF14 in 5e sometime (Robots that combine together into a super sentai robot... and RIIIIIIIIIIDERRRR KIIIIIICK! people)
Actually, given it's literally made out of four bots, and it's fight involves it splitting and recombining, this could be quite good.
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I ordered a Tarrasque mini from Etsy and got it a while ago.
While it is a pretty big miniature, the DM of the group I play in had us enter a sleeping Tarrasque whose innards were the size of a dungeon. So now I'm considering that if I ever use the Tarrasque mini it will be exclusively to represent it on an overland travel hex map.
Seems appropriate especially for the 4E lore, where it was specifically made by the Princes of Elemental Evil (and a few other primordials who actually died constructing it, including a primordial of bone implied to have been absorbed into the Tarrasque as part of its skeletal system) at the end of the Dawn War as a final fuck you to the gods.
BTW, I've always found the use of the name "Tarrasque" for this D&D kaiju to be weird considering the real world French story of the Tarasque.
From Wikipedia:
So to sum it up, the D&D "Tarrasque" is an immortal kaiju, and the original French "Tarasque" was a monster that was tamed, killed anyway despite putting up no resistance, and the people of the city were so ashamed of brutally killing the poor animal that they renamed the town, put on festivals, and built statues in its honor.
Maybe whoever first came up with the D&D Tarrasque imagined a "Gorgo" style scenario, in which the tarasque of French folklore was just a baby and the D&D Tarrasque is the pissed-off mother.
BTW: I once had a Young Earth Creationist book full of gems like "maybe the Tarasque was a triceratops or whatever, who knows???"
Here’s some add-ons to improve the tarrasque if you do wanna fight it (though I think making it a dungeon makes more sense if you’re going down a fighty route).
Ravage Earth
As an action, the tarrasque can burrow 30 feet through the earth below it, and is not hindered by even the most solid rock. When the tarrasque burrows, the ground out to 10 feet around the tarrasque falls in behind it at the end of its turn.
The tarrasque has a burrowing speed of 30 feet.
Improbable Jump
As an action, the tarrasque can jump a number of feet three times its Strength score (so 90 feet). When it lands it deals 3d10 bludgeoning damage to any creatures within a 60 foot radius of the tarrasque. The terrain out to 60 feet becomes difficult terrain.
The tarrasque can make a Legendary Action whilst jumping.
Adaptive Hide
When the tarrasque takes damage it can choose to become immune to the damage of that type for 1 minute. This trait recharges on a 6.
While immune to a damage type cracks along the tarrasque’s body glow.
Powerful Inhalation
As a bonus action, the tarrasque can force any creature within 60 feet to move 15 feet towards the tarrasque.
Bitter End
When the tarrasque is reduced to 0 HP it goes on a rampage for 1 hour. It loses all immunities and its AC is reduced to 0. After 1 hour it dies, dealing 20d20 force damage out to 1 mile as it explodes.
It cannot be further damaged, but can be affected by spells and will pursue whatever it deems most hostile to it.
If the tarrasque is healed during this period it recovers twice the usual amount of HP.
I’m also imagining this taking place in Sigil, the City of Doors, so you’ve got Godzilla style city destruction, but also the locals are all minimum level 6 magic item using tiefling Cockneys and shizz like that.
That first paragraph reminds me that I swear to Fuck that I saw a game being developed years ago that was an action tower defense in the vein of Dungeon Defenders, but your tower was a fortress on the back of a giant turtle or something. But Googling reveals nothing. So it was either a vivid fever dream, or it was so long ago and/or got scrapped early on that nothing remains of it on videogame news sites. Looked pretty cool tho
Did it also have a castle mecha?
Why didn't the designers make picking a lock a skill, or at least a subset of a skill? Fourth Edition had picking locks as part of the Thievery skill.
Tools in general are weirdly implemented and I think the designers STILL haven't figured out how they want them to work. Xanathar's says if you're proficient with both a tool and a related skill your DM can say you have advantage on the check.
For Thieves' Tools in particular, Xanathar's says:
Personally I'd rather just have a Thievery skill that all these possible uses could fall under.
While I'm on a rant, let me bring up a couple of other tools.
You see what's missing here? HOW TO MAKE FRICKIN' POISON.
Thankfully, the most recent Unearthed Arcana gives us rules for making poisons using a poisoner's kit. Costs a feat, though, but thankfully the feat gives you proficiency with the poisoner's kit!
Then we get to Cook's Utensils. Xanathar's says:
Oh cool, 1 extra hit point per Hit Die, awesome.
Let's take a look at the new Unearthed Arcana again:
Much better. Again, the feat gives you the proficiency with the tools, AND you can increase Constitution or Wisdom by 1!
At least they're figuring this shit out six years later, I guess!
This is the first positive thing about the tool proficiency idea for me. I also don't think it was the design intent at all.
Tool proficiency felt like a way for them to balloon the skill list without making it obvious and to bring back some of that old school janky weirdness. They wanted only Rogues to really pick locks but didn't want to go back to it being class abilities.
I have a ranger/battlemaster bounty hunter that can pick locks!
But mainly I’m OK with it being flavor stuff.