I guess I'm confused why there's rules changes ahead of 5.5 instead of only fluff changes ahead of 5.5.
To gauge public reaction and get some free large scale playtesting in.
I feel like UA could have accomplished that, TBH I think it's more cynical than that, theyre trying to trick players into buying a book, then theyll run into tables where their book doesn't match what the table is using, so now they have to buy the old books too? or something? IDK, its an American corporation so I always suspect something evil
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
I guess I'm confused why there's rules changes ahead of 5.5 instead of only fluff changes ahead of 5.5.
To gauge public reaction and get some free large scale playtesting in.
I feel like UA could have accomplished that, TBH I think it's more cynical than that, theyre trying to trick players into buying a book, then theyll run into tables where their book doesn't match what the table is using, so now they have to buy the old books too? or something? IDK, its an American corporation so I always suspect something evil
You don't have to go that evil. There designers are working on the next edition which doesn't make money for years. Taking their rough notes and publishing them slightly cleaned up defrays the expense and gives you some income.
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Goliaths are kind of in a weird position in the new book because they no longer inherently get a +2 to Strength, but they do retain proficiency in Athletics and counting as a larger creature when determining carrying capacity, both of which are related to Strength. It kind of feels like, although WotC did get rid of the automatic +2 Strength bonus, they're either still expecting most players who want to make a goliath PC will be interested in a Strength-based class or didn't know where else to take the goliath, which out of all the PC races is probably the one whose identity is most closely tied to being big strong guys who like competition and athletics.
The new Tal'Dorei book, BTW, also took the interesting option of retconning the setting's horde of orc and goblin marauders into being a horde of goliath marauders with various allies of other PC races. I guess the idea was that they still wanted a violent horde but decided to use a PC race not normally associated with that as a replacement for orcs (who as written in the new book pretty much retcon everything about their prior presentation in the setting and place any conflicts between orcs and others in the distant past). That book was also apparently written before it was decided racial ability score bonuses would be dropped, so goliaths and orcs are noted as sometimes being rivals due to their shared status as being physically stronger than most.
Honestly the most trouble I have DMing is not storytelling or encounter building or making characters or making rulings about spell usage and stuff
it's determining what treasure drops
what do stores have for sale
how much does an x cost
I am basically always ripping open the dmg for loot drops and art items and gemstones and magic item rolls
I just resorted to looking at other adventures for examples of loot and listing these groups of treasure in a Word document.
As far as magic items for sale, I have the magic item cards set and sometimes will just choose items the players might like, create a small deck from that, shuffle it, and draw a few randomly.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
Honestly the most trouble I have DMing is not storytelling or encounter building or making characters or making rulings about spell usage and stuff
it's determining what treasure drops
what do stores have for sale
how much does an x cost
I am basically always ripping open the dmg for loot drops and art items and gemstones and magic item rolls
I will shill forever and always Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy on DMsguild, published by WOTC, but it has: factions you can join, shops with prices, some magic item recipe costs with crafting rules, services from adoption to buying a house to gender confirmation magic, it's a great supplement and full of fanservice for baldur's gate fans
Edit: also I believe the first WOTC published supplement that acknowledges that transpeople exist in the forgotten realms, not written by Wizards even if it was published by them
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
I personally like the changes myself, especially because part of it is making a general rule for everything and basically removing some of the uncomfortable connotations as a general rule everywhere. Where it gets baffling is where they remove things like entire sections of lore from digital products about mindflayers and beholders, which has no obvious parallel to anyone IRL and so has no reason to be touched.
Making drow and other underground races less racist is good. Doing bizarre things with lore to things that are definitively monsters and NOT part of a problematic racial assumption is baffling.
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
What problems does MotM address that weren't addressed by Tasha's or the changes to Volo's/MM? I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
What problems does MotM address that weren't addressed by Tasha's or the changes to Volo's/MM? I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about
OK, I will try to simplify this for you.
Making it 100% official of getting rid of a bunch of the racial stuff is good. This includes things like races having a set of stats they automatically get bonuses with, or just the more generic "a group of goblins on the road is, by default, a battle because goblins are evil." etc. etc. There is no reason this should be delayed. They should make these changes now. It'd be cool if they could make them in a way that we all thought made sense, but the important thing is that the changes are as official and clear as possible.
Many other changes I'm a lot more ambivalent about. Long rest vs short rest, for example, I don't really have a strong opinion on. Maybe that's bad. Shrug.
Does that make sense? It seems like it's been like, 3-4 of my posts in a row that you just aren't getting. I don't know if I'm being super unclear or if you are making some assumptions about what I'm saying that aren't true or what...
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
What problems does MotM address that weren't addressed by Tasha's or the changes to Volo's/MM? I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about
OK, I will try to simplify this for you.
Making it 100% official of getting rid of a bunch of the racial stuff is good. This includes things like races having a set of stats they automatically get bonuses with, or just the more generic "a group of goblins on the road is, by default, a battle because goblins are evil." etc. etc. There is no reason this should be delayed. They should make these changes now. It'd be cool if they could make them in a way that we all thought made sense, but the important thing is that the changes are as official and clear as possible.
Many other changes I'm a lot more ambivalent about. Long rest vs short rest, for example, I don't really have a strong opinion on. Maybe that's bad. Shrug.
Does that make sense? It seems like it's been like, 3-4 of my posts in a row that you just aren't getting. I don't know if I'm being super unclear or if you are making some assumptions about what I'm saying that aren't true or what...
I already said I liked the changes to goblinoids they made, a lot, but Tasha's already decoupled racial statistic bonuses from the races, so it's literally just that races no longer have attributes associated with them in Adventurer's League?
I would assume that your preferred end-goal would then be that darkvision be removed, things like dwarven poison resistance, etc, all be removed as well?
They already did that with Tasha's so I don't expect it to have much impact there
I'd wager most people who play dwarves are going to continue to be fighters or barbarians or clerics, and actually less likely to be "off-type" characters like sorcerers or wizards because they've lost the medium armor proficiency that made them such a great pick for going "against the grain" in that regard
When we get newer stats I imagine we will definitely see more, say, elf paladins and goliath wizards though
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
What problems does MotM address that weren't addressed by Tasha's or the changes to Volo's/MM? I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about
OK, I will try to simplify this for you.
Making it 100% official of getting rid of a bunch of the racial stuff is good. This includes things like races having a set of stats they automatically get bonuses with, or just the more generic "a group of goblins on the road is, by default, a battle because goblins are evil." etc. etc. There is no reason this should be delayed. They should make these changes now. It'd be cool if they could make them in a way that we all thought made sense, but the important thing is that the changes are as official and clear as possible.
Many other changes I'm a lot more ambivalent about. Long rest vs short rest, for example, I don't really have a strong opinion on. Maybe that's bad. Shrug.
Does that make sense? It seems like it's been like, 3-4 of my posts in a row that you just aren't getting. I don't know if I'm being super unclear or if you are making some assumptions about what I'm saying that aren't true or what...
I already said I liked the changes to goblinoids they made, a lot, but Tasha's already decoupled racial statistic bonuses from the races, so it's literally just that races no longer have attributes associated with them in Adventurer's League?
To be clear: MOTM doesn't change that orcs are still basically just violent rage monsters in the forgotten realms, and adds no context to any of the problematic campaigns they've already published, and to my knowledge, they don't plan on changing that until the core book republish
Also the fact that to get these changes you have to buy a hyper expensive bundle until May is scummy
You said you thought they were being lazy with the changes to removing problematic racial aspects, and that this bothered you. You said you didn't like how they changed the racial stats, in that it was also lazy and dumb. I said I could sympathize with that, but the fact of getting rid of the problematic aspects overrules how they did it, for me.
That's all I was responding to here. It still kinda feels like you're reading into things I'm not saying. I'm trying hard to be clear . Hope it helps!
Rule changes re: character creations are some of the things that I think there's no need to wait on. "This race of people are just naturally stronger than normal humans" has some really bad, recent history and so let's not do that.
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
What problems does MotM address that weren't addressed by Tasha's or the changes to Volo's/MM? I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about
OK, I will try to simplify this for you.
Making it 100% official of getting rid of a bunch of the racial stuff is good. This includes things like races having a set of stats they automatically get bonuses with, or just the more generic "a group of goblins on the road is, by default, a battle because goblins are evil." etc. etc. There is no reason this should be delayed. They should make these changes now. It'd be cool if they could make them in a way that we all thought made sense, but the important thing is that the changes are as official and clear as possible.
Many other changes I'm a lot more ambivalent about. Long rest vs short rest, for example, I don't really have a strong opinion on. Maybe that's bad. Shrug.
Does that make sense? It seems like it's been like, 3-4 of my posts in a row that you just aren't getting. I don't know if I'm being super unclear or if you are making some assumptions about what I'm saying that aren't true or what...
I already said I liked the changes to goblinoids they made, a lot, but Tasha's already decoupled racial statistic bonuses from the races, so it's literally just that races no longer have attributes associated with them in Adventurer's League?
To be clear: MOTM doesn't change that orcs are still basically just violent rage monsters in the forgotten realms, and adds no context to any of the problematic campaigns they've already published, and to my knowledge, they don't plan on changing that until the core book republish
Also the fact that to get these changes you have to buy a hyper expensive bundle until May is scummy
You said you thought they were being lazy with the changes to removing problematic racial aspects, and that this bothered you. You said you didn't like how they changed the racial stats, in that it was also lazy and dumb. I said I could sympathize with that, but the fact of getting rid of the problematic aspects overrules how they did it, for me.
That's all I was responding to here. It still kinda feels like you're reading into things I'm not saying. I'm trying hard to be clear . Hope it helps!
I apologize for the miscommunication
Okay, well, what aspects in totality are problematic? I think I mostly get where you're coming from, but throwing a vague statement and a winky face doesn't clear it up
Do you think all races should have no differences between any of them mechanically? I understand that you don't like stat differences (but, as of Tasha's, you don't have to use them)
Do you think they should just eliminate the "Race" section and say "Make up what character you want and what they look like, pick +2 to one stat, +1 to another, and a feat?" (my hyperbolic idea from last page, that you replied to). I.E. is it just that the average dwarf is stronger than the average human that bugs you, or that dwarves have darkvision and can avoid poison as well?
Also, I think it's a false dichotomy to say "I'd rather the changes be now rather than good", the book MOTM isnt coming out until May, it's not coming out now, not even via UA. They could have spent money and done it right (and not left their biggest setting full of problematic orcs) if they wanted to, earlier than that (I mean, not starting now, but when they started work on this book - which is FINISHED by the way but being held until may to drive bundle sales)
Has anyone else watched the first 3 episodes of Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon? They put them up a bit early it looks like. The pacing was rough in the first episode, and Scanlan is an asshole (on brand), but the fights were excellent in episodes 2 and 3, I love the interpretation of the various spells so far. I didn't think we'd ever get a D&D adaptation this good - it's not WOTC so the say, blue dragon looks like a more generic (and someone disjointed at times 3d model) blue dragon, but good god I'm happy with it
Azula's VO for Lady Briarwood :heartbeat:
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I really like the way the new IKRPG handled stas. You choose an essence. For instance; Mighty. You get +2 str, dex, or con, you get two roll and extra damage die in crits, then drop the lowest, and you get a carry size modifier. Then your background gives you a +1 into one of two different scores. These come separate from set of racial skills like darkvision, or different human variants that like, Menonites all have to train with martial weapons, or Khadorans that get +2 to Con saves,.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Has anyone else watched the first 3 episodes of Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon? They put them up a bit early it looks like. The pacing was rough in the first episode, and Scanlan is an asshole (on brand), but the fights were excellent in episodes 2 and 3, I love the interpretation of the various spells so far. I didn't think we'd ever get a D&D adaptation this good - it's not WOTC so the say, blue dragon looks like a more generic (and someone disjointed at times 3d model) blue dragon, but good god I'm happy with it
Azula's VO for Lady Briarwood :heartbeat:
I watched the first three episodes soon after they came out, and again last night with my cousin and her boyfriend who are both unfamiliar with D&D and Critical Role (she seemed disappointed there were only three episodes out so far).
I really liked it, and on the rewatch I was better able to pick up when different game mechanics were likely being depicted. For example,
Keyleth being too scared to act initially during the first encounter with Brimscythe could be caused by Frightful Presence.
Grog using rage for the first time and bellowing his catchphrase was also extremely enjoyable.
What is even the Aasimar searing light ability? Is it a feat or something? I couldn't find it under the race in D&D beyond.
their like, explodey thing, one gets wings, one explodes, one gets necrotic wings, that thing is being changed mechanically to match the new format - a full 2 years in advance of the system-wide-refresh of those mechanics
it's a dumb decision IMO! It should live as an optional rule if they aren't going to republish the PHB for 2 friggin years
A lot of these stupid decisions would have been better if they'd just listed them as optional rules as opposed to the new world order.
What is even the Aasimar searing light ability? Is it a feat or something? I couldn't find it under the race in D&D beyond.
their like, explodey thing, one gets wings, one explodes, one gets necrotic wings, that thing is being changed mechanically to match the new format - a full 2 years in advance of the system-wide-refresh of those mechanics
it's a dumb decision IMO! It should live as an optional rule if they aren't going to republish the PHB for 2 friggin years
A lot of these stupid decisions would have been better if they'd just listed them as optional rules as opposed to the new world order.
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Is the whole CR series full of in jokes I won't get if I don't listen to/watch the first season? I was trying to get into it, but it always takes people a while to really get into the groove, and that first bit is just really hard to get through.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Is the whole CR series full of in jokes I won't get if I don't listen to/watch the first season? I was trying to get into it, but it always takes people a while to really get into the groove, and that first bit is just really hard to get through.
I've not watched the first season at all, and really enjoyed the show (so far, only three episodes out...)
A quick search indicated that whiled Mordenkainen and Tasha originated in Greyhawk, they're basically multiversal at this point. (Explaining why their spells exist in so many settings.)
Apparently Mordenkainen was Gary Gygax's player character from a few months after D&D was created?
Almost all the named spells in the PHB's of various editions where from PCs in that initial campaign. Melf was one of his son's IIRC?
Yes, and he was a Male Elf.
Similarly, you know all of those cool equipment-based spells like Drawmij's Instant Summons? Invented by Drawmij, played by jim warD.
These fuckin' nerds.
Huh, I thought he was a reference to the classic Marvel Comics character Melf, the Elf With a Gun
Is the whole CR series full of in jokes I won't get if I don't listen to/watch the first season? I was trying to get into it, but it always takes people a while to really get into the groove, and that first bit is just really hard to get through.
season 1 starts in their adventure already, and you can get the story of the first third of season 1 from this season of Legend of Vox Machina, the first part of season 1 is kind of rough, IMO I'd skip to ep 22ish
Seasons 2 and 3 require no previous viewing
Perhaps because I was bracing for it and my expectations were low, but I enjoyed the first episode as much as the follow up ones, they do some good work setting up what the characters are about and how they function as a team.
But also, I am 12 and that barf callback made me laugh out loud.
Finally watching through Brennan's Escape from Blood Keep and this entire thing is brilliant
I just watched it last week and it's one of the best bits of D&D content out there. I'm starting in on Unsleeping city and it is also amazing. A very strong first episode.
I do like how they are not defaulting to have Forgotten Realms as the main realm [I still would like dark sun to come back again}
I mean, I'd appreciate it more if there was evidence they wanted to support more of their extent settings (AQ, BR, DL, SJ, DS...) as opposed to just crippling support for FR.
Hell, I'd appreciate it if they took us out of the western section of the map more so we could see some of the other regions.
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To gauge public reaction and get some free large scale playtesting in.
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I feel like UA could have accomplished that, TBH I think it's more cynical than that, theyre trying to trick players into buying a book, then theyll run into tables where their book doesn't match what the table is using, so now they have to buy the old books too? or something? IDK, its an American corporation so I always suspect something evil
Rule changes like "this refreshes on a long rest instead of a short rest" are much less critical imo.
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You don't have to go that evil. There designers are working on the next edition which doesn't make money for years. Taking their rough notes and publishing them slightly cleaned up defrays the expense and gives you some income.
it's determining what treasure drops
what do stores have for sale
how much does an x cost
I am basically always ripping open the dmg for loot drops and art items and gemstones and magic item rolls
Goliaths are kind of in a weird position in the new book because they no longer inherently get a +2 to Strength, but they do retain proficiency in Athletics and counting as a larger creature when determining carrying capacity, both of which are related to Strength. It kind of feels like, although WotC did get rid of the automatic +2 Strength bonus, they're either still expecting most players who want to make a goliath PC will be interested in a Strength-based class or didn't know where else to take the goliath, which out of all the PC races is probably the one whose identity is most closely tied to being big strong guys who like competition and athletics.
The new Tal'Dorei book, BTW, also took the interesting option of retconning the setting's horde of orc and goblin marauders into being a horde of goliath marauders with various allies of other PC races. I guess the idea was that they still wanted a violent horde but decided to use a PC race not normally associated with that as a replacement for orcs (who as written in the new book pretty much retcon everything about their prior presentation in the setting and place any conflicts between orcs and others in the distant past). That book was also apparently written before it was decided racial ability score bonuses would be dropped, so goliaths and orcs are noted as sometimes being rivals due to their shared status as being physically stronger than most.
I just resorted to looking at other adventures for examples of loot and listing these groups of treasure in a Word document.
As far as magic items for sale, I have the magic item cards set and sometimes will just choose items the players might like, create a small deck from that, shuffle it, and draw a few randomly.
It's the easy access to flight per encounter that probably saw it nerfed. I wonder if they are generally nerfing early flight across the board.
I will shill forever and always Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy on DMsguild, published by WOTC, but it has: factions you can join, shops with prices, some magic item recipe costs with crafting rules, services from adoption to buying a house to gender confirmation magic, it's a great supplement and full of fanservice for baldur's gate fans
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/365114/Minsc-and-Boos-Journal-of-Villainy-5e
worth every cent
Edit: also I believe the first WOTC published supplement that acknowledges that transpeople exist in the forgotten realms, not written by Wizards even if it was published by them
The only thing I'm annoyed about with the changes to problematic racials, as I've exhaustively whined about, is that they're being lazy by shuttering the lore they have rather than creating. Eg: Gimme the orc culture from north Faerun
Thats why I'm okay with the goblin change, they're actually, amazingly, actually writing new content!
Codifying the Tasha's ASI stuff is fine, I don't like changing the rest of the racial stats. It's the dumbest and laziest way to do it. Pathfinder 2, A5e, and a half dozen other RPG systems do what they're trying to do and do it better, they fully decouple where you were raised and the circumstances of your birth in a satisfying way. *
*I am and always have been okay with the Tasha's optional create a character, but I would prefer a slightly-mechanically-weaker build-a-bear completely untethered stat system as one option, and then stats based upon your mix of heritage, culture and background as the other option
Personally, my agreement with getting rid of the problems overrides by a large amount any complaints I have with how they're doing it. Thus, I'm a fan of the changes
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I personally like the changes myself, especially because part of it is making a general rule for everything and basically removing some of the uncomfortable connotations as a general rule everywhere. Where it gets baffling is where they remove things like entire sections of lore from digital products about mindflayers and beholders, which has no obvious parallel to anyone IRL and so has no reason to be touched.
Making drow and other underground races less racist is good. Doing bizarre things with lore to things that are definitively monsters and NOT part of a problematic racial assumption is baffling.
What problems does MotM address that weren't addressed by Tasha's or the changes to Volo's/MM? I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about
OK, I will try to simplify this for you.
Making it 100% official of getting rid of a bunch of the racial stuff is good. This includes things like races having a set of stats they automatically get bonuses with, or just the more generic "a group of goblins on the road is, by default, a battle because goblins are evil." etc. etc. There is no reason this should be delayed. They should make these changes now. It'd be cool if they could make them in a way that we all thought made sense, but the important thing is that the changes are as official and clear as possible.
Many other changes I'm a lot more ambivalent about. Long rest vs short rest, for example, I don't really have a strong opinion on. Maybe that's bad. Shrug.
Does that make sense? It seems like it's been like, 3-4 of my posts in a row that you just aren't getting. I don't know if I'm being super unclear or if you are making some assumptions about what I'm saying that aren't true or what...
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I already said I liked the changes to goblinoids they made, a lot, but Tasha's already decoupled racial statistic bonuses from the races, so it's literally just that races no longer have attributes associated with them in Adventurer's League?
I would assume that your preferred end-goal would then be that darkvision be removed, things like dwarven poison resistance, etc, all be removed as well?
For example, this was the breakdown in 2017:
Once every D&D race no longer has associated ability score bonuses I wonder how much the preferred combos will change.
I'd wager most people who play dwarves are going to continue to be fighters or barbarians or clerics, and actually less likely to be "off-type" characters like sorcerers or wizards because they've lost the medium armor proficiency that made them such a great pick for going "against the grain" in that regard
When we get newer stats I imagine we will definitely see more, say, elf paladins and goliath wizards though
You said you thought they were being lazy with the changes to removing problematic racial aspects, and that this bothered you. You said you didn't like how they changed the racial stats, in that it was also lazy and dumb. I said I could sympathize with that, but the fact of getting rid of the problematic aspects overrules how they did it, for me.
That's all I was responding to here. It still kinda feels like you're reading into things I'm not saying. I'm trying hard to be clear
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I apologize for the miscommunication
Okay, well, what aspects in totality are problematic? I think I mostly get where you're coming from, but throwing a vague statement and a winky face doesn't clear it up
Do you think all races should have no differences between any of them mechanically? I understand that you don't like stat differences (but, as of Tasha's, you don't have to use them)
Do you think they should just eliminate the "Race" section and say "Make up what character you want and what they look like, pick +2 to one stat, +1 to another, and a feat?" (my hyperbolic idea from last page, that you replied to). I.E. is it just that the average dwarf is stronger than the average human that bugs you, or that dwarves have darkvision and can avoid poison as well?
Also, I think it's a false dichotomy to say "I'd rather the changes be now rather than good", the book MOTM isnt coming out until May, it's not coming out now, not even via UA. They could have spent money and done it right (and not left their biggest setting full of problematic orcs) if they wanted to, earlier than that (I mean, not starting now, but when they started work on this book - which is FINISHED by the way but being held until may to drive bundle sales)
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Azula's VO for Lady Briarwood :heartbeat:
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I watched the first three episodes soon after they came out, and again last night with my cousin and her boyfriend who are both unfamiliar with D&D and Critical Role (she seemed disappointed there were only three episodes out so far).
I really liked it, and on the rewatch I was better able to pick up when different game mechanics were likely being depicted. For example,
Grog using rage for the first time and bellowing his catchphrase was also extremely enjoyable.
A lot of these stupid decisions would have been better if they'd just listed them as optional rules as opposed to the new world order.
I think that would have satisfied most everyone
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
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I've not watched the first season at all, and really enjoyed the show (so far, only three episodes out...)
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Huh, I thought he was a reference to the classic Marvel Comics character Melf, the Elf With a Gun
season 1 starts in their adventure already, and you can get the story of the first third of season 1 from this season of Legend of Vox Machina, the first part of season 1 is kind of rough, IMO I'd skip to ep 22ish
Seasons 2 and 3 require no previous viewing
But also, I am 12 and that barf callback made me laugh out loud.
I just watched it last week and it's one of the best bits of D&D content out there. I'm starting in on Unsleeping city and it is also amazing. A very strong first episode.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Given how prevalent slavery is in the Dark Sun setting I'm curious how they'd address it if they did bring the setting back.
I feel showing it even in game/rpg form is still a great educational tool. Of why it was in use and how it's used removing it would be not helping
I mean, I'd appreciate it more if there was evidence they wanted to support more of their extent settings (AQ, BR, DL, SJ, DS...) as opposed to just crippling support for FR.
Hell, I'd appreciate it if they took us out of the western section of the map more so we could see some of the other regions.