valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
In regards to NPC's, someone mentioned Volo's, so I looked and I have a question. Under Martial Arts Adept, it gives an AC of 16, then says if the npc is not wearing armor, it adds it's wisdom modifier to its AC. Does that mean an unarmored Martial Arts Adept would have a 19, or is that already factored into the listed AC?
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valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
edited November 2020
I'm imagining a wandering merfolk martial arts master, wandering the oceans looking for meaning, much like David Carradine in Kung Fu.
I played a merfolk monk in a one shot once, through various combinations of abilities I was able to get up to 40 land speed, by just flopping around I guess
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Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
In regards to NPC's, someone mentioned Volo's, so I looked and I have a question. Under Martial Arts Adept, it gives an AC of 16, then says if the npc is not wearing armor, it adds it's wisdom modifier to its AC. Does that mean an unarmored Martial Arts Adept would have a 19, or is that already factored into the listed AC?
Its AC would be 16. NPCs like that tend to factor in natural armor and similar abilities in the listed AC, so that what you see is what you get.
but there appears to be no way to do a pathfinder alchemist thing, where you make bombs and drink potions
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give into it." - Oscar Wilde
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Another statblock. The PCs will be encountering this one as an ally initially. She's essentially a hybrid of the 4E fiendish take on the duergar, the duergar warlord, the Asmodeus cultist feature from Tome of Foes, and features from the Unearthed Arcana Pyromancer subclass.
Kedhira, Princess of Ember
Medium Fiend (Duergar), Lawful Evil
Special Equipment. Adamantine Armor, Brand of Infernal Calling, Hellish Destiny (+2 Maul). Adamantine Armor. Any critical hit against Kedhira becomes a normal hit. Brand of Infernal Calling (1/day). Kedhira can cast Infernal Calling at 9th level and can summon devils of up to CR 11 without requiring a devil talisman. Any devil summoned obeys all of her commands unless otherwise instructed by its superiors before summoning. Alternatively, Kedhira can use the effect to transform a soul coin into a new devil instead of summoning an existing one. Demands of Nessus. At the start of each of Kedhira’s turns she can choose one ally she can see within 30 feet. The chosen ally loses 10 hit points, and Kedhira regains the same number of hit points. If she is incapacitated she makes no choice; instead the closest ally within 30 feet is the chosen ally. Devil’s Sight. Kedhira can see even in magical darkness. Duergar Resilience. Kedhira has advantage on saving throws against poison, spells, and illusions, as well as to resist being charmed or paralyzed. Infernal Pyromancy. Kedhira has resistance to fire damage and her spells ignore resistance to fire damage. In addition, whenever Kedhira starts casting a spell that deals fire damage each creature of her choice within 10 feet takes 3 fire damage. Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). Kedhira’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). She can cast these innately, requiring no components.
3/day each: detect thoughts, misty step, suggestion
1/day: id insinuation, mass suggestion Sorcery Points. Kedhira has 3 sorcery points. She regains all spent sorcery points when she finishes a long rest. Kedhira can spend her sorcery points on the following options:
Empowered Spell. When Kedhira rolls damage for a spell, she can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll four damage dice.
Transmuted Spell. When Kedhira casts a sorcerer spell that deals any of the damage types on the following list she may change the damage type to any of these listed: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder. Spellcasting. Kedhira is a 6th Level sorcerer. Her spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). Kedhira has the following sorcerer spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): Chill Touch, Fire Bolt, Friends, Lightning Lure, Mold Earth
1st Level (4 slots): Burning Hands, Charm Person, Shield, Sleep
2nd Level (3 slots): Darkness, Scorching Ray, See Invisibility
3rd Level (3 slots): Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fireball Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, Kedhira has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Perception checks that rely on sight. War Caster. Kedhira has advantage on Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell when she takes damage, she can perform the somatic components of spells even when holding a weapon in both hands, and whenever a creature’s movement provokes an opportunity attack from Kedhira she can use her reaction to cast a spell at the creature. This spell must have a casting time of 1 action and target only that creature.
Actions Multiattack. Kedhira makes three melee attacks and uses Call to Attack, or Enlarge if it is available. Hellish Destiny. +11. 2d6 + 6 bludgeoning damage plus 1d10 fire damage, or 4d6 + 6 bludgeoning damage plus 1d10 fire damage if enlarged. This attack ignores fire resistance. If an attack from Hellish Destiny kills a mortal creature with a soul, the body burns away and leaves behind a soul coin containing the creature's soul. Infernal Claw. +9. 2d6 +4 slashing damage plus 1d10 fire damage, or 4d6 +4 slashing damage plus 1d10 fire damage if enlarged. This attack ignores fire resistance. Fire Bolt. Each creature of Kedhira’s choice within 10 feet takes 3 fire damage. +9. Range 120 feet. The target takes 2d10 fire damage. This attack ignores fire resistance. A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn’t being worn or carried.
Lightning Lure. +9. Range 15 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet in a straight line toward Kedhira and then take 2d8 lightning damage if it is within 5 feet of her. Call to Attack. Up to three allied devils or duergar within 120 feet of Kedhira that can hear her can each use their reaction to make one attack. Enlarge (Recharge 4-6). For 1 minute, Kedhira magically increases in size, along with anything she is wearing or carrying. While enlarged, Kedhira is Large, doubles her damage dice on Strength-based weapon attacks, and makes Strength checks and Strength saving throws with advantage. If Kedhira lacks the room to become Large, she attains the maximum size possible in the space available. Invisibility (Recharge 4-6). Kedhira magically turns invisible until she attacks, she casts a spell, she uses Enlarge, or her concentration is broken. Any equipment Kedhira wears or carries is invisible with her.
Reactions Hellish Rebuke (2/day). When Kedhira is damaged by a creature within 60 feet of her that she can see, each creature of her choice within 10 feet takes 3 fire damage, and the creature that damaged her is engulfed in hellish flames and must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d10 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. This attack ignores fire resistance. Shield. Until the start of Kedhira's next turn, she has a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and takes no damage from magic missile.
Kedhira is a twenty-six year old duergar prodigy chosen and further empowered by the Nine Hells. She wields the Infernal maul Hellish Destiny. Her long-term ambition is to conquer her home city-state, abolish the worship of the "false god" Laduguer, and eventually convert both the Underdark and all its peoples to the service of Asmodeus.
Her CR is 13 on her own, but she's very much a leader and will never be faced alone. Demands of Nessus effectively gives her regeneration, and Call to Attack lets any allied duergar or devil attack, so the damage being dished out could vary widely depending on who is by her side. She typically uses her Brand of Infernal Calling to summon Ghurrix, the specific horned devil who appeared to her and started her on the road to her destiny, though she can also use it to convert a soul coin into a new devil if she wishes (if she does this it's typically to create one of the weaker varieties of devils; she believes that discerning what position in the Infernal hierarchy a given coin's soul belongs in is part of her duty to the Hells).
but there appears to be no way to do a pathfinder alchemist thing, where you make bombs and drink potions
While 5e is flavored there is no reason you cannot reflavor it if you want. Though I think the artificer can have a potion subclass I am not sure if it’s quite what you’re looking for
When it comes to NPCs, theres a handful I hang onto and plug back in here and there for a combination of simplicity and "shared worlding" between campaigns.
A good example of this is Argyle, a tiefling merchant who is an honest merchant working for the Zhentarim (who consider him a golden goose in both the money he makes for them and the legitimacy he can provide for them) who is at times willing to offer jobs to adventurers in return for useful rewards.
Now, argyle is pretty good at his job so I see him as being around level 10, with good wisdom, charisma and int, so for skills like history, arcane, religion, perception, insight and persuasion he's going to be getting like a +8. Also I don't see his other stats as mattering or being relevent and thus sit around 10.
In terms of combat... Argyle has no formal training of any sort nor the stomach for combat so while he has a decent pool of health (around 50 hps) he has an AC of 10 and no real attacks (unarmed attacks resolved at like... +0)
As to alignment: Lawful Good. No really, Argyle genuinely likes helping people and is kept largely unaware of the long term goals of the organization or their more underhanded methodology.
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
but there appears to be no way to do a pathfinder alchemist thing, where you make bombs and drink potions
While 5e is flavored there is no reason you cannot reflavor it if you want. Though I think the artificer can have a potion subclass I am not sure if it’s quite what you’re looking for
The alchemist subclass is designed for a more medic approach (buff/heal), but it does get a bonus to acid/poison/fire/necrotic spells. I suppose you can collaborate with your DM in molding your cantrips so they function like thrown vials.
I mean, aside from choosing which spells you cast as you cast them there isn’t anything really different between a sorcerer or wizard that chooses only buff/blasts as an alchemist. (Particularly a transmuter) or a sorcerer (Wild magic: who knows what your options are going to do?! Certainly not you! Or draconic “look everyone wants to be a dragon, it’s a long term goal”) or a warlock “short rest!? No time, mixing potions!” (Particularly the fiend, which gets all the boom. )
If you have thematic issues with spell requirements like verbal/somatic. Somatic is throwing them, material is a reagent to activate the mixture at the last second, and the command word is a fail safe disabling mechanism
Our last encounter, the first skirmish with scouts of a larger goblin camp with a scary boss of some sort, was a bugbear, six or so goblins, a worg, and a goblin shaman, beginning with them on high ground, a party member stuck a pit trap, and a boulder set to roll at us.
This felt perhaps spicier than it should have been, but I don't know diddly about building encounters.
Our last encounter, the first skirmish with scouts of a larger goblin camp with a scary boss of some sort, was a bugbear, six or so goblins, a worg, and a goblin shaman, beginning with them on high ground, a party member stuck a pit trap, and a boulder set to roll at us.
This felt perhaps spicier than it should have been, but I don't know diddly about building encounters.
When I put this encounter into 5e.tools with 3 level 3 characters it came back as "absurd" difficulty.
but there appears to be no way to do a pathfinder alchemist thing, where you make bombs and drink potions
While 5e is flavored there is no reason you cannot reflavor it if you want. Though I think the artificer can have a potion subclass I am not sure if it’s quite what you’re looking for
The alchemist subclass is designed for a more medic approach (buff/heal), but it does get a bonus to acid/poison/fire/necrotic spells. I suppose you can collaborate with your DM in molding your cantrips so they function like thrown vials.
The write up of the artificer in both the Eberron book and Tasha's includes a side note entirely about flavoring your spells to have some sort of material vibe. So if you want your fireball to be a big-ass, Looney Tunes-esque bomb then God bless.
What exactly are the rules for using tools? Do you use them directly (if so, what do you add to the d20) or do they give a bonus to a skill check (which, again, what do you add)?
This is all assuming you're proficient with them.
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
What exactly are the rules for using tools? Do you use them directly (if so, what do you add to the d20) or do they give a bonus to a skill check (which, again, what do you add)?
This is all assuming you're proficient with them.
"A tool helps you to do something you couldn’t otherwise do, such as craft or repair an item, forge a document, or pick a lock. Your race, class, background, or feats give you proficiency with certain tools. Proficiency with a tool allows you to add your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make using that tool. Tool use is not tied to a single ability, since proficiency with a tool represents broader knowledge of its use. "
Xanathar's goes into further usage of tools. Most notably, if you have proficiency with both a skill and a tool the DM finds relevant you gain advantage on the skill check roll.
Xanathar's also encourages you to be creative with tools, such as saying mason's tools proficiency means you'd have an advantage evaluating stonework.
Of course, whether this would fly is highly dependent on the DM.
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
Yes? Someone decided to spend a resource ,slight of hand proficiency, to be even better at opening locks.
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
One the advantage goes to skills not tools. So theives tools might give advantage to a sleight of hand but not the other way around. More readily, thieves tools gives advantage to perception or investigation checks to detect traps.
And 2 not really, the whole point of 5e is that you pretty much never really need to power game anything, and that power gaming something results in you just always succeeding at the thing you power gamed towards.
Like a thief with training and expertise in both perception and thieves tools doesn't break bounded accuracy so much as they just pretty much always succeed on one of the things they came here to do. Namely detecting and disabling traps. Them pretty much always succeeding is pretty obviously by design not an accidental breaking of the system.
In our last 4E campaign our DM just outright had each of us pick something (within reason, natch) our characters could always do without needing to roll. Because being The Best At Something is fun.
I pretty much always let players succeed on things their characters are good at (I.E. their profession) even though I know the standard is to make player characters humiliatingly bad at something when they roll bad
If the bard rolls a 1 on a performance, they still do a great performance, just nothing special for them. It's their job. The fighter doesn't need to make an athletics check to pry open a common door. They are a big strong guy. The check will just determine how quickly and how noiselessly they can do it.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I pretty much always let players succeed on things their characters are good at (I.E. their profession) even though I know the standard is to make player characters humiliatingly bad at something when they roll bad
If the bard rolls a 1 on a performance, they still do a great performance, just nothing special for them. It's their job. The fighter doesn't need to make an athletics check to pry open a common door. They are a big strong guy. The check will just determine how quickly and how noiselessly they can do it.
I have a scale of stuff I'll let my players get away with. Like at low levels, the thief with acrobatics wants to scale a wall and traipse across the rooftops? Sure, go ahead, do an acrobatics if you are jumping between roofs and shit, besides that have fun. Is it raining? Now that's going to be a check. Once they get to like heroic tier levels though, it would have to be a goddamn magical hurricane before I made them roll for something they are supposed to be great at.
the best nat 1 ive done is when the bard with +13 to performance rolled a 1 on her giant merchant prince organized concert at the arena. She looked so disappointed.
I told her that she knocked it so far out of the park that the crowd had gone crazy, people were screaming, tearing their hair out, ripping their clothes off, a horde of screaming ravenous fans began charging the stage, she had to dimension door away. From then on she just kept getting marriage proposals and death threats in the mail. She has to use Disguise Self to go shopping in Port Nyanzaru. NPC humans wear cat ears and paint their face the color of her tabaxi's fur. There are dolls of her in the market. Everyone remembers the day Song of the River touched the souls of 20,000 screaming Nyanzaru citizens with her magically enhanced singing voice and instruments. There is speculation that she used some kind of hag magic to bewitch everyone (the hags started this rumor), and not simple magic to enhance volume. Other stories say that Oghma himself was in the crowd, granting divine power to her performance.
the mayhem prevented her from actually getting paid, and when she did, it was less than was offered to cover damages to the arena
edit: At the time I thought nat 1s were crit fails so I tried to contextualize that for someone who was so maddeningly good at music, I know better now, isntead its a 14 which is a well above average musical performance, but still, it was a wonderful RP event that just kept having ramifications
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
the best nat 1 ive done is when the bard with +13 to performance rolled a 1 on her giant merchant prince organized concert at the arena. She looked so disappointed.
I told her that she knocked it so far out of the park that the crowd had gone crazy, people were screaming, tearing their hair out, ripping their clothes off, a horde of screaming ravenous fans began charging the stage, she had to dimension door away. From then on she just kept getting marriage proposals and death threats in the mail. She has to use Disguise Self to go shopping in Port Nyanzaru. NPC humans wear cat ears and paint their face the color of her tabaxi's fur. There are dolls of her in the market. Everyone remembers the day Song of the River touched the souls of 20,000 screaming Nyanzaru citizens with her magically enhanced singing voice and instruments. There is speculation that she used some kind of hag magic to bewitch everyone (the hags started this rumor), and not simple magic to enhance volume. Other stories say that Oghma himself was in the crowd, granting divine power to her performance.
the mayhem prevented her from actually getting paid, and when she did, it was less than was offered to cover damages to the arena
edit: At the time I thought nat 1s were crit fails so I tried to contextualize that for someone who was so maddeningly good at music, I know better now, isntead its a 14 which is a well above average musical performance, but still, it was a wonderful RP event that just kept having ramifications
Exactly! We do crit fail/success at my table for skill checks, but its couched in cool outcomes, not just you suck or you jump over the moon. Want to convince the King to give you his crown and kingdom and roll a nat20? Well good job, he found it funny and appreciates the moxie the Bard has, and doesn't just order him locked in the dungeon. I also let my players know before the roll, that its going to be one of those kind of rolls. Pretty much that they are asking for the ridiculous, and won't actually get what they want, but there might still be interesting consequences.
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
Yes? Someone decided to spend a resource ,slight of hand proficiency, to be even better at opening locks.
But they could have spent their resource to be good at something else, say, to intimidate people, which does NOT make them better at opening locks. And its not good to make these overlap in ways that produce this result. If a rogue wants to spend their expertise, sure. But they shouldn't get expertise in locks for free because they decided to get expertise in slight of hand and not nature.
I pretty much always let players succeed on things their characters are good at (I.E. their profession) even though I know the standard is to make player characters humiliatingly bad at something when they roll bad
If the bard rolls a 1 on a performance, they still do a great performance, just nothing special for them. It's their job. The fighter doesn't need to make an athletics check to pry open a common door. They are a big strong guy. The check will just determine how quickly and how noiselessly they can do it.
That actually is the standard. There's no critical success/failure on ability checks. It is a measure of how good you are at doing something.
A bard with a 10 skill in performance is always going to give good performance. Might not be great, or their best ever, but they're never going to completely flub something.
Imagine what our world would be like if no matter how good you were at something, you had a 5% chance to critically fail.
I think it you want you game to have a little more sophomoric, slapstick feel to it, why not. But it's a house rule I never cared for.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
I often contextualize very low rolls for experts as outside influence. For example, when the bard with a +13 rolls a 1 (by the way, love the crazed fans in Nyanzaru), the magical sound system cuts out and nobody can hear a damn thing over a supersonic screech...or she discovers that she was given a cursed fiddle.
When the fighter rolls a natural one to break in a simple door, he shatters the door so hard that the neighbors feel it...but it turns out that was a load-bearing frame. Uh-oh.
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
Yes? Someone decided to spend a resource ,slight of hand proficiency, to be even better at opening locks.
But they could have spent their resource to be good at something else, say, to intimidate people, which does NOT make them better at opening locks. And its not good to make these overlap in ways that produce this result. If a rogue wants to spend their expertise, sure. But they shouldn't get expertise in locks for free because they decided to get expertise in slight of hand and not nature.
This doesn't even make sense.
You seemingly don't even get how the rule works. tools make you better at skills not the other way around. Your example where sleight of hand improves thieves tools isn't what this rule set did. As well expertise is double proficiency not advantage on the check which is what the tool+skill synergy produces.
Like outside of thieves tools and maybe a select few others, most tools are useless unless the DM does a lot of work to make you have a skill challenge on cooks utensils, or whatever near useless tool proficiency you have. What this new rule gave was a way for those tool proficiencies to affect gameplay a little more freaquently and it's still pretty limited. For instance brewers supplies can give you advantage on persuasion checks where you are trying to ply the target with booze. Not all persuasion, just when you're using booze to persuade people. It also gives you advantage to history checks about booze related history and advantage to medicine checks to treat alcohol poisoning or if you're numbing pain with alcohol. It also gives you the ability to purify water 6 gallons on a long rest 1 on a short rest. Herbalism kit gives you advantage to identifying potions, investigations involving plants, medicine checks where you use herbs to treat the issue, or nature/survival checks to spot food sources. It also gives you the ability to identify most plants. Each toolkit gives you bonuses to a few specific and explicit skill usages and an extra little power to help the group. Like with cooks utensils if you make food as part of a short rest you and up to 5 creatures get +1 hp per hit die spent.
Most toolkit proficiencies are gained from backgrounds or a feat and the array of bonuses the xanathars rules gave those toolkit proficiencies is pretty decidedly not game breaking.
Like getting advantage on a skill check is often super easy.
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
Yes? Someone decided to spend a resource ,slight of hand proficiency, to be even better at opening locks.
But they could have spent their resource to be good at something else, say, to intimidate people, which does NOT make them better at opening locks. And its not good to make these overlap in ways that produce this result. If a rogue wants to spend their expertise, sure. But they shouldn't get expertise in locks for free because they decided to get expertise in slight of hand and not nature.
This doesn't even make sense.
You seemingly don't even get how the rule works. tools make you better at skills not the other way around. Your example where sleight of hand improves thieves tools isn't what this rule set did. As well expertise is double proficiency not advantage on the check which is what the tool+skill synergy produces.
Like outside of thieves tools and maybe a select few others, most tools are useless unless the DM does a lot of work to make you have a skill challenge on cooks utensils, or whatever near useless tool proficiency you have. What this new rule gave was a way for those tool proficiencies to affect gameplay a little more freaquently and it's still pretty limited. For instance brewers supplies can give you advantage on persuasion checks where you are trying to ply the target with booze. Not all persuasion, just when you're using booze to persuade people. It also gives you advantage to history checks about booze related history and advantage to medicine checks to treat alcohol poisoning or if you're numbing pain with alcohol. It also gives you the ability to purify water 6 gallons on a long rest 1 on a short rest. Herbalism kit gives you advantage to identifying potions, investigations involving plants, medicine checks where you use herbs to treat the issue, or nature/survival checks to spot food sources. It also gives you the ability to identify most plants. Each toolkit gives you bonuses to a few specific and explicit skill usages and an extra little power to help the group. Like with cooks utensils if you make food as part of a short rest you and up to 5 creatures get +1 hp per hit die spent.
Most toolkit proficiencies are gained from backgrounds or a feat and the array of bonuses the xanathars rules gave those toolkit proficiencies is pretty decidedly not game breaking.
Like getting advantage on a skill check is often super easy.
Nuance question - is it just the proficiency with the kit that conveys advantage? Or does it require you to be using the kit in some way (say, using homebrew to ply the target in the booze example) to gain the advantage?
That rule is... not good. It breaks bounded accuracy.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
Yes? Someone decided to spend a resource ,slight of hand proficiency, to be even better at opening locks.
But they could have spent their resource to be good at something else, say, to intimidate people, which does NOT make them better at opening locks. And its not good to make these overlap in ways that produce this result. If a rogue wants to spend their expertise, sure. But they shouldn't get expertise in locks for free because they decided to get expertise in slight of hand and not nature.
This doesn't even make sense.
You seemingly don't even get how the rule works. tools make you better at skills not the other way around. Your example where sleight of hand improves thieves tools isn't what this rule set did. As well expertise is double proficiency not advantage on the check which is what the tool+skill synergy produces.
Like outside of thieves tools and maybe a select few others, most tools are useless unless the DM does a lot of work to make you have a skill challenge on cooks utensils, or whatever near useless tool proficiency you have. What this new rule gave was a way for those tool proficiencies to affect gameplay a little more freaquently and it's still pretty limited. For instance brewers supplies can give you advantage on persuasion checks where you are trying to ply the target with booze. Not all persuasion, just when you're using booze to persuade people. It also gives you advantage to history checks about booze related history and advantage to medicine checks to treat alcohol poisoning or if you're numbing pain with alcohol. It also gives you the ability to purify water 6 gallons on a long rest 1 on a short rest. Herbalism kit gives you advantage to identifying potions, investigations involving plants, medicine checks where you use herbs to treat the issue, or nature/survival checks to spot food sources. It also gives you the ability to identify most plants. Each toolkit gives you bonuses to a few specific and explicit skill usages and an extra little power to help the group. Like with cooks utensils if you make food as part of a short rest you and up to 5 creatures get +1 hp per hit die spent.
Most toolkit proficiencies are gained from backgrounds or a feat and the array of bonuses the xanathars rules gave those toolkit proficiencies is pretty decidedly not game breaking.
Like getting advantage on a skill check is often super easy.
Nuance question - is it just the proficiency with the kit that conveys advantage? Or does it require you to be using the kit in some way (say, using homebrew to ply the target in the booze example) to gain the advantage?
It requires that both the kit and the skill apply to the check. So yeah using the kit or it's associated knowledge base in some way. It's why lots of the associations are knowledge and identification based. Like to get any of the disguise kit bonuses you would need to be using a disguise as part of the deception, intimidation, performance, or persuasion. Most of the int skill bonuses are explicit in the thing you know more about. Such as mason's tools, you don't get advantage to every history check, just ones related to stonework and stone buildings.
ugh my avernus DM implemented a rule where you crit on anything that goes 10 over a creature's AC
our level 5 paladin got 4 crits in a row, in 2 turns he did a stupid amount of damage, and our wizard got crit 3 times in the session
I think I convinced him to drop this rule because it completely breaks game balance
I suggested that since the party is more or less happy with *some* amount of damage when vastly exceeding an enemy's AC, and since we use frequently awarded minor feats, maybe he should add a feat that lets you deal your modifier in extra damage if you exceed a creature's AC by 10, because this system devalues crits and makes certain players much better than others (our low to hit artificer with mediocre AC was already the lowest damage dealing PC, now might as well not exist)
the session was great
**minor maybe? spoilers for dragon heist, this module is HEAVILY altered from the book from what I can tell
Duke Liara Portyr's mission to murder a rival patriar in Baldur's Gate was a success. After she showed up to the mansion to give us our reward, she had said "to be clear, none of you were here. Take your payment, and get out of my city as soon as you can, or I might have to let the public know that the dear Duke's assassins have been caught. If you're not gone in 72 hours, well.. *dm smiles* I already have my speech ready about putting you all down like dogs"
the party was like alright, but I'm playing a CG fiery bard and channeling my best communist revolutionary into everything I do. We're surrounded by flaming fist and I just say "You're really going to threaten us? Can't you just take the win, or do nobles always need to mark their territory like dogs every time they enter a room?" and she said "Watch your tone".
I laugh and say "Or what? The city would be a hell of a lot better off with two corrupt nobles taking a dirt nap in a single day, from where I'm sitting." and the DM informs me the flaming fist draw their swords, but I don't stop. "Don't get too cocky, you're no more immortal than the late duke was. I've already told others what happened here, and you can either keep your threats to yourself, since we are leaving anyway, or a lot of us can die here for no reason, and my other friends will make sure all your enemies know what happened here tonight."
The other players were like "hey... wait... uh..."
I said "I toss my silver harp pin into her lap and say "Have a pleasant evening, Duke" and walk out"
The DM said "wait just to be clear, you aren't actually a harper, you turned down their offer to join" and I asked if he wanted me to roll deception, and he said "....you know what? No, you critically hit her insecurities, none of the scenarios playing out in her head are pleasant right now"
as we got on our boat to leave for Candlekeep a very handsome half-elf bard approached and started to talk and I interrupted the DM before even getting confirmation about what this was and said "Still not interested, but if you're lucky, you'll keep getting help from me" (since I REALLY DID tell the Harpers everything about the assassination, which WAS pretty justified, the noble was running not one but 3 death cults). and then said "I want to pickpocket his silver harp as I walk by".
I still don't know for sure that the DM intended that guy to actually be a harper, but it was too good for him to change that course, so he had me roll sleight of hand and told me to add another silver harp to my inventory
I often contextualize very low rolls for experts as outside influence. For example, when the bard with a +13 rolls a 1 (by the way, love the crazed fans in Nyanzaru), the magical sound system cuts out and nobody can hear a damn thing over a supersonic screech...or she discovers that she was given a cursed fiddle.
When the fighter rolls a natural one to break in a simple door, he shatters the door so hard that the neighbours feel it...but it turns out that was a load-bearing frame. Uh-oh.
The bardic critical fail could also be a perfectly adequate performance, maybe even an above average one with enough modifiers, but they glossed over some aspect of the setlist and included a song that people in the audience take issue with. Perhaps a folk song from those people in the other valley with whom the people who founded village have had a long and bloody feud with, or a heroic epic that casts one of the modern noble families in not the best light.
Of course neither situation might explode right now, but the bard has possibly made an enemy - and has a sense of unease that some part of the audience was deathly quiet rather than singing along like everyone else.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Yea the houserules I do for damage are Critical hit dice are never under half (rounded up) so like if you rolled a 1 on a d6, its a 4 instead. Makes criticals critical, and removes the whole "You rolled two ones on a critical firebolt" and if you do over double damage to an enemies remaining HP, it can splash onto an adjacent enemy (either to you or it). So if an enemy has 10hp left and a player does 20, another creature will get hit for 10. I play with a lot of minions and stuff, so it makes for some fun multi-kills.
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Its AC would be 16. NPCs like that tend to factor in natural armor and similar abilities in the listed AC, so that what you see is what you get.
but there appears to be no way to do a pathfinder alchemist thing, where you make bombs and drink potions
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
There's one way. Play PF2E
Kedhira is a twenty-six year old duergar prodigy chosen and further empowered by the Nine Hells. She wields the Infernal maul Hellish Destiny. Her long-term ambition is to conquer her home city-state, abolish the worship of the "false god" Laduguer, and eventually convert both the Underdark and all its peoples to the service of Asmodeus.
Her CR is 13 on her own, but she's very much a leader and will never be faced alone. Demands of Nessus effectively gives her regeneration, and Call to Attack lets any allied duergar or devil attack, so the damage being dished out could vary widely depending on who is by her side. She typically uses her Brand of Infernal Calling to summon Ghurrix, the specific horned devil who appeared to her and started her on the road to her destiny, though she can also use it to convert a soul coin into a new devil if she wishes (if she does this it's typically to create one of the weaker varieties of devils; she believes that discerning what position in the Infernal hierarchy a given coin's soul belongs in is part of her duty to the Hells).
While 5e is flavored there is no reason you cannot reflavor it if you want. Though I think the artificer can have a potion subclass I am not sure if it’s quite what you’re looking for
A good example of this is Argyle, a tiefling merchant who is an honest merchant working for the Zhentarim (who consider him a golden goose in both the money he makes for them and the legitimacy he can provide for them) who is at times willing to offer jobs to adventurers in return for useful rewards.
Now, argyle is pretty good at his job so I see him as being around level 10, with good wisdom, charisma and int, so for skills like history, arcane, religion, perception, insight and persuasion he's going to be getting like a +8. Also I don't see his other stats as mattering or being relevent and thus sit around 10.
In terms of combat... Argyle has no formal training of any sort nor the stomach for combat so while he has a decent pool of health (around 50 hps) he has an AC of 10 and no real attacks (unarmed attacks resolved at like... +0)
As to alignment: Lawful Good. No really, Argyle genuinely likes helping people and is kept largely unaware of the long term goals of the organization or their more underhanded methodology.
The alchemist subclass is designed for a more medic approach (buff/heal), but it does get a bonus to acid/poison/fire/necrotic spells. I suppose you can collaborate with your DM in molding your cantrips so they function like thrown vials.
If you have thematic issues with spell requirements like verbal/somatic. Somatic is throwing them, material is a reagent to activate the mixture at the last second, and the command word is a fail safe disabling mechanism
Our last encounter, the first skirmish with scouts of a larger goblin camp with a scary boss of some sort, was a bugbear, six or so goblins, a worg, and a goblin shaman, beginning with them on high ground, a party member stuck a pit trap, and a boulder set to roll at us.
This felt perhaps spicier than it should have been, but I don't know diddly about building encounters.
When I put this encounter into 5e.tools with 3 level 3 characters it came back as "absurd" difficulty.
The write up of the artificer in both the Eberron book and Tasha's includes a side note entirely about flavoring your spells to have some sort of material vibe. So if you want your fireball to be a big-ass, Looney Tunes-esque bomb then God bless.
This is all assuming you're proficient with them.
"A tool helps you to do something you couldn’t otherwise do, such as craft or repair an item, forge a document, or pick a lock. Your race, class, background, or feats give you proficiency with certain tools. Proficiency with a tool allows you to add your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make using that tool. Tool use is not tied to a single ability, since proficiency with a tool represents broader knowledge of its use. "
Re: what to add, proficiency bonus
Xanathar's also encourages you to be creative with tools, such as saying mason's tools proficiency means you'd have an advantage evaluating stonework.
Of course, whether this would fly is highly dependent on the DM.
The point of the non-stacking proficiency is that you can be good at a task for multiple reasons but to discourage feeling the need to focus. If you get advantage on traps/locks because you have slight of hand and thieves tools then every rogue or person with thieves tools is going to feel left out without slight of hand too.
Yes? Someone decided to spend a resource ,slight of hand proficiency, to be even better at opening locks.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
One the advantage goes to skills not tools. So theives tools might give advantage to a sleight of hand but not the other way around. More readily, thieves tools gives advantage to perception or investigation checks to detect traps.
And 2 not really, the whole point of 5e is that you pretty much never really need to power game anything, and that power gaming something results in you just always succeeding at the thing you power gamed towards.
Like a thief with training and expertise in both perception and thieves tools doesn't break bounded accuracy so much as they just pretty much always succeed on one of the things they came here to do. Namely detecting and disabling traps. Them pretty much always succeeding is pretty obviously by design not an accidental breaking of the system.
If the bard rolls a 1 on a performance, they still do a great performance, just nothing special for them. It's their job. The fighter doesn't need to make an athletics check to pry open a common door. They are a big strong guy. The check will just determine how quickly and how noiselessly they can do it.
I have a scale of stuff I'll let my players get away with. Like at low levels, the thief with acrobatics wants to scale a wall and traipse across the rooftops? Sure, go ahead, do an acrobatics if you are jumping between roofs and shit, besides that have fun. Is it raining? Now that's going to be a check. Once they get to like heroic tier levels though, it would have to be a goddamn magical hurricane before I made them roll for something they are supposed to be great at.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I told her that she knocked it so far out of the park that the crowd had gone crazy, people were screaming, tearing their hair out, ripping their clothes off, a horde of screaming ravenous fans began charging the stage, she had to dimension door away. From then on she just kept getting marriage proposals and death threats in the mail. She has to use Disguise Self to go shopping in Port Nyanzaru. NPC humans wear cat ears and paint their face the color of her tabaxi's fur. There are dolls of her in the market. Everyone remembers the day Song of the River touched the souls of 20,000 screaming Nyanzaru citizens with her magically enhanced singing voice and instruments. There is speculation that she used some kind of hag magic to bewitch everyone (the hags started this rumor), and not simple magic to enhance volume. Other stories say that Oghma himself was in the crowd, granting divine power to her performance.
the mayhem prevented her from actually getting paid, and when she did, it was less than was offered to cover damages to the arena
edit: At the time I thought nat 1s were crit fails so I tried to contextualize that for someone who was so maddeningly good at music, I know better now, isntead its a 14 which is a well above average musical performance, but still, it was a wonderful RP event that just kept having ramifications
Exactly! We do crit fail/success at my table for skill checks, but its couched in cool outcomes, not just you suck or you jump over the moon. Want to convince the King to give you his crown and kingdom and roll a nat20? Well good job, he found it funny and appreciates the moxie the Bard has, and doesn't just order him locked in the dungeon. I also let my players know before the roll, that its going to be one of those kind of rolls. Pretty much that they are asking for the ridiculous, and won't actually get what they want, but there might still be interesting consequences.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
But they could have spent their resource to be good at something else, say, to intimidate people, which does NOT make them better at opening locks. And its not good to make these overlap in ways that produce this result. If a rogue wants to spend their expertise, sure. But they shouldn't get expertise in locks for free because they decided to get expertise in slight of hand and not nature.
That actually is the standard. There's no critical success/failure on ability checks. It is a measure of how good you are at doing something.
A bard with a 10 skill in performance is always going to give good performance. Might not be great, or their best ever, but they're never going to completely flub something.
Imagine what our world would be like if no matter how good you were at something, you had a 5% chance to critically fail.
I think it you want you game to have a little more sophomoric, slapstick feel to it, why not. But it's a house rule I never cared for.
When the fighter rolls a natural one to break in a simple door, he shatters the door so hard that the neighbors feel it...but it turns out that was a load-bearing frame. Uh-oh.
This doesn't even make sense.
You seemingly don't even get how the rule works. tools make you better at skills not the other way around. Your example where sleight of hand improves thieves tools isn't what this rule set did. As well expertise is double proficiency not advantage on the check which is what the tool+skill synergy produces.
Like outside of thieves tools and maybe a select few others, most tools are useless unless the DM does a lot of work to make you have a skill challenge on cooks utensils, or whatever near useless tool proficiency you have. What this new rule gave was a way for those tool proficiencies to affect gameplay a little more freaquently and it's still pretty limited. For instance brewers supplies can give you advantage on persuasion checks where you are trying to ply the target with booze. Not all persuasion, just when you're using booze to persuade people. It also gives you advantage to history checks about booze related history and advantage to medicine checks to treat alcohol poisoning or if you're numbing pain with alcohol. It also gives you the ability to purify water 6 gallons on a long rest 1 on a short rest. Herbalism kit gives you advantage to identifying potions, investigations involving plants, medicine checks where you use herbs to treat the issue, or nature/survival checks to spot food sources. It also gives you the ability to identify most plants. Each toolkit gives you bonuses to a few specific and explicit skill usages and an extra little power to help the group. Like with cooks utensils if you make food as part of a short rest you and up to 5 creatures get +1 hp per hit die spent.
Most toolkit proficiencies are gained from backgrounds or a feat and the array of bonuses the xanathars rules gave those toolkit proficiencies is pretty decidedly not game breaking.
Like getting advantage on a skill check is often super easy.
Nuance question - is it just the proficiency with the kit that conveys advantage? Or does it require you to be using the kit in some way (say, using homebrew to ply the target in the booze example) to gain the advantage?
It requires that both the kit and the skill apply to the check. So yeah using the kit or it's associated knowledge base in some way. It's why lots of the associations are knowledge and identification based. Like to get any of the disguise kit bonuses you would need to be using a disguise as part of the deception, intimidation, performance, or persuasion. Most of the int skill bonuses are explicit in the thing you know more about. Such as mason's tools, you don't get advantage to every history check, just ones related to stonework and stone buildings.
our level 5 paladin got 4 crits in a row, in 2 turns he did a stupid amount of damage, and our wizard got crit 3 times in the session
I think I convinced him to drop this rule because it completely breaks game balance
I suggested that since the party is more or less happy with *some* amount of damage when vastly exceeding an enemy's AC, and since we use frequently awarded minor feats, maybe he should add a feat that lets you deal your modifier in extra damage if you exceed a creature's AC by 10, because this system devalues crits and makes certain players much better than others (our low to hit artificer with mediocre AC was already the lowest damage dealing PC, now might as well not exist)
the session was great
**minor maybe? spoilers for dragon heist, this module is HEAVILY altered from the book from what I can tell
Duke Liara Portyr's mission to murder a rival patriar in Baldur's Gate was a success. After she showed up to the mansion to give us our reward, she had said "to be clear, none of you were here. Take your payment, and get out of my city as soon as you can, or I might have to let the public know that the dear Duke's assassins have been caught. If you're not gone in 72 hours, well.. *dm smiles* I already have my speech ready about putting you all down like dogs"
the party was like alright, but I'm playing a CG fiery bard and channeling my best communist revolutionary into everything I do. We're surrounded by flaming fist and I just say "You're really going to threaten us? Can't you just take the win, or do nobles always need to mark their territory like dogs every time they enter a room?" and she said "Watch your tone".
I laugh and say "Or what? The city would be a hell of a lot better off with two corrupt nobles taking a dirt nap in a single day, from where I'm sitting." and the DM informs me the flaming fist draw their swords, but I don't stop. "Don't get too cocky, you're no more immortal than the late duke was. I've already told others what happened here, and you can either keep your threats to yourself, since we are leaving anyway, or a lot of us can die here for no reason, and my other friends will make sure all your enemies know what happened here tonight."
The other players were like "hey... wait... uh..."
I said "I toss my silver harp pin into her lap and say "Have a pleasant evening, Duke" and walk out"
The DM said "wait just to be clear, you aren't actually a harper, you turned down their offer to join" and I asked if he wanted me to roll deception, and he said "....you know what? No, you critically hit her insecurities, none of the scenarios playing out in her head are pleasant right now"
as we got on our boat to leave for Candlekeep a very handsome half-elf bard approached and started to talk and I interrupted the DM before even getting confirmation about what this was and said "Still not interested, but if you're lucky, you'll keep getting help from me" (since I REALLY DID tell the Harpers everything about the assassination, which WAS pretty justified, the noble was running not one but 3 death cults). and then said "I want to pickpocket his silver harp as I walk by".
I still don't know for sure that the DM intended that guy to actually be a harper, but it was too good for him to change that course, so he had me roll sleight of hand and told me to add another silver harp to my inventory
The bardic critical fail could also be a perfectly adequate performance, maybe even an above average one with enough modifiers, but they glossed over some aspect of the setlist and included a song that people in the audience take issue with. Perhaps a folk song from those people in the other valley with whom the people who founded village have had a long and bloody feud with, or a heroic epic that casts one of the modern noble families in not the best light.
Of course neither situation might explode right now, but the bard has possibly made an enemy - and has a sense of unease that some part of the audience was deathly quiet rather than singing along like everyone else.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981