The transition team has drafted a new document of Guiding Principles and New Rules for our community. These rules will go into effect on November 25. 2024.
Brainstorming for homebrew demon lord stats. How do these concepts look?
Shaktari, Queen of Mariliths - Aura of Domineering. Trait. The first time an ally within 15 feet misses with an attack roll on its turn it takes 20 psychic damage and immediately makes an extra attack with a +3 bonus to the attack roll and damage roll.
- Assault Order. Action. One ally within 50 feet immediately uses its reaction to move up to half its speed and make a melee or ranged weapon attack. - Multiattack. Action. Shaktari makes eight longsword attacks. She may replace any of these attacks with an assault order.
- Tactical Teleportation. Bonus action. Up to two allies within 50 feet teleport to any open space within that range.
- Explosive Dismissal. Bonus action. One demon ally within fifty feet uses its reaction to move up to half its speed, after which it explodes and dies. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosion must make a DC 24 Dexterity save or take 3d8 force damage.
- Death Rattle. Bonus Action. Recharge 6. Any enemy within 30 feet that can hear the death rattle must make a DC 24 Wisdom save or be frightened. While frightened by this effect, the target has vulnerability to damage inflicted by Shaktari's weapon attacks until the end of its next turn.
So, I don't have any concept of high level 5E balance, so I might be talking out of my ass. But the bolded ones sound kind of crazy to me. Particularly if Shaktari is going to be hanging out with critters that have massive single attacks. Getting a reroll if you miss your one big attack of the round (at a bonus!) is huge. And trading one or more of Shaktari's relatively small longsword attacks to give bonus attacks to big hitters could be a huge multiplier on her output. If she's just hanging out with mooks and/or other mariliths (whose attacks would presumably be equal or worse than Shaktari's), maybe it's fine.
Or, as I said, I could be completely off. Someone who has actually played some high level 5E might have a better idea.
No, I think you're correct, 8 longsword attacks is pretty insane in one round, especially if it's not a limited resource for the monster. The only player character that could manage that is a top level fighter burning an action surge.
More importantly though, I'd be concerned with the flow of play if the DM stops to make 8 attack rolls, then however many damage rolls and does this every round.
Maybe rework it so it's a powerful attack, but not one that's going to take 15 minutes to resolve? Or it's a special attack that can only be used so many times in a single encounter.
I think Aura of Domineering doesn't seem unbalanced. If I'm reading it right, that's a once a combat thing, and the ally of Shaktari takes a considerable bit of damage before attacking. I'm wondering at the order of operations though, is it possible the ally may get brain popped by the aura before it can make the attack? If not, maybe reorder the wording so it makes the attack, then takes the psychic damage.
Brainstorming for homebrew demon lord stats. How do these concepts look?
Shaktari, Queen of Mariliths - Aura of Domineering. Trait. The first time an ally within 15 feet misses with an attack roll on its turn it takes 20 psychic damage and immediately makes an extra attack with a +3 bonus to the attack roll and damage roll.
- Assault Order. Action. One ally within 50 feet immediately uses its reaction to move up to half its speed and make a melee or ranged weapon attack. - Multiattack. Action. Shaktari makes eight longsword attacks. She may replace any of these attacks with an assault order.
- Tactical Teleportation. Bonus action. Up to two allies within 50 feet teleport to any open space within that range.
- Explosive Dismissal. Bonus action. One demon ally within fifty feet uses its reaction to move up to half its speed, after which it explodes and dies. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosion must make a DC 24 Dexterity save or take 3d8 force damage.
- Death Rattle. Bonus Action. Recharge 6. Any enemy within 30 feet that can hear the death rattle must make a DC 24 Wisdom save or be frightened. While frightened by this effect, the target has vulnerability to damage inflicted by Shaktari's weapon attacks until the end of its next turn.
So, I don't have any concept of high level 5E balance, so I might be talking out of my ass. But the bolded ones sound kind of crazy to me. Particularly if Shaktari is going to be hanging out with critters that have massive single attacks. Getting a reroll if you miss your one big attack of the round (at a bonus!) is huge. And trading one or more of Shaktari's relatively small longsword attacks to give bonus attacks to big hitters could be a huge multiplier on her output. If she's just hanging out with mooks and/or other mariliths (whose attacks would presumably be equal or worse than Shaktari's), maybe it's fine.
Or, as I said, I could be completely off. Someone who has actually played some high level 5E might have a better idea.
No, I think you're correct, 8 longsword attacks is pretty insane in one round, especially if it's not a limited resource for the monster. The only player character that could manage that is a top level fighter burning an action surge.
More importantly though, I'd be concerned with the flow of play if the DM stops to make 8 attack rolls, then however many damage rolls and does this every round.
Maybe rework it so it's a powerful attack, but not one that's going to take 15 minutes to resolve? Or it's a special attack that can only be used so many times in a single encounter.
I think Aura of Domineering doesn't seem unbalanced. If I'm reading it right, that's a once a combat thing, and the ally of Shaktari takes a considerable bit of damage before attacking. I'm wondering at the order of operations though, is it possible the ally may get brain popped by the aura before it can make the attack? If not, maybe reorder the wording so it makes the attack, then takes the psychic damage.
Pretty sure you're reading AoD wrong. That seems like every turn for every other baddie they reroll their first missed attack after taking 20 damage.
The 8 longsword attacks seems a little weird as they have 6 arms. Six sword attacks are a pretty traditional Maralith thing. (Also as a DM if that doesn't involve you rolling six d20's at once you are SLOW.) I'd actually be more worried about the timing of the swaps for minions. It's good flavor but that will eat a bunch of time.
All in all it'd be a really annoying standard encounter but from the name and such I assume this is a boss fight and a big one at that. It being a bit complicated is probably appropriate.
As always though, it's gonna be a question of numbers. To hits and damage and hp and all these other number things is where the heart and soul of balance lives.
Brainstorming for homebrew demon lord stats. How do these concepts look?
Shaktari, Queen of Mariliths - Aura of Domineering. Trait. The first time an ally within 15 feet misses with an attack roll on its turn it takes 20 psychic damage and immediately makes an extra attack with a +3 bonus to the attack roll and damage roll.
- Assault Order. Action. One ally within 50 feet immediately uses its reaction to move up to half its speed and make a melee or ranged weapon attack. - Multiattack. Action. Shaktari makes eight longsword attacks. She may replace any of these attacks with an assault order.
- Tactical Teleportation. Bonus action. Up to two allies within 50 feet teleport to any open space within that range.
- Explosive Dismissal. Bonus action. One demon ally within fifty feet uses its reaction to move up to half its speed, after which it explodes and dies. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosion must make a DC 24 Dexterity save or take 3d8 force damage.
- Death Rattle. Bonus Action. Recharge 6. Any enemy within 30 feet that can hear the death rattle must make a DC 24 Wisdom save or be frightened. While frightened by this effect, the target has vulnerability to damage inflicted by Shaktari's weapon attacks until the end of its next turn.
So, I don't have any concept of high level 5E balance, so I might be talking out of my ass. But the bolded ones sound kind of crazy to me. Particularly if Shaktari is going to be hanging out with critters that have massive single attacks. Getting a reroll if you miss your one big attack of the round (at a bonus!) is huge. And trading one or more of Shaktari's relatively small longsword attacks to give bonus attacks to big hitters could be a huge multiplier on her output. If she's just hanging out with mooks and/or other mariliths (whose attacks would presumably be equal or worse than Shaktari's), maybe it's fine.
Or, as I said, I could be completely off. Someone who has actually played some high level 5E might have a better idea.
No, I think you're correct, 8 longsword attacks is pretty insane in one round, especially if it's not a limited resource for the monster. The only player character that could manage that is a top level fighter burning an action surge.
More importantly though, I'd be concerned with the flow of play if the DM stops to make 8 attack rolls, then however many damage rolls and does this every round.
Maybe rework it so it's a powerful attack, but not one that's going to take 15 minutes to resolve? Or it's a special attack that can only be used so many times in a single encounter.
I think Aura of Domineering doesn't seem unbalanced. If I'm reading it right, that's a once a combat thing, and the ally of Shaktari takes a considerable bit of damage before attacking. I'm wondering at the order of operations though, is it possible the ally may get brain popped by the aura before it can make the attack? If not, maybe reorder the wording so it makes the attack, then takes the psychic damage.
Instead of 8 attacks, you could roll it into one graded attack: on a hit, deal 1d8+str damage, and add another 1d8+str for each 1 that the attack exceeds the player's ac, up to 7 times.
You may want to change what happens on a crit, though, unless you want a 16d8+8*str threat to loom over the fight every time Shaktari attacks
The 'standard' marilith in the Monster Manual has a multiattack of seven: six long sword attacks and one tail attack. Having the big marilith make eight isn't that much different.
They also have magical weapons, and can parry once per turn (not round), adding 5 AC against one melee attack. I'd hang onto that, and the Legendary Resistance (advantage on saving throws vs. magic).
Marilith are supposed to be tacticians, I like the extra actions that affect the various minions running around.
Minor point, mariliths are called that because they're named after the greatest one, Marilith. Maybe a different honorific than queen? NBD, though.
My weekly game now has us in a version of Against the Giants. We reached the giant's fort. With a Calm Emotions spell and some persuasion rolls I managed to get us in the front door. It pretty quickly hit the fan after that. I think we've alerted the entire place to our presence. I'm looking forward to the insanity tomorrow.
My weekly game now has us in a version of Against the Giants. We reached the giant's fort. With a Calm Emotions spell and some persuasion rolls I managed to get us in the front door. It pretty quickly hit the fan after that. I think we've alerted the entire place to our presence. I'm looking forward to the insanity tomorrow.
Which Giants?
Hill Giants, but I guess there is a meeting from the other giants too. So I remember at least one Stone. Not sure what else is there. Literally when the plan went fubar we were in the foyer and part way into another room. It's a blast, it looks like we're in for one heck of a long drawn out fight. I'm also sitting on an Otto's Irresistible Dance for when we encounter their leader. I've only mentioned I learned it to one other person in my group. I love showing off new abilities as a surprise when they really come in handy.
I still never really feel happy with how I role play my characters. Always feel like I am failing them. I guess everyone ended up hating my previous character, although to be fair I hate some of theirs.
Maybe I'm just taking the game to serious, the only reason I play is to hang out with my friends.
What specific parts did you and your group not gel with?
Brainstorming for homebrew demon lord stats. How do these concepts look?
Shaktari, Queen of Mariliths - Aura of Domineering. Trait. The first time an ally within 15 feet misses with an attack roll on its turn it takes 20 psychic damage and immediately makes an extra attack with a +3 bonus to the attack roll and damage roll.
- Assault Order. Action. One ally within 50 feet immediately uses its reaction to move up to half its speed and make a melee or ranged weapon attack. - Multiattack. Action. Shaktari makes eight longsword attacks. She may replace any of these attacks with an assault order.
- Tactical Teleportation. Bonus action. Up to two allies within 50 feet teleport to any open space within that range.
- Explosive Dismissal. Bonus action. One demon ally within fifty feet uses its reaction to move up to half its speed, after which it explodes and dies. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosion must make a DC 24 Dexterity save or take 3d8 force damage.
- Death Rattle. Bonus Action. Recharge 6. Any enemy within 30 feet that can hear the death rattle must make a DC 24 Wisdom save or be frightened. While frightened by this effect, the target has vulnerability to damage inflicted by Shaktari's weapon attacks until the end of its next turn.
So, I don't have any concept of high level 5E balance, so I might be talking out of my ass. But the bolded ones sound kind of crazy to me. Particularly if Shaktari is going to be hanging out with critters that have massive single attacks. Getting a reroll if you miss your one big attack of the round (at a bonus!) is huge. And trading one or more of Shaktari's relatively small longsword attacks to give bonus attacks to big hitters could be a huge multiplier on her output. If she's just hanging out with mooks and/or other mariliths (whose attacks would presumably be equal or worse than Shaktari's), maybe it's fine.
Or, as I said, I could be completely off. Someone who has actually played some high level 5E might have a better idea.
No, I think you're correct, 8 longsword attacks is pretty insane in one round, especially if it's not a limited resource for the monster. The only player character that could manage that is a top level fighter burning an action surge.
More importantly though, I'd be concerned with the flow of play if the DM stops to make 8 attack rolls, then however many damage rolls and does this every round.
Maybe rework it so it's a powerful attack, but not one that's going to take 15 minutes to resolve? Or it's a special attack that can only be used so many times in a single encounter.
I think Aura of Domineering doesn't seem unbalanced. If I'm reading it right, that's a once a combat thing, and the ally of Shaktari takes a considerable bit of damage before attacking. I'm wondering at the order of operations though, is it possible the ally may get brain popped by the aura before it can make the attack? If not, maybe reorder the wording so it makes the attack, then takes the psychic damage.
Pretty sure you're reading AoD wrong. That seems like every turn for every other baddie they reroll their first missed attack after taking 20 damage.
The 8 longsword attacks seems a little weird as they have 6 arms. Six sword attacks are a pretty traditional Maralith thing. (Also as a DM if that doesn't involve you rolling six d20's at once you are SLOW.) I'd actually be more worried about the timing of the swaps for minions. It's good flavor but that will eat a bunch of time.
All in all it'd be a really annoying standard encounter but from the name and such I assume this is a boss fight and a big one at that. It being a bit complicated is probably appropriate.
As always though, it's gonna be a question of numbers. To hits and damage and hp and all these other number things is where the heart and soul of balance lives.
I'm not terribly concerned about Shaktari being too tough because so far my players have mowed through everything I've thrown at them. Plus at this point more than one has access to resurrection spells. I just want to make sure I don't make something insanely overpowered.
I've also started pre-rolling damage for encounters and recording the results on graph paper for each attack. Whenever a monster hits I strike through the next number in sequence.
Shaktari has eight arms. She was first introduced in a 2E Planescape adventure and was later statted-up in 3E and given a backstory (which includes the detail that she was so feared that two demon lords and three archdukes of Baator teamed-up to imprison her).
I actually managed to find an eight-armed marilith mini that is also slightly larger than the official marilith minis! It's from a game called Massive Darkness:
BTW, Aegeri statted-up a 4E Shaktari years ago, though mine is not based on his.
I need to check my Massive box of Massive Darkness. I went big on the Kickstarter and never actually got it on the table. I mean we got hit by a hurricane two days after it arrived, but still. It's mostly collected dust sense then. Some of the pieces are fantastic.
I still never really feel happy with how I role play my characters. Always feel like I am failing them. I guess everyone ended up hating my previous character, although to be fair I hate some of theirs.
Maybe I'm just taking the game to serious, the only reason I play is to hang out with my friends.
More info would really help us help you. Was it a contrast of character personalities (i.e. "I want to go help the orphans" "my character wouldn't do that, I stay in the bar and keep drinking"), or differing expectations (you wanted a political game, they wanted a dungeon crawler)? Are you perhaps stealing a lot of spotlight?
+1
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
First session of my Acq Inc game went well. My players also took to my house rules pretty well. After helping them go through it though I need to do another pass for brevity and clarity. Overall a lot of fun! I'm running the built in adventure, but in my own world. So far it's been pretty easy to transfer over.
First session of my Acq Inc game went well. My players also took to my house rules pretty well. After helping them go through it though I need to do another pass for brevity and clarity. Overall a lot of fun! I'm running the built in adventure, but in my own world. So far it's been pretty easy to transfer over.
From what I remember, your rules are really cool and gives fate point-like utility to the hit die they otherwise wouldn’t have.
0
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
I feel they all made goofball characters. Steal from the Duke in plain sight, smoke weed before meeting said Duke. At times it's like they don't take the world seriously.
Everything is a joke, always drinking.
I think playing the straight man to them is very possible and with cooperation would lead to a satisfying game. Y’all got to come together and hash out the dynamic so everyone is happy.
I know I take the piss out of the game I GM and my homebrew stuff along with my friends’ stuff. Joking about can bring levity or fill silence even in a game like the one I GM whose tone is like 65% serious. It might be that’s just how they play and having a talk about possibly toning it down a little but not to the point of stifling would help a lot.
Now, stealing from the duke is uncooperative behavior that could lead to the campaign being derailed and you need to talk to that player and the GM to see if the GM is lenient on that sort of thing. The LOLS RANDOM can only go so far that it does not make other players annoyed or uncomfortable.
Kadoken on
+1
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Yea, between that and switching over everything to short rest recharge it is an interesting adventure in trying to make everything tie together without making it overly complex.
Pretty much the adventuring day is over once you start getting low on hit dice.
I had run a little encounter with some drow trying to split lolth into a giant evil spider and a confused elf with no memories, because they were crazy zealots that wanted the pure demon spider to annihilate everything... since in my game her downfall came as a result of corruption by Tharzidun the chained oblivion, not because she was a jealous girlfriend/daughter/whatever
anyway through a huge unlikely confluence of events, the party helped them finish the ritual, and then helped the elf escape and collapsed the mountain on the spider, so they've been wandering around with a god drow with amnesia for a bit. It's been fun because her spell list is from an earlier editions of D&D and none of her shit works the same way as their 5e (I had to scramble to come up with a stat block since my expected encounter of "god elf fights god spider while party stops the ritual" didn't happen, since in that encounter I could just play fast and loose with their respective powers)
she's also totally a pacifist and fusses whenever they kill things, they jumped some orcs and she polymorphed the orcs into giant eagles so they could escape "Because you didn't even try talking to them!"
the party also has an Acq Inc franchise and chose to make this creature their Secretarian, so now she has a sending stone of gossip, they're handing me all the tools I need to just fuck everything up and this is the place I want to be as the DM. She has a spell that lets her create a new species, with a bunch of arbitrary rules about how much it will cost (for example, creating humans would cost about 25% of her hit dice, permanently, and elves would cost about a third), it creates 50 adult individuals of the race that worship their creator.
they plan to use this ability to staff their franchise headquarters once they establish it, by creating a race of interns. This is the most Omin Drahn outcome possible
override367 on
+18
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
By god I mean, avatar, the party has had to deal with persistent demon interference since they freed her, since the spider avatar was returned to Lolth's domain with her full divine powers, throwing the entire drow world into chaos as their god is now just an exceptionally powerful insane demon
Meanwhile, the party takes Araushnee shopping and teaches her that it's okay to steal from rich people. Next I plan for goodly paladins to want to kill her, putting the party in a touchy position (since killing her would just restore the status quo).
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
So we successfully encased a yak folk chieftain in one of those impenetrable spheres and rolled him off a 500ft waterfall. It was one of the better ways we've killed an enemy.
Unfortunately about half the slaves in the village we were going through got slaughtered when an alarm was raised.
Im looking forward to the yakfolk but with my party's insight scores I think it will probably be a bloodbath, Ima have the yakfolk try and trick them into eating dinner but well see
the ideal scenario would be the party going to dinner, eating poison, getting clubbed unconscious, and waking up in the ironslag mines as slaves and having to escape
Look, there's only so many times you can shrug off "yak it up, fuzzball" before you just go aggro on all the people who keep saying it.
Great now i need a yak folk barbarian that rages whenever folks say that to him, not necessarily due to animus towards the person saying it, but literally pure frustration at having herd the pun so many fuckin times.
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User, Transition Teamregular
I have never inspired as much fear and dread in a group of players than when I introduced them to a secret city of Yakfolk.
They ended that particular chapter fleeing for their lives.
They didn't grab any treasure and they ended up leaving two party members behind.
They leapt off a mountain-side with terror in their hearts.
+10
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Just received my Strongholds and Followers kickstarter stuff. The book by Matt Colville, and 3 dragon minis that I added on. I think the two big ones might have to wait till I get an actual airbrush setup.
Myself and my players didnt really like the Dungeon of the Mad Mage so two floors down a strange mist teleported them into Barovia instead and we have spent the last months enjoying the setting. Now its gearing up for a final showdown.
The party is 6 players currently at level 9. Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Barbarian, Druid, Wizard. They have found all the 3 treasures and are quite badass at the moment. The druid just picks stuff he thinks sounds fun but the others are quite min/maxy.
Right now they are on the way to check out Amber Temple before they (at least most likely) will head to the castle. I'm thinking Strahd might tempt one of them, perhaps the Paladin since he has the sunsword to accept the gift of vampyr and either join Strahd as ruler or take over after him so he can leave Barovia. Ofc Strahd will not hold up his end of the bargain and just wants to divide the party. Is it a good idea to try to turn one of the players evil? We don't usually turn on eachother but it has happened before so its not unheard of.
They are allied with Ezmerelda d'Avenir and she is currently scouting the castle for information about the Heart of Sorrow. Another plan is to simply turn have her captured and turned into a vampire that attacks the party with Strahd.
It's kinda hard to judge just looking at skills how a fight will go but I'm guessing they would woop Strahd's butt quite hard in a straight stand up fight.
Do not give them a stand up fight. My lvl 9 players would have pasted him had i let them. Strahd fights dirty. He tries to bait players into traps. Here passes through walls and floors. He has reinforcements. He charms as many players as he can. He polymorphs the biggest threat to him into a whale. He bombards the whole party with chain fireballs if they clump. He runs away if it looks like he's about to die next round only to come back rested white the players are still in the castle having been fighting minions. Etc...
Do not give them a stand up fight. My lvl 9 players would have pasted him had i let them. Strahd fights dirty. He tries to bait players into traps. Here passes through walls and floors. He has reinforcements. He charms as many players as he can. He polymorphs the biggest threat to him into a whale. He bombards the whole party with chain fireballs if they clump. He runs away if it looks like he's about to die next round only to come back rested white the players are still in the castle having been fighting minions. Etc...
Oh I intend to make full use of his abilites.
I did ask the group in our chat if I should try to tempt some of them and they all signed off on the idea so now I'm thinking perhaps I should do nothing so they just think someone is a traitor :biggrin:
Do not give them a stand up fight. My lvl 9 players would have pasted him had i let them. Strahd fights dirty. He tries to bait players into traps. Here passes through walls and floors. He has reinforcements. He charms as many players as he can. He polymorphs the biggest threat to him into a whale. He bombards the whole party with chain fireballs if they clump. He runs away if it looks like he's about to die next round only to come back rested white the players are still in the castle having been fighting minions. Etc...
Oh I intend to make full use of his abilites.
I did ask the group in our chat if I should try to tempt some of them and they all signed off on the idea so now I'm thinking perhaps I should do nothing so they just think someone is a traitor :biggrin:
Have Strahd drop off a note of thanks to his conspirator(s).
Do not give them a stand up fight. My lvl 9 players would have pasted him had i let them. Strahd fights dirty. He tries to bait players into traps. Here passes through walls and floors. He has reinforcements. He charms as many players as he can. He polymorphs the biggest threat to him into a whale. He bombards the whole party with chain fireballs if they clump. He runs away if it looks like he's about to die next round only to come back rested white the players are still in the castle having been fighting minions. Etc...
Oh I intend to make full use of his abilites.
I did ask the group in our chat if I should try to tempt some of them and they all signed off on the idea so now I'm thinking perhaps I should do nothing so they just think someone is a traitor :biggrin:
Oh no, make private offers to everybody. Make them offers you don't think they'll accept but not super insulting. Then drop hints that somebody bit whenever he's around the whole party.
Bonus points: If there is one person who will clearly take an offer and just wants the excuse...don't pitch to them. You get all the chaos and strife for free and they're super likely to assume everybody else is on the take.
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
So my Skeleton Bard, my friend's Gnome Artificer, and new guy Dragonborn Cleric started a fetch quest and ended up kicking the ass of an orcish advance scouting party for a pretty powerful Dryad. We did it by hatching a plan most cunning that involves hand signals and distractions, and it ended up going down in flames as I failed the first Stealth check with a 1.
*cue sad trombone*
Still, as we all survived the encounter, all's well that end's well.
In a separate story, I asked my sister, who's pretty much "D&D adjacent" - she likes knowing the classes and races and would come up with cool ideas and story hooks - if she was interested in playing. At first she was like, "Nahhh", but then she asked if she can play as a Druid. To which I say, "Well, yeah! You cast nature spells, transform into bears, that sorta shit"
She thought for a bit, then asked if she can be a Ghost. And since our homebrew uses the Awakened Undead as an available race (I'm a Skeleton) and Ghosts are a subrace, I answered, "Yeah, I guess...?"
To which she asked, "So I can become, like, a Ghost Bear?"
So my Skeleton Bard, my friend's Gnome Artificer, and new guy Dragonborn Cleric started a fetch quest and ended up kicking the ass of an orcish advance scouting party for a pretty powerful Dryad. We did it by hatching a plan most cunning that involves hand signals and distractions, and it ended up going down in flames as I failed the first Stealth check with a 1.
*cue sad trombone*
Still, as we all survived the encounter, all's well that end's well.
In a separate story, I asked my sister, who's pretty much "D&D adjacent" - she likes knowing the classes and races and would come up with cool ideas and story hooks - if she was interested in playing. At first she was like, "Nahhh", but then she asked if she can play as a Druid. To which I say, "Well, yeah! You cast nature spells, transform into bears, that sorta shit"
She thought for a bit, then asked if she can be a Ghost. And since our homebrew uses the Awakened Undead as an available race (I'm a Skeleton) and Ghosts are a subrace, I answered, "Yeah, I guess...?"
To which she asked, "So I can become, like, a Ghost Bear?"
So i DMd the opening of LMoP for a bunch of my wife's family, none of whom have played before. Wife's 26yo niece on elf bard, wife's 13yo niece on human druid, wifes's 48yo sister on half orc fighter, and wife's 24yo niece's husband on dwarf cleric. I had pre-generated thematic characters one of each class since character chain can take a while and we had limited time, and let them pick what they wanted. Then spent half hour going over what all the stuff in their character sheet means. The niece on the bard asked me if i could do it since we're wanted to learn, the nephew-in-law got really into it, and they roped in the other two.
Anywho, they saw through the goblin ambush, bit the first time a goblin shot an arrow they crit on the fighter. But due to half orc, was at 1 instead of 0 hp. They captured one goblin (they slept 2, tied one up) and the druid knew goblin and managed to interrogate it. They figured out their dwarf patron is probably the "delicious dwarf" the goblin keeps talking about, so they made him take them to there lair.
They got mad the goblin was upset at them finding the traps on the way, so they killed it. We had a hilarious little battle with the guard goblins in the bush where both sides kept swinging but missing. The fighter used second wind to get back to 6 hp.
They went in the cave, saw the wolves, the druid calmed then down. They went up the trash heap through the hole, and combat broke out with the bugbear, wolf, and 4 goblins. The cleric was first in intuitive, he runs in and swings and misses at the bugbear. Bugbear is best on initiative, swings morningstar, takes all of cleric's hp. I reassure the player he's not dead (yet), just unconscious, and will explain death saves best time it's his turn.
The bard wants to sleep the bugbear, i explain how it works and the goblins will probably sleep first, so now she doesn't want to do it, and the rest of the players are arguing with her to do it, back and forth for like 10 minutes. She casts it and 2 goblins fall asleep, she's very disappointed but the other players are happy.
The druid shileilegs the wolf and misses, the wolf bites all of her hp, she's at 0.
The fighter gets the with a hit and crit (17 dmg on the crit!) it's barely alive. The bard visciously mocks the wolf for a couple of turns before deciding to stab it instead got some reason. Wolf bites her to 0.
Fighter at 1hp kills bugbear and wolf, the awake goblins run away, the fighter murders the sleeping goblins.
Cleric makes his death saves, bard and druid do not. Fighter loots the chest, finds the mystery potions. I explain how potions work, that it could be anything, she could try tasting it or pour it down the mouth of the cleric. She is afraid it could be poison, so she just pockets everything and decides to carry the now sleeping cleric back to the cart on the road.
And that's where we left it. They claim they all had fun, and i think the cleric actually had the most even though he barely did anything in that final fight.
So my Skeleton Bard, my friend's Gnome Artificer, and new guy Dragonborn Cleric started a fetch quest and ended up kicking the ass of an orcish advance scouting party for a pretty powerful Dryad. We did it by hatching a plan most cunning that involves hand signals and distractions, and it ended up going down in flames as I failed the first Stealth check with a 1.
*cue sad trombone*
Still, as we all survived the encounter, all's well that end's well.
In a separate story, I asked my sister, who's pretty much "D&D adjacent" - she likes knowing the classes and races and would come up with cool ideas and story hooks - if she was interested in playing. At first she was like, "Nahhh", but then she asked if she can play as a Druid. To which I say, "Well, yeah! You cast nature spells, transform into bears, that sorta shit"
She thought for a bit, then asked if she can be a Ghost. And since our homebrew uses the Awakened Undead as an available race (I'm a Skeleton) and Ghosts are a subrace, I answered, "Yeah, I guess...?"
To which she asked, "So I can become, like, a Ghost Bear?"
"Wrong game, but sure."
So, Hargvor the barbarian rages and attacks with her great axe, Bones the bard is casting Hideous Laughter, and the ghost bear just dropped an AC/20 shot, both her SRM6s and 4 er medium lasers...
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No, I think you're correct, 8 longsword attacks is pretty insane in one round, especially if it's not a limited resource for the monster. The only player character that could manage that is a top level fighter burning an action surge.
More importantly though, I'd be concerned with the flow of play if the DM stops to make 8 attack rolls, then however many damage rolls and does this every round.
Maybe rework it so it's a powerful attack, but not one that's going to take 15 minutes to resolve? Or it's a special attack that can only be used so many times in a single encounter.
I think Aura of Domineering doesn't seem unbalanced. If I'm reading it right, that's a once a combat thing, and the ally of Shaktari takes a considerable bit of damage before attacking. I'm wondering at the order of operations though, is it possible the ally may get brain popped by the aura before it can make the attack? If not, maybe reorder the wording so it makes the attack, then takes the psychic damage.
Pretty sure you're reading AoD wrong. That seems like every turn for every other baddie they reroll their first missed attack after taking 20 damage.
The 8 longsword attacks seems a little weird as they have 6 arms. Six sword attacks are a pretty traditional Maralith thing. (Also as a DM if that doesn't involve you rolling six d20's at once you are SLOW.) I'd actually be more worried about the timing of the swaps for minions. It's good flavor but that will eat a bunch of time.
All in all it'd be a really annoying standard encounter but from the name and such I assume this is a boss fight and a big one at that. It being a bit complicated is probably appropriate.
As always though, it's gonna be a question of numbers. To hits and damage and hp and all these other number things is where the heart and soul of balance lives.
Instead of 8 attacks, you could roll it into one graded attack: on a hit, deal 1d8+str damage, and add another 1d8+str for each 1 that the attack exceeds the player's ac, up to 7 times.
You may want to change what happens on a crit, though, unless you want a 16d8+8*str threat to loom over the fight every time Shaktari attacks
They also have magical weapons, and can parry once per turn (not round), adding 5 AC against one melee attack. I'd hang onto that, and the Legendary Resistance (advantage on saving throws vs. magic).
Marilith are supposed to be tacticians, I like the extra actions that affect the various minions running around.
Minor point, mariliths are called that because they're named after the greatest one, Marilith. Maybe a different honorific than queen? NBD, though.
Which Giants?
Hill Giants, but I guess there is a meeting from the other giants too. So I remember at least one Stone. Not sure what else is there. Literally when the plan went fubar we were in the foyer and part way into another room. It's a blast, it looks like we're in for one heck of a long drawn out fight. I'm also sitting on an Otto's Irresistible Dance for when we encounter their leader. I've only mentioned I learned it to one other person in my group. I love showing off new abilities as a surprise when they really come in handy.
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What specific parts did you and your group not gel with?
I'm not terribly concerned about Shaktari being too tough because so far my players have mowed through everything I've thrown at them. Plus at this point more than one has access to resurrection spells. I just want to make sure I don't make something insanely overpowered.
I've also started pre-rolling damage for encounters and recording the results on graph paper for each attack. Whenever a monster hits I strike through the next number in sequence.
Shaktari has eight arms. She was first introduced in a 2E Planescape adventure and was later statted-up in 3E and given a backstory (which includes the detail that she was so feared that two demon lords and three archdukes of Baator teamed-up to imprison her).
I actually managed to find an eight-armed marilith mini that is also slightly larger than the official marilith minis! It's from a game called Massive Darkness:
BTW, Aegeri statted-up a 4E Shaktari years ago, though mine is not based on his.
I got mine off eBay. Probably only the second thing I've ever gotten from there.
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More info would really help us help you. Was it a contrast of character personalities (i.e. "I want to go help the orphans" "my character wouldn't do that, I stay in the bar and keep drinking"), or differing expectations (you wanted a political game, they wanted a dungeon crawler)? Are you perhaps stealing a lot of spotlight?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
From what I remember, your rules are really cool and gives fate point-like utility to the hit die they otherwise wouldn’t have.
I think playing the straight man to them is very possible and with cooperation would lead to a satisfying game. Y’all got to come together and hash out the dynamic so everyone is happy.
I know I take the piss out of the game I GM and my homebrew stuff along with my friends’ stuff. Joking about can bring levity or fill silence even in a game like the one I GM whose tone is like 65% serious. It might be that’s just how they play and having a talk about possibly toning it down a little but not to the point of stifling would help a lot.
Now, stealing from the duke is uncooperative behavior that could lead to the campaign being derailed and you need to talk to that player and the GM to see if the GM is lenient on that sort of thing. The LOLS RANDOM can only go so far that it does not make other players annoyed or uncomfortable.
Pretty much the adventuring day is over once you start getting low on hit dice.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
anyway through a huge unlikely confluence of events, the party helped them finish the ritual, and then helped the elf escape and collapsed the mountain on the spider, so they've been wandering around with a god drow with amnesia for a bit. It's been fun because her spell list is from an earlier editions of D&D and none of her shit works the same way as their 5e (I had to scramble to come up with a stat block since my expected encounter of "god elf fights god spider while party stops the ritual" didn't happen, since in that encounter I could just play fast and loose with their respective powers)
she's also totally a pacifist and fusses whenever they kill things, they jumped some orcs and she polymorphed the orcs into giant eagles so they could escape "Because you didn't even try talking to them!"
the party also has an Acq Inc franchise and chose to make this creature their Secretarian, so now she has a sending stone of gossip, they're handing me all the tools I need to just fuck everything up and this is the place I want to be as the DM. She has a spell that lets her create a new species, with a bunch of arbitrary rules about how much it will cost (for example, creating humans would cost about 25% of her hit dice, permanently, and elves would cost about a third), it creates 50 adult individuals of the race that worship their creator.
they plan to use this ability to staff their franchise headquarters once they establish it, by creating a race of interns. This is the most Omin Drahn outcome possible
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Meanwhile, the party takes Araushnee shopping and teaches her that it's okay to steal from rich people. Next I plan for goodly paladins to want to kill her, putting the party in a touchy position (since killing her would just restore the status quo).
the statblock is an absolute mess but I have no idea how to stat out an avatar, so far it's worked fine
Unfortunately about half the slaves in the village we were going through got slaughtered when an alarm was raised.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Im looking forward to the yakfolk but with my party's insight scores I think it will probably be a bloodbath, Ima have the yakfolk try and trick them into eating dinner but well see
the ideal scenario would be the party going to dinner, eating poison, getting clubbed unconscious, and waking up in the ironslag mines as slaves and having to escape
Edit: i sure hope my players dont read this forum
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Great now i need a yak folk barbarian that rages whenever folks say that to him, not necessarily due to animus towards the person saying it, but literally pure frustration at having herd the pun so many fuckin times.
nice
They ended that particular chapter fleeing for their lives.
They didn't grab any treasure and they ended up leaving two party members behind.
They leapt off a mountain-side with terror in their hearts.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Myself and my players didnt really like the Dungeon of the Mad Mage so two floors down a strange mist teleported them into Barovia instead and we have spent the last months enjoying the setting. Now its gearing up for a final showdown.
Right now they are on the way to check out Amber Temple before they (at least most likely) will head to the castle. I'm thinking Strahd might tempt one of them, perhaps the Paladin since he has the sunsword to accept the gift of vampyr and either join Strahd as ruler or take over after him so he can leave Barovia. Ofc Strahd will not hold up his end of the bargain and just wants to divide the party. Is it a good idea to try to turn one of the players evil? We don't usually turn on eachother but it has happened before so its not unheard of.
They are allied with Ezmerelda d'Avenir and she is currently scouting the castle for information about the Heart of Sorrow. Another plan is to simply turn have her captured and turned into a vampire that attacks the party with Strahd.
It's kinda hard to judge just looking at skills how a fight will go but I'm guessing they would woop Strahd's butt quite hard in a straight stand up fight.
Oh I intend to make full use of his abilites.
I did ask the group in our chat if I should try to tempt some of them and they all signed off on the idea so now I'm thinking perhaps I should do nothing so they just think someone is a traitor :biggrin:
Have Strahd drop off a note of thanks to his conspirator(s).
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Oh no, make private offers to everybody. Make them offers you don't think they'll accept but not super insulting. Then drop hints that somebody bit whenever he's around the whole party.
Bonus points: If there is one person who will clearly take an offer and just wants the excuse...don't pitch to them. You get all the chaos and strife for free and they're super likely to assume everybody else is on the take.
*cue sad trombone*
Still, as we all survived the encounter, all's well that end's well.
In a separate story, I asked my sister, who's pretty much "D&D adjacent" - she likes knowing the classes and races and would come up with cool ideas and story hooks - if she was interested in playing. At first she was like, "Nahhh", but then she asked if she can play as a Druid. To which I say, "Well, yeah! You cast nature spells, transform into bears, that sorta shit"
She thought for a bit, then asked if she can be a Ghost. And since our homebrew uses the Awakened Undead as an available race (I'm a Skeleton) and Ghosts are a subrace, I answered, "Yeah, I guess...?"
To which she asked, "So I can become, like, a Ghost Bear?"
"Wrong game, but sure."
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Anywho, they saw through the goblin ambush, bit the first time a goblin shot an arrow they crit on the fighter. But due to half orc, was at 1 instead of 0 hp. They captured one goblin (they slept 2, tied one up) and the druid knew goblin and managed to interrogate it. They figured out their dwarf patron is probably the "delicious dwarf" the goblin keeps talking about, so they made him take them to there lair.
They got mad the goblin was upset at them finding the traps on the way, so they killed it. We had a hilarious little battle with the guard goblins in the bush where both sides kept swinging but missing. The fighter used second wind to get back to 6 hp.
They went in the cave, saw the wolves, the druid calmed then down. They went up the trash heap through the hole, and combat broke out with the bugbear, wolf, and 4 goblins. The cleric was first in intuitive, he runs in and swings and misses at the bugbear. Bugbear is best on initiative, swings morningstar, takes all of cleric's hp. I reassure the player he's not dead (yet), just unconscious, and will explain death saves best time it's his turn.
The bard wants to sleep the bugbear, i explain how it works and the goblins will probably sleep first, so now she doesn't want to do it, and the rest of the players are arguing with her to do it, back and forth for like 10 minutes. She casts it and 2 goblins fall asleep, she's very disappointed but the other players are happy.
The druid shileilegs the wolf and misses, the wolf bites all of her hp, she's at 0.
The fighter gets the with a hit and crit (17 dmg on the crit!) it's barely alive. The bard visciously mocks the wolf for a couple of turns before deciding to stab it instead got some reason. Wolf bites her to 0.
Fighter at 1hp kills bugbear and wolf, the awake goblins run away, the fighter murders the sleeping goblins.
Cleric makes his death saves, bard and druid do not. Fighter loots the chest, finds the mystery potions. I explain how potions work, that it could be anything, she could try tasting it or pour it down the mouth of the cleric. She is afraid it could be poison, so she just pockets everything and decides to carry the now sleeping cleric back to the cart on the road.
And that's where we left it. They claim they all had fun, and i think the cleric actually had the most even though he barely did anything in that final fight.
So, Hargvor the barbarian rages and attacks with her great axe, Bones the bard is casting Hideous Laughter, and the ghost bear just dropped an AC/20 shot, both her SRM6s and 4 er medium lasers...