oh my god my curse of strahd players are making plans for their character's families
I've never had a guard hoist an infant on a spear before in a D&D game, but that's a strong possibility going forward, to give an indication of the level of bright future laid out before them (the players are weellll aware that this ends badly, and I am delighted that they are not metagaming and their characters aren't acting as if they have any inclinations of doom)
override367 on
+6
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited December 2019
Wrapping up Storm King’s Thunder on Saturday. Overall fun but not my favorite campaign. Our DM has done a great job running it though. I have been blessed in having great DMs. Gives my motivation and inspiration when i run my own games.
Biggest gripe is always being underpowered compared to giants. Thats fine for parts of a campaign, but for 18 months it gets a little old. Kind of like being underground in Out of the Abyss. Yea thats the setting, but some shake ups would have been appreciated.
I've been DMing D&D for the first time the last few weeks, after playing through a couple campaigns as a player (I ran an Apocalypse World 2nd Edition game a few months back, though). I am having an absolute blast as a DM. It is so much fun, I can't even.
Last night the party had gotten a lead on the location of The Pale Altar, an ancient elven legend about a font of power that could cleanse corruption. It was my first time building a dungeon from scratch, and I had been turned onto those dry erase tiles.
They work spectacularly. They fit together and can reveal rooms and passageways as your players explore, they're doublesided so traps and secret passages are on the underside and when they find them (Intentionally or no) just flip the tile. We're using minis in our game and it's just the tits.
I've started painting my Bones miniatures from the first Reaper kickstarter, finally, so some minis are painted, most are not. I'm working on it. It's gotten me into the new Bones kickstarter so I'll be getting a shitton of new minis in a couple years, hopefully in time to reveal the devil conspiracy that is following the party (If we last that long).
After fighting some risen skeletons guarding the hidden key, the party gained access to The Pale Altar and encountered a riddle that was solved by matching corrupted items to the creature that killed the original bearer of those items. When two items matching the same creature were placed on the altar, a portal opened and that creature was brought forth. When the creature is killed one item is destroyed and the other returned to it's magical status (Player's choice).
At level 3 my players encountered a Phase Spider, which wasn't much of a challenge for them. They got a pair of Boots of Elvenkind out of the deal.
They then summoned a Giant Scorpion. That mother fucker nearly killed them all. They got a Cloak of Protection out of the deal.
Recklessly, possibly greedily they placed items that matched an image of an eight legged lizard.
Yeah.
After nearly dying to the Scorpion they summoned a Basilisk.
Things got dire.
But they pulled through! And got a Pearl of Power.
Guys, D&D is the best.
This past Monday, that campaign came to a close. I had to rush the ending because one of my players is moving away today, but overall, I think it went pretty well. My first campaign as DM lasted 2.5 years. Not bad.
The players were about level 11/12, and I got to do some villain monologuing, which was fun.
I'm still painting minis, and the boss fight for the campaign was the largest project I'd undertaken so far:
After we did the denouement for the players, they got to describe what their characters did in the years after, which I think was fun. It took less than two minutes from conclusion, though, for them to ask when the new campaign starts, so I think I did all right.
I was surprised, though, at the emotional pang I got when I saw all the player initiative trackers laying on the table, never to be used again. *sniff*
+20
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
The group are speaking to a person that had stolen some books they themselves had stolen.
Hippo Chrissy is a tavern owner somewhere far away.
The mage of the group is a know-it-all and, given that the NPC is also a mage, he starts trying to one up him at every moment.
NPC: "you think you're pretty smart, eh?"
PC: "I'm an intellectual giant!"
NPC: "care to test that in a battle of wits?"
PC: "You'd be coming to the fight unarmed!"
granted, that was a pretty epic put down.
So the NPC offered him a deal: a battle of wits to the death.
If the PC won he'd be given access to the name of the person currently in possession of his books.
The setup was the following:
the NPC introduced a poison and had 2 cups of wine. He put the poison into a cup (in a way that the PC could not see) and placed the cups in front of himself and the PC. The PC was to divine where the poison had been poured into; he was to decide who was to drink from which cup. An easy task, surely, for someone of such cognitive prowess.
For those of you thinking "hey, that's that bit from Princess Bride!" you're absolutely correct and I'm pleased to report that the interaction played out exactly as it did in the movies :P
So the PC died?
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
+4
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
aaand Storm King's Thunder is in the books. Last fight was real fun, lots of good mobility which is always nice. Big damage numbers, everyone pulling out all the stops, a couple folks getting dropped a couple times to ratchet up the tension. A good time. Got some fat loot which would have been super useful if we were continuing our characters. Alas we are not. We go home victors though!
The group are speaking to a person that had stolen some books they themselves had stolen.
Hippo Chrissy is a tavern owner somewhere far away.
The mage of the group is a know-it-all and, given that the NPC is also a mage, he starts trying to one up him at every moment.
NPC: "you think you're pretty smart, eh?"
PC: "I'm an intellectual giant!"
NPC: "care to test that in a battle of wits?"
PC: "You'd be coming to the fight unarmed!"
granted, that was a pretty epic put down.
So the NPC offered him a deal: a battle of wits to the death.
If the PC won he'd be given access to the name of the person currently in possession of his books.
The setup was the following:
the NPC introduced a poison and had 2 cups of wine. He put the poison into a cup (in a way that the PC could not see) and placed the cups in front of himself and the PC. The PC was to divine where the poison had been poured into; he was to decide who was to drink from which cup. An easy task, surely, for someone of such cognitive prowess.
For those of you thinking "hey, that's that bit from Princess Bride!" you're absolutely correct and I'm pleased to report that the interaction played out exactly as it did in the movies :P
So the PC died?
PC pretended to reach for the cup in front of him and noticed the NPC smiling. He reached over his cup and drank the cup in front of the NPC and smiled the smuggest smile back as the NPC had no choice but to empty "his" cup.
The NPC had previously, secretly drank the antidote and had poisoned both cups.
PC keeled over dead
The rest of the party (including a druid, paladin, cleric) just sat there and watched.
Their first reaction wasn't to counter the poison or, you know, worry about their dead friend but to point out that it was *still* a 4v1 and the NPC had better tell them where the books went.
It turned out fine in the end as they had enough diamonds with them to resurrect the dead PC (sorta, now they don't have a res).
yesterday in my game the rogue asked if a chest in the archmage's tower was trapped, I said "Before you check for traps, you notice a sign that says "this room is off limits, it is armed with DEADLY wards""
"I reach over and check to see if the chest is locked"
yesterday in my game the rogue asked if a chest in the archmage's tower was trapped, I said "Before you check for traps, you notice a sign that says "this room is off limits, it is armed with DEADLY wards""
"I reach over and check to see if the chest is locked"
"You can't tell. As you reach for the chest your hand melts off your body. The pain is excrutiating, it's a wonder you don't pass out. Goo of what used to be your bones and flesh bubbles on the floor."
"..I still wanna know if the chest is locked, I reach for it with my other hand.."
tip.. tip.. TALLY.. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
+4
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Started Descent Into Avernus tonight. It was a rollicking good time. I really do love playing a Dog Wizard and my DM is down for the ridiculousness of it all.
Started Descent Into Avernus tonight. It was a rollicking good time. I really do love playing a Dog Wizard and my DM is down for the ridiculousness of it all.
For the big family holiday trip, the four kids (age 11 to 14) were excited to play D&D, so the adventures in Phandolin continued, with DM Dad, Papa the Cleric, and Uncle Archer facilitating. They all had very little experience with 5E, so I sat out and helped everybody. Highlight for me: things were looking a little dire when fighting a horde of zombies, upon realizing that zombies don't go down unless hit with fire or a crit. Uncle Archer had a brilliant idea to have one of the wizard twins help him out by lighting his arrows on fire, so he could snipe the zombies that were low on health to put them down. I had to remind the DM to award inspiration for that, because it's pretty cool. I was not about to Well Actually for a variety of reasons, including that that doesn't seem unbalanced to have two entire characters spending their entire round just putting down one low HP enemy.
Started Descent Into Avernus tonight. It was a rollicking good time. I really do love playing a Dog Wizard and my DM is down for the ridiculousness of it all.
More curse of strahd, a few years have passed, tatianna and sergei are now an item, strahd was surprised at how he felt about this, as the last time he saw her she was a scrawny girl, but now he's enamored with the much younger woman. Markovia has announced that she cannot crown Strahd king until "the sun rises again", confusing many, but with the morning lord being absent from his throne she refuses to perform the ceremony - telling everyone that a new morning lord will rise
No matter, Strahd has learned the secrets of the arcane, and heard whispers of dealings that could lead to immortality in the amber temple, from the dark prisoners contained within that place of learning. Speaking of which, the Vistana in the party is married and has a daughter... who is a werewolf, WHOOPS! Should have gotten the husband cured BEFORE the honeymoon I guess. I'm sure nothing bad will come out of that!
Seeking a cure for her daughter, she took the party to the amber temple, and to everyone's horror the place is dark and spoopy - magical darkness covers the once prominent statues of scholars from ages past and the large central statue of the Knowing Mistress' face. The archmages that preside over the place conduct a powerful ritual in the center, they have learned from one of their prisoners of a path to immortality that doesn't involve consuming the souls of others - no phylactery!
The party, not even stopping to question this, realizes (for once) that this is definitely evil and move to stop the ritual, and succeed - stopping the transition of the entire building to the plane of shadow (shadowfell dont exist yet), as delighted as I would have been to have future timeline barovia Amber Temple not even be there. All the archmages in the ritual turned into gibbering flameskulls and flew around happily incinerating students and monks, the party ran to save their friend who is a researcher there. Vistani Warlock brought her character's husband with for some reason (I gave her the "are you sure?") and he got killed by a fireball.
They found their friend had experimented with a magical painting in the temple and escaped there with any acolytes she could, and the party went into the painting to go get her
The inside of the painting is basically going to be dark souls, this is gonna be fun
I'm FINALLY pushing my SKT group onto the next chapter, the (first) Oracle chapter, next week. I've had enough of them faffing around in the sandbox.
And while I knew logically it was going to be a problem, my desire to appease the boardgamers in my group with 1" scale maps (which totally worked, btw) all falls apart when the maps are presented in locales scaled for giants. Like.... that is a lot of poster sized sheets of graph paper to cover a giant scaled dungeon. I don't think I'm ok with that.
I'm FINALLY pushing my SKT group onto the next chapter, the (first) Oracle chapter, next week. I've had enough of them faffing around in the sandbox.
And while I knew logically it was going to be a problem, my desire to appease the boardgamers in my group with 1" scale maps (which totally worked, btw) all falls apart when the maps are presented in locales scaled for giants. Like.... that is a lot of poster sized sheets of graph paper to cover a giant scaled dungeon. I don't think I'm ok with that.
I'm FINALLY pushing my SKT group onto the next chapter, the (first) Oracle chapter, next week. I've had enough of them faffing around in the sandbox.
And while I knew logically it was going to be a problem, my desire to appease the boardgamers in my group with 1" scale maps (which totally worked, btw) all falls apart when the maps are presented in locales scaled for giants. Like.... that is a lot of poster sized sheets of graph paper to cover a giant scaled dungeon. I don't think I'm ok with that.
you can just not enforce the changes you don't like.
i only enforced the warforged ac changes and used the old race for everything else because the players liked it. i let our shifter choose which one they wanted. same for the artificer. same for anyone with a dragonmark.
Have my group starting Waterdeep Heist later tonight. Going to switch a lot of stuff up based on a player made remix which can be found here. We are basically doing a continuation from lost mines so this first session will be a session zero plus getting everyone's characters to waterdeep. Since everyone will be level 5 coming in I was thinking about tuning it to give them 2 additional levels so we can start Dungeon of the Mad Mage at 7.
furlion on
Gamertag: KL Retribution
PSN:Furlion
+1
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
edited January 2020
ACTION REPORT
Session 1 - The Ravnican Delian Tomb was a success, despite DM mistakes!
The players:
Benny - Boros Minotaur Fighter. Stoic, no nonsense
Biboy - Selesnyan Human Barbarian. Folk hero of his street, where everyone knows his name
Therin - Golgari Devkarin Spore Druid. Bit of a loner, but money motivates everyone
Zorya - Izzet Human Forge Cleric. A believer of the Izzet way, even if she does not have the smarts
The scenario: Matt Colville's Delian Tomb, except:
- The hostage is a Guildpact informant
- The goblins are Shattergang Brothers trying to extract info the informant got from Krenko (currently in prison)
- The Order of Knights of Arkanov Delosz had a tomb somewhere near the Rubblebelt fringes, and a Boros push against the Gruul in that area allowed the tomb to be reclaimed as a safe house by the Shattergang mob, where they're interrogating the hostage.
- Therin the Devkarin didn't know it at the time, but the Delian Order was part of an Azorius push to cull Golgari numbers back in the day. So he'd be interested in what's inside!
Bonus scenario: I described one of the two goblins guarding the entrance as having a beautiful voice (and getting bullied by the other), so as expected the PCs tried to rescue the goblin singer and murdered the other mercilessly. Tried being the operative word, because miscommunication among the four resulted in Biboy attempting to parley with Gix (the goblin singer) and then Benny immediately goring the goblin right after. They had to stablize him and Intimidate him into compliance, but Gix is now convinced they're going to help his singing career (Biboy's going to dedicate his downtime setting up a gig, apparently).
First waterdeep session was a success. We spent about an hour and a half trying to get everyone's character setup on D&D Beyond so of course their servers pick that exact time to shit the bed. We eventually got everything sorted. Since we are picking up from the end of the lost mines my characters look like this:
Severian erdre - Dwarf oath of vengeance paladin and drunk. We worked out a set of rules so that as he drinks his intelligence score goes down and his charisma goes up. Should create some fun hijinks.
Griselda- Tiefling thief rogue who has recently become a member of the Zhentarim and is conflicted about this
Tungon Grizzlepike- Human champion fighter, Noble, and member of the Lord's Alliance. Recently elected mayor of Phandalin who recruits the other 4 to travel to waterdeep to establish trade with the newly opened mine.
Lunalynn McDougall - Forest Gnome circle of the Moon druid.
Siren- Half elf, half mer college of Whispers Bard. She is a secret Harper agent keeping an eye out for Zhentarim activity
They are all level 5 and have around 1k gold each. All we managed to accomplish in game was establishing Tungon as mayor, getting everyone together, and traveling to the yawning portal. There they learned about the conflict currently gripping the city and got to kill a troll that climbed up out of the pit. Volo introduced himself and we stopped there. Everyone had fun. Not sure when our next session will be since one of my players is due to have her baby someone next week. They seem open to having a game relatively soon after that but they have never had a kid before and as a parent I think they are underestimating the toll it takes.
D&D beyond is shitting harder than it ever has, and they've got a skeleton response crew in place since 99% of their office is on vacation until tuesday
I had that problem too! Glad I'm not the only one.
Which complicates my life now as my schedule has flipped and the ToA game is next weekend and SKT has been moved to the end of the month. Which means I spent a few days after Xmas prepping for the wrong game. :razz:
I managed to use my Avrae discord bot to extract the details of all of my player's characters using D&D Beyond's API, but it looks like they fixed all their shit mid session anyway
0
WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
I think I'm gonna run Dragon Heist too, rather than battle with my executive dysfunction and ADHD through all this homebrew stuff.
Is there any reason I shouldn't play Xanathar as Wayne from Letterkenny? "Yer organizing crimes with yer pals, the other day..."
WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
I just want that moment of, like, they've heard about the scary crimelord, the Xanathar, a massive Beholder who strikes terror into his subordinates. Maybe they've crossed him in some way, and been brought before him to receive an offer they can't refuse.
He hovers into the room, menacing, his many eyes examining them from every angle, his teeth razor-sharp. The lights in the room are either too bright or too dim, they can't decide in this smoke-filled chamber.
After an uncomfortably long silence, the Xanathar takes in a breath and speaks:
So I'm in a weekly game on roll20 (not d20) and we are playing Storm Kings Thunder, and I'm playing a Stout Halfling Monk of the open hand variety. My first monk btw.
Two things;
We are level 8 almost 9 and I feel like all I'm doing is step of the wind, attack, wait for my turn, attack, flurry of blows hope they go prone, wait ad naseam. Any suggestions on breaking this cycle?
Also any ideas for my next feat selection? , I took stats last time, so I have Dex and Wis at 18 thanks to a bitchin stat roll + the increase.
Not looking to be the best or highest damage dealer but it would be nice to do more than punch things, I haven't had any luck with stunning blow.
I just want that moment of, like, they've heard about the scary crimelord, the Xanathar, a massive Beholder who strikes terror into his subordinates. Maybe they've crossed him in some way, and been brought before him to receive an offer they can't refuse.
He hovers into the room, menacing, his many eyes examining them from every angle, his teeth razor-sharp. The lights in the room are either too bright or too dim, they can't decide in this smoke-filled chamber.
After an uncomfortably long silence, the Xanathar takes in a breath and speaks:
"How'r'ya now?"
At some point Xanathar needs to send them to take care of some worm pickers trespassing on his property.
I just want that moment of, like, they've heard about the scary crimelord, the Xanathar, a massive Beholder who strikes terror into his subordinates. Maybe they've crossed him in some way, and been brought before him to receive an offer they can't refuse.
He hovers into the room, menacing, his many eyes examining them from every angle, his teeth razor-sharp. The lights in the room are either too bright or too dim, they can't decide in this smoke-filled chamber.
After an uncomfortably long silence, the Xanathar takes in a breath and speaks:
"How'r'ya now?"
I had a Ravenloft-style area of the Shadowfel that my PCs had to travel through, and they got caught and brought before the vampiric liege-lord of the land. All very played straight Ravenloft shit. Just cursed land this and spooky evil that.
The vampire was basically Bill from Trueblood. Complete with over the top rural/southern US drawl
I've prepared a "the cube" inspired dungeon. To spice it up there will be a construct that starts off as a minor threat but adapts each time it is destroyed.
So... there is a room in Tomb of Annihilation that traps the party within and the only way for them to escape for someone to stick their arm in a Sphere of Annihilation and sever it at the elbow, then present their severed limb to the door for it to open.
1) That's just mean, and I love it. But is it too mean?
2) How wasteful of a trap would it be to throw the party a bone and have a Regenerate scroll somewhere for them to find?
It damn sure it not! But even still, I've noticed that while the Tomb is full of "Save or get Rekt" type traps and scenarios.... the saves to not get rekt are entirely reasonable. And if the party is at all careful about their exploration then its not too bad for them. I mean, I did disintegrate the sorcerer the first floor. Beat the snot out of them and send them packing with a Beholder on the 3rd. And also caused them to sacrifice almost all of their loot and a few magic items to buy off a cursed skull that was hounding their greedy rogue character. But all of these things were caused by poor rolls or poor choices.
But, the cost of an arm is something that has no choice attached to it (maybe I missed something?) unless the party wants to make this room their permanent home.
1) too mean would be you requiring them to hold the severed appendage at the door
2) I have no idea what sort of campaign you're running sooooo it's difficult to say. Perhaps they could find the remains of another adventurer (ballista bolt went through the head, something visceral) who kept a log wherein your group finds out that there's a scroll of regeneration nearby but that it's in a trapped room. Details in solving the trap could be in the book, depends on how mean you want to be. That way the group can fix their error but not without risk.
Also, while I'm at it... whats the best level for a 4-man party to tackle Acererak? They just hit 9th level and will be starting the 4th floor of the Tomb this weekend. I was thinking 10th level when we started this module.... but that's when we had a full 5 man party. We lost one player very recently due to some inter-group IRL drama, and his bard will be NPC'd by me (with input from the rest of the players on what they want him to do) much more effectively that his actual player was using him. And our 5th player is very flaky, only really showing up for 1 out of every 3 sessions. The last time we played, his sorcerer got dusted. And even though game weekend is a few days away, we're still not sure if he's going to make it. So, for my planning, I do not rely on him being there.
Err.
A lich on its home turf is a CR23 engagement.
I mean I guess it depends on how you want to play the guy, maybe acci is having a bad hair day, but most 10s aren't going to have more than 101 hitpoints, which means someone's dying in round 1.
Posts
I've never had a guard hoist an infant on a spear before in a D&D game, but that's a strong possibility going forward, to give an indication of the level of bright future laid out before them (the players are weellll aware that this ends badly, and I am delighted that they are not metagaming and their characters aren't acting as if they have any inclinations of doom)
Biggest gripe is always being underpowered compared to giants. Thats fine for parts of a campaign, but for 18 months it gets a little old. Kind of like being underground in Out of the Abyss. Yea thats the setting, but some shake ups would have been appreciated.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
This past Monday, that campaign came to a close. I had to rush the ending because one of my players is moving away today, but overall, I think it went pretty well. My first campaign as DM lasted 2.5 years. Not bad.
The players were about level 11/12, and I got to do some villain monologuing, which was fun.
I'm still painting minis, and the boss fight for the campaign was the largest project I'd undertaken so far:
After we did the denouement for the players, they got to describe what their characters did in the years after, which I think was fun. It took less than two minutes from conclusion, though, for them to ask when the new campaign starts, so I think I did all right.
I was surprised, though, at the emotional pang I got when I saw all the player initiative trackers laying on the table, never to be used again. *sniff*
So the PC died?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
PC pretended to reach for the cup in front of him and noticed the NPC smiling. He reached over his cup and drank the cup in front of the NPC and smiled the smuggest smile back as the NPC had no choice but to empty "his" cup.
The NPC had previously, secretly drank the antidote and had poisoned both cups.
PC keeled over dead
The rest of the party (including a druid, paladin, cleric) just sat there and watched.
Their first reaction wasn't to counter the poison or, you know, worry about their dead friend but to point out that it was *still* a 4v1 and the NPC had better tell them where the books went.
It turned out fine in the end as they had enough diamonds with them to resurrect the dead PC (sorta, now they don't have a res).
"I reach over and check to see if the chest is locked"
so he has one hand now
"You can't tell. As you reach for the chest your hand melts off your body. The pain is excrutiating, it's a wonder you don't pass out. Goo of what used to be your bones and flesh bubbles on the floor."
"..I still wanna know if the chest is locked, I reach for it with my other hand.."
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Take care, least ye be sent on a Fetch Quest
Just wait until you meet Lulu.
No matter, Strahd has learned the secrets of the arcane, and heard whispers of dealings that could lead to immortality in the amber temple, from the dark prisoners contained within that place of learning. Speaking of which, the Vistana in the party is married and has a daughter... who is a werewolf, WHOOPS! Should have gotten the husband cured BEFORE the honeymoon I guess. I'm sure nothing bad will come out of that!
Seeking a cure for her daughter, she took the party to the amber temple, and to everyone's horror the place is dark and spoopy - magical darkness covers the once prominent statues of scholars from ages past and the large central statue of the Knowing Mistress' face. The archmages that preside over the place conduct a powerful ritual in the center, they have learned from one of their prisoners of a path to immortality that doesn't involve consuming the souls of others - no phylactery!
The party, not even stopping to question this, realizes (for once) that this is definitely evil and move to stop the ritual, and succeed - stopping the transition of the entire building to the plane of shadow (shadowfell dont exist yet), as delighted as I would have been to have future timeline barovia Amber Temple not even be there. All the archmages in the ritual turned into gibbering flameskulls and flew around happily incinerating students and monks, the party ran to save their friend who is a researcher there. Vistani Warlock brought her character's husband with for some reason (I gave her the "are you sure?") and he got killed by a fireball.
They found their friend had experimented with a magical painting in the temple and escaped there with any acolytes she could, and the party went into the painting to go get her
The inside of the painting is basically going to be dark souls, this is gonna be fun
And while I knew logically it was going to be a problem, my desire to appease the boardgamers in my group with 1" scale maps (which totally worked, btw) all falls apart when the maps are presented in locales scaled for giants. Like.... that is a lot of poster sized sheets of graph paper to cover a giant scaled dungeon. I don't think I'm ok with that.
Do that with your dungeon map
Go all out and get a 10 ft. banner printed of the interior of a Tarrasque for them to explore.
Rewards and inspiration points for anyone that does the Jim Carrey rhino bit!
But I kinda also want to do more Starfinder. XP
i only enforced the warforged ac changes and used the old race for everything else because the players liked it. i let our shifter choose which one they wanted. same for the artificer. same for anyone with a dragonmark.
PSN:Furlion
Session 1 - The Ravnican Delian Tomb was a success, despite DM mistakes!
The players:
Biboy - Selesnyan Human Barbarian. Folk hero of his street, where everyone knows his name
Therin - Golgari Devkarin Spore Druid. Bit of a loner, but money motivates everyone
Zorya - Izzet Human Forge Cleric. A believer of the Izzet way, even if she does not have the smarts
The scenario: Matt Colville's Delian Tomb, except:
- The hostage is a Guildpact informant
- The goblins are Shattergang Brothers trying to extract info the informant got from Krenko (currently in prison)
- The Order of Knights of Arkanov Delosz had a tomb somewhere near the Rubblebelt fringes, and a Boros push against the Gruul in that area allowed the tomb to be reclaimed as a safe house by the Shattergang mob, where they're interrogating the hostage.
- Therin the Devkarin didn't know it at the time, but the Delian Order was part of an Azorius push to cull Golgari numbers back in the day. So he'd be interested in what's inside!
Bonus scenario: I described one of the two goblins guarding the entrance as having a beautiful voice (and getting bullied by the other), so as expected the PCs tried to rescue the goblin singer and murdered the other mercilessly. Tried being the operative word, because miscommunication among the four resulted in Biboy attempting to parley with Gix (the goblin singer) and then Benny immediately goring the goblin right after. They had to stablize him and Intimidate him into compliance, but Gix is now convinced they're going to help his singing career (Biboy's going to dedicate his downtime setting up a gig, apparently).
Griselda- Tiefling thief rogue who has recently become a member of the Zhentarim and is conflicted about this
Tungon Grizzlepike- Human champion fighter, Noble, and member of the Lord's Alliance. Recently elected mayor of Phandalin who recruits the other 4 to travel to waterdeep to establish trade with the newly opened mine.
Lunalynn McDougall - Forest Gnome circle of the Moon druid.
Siren- Half elf, half mer college of Whispers Bard. She is a secret Harper agent keeping an eye out for Zhentarim activity
They are all level 5 and have around 1k gold each. All we managed to accomplish in game was establishing Tungon as mayor, getting everyone together, and traveling to the yawning portal. There they learned about the conflict currently gripping the city and got to kill a troll that climbed up out of the pit. Volo introduced himself and we stopped there. Everyone had fun. Not sure when our next session will be since one of my players is due to have her baby someone next week. They seem open to having a game relatively soon after that but they have never had a kid before and as a parent I think they are underestimating the toll it takes.
PSN:Furlion
sad trombone
Which complicates my life now as my schedule has flipped and the ToA game is next weekend and SKT has been moved to the end of the month. Which means I spent a few days after Xmas prepping for the wrong game. :razz:
Is there any reason I shouldn't play Xanathar as Wayne from Letterkenny? "Yer organizing crimes with yer pals, the other day..."
He hovers into the room, menacing, his many eyes examining them from every angle, his teeth razor-sharp. The lights in the room are either too bright or too dim, they can't decide in this smoke-filled chamber.
After an uncomfortably long silence, the Xanathar takes in a breath and speaks:
"How'r'ya now?"
And somehow he's smoking a dart.
Obligatory link:
https://images.app.goo.gl/Jjcrjz7RKyE8qvwY6
Two things;
We are level 8 almost 9 and I feel like all I'm doing is step of the wind, attack, wait for my turn, attack, flurry of blows hope they go prone, wait ad naseam. Any suggestions on breaking this cycle?
Also any ideas for my next feat selection? , I took stats last time, so I have Dex and Wis at 18 thanks to a bitchin stat roll + the increase.
Not looking to be the best or highest damage dealer but it would be nice to do more than punch things, I haven't had any luck with stunning blow.
At some point Xanathar needs to send them to take care of some worm pickers trespassing on his property.
I had a Ravenloft-style area of the Shadowfel that my PCs had to travel through, and they got caught and brought before the vampiric liege-lord of the land. All very played straight Ravenloft shit. Just cursed land this and spooky evil that.
The vampire was basically Bill from Trueblood. Complete with over the top rural/southern US drawl
I can't wait to see what happens
1) That's just mean, and I love it. But is it too mean?
2) How wasteful of a trap would it be to throw the party a bone and have a Regenerate scroll somewhere for them to find?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
But, the cost of an arm is something that has no choice attached to it (maybe I missed something?) unless the party wants to make this room their permanent home.
2) I have no idea what sort of campaign you're running sooooo it's difficult to say. Perhaps they could find the remains of another adventurer (ballista bolt went through the head, something visceral) who kept a log wherein your group finds out that there's a scroll of regeneration nearby but that it's in a trapped room. Details in solving the trap could be in the book, depends on how mean you want to be. That way the group can fix their error but not without risk.
A lich on its home turf is a CR23 engagement.
I mean I guess it depends on how you want to play the guy, maybe acci is having a bad hair day, but most 10s aren't going to have more than 101 hitpoints, which means someone's dying in round 1.