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[D&D 5E] Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

13468999

Posts

  • AbbalahAbbalah Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    No the treadmill you referred to was one where level 20 threats (so those 5 cr 8s) required ac increases on the part of the party... which it does not, because the level 20 threats can still be swinging with the same accuracy as a cr4.

    As I have repeatedly explained, the scaling occurs based on monsters with CR = character level. 5 CR 8 monsters is not a CR 20 monster. At this point I can't really tell if you genuinely aren't following this conversation or are intentionally misinterpreting what you are being told.

    Either way, you were the one who initially referred to a 'treadmill', when you insisted that 4e had one and 5e didn't. All I did was demonstrate that 5e scales in the same manner as 4e, but somewhat more slowly. Their scaling is not different in any fundamental way.

    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    It isn't an assumed growth vector.

    Hit points? Assumed growth
    Attack bonuses? Assumed growth
    Number of attacks/attack damage? Assumed growth.

    Ac isn't assumed growth.

    20th level threats, Which is a function of the encounter building table not the monster cr table (a fact you seem to fail to grasp), don't necessarily assume any ac growth because all ac growth is optional.

    I grasp it just fine. What you seem to be insisting on not grasping is that the monster math scales by the monster, not by the encounter, which is why I'm talking about the monster stats by CR table and not about the encounter building rules - something you were fine with doing until you realized it didn't support your position, at which point you pivoted to talking about encounter building instead.

  • italianranmaitalianranma Registered User regular
    Denada wrote: »
    The treadmill isn't necessarily a value judgment. It is the very system that allows your character to level up and feel more powerful. It's not a bad thing and it's not a criticism. Just a recognition of an extant system.

    Ah, I was letting my own prejudice of treadmills in real life affect my judgement.

    飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    No the treadmill you referred to was one where level 20 threats (so those 5 cr 8s) required ac increases on the part of the party... which it does not, because the level 20 threats can still be swinging with the same accuracy as a cr4.

    As I have repeatedly explained, the scaling occurs based on monsters with CR = character level. 5 CR 8 monsters is not a CR 20 monster. At this point I can't really tell if you genuinely aren't following this conversation or are intentionally misinterpreting what you are being told.

    Either way, you were the one who initially referred to a 'treadmill', when you insisted that 4e had one and 5e didn't. All I did was demonstrate that 5e scales in the same manner as 4e, but somewhat more slowly. Their scaling is not different in any fundamental way.

    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    It isn't an assumed growth vector.

    Hit points? Assumed growth
    Attack bonuses? Assumed growth
    Number of attacks/attack damage? Assumed growth.

    Ac isn't assumed growth.

    20th level threats, Which is a function of the encounter building table not the monster cr table (a fact you seem to fail to grasp), don't necessarily assume any ac growth because all ac growth is optional.

    I grasp it just fine. What you seem to be insisting on not grasping is that the monster math scales by the monster, not by the encounter, which is why I'm talking about the monster stats by CR table and not about the encounter building rules - something you were fine with doing until you realized it didn't support your position, at which point you pivoted to talking about encounter building instead.

    No i made monsters within those rules that still held a flat accuracy. And were cr 20 or higher monsters.

    I only spread it out to 5 dudes because you silly geese seem to accept 10 attacks out of 5 dudes more than 1 dude with 10 attacks.

    Funny how the same amount of attacks coming out of way more hit points spread over multiple targets comes in at a way higher encounter level than 1 guy swinging 10 times.

    They were all swinging for the same damage out of a +5 to hit.

    Like as much as an on cr level monster is an average encounter for a party of that level, it is not the only encounters they will necessarily face.

    5 dudes swinging twice each, or 1 dude swinging 10 times either way it's a 20th level threat both as a single on level cr monster or as a group of 5 dudes that doesn't necessitate a climb in player ac.

    Sleep on
  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    No the treadmill you referred to was one where level 20 threats (so those 5 cr 8s) required ac increases on the part of the party... which it does not, because the level 20 threats can still be swinging with the same accuracy as a cr4.

    As I have repeatedly explained, the scaling occurs based on monsters with CR = character level. 5 CR 8 monsters is not a CR 20 monster. At this point I can't really tell if you genuinely aren't following this conversation or are intentionally misinterpreting what you are being told.

    Either way, you were the one who initially referred to a 'treadmill', when you insisted that 4e had one and 5e didn't. All I did was demonstrate that 5e scales in the same manner as 4e, but somewhat more slowly. Their scaling is not different in any fundamental way.

    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    It isn't an assumed growth vector.

    Hit points? Assumed growth
    Attack bonuses? Assumed growth
    Number of attacks/attack damage? Assumed growth.

    Ac isn't assumed growth.

    20th level threats, Which is a function of the encounter building table not the monster cr table (a fact you seem to fail to grasp), don't necessarily assume any ac growth because all ac growth is optional.

    I grasp it just fine. What you seem to be insisting on not grasping is that the monster math scales by the monster, not by the encounter, which is why I'm talking about the monster stats by CR table and not about the encounter building rules - something you were fine with doing until you realized it didn't support your position, at which point you pivoted to talking about encounter building instead.

    No i made monsters within those rules that still held a flat accuracy. And were cr 20 or higher monsters.

    I only spread it out to 5 dudes because you silly geese seem to accept 10 attacks out of 5 dudes more than 1 dude with 10 attacks.

    Funny how the same amount of attacks coming out of way more hit points spread over multiple targets comes in at a way higher encounter level than 1 guy swinging 10 times.

    They were all swinging for the same damage out of a +5 to hit.

    Like as much as an on cr level monster is an average encounter for a party of that level, it is not the only encounters they will necessarily face.

    5 dudes swinging twice each, or 1 dude swinging 10 times either way it's a 20th level threat both as a single on level cr monster or as a group of 5 dudes that doesn't necessitate a climb in player ac.

    More bodies is necessarily more dangerous for one thing, since it's easier to crowd control one enemy than five, and you never waste damage on overkill.

    That's independent of armor class though.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Essentially yeah bbegs might often contain a combination of good accuracy with decent damage but they need not always do so.

    As well, while bbegs, those singularly fought monsters such as the balor, may be 20th level threats with high everything. They are in no way indicative of any or all the threats you will encounter at 20th level.

    In the end this is another tuning knob if you want to run everyone gets +3 armor and all we fight is Baylors have at it. I can play: you maybe fight 1 Baylor ever, it nearly kills everyone, most of the time you're running into groups of other devils and demons and undead and shit.

  • AbbalahAbbalah Registered User regular
    And that's great, but also has nothing to do with anything anyone has said, and certainly is not relevant to whether monster scaling math exists in 5e.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Rend wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    No the treadmill you referred to was one where level 20 threats (so those 5 cr 8s) required ac increases on the part of the party... which it does not, because the level 20 threats can still be swinging with the same accuracy as a cr4.

    As I have repeatedly explained, the scaling occurs based on monsters with CR = character level. 5 CR 8 monsters is not a CR 20 monster. At this point I can't really tell if you genuinely aren't following this conversation or are intentionally misinterpreting what you are being told.

    Either way, you were the one who initially referred to a 'treadmill', when you insisted that 4e had one and 5e didn't. All I did was demonstrate that 5e scales in the same manner as 4e, but somewhat more slowly. Their scaling is not different in any fundamental way.

    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    It isn't an assumed growth vector.

    Hit points? Assumed growth
    Attack bonuses? Assumed growth
    Number of attacks/attack damage? Assumed growth.

    Ac isn't assumed growth.

    20th level threats, Which is a function of the encounter building table not the monster cr table (a fact you seem to fail to grasp), don't necessarily assume any ac growth because all ac growth is optional.

    I grasp it just fine. What you seem to be insisting on not grasping is that the monster math scales by the monster, not by the encounter, which is why I'm talking about the monster stats by CR table and not about the encounter building rules - something you were fine with doing until you realized it didn't support your position, at which point you pivoted to talking about encounter building instead.

    No i made monsters within those rules that still held a flat accuracy. And were cr 20 or higher monsters.

    I only spread it out to 5 dudes because you silly geese seem to accept 10 attacks out of 5 dudes more than 1 dude with 10 attacks.

    Funny how the same amount of attacks coming out of way more hit points spread over multiple targets comes in at a way higher encounter level than 1 guy swinging 10 times.

    They were all swinging for the same damage out of a +5 to hit.

    Like as much as an on cr level monster is an average encounter for a party of that level, it is not the only encounters they will necessarily face.

    5 dudes swinging twice each, or 1 dude swinging 10 times either way it's a 20th level threat both as a single on level cr monster or as a group of 5 dudes that doesn't necessitate a climb in player ac.

    More bodies is necessarily more dangerous for one thing, since it's easier to crowd control one enemy than five, and you never waste damage on overkill.

    That's independent of armor class though.

    Oh no i know why it gets the upgrade, i literally just skipped a step when doing the math earlier cause i was rushing. Its why i was surprised at someone's complaint about the speed of rolling 10 attacks one a singular monster, that's why i broke it out to 5 dudes, because no one's complaining about how long it takes me to roll attacks for 5 dudes.

    That 1 guy running through combat slicing and dicing is much easier to handle than 5 dudes. Hence why I'm more likely to throw the 5 dudes.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    Abbalah wrote: »
    And that's great, but also has nothing to do with anything anyone has said, and certainly is not relevant to whether monster scaling math exists in 5e.

    you claimed plate armor was an assumed purchase by the system and thus a necessary advancement gated by a heafty gold price

    It is not

    Sleep on
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    ...And this is why my new character is a Monk.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Fuckin amazing

  • italianranmaitalianranma Registered User regular
    I similarly just finished my latest argument with a treadmill. Though it felt like we ranged for figurative miles on the topic, the reality was that we ended up no further than where we started, and frankly I found the whole experience simply exhausting.

    飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    I similarly just finished my latest argument with a treadmill. Though it felt like we ranged for figurative miles on the topic, the reality was that we ended up no further than where we started, and frankly I found the whole experience simply exhausting.

    Sometimes you just gotta get up on the dreadmill and sweat it out

  • AbbalahAbbalah Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Abbalah wrote: »
    And that's great, but also has nothing to do with anything anyone has said, and certainly is not relevant to whether monster scaling math exists in 5e.

    you claimed plate armor was an assumed purchase by the system and thus a necessary advancement gated by a heafty gold price

    It is not

    It is. You are not obligated to understand the math if you don't want to, but it's still there and won't change based on your opinion.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    Sleep wrote: »
    Fuckin amazing

    Wait until I actually get to play him.

    His name is Bennigan Windkist, and he is a halfing monk who will pursue the drunken master style. (We're starting at level one, so gotta get there first.)

    His best friend is a half-orc Barbarian named Hork the Vulture, who just got done doing like five years hard labor because he probably murdered the last adventuring party he was a part of.

    We met during a drinking contest.

    DarkPrimus on
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Fuckin amazing

    Wait until I actually get to play him.

    His name is Bennigan Windkist, and he is a halfing monk who will pursue the drunken master style. (We're starting at level one, so gotta get there first.)

    His best friend is a half-orc Barbarian named Hork the Vulture, who just got done doing like five years hard labor because he probably murdered the last adventuring party he was a part of.

    We met during a drinking contest.

    I like immediately want regular updates on these characters

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Fuckin amazing

    Wait until I actually get to play him.

    His name is Bennigan Windkist, and he is a halfing monk who will pursue the drunken master style. (We're starting at level one, so gotta get there first.)

    His best friend is a half-orc Barbarian named Hork the Vulture, who just got done doing like five years hard labor because he probably murdered the last adventuring party he was a part of.

    We met during a drinking contest.

    I like immediately want regular updates on these characters

    Great, I'm gonna have to start taking notes during the game...

    Wait, that will help me remember things better! That's a good thing.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    But there is such an assumption. Characters with dexterity based AC are expected to increase them with their stat-ups. Characters get bonuses from various sources. Characters are expected to get magical armor and have access to magic spells which increase AC because the probability of not finding defensive equipment before those periods is close to nil.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    But there is such an assumption. Characters with dexterity based AC are expected to increase them with their stat-ups. Characters get bonuses from various sources. Characters are expected to get magical armor and have access to magic spells which increase AC because the probability of not finding defensive equipment before those periods is close to nil.

    sometimes the dice are shit.

    Most armor is a 1 number entry in the table it is on. Even trying to buy it could be problematic. Looking for +1 plate is magic item table I so you need a persuasion of over 41, and then it is actually 64 65

    +1 studded leather? 96 on magic item table h.

    +3 plate? 76 on magic item table I then you have to get a 12 on a d12 roll.

  • JustTeeJustTee Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    But there is such an assumption. Characters with dexterity based AC are expected to increase them with their stat-ups. Characters get bonuses from various sources. Characters are expected to get magical armor and have access to magic spells which increase AC because the probability of not finding defensive equipment before those periods is close to nil.

    sometimes the dice are shit.

    Most armor is a 1 number entry in the table it is on. Even trying to buy it could be problematic. Looking for +1 plate is magic item table I so you need a persuasion of over 41, and then it is actually 64 65

    +1 studded leather? 96 on magic item table h.

    +3 plate? 76 on magic item table I then you have to get a 12 on a d12 roll.

    I legit don't understand what you're saying here.

    The math is pretty clear. Additionally, giving out gear is 100% DM discretion. So, you give out (or require a quest to find) items custom for your parties.

    Or, at least, I do. Because it means I can throw more difficult and crazier things at my party without risking accidental TPKs.

    Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
  • italianranmaitalianranma Registered User regular
    And now for something completely different, how would you stat the elven subraces in Eberron. The high elves seem appropriate for Aerenal, but I don't see where wood elves would fit in. I'm not a big fan of the Eladrin narrative from 4E myself, and my players aren't interested in them either. One player however is dead set on playing a Sea Elf. An orphaned one at that (quick side note, what is up with my millenial players and tragic orphan backstories? I'm going to blame Disney).

    I might just restat the subraces with an Eberron flavor, but I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with sea elves or what kind of narrative I want for that race as a whole.

    飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    But there is such an assumption. Characters with dexterity based AC are expected to increase them with their stat-ups. Characters get bonuses from various sources. Characters are expected to get magical armor and have access to magic spells which increase AC because the probability of not finding defensive equipment before those periods is close to nil.

    sometimes the dice are shit.

    Most armor is a 1 number entry in the table it is on. Even trying to buy it could be problematic. Looking for +1 plate is magic item table I so you need a persuasion of over 41, and then it is actually 64 65

    +1 studded leather? 96 on magic item table h.

    +3 plate? 76 on magic item table I then you have to get a 12 on a d12 roll.

    Do you actually roll on magic item tables instead of just hand curating your party's treasure?

  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Like I might resort to random items on the wondrous item list or magic weapon enchantments table or things like that but I come into a treasure hoard with a plan as to which characters might get a weapon or piece of armor already in mind.

    I also roll for gold because hey why not

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    JustTee wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    Except for the lack of assumption of character ac growth.

    But there is such an assumption. Characters with dexterity based AC are expected to increase them with their stat-ups. Characters get bonuses from various sources. Characters are expected to get magical armor and have access to magic spells which increase AC because the probability of not finding defensive equipment before those periods is close to nil.

    sometimes the dice are shit.

    Most armor is a 1 number entry in the table it is on. Even trying to buy it could be problematic. Looking for +1 plate is magic item table I so you need a persuasion of over 41, and then it is actually 64 65

    +1 studded leather? 96 on magic item table h.

    +3 plate? 76 on magic item table I then you have to get a 12 on a d12 roll.

    I legit don't understand what you're saying here.

    The math is pretty clear. Additionally, giving out gear is 100% DM discretion. So, you give out (or require a quest to find) items custom for your parties.

    Or, at least, I do. Because it means I can throw more difficult and crazier things at my party without risking accidental TPKs.

    And that's fine, but it is not required.

    I was referencing the random magic item tables, they dictate the random frequency at which items are purchasable via the guidelines in xanathars, and are the only way chance would average into if you find a magic item or not (Outside of pure dm fiat wich can foregoe magical armor at whim without making the party incapable of facing on level fights)

  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    discrider wrote: »
    The main question here I feel is:
    Despite rules to generate monsters in 5e, is it possible to avoid the AC curve based on the monsters that come in the books?
    If so, how limited is the DM's selection in order to maintain flat to hit math?

    Because it's all well and good that Sleep can create such a curve based on either his intuition or the monster generation rules.
    But I'd expect the vast majority of DMs to pull stat blocks directly and at random from the books. Especially new DMs.
    And this will introduce them to and cause them to follow the AC curve.

    The thing is that level 20 threats isn't necessarily always cr20 monsters. Yeah the balor and shit like that have high to hit and damage, but level 20 threats also includes a pack of 4 to 5 chain demons which are still only on +8 to hit with a bunch of attacks each.

    Having run high level 5e quite a bit now, those monsters will have 0 chance of doing anything to a high level party.

    And the Balor is hot garbage and will be annihilated by a high level party as well. In fact, 5e breaks so badly at high levels this discussion is moot. Progression of stats is irrelevant compared to progression of spells and abilities.

    A great weapon champion fighter can do enough damage to remove an enemy before it's even a significant threat.

    Bounded accuracy keeping monsters "challenging" is one of 5es most bemusing jokes. It straight up doesn't work.

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • Mongrel IdiotMongrel Idiot Registered User regular
    I wanted to try out some of the stuff in Xanathar's, so I rolled on the tables and stitched together a background for a dude. They worked pretty well, and weren't difficult at all to fit into an overall narrative. Cool stuff.
    The Kadmos family was well-known in the little community of homesteaders along the River Garn. The matriarch, Lissia, was well-respected and much-pitied, for her husband had taken his own life shortly after they came to the edge of civilization, or so all the stories said. Nevertheless she persevered, and her children grew up tall and proud. Except, that is, for the weak-backed, gray-skinned Beraiel.

    Nobody would speak against him out of respect for his mother, but the boy was odd from the get-go, always hanging about in empty, shadow-clogged barns and delving into the darkest parts of the woods. Nevertheless his childhood was idyllic, full of friendship (such as was available in their tiny world) and happiness.

    When he came of age, though, he began to manifest strange powers, calling shadows to himself and sending crockery to clattering across the table with a word. When his skin grew cold as an autumn night his mother told him the truth. In ages past, some ancestor or another of his father's had offended a creature of the Shadowfell, who had cursed her bloodline such that the third child in every family would be infused with the magic of that dark place. His father, an only child's only child, didn't believe the story; when the boy was born in their little house, cloaked around with shadow and gloom, the father killed himself rather than face the truth.

    So Beraiel came of age, and slowly and in secret learned something like control over his powers. He served as a guide in the woods, for he knew it stem and stream, and even helped some wandering adventurers to root out a nest of twig blights, though they were little appreciative of the strange, nervous man he'd grown up to be. His world shrank; his siblings became distant; his friends abandoned him. Only his mother still remembered the bright and cheery little boy he had been before the shade settled in.

    The world didn't let the River Garn be for long, and the High King's war swept through in a bluster of trumpets and recruiting sergeants and king's coins pressed into eager palms. Beraiel and his oldest brother Katstin went away to the war, fighting hobgoblins on the borderlands. Their first battle was a walk, and Beraiel even earned some handsome scars in the fighting, and plucked a curious scroll from a dead hobgoblin warlock. When he unrolled it during the second battle, however, and spoke the strange words written upon it, fire took a mercenary company that was attacking his battalion. Ever after, he would wake up in a cold sweat, his ears full of their screaming and his nose thick with cooked human flesh.

    Eventually he mustered out, far from home and with little to show for it, for what soldier would befriend a stammering, nervous, fidgety man whose skin is like ice on the hottest summer day? Only the old cook, who taught him the secrets of spices, and the company medic, who showed him how to bind a wound, and both of them were dead, long dead, and his brother was on the road home. Beraiel stayed, though, in a border town, descending into his cups days by day, until some up-and-coming tough picked a fight with him and wound up dead. So Beraiel ran; what else was there to do?

    But that was alright; Beraiel knew how to live off the land, and he set out to find... something. Some place, some person, something where he wouldn't feel so terribly cold, so awfully alone. Some place where the arm days of his childhood might return, and blow away the shadows that were upon him.

    Beraiel Kadmos
    Human Sorcerer (Shadow Magic) 6 NG

    AC 12 HP 32 Speed 30ft

    Str 10 (0) Dex 12 (1) Con 12 (1) Wis 14 (2) Int 12 (1) Cha 16 (3)

    Attacks
    Staff +3 1d6

    Human Skill: Animal Handling
    Human Feat: Prodigy (Tool: Cook's utensils. Skill: Medicine. Language: Sylvan. Expertise: Medicine.)
    Sign of Sorcery: Gloom and shadows gather when casting.
    Spellcasting
    Sorcerous Origin: Shadow Magic
    Shadow Magic Quirk: Always cold to the touch.
    Eyes of the Dark
    Strength of the Grave
    Font of Magic (6 sorcery points)
    Metamagic (Careful Spell, Subtle Spell)
    Feat: Lightly Armored
    Hound of Ill Omen

    Here are the "raw" results I used to assemble that background:
    Born at home.
    3 siblings
    3rd of 4 children.
    Single mother. Father died of an apparent suicide.
    Poor lifestyle growing up in a rundown shack.
    I had several friends, and my childhood was generally happy.
    Background: Outlander (homesteading)
    My immediate family never spoke of my ancestors; at least, that is, until I started manifesting strange powers.
    Life event: Went on an adventure, earned 6 gp.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, suffering minor injuries.
    Life event: Found a scroll of fireball and somehow managed to cast it.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, and suffer from nightmares about it.
    Life event: Worked as a guide, for a time, earning 7 extra gp.
    Life event: I assaulted someone, and had to flee the community. I'm still wanted there.

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Got my Xanathar's guide! w00t! I love the cover art on the standard version. D&D has had some great art over the years, no doubt.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    I wanted to try out some of the stuff in Xanathar's, so I rolled on the tables and stitched together a background for a dude. They worked pretty well, and weren't difficult at all to fit into an overall narrative. Cool stuff.
    The Kadmos family was well-known in the little community of homesteaders along the River Garn. The matriarch, Lissia, was well-respected and much-pitied, for her husband had taken his own life shortly after they came to the edge of civilization, or so all the stories said. Nevertheless she persevered, and her children grew up tall and proud. Except, that is, for the weak-backed, gray-skinned Beraiel.

    Nobody would speak against him out of respect for his mother, but the boy was odd from the get-go, always hanging about in empty, shadow-clogged barns and delving into the darkest parts of the woods. Nevertheless his childhood was idyllic, full of friendship (such as was available in their tiny world) and happiness.

    When he came of age, though, he began to manifest strange powers, calling shadows to himself and sending crockery to clattering across the table with a word. When his skin grew cold as an autumn night his mother told him the truth. In ages past, some ancestor or another of his father's had offended a creature of the Shadowfell, who had cursed her bloodline such that the third child in every family would be infused with the magic of that dark place. His father, an only child's only child, didn't believe the story; when the boy was born in their little house, cloaked around with shadow and gloom, the father killed himself rather than face the truth.

    So Beraiel came of age, and slowly and in secret learned something like control over his powers. He served as a guide in the woods, for he knew it stem and stream, and even helped some wandering adventurers to root out a nest of twig blights, though they were little appreciative of the strange, nervous man he'd grown up to be. His world shrank; his siblings became distant; his friends abandoned him. Only his mother still remembered the bright and cheery little boy he had been before the shade settled in.

    The world didn't let the River Garn be for long, and the High King's war swept through in a bluster of trumpets and recruiting sergeants and king's coins pressed into eager palms. Beraiel and his oldest brother Katstin went away to the war, fighting hobgoblins on the borderlands. Their first battle was a walk, and Beraiel even earned some handsome scars in the fighting, and plucked a curious scroll from a dead hobgoblin warlock. When he unrolled it during the second battle, however, and spoke the strange words written upon it, fire took a mercenary company that was attacking his battalion. Ever after, he would wake up in a cold sweat, his ears full of their screaming and his nose thick with cooked human flesh.

    Eventually he mustered out, far from home and with little to show for it, for what soldier would befriend a stammering, nervous, fidgety man whose skin is like ice on the hottest summer day? Only the old cook, who taught him the secrets of spices, and the company medic, who showed him how to bind a wound, and both of them were dead, long dead, and his brother was on the road home. Beraiel stayed, though, in a border town, descending into his cups days by day, until some up-and-coming tough picked a fight with him and wound up dead. So Beraiel ran; what else was there to do?

    But that was alright; Beraiel knew how to live off the land, and he set out to find... something. Some place, some person, something where he wouldn't feel so terribly cold, so awfully alone. Some place where the arm days of his childhood might return, and blow away the shadows that were upon him.

    Beraiel Kadmos
    Human Sorcerer (Shadow Magic) 6 NG

    AC 12 HP 32 Speed 30ft

    Str 10 (0) Dex 12 (1) Con 12 (1) Wis 14 (2) Int 12 (1) Cha 16 (3)

    Attacks
    Staff +3 1d6

    Human Skill: Animal Handling
    Human Feat: Prodigy (Tool: Cook's utensils. Skill: Medicine. Language: Sylvan. Expertise: Medicine.)
    Sign of Sorcery: Gloom and shadows gather when casting.
    Spellcasting
    Sorcerous Origin: Shadow Magic
    Shadow Magic Quirk: Always cold to the touch.
    Eyes of the Dark
    Strength of the Grave
    Font of Magic (6 sorcery points)
    Metamagic (Careful Spell, Subtle Spell)
    Feat: Lightly Armored
    Hound of Ill Omen

    Here are the "raw" results I used to assemble that background:
    Born at home.
    3 siblings
    3rd of 4 children.
    Single mother. Father died of an apparent suicide.
    Poor lifestyle growing up in a rundown shack.
    I had several friends, and my childhood was generally happy.
    Background: Outlander (homesteading)
    My immediate family never spoke of my ancestors; at least, that is, until I started manifesting strange powers.
    Life event: Went on an adventure, earned 6 gp.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, suffering minor injuries.
    Life event: Found a scroll of fireball and somehow managed to cast it.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, and suffer from nightmares about it.
    Life event: Worked as a guide, for a time, earning 7 extra gp.
    Life event: I assaulted someone, and had to flee the community. I'm still wanted there.

    I love this stuff.

    I've been holding back on diving in on making an innumerable bunch of NPCs with overly elaborate backstories no one will ever know, but it also seems like a fun way to build out the history for the setting, like fought in a battle necessitates defining a random battle somewhere in the world within recentish history (depending on age).

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    Buddy of mine is joining our D&D group tomorrow, and never has played D&D. Should be pretty fun. We're going over his character tomorrow before the session. To keep it easy he is going to be playing a champion fighter. I've built him 2 option, one a Strength based half orc wielding a great axe, and one a dex based wood elf with a rapier and long bow, that might be fun to multiclass with one of the Xanathar's guide ranger options. Both classes play close to each other but can offer quite a bit of unique flavor beyond just the mechanics. He will be starting at 6th level to be able to fit in to the existing group.

    If he likes either option I'll walk him through how to build it from level 1, and hopefully impart some understanding of the system.

    webguy20 on
    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    My favorite part about Xanathar's are the little flavor text blurbs from the beholder.

    Especially his bit about arrows.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    ...And this is why my new character is a Monk.

    Monk really doesn't get a lot of item support though.
    It's sort of boring tbh.

    Like being able to ignore the treadmill is great, but there really needs to be some interesting consumables or unique effects or something that you can use.
    My monk's last purchase was 'My party just killed all these guards who were protecting their insane master. Better pay this town cleric to rez them with all this dosh I haven't had any opportunity to use.'

    discrider on
  • AmarylAmaryl Registered User regular
    discrider wrote: »
    The main question here I feel is:
    Despite rules to generate monsters in 5e, is it possible to avoid the AC curve based on the monsters that come in the books?
    If so, how limited is the DM's selection in order to maintain flat to hit math?

    Because it's all well and good that Sleep can create such a curve based on either his intuition or the monster generation rules.
    But I'd expect the vast majority of DMs to pull stat blocks directly and at random from the books. Especially new DMs.
    And this will introduce them to and cause them to follow the AC curve.

    Well the AC11 wizard will go from a 65% to hit with monsters to 95% to hit with monsters if the PC doesn't increase his AC.

    And the 18AC (chainmail and shield) fighter will go from 30% to hit to 65% to hit with monsters if the PC doesn't increase his AC (assuming you go from +4 modifier to +11 and I didn't fuck up my math)

    As a DM, you can do two things about this: Say Yes - this is what I want. or as your pcs level give them AC bonuses from somewhere. The most likely option for that is getting better armour, be it plate or magical.

    As you become more powerful, you get relatively weaker to equal CR creatures because they do get an AC bonus.


  • italianranmaitalianranma Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    Sleep wrote: »
    discrider wrote: »
    The main question here I feel is:
    Despite rules to generate monsters in 5e, is it possible to avoid the AC curve based on the monsters that come in the books?
    If so, how limited is the DM's selection in order to maintain flat to hit math?

    Because it's all well and good that Sleep can create such a curve based on either his intuition or the monster generation rules.
    But I'd expect the vast majority of DMs to pull stat blocks directly and at random from the books. Especially new DMs.
    And this will introduce them to and cause them to follow the AC curve.

    The thing is that level 20 threats isn't necessarily always cr20 monsters. Yeah the balor and shit like that have high to hit and damage, but level 20 threats also includes a pack of 4 to 5 chain demons which are still only on +8 to hit with a bunch of attacks each.

    Having run high level 5e quite a bit now, those monsters will have 0 chance of doing anything to a high level party.

    And the Balor is hot garbage and will be annihilated by a high level party as well. In fact, 5e breaks so badly at high levels this discussion is moot. Progression of stats is irrelevant compared to progression of spells and abilities.

    A great weapon champion fighter can do enough damage to remove an enemy before it's even a significant threat.

    Bounded accuracy keeping monsters "challenging" is one of 5es most bemusing jokes. It straight up doesn't work.

    I haven't DM'd for a high-level group yet, but I gotta ask is this manageable by fitting in 6+ combats in the adventuring day? For my lower level groups I try to put at least 2 or 3 combat encounters in a single session, and at least that many prior to whatever set piece I've made as the climax of the adventure. I kinda like seeing them tear through the opening encounters only to get more nervous as the adventure continues.

    飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
  • Mongrel IdiotMongrel Idiot Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    I wanted to try out some of the stuff in Xanathar's, so I rolled on the tables and stitched together a background for a dude. They worked pretty well, and weren't difficult at all to fit into an overall narrative. Cool stuff.
    The Kadmos family was well-known in the little community of homesteaders along the River Garn. The matriarch, Lissia, was well-respected and much-pitied, for her husband had taken his own life shortly after they came to the edge of civilization, or so all the stories said. Nevertheless she persevered, and her children grew up tall and proud. Except, that is, for the weak-backed, gray-skinned Beraiel.

    Nobody would speak against him out of respect for his mother, but the boy was odd from the get-go, always hanging about in empty, shadow-clogged barns and delving into the darkest parts of the woods. Nevertheless his childhood was idyllic, full of friendship (such as was available in their tiny world) and happiness.

    When he came of age, though, he began to manifest strange powers, calling shadows to himself and sending crockery to clattering across the table with a word. When his skin grew cold as an autumn night his mother told him the truth. In ages past, some ancestor or another of his father's had offended a creature of the Shadowfell, who had cursed her bloodline such that the third child in every family would be infused with the magic of that dark place. His father, an only child's only child, didn't believe the story; when the boy was born in their little house, cloaked around with shadow and gloom, the father killed himself rather than face the truth.

    So Beraiel came of age, and slowly and in secret learned something like control over his powers. He served as a guide in the woods, for he knew it stem and stream, and even helped some wandering adventurers to root out a nest of twig blights, though they were little appreciative of the strange, nervous man he'd grown up to be. His world shrank; his siblings became distant; his friends abandoned him. Only his mother still remembered the bright and cheery little boy he had been before the shade settled in.

    The world didn't let the River Garn be for long, and the High King's war swept through in a bluster of trumpets and recruiting sergeants and king's coins pressed into eager palms. Beraiel and his oldest brother Katstin went away to the war, fighting hobgoblins on the borderlands. Their first battle was a walk, and Beraiel even earned some handsome scars in the fighting, and plucked a curious scroll from a dead hobgoblin warlock. When he unrolled it during the second battle, however, and spoke the strange words written upon it, fire took a mercenary company that was attacking his battalion. Ever after, he would wake up in a cold sweat, his ears full of their screaming and his nose thick with cooked human flesh.

    Eventually he mustered out, far from home and with little to show for it, for what soldier would befriend a stammering, nervous, fidgety man whose skin is like ice on the hottest summer day? Only the old cook, who taught him the secrets of spices, and the company medic, who showed him how to bind a wound, and both of them were dead, long dead, and his brother was on the road home. Beraiel stayed, though, in a border town, descending into his cups days by day, until some up-and-coming tough picked a fight with him and wound up dead. So Beraiel ran; what else was there to do?

    But that was alright; Beraiel knew how to live off the land, and he set out to find... something. Some place, some person, something where he wouldn't feel so terribly cold, so awfully alone. Some place where the arm days of his childhood might return, and blow away the shadows that were upon him.

    Beraiel Kadmos
    Human Sorcerer (Shadow Magic) 6 NG

    AC 12 HP 32 Speed 30ft

    Str 10 (0) Dex 12 (1) Con 12 (1) Wis 14 (2) Int 12 (1) Cha 16 (3)

    Attacks
    Staff +3 1d6

    Human Skill: Animal Handling
    Human Feat: Prodigy (Tool: Cook's utensils. Skill: Medicine. Language: Sylvan. Expertise: Medicine.)
    Sign of Sorcery: Gloom and shadows gather when casting.
    Spellcasting
    Sorcerous Origin: Shadow Magic
    Shadow Magic Quirk: Always cold to the touch.
    Eyes of the Dark
    Strength of the Grave
    Font of Magic (6 sorcery points)
    Metamagic (Careful Spell, Subtle Spell)
    Feat: Lightly Armored
    Hound of Ill Omen

    Here are the "raw" results I used to assemble that background:
    Born at home.
    3 siblings
    3rd of 4 children.
    Single mother. Father died of an apparent suicide.
    Poor lifestyle growing up in a rundown shack.
    I had several friends, and my childhood was generally happy.
    Background: Outlander (homesteading)
    My immediate family never spoke of my ancestors; at least, that is, until I started manifesting strange powers.
    Life event: Went on an adventure, earned 6 gp.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, suffering minor injuries.
    Life event: Found a scroll of fireball and somehow managed to cast it.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, and suffer from nightmares about it.
    Life event: Worked as a guide, for a time, earning 7 extra gp.
    Life event: I assaulted someone, and had to flee the community. I'm still wanted there.

    I love this stuff.

    I've been holding back on diving in on making an innumerable bunch of NPCs with overly elaborate backstories no one will ever know, but it also seems like a fun way to build out the history for the setting, like fought in a battle necessitates defining a random battle somewhere in the world within recentish history (depending on age).
    Yeah, I could see using some of the tables for NPCs, too, just to inject a little flavor into their background. Maybe roll two or three life events for 'em so that when the players go asking about rumors you've got some interesting red herrings for them to chase down.

  • Ken OKen O Registered User regular
    I rolled up the background for my Wood Elf Scout/Hunter and it worked perfectly. The only thing I did was rearrange the order of the life events.

    Artisan Mother alive and well.
    Soldier Father died due to disease.

    2 Siblings.
    1 Older sister. An artisan like her mother, friendly, alive and well.
    1 Younger brother. A farmer, indifferent, alive and successful.

    My rolls were:
    Love
    War: Escaped the battle unscathed, though many of your friends were injured or lost.
    Tragedy: Lover died, killed in battle
    Adventure: Lost something of sentimental value


    So my character from the High Forest is in love with a childhood friend who grew up to be a fighter. They plan to marry. Then they're village is attacked by Orcs. Massive battles ensue, killing his love and injuring his father enough that he eventually dies of disease. Unable to stay in his home anymore, he sets off on adventure. He gets in over his head early, and looses the necklace that his love had given him many years ago.

    http://www.fingmonkey.com/
    Comics, Games, Booze
  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    Rend wrote: »
    Like I might resort to random items on the wondrous item list or magic weapon enchantments table or things like that but I come into a treasure hoard with a plan as to which characters might get a weapon or piece of armor already in mind.

    I also roll for gold because hey why not

    Speaking of gold, has anyone found a use for it yet? I wouldn't mind opening up the magic item shop, but buying +X armor and a +X animated shield instantly kills the game's math, so you have gate what items they can buy, what levels they can buy them, et cetera.

    Mostly I keep my gold currency yield low, reasoning that elemental gold is magical in nature, allowing wizards to use it in lieu of components. Who wants to carry bat guano around when they can just sacrifice that bitchin' thumb ring they're wearing? World economy is based on the fact that certain spells have a gold value to cast and result in a gold value of gain (traveling 500 miles costs x amount in horses and guards, but only y amount for a wizard to cast Portal).

    I've been poring over my 4e books after Colville recommended turning class powers into magic items. It's really some great advice, as I find the magic items in 5e to be terribly bland.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    I wanted to try out some of the stuff in Xanathar's, so I rolled on the tables and stitched together a background for a dude. They worked pretty well, and weren't difficult at all to fit into an overall narrative. Cool stuff.
    The Kadmos family was well-known in the little community of homesteaders along the River Garn. The matriarch, Lissia, was well-respected and much-pitied, for her husband had taken his own life shortly after they came to the edge of civilization, or so all the stories said. Nevertheless she persevered, and her children grew up tall and proud. Except, that is, for the weak-backed, gray-skinned Beraiel.

    Nobody would speak against him out of respect for his mother, but the boy was odd from the get-go, always hanging about in empty, shadow-clogged barns and delving into the darkest parts of the woods. Nevertheless his childhood was idyllic, full of friendship (such as was available in their tiny world) and happiness.

    When he came of age, though, he began to manifest strange powers, calling shadows to himself and sending crockery to clattering across the table with a word. When his skin grew cold as an autumn night his mother told him the truth. In ages past, some ancestor or another of his father's had offended a creature of the Shadowfell, who had cursed her bloodline such that the third child in every family would be infused with the magic of that dark place. His father, an only child's only child, didn't believe the story; when the boy was born in their little house, cloaked around with shadow and gloom, the father killed himself rather than face the truth.

    So Beraiel came of age, and slowly and in secret learned something like control over his powers. He served as a guide in the woods, for he knew it stem and stream, and even helped some wandering adventurers to root out a nest of twig blights, though they were little appreciative of the strange, nervous man he'd grown up to be. His world shrank; his siblings became distant; his friends abandoned him. Only his mother still remembered the bright and cheery little boy he had been before the shade settled in.

    The world didn't let the River Garn be for long, and the High King's war swept through in a bluster of trumpets and recruiting sergeants and king's coins pressed into eager palms. Beraiel and his oldest brother Katstin went away to the war, fighting hobgoblins on the borderlands. Their first battle was a walk, and Beraiel even earned some handsome scars in the fighting, and plucked a curious scroll from a dead hobgoblin warlock. When he unrolled it during the second battle, however, and spoke the strange words written upon it, fire took a mercenary company that was attacking his battalion. Ever after, he would wake up in a cold sweat, his ears full of their screaming and his nose thick with cooked human flesh.

    Eventually he mustered out, far from home and with little to show for it, for what soldier would befriend a stammering, nervous, fidgety man whose skin is like ice on the hottest summer day? Only the old cook, who taught him the secrets of spices, and the company medic, who showed him how to bind a wound, and both of them were dead, long dead, and his brother was on the road home. Beraiel stayed, though, in a border town, descending into his cups days by day, until some up-and-coming tough picked a fight with him and wound up dead. So Beraiel ran; what else was there to do?

    But that was alright; Beraiel knew how to live off the land, and he set out to find... something. Some place, some person, something where he wouldn't feel so terribly cold, so awfully alone. Some place where the arm days of his childhood might return, and blow away the shadows that were upon him.

    Beraiel Kadmos
    Human Sorcerer (Shadow Magic) 6 NG

    AC 12 HP 32 Speed 30ft

    Str 10 (0) Dex 12 (1) Con 12 (1) Wis 14 (2) Int 12 (1) Cha 16 (3)

    Attacks
    Staff +3 1d6

    Human Skill: Animal Handling
    Human Feat: Prodigy (Tool: Cook's utensils. Skill: Medicine. Language: Sylvan. Expertise: Medicine.)
    Sign of Sorcery: Gloom and shadows gather when casting.
    Spellcasting
    Sorcerous Origin: Shadow Magic
    Shadow Magic Quirk: Always cold to the touch.
    Eyes of the Dark
    Strength of the Grave
    Font of Magic (6 sorcery points)
    Metamagic (Careful Spell, Subtle Spell)
    Feat: Lightly Armored
    Hound of Ill Omen

    Here are the "raw" results I used to assemble that background:
    Born at home.
    3 siblings
    3rd of 4 children.
    Single mother. Father died of an apparent suicide.
    Poor lifestyle growing up in a rundown shack.
    I had several friends, and my childhood was generally happy.
    Background: Outlander (homesteading)
    My immediate family never spoke of my ancestors; at least, that is, until I started manifesting strange powers.
    Life event: Went on an adventure, earned 6 gp.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, suffering minor injuries.
    Life event: Found a scroll of fireball and somehow managed to cast it.
    Life event: Fought in a battle, and suffer from nightmares about it.
    Life event: Worked as a guide, for a time, earning 7 extra gp.
    Life event: I assaulted someone, and had to flee the community. I'm still wanted there.

    I love this stuff.

    I've been holding back on diving in on making an innumerable bunch of NPCs with overly elaborate backstories no one will ever know, but it also seems like a fun way to build out the history for the setting, like fought in a battle necessitates defining a random battle somewhere in the world within recentish history (depending on age).
    Yeah, I could see using some of the tables for NPCs, too, just to inject a little flavor into their background. Maybe roll two or three life events for 'em so that when the players go asking about rumors you've got some interesting red herrings for them to chase down.

    Yep, think I'm gunna dive in on these tables next week.

  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    Like I might resort to random items on the wondrous item list or magic weapon enchantments table or things like that but I come into a treasure hoard with a plan as to which characters might get a weapon or piece of armor already in mind.

    I also roll for gold because hey why not

    Speaking of gold, has anyone found a use for it yet? I wouldn't mind opening up the magic item shop, but buying +X armor and a +X animated shield instantly kills the game's math, so you have gate what items they can buy, what levels they can buy them, et cetera.

    Mostly I keep my gold currency yield low, reasoning that elemental gold is magical in nature, allowing wizards to use it in lieu of components. Who wants to carry bat guano around when they can just sacrifice that bitchin' thumb ring they're wearing? World economy is based on the fact that certain spells have a gold value to cast and result in a gold value of gain (traveling 500 miles costs x amount in horses and guards, but only y amount for a wizard to cast Portal).

    I've been poring over my 4e books after Colville recommended turning class powers into magic items. It's really some great advice, as I find the magic items in 5e to be terribly bland.

    In my experience if you don't have a gold sink the players have invented ("we want to open a shop" "we want to build and upkeep a stronghold" "we want to throw the biggest party this city has ever seen") then you can invent some.

    -If your characters are visiting the court of a king, maybe give them disadvantage to all charisma based rolls unless they buy some courtly garments, but give them advantage if they go above and beyond to be in fashion.
    -Maybe have a mysterious high priest give them a tale of woe about the nearly forgotten god he worships, and heavily imply that gold given freely to this church might result in "good luck" later down the road, which you would then either let the players invoke or invoke yourself to do things like allow the players to have just the item they need at the time or narrowly avoid a dangerous situation by sheer luck or fortune.
    -Maybe introduce a couple of ludicrously expensive services wherein the characters could effectively buy their way into the aristocracy, the same way a merchant prince might. 10,000 gold gets you a coat of arms and an official noble family name, or what have you. Then the other nobles have to pay attention to what you say, even the snooty ones.

    etc.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    discrider wrote: »
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    ...And this is why my new character is a Monk.

    Monk really doesn't get a lot of item support though.
    It's sort of boring tbh.

    Like being able to ignore the treadmill is great, but there really needs to be some interesting consumables or unique effects or something that you can use.
    My monk's last purchase was 'My party just killed all these guards who were protecting their insane master. Better pay this town cleric to rez them with all this dosh I haven't had any opportunity to use.'

    Eh, I'm not too concerned about going "oh no, where is my epic loot" for this campaign. Playing for the collaborative story-telling aspect more than anything.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    That's the big thing is that gold is basically superfluous without self brought character motivations. What does your character want in life past the end of this adventure?

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    That's the big thing is that gold is basically superfluous without self brought character motivations. What does your character want in life past the end of this adventure?

    We're going to be doing the Tomb of Annihilation campaign once we're the appropriate level to start it. I have no idea what it entails, but I assume some motivations will stem from what we discover there.

    As of right now, however, my character has left his monastery in a disgrace and is drinking to avoid acknowledging his inner turmoil. He's going to have to slowly find his center and moderate himself in order to master the techniques that his master had taught him. (His master was kind of a Qui-Gon Jinn type, with a philosophy that was kind of at odds with the order's greater teachings, but not necessarily in a bad way.)

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