I feel like there should be two things: One, you get a single powerful undead that evolves like a pokemon (like your suggestion), and another one, piles of temporary undead that act like minions. They simply die if something hits them, and they use your spell attack and spellcasting modifier for damage, with a number of d4s in damage equal to the number of skelemens in range or something likethat
I'm sure there's yet a more efficient way to do it, but treating your "Armies" as hordes while having a single powerful undead lt. would be my preferred way
I am so happy that Matt Mercer's second campaign has how utterly fucked the modify memory spell is as a central campaign plot element
spoilers
One of the arch-wizards of the Dwendallian Empire, Enchanter Trent Icathon, was tasked with grooming young wizards to be "scourgers", assassins for the empire. He takes bright young children and brutalizes them, builds them back up, indoctrinates them into the state's way of thinking, accustoms them to violence by having them use their magic to execute perverts, murderers, genuine scumbags ---- before moving on to dissidents, political prisoners, and other "problem" people.
One night one of his students, one of the PC's, was at home on a break from his "Education" and he overheard his parents talking of treason to the empire. He told Icathon, and when asked what they should do about it, he agreed that they should die. He burned his parents to death for Icathon, and after the fact had a mental breakdown. In the asylum he was in, someone came and cast (apparently) Greater Restoration on him one day, revealing that his parents never plotted treason. Icathon had used Modify Memory to create that memory in his head, as a test of loyalty. His parents were loyal, and so proud that their son had been chosen for the Assembly.
Shout out to Liam Obrien's acting though, when one of his friends says "It's okay you weren't.... you weren't yourself, you didn't know what you were doing" and he says "I did, I was *proud* to do it. I was so sure....until I wasn't", oonf
modify memory in the hands of a fascist regime or as a form of torture is nightmarish
I'm not sure how the 5e books do it, but in 3.5e they took great pains to try and explain Karrnath's choice to embrace necromancy to bolster their armies in the Great War and then how it seeped into the rest of their society was creepy, yes, but not necessarily evil.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
So my game group went in on one of the original sets of kickstarted Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles. We've had them forever but never use them because they are unpainted, and time consuming to set up in the heat of the moment. So to fix those issues I've been painting the tiles up, I'm about 70 out of 120 pieces painted, and should be done by this weekend.
As far as set up goes I've done a test with 12 of them by putting velcro patches on the bottoms of them, and gluing a big velcro strip on a cardboard sheet. So far the test is a success. The dungeon times adhere super well to the velcro, to the point that I can turn them upside down and they don't release, and they lay flat so you can't even tell they are stuck down. Going to show the group this week and if I get the go ahead I'm going to finish up velcroing the pieces, and then get a couple super cheap cookie sheets to put the large pieces of hook on. My DM can build up big set piece dungeons ahead of time if he wants, and then be able to easily transport them to game night. It should be a big win.
I'm not sure how the 5e books do it, but in 3.5e they took great pains to try and explain Karrnath's choice to embrace necromancy to bolster their armies in the Great War and then how it seeped into the rest of their society was creepy, yes, but not necessarily evil.
Exceeeeeeept ...
... it was all being driven by the Blood of Vol, who are ... SURPRISE! ... a cult dedicated to an ancient evil Lich (the eponymous Vol) who is seeking to bathe the world in undead!
Also, their current King is actually the undead previous Prince who helped kick off the whole succession war in the first place because he was (and is) jealous of his older sister.
I'm not sure how the 5e books do it, but in 3.5e they took great pains to try and explain Karrnath's choice to embrace necromancy to bolster their armies in the Great War and then how it seeped into the rest of their society was creepy, yes, but not necessarily evil.
Exceeeeeeept ...
... it was all being driven by the Blood of Vol, who are ... SURPRISE! ... a cult dedicated to an ancient evil Lich (the eponymous Vol) who is seeking to bathe the world in undead!
Also, their current King is actually the undead previous Prince who helped kick off the whole succession war in the first place because he was (and is) jealous of his older sister.
Hold on now....
IIRC ..The Blood of Vol was not responsible for the Karnn's turn to necromancy during the war. Rather they saw an opening and weaseled their way in by offering to help. They succeed in enticing the King guy to become a Vampire and the Cult intended to us him rule behind the scenes. However the king realized his error and wants to rid his kingdom of Vol's influence, and retains control over the kingdom by acting as his own grandson and doing that work himself.
I seem to remember there being some vaguely 40k stuff about sacrificing innocent people to keep the vampire king or the lich queen eternally youthful, but perhaps I am misremembering.
Strictly speaking, necromancy is a tool just like any other magic and it depends on how it's utilized that sets it on the good evil list.
Like, raising a horde of the undead to destroy a force of orcs/bandits in defense of a village is perhaps disturbing and disrespectful, but it isn't any more evil then stabbin them with a sword or setting them on fire.
And now I'm thinking about playing a charming, quirky necromancer.
In Discworld, there's a community of surgeons who will replace your lost limbs and organs in exchange for you donating your body to them after you die
If a Necromancer had a similar setup where people could hire them for services in exchange for post-death access to their remains, that would solve the issue of consent - people could carry donor cards, have special tombstones etc
The Necromancer wouldn't be able to travel much, so he'd be more of a local Spellcaster and provide defence for the community in times of bandit raids, etc
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
+4
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
The coronavirus epidemic has obliterated our weekend gaming schedule. Doesn't help that a buddy's SO is an ER doctor, so he admits that among us he's the greatest possible vector of disease if it every comes to that.
I guess that translates to extended downtime for their PCs, heh.
The coronavirus epidemic has obliterated our weekend gaming schedule. Doesn't help that a buddy's SO is an ER doctor, so he admits that among us he's the greatest possible vector of disease if it every comes to that.
I guess that translates to extended downtime for their PCs, heh.
Discord bruh.
I run my weekly game on discord video chat with my phone.
Withers showed up and fought us for a bit, irritated that we broke his stuff and that we were trying to steal an intact sarcophagus. We destroyed his Cool Ranch (cold) and Habañero (acid) Tomb Guardians before he left. There's still plenty of exciting Dorito flavors left, though we blew up his forge last time.
We got to the tomb of Shagambi after I was braised by a trap masquerading as a puzzle. I was very annoyed by some lava ceiling that hurt me more because I was being more careful. We managed to come up with a makeshift rope bridge using the three strong members of our party combined with an immovable rod to avoid making a lot of noise, to get me over to the person I needed to cast Fly on so we could leave silently.
One of the groups I DM for finally finished Chapter 1 of Descent into Avernus!
DIA Spoilers! This is a breakdown of how I ran Chapter 1 but I can't promise it won't have any spoilers for future chapters! If you're playing or planning to play in Avernus you might want to skip this.
It took us 22 sessions to get there, but the party is in Hell now! I definitely drew the BG section out as long as possible. When we started the players seemed excited to explore BG so I wanted to make sure they got to know the city really well, make friends, enemies, solve mysteries, etc. We had a heist, a political revolution, terrorism, two different curses (on the same player) and a lot of unplanned shenanigans.
As far as story goes I modified it somewhat. In the campaign as written once you defeat the main antagonist of Chapter 1 the city is saved and I felt like a lot of the motivation dies right there. The party had met Reya and liked/sympathized with her but "come with me to Hell to save my hometown" is a huge ask without some other factors to encourage them to agree.
I decided that I wanted the threat of Baldur's Gate falling into Avernus to persist after they left the city as an additional motivation. I accomplished this by describing an increasing irritability each session, the summer heat seems a little but hotter, tempers seem just a little bit shorter. Violence breaks out on the streets even more often than usual, and general unrest is in the air. This feeling didn't go away even when they stopped Thalamra so they knew the city was stil in trouble. When a party member witnessed a violent death while having the ability to see invisibility they saw a dark cloaked creepy figure come drifting through a wall and somehow suck some energy off the corpse, then carry it back through the wall. They learned that every violent death in the city brings it a little bit closer to falling, through some dark ritual that feeds off the power of murder. They also concluded that by the Parliament of Peers declaring Vanthampur the Grand Duke and offering her unlimited emergency powers (ostensibly to deal with the refugee problem and the whole vanishing nearby city thing) she had gained the 'right' to sign away the city in a devil contract.
I didn't like the idea of one of the most politically powerful people on the sword coast being raided and killed by a relatively weak party of adventurers so I had Thurstwell Vanthampur contact them once he knew they were on the trail (after they killed Amrik Vanthampur) and offer to lower the villa's wards and assign their worst guards for the night of the raid. In exchange he would gain control of the house and hopefully not get sucked into Hell. I didn't change anything about the actual layout, guards, etc, except to add a magical shield to the door to the basement that needed a keystone found in the house, to encourage them to explore the whole thing. I also had Thurstwell take a vacation out of the city to avoid any fallout, though he left the puzzle box for the party with a note about how he couldn't figure the damn thing out.
When they confronted Grand Duke Vanthampur she declared that no matter how their battle went she had already won, nothing could stop the cities fall now and she knew her eternal award from Zariel was assured. She died with a sneer and an almost smug "I'll see you in Hell."
I decided that thanking the party for throwing the city into chaos was a step too far even for the Flaming Fist so they ambushed and 'arrested' the party, then Zodge and Liara interrogated them and then intentionally allowed them to escape on some conveniently placed horses who just so happened to be loaded with the parties gear and reward money. The party can't really return to the city right now so they decide to find someone more knowledgeable than them about devils.
The party went to Candlekeep to learn more about devil deals and try to figure out if the city could be saved, bringing the puzzle box to Sylvira who opened it easily. She explained the ways you could break a devil deal which one player character is particularly interested in because he recently found out that someone he is close to signed their soul away to save his life. The main path they latched onto is destroying both halves of the contract. They don't yet know where either half of the Vanthampur contract is hidden, but they had half of the one that doomed Elturel, so Reya was determined to try to find the other.
I bought the Tactical Maps Adventure Atlas on roll20 and found the story of Shadowhold compelling so I shoved that into the end of the chapter, Sylvira sent them there so Reya could take a dip into the shadow well and gain insight into how to save Elturel. The party received a vision of Elturel as it stands now, different vignettes about whats happening there, and then it focused in on the corrupted Companion, swirling shadow and lightning running over it. They got a close up of it and then their view went through the inside and saw the Solar trapped inside surrounded by more swirling shadow keeping it trapped. Then the view turned around and they saw that the inside of the Companion was etched with glowing infernal runes spelling out the other half of the contract that doomed Elturel.
The party returned to Candlekeep and officially requested that Sylvira help them find their way to Avernus, she sent them to Traxigor and Lulu, and we ended the session with them finding themselves standing in the middle of chaotic doomed Elturel, surrounded by smoke, screams in the distance. I had a song from Fury Road playing over the last few minutes.
I'm super excited to finally move on to Chapter 2! The party just hit level 5 which means I can throw scarier enemies at them. Next up I've bought a chapter 2 supplement called Hellturel off dmsguild and I'm going to be running a few adventures out of that to really set the scene of how desperate the city is and how much of a difference the party can make.
Wow this post really got away from me! I didn't really realize how many changes I made to the chapter until I started writing it all out.
I'm looking forward to DIA but I don't like the idea of hitting like the 30% mark in the module and you're stuck in hell for the entire rest of the campaign, I feel like it's going to be like out of the abyss where I will just be so bored of being stuck in the same environment a year later and not even halfway done
0
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
One of the groups I DM for finally finished Chapter 1 of Descent into Avernus!
DIA Spoilers! This is a breakdown of how I ran Chapter 1 but I can't promise it won't have any spoilers for future chapters! If you're playing or planning to play in Avernus you might want to skip this.
It took us 22 sessions to get there, but the party is in Hell now! I definitely drew the BG section out as long as possible. When we started the players seemed excited to explore BG so I wanted to make sure they got to know the city really well, make friends, enemies, solve mysteries, etc. We had a heist, a political revolution, terrorism, two different curses (on the same player) and a lot of unplanned shenanigans.
As far as story goes I modified it somewhat. In the campaign as written once you defeat the main antagonist of Chapter 1 the city is saved and I felt like a lot of the motivation dies right there. The party had met Reya and liked/sympathized with her but "come with me to Hell to save my hometown" is a huge ask without some other factors to encourage them to agree.
I decided that I wanted the threat of Baldur's Gate falling into Avernus to persist after they left the city as an additional motivation. I accomplished this by describing an increasing irritability each session, the summer heat seems a little but hotter, tempers seem just a little bit shorter. Violence breaks out on the streets even more often than usual, and general unrest is in the air. This feeling didn't go away even when they stopped Thalamra so they knew the city was stil in trouble. When a party member witnessed a violent death while having the ability to see invisibility they saw a dark cloaked creepy figure come drifting through a wall and somehow suck some energy off the corpse, then carry it back through the wall. They learned that every violent death in the city brings it a little bit closer to falling, through some dark ritual that feeds off the power of murder. They also concluded that by the Parliament of Peers declaring Vanthampur the Grand Duke and offering her unlimited emergency powers (ostensibly to deal with the refugee problem and the whole vanishing nearby city thing) she had gained the 'right' to sign away the city in a devil contract.
I didn't like the idea of one of the most politically powerful people on the sword coast being raided and killed by a relatively weak party of adventurers so I had Thurstwell Vanthampur contact them once he knew they were on the trail (after they killed Amrik Vanthampur) and offer to lower the villa's wards and assign their worst guards for the night of the raid. In exchange he would gain control of the house and hopefully not get sucked into Hell. I didn't change anything about the actual layout, guards, etc, except to add a magical shield to the door to the basement that needed a keystone found in the house, to encourage them to explore the whole thing. I also had Thurstwell take a vacation out of the city to avoid any fallout, though he left the puzzle box for the party with a note about how he couldn't figure the damn thing out.
When they confronted Grand Duke Vanthampur she declared that no matter how their battle went she had already won, nothing could stop the cities fall now and she knew her eternal award from Zariel was assured. She died with a sneer and an almost smug "I'll see you in Hell."
I decided that thanking the party for throwing the city into chaos was a step too far even for the Flaming Fist so they ambushed and 'arrested' the party, then Zodge and Liara interrogated them and then intentionally allowed them to escape on some conveniently placed horses who just so happened to be loaded with the parties gear and reward money. The party can't really return to the city right now so they decide to find someone more knowledgeable than them about devils.
The party went to Candlekeep to learn more about devil deals and try to figure out if the city could be saved, bringing the puzzle box to Sylvira who opened it easily. She explained the ways you could break a devil deal which one player character is particularly interested in because he recently found out that someone he is close to signed their soul away to save his life. The main path they latched onto is destroying both halves of the contract. They don't yet know where either half of the Vanthampur contract is hidden, but they had half of the one that doomed Elturel, so Reya was determined to try to find the other.
I bought the Tactical Maps Adventure Atlas on roll20 and found the story of Shadowhold compelling so I shoved that into the end of the chapter, Sylvira sent them there so Reya could take a dip into the shadow well and gain insight into how to save Elturel. The party received a vision of Elturel as it stands now, different vignettes about whats happening there, and then it focused in on the corrupted Companion, swirling shadow and lightning running over it. They got a close up of it and then their view went through the inside and saw the Solar trapped inside surrounded by more swirling shadow keeping it trapped. Then the view turned around and they saw that the inside of the Companion was etched with glowing infernal runes spelling out the other half of the contract that doomed Elturel.
The party returned to Candlekeep and officially requested that Sylvira help them find their way to Avernus, she sent them to Traxigor and Lulu, and we ended the session with them finding themselves standing in the middle of chaotic doomed Elturel, surrounded by smoke, screams in the distance. I had a song from Fury Road playing over the last few minutes.
I'm super excited to finally move on to Chapter 2! The party just hit level 5 which means I can throw scarier enemies at them. Next up I've bought a chapter 2 supplement called Hellturel off dmsguild and I'm going to be running a few adventures out of that to really set the scene of how desperate the city is and how much of a difference the party can make.
Wow this post really got away from me! I didn't really realize how many changes I made to the chapter until I started writing it all out.
Wow 22 sessions! We got through in about 12 sessions of 3ish hours of solid gaming apiece. You really set the stage!
Our DM had us all generate backstories that would have plausible hooks for why we would be willing to delve into hell. He took those seeds and grew a great plot to get us going. When the opportunity came up we were chomping at the bit to go to Avernus.
I feel like there should be two things: One, you get a single powerful undead that evolves like a pokemon (like your suggestion), and another one, piles of temporary undead that act like minions. They simply die if something hits them, and they use your spell attack and spellcasting modifier for damage, with a number of d4s in damage equal to the number of skelemens in range or something likethat
I'm sure there's yet a more efficient way to do it, but treating your "Armies" as hordes while having a single powerful undead lt. would be my preferred way
It just struck me that you could use the cleric spells Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians, and define them as a horde of skeletons that drag themselves out of the earth and then turn to dust after pretty dang easily.
I’m pretty sure this is triple nerdy. A sword based on Dark Souls, but not even one that was really in the game. This is fan fiction crossover D&D content.
It’s probably got too many things going on but I thought it was a cute nod that I might throw in a one shot some day.
I’m pretty sure this is triple nerdy. A sword based on Dark Souls, but not even one that was really in the game. This is fan fiction crossover D&D content.
(Coiled Sword)
It’s probably got too many things going on but I thought it was a cute nod that I might throw in a one shot some day.
Just reword it so that you can't do both specials at the same time and it seems like a perfectly fine magic sword. Doesn't seem overpowered at all. Probably on the higher end of the rarity scale, but not overpowered.
We killed Xanathar, yay! Him plus 4 undead beholders was a chonker of a fight, and we were hardly at 100% at the start of it
when it was over we had 3 party members dusted, the DM cursed my name because he was unable to lay a beam on me. I had blink and kept disappearing, when xanathar put his cone on me, my sorceress drew out her bow and fired a wyvern poison arrow at him because why not, criiiiiiiiiiiiit. At this point Xanathar is almost dead. Combat goes some more, and it rolls back around to my turn. DM says "xanathar is looking really rough"
Walk out of cone, I use my ring to Telekinesis and I grabbed silgar out of his little tank we dragged with us. Now here's where things get tricky:
- We are using a custom version of the reincarnate spell, it has a VASTLY expanded table and can be used on non humanoids as well, and you can potentially reincarnate someone as a baby or an elderly person, or if you roll a 100, a hybrid of two player races - yes this doesn't actually make sense as a"reincarnation", but then again reincarnating a shadarkai and getting a dragonborn doesn't make sense either.
- I'm playing a fey. If I make a direct deal with a creature with my name (not true name just the one on my character sheet), I cannot break it. This is more powerful than the geas spell, the DM has not told me what will happen to me if I break a deal, just that "it would be very very bad"
- Since I'm a fey and not a fiend, I have a lot of leeway to deceive people with these deals. If politifact would rate them as half-true, they work. I NEVER make deals with fiends, as the DM is always on the ball at making me spell out the exact letter of every aspect of any deal, and that's not where the fun is.
- The DM realizes I'm not as wiley as an ancient fey, and lets me use my deception score to try and trick people. I have +14 deception.
- Xanathar knows the thing about fey and deals
I told Xanathar that I would make him a deal right then and there. Once we get what we want, I promise to take care of his fish and do everything in my power to allow him and silgar to be together for their natural lives, and would no longer treat him as an enemy, I'd even stop my party from harming the mighty xanathar, by fighting them if necessary.
I tell DM I am definitely trying to trick him. I roll quite well. Xanathar floats over and grabs the fish, levitating him out of his tank and examining him, and starts blubbering and tells us where the stone of golorr is. He is already very badly wounded at this point, so I use the rary's telepathic bond to signal those not in the cone to prepare and we lay into him, finishing him off. I make sure to catch silgar and put him in his little tank.
We get the stone, and the second we have it, I run over to xanathar and I cast Reincarnate. The party had no idea I was planning this. I do my rolls and point at the dice and the table on my screen, nearby players laugh.
The DM says "Alright.... the tentacle stalk override removed for this spell begins to glow with a soft light for the hour long casting of the spell. At the end of it, you all notice that it starts to elongate and thin slightly... into a hand, and the an arm and body... and standing there is the angriest, most imperious looking naked 6 year old half-elf girl that has ever existed."
Xanathar started hitting me futily, and then concentrating really hard at me before determining that no, half-elf children cannot fire eye rays. I told Xanathar "I have honored my deal, and you can bunk with the other orphans in the top floor of trollskull manor, I think you'll like squiddley, nat, and jenx." Xanathar went into an incoherent deep speech rant for a moment before catching sight of Silgar, before hopping into the fish tank and splashing around and playing with the fish. "I'M SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN SILGAR'S TANK"
"Yes you are! and if you're good, you can do even more, remember if you listen to me I can do this again later!" I used my last spell to turn little xanathar into a fish for the next hour, where she happilly swam around.
we ended the session there, broken, collecting other party members in dustbins. Me getting both applauded, and berated for bringing back fucking xanathar rather than dead party members, but a deal is a deal - AS SOON as we got what we sought, I had to fulfill my end.
The other orphans are going to be so happy to meet their little sister when we get back to waterdeep
I was going to be playing as a character that's currently an NPC in our next campaign - Avernus, itll be like ~15 years after this one in the timeline. The DM suggested to me that if I were to instead play as Xanathar with Silgar as a familiar he would be absolutely delighted
I wasn't going to make such a meme character.... but... I intended on putting Silgar in the same tank I keep the ilithid tadpoles I found in (which I know you cant put a goldfish in a salt water tank so it would have been bad), but the DM is suggesting maybe hes going to end up as a psionic illifish
Xanathar as a pact of the chain warlock with a psionic immortal fish familiar seeking to reclaim beholder-dom actually sounds like a wonderful character and I seriously need to think this proposal over
override367 on
+8
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
So my weekly DnD group has been on Roll20 for 3 years, and now that everyone is working from home, they're pushing for longer games, or games during the day. Which is great for everyone except me, who still has to report to my job site. At least their enthusiasm is there.
I got plans to join a DnD group next week. They let me borrow a 5e book and everything. All this free time at home... No excuse not to make my first ever character! :biggrin:
I already spectated a game and liked the group well enough to join them for some fun. I'm excited!
So my weekly DnD group has been on Roll20 for 3 years, and now that everyone is working from home, they're pushing for longer games, or games during the day. Which is great for everyone except me, who still has to report to my job site. At least their enthusiasm is there.
Sorry for the double post, but wanted to ask before I forgot.... does Roll20 cost money to actually run a game with? I've got 6 players in my SKT group. Or just to unlock advanced features?
I think a fun idea I’d like to use more often are things you can attach to a weapon or item you already possess to empower it, almost like levelling it up / giving it a feat.
Edit: The wording is a little off there for proper 5E-ness, but you get the drift.
I think a fun idea I’d like to use more often are things you can attach to a weapon or item you already possess to empower it, almost like levelling it up / giving it a feat.
Edit: The wording is a little off there for proper 5E-ness, but you get the drift.
I think a fun idea I’d like to use more often are things you can attach to a weapon or item you already possess to empower it, almost like levelling it up / giving it a feat.
Edit: The wording is a little off there for proper 5E-ness, but you get the drift.
Seems like thorns would be piercing, no?
Also, totally stealing this for my next campaign.
The little app isn’t perfect. Basically the weapon would be whatever it was (mace = bludgeoning) and then that thorn effect is piercing.
So my weekly DnD group has been on Roll20 for 3 years, and now that everyone is working from home, they're pushing for longer games, or games during the day. Which is great for everyone except me, who still has to report to my job site. At least their enthusiasm is there.
Sorry for the double post, but wanted to ask before I forgot.... does Roll20 cost money to actually run a game with? I've got 6 players in my SKT group. Or just to unlock advanced features?
A free account can handle running a game without too much issue. If you want all the maps/tokens/monsters preuploaded and sized and such you'll have to buy the campaign off their storefront but can then be used without the paid accounts. But the things like more storage, dynamic lighting, etc, are all worth it IMO. I run two campaigns (SKT and DIA) on there and couldn't imagine going back to the free account. For one thing I'd probably have to delete all the music I uploaded to make mood playlists!
Posts
I'm sure there's yet a more efficient way to do it, but treating your "Armies" as hordes while having a single powerful undead lt. would be my preferred way
Eberron, specifically the nation of Karrnath, blurs that line a bit.
Okay.
*Removes all resurrection and some healing spells from player options*
Also have you looked at Enchantment closely before?
spoilers
One night one of his students, one of the PC's, was at home on a break from his "Education" and he overheard his parents talking of treason to the empire. He told Icathon, and when asked what they should do about it, he agreed that they should die. He burned his parents to death for Icathon, and after the fact had a mental breakdown. In the asylum he was in, someone came and cast (apparently) Greater Restoration on him one day, revealing that his parents never plotted treason. Icathon had used Modify Memory to create that memory in his head, as a test of loyalty. His parents were loyal, and so proud that their son had been chosen for the Assembly.
Shout out to Liam Obrien's acting though, when one of his friends says "It's okay you weren't.... you weren't yourself, you didn't know what you were doing" and he says "I did, I was *proud* to do it. I was so sure....until I wasn't", oonf
modify memory in the hands of a fascist regime or as a form of torture is nightmarish
I'm not sure how the 5e books do it, but in 3.5e they took great pains to try and explain Karrnath's choice to embrace necromancy to bolster their armies in the Great War and then how it seeped into the rest of their society was creepy, yes, but not necessarily evil.
As far as set up goes I've done a test with 12 of them by putting velcro patches on the bottoms of them, and gluing a big velcro strip on a cardboard sheet. So far the test is a success. The dungeon times adhere super well to the velcro, to the point that I can turn them upside down and they don't release, and they lay flat so you can't even tell they are stuck down. Going to show the group this week and if I get the go ahead I'm going to finish up velcroing the pieces, and then get a couple super cheap cookie sheets to put the large pieces of hook on. My DM can build up big set piece dungeons ahead of time if he wants, and then be able to easily transport them to game night. It should be a big win.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Exceeeeeeept ...
Also, their current King is actually the undead previous Prince who helped kick off the whole succession war in the first place because he was (and is) jealous of his older sister.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Hold on now....
Like, raising a horde of the undead to destroy a force of orcs/bandits in defense of a village is perhaps disturbing and disrespectful, but it isn't any more evil then stabbin them with a sword or setting them on fire.
And now I'm thinking about playing a charming, quirky necromancer.
If a Necromancer had a similar setup where people could hire them for services in exchange for post-death access to their remains, that would solve the issue of consent - people could carry donor cards, have special tombstones etc
The Necromancer wouldn't be able to travel much, so he'd be more of a local Spellcaster and provide defence for the community in times of bandit raids, etc
I guess that translates to extended downtime for their PCs, heh.
Discord bruh.
I run my weekly game on discord video chat with my phone.
The finale weekend gaming session for my ToA campaign is at the end of the month and fuck me if it gets cancelled. I am HYPE.
We got to the tomb of Shagambi after I was braised by a trap masquerading as a puzzle. I was very annoyed by some lava ceiling that hurt me more because I was being more careful. We managed to come up with a makeshift rope bridge using the three strong members of our party combined with an immovable rod to avoid making a lot of noise, to get me over to the person I needed to cast Fly on so we could leave silently.
I really, really hate riddles.
And stop licking your dice for luck.
DIA Spoilers! This is a breakdown of how I ran Chapter 1 but I can't promise it won't have any spoilers for future chapters! If you're playing or planning to play in Avernus you might want to skip this.
It took us 22 sessions to get there, but the party is in Hell now! I definitely drew the BG section out as long as possible. When we started the players seemed excited to explore BG so I wanted to make sure they got to know the city really well, make friends, enemies, solve mysteries, etc. We had a heist, a political revolution, terrorism, two different curses (on the same player) and a lot of unplanned shenanigans.
As far as story goes I modified it somewhat. In the campaign as written once you defeat the main antagonist of Chapter 1 the city is saved and I felt like a lot of the motivation dies right there. The party had met Reya and liked/sympathized with her but "come with me to Hell to save my hometown" is a huge ask without some other factors to encourage them to agree.
I decided that I wanted the threat of Baldur's Gate falling into Avernus to persist after they left the city as an additional motivation. I accomplished this by describing an increasing irritability each session, the summer heat seems a little but hotter, tempers seem just a little bit shorter. Violence breaks out on the streets even more often than usual, and general unrest is in the air. This feeling didn't go away even when they stopped Thalamra so they knew the city was stil in trouble. When a party member witnessed a violent death while having the ability to see invisibility they saw a dark cloaked creepy figure come drifting through a wall and somehow suck some energy off the corpse, then carry it back through the wall. They learned that every violent death in the city brings it a little bit closer to falling, through some dark ritual that feeds off the power of murder. They also concluded that by the Parliament of Peers declaring Vanthampur the Grand Duke and offering her unlimited emergency powers (ostensibly to deal with the refugee problem and the whole vanishing nearby city thing) she had gained the 'right' to sign away the city in a devil contract.
I didn't like the idea of one of the most politically powerful people on the sword coast being raided and killed by a relatively weak party of adventurers so I had Thurstwell Vanthampur contact them once he knew they were on the trail (after they killed Amrik Vanthampur) and offer to lower the villa's wards and assign their worst guards for the night of the raid. In exchange he would gain control of the house and hopefully not get sucked into Hell. I didn't change anything about the actual layout, guards, etc, except to add a magical shield to the door to the basement that needed a keystone found in the house, to encourage them to explore the whole thing. I also had Thurstwell take a vacation out of the city to avoid any fallout, though he left the puzzle box for the party with a note about how he couldn't figure the damn thing out.
When they confronted Grand Duke Vanthampur she declared that no matter how their battle went she had already won, nothing could stop the cities fall now and she knew her eternal award from Zariel was assured. She died with a sneer and an almost smug "I'll see you in Hell."
I decided that thanking the party for throwing the city into chaos was a step too far even for the Flaming Fist so they ambushed and 'arrested' the party, then Zodge and Liara interrogated them and then intentionally allowed them to escape on some conveniently placed horses who just so happened to be loaded with the parties gear and reward money. The party can't really return to the city right now so they decide to find someone more knowledgeable than them about devils.
The party went to Candlekeep to learn more about devil deals and try to figure out if the city could be saved, bringing the puzzle box to Sylvira who opened it easily. She explained the ways you could break a devil deal which one player character is particularly interested in because he recently found out that someone he is close to signed their soul away to save his life. The main path they latched onto is destroying both halves of the contract. They don't yet know where either half of the Vanthampur contract is hidden, but they had half of the one that doomed Elturel, so Reya was determined to try to find the other.
I bought the Tactical Maps Adventure Atlas on roll20 and found the story of Shadowhold compelling so I shoved that into the end of the chapter, Sylvira sent them there so Reya could take a dip into the shadow well and gain insight into how to save Elturel. The party received a vision of Elturel as it stands now, different vignettes about whats happening there, and then it focused in on the corrupted Companion, swirling shadow and lightning running over it. They got a close up of it and then their view went through the inside and saw the Solar trapped inside surrounded by more swirling shadow keeping it trapped. Then the view turned around and they saw that the inside of the Companion was etched with glowing infernal runes spelling out the other half of the contract that doomed Elturel.
The party returned to Candlekeep and officially requested that Sylvira help them find their way to Avernus, she sent them to Traxigor and Lulu, and we ended the session with them finding themselves standing in the middle of chaotic doomed Elturel, surrounded by smoke, screams in the distance. I had a song from Fury Road playing over the last few minutes.
I'm super excited to finally move on to Chapter 2! The party just hit level 5 which means I can throw scarier enemies at them. Next up I've bought a chapter 2 supplement called Hellturel off dmsguild and I'm going to be running a few adventures out of that to really set the scene of how desperate the city is and how much of a difference the party can make.
Wow this post really got away from me! I didn't really realize how many changes I made to the chapter until I started writing it all out.
Wow 22 sessions! We got through in about 12 sessions of 3ish hours of solid gaming apiece. You really set the stage!
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
It just struck me that you could use the cleric spells Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians, and define them as a horde of skeletons that drag themselves out of the earth and then turn to dust after pretty dang easily.
It’s probably got too many things going on but I thought it was a cute nod that I might throw in a one shot some day.
Just reword it so that you can't do both specials at the same time and it seems like a perfectly fine magic sword. Doesn't seem overpowered at all. Probably on the higher end of the rarity scale, but not overpowered.
when it was over we had 3 party members dusted, the DM cursed my name because he was unable to lay a beam on me. I had blink and kept disappearing, when xanathar put his cone on me, my sorceress drew out her bow and fired a wyvern poison arrow at him because why not, criiiiiiiiiiiiit. At this point Xanathar is almost dead. Combat goes some more, and it rolls back around to my turn. DM says "xanathar is looking really rough"
Walk out of cone, I use my ring to Telekinesis and I grabbed silgar out of his little tank we dragged with us. Now here's where things get tricky:
- We are using a custom version of the reincarnate spell, it has a VASTLY expanded table and can be used on non humanoids as well, and you can potentially reincarnate someone as a baby or an elderly person, or if you roll a 100, a hybrid of two player races - yes this doesn't actually make sense as a"reincarnation", but then again reincarnating a shadarkai and getting a dragonborn doesn't make sense either.
- I'm playing a fey. If I make a direct deal with a creature with my name (not true name just the one on my character sheet), I cannot break it. This is more powerful than the geas spell, the DM has not told me what will happen to me if I break a deal, just that "it would be very very bad"
- Since I'm a fey and not a fiend, I have a lot of leeway to deceive people with these deals. If politifact would rate them as half-true, they work. I NEVER make deals with fiends, as the DM is always on the ball at making me spell out the exact letter of every aspect of any deal, and that's not where the fun is.
- The DM realizes I'm not as wiley as an ancient fey, and lets me use my deception score to try and trick people. I have +14 deception.
- Xanathar knows the thing about fey and deals
I told Xanathar that I would make him a deal right then and there. Once we get what we want, I promise to take care of his fish and do everything in my power to allow him and silgar to be together for their natural lives, and would no longer treat him as an enemy, I'd even stop my party from harming the mighty xanathar, by fighting them if necessary.
I tell DM I am definitely trying to trick him. I roll quite well. Xanathar floats over and grabs the fish, levitating him out of his tank and examining him, and starts blubbering and tells us where the stone of golorr is. He is already very badly wounded at this point, so I use the rary's telepathic bond to signal those not in the cone to prepare and we lay into him, finishing him off. I make sure to catch silgar and put him in his little tank.
We get the stone, and the second we have it, I run over to xanathar and I cast Reincarnate. The party had no idea I was planning this. I do my rolls and point at the dice and the table on my screen, nearby players laugh.
The DM says "Alright.... the tentacle stalk override removed for this spell begins to glow with a soft light for the hour long casting of the spell. At the end of it, you all notice that it starts to elongate and thin slightly... into a hand, and the an arm and body... and standing there is the angriest, most imperious looking naked 6 year old half-elf girl that has ever existed."
Xanathar started hitting me futily, and then concentrating really hard at me before determining that no, half-elf children cannot fire eye rays. I told Xanathar "I have honored my deal, and you can bunk with the other orphans in the top floor of trollskull manor, I think you'll like squiddley, nat, and jenx." Xanathar went into an incoherent deep speech rant for a moment before catching sight of Silgar, before hopping into the fish tank and splashing around and playing with the fish. "I'M SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN SILGAR'S TANK"
"Yes you are! and if you're good, you can do even more, remember if you listen to me I can do this again later!" I used my last spell to turn little xanathar into a fish for the next hour, where she happilly swam around.
we ended the session there, broken, collecting other party members in dustbins. Me getting both applauded, and berated for bringing back fucking xanathar rather than dead party members, but a deal is a deal - AS SOON as we got what we sought, I had to fulfill my end.
The other orphans are going to be so happy to meet their little sister when we get back to waterdeep
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I wasn't going to make such a meme character.... but... I intended on putting Silgar in the same tank I keep the ilithid tadpoles I found in (which I know you cant put a goldfish in a salt water tank so it would have been bad), but the DM is suggesting maybe hes going to end up as a psionic illifish
Xanathar as a pact of the chain warlock with a psionic immortal fish familiar seeking to reclaim beholder-dom actually sounds like a wonderful character and I seriously need to think this proposal over
I am a sad, D&D blueballed, panda.
I already spectated a game and liked the group well enough to join them for some fun. I'm excited!
Its a LOT.
Sorry for the double post, but wanted to ask before I forgot.... does Roll20 cost money to actually run a game with? I've got 6 players in my SKT group. Or just to unlock advanced features?
Edit: The wording is a little off there for proper 5E-ness, but you get the drift.
Seems like thorns would be piercing, no?
Also, totally stealing this for my next campaign.
The little app isn’t perfect. Basically the weapon would be whatever it was (mace = bludgeoning) and then that thorn effect is piercing.
Wait no, I can do it like this:
A free account can handle running a game without too much issue. If you want all the maps/tokens/monsters preuploaded and sized and such you'll have to buy the campaign off their storefront but can then be used without the paid accounts. But the things like more storage, dynamic lighting, etc, are all worth it IMO. I run two campaigns (SKT and DIA) on there and couldn't imagine going back to the free account. For one thing I'd probably have to delete all the music I uploaded to make mood playlists!