MrVyngaardLive From New EtoileStraight Outta SosariaRegistered Userregular
That's why you only store undead in there... but with the proper essential herbs and spices to keep things fresh.
"now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
Wizards of the Coast has bought D&D Beyond. Had I not gone on a D&D kick earlier this year, I probably would have thought they were already owned by WotC.
Dungeons & Dragons levels up by acquiring the popular digital toolset.
Dungeons & Dragons and D&D Beyond have always felt like a part of the same family. That’s why we are excited to welcome everyone at D&D Beyond to formally join us at Wizards of the Coast, bringing together two teams dedicated to continuing to make Dungeons & Dragons easy to run and accessible to all!
It’s amazing what D&D Beyond has accomplished since its humble beginnings in 2017, and the D&D team has truly leveled up with this acquisition. With over 10 million users, millions of characters created, and millions of campaigns played, the team of 80 passionate creators across US and Europe have brought so much joy to D&D players around the world, including helping friends and family come together to play through a global pandemic.
You’re probably wondering what kind of change might happen as a result of these two teams coming together, so let’s make this clear: we have no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond. The purchases you’ve made, the characters you’ve created, and the campaigns you’ve run aren’t going anywhere.
This is an exciting time for all of us, and growing our team means great things to come. If there’s one thing the D&D and D&D Beyond teams have in common, it’s a desire to continue making your experience playing the World’s Greatest Roleplaying game even better. We’ll have more to share with you later this year, so hone those Perception checks and warm up your dice (digital and otherwise).
In the meantime, join us in giving a hearty welcome to D&D Beyond into the Dungeons & Dragons family. Welcome to the party, pals!
Cool. Now make so if i bought a physical book i also own it on dndbeyond
they undoubtedly will do this going forward, there's no real way to do it with previous books, but I'd wager from now on receipts will carry codes to activate on DDB, or purchases on DDB will give coupons for the books or something
they won't be "buy and its free" I'd bet, itll probably be "buy one format get the other at 75% off" or something
I need to vent about something that's bugging me. So on Tuesday night my group had its last session before a 2 month hiatus. The session was a big climactic fight that was really cool, basically a guy and his army of living spells. I didn't really get to participate though, because my PC spent almost the whole fight unconscious. On the first turn he cast a spell, and the first thing that hit him broke his concentration. He then got hit by a 1-2 punch of a Fireball and Lightning Bolt, rolled miserably on his saving throws, and dropped. Another player got him up with a heal, but then he got caught be another Lightning Bolt (basically as collateral damage) and even the half damage from the save was too much and he went down for the rest of the fight.
In the aftermath, I didn't really participate either, which I admit was partly self-inflicted. My PC got some really devastating personal news a few days ago in-game and has been acting very sullen and withdrawn, so it felt like it would be out of character for him to suddenly be super involved. It was also a major tie-in to a different PC's backstory, so I didn't want to shoehorn myself in or anything. So now we're going to have a couple months in-game to do things while we take out out-of-game break, and I just feel very frustrated that I didn't get to do anything. Like, we even postponed the session a couple of times because other people couldn't make it, and when we have the session it's like I might as well not have been there.
I feel bad bringing this up to the DM because I don't think he did anything wrong. It's not as though he was focus firing on me, I just had really terrible luck with the dice. And I don't know what he would do to help, since the session's over and we're doing other stuff for the next 2 months. It was just a really cool setpiece and I didn't get to do anything in it.
Anyone else ever had this problem, or have some advice?
I need to vent about something that's bugging me. So on Tuesday night my group had its last session before a 2 month hiatus. The session was a big climactic fight that was really cool, basically a guy and his army of living spells. I didn't really get to participate though, because my PC spent almost the whole fight unconscious. On the first turn he cast a spell, and the first thing that hit him broke his concentration. He then got hit by a 1-2 punch of a Fireball and Lightning Bolt, rolled miserably on his saving throws, and dropped. Another player got him up with a heal, but then he got caught be another Lightning Bolt (basically as collateral damage) and even the half damage from the save was too much and he went down for the rest of the fight.
In the aftermath, I didn't really participate either, which I admit was partly self-inflicted. My PC got some really devastating personal news a few days ago in-game and has been acting very sullen and withdrawn, so it felt like it would be out of character for him to suddenly be super involved. It was also a major tie-in to a different PC's backstory, so I didn't want to shoehorn myself in or anything. So now we're going to have a couple months in-game to do things while we take out out-of-game break, and I just feel very frustrated that I didn't get to do anything. Like, we even postponed the session a couple of times because other people couldn't make it, and when we have the session it's like I might as well not have been there.
I feel bad bringing this up to the DM because I don't think he did anything wrong. It's not as though he was focus firing on me, I just had really terrible luck with the dice. And I don't know what he would do to help, since the session's over and we're doing other stuff for the next 2 months. It was just a really cool setpiece and I didn't get to do anything in it.
Anyone else ever had this problem, or have some advice?
That's rough Terrendos.
I've certainly been there where my character got taken out of the game early, but I don't really have any advice about what to do when RNGsus comes down and smites you directly.
At least your character didn't die completely, so that's something.
It's a tough line for a DM to walk. If they start pulling their punches, the combat is no longer a danger.
Sounds there's not much to be done at that point though, but sit back with a caffeinated beverage, whatever salty snacks are available and provide running commentary about the game.
Or ask the DM if you can take over a monster or two until one of your party members gets you awake. You know, just to incentivize your party members.
I need to vent about something that's bugging me. So on Tuesday night my group had its last session before a 2 month hiatus. The session was a big climactic fight that was really cool, basically a guy and his army of living spells. I didn't really get to participate though, because my PC spent almost the whole fight unconscious. On the first turn he cast a spell, and the first thing that hit him broke his concentration. He then got hit by a 1-2 punch of a Fireball and Lightning Bolt, rolled miserably on his saving throws, and dropped. Another player got him up with a heal, but then he got caught be another Lightning Bolt (basically as collateral damage) and even the half damage from the save was too much and he went down for the rest of the fight.
In the aftermath, I didn't really participate either, which I admit was partly self-inflicted. My PC got some really devastating personal news a few days ago in-game and has been acting very sullen and withdrawn, so it felt like it would be out of character for him to suddenly be super involved. It was also a major tie-in to a different PC's backstory, so I didn't want to shoehorn myself in or anything. So now we're going to have a couple months in-game to do things while we take out out-of-game break, and I just feel very frustrated that I didn't get to do anything. Like, we even postponed the session a couple of times because other people couldn't make it, and when we have the session it's like I might as well not have been there.
I feel bad bringing this up to the DM because I don't think he did anything wrong. It's not as though he was focus firing on me, I just had really terrible luck with the dice. And I don't know what he would do to help, since the session's over and we're doing other stuff for the next 2 months. It was just a really cool setpiece and I didn't get to do anything in it.
Anyone else ever had this problem, or have some advice?
That is tough, but I think you are right in that its nobody's fault or that something went wrong. You had a bad game. The dice bounced one way, your RP bounced the other way and none of it came up in your favor.
Take your hiatus and shake it off, my dude. Next game will be better!
My group tends to do stuff like water down the effects of being stunned or paralyzed because conditions that are effectively "time to go eat ice cream" are considered the opposite of what we want at our table.
I dunno what to do about just eating a ton of damage though!
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Christ on a cracker. Running a one shot tonight and crit 4 times against a player and had two nat20s against her spell saves. It was insane. 3 of those crits were in one combat.
@webguy20 Oof! Schedule in a win for her for surviving fate (if she survived).
Right? So funny about surviving. They are level 2, and she is a wild magic Sorcerer. She had used her tides of chaos and at one point when she is getting attacked (I had ensnared her character so she was restrained) she very nicely asked for it back so we did a luck check, 11+ on a d20 she gets it back. the dice are rolled and its right at an 11. So she gets her tides of chaos and rolls on the chart. She rolls and gets a cast of mirror image. Two of the crits I landed on her were against the mirror image and she made the roll both times. So the dice were just running wild last night.
Another thing is I roll in front of the table, so on one hand, I can't fudge rolls, but on the other hand, by the end of the night I think she really would have thought I was picking on her after all the crits if the table didn't see for themselves.
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
The Strange Crew, members of the Afternoon Coffee Club at the Strange Brew:
(Left to right, top row then bottom row)
* The elven monk of Mercy with the Rorschach mask
* The human Lore bard pretending to be a Legion agent
* The guildless Loxodon warlock whose genie patron sometimes hijacks his body
* The fire-obsessed vedalken Artillerist who dreams of going to the moon
* The human Totem Barbarian, Jack Burtonesque in bravado and fashion
* The minotaur Battlemaster, the walking armory
* The human Forge Cleric, possibly the most normal person in the group
* The drow Spore Druid, who really just wants to farm shrooms
They way I do tests of luck is to roll it up each time as a stat, and then ask the PC if they want to push their luck in that moment with a one off test. Consequences will be unexpectedly better or even more dire if they fail when 'lucky' or pull off a success when the fates were against them.
I did a DCC oneshot and the least capable most ridiculous one of my PCs, a really dumb peasant girl with 2hp, managed to survive. Being a level 0 DCC character, 1 of 4, not a lot of personality, but my schtick was that she is extremely uninformed about the world but is incredibly confident about her incorrect takes about everything.
DM for upcoming game was also in it and he has proposed that I start the frostmaiden game as this peasant girl, level 1 since dungeon survived, but everyone else is level 3 and I'll have a whopping... 10 hitpoints. If I can survive until we find my real character, I get to have a follower (it's an A5E thing but the concept easy to understand) for the rest of the campaign to carry loot and fetch things - my real character has in the backstory "I picked up an annoying fan that won't leave me alone and follows me everywhere" from the heroic chronicle
So the part of me that doesn't want the DM to have an NPC they can use to manipulate my character wants to just die immediately and as spectacularly as possible
but the other part of me loves the idea of having the annoying fan from Oblivion follow us around
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RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
I need to vent about something that's bugging me. So on Tuesday night my group had its last session before a 2 month hiatus. The session was a big climactic fight that was really cool, basically a guy and his army of living spells. I didn't really get to participate though, because my PC spent almost the whole fight unconscious. On the first turn he cast a spell, and the first thing that hit him broke his concentration. He then got hit by a 1-2 punch of a Fireball and Lightning Bolt, rolled miserably on his saving throws, and dropped. Another player got him up with a heal, but then he got caught be another Lightning Bolt (basically as collateral damage) and even the half damage from the save was too much and he went down for the rest of the fight.
In the aftermath, I didn't really participate either, which I admit was partly self-inflicted. My PC got some really devastating personal news a few days ago in-game and has been acting very sullen and withdrawn, so it felt like it would be out of character for him to suddenly be super involved. It was also a major tie-in to a different PC's backstory, so I didn't want to shoehorn myself in or anything. So now we're going to have a couple months in-game to do things while we take out out-of-game break, and I just feel very frustrated that I didn't get to do anything. Like, we even postponed the session a couple of times because other people couldn't make it, and when we have the session it's like I might as well not have been there.
I feel bad bringing this up to the DM because I don't think he did anything wrong. It's not as though he was focus firing on me, I just had really terrible luck with the dice. And I don't know what he would do to help, since the session's over and we're doing other stuff for the next 2 months. It was just a really cool setpiece and I didn't get to do anything in it.
Anyone else ever had this problem, or have some advice?
That's rough Terrendos.
I've certainly been there where my character got taken out of the game early, but I don't really have any advice about what to do when RNGsus comes down and smites you directly.
At least your character didn't die completely, so that's something.
It's a tough line for a DM to walk. If they start pulling their punches, the combat is no longer a danger.
Sounds there's not much to be done at that point though, but sit back with a caffeinated beverage, whatever salty snacks are available and provide running commentary about the game.
Or ask the DM if you can take over a monster or two until one of your party members gets you awake. You know, just to incentivize your party members.
This is why I like games with Narrative Currency. A player gets to say "Nah, that didn't happen, I'm still in the fight" and now the DM has the ability (if desired) to ramp up the difficulty against a player who wasn't just screwed by RNG
So my Raavenloft campaign has been progressing interestingly, with my players having had a particularly rough encounter with a zombie Clot (and also a well) that saw no less then 3 of my characters head for roll up a new character land... except this is the domains of dread and my players each got a chance to save themselves by a voice that was asking them "Don't you want [personal drive]? if you say yes you can have a chance still..."
2 of my players, a drow warlock and a rabbitfolk druid took the deal while the kobold paladin refused it. As a result, the warlock now has a living shadow that has a mind of it's own, the druid is hearing a voice in his brain and the new Minotur barbarian has inspiration since his player refused an offer from the dark powers of ravenloft to save his character's life.
Just doodling, probably been done better before. How do you actually decide on the difficulty class of a skill challenge*?
Start with 10 DC.
1. Do they have proficiency/expertise in the skill? Reduce the DC by 1.
2. Can they spend time and resources on it? Reduce the DC by 1.
3. Would they be able to make multiple attempts? Reduce the DC by 1.
4. Can failure be lessened by nearby allies? Reduce the DC by 1.
5. Are they under half HP? Add 2 to the DC.
6. Should they be recently emotionally shaken? Add 2 to the DC.
7. Are they pressed for time? Add 2 to the DC.
8. Have we established they’re definitely hindered in some way? Add 4 to the DC.
9. Have they never attempted a similar challenge? Add 2 DC.
10. Will failure bring about significant, immediate, wide reaching change? Add 3 DC.
11. Is the challenge in active, intelligent opposition? Add 3 DC.
12. Regardless of proficiency, is it beyond mortal limits? Add 5 DC.
Examples:
Grubbins the goblin wants to climb a wall to see what’s on the other side. They’re in an empty ruin by daylight.
They are proficient in Athletics (-1), they’ve got time (-1) and can keep at as long as they like (-1), but yesterday their pet ferret died (+2). The DC is 9.
Yut the minotaur has accidentally gored the pilot of the airship, and now it’s plummeting to the Oerth. Time to learn to fly.
They’re pressed for time (+2), have never attempted a similar challenge (+2) and failure will bring about change in the form of death. (+3). The DC is 17.
Felf the elf is going to jump the gap across the rooftops, easy, trouble is she’s being shot at by the sheriff and his men.
She’s under half HP (+2) and the challenge is in active, intelligent opposition (+3). The DC is 15.
Warthart the orc is attempting negotiations with a hauty human noble. They’re forced to use some weird little spoon to drink this weird green water in a bowl.
They’re hindered because they’re not in their element and don’t know the rules of engaging this social environment (+4), failure will bring about significant change (+2) and the challenge is in active, intelligent opposition (+3). The DC is 19.
Bonk the kenku wants to eat 30 pies.
It is beyond mortal limits (+5), but their brother is already calling for a cleric (-1). The DC is 14.
*I know you can just pull the number out your ass, I sure do. But would we if there were simple rules for it?
easy 5
normal 10
hard 15
very hard 20
nearly impossible 25
godlike 30
I will typically not ask for rolls on easy stuff unless it's something a character is not proficient in and in a stat they are lacking
I will typically not ask for rolls on normal stuff if it's something a character is proficient in and has good stats for
I nix rolls for hard stuff if they have expertise and good stats past level 9 or so
Like, if someone has a +13 to athletics and they're like I am gonna kick this door open I usually just ask myself "is there something special about this door that they wouldn't be able to do that? IE made of stone/has a steel bar on it/someone holding it but if it's just a door and they wanna kick it I am not gonna chance them rolling a 1 just so the party's wizard can roll a 20 and point and laugh at them
Maybe if there was a set of simple modifier rules, I'd use them.
But, it seems like it would mess up the narrative flow to pause to calculate how hard it is to pick this lock that is covered in spider webs when the rogue got bitten by a spider as a child and is now mildly arachnophobic.
Normally, it's just "does it feel like the roll would succeed". Sure, it's a bit iffy when they get a 13 or 14. But generally if they roll bad they know, if they rolled good they know.
Oh sure, I mean, I do all that stuff too, but it’s a shame that if you were to buy this game as a 15 year old for your friends the weight of it all is just on you. It’s like, to be a good DM, first, be a good DM.
Maybe just go:
Start at 12.
Helped to hindered ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Plenty of time to no time ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Controlled situation to under fire ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Known to unknown ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Prepared to crazy put yourself in a canon and have your Mage Hand light it ratio.
-1 … +2 … +5
Wouldn’t take too long, and it’d let a new DM show the page to anyone that sulks (which isn’t something I’ve ever had to deal with, its just a thought exercise).
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited April 2022
My gut reactions:
1. Do they have proficiency/expertise in the skill? Reduce the DC by 1. This is literally covered by the character having P/E, no need.
2. Can they spend time and resources on it? Reduce the DC by 1. If there's enough time and resources to spend, -1 DC doesn't seem commensurate. I'd just grant Advantage.
3. Would they be able to make multiple attempts? Reduce the DC by 1. If there's no consequence for failure, why roll? If there is, then maybe, but I'd still just grant Advantage.
4. Can failure be lessened by nearby allies? Reduce the DC by 1. This is literally covered by the Help action, in my mind.
5. Are they under half HP? Add 2 to the DC. Kinda neat, but also punishing.
6. Should they be recently emotionally shaken? Add 2 to the DC. Also.
7. Are they pressed for time? Add 2 to the DC. Seems fine. Or impose Disadvantage.
8. Have we established they’re definitely hindered in some way? Add 4 to the DC. I'd just impose Disadvantage here.
9. Have they never attempted a similar challenge? Add 2 DC. Kinda neat, but also punishing.
10. Will failure bring about significant, immediate, wide reaching change? Add 3 DC. This one is....weird. Depends on the check.
11. Is the challenge in active, intelligent opposition? Add 3 DC. There's literally rules for this, for Contested actions.
12. Regardless of proficiency, is it beyond mortal limits? Add 5 DC. If it's actually 'beyond mortal limits', I'd assume automatic failure barring supernatural resources being applied.
Having DM'd a lot of 5e lately, I personally don't think I'd use a very granular challenge system like this. Definitely not on the fly, where I don't have time to go down a laundry list of potentialities. If I were crafting an adventure where I needed to set specific DCs because of reasons (e.g. NPCs previously set traps/locked doors), then maybe.
On the fly, I think I'm with Ronaldo here. In prep with time to think, I'd actually stat the numbers out for my NPCs and PCs to determine where the values should land.
I usually only really put down hard DC checks for stuff if it's a trap.
If it's a skill check I might prep difficult knowledge or hard investigations ahead of time, but a lot of my difficulty deciding comes from how they describe what they do and how hard it seems.
I like to just, once in a while, ask for a saving throw or ask everyone to remind me what their passive perception is and say "ah, good" and have nothing happen, as a treat
I think that the advantage/disadvantage system of modifiers is good as it is. It's quick, and has a clear explanation.
The players can state their case for advantage, the DM can state why that's not happening, the game can continue.
There's no running through a checklist of positive and negative modifiers, because some players will absolutely argue each one of those points and that's going to drag the game down.
I thought up a system using D6s to expand on the Advantage/Disadvantage system, to provide a bit more granularity.
Default roll with no modifiers is 3d6. Add them up and add applicable bonuses for the roll.
Negative or positive modifiers add up to 3 additional d6 to the roll, cancelling out each other.
If you've got a net positive modifier, you roll 3d6-6d6 and take the 3 highest dice.
If you've got a net negative modifier, you roll 3d6-6d6 and take the lowest three dice.
Of course, with that system, max or minimum rolls go from being 1 in 20 to 1 in 216, so the results would need to be a bit more impressive than doubling up the damage dice, or failing the roll. Or expand the crit range.
But that could be worked out.
It might also be better to have a bell curve rather than the d20 line.
I like to just, once in a while, ask for a saving throw or ask everyone to remind me what their passive perception is and say "ah, good" and have nothing happen, as a treat
Since the prevailing interest in my DMing is pacing and emotional beats, if the moment calls for it, I will certainly foster a sense of unease or the indication that maybe more things are happening than they are accounting for, even if it's just for nothing
but sometimes I like to come up with small, albeit meaningless things if they roll well
like they were doing overland travel and I asked them to make survival checks even though I didn't intend for them to get into any fights and the ranger rolled a 28 or something so I told him that he and the party found a small and abandoned shrine of one of the old gods just to flavor up the trip and give them things to chew on
I pretty much always reward a 20 investigation check with something, even if it's just a curious mouse that has taken interest in them and keeps following them or something from the trinket table
Regarding Skill checks, I go for the ass-pull DCs too, except when it comes to certain places like specific magical doors, or secret vaults stashed away somewhere that isn't part of the main quest that I seed into my adventures to reward curiosity and imagination.
I do tend to let people roll on easy-stuff, because my players like to roll, they want to roll when they kick in the door, even if they're the giant 20str athletic proficient fighter, but then I just decide to let them fail-forward if they happen to roll a 1. Like, someone opens the door just before they kick and they suddenly stumble into the door opening, or the wood shatters and the boot goes right through the door and off the hinges and now the barbarian is skipping on one foot while he's swinging a door with the other one. something like that.
I also just tend to let them fail forward on important skill checks that I want them to pass regardless of the DC. like you want to scale this wall because the mansion you have to enter is there? You are always going to succeed, the question is; will you alert the guards, owner or a city patrol doing so, maybe you take a bit of fall damage on the way down. and the DC depends on what kind of precautions they take.
I fucking miss 4e so goddamn bad. Every time I level my 5e characters or I run a game or I start making a character I'm just overcome with how much fucking blah it is.
I am so ready for the next game I'm in, which is using Advanced 5th Edition, and ill be starting as a level 3 monk (and then later MCing into rogue)
the ability to like, grab a weapon out of an enemy's hand and hit them in the face with it or knock a projectile out of the air with another projectile as a reaction is so much fun
Monks have some pretty neat maneuvers available to them and they get them faster than anyone except fighters, I'm excited
(Also Fireball is 6d6 and wall of force is only mostly indestructible)
Where this about 5e Advanced? Did i miss a published book or is it 3rd party and/or homebrew?
It's a third party series of books that does a once-over of 5e rather extensively, the attractiveness of it is that anything that you dont like you can ignore and just use 5e. I literally have A5e and original 5e characters running concurrently in my Curse of Strahd game no problem
I fucking miss 4e so goddamn bad. Every time I level my 5e characters or I run a game or I start making a character I'm just overcome with how much fucking blah it is.
4e was fun as shit.
Our DM did a poll for what system people wanted next, and apparently we're doing 4E, so yay!
I've a question for those that have played a greater variety of classes than me (the are just... so many)- the DM will be running a world tree type setting, with all the player races being reflavoured to be some kind of woodland animal. I'm thinking of playing some sort of a soothsayer raccoon, a hedge witch type, but now I'm struggling to find a class whose mechanics can be suitably reflavoured. I was thinking maybe a Runepriest type dealie could work, replaces runes with chants and talismans and poultices? However the rest of the party hasn't settled on their own roles/classes yet, so I'd like to have a bit more variety at my disposal before I fill whatever hole is left.
I am a-okay with Essentials classes if they are fun to play. It doesn't have to be a caster primary, as long as I can reflavour the support properly, I can always pick up ritual casting and maybe a background to supplement the flavour (maybe Alchemist or Seer).
Glal on
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Can people who already have trouble with the mechanics of 5e manage to have fun with 4e? From what little I've seen 4e is pretty crunchy and tactical decision making can be diverse, which is fun for experienced players, but might be too much for that aforementioned group of people.
Can people who already have trouble with the mechanics of 5e manage to have fun with 4e? From what little I've seen 4e is pretty crunchy and tactical decision making can be diverse, which is fun for experienced players, but might be too much for that aforementioned group of people.
The decision making space in combat doesn't have quite the same lower limit of good options, or at least the "bad" moves are generally way more obviously bad. The other things is there are some classes that are easy to build so your decisions are basically who to fuck up while others deal with positioning and such.
The same does NOT go for character building options. 4e desperately need a pruning of shitty feats/powers by the end. Really by the halfway point.
I fucking miss 4e so goddamn bad. Every time I level my 5e characters or I run a game or I start making a character I'm just overcome with how much fucking blah it is.
4e was fun as shit.
4th certainly had it's problems, but people tend to gloss over the things it got so very right:
Define job roles: every class had a thing that it did and was the ultimate focus of their role. their might be some overlap but at the end of the day the wizard was there to control, the fighter was to get punched in the face, he cleric put people back together and the rogue stabbed the shit out of people.
power categories: low level casters were always kind of a pain in earlier editions since they'd spend so much time hanging back due to the shortage of spells they could effect, but at wills made things more interesting for them while encounter and daily powers made things more interesting for melee classes.
Tiers: The tiers were such a good way of establishing character growth, scope (Save the town -> Save the kingdom -> Save the world) aspirations and identity; this wasn't simply you getting a ton of power it was you growing and changing to reflect your expieriences.
For the most part, 5e carried these things forward. Sure there is less flash and pizzazz then in 4th wherein characters were screaming the names of their attacks, but we still see elements of this with characters getting to pick archetypes at low level and first level wizards being able to do more then cast light before they need to sleep for 4 hours.
Posts
https://dnd.wizards.com/news/announcement_04132022
I really need the ability to add custom classes to continue using it
I actively avoided it because I assumed it was a wotc money hole.
they undoubtedly will do this going forward, there's no real way to do it with previous books, but I'd wager from now on receipts will carry codes to activate on DDB, or purchases on DDB will give coupons for the books or something
they won't be "buy and its free" I'd bet, itll probably be "buy one format get the other at 75% off" or something
In the aftermath, I didn't really participate either, which I admit was partly self-inflicted. My PC got some really devastating personal news a few days ago in-game and has been acting very sullen and withdrawn, so it felt like it would be out of character for him to suddenly be super involved. It was also a major tie-in to a different PC's backstory, so I didn't want to shoehorn myself in or anything. So now we're going to have a couple months in-game to do things while we take out out-of-game break, and I just feel very frustrated that I didn't get to do anything. Like, we even postponed the session a couple of times because other people couldn't make it, and when we have the session it's like I might as well not have been there.
I feel bad bringing this up to the DM because I don't think he did anything wrong. It's not as though he was focus firing on me, I just had really terrible luck with the dice. And I don't know what he would do to help, since the session's over and we're doing other stuff for the next 2 months. It was just a really cool setpiece and I didn't get to do anything in it.
Anyone else ever had this problem, or have some advice?
[edit] Terre, can't really offer advice, but boy do I feel you, I've been there on more than one occasion and it is very frustrating.
That's rough Terrendos.
I've certainly been there where my character got taken out of the game early, but I don't really have any advice about what to do when RNGsus comes down and smites you directly.
At least your character didn't die completely, so that's something.
It's a tough line for a DM to walk. If they start pulling their punches, the combat is no longer a danger.
Sounds there's not much to be done at that point though, but sit back with a caffeinated beverage, whatever salty snacks are available and provide running commentary about the game.
Or ask the DM if you can take over a monster or two until one of your party members gets you awake. You know, just to incentivize your party members.
That is tough, but I think you are right in that its nobody's fault or that something went wrong. You had a bad game. The dice bounced one way, your RP bounced the other way and none of it came up in your favor.
Take your hiatus and shake it off, my dude. Next game will be better!
I dunno what to do about just eating a ton of damage though!
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Right? So funny about surviving. They are level 2, and she is a wild magic Sorcerer. She had used her tides of chaos and at one point when she is getting attacked (I had ensnared her character so she was restrained) she very nicely asked for it back so we did a luck check, 11+ on a d20 she gets it back. the dice are rolled and its right at an 11. So she gets her tides of chaos and rolls on the chart. She rolls and gets a cast of mirror image. Two of the crits I landed on her were against the mirror image and she made the roll both times. So the dice were just running wild last night.
Another thing is I roll in front of the table, so on one hand, I can't fudge rolls, but on the other hand, by the end of the night I think she really would have thought I was picking on her after all the crits if the table didn't see for themselves.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
(Left to right, top row then bottom row)
* The elven monk of Mercy with the Rorschach mask
* The human Lore bard pretending to be a Legion agent
* The guildless Loxodon warlock whose genie patron sometimes hijacks his body
* The fire-obsessed vedalken Artillerist who dreams of going to the moon
* The human Totem Barbarian, Jack Burtonesque in bravado and fashion
* The minotaur Battlemaster, the walking armory
* The human Forge Cleric, possibly the most normal person in the group
* The drow Spore Druid, who really just wants to farm shrooms
DM for upcoming game was also in it and he has proposed that I start the frostmaiden game as this peasant girl, level 1 since dungeon survived, but everyone else is level 3 and I'll have a whopping... 10 hitpoints. If I can survive until we find my real character, I get to have a follower (it's an A5E thing but the concept easy to understand) for the rest of the campaign to carry loot and fetch things - my real character has in the backstory "I picked up an annoying fan that won't leave me alone and follows me everywhere" from the heroic chronicle
So the part of me that doesn't want the DM to have an NPC they can use to manipulate my character wants to just die immediately and as spectacularly as possible
but the other part of me loves the idea of having the annoying fan from Oblivion follow us around
This is why I like games with Narrative Currency. A player gets to say "Nah, that didn't happen, I'm still in the fight" and now the DM has the ability (if desired) to ramp up the difficulty against a player who wasn't just screwed by RNG
2 of my players, a drow warlock and a rabbitfolk druid took the deal while the kobold paladin refused it. As a result, the warlock now has a living shadow that has a mind of it's own, the druid is hearing a voice in his brain and the new Minotur barbarian has inspiration since his player refused an offer from the dark powers of ravenloft to save his character's life.
Start with 10 DC.
1. Do they have proficiency/expertise in the skill? Reduce the DC by 1.
2. Can they spend time and resources on it? Reduce the DC by 1.
3. Would they be able to make multiple attempts? Reduce the DC by 1.
4. Can failure be lessened by nearby allies? Reduce the DC by 1.
5. Are they under half HP? Add 2 to the DC.
6. Should they be recently emotionally shaken? Add 2 to the DC.
7. Are they pressed for time? Add 2 to the DC.
8. Have we established they’re definitely hindered in some way? Add 4 to the DC.
9. Have they never attempted a similar challenge? Add 2 DC.
10. Will failure bring about significant, immediate, wide reaching change? Add 3 DC.
11. Is the challenge in active, intelligent opposition? Add 3 DC.
12. Regardless of proficiency, is it beyond mortal limits? Add 5 DC.
Examples:
Grubbins the goblin wants to climb a wall to see what’s on the other side. They’re in an empty ruin by daylight.
They are proficient in Athletics (-1), they’ve got time (-1) and can keep at as long as they like (-1), but yesterday their pet ferret died (+2). The DC is 9.
Yut the minotaur has accidentally gored the pilot of the airship, and now it’s plummeting to the Oerth. Time to learn to fly.
They’re pressed for time (+2), have never attempted a similar challenge (+2) and failure will bring about change in the form of death. (+3). The DC is 17.
Felf the elf is going to jump the gap across the rooftops, easy, trouble is she’s being shot at by the sheriff and his men.
She’s under half HP (+2) and the challenge is in active, intelligent opposition (+3). The DC is 15.
Warthart the orc is attempting negotiations with a hauty human noble. They’re forced to use some weird little spoon to drink this weird green water in a bowl.
They’re hindered because they’re not in their element and don’t know the rules of engaging this social environment (+4), failure will bring about significant change (+2) and the challenge is in active, intelligent opposition (+3). The DC is 19.
Bonk the kenku wants to eat 30 pies.
It is beyond mortal limits (+5), but their brother is already calling for a cleric (-1). The DC is 14.
*I know you can just pull the number out your ass, I sure do. But would we if there were simple rules for it?
easy 5
normal 10
hard 15
very hard 20
nearly impossible 25
godlike 30
I will typically not ask for rolls on easy stuff unless it's something a character is not proficient in and in a stat they are lacking
I will typically not ask for rolls on normal stuff if it's something a character is proficient in and has good stats for
I nix rolls for hard stuff if they have expertise and good stats past level 9 or so
Like, if someone has a +13 to athletics and they're like I am gonna kick this door open I usually just ask myself "is there something special about this door that they wouldn't be able to do that? IE made of stone/has a steel bar on it/someone holding it but if it's just a door and they wanna kick it I am not gonna chance them rolling a 1 just so the party's wizard can roll a 20 and point and laugh at them
Maybe if there was a set of simple modifier rules, I'd use them.
But, it seems like it would mess up the narrative flow to pause to calculate how hard it is to pick this lock that is covered in spider webs when the rogue got bitten by a spider as a child and is now mildly arachnophobic.
Normally, it's just "does it feel like the roll would succeed". Sure, it's a bit iffy when they get a 13 or 14. But generally if they roll bad they know, if they rolled good they know.
Maybe just go:
Start at 12.
Helped to hindered ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Plenty of time to no time ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Controlled situation to under fire ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Known to unknown ratio.
-2 … -1 … +1 … +2
Prepared to crazy put yourself in a canon and have your Mage Hand light it ratio.
-1 … +2 … +5
Wouldn’t take too long, and it’d let a new DM show the page to anyone that sulks (which isn’t something I’ve ever had to deal with, its just a thought exercise).
1. Do they have proficiency/expertise in the skill? Reduce the DC by 1. This is literally covered by the character having P/E, no need.
2. Can they spend time and resources on it? Reduce the DC by 1. If there's enough time and resources to spend, -1 DC doesn't seem commensurate. I'd just grant Advantage.
3. Would they be able to make multiple attempts? Reduce the DC by 1. If there's no consequence for failure, why roll? If there is, then maybe, but I'd still just grant Advantage.
4. Can failure be lessened by nearby allies? Reduce the DC by 1. This is literally covered by the Help action, in my mind.
5. Are they under half HP? Add 2 to the DC. Kinda neat, but also punishing.
6. Should they be recently emotionally shaken? Add 2 to the DC. Also.
7. Are they pressed for time? Add 2 to the DC. Seems fine. Or impose Disadvantage.
8. Have we established they’re definitely hindered in some way? Add 4 to the DC. I'd just impose Disadvantage here.
9. Have they never attempted a similar challenge? Add 2 DC. Kinda neat, but also punishing.
10. Will failure bring about significant, immediate, wide reaching change? Add 3 DC. This one is....weird. Depends on the check.
11. Is the challenge in active, intelligent opposition? Add 3 DC. There's literally rules for this, for Contested actions.
12. Regardless of proficiency, is it beyond mortal limits? Add 5 DC. If it's actually 'beyond mortal limits', I'd assume automatic failure barring supernatural resources being applied.
Having DM'd a lot of 5e lately, I personally don't think I'd use a very granular challenge system like this. Definitely not on the fly, where I don't have time to go down a laundry list of potentialities. If I were crafting an adventure where I needed to set specific DCs because of reasons (e.g. NPCs previously set traps/locked doors), then maybe.
On the fly, I think I'm with Ronaldo here. In prep with time to think, I'd actually stat the numbers out for my NPCs and PCs to determine where the values should land.
If it's a skill check I might prep difficult knowledge or hard investigations ahead of time, but a lot of my difficulty deciding comes from how they describe what they do and how hard it seems.
The players can state their case for advantage, the DM can state why that's not happening, the game can continue.
There's no running through a checklist of positive and negative modifiers, because some players will absolutely argue each one of those points and that's going to drag the game down.
I thought up a system using D6s to expand on the Advantage/Disadvantage system, to provide a bit more granularity.
Default roll with no modifiers is 3d6. Add them up and add applicable bonuses for the roll.
Negative or positive modifiers add up to 3 additional d6 to the roll, cancelling out each other.
If you've got a net positive modifier, you roll 3d6-6d6 and take the 3 highest dice.
If you've got a net negative modifier, you roll 3d6-6d6 and take the lowest three dice.
Of course, with that system, max or minimum rolls go from being 1 in 20 to 1 in 216, so the results would need to be a bit more impressive than doubling up the damage dice, or failing the roll. Or expand the crit range.
But that could be worked out.
It might also be better to have a bell curve rather than the d20 line.
Since the prevailing interest in my DMing is pacing and emotional beats, if the moment calls for it, I will certainly foster a sense of unease or the indication that maybe more things are happening than they are accounting for, even if it's just for nothing
but sometimes I like to come up with small, albeit meaningless things if they roll well
like they were doing overland travel and I asked them to make survival checks even though I didn't intend for them to get into any fights and the ranger rolled a 28 or something so I told him that he and the party found a small and abandoned shrine of one of the old gods just to flavor up the trip and give them things to chew on
I do tend to let people roll on easy-stuff, because my players like to roll, they want to roll when they kick in the door, even if they're the giant 20str athletic proficient fighter, but then I just decide to let them fail-forward if they happen to roll a 1. Like, someone opens the door just before they kick and they suddenly stumble into the door opening, or the wood shatters and the boot goes right through the door and off the hinges and now the barbarian is skipping on one foot while he's swinging a door with the other one. something like that.
I also just tend to let them fail forward on important skill checks that I want them to pass regardless of the DC. like you want to scale this wall because the mansion you have to enter is there? You are always going to succeed, the question is; will you alert the guards, owner or a city patrol doing so, maybe you take a bit of fall damage on the way down. and the DC depends on what kind of precautions they take.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
4e was fun as shit.
the ability to like, grab a weapon out of an enemy's hand and hit them in the face with it or knock a projectile out of the air with another projectile as a reaction is so much fun
Monks have some pretty neat maneuvers available to them and they get them faster than anyone except fighters, I'm excited
(Also Fireball is 6d6 and wall of force is only mostly indestructible)
It's a third party series of books that does a once-over of 5e rather extensively, the attractiveness of it is that anything that you dont like you can ignore and just use 5e. I literally have A5e and original 5e characters running concurrently in my Curse of Strahd game no problem
https://www.levelup5e.com/
like, look at an example from their monster manual, it solves all my complaints just about with 5e's MM
I've a question for those that have played a greater variety of classes than me (the are just... so many)- the DM will be running a world tree type setting, with all the player races being reflavoured to be some kind of woodland animal. I'm thinking of playing some sort of a soothsayer raccoon, a hedge witch type, but now I'm struggling to find a class whose mechanics can be suitably reflavoured. I was thinking maybe a Runepriest type dealie could work, replaces runes with chants and talismans and poultices? However the rest of the party hasn't settled on their own roles/classes yet, so I'd like to have a bit more variety at my disposal before I fill whatever hole is left.
I am a-okay with Essentials classes if they are fun to play. It doesn't have to be a caster primary, as long as I can reflavour the support properly, I can always pick up ritual casting and maybe a background to supplement the flavour (maybe Alchemist or Seer).
The decision making space in combat doesn't have quite the same lower limit of good options, or at least the "bad" moves are generally way more obviously bad. The other things is there are some classes that are easy to build so your decisions are basically who to fuck up while others deal with positioning and such.
The same does NOT go for character building options. 4e desperately need a pruning of shitty feats/powers by the end. Really by the halfway point.
4th certainly had it's problems, but people tend to gloss over the things it got so very right:
Define job roles: every class had a thing that it did and was the ultimate focus of their role. their might be some overlap but at the end of the day the wizard was there to control, the fighter was to get punched in the face, he cleric put people back together and the rogue stabbed the shit out of people.
power categories: low level casters were always kind of a pain in earlier editions since they'd spend so much time hanging back due to the shortage of spells they could effect, but at wills made things more interesting for them while encounter and daily powers made things more interesting for melee classes.
Tiers: The tiers were such a good way of establishing character growth, scope (Save the town -> Save the kingdom -> Save the world) aspirations and identity; this wasn't simply you getting a ton of power it was you growing and changing to reflect your expieriences.
For the most part, 5e carried these things forward. Sure there is less flash and pizzazz then in 4th wherein characters were screaming the names of their attacks, but we still see elements of this with characters getting to pick archetypes at low level and first level wizards being able to do more then cast light before they need to sleep for 4 hours.