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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

  • TarantioTarantio Registered User regular
    On monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons: you can give them a magical weapon that doesn't give combat bonuses, like a Moon-touched sword from Xanathar's, and it will work.

    You could even get creative with a super-useless enchantment, and maybe give an arcana check to realize why it's actually quite useful just because it's magic.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Are there any enemies that are immune to magical weapons?

    A level 4 quest in the tower of a mage who has enchanted everything nearby so that they can get immunity through magic resistance would give ready access to a load of otherwise ordinary weapons

    I don't know if magic resistance works like that in D&D, though - I'm thinking of similar arguments in Ars Magica

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Are there any enemies that are immune to magical weapons?

    A level 4 quest in the tower of a mage who has enchanted everything nearby so that they can get immunity through magic resistance would give ready access to a load of otherwise ordinary weapons

    I don't know if magic resistance works like that in D&D, though - I'm thinking of similar arguments in Ars Magica

    Rakshasa

    Edit: nope I remembered wrong, but they are immune to non magical weapons

    Sleep on
  • Super NamicchiSuper Namicchi Orange County, CARegistered User regular
    unrelated—the heroforge color mini Kickstarter is up! the early bird stuff is quite competitive

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Tarantio wrote: »
    On monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons: you can give them a magical weapon that doesn't give combat bonuses, like a Moon-touched sword from Xanathar's, and it will work.

    You could even get creative with a super-useless enchantment, and maybe give an arcana check to realize why it's actually quite useful just because it's magic.

    Also a basic +1 item isn’t going to break anything, especially by level 5.

    I do prefer to give my players ways to make there items magical, and have special features. That way its just not an item churn. Thats my personal preference though.

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  • WACriminalWACriminal Dying Is Easy, Young Man Living Is HarderRegistered User regular
    unrelated—the heroforge color mini Kickstarter is up! the early bird stuff is quite competitive

    It looks fantastic. I don't think I'll be able to justify the added cost to myself now that I've started painting my own for relaxation anyway, but it seems like an impressive tool.

    What I can see myself doing is ordering a non-color one, but then putting it through the color tool to 1) grab a screenshot for my DM screen's character summaries, and 2) test color combos before painting.

  • BullheadBullhead Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Tarantio wrote: »
    On monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons: you can give them a magical weapon that doesn't give combat bonuses, like a Moon-touched sword from Xanathar's, and it will work.

    You could even get creative with a super-useless enchantment, and maybe give an arcana check to realize why it's actually quite useful just because it's magic.

    Also a basic +1 item isn’t going to break anything, especially by level 5.

    I do prefer to give my players ways to make there items magical, and have special features. That way its just not an item churn. Thats my personal preference though.

    As a player though, I would advise not giving them anything too awesome too early - in my last campaign my Rogue received a set of amazing dragon-tooth daggers early on (level 5-7 I think?) that I never replaced. Loot just ceased to matter, which takes out some of the fun. I had a mountain of gold with nothing to spend it on :( (I at some point, maybe level 10, had gotten a +3 set of studded leather, and by 12(?) I had a ring of Invis along with a poison immunity necklace).

    96058.png?1619393207
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Bullhead wrote: »
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Tarantio wrote: »
    On monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons: you can give them a magical weapon that doesn't give combat bonuses, like a Moon-touched sword from Xanathar's, and it will work.

    You could even get creative with a super-useless enchantment, and maybe give an arcana check to realize why it's actually quite useful just because it's magic.

    Also a basic +1 item isn’t going to break anything, especially by level 5.

    I do prefer to give my players ways to make there items magical, and have special features. That way its just not an item churn. Thats my personal preference though.

    As a player though, I would advise not giving them anything too awesome too early - in my last campaign my Rogue received a set of amazing dragon-tooth daggers early on (level 5-7 I think?) that I never replaced. Loot just ceased to matter, which takes out some of the fun. I had a mountain of gold with nothing to spend it on :( (I at some point, maybe level 10, had gotten a +3 set of studded leather, and by 12(?) I had a ring of Invis along with a poison immunity necklace).

    So somewhere in 3rd was the concept of items that leveled with you, which was pretty freaking solid. I know the Samurai class from OA basically used this idea and Weapons of Legacy had a form of it as well. Really lets stuff like signature magic items for characters work.

    The base systems, which were very player driven/controlled, kinda clash with 5e's attitude towards magic items. I think you could rip some of that stuff off and just make opportunities for item advancement part of plot progression/treasures. (Congrats, your weapon has tasted of the lifeblood of a True Dragon, it now can do one of these:<cool thing list>.)

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Bullhead wrote: »
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Tarantio wrote: »
    On monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons: you can give them a magical weapon that doesn't give combat bonuses, like a Moon-touched sword from Xanathar's, and it will work.

    You could even get creative with a super-useless enchantment, and maybe give an arcana check to realize why it's actually quite useful just because it's magic.

    Also a basic +1 item isn’t going to break anything, especially by level 5.

    I do prefer to give my players ways to make there items magical, and have special features. That way its just not an item churn. Thats my personal preference though.

    As a player though, I would advise not giving them anything too awesome too early - in my last campaign my Rogue received a set of amazing dragon-tooth daggers early on (level 5-7 I think?) that I never replaced. Loot just ceased to matter, which takes out some of the fun. I had a mountain of gold with nothing to spend it on :( (I at some point, maybe level 10, had gotten a +3 set of studded leather, and by 12(?) I had a ring of Invis along with a poison immunity necklace).
    I had that problem on my level ~8 Bard, he was sat on like 5k GP because he already had all the items I considered best-in-slot (that were purchasable), so what's the point of money. Like, at least a melee class can get a higher +weapon, unless you're a Warlock you're not increasing your caster spell bonus with gear.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    unrelated—the heroforge color mini Kickstarter is up! the early bird stuff is quite competitive

    I chipped in for a minifig

    Now I will have plenty of time to get decision paralysis over who I'm going to create

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • WACriminalWACriminal Dying Is Easy, Young Man Living Is HarderRegistered User regular
    I find it amusing that the funding has outpaced their ability to keep up with revealing stretch goals.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Glal wrote: »
    Bullhead wrote: »
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Tarantio wrote: »
    On monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons: you can give them a magical weapon that doesn't give combat bonuses, like a Moon-touched sword from Xanathar's, and it will work.

    You could even get creative with a super-useless enchantment, and maybe give an arcana check to realize why it's actually quite useful just because it's magic.

    Also a basic +1 item isn’t going to break anything, especially by level 5.

    I do prefer to give my players ways to make there items magical, and have special features. That way its just not an item churn. Thats my personal preference though.

    As a player though, I would advise not giving them anything too awesome too early - in my last campaign my Rogue received a set of amazing dragon-tooth daggers early on (level 5-7 I think?) that I never replaced. Loot just ceased to matter, which takes out some of the fun. I had a mountain of gold with nothing to spend it on :( (I at some point, maybe level 10, had gotten a +3 set of studded leather, and by 12(?) I had a ring of Invis along with a poison immunity necklace).
    I had that problem on my level ~8 Bard, he was sat on like 5k GP because he already had all the items I considered best-in-slot (that were purchasable), so what's the point of money. Like, at least a melee class can get a higher +weapon, unless you're a Warlock you're not increasing your caster spell bonus with gear.

    One big advantage of downtime is the ability to define your characters and to set them up with things they care about.

    What is a bard going to do with 5k GP? Buy a house, buy a theater to show their plays. Sponsor orphans. Hire a woizard to summon a Demon to sell their soul to in order to get better at barding.

    Goumindong on
    wbBv3fj.png
  • WACriminalWACriminal Dying Is Easy, Young Man Living Is HarderRegistered User regular
    Yeah, base-building is the ultimate money sink. Get sanctum enchantments. Get a magic refilling icebox. Plant an herb garden and hire an alchemist to make advanced potions for you.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    WACriminal wrote: »
    Yeah, base-building is the ultimate money sink. Get sanctum enchantments. Get a magic refilling icebox. Plant an herb garden and hire an alchemist to make advanced potions for you.

    And when that alchemist blows themselves (and a considerable portion of your base) up with their random experiments into bottling explosions, drop some coin on background checks for your replacement alchemist and consider it a lesson well learned.

  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    WACriminal wrote: »
    Yeah, base-building is the ultimate money sink. Get sanctum enchantments. Get a magic refilling icebox. Plant an herb garden and hire an alchemist to make advanced potions for you.

    And when that alchemist blows themselves (and a considerable portion of your base) up with their random experiments into bottling explosions...
    Shit, say no more, I'm sold.

    There was this encounter where our party ambushed an encampment, but it turned out they'd prepared for us, so when the fight started a fire arrow was shot into a tree at the entrance, which promptly exploded, taking out everything around it. Once the fighting resolved my bard promptly tried his best to get the person responsible hired into the guild, because a mind that fills a tree with gunpowder is a mind worth having around.

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Potions also can be a huge resource sink. Make basic ones as loot rewards and buyable in town, but let the players learn of powerful ones that they have to quest for or hire other adventurers to get the materials. A great money sink while providing non-permanent effects for the most part.

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  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    I've been using this google sheet that I got from matt colville as a guide for money sinkage, it has a wide variety of buildings and rooms to go in those buildings along with what they do for players to sink cash into

    feel free to copy it to your own google drive if anything on there sparks ideas

  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    furlion wrote: »
    I need somewhere to read about power creep. My Bard took medium armor because we had found a breastplate+1 in the lost mines. So now she has 17AC, which seems like a lot for a Bard. It makes me hesitant to give her something offensive oriented since she's so hard to hit.

    I was asked to GM a game recently for friends, so I just went through all of this to calibrate my expectations. I've a few things I learned that will hopefully help you.

    #1. Spreadsheet to calculate probability of landing a hit versus various defenses. This tells you all sorts of things about what statistic adjustments mean to the player's probability of success. Separate documentation for the spreadsheet here. Another thing to remember is expected time to live. A simple way to look at it is to ask how many rounds it takes to kill a specific opponents if the player does the average DPR, the minimum DPR, and the maximum DPR. Sadly, I haven't been able to find any of the probability plots of how many rounds to defeat that I've seen for 3.x and I'm too lazy right now to figure it out myself, but that's another metric to keep in mind. Some defenses will make this more complicated, but most effects can be modeled pretty well.

    #1a. Note that as a bonus, the Saves % tab can be used for figuring out probability for Skill check successes.

    #2. ppek4749zvck.png. This is the 5e wealth by level chart as per the treasure parcels recommended in the DMG. Keep this in mind, but the first thing you will want to do is run the adjusted numbers through the spreadsheet in #1 and see if it changes the probability in a way that you don't want.

    Caedwyr on
  • furlionfurlion Riskbreaker Lea MondeRegistered User regular
    They are going to be rebuilding trollskull Manor for the rest of the Waterdeep campaign which should give them a place to sink some gold. Plus the paladin and fighter both want full plate which is 1500, and at level 5 that is a lot. I did decide to let my fighter buy night vision goggles since he was the only one with dark vision. Charged him a d6x100gp. Pretty happy with that.

    sig.gif Gamertag: KL Retribution
    PSN:Furlion
  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    I've been using this google sheet that I got from matt colville as a guide for money sinkage, it has a wide variety of buildings and rooms to go in those buildings along with what they do for players to sink cash into

    feel free to copy it to your own google drive if anything on there sparks ideas

    This is pretty sweet. I was already planning on borrowing from the Strongholds homebrew, but this is a great way to keep track of things. I think I can also add in my extra options I want to include without too many problems.

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    I run storm king's thunder in exandria, the players have been managing a town that has proven to be an effective money sink, in addition to spending a lot of money on research expeditions to attempt to find promising dig sites that might have age of arcanum relics

    They also run an acquisitions incorporated franchise which so far hasn't earned them any money because they keep not doing the thing that is the title of the company they signed on with (I mean they're incorporated, but they sure as hell keep failing to acquire the thing they're asked to)

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    My players have taken over Tresendor manor and are setting it up to be a luxury destination retreat for the folks that they think might have information or would be useful to have leverage over, that they pick out of their city gambling den establishment.

    I love this idea, and while it will have firefly style "companions" one of the players big into the idea is a woman, and the rest of the guys are decent people in RL, so I figure this won't go off the rails too badly. We shall see.

    webguy20 on
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  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    I was rolling dice with my pals the other day.... and the randomness of Beholders actually saved my party from a TPK this weekend! I was happy/sad about it all. But my party, instead of moving down to the 5th level of Tomb, they went back up to the 3rd and even the 2nd of take care of some unfinished business.....

    Group Drama Recap if you care:
    So, if you care to recall, we had some "issues" with one of our players throwing a digital hissy fit because we didn't want to play a different indie/self published game every time we got together. Now, this is the same dude who left our group for long time (not his fault per se, we went to teach english to children in Taiwan... may the gods help those poor kids) and came back years later to a friend group who grew up while he most certainly did not. He still acting like he's 25 while we're all actaully in our 40's. He was genuinely hurt and confused when I rejected his proposal to dress up as one of the Ghostbusters a few years ago on Halloween and head downtown and hit the clubs. I declined because I told him I'd rather take my 4 year old out trick or treating for his first time. Now, I don't say this to knock on people who dress up and party down on Halloween. I say this to highlight the difference in priorities this dude has to the ones I have. And the rest of the group varies, but they skew more towards my way more than his.

    Our tastes in RPG's are different too, He has some kind of ADHD when it comes to games and systems. He cares nothing for the rules and only if something is "cool". OK, that's fine. But whatever is "cool" changes every few weeks. He doesn't care for campaigns or continuity or even player agency. He hits ona cool idea, wants to tell a cool story and we're just along for the ride. I complained before about this guy running a FFG Star Wars game where he didn't bother to learn how to interpret the symbols on the dice, only that they were neat. He created NPC's to cover each of out roles in the party, insisted that they tag along on our mission, and have them do everything our characters could do so that he could control the narrative and take away all of our agency. He even turned his laptop around at one point and showed us his desktop backgroup... "Yes. Its Railroading. Deal with it." In big block green lettering on a black background. The rest of the party likes a bit of continuity. We like campaigns, and getting to know and getting to grow our characters and levelling up and whatnot. That was about a year ago, and we haven't played any game other than D&D since. Specifically, MY D&D game.

    So, to make a very long story short, its not the best fit. It hasn't fit for a while. And we continued to tolerate and coddle him and his wishes for a long time. But, unspoken, we were kinda done with it. So every time we planned a weekend bender session and the question of "What are we playing this time?" comes up its always been D&D and this guy sulks and mopes. He shows up with beer and snacks... then proceeds to complain, mope and just not give a shit when play. He doesn't bother to learn his character, that the rest of us helped make and tailored to his interests. And I bent the story of the game to tailor to his interests. His Bard was a rock star! He shot arrows from the neck of his lute! A blade sprung out of the bottom to act as a rapier. I let him find the stupidest and silliest songs on youtube for him to take over the music we play in the background to represent his bard doing his thing. Good lord, I'm sure he was finding annoying music on purpose. And I allowed it, even encouraged it, because it worked! He was happy and engaged! But alas, that lasted one session. Then back to shitty play, disinterested in the game, many disruptions and taking offense when I brought things back to game.

    Fast forward to just before Christmas when he emails us a .pdf set of rules for an Aliens RPG. No commenary. Just a .pdf. To which I reply, "Dude, if you want to pitch a game idea, just pitch one." knowing how he operates I'm getting ready to just sit back and listen to "story time with dude, no actual agency required". Another of the group slams it hard, and not having actually looked at what he sent, Ok, sure. Dude gets his back and proceeds to go on a rant about how much we play D&D and how we never want to play his games and how much D&D sucks and how his indie games are so much better. Etc. He also drops that another of the group has left us too because he doesn't like how we play. Intimating that the other three of us are the problem. I jump back in, not looking to address the gaming issue but trying to find out what the deal with the other guy is. And while I'm typing and retyping a response intended to bring things down from a boil to a simmer in the group chat... he cuts me off with a "shut the fuck up".

    Now it's late. And I'm pissed because I was trying to smooth things over, not rile them up. So I sleep on it. And the next morning I'm still kinda pissed. So I get back into the chat and blast. I go on about how exhausting it is to listen to him bitch about D&D. How frustrating it is to play one of his games, but how I don't whine like child eating veggies about it. How exhausting it is to arrange this so as to cater to him, and getting it thrown in your face. How annoying it is to accept that he's doing me a favor by playing d&d. Fuck that. I was done and told him to just sit out the next time we play d&d.

    Then, feeling righteous about it all but very guilty, I call to the rest of group to chime I for some *Real Talk* as Arcanis puts it. Thinking maybe I'm the jerk here and I deserve to get blasted. Nope. Other guy comes on and blasts Dude just as hard about other stuff! How he doesn't listen to feedback, how he ignored and invalidated player actions and opinions, how he horns in and tries to change a campaign idea away from the creator to suit his own, fleeting, desires. And so on.

    That was the last we heard from him. A few text messages later amongst the rest of us bring us all on the same page. The player who allegedly dumped us was a lie. He was just busy finishing his nursing degree and starting a family with his wife and is sorry he's been hard to get a hold of lately. Also, he paid me his share of the DnD Beyond access he was owing.

    Due to some intra-group drama (see above if you care to read my rambling rant that I didn't know I had festering in there) we were down the player of the rock and roll support bard. But we did have out cleric back. So yay! So the party sets out for the weekends adventure., and despite them wanted to somehow bring my druid character back to act as a support I decided to keep the verisimilitude and run the bard instead. I had retweaked it a bit to actually do a good job as the previous player was half-assing to say the least.

    Right away, some hard feelings towards the former player made themselves manifest as half-in/half-out of character asshollery from two of the players. It was maybe a little funny at first, but eventually started to get on my nerves. Here I am doing what I can to move on, and the bard is subject to the kind of verbal abuse that gets you arrested in some places. So we come to the room I was talking about last week, where to exit the room, the intended method to lop off an arm and present what left the door. So the players of the barbarian and the rogue make like they're going to hold the bard down and force his arm into the sphere. Or his other option is the axe. They're laughing and not really thinking of other solutions. The cleric player is kinda sitting there uncomfortably. I get fed up and have the Bard, in a stupid show of bravery, and my trying to signal to the other players that this character is on your side and willing to take one for the team, throws his arm into the sphere and opens the way. The player kinda sorta figure out that I'm annoyed and only then do they make noises about whether or not the dwarf cleric has stone shape or another way to get past the doors. I say its too late, he took one for the team. Lets move on. Then come the high five jokes, like, "Hey Bard! Good job getting us out of there! High Five!..... oooooh. Sorry." kinda stuff.

    So I left. I mean, the bard left. He up and said, "You know what? Fuck you guys." and walked away. And took his Trickster god relic with him. The party finishes the 4th level of the dungeon and moves back upto 3 to their secret hidey save spot where they can long rest. Now, previously in the adventure, the party encountered Withers and the bard made a deal with him to let him scry on the party in order to test the effectiveness of the traps. I figured by the 5th level that Withers would have had enough and would ambush the party. Instead, I had the Bard rat them out and lead Withers, a few Tomb Guardians, and the Bard to ambush them as they exited the save spot. The Bard having made another deal with Withers to reveal a hole in his defenses (the secret save spot) and to rid him of these pesky adventurers in exchange for letting him leave the Tomb. The Bard is now the mini-boss of the adventure! I mean, if the players were going to hate on him anyway, then lets make it worth something!

    The ambush goes well, Withers dies (closing a dangling plot) and the Bard rabbits again and loses the party as they had to stop and heal up and cast a restoration spell. The party heads back to Withers' office to use his scrying pool (and so I can hand over some loot) and find the Bard. I took the opportunity to give them some Tomb Guardian's eye view and foreshadow the 5th and 6th floors. They got a good eyeful of the Skeleton Gate and now know for sure what the keys are for. Anyway, they finally find the Bard negotiating with Belchorzz the Unseen, the beholder who thumped the party last session. Using the info from Wither's office, they used the Mirror of Life Trapping and freed, well, everyone. But walked out of completing the 4th level of the dungeon now at level 10 and with two badass NPC's, the drow mage and the chultan champion. A short rest later, they go after the beholder and Bard! Now its ON.

    The Bard, even though he was low on spells, was totally gunning on trying to kill the party , now 10th level characters. But I knew the barbarian and champion were going to take him down asap. But the beholder was a different story. Now, I knew gunning for them would result in a TPK. I knew that if I was a smart and nasty DM I could put them to sleep on a legendary action, and death ray them the next turn. I could blast out disintegrate rays round after round. But I didn't. The Beholder acted completely randomly. Random eye rays. Randoms targets. So many dice rolls!

    I was prepared for a TPK. Maybe part of me was still kinda miffed at being on the receiving end of shit meant for someone else, even though I turned that lemon into some delicious lemonade, and wanted a TPK. But NAY! So many sleep rays. So many paralysis rays. So. Many. Saves. (Man, Bless was he real hero that day). The chultan mage was charmed early on and took a mighty chunk out of the barbarian. The drow mage went to sleep, and was hit by slow and stayed that way for 3 or 4 rounds. The battle went back and forth. My party gets real quiet when they realize I might actually kill them this time. I used to feel bad about that, like "oh noes, they are sad and not having fun." But now I understand that they are just contemplating their own mortality.

    They focused on the Bard, and their "revenge" at first, But finally get a few his on the beholder, who was randomly throwing stuff out the whole time. The cleric throws out a Dawn spell 10' off the floor that filled the entire room, blasting the beast and bringing him down to axe level. Brilliant move. The drow finally wakes up and catches the beholder in some black tentacles. The Bardarian slides in to wail away, while the rogue gets charmed and starts sneak attacking the cleric. Ther drow make tosses out a magic missile and dips, genuinely hoping the party wins, but runs anyway because Drow. The champion is dead and the cleric has failed his second paralysis roll is now a statue, but not before heroically landing a dispel magic on the rogue, freeing him from his charm. Which was a clutch move, as the Barbarian has 12 HP left and the rogue would have killed him and been left as the beholders slave. Dead. Stone. Enslaved. That's a TPK in my book.

    But NO! That clutch dispel magic saved the day. As the cleric's eyes hardened and saw no more, his last sight was the barbarians axe taking the beholder's lower (invisible, but lets not worry about that right now in this cool AF moment) jaw off at the exact same moment as the rogue arrow originally meant for the barbarians back instead lands right in this main eye. VICTORY!!!

    Everyone is happy again, IRL demons have been exercised and hopefully we can move on in a few months with a fresh new session free from lingering bad feelings. And a whole party saved due to the randomness of a beholder instead of a miffed DM out for blood. It turned out to be a real good weekend bender game session.

    TL;DR: Bard player gets "kicked" from group. DM takes over character but eats shit meant for former player. DM gets annoyed and turns on the party, changing the flow of the session but for the better? Intends on killing everyone with a beholder, but sticks to random rolls rather than descending into vengeance. Randomness saves the party from a TPK.

    Steelhawk on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Potions also can be a huge resource sink. Make basic ones as loot rewards and buyable in town, but let the players learn of powerful ones that they have to quest for or hire other adventurers to get the materials. A great money sink while providing non-permanent effects for the most part.
    I feel the game designers felt the same way as you, because potions in 5th are just such a bad deal. Oh sure, of course I'll spend a full action and potentially hundreds of gold (half the value of a magic item of that rarity) to get a fraction of my health back, potentially not even enough to last until it's my turn again (since I already blew mine to heal).

    Instead of creating a money sink you're encouraging your players to keep 1 potion on them for emergency resuscitation and basically never using them otherwise. Our DM made them a bonus action to use and we still didn't use them.

    Apparently Xanathar's lets you craft them at a quarter of the cost of a magic item of the same rarity, which is better.

  • BullheadBullhead Registered User regular
    Glal wrote: »
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Potions also can be a huge resource sink. Make basic ones as loot rewards and buyable in town, but let the players learn of powerful ones that they have to quest for or hire other adventurers to get the materials. A great money sink while providing non-permanent effects for the most part.
    I feel the game designers felt the same way as you, because potions in 5th are just such a bad deal. Oh sure, of course I'll spend a full action and potentially hundreds of gold (half the value of a magic item of that rarity) to get a fraction of my health back, potentially not even enough to last until it's my turn again (since I already blew mine to heal).

    Instead of creating a money sink you're encouraging your players to keep 1 potion on them for emergency resuscitation and basically never using them otherwise. Our DM made them a bonus action to use and we still didn't use them.

    Apparently Xanathar's lets you craft them at a quarter of the cost of a magic item of the same rarity, which is better.

    Yup this! By 10+ those potions do jack shit, unless you have one of the absurdly expensive ones (which you then are leery of using). If they were a BA that'd at least be more bearable.

    And from all this discussion on money sinks I'm getting the impression my DM just didn't give us things to do with the money once we were geared up.

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  • ZomroZomro Registered User regular
    New UA subclass options for Barbarian (Path of the Beast), Monk (Way of Mercy), Paladin (Oath of the Watchers) and Warlock (Noble Genie)

    https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/subclasses1

    I really dig the Path of the Beast and Way of Mercy.

  • WearingglassesWearingglasses Of the friendly neighborhood variety Registered User regular
    Path of the Beast lets you be Vampire Wolverine.

  • XagarXagar Registered User regular
    I really like the monk but I wish there were a few more subclass abilities. The in-combat regen is pretty neat and gives the subclass a different feel, and the poison cloud is also very good on flavor.

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    also re: CR vs something else

    mark hulmes made a good point on twitter how CR is kind of the modern zeitgeist, love it or hate it it is gonna sell like hot cakes

    It was ranked the #1 Best Seller in All Books on Amazon yesterday.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    I beleive it. CR is good stuff.

    I'm old enough to pine for an updated Dragonlance setting as my #1 ask. But bringing the Critical Role brand under the Ampersand? That's a solid business decision.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Tell me about the player options in the Critical Role book.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I beleive it. CR is good stuff.

    I'm old enough to pine for an updated Dragonlance setting as my #1 ask. But bringing the Critical Role brand under the Ampersand? That's a solid business decision.

    Honestly im real happy that they seem to have gotten on the campaign setting train.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    Path of the Beast lets you be Vampire Wolverine.

    Whats the Vampire part? I don't get it.

    And its definitely more Sabertooth rather than Wolverine. :)

  • FryFry Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Zomro wrote: »
    New UA subclass options for Barbarian (Path of the Beast), Monk (Way of Mercy), Paladin (Oath of the Watchers) and Warlock (Noble Genie)

    https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/subclasses1

    I really dig the Path of the Beast and Way of Mercy.

    "Rule Tip: You’re a Creature"

    LOL. I guess it's good to put that down in the rules somewhere, so it's official (at least inasmuch as anything in UA is official), but it still makes me laugh.

    Fry on
  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Glal wrote: »
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Potions also can be a huge resource sink. Make basic ones as loot rewards and buyable in town, but let the players learn of powerful ones that they have to quest for or hire other adventurers to get the materials. A great money sink while providing non-permanent effects for the most part.
    I feel the game designers felt the same way as you, because potions in 5th are just such a bad deal. Oh sure, of course I'll spend a full action and potentially hundreds of gold (half the value of a magic item of that rarity) to get a fraction of my health back, potentially not even enough to last until it's my turn again (since I already blew mine to heal).

    Instead of creating a money sink you're encouraging your players to keep 1 potion on them for emergency resuscitation and basically never using them otherwise. Our DM made them a bonus action to use and we still didn't use them.

    Apparently Xanathar's lets you craft them at a quarter of the cost of a magic item of the same rarity, which is better.

    We do potions as a bonus action as well. Its the only way that makes sense. I also offer up potions with all kinds of other effects too. Lets people optimize for a combat on the fly.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Tell me about the player options in the Critical Role book.

    Wizard tradition: graviturgist, you focus on manipulating gravity, dunemancy (new magicy magic) is one part time one part gravity, you focus on the crushy stuff. You are a Biotic from mass effect. Gravity spells are all half control half damage, and very much focus on positioning the battlefield. The graviturgist gets an ability that lets them "manipulate the position of their allies and enemies like its a chess board"

    Wizard tradition: chronomancer, you are a time and probability wizard, focusing on that aspect of dunamancy. you can cast a spell and freeze it, to go off at a later time, you can create areas that haste allies and slow enemies, you can initiative the fuck out of your initiative roll, you can reset a turn if it didn't go well. Freezing a spell for later is the ultimate "how the hell do you kill an archdruid" class ability as you can throw an 8th level magic missile into a time vault and PW:K when it releases

    Fighter archetype: Echoknight, your martial studies have led you into understanding that every decision point in time creates a potential, unrealized reality in which it went differently - these universes die away in an instant and their energy is reabsorbed by the cosmos, but the echoknight is so in tune with this force that their un-realized selves from those universes can break through to this one, creating "echos". Echo knights can swap places with their echos, have their echos take hits for them or their allies, and distribute their attacks or action through echos. At higher levels it sounds like echos can persist for a long time and facilitate long distance travel and communication

    example graviturgist spell: a line spell that forces all creatures along the line to make a strength saving throw or be pulled to the center, any creature that fails is crushed by gravity in the center of the line, taking damage, and finding themselves having a hard time moving on their turn

    no example chronomancer spells (although any wizard can learn dunamancy spells), however he has a confusion-esque spell called reality break that forces the target to roll a d10 at the start of their turn, examples of outcomes of this d10 are "target is hurled into the far realm until next turn and goes mad" or "alternatve version of the target tears through to this universe and tries to kill them and take their place", it's a high level spell

    override367 on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Tell me about the player options in the Critical Role book.
    Wizard tradition: graviturgist, you focus on manipulating gravity, dunemancy (new magicy magic) is one part time one part gravity, you focus on the crushy stuff. You are a Biotic from mass effect. Gravity spells are all half control half damage, and very much focus on positioning the battlefield. The graviturgist gets an ability that lets them "manipulate the position of their allies and enemies like its a chess board"
    Oh, are we finally getting Warlords again?

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    probably not, im going to guess itll be an X per long rest ability, but we'll see

    I know dunemancy spells will include a ton of repositioning spells

  • WearingglassesWearingglasses Of the friendly neighborhood variety Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    Path of the Beast lets you be Vampire Wolverine.

    Whats the Vampire part? I don't get it.

    And its definitely more Sabertooth rather than Wolverine. :)

    You get a bite attack that can heal yourself for CON

    Is it overpowered if you get both the bite and claw options every time you rage?

    Wearingglasses on
  • TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Anyone have any good suggestions for a Couatl name? My Paladin is getting one as a mount and the DM said I could come up with the name. However, he rejected Boîtel (the Couatl) so rhyming names are probably out.

    Guess I could hit up Xanathar, think there's a table of Aztec names in there.

    Terrendos on
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