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Dinos and Druids, A Tasty Romp through Table Top Games

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Posts

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    DrDinosaur wrote: »
    Didn't an early version of the 5e playtest have a Favored Enemy feature that provided generalized bonuses? Like if your Enemy was dragons you got a bonus against fear effects.

    Oh I like this idea a bunch

    I feel like it might get too granular, but whatever, wizards fuckin' exist, other classes can have a chance at it too

    I was actually really disappointed when they abandoned that design in the playtest. It was such a good combination of crunch and flavor. It made it so the more broadly applicable capabilities your particular enemy required of you to help you everywhere. Like being good at fighting giant's made you better at fighting anything bigger than you.

  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    i need to begin tricking my dm into acknowledging chult and let my character read books about it early in waterdeep so i can nail his ass to the wall when he makes me justify the trex polymorph

    gcum67ktu9e4.pngimg
  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    The Animorphs had to break into a zoo to get exotic forms and it was a good adventure. I feel like a DM should be able to come up with a justification for any given creature that you want to moop into, it can either be a little vignette or a "during the break since our last session..."

    Yeah like

    I guess if that druid restriction doesn't spark joy for you, get rid of it

    But to me it seems like a lot more fun than just being able to turn into any animal you want from the get go

  • MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    the one time i played as a druid with the wild shape restriction as written, i was from the desert and i wanted to turn into a tiger. It became a running joke that i was the kid at the zoo trying to get their mom to take them to go see the big cats but she just wouldn't.

    "I wanna go see the tigers" "after the kobolds" "but i don't want to see the kobolds, i wanna see the tigers"

    so i have a particular stick against it because to me it just gets in the way of fun.

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Melding wrote: »
    the one time i played as a druid with the wild shape restriction as written, i was from the desert and i wanted to turn into a tiger. It became a running joke that i was the kid at the zoo trying to get their mom to take them to go see the big cats but she just wouldn't.

    "I wanna go see the tigers" "after the kobolds" "but i don't want to see the kobolds, i wanna see the tigers"

    so i have a particular stick against it because to me it just gets in the way of fun.

    I can see why you would. I think I would maybe see that as a failure for the DM to catch a ball you were trying to throw them.

    I'm going to take the equivalent of wildshape in the fourth game (the third game gives me the xp I need), and I'm going to pitch the DM on a vignette where Dogfood has to fight and kill an actual wolf in order to learn the power.

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    edited January 2019
    That clause in wild shape has always been one of the first things I'm thinking about when I start playing a druid, so I'm always going to have my top five terrain appropriate wild shapes prepared before I even hit the table, so I guess I just find it surprising that other people have trouble with it.

    Edit: Nah this was too judgmental the first time

    Straightzi on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    the one time i played as a druid with the wild shape restriction as written, i was from the desert and i wanted to turn into a tiger. It became a running joke that i was the kid at the zoo trying to get their mom to take them to go see the big cats but she just wouldn't.

    "I wanna go see the tigers" "after the kobolds" "but i don't want to see the kobolds, i wanna see the tigers"

    so i have a particular stick against it because to me it just gets in the way of fun.

    Pretty messed up to have Kobolds on display in a zoo.
    I mean, they're intelligent humanoids, aren't they? Not just "smart for an animal", but actually sapient?

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    Melding wrote: »
    the one time i played as a druid with the wild shape restriction as written, i was from the desert and i wanted to turn into a tiger. It became a running joke that i was the kid at the zoo trying to get their mom to take them to go see the big cats but she just wouldn't.

    "I wanna go see the tigers" "after the kobolds" "but i don't want to see the kobolds, i wanna see the tigers"

    so i have a particular stick against it because to me it just gets in the way of fun.

    Pretty messed up to have Kobolds on display in a zoo.
    I mean, they're intelligent humanoids, aren't they? Not just "smart for an animal", but actually sapient?

    the zoo belongs to a lich so y'know, the kobold pen is next to the elf pen

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I mean, why did you play a character from the desert if you wanted to be able to turn into a tiger?

    That clause in wild shape has always been one of the first things I'm thinking about when I start playing a druid

    hippos. but at that moment i was too low level to do a hippo. they could also do a lion, but tigers were cooler because they had stripes, they were told. so they became obsessed with tigers.

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    I would have had you encounter a merchant taking exotic animals to offer to the local ruler or something

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    Hmm not 100% what I'm going to do tomorrow night. Last session they explored a secret complex under a graveyard and found a necromancer doing experiments on stuff and accidentally raising super undead. They killed him, now what?

    Well heres what I'm thinking....
    Ok so the city is run by a council of 11 members. This includes the mayor, the captain of the guard, and several elected officials, including two very influential judges. They guy they just...very brutally tortured and killed is the son of one of said judges who is now against them hard. So now what? I'm thinking he uses his influence to get them tossed in jail and put on a kangeroo trial. This way they can get into the prison (where 2 of the PCs have business and who they have sent a few people). This is basically going to be me saying "So yeah you guys don't have to kill everyone you meet" because they have tortured and killed literally everyone they could. Its not been great. Now they are on a deadline, they don't have time to fuck around in prison. But they have to. Along with the friends/relatives of some people they have literally destroyed as well as some people they just tortured a lot before turning in to the guard.

    So yeah, the 2 PCs with stuff will have quests, the ones who don't have to try and survive prison while also doing a courtroom scene to prove that they killed the son of this judge out of self defense because of all the skeletons and zombies he raised and tried to kill them with

  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    I've been spending my afternoon looking at the Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan) and I think I've created Slash from the IDW comics

    Tnx9QLM.jpg?1

  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    you know, Iggy, you can always roll a tortle monk for the next campaign :^)

    the rare and precious strength monk

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  • MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    i don't know what a bloodhunter is, but another tortle is always welcome.

  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    I learned some valuable lessons running my WFRP session tonight:

    1) Players (at least, my players) will instinctively mistrust any new NPC introduced

    2) In order to make players trust the NPC, have them act like a dick towards the players at first and then organise a combat where the NPC witnesses the players commit an act of bravery

    3) Really overdo the NPC's praise of the characters after the event. This makes the initial mistrust appear part of a rich character development scene where the NPC has learned a valuable lesson about tolerance (in my case, a Master Wizard learned that the PC witch was just as important in a battle even though her magic was different)

    4) The players will now consider the respect of the NPC a reward for good roleplaying, ideally angling for material rewards as well

    5) Now the NPC is free to betray the party whenever, gloating that he never meant the praise at point 3

    I'm assuming that point 5 will work - time will tell :twisted:

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »

    "by Matt Mercer"

    is that voice actor Matt Mercer?

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Probably, he's a big fuckin' nerd

  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »

    "by Matt Mercer"

    is that voice actor Matt Mercer?

    yup

    he's been involved with 5e for a while, now

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  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    Yeah, the Blood Hunter is one of Mercers custom jobs that got put onto D&D Beyond because WotC aren't dumb all the time.

  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    maybe we'll get a wotc approved release of Mercer's Manual of Murder


    also I fucking love and and all ninja turtles references (also April O'Neal was originally black, and I get pissed off whenever I think about how it was changed before TMNT hit the big time)

    I am completely behind you out on rolling a scary-ass tortle

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  • HellboreHellbore A bad, bad man Registered User regular
    iguanacus wrote: »
    Yeah, the Blood Hunter is one of Mercers custom jobs that got put onto D&D Beyond because WotC aren't dumb all the time.

    Beyond is only tangentially related to WotC through the licensing agreement, this is probably because Beyond has been sponsoring Mercer's show Critical Role for the past year.

  • MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    one of the characters in the show he does was a blood hunter. that is all i really knew about it.

  • Grey GhostGrey Ghost Registered User regular
    Mercer is probably also responsible for those drow gunslingers

  • TynnanTynnan seldom correct, never unsure Registered User regular
    Grey Ghost wrote: »
    Mercer is probably also responsible for those drow gunslingers

    "It's looooowww noooooon"

  • StiltsStilts Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    perhaps to prepare against a creature you need to know what works on it, and you automatically have knowledge of creatures native to your favored terrain, but for exotic or invasive creatures you need to have either fought them before or been taught by another source? Maybe you could abstract that a little with a skill check for foreign but non-unique creatures, or require finding a source of information if it's really obscure and there's little chance you have just heard about it from other rangers or from background research or whatever.

    that sounds too complex on its face, sure that's kind of how the druid wild shape works, but people tend to ignore that part because it's dumb.

    I'm gonna mention Spheres of Might again, partly because I love it was a way to shove a martial "magic" system into Pathfinder, and partly because I think the Scout Sphere does a lot of stuff I'd like to see Rangers do in D&D.

    Especially things like Find Gap (which makes it easier to hit creatures you've successfully Scouted), Identify Rhythms (makes it hard for that creature to hit you), Heightened Awareness, and Target Weakness are abilities that would emphasize a Ranger as the party member that is good at figuring out what you're fighting and how--specifically--to ruin its day.

    IKknkhU.gif
  • HellboreHellbore A bad, bad man Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    one of the characters in the show he does was a blood hunter. that is all i really knew about it.

    Blood Hunter was originally thrown together for Vin Diesel to play in a game that promoted one of his movies. There was enough interest afterwards that Mercer reworked and released it.

    It was pretty broken and the live play showed some glaring issues that were then patched, but I think it's in an okay place right now

  • ElddrikElddrik Registered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »
    you know, Iggy, you can always roll a tortle monk for the next campaign :^)

    the rare and precious strength monk

    I tried really hard to get a strength monk to work in the 5E game I'm currently playing in.

    In the end I had to give up and go Strength ranger (with a new weapon invented by me and the DM called a bladed gauntlet, which is basically a short sword duct taped to a heavy work glove), with Str 16/Dex 14, because being able to wear medium armor meant that I don't need to have high stats in Str, Dex, and Wis.

  • MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    huh, the dnd next play test stuff i have on my pc is from before the ranger was put in. but in function it was a lot like the hunter archetype but instead colossus slayer was it's own path from giant killer and horde breaker. i also remember favored enemy being better.

  • Fleur de AlysFleur de Alys Biohacker Registered User regular
    Hey! So if anyone's interested in a little PBP, I'm recruiting for a new Triptycho game/thread over in CF (thread link). It's an open-ended adventure intended to focus on character stories. We'll be playtesting some new mechanics, though it should still focus largely on improv and RP decisions. Come join us if any of that sounds like your thing!

    Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    we had a guy play blood Hunter for a bit and it seemed kinda bad and underpowered tbh

    gcum67ktu9e4.pngimg
  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    Which subclass and when? I've heard much the same and looking at the original version (Witch Hunter) it's pretty bad but the current version seems fine.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited January 2019
    we had a guy play blood Hunter for a bit and it seemed kinda bad and underpowered tbh

    I actually use bloodhunter for a specific reason in my setting. The profane soul is what you end up as if you want to void your warlock pact (it comes with a free stat change to flip cha and wis).

    They are like the definition of glass cannon.

    Sleep on
  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    iguanacus wrote: »
    Which subclass and when? I've heard much the same and looking at the original version (Witch Hunter) it's pretty bad but the current version seems fine.

    I did a detailed readthrough with Melding, last night

    if anything, it seems almost too powerful with the caveat that it's a bit complicated to play, and can potentially result in your character eating shit at an inopportune moment (and, in the case of Lycan, possibly fucking up your friendly support bard)

    I like it, personally

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  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    oh my god I want to play a Blood Hunter for Curse of Strahd now

  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »
    iguanacus wrote: »
    Which subclass and when? I've heard much the same and looking at the original version (Witch Hunter) it's pretty bad but the current version seems fine.

    I did a detailed readthrough with Melding, last night

    if anything, it seems almost too powerful with the caveat that it's a bit complicated to play, and can potentially result in your character eating shit at an inopportune moment (and, in the case of Lycan, possibly fucking up your friendly support bard)

    I like it, personally

    I'm gonna break out the my tables and do some math but first impression is that it's comparable to a hunter ranger which is just fine.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    why are whips in D&D always so bad

    gah it makes me so sad

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    The real drawback on the blood hunter is the HP, especially if you plan to dual wield and double crimson rite. Though the tough feat actually kinda solves the issue.

  • never dienever die Registered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »
    iguanacus wrote: »
    Which subclass and when? I've heard much the same and looking at the original version (Witch Hunter) it's pretty bad but the current version seems fine.

    I did a detailed readthrough with Melding, last night

    if anything, it seems almost too powerful with the caveat that it's a bit complicated to play, and can potentially result in your character eating shit at an inopportune moment (and, in the case of Lycan, possibly fucking up your friendly support bard)

    I like it, personally

    Yeah last time I read through it it was a tad overly complicated.

    But Kineticist from a Pathfinder is my favorite class from that game so I’m not the best judge of that.

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    why are whips in D&D always so bad

    gah it makes me so sad

    Because the game can't decide if hit points represent a literal ability to weather massive bloody damage or a more ephemeral stamina and ability to continue fighting without being seriously injured or killed.

    It frequently suggests the latter, and many players will say that latter as well, but if that were the case then things like whips and unarmed combat would be able to do a significant amount of damage, as they are just as capable (perhaps even more capable) of creating an advantage and wearing down an opponent.

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