Detect Magic was useful during ToA to confirm intel we got about traps, I correctly guessed the type of a magnet trap (evocation), a rust trap (necromancy), and would have let me differentiate Darkness from Spheres of Annihilation if I couldn't already do that with the other magic eyes invocation. It also lets you determine which traps or mechanisms are magic and which aren't, which helps you know what to look for.
+4
Options
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
In my game, the bard is using Detect Magic to make progress understanding a longer-running mystery I’ve got going on regarding an old type of magic and the downfall of an old empire. He also used it early on in the campaign to determine which entrants in a dinosaur race were cheating (and place his bets accordingly, natch).
ToA was a great example of a dungeon that would fuck you over if a party is not careful. A lot of the traps in the Tomb would ruin your day....unless you were careful about them and then they could easily be avoided. Perfectly reasonable save DC's for horrible consequences was one thing. But if a party was half-way smart about the traps, they could mostly have been avoided.
I remember shaking my head at my party who, though the use of 1 detect magic spell to spot of the source and they could have avoided the trap, went through ridiculous steps (including getting naked and putting all your stuff in a bag of holding) to move down a hallway that caused an entropy effect that eroded your mundane stuff to dust. One spell to spot the source (which was described many times as the only thing of note in the hallway) and one arrow to smash the widget and boom, trap defeated. But alas. The rogue spent the rest of the adventure with no clothes on besides whatever he was wearing that was magical. His leather armor was such that you got a cute look at the bottom part of halfling butt cheeks from behind and a cleverly placed borrowed belt pouch on the front.
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:
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.
This would be a neat hook for having Oublivae being the one responsible for the erosion of knowledge surrounding the original god's faith.
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:
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.
This would be a neat hook for having Oublivae being the one responsible for the erosion of knowledge surrounding the original god's faith.
I'm honestly curious enough about this that I'm thinking of contacting the two authors of the book via Twitter to ask if this was supposed to be a hint to the secret origin of Zuggtmoy (I probably won't get a response, but whatever).
Remember too that in 4E lore the gigantic wormlike demon lord Ugudenk is the son of the god Torog and Zuggtmoy.
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.)
How is the interface for editing/creating/uploading maps in Roll20?
Does it have its own editor? Do you have to upload a map that you can tinker with?
It doesn't have its own editor. You layer image files to make a map, or just load an already done map as an image to the "Map Layer". Like for example you could load a grassy field, put it as the base on the map layer, then put individual tree images on top of it to make a forest, or just load a single image that has that already. Depending on what you want to do.
For houses you could load a map with all the interiors visible, then put a roof graphic over the top. When its time to reveal the house you could push the roof image to the bottom of the layer to make the house visible, or to the GM layer instead of the map layer, which is what I usually do.
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
We use Detect Magic all the time in our Pugmire game, as the setting is literally about walking through the Ruined World of Man and finding lost secret magic is the whole point of the Adventurers Guild
How is the interface for editing/creating/uploading maps in Roll20?
Does it have its own editor? Do you have to upload a map that you can tinker with?
It doesn't have its own editor. You layer image files to make a map, or just load an already done map as an image to the "Map Layer". Like for example you could load a grassy field, put it as the base on the map layer, then put individual tree images on top of it to make a forest, or just load a single image that has that already. Depending on what you want to do.
For houses you could load a map with all the interiors visible, then put a roof graphic over the top. When its time to reveal the house you could push the roof image to the bottom of the layer to make the house visible, or to the GM layer instead of the map layer, which is what I usually do.
So I'd still want to use something like MapTools that I used to use years ago? Unless there's a newer map editor that's been released in the interim.
How is the interface for editing/creating/uploading maps in Roll20?
Does it have its own editor? Do you have to upload a map that you can tinker with?
It doesn't have its own editor. You layer image files to make a map, or just load an already done map as an image to the "Map Layer". Like for example you could load a grassy field, put it as the base on the map layer, then put individual tree images on top of it to make a forest, or just load a single image that has that already. Depending on what you want to do.
For houses you could load a map with all the interiors visible, then put a roof graphic over the top. When its time to reveal the house you could push the roof image to the bottom of the layer to make the house visible, or to the GM layer instead of the map layer, which is what I usually do.
So I'd still want to use something like MapTools that I used to use years ago? Unless there's a newer map editor that's been released in the interim.
DungeonDraft is the darling right now, by the same person who does WonderDraft. It's still in Beta but it works damn good, and it's only $20 I believe. I HIGHLY recommend it. They're active on the subreddits too. I've seen them refund folks when the beta just didn't work, so it's pretty low risk.
Here is an example of a map someone made and posted. I've resized it way down so it's a bit fuzzy. A full size map is VERY sharp. With just a bit of practice this can be made pretty easily. The real trick is getting good at layering assets to give a good sense of depth.
Edit: You could also check through Patreon for folks Making Maps. I back a few and for $20 to back a handful of folks you could get a HUGE back catalog of maps ready to go at your fingertips. Party of Two, Two Minute Tabletop, Venatus Maps, Dungeon Mapster and Dyson logos are a few folks who I back. You could get hundreds of maps pretty much ready to go.
I really ned to spend some mroe time with dungeon draft to make stuff for my campaign (i'm doing it all theatre of mind right now), but agreed on it being very good
Has anyone ran ToA over something like Roll 20 or Astral Tabletop?
I'm thinking of how to do the jungle exploration. The players have the map with all the white squares in the middle they were given at the start. I obviously have the full map.
Iirc, in Roll20 you can define unexplored and fog of war areas, right, so you could just pull up the full map and cover anything they don't know about yet with unexplored and reveal intentionally as they go along. But we are in Astral, and there is no way to do that as far as i can tell. I either reveal everything, or i set a vision radius on player tokens and set up walls that vision doesn't go through. Not ideal for a hex crawl.
You can buy ToA on Roll20 and the map have tokens that you remove to show players what they find.
It was one of the first dnd adventures I DMed and it was real easy to play virtally.
You could do a different map for each of astral/regular. Make a copy one with the astral stuff and one with the normal. You cannot link tokens between them if that is necessary but you can set vision separately
We use Detect Magic all the time in our Pugmire game, as the setting is literally about walking through the Ruined World of Man and finding lost secret magic is the whole point of the Adventurers Guild
Maaan, I wanna play Pugmire. I have both its PHB and Monarchies of Mau's.
And Humblewood.
And I backed the Root tabletop.
I don't have a problem, I can quit any time I want.
+1
Options
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
My DM seems to be avoiding getting the new Bird splat for Pugmire simply because he doesn't want to give credence to my merchant turned Barkbarian having been mentored in the ways of survival by a mysterious folk legend named Russell Crow
I've personally used a combination of Dungeon Tiles and poster maps in the past for my IRL games, though I am aware of the many maps people have made online. Is there a guide for having such maps printed out at the proper scale for D&D?
EDIT: I also wonder if there's a way to print off the maps from 4E's Dungeon magazine adventures. One issue had the throne room of Graz'zt, which would be pretty cool to have.
I've personally used a combination of Dungeon Tiles and poster maps in the past for my IRL games, though I am aware of the many maps people have made online. Is there a guide for having such maps printed out at the proper scale for D&D?
EDIT: I also wonder if there's a way to print off the maps from 4E's Dungeon magazine adventures. One issue had the throne room of Graz'zt, which would be pretty cool to have.
For printing out a gridded map I use Paint.net to make sure the image size in inches matches the grid size. I believe Dungeon Draft does this automatically when it exports. biggest thing for printing out a large scale map as a single sheet is that you need to go to a print shop, and a decent 24x36 map can cost like $10. I have access to a large format printer at work that I use occasionally, and a color laser printer for if I want to print it on 8x11 and cut and tape.
Yep, Dungeon Draft will actually let you set the size of your map to match A4 and A3 paper as a default. As well as two monitor sizes I can’t recall off the top of my head.
It’s very useful though and you can knock out maps fairly rapidly.
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
Saturday:
Me: "Your detect magic shows the two cloud giant statues on the other side of the open castle gate are magical"
Them: "Lets go look at the statues closer"
Me: "You detect abjuration+evocation magic above you as you get closer to the gates
Them: Okay
Me: "Your passive perception notes two ballistae that are slung over the edge of the castle wall via some kind of contraption, a pair of ogres operating each of them, they are aimed directly in between both statues"
Them "We should stealth up to the statues to take a look at them"
Me: "The statues come to life and attack you, roll initiative, also the ballistae are firing at you and the glyph of warding above you is going off, firing a cone of cold down on you"
Them: Surprised Pikachu Face
They got the detect magic but like, I can just put abjuration glows everywhere and I feel like my players will go from one to the next blowing themselves up
Session #3 of Curse of Strahd Proper (vs Death House) is tonight!
I've been waiting for almost 30 years to have my fortune read to me by Madame Eva. Pre-teen Steelhawk pouring through the orignal Ravenloft module (which I still have) and instantly falling in love with those isometric maps of the castle is SUPER excited.
I even bought my DM the Tarroka deck for his birthday last year, fully admitting it was a selfish ploy to get him off his ass and run this module for me once we were done my ToA campaign. Although this stupid covid bullshit has moved game to Roll20 instead in person, it was still worth it. Yay for manifest destiny!
New book is announced. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. New subclasses, the Artificer is in there as well. Also seems to have the Class Variants UA features and race customisation options etc.
WHAT WONDERFUL WITCHERY IS THIS?
A magical mixture of rules options for the world's greatest roleplaying game.
The wizard Tasha, whose great works include the spell Tasha’s hideous laughter, has gathered bits and bobs of precious lore during her illustrious career as an adventurer. Her enemies wouldn’t want these treasured secrets scattered across the multiverse, so in defiance, she has collected and codified these tidbits for the enrichment of all.
EXPANDED SUBCLASSES. Try out subclass options for every Dungeons & Dragons class, including the artificer, which appears in the book.
MORE CHARACTER OPTIONS. Delve into a collection of new class features and new feats, and customize your character’s origin using straightforward rules for modifying a character’s racial traits.
INTRODUCING GROUP PATRONS. Whether you're part of the same criminal syndicate or working for an ancient dragon, each group patron option comes with its own perks and types of assignments.
SPELLS, ARTIFACTS & MAGIC TATTOOS. Discover more spells, as well as magic tattoos, artifacts, and other magic items for your campaign.
EXPANDED RULES OPTIONS. Try out rules for sidekicks, supernatural environments, natural hazards, and parleying with monsters, and gain guidance on running a session zero.
A PLETHORA OF PUZZLES. Ready to be dropped into any D&D adventure, puzzles of varied difficulty await your adventurers, complete with traps and guidance on using the puzzles in a campaign.
Full of expanded content for players and Dungeon Masters alike, this book is a great addition to the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Baked in you'll find more rule options for all the character classes in the Player's Handbook, including more subclass options. Thrown in for good measure is the artificer class, a master of magical invention. And this witch's brew wouldn't be complete without a dash of added artifacts, spellbook options, spells for both player characters and monsters, magical tattoos, group patrons, and other tasty goodies.
I mean, some of that stuff is really cool. And I appreciate that they've introduced probably all of these things in various adventure products or UA releases. Sidekicks were in the Essentials box, for example.
But still. This reeks of a release intended to make money via [edit: superfluous] sales.
I mean, some of that stuff is really cool. And I appreciate that they've introduced probably all of these things in various adventure products or UA releases. Sidekicks were in the Essentials box, for example.
But still. This reeks of a release intended to make money via sales.
I mean, some of that stuff is really cool. And I appreciate that they've introduced probably all of these things in various adventure products or UA releases. Sidekicks were in the Essentials box, for example.
But still. This reeks of a release intended to make money via sales.
Interesting that they've gone with the name Tasha rather than her more famous moniker of Iggwilv. I guess Tasha is her "good" persona?
Iggwilv doesn't sell books. If its hard to say, it'll be hard to sell.
Yes, sales is very often how companies make money.
OK, Mr. Goose. You got me.
0
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Its been 5 years. Im ok having a collection book. Between this, Xanthars and the PHB you should be covered. Its a nice book for folks who dont want to buy ebberon just for the artificer.
I see you, Denada. Just admit you want the monster quick statblock chart from the 4e dmg :P
e: but realtalk what you're asking for is basically the sidebars from 13th Age, where the designers basically discuss experiences they had running the game in development and how they handled that stuff
... and, if it hasn't been referenced in the next couple pages I'm catching up on, page 42.
Posts
I remember shaking my head at my party who, though the use of 1 detect magic spell to spot of the source and they could have avoided the trap, went through ridiculous steps (including getting naked and putting all your stuff in a bag of holding) to move down a hallway that caused an entropy effect that eroded your mundane stuff to dust. One spell to spot the source (which was described many times as the only thing of note in the hallway) and one arrow to smash the widget and boom, trap defeated. But alas. The rogue spent the rest of the adventure with no clothes on besides whatever he was wearing that was magical. His leather armor was such that you got a cute look at the bottom part of halfling butt cheeks from behind and a cleverly placed borrowed belt pouch on the front.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
This would be a neat hook for having Oublivae being the one responsible for the erosion of knowledge surrounding the original god's faith.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
I'm honestly curious enough about this that I'm thinking of contacting the two authors of the book via Twitter to ask if this was supposed to be a hint to the secret origin of Zuggtmoy (I probably won't get a response, but whatever).
Remember too that in 4E lore the gigantic wormlike demon lord Ugudenk is the son of the god Torog and Zuggtmoy.
Eberon should do the trick.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
Does it have its own editor? Do you have to upload a map that you can tinker with?
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
It doesn't have its own editor. You layer image files to make a map, or just load an already done map as an image to the "Map Layer". Like for example you could load a grassy field, put it as the base on the map layer, then put individual tree images on top of it to make a forest, or just load a single image that has that already. Depending on what you want to do.
For houses you could load a map with all the interiors visible, then put a roof graphic over the top. When its time to reveal the house you could push the roof image to the bottom of the layer to make the house visible, or to the GM layer instead of the map layer, which is what I usually do.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
So I'd still want to use something like MapTools that I used to use years ago? Unless there's a newer map editor that's been released in the interim.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
DungeonDraft is the darling right now, by the same person who does WonderDraft. It's still in Beta but it works damn good, and it's only $20 I believe. I HIGHLY recommend it. They're active on the subreddits too. I've seen them refund folks when the beta just didn't work, so it's pretty low risk.
Here is an example of a map someone made and posted. I've resized it way down so it's a bit fuzzy. A full size map is VERY sharp. With just a bit of practice this can be made pretty easily. The real trick is getting good at layering assets to give a good sense of depth.
Edit: You could also check through Patreon for folks Making Maps. I back a few and for $20 to back a handful of folks you could get a HUGE back catalog of maps ready to go at your fingertips. Party of Two, Two Minute Tabletop, Venatus Maps, Dungeon Mapster and Dyson logos are a few folks who I back. You could get hundreds of maps pretty much ready to go.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Yea, people are putting out some fantastic work, and the software just started supporting custom assets, so I'm betting we see even more variety soon.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I'm thinking of how to do the jungle exploration. The players have the map with all the white squares in the middle they were given at the start. I obviously have the full map.
Iirc, in Roll20 you can define unexplored and fog of war areas, right, so you could just pull up the full map and cover anything they don't know about yet with unexplored and reveal intentionally as they go along. But we are in Astral, and there is no way to do that as far as i can tell. I either reveal everything, or i set a vision radius on player tokens and set up walls that vision doesn't go through. Not ideal for a hex crawl.
It was one of the first dnd adventures I DMed and it was real easy to play virtally.
And Humblewood.
And I backed the Root tabletop.
I don't have a problem, I can quit any time I want.
I should probably just order it myself...
EDIT: I also wonder if there's a way to print off the maps from 4E's Dungeon magazine adventures. One issue had the throne room of Graz'zt, which would be pretty cool to have.
For printing out a gridded map I use Paint.net to make sure the image size in inches matches the grid size. I believe Dungeon Draft does this automatically when it exports. biggest thing for printing out a large scale map as a single sheet is that you need to go to a print shop, and a decent 24x36 map can cost like $10. I have access to a large format printer at work that I use occasionally, and a color laser printer for if I want to print it on 8x11 and cut and tape.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
It’s very useful though and you can knock out maps fairly rapidly.
Saturday:
Me: "Your detect magic shows the two cloud giant statues on the other side of the open castle gate are magical"
Them: "Lets go look at the statues closer"
Me: "You detect abjuration+evocation magic above you as you get closer to the gates
Them: Okay
Me: "Your passive perception notes two ballistae that are slung over the edge of the castle wall via some kind of contraption, a pair of ogres operating each of them, they are aimed directly in between both statues"
Them "We should stealth up to the statues to take a look at them"
Me: "The statues come to life and attack you, roll initiative, also the ballistae are firing at you and the glyph of warding above you is going off, firing a cone of cold down on you"
Them: Surprised Pikachu Face
They got the detect magic but like, I can just put abjuration glows everywhere and I feel like my players will go from one to the next blowing themselves up
I've been waiting for almost 30 years to have my fortune read to me by Madame Eva. Pre-teen Steelhawk pouring through the orignal Ravenloft module (which I still have) and instantly falling in love with those isometric maps of the castle is SUPER excited.
I even bought my DM the Tarroka deck for his birthday last year, fully admitting it was a selfish ploy to get him off his ass and run this module for me once we were done my ToA campaign. Although this stupid covid bullshit has moved game to Roll20 instead in person, it was still worth it. Yay for manifest destiny!
https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/tashas-cauldron-everything
They gave us all the clues.
Anyways, very excited for this.
Also I think this is the first book where I'll get the alt cover.
I mean, some of that stuff is really cool. And I appreciate that they've introduced probably all of these things in various adventure products or UA releases. Sidekicks were in the Essentials box, for example.
But still. This reeks of a release intended to make money via [edit: superfluous] sales.
Iggwilv doesn't sell books. If its hard to say, it'll be hard to sell.
Yes, sales is very often how companies make money.
OK, Mr. Goose. You got me.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Every one except for the ones you REALLY want.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
... and, if it hasn't been referenced in the next couple pages I'm catching up on, page 42.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
None of the really cool sorcerers that get free spells that everyone liked in playtest
Crawford hates sorcerers and he comically plots their doom