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[D&D 5E Discussion] Maybe he's born with it. Nope it's Vampirism.

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  • DelphinidaesDelphinidaes FFXIV: Delphi Kisaragi Registered User regular
    So, I've recently gotten back into table top gaming, after years out of the game (and the only part in the game was a few failed online sessions of various game types)

    It's been quite fun so far, and while the group I run with has a big bag o dice, I was looking to get a couple sets of my own. I haven't done a huge amount of research but so far it seems Chessex is the standard dice of the masses, but can have some problems with rolling true. Gamescience seems to get all sorts of accolades, and in researching them a bit I came across a few vids by the founder(?) who seems like a genuine old feller who has been doing this for years. From the pics I've seen the dice are super clean, and most importantly for me, the edges are nice and defined. I'm not against rounded edges by any means, but I really appreciate a fine level of precision in anything manufactured and love the look of very defined edges on dice.

    So obviously I'm leaning towards getting a couple sets of gamescience dice, but figured I would asking here for any impressions or recommendations as I'm sure there are plenty here who have quite a lot of opinions regarding dice.

    For the records I'm looking to get a couple 7 sets of your standard polyhedral dice for use in D&D 5e.

    Game Science dice are shit. They're not molded especially well, they skip labor intensive finishing processes and then hype up that fact to make you pay a premium for them and crazy old koot who sells them uses a pitch that pretty much ignores that a die being exceptionally fair will kill PCs just as often as get them killed. He's using exploitative marketing and that rubs me the wrong way.

    So let's take a look at a set, shall we?

    hivg5zw2vgvx.jpg

    UGH, so ugly.

    These were purchased from the crazy old man himself at Gen Con and inked by his staff. I have helpfully made sure that you can see those massive gate blemishes on all the dice. That's why Chessex tumbles their dice, to polish those off. They have to be there to injection mold the dice but they're ugly and they're not flush to the surface of the die because they didn't do a great job cutting them. (OH NOES, THE PREFECT GEOMETRY!) Also note how a lot of the faces look "dished" out, that's sink from a shitty molding job. (The D6 and D12 especially. The percentile die has inserts there which exacerbate the look but isn't actually as bad as that.) Measuring over them shows most of the dice have a "Long" axis in the direction of draw of the tool. This was only about .5% variation in the total length which is better than I remember from Chessex dice but I haven't measured any of those recently so take with a grain of salt.

    I don't think the idea that Game Science dice are any more "true" or "fair" is really reasonable. It's just a marketing line by a crazy old man, who to be fair, probably believes his own bullshit. Injection Molding isn't really the way to make completely symmetrical parts because of it's nature. There are steps you could take that would help and there isn't any evidence they've done any of those because they would be really expensive so I'm not surprised. If you really want to be convinced of the method go look into how casino dice are made and the tolerances they're held to. There is a reason they pay to have them machined from extruded stock.

    I'd hold out a bit of hope that 3D printed dice might be better if they come out of a professional grade machine but they have some similar issues for different reasons with regard to having one axis different than the others. They wouldn't have the gate blemish though and wouldn't have much reason to be tumble polished. They'd also be fairly expensive for not all that great improvement in accuracy I'd expect. Though 3D printing has been coming down lately.

    Ultimately if you really like the sharp corners and unfinished look then have at it but if you're motivated by the dice being "true" they really don't do much for you and if you must be true then prepare to have your wallet emptied completely out if you're serious about it.

    Fake Edit: Actually Kickstarter has lead to a glut of dice made out of metals, most of which are CNC machined. Assuming they aren't sloppy those should come out pretty damn fair. Maybe not .0002" variation casino level fair but better than molded could do by a long shot. They'll probably round the corners some though for safety and durability.

    Thank you for this write up! This is the first I've heard in my research thus far of problems with the Game Science dice. When I asked my group initially of what sort of dice I should look into their first recommendation was Gamescience because of the quality and how long the dice have lasted and still looked pristine. Most of the other reviews and information i've found seemed to support that as well and they seem to be first on the recommendation list in the various forums and blogs i've come across in the last couple days.

    When I referred to them being more 'true' I didn't mean to suggest they were perfectly balanced or anything like that. I've read a few reports that a few sites did with something like 20,000 rolls of various brands and they came out ahead at being closer to the expected spread than brands like Chessex. I've even come across a few vids of chessex dice that seemingly favor either very high rolls (a few vids showing them weighted on 20) or very low. I doubt any of that was intentional but when those dice were cut open the inside was very odd and lopsided. I don't think I've seen anything to suggest the old dude ever said his dice were more true, most of that info I got is from third party sites trying to determine it for themselves.

    All that being said, my main goal is dice that aren't going to chip or break easily. I'm not too concerned about removing injection mold flashing as i've got quite a lot of experience with that via past modelling stuff. I want to avoid metal dice as one of our group members has a set, and they are a bit too heavy for my tastes (not to mention they put pock marks in wooden tables, they are beastly!)

    I'm definitely going to be getting translucent dice, partly to insure as much fairness as possible, but also because I find the look very aesthetically pleasing.

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  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    If you don't want dice that chip easily, don't get dice with sharp edges... like Game Science dice.

  • DelphinidaesDelphinidaes FFXIV: Delphi Kisaragi Registered User regular
    edited July 2016
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    If you don't want dice that chip easily, don't get dice with sharp edges... like Game Science dice.

    From what I've read, they don't. Which was, I assume, why I keep seeing recommendations for them. Otherwise why would they seem to be so popular and so many people be so happy with them?

    edit: I'm not trying to say anyone is wrong mind you, I'm just curious where the big disconnect is coming from.

    Delphinidaes on
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  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    Yeah, I'm looking at those gaming science dice and all I can think is how much those percentiles would hurt if you stepped on them.

  • FryFry Registered User regular
    "What would this die feel like if I stepped on it" seems like an odd concern to me. Across multiple decades of dice ownership, I don't think I've ever stepped on a die. But my GS dice don't feel like they'd be significantly more likely to injure me than any other dice. Even if you are concerned about it, the most potentially problematic shape (d4s, aka caltrops) have blunted ends, so I wouldn't think it would be a problem.

    I've never had any issue with GS dice chipping, don't know what that's about. I have had tables damaged by metal dice, so those are banned in my home.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Also, if people have metal dice, well... that's what a dice tray is for. So you can roll your dice without marking up the table.

  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Also, if people have metal dice, well... that's what a dice tray is for. So you can roll your dice without marking up the table.

    Alternately: carpet.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Gaddez wrote: »
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Also, if people have metal dice, well... that's what a dice tray is for. So you can roll your dice without marking up the table.

    Alternately: carpet.

    Rolls gotta stay on the table to count!

  • tokumeitokumei Registered User regular
    I just want the full mystic class to be released already

  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    Yeah, everybody at my table rolls into either a dice tray or the tray at the bottom of their dice towers especially if we're on a wooden table. Most of us have at least one set of metal dice each. I have a ton of dice I use though. I can't stand re-rolling dice. If I am rolling 6d6 or whatever, then I just want to roll once and what not.

  • never dienever die Registered User regular
    I ran another session this past Sunday of Curse of Strahd. The TL:DR version is Salty Thunder, the bard, is being barred from sneaking off on his own anymore by the rest of the party after the clusterfuck that was this session when he snuck off again.

    The party woke up at around 4pm on the last day before the Festival at Vallaki, and couldn't actually remember what they were supposed to do with Lady Wachter and her cult, so they went to the burgomaster to find out. Bemused about them not remembering, he went over the details again, and him and Jurgen, the gnome cleric, had a discussion over how much he was loving his unicorn rug. He loved it, furthering the player's newfound goal to be a merchant. The players were to try and find evidence of Lady Wachter's connection to Strahd and the cult, and if such could be found to take her out of the picture but not to harm her children unless they were involved. As an aside, the players have completely forgotten about how, um, evil the burgomaster is as well and have been mostly ignoring the hints I've been dropping.

    After an awkard side conversation with Sonya, the warlock, and Lady Wachter's sons as they went towards their house, they arrived at Lady Wachter's house. Salty Thunder decided he was going to sneak around the house and, with a warning from the party not to get into a fight, turned himself invisible and snuck around the house, unlocking the side and front doors (though the servant's quickly noticed the front door open and slammed it shut again). He checked out the cellar, but didn't actually go down the stairs. He went through the side door and found the secret door in the closet to the cellar and decided to check that one out. He went down the stairs and wanted to check out the basement area there. The moment he stepped onto the dirt floor the sconces along the wall were set alight, and 8 skeletons and 2 cult fanatics woke-up in the cots they were sleeping in, thus starting combat. Bedlam ensued as Salty Thunder rushed back up the steps and started fighting the skeletons (who were also screaming a horrific sound to alert everyone of intruders), one of the cultists ran up the steps to let Lady Wachter that there were intruders, while the other cultist sent a magical message to her. As Lady Wachter buffed herself (I changed her from a priest npc to a mage/priest hybrid npc to make her more difficult) the players started dealing with the skeletons and cultists that rushed up the steps and out the building. They made quick work of them and the party rushed down the cellar. In the meantime Salty Thunder killed alot of his skeletons and managed to make it outside before realizing the party was going down into the cellar, but was joined by Albrich, the paladin, as they went back down the secret steps to the cellar.

    When Sonya stepped into the cellar he was surpised by another cultist fanatic and spy due to a failed perception check. He was able to soak the inflict wounds (holy crap 3d10 level one spell is really damaging) and with the help of Jurgen and Ireena took them out. Salty Thunder found the secret door in the cellar while the paladin heard reinforcments coming from upstairs and readied his attack. Lady Wachter turned the corner for the secret steps into the cellar and was promptly knocked on her ass by the Paladin's smite with Thunderous smite on it, and was almost killed in two blows. She responded with a cone of cold that the Paladin very impressively tanked and made the save for. While this was going on Salty opened the secret door in the cellar, finding the cultist's hideout and the very obvious pentagram painted into the floor. Unluckily he walked right into the other two cultist fanatics who were waiting for him, failing his hold person save and then (due to the paralyzed rules) was crit by a second level inflict wounds. He survived that but the next round of combat started and the cultist fanatics got to go first, promptly knocking him out and only being 4 hp damage away (2 more damage before the crit) of killing him outright. He dropped, out of character the part jokingly debated letting him die, and then saved him and killed the cultists. They also found and killed Lady Wachter's imp. In the meantime, Lady Wachter, realizing she was outmatched, misty-stepped up the steps and started running away. Albrich gave chase but lost her once she cast invisibility and ran out of the house. As the party ran out of the house after her, Salty Thunder natural 20'd his survival check and they traced her back to a cultist's house. Not wanting to give her time to get away, the party (sans Salty, who rushed around the back of the house to stop her from escaping) slammed through the front door. They made quick work of one of the cultists, though the other two were killed by Lady Wachter when she through a fireball from the second floor of the house into the first floor. The party went up the steps after her, and managed to surround her. Before they could hit her she let loose a fireball in the middle of the room as she was not able to see a way to misty step out of the house. Everyone survived the fireball and the party managed to kill her. They left the house after finding the little girl of one of the cultists hiding in a closet.

    They went back to the burgomaster's house and told him of their success and he sent his guards to investigate lady Wachter's house and the cultist's house as well. The party decided Salty was not allowed to sneak off on his own anymore, were paid, helped the little girl find non-cultist relatives, and that ended the session.

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    I'm going to be starting a D&D 5th edition game with a friend and some friends of his. It'll be my first time doing any kind of tabletop roleplaying (even though we'll be using webcams, voice chat, and Roll20) since I was in high school so i'm a bit rusty, and i'm also rather unfamiliar with the Forgotten Realms setting. I've been doing a lot of research though and settled on a Lawful Neutral Paladin who worships Kelemvor.

    Other than having her loathe undead, which i've already got covered, are there any suggestions for ways I could play her? I've kind of been thinking a militaristic background, so she'll believe that strength and force of arms is the best way to keep things from falling into disorder, but I don't want to go too far and make her into some kind of blindly marching idiot. It's pretty cool that paladins can be things other than Lawful Good, that definitely opens the class up to a lot more interesting things.

  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    Aistan wrote: »
    I'm going to be starting a D&D 5th edition game with a friend and some friends of his. It'll be my first time doing any kind of tabletop roleplaying (even though we'll be using webcams, voice chat, and Roll20) since I was in high school so i'm a bit rusty, and i'm also rather unfamiliar with the Forgotten Realms setting. I've been doing a lot of research though and settled on a Lawful Neutral Paladin who worships Kelemvor.

    Other than having her loathe undead, which i've already got covered, are there any suggestions for ways I could play her? I've kind of been thinking a militaristic background, so she'll believe that strength and force of arms is the best way to keep things from falling into disorder, but I don't want to go too far and make her into some kind of blindly marching idiot. It's pretty cool that paladins can be things other than Lawful Good, that definitely opens the class up to a lot more interesting things.

    My suggestion would be to reflect your character's Alignment, desire for order and worship of the god of the dead by way of being dispassionate; care about things that occur around you but approach it with a measured calm since ultimately: death is inevitable.

    More over, you can build upon that in how you mechanically build your character; instead of the great sword with it's fury and wrath and power, you can use a battle axe and shield to play up the implacable aproach of the end of life. For your Oath, any of them can work, but I'd probably rank their priority as Crown* (since it represents order) tied with Devotion (to show your dedication to Kelemvor) followed by vengeance (to ensure that the death of your foes occur at their appointed time) and Ancients not really working.

    As a side bonus, you'll have a solid tank that can anchor your battle line.

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    I'm not sure how long this game will last so I wanted to do something i'd find enjoyable mechanically right from the start, going with a Halberd and then later Oath of Vengeance if we get that far. I had to look up what Crown was since we've only got the Players Handbook, but I still think i'll go with Vengeance.

    I was thinking more roleplay-wise, how should she act in various situations and towards people. Like, she'd probably disapprove of a street urchin stealing a loaf of bread because he's hungry, but also she'd not waste time with that if she was currently on the hunt for a serial killer. Her superior gives her an order to evict a family for not paying their property taxes (back when she was a soldier) and she does it, but if he gives her an order to bust down someone's door and extort them for protection money she refuses and attempts to get him removed since he is clearly corrupt. I think that stuff is Lawful Neutral, at least?

    If she's a paladin of Kelemvor would she be that blasé about death? Sure it's inevitable, but the people left behind by the deceased still need sympathy and reassurance about where the deceased is going. Not to worry about things because He's just and fair. Something more than a shrug and "eh, it was gonna happen eventually."

    Also I read that she'd probably want to make sure even their enemies get proper burial rites, which i'm sure will be fun (legitimately, not sarcastic here) to continually bring up to the rest of the party.

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    The same book that has the crown oath also has a bit about each god too, including Kelemvor IIRC

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  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Okay, so, first off I'm going with a largely 3.X-era FR take on this, so if things have changed significantly, the advice might not be as applicable...

    When playing a Paladin, remember that "Lawful" does not equal "Legal." This is a common trap that people fall into, and it's not at all helpful in the long run - and is easily the biggest source of GM-player conflight re: Paladins ("Well, you're in Evilburg, where the law says have to sacrifice a virgin every week; are you going to be lawful and perform this evil act, or chaotic and skip it?"). Legal laws are a tool, nothing more, and humans can and will use them in service of Chaos if they're of a mind to do so. Lawful should mean orderly, where cause is predictably followed by effect, where ritual is followed because it's important to have continuity and be part of something larger, where thinking runs in straight lines. Law is logical, not emotional. Remember, though, that these are tendencies - strong ones in the case of the Lawful Neutral individual, but only tendencies nonetheless. Humans are creatures of the Prime Material Plane, where all of the forces of the universe - elemental and alignment - mix and mingle to produce life, and so even the Lawfuliest Goodiest person is made up partially of Chaos and Evil.

    Now layer on being a Paladin of Kelemvor. Kelemvor's main shtick is that life should run its natural course and then souls should be sent on to the afterlife for proper judgment (as either Faithful, Faithless, or False). Things that disrupt that natural order are anathema, and the biggest of them is undeath. Undeath is bad because, in the case of major undead (vampires, liches, etc.), it's someone who has prevented their own soul from moving on for judgement. For lesser undead, their creation messes with the soul even in the afterlife (which is why someone who has had their body turned into zombie can't be raised from the dead except by exceptionally powerful magic until the zombie is destroyed). Note that he's not hugely keen on resurrections, either, except in the case of redressing a wrong - e.g., correcting for someone else cheating. Spells and artifacts that destroy souls should be sought out and eradicated as soon as possible.

    So, to return to your examples ... Depending on the situation, your Paladin might not care one whit about the urchin stealing bread to stay alive. All living things seek to stave off death, but they can only stave it off for so long before they must stand before your Lord, and the days purchased by the ill-gained loaf are as nothing next to the centuries a lich might steal. Then again, maybe she does care, because that urchin is cheating death a bit by hurrying someone else along, ever so slightly. You could go either way! Just, you know, be generally consistent - maybe you pull the urchin aside and let them know of their peril.

    The reason for proper burial rights is because places where the dead are gathered and are not properly interred and cleansed are breeding grounds for the undead and those who seek to raise them. Consider how many times you've encountered ancient battlefields where the dead, piled in mass graves because there was no time or attention available for them, rest uneasy and return to prowl the night or continue their fight. They are sinkholes of negative energy, and that energy gives rise to more and more powerful undead as it is allowed to accumulate. As a Paladin of Kelemvor, it is your duty to prevent such morasses from forming, and to disperse them should you encounter them.

    Anyway, just some thoughts!

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    @Aistan

    Sorry - forgot to @ you above!

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    edited July 2016
    I only gave the bread stealing example because I don't want her to be all about her god and faith, since she had a life before she began that path. So it'll be a huge part of how she acts, sure, but not the entirety. This is all pretty great, thanks guys.

    Third wrinkle I may as well toss in now is that she's also a tiefling. Another trap I don't want to fall into is that "everyone of this race acts like X, unless they are humans", so I dunno how much help generalities will be, but other than having had to deal with systemic racism are there any little things I can add in to make her not just a human with horns a tail and dark red skin?

    Needing to turn chairs around before sitting on them is the only one I could think of.

    The reason for all the weird aspects of this character and why i'm asking at all really is that I wanted to go outside my comfort zone with this one. Something other than Chaotic Good Fighter, which is what I always defaulted to. And which is incredibly boring. As far as I could while still fitting into a good-aligned campaign, that is.

    Aistan on
  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    Aistan wrote: »
    I only gave the bread stealing example because I don't want her to be all about her god and faith, since she had a life before she began that path. So it'll be a huge part of how she acts, sure, but not the entirety. This is all pretty great, thanks guys.

    Third wrinkle I may as well toss in now is that she's also a tiefling. Another trap I don't want to fall into is that "everyone of this race acts like X, unless they are humans", so I dunno how much help generalities will be, but other than having had to deal with systemic racism are there any little things I can add in to make her not just a human with horns a tail and dark red skin?

    Needing to turn chairs around before sitting on them is the only one I could think of.

    The reason for all the weird aspects of this character and why i'm asking at all really is that I wanted to go outside my comfort zone with this one. Something other than Chaotic Good Fighter, which is what I always defaulted to. And which is incredibly boring. As far as I could while still fitting into a good-aligned campaign, that is.

    Going for a Tiefling paladin is actually a pretty good way of adding extra flavor; strictly speaking they aren't too removed from humans in terms of culture and society, but due to their origins and appearances they as a people tend to.... make people leary; Perhaps this inspired them to champion a god who regards all as equal?

    As a bonus, you get some nifty tiefling tricks and the extra charisma (which is helpful for a few things related to your class).

  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    Also: If you just want to kitbash something together quickly, the Backgrounds system is great, since it gives you plenty of ideas for building your characters personality without going absurdly indepth.

  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    I'd just try to figure out what your character is motivated by, and why they're a Paladin, instead of trying to figure out the character's worldview from a "how do I feel about this hypothetical."

    My buddy is going to be playing a Paladin/Commander in my upcoming 13th Age game, and he has the entire character figured out, down to all his motivations, from wanting to restore honor to his family's name after some of his ancestors ruined it, rebuild his ancestral home, wanting to rise through the ranks of the order of knights in which he's currently an initiate, explore the fact that his character is the reincarnation of one of his heroic ancestors but doesn't know it(this is a 13A one unique thing so might not fly in D&D depending on GM but whatevs), and then after all that there's his whole perspective about how it's his job to spread light over darkness, and try to convert allies or NPCs who do the more dark things to his way of thinking by showing them it's the better way, without acting like a stereotypical paladin pain in the ass.

    All these words are just me trying to say I think if you answer questions to yourself about what your character's short term goals are, what their most closely held beliefs are about themselves or the world, what they plan to do about them, etc., you will find your character more fleshed out than D&D's rulebooks will get you.

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    @Aistan
    Look up Judge Dredd for an architecture/caricature to start with.

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  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    Look up Judge Dredd for an architecture/caricature to start with.

    Seeing his name come up as an example is actually why I wanted to give it a try. Won't take it to his extreme though, since that would be tiresome for the rest of my group. Also my character wouldn't be the primary law enforcement mechanism anyway so that would help distribute responsibility throughout the rest of the system.

    Still not exactly sure about all aspects of her, but hopefully it'll come together as we do more sessions. At least, if the first one tonight isn't a complete trainwreck that makes us give up immediately.

  • tokumeitokumei Registered User regular
    We've joined the harpers for Tyranny of Dragons, what should we expect?

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    dragons... lots of dragons...

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  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    tokumei wrote: »
    We've joined the harpers for Tyranny of Dragons, what should we expect?

    First half or second? (Second starts at lvl 8 or so, ends at 15 or so)

    Early on there were a few encounters that were super deadly for no reason. Later on we had a super streamlined group and the DM had to up the challenge beyond what the book said in order for it to not be too easy.

    And the very final encounter is very easy to flub unless you know exactly what you need to do OR you made certain correct choices all along the way without any real hints as to what the correct choice is. So good luck. When we screed it up our DM had NPCs res us, send us into a one off adventure dungeon crawl to recover a time travel artefact and beat the encounter with the required knowledge, so that was kind of neat.

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  • tokumeitokumei Registered User regular
    edited July 2016
    Playing a Vengeance Pally, so I'm kinda flexible in what my Pally is willing to do so the end justifies the means if it doesn't do harm to innocents. I've got scale armor so I have the associated penalty to sneak around with 11 dex and the harpers seemed to be the sneaky option from the two options presented to us as a party how buggered am I?.

    tokumei on
  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    If you are talking about the factions there is actually 4 or 5, not 2. You may not yet have met a representative of the others or your DM doesn't want to deal with it.

    The factions provide minor benefits thematic to the faction, nothing that will make or break the game for you. They are there for flavor.

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  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    tokumei wrote: »
    Playing a Vengeance Pally, so I'm kinda flexible in what my Pally is willing to do so the end justifies the means if it doesn't do harm to innocents. I've got scale armor so I have the associated penalty to sneak around with 11 dex and the harpers seemed to be the sneaky option from the two options presented to us as a party how buggered am I?.

    Why are you running around with scale armor if you're dex isn't giving you any bonuses at all?

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    edited July 2016
    That went pretty well, even though my webcam hadn't arrived yet so I had to do all my stuff through Roll20's chat. Worked fine though.

    Delivered a priestess to a shrine, beat up some bandits capturing most of them then making the party bring the dead one back to town to be buried, pushed them towards investigating rumors of a haunted tomb then picked a fight with a ghost which is where we left off.

    RPGs are pretty great you guys.

    Aistan on
  • tokumeitokumei Registered User regular
    Two obvious options
    Gaddez wrote: »
    tokumei wrote: »
    Playing a Vengeance Pally, so I'm kinda flexible in what my Pally is willing to do so the end justifies the means if it doesn't do harm to innocents. I've got scale armor so I have the associated penalty to sneak around with 11 dex and the harpers seemed to be the sneaky option from the two options presented to us as a party how buggered am I?.

    Why are you running around with scale armor if you're dex isn't giving you any bonuses at all?

    My mistake it's mail

  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    tokumei wrote: »
    Two obvious options
    Gaddez wrote: »
    tokumei wrote: »
    Playing a Vengeance Pally, so I'm kinda flexible in what my Pally is willing to do so the end justifies the means if it doesn't do harm to innocents. I've got scale armor so I have the associated penalty to sneak around with 11 dex and the harpers seemed to be the sneaky option from the two options presented to us as a party how buggered am I?.

    Why are you running around with scale armor if you're dex isn't giving you any bonuses at all?

    My mistake it's mail

    Out of curiosity then, is your GM going to be taking into consideration your level/gear vs. your opposition? Like, I don't think you're going to have to worry about anything that is straight up immune to normal stuff, but Tyranny is an extension of Hoard so It's written with a bit of an assumption that you will have done some things and gotten some gear to help you out.

    At any rate, be prepared to play some politics in the campaign; there are quite a few major factions and subfactions that will be looking to accomplish their own goals and those are liable to bring about some wrinkles to the campaign. Be prepared to make friends in places you never expected and sell certain allies out as the situation changes.

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    Oh yeah, is the second part. Yeah we had some decent gear going into that from hoard.

    steam_sig.png
  • Vincent GraysonVincent Grayson Frederick, MDRegistered User regular
    Brainstorm with me?

    The party ended the last session washed ashore on an unfamiliar continent, and I've got some interesting folks for them to run across in the process of finding their way after the disastrous events of the last session. Among the locations they might visit is a place called The Twice-sealed Tomb. It was sealed from the inside and outside millennia ago, but life finds a way and all, and it seems the tomb's seal has been compromised by the growth of a magical fungus infused with the blood of dead gods. You know, standard fantasy whatever kind of stuff.

    But inside the tomb is a beast, meant to be sealed away from the world forever, now awake and possibly mutated/made more powerful by contact with this blood fungus. Here's my problem: I can't think of what sort of beast it should be, or what kind of thing I want to do with the tomb. I'm not sure I can justify it being a traditional dungeon because it has been sealed for so long that there's no reason for monsters to be in there (other than the sealed beast itself), but I want it to be more interesting than just a big arena to try and kill this thing in.

    I don't want to go cliche and use a dragon, especially since dragons in my setting already have very different lore than normal and it wouldn't fit. I'm thinking something that has at least a bit of magic (since this thing has had contact with Godsblood, it being magic-using works lorewise). The party is level 6, for what it's worth.

  • NealnealNealneal Registered User regular
    I would totally consider using the myconids and the various fungi as encounters in this dungeon. You could also include various undead guardians changed up to include the fungus aspect. Like skeletons animated not by necromancy, but by the fungus that's growing on the bones. Oozes would be good too since they kind of have that slime mold thing going for them. That's the sort of stuff I would use. As to your beast, I would go with a Shambling Mound with slightly bolstered stats to show it has become something else. Maybe have the bones of the original Beast revealed once it was defeated?

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited July 2016
    Behir? Hydra? Beholder? Remorhaze? Somewhat Iconic D&D monsters that are not dragons.

    If you wanted to go with an actual dungeon then maybe a mutant Mycoind king with his little myconid minons running around. Might fit well with your God Blood Fungus?

    edit: Heh. Nealneal and I had the same idea at the same time. He types faster than me though. :)

    Steelhawk on
  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    Oh man, in my last session the party finished their two session arc and got to this great underground lake where they were met with an Aboleth and its Chuul homies. Between bad rolls on their attacks and our Monk landing stunning strikes left and right on them, the Chuuls didn't do much of anything, but they did their job, which was keep the party occupied a few rounds while the Aboleth used it's 3/day enslave.

    First I enslaved the party's barbarian, who then unloaded a crit on the party's little gnome druid. But in one of those fantastic moments our monk used one of his ki reactions earthbender style to kick up a bunch of rocks and deflect the barbarian's maul reducing some of the damage done. Then our dwarf tempest cleric used his 1/heal-up(I use 13A style heal-ups, not long rests for recovering spells/powers, HP, etc.) to leap in and take the attack in the druid's place, reducing the damage by half. So what started out as a 50+ damage crit that would've nearly KOed the druid turned into about 15 damage to the cleric in an awesome moment.

    And to top it off, the Cleric used one of his charges of the tempest thing that lets him blow back enemies when he takes damage, which did a little damage to the Barbarian, allowing an extra save against the enslave, which he passed(and he has a terrible wisdom save). So the Barb didn't do any more damage with the enslave.

    Second, I enslaved the party's monster 20 strength Gnome Fighter who happens to be the twin brother of the druid. They're insanely close in character, and my wife who plays the fighter is roleplaying it masterfully how her normally whimsical young prankster is seriously damaged by how the Aboleth forced him to try to kill his brother and he couldn't do anything to stop it. He did a lot of nasty damage to the druid and almost KOed him before they broke the enslave on him too. My last enslave was an attempt on our rogue, but he passed the save.

    After that, they handled the Aboleth pretty easily all things considered, but it was a really fun fight. The Monk did get his foot torn completely off by an Aboleth tentacle when he was KOed(I use lingering injuries), so the party was glad the Barbarian had decided to invest the gold in a potion of regeneration before they went on this journey.

    Fun stuff all around.

  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    Brainstorm with me?

    The party ended the last session washed ashore on an unfamiliar continent, and I've got some interesting folks for them to run across in the process of finding their way after the disastrous events of the last session. Among the locations they might visit is a place called The Twice-sealed Tomb. It was sealed from the inside and outside millennia ago, but life finds a way and all, and it seems the tomb's seal has been compromised by the growth of a magical fungus infused with the blood of dead gods. You know, standard fantasy whatever kind of stuff.

    But inside the tomb is a beast, meant to be sealed away from the world forever, now awake and possibly mutated/made more powerful by contact with this blood fungus. Here's my problem: I can't think of what sort of beast it should be, or what kind of thing I want to do with the tomb. I'm not sure I can justify it being a traditional dungeon because it has been sealed for so long that there's no reason for monsters to be in there (other than the sealed beast itself), but I want it to be more interesting than just a big arena to try and kill this thing in.

    I don't want to go cliche and use a dragon, especially since dragons in my setting already have very different lore than normal and it wouldn't fit. I'm thinking something that has at least a bit of magic (since this thing has had contact with Godsblood, it being magic-using works lorewise). The party is level 6, for what it's worth.

    If you're looking for something suitable for a standard level 6 party without tweaking, I'd think about a Hydra, Green Slaad, maybe Treant that's twisted by evil. Fomorians are fun too, especially if you wanted to use a blood fungus mutated creature for it as opposed to the standard fey-cursed lore for them.

  • AmarylAmaryl Registered User regular
    Hey guys, I'm (a rather new dm) running a campaign for 3 players - and they're just about at the end of the arc - where they have to go hunt down a demon and a number of cultists revering that demon - they managed to gather a couple of allies, through quests and forged relationships that are supposed to help them defeat that demon.

    my question is mainly do you guys have any tips to handle NPC Allies - because it just doesn't seem like great fun if my players sit there while I run through all the allies doing stuff during initiative in addition to the bad guys?

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Amaryl wrote: »
    Hey guys, I'm (a rather new dm) running a campaign for 3 players - and they're just about at the end of the arc - where they have to go hunt down a demon and a number of cultists revering that demon - they managed to gather a couple of allies, through quests and forged relationships that are supposed to help them defeat that demon.

    my question is mainly do you guys have any tips to handle NPC Allies - because it just doesn't seem like great fun if my players sit there while I run through all the allies doing stuff during initiative in addition to the bad guys?

    My advice is simplify their turns just as much as possible. If they're attacking bad guys just figure out their average damage would be (including hit %) and they just apply it to enemies. Blast past them in the narration unless they down somebody like "NPC continues to fight the orc" or "NPC finally takes down the orc". Don't emphasize their contribution to the combat, don't announce numbers or that they always hit. I'm thinking their turns are like fifteen seconds as you decide what they do, note down the results as you quickly describe it. About the only place I'd differ on this is if they do stuff to directly aid the PCs where I'd be fine with them taking a little more time since it directly plays into the PCs being the center of the story.

    You are right to be wary of NPCs who are on the PCs side in combat. DM PC's are one of the classic ways DMs make games unfun with what seems like an ok idea but the execution leads to lots of pitfalls.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
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