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[DnD 5E Discussion] This is the way 5E ends. Not with a bang but a gnome mindflayer.

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Posts

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Hmmm I'm thinking bout making an entire dungeon session that's at a 45 degree angle as the party descends through a collapsed tower of a buried temple. Sort of on their way down to the more central temple regions to be covered in future settings.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    Terrendos wrote: »
    Yeah, I opted for Point Buy over Rolling because I have bad luck. I don't fault him for the rolled stats and it totally makes sense for him to go Paladin, so I don't think he's trying to be malicious.

    Everyone should be using the same method for generating stats in a game.

  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    edited September 2019
    i love rolling and agree with @Sleep , if you do roll you gotta HIGH OCTANE your group so no one ends up feeling like the sidekick

    depending on the level of randomness i want, i either do it one of two ways:

    2d6+6, reroll 1s (basically means impossible to get anything below 10, but the spread is more random) or 4d6 reroll 1s drop lowest (this tends to skew the average stat around 15 across the whole group, meaning the chance of getting high end is less common but everyone will be Pretty Good at a lot of skills)

    anything else is just rude tbh

    and totally agree point buy is what i'd recommend for most groups full stop

    (though i encourage DMs to give the HIGH OCTANE rolling a chance)

    because 4d6 reroll 1st drop lowest sounds crazy, but with how proficiency works you aren't going to disrupt game balance if you somehow manage to get a wizard with +2 str mod

    Super Namicchi on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Hoo boy, our DnD session (probably the last one for this year) almost got cancelled because our host tried to convince his wife (who doesn't play) to babysit their kid and my kid and clean up and prepare snacks.

    Folks... don't be that guy. Just don't. We're going to do an awkward session with one toddler running around and two stressed out players keeping an eye on him at our place tomorrow.

    Aldo on
  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    oof

    i can't imagine playing a tabletop RPG with a toddler running amok

    respect

  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    We roll 4d6 drop lowest, but you can use someone else's array if you want. Keeps everyone happy and you get to play viable gnome barbarians so that's fun.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    because 4d6 reroll 1st drop lowest sounds crazy, but with how proficiency works you aren't going to disrupt game balance if you somehow manage to get a wizard with +2 str mod
    That's pretty much what happened in our first campaign (+2 sounds low, actually), our Wizard multiclassed into Fighter.

  • TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    Yeah it's really a shame because the Oath of Heroism in that UA would be absolutely perfect for him and my DM would probably be cool with me swapping.

    Perhaps I'll try to have a chat with my DM and see what he thinks.

  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    Don't roll stats for characters you will be playing a long time. A thing that isn't fun is your character being arbitrarily worse at something forever because of a dice roll 23 weeks ago

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  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    I wouldnt mind trying everyone do the 4d6 drop the lowest, but then putting all of those in a pool and let everyone pick from them. Could be fun.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
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  • AbbalahAbbalah Registered User regular
    That most classic of DnD conversations: Discussing all the different ways you can roll stats with special methods designed to protect you from the bad results that come from rolling stats.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    A good roll in prior editions was OK but not the end of the world. Its almost worse now that stats are capped because players will go right to feats.

    Imo only roll if youre disallowing feats as then no one can be like “well i started out with 20 strength and 16 con so i think that i will just take 5 feats in a row”

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  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    I do point buy, I give everyone a free feat on the condition that they cannot increase ANY stat to 18 with said feat, so everyone starts with a max +3 bonus to anything

    I reject the feat if it fights the character's backstory, and lucky/gwm/sharpshooter are off limits for the free feat because they're mechanically bullshit (so much so that I have replaced them all with tamer versions, power attack, power shot (-2/+4 at level 1, -6/+12 at level 20), and lucky auto-rerolls your first 3 failures of each day, its not an active ability

    everyone's fine with this and people find out they really like feats like Tavern Brawler or Healer that theyd never otherwise take

    override367 on
  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    I love luckys completely broken bullshit. I do the same with the other two, with the negatives and positives keyed from proficiency.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
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  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    one of my players has classic, unnerfed lucky, because he broke reality with a wish to a small extent and there's a few paradoxes floating around and the raven queen is so mad at him

    mercykillers keep showing up looking for him, he usually banishes himself when his familiar spots them

    override367 on
  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    party bagged their first big dragon tonight

    they lost one in the mix, it was a bitch of a fight

    but in the end paralysis effects win the day

  • evilthecatevilthecat Registered User regular
    It's that 8.
    People see the 8 and assume the array is bad because "oh no, I'm slighly subaverage in something!".
    Fact is: the average is 60 total stat points. As a pc you get 72 (unless you bork yourself with point buy, you can end up with 71).

    tip.. tip.. TALLY.. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited September 2019
    I'd be okay with rolled stats if everyone in the party got the same total to work with. Which is called point buy, so hey.

    Like, I'm not joking when I say rolled stats kind of broke our original campaign, a couple of the characters in the party were ridiculous.

    Glal on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    So our session went pretty good, our kid had his naptime for most of our game and was happy just nomming on some kroepoek and watching Barbapapa. Meanwhile we solved a sidequest that had us fight a few simple encounters and rid a village of evil nobles who turned into undead after hunting humanoids for years. The best thing was that we had random loot and we won our first ever bag of holding. We may have been happier with that than for the 600gp.

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    I feel like I might use an alternative array next time, I feel like everyone should have to have an 8 in SOMETHING

    I like characters to have weaknesses, but im not sure my players would be onboard with that (or theyll all just be casters with 8str)

    override367 on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    This is the modified array our DM ended up with. It's a couple of extra points overall, plus the min and max are pushed another point. We ended up with a STR 5 kobold!
    9p3o16tgn2vh.jpg

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    I think it would be interesting to see the randomized stats/standard array reduced, and a +2/+1 stat bonus added for both class and background during character creation (in addition to the +2/+1 from species).
    It would probably encourage insane min-maxing for some players, since it would be possible to start with a +6 to your primary stat, but the cost of having everything else be a dump stat could make that a very risky proposal.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Maybe. I really like how the current point buy/array makes progression both limited and also disparate.

    Maybe a hybrid. You choose your primary stat and get a 15 in that (thus no one is weak on the core aspects of a class). Then you roll down the line for the rest

    wbBv3fj.png
  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Throwing a gibbering mouther at my party, it should be fun! Pairing it up with some Stirges reskined to the mouther aesthetic.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
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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
    4/6 of my players didn't make characters for our session last Wednesday night, even though I gave them two weeks to do so!

    So I proposed that we shift the session into a character building one and just hangout for the night.

    Well that didn't happen as players had reasons for not being to attend.

    So I haven't been able to run my huge battle yet.

    But I am happy to report to you folks that one player's Dwarven squad is a group of WWE wrestlers being led by DBZ's Yajirobe, with another Player's squad just being the Z-Fighters from DBZ as led by Master Roshi.

    I can't wait to kill Yamcha & Chris Jericho in that battle.

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  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Zonugal wrote: »
    4/6 of my players didn't make characters for our session last Wednesday night, even though I gave them two weeks to do so!

    So I proposed that we shift the session into a character building one and just hangout for the night.

    Well that didn't happen as players had reasons for not being to attend.

    So I haven't been able to run my huge battle yet.

    But I am happy to report to you folks that one player's Dwarven squad is a group of WWE wrestlers being led by DBZ's Yajirobe, with another Player's squad just being the Z-Fighters from DBZ as led by Master Roshi.

    I can't wait to kill Yamcha & Chris Jericho in that battle.

    It's a rare player that will do things outside of actual game night.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Zonugal wrote: »
    4/6 of my players didn't make characters for our session last Wednesday night, even though I gave them two weeks to do so!

    So I proposed that we shift the session into a character building one and just hangout for the night.

    Well that didn't happen as players had reasons for not being to attend.

    So I haven't been able to run my huge battle yet.

    But I am happy to report to you folks that one player's Dwarven squad is a group of WWE wrestlers being led by DBZ's Yajirobe, with another Player's squad just being the Z-Fighters from DBZ as led by Master Roshi.

    I can't wait to kill Yamcha & Chris Jericho in that battle.

    It's a rare player that will do things outside of actual game night.

    I've gotten my players very used to rolling a new level 3 in about 15 minutes.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Zonugal wrote: »
    4/6 of my players didn't make characters for our session last Wednesday night, even though I gave them two weeks to do so!

    So I proposed that we shift the session into a character building one and just hangout for the night.

    Well that didn't happen as players had reasons for not being to attend.

    So I haven't been able to run my huge battle yet.

    But I am happy to report to you folks that one player's Dwarven squad is a group of WWE wrestlers being led by DBZ's Yajirobe, with another Player's squad just being the Z-Fighters from DBZ as led by Master Roshi.

    I can't wait to kill Yamcha & Chris Jericho in that battle.

    It's a rare player that will do things outside of actual game night.

    Its sad that this is so very true.

    At the least, a player should come to game night ready to play.

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    2 players couldnt come so we played Blood Queen's Defiance, this is a "dmless" adventure where everyone is given a deck of encounters of differing types, and we place the cards face down in a line. The adventure has a fixed beginning and end. Everyone takes turns drawing cards and has to improv things out, so basically you rotate being DMs.

    I randomly generated a character and by random I mean random:
    Race: Centaur
    Class: Rogue
    Age: 20
    Trait: I eat things that are not food
    Ideals: I am suspicious of everyone
    Bonds: I won't be a slave
    Flaws: I pretend like i can't speak the local language
    Stats: 14/17/12/7/16/13 (after racials)
    Lifestyle: Wretched (I decided my centaur simply owns literally no items except for a handful of garbage and an old set of saddlebags, and just kind of sleeps wherever in town)

    we start level 4 so I multiclass monk for level 4, and I proceed to turn on the thomas the tank engine theme as I run around steamrolling goblins during the opening encounter (just running them down), the other players decided that since the goblins were chasing people I'd have to roll dex saves to not run down townsfolk - I accidentally killed a pair of commoners running from a goblin but rolled a 1 on perception so I didn't notice. it was a lot of fun, had more of a board game feel than a regular D&D game

    we all wanted a free feat so, why not, I took athlete so i could skyrim horse climb things (+1 dex)

    override367 on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    I first listened to this probably 15 years ago and just learned that it was written by Dan Harmon, creator of Rick & Morty and Community.

    https://youtu.be/9Kgx2b1sIRs

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    So my FLGS hired a professional DM and I'm going to the inaugural game tonight. I'm excited!

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    I played a gnome war cleric tonight! Barely survived a huge zombie battle with 1 hit point left. I used Turn Undead to clear a path for the dragonborn barbarian to land a natural 20 on the leader of the zombie horde.

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    Official playable locathah!

    Tortles finally got minis, so maybe these guys will too.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Okay this week's game:
    The 60 degree dungeon became a single downhill encounter, a skill challenge (mostly athletics and balance) with some attendant flying constructs shooting stuff at them (singular magic missiles). This descent down the side of a buried building ends in the remains of its base. This second half of the session takes place inside a dungeon I've built out of malifaux terrain, it's about 7 levels deep. I've essentially designed all the lore for this particular tower to justify giving them a party fix item or two one of which ties in a plot thread ove just been leaving hanging for like a year or more. The enemies will be some ancient automated arcane defenses, constructs both flying and walking, as well as at least 1 huge construct at the end. Most of those arcane defenses will be able to be disabled by a simple skill challenge at this point, if the party does the work to find the controlling artifacts and inscriptions and properly destroy them. Some of those are hidden/gated behind physical skill challenges. However a whole pack of phase spiders live here so the party is gonna have to deal with that off and on while they explore the dungeon I've built. I'll probably throw in some cave in and weak floor hazards in addition to a few standard trapped doors. The party fix items will round about be giving them thieves tools proficiencies because they are raiding a tomb and forgot to bring a rogue.

    Party fix item:

    Tablet of Tools:
    (requires attunement)
    This strange 7"x7" tablet fastened to a marvelously crafted leather belt seems able to produce any tool it's bearer requires. While wearing this belt an attuned creature may take an action to place their hand over the tablet to summon forth any tool they currently require. As well it confers a greater skill with those tools than its bearer would normally wield. Granting proficiency to users without, or expertise to users with proficiency, or advantage to the checks of those with expertise, or an additional d4 to any checks already recieving all of those benefits. The tool remains until it is no longer useful to its bearer, or its bearer dismisses it with a bonus action. Multiple tools can be in existence, but only so long as they are being used for a task immediately at hand.

    Basically it'll definitely produce a carjack, but you better focus on that under car work or changing that tire or else it's gonna disappear and the car is gonna fall. You fall asleep? All the tools definitely disappear.

  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Our group's foray into a haunted castle got complex.
    The fighter got bored when the wizard attempted to cast a ritual of Detect Magic in an abandoned chapel, and kicked down a door containing a pissed-off manticore in the castle scullery. The rogue, the barbarian, and the fighter managed to fight off the monster and unlocked another door, at which point the malevolent spirit(s?) holding court in the main audience chamber declared that we were to go no further.

    Of course, the fighter said she wasn't afraid of no ghosts and kicked down that door, triggering a flurry of poltergeist activity in the room including a critical hit with a thrown cooking pot that nearly KO'd the fighter. Second Wind, it's all good, let's all charge into the room. Aw, hell, thought everyone else.

    The spirit spent its time split between trying to hurl chunks of broken furniture (and missing), and briefly appearing with a horrific visage to frighten people (and failing), but constantly disappeared before anyone can do anything. The fighter and ranger spent the battle trying to taunt the ghost into appearing so it could be hit, knocking over anything in the room that looked like it might be emotionally supportive to the tortured spirit. The cleric spent his time trying to catch up and attempted to Toll the Dead whenever the ghost briefly flashed into view. The barbarian retreated upstairs to discover a ruined bedroom, and he and the wizard recovered pieces of a shattered mirror under the hopes that the ghost would be visible in the reflection.

    Luckily, that turned out to be the case, but scanning a room behind you with a shard of broken glass and calling out/attacking where the ghost is isn't very easy. Still, some Acid Arrows managed to mark a general area to go after. The rogue, lacking any kind of magical weaponry, took a chance and snatched a fancy-looking sword off the wall above the throne. He offered it to the barbarian, but the barbarian's weapon had already been blessed by the Forge cleric, and so he waved it off. The rogue shrugged, drew the sword, and immediately started hearing a voice in his head encouraging him to go after all these tempting targets in the room. The rogue panicked, thinking this meant that there were more ghosts lurking around invisibly, then realized that the sword was talking about the other party members and started panicking more.

    Still, any edge in a bladestorm, and a magic weapon is a magic weapon, so the rogue charged toward where the wizard thought the ghost was and waved the sword around in a vain attempt to make contact with the spirit world. Of course, this character was particularly unsuited to the weapon; while it was a Longsword and the rogue was proficient in it, his 8 STR and rolling with disadvantage at a target who might not even be in the space he was attacking meant that he just kind of spun around screaming to no effect.

    Still, the ghost was having enough problems from the wizard and cleric and eventually fled down through the floor into what will probably turn out to be a dungeon or other chamber of cruel horrors. But that's a problem for next week's party, and nuts to those idiots.

    Bursar on
    GNU Terry Pratchett
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  • ZomroZomro Registered User regular
    We had our second session of our new D&D group last Saturday. I'm enjoying my Cleric Archaeologist character, it's a fun concept and I'm super happy to be playing again. One of the players wants to run their own game, which is awesome for me as I always want to play more D&D. It's going to be online so that a friend of ours in another state can play, so that's cool. I'm currently brainstorming character ideas, and I want to play a monk of some kind, I've never really played one even though they're pretty cool. I kind of wish there was a way to make an effective strength based monk, as I like the concept of a muscly brawler style monk, but the gimmick isn't really worth the stat spread required. I'm digging the Way of the Kensei Monastic Tradition, a weapon based monk just screams Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I'm down with that. I also really like the idea of potentially multiclassing into Fighter for a fighting style and going into Battlemaster for the Superiority Dice and maneuvers. I think there's some fun interactions with Ki Points and Superiority Dice to be had, giving the character a huge toolbox of combat options. And a good number of maneuvers don't require actions, they can just be used to add damage and extra effects.

    My original idea was to make a Guan Yu-esque monk and choose a glaive as my kensei weapon, but it can't be chosen since it has the heavy property. The idea being that I could take the Polearm Master feat (as a variant human) and use my bonus action to get the attack with the other end of the glaive. However, a quarterstaff can take advantage of Polearm Master. Which leads to this question; would you allow the extra attack from Polearm Master to use a Monk's martial arts damage as opposed to the d4 that the feat says. I can see it both ways, the feat specifically says d4, so use d4. However, the feat also says that the attack functions just as if you attacked with the weapon, and the Monk's martial arts die in place of a Monk weapon's damage die. Ultimately, it's up to the DM, so I'll be running by him anyway

    'But, Zomro' you might ask, 'why use your bonus action on Polearm Master for one attack when you can use Flurry of Blows for two unarmed attacks?' And that's a terrific question. It's partly because I like the idea of focusing solely on the weapon as a kensei for thematic reasons, and partly because it allows me to get a bonus action attack and save my ki points for things like Stunning Strike or the kensei's Deft Strike and Sharpen the Blade features. Since the kensei get their bonuses when using their weapon, increasing the amount of attacks with the weapon itself increases the chances to use them. I also have the option of using the attack action to make one unarmed strike, activating the kensei's Agile Parry feature, make a second attack with the weapon with the Extra Attack feature and make another weapon attack with the bonus action from Polearm Master. Then a ki point can be used for Deft Strike and, if I dip into battlemaster, can use superiority dice to boost the damage of the weapon attacks. And then I also have all of the other extra options that monk's have for a bonus action, such as Patient Defence or Step of the Wind. If I use a quarterstaff two handed, I can use the Great Weapon fighting style to reroll 1s and 2s since the quarterstaff has the Versatile property. And as far as I can tell, GWF allows rerolling any 1s and 2s on the damage dice, not just the weapon dice, which would include Superiority Dice and the bonus martial arts die from Deft Strike.

    I'm really liking this idea the more I think about it. If the DM doesn't agree with it, that's cool, I'll still do Kensei, maybe with a longsword as my weapon and then potentially dip into fighter for the Dueling fighting style.

  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    Were you to maybe look again at a strength-based brawler type, you might want to look at I believe a homebrew called "Pugilist" where it is a strength-based unarmed class where instead of the Monk's unarmored AC you get health regeneration to deal with damage.

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    Quick DMing question: The Essence of Ether poison entry reads "A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 8 hours. The poisoned creature is unconscious. The creature wakes up if it takes damage or if another creature takes an action to shake it awake." My question is does the poisoned condition end when the creature wakes up, or does the poisoned condition continue for the entire eight hour duration?

    My inclination is to rule that the poisoned condition stays in effect for the entire eight hours even if the unconscious condition doesn't.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    Quick DMing question: The Essence of Ether poison entry reads "A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 8 hours. The poisoned creature is unconscious. The creature wakes up if it takes damage or if another creature takes an action to shake it awake." My question is does the poisoned condition end when the creature wakes up, or does the poisoned condition continue for the entire eight hour duration?

    My inclination is to rule that the poisoned condition stays in effect for the entire eight hours even if the unconscious condition doesn't.

    You are correct

    Ether fucks you up.

  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
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