As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

[DnD 5E] You can't triple stamp a double stamp!

14950525455101

Posts

  • ShawnaseeShawnasee Registered User regular
    Ok, the disenchanter is getting a makeover. Something a little more demonic.

    Also, the trap idea is excellent. I think they will be stepping into a shitstorm when they pop back from their tavern paradise.

    Thanks you lot! I was panicking.

  • KasynKasyn I'm not saying I don't like our chances. She called me the master.Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    So, two things.

    One. I have been sitting on a pair of magic gloves in my campaign, with an effect that has yet to be determined. My DM left that up to my discretion. This is a DM who is extraordinarily averse to magic items in our games, which tend to be pretty low fantasy, and it is not my desire to come up with anything broken or boring.

    Two. A thrift store in a nearby town has a shitpile of minis, sold to the place by a fellow who had inherited his dad's collection of fantasy miniatures. They are all metal and decades old. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, far too many to get through in a single outing. The detail on some of them is pretty crazy, especially for the time. Every now and again my roommate and I will head on down there and sort through a few compartments worth (they are stored across several toolboxes) to see if anything jumps out that might make its way into our current campaign. I came away with two wonderful rats last weekend.

    They're soaking right now so that we can repaint them, but it has since been decided that my gloves are actually small bags of holding, except they've been stashed away for so long, they are just chock full of rats. Once a day, I can shake out the gloves and produce a swarm of rats. Relentless, hungry beyond all reason, and without loyalty to man or God.

    To what end? Who knows. But it felt like the right and natural thing to do.

    Kasyn on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    Sounds very Dishonored-esque. i approve. Have you played that game? It has some very creative cruel uses for packs of rats.

  • JusticeforPlutoJusticeforPluto Registered User regular
    So we're making new characters for a one off (the DM needs time to get the story of the main campaign in order). Level 17 with 1 legendary, 1 Rare, 1 uncommon.

    Right now I have a Half Elf Forge Cleric. I wanted to rolled Air Gensi Knowledge Cleric but for a shorter combat focused game this seemed better.
    For my items:
    Rod of Resurrection
    Amulet of Health
    Ring of Regeneration

    Thoughts?

    Thought I'd ask once more: any one have feedback on this?

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    So we're making new characters for a one off (the DM needs time to get the story of the main campaign in order). Level 17 with 1 legendary, 1 Rare, 1 uncommon.

    Right now I have a Half Elf Forge Cleric. I wanted to rolled Air Gensi Knowledge Cleric but for a shorter combat focused game this seemed better.
    For my items:
    Rod of Resurrection
    Amulet of Health
    Ring of Regeneration

    Thoughts?

    Thought I'd ask once more: any one have feedback on this?

    Hmmm

    Rod of resurrection is kinda underwhelming in a one shot, especially for a legendary item. It's powerful, but id be more concerned with the resurrection availability in a game where the characters were trying to survive for a campaign.

    Right next to it is rod of lordly might giving you a host of weapon options sitting at a +3 bonus.

    For rare items check out the necklace of prayer beads, it will expand how many spells you have for a day and always casts as a bonus action. Bonus action bless and a full attack is an impressive turn.

    For uncommon items id suggest some kind of armor improvement either make your plate adamantine or mithral or grab a +1 shield which would put your possible ac at 22.

  • KasynKasyn I'm not saying I don't like our chances. She called me the master.Registered User regular
    Aldo wrote: »
    Sounds very Dishonored-esque. i approve. Have you played that game? It has some very creative cruel uses for packs of rats.

    I have not but I am Googling this as fast as humanly possible.

  • KasynKasyn I'm not saying I don't like our chances. She called me the master.Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    edit - buggy double post

    Kasyn on
  • KasynKasyn I'm not saying I don't like our chances. She called me the master.Registered User regular
    Update: I rolled a natural 19 on the very first use of my rats as a distraction, when my group had to slip away from some guards in an alley. Their target - chosen from friend and foe alike via a roll by the DM - ended up being one of the guards.

    Long story short, he was consumed alive by an unyielding horde of feral rats. We got away juuuuuuust fine.

  • XagarXagar Registered User regular
    My group's bard put me on the spot when she asked me to approximate what Celestial sounds like - I just said that it sounds kind of like ringing bells. What language do you guys think it sounds like?

    I might just dodge the question by doing some other kind of fancy arts project instead - considering making a special Celestial-esque rune for each spell I have. In that vein, what do you think written Celestial looks like?

  • MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    Xagar wrote: »
    My group's bard put me on the spot when she asked me to approximate what Celestial sounds like - I just said that it sounds kind of like ringing bells. What language do you guys think it sounds like?

    I might just dodge the question by doing some other kind of fancy arts project instead - considering making a special Celestial-esque rune for each spell I have. In that vein, what do you think written Celestial looks like?

    Obvious answer is it looks like the Enochian alphabet these doofy 16th century occultists cooked up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian#Alphabet

    Steam/LoL: Jericho89
  • XagarXagar Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    Mahnmut wrote: »
    Xagar wrote: »
    My group's bard put me on the spot when she asked me to approximate what Celestial sounds like - I just said that it sounds kind of like ringing bells. What language do you guys think it sounds like?

    I might just dodge the question by doing some other kind of fancy arts project instead - considering making a special Celestial-esque rune for each spell I have. In that vein, what do you think written Celestial looks like?

    Obvious answer is it looks like the Enochian alphabet these doofy 16th century occultists cooked up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian#Alphabet

    A few Wikipedia links later, I'm thinking Vedic Sansrkit instead because it looks rad.
    internets wrote:
    Sanskrit is the language of mantra

    Words of power that are subtly attuned to the unseen harmonies of the matrix of creation, the world as yet unformed. Vak (speech), or the "word", incorporates both the sense of voice and word. It has four forms of expression. The first, para, represents cosmic ideation arising from absolute divine presence. The second, pasyanti (seeing), is vak as subject, seeing which creates the object of madhyama-vak, the third and subtle form of speech before it manifests as vaikhari-vak, the gross production of letters in spoken speech. This implies the possibility of having speech oriented to a direct living truth which transcends individual preoccupation with the limited information available through the senses. Spoken words as such are creative living things of power. They penetrate to the essence of what they describe, and give birth to meaning which reflects the profound interrelatedness of life.

    The unique organization of the alphabet serves to focus one's attention on qualities and patterns of articulated sound in a way that occurs in no other language. By paying continuous attention to the point of location, degree of resonance, and effort of breath, one's awareness becomes more and more consumed by the direct experience of articulated sound. This in itself produces an unprecedented clarity of mind and revelry in the joy of language, as every combination of sound follows strict laws which essentially make possible an uninterrupted flow of the most perfect euphonic blending of letters into words and verse.
    *heavy breathing*

    Xagar on
  • TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    @Zomro you wanted to hear how things would turn out with my Paladin.

    To recap from a few weeks ago: my Paladin and moral center of the party revealed himself to have been a former soldier named Wulfric who killed a lot of innocent people for the tyrant (and current foe of the party) who employed him. The guilt of his actions drove him to run away and masquerade as Tarsus the Devonian, a Paladin who he had killed.

    The party was bothered at having been deceived and brought to the town under false pretenses, but were more than willing to forgive him. It was pretty clear at this point that he was a different person now whose regret had broken him and who always took his own failures much harder than he did others' (as one person said OOC, he's his own worst Yelp reviewer).

    Long story short, we killed the tyrant and liberated the town. The rest of the group went off to do their own things for the evening, and Tarsus/Wulfric went to the graveyard to make peace with one of the innocents he'd killed, part of the condition of his not getting lynched by the town.

    Kneeling in front of the grave, he confessed about how he didn't really know what he was doing and that he knew there wasn't anything he could say that would make it right. He added that, at least when he died, she might feel some peace because no just afterlife would ever force a person to be in the same place as their murderer. And as he knelt there and wept, the divine spark inside him flickered and went out, and he felt a weight lift off him.

    He walked back to the inn, ready to tell the others that he wasn't going to be much use to them anymore with no powers. But when he opened the door, he was overcome by a vision of Bahamut, who explained a few things. Foremost among them was that the real Tarsus wasn't quite as much of a selfless hero as Wulfric had built him up to be. He said that he'd heard Wulfric's prayers and decided to help years back, because he believed that everyone deserved a second chance.

    Wulfric awoke standing in the tavern holding a new magic sword and with his powers returned. Here he asked the party what he should do in regards to his name. I was expecting emphatic support for going back to Wulfric, but I think I didn't properly explain the stakes of the name change. Specifically, that if he remained Tarsus then he could never feel right allowing himself to be happy. Only one PC chimed in, saying that she liked the sound of the name Tarsus. The DM, however, was pretty firmly in the "Wulfric" camp and heavily implied as such, so now he's Wulfric again.

    Overall it was really cathartic and a great emotional climax for his character arc. I definitely shed a few tears and, despite my lack of acting skill, I brought a few of the others along. I also have the opportunity to change my Oath, though I'm not sure if I will.

  • Ken OKen O Registered User regular
    We're till spitballing ideas to continue the characters we used on our Curse of Strahd game. I think my DM has it in for my all black carriage. I don't think it's because my bard mounted a giant goat skull on it, but it could be. Anyway....if it does became an issue I'll let it go. We're also supposed to level to 10 before the game restarts. So if I'm suddenly rideless, I suppose I'll have to use one of my Magical Secret spots on Find Greater Steed. He didn't like my carriage, wait till he sees my gryphon.

    http://www.fingmonkey.com/
    Comics, Games, Booze
  • Nerdsamwich Nerdsamwich Registered User regular
    Can a Greater Steed be an animated flying carriage?

  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    my players had a convo in Celestial recently, i narrated it like thus:

    "the peals of church bells, melodic like a chorus, joy given sound, rays of sunlight streaming down through stained glass windows"

    it seemed to be enjoyed

  • DocshiftyDocshifty Registered User regular
    So thanks to some life stuff, I distracted myself for the past two days with an app called Wonderdraft.


    I dunno how many of you like making maps, but uh, this thing is a lot of fun. Here is what I ended up with, starting from the idea of a tidally locked world.

    Nbc0tBS.jpg

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    I got it a few months ago and it is a blast! I love Wonderdraft.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • hlprmnkyhlprmnky Registered User regular
    You know how I know this is a good thread? Because when I come back in here to see what's happened lately, odds are really good that I'm clicking "Awesome" on, if not every post, every post that isn't someone else replying to an earlier post with "that is awesome". This is a place of healing for me, so thank you all for that.

    _
    Your Ad Here! Reasonable Rates!
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    Update on the campaign I'm playing in:

    - I got the Dust Devil spell; I've named the elemental spirit it summons Dustin
    - I leapt through a window dramatically to stab a dire wolf as I landed, then took forever trying to climb back inside (also I had to pay for the window)
    - Me and another character followed a "suspicious" guy who was being a dick to us earlier to his apartment where we found him trying to eat oatmeal; my partner distracted him while I used mage hand to grab his spoon, and when he said to my partner "I'm just trying to eat my oatmeal" I yelled "GOOD LUCK WITHOUT A SPOON" before running away

    Hexmage-PA on
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Docshifty wrote: »
    So thanks to some life stuff, I distracted myself for the past two days with an app called Wonderdraft.


    I dunno how many of you like making maps, but uh, this thing is a lot of fun. Here is what I ended up with, starting from the idea of a tidally locked world.

    Nbc0tBS.jpg

    If the world is tidally locked then you need another transition zone between your ice and your desert.

    Its a globe after all and at current youve got ice and desert right next to each other as a result

    @Docshifty

    wbBv3fj.png
  • DocshiftyDocshifty Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    That isn't wrapped, it just goes off in to scorching hellscape or frozen wasteland depending on the direction you want to go.

    It is easier to see with all the labels but I wanted to go with just the map.

    Docshifty on
  • evilthecatevilthecat Registered User regular
    so how the heck did you get that coastline!
    All my coasts are simple black lines...

    tip.. tip.. TALLY.. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
  • JusticeforPlutoJusticeforPluto Registered User regular
    Docshifty wrote: »
    So thanks to some life stuff, I distracted myself for the past two days with an app called Wonderdraft.


    I dunno how many of you like making maps, but uh, this thing is a lot of fun. Here is what I ended up with, starting from the idea of a tidally locked world.

    Nbc0tBS.jpg

    That's really impressive! Can I offer some tips?

  • DocshiftyDocshifty Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    Docshifty wrote: »
    So thanks to some life stuff, I distracted myself for the past two days with an app called Wonderdraft.


    I dunno how many of you like making maps, but uh, this thing is a lot of fun. Here is what I ended up with, starting from the idea of a tidally locked world.

    That's really impressive! Can I offer some tips?

    Go for it!
    evilthecat wrote: »
    so how the heck did you get that coastline!
    All my coasts are simple black lines...

    Blob land in the shape you roughly want, then use the cliffs symbols along the coast. Fill in/Remove land as needed.

    Docshifty on
  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    my players had a convo in Celestial recently, i narrated it like thus:

    "the peals of church bells, melodic like a chorus, joy given sound, rays of sunlight streaming down through stained glass windows"

    it seemed to be enjoyed

    My DM in curse of strahd described it very similarly as to it sounds to my Aasimar

    to everyone else in the party (who doesn't speak it) it just sounds like fancy pretentious dead languages nerds pick up in school to sound smarter

    override367 on
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    So last session most of my players had project planning at work so I only had 3 players and decided to try stretching the system a little.

    I had one of the players bring back a retired character. The character's whole bit is that they're the first archmage of the region and more importantly a college professor of arcane studies.

    In a forest nearby the metropolitan region the professor's university is in there's currently a problem where it's packed with undead. The players are using their various characters to ring clear the forest as they close in on the necromancer and liches that are producing and controlling all the undead. Hilariously one of the necromancers is actually a player character that's heel turned and is being introduced as a recurring villain that player is going to write and run a campaign for.

    This is essentially the current filler playground for when we don't have enough to run a main adventure we're conducting. I'm using it to help round out personal plot lines in some cases and to just let players play retired or sidelined characters or try new stuff.

    So as a fun little experiment we had a 17th level arch mage professor take his 3 heartiest 3rd level TAs into the undead forest for some practical field work.

    The party was a 17th level abjuration wizard I gave access to every abjuration spell (that happened a long time ago) and: an arcane archer, an alchemist artificer, and a fighter/wizard multi class gish.

    Along with about 6 guards (quite obviously not long for this world)

    The first fight was a set of jazzed up nothics. Take a nothic add zombie traits, a d4 of necrotic damage on their claw attack, lose multi attack, change the rotting gaze to a 15 foot cone that deals an extra d6 of damage (save for no damage). There were 7 of em.

    They opened by murdering all the guards with their first turn to show off the altered gaze attack and to put the students in a less secure position as they delve into the forest. Yhen they alternated between gaze attacks and melee attacks for the rest of the battle. Professor ate 3 for the whole encounter just not giving a shit about any of their attacks and buffing the students and offering them advice and softening targets for them. 2 went to the gish for the whole fight, and one each for the arcane archer and artificer. They clear out the the arcane archer's problem first, and he pulls back to get some actual range action in and helps take down the artificers problem next. Professor throws a little green flame blade secondary damage at one on the gish to soften them up, and between the students they take down one on the gish and leave the other badly injured. At this point the professor is leaning back, confident in his students ability to clear out the rest of the fight, the arcane archer pulls back on his bow to charge his bursting shot tentatively switching his aim between the one on the fighter and the three on the professor (not wanting to shoot at his professor you see), and the professor signals to call the airstrike on his head. The bursting shot kills all but two of the nothics and the students finish them off before they get another turn.

    Short rest, students level. The gish elects war wizardry for his school of magic after a flashback to him discussing with his advisor (the professor) which type of magic he should really dig into as a specialty. Thought about abjuration, follow the professor's lead as it were. Evocation is always a reliable standby for combat magic. Even thought about transmutation but he wasn't feeling the alchemy classes he'd have to take to back that. Honestly he's kindof a meat head hooligan. He wears full plate and swings a battle axe. The ability to pull a quick and dirty fascimile of shield at will is super beneficial to him. The arcane archer keeps it simple and grabs sharp shooter while the artificer picks up +2 int.

    After the students have rested, and the professor has finished taking his notes on this new variation of nothic (he's kindof an expert in the field of nothic research, especially abnormal instances, these things at least deserve a footnote), they delve further into the undead forest.

    As they enter a small clearing, one of the students (the arcane archer) notices the 4 skulls clearly arranged in a square at the edges surrounding the clearing, and the professor notices that puts them right in the kill box. Luckily that avoids the 4 flame skulls getting a surprise round to open up with 4 fire balls, but not avoiding them getting top of initiative to open up like that anyways. However thanks to the lack of surprise The professor reacts and counters one bringing it down to 3 fireballs, the party fricken miraculously makes all their saves and the students barely survive thanks to me rolling total garbage for the damage on fireball three.

    The professor decides it's probably better if he gets more proactive in this fight and returns fire with chain lightning striking a mighty blow to all of the flame skulls even despite their resistance. The students all take their attacks: the artificer takes a shot with their crossbow and dives off into cover, the arcane archer nearly sharp shooters one of the skulls out of the sky, the gish misses his attack. The flame skulls go with magic missile next, the three characters not in cover eat 3 missiles each. The gish nearly hits the deck. The professor responds with a stronger magic missile in kind, drops one of the flame skulls and puts some damage on the remaining 3 skulls. The arcane archer takes down 1 of the skulls with sharpshooter but misses the second thanks to a shield spell. The artificer puts some damage into one of em with the help of his homunculus (looks like a bottle gnome that floats around magically) and the gish attempts to finish it off (the gish was having a bad go of it in this fight). The flame skulls go for another magic missile volley into the students and the gish goes down the party easily mops the 2 remaing skulls and The artificer rushes in to use a medicine check to stabilize the gish. The professor brings up a magnificent mansion for the party to rest up in, and that's the session. The students hit level 5

    If we get back to them in this forest they'll slow down on the levels a little but I wanted to get them to higher damage cantrips and multiple attacks to kinda close the gap between them and the professor, I might eventually have them fight a demi lich in here to keep with the floating skulls and wizard's theme.

    Sleep on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    Okay, so high level Paladins are just stupid powerful, I guess.

    I had the party fight a CR 25 archdevil from the Creature Codex called Parzelon, alongside his fiendish bear mount (which had the stats of a young red dragon). Both were dead before the end of the first round of combat, with the Oath of Vengeance Paladin dealing over 50% of the damage needed to kill Parzelon.

    I guess I just need to assume that any creature that the paladin can reach will either die or be very near death after their turn.

    EDIT: In other news, there was a group playing 4E at the comic shop today, which was a little surprising.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    Okay, so high level Paladins are just stupid powerful, I guess.

    I had the party fight a CR 25 archdevil from the Creature Codex called Parzelon, alongside his fiendish bear mount (which had the stats of a young red dragon). Both were dead before the end of the first round of combat, with the Oath of Vengeance Paladin dealing over 50% of the damage needed to kill Parzelon.

    I guess I just need to assume that any creature that the paladin can reach will either die or be very near death after their turn.

    EDIT: In other news, there was a group playing 4E at the comic shop today, which was a little surprising.

    I mean, not to be overly snarky, but isn't dealing with supernatural evil kind of a paladin's whole thing?

    Twitter! | Dilige, et quod vis fac
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    Tox wrote: »
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    Okay, so high level Paladins are just stupid powerful, I guess.

    I had the party fight a CR 25 archdevil from the Creature Codex called Parzelon, alongside his fiendish bear mount (which had the stats of a young red dragon). Both were dead before the end of the first round of combat, with the Oath of Vengeance Paladin dealing over 50% of the damage needed to kill Parzelon.

    I guess I just need to assume that any creature that the paladin can reach will either die or be very near death after their turn.

    EDIT: In other news, there was a group playing 4E at the comic shop today, which was a little surprising.

    I mean, not to be overly snarky, but isn't dealing with supernatural evil kind of a paladin's whole thing?

    Well, said paladin is now Lawful Evil himself.

    I knew he was good against Fiends and Undead, but not THAT good. I think everything's gonna have to kite him from now on.

    EDIT: The combat was 6 14th-level PCs vs one CR 25, one CR 10, and three CR 5's. Going by the encounter building rules one CR 25 should be a Hard challenge by itself, and it probably would have been a challenge if not for the crazy OP paladin.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • SproutSprout Registered User regular
    I’m playing a paladin through Curse of Strahd now and the burst capability is pretty nuts. If a paladin is going in to an obvious boss encounter like that fresh as a daisy then they’re just going to nova its face off. The key is to make that the 2nd or 3rd encounter of the day and hopefully they’ll have blown a significant amount of their resources before they square up with Big Boi.

  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    I'm gonna assume the paladin was either using a PAM user or had precast Haste because even with those the average damage is only about 120, blowing a level 4 and two level 3 smites.

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    I'm a multiclassed hexblade paladin and having expanded crit range is so nice with hexblades curse. If I can get advantage so much the better.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    In our Rakshasa encounter our Paladin wrecked face, so yeah, pallies are bonkers against fiend-type enemies.

  • WearingglassesWearingglasses Of the friendly neighborhood variety Registered User regular
    edited April 2019
    Huzzah, thread! I'll be playing my first Dungeons and Dragons (tm) game with four three of my buddies, as one of them has reeled in a veteran DM he knew from college that can DM for us. Said DM already has a homebrewed world in place, with other players (that we do not know) already moving around in it - it's a bit magepunky(?), adding the official Eberron stuff and the unofficial UnearthedArcana Steampunk module (so magic pistols n shit) as additional references. Our first game will be a one shot with all of us at level 3.

    We will be:

    - "Mister Smiles" (me) - Awakened Undead (Skeleton) Bard. Undead, built in thieves' tools, support, general skill monkey, skulker, and party face
    - Halfling Ranger (probably a Beastmaster) - primary frontline, has a goat for some reason. I heard basic Beastmasters aren't so hot so I told her to check out the revised version.
    - Human Monk - better scout, primary/secondary frontline, got the Sentinel feat.
    - Tiefling Gunslinger - ranged DPS, probably?
    - Dragonborn Cleric <- (dropped out of the first session when he realized he has tickets with his partner for Avengers Endgame that night)

    Any tips for an avid RPG rulebook reader but actual first-time D&D player?


    EDIT: I'm actually more familiar with 3.5, having played NWN1 and the Icewind Dale games. So I haven't read the full 5e stuff and I don't know if I've seen all the differences between systems (I've peeped advantage, proficiency, spellcasting, and short/long rests so far)

    Wearingglasses on
  • KayKay What we need... Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered User regular
    Glal wrote: »
    In our Rakshasa encounter our Paladin wrecked face, so yeah, pallies are bonkers against fiend-type enemies.

    Smites are great, but most of the damage was because Raksasha have a VERY specific damage vulnerability, which our Paladin happened to fit. (Good aligned, magic piercing weapon)

    ew9y0DD.png
    3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular

    Any tips for an avid RPG rulebook reader but actual first-time D&D player?

    Don't be afraid to lay out what you want to do, and then ask "So what do I need to roll for that?" That will help you get into the mindset that you're playing a character and telling a story, not just piloting a bag of skill proficiencies. Doing awesome and out-of-the-box stuff is also a nice way to have fun and get Inspiration!

    Depending on your GM, they might just for expediency's sake let you do simple enough stuff without bothering to roll if it's within reason and it keeps the game moving.

    Example:
    DON'T say: "I'm going to roll Athletics to see if I can climb this wall."
    DO say: "I want to climb this wall. What's that, an Athletics roll? How about Acrobatics?"

    Don't grill every NPC hoping to run out their dialogue trees. The PC games have a lot more patience than a real GM does in that regard. :D

    GNU Terry Pratchett
    PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
    Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
    egc6gp2emz1v.png
  • furlionfurlion Riskbreaker Lea MondeRegistered User regular
    Had my 4th game Friday night. I have 5 players, cleric, rogue, ranger, sorcerer, and fighter, so a pretty well balanced party I think. We are going through the lost mines starter set and they spent the whole game in the town itself. One of my players got really hung up on finding out the dark secrets of one of the NPCs, who does not actually have one. I really should have taken the reigns a bit more as all of them are really new still. Hopefully they still had enough fun to want to play again next month. We ended up with them about to enter the ruffian hideout. It was the first time I had to pull the punches on an encounter. I didn't realize the thugs had multiattack and had to modify the encounter at the last second. I still managed to beat them to within an inch of their lives though.

    I think I learned something important about when to be more forceful about what the players should do, especially since they are so new. Also one of my players bought me the ravnica source book so we might turn his human fighter into a loxodon as he is a huge magic fan. Might make him justify it by coming to with a good enough back story though.

    sig.gif Gamertag: KL Retribution
    PSN:Furlion
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Any tips for an avid RPG rulebook reader but actual first-time D&D player?
    Having had it come up in the past, don't think of your character as a collection of arbitrary superpowers, especially at lower levels- your character is, well, a person. Think of what you would/could do in that situation and work from there, your DM will tell you what you need to roll if it comes to that. Also don't be afraid to ask for help if you can't think of what to do, a good DM will accommodate new players.

    We had a brand new player whose only RPG experience were MMOs and other CRPGs. We had a lot of difficulty explaining to them that, in order to escape a situation, you need to think of a way to do so and then do it, rather than "well, normally I'd just use my Escape ability?". Their character was their collection of power cards and we could not budge that mindset.

  • NarbusNarbus Registered User regular
    Bursar wrote: »

    Any tips for an avid RPG rulebook reader but actual first-time D&D player?

    Don't be afraid to lay out what you want to do, and then ask "So what do I need to roll for that?" That will help you get into the mindset that you're playing a character and telling a story, not just piloting a bag of skill proficiencies. Doing awesome and out-of-the-box stuff is also a nice way to have fun and get Inspiration!

    Depending on your GM, they might just for expediency's sake let you do simple enough stuff without bothering to roll if it's within reason and it keeps the game moving.

    Example:
    DON'T say: "I'm going to roll Athletics to see if I can climb this wall."
    DO say: "I want to climb this wall. What's that, an Athletics roll? How about Acrobatics?"

    Don't grill every NPC hoping to run out their dialogue trees. The PC games have a lot more patience than a real GM does in that regard. :D

    Building off this and Glal's post, what you should be doing as a player is saying what your character wants to do and how they want to do it. That's it. The DM is there to tell you what to roll, you focus on your character's reaction to a situation, not your reaction to a game puzzle.

  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    I drank a bunch of giant juice and got a 69 on wild magic

This discussion has been closed.