Welp, I bit off more than I can chew. I am DMimg a one-shot tomorrow morning and then I'm DMing the third session of my Spelljammer campaign tomorrow evening (fucking finally). I have very little prepared! I have a vague idea about the one-shot, and I have my old notes for the third session of the SJ game from months ago and I've collaborated with two of the players since this session will tie in directly with their backstories, but I haven't finalized anything or put my own twists on anything. Fuckfuckfuckfuck
I told them the one-shot was gonna be randomized, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and murder everyone (but for real this time, no holding back). Party of level 4 characters might fight an octoshark (CR 12) and the entire dungeon will be a mimic that hounds them constantly (both homebrewed from 3rd party books). Blade and arrow traps, walls slamming together to crush them, animated armors constantly showing up to fuck with em, plus the other magical denizens they'll need to deal with. Just really fuck with em non-stop. I got an idea that a wizard wants them to clear out his dungeon, says he's "lost control of it". They'll probably interpret that as the monsters have taken over, when really it's the mimic itself he's lost control over lol
The Spelljammer session is them trying to solve the murder of one of the characters (he's undead now). I was originally gonna have it just be a smuggling operation headed by a disgraced noble family and when he got too close they offed him. His player and his wife came up with the idea that it was a group of cultists instead trying to raise an undead army and they needed to be stopped. He was also wanting to play a different character so we'll have him die again at the end of the session for good, either because the boss kills him or because with the boss dead, whatever power that's reanimated him is gone. Something like that.
Now I gotta come up with the dungeon layout randomly using the DungeonMorph dice I have, then some other random monsters for them to face, then write all that shit down including stat blocks, and come up with random treasure to find. For the Spelljammer game I gotta sit down and come up with a list of NPCs and their stats if they're being fought, locations they'll visit when looking for clues, the clues themselves, and boss stats. Not gonna be any real dungeons so at least I don't have to come up with any interior maps.
I've yet to commit to running more than one game a week. Considering that I'm often working on things right up to the last minute I don't think I could handle it.
My guess is it’s a power source for sorcerers and Psionic spells enter the sorcerer book but not the wizard
Or it’s a new class
We definitely know there isn't a new class because the psionic class from Unearthed Arcana years ago, the Mystic, was stated by the design team to have been rejected.
They could have went a similar route as Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and put all the spells on a separate list that is by default only accessible by certain subclasses. EGtW had "Dunamancy", and only Chronurgist or Graviturgist Wizards could learn Dunamancy spells barring DM special approval, because in-setting these spells are new and not common knowledge except to Wizards of those two schools.
Psionics could have its own separate spell list that by default is only accessible to Psionic subclasses.
I've yet to commit to running more than one game a week. Considering that I'm often working on things right up to the last minute I don't think I could handle it.
I don't normally DM the Wednesday morning games, but the one who does is out of town on vacation and I volunteered to run a one-shot like a dumbshit.
In my current Monday night game my samurai got a sword that has that magic property to damage non-magical weapons when the person using them against me rolls a 1. Due to the damaged weapon it causes them to have disadvantage until it is repaired.
I got to use it for the first time last night. A bugbear was attacking with a mace and his poor attack left him with just a club as the mace head fell to the floor. The bugbear didn't even last until his next turn so really the ability didn't have any effect on the combat what so ever; but it felt completely bad ass!
That's rad and I might steal it. FYI.
That is a good idea. So here are maybe a couple of better ways to handle it. Reasoning: Making players feel badass is even better when it gives them a choice in how/when to be badass so unless our player is totally overwhelmed by their ability set/forgets to use abilities then giving them choice as when to use it makes something feel even better.
Option 1: The ability is 1/day, recharges at dawn, uses a reaction, and never fails.
Option 2: The Ability is a maneuver, as a reaction apply maneuver die as penalty to enemy attack if enemy attack would have hit but misses as a result, enemy weapon is damaged. If the player does not have a maneuver dice it grants them 1 maneuver die at d6.
Option 3: When you make an attack as part of the attack action you may forgo one attack to attempt to damage an opponents weapon. Make an opposed attack roll. If you succeed the enemies weapon is damaged.
All of these are going to make a player feel badass when they use it and make it work well. I think the first two are best just because trading an attack is expensive but also kind of required if you're going to be able to drop it every round.
Start by Loading a Basic Monster. These are monster templates for you to use as a starting point. Want to make a fire demon with tentacles for arms? How about a skull aberration with spidery crab legs?
Add clothing, body parts and items. Browse the library of parts and find what your monster needs. We've got tentacles! Eyeballs! Horns! Wings! Claws! A set of hats because Jared thought there should be some! Borrow parts from other monsters and attach them wherever you think they should go.
One-click pose presets. Posing monsters is super simple - TitanCraft gives you a menu of easy presets so you can quickly try out new poses and find one that fits. Or, if you already know exactly what you want:
Create Your Own Poses. Each monster part has an internal skeleton made of posable bones. You can select any of these bones and use simple tools to move them around, rotate them, and change their size. You can give your monster any pose you can imagine.
Edit Proportions. Proportions sliders give you additional control over your monster's appearance. You can control individual parts separately, or modify all similar parts at the same time to give it a uniform look. And, if you're looking for a specific style, you can pop open the Advanced panel and edit proportions bone-by-bone. This allows you to create some cool effects like super-sharp horns or alternating ridges on tentacles.
Save and Share Your Creations. If you've made a monster you particularly like, you can generate a unique URL pointing to it. Once you've got that URL, you can save it to load your monster again later, or share it so your friends can check out and load your design. You can also use other people's monster URLs as a starting point to create your own monsters.
Start by Loading a Basic Monster. These are monster templates for you to use as a starting point. Want to make a fire demon with tentacles for arms? How about a skull aberration with spidery crab legs?
Add clothing, body parts and items. Browse the library of parts and find what your monster needs. We've got tentacles! Eyeballs! Horns! Wings! Claws! A set of hats because Jared thought there should be some! Borrow parts from other monsters and attach them wherever you think they should go.
One-click pose presets. Posing monsters is super simple - TitanCraft gives you a menu of easy presets so you can quickly try out new poses and find one that fits. Or, if you already know exactly what you want:
Create Your Own Poses. Each monster part has an internal skeleton made of posable bones. You can select any of these bones and use simple tools to move them around, rotate them, and change their size. You can give your monster any pose you can imagine.
Edit Proportions. Proportions sliders give you additional control over your monster's appearance. You can control individual parts separately, or modify all similar parts at the same time to give it a uniform look. And, if you're looking for a specific style, you can pop open the Advanced panel and edit proportions bone-by-bone. This allows you to create some cool effects like super-sharp horns or alternating ridges on tentacles.
Save and Share Your Creations. If you've made a monster you particularly like, you can generate a unique URL pointing to it. Once you've got that URL, you can save it to load your monster again later, or share it so your friends can check out and load your design. You can also use other people's monster URLs as a starting point to create your own monsters.
I'm tight on cash at the moment, but I'm gonna try to throw at least some money at this.
In the meantime I'm about to start cutting up cheap plastic dinosaur toys and gluing them back together like the unfairly maligned Sid from Toy Story.
That's super cool but yea, anything large size and bigger is going to cost an arm and a leg for a printed and shipped creature. I think the best use will be for those with existing 3d printers and being able to generate high detailed custom print files. I always go with pre-made mini's for my monsters because I don't want to pay $30-$50 for a custom medium sized mini that might hit the table 2-3 times a year at best.
Start by Loading a Basic Monster. These are monster templates for you to use as a starting point. Want to make a fire demon with tentacles for arms? How about a skull aberration with spidery crab legs?
Add clothing, body parts and items. Browse the library of parts and find what your monster needs. We've got tentacles! Eyeballs! Horns! Wings! Claws! A set of hats because Jared thought there should be some! Borrow parts from other monsters and attach them wherever you think they should go.
One-click pose presets. Posing monsters is super simple - TitanCraft gives you a menu of easy presets so you can quickly try out new poses and find one that fits. Or, if you already know exactly what you want:
Create Your Own Poses. Each monster part has an internal skeleton made of posable bones. You can select any of these bones and use simple tools to move them around, rotate them, and change their size. You can give your monster any pose you can imagine.
Edit Proportions. Proportions sliders give you additional control over your monster's appearance. You can control individual parts separately, or modify all similar parts at the same time to give it a uniform look. And, if you're looking for a specific style, you can pop open the Advanced panel and edit proportions bone-by-bone. This allows you to create some cool effects like super-sharp horns or alternating ridges on tentacles.
Save and Share Your Creations. If you've made a monster you particularly like, you can generate a unique URL pointing to it. Once you've got that URL, you can save it to load your monster again later, or share it so your friends can check out and load your design. You can also use other people's monster URLs as a starting point to create your own monsters.
I'm tight on cash at the moment, but I'm gonna try to throw at least some money at this.
In the meantime I'm about to start cutting up cheap plastic dinosaur toys and gluing them back together like the unfairly maligned Sid from Toy Story.
That's super cool but yea, anything large size and bigger is going to cost an arm and a leg for a printed and shipped creature. I think the best use will be for those with existing 3d printers and being able to generate high detailed custom print files. I always go with pre-made mini's for my monsters because I don't want to pay $30-$50 for a custom medium sized mini that might hit the table 2-3 times a year at best.
I got ten HeroForge STL files when they were half off but have no idea when I'll ever actually get them printed.
Before that I paid $30 for an "XL" one that was smaller than expected, which kinda put me off of ordering any more. Many of the STLs I got were ones where I had tried to figure out how to get them as large as HeroForge would allow, and one in particular I'd really like to be modified somehow to be even larger than that.
Mostly I search Etsy for more niche figures now, some of which have been smaller than expected but others were right for Huge and Gargantuan creatures.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Crossposting from SE++ thread....
My backstory for my Tabaxi Rogue Swashbuckler for our upcoming Rhime of the Frostmaiden campaign later this year. I'm imaging Quint from Jaws.
Ice in Summer was a kit, 9 years old when his parents brought him by ship to the far north, to start a new life full of adventure and opportunity. He still remembers that voyage to this day. Of a sunnier, happier time. A time of limitless possibility. Of salt air blowing through the sails. Of the cold crisp ocean spray over the prow and the breaching of whales out in the distance.
This dream only lasted about 6 months before his Dad left them, leaving a mysterious metallic disc to remember him by, a disc that Ice wears to this day. From then on, Ice worked with his mother in the rendering factories, processing the whale fat brought in by the ships, to extract that precious oil that keeps everything lit and oiled throughout the region. This work was smelly, dangerous and poor paying. As soon as he was able, Ice joined up with the whaling fleet. A nimble Tabaxi who could work the rigging like very few could, he quickly found his place on board. He used the extra money he made as a sailor to help support his mother, even as she became sick and had to stop working. This went on for a couple years, until inevitably he came home from a voyage to find that she had passed while he was away.
A grown Cat now, in his mid 30's, Ice fell into the bottle. His life became a blur of sailing, whaling, drink and story telling. He can barely recall the last 6 years, until just recently. That fateful voyage, over a year after the sun failed to rise, is branded vividly in his mind. Coming back to port, they were set on by Corsairs, eager to strip them of their cargo and what valuables could be found. The crew put up a great fight, and during the scuffle an explosion rocked the ship, casting Ice overboard along with a large amount of flotsam. when he came to he was cold, alone and with no sign of either ship. Close to shore he was able to paddle in on his scrap of wreck and using a board as a paddle. Only thanks to his thick covering of fur was able to make his way back to the 10 towns area, penniless, in rags and disgustingly sober.
Ever since, Ice has been working odd jobs, spinning tales in the taverns and inns for the few travelers who still dare this far north. Working just enough to keep himself in drinks and a warm hayloft to pass out in. The few friends he still has among the ships have tried to get him to come back to the life. He can't though... There are too many memories that are too vivid, either with joy or horror, associated with the sea now.
No idea how many people here care about this, but there's a free D&D 5E adventure based on the Adult Swim series Tigtone, as well as a random giveaway of 100 boxed sets for the adventure.
My group had an "emergency" Sunday game (because we hadn't played for two weeks), and the GM offered us all a chance to "have our fortunes told" by a diviner NPC we'd brought along as a guide. My carefree halfling artifier was the only one to take her up on it; the barbarian is spooked out by any magic that isn't a weapon, the paladin/cleric saw toying with destiny like this a sin, and the druid got very quiet and moved his sleeping bag over to the other side of the clearing.
Since our GM is very theatrical and likes spending a lot of time roleplaying with his characters, I didn't think there was any harm to it. So I rolled a d22 in the game chat and he kind of laughed and said there was good fortune ahead and that I could try again with a d21. So I did.
And again, with a d20. The GM had the NPC put the cards away at that point and say that I was truly blessed, but not much fun.
All the other players refused to try, and wasn't until while I was adding the benefits* to my character sheet later that I realized that he'd sprung a Deck of Many Things on us in the second session of the campaign and I'd managed to get three good draws in a row.
*
Since we're playing Milestone XP, he modified it a little.
The first card was Jester, so he gave me proficiency in a skill I didn't have and I got to draw two more times.
The second was the Comet, so he said I could gain permanent Advantage in a skill if I beat the next encounter on my own. The other players didn't let me, which was fine because we got jumped by a Xorn and an Umber Hulk in a tunnel later.
The third card was Sun, so another proficiency and a magic item "guided" by my wishes. I asked for the Tome that increases Int by 2, and he gave me an Ioun Stone that adds +1 to Int checks.
I'm astonished that things didn't get bad, but I trusted the GM!
GNU Terry Pratchett
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
Spoilered until images are unborked.
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Right now I'm leaning into letting my newbies start as level 3 people, but is it just as good to start them at level 1/2? (Maybe give them a temporary HP-boosting amulet for level 1 so they don't die in one shot?) They've chosen:
- Aaracokra Sun Soul Monk
- Kenku Life Cleric
- Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer
- Half-Orc Battlemaster Fighter
Fighter and Monk needs level 3 to get their goodies.
Right now I'm leaning into letting my newbies start as level 3 people, but is it just as good to start them at level 1/2? (Maybe give them a temporary HP-boosting amulet for level 1 so they don't die in one shot?) They've chosen:
- Aaracokra Sun Soul Monk
- Kenku Life Cleric
- Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer
- Half-Orc Battlemaster Fighter
Fighter and Monk needs level 3 to get their goodies.
Having just started a campaign where we began at level 1...
I'd say let them start at level 3, unless you have people you think are going to struggle to understand the basic rules.
Trinket the Bear is an animal companion in the first campaign of Critical Role, the voice in that clip belongs to voice actor/Critical Role member Travis Willingham, and the release of this game predated the first livestream of Critical Role. For all we know when this dialogue was recorded Critical Role the web series wasn't even planned and this was just an in-joke to a D&D campaign he was in.
EDIT: Now I'm looking at the Critical Role cast and am honestly shocked how many high-profile voice acting roles they've had. I had no idea one of them was Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist, for example.
Hexmage-PA on
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Right now I'm leaning into letting my newbies start as level 3 people, but is it just as good to start them at level 1/2? (Maybe give them a temporary HP-boosting amulet for level 1 so they don't die in one shot?) They've chosen:
- Aaracokra Sun Soul Monk
- Kenku Life Cleric
- Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer
- Half-Orc Battlemaster Fighter
Fighter and Monk needs level 3 to get their goodies.
Having just started a campaign where we began at level 1...
I'd say let them start at level 3, unless you have people you think are going to struggle to understand the basic rules.
I believe the non-gamers have no idea how D&D works, but they seem eager enough to try it that one of them actually printed out a sheet without my prompting (or mention of a sheet at all, given my plan to create the chars for them) and is now watching YouTube videos on how to fill them out. I think they _should_ be able to grasp the overall "describe what you wanna do, I tell you when to roll dice to determine what happens" loop. It'd be the many kinds of numbers that might trip them up.
Anyone got any vids on a very basic primer on D&D gameplay I can show them?
This is Descent into Avernus, so be warned if you're spoiler averse, although there's not too much spoilery in there. It was mostly an episode of the players levelling up! The warforged artificer found a hidden message from his creator, the aarakocra monk-detective figured out he knows kung fu, the totem barbarian created his totem after being bitten by a magical dog and sticking his hand in the keg he carries around (hair of the dog that bit 'em), the wild sorcerer had a Dr. Strange-esque dream-vision of her relative who talked about the magic they pass down through their lineage, and the cleric had a terse conversation with the members of his church as he is a barrister and pretty much only gets his clerical powers out of a sense of obligation to being lawful not because he's particularly devout.
So far in the module they've
defeated the Dungeon of the Dead Three, but the cleric was contacted by one of the invisible imps and was offered a thousand gold for Mortlock's head. They considered it but eventually let Mortlock go. However, they did take Vaaz's head instead, scorching some of it to resemble the burn marks Mortlock had, and they're planning to turn that in for the reward. My players, do not read this:
and of course, since Thurstwell gave them the offer, they're not getting a reward, they're getting attacked, which should draw their ire towards the Vanthampur villa even further.
Also they met Reya who is now tagging along to search for Thavius. The birdmonkdetective was hired on by receiving a mysterious message imploring him to look into goings on in Elturel before the city disappeared, and he found a hidden message on that note that just said THAVIUS. So Reya knowing the name seemed to work pretty well I think!
Anyway, feedback or suggestions appreciated. The recaps are a fun refresher for players and viewers, I get to work on my editing skills, and it keeps me remembering "oh right I have this plot thread dangling."
Descent into Avernus is fun so far, but those combats are rough.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
This is Descent into Avernus, so be warned if you're spoiler averse, although there's not too much spoilery in there. It was mostly an episode of the players levelling up! The warforged artificer found a hidden message from his creator, the aarakocra monk-detective figured out he knows kung fu, the totem barbarian created his totem after being bitten by a magical dog and sticking his hand in the keg he carries around (hair of the dog that bit 'em), the wild sorcerer had a Dr. Strange-esque dream-vision of her relative who talked about the magic they pass down through their lineage, and the cleric had a terse conversation with the members of his church as he is a barrister and pretty much only gets his clerical powers out of a sense of obligation to being lawful not because he's particularly devout.
So far in the module they've
defeated the Dungeon of the Dead Three, but the cleric was contacted by one of the invisible imps and was offered a thousand gold for Mortlock's head. They considered it but eventually let Mortlock go. However, they did take Vaaz's head instead, scorching some of it to resemble the burn marks Mortlock had, and they're planning to turn that in for the reward. My players, do not read this:
and of course, since Thurstwell gave them the offer, they're not getting a reward, they're getting attacked, which should draw their ire towards the Vanthampur villa even further.
Also they met Reya who is now tagging along to search for Thavius. The birdmonkdetective was hired on by receiving a mysterious message imploring him to look into goings on in Elturel before the city disappeared, and he found a hidden message on that note that just said THAVIUS. So Reya knowing the name seemed to work pretty well I think!
Anyway, feedback or suggestions appreciated. The recaps are a fun refresher for players and viewers, I get to work on my editing skills, and it keeps me remembering "oh right I have this plot thread dangling."
Descent into Avernus is fun so far, but those combats are rough.
Recaps are so nice. Im running a roll20 game right now and after each session I write up a post on the games forum running down what happened. It really helps cement in my memory what went on. Also any characters i may have introduced or DM notes i leave for my future self.
a small bit of argument with my avernus DM. My character hates nobles, I literally have "I think that if someone is rich and holds power over others, they probably did something really bad to get it."
but I have +2 to insight, and I always fucking roll bad on insight with these patriars in baldur's gate and it's like "Yep, you believe him"
really? I believe the shady looking noble who is a money lender in the docks and has literal devils working for him?
I disagree with that assessment, if anything my poor insight would make it so I'd almost never believe a noble, even if they were completely sincere, since I'd just assume they're lying to me
I'm not going to fight the DM over it but it's irksome (also him having literally every fucking shopkeeper have expertise in deception and attempt to rip me off). He justifies this by saying I'm bad at insight and obviously should get swindled and doesn't seem to get it that +2 insight (I'm proficient with 10 wisdom at level 4) is well above average! Does this guy swindle literally everyone who shops here?
Even if I have poor insight, I have lower class contacts and street smarts and thieves cant, how did I grow up as a street urchin and get out of the gutter if I'm so moronic I apparently give all my coins to anyone selling snake oil
I pointed out how bad this feels, especially because whenever I've played a character with GOOD insight, literally nobody ever attempts to take advantage of me in any game he's running. He ONLY pulls this on low insight characters, and that it feels like he's taking a DM against the player attitude, he said he'd think on it but doesn't agree with me.
I feel like insight doesn't mean your character definitely does or doesn't believe someone. If you roll poorly on an insight check, you don't think someone's lying, but it doesn't mean you're sure. I usually tell my players things like "It seems like they're telling the truth" and not "You believe him." One of those seems a lot worse. Good insight might be noticing that whenever this person tells an outright lie, they have a little eyebrow twitch that you've picked up on, so it seems like they might not be totally honest.
edit: Also maybe I'm doing shopkeepers wrong, but in Baldur's Gate especially, I've been playing the shopkeepers as just having high prices, not necessarily trying to deception roll the players. The players might Persuasion to get those prices lower, but the shopkeepers are pretty upfront with "These are my prices, take 'em or leave 'em."
he also has a DM tendency to make every NPC super capable and powerful, I have no doubt that if a fight broke out with a shopkeeper, they would be an Archmage
like, I tried to lie to one of the patriars and got an 18 and he said "Her passive insight is higher than that"
now I don't want to meta, but that seems like horseshit, otherwise she probably wouldn't be so caught off guard by the vast assassination plot against her family, and just from running tons of published modules, I don't think I've ever seen an NPC that isn't a Halastar or some other big name with insight like that. He just decides that nobody should trust my character (which they shouldn't), but this extends to people I've just met, despite the fact that I'm a high charisma bard
like I had an elaborate thing where I dressed up in noble clothes and pretended to be a patriar to some flaming fists and, no rolls, "they look at you and laugh at your obvious attempt at being a noble"
It seems weird to me that someone that hates nobles and never trusts them is rolling Insight at all. Why would this PC have any reason to ever trust them? Wouldn't they just assume the worst and act accordingly? Were I the DM, I'd only be calling for an Insight check to break through that and convince the PC that "No this noble is actually telling the truth, in spite of being a filthy noble."
From those descriptions it does sound like an adversarial DM style that I really don't jive with. Honestly just saying "hey I don't find this fun" should be the beginning and end of the conversation, regardless of whether or not the DM thinks it makes sense in the world or whatever. Some people really have a hard time understanding that D&D is a co-op game.
Yeah I have a hard time looking at something like that and not wanting to just immediately play the most boringest character possible that never tries anything ever because the DM just wants to tell their story so why get in the way of that it's not like I wanna have fun too or anything.
Although the more I think about it the more I'm finding that's pretty much my answer to any problems with a group or game. I'll give a little push or attempt to explain or address a concern, and if I get shut down on that I just 100% shutdown creatively and if I feel like I have to choose I'll deliberately pick the least interesting option I can find.
last session we found an assassination was going to happen for a duke and the plan we came up with simple: I would shoot at the duke the second he took the stage, miss on purpose, but cause his guards to haul him off the stage (since he wouldn't cancel his speech), as I have full confidence I can outrun the authorities in the streets. The party, meanwhile, would run down whoever looked assassin-ey as the crowd dispersed
so the duke gets on stage and the dm says "You hear a click of a crossbow being loaded next to you" and I said "I was going to fire my crossbow, which is already loaded and cocked, at the duke the second I saw him" and he said "sorry you were too late"
I beat the assassin on initiative but he said "you can't see the assassin and don't have a clear line of sight on the duke" (since, you know, we literally spent 45 minutes of gametime discussing our plan, it wouldn't have been important to get line of sight on the stage). I asked if I could climb up over someone and get a look, after all I have expertise in athletics. He says "nope, its an acrobatics check", which I dont have proficiency in, okay fine fuck it... roll an 8 + 3, fall on my face, the duke is struck and killed by a crossbow bolt
after the fight and after game he apologized to me but he said I didn't speak up enough about what I wanted to do, or clarify that I wanted to be in line of sight, but we spent nearly an hour discussing it and solidified our plan
last session we found an assassination was going to happen for a duke and the plan we came up with simple: I would shoot at the duke the second he took the stage, miss on purpose, but cause his guards to haul him off the stage (since he wouldn't cancel his speech), as I have full confidence I can outrun the authorities in the streets. The party, meanwhile, would run down whoever looked assassin-ey as the crowd dispersed
so the duke gets on stage and the dm says "You hear a click of a crossbow being loaded next to you" and I said "I was going to fire my crossbow, which is already loaded and cocked, at the duke the second I saw him" and he said "sorry you were too late"
I beat the assassin on initiative but he said "you can't see the assassin and don't have a clear line of sight on the duke" (since, you know, we literally spent 45 minutes of gametime discussing our plan, it wouldn't have been important to get line of sight on the stage). I asked if I could climb up over someone and get a look, after all I have expertise in athletics. He says "nope, its an acrobatics check", which I dont have proficiency in, okay fine fuck it... roll an 8 + 3, fall on my face, the duke is struck and killed by a crossbow bolt
after the fight and after game he apologized to me but he said I didn't speak up enough about what I wanted to do, or clarify that I wanted to be in line of sight, but we spent nearly an hour discussing it and solidified our plan
Oof yeah no thanks, I'd probably quit that game TBQH. Or just make a champion fighter and like catch up on my reading or something until combat started.
like we got hired to go attack a patriar's estate by the duke's niece and the flaming fist and my character is totally against this
"I don't trust her, if we succeed she'll have us hanged for killing a patriar, if we fail, we were just criminals who broke in and got killed" and the party is more or less onboard and I can feel the DM's frustration because I know, out of game, the module wants us to do this. The module seems like it assumes all characters want to be The Punisher.
my plan is to go to the docks and hire a bunch of thugs to launch an assault on the mansion while disguising myself as one of the cultists (so any thugs that survive and are questioned point the finger at the cult), while the party waits near the back door in stealth and surprise attacks the patriar as she comes out of he mansion - I made sure to discuss this plan AFTER we were hired for the hit, because I knew if I had mentioned it beforehand I would have been insight-mind-read by the npc and told not to do that.
I look forward to why this fails utterly (I imagine thugs in baldur's gate are going to develop sudden pangs of patriotism, or we'll be told that they won't attack a Patriar for any amount of coin, despite the fact that the duke was just killed by hired thugs)
It's not that we're railroady either, if I use magic to unhitch the plot from the tracks, he won't object in the slighest. He loves magic fucking things up. In the game I DM he's frequently upset when magic CAN'T do something he gets salty and very argumentative. A Disguise Self spell can get me more than a nat 20 performance/disguise kit check can in his games typically.
There is a player in my group who has had somewhere around half of all of his characters killed by me while I'm GMing. This isn't some sort of spite or malice on my part, but rather a case of the dice being utterly merciless towards him; dude is onto his third character in the salt marsh campaign (the first one died to buy time for the party to escape a black dragon the random encounter table shat out and the other one got mangled by a bodak) and I've straight up told him that as a result of the current situation and improbably bad luck he is now entitled to play as whatever the fuck he wants (under normal circumstances I ban UA) and as such he's going to bring a gunslinger to the table next session (indeterminate race atm, though I'd probably be ok with him going for the cheese option of Aarakoa at this point).
I am fascinated by what's happening in your game. Descent into Avernus:
A Duke getting assassinated sounds like you guys are spending WAY more time in Baldur's Gate than is actually in the module as written. Which is totally fine if groups wanna do that, but it sounds like your stuff is going off the rails a bit. For more specific clarification:
"Out of game, the module wants us to do this." No it doesn't. There's nothing in the Baldur's Gate section of Descent into Avernus about assassinating a Patriar. More spoilery:
The only Duke involved is Thalamra Vanthampur and no one hires you to assassinate her, you find out she's behind some shady shit and work to take her down. I don't know anything about a Duke's niece.
break into the Vanthampur estate by her, who is now in charge of the flaming fist, and murder Thalamra Vanthampur, who is in charge of the cult
he is spending a LOT more time in baldur's gate, which we were all in favor of, but seems to have entire plot elements that the players can skip or subvert and doesn't ever really let that happen unless a resource is spent (a spell, typically) or a player rolls insanely well on some check
in the last campaign of his he ran I played a character who at the end had +16 to deception and frequently had people insight mind laser the honest truth out of whatever bullshit I said - unless I cast Glibness, in which case everyone automatically believed anything I said up to and including "you are a dog and the sky is orange"
break into the Vanthampur estate by her, who is now in charge of the flaming fist, and murder Thalamra Vanthampur
he is spending a LOT more time in baldur's gate, which we were all in favor of, but seems to have entire plot elements that the players can skip or subvert and doesn't ever really let that happen unless a resource is spent (a spell, typically) or a player rolls insanely well on some check
in the last campaign of his he ran I played a character who at the end had +16 to deception and frequently had people insight mind laser the honest truth out of whatever bullshit I said
Oh! Interesting. In the module as written
She doesn't show up until after you've dealt with Thalamra and are reporting back in to Zodge.
Always fascinating to see how people modify stuff to make it their own.
a small bit of argument with my avernus DM. My character hates nobles, I literally have "I think that if someone is rich and holds power over others, they probably did something really bad to get it."
but I have +2 to insight, and I always fucking roll bad on insight with these patriars in baldur's gate and it's like "Yep, you believe him"
really? I believe the shady looking noble who is a money lender in the docks and has literal devils working for him?
I disagree with that assessment, if anything my poor insight would make it so I'd almost never believe a noble, even if they were completely sincere, since I'd just assume they're lying to me
I'm not going to fight the DM over it but it's irksome (also him having literally every fucking shopkeeper have expertise in deception and attempt to rip me off). He justifies this by saying I'm bad at insight and obviously should get swindled and doesn't seem to get it that +2 insight (I'm proficient with 10 wisdom at level 4) is well above average! Does this guy swindle literally everyone who shops here?
Even if I have poor insight, I have lower class contacts and street smarts and thieves cant, how did I grow up as a street urchin and get out of the gutter if I'm so moronic I apparently give all my coins to anyone selling snake oil
I pointed out how bad this feels, especially because whenever I've played a character with GOOD insight, literally nobody ever attempts to take advantage of me in any game he's running. He ONLY pulls this on low insight characters, and that it feels like he's taking a DM against the player attitude, he said he'd think on it but doesn't agree with me.
just gonna quote this one but after reading the rest:
you have my condolences.
Thoughts on the matter, in no particular order:
1) He isn't respecting your player sovereignty. Failing insight is ok (and a +2 isn't that great tbh), the difference is in how you apply it. Saying "despite your best efforts, you can't quite tell if the noble is bluffing" is better than "you believe every word coming out of their mouth". I'd do the latter if it was a critical fail and it tied into the player's backstory in an interesting way; it shouldn't be the default.
2) The other swindley stuff: I mean it all depends on delivery. That shopkeeper could definitely be the sort to get the best deal all the time and you could be an amazing thief but so utterly trash at negotiations that you only ever manage to turn an average profit. It could be a funny shtick but clearly you don't like the way he is playing it. As a DM, at the very least, particuarly in situations where the players are sucking HARD (either with really bad planning or just horrific dice luck) I'll usually try to let them fail forward. I'm not sure what else you can do here, you've spoken to him about it and he doesn't appear to want to change.
3) the duke assassination thing: Urgh. At least he apologised. But seriously, there's no way that assassin gets the shot off. Stand in front of him, try to disarm, if the assassin crits the duke anyway then just grab your stuff and leave, the dm isn't interested in letting you participate in the story
Actually I checked and I have +3, someone who was truly, shockingly wise and proficient at level 4 would have +6 so
I think it's a lack of understanding of how good average people are at things in D&D land
like if you look at WOTC published low level adventures, required perception checks and insight checks and deception checks at sub-level 5 are usually like, 11-15, and that's to accomplish a goal
what happened to me was the merchant trollfacing blatant double-charging me for things but since only being 30% more insightful than average, I had to sit there and nod and hand over my gold - supposedly this is a merchant my character has dealt with for years
but the DM kept describing my character dundering around being a drooling moron and kept pointing out my insight score as a reason why I'm so easy to take to the cleaners
the goddamned cleric has the SAME INSIGHT
I think he's genuinely so used to playing higher level campaigns that he's forgotten what low level characters are capable of in the arena of skill checks, since we wrapped up his dragon heist campaign at 13th level 2 months ago
Actually I checked and I have +3, someone who was truly, shockingly wise and proficient at level 4 would have +6 so
I think it's a lack of understanding of how good average people are at things in D&D land
like if you look at WOTC published low level adventures, required perception checks and insight checks and deception checks at sub-level 5 are usually like, 11-15, and that's to accomplish a goal
what happened to me was the merchant trollfacing blatant double-charging me for things but since only being 30% more insightful than average, I had to sit there and nod and hand over my gold - supposedly this is a merchant my character has dealt with for years
but the DM kept describing my character dundering around being a drooling moron and kept pointing out my insight score as a reason why I'm so easy to take to the cleaners
the goddamned cleric has the SAME INSIGHT
I think he's genuinely so used to playing higher level campaigns that he's forgotten what low level characters are capable of in the arena of skill checks, since we wrapped up his dragon heist campaign at 13th level 2 months ago
I mean if you really wanna be a vindictive goose about it, wait until the following occurs:
the dm requires you to succeed at an insight score to progress his narrative.
And then refuse to roll. Play the drooling moron. Derail that man's campaign. Harvest the sweet nectar of his soul as their depart his body as tears.
Yeah, unless you roll a 1 a failed Insight roll usually just means you can't read them, lying isn't brainwashing.
Less DM focused, but having a character that seems to consistently fail at their expertise due to poor rolls is... fruuuustrating. My 4E, 10+ level rogue was designed to be a duelist and both times she got into an arena she failed miserably. The worse was when she failed to dodge the lightning attack, failed her save and got stunned, then repeatedly failed her saves to break the stun until she lost. Didn't even get to roll an attack.
I picked expert in athletics and I have yet to get over 6 on the dice for an athletics checks, its become a running gag
I don't know why it's become the norm in D&D to treat characters like clowns at the things they're supposed to be good at because the player rolled bad instead of attributing it to some bad luck or an external force (although, I would argue that someone with expertise in athletics should be able to climb a chest high wall without a check, but that's me)
but then again the #1 favorite homebrew is critical failures, which turns a 20th level fighter into a clown and a level 1 halfling rogue into a badass
that duel of yours reminds me of critical role when the warlock got his second level in paladin, so he was a 9 hexblade, 2 paladin. He dueled a paladin in an arena
The other paladin had thunderous smite up and used divine smite and it crit and took him out of the fight basically instantly
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited September 2020
A big part of dming is realizing what a character can do. An 8th level rogue for example i wouldnt even make them roll to climb up and run across the rooftops on a starry night. Thats their bread and butter. Now if it was a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning? Sure, make that roll. Now a level 15 rogue? Probably no roll, or a roll to see if someone notices them.
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I told them the one-shot was gonna be randomized, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and murder everyone (but for real this time, no holding back). Party of level 4 characters might fight an octoshark (CR 12) and the entire dungeon will be a mimic that hounds them constantly (both homebrewed from 3rd party books). Blade and arrow traps, walls slamming together to crush them, animated armors constantly showing up to fuck with em, plus the other magical denizens they'll need to deal with. Just really fuck with em non-stop. I got an idea that a wizard wants them to clear out his dungeon, says he's "lost control of it". They'll probably interpret that as the monsters have taken over, when really it's the mimic itself he's lost control over lol
The Spelljammer session is them trying to solve the murder of one of the characters (he's undead now). I was originally gonna have it just be a smuggling operation headed by a disgraced noble family and when he got too close they offed him. His player and his wife came up with the idea that it was a group of cultists instead trying to raise an undead army and they needed to be stopped. He was also wanting to play a different character so we'll have him die again at the end of the session for good, either because the boss kills him or because with the boss dead, whatever power that's reanimated him is gone. Something like that.
Now I gotta come up with the dungeon layout randomly using the DungeonMorph dice I have, then some other random monsters for them to face, then write all that shit down including stat blocks, and come up with random treasure to find. For the Spelljammer game I gotta sit down and come up with a list of NPCs and their stats if they're being fought, locations they'll visit when looking for clues, the clues themselves, and boss stats. Not gonna be any real dungeons so at least I don't have to come up with any interior maps.
We definitely know there isn't a new class because the psionic class from Unearthed Arcana years ago, the Mystic, was stated by the design team to have been rejected.
They could have went a similar route as Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and put all the spells on a separate list that is by default only accessible by certain subclasses. EGtW had "Dunamancy", and only Chronurgist or Graviturgist Wizards could learn Dunamancy spells barring DM special approval, because in-setting these spells are new and not common knowledge except to Wizards of those two schools.
Psionics could have its own separate spell list that by default is only accessible to Psionic subclasses.
I don't normally DM the Wednesday morning games, but the one who does is out of town on vacation and I volunteered to run a one-shot like a dumbshit.
That is a good idea. So here are maybe a couple of better ways to handle it. Reasoning: Making players feel badass is even better when it gives them a choice in how/when to be badass so unless our player is totally overwhelmed by their ability set/forgets to use abilities then giving them choice as when to use it makes something feel even better.
Option 1: The ability is 1/day, recharges at dawn, uses a reaction, and never fails.
Option 2: The Ability is a maneuver, as a reaction apply maneuver die as penalty to enemy attack if enemy attack would have hit but misses as a result, enemy weapon is damaged. If the player does not have a maneuver dice it grants them 1 maneuver die at d6.
Option 3: When you make an attack as part of the attack action you may forgo one attack to attempt to damage an opponents weapon. Make an opposed attack roll. If you succeed the enemies weapon is damaged.
All of these are going to make a player feel badass when they use it and make it work well. I think the first two are best just because trading an attack is expensive but also kind of required if you're going to be able to drop it every round.
@Steelhawk @Ken O
There's even an Alpha demo to try.
I'm tight on cash at the moment, but I'm gonna try to throw at least some money at this.
In the meantime I'm about to start cutting up cheap plastic dinosaur toys and gluing them back together like the unfairly maligned Sid from Toy Story.
If im not mistaken it's the psionics subclasses UA they will be pulling from
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/psionic-options-revisited
That's super cool but yea, anything large size and bigger is going to cost an arm and a leg for a printed and shipped creature. I think the best use will be for those with existing 3d printers and being able to generate high detailed custom print files. I always go with pre-made mini's for my monsters because I don't want to pay $30-$50 for a custom medium sized mini that might hit the table 2-3 times a year at best.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I got ten HeroForge STL files when they were half off but have no idea when I'll ever actually get them printed.
Before that I paid $30 for an "XL" one that was smaller than expected, which kinda put me off of ordering any more. Many of the STLs I got were ones where I had tried to figure out how to get them as large as HeroForge would allow, and one in particular I'd really like to be modified somehow to be even larger than that.
Mostly I search Etsy for more niche figures now, some of which have been smaller than expected but others were right for Huge and Gargantuan creatures.
My backstory for my Tabaxi Rogue Swashbuckler for our upcoming Rhime of the Frostmaiden campaign later this year. I'm imaging Quint from Jaws.
This dream only lasted about 6 months before his Dad left them, leaving a mysterious metallic disc to remember him by, a disc that Ice wears to this day. From then on, Ice worked with his mother in the rendering factories, processing the whale fat brought in by the ships, to extract that precious oil that keeps everything lit and oiled throughout the region. This work was smelly, dangerous and poor paying. As soon as he was able, Ice joined up with the whaling fleet. A nimble Tabaxi who could work the rigging like very few could, he quickly found his place on board. He used the extra money he made as a sailor to help support his mother, even as she became sick and had to stop working. This went on for a couple years, until inevitably he came home from a voyage to find that she had passed while he was away.
A grown Cat now, in his mid 30's, Ice fell into the bottle. His life became a blur of sailing, whaling, drink and story telling. He can barely recall the last 6 years, until just recently. That fateful voyage, over a year after the sun failed to rise, is branded vividly in his mind. Coming back to port, they were set on by Corsairs, eager to strip them of their cargo and what valuables could be found. The crew put up a great fight, and during the scuffle an explosion rocked the ship, casting Ice overboard along with a large amount of flotsam. when he came to he was cold, alone and with no sign of either ship. Close to shore he was able to paddle in on his scrap of wreck and using a board as a paddle. Only thanks to his thick covering of fur was able to make his way back to the 10 towns area, penniless, in rags and disgustingly sober.
Ever since, Ice has been working odd jobs, spinning tales in the taverns and inns for the few travelers who still dare this far north. Working just enough to keep himself in drinks and a warm hayloft to pass out in. The few friends he still has among the ships have tried to get him to come back to the life. He can't though... There are too many memories that are too vivid, either with joy or horror, associated with the sea now.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Source
Since our GM is very theatrical and likes spending a lot of time roleplaying with his characters, I didn't think there was any harm to it. So I rolled a d22 in the game chat and he kind of laughed and said there was good fortune ahead and that I could try again with a d21. So I did.
And again, with a d20. The GM had the NPC put the cards away at that point and say that I was truly blessed, but not much fun.
All the other players refused to try, and wasn't until while I was adding the benefits* to my character sheet later that I realized that he'd sprung a Deck of Many Things on us in the second session of the campaign and I'd managed to get three good draws in a row.
*
The first card was Jester, so he gave me proficiency in a skill I didn't have and I got to draw two more times.
The second was the Comet, so he said I could gain permanent Advantage in a skill if I beat the next encounter on my own. The other players didn't let me, which was fine because we got jumped by a Xorn and an Umber Hulk in a tunnel later.
The third card was Sun, so another proficiency and a magic item "guided" by my wishes. I asked for the Tome that increases Int by 2, and he gave me an Ioun Stone that adds +1 to Int checks.
I'm astonished that things didn't get bad, but I trusted the GM!
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
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- Aaracokra Sun Soul Monk
- Kenku Life Cleric
- Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer
- Half-Orc Battlemaster Fighter
Fighter and Monk needs level 3 to get their goodies.
Having just started a campaign where we began at level 1...
I'd say let them start at level 3, unless you have people you think are going to struggle to understand the basic rules.
do it as part of like a little prologue
never underestimate the power of advancement and getting more stuff!
Trinket the Bear is an animal companion in the first campaign of Critical Role, the voice in that clip belongs to voice actor/Critical Role member Travis Willingham, and the release of this game predated the first livestream of Critical Role. For all we know when this dialogue was recorded Critical Role the web series wasn't even planned and this was just an in-joke to a D&D campaign he was in.
EDIT: Now I'm looking at the Critical Role cast and am honestly shocked how many high-profile voice acting roles they've had. I had no idea one of them was Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist, for example.
I believe the non-gamers have no idea how D&D works, but they seem eager enough to try it that one of them actually printed out a sheet without my prompting (or mention of a sheet at all, given my plan to create the chars for them) and is now watching YouTube videos on how to fill them out. I think they _should_ be able to grasp the overall "describe what you wanna do, I tell you when to roll dice to determine what happens" loop. It'd be the many kinds of numbers that might trip them up.
Anyone got any vids on a very basic primer on D&D gameplay I can show them?
This is Descent into Avernus, so be warned if you're spoiler averse, although there's not too much spoilery in there. It was mostly an episode of the players levelling up! The warforged artificer found a hidden message from his creator, the aarakocra monk-detective figured out he knows kung fu, the totem barbarian created his totem after being bitten by a magical dog and sticking his hand in the keg he carries around (hair of the dog that bit 'em), the wild sorcerer had a Dr. Strange-esque dream-vision of her relative who talked about the magic they pass down through their lineage, and the cleric had a terse conversation with the members of his church as he is a barrister and pretty much only gets his clerical powers out of a sense of obligation to being lawful not because he's particularly devout.
So far in the module they've
Also they met Reya who is now tagging along to search for Thavius. The birdmonkdetective was hired on by receiving a mysterious message imploring him to look into goings on in Elturel before the city disappeared, and he found a hidden message on that note that just said THAVIUS. So Reya knowing the name seemed to work pretty well I think!
Anyway, feedback or suggestions appreciated. The recaps are a fun refresher for players and viewers, I get to work on my editing skills, and it keeps me remembering "oh right I have this plot thread dangling."
Descent into Avernus is fun so far, but those combats are rough.
Recaps are so nice. Im running a roll20 game right now and after each session I write up a post on the games forum running down what happened. It really helps cement in my memory what went on. Also any characters i may have introduced or DM notes i leave for my future self.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
but I have +2 to insight, and I always fucking roll bad on insight with these patriars in baldur's gate and it's like "Yep, you believe him"
really? I believe the shady looking noble who is a money lender in the docks and has literal devils working for him?
I disagree with that assessment, if anything my poor insight would make it so I'd almost never believe a noble, even if they were completely sincere, since I'd just assume they're lying to me
I'm not going to fight the DM over it but it's irksome (also him having literally every fucking shopkeeper have expertise in deception and attempt to rip me off). He justifies this by saying I'm bad at insight and obviously should get swindled and doesn't seem to get it that +2 insight (I'm proficient with 10 wisdom at level 4) is well above average! Does this guy swindle literally everyone who shops here?
Even if I have poor insight, I have lower class contacts and street smarts and thieves cant, how did I grow up as a street urchin and get out of the gutter if I'm so moronic I apparently give all my coins to anyone selling snake oil
I pointed out how bad this feels, especially because whenever I've played a character with GOOD insight, literally nobody ever attempts to take advantage of me in any game he's running. He ONLY pulls this on low insight characters, and that it feels like he's taking a DM against the player attitude, he said he'd think on it but doesn't agree with me.
edit: Also maybe I'm doing shopkeepers wrong, but in Baldur's Gate especially, I've been playing the shopkeepers as just having high prices, not necessarily trying to deception roll the players. The players might Persuasion to get those prices lower, but the shopkeepers are pretty upfront with "These are my prices, take 'em or leave 'em."
like, I tried to lie to one of the patriars and got an 18 and he said "Her passive insight is higher than that"
now I don't want to meta, but that seems like horseshit, otherwise she probably wouldn't be so caught off guard by the vast assassination plot against her family, and just from running tons of published modules, I don't think I've ever seen an NPC that isn't a Halastar or some other big name with insight like that. He just decides that nobody should trust my character (which they shouldn't), but this extends to people I've just met, despite the fact that I'm a high charisma bard
like I had an elaborate thing where I dressed up in noble clothes and pretended to be a patriar to some flaming fists and, no rolls, "they look at you and laugh at your obvious attempt at being a noble"
I have expertise in disguise kit
From those descriptions it does sound like an adversarial DM style that I really don't jive with. Honestly just saying "hey I don't find this fun" should be the beginning and end of the conversation, regardless of whether or not the DM thinks it makes sense in the world or whatever. Some people really have a hard time understanding that D&D is a co-op game.
Although the more I think about it the more I'm finding that's pretty much my answer to any problems with a group or game. I'll give a little push or attempt to explain or address a concern, and if I get shut down on that I just 100% shutdown creatively and if I feel like I have to choose I'll deliberately pick the least interesting option I can find.
That one guy we’re talking about is banned.
so the duke gets on stage and the dm says "You hear a click of a crossbow being loaded next to you" and I said "I was going to fire my crossbow, which is already loaded and cocked, at the duke the second I saw him" and he said "sorry you were too late"
I beat the assassin on initiative but he said "you can't see the assassin and don't have a clear line of sight on the duke" (since, you know, we literally spent 45 minutes of gametime discussing our plan, it wouldn't have been important to get line of sight on the stage). I asked if I could climb up over someone and get a look, after all I have expertise in athletics. He says "nope, its an acrobatics check", which I dont have proficiency in, okay fine fuck it... roll an 8 + 3, fall on my face, the duke is struck and killed by a crossbow bolt
after the fight and after game he apologized to me but he said I didn't speak up enough about what I wanted to do, or clarify that I wanted to be in line of sight, but we spent nearly an hour discussing it and solidified our plan
e: like, out loud. Make eye contact. Cite examples from past experiences.
Oof yeah no thanks, I'd probably quit that game TBQH. Or just make a champion fighter and like catch up on my reading or something until combat started.
"I don't trust her, if we succeed she'll have us hanged for killing a patriar, if we fail, we were just criminals who broke in and got killed" and the party is more or less onboard and I can feel the DM's frustration because I know, out of game, the module wants us to do this. The module seems like it assumes all characters want to be The Punisher.
my plan is to go to the docks and hire a bunch of thugs to launch an assault on the mansion while disguising myself as one of the cultists (so any thugs that survive and are questioned point the finger at the cult), while the party waits near the back door in stealth and surprise attacks the patriar as she comes out of he mansion - I made sure to discuss this plan AFTER we were hired for the hit, because I knew if I had mentioned it beforehand I would have been insight-mind-read by the npc and told not to do that.
I look forward to why this fails utterly (I imagine thugs in baldur's gate are going to develop sudden pangs of patriotism, or we'll be told that they won't attack a Patriar for any amount of coin, despite the fact that the duke was just killed by hired thugs)
It's not that we're railroady either, if I use magic to unhitch the plot from the tracks, he won't object in the slighest. He loves magic fucking things up. In the game I DM he's frequently upset when magic CAN'T do something he gets salty and very argumentative. A Disguise Self spell can get me more than a nat 20 performance/disguise kit check can in his games typically.
There is a player in my group who has had somewhere around half of all of his characters killed by me while I'm GMing. This isn't some sort of spite or malice on my part, but rather a case of the dice being utterly merciless towards him; dude is onto his third character in the salt marsh campaign (the first one died to buy time for the party to escape a black dragon the random encounter table shat out and the other one got mangled by a bodak) and I've straight up told him that as a result of the current situation and improbably bad luck he is now entitled to play as whatever the fuck he wants (under normal circumstances I ban UA) and as such he's going to bring a gunslinger to the table next session (indeterminate race atm, though I'd probably be ok with him going for the cheese option of Aarakoa at this point).
he is spending a LOT more time in baldur's gate, which we were all in favor of, but seems to have entire plot elements that the players can skip or subvert and doesn't ever really let that happen unless a resource is spent (a spell, typically) or a player rolls insanely well on some check
in the last campaign of his he ran I played a character who at the end had +16 to deception and frequently had people insight mind laser the honest truth out of whatever bullshit I said - unless I cast Glibness, in which case everyone automatically believed anything I said up to and including "you are a dog and the sky is orange"
Oh! Interesting. In the module as written
Always fascinating to see how people modify stuff to make it their own.
just gonna quote this one but after reading the rest:
you have my condolences.
Thoughts on the matter, in no particular order:
1) He isn't respecting your player sovereignty. Failing insight is ok (and a +2 isn't that great tbh), the difference is in how you apply it. Saying "despite your best efforts, you can't quite tell if the noble is bluffing" is better than "you believe every word coming out of their mouth". I'd do the latter if it was a critical fail and it tied into the player's backstory in an interesting way; it shouldn't be the default.
2) The other swindley stuff: I mean it all depends on delivery. That shopkeeper could definitely be the sort to get the best deal all the time and you could be an amazing thief but so utterly trash at negotiations that you only ever manage to turn an average profit. It could be a funny shtick but clearly you don't like the way he is playing it. As a DM, at the very least, particuarly in situations where the players are sucking HARD (either with really bad planning or just horrific dice luck) I'll usually try to let them fail forward. I'm not sure what else you can do here, you've spoken to him about it and he doesn't appear to want to change.
3) the duke assassination thing: Urgh. At least he apologised. But seriously, there's no way that assassin gets the shot off. Stand in front of him, try to disarm, if the assassin crits the duke anyway then just grab your stuff and leave, the dm isn't interested in letting you participate in the story
I think it's a lack of understanding of how good average people are at things in D&D land
like if you look at WOTC published low level adventures, required perception checks and insight checks and deception checks at sub-level 5 are usually like, 11-15, and that's to accomplish a goal
what happened to me was the merchant trollfacing blatant double-charging me for things but since only being 30% more insightful than average, I had to sit there and nod and hand over my gold - supposedly this is a merchant my character has dealt with for years
but the DM kept describing my character dundering around being a drooling moron and kept pointing out my insight score as a reason why I'm so easy to take to the cleaners
the goddamned cleric has the SAME INSIGHT
I think he's genuinely so used to playing higher level campaigns that he's forgotten what low level characters are capable of in the arena of skill checks, since we wrapped up his dragon heist campaign at 13th level 2 months ago
I mean if you really wanna be a vindictive goose about it, wait until the following occurs:
the dm requires you to succeed at an insight score to progress his narrative.
And then refuse to roll. Play the drooling moron. Derail that man's campaign. Harvest the sweet nectar of his soul as their depart his body as tears.
Less DM focused, but having a character that seems to consistently fail at their expertise due to poor rolls is... fruuuustrating. My 4E, 10+ level rogue was designed to be a duelist and both times she got into an arena she failed miserably. The worse was when she failed to dodge the lightning attack, failed her save and got stunned, then repeatedly failed her saves to break the stun until she lost. Didn't even get to roll an attack.
I don't know why it's become the norm in D&D to treat characters like clowns at the things they're supposed to be good at because the player rolled bad instead of attributing it to some bad luck or an external force (although, I would argue that someone with expertise in athletics should be able to climb a chest high wall without a check, but that's me)
but then again the #1 favorite homebrew is critical failures, which turns a 20th level fighter into a clown and a level 1 halfling rogue into a badass
that duel of yours reminds me of critical role when the warlock got his second level in paladin, so he was a 9 hexblade, 2 paladin. He dueled a paladin in an arena
The other paladin had thunderous smite up and used divine smite and it crit and took him out of the fight basically instantly
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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