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Dinos and Druids, A Tasty Romp through Table Top Games

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Posts

  • Der Waffle MousDer Waffle Mous Blame this on the misfortune of your birth. New Yark, New Yark.Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    Doobh wrote: »
    also, hey, not gonna name names but a certain serial harasser tied to TTRPGs is in the news again for some not so good reasons

    I recommend looking it up and maybe taking an active stance where you can in bringing down any influence he has in the industry, if at all possible

    I hate being vague, but there's a reason for it

    So Dubh let me know the specifics and I think they're ok to share.

    Zak Sabbath has been accused by his long time girlfriend of a serious pattern of abuse and repeated incidence of assaults on other people, both sexual and physical. She does, however, say in the post that she didn't want her account circulated outside her circle of friends (which it obviously has been) so I don't know if it's ethical to repost them here. They're out there if you want to google them, it's pretty gross stuff.

    yeah its... yeah.

    I'm glad she's doing better now at least.

    Steam PSN: DerWaffleMous Origin: DerWaffleMous Bnet: DerWaffle#1682
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So do you guys even track spell components? Like we have a bard in our party, and my rule is that the instrument is his foci and his music is the spell, so he doesn't need components for lower level spells (if he ever gets to the big stuff, yes he needs the diamonds or whatever) but he has to be able to perform in some way

    I don't think I've ever been in a game where they tracked common spell components. Even the big spell components, unless they're plot relevant, are typically waved off as "You've got your focus or your pouch? Good, cast away.".
    Much like the encumbrance rules and a bag of holding, the rules are there if you want them. If you don't care for tracking inventory on spread sheets during your fantasy murder hobo nights, then there are ways to bypass those rules.

    Plot relevant being "You've been rendered unconscious and are waking up in a prison cell with no components, armor or weapons" or "You're looking for 25k worth of diamonds for a True Resurrection spell" kind of thing.

  • TurambarTurambar Independent Registered User regular
    Zonugal wrote: »
    Hey, what are folks favorite inhabitants of the elemental plane of fire?

    I've been revising and creating creatures & monsters to populate my planes.

    Don't know about favorite, but in Volo's there are some folk called Firenewts

    Technically they need hot water to breed, so they might not live on the Fire Plane proper if your's is the kind where all water is evaporated

    Mordenkainen's has Myrmidons if you want to spice up your fire elementals (think they're a re-print from PotA) and of course a Phoenix

    Otherwise it's all the usual suspects that you probably already thought about: Azer, Efreeti, Salamanders, Fire Snakes, Fire Genasi, Fire Giants, Red Dragons, Red Guard Drakes, Magmins, Magma Mephits, Smoke Mephits

    If your Plane of Fire has a City of Brass, there's probably a bunch of Tieflings and maybe some devils, like Cambions and Pit Fiends

    Steam: turamb | Origin: Turamb | 3DS: 3411-1109-4537 | NNID: Turambar | Warframe(PC): Turamb
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    Bucketman wrote: »
    So do you guys even track spell components? Like we have a bard in our party, and my rule is that the instrument is his foci and his music is the spell, so he doesn't need components for lower level spells (if he ever gets to the big stuff, yes he needs the diamonds or whatever) but he has to be able to perform in some way

    I don't think I've ever been in a game where they tracked common spell components. Even the big spell components, unless they're plot relevant, are typically waved off as "You've got your focus or your pouch? Good, cast away.".
    Much like the encumbrance rules and a bag of holding, the rules are there if you want them. If you don't care for tracking inventory on spread sheets during your fantasy murder hobo nights, then there are ways to bypass those rules.

    Plot relevant being "You've been rendered unconscious and are waking up in a prison cell with no components, armor or weapons" or "You're looking for 25k worth of diamonds for a True Resurrection spell" kind of thing.

    Yeah, for the middling stuff that falls between "random crap assumed to be in a pouch" and "extremely rare, expensive, or plot relevant" I'd probably at most have players retcon possession of it by subtracting an appropriate amount of gold.

    steam_sig.png
  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    edited February 2019
    Turambar wrote: »
    Zonugal wrote: »
    Hey, what are folks favorite inhabitants of the elemental plane of fire?

    I've been revising and creating creatures & monsters to populate my planes.

    Don't know about favorite, but in Volo's there are some folk called Firenewts

    Technically they need hot water to breed, so they might not live on the Fire Plane proper if your's is the kind where all water is evaporated

    Mordenkainen's has Myrmidons if you want to spice up your fire elementals (think they're a re-print from PotA) and of course a Phoenix

    Otherwise it's all the usual suspects that you probably already thought about: Azer, Efreeti, Salamanders, Fire Snakes, Fire Genasi, Fire Giants, Red Dragons, Red Guard Drakes, Magmins, Magma Mephits, Smoke Mephits

    If your Plane of Fire has a City of Brass, there's probably a bunch of Tieflings and maybe some devils, like Cambions and Pit Fiends

    Oh, I went through the different books and grabbed what I wanted.

    I wasn't feeling the Myrmidons though. But I did add/modify: Azer, Efreeti, Firenewts, Fire Elementals, Fire Giants, Fire Titans, Magma Mephits, Magmin, the Phoenix, Salamanders, & Steam Mephits.

    I also created: Ember Knights, Flame Oozes, Leviathan of Flames, Magma Elementals, & Magma Golems.

    I'm currently designing the Mokdorans.

    Zonugal on
    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited February 2019
    Aw, I’m absolutely charmed until the end of my next turn that you’re making them!

    Whenever D&D and planes are brought up the Gith spring to mind. I could easily see a bunch of Gith meditating in a titan’s charred black skull talking about how fire is a purifying element, necessary for rebirth.

    ovsyhxfxj38e.jpeg

    They could be a nice bit of normalcy, almost, for the players. Just some folk, maybe food and board if they do something for them. Not related to the main plot, just hanging out being bad knock-off eastern philosophers.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    So I'm a maths idiot, please bear this in mind:

    Am I right in saying that the chances of rolling a 20 on a d20 twice in a row* would be described as 20 to the power of 2, or 1 in 400?

    *assuming perfectly balanced dice etc

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Yes.

    The important thing to note though is that if you have already rolled one twenty, then the odds to roll another are still just one in twenty.

  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    So I'm a maths idiot, please bear this in mind:

    Am I right in saying that the chances of rolling a 20 on a d20 twice in a row* would be described as 20 to the power of 2, or 1 in 400?

    *assuming perfectly balanced dice etc

    I believe you are correct.

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Yes.

    The important thing to note though is that if you have already rolled one twenty, then the odds to roll another are still just one in twenty.

    I know that part, thanks! I was reminded today of Amy The Falcon rolling two 20s in a row, and wondered what the actual odds were.

  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    It’s been my long-standing account that high fantasy by its very nature is post-Apocalypse.

    Think about it: delving into ruins, secret things locked away, demon cults, forbidden lands, forgotten gods, untamed wilds bigger than nations, age of the elves all but over, barbarians pushing against the remaining settlements. All the old standbys point to a civilisation, or even layers of civilisations, having ended before your adventure begins.

    This is why I'm deeply fond of Shannara.

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited February 2019
    Zonugal wrote: »
    Oh, I went through the different books and grabbed what I wanted.

    I wasn't feeling the Myrmidons though.

    I love Myrmidons, but only because I read the lore for their original 4E incarnation, which were called Archons.

    Basically the archons were created as foot soldiers for godlike elementals called the primordials in their war against the gods. The primordials lost and are mostly dead or imprisoned, though, so the remaining archons from the original armies find new causes to fight for to fulfill their love of battle and secure facilities in the Elemental Chaos to produce more of their kind. Each element also had more than one kind of archon to fulfill different roles in combat, and there were also storm, ooze, ice, and bronze archons.

    They were renamed myrmidons in 5E because archons before 4E had just been angels of a different alignment (and those archons haven't appeared in 5E yet, btw).

    Hexmage-PA on
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    I think the primary factions of my elemental plane of fire, Muspelheim, are:

    -- The Ember Knights
    -- The Firenewts
    -- The Salamanders
    -- Sutr the Fire Titan and the Fire Giants

    The rest are just random, unaligned creatures just existing.

    And they are all lazily governed by the primordial god of fire.

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
  • RiemannLivesRiemannLives Registered User regular
    edited February 2019
    Drascin wrote: »
    MsAnthropy wrote: »
    Drascin wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    Eriador be fucked, yo

    It does present the issue of setting up adventures, though. Like the game suggests doing things like having the players go out to face things threatening villages, but there are no villages. There is mention of merchants but how in the balls can you have merchants in a place where there seems to be, far as I can tell, only one road that is actually still kind of a road and basically no centers of population with anything worth trading (because we know the Hobbits of the Shire don't trade for shit) between the Lhun and the Misty Mountains. There is, far as I can tell, nothing at all, to a point that it's honestly a bit disbelief-breaking that, like, Bree exists in its current form.

    My plan is to straight up start making up a lot of settlements. Humans have this annoying tendency to set up anywhere where there is space and tillable soil, and Arnor fell a thousand years ago. There has been time for people to start trying to move back in.

    Where is your game set? If you are using Rhovanion, then do you have the setting (Heart of the Wild, iirc) supplement?

    You are right that there aren’t, like, huge cities around, but there are plenty of opportunities to help merchants setup trade routes between the Dale / Erebor / Laketown triangle and places like the three ‘major’ Woodman settlements, the Iron Hills, and the Carrock. This especially works early in the timeline after the Battle of the Give Armies when the shadow retreats from Dol Guldur after being confronted by the White Council.

    Yeah, thing is, we're probably going to set this on the other side of the Misty Mountains. Hence my annoyance.

    And the "well there's orcs" thing doesn't really fly that much for any of us, because, well, there really aren't for a large chunk of the map. Cardolan and northwest Eregion are perfectly reasonable and pleasantly-weathered chunks of land with rivers and forests, where for some reason nobody has settled since Arnor fell a thousand years ago (the barrows with barrow wights are all the way next to the Shire, there's plenty of space to live without camping near those!). And the only road that still exists goes straight through troll country anyway, so clearly people are willing to brave orcs and trolls in any case.

    Tolkien knew his history. And middle earth is not based on the high middle ages but an earlier period. We are so used to the idea of population growth that we find it weird that land is fallow, settlements are shrinking etc... But in western europe from the mid 2nd century until the ~7th (date very uncertain) the population was in decline. Year over year, generation after generation there were fewer people around. Even after the population started increasing again it took centuries for it to become noticeable.

    Rome itself is the most extreme example of this (being more dependent on imports from Egypt and North Africa than most) but is by no means alone. All the great cities of western Europe underwent similar decline over this period. In 5 BCE the population of the city of Rome was 800,000-1,000,000. In the early 4th century, during the time of Constantine, the population was down to around 600,000. After the sack in 419 CE it was down to 300,000-500,000. By 590 CE, after the end of food imports from North Africa and the wars of Justinian, it was down to 150,000 at most. In 800 CE, on the Christmas day when Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor (and getting very close to the period that the material culture of LOTR is based on) the most optimistic estimate of the population of Rome would be 30,000 people.

    The tale of the 3rd age as presented in the appendix of Return of the King is strange and foreign to us but very understandable from the point of view of (roughly) 1000 CE.

    RiemannLives on
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  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    Flame hydra, body composed of an amorphous magma blob that grows multiple serpent-shaped necks and heads that bite and spit magma. Lives in a magma-based liquid ecosystem. Not related to normal monstrous animal hydras, just resembles their form. Adults stay in or around large bodies of liquid magma. Reproduces by budding heads off once they gain enough mass, which swim or slither away to find a new nesting site. Cutting off a head doesn't cause new heads to grow, but creates an independent juvenile magma hydra serpent.

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

    There was a guy at the comic shop I play D&D at who painted minis, but he moved before I could get all of mine painted by him. I'm thinking about attempting to paint some myself, but I'm afraid of ruining them with a shitty paint job.

  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    edited February 2019
    A few more Fire type creatures you might find handy:

    Animal/Monster + Fire/Magma. Does the normal thing, but it's hot and has fire-based effects. Example, lava rat swarm, magam kraken.
    Boil Crab: Beasts of the Boundless Blue
    Thoqqua: Forgotten Foes
    Walking Vent: Beasts of the Boundless Blue
    Boil Crab wrote:
    Lives near volcanic vents/hot water areas. Weak vermin. Boil crabs are so hot that they glow with the radiance of a torch. Luckily, boil crabs are usually timid creatures that would rather flee than fight. When cornered or surprised, however, they become very aggressive. Once aggravated, a boil crab will fight until it is slain. Upon death, the heat immediately begins to dissipate from the crab’s body. The flesh of these crabs is considered
    a delicacy by the some, as it will keep the consumer warm while it is being digested.
    Thoqqua wrote:
    Worm-like creatures made of glowing, hot stone about 5 feet long and 200 lbs. Eat minerals, very territorial, magical beast level intelligence. A thoqqua burrows by melting rock with its hot body leaving behind a 1 ft wide tunnel that becomes traversable by others able to fit once it cools. Likes to hide underground and erupt to slam into surprised targets. Very territorial. Very little dissuades a thoqqua from attacking except severe damage from cold. Eggs contain minor amounts of rare metals and can be sold as treasure.
    Walking vents are massive elementals that dwell in, tend, and protect deep water hydrothermal vents. They are single minded, and do not tolerate trespassers. Unaffected by the crushing pressure and scalding heat, they stand eternal watch over their charges, for no reason that can be determined by mortal creatures. They are rare outside the deep ocean, but can sometimes be found tending shallow water hot springs.

    Walking vents simply try to crush their foes with their boiling arms. They radiate the same heat as the hottest vents, making them nearly impossible to approach, weapons used against them soften and melt rapidly. They will not pursue their enemies once they flee from the vent fields.

    It is thought that walking vents form spontaneously around the deepest and most elemental of hydrothermal vents, sometimes traveling to smaller and weaker vents. Unable to swim, walking vents move ponderously across the
    sea floor.

    Two of these are for more marine type settings, but it could be useful to reflavour to shallower water settings if you want to vary things up at all and want to provide some more fauna for your elemental plane of fire.

    Caedwyr on
  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    Shadowen wrote: »
    It’s been my long-standing account that high fantasy by its very nature is post-Apocalypse.

    Think about it: delving into ruins, secret things locked away, demon cults, forbidden lands, forgotten gods, untamed wilds bigger than nations, age of the elves all but over, barbarians pushing against the remaining settlements. All the old standbys point to a civilisation, or even layers of civilisations, having ended before your adventure begins.

    This is why I'm deeply fond of Shannara.

    Thundarr the Barbarian influenced me a great deal when it comes to my preferred aesthetic for these kinds of things. I saw it as re-runs as a kid in the late 80's and it's just kind of stuck.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSKamG44JDU

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

    There was a guy at the comic shop I play D&D at who painted minis, but he moved before I could get all of mine painted by him. I'm thinking about attempting to paint some myself, but I'm afraid of ruining them with a shitty paint job.

    It's super easy to strip paint off of models without damaging the model!

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    Djinns are great fire elemental creatures

    Living in great domed palaces swept in fire, wearing silks the colour of flame, drinking hot wine and eating the most spiced food, laughing and singing, duelling and riddling, great friends and terrible enemies, quick to anger and generous to a fault

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    I have found a cavalier build that gets a flying celestial large tiger.

    I think I will look to Durga for some inspiration and I am set.

  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

    There was a guy at the comic shop I play D&D at who painted minis, but he moved before I could get all of mine painted by him. I'm thinking about attempting to paint some myself, but I'm afraid of ruining them with a shitty paint job.

    It's super easy to strip paint off of models without damaging the model!

    My big takeaway so far is how forgiving the process is. The paint is really easy to cover over mistakes. My biggest issue was how quickly they dry up on the paper bowl I was using without an actual wet pallet.

  • RiemannLivesRiemannLives Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

    There was a guy at the comic shop I play D&D at who painted minis, but he moved before I could get all of mine painted by him. I'm thinking about attempting to paint some myself, but I'm afraid of ruining them with a shitty paint job.

    It's super easy to strip paint off of models without damaging the model!

    My big takeaway so far is how forgiving the process is. The paint is really easy to cover over mistakes. My biggest issue was how quickly they dry up on the paper bowl I was using without an actual wet pallet.

    you interested in links to youtube channels that have good painting vids for beginners?

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  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    So, for a game that's mostly just a riff on cyberpunk blades or at least in that kind of narrative/crunch mix area:

    Rather than stress you have resources which take downtime actions/cash (same function as coin in blades) to top up: Munitions, Nutrition and Connection which you spend in the place of stress. Rather than a meter it's instead a number from 1-5. With every use making you roll 1-3D6 depending on the severity (IE, mag dumping your rifle or throwing a grenade is more than firing off a pistol). If any of them come up higher than your current resource then it's reduced by 1.

    Munitions is for armour, your guns, grenades or any military tech upkeep uses. Being out of it implies your ability to fight has being severely diminished.

    Nutrition is your physical ability: You can use it to dodge, sprint, swing a crowbar or outlast sleep deprivation. Being out of it implies you aren't in the physical state to do much other than crawl back to bed or the nearest food stand.

    Connection is both social and to the various networks and datasphere's occupying the city. You can use it for bribes, when searching the net or using gadgets. Being out of it implies you haven't paid your internet bill. Which is a problem when so much stuff has AR integration and presumes you do too.

    Mostly my thoughts are:

    1) Being high up on a resource might be too much in terms of how long it lasts. Though the idea is you only restore 1d3 per cash you put towards it so it might just specialize characters.

    2) In terms of categories munitions is a weird one because it feels very presumptive of characters that they'd all need this category but also most characters would and I feel it's important to seperate 'semi illegal ammo and weapons' from the other piles.

    3) Also tempted to add a 4th category of small change for small purchases like gear, repairs, bribes and services but am not sure if that tramples on stuff too much. In theory you could just have 'get a new pistol' as a two dice munitions check.

  • MsAnthropyMsAnthropy The Lady of Pain Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm The City of FlowersRegistered User regular
    Drascin wrote: »
    MsAnthropy wrote: »
    Drascin wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    Eriador be fucked, yo

    It does present the issue of setting up adventures, though. Like the game suggests doing things like having the players go out to face things threatening villages, but there are no villages. There is mention of merchants but how in the balls can you have merchants in a place where there seems to be, far as I can tell, only one road that is actually still kind of a road and basically no centers of population with anything worth trading (because we know the Hobbits of the Shire don't trade for shit) between the Lhun and the Misty Mountains. There is, far as I can tell, nothing at all, to a point that it's honestly a bit disbelief-breaking that, like, Bree exists in its current form.

    My plan is to straight up start making up a lot of settlements. Humans have this annoying tendency to set up anywhere where there is space and tillable soil, and Arnor fell a thousand years ago. There has been time for people to start trying to move back in.

    Where is your game set? If you are using Rhovanion, then do you have the setting (Heart of the Wild, iirc) supplement?

    You are right that there aren’t, like, huge cities around, but there are plenty of opportunities to help merchants setup trade routes between the Dale / Erebor / Laketown triangle and places like the three ‘major’ Woodman settlements, the Iron Hills, and the Carrock. This especially works early in the timeline after the Battle of the Give Armies when the shadow retreats from Dol Guldur after being confronted by the White Council.

    Yeah, thing is, we're probably going to set this on the other side of the Misty Mountains. Hence my annoyance.

    And the "well there's orcs" thing doesn't really fly that much for any of us, because, well, there really aren't for a large chunk of the map. Cardolan and northwest Eregion are perfectly reasonable and pleasantly-weathered chunks of land with rivers and forests, where for some reason nobody has settled since Arnor fell a thousand years ago (the barrows with barrow wights are all the way next to the Shire, there's plenty of space to live without camping near those!). And the only road that still exists goes straight through troll country anyway, so clearly people are willing to brave orcs and trolls in any case.

    Yeah, Eriador is tougher to plan around. One of my dream campaign ideas is to do a Tolkien-esque take on The Great Pendragon campaign focusing on a non-canonical last-great-ruler of Arthurian in the early/mid third age, so sadly my only concrete idea in how to address things is to dial the clock back a lot. Though, given the Woodmen were largely made up by Cubicle 7, it might be possible to do something similar for the other part of Middle-Earth, like a group of men have maybe built some kind of new settlements near Tharbad or something?

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  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    Doobh wrote: »
    I disagree with that? the spell focus rules are designed specifically so a paladin or cleric can wear a holy symbol while using a sword and shield

    it would be weird to have it work different with different classes, especially with 5e's focus on simplicity

    It's weird as hell but RAW it's how it's intended to work. Jeremy Crawford has ruled on it, too.





    the idea is that the spell focus only replaces material components- nothing else- but when you cast a spell using material components (with or without a spell focus) the same hand that uses the focus/materials can also do the gestures. A spell that has no material components doesn't use a spell focus at all, so you need to have a hand free for its somatic components.

    It's dumb as hell and really weird, but it's apparently how it's meant to work.

    it's not the last time I'll disagree with his rulings, no doubt

    he seems to tend toward more 'hard' rules, when I would prefer something softer because I think it sounds cool af

    not like I'll ever have to worry about it since I don't do adventure league

    who knows, I might end up playing 5e with someone else one of these days (I'll probably be the GM, tho)

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  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    Solar wrote: »
    Djinns are great fire elemental creatures

    Oh, I'm going to have the Djinn not directly tied to any particular plane. They're wanderers, journeymen, explorers, ect...
    Caedwyr wrote: »
    A few more Fire type creatures you might find handy:

    Animal/Monster + Fire/Magma. Does the normal thing, but it's hot and has fire-based effects. Example, lava rat swarm, magam kraken.

    I'll likely do that just to continue to populate it.
    Caedwyr wrote: »
    Two of these are for more marine type settings, but it could be useful to reflavour to shallower water settings if you want to vary things up at all and want to provide some more fauna for your elemental plane of fire.

    I think I'll likely shy away from doing any types of deep water/aquatic element on the plane. I envision it is just scorched earth, molten rock, blaring fires, volcanos, steaming geysers, and lava rivers.

    But you raise a good point in that I wonder what the natural occupants/denizens of the plane subsist on in terms of food.

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
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  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    Zonugal wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    Djinns are great fire elemental creatures

    Oh, I'm going to have the Djinn not directly tied to any particular plane. They're wanderers, journeymen, explorers, ect...
    Caedwyr wrote: »
    A few more Fire type creatures you might find handy:

    Animal/Monster + Fire/Magma. Does the normal thing, but it's hot and has fire-based effects. Example, lava rat swarm, magam kraken.

    I'll likely do that just to continue to populate it.
    Caedwyr wrote: »
    Two of these are for more marine type settings, but it could be useful to reflavour to shallower water settings if you want to vary things up at all and want to provide some more fauna for your elemental plane of fire.

    I think I'll likely shy away from doing any types of deep water/aquatic element on the plane. I envision it is just scorched earth, molten rock, blaring fires, volcanos, steaming geysers, and lava rivers.

    But you raise a good point in that I wonder what the natural occupants/denizens of the plane subsist on in terms of food.

    Yeah, my general point was to make sure to include some flora and fauna to help make the setting come more to life. The wandering vent could just as easily be re-purposed into a land-based volcanic vent that is able to get up and move around. If the party is traveling across the landscape at all having a group of wandering vents move in and surround a campsite or a place where the party stops could produce an interesting encounter. I don't necessarily see these as encounters that have to end in deadly combat, but more of a matter of a way of embellishing the setting.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    Doobh wrote: »
    Anzekay wrote: »
    Doobh wrote: »
    I disagree with that? the spell focus rules are designed specifically so a paladin or cleric can wear a holy symbol while using a sword and shield

    it would be weird to have it work different with different classes, especially with 5e's focus on simplicity

    It's weird as hell but RAW it's how it's intended to work. Jeremy Crawford has ruled on it, too.





    the idea is that the spell focus only replaces material components- nothing else- but when you cast a spell using material components (with or without a spell focus) the same hand that uses the focus/materials can also do the gestures. A spell that has no material components doesn't use a spell focus at all, so you need to have a hand free for its somatic components.

    It's dumb as hell and really weird, but it's apparently how it's meant to work.

    it's not the last time I'll disagree with his rulings, no doubt

    he seems to tend toward more 'hard' rules, when I would prefer something softer because I think it sounds cool af

    not like I'll ever have to worry about it since I don't do adventure league

    who knows, I might end up playing 5e with someone else one of these days (I'll probably be the GM, tho)

    it kinda feels like they're doubling down on an oversight in the rules.

    Since I try to be consistent with the rules first, and houserules second, whenever I design new things I tend to design them around the base rules RAW, as frustrating as that might be. Hence my inclusion of a way around that problem in that invocation, even if were I GMing a game I'd houserule Warlocks with IPATB being able to do that anyway.

  • DoobhDoobh She/Her, Ace Pan/Bisexual 8-) What's up, bootlickers?Registered User regular
    that makes sense

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  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    edited February 2019
    I've got some memories coming back of 2nd Edition which actually had a fair bit of fleshing out done for the lesser known elemental planes creatures. The "regular animal, but on the planes version" was referred to as an Animental.

    If you are looking for weird things, you can use something like an Entrope, a worm-type creature that bores between elemental planar boundaries and causes small regions from one plane to spill into another plane. This can create the old paraelemental boundary areas, or just allow for some more exotic/unusual terrain. It could be permanent or temporary as the planar boundary heals over time (depends on how you want to handle the stuff).

    Some more 2nd edition stuff:
    • Firebats (blood drain, basically a bat on fire, you need to jump through some hoops to permanently kill one because it re-ignites after X turns if slain by normal means)
    • Grue: Harginn (aka Flame Horror. Grues are underling creatures of the Elemental Plane, more important in the ecology than vermin but less intelligent than true elementals. They occupy a niche somewhat equivalent to animals, in other respects more like servants, that has no exact equivalent on the Prime Material Plane. Grues prey on vermin, serve as pets and guards for elementals on their native planes, and can be conjured to other planes by a magical summons.) These allow you to have the players eaten by a Grue.
    • Hell Hound
    • Fire Snake
    • Firetail
    • Phantom Stalker
    • Flame Spirit
    • Rasts

    Digging through some 5th edition stuff you've also got stuff like Igniguana, Magmoids, and Lava Children.

    Caedwyr on
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

    There was a guy at the comic shop I play D&D at who painted minis, but he moved before I could get all of mine painted by him. I'm thinking about attempting to paint some myself, but I'm afraid of ruining them with a shitty paint job.

    It's super easy to strip paint off of models without damaging the model!

    My big takeaway so far is how forgiving the process is. The paint is really easy to cover over mistakes. My biggest issue was how quickly they dry up on the paper bowl I was using without an actual wet pallet.

    you interested in links to youtube channels that have good painting vids for beginners?

    Oh yeah for sure. This one was a ton of fun and I'm probably going to come home tonight with one of the getting started sets we have just to have a pallete of colors to play with. I have a few of the "2nd tier pose of a set of two figures" I can mess around with to figure a lot out

  • ElddrikElddrik Registered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    Doobh wrote: »
    Anzekay wrote: »
    Doobh wrote: »
    I disagree with that? the spell focus rules are designed specifically so a paladin or cleric can wear a holy symbol while using a sword and shield

    it would be weird to have it work different with different classes, especially with 5e's focus on simplicity

    It's weird as hell but RAW it's how it's intended to work. Jeremy Crawford has ruled on it, too.





    the idea is that the spell focus only replaces material components- nothing else- but when you cast a spell using material components (with or without a spell focus) the same hand that uses the focus/materials can also do the gestures. A spell that has no material components doesn't use a spell focus at all, so you need to have a hand free for its somatic components.

    It's dumb as hell and really weird, but it's apparently how it's meant to work.

    it's not the last time I'll disagree with his rulings, no doubt

    he seems to tend toward more 'hard' rules, when I would prefer something softer because I think it sounds cool af

    not like I'll ever have to worry about it since I don't do adventure league

    who knows, I might end up playing 5e with someone else one of these days (I'll probably be the GM, tho)

    it kinda feels like they're doubling down on an oversight in the rules.

    Since I try to be consistent with the rules first, and houserules second, whenever I design new things I tend to design them around the base rules RAW, as frustrating as that might be. Hence my inclusion of a way around that problem in that invocation, even if were I GMing a game I'd houserule Warlocks with IPATB being able to do that anyway.

    Yeah, I think that's basically it (the doubling down, that is). The tweets are intended to be clarifications of existing rules, not errata.

    Whether or not he actually likes the existing rule, that's what the book says, so that's what his clarification says. If they think it's worth fixing, that's what the actual errata releases are for (and they haven't gotten around to fixing it there, but if they were going to, that's where they'd do it).

    I think realistically, everyone just houserules it, so it might just not be worth the effort to find a way to rephrase it that fixes this problem without introducing any new ones. Sometimes it's easier to just say 'you know what I mean' than to make sure the RAW is perfect in every case.

  • SanderJKSanderJK Crocodylus Pontifex Sinterklasicus Madrid, 3000 ADRegistered User regular
    Things I enjoy about the plane of fire:

    The Efreeti are very natural opponents. They are lawful evil, and love enforcing the status quo with shitty contracts, and force if it fails. They live in luxury while everyone toils for their pleasure.

    Entering one of the major cities should start by feeling like entering Arabian Nights, only to find out there are a hundred evil sultans manoeuvring against each other. And some if them already know you're here, and are thinking if there is any tiny advantage they can squeeze out of you.

    You can also do cool things on the edges of the plane. The planes of earth and fire have often been at war, and the volcanic border is a mass graveyard of toxic fumes. But if you risk it artefacts of great power could be buried in the ash .....

    Steam: SanderJK Origin: SanderJK
  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Zonugal wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    Djinns are great fire elemental creatures

    Oh, I'm going to have the Djinn not directly tied to any particular plane. They're wanderers, journeymen, explorers, rappers, ect...

    WillSmithGenie.png :whistle:

    Twitter! | Dilige, et quod vis fac
  • RiemannLivesRiemannLives Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    I painted my first mini the other night. They were going to toss out a bunch of extra Manshoon D&D colectible figure boxes we had so i said I'd take one and one of the wargamers took it outside and spray primed it with their stuff they were doing then I spent the shift fighting a far too old painting starter set we have in the cabinet where only half the colors weren't a hard solid and even some of those were maybe questionable. But like, it was super peaceful and enjoyable. and I want to do it more now. even this bad paint job is just so much cooler than a base gray figure.

    There was a guy at the comic shop I play D&D at who painted minis, but he moved before I could get all of mine painted by him. I'm thinking about attempting to paint some myself, but I'm afraid of ruining them with a shitty paint job.

    It's super easy to strip paint off of models without damaging the model!

    My big takeaway so far is how forgiving the process is. The paint is really easy to cover over mistakes. My biggest issue was how quickly they dry up on the paper bowl I was using without an actual wet pallet.

    you interested in links to youtube channels that have good painting vids for beginners?

    Oh yeah for sure. This one was a ton of fun and I'm probably going to come home tonight with one of the getting started sets we have just to have a pallete of colors to play with. I have a few of the "2nd tier pose of a set of two figures" I can mess around with to figure a lot out

    This guy has some good intro videos on his channel if you scroll down to the older vids (he also does a lot of vids about running 5e D&D and older games). I really like his old school "speed painting" style.
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMl19aDv5e_2l_AeJRXp2g/videos

    Lots of painting videos. Some of these run into more advanced stuff than I am comfortable with but there are some beginner tutorials as well
    https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePaintingClinic/videos

    Painting and building terrain to go with your minis
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Rlv-ug-mtnXuMwlpcqFgg/videos

    Kind of weird mix of content on this channel but if you scroll through it they have some good painting vids and streams
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGriU-WfAekkpZiep_dG0xg/videos

    Warhammer youtube channel. Obviously focused on Games Workshop stuff and honestly I think most of the vids are aimed at an advanced audience but still has some things I found useful.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/GamesWorkshopWNT/videos

    In addition to vids about techniques this channel has some good reviews of different brands of paints and tools
    https://www.youtube.com/user/PhatWOP001/videos

    Attacked by tweeeeeeees!
  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    SanderJK wrote: »
    Things I enjoy about the plane of fire:

    The Efreeti are very natural opponents. They are lawful evil, and love enforcing the status quo with shitty contracts, and force if it fails. They live in luxury while everyone toils for their pleasure.

    I can't really go through with this interpretation of the Efreeti (which I do enjoy!) just because of how powerful I made them in relation to other monsters.

    They can cast Wish at will, as I wanted them to be able to fight akin to Jafar at the end of Aladdin. These are beings who don't even have to fight you in any conventional sense. They can polymorph you into kitty-cats or teleport you to the arctic or transform into giant cobras to eat you. Their container also act as their phylactery, in that they just rejuvenate akin to a lich if destroyed.

    So instead, to fight an Efreeti to engage in a battle of wills. You have to trick them in one way or another, to get possession of their container (and then use that as leverage against them).
    SanderJK wrote: »
    Entering one of the major cities should start by feeling like entering Arabian Nights, only to find out there are a hundred evil sultans manoeuvring against each other. And some if them already know you're here, and are thinking if there is any tiny advantage they can squeeze out of you.

    I like this concept and will likely use it but for the different immigrants who are trying to seize, or hold onto, power.
    SanderJK wrote: »
    You can also do cool things on the edges of the plane. The planes of earth and fire have often been at war, and the volcanic border is a mass graveyard of toxic fumes. But if you risk it artefacts of great power could be buried in the ash .....

    My different planes/realms aren't distinctly connected in any concrete way. There are portals and gate-ways but all of them function akin to their own planetary object in the vast darkness of the Astral Sea.

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
  • gavindelgavindel The reason all your software is brokenRegistered User regular
    Continuing my series of snake based shenanigans, today we have:

    DINOSER - Mother of SER PENTOR and SER PYTHON. Also apparently a Sith, cause holy hell Witch Bolt cast as a 3rd level spell is a total wrecker. She dealt an impressive amount of damage to the party before dying. Also didn't roll a concentration check below 15 while Witch Bolt was active, so she dropped the fighter (twice!) harder than Luke Skywalker.

    DINOSER rode into battle riding an anklyosaurus and flanked with velociraptors (movie version; clever girl reference included). So naturally, the druid turned into a giant spider, headbutted her off her own mount, and stole it. The party now has a pet anklyosaurus named Warm Rock. Her favorite activities are grazing, sunbathing, and refusing to move until she gets more Goodberries by the handful.

    Book - Royal road - Free! Seraphim === TTRPG - Wuxia - Free! Seln Alora
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