Once again, alignment (if ever used) should be campaign based. You’re not going to fit just anything into it. Plus, again, the concept’s roots are in appeasing unknowable gods of Law (whatever they say that is) and Chaos (whatever they say that is). It is not useful for what you think it’s for.
Conan the Barbarian setting:
Brutality — Cunning
Zealotry — Indifference
In this setting you’re either busting heads or poisoning their cup. You either suck up to a definitely evil god or you accept the world is harsh and you need to be harsh too.
We’ve all over dramatic first age Middle Earth elves:
Curiosity — Tradition
The only real push and pull you’ve got is how do you respond to those new mud people that have popped into existence over night. Other than that, elves are one people at the height of their power.
Cyberpunks:
Human — Corporate
There are a billion ideologies, but ultimately the question is: Are you a person or will you do what the megacorp tells you and lie to yourself that it’s normal?
Goblins:
Sneaky — Stabby — Explosives
Sleeping
Food — Gold — Boss
Mhm, makes sense. I’m Stabby-Sleeping.
Endless_Serpents on
+1
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Although to bring this back around to an earlier point, I think you could do interesting things if you replaced either of the axes on the alignment chart with an Individualist/Collectivist axis, if that's a theme you wanted to explore in your campaign
Like, lawful collectivist is communism, chaotic collectivist is (social) anarchism, lawful individualist is capitalist
Or alternately collectivist evil is fascism, individualist evil is sociopathy, individualist good is humanism
If this conversation was happening in a frozen yogurt shop with Chidi Anagonye taking notes on a whiteboard I would be convinced I was in the good place.
I’m not sure if this isn’t what 13th Age does, but it could be neat to define a pantheon/megacorps/ideologies and have players put points into them. Whenever a roll comes up that would be under their domain, roll + points. Whenever you act against their domain, disadvantage unless you spend 1 point as a favour called in. Add a point when you do something for them.
So you could be a 2-Zeus kind of guy, or a 1-Athena/1-Hermes sort of dude. Your personality, or at least your inner, secret desires and outlook would be defined by the gods you’ve got points in.
More wiggle room than being Good, but you could still line up six 3-Ares guys and know what you’re looking at.
An obvious problem with "Lawful" as an alignment is that RAW presumes all Laws to be equally valid and upheld in the player's eyes, despite even glaringly large conflicts of belief amongst even two Lawful Good Paladins serving different deities.
Alignment just seems like a straight up worse version of like: “Drives, Beliefs, Goals” or “Belief,Goal,Instinct” or “Heritage,Traumas,Class-Trigger” or literally anything that acts as a more customizable RP prompt for the player instead of trying to map literally everything under the sun to an awkward 3x3 grid.
About the only time I like alignment is when it is used for otherworldly beings that have an alien way of thinking compared to humans (like angels for example).
Should the Seven Obsidian Warriors of Nathnyox squirt boiling blood from their eyes or have a set of extendable arms coming out of their mouths? Why not both? When they die, should something worse crawl from their iguana-like hides?
+1
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I’m not sure if this isn’t what 13th Age does, but it could be neat to define a pantheon/megacorps/ideologies and have players put points into them. Whenever a roll comes up that would be under their domain, roll + points. Whenever you act against their domain, disadvantage unless you spend 1 point as a favour called in. Add a point when you do something for them.
So you could be a 2-Zeus kind of guy, or a 1-Athena/1-Hermes sort of dude. Your personality, or at least your inner, secret desires and outlook would be defined by the gods you’ve got points in.
More wiggle room than being Good, but you could still line up six 3-Ares guys and know what you’re looking at.
There's a little bit of that in AGON, although it tends to be a bit more "Hera is angry with you because you killed her pet terrorbird, Artemis is pleased with your worship and will grant you a divine boon"
Should the Seven Obsidian Warriors of Nathnyox squirt boiling blood from their eyes or have a set of extendable arms coming out of their mouths? Why not both? When they die, should something worse crawl from their iguana-like hides?
The extendable arms that come out of their mouths should have eyes in their palms that squirt boiling blood.
And then when they die. A swarm of hands with blood eyes should crawl in all directions out of their corpse.
+4
admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Alignment just seems like a straight up worse version of like: “Drives, Beliefs, Goals” or “Belief,Goal,Instinct” or “Heritage,Traumas,Class-Trigger” or literally anything that acts as a more customizable RP prompt for the player instead of trying to map literally everything under the sun to an awkward 3x3 grid.
About the only time I like alignment is when it is used for otherworldly beings that have an alien way of thinking compare to humans (like angels for example).
Yeah this is why I don't dislike the OSR alignment system where chaos and order are otherworldly forces that can and will impact your character's lives. Sort of like how in Greek myths the gods will show up to fuck over one side or another based on who they think better upholds their ideals.
I don't really think it's a thing that OSR handles very well since they mostly use it to justify why adventurers can roll into a cave and kill all the sentient habitants but it's theoretically a compelling system.
Should the Seven Obsidian Warriors of Nathnyox squirt boiling blood from their eyes or have a set of extendable arms coming out of their mouths? Why not both? When they die, should something worse crawl from their iguana-like hides?
The extendable arms that come out of their mouths should have eyes in their palms that squirt boiling blood.
And then when they die. A swarm of hands with blood eyes should crawl in all directions out of their corpse.
I agree. Also their helmets should cover where their normal eyes should be, and if you take them off their head is just solid black rock.
Man, really looking forward to the next session. Gonna have one of the rings that circle the world drift overhead, and then after describing how beautiful the glittering trail that follows it is… the debris start hitting the ground at mach 4. After they avoid all that they see a huge flash and discover a ‘temple’ smashed into a mountainside. This is where the warriors come in.
The best part is this is just gonna happen in the middle of whatever they end up wanting to do.
Even if they ignore this to the best of their ability the factions in the area are going to start scavenging the debris for material, which arguably allows me to do some serious clock ticking.
Randomly just remembered when New World of Darkness came out and everyone "figured out" that Wrath/Justice was the best Vice/Virtue combo because they lined up so well.
So the adventure I'm leading up to in Mörk Borg is Corpsewake Cove, about getting revenge on pirate royalty for sacking your village and killing your parent/spouse/sibling.
Reading through the Pirate Borg pdf, it occurs to me that the classes being stronger than the original Mörk Borg could actually be interesting to use as post-pirate revenge/time skip level-upgrades and...
What do you mean when you say the entire feat system was poorly thought out?
Like, I'll agree that it had its problems, but I don't think that's inherently a fault of the system (which I think is at least conceptually very good)
I like feats as a concept but the way they are implemented is very bad imo. The fighter is more or less built entirely on feats and if we're looking at core feats only what are our options? A human fighter will have 8 feats by level 7 so here's a reasonable list of fears.
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Weapon Focus(say, greatsword)
Weapon Specialization
And then....
What? Weapon focus/specialization are both pretty trash as are their "great" variants. Love that by 12th level I can spend 4 total feats to gain +2 attack and +4 damage with ONE weapon. Seems like a trap feat to me. Specialization is supposed be the fighters special feat.
We can go a few other ways with this but not so many. Toughness is the archetypical trap feat. We want to build off what we are already doing. If we grab weapon focus in another weapon, or get two-weapon fighting feats, or bow feats than we stop being better at the thing we put a lot of time on and get to be mediocre at another thing. Not great, those are all out.
Dodge is also famously trash. I think if a webcomic has made an entire page to discuss how shitty a feat is I'm comfortable discarding it as an option. Spring attack seems like it could be fine but am I really sinking three feats(the feat itself, dodge, and the equally meh mobility) for that effect?
Combat reflexes? Maybe if we happen to have good dexterity but if we're playing a heavily armed and armored two weapon fighter I don't expect to have more that +1 dex anyway. So that's out.
And this is turning into a huge essay and the fighter is just an example anyway. There are some other core fighter feats that are worth considering and also some non-fighter specific feats that could fill some spots but the over-all points I'm trying to make are
1). There are a massive amount of so-called "trap feats". Argueably there are more bad than good in the corset.
2) The Martial feats in particular are underwhelming. This is all the fighter gets and it's mostly just vertical progression and the amount of vertical progression is pretty bad anyway.
3) The fighter feats don't seem that be built practically in such a way that neat tricks or abilities become available to the fighter and pushes them to eventually take "trap feats" or feats of minimum effectiveness for your specific build for want of options.
To me this adds up to a sense that feats were just plain not well designed. That they were designed somewhat haphazardly and not well developed. The massive power gulf between different feats suggest to me that some feats weren't built to be weaker. If they were putting so much thought into them surely they would have noticed that more than half feats were similarly terrible and that the class based on feat progression didn't really work.
I'm gonna be honest, I always needed to spend a half dozen feats on getting small bonuses to all of my esoteric skill checks because of the way I play D&D, so I never had a problem with running out of feats to take. And that's a situation that I know a lot of people will call effectively a trap feat, but if you play in heavily skill reliant games, it's a whole lot more important than +1 to damage or whatever.
The interesting thing I see here is your dismissal of something like combat reflexes, which to me is exactly what I consider so good about the feat system. Like, if I'm playing a 3.0 fighter, there's a roughly 1% chance that I'm going for heavy armor and a great sword. More likely I'm going to play a fighter with unusually high intelligence or dexterity, and the feat system is how that sort of behavior gets supported. Not well supported, of course, but it's a system that allows and even encourages me to make the sort of idiosyncratic characters that I prefer to play.
I do think overall the fighter is a weak class in 3rd edition, but I guess my point is that I don't see that as entirely being the fault of the feat system, which for me is a way to make characters that have an unusual niche and are still largely effective.
I don't disagree with your core premise that the feet system allows for cool and interesting customization options. I just don't think the one we got in 3.5 is well considered or well built enough to be that. Some specific responses:
1) because of the way the fighter is built If it is weak I feel like you have to fault the feat system. They are too interlinked. I think that a good feed system would have had feat trees of several different varieties that allow a regular class to finish near their max level and allow the principal benefit of the fighter to be getting those capstone feats much earlier. I also think beyond that there should have been feats or feat combinations only a high level fighter could get.
If I'm playing this class I want to feel like the coolest most kitted out and skilled fighting class. I want to be excited by the feat choices. I think it's a shame that so few core feats add a new dimension to your decision making like power attack.
2) I actually really like combat reflexes conceptually. The goal with my hypothetical was just to pick the generic two-handed fighter and see where we could go with him. I think it's good that feeds like combat reflexes exist to give you other options. I just also think that it wouldn't have been appropriate to call it a good feat for the generic fighter.
3). I can appreciate wanting to take non-combat feats and I wish the game supported it more in general. Also however I wish the ability to use skills in combat had been more codified. I forget which book did this (probably complete something?) But one of the expansions for 3.5 gave you specific in combat abilities for having high skills. I would have made that core or achievable with a feat. I don't just want to take a bunch of points in intimidation for the rare social event where I take center stage. I want to be able to be so intimidating during combat that I create a zone that people can't cross. I want to be able to make an intimidation check to force movement. Things like that.
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Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
edited August 2022
so the DM in one of my games told me if I want to do homebrew that's fine, but it can't be a whole new class - has to be a subclass for something that already exists
my continuing attempts to get an Int based spellcasting class that doesn't feel like you're playing a STEM Arcanist. The Loremaster Bards are good theoretically but wrong mechanically: they're performers after all, their spell modifier is CHA based and their class abilities are thematically based on that. Sorcerers have the mutability, but again the theming is wrong - their metamagic is a result of the dynamism of their souls, not an indepth exploration of conceptual principles.
So, Hermeneutics - the theory and practice of interpretation. Still INT based, still thematically appropriate for changing stuff around, still allows players to play to a Wizard's strength without stealing the thunder of either Bards or Sorcerers.
Someone reached out to my local board gaming community to ask if there were any DMs in the building. I responded excitedly. Turns out a friend of her cousin is looking to do DnD with his board gaming group in the next town over and wondered if she knew any DMs who could run something...
Guys, I just want to DM something, but it's not easy to just grab some pals and shoot the shit for a few hours.
I'll go and talk to this fellow nerd thrice removed, if only because it moves me in a direction where I can play DnD with less hassle.
We're ramping up to session 1 of my new intergalactic/deep sea campaign (now named "The Celestial Sea") and the players have done a great job of building their characters and giving me lots to work with!
Here's a little bio for each of them - writing these helps me get a good picture of what the character are all about:
Name: Eteri Sorine
Species: Air Genasi
Class: Psion (Elemental Mind)
With a slight figure, pastel blue skin, wispy white clouds of hair and a ballerina-inspired dress, Eteri may appear to be a delicate flower at first glance, but she is a powerful psion with incredible innate control over the elements of wind, fire, lightning and ice. Born to human owners of an interstellar circus, she has lead a happy life traversing the stars and coordinating shows for her family - until one fateful night on an obscure moon threatens everything she holds dear...
Name: No
Species: Warforged
Class: Paladin (Oath of Conquest)
A gleaming knight assembled from a dragon's horde, this warforged has a head made from the helm of a long-slain dragonborn, eyes made from gemstones, a scalemail body of silver coins, and a platinum cape that resembles a dragon's wings. With their creator dragon tragically slain, they have been searching for a new family to protect, but have only found rejection - so much that they have assumed "No" to be their name. Simple-natured and big-hearted, they soldier on with only their steed for company. Drifting through the celestial sea once more, they approach a beautiful luminescent moon...
Name: Lumi
Species: Axolotian
Class: Druid (Circle of Stars)
A squishy-faced lil' guy that glows in the dark when he wants to, Lumi has spent years living in the wreck of his ship after crash-landing on an overgrown swamp moon. His druidic practices and cute exterior hide a guilty past of space piracy. He pretends that the moon he is marooned on is much more deserted than it actually is, whiling away the hours floating in his Captain's quarters and looking up into space. One day, his pondering is interrupted by a couple of young critter neighbours, inviting him to the circus that will shortly be in town...
Nobody can play Friday or next Wednesday, so I decided to have some fun with downtime! Had everyone text or message me what they wanted their characters to do during a month of downtime since their last adventure. They could RP as much or as little as they wanted, and I'd try to match their level of roleplay. Whatever they wanted to do would take at least one week, but more weeks for a task equalled higher chances of success or at least more profits.
The thri-kreen fighter wanted to train to become proficient with cooking utensils, so going by Xanathar's Guide it'd take 10 weeks. So he's 4/10 of the way there, and he's especially enjoying baking cookies. He also now has an apron that says, "Keep on cookin!" on the front.
The bugbear barbarian wanted to use his mercenary background to earn some coin and also reputation, and he had this big long rp message written up so I responded in kind with a long story about him joining up with a local platoon looking to clear out a den of bandits. Had him give me some skill checks and wove those into the story, and he eventually helped take down the bandit leader, a mage who whipped his ass with a couple lightning bolts and a draconic lightning breath to his face. He earned some cash, and also the platoon lieutenant as a contact for future work or maybe a favor.
The kobold sorcerer wanted to sell the magic items and stuff the party had been accumulating, like scrolls, potions, alchemy stuff, and some spell books (he'd considered multiclassing into wizard but I guess he changed his mind). I figured the value of most of the stuff was about 2500 gold, but he rolled low when making a persuasion check and so they only made an offer to half that (which he took). They couldn't afford his potion of vitality (a very rare potion is 20,000?!?!), but they did name someone they used to know that might be interested. He hasn't gotten back to me yet, but if he decides to try and sell it to them, there will be a chance they decide not to buy it and instead send thieves to rob him of it.
It's been pretty fun so far! Maybe one of the other DMs in the group will return the favor for my character so I can participate too!
I'm starting a One Piece D&D campaign with my longtime group, only one of them knows the show/manga at all and here's what I've been given:
Baron B Rutal - a large lizardman artificer that uses cannons
Cash Fetchum - a human druid who's going to catch 'em all
Dappier Jargon - a fancy lad bard with a mysterious past
Porche - a quote "hot anime babe" rogue
Seamu O'Ran - a human artificer and bounty hunter
and an unanmed gorilla barbarian with a human brain
Even though these are all awful joke reference characters, they are going to fit in the world so well its amazing.
My main difference between the setting and the world is that I'm ditching devil fruit powers, instead people with magic cant swim but martial classes can. Plus I'm adding later game feats for thematic stuff, and a jobs system to give them boosts since the campaign is going to be light on magic items.
As someone who DMs much more than they get to play PCs, I have an ever expanding stable of characters I would love to play and today I came up with maybe my favorite idea yet.
With the impending release of Spelljammer, I was thinking about how fun it would be to play as a former/retired Space Clown who is adventuring to make ends meet and because playing kid's birthday parties was an absolute bore. This idea fully came to life when I was looking at the recent barbarian Path of the Giant UA. Part of their subclass gives any weapon they are holding when they start a rage the thrown property and a short range of 20ft, and any thrown weapon returns to your hands whether you hit or miss with the attack. So, with that in mind, my bugbear former space clown juggler barbarian was born.
+10
Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
Hey d&d rulemasters, here's a question for ya
So, the spell Bones of the Earth
RAW it doesn't say the pillars appearing from the spell have to be perfectly vertical, and neither do their tops, giving creatures no place to stand and end their turn on.
Given that the pillars burst out of the earth in a single turn - would a creature impacted by such an angled pillar therefor be launched by the speed of their appearance? If so then how far?
RAW it doesn't say the pillars appearing from the spell have to be perfectly vertical, and neither do their tops, giving creatures no place to stand and end their turn on.
Given that the pillars burst out of the earth in a single turn - would a creature impacted by such an angled pillar therefor be launched by the speed of their appearance? If so then how far?
RAW the spell makes no mention of launching creatures so the spell does not launch creatures.
RAW it doesn't say the pillars appearing from the spell have to be perfectly vertical, and neither do their tops, giving creatures no place to stand and end their turn on.
Given that the pillars burst out of the earth in a single turn - would a creature impacted by such an angled pillar therefor be launched by the speed of their appearance? If so then how far?
Besides it being a vertical thing (you could barter with a DM that at a 5° angle it'd still classify as a pillar, I guess, if you wanna be that guy) the pillars "lift" the creature up in the air. It does not say "launch" or anything to that effect. It also makes sense that a 6th level spell that creates 6 pillars could not Team Rocket six enemies out of town.
If it comes to it you have to consider that one round of combat is 6 seconds: so the pillars are created on someone's turn and take the full duration to form. So the pillars rise up in the air 30ft over the course of a few seconds. They're rising very rapidly, but it's not like they just shoot up quickly enough to have creatures really fly off. They might get a bit of air time, but not enough to be worth mentioning in the spell description.
Also, RAW I believe the shape of the pillars are very well defined:
“ Each pillar is a cylinder that has a diameter of 5 feet and a height of up to 30 feet.”
And then elsewhere a cylinder is specifically defined:
“ A cylinder's point of origin is the center of a circle of a particular radius, as given in the spell description. The circle must either be on the ground or at the height of the spell effect. The energy in a cylinder expands in straight lines from the point of origin to the perimeter of the circle, forming the base of the cylinder. The spell's effect then shoots up from the base or down from the top, to a distance equal to the height of the cylinder.”
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Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
hmm ok. Is there a spell that does that? create a physical object from a surface which is made so quickly it pushes a character into the air? the object doesn't have to remain on the battlefield afterwards, I'm just trying to make a sort of spike or rock outcropping pop up and do minimal damage on its own but (if the enemy fails a DEX save) does shift an enemy across a battlefield, potentially causing additional damage from the burst?
hmm ok. Is there a spell that does that? create a physical object from a surface which is made so quickly it pushes a character into the air? the object doesn't have to remain on the battlefield afterwards, I'm just trying to make a sort of spike or rock outcropping pop up and do minimal damage on its own but (if the enemy fails a DEX save) does shift an enemy across a battlefield, potentially causing additional damage from the burst?
Hm, not thinking of anything odd the top of my head. But I’m not super current with DnD and they are always adding spells.
Fall damage is incredibly lethal in DnD so probably not going to be much that launches enemies into the air that isn’t high level.
You may have better luck taking existing spells and rethemeing them, like you can take the rebuking blast invocation of warlock “ When you hit a creature with Eldritch Blast, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away from you in a straight line.” And say it’s actually a rock pillar knocking them back ten feet or whatever
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GrobianWhat's on sale?Pliers!Registered Userregular
Cloud giant (variant) have an action to throw someone around. They are CR9 so already kinda high level. Maybe you can create a spell with a similar effect.
Fling. The giant tries to throw a Small or Medium creature within 10 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw or be hurled up to 60 feet horizontally in a direction of the giant’s choice and land prone, taking 1d8 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown.
Bigsbys hand comes close but can only push (so the hand moves with the pushee) 5ft+ 5 x spell mod ft and doesn't deal damage.
PoGo friend code: 7835 1672 4968
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Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
that's great! if I were to try and homebrew a spell for it, still using my DCs and everything but keeping the rest - do you think it counts as as sixth level spell? fifth? seventh?
that's great! if I were to try and homebrew a spell for it, still using my DCs and everything but keeping the rest - do you think it counts as as sixth level spell? fifth? seventh?
Ok so not sure this adds up to anything but I went and looked up what NPC spellcasters are also CR 9. The abjurer is such. Its a 13th level spellcaster with up to 7th level spells. So probably not higher than 7th.
Posts
Yeah, I find that very often people end up defining chaotic as the absence of lawful (and to a lesser extent, evil as the absence of good)
And more often than not, the net result of that is a flawed or overreaching definition of lawful that got them there
yeah but I'm having fun
Conan the Barbarian setting:
Brutality — Cunning
Zealotry — Indifference
In this setting you’re either busting heads or poisoning their cup. You either suck up to a definitely evil god or you accept the world is harsh and you need to be harsh too.
We’ve all over dramatic first age Middle Earth elves:
Curiosity — Tradition
The only real push and pull you’ve got is how do you respond to those new mud people that have popped into existence over night. Other than that, elves are one people at the height of their power.
Cyberpunks:
Human — Corporate
There are a billion ideologies, but ultimately the question is: Are you a person or will you do what the megacorp tells you and lie to yourself that it’s normal?
Goblins:
Sneaky — Stabby — Explosives
Sleeping
Food — Gold — Boss
Mhm, makes sense. I’m Stabby-Sleeping.
Like, lawful collectivist is communism, chaotic collectivist is (social) anarchism, lawful individualist is capitalist
Or alternately collectivist evil is fascism, individualist evil is sociopathy, individualist good is humanism
So you could be a 2-Zeus kind of guy, or a 1-Athena/1-Hermes sort of dude. Your personality, or at least your inner, secret desires and outlook would be defined by the gods you’ve got points in.
More wiggle room than being Good, but you could still line up six 3-Ares guys and know what you’re looking at.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
About the only time I like alignment is when it is used for otherworldly beings that have an alien way of thinking compared to humans (like angels for example).
Should the Seven Obsidian Warriors of Nathnyox squirt boiling blood from their eyes or have a set of extendable arms coming out of their mouths? Why not both? When they die, should something worse crawl from their iguana-like hides?
There's a little bit of that in AGON, although it tends to be a bit more "Hera is angry with you because you killed her pet terrorbird, Artemis is pleased with your worship and will grant you a divine boon"
The extendable arms that come out of their mouths should have eyes in their palms that squirt boiling blood.
And then when they die. A swarm of hands with blood eyes should crawl in all directions out of their corpse.
Yeah this is why I don't dislike the OSR alignment system where chaos and order are otherworldly forces that can and will impact your character's lives. Sort of like how in Greek myths the gods will show up to fuck over one side or another based on who they think better upholds their ideals.
I don't really think it's a thing that OSR handles very well since they mostly use it to justify why adventurers can roll into a cave and kill all the sentient habitants but it's theoretically a compelling system.
I agree. Also their helmets should cover where their normal eyes should be, and if you take them off their head is just solid black rock.
The best part is this is just gonna happen in the middle of whatever they end up wanting to do.
Even if they ignore this to the best of their ability the factions in the area are going to start scavenging the debris for material, which arguably allows me to do some serious clock ticking.
Not sure if I'll get to run with it or not, though...
Haven't gotten to play it yet but it sure *seems* like it's a proper meatgrinder of a thing.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Those are like the bipedal spider things, right?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Reading through the Pirate Borg pdf, it occurs to me that the classes being stronger than the original Mörk Borg could actually be interesting to use as post-pirate revenge/time skip level-upgrades and...
Oh god
I ported prestige classes into an OSR system.
Is...is someone going to bust in and stop me?
I don't disagree with your core premise that the feet system allows for cool and interesting customization options. I just don't think the one we got in 3.5 is well considered or well built enough to be that. Some specific responses:
1) because of the way the fighter is built If it is weak I feel like you have to fault the feat system. They are too interlinked. I think that a good feed system would have had feat trees of several different varieties that allow a regular class to finish near their max level and allow the principal benefit of the fighter to be getting those capstone feats much earlier. I also think beyond that there should have been feats or feat combinations only a high level fighter could get.
If I'm playing this class I want to feel like the coolest most kitted out and skilled fighting class. I want to be excited by the feat choices. I think it's a shame that so few core feats add a new dimension to your decision making like power attack.
2) I actually really like combat reflexes conceptually. The goal with my hypothetical was just to pick the generic two-handed fighter and see where we could go with him. I think it's good that feeds like combat reflexes exist to give you other options. I just also think that it wouldn't have been appropriate to call it a good feat for the generic fighter.
3). I can appreciate wanting to take non-combat feats and I wish the game supported it more in general. Also however I wish the ability to use skills in combat had been more codified. I forget which book did this (probably complete something?) But one of the expansions for 3.5 gave you specific in combat abilities for having high skills. I would have made that core or achievable with a feat. I don't just want to take a bunch of points in intimidation for the rare social event where I take center stage. I want to be able to be so intimidating during combat that I create a zone that people can't cross. I want to be able to make an intimidation check to force movement. Things like that.
therefor, I present the new Arcane Tradition: the School of Hermeneutics - a.k.a. Liberal Arts Wizard
my continuing attempts to get an Int based spellcasting class that doesn't feel like you're playing a STEM Arcanist. The Loremaster Bards are good theoretically but wrong mechanically: they're performers after all, their spell modifier is CHA based and their class abilities are thematically based on that. Sorcerers have the mutability, but again the theming is wrong - their metamagic is a result of the dynamism of their souls, not an indepth exploration of conceptual principles.
So, Hermeneutics - the theory and practice of interpretation. Still INT based, still thematically appropriate for changing stuff around, still allows players to play to a Wizard's strength without stealing the thunder of either Bards or Sorcerers.
Guys, I just want to DM something, but it's not easy to just grab some pals and shoot the shit for a few hours.
I'll go and talk to this fellow nerd thrice removed, if only because it moves me in a direction where I can play DnD with less hassle.
Here's a little bio for each of them - writing these helps me get a good picture of what the character are all about:
Name: Eteri Sorine
Species: Air Genasi
Class: Psion (Elemental Mind)
With a slight figure, pastel blue skin, wispy white clouds of hair and a ballerina-inspired dress, Eteri may appear to be a delicate flower at first glance, but she is a powerful psion with incredible innate control over the elements of wind, fire, lightning and ice. Born to human owners of an interstellar circus, she has lead a happy life traversing the stars and coordinating shows for her family - until one fateful night on an obscure moon threatens everything she holds dear...
Name: No
Species: Warforged
Class: Paladin (Oath of Conquest)
A gleaming knight assembled from a dragon's horde, this warforged has a head made from the helm of a long-slain dragonborn, eyes made from gemstones, a scalemail body of silver coins, and a platinum cape that resembles a dragon's wings. With their creator dragon tragically slain, they have been searching for a new family to protect, but have only found rejection - so much that they have assumed "No" to be their name. Simple-natured and big-hearted, they soldier on with only their steed for company. Drifting through the celestial sea once more, they approach a beautiful luminescent moon...
Name: Lumi
Species: Axolotian
Class: Druid (Circle of Stars)
A squishy-faced lil' guy that glows in the dark when he wants to, Lumi has spent years living in the wreck of his ship after crash-landing on an overgrown swamp moon. His druidic practices and cute exterior hide a guilty past of space piracy. He pretends that the moon he is marooned on is much more deserted than it actually is, whiling away the hours floating in his Captain's quarters and looking up into space. One day, his pondering is interrupted by a couple of young critter neighbours, inviting him to the circus that will shortly be in town...
The thri-kreen fighter wanted to train to become proficient with cooking utensils, so going by Xanathar's Guide it'd take 10 weeks. So he's 4/10 of the way there, and he's especially enjoying baking cookies. He also now has an apron that says, "Keep on cookin!" on the front.
The bugbear barbarian wanted to use his mercenary background to earn some coin and also reputation, and he had this big long rp message written up so I responded in kind with a long story about him joining up with a local platoon looking to clear out a den of bandits. Had him give me some skill checks and wove those into the story, and he eventually helped take down the bandit leader, a mage who whipped his ass with a couple lightning bolts and a draconic lightning breath to his face. He earned some cash, and also the platoon lieutenant as a contact for future work or maybe a favor.
The kobold sorcerer wanted to sell the magic items and stuff the party had been accumulating, like scrolls, potions, alchemy stuff, and some spell books (he'd considered multiclassing into wizard but I guess he changed his mind). I figured the value of most of the stuff was about 2500 gold, but he rolled low when making a persuasion check and so they only made an offer to half that (which he took). They couldn't afford his potion of vitality (a very rare potion is 20,000?!?!), but they did name someone they used to know that might be interested. He hasn't gotten back to me yet, but if he decides to try and sell it to them, there will be a chance they decide not to buy it and instead send thieves to rob him of it.
It's been pretty fun so far! Maybe one of the other DMs in the group will return the favor for my character so I can participate too!
Baron B Rutal - a large lizardman artificer that uses cannons
Cash Fetchum - a human druid who's going to catch 'em all
Dappier Jargon - a fancy lad bard with a mysterious past
Porche - a quote "hot anime babe" rogue
Seamu O'Ran - a human artificer and bounty hunter
and an unanmed gorilla barbarian with a human brain
Even though these are all awful joke reference characters, they are going to fit in the world so well its amazing.
My main difference between the setting and the world is that I'm ditching devil fruit powers, instead people with magic cant swim but martial classes can. Plus I'm adding later game feats for thematic stuff, and a jobs system to give them boosts since the campaign is going to be light on magic items.
With the impending release of Spelljammer, I was thinking about how fun it would be to play as a former/retired Space Clown who is adventuring to make ends meet and because playing kid's birthday parties was an absolute bore. This idea fully came to life when I was looking at the recent barbarian Path of the Giant UA. Part of their subclass gives any weapon they are holding when they start a rage the thrown property and a short range of 20ft, and any thrown weapon returns to your hands whether you hit or miss with the attack. So, with that in mind, my bugbear former space clown juggler barbarian was born.
So, the spell Bones of the Earth
RAW it doesn't say the pillars appearing from the spell have to be perfectly vertical, and neither do their tops, giving creatures no place to stand and end their turn on.
Given that the pillars burst out of the earth in a single turn - would a creature impacted by such an angled pillar therefor be launched by the speed of their appearance? If so then how far?
RAW the spell makes no mention of launching creatures so the spell does not launch creatures.
DnD RAW is kind of boring like that.
Besides it being a vertical thing (you could barter with a DM that at a 5° angle it'd still classify as a pillar, I guess, if you wanna be that guy) the pillars "lift" the creature up in the air. It does not say "launch" or anything to that effect. It also makes sense that a 6th level spell that creates 6 pillars could not Team Rocket six enemies out of town.
If it comes to it you have to consider that one round of combat is 6 seconds: so the pillars are created on someone's turn and take the full duration to form. So the pillars rise up in the air 30ft over the course of a few seconds. They're rising very rapidly, but it's not like they just shoot up quickly enough to have creatures really fly off. They might get a bit of air time, but not enough to be worth mentioning in the spell description.
“ Each pillar is a cylinder that has a diameter of 5 feet and a height of up to 30 feet.”
And then elsewhere a cylinder is specifically defined:
“ A cylinder's point of origin is the center of a circle of a particular radius, as given in the spell description. The circle must either be on the ground or at the height of the spell effect. The energy in a cylinder expands in straight lines from the point of origin to the perimeter of the circle, forming the base of the cylinder. The spell's effect then shoots up from the base or down from the top, to a distance equal to the height of the cylinder.”
Hm, not thinking of anything odd the top of my head. But I’m not super current with DnD and they are always adding spells.
Fall damage is incredibly lethal in DnD so probably not going to be much that launches enemies into the air that isn’t high level.
You may have better luck taking existing spells and rethemeing them, like you can take the rebuking blast invocation of warlock “ When you hit a creature with Eldritch Blast, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away from you in a straight line.” And say it’s actually a rock pillar knocking them back ten feet or whatever
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/324263-cloud-giant-variant
Bigsbys hand comes close but can only push (so the hand moves with the pushee) 5ft+ 5 x spell mod ft and doesn't deal damage.
Ok so not sure this adds up to anything but I went and looked up what NPC spellcasters are also CR 9. The abjurer is such. Its a 13th level spellcaster with up to 7th level spells. So probably not higher than 7th.