I like how the Dresden Files deals with Harry's true name. It's not enough to know what the literal words are, you have to hear the person invoke their own name to "acquire" it. And consequently why Harry doesn't go around saying his two middle names ever, except for when he's selling off bits of his own true name for power. Good tie in to D&D Warlockery, there.
Also how humans and other mortals have constantly shifting concepts of the self so even having a true name spoken is only good for a year or two before losing potency, versus a mythical being where its set in stone.
My D&D group is intact, though our salt marsh DM is taking a mental health break, which I endorse.
My game came and went, players are making deals with fiends, the rogue turned an assassin into a copy of herself with a magic item and sent the assassin back to her rival through backchannels, so he thinks he has her captured now, the party fighter is being a fine upstanding citizen, getting to know the people he rescued from the nine hells and reassuring them that they really are here and this isn't some elaborate torture designed by devils
Cue sorcerer bursting out of a window laughing maniacally, held aloft by her new devil wings she obtained as a prize for a contract
Fighter facepalms
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Have they ever explained why they refused to make a gnoll pc race, even in Unearthed Arcana like Minotaurs. I know I've heard some bs about them being "too demonic" to be playable (which I think is a dumb reason but fine) but it sort of ignores that not everyone plays with the boilerplate D&D lore.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
This one seems pretty balanced, I think the reason is that in the main D&D settings gnolls really are just kind of ravenous monsters
Which is a big downgrade from even where they were before, with no compelling reason I've heard, but even so it seems a bit odd for them to specifically avoid giving additional options just because it wouldn't fit with their own default setting. It fails to account for the fact that not everyone will use that setting, and not everyone using it will use all of their own lore interpretations. I mean there are a ton of races they haven't given stats for or fleshed out (And this is a big downside of 5e so far, IMO) but Gnolls were a fairly popular monster race and have had PC stats since at least 2e. I can understand explaining why in their main official setting Gnoll PC's aren't really a thing, but a very major aspect of D&D is letting the people who play it, as players or GM's, make those kinds of decisions for themselves and not putting out official (and ostensibly balanced, though frankly most of the monster PC stats in Volo's put paid to that idea) options for it seems a bit ridiculous. Frankly although overall 5e is fine and good, their decisions in this sort of thing have really been a bit lackluster and emblematic of what I feel is a poor choice of direction in this particular area.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
I think you can pretty easily just pick Bugbear or Orc for your gnoll player and it fits pretty well, but wizards probably doesn't think that gnolls actually are that popular
I'd like to see some more race options released officially, wizards doesn't like publishing books very often with 5e though (they have said that its more profitable to release them in a slow drip, and something like xanathars or volos only once a year)
The problem is that monsters generally have better stats than humans.
So you end up either playing a gimped race (meh) or something that completely outshines the "normal" races (added challenges for the dm).
Just slap together something that feels appropriate and tune it down until the DM stops sweating.
The problem is that monsters generally have better stats than humans.
So you end up either playing a gimped race (meh) or something that completely outshines the "normal" races (added challenges for the dm).
Just slap together something that feels appropriate and tune it down until the DM stops sweating.
Create new lore that talks about Gnolls who undertook a long process of exorcising the demonic influence from themselves. Along with PC stats, include some rough guidelines for GMs to adjust NPC stats to reflect this.
It sucks that they go with the "this race is inherently bad" stuff and I would prefer they just not, but as far as working within their existing framework, this sounds okay to me.
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Well I mean, sort of? A level 1 statblock orc warrior might be better than a level 1 human soldier (don't know for sure one way or another) but higher level human bandits, or cultists etc. might have stats equivalent to or better than those of an equivalent orc or goblinoid. I feel like you can make a balanced version of most "monster" races that fits in at level 1 and up without making them feel weak compared to equivalent members of their race. After all, most of the bandits you fight who might present a fair challenge don't necessarily have to have class levels. It's more about how something feels than whether it's mechanically 100% consistent IMO
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
The problem is that monsters generally have better stats than humans.
So you end up either playing a gimped race (meh) or something that completely outshines the "normal" races (added challenges for the dm).
Just slap together something that feels appropriate and tune it down until the DM stops sweating.
Create new lore that talks about Gnolls who undertook a long process of exorcising the demonic influence from themselves. Along with PC stats, include some rough guidelines for GMs to adjust NPC stats to reflect this.
It sucks that they go with the "this race is inherently bad" stuff and I would prefer they just not, but as far as working within their existing framework, this sounds okay to me.
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited October 2019
If you wanted to stick with reformed 5E hungry gnolls you could basically ignore the history before Beyatu and have her come later. These are supposed to be modulable into most settings. The big shift being that instead of the happenstance of eating discarded fiendish meat basically gnolls are punishment from a vengeful nature god for disrupting their balanced and beautiful savannah. However, instead of redeeming themselves to that god, Be’ya’tu is more of a self-determining self-made messiah figure that relied on her own will and discipline and taught other gnolls how to do what she did.
Also if you notice the “racial variants” and their bonuses are more cultural based on what each type of group generally values rather than being innate.
I play a gnoll in a game, but it's in Tal'dorei, where there's precedent for friendly gnolls
That said, aren't there non-demonic gnolls in Eberron or something? I feel like they could have given the gnolls stats for the non-Forgotten Realms realms, but they didn't feel like it.
So last session my players confronted Strahd yet again.
Them at level 10: barbarian with 1 lvl fighter, two wizards (one is bladesinger), a cleric, and a 5/5 warlock/rogue. Plus Rictavio. Plus the tiger. Plus a Shield Guardian. Plus Ismark with Gladiator stats and wearing Sergei's plate and a +2 greatsword.
Vs.
40 "newly turned townspeople" vampires (spawn stats with 1 hp) and Strahd with +4 str +4 cha and 3x self-auto-res (from Amber...), wearing his animated armor, a +2 shield and +3 greatsword from the treasury, essentially 23AC with 800-odd hp bag.
I intended it to be the showcase fight to end the campaign.
Two sources of sunlight+ counterspell + bladesong= the new vamps did literally nothing and neither did Strahd.
When his final self res popped i had him flee straight through the floor with lair action leaving behind the armor, shield, and weapon. The armor became animate once again, but the players pounded it into scrap within the remainder of the round, with some of them not even bothering and instead healing minor wounds or heading for the stairs to chase Strahd downstairs.
Strahd is extremely intelligent. He is the land. This has to be extremely frustrating for him, as much as it is for me. I don't want to wipe the players, i want them to have a glorious victory. But they didn't even break a sweat except for a small handful of spellslots. They did worse vs the 8 gargoyles and 4 red dragon whelps they fought downstairs on the way in (because they barged through both rooms before stopping to fight).
So I'm thinking, how do i give them a glorious final battle, where Strahd sticks around because he thinks he's winning, until he is suddenly not? What I'm thinking is he abandons the above ground and goes to the crypts and waits. When the party shows up he lures then in and then pops open the crypt doors and the players fight him at the same time as some critters that come out of the crypts. I looked for some appropriate monsters i could use that might be in the crypts the party have opened yet, here is what I'm thinking:
- the vamp spawn statted Strahd wife that's gone loopy
- the ghost that tries to posess then and run then off a cliff
- a bodak that comes out of the slime room
- a skeleton lord (stats from https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/269398) from one of the nobles
- some sword spiders from the same book
- a vampire mage ex-adventurer that the players let run from an earlier fight in Vallaki with a "run you baby we are so much better than you" attitude which I'm thinking will be fun to have them bite then in the ass here
- the Wight general with his 3 hell hounds
Too much? Not enough? I plan to have all the adds come at the party using their regular move speed from their respective crypts, so they won't all show up on the same round. I figure this gives me a lever to stop a round or two in if it feels like maybe i overdid it, or maybe delay something a round or two. I want tension and a real feeling of do or die. Last several sessions have felt too safe for a place like Barovia. Nobody's even been unconscious once since they were like lvl 4 or thereabouts.
Thoughts?
If you wanted to stick with reformed 5E hungry gnolls you could basically ignore the history before Beyatu and have her come later. These are supposed to be modulable into most settings. The big shift being that instead of the happenstance of eating discarded fiendish meat basically gnolls are punishment from a vengeful nature god for disrupting their balanced and beautiful savannah. However, instead of redeeming themselves to that god, Be’ya’tu is more of a self-determining self-made messiah figure that relied on her own will and discipline and taught other gnolls how to do what she did.
Also if you notice the “racial variants” and their bonuses are more cultural based on what each type of group generally values rather than being innate.
I had a gnoll in a friend's Points of Light campaign and my take on them was that they were hundreds/thousands of years removed from their original culture, so in that time "slaughter for the demon god" morphed into more of a Spartan culture.
Since there was no direct demonic influence the old laws and practices became stories instead, the more extreme elements were now "just metaphors", etc. In effect, they were huge heretics, but if you asked them they were Being Proper Gnolls.
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
I play a gnoll in a game, but it's in Tal'dorei, where there's precedent for friendly gnolls
That said, aren't there non-demonic gnolls in Eberron or something? I feel like they could have given the gnolls stats for the non-Forgotten Realms realms, but they didn't feel like it.
Yes there are, this particular bit is from the 4e playing gnolls thing
"However, a particular setting can suggest a different path for gnolls. In the Eberron Campaign Setting, gnolls served as soldiers in the Age of Demons, and savage gnolls still roam the Demon Wastes and other wild lands. However, in the region of Droaam, gnolls turned their backs on their barbaric past. The scourges gathered together at Znir and shattered the great statue of their demon lord; together, the clan leaders pledged to find a new path for their people and to stand together. Droaam is a dangerous land, and, if not for this alliance, clans would likely have been enslaved by giants, oni, or other powerful creatures. But thanks to the Znir Pact, the gnolls have become a stabilizing force respected by all the warlords—a force that has considerable influence in the young nation."
Whoever is in charge of this kind of thing just decided on the laziest and least interesting interpretation, and then proceeded to ignore all current and previous lore contrary to that and avoid giving players options based on those alternatives... even though they did that for the Minotaurs of Krynn, apparently they can't do it for Gnolls. Because reasons.
Lord_Asmodeus on
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Too much? Not enough? I plan to have all the adds come at the party using their regular move speed from their respective crypts, so they won't all show up on the same round. I figure this gives me a lever to stop a round or two in if it feels like maybe i overdid it, or maybe delay something a round or two. I want tension and a real feeling of do or die. Last several sessions have felt too safe for a place like Barovia. Nobody's even been unconscious once since they were like lvl 4 or thereabouts.
Thoughts?
How far into the castle have they gone? It's a giant maze. Not to mention the traps that move your or teleport you elsewhere in the castle, Even looking at the maps some of it doesn't make sense. Use the castle, peel off some of the extra support NPCs. Have Strahd attack and then disappear to somewhere else. Once they've blown a chunk of spell slots and whittled their HP down a bit then the fight gets tense.
They've ironically explored most of downstairs already and very little if the upstairs. This will be their forth battle with Strahd (he ran away all previous 3 times) and I'm starting to feel like I'm stringing the players along. I actually polled them (anonymously) on if they feel the campaign has gone in too long and 1 said enjoying it but yes, the other 4 said enjoying it and no.
First time he ran away from them in the catacombs because he got low and got word of someone (the distraction they had arranged but didn't have the patience to wait for) assaulting the front gate.
Next time we ran away from them from the battlements on one of the towers because he got low and was tiring to lure then into chasing him, but the players just left the castle instead.
Third time was the battle i described in my last post, him having decided enough is enough with these upstarts and gone to his treasury and the Amber... to juice up.
@Smrtnik I feel like that's not enough. The final encounter in Curse of Strahd should absolutely be lethal, but you listed 5 PCs + 3 NPCs vs 7 main badguys + 3 + x trash mobs. Especially if you send then in a half at a time, the PCs will wipe the floor with them I feel.
Yeah end of strahd is a time to go for kills. At least drop players to the deck.
Look into flame skulls, especially if you're getting a chase going. You're party should have enough juice to kill a couple a round no problem. They're essentially fireball traps, but they will absolutely pull slots and HP from the party.
I pull my punches often. Or at least don't play to the baddies best abilities in boss battles. And every time I feel terrible. But the players are happy because they're so awesome. :eh:
I didn't do it in the side-quest dragon fight in ToA. In fact, I bumped the dragon up to make it harder..... and it was the best and most memorable fight had by my long time group in our entire history of gaming together, Which is long. I can't and won't take all the credit, obviously. The dice, and player attitudes and that special je ne sais quois where all there that night too.
I'm just saying.... don't pull your punches, and maybe everyone will have a great time too!
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
So last session my players confronted Strahd yet again.
Them at level 10: barbarian with 1 lvl fighter, two wizards (one is bladesinger), a cleric, and a 5/5 warlock/rogue. Plus Rictavio. Plus the tiger. Plus a Shield Guardian. Plus Ismark with Gladiator stats and wearing Sergei's plate and a +2 greatsword.
Vs.
40 "newly turned townspeople" vampires (spawn stats with 1 hp) and Strahd with +4 str +4 cha and 3x self-auto-res (from Amber...), wearing his animated armor, a +2 shield and +3 greatsword from the treasury, essentially 23AC with 800-odd hp bag.
I intended it to be the showcase fight to end the campaign.
Two sources of sunlight+ counterspell + bladesong= the new vamps did literally nothing and neither did Strahd.
When his final self res popped i had him flee straight through the floor with lair action leaving behind the armor, shield, and weapon. The armor became animate once again, but the players pounded it into scrap within the remainder of the round, with some of them not even bothering and instead healing minor wounds or heading for the stairs to chase Strahd downstairs.
Strahd is extremely intelligent. He is the land. This has to be extremely frustrating for him, as much as it is for me. I don't want to wipe the players, i want them to have a glorious victory. But they didn't even break a sweat except for a small handful of spellslots. They did worse vs the 8 gargoyles and 4 red dragon whelps they fought downstairs on the way in (because they barged through both rooms before stopping to fight).
So I'm thinking, how do i give them a glorious final battle, where Strahd sticks around because he thinks he's winning, until he is suddenly not? What I'm thinking is he abandons the above ground and goes to the crypts and waits. When the party shows up he lures then in and then pops open the crypt doors and the players fight him at the same time as some critters that come out of the crypts. I looked for some appropriate monsters i could use that might be in the crypts the party have opened yet, here is what I'm thinking:
- the vamp spawn statted Strahd wife that's gone loopy
- the ghost that tries to posess then and run then off a cliff
- a bodak that comes out of the slime room
- a skeleton lord (stats from https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/269398) from one of the nobles
- some sword spiders from the same book
- a vampire mage ex-adventurer that the players let run from an earlier fight in Vallaki with a "run you baby we are so much better than you" attitude which I'm thinking will be fun to have them bite then in the ass here
- the Wight general with his 3 hell hounds
Too much? Not enough? I plan to have all the adds come at the party using their regular move speed from their respective crypts, so they won't all show up on the same round. I figure this gives me a lever to stop a round or two in if it feels like maybe i overdid it, or maybe delay something a round or two. I want tension and a real feeling of do or die. Last several sessions have felt too safe for a place like Barovia. Nobody's even been unconscious once since they were like lvl 4 or thereabouts.
Thoughts?
We did that to our GM during Dragon Queen's horde. We got our asses kicked fighting a vampire and revanant, just spanked. Like My warlock had to revive the rest of the party, and it was a near thing for him.
But we just rolled the white dragon. Spider climb won the day there.
"A wall of ice blocks your path, you can hear your other comrades fighting on the other side of the wall."
my players almost TPK'd when I had the assassin's attack party's rogue, because the assassins all attacked once and fled through a waiting arcane gate. The party tracked and followed them and very nearly TPK'd because, they would have, 3 drow assassins (they did kill one in the opening round) and a conjurer in a dark tunnel, the party forming a long line of players of different movement speeds running into the waiting hand crossbows one at a time
The simple items from the PHB saved my party from a TPK:
Caltrops and ball bearings, the assassins filled the tunnel with them before the attempt
A level 8 party undone by caltrops and ball bearings.
I've never been happier to see my party frustrated
Two entrances into the area in question, hall and as stairs. Here's is what I'm thinking. Whichever way they come Strahd will engage at entrance. On same round, the CR 7 vampire make will engage from behind, coming out of invisibility. Idea is to use aoe to get the bat swarms going.
On initiative 20 Strahd will pop the doors. The critters inside will get to the entrances in this many rounds:
- Vamp spawn in 1 round to either, cr 5
- 3 male 1 female sword spider in 1 round to stairs or 3 to hall, cr 3 3 3 5
- 1 Ghost in 1 round to either, prioritizes possession, cr 4
- 4 gargoyles same round to either, cr 2
- Phantom warrior to hall in 2 or stairs in 1 round, cr 3
- 3 hell hounds and a wraith to hall in 2 or stairs in 1 round, cr 3 3 3 5
- 1 Nightmare in one round to either, cr 3, strahd mounts it when it gets there
- 2 Banshees to either in 1 round, cr 4
- 1 bodak in 3 to hall 2 to stairs, cr 6
- 1 skeleton lord in 1 to hall 2 to stairs, cr 9
That sounds like a terrifying challenge, the best thing about it is that since they're coming out at different times, if you overdid it you can just reduce the number of waves on the fly
or throw caltrops at your party's paladin and watch a high level holy warrior be reduced to no movement in seconds
When all you've got is a haunted sword, everything looks like... a tempting target to be stabbed hauntingly. That metaphor got away from me.
If you remember the spooky talking sword from my last comment, great. If you don't: our party's rogue drew an unidentified magic sword in desperation during a fight and began hearing a voice talking about attacking every living thing in the room. Over the next session, we learned that the sword was not only magic, it was sentient due to having the soul of a demon bound into the gem at the pommel. It had been created by the (long-dead) lord of the castle the group was currently ghostbusting, who managed to summon said demon and bind its soul in a powerful bit of magic (the wizard found the spellbook used to summon and bind the demon, but can't make out much without a lot of study). We also learned that if the wielder tried to sheath the sword without it having drawn blood, it will attempt to take over the wielder and attack anyone close at hand.
We learned this last part out the hard way, but thankfully the rogue's pathetic STR score kept him from actually hitting anyone with it, and the Goliath cleric sat on him while the sword was pried out of his hand. Later, the sword was recognized as a familial heirloom and quite valuable in its own right (in its pre-demon soul vessel state, anyway), but the party deemed that the sword was too dangerous to be handed over to some villagers and instead promised to hand it back if we ever found a way to separate the evil taint from the physical blade. The rogue approached a leatherworker in town and commissioned a sturdy strap to keep the sword bound into the scabbard to prevent it from being drawn, even accidentally.
ANYhoo, a day or two later the party is exploring the outskirts of a magical desert when they come upon a large pool of red liquid. The wizard tests it and discovers that it is, yes, blood (magically preserved or created somehow), and even convinces the fighter to try a sip. The barbarian sees one giant pool of blood and one blood-drinking sword and sees a clever solution to a potential puzzle. The barbarian makes an offhand comment to the rogue about this, and the rogue immediately sees the internal logic, undoes the strap, and draws the blade again. "Drink your fill, vile thing," he laughs as he sticks the sword into the lake.
The demonic blade turns out to not like blood that's been sitting out in the desert for who-knows-how-long instead of pumping through someone's veins (it declares the blood "tainted") and once again takes over the rogue's mind, this time getting a good hit in on the wizard before attempting to go up against the fighter. Luckily, the rogue is such a pathetic hit with a longsword that this first shot at the wizard was the only attack he manages to land. Not so luckily, the rogue is somehow able to keep his grip on the blade despite everything the party throws at him: a Firebolt, a Ray of Frost, melee attacks, even a Magic Missile. Eventually the fighter declares enough is enough and cuts the rogue's hand clean off (i.e., a super-strong hit that probably could have killed the PC outright at that point, but the players argued that they weren't trying to kill him, just get him to drop the sword, so the DM ruled in favor of "disarming".).
The ranger combines a quick good Medicine check with a healing spell and manages to reattach the rogue's hand within one round of it being removed, and while the rogue shouts to "throw the damned thing in the lake, it hates it," the party instead decides to give the sword to the wizard, who is far less likely to draw a weapon in flights of fancy or at the cajoling of the team muscleheads.
Still... If you were given a sword that likes drinking blood, and then ran into a giant pool of blood, who could be blamed for attempting to connect them? Not methe rogue, that's for sure.
GNU Terry Pratchett
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Two entrances into the area in question, hall and as stairs. Here's is what I'm thinking. Whichever way they come Strahd will engage at entrance. On same round, the CR 7 vampire make will engage from behind, coming out of invisibility. Idea is to use aoe to get the bat swarms going.
On initiative 20 Strahd will pop the doors. The critters inside will get to the entrances in this many rounds:
- Vamp spawn in 1 round to either, cr 5
- 3 male 1 female sword spider in 1 round to stairs or 3 to hall, cr 3 3 3 5
- 1 Ghost in 1 round to either, prioritizes possession, cr 4
- 4 gargoyles same round to either, cr 2
- Phantom warrior to hall in 2 or stairs in 1 round, cr 3
- 3 hell hounds and a wraith to hall in 2 or stairs in 1 round, cr 3 3 3 5
- 1 Nightmare in one round to either, cr 3, strahd mounts it when it gets there
- 2 Banshees to either in 1 round, cr 4
- 1 bodak in 3 to hall 2 to stairs, cr 6
- 1 skeleton lord in 1 to hall 2 to stairs, cr 9
Good, you think?
Players won! Got really hairy though and i decided to forego the banshees, but everything else went into the mix. Also at one point i was managing 20 characters on my end, plus lair and legendary actions, plus randomized initiative, so...
One thing i didn't originally realize is how much the sheer quantity of bodies i threw in was going to form a flesh wall they could not get through to hit Strahd. In the end, the sunlight sword, the icon of ravenloft, and the feast of heroes scroll i had foolishly handed out at some point (:p) made the key difference.
I knew i had them where i wanted them when the million hp (not quite, but...) barbarian started calling out for heals in a panic. Nobody hit 0 in the end, but they all thought it was imminent, and that's exactly what i wanted.
They have chosen to not have a session where they loot everything that's not cemented into the walls and/or deal with the things they had not yet (the warewolf situation/the swamp witch situation/the mad mage), and instead will send me brief descriptions of what their characters would want to do short and long term, and whether they would want to stay or leave Barovia, and I'll write them an epilogue when i get everyone's notes.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
So after more than 3 years of running multiple DnD sessions and hundreds of hours of actual DnD, I am finally safe in saying that the most common thing I see is a level 1 fighter multi-class and just about anything else. Fighters and their multiclass are also, after three years, the least killed class in my entire store campaigns history. No other class has as few casualties as the Fighter and only the Barbarian is in the same ballpark in terms of surviving.
Meanwhile, if anyone is curious, I have killed over 50 rangers in 3 years. More ranger blood soaks the ground than all of the remaining character classes combined.
I thought someone would enjoy these pointless facts.
So last tuesday my party was rolling in descent; We're in the first dungeon the game plunks you in and we've leveled (which is good!) but we've yet to have a proper long rest afer hitting level 2 and a bunch of fights (which is bad) though with a warlock and a forest druid as our principle casters this is less of an issue (which is good!) then it is for my paladin (which is sad ).
But the session gave up a wondrous thing my friends; Gold? Magic swords? Arcane spell books? Gems? No sir, those are merely trifles, what we got was something so much more rare and precious then your pissant deck of many things or vorpal sword.
No, we got a surprise round.
Imagine if you will, a 5 person party lead by a paladin with dex 8 and chainmail kicking in a door and bum rushing an elderly woman with an undead rat swarm around her feet, just utterly eating shit as everything the party throws at her connects (including an eldritch blast that sends her over a table and knocks her prone) but isn't enough to finish her before she gets up, casts darkness and cackles... letting me know exactly where she is so I can stab her again, causing the darkness effect to end and allowing the party's monk to punch her to death.
Oh sure we fought an undead rat swarm and the druid got to talk to a living rat, but getting to bum rush a wizard (who the gm told me could have nuked the party with a fireball) was quite possibly the single most fun I've had in the last year outside of some truly bizzare moments in mad mage.
So after more than 3 years of running multiple DnD sessions and hundreds of hours of actual DnD, I am finally safe in saying that the most common thing I see is a level 1 fighter multi-class and just about anything else. Fighters and their multiclass are also, after three years, the least killed class in my entire store campaigns history. No other class has as few casualties as the Fighter and only the Barbarian is in the same ballpark in terms of surviving.
Meanwhile, if anyone is curious, I have killed over 50 rangers in 3 years. More ranger blood soaks the ground than all of the remaining character classes combined.
I thought someone would enjoy these pointless facts.
I run a fairly busy Adventurers League, and everyone and their mother seems to dip into Fighter for the Action Surge or ::spits:: Hexblade. So many level 1 Hexblades.
I haven't purchased Baldurs Gate yet, but I did flip through it at the local big box book store in between trying to get my 7yo to buy a real book instead of another graphic novel (I'm not opposed to graphic novels in the slightest, but with all the Captain Underpants and Dog Mans and Plants vs. Zombies he already has.... let try something else, ya know?), I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to run my Dungeon Dads group through SKT anymore.
I mean, I will. We're only 4 sessions in and a few of the mostly new players are starting to really getting to their characters and are starting to do character development things. Ie: The bard has a kind and forgiving streak and maybe will go into Paladin one day? And the dwarf cleric wants a storyline where she loses her faith? These are all awesome developments and I very much do not want to stifle them by saying "Fuck everything we've done since Phandalin. Roll up new mans and lets go to hell!".... but I really really do want to do that. Argh! So I think I've decided not to faff around in the sandboxy Chapter 3 as much as I wanted to and just motor right along and get through this ASAP! So THEN I can tell them roll up new characters and we can start Descent into Avernus.
My other group is finally in the Tomb of Nine Gods and I'm having a blast there. I think a few more weekend bender sessions and we can finish ToA. Which has been super awesome. After that, another of the group is going to run CoS (YAY!) and I promised to finish up my own homebrew setting for them to play around in.
But fuck me if Descent into Avernus does not look like its a super fun time! I can't wait!
So after more than 3 years of running multiple DnD sessions and hundreds of hours of actual DnD, I am finally safe in saying that the most common thing I see is a level 1 fighter multi-class and just about anything else. Fighters and their multiclass are also, after three years, the least killed class in my entire store campaigns history. No other class has as few casualties as the Fighter and only the Barbarian is in the same ballpark in terms of surviving.
Meanwhile, if anyone is curious, I have killed over 50 rangers in 3 years. More ranger blood soaks the ground than all of the remaining character classes combined.
I thought someone would enjoy these pointless facts.
One of these days im going to play a 1 barbarian moon druid who uses 100% of spell slots on self heals
Although right now I'm playing a level 12 Spore druid with 18 constitution and tough and I feel more or less invincible
So after more than 3 years of running multiple DnD sessions and hundreds of hours of actual DnD, I am finally safe in saying that the most common thing I see is a level 1 fighter multi-class and just about anything else. Fighters and their multiclass are also, after three years, the least killed class in my entire store campaigns history. No other class has as few casualties as the Fighter and only the Barbarian is in the same ballpark in terms of surviving.
Meanwhile, if anyone is curious, I have killed over 50 rangers in 3 years. More ranger blood soaks the ground than all of the remaining character classes combined.
I thought someone would enjoy these pointless facts.
For me it was druids. I slaughtered druids like nothing else.
I've never had a fighter survive in one of my games, they run up into melee and die
Tomb of Annihilation: Fighter/Gunslinger jumping into a pit full of ghosts and getting drained to death
Curse of Strahd: I can handle all these ghouls ... oh im paralyzed
Lost Mines of Phandelver: *while the rest of the party is sleeping at the inn* I'm going to go to the other inn and start a fight with the Redbrands. And I'm going to draw my sword after the fist fight starts.
Storm King's Thunder: I challenge you, Fire Giant (the fire giant proved up to the challenge of the level 5 fighter)
Storm King's Thunder: I drink the potion of fly and pursue Countess Sansuri's castle (again, at level 5)
Storm King's Thunder: I fire my longbow at the 2 blue dragons in the distance
Storm King's Thunder: I stab the bronze dragon
I think my players seem to be as suicidal as possible while playing fighters
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Also how humans and other mortals have constantly shifting concepts of the self so even having a true name spoken is only good for a year or two before losing potency, versus a mythical being where its set in stone.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
My game came and went, players are making deals with fiends, the rogue turned an assassin into a copy of herself with a magic item and sent the assassin back to her rival through backchannels, so he thinks he has her captured now, the party fighter is being a fine upstanding citizen, getting to know the people he rescued from the nine hells and reassuring them that they really are here and this isn't some elaborate torture designed by devils
Cue sorcerer bursting out of a window laughing maniacally, held aloft by her new devil wings she obtained as a prize for a contract
Fighter facepalms
Which is a big downgrade from even where they were before, with no compelling reason I've heard, but even so it seems a bit odd for them to specifically avoid giving additional options just because it wouldn't fit with their own default setting. It fails to account for the fact that not everyone will use that setting, and not everyone using it will use all of their own lore interpretations. I mean there are a ton of races they haven't given stats for or fleshed out (And this is a big downside of 5e so far, IMO) but Gnolls were a fairly popular monster race and have had PC stats since at least 2e. I can understand explaining why in their main official setting Gnoll PC's aren't really a thing, but a very major aspect of D&D is letting the people who play it, as players or GM's, make those kinds of decisions for themselves and not putting out official (and ostensibly balanced, though frankly most of the monster PC stats in Volo's put paid to that idea) options for it seems a bit ridiculous. Frankly although overall 5e is fine and good, their decisions in this sort of thing have really been a bit lackluster and emblematic of what I feel is a poor choice of direction in this particular area.
I'd like to see some more race options released officially, wizards doesn't like publishing books very often with 5e though (they have said that its more profitable to release them in a slow drip, and something like xanathars or volos only once a year)
So you end up either playing a gimped race (meh) or something that completely outshines the "normal" races (added challenges for the dm).
Just slap together something that feels appropriate and tune it down until the DM stops sweating.
Create new lore that talks about Gnolls who undertook a long process of exorcising the demonic influence from themselves. Along with PC stats, include some rough guidelines for GMs to adjust NPC stats to reflect this.
It sucks that they go with the "this race is inherently bad" stuff and I would prefer they just not, but as far as working within their existing framework, this sounds okay to me.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Hi, it kinda me with the gnolls
https://darkheresychainsofmalice.blogspot.com/2019/08/ndh-dnd-5e-beyatuan-gnoll-variant.html
https://darkheresychainsofmalice.blogspot.com/2019/07/non-dark-heresy-beyatuans-history-of.html
Also if you notice the “racial variants” and their bonuses are more cultural based on what each type of group generally values rather than being innate.
That said, aren't there non-demonic gnolls in Eberron or something? I feel like they could have given the gnolls stats for the non-Forgotten Realms realms, but they didn't feel like it.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
because how else would we forget about them?
Them at level 10: barbarian with 1 lvl fighter, two wizards (one is bladesinger), a cleric, and a 5/5 warlock/rogue. Plus Rictavio. Plus the tiger. Plus a Shield Guardian. Plus Ismark with Gladiator stats and wearing Sergei's plate and a +2 greatsword.
Vs.
40 "newly turned townspeople" vampires (spawn stats with 1 hp) and Strahd with +4 str +4 cha and 3x self-auto-res (from Amber...), wearing his animated armor, a +2 shield and +3 greatsword from the treasury, essentially 23AC with 800-odd hp bag.
I intended it to be the showcase fight to end the campaign.
Two sources of sunlight+ counterspell + bladesong= the new vamps did literally nothing and neither did Strahd.
When his final self res popped i had him flee straight through the floor with lair action leaving behind the armor, shield, and weapon. The armor became animate once again, but the players pounded it into scrap within the remainder of the round, with some of them not even bothering and instead healing minor wounds or heading for the stairs to chase Strahd downstairs.
Strahd is extremely intelligent. He is the land. This has to be extremely frustrating for him, as much as it is for me. I don't want to wipe the players, i want them to have a glorious victory. But they didn't even break a sweat except for a small handful of spellslots. They did worse vs the 8 gargoyles and 4 red dragon whelps they fought downstairs on the way in (because they barged through both rooms before stopping to fight).
So I'm thinking, how do i give them a glorious final battle, where Strahd sticks around because he thinks he's winning, until he is suddenly not? What I'm thinking is he abandons the above ground and goes to the crypts and waits. When the party shows up he lures then in and then pops open the crypt doors and the players fight him at the same time as some critters that come out of the crypts. I looked for some appropriate monsters i could use that might be in the crypts the party have opened yet, here is what I'm thinking:
- the vamp spawn statted Strahd wife that's gone loopy
- the ghost that tries to posess then and run then off a cliff
- a bodak that comes out of the slime room
- a skeleton lord (stats from https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/269398) from one of the nobles
- some sword spiders from the same book
- a vampire mage ex-adventurer that the players let run from an earlier fight in Vallaki with a "run you baby we are so much better than you" attitude which I'm thinking will be fun to have them bite then in the ass here
- the Wight general with his 3 hell hounds
Too much? Not enough? I plan to have all the adds come at the party using their regular move speed from their respective crypts, so they won't all show up on the same round. I figure this gives me a lever to stop a round or two in if it feels like maybe i overdid it, or maybe delay something a round or two. I want tension and a real feeling of do or die. Last several sessions have felt too safe for a place like Barovia. Nobody's even been unconscious once since they were like lvl 4 or thereabouts.
Thoughts?
with a villain like Strahd you have to go all out, and sometimes that means some or all of the party die
if it was anything but the capstone i would say be gentler but fuck it, you saw what happens when you go gentle
sock it to em
Since there was no direct demonic influence the old laws and practices became stories instead, the more extreme elements were now "just metaphors", etc. In effect, they were huge heretics, but if you asked them they were Being Proper Gnolls.
Yes there are, this particular bit is from the 4e playing gnolls thing
"However, a particular setting can suggest a different path for gnolls. In the Eberron Campaign Setting, gnolls served as soldiers in the Age of Demons, and savage gnolls still roam the Demon Wastes and other wild lands. However, in the region of Droaam, gnolls turned their backs on their barbaric past. The scourges gathered together at Znir and shattered the great statue of their demon lord; together, the clan leaders pledged to find a new path for their people and to stand together. Droaam is a dangerous land, and, if not for this alliance, clans would likely have been enslaved by giants, oni, or other powerful creatures. But thanks to the Znir Pact, the gnolls have become a stabilizing force respected by all the warlords—a force that has considerable influence in the young nation."
Whoever is in charge of this kind of thing just decided on the laziest and least interesting interpretation, and then proceeded to ignore all current and previous lore contrary to that and avoid giving players options based on those alternatives... even though they did that for the Minotaurs of Krynn, apparently they can't do it for Gnolls. Because reasons.
How far into the castle have they gone? It's a giant maze. Not to mention the traps that move your or teleport you elsewhere in the castle, Even looking at the maps some of it doesn't make sense. Use the castle, peel off some of the extra support NPCs. Have Strahd attack and then disappear to somewhere else. Once they've blown a chunk of spell slots and whittled their HP down a bit then the fight gets tense.
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First time he ran away from them in the catacombs because he got low and got word of someone (the distraction they had arranged but didn't have the patience to wait for) assaulting the front gate.
Next time we ran away from them from the battlements on one of the towers because he got low and was tiring to lure then into chasing him, but the players just left the castle instead.
Third time was the battle i described in my last post, him having decided enough is enough with these upstarts and gone to his treasury and the Amber... to juice up.
Look into flame skulls, especially if you're getting a chase going. You're party should have enough juice to kill a couple a round no problem. They're essentially fireball traps, but they will absolutely pull slots and HP from the party.
I didn't do it in the side-quest dragon fight in ToA. In fact, I bumped the dragon up to make it harder..... and it was the best and most memorable fight had by my long time group in our entire history of gaming together, Which is long. I can't and won't take all the credit, obviously. The dice, and player attitudes and that special je ne sais quois where all there that night too.
I'm just saying.... don't pull your punches, and maybe everyone will have a great time too!
But we just rolled the white dragon. Spider climb won the day there.
"A wall of ice blocks your path, you can hear your other comrades fighting on the other side of the wall."
"I use spider climb and walk up that shit"
The simple items from the PHB saved my party from a TPK:
Caltrops and ball bearings, the assassins filled the tunnel with them before the attempt
A level 8 party undone by caltrops and ball bearings.
I've never been happier to see my party frustrated
On initiative 20 Strahd will pop the doors. The critters inside will get to the entrances in this many rounds:
- Vamp spawn in 1 round to either, cr 5
- 3 male 1 female sword spider in 1 round to stairs or 3 to hall, cr 3 3 3 5
- 1 Ghost in 1 round to either, prioritizes possession, cr 4
- 4 gargoyles same round to either, cr 2
- Phantom warrior to hall in 2 or stairs in 1 round, cr 3
- 3 hell hounds and a wraith to hall in 2 or stairs in 1 round, cr 3 3 3 5
- 1 Nightmare in one round to either, cr 3, strahd mounts it when it gets there
- 2 Banshees to either in 1 round, cr 4
- 1 bodak in 3 to hall 2 to stairs, cr 6
- 1 skeleton lord in 1 to hall 2 to stairs, cr 9
Good, you think?
or throw caltrops at your party's paladin and watch a high level holy warrior be reduced to no movement in seconds
got some commitments from parties involved that behavior will be taken care of and prioritized so D&D is back on the menu
took the time to have a nice break though, gonna pick back up at the end of October
We learned this last part out the hard way, but thankfully the rogue's pathetic STR score kept him from actually hitting anyone with it, and the Goliath cleric sat on him while the sword was pried out of his hand. Later, the sword was recognized as a familial heirloom and quite valuable in its own right (in its pre-demon soul vessel state, anyway), but the party deemed that the sword was too dangerous to be handed over to some villagers and instead promised to hand it back if we ever found a way to separate the evil taint from the physical blade. The rogue approached a leatherworker in town and commissioned a sturdy strap to keep the sword bound into the scabbard to prevent it from being drawn, even accidentally.
ANYhoo, a day or two later the party is exploring the outskirts of a magical desert when they come upon a large pool of red liquid. The wizard tests it and discovers that it is, yes, blood (magically preserved or created somehow), and even convinces the fighter to try a sip. The barbarian sees one giant pool of blood and one blood-drinking sword and sees a clever solution to a potential puzzle. The barbarian makes an offhand comment to the rogue about this, and the rogue immediately sees the internal logic, undoes the strap, and draws the blade again. "Drink your fill, vile thing," he laughs as he sticks the sword into the lake.
The demonic blade turns out to not like blood that's been sitting out in the desert for who-knows-how-long instead of pumping through someone's veins (it declares the blood "tainted") and once again takes over the rogue's mind, this time getting a good hit in on the wizard before attempting to go up against the fighter. Luckily, the rogue is such a pathetic hit with a longsword that this first shot at the wizard was the only attack he manages to land. Not so luckily, the rogue is somehow able to keep his grip on the blade despite everything the party throws at him: a Firebolt, a Ray of Frost, melee attacks, even a Magic Missile. Eventually the fighter declares enough is enough and cuts the rogue's hand clean off (i.e., a super-strong hit that probably could have killed the PC outright at that point, but the players argued that they weren't trying to kill him, just get him to drop the sword, so the DM ruled in favor of "disarming".).
The ranger combines a quick good Medicine check with a healing spell and manages to reattach the rogue's hand within one round of it being removed, and while the rogue shouts to "throw the damned thing in the lake, it hates it," the party instead decides to give the sword to the wizard, who is far less likely to draw a weapon in flights of fancy or at the cajoling of the team muscleheads.
Still... If you were given a sword that likes drinking blood, and then ran into a giant pool of blood, who could be blamed for attempting to connect them? Not methe rogue, that's for sure.
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Turns out throwing your trident is hilarious. I cannot wait to get Eldricht Knight set up so I can weapon bond to my trident.
Players won! Got really hairy though and i decided to forego the banshees, but everything else went into the mix. Also at one point i was managing 20 characters on my end, plus lair and legendary actions, plus randomized initiative, so...
One thing i didn't originally realize is how much the sheer quantity of bodies i threw in was going to form a flesh wall they could not get through to hit Strahd. In the end, the sunlight sword, the icon of ravenloft, and the feast of heroes scroll i had foolishly handed out at some point (:p) made the key difference.
I knew i had them where i wanted them when the million hp (not quite, but...) barbarian started calling out for heals in a panic. Nobody hit 0 in the end, but they all thought it was imminent, and that's exactly what i wanted.
They have chosen to not have a session where they loot everything that's not cemented into the walls and/or deal with the things they had not yet (the warewolf situation/the swamp witch situation/the mad mage), and instead will send me brief descriptions of what their characters would want to do short and long term, and whether they would want to stay or leave Barovia, and I'll write them an epilogue when i get everyone's notes.
Meanwhile, if anyone is curious, I have killed over 50 rangers in 3 years. More ranger blood soaks the ground than all of the remaining character classes combined.
I thought someone would enjoy these pointless facts.
But the session gave up a wondrous thing my friends; Gold? Magic swords? Arcane spell books? Gems? No sir, those are merely trifles, what we got was something so much more rare and precious then your pissant deck of many things or vorpal sword.
No, we got a surprise round.
Imagine if you will, a 5 person party lead by a paladin with dex 8 and chainmail kicking in a door and bum rushing an elderly woman with an undead rat swarm around her feet, just utterly eating shit as everything the party throws at her connects (including an eldritch blast that sends her over a table and knocks her prone) but isn't enough to finish her before she gets up, casts darkness and cackles... letting me know exactly where she is so I can stab her again, causing the darkness effect to end and allowing the party's monk to punch her to death.
Oh sure we fought an undead rat swarm and the druid got to talk to a living rat, but getting to bum rush a wizard (who the gm told me could have nuked the party with a fireball) was quite possibly the single most fun I've had in the last year outside of some truly bizzare moments in mad mage.
I run a fairly busy Adventurers League, and everyone and their mother seems to dip into Fighter for the Action Surge or ::spits:: Hexblade. So many level 1 Hexblades.
I mean, I will. We're only 4 sessions in and a few of the mostly new players are starting to really getting to their characters and are starting to do character development things. Ie: The bard has a kind and forgiving streak and maybe will go into Paladin one day? And the dwarf cleric wants a storyline where she loses her faith? These are all awesome developments and I very much do not want to stifle them by saying "Fuck everything we've done since Phandalin. Roll up new mans and lets go to hell!".... but I really really do want to do that. Argh! So I think I've decided not to faff around in the sandboxy Chapter 3 as much as I wanted to and just motor right along and get through this ASAP! So THEN I can tell them roll up new characters and we can start Descent into Avernus.
My other group is finally in the Tomb of Nine Gods and I'm having a blast there. I think a few more weekend bender sessions and we can finish ToA. Which has been super awesome. After that, another of the group is going to run CoS (YAY!) and I promised to finish up my own homebrew setting for them to play around in.
But fuck me if Descent into Avernus does not look like its a super fun time! I can't wait!
One of these days im going to play a 1 barbarian moon druid who uses 100% of spell slots on self heals
Although right now I'm playing a level 12 Spore druid with 18 constitution and tough and I feel more or less invincible
For me it was druids. I slaughtered druids like nothing else.
But fighters never die
Tomb of Annihilation: Fighter/Gunslinger jumping into a pit full of ghosts and getting drained to death
Curse of Strahd: I can handle all these ghouls ... oh im paralyzed
Lost Mines of Phandelver: *while the rest of the party is sleeping at the inn* I'm going to go to the other inn and start a fight with the Redbrands. And I'm going to draw my sword after the fist fight starts.
Storm King's Thunder: I challenge you, Fire Giant (the fire giant proved up to the challenge of the level 5 fighter)
Storm King's Thunder: I drink the potion of fly and pursue Countess Sansuri's castle (again, at level 5)
Storm King's Thunder: I fire my longbow at the 2 blue dragons in the distance
Storm King's Thunder: I stab the bronze dragon
I think my players seem to be as suicidal as possible while playing fighters