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[D&D Discussion] 5th Edition HD Remaster Coming in 2024, Entering the Disney Vault in 2025

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  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Ringo wrote: »
    I would love to see a designer guide that is just full of design intent stuff behind abilities, expected use cases for abilities, etc

    One thing that 5e is bad at is telling us what a lot of spells and abilities are for or how theyre actually used, and its' even worse at telling DMs how to use specific monsters effectively against the players to provide a thrilling combat encounter

    Yes, this please.

    Along the same line of thought: I don't think Denada is asking for more rules, what they're getting at is for the rule book to say "This is the thought process we used to determine [what a 5th level spell does]" so that the players and DMs can then apply the same thought process to things that happen in their games and feel confident that their decisions are in line with everyone's expectations.

    More rules won't empower DMs and players. But sharing the guiding principles behind the current rules might

    Right something like

    "The thinking behind witch bolt is that, although it only does 1d12 on subsequent rounds no matter what level it is cast at, is that an intelligent creature won't want to put up with being literally sprayed with lightning. That it should act like an area denial spell, where a creature will seek to escape the onslaught of lightning because it's incredibly painful"

    I have no idea if that actually is the intent with witch bolt, that's just an example of the kind of thing where a little bit less obfuscation of designer intent could make an ability better

    I think that the idea of witch bolt is that it purposefully does not scale. It gets generally easier as time goes on to maintain concentration and so no save/one save ongoing damage like that gets very powerful as levels increase. You're supposed to take it at level 1 because it gives you 6.5 dmg/turn until the thing dies. Which is very good. But you're not supposed to use it as a level 2 spell because 12 dmg/turn until a thing dies is incredibly good and will compete with later game basic attacks as consistent damage.

    And it would be kinda nice to have guidelines to make that sort of design choice explicit (though maybe not exactly in that sense but for other types of things it definitely does)

    Goumindong on
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  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    I have made the case before that with specific combinations of characters, witch bolt is good even (and sometimes especially) at higher levels since because its a bonkers scaling attack roll spell on the initial discharge

    It's good for hexblades until level 5, and even then still *viable* against high AC targets (like golems or something) that you have Hexblade's Curse on
    If you can stack it with path to the grave and someone else hold monstering the target, with this very specific cheese build, you can force lighting something out of existence for preposterous amounts of damage


    Personally I just make it scale, with the intent very clear to the creature that if it gets farther from you it feels like it's getting away from it, so even dumb creatures will want to get out of the 30 feet, or pummel the caster. I have found zero problems with this, the party makes use of team work to keep a witch bolt zapping away at a target, and whenever I can get my players to work together I call it a win

    *TBH, in a game without a lot of min maxing, it is 100% viable to just blow your spell slots spamming witch bolt at its highest level against single targets and immediately drop concentration. It's actually one of the few ways a warlock has to do that to exceed the damage of an eldritch blast. Optimal? Fuck no, but viable? Yeah actually, until the lock is level 11 at which point hex + eldritch blast is better

    override367 on
  • The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    Here's a question:

    I know it's often said that 5e's action economy means that boss monsters tned to struggle unless they've got mooks.

    Otehr than the obvious (damage jumps through the roof), what goes wrong if you just let your boss monster take a full turn after every player's turn? Sure, it means they're basically going at SONIC SPEED around the battlefield, but assuming that you know, they're going to stay engaged with teh party and i'm not going to do bad faith trolling with the boss mob running off, what possible issues arise?

    Ideas hate it when you anthropomorphize them
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  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    Here's a question:

    I know it's often said that 5e's action economy means that boss monsters tned to struggle unless they've got mooks.

    Otehr than the obvious (damage jumps through the roof), what goes wrong if you just let your boss monster take a full turn after every player's turn? Sure, it means they're basically going at SONIC SPEED around the battlefield, but assuming that you know, they're going to stay engaged with teh party and i'm not going to do bad faith trolling with the boss mob running off, what possible issues arise?

    I think if you limit what actions they can do during this (basically they can do everything short of casting 1st-level or higher spells, or using spell-like abilities.), it'd be fine, if you were portraying a Speedster like villain.

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  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Here's a question:

    I know it's often said that 5e's action economy means that boss monsters tned to struggle unless they've got mooks.

    Otehr than the obvious (damage jumps through the roof), what goes wrong if you just let your boss monster take a full turn after every player's turn? Sure, it means they're basically going at SONIC SPEED around the battlefield, but assuming that you know, they're going to stay engaged with teh party and i'm not going to do bad faith trolling with the boss mob running off, what possible issues arise?

    Legendary actions fulfill this somewhat. the big bads have a certain amount of legendary actions they can spend each turn on specific abilities after a players turn. One of the issues is that is it fun for the monster to run around? If you don't have interesting terrain or abilities that key off of that terrain, the players will just keep running it down each turn, and if they surround it then everything just sits there changing blows. I think that is the biggest thing on a boss fight without mooks. Without reasons to peel off the big bad, everything just stagnates.

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  • The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Here's a question:

    I know it's often said that 5e's action economy means that boss monsters tned to struggle unless they've got mooks.

    Otehr than the obvious (damage jumps through the roof), what goes wrong if you just let your boss monster take a full turn after every player's turn? Sure, it means they're basically going at SONIC SPEED around the battlefield, but assuming that you know, they're going to stay engaged with teh party and i'm not going to do bad faith trolling with the boss mob running off, what possible issues arise?

    Legendary actions fulfill this somewhat. the big bads have a certain amount of legendary actions they can spend each turn on specific abilities after a players turn. One of the issues is that is it fun for the monster to run around? If you don't have interesting terrain or abilities that key off of that terrain, the players will just keep running it down each turn, and if they surround it then everything just sits there changing blows. I think that is the biggest thing on a boss fight without mooks. Without reasons to peel off the big bad, everything just stagnates.

    Yeah, i knew about legendary actions - i just wanted to check i wanst missing other stuff. Your point re: Running around is a good one. Thanks!

    Ideas hate it when you anthropomorphize them
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  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    I like to give bosses extra reactions too with very specific triggers

    eg: on getting hit with a spell, creature moving towards it, creature uses a heal

    I also like to do phases where when a boss hits certain HP it immediately gets a turn

    Oh you had 2 attacks left? well you still do, after the boss gets its extra turn

    If this sounds unfair its because it is, but I don't want any official campaigns to give me shit about balance after throwing a necromancer with fireball against our level 2 avernus party or 7 pirates against our level 1 party

    (I snuck in and stole the necromancer's spellcasting focus so, it wasn't much of a fight, but she beat us on initiative! if shed had her focus that could have been a 1 hit tpk!)

    override367 on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    Mariliths have this trait:
    Reactive. The Marilith can take one Reaction on every turn in Combat.

    It might be fun to give a marilith more options for what she can do with her reaction!

    And there's also the associated demonic boon to add to other creatures (from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes):
    Serpentine Reaction. This creature can take an extra reaction each round, but this reaction can be used only to make an opportunity attack.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    I try to think of boss fights as tiered encounters where the players have to accomplish [thing] before they can escalate to the next stage of the fight. Switching terrain and tactics during the stage transition is a boon as well. Video games have some very good and memorable examples of these kinds of fights, and I try to steal as many good ones as possible.

    5e can struggle with this as it's fairly easy to get into a scenario where a player wants to use a certain spell or ability but the mechanics of it do not jive with the fiction of the fight, and players tend to feel picked on if your cool encounter just happens to sideline one of their character choices. Combine this with the somewhat swingy nature of crits, damage dice, etc KOing an entire tier of the fight or just alternately giving a TPK and you can have a real problem on your hands.

    Which is why everyone says, "throw in more mooks". If there's plenty of mooks, your boss has a buffer from being KOed too fast, your players can pew pew with whatever their favorite tactics are in a target rich environment, and as long as the mooks are mostly harmless you'll have a harder time accidentally rolling a TPK. It's simple and effective and hopefully you can find ways to keep it from getting repetitive and boring

    Sidenote: In my experience, none of what I just said really works if you are running a campaign where TPKs or character death are common. Unless the PCs are meant to be cannon fodder, someone is going to take exception when the rules bend to the fiction and it has negative consequences for them

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • sullijosullijo mid-level minion subterranean bunkerRegistered User regular
    A new 5e-based Hellboy RPG was just launched on Kickstarter. Are there any good adventures/supplements for 5e that could be raided for Hellboy-esque monsters/powers/etc?

    (I haven't moved on from 4e yet, so my knowledge of 5e offerings is practically zero.)

    When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
    "I don't want the world, I just want your half"
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Man I totally wouldn’t play Hellboy in 5E.

    That said, most of Hellboy’s adventures are:

    Intro. Hellboy is just somewhere. Dublin, 1960. Kenya, 1973. Mexico, 16 years ago.

    Prologue. An ordinary person or two talk to Hellboy about a problem they’ve got. They know it’s supernatural but haven’t a clue what. He takes the case.

    Act 1. Hellboy quietly journeys into somewhere foreboding. A cave. A tomb. The docks. That castle. Along the way a minor magical creature says something foreboding.

    Act 2. Hellboy fights a monster in the place! It talks about the end of the world. Hellboy gets knocked down!

    Act 3. Okay, here he can either pick himself up, or if it’s a BPRD story they can turn up to help. The foe is slain but they say something ominous as they go.

    Epilogue. Hellboy drinks a beer with someone. Maybe a luchador.

    So I reckon you could tack on any straight forward dungeon crawl and it’d be okay.

    Basically you start the session with Charisma and Wisdom checks, take a long journey, then dungeon crawl, then do a boss fight. No joke.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Wait, they announced a Hellboy D&D... and they are only putting it on Kickstarter???

    If you're crowdfunding it... use a better game system for Hellboy!

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    Find and Replace "Hellboy" in that post with "Adventuring Party" and that 83% of all games ever.

  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Wait, they announced a Hellboy D&D... and they are only putting it on Kickstarter???

    If you're crowdfunding it... use a better game system for Hellboy!

    They want it to actually get funded tho

    And played

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  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    Find and Replace "Hellboy" in that post with "Adventuring Party" and that 83% of all games ever.

    Legit. I’ve read almost all Hellboy stories, one of the few comics I’ve ever got stuck into, the only other being SAGA, and Hellboy translates really well as a dungeon crawler in particular.

    Take the story he finds Roger.


    It’s 1996, Hellboy and Liz are in Romania because Romania is a good place for spooky times. (Game host: So I wanna set the game in a spooky land of forests and mountains, okay?)

    Liz accidentally wakes up a homunculus. Hellboy names it Roger. (New character or player joins the party with very flimsy justification)

    Soon they encounter Roger’s older brother, an EVIL homunculus! He’s made a giant golem to destroy humanity! (Bad guy of the session)

    The team fail to stop the bad guy starting up his giant golem, but do enough to make it imperfect. (A countdown clock is completed, took too many turns etc.)

    Roger convinces his brother to let him join him inside his giant golem, but it was a trick! He destroys it from within! (Charisma checks, spending plot token, just allowed because it’s cool etc.)

    End of session.

    I’ve skipped a lot from the story there, but that’s a session alright.

    However, for how dream-like a lot of the solutions are in Hellboy, it needs a better stunt system than 5E has. They can make that though, for sure.


    I’m just troubled by the thought of Liz, or a character you could make, being limited by spell slots and the like. Liz has as much magical fire as her mental state and exhaustion allows her. She’s not casting fireball. Likewise Hellboy doesn’t have HP, he’s got his beliefs and how pissed off he is about how soggy his boots are in the rain.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Darmak wrote: »
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Wait, they announced a Hellboy D&D... and they are only putting it on Kickstarter???

    If you're crowdfunding it... use a better game system for Hellboy!

    They want it to actually get funded tho

    And played

    It seems to me a self-fulfilling prophecy that the only RPG that gets played is D&D, if that is the only option made available.

    What makes a Hellboy RPG that more accurately captures the tone of a Hellboy story a harder sell?

  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Darmak wrote: »
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Wait, they announced a Hellboy D&D... and they are only putting it on Kickstarter???

    If you're crowdfunding it... use a better game system for Hellboy!

    They want it to actually get funded tho

    And played

    It seems to me a self-fulfilling prophecy that the only RPG that gets played is D&D, if that is the only option made available.

    What makes a Hellboy RPG that more accurately captures the tone of a Hellboy story a harder sell?

    Because it's not D&D.

    Don't get me wrong, I dislike D&D's chokehold on people's, uh, whatever the term is for what they think of when they think of TTRPG. I love D&D a fuckin ton, but I think other systems are rad too and can tell different kinds of stories better or worse, and they deserve to be successful. Plus competition can be healthy! But right now as it stands, D&D sells and other systems don't. I know it's cyclical, but I'm just one dude on the interwebz that made a throwaway joke comment

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  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    "D&D sells and other systems don't."

    D&D sells THE MOST but it's outright false to suggest that other systems don't sell.

    And in fact I would argue that liscensed properties are a great time to use a different system, because then you have that brand recognition to draw people in anyway!

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    But does it serve the license holder to tie themselves to a less well known rpg system?

    Star Wars has the cachet to push a system. A smaller IP, I would imagine, would be better served by hitching their wagon to the phenomenon that is 5e these days.

  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2020
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    "D&D sells and other systems don't."

    D&D sells THE MOST but it's outright false to suggest that other systems don't sell.

    And in fact I would argue that liscensed properties are a great time to use a different system, because then you have that brand recognition to draw people in anyway!

    Let me amend my statement to add the part I implied, "D&D sells and other systems don't sell as well"

    And I agree that this would be a good time for liscensed properties to perhaps branch out! I'm just saying they probably went with D&D because it's a safe bet that they'll make more money if they use it as opposed to some other system that's not as well known. Perhaps they're hedging their bets going with 5e and also KS (you mentioned that in the other thread) because they're super cautious and don't want to end up in debt or something, maybe they just don't care about the game or Hellboy and are just trying to get the most money possible, maybe they're assholes that want to ruin the Hellboy franchise by shackling it to 5e in the hopes it is absolute dogshit, I don't know.

    edit: if I'm coming across as combative, I swear I'm not meaning to! I agree with you, even

    Darmak on
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  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    You know... Zombie Tyrannosaurus that vomit up other zombies don't last very long against six 7th level PC's.

    Alas.

  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    I had a group of 7 7th level PCs happen upon a CR23 Kraken in my setting's Underdark equivalent. You'd think it'd make paste of them but I was as surprised as the Kraken was to realise it didn't have any Legendary Resistances and even with +11 WIS saves if you roll a 3 you are getting polymorphed into a goldfish.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    You know, in a world where their probably isn’t DNA as we know it, a polymorphed kraken could have a thousand spawn with a regular goldfish and they’d all be born as goldikrakofishes. These are my thoughts.

  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    You know, in a world where their probably isn’t DNA as we know it, a polymorphed kraken could have a thousand spawn with a regular goldfish and they’d all be born as goldikrakofishes. These are my thoughts.

    Or does Polymorph just alter the DNA of the...you know what? Nope. Not going don't that rabbit hole.

    Twitter! | Dilige, et quod vis fac
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    You know... Zombie Tyrannosaurus that vomit up other zombies don't last very long against six 7th level PC's.

    Alas.

    IIRC when my group encountered that, one of our party fought the zombies FROM THE INSIDE.

  • XagarXagar Registered User regular
    My mini campaign wrapped up this week, everything really went pretty well! As one of my players put it, they got the "true end" since everything worked out about as well as it could have. The player who stole the gem that was the crux of the plot was able to hide for the entire session until his patron came with reinforcements. The slaves of the efreet were freed, the dao and the servants of Asmodeus had to flee, nobody the players cared about died, and everyone got a ton of treasure.

    The rogue's edgy half-brother was freed of his possession by a quori, but the quori itself fled with a magic lamp containing a noble genie, what it came there to obtain in the first place. Unfortunately, being de-possessed didn't really fix his personality. The ranger, as always, likes animals more than people, and after helping a nightmare he attempted to befriend deliver some gruesome revenge, he managed to get a djiini to agree to wish the nightmare back into the pegasus it originally was. I let the original DM of the campaign decide whether or not to grant it, since wishes are special - he said that the situation merited an unusual reward, and it also serves to stick it to Asmodeus for trying to steal the gem.

    My character, who was not in the picture, got an awesome magic item that is essentially a reflavored bardic instrument, and also something he'd been chasing for a long time, the modron language. Now he can read all of the books and file all the appropriate forms in Amaunator's bureaucracy.
    Amaunator's Pen
    This ornate gold pen is infused with the divine Law of Amaunator, and what it writes can become mystically binding. When used to cast a spell, it glows, casting dim light within a 5ft radius. It is immune to all non-magical damage and to radiant damage.

    If you spend at least 1 minute writing a contract or agreement with this pen, you can cast the geas or mass suggestion spells on willing creatures who sign it. Your command must correspond to what you wrote. The target automatically fails the saving throw.

    As an action, you can write a sign or notice with this pen to cast the silence or zone of truth spells centered on the writing, or the command spell on a creature within range who can read it. The spell uses your spell save DC. Your command must correspond to what you wrote.

    The pen can also be used on a blank writing surface to cast the comprehend languages or tongues spells on yourself, using the pen to translate.

    Spells cast in this way have somatic components, but not verbal components, and you may cast them at higher levels by expending a spell slot of that level.

    Once each spell is cast using the pen, it can't cast that spell again until the next dawn.

    I'm excited to do some more fantastic stuff, at level 13 we're ready to do something really epic!

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    You know... Zombie Tyrannosaurus that vomit up other zombies don't last very long against six 7th level PC's.

    Alas.

    IIRC when my group encountered that, one of our party fought the zombies FROM THE INSIDE.

    I did manage to snatch up the party barbarian in its mouth, and I described the grapple as 1) being clamped in the jaws if a horrible zombie T--Rex AND 2) Being pawed at from inside trying to be dragged down the gullet from multiple sets of undead arms.

    That's such a rad monster, I love it.

    Steelhawk on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Last night my group's DM had it so that even if you broke free of a tyrannosaurus rex's grapple you took damage from falling from the t-rex's mouth to the ground...which makes sense (a t-rex is about twenty feet tall or so) and is something I'm going to have to remember for when I run my next campaign (because I'm definitely going to use that myself).

    "Oh, you caused the purple worm to spit you back up? Well it's currently reared up with it's mouth thirty feet above ground, so get ready to take some falling damage."

    Hexmage-PA on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    You know, in a world where their probably isn’t DNA as we know it, a polymorphed kraken could have a thousand spawn with a regular goldfish and they’d all be born as goldikrakofishes. These are my thoughts.

    3.5 had lots and lots of templates you could apply to monsters, and I absolutely remember skimming an adventure featuring a half-black dragon kraken. So in that edition at least, it seema polymorph could lead to lots of unique crossbreeds.

    Here's a collection of 3.5 era templates for the curious. I might adapt some to 5E myself.

    TLDR: Maybe a half-hydra/half-kraken?

    js8x8zmi1ud1.gif

    Hexmage-PA on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    So I was looking through the 4E Tomb of Horrors (which is a sequel, not an update) and in a section of the adventure dedicated to shrines of dead gods found this:

    1s9df0ey1cur.png

    Every other shrine has a god's name associated with it. This is the only one to not have any name. Just a reference to a goddess of decay that might have had something to do with the Underdark.

    I'm VERY curious if this unknown goddess "died" and became Zuggtmoy. How appropriate that a demon who infests victims and corpses with fungi would herself be a former goddess infested by her own fungi to cheat death, probably with no memory of her former self.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    Man I totally wouldn’t play Hellboy in 5E.

    That said, most of Hellboy’s adventures are:

    Intro. Hellboy is just somewhere. Dublin, 1960. Kenya, 1973. Mexico, 16 years ago.

    Prologue. An ordinary person or two talk to Hellboy about a problem they’ve got. They know it’s supernatural but haven’t a clue what. He takes the case.

    Act 1. Hellboy quietly journeys into somewhere foreboding. A cave. A tomb. The docks. That castle. Along the way a minor magical creature says something foreboding.

    Act 2. Hellboy fights a monster in the place! It talks about the end of the world. Hellboy gets knocked down!

    Act 3. Okay, here he can either pick himself up, or if it’s a BPRD story they can turn up to help. The foe is slain but they say something ominous as they go.

    Epilogue. Hellboy drinks a beer with someone. Maybe a luchador.

    So I reckon you could tack on any straight forward dungeon crawl and it’d be okay.

    Basically you start the session with Charisma and Wisdom checks, take a long journey, then dungeon crawl, then do a boss fight. No joke.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQiIHIV8YGs

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    My Patron: Look, I've given you the ability to cast Detect Magic at will, fucking use it

    Me: Good idea. Hey, these statues are magical! I wonder why? Anyway, time to futz about with the obviously valuable and important object which is the only other thing in this room and hmm, I hear a grinding as of stone limbs coming to life

    My Patron: This is why I've also had to improve your healing capabilities you fuckwit

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    I'm not gonna lie... the choice between Devil's Sight (See in Darkness) and Eldritch Sight (Detect Magic at will) for the Hexblade I'm playing in Ravenloft was an agonizing one.

    I went with being able to see in darkness, and magical darkness, not for the sweet combo with the darkness spell (only because I think it would not benefit the rest of the party to be blind as well in melee) but rather to ignore/flaunt any light/vision bullshit that comes up.

  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    I've played a bunch of casters and never once used detect magic. Why is it useful?

    JtgVX0H.png
  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    As a ranged Tiefling I didn't think that magical darkness was going to be a common enough issue to worry about

    I'm letting the Monk/Warlock/Rogue (yep, same person) handle the magical darkness, plus my Familiar with tremorsense

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Man, in the games I run and play magic has never been subtle enough that detecting it even comes up really.

    Can someone give me a common example of its utility?

    In other news, I’m doin’ a HEXCRAWL. Aw yeah I’ve made so many random tables. Thankfully for my players, it’s only about 9 hexes until the end unless they decide to go in circles.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Man, in the games I run and play magic has never been subtle enough that detecting it even comes up really.

    Can someone give me a common example of its utility?

    In other news, I’m doin’ a HEXCRAWL. Aw yeah I’ve made so many random tables. Thankfully for my players, it’s only about 9 hexes until the end unless they decide to go in circles.

    The classic D&D answer is you enter a room, it contains 256 swords. They are mostly worth a few gp and at your level not worth carrying out. One of them is magical and worth a hundred thousand gp and also kills dragons real good. Detect Magic means you find that sword, no Detect Magic means it stays with all the shitty mundane swords and you miss out.

    There are a number of buried assumptions in there but that's the classic argument along with rooms with magic shenanigans/traps you have to puzzle out.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    The traps and magical shenanigans parts is key here, I think, more than the treasure. Glyphs. Magic doodads that keep the fountain everfilling. Which statues are real and which ones are going to come to life and kill you. Etc. are more practical uses for detect magic. I mean, if a wizard did it then there is usually a way to tell that a wizard did it.

    There are other ways for a DM to let players know to look at a particular items that they want to give away away as treasure. 256 swords that look like the usher at a show, and one of them that looks like Elton John about to go on stage.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Hm yeah I see. I don’t think I want to hide as DM / find stuff like that, but I get it.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Secrets, traps and ambushes are all places where having Detect Magic can be really useful if you suspect them. Basically, are you suspicious of anything? Cast Detect Magic and see if anyone is fucking with you, using illusions, etc. It's also helpful because it gives you the school of magic, so if an NPC is carrying a magical item you can guess what it does.

    Basically, does your DM like to mess with your party? If so, Detect Magic is indispensable.

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