Dungeons and Dragons

[dapper fulcrum]

5e art style maybe

not style

[obsidian jasper]

Hm

[dapper fulcrum]

art sensibility

Pathfinder esp in its early years really cranked up the EdgeTM with their monster design (for good and ill)

plus they have a bigger fiend catalog

so a lot of their fiends and undead have more disturbing oomph to them

[obsidian jasper]

What does this mean btw and thx for your answer

[dapper fulcrum]

the kind of vibe and affect they want to present with their artwork

early 5e art of fiends was watercolory, kind of functional, but lacked sauce for the most part imo
their take on the fiendish cosmology repeats old lore with little new things to say, and even set aside the weirder and more esoteric parts of it (like the primeval fiends that lived in the hells long before devils, or the massive eldritch demon-things that lurk in the abyss). DnD's fiends follow the tradition of being part of a big cosmology of law-chaos good-evil, and the associated outer planes related to it. Tradition as it were.

Pathfinder's art and fiend sensibility was inna way informed by its attempt to distinguish itself from the DnD edition of the time, making their monsters sharper along the edges in terms of vibe (hence why you have pyromaniac goblins and gross ogres and whatnot). This extended to fiends, who were less DnDesque in their relation to the Blood War (the big demon-devil conflict) and the general cosmology of dnd, and more doing their own thing. So you've got devils that really tempt tempt, and demons who are just awful. And then there's all the other types of fiend like the nihilistic daemons or the eldritch Qlippoth.

maybe its also commercial

[obsidian jasper]

Thx a lot

[obsidian jasper]

Would make sense

[dapper fulcrum]

wc wc

[proud osprey]

d&d

[sand hornet]

Big if true

[spice hornet]

when the dungeon has a dragon

[proud osprey]

trying to wrangle my party

BLOWS A CARVED GOAT'S HORN

[prisma sluice]

Y'all happen to know of any good revisions to 5e's kensei subclass

[dapper fulcrum]

change the wording of the faeture that gives them +2 AC ig

let it work whenever they use a weapon regardless if its an Attack action or not

or a limited (maybe 1/turn) ability to replace one unarmed strike with a weapon attack which lets it work with Flurry of Blows

also clarify the wording of the extra die of damage their attacks do

or bump it

one focus point for two rolls of Martial Arts die damage 1/turn

[pure elm]

It's always funny to me that Kensei Monk is mechanically incentivized to make less weapon attacks by the AC bonus

Though with Tasha features, Kensei is okay

Mostly thanks to Ki Fueled Strikes

[prisma sluice]

Oh shit, I forgot that I'd made this a few years ago... y'all think it looks alright?

[deep rapids]

UA reanimators look funky

[proud osprey]

got downtime soon. two of my characters are members of a shady organisation, the cadric imperial inquisition. a kind of religiously zealous imperialist intelligence network

they are going to be discussing matters that effect the wood elves, including inherently the druid in the party, not a member of this group

something i’ve written down for the meeting our paladin and cleric are slated to attend:

Partigue: “Now, remember, if any of this seems too politically daunting, too ethically challenging for you, then that is perfectly fine for you to process on your own time. However, should you remember your conscience in haste, should you rush to confide in the afflicted, or worse, in the lowly places of the world, or the wretched peddlers of the press, then you need only remember that we have you. We have you by the blood. And one misspoken word shall suffice to prove our case against you. Dismissed.”

for context, part of joining was that they provided blood so that they could at any moment be scried on if necessary

[arctic yew]

Is the ocean an object?

What about the water on a puddle?

A rock?

A mountain?

What about a loose rock the size of a mountain?

[sand hornet]

Talk to your GM

[arctic yew]

I am the gm

I am simply wondering

[timber sleet]

does anyone know of any creatures that can use a rend attack only after landing a certain number of claw attacks? i know they exist but i seriously cant find any, and i want to know what the formatting on that style of attack is

[timber sleet]

ok apparently thats only a pathfinder thing and dnd doesnt have it at all? i couldve sworn it was a thing in 5e

[mellow rivet]

There's the Star Spawn Hulk. It has a condition on its multiattack that says if both hit the target has to save or get stunned

not quite a free combo attack but it would be written similarly

[timber sleet]

ah i see, thank you

[obsidian jasper]

Quick question, is a murder hobo character fine for a oneshot?

[mellow rivet]

Ask your DM, but probably yeah

[fair sand]

Its not the length of the campaign its the the rest of the group that defines if a murderhobo is ok

If everyone is on board, including the DM, murder hobo away

[vapid flame]

Question if you made a hobo charcter that was 3 kenku in a trench coat, would they be in fact a murder hobo.

[cosmic geyser]

No that’s just perfection

[obsidian jasper]

Yeas

Well no

They’d be a murder of hobos

So it would need to be a dead hobo

[ashen hollow]

going from the plural of attorney general they would not be a murder hobo but instead a murderers hobo

[arctic yew]

a murder hobo is not a problem inherently. usually,they are a problem because by their nature they derail whatever plot they are in. if the plot in general is accomodating of killing everything in your path,go ahead

[lament geode]

Okay, so

I'm gonna only sorta vent about this here, because it's a problem that I've only experienced so far in my D&D games. Never in other systems. This isn't a "D&D bad" post, because I'm very much enjoying the game, but I'm wondering if other people have dealt with the same.

So I'm playing Odyssey of the Dragonlords. Running it, specifically. I have 4 party members. Wizard, Druid, Barbarian, Bard(barian)

Problem: The city of Mytros has a terrible storm around it, created by the Titan Sydon, the Lord of Storms. He's pissed because the heroes succeeded elsewhere. And the King of Mytros wants them to break the stalemate in his court about how to appease Sydon. He presents then 5 options.

1. Control Weather. If one of them can cast it, problem is solved.
2. Tear down the temple of the Five Gods.
3. Induct 70 Children into the Temple of Lutheria, though the least well-kept secret is that they will be sacrificed.
4. Sacrifice an inordinate amount of livestock to Sydon, more than would be reasonable and enough to bankrupt royal coffers paying for it.
5. Convince the Five Gods that if they come together, they can end the storm at personal cost to themselves(1 permanent level of Exhaustion).

None of these are particularly GREAT options. They all carry ups and downs, and different people like/dislike these choices.

Option 1 is the least invasive, but at this point the party is Level 5, there's basically no way for them to cast it.
Option 2 sucks, but the temple can be rebuilt in due time.
Option 3 is horrific but can be done immediately.
Option 4 will induce economic hardship throughout the city.
Option 5 means that when it comes time for the Gods vs the Titans, they'll be weaker.

[pure elm]

Excuse me, permanent Exhaustion?

[lament geode]

Yep

[pure elm]

That sounds incredibly horrible

[lament geode]

The Gods are under an oath preventing them from direct interference in the conflicts of mortals at the moment, and doing this would strain their very existence as a result.

[pure elm]

I sure love having disadvantage on every skill check ever from now on

Oh on the gods, that's less bad

[modest echo]

they're gods they can get like +20 to every check anyway

[lament geode]

Yeah, the gods of the setting are deeply involved on a personal level

The Goddess Vallus implies that once their oath ends, their divine power will wane further, so it's pretty nasty to imagine how that looks when they're finally able to fight but are exhausted

But that's not the point here

Our bard decides to keep trying to suggest alternative options.

"Maybe we can do X or Y"

"What if we try Z?"

and I kept trying to explain to him that nothing they could do on an individual level would really suffice here

They're making a choice on behalf of the King

And then he kept trying to poke holes in the narrative and doing a whole lot of "This doesn't make much sense"

and I may have had a tiny crashout of "It's a game. Sometimes games make you choose things."

"If this were a video game menu, a little white-fingered glove would appear and you'd move it over one of 5 choices."

"It's not railroading, these are just the choices you have."

[pure elm]

Yeah that's perfectly valid

[lament geode]

The reason I gave behind the need for an immediate choice was that if nothing is decided on, the King will tear down the temple of the 5 gods.

Because that's, frankly, the quickest way to end the actual hurricane impacting his city

Him: "But if they've held out this long, why can't we try and find an alternative solution?"
Me: "Because they can only hold on so long. They've held out long enough, and need relief now."
Him: "Why didn't he send for us sooner?"
Me: "He sent for you as soon as he could."
Him: "Why didn't he just do what he was going to do anyways?"
Me: "Roll an insight check."
Player rolls well.
Me: "He doesn't want to be on the hook for any fallout."
Him: "That doesn't make any sense, he's making a hard decision."
Me: "Matters of public opinion often don't make sense."

and so on

[spice hornet]

maybe it's just my personality, maybe i'm just more passive and willing to buy into a narrative, but that is an immensely irritating way for someone to play an RPG

[lament geode]

Yeah, it feels like someone really wanting to make things happen their way, without respect to the situation/story

Sometimes you need some buy-in to have fun

[spice hornet]

"you have limited options."
"why do we have these options?"
"because that's the framing."
"why is that the framing?"
"because of all of these interlocking circumstances"
"but why are-"

"respectfully, do you want to play our game or your game?"

like. at a certain stage you kind of need to toss the pedantry aside if it's very clearly dragging the story along
sometimes it's funny, sometimes an inventive solution is welcomed or rewarded.

and some people i think view DnD as striving to be the Most Inventive

[modest echo]

feeling clever and figuring out the solution everyone missed is a pretty common fantasy

[lament geode]

Very true, and they did that a fair bit earlier on in the campaign. There's a funny situation early on in the adventure path that has a myriad of potential solutions, and coming up with a classic "Exact word of the law" solution was cool in that moment

[modest echo]

They don't want to pick from options, they want to create their own options

[lament geode]

Sydon withholds the rain from the lands of Estoria, enforcing a drought, and demands that their princess be sacrificed to him. Pythor, the god of battle, and King of Estoria, doesn't want to do this, but the Princess is willing to let it happen. Pythor asks the heroes to help.

The exact demands were that by the next full moon, she must be chained to the Rock of Estor and left overnight to be eaten by the Basilisks that live in the river.

Spoilered in case anyone's going to play the adventure path and doesn't want potential solutions spoiled

My players decided to ||simply kill the Basilisks before the sacrifice took place. If she's chained, and the basilisks don't come, the deal was adhered to. ||

Another party elected to ||simply chip off a large piece from the Rock of Estor, and make it into a chain piece of jewelry around the princess' neck. They then just had to defend her from the basilisks, because she WAS chained to the rock.||

And I kinda give him some grace in hindsight because previously the path rewarded out of the box thinking, and this time in a similar situation enforced specific options

[spice hornet]

and it's fun to come up with unseen or creative solutions in desperate times, but this level of prying into what would be the most logical choice, i think defeats the point of the framing

in this instance, you have a few options. you pick one of five, and none of them are good options, but they are what you can do Right Now

and it has to be Right Now

which is the point

[normal crow]

This here is... Kinda the worst response you can give.

It says, "Your actions & ideas are futile".
It's anathema to the power fantasy of RPGs.

A better answer is, "You can try, but it's dangerous/a long shot/probably ultimately more harm than good. And then there's other NPCs who have their own intention/need to make their own decisions".

I have never read that module, so I do not know the framing given in the book. But I can tell you that, if the book's framing gets in the way of Player initiative and creativity, ditch the book's framing.

Heck, if I am running a game and notice that my framing is getting in the way, I immediately let it go. I ask the players to build it for me, subtly ("You are looking for X. What does X look like? Why is it lost?")

[lament geode]

I mean, the framing is pretty simple. A decision needs to be made literally like, now, and the person with the power to make that decision is asking you to decide in his stead.

If the party was perhaps higher level and had more of a journey behind them, having them do something to the alternative would be fine. But they're Level 5 just fresh off of a different victory, and this gets dumped on their plate. It's not really taking away their agency to say "This is what can be done, and doing other things is pretty much off the table."

Sometimes you can't do everything you want, and that's fine.

There was always the secret sixth option of telling the king to fuck off, in which case you're kinda choosing to destroy the temple of the gods, but it's his fault even still.

I did let them get a little creative in the end by using the Zephyr Lute, one of the four instruments made for the Goddess of Poetry by her father, the God of the Forge. They had him disassemble it and recreate one of the other four instruments from its strings, the Boreal Harp. Which allows a bard playing it to cast Control Weather. However, that would take some time, and the city might not survive that long. So I had them make a series of skill checks to basically help the city out during the time that it was being crafted. There were some casualties in the city, but in the end, it worked out.

and god do I love the class types in Odyssey of the Dragonlords

My favorite Bard

and also a really cool Ranger

[craggy cloak]

No, its perfectly fine to put a game on an understandable track towards an ending.

There's very little point in upheaving an entire module if the point is to run the module and players signed on to play a module

[normal crow]

I never said you shouldn't put a game on an understandable track towards an ending, though.

[craggy cloak]

Sorry, I'll elaborate further then: I think OOCly as GM saying "no these actions will not progress us to through the intended state of the game in this moment" is perfectly fine at a gaming table

"You can try" still opens up pathways that waste the table's time or encourage further attempts at the issue at hand, which is to disregard all open paths

The module has set up the scenario with paths forward, and that player isn't engaging with the paths forward in a meaningful way for the gamestate

[normal crow]

... TTRPGs are not state machines.

BUT
If you run your games like that
And you like that
More power to you, just never invite me.

[craggy cloak]

I enjoy thinking of game and story states in such ways, it helps me as both gm and player

[light moss]

Do you guys think that Mongolian horse Archer is one of the best Fighter builds that is underrated compared to stuff like Sentinel halberd?

I guess the draw back is that its sort of expensive build wise

[dapper fulcrum]

its horse relaint

*reliant

which has its own downsides

[light moss]

Still a fairly decent Archer build

[fair sand]

In places you can use the horse to do your thing I imagine it's very good

[sage vector]

Chat what sort of artificer should I be?

[dapper fulcrum]

Whats your species, backstory and desired playstyle?

[sage vector]

I may be going Armorer in the end

So far I'm working with Simic Hybrid, which is effectively me being a bit of a mad scientist who experimented on himself and due to a deteriorating physical condition is designing a set of armour to help keep himself together and alive

[sage vector]

We've got a blaster Sorc, a ranger/cleric, and a paladin on the team

So I'm thinking of being real sneaksies and going infiltrator armour

[dapper fulcrum]

Funn

Armorer is also a nice tank subclass with is defender gimmick

If you melee

[sage vector]

I don't know if the ranger/cleric is going to go melee

But prooobably not, still going to have decent armour

specially cause at level 5 I can grab simic hybrid having +1 armour when not wearing heavy armour

so I can go infiltrator and still have chunky armour

[proud osprey]

chat how do i not kill (possibly three) two of my PCs with a drider. they’re level 4

[dapper fulcrum]

the easiest way not to kill players is to play your monsters dumb

attack in the open

stay within bonking range

do not use its funky powers except for "i attack"

[proud osprey]

maybe one funky power

gotta scare them

the cleric just ditched her short sword for a cool flail she found (not proficient as of yet) and left her scale mail armour back at the inn

the flail is an old favourite: fireball and chain

[obsidian jasper]

Drider makes an unlucky mistake and hurts itself

Like broken leg

Or

Something like that

[mellow rivet]

unless it does something smart like sticking to the ceiling under a screen of Darkness and picking them off with ranged attacks, a drider isn't going to beat a level 4 party

[dapper fulcrum]

if anything

that tactic actually increases its longevity

[mellow rivet]

I probably misspoke. I meant doing that would be playing it safe, so don't have it do that

Also if the cleric is swinging around a flaming weapon, they might burn away the webs. Suddenly the drider can't sense their movement

[proud osprey]

injured drider is a good shout

it was implied last session to have been fighting people holding out in the sewers

[flat gull]

so i'm looking at that

you're a party of 3? I'd say you're fine doing 1 drider, cut the hp to around 100 and the AC to 15

Pullling those numbers from https://slyflourish.com/lazy_5e_monster_building_resource_document.html#buildingaquickmonster

a drider has about right to hit bonuses for attack and skills

and is doing about right for the level

if a party member goes down, the drider switches to a new target. No sense in Coup De Grace when it's only going to piss of these two legged freak's packmates.

[dapper fulcrum]

im running Dungeon of the Mad Mage with a dunmeshi reflavor and i gotta say i havent been this excited to DM a hardcover module in a long time

[lament geode]

heck yeah

[modest echo]

ooooooh

[lament geode]

my Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign has gone mostly smoothly

[dapper fulcrum]

where've they gone so far

[dapper fulcrum]

so far they've cooked stirges, kept a gray ooze's body refrigerated because you can grow vegetables on it (new Ooze lore connects them to the Plane of Earth so i rolled with it and made them soil-like) and made grell kebabs

[dapper fulcrum]

and im setting up Kestrellharp as a spooky ghost lady in the background

[sand hornet]

Nice, how far are you guys?

[sage vector]

I request a vibe check on this blorbo

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1043318932578259005/1375996543525453835/2Q.png?ex=6833b824&is=683266a4&hm=94e8d31eaa84f47ce398bc081777a2d671d25fff0e337811030531dc1db41ca9&

[flat gull]

i do not trust this blorbo in the slightest

[sage vector]

📝

Mhmm

May I inquire why?

[flat gull]

Looks like they're fail to fix my boiler, take the dr pepper from the fridge and then fail to arrive for the next appointment

[proud osprey]

YO LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

LETS FUCKING

https://tenor.com/view/rage-emoji-rage-gif-3851471549750385303

[light moss]

my character drew the deck of many things twice

first one was a few sessions ago, got the knight

next one was just recently, now I'm going to play as the knight

i roll a 100 on the deck of many things

[proud osprey]

this is great

[light moss]

i found it off tik tok

i can post the creator

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSh3TXbE4/

[proud osprey]

i don’t have tiktok

[light moss]

https://www.instagram.com/melittosphex?igsh=dnA1YjR6bjE1a2Ux

Instagram

[proud osprey]

i do have that

[lament geode]

Doing stuff in Mytros atm

[sand hornet]

neat

[lament geode]

About to go investigate the temple of Lutheria

[sand hornet]

it's a good module

one of my favorites

as I think I said before

[lament geode]

Yeah, I love it

[sand hornet]

The game that got cancelled yesterday was actually an Odyssey game

we were on Indigo Island iirc

[lament geode]

Oh nice

Yeah I think like

Some people will run like

3-4 games of Strahd

I'd absolutely run multiple Odyssey games

The only other module for anything that I'd probably do that for is Wallflower tbh

[sand hornet]

If you ever have a slot lemme know 👀

And dont mind someone who also knows the book

Its genuinely one of my top modules of all time for any system

I wish there was a good Pathfinder adaption of it

[lament geode]

Be the change you want to see in the world

[sand hornet]

I've debated it, but I've never worked on PF2e Homebrew, much less a full module

Regardless, do you plan to run it all the way to 20?

[lament geode]

Depends on if my players want to go on past the Battle of Mytros

[sand hornet]

Fair

[merry atlas]

Is Odyssey that good?

[lament geode]

It's really solid.

Very good mystery elements, great community support, lots of versatility and exploration(There's literally a point where the game says "You have X days to do as much as you want, get as strong as you want, get as many things as you want, go.")

The story is one of guilt, past tragedies, prophecy, and hope for the future. The characters are very well-realized, and with a bit of tinkering on the DM side, really shine through.

Even RAW they're great, but there's some community takes that are absolutely golden.

[merry atlas]

Is Raiders of the Serpent Sea good too?

[lament geode]

I know very little about it, honestly.

But, same guys, same writers, probably solid.

Viking shit fun

Odyssey is getting a physical reprint too

[merry atlas]

Yeah both kinda hit on shit I love, Vikings, and Ancient Greece.

It's why I'm still eager to play the recent Viking inspired adventure module for Grim Hollow. And Mythspeaker AP for PF2E.

How's the campaign work with the 2024 rules?

[lament geode]

It works pretty well! Classes roughly translate, don't think there's any major adjustments to be made, aside from what 2024 specifically modifies about character creation.

We're using 2024 rules ourselves

[merry atlas]

I must convince a friend to run this

Probably the one who put his Humblewood campaign on hiatus

[lament geode]

I will say, one of my favrotie things about Odyssey (aside from the class archetypes all being dope)

Is that it's a fairly mature story overall. And I mean that in a very positive way.

It's not afraid to tackle difficult topics and sensitive material, though it never uses them indulgently.

Like, Minotaur slavery is a thing.

It's a fucked-up thing and the book presents it as such.

And the book doesn't necessarily give you a way, at least as written, to like... end it.

Nothing stops you from trying, of course, but it's a systemic thing overall, and D&D heroes aren't well-suited to solving deep-seated systemic issues

so it presents a difficult topic in a fairly realistic light, and while it doesn't expect you to solve it, it does do a good job of presenting it as it is, explaining it, and letting you take it your own way.

Pythor, god of battle, has many human lovers and is generally seen as a very forward and amorous person. It does, however, specify that he is, in fact, gracious in rejection, and doesn't push it. But then you see how it impacts his other relationships and the nature of the story and it's more than just a throwaway "Pythor likes to fuck."

Everything from the nature of fate, the oaths that bind people, the follies of the people of the past, and solutions to problems that aren't just "kill everything"

There are some ideas in the book that aren't fully formed, a bit half-baked and need some GM spit-shining to really make work, but the community discord really stepped up.

I really like the Epic Paths as a background benefit, really adds a lot to character creation and roleplay.

Right now I've got:
-Doomed One Medusa Druid, Circle of Stars: Intervened when her lover was fated to die, cursed by Lutheria to become a Medusa.
-Demigod Water Genasi Divination Wizard: Son of Pythor, lived on an island in the Cerulean Gulf when his mother was taken by Hexia. Studied under the Oracle.
-Cursed One Minotaur, Herculean Path Barbarian: A man cursed by his lineage, transformed into a Minotaur by Sydon, and driven to rage.
-Dragonslayer path Goliath Bard, College of Valor: A son of Sydon, his home burned down by a Gold dragon. A picturesque marble statue-like frame.

My Medusa has made it her personal goal to fully petrify something with her snakes

[merry atlas]

Oh hey, someone else had the same idea as me with the Goliaths o.o children of the Titans.

[lament geode]

It's not part of that particular epic path, but he really wanted it and I thought it would be cool

College of Epic Poetry bard is possibly my favorite of the classes

Ally rolls a Nat20? Let me just write down a verse
Ally rolls a 1? Let me just write down a verse
Ally fails a saving throw while they have your bardic inspiration? New verse.
Ally is reduced to 0HP? New verse.
Anything else the GM deems appropriate? New verse.

[fallow kite]

why do they call it dungeons and dragons when you treasure in the dungeon dragon of out the dungeon

[sand hornet]

Not as good but still good

I really wanna play Raiders still admittedly >_>

[sand hornet]

also yeah, the Epic Pathjs are one of the best mechanics(?) of the module

[lament geode]

Immediate hooks into the greater story are great

[sand hornet]

It's a shame the Lost One is kinda hard to fit in with everyone else relativty speaking

I love the Lost One epic path

Its funny to me how I found the module purely because I found the book in a local game store and thought the cover was neat, so I bought it

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/Q2HLbfJPNzc

[pure elm]

Oh they're trying again?

We'll see how this one goes I guess

[pure elm]

I do also still think the Mystic was fine ultimately, it just needed some tuning to be okay

[pure elm]

https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/the-psion/mXCPWlh2yy5tBKqP/UA2025-ThePsion.pdf

link btw

[sand hornet]

Looks pretty fun

[pure elm]

it seems okay
though a lot of power comes from your subclass, especially since their base spell list is a bit limited

[sand hornet]

Yeah

I like the metamorph

[pure elm]

Metamorph seems pretty decent

they get the good Extra Attack, which is pretty notable

Psi Warper seems to explicitly encourage airburst fall damage shenanigans, which is... unexpected

or maybe they just didn't realize the implications there

probably the latter, on a reread

[pure elm]

for reference, it increases the radius on Shatter and makes it pull targets that fail the save towards the center

so you can put the center in the air, pull them upwards and make them take fall damage

which also automatically prones anyone that fails the save

oh also the Disciplines feel like they vary wildly in how good and useful they are

[merry atlas]

I'm making a beeline for the body horror subclass, Metamorph

[haughty stone]

My first thought for the Metamorph is an inspector gadget cosplay

[prisma sluice]

Odd question

What class do y'all reckon would fit a killer robot best

[dapper fulcrum]

B-movie blocky red eyed claw and buzzsaw killer robot is a barbarian

[mellow rivet]

Depends how the robot kills. If it just blasts away, then Warlock or Artillerist Artificer. If it's a juggernaut, then Barbarian or Armourer Artificer. If it goes fast, then one of the Fighter subclasses or maybe Monk?

[proud osprey]

terminator is just a fighter

[obsidian jasper]

I had a juggernaut warforged

That one was a zealot barbarian

[prisma sluice]

Good points all, thanks y'all

[merry atlas]

Cleric

[prisma sluice]

Who would a killer robot worship

[merry atlas]

Avandra, The Changebringer

[mellow rivet]

Maybe Gond, or Primus

[merry atlas]

😔 Damn no one got what I was saying

[prisma sluice]

Do y'all know of any feats that like

Let you engage in Schmoovement

Like, movement shooter-type stuff

[normal crow]

Schmoovement...?

[lament geode]

https://tenor.com/view/v2-v1-ultrakill-1-4-slide-gif-4174285469140792708

https://tenor.com/view/schmove-ultrakill-simpleflips-movement-shooter-gif-27137157

[normal crow]

afaik there's not? unfortunately?

[lament geode]

If you're looking for mobility in base stuff: Charger and Speedy are both good for that

If you're looking for run and gun, crossbow expert would be really thematic

Athlete helps negate penalties from being Prone and lets you do climbing/jumping stuff

[prisma sluice]

All good suggestions, thanks Alice

[fallen hornet]

Hey, I’m rusty as all hell.

If I was to look into GM’ing 5e and getting physical copies, what would I need? The GM and Monster manuals?

[modest echo]

AIUI you can run without the DMG, but you'll really want the monster manual

[fallen hornet]

Oh, yeah, if I do I’d pick up both, I just didn’t know if there were any other “highly-recommended baseline”

[mellow rivet]

Xanathar's has downtime activities, so it's useful for more sandboxy games. Tasha's has patrons and sidekicks, so it's handy for more directed stories. But neither one is necessary

[proud osprey]

i keep looking at tasha’s at game shops and like

what do i want from that book

i can’t bring myself to justify it

[dapper fulcrum]

Fun subclasses and magic items

Im not a physical book person tho

[proud osprey]

i like physicals

[merry atlas]

I like having both physicals and DnDBeyond

[proud osprey]

thinking about how epic the roadmap is for the campaign

a dark elf from the days of the last empire, a wood elf from a tribe neglected at best by the current empire, a dwarf unknowingly carrying the legacy of a proud and ancient kingdom, a priestess whose father was slain hunting heretics, a paladin whose heretic father slew the priestess’ father, also the bard

but how they’re all coming together with this huge conspiracy spanning the continent subtly guiding their past and threatening their future

it’s gonna be good

[craggy cloak]

The base trifecta of PHB+DMG+MM covers every base you'd need; as for more, it really depends on what kind of games you want to run and what you like/want out of 5e!

[modest echo]

Tasha's is a pretty solid "PHB3" after Xanathar's was PHB2

[worthy plank]

Our next session is tonight

The first day of Pride

And I plan to make a lot of gay jokes xD

[craggy cloak]

i hope all your dice roll well for this entire month

[worthy plank]

welp that didn't go well XD

[craggy cloak]

[worthy plank]

We are well and truly and deeply fucked

XD

s'fun tho

[sand hornet]

what happened?

[worthy plank]

Too much

The gays did not win xD

I am not being oblique I literally cannot muster a linear summary of events

[worthy plank]

update, we have surpassed rock bottom

via hellportal

XD

[modest echo]

yaaaaay

[arctic yew]

Playing a barbarian again made me think again about how much I hate the "x of creature strength" items in design

[ashen hollow]

What, you don't like having a major part of your character build's resources wasted?

less snidely, a healthier design for that family of items probably would have been "gain +x strength, up to a max of y"

[vapid flame]

yeah set x to x def seems very min maxy to me

maybe a bit less so if the number is low enough

[arctic yew]

The problem is not that it's too strong

God no,I will never pretend that having super high strength is a balancing problem in a world with casters.

The problem is how it influences building and how it makes you feel after you get one.

By the time you get it,you likely are at or close to the strength cap,so all of the levels you spent on your main stat are wasted.

Or,if you lucked out and got it early,now you can either ignore your main stat completely and become completely dependant on a magic item that can be taken away from you to make your character work,or you can waste levels levelling yout main stat-which does nothing UNTIL you lose the item

It's a mess

[next canopy]

today will be the begining of my Deltora quest dnd campaign

[dapper fulcrum]

nicee

[next canopy]

i may have plan for one of my player to be the heir

need to twist the story a bit but it could work

[obsidian jasper]

what do u guys usually do when u don't know what to play?

[dapper fulcrum]

roll a dice

[obsidian jasper]

I'm strugling real hard to make a character, I have like 6 background characters but I don't feel like any of them

[mellow rivet]

pick the one that lets you make a stupid joke

[obsidian jasper]

I really want to play a dhampire because it lets me do so much dumb stuff

or should I play as a ghoul?

[mellow rivet]

I think most parties would not be happy to working with a ghoul. Unless you're in a setting where they're intelligent and not infectious

[obsidian jasper]

found one that isn't infectious and intelligent

[mellow rivet]

Still might be a bit odd if the DM wants to use regular ghouls too

[normal crow]

Play a different game.

[arctic yew]

A player got roasted to death by a orangutan

we are meeting the pirate king

he has lots of things,including exotic pets

one of them is a orangutan that knows sign language

when we walked in,the ape said "are they for dinner?"

a player who took sign language tried to sign "taste bad" to him

the ape looked her up and down,stared at her clothes and signed "sure is."

[merry atlas]

[merry atlas]

Please tell me she took psychic damage for that.

[ocean geyser]

The ape can cast Vicious Mockery

[trail bane]

guess who got Hero Forge Pro again

[trail bane]

kbitty

[sage vector]

Kbitty!

[worthy plank]

so my monk's sentient sword, made with a scale from a red dragon

is um

the scale was a scale from Bahamut, in his form of Marduk the Justice Bringer

[grave hollow]

Ooo, fun!

[flat gull]

https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/srd/guide/converting-to-srd-5.2.1.pdf

[obsidian jasper]

I’m planing to maybe run a oneshot and I’ve made my own world with politics n all, should I make it so you can damage with healing spells under certain conditions or would that throw off the balance too much?

[spice hornet]

That would depend on what the conditions are, chiefly

[obsidian jasper]

The player states they want to cause harm, the enemy is at full health of not very damaged

[mellow rivet]

I wouldn't. If you just want to deal damage as a cleric, use a different spell like Inflict Wounds

Maybe you can have healing spells that have a chance of backfiring, if it's a world where divine magic is a bit faulty, or the cleric has pushed themselves too far. And maybe you can re-introduce the mechanic from older editions where undead take damage from healing. But just taking a normal healing spell and using it for damage against any enemy is too powerful

[obsidian jasper]

Why is it too powerful? I’m curious

Also thanks for your reply

[mellow rivet]

powerful as in versatile. It's not a lot of damage but you'll probably have healing spells prepared all the time. If you don't need to pick a damage spell it makes picking the rest of your spells easier

[obsidian jasper]

That makes sense

Thanks

[ashen hollow]

Healing word is already S tier, being able to tell an undead to "eat shit and die" for a bonus action just makes it better

[pure elm]

it wouldn't change too much IMO

it's a bit of added flexibility, but number wise healing spells aren't that good

you have actual spells to deal damage if that's what you want, like Spirit Guardians

[ashen hollow]

Tbf healing word isn't good for its numbers

But true, prayer of healing mogs every other healing spell just because they cant keep up with damage or player HP in fights

And certainly not monster HP
(God gives his highest CR mooks his lowest AC)

So making cure wounds harm undead wouldn't change much

[pure elm]

Yeah but usually it would IMO not be worth using a Healing Word to deal a small amount of danage as a BA instead of using it to heal

[ashen hollow]

I guess its so wildly above the curve anyways that having it be slightly more flexible isn't changing much

[pure elm]

my personal stance is that Healing Word is fine actually

it's just that almost every other healing spell is garbage

5.24 did I guess buff Cure Wounds numbers a little, which helps somewhat

but healing is still in a weird state

[ashen hollow]

In my experience 5e can easily become a flip flop from being dying to not dying and that's where healing word goes crazy

But that also might have been that I sucked at balancing my game back in freshman year of college

And highschool

[pure elm]

Getting people up from 0 is great yes

That's why HW is good

[low heart]

greetings

[lament geode]

no u

[low heart]

what?

[lament geode]

I just like saying "no u" to greetings

I think it's funny lol

[low heart]

understandable

still hello

so what was your first character?

[lament geode]

First D&D character... back in ye olde days of 3.5.

human Enchantment wizard who was dealing with magic-school student loans

Started off with a simple plot of "Haha, funny, he has debts to pay" which turned into "Being offered debt cancellation if he sold out the party" which turned into "now hunted by magic cops because he refused to do that"

[low heart]

damn

my first character was a dwarven cleric of matharom duin

his background was guild worker

he was a good character

but i discontinued him

[lament geode]

We love some dwarves round here

[low heart]

he's still alive out there in faerun

just currently at home

my current character is called moldues

moldeus

a human with pale white skin

steel gray eyes

and dark black long hair

looks like corvus corax or konrad curze

his class is warlock

used to be a lawyer who actually was a criminal

but due to some stuff

[lament geode]

That character wound up eventually dying against our BBEG, which was a lich that was bound and determined to make us undead thralls and stuff

[low heart]

he now has a pact with an arcanoloth

[low heart]

did he die heroically?

[lament geode]

Went in for a hail mary play and got his bell rung, pretty unfortunate

[low heart]

damn

[lament geode]

His actions were heroic, but the death was almost comically instant

[low heart]

but this is very damn brave

[low heart]

atleast painless

[lament geode]

Yeah I don't remember exactly how it went, been almost 16 years now

But he took his entire remaining HP in necrotic damage

after swinging in on a chandelier

[low heart]

imagine being the lich and seeing a wizard attempting to dropkick you from a chandelier

[lament geode]

Yeah I backed off to heal and then went up the stairs to get away from some mooks

and then from the stairs was like

"Fuck it, this is cool as shit"

I forget what spell I wanted to cast

It might have been prismatic spray

I just remember lowrolling the fuck out of it

then just instantly eating shit

but I do recall saving my highest level slot for it

like "yeah just gotta catch him when he least expects it"

[low heart]

this is funny

[arctic yew]

Magical shirt that you can destroy to get a temporary 26 str for like,a minute

[arctic yew]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1236373115446235147/1387938177716588615/image0.gif

[visual river]

𐑤𐑧𐑑 𐑦𐑑 𐑚𐑰 𐑯𐑴𐑯 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑪𐑯 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑛𐑱, ‹·𐑚𐑮𐑵𐑛𐑦 𐑞 𐑢𐑦𐑤𐑦𐑙› 𐑨𐑒𐑕𐑦𐑛𐑧𐑯𐑑𐑩𐑤𐑦 𐑦𐑯𐑝𐑧𐑯𐑑𐑩𐑛 𐑮𐑪𐑒𐑩𐑑-𐑐𐑬𐑼𐑛 𐑐𐑮𐑩𐑐𐑳𐑤𐑖𐑩𐑯
-# let it be known that on this day, brudy the willing accidentally invented rocket-powered propulsion

[visual river]

this is several weeks apart. they just wanna go home

their usual look ftr

-# "GET IN THE COMMENTS!"

[low heart]

he invented what accidentally?

also nice minifigures

[visual river]

they/them, please

your local pilot ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) he invented what accidentally?

[low heart]

they invented what accidentally?

[visual river]

rocket-powered propulsion, as stated

[low heart]

this won't end badly

surely

[visual river]

it immediately ended badly, hence the photo of one fig upside-down caught by another

[low heart]

oh well

nice minifigures

[visual river]

ye

the minecart they were in took off, but they were holding onto their alchemy jug so hard that they just

https://tenor.com/view/iron-man-tony-starks-rdj-fail-gif-14223324

[low heart]

yeah seems about right

for D&D atleast

the alchemy jug could be useful in combat

since it can create salt water

a player coul create salt water

pour it over the floor

and use an electric spell on the water

everyone inside the puddle will get electrecuted

i mean they'll be too

but everyone else will aswell

[visual river]

the weight of three people in one minecart, two in full armor, caused the minecart to tip at the end of its destination. brudy barreled out, rolling the cart and pinning its full weight on them. ||every bone from the knees downward? dust||

[low heart]

damn

atleast it can be healed

[visual river]

it took some miraculous rolls from the paladin and cleric, also in the same cart, to push the cart off, wake brudy up, and slowly and painfully ||reform the bones|| and by that time brudy had suffered so much ||blood loss and pain from the magical surgery|| that they immediately took two levels of exhaustion, then later a failed con save made them pass out

[low heart]

ouch

[visual river]

it was really good to finally have them suffer the consequences of some of their ridiculous actions

[low heart]

yeah

sometimes the players need a little buffer

[visual river]

oh i mean it's not about me

[low heart]

understood

hey that one picture with your OC that's just sitting there

reminded me of our sheep

[visual river]

i like to put garbage characters into situations where being shortsighted and selfish will cause them hilarious consequences, then give them an excuse to be shortsighted and selfish

[low heart]

because they look at us like that 90% of the time

as long as it's hilarious

[visual river]

you just. wind it up and watch it go

[low heart]

i'm going to be in on it

[visual river]

i mean it's hilarious for me, the player. brudy on the other hand is suffering. they just wanna go home and get back to desecrating tombs. they didn't sign up to recover the infinity stones or fight a black dragon within the deepest bowels of brimstone-ridden earth

(it's not actually the infinity stones but they're pretty analogous)

[low heart]

desecrating tombs?

hey my favorite past time besides looting graves

which we also did

our party was part of a trading caravan

after being hired

two or three of the guards of the caravan were kidnapped by some undead monster

both our clerics made it personal

after beheading the monster

they both casted holy flame on it till there was nothing left

we also once killed a vampire brute

our cleric cast hold person

my cleric then forced a stake into the beasts chest

before throwing all bottles of holy water they had on it

[visual river]

small request: it would be helpful for you to message in whole sentences so i know when to reply

[low heart]

it has negative 56 health aftr they were done

understood

had

[visual river]

but yeah re: undead brudy's a half-orc necromancer, and desecrating tombs has been a time-honored tradition of orcish necromancy, as their mother did, and her mother before her. necromancy is such a legitimate field of study in my dm's world that brudy got a doctorate in it

[low heart]

a PHD in late healing

[visual river]

ehhhh

revivify is late healing, healing is definitely more about keeping the soul tied to the mundane planes

[low heart]

good point

[visual river]

or at least keeping it tied to the planes where the soul would walk

[low heart]

revivify is quite scary of a spell

imagine torturing someone to death

and then you bring them back

only to do it again

[visual river]

not how that works typically

revivify doesn't work on souls that don't want to return, and if a person knows they're only being brought back just to be tortured and killed repeatedly, they're not going to accept the revivification

[low heart]

so it was a different spell

[visual river]

like yeah in baldur's gate it's game-ified to just revive someone but 5e itself tends to have more nuance

[low heart]

understandable

want to know my current character?

[visual river]

shoot

[low heart]

one minute

anyway

my current character is a human warlock called moldeus

he has a thin body build

has pale white skin black hair and grey eyes

his background is criminal

he was the type of guy to collect debt aswell as helping other criminals out as a lawyer

he was sadly betrayed by his crime boss leaving him injured and dead

luckily for him though a man came by

the local healer

who treated him back to health

wanting vengeance he looked snuck into their base to steal things

finding a book which seemed valuable he took it

though unbeknownst to him the book was an arcanoloths magic books

the arcanoloth soon found said book in moldeus hands

the arcanoloth offered a deal to him in exchange for his service and the book his once allies now traitors would be punished

[visual river]

fascinating

[visual river]

ONE OF THE PARTY MEMBERS DREW THE INCIDENT

[low heart]

perfect

[pure elm]

the goddamn Hiding and Invisibility discourse in 5.24 is gonna drive me insane

people reading so much into rules that are really not that ambiguous

[worthy plank]

I have figured out my backup character should my current character die

fey wanderer ranger/fey pact profaned soul blood hunter multiclass

[normal crow]

They need something to argue about now that so many other loopholes are patched.

[proud osprey]

chat i am going to construct a mighty dungeon

and then put my friends in it

[low heart]

greetings pilots

what's the third protocol?

oh wait wrong cht

chat

greetings D&D enjoyers

[low heart]

do you have a bard on your party?

[proud osprey]

why

[low heart]

just asking

[proud osprey]

fear

[low heart]

:)

[fallen hornet]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2019-an-important-update-on-eberron-forge-of-the

Eberron update got delayed to December because of fuckups on the physical edition’s cover

[arctic yew]

what you think is the scariest dnd enemy you could kill
by runningover with a 18 wheeler

[low heart]

eberron my favorite

i'll likely play a D&D game soon

with some friends

this'll be our world for the game

[slender nexus]

Probably not the scariest, but Mind Flayers are surprisingly squishy, and assuming a truck is a construct they can't actually harm it

[grave hollow]

Honk Honk Pit Fiend, I'm coming for you.

[dapper fulcrum]

The King's Chariot cannot be stopped

[timber sleet]

id argue that mindflayers are some of the scariest enemies in the game for their cr tbh, that grapple stun combo is nasty and they have absolutely stupid dpr if they land it, they die fast but can do a ton of damage before they do

[slender nexus]

They're absolutely up there in terms of danger per CR, yeah - the combo is nasty but Mind Blast is terrifying, considering how relatively rare good int saves are and how big a 60ft cone is

Though nothing compares to the Intellect Devourer in terms of "this will just kill someone if you follow the encounter-building rules"

[dapper fulcrum]

I despise mind flayer so much

People keep spamming them in T3 in dnd organized play i hate it

[slender nexus]

What's not to like about "everybody but the Artificer gets stunned for 3 turns straight"?

I did play one high-level Planescape campaign where I got to board a Nautiloid with Antimagic Field running though, which was incredibly satisfying

(Mind Blast is one of the few really nasty monster abilities that is explicitly magical)

[pure elm]

of course always the combo of having both Mindflayers and Intellect Devourers

I had to face that in a game once, and we honestly should have TPK'd

GM just didn't use the instakill options

[slender nexus]

My "favorite" part of Intellect Devourers is how you don't actually have any way to remove the effect of Devour Intellect until you hit level 9 and gain access to Greater Restoration. On a CR 2 creature.

You've also got a cool 37.5% chance to fail the save and have it roll high enough to hit the permastun on an int 10 character

[dapper fulcrum]

This is my beef with the revised Phandelver "starter" module

Everything past Wave Echo Cave is some kind of stunning aberration

[slender nexus]

I love to introduce players to the game by having them not be able to play the game

[pure elm]

Many such cases in 5e

[visual river]

tbh that's one of the reasons i like the 2024 updates to conditions. paralysis isn't just "you don't get to play until the dm says so" anymore

Lark ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) I love to introduce players to the game by having them not be able to play the game

[pure elm]

How so?
Paralysis still incapacitates you IIRC

Condition infliction got worse in some regards, since most monsters just automatically inflict their stuff on hit now without a save

The only big change i remember is that you can still move while Stunned now
For some reason

[dapper fulcrum]

Yeah moving while being unable to do Jack Shit regardless is like a pittance

[dapper fulcrum]

Yeah the MM2025 design philosophy hates low AC high HP builds

A lich can and will touch you and stop you from playing

Same with cloud giants except they do it with a ranged attack

[pure elm]

cloud giants are fucked

a two attack ranged multiattack that inflicts stunned on hit is just ???

also they can fly, because fuck you

[dapper fulcrum]

Well, incap but still

[arctic yew]

neutral evil serial killer bard that kills people to have tragedies to write songs about

[trail bane]

i once again wonder how the fuck i can run a campaign for some friends

[random gull]

like prepping or getting them to join you?

[trail bane]

prepping

[obsidian jasper]

So according to my friends who have dmed before

You don’t prep much depending on the party

[trail bane]

by prep i mean actually figuring out the whole goal and setting

[obsidian jasper]

You could make them live in the forest

Like make a settlement

Survival and stuff

[trail bane]

well, currently i have an idea of "Stop a cult from awakening an ancient dragon". But there's a few other bits here and there since it's a more Monster Hunter-esque Setting

[random gull]

I. Common Motivation - Why does this band stick together?
II. Threat, escalating - What happens if the heroes do not intervene?
III. Goal, but how to reach it? - What could be different routes or strategies the characters could use to get to their goal.

Example:

I. 5 people cursed by a Witch which...
II. ...uses the power of cursed individuals to get stronger to kill her master but...
III. ...the characters could fight her, make her fumble a ritual, ask the local frogs for help or make a deal with her master to stop her.

[trail bane]

I. Either Prisoners forced to work for their lives or simply guild members working together.

II. If the heroes dont intervene then the ecosystem will collapse, and an ancient dragon will be awoken causing death and destruction.

III. Im still figuring it out.

[random gull]

let them figure out, you got everything you need. prep a few npcs and a location or two and let them loose

[trail bane]

im struggling with that unfortunately

i want to use some of Wilds' concepts (Guardians) but i gotta find a way to implement the different factions (talon society, helix commission, cult of fatalis, etc)

[random gull]

Read Mausritter, it is really good and really free :)

[trail bane]

okay so

i saw this map

and i got inspiration from it

so yea
using it as a base

so i need to figure out where to put a volcanic region, greenlands, desert and shit

[haughty stone]

I’m reminded of tuyas. They’re a particular form of volcano with steep sides and a flat top that form when lava punches through a glacier. So the entire map could realistically be a volcano region depending on how much lava you want

[trail bane]

i dont really wanna make it a volcanic region as I plan on making the inside of the mountain a bit of a bizarre sight (giant frozen cavern with floating rocks and such)

[haughty stone]

That’s a sick campaign setting

Could an extinct magma chamber?

[trail bane]

a magma chamber turned into frozen caverns?

i guess it'd make sense since it's Monster Hunter themed and a very ICY monster will be setup inside it

though i still do want there to be a functional volcanic region

maybe the upper portion is frozen whilst like the lower portion is still volcanic? like a beast setup shop in the upper layers and froze it over leaving the magma at the bottom?

[haughty stone]

Could also be an ice cave

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisriesenwelt

[trail bane]

i think making it this adds onto the vibe that "the monsters are in control here. you are not."

[haughty stone]

I’ve actually been to this one - 85 degrees outside on the hike up, probably 25 degrees inside

[trail bane]

i see

[trail bane]

mm myes lore

[fallen hornet]

Why aren’t Slaad Tadpoles called Slaadpoles? 🤔

[trail bane]

H A R

[trail bane]

oh look a giant cliff!

oh look a warforged!

Oh look it's a warforged colossus

im gonna make the small village/town connected to the colossus a gargantuan forge

ouhh writing lore

[trail bane]

so the insides to this colossal mountain is gonna have both a volcanic region AND frozen caverns

question is how the hell i fill this out with those

the other option is making it so one portion is frozen and another is volcanic, whilst just leaving the rest as a default area

[trail bane]

right so i got it sorted. yippee

[fallen hornet]

You’ve heard of Dungeons and Dragons, now get ready for…

[obsidian jasper]

Oh wow

I wonder what that is about

[lament geode]

BDSM for dragons

[random gull]

Already had a dungeon in a calcified dragon who ate so many cities he basically couldn't move anymore :D To have finally more dragons and dungeons in this game

[merry atlas]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2022-become-investigators-of-the-eldritch-and-unknown

[sand hornet]

Neat

[visual river]

as nice as i expect it to be i also don't think it'll hold a candle to call of cthulhu, but that's like comparing unreal engine stealth to the dark engine; one is clearly built from the ground up for it but can't do other stuff while the other is a good general engine but has to be wrangled into it

a lot of dnd players don't think of 5e as a game engine and that perplexes me

also! final session of my sunday campaign! either we get the final mcguffin and slam dunk the bbeg and his dragon or all multicellular life is wiped out. either way, it's on to the steampunk western campaign after this!

[merry atlas]

Steampunk western campaign set in Eberron?

[visual river]

nope, homebrew setting

Fey Friend, Spoon (she/they) ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) Steampunk western campaign set in Eberron?

I'm uh. not going

i just got informed that two players in the group left because of me

[visual river]

Fey Friend, Spoon (she/they) ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2022-become-investigators-of-the-eldritch-and-unknown 📎

</sarc> It's time for me to become a murderer, I guess. </sarc>```

Mals (she/her) | eggs_box system ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) i just got informed that two players in the group left because of me

[low heart]

i know that image

jello lads aswell

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/3BHEJV-FP84

[sand hornet]

What are some good 3rd party modules and settings?

Only ones im super familiar with are Odyssey of the Dragonlords and Raiders of the Serpent Sea

Still really wanna play Raiders

[merry atlas]

Grim Hollow from Ghostfire Gaming, they also have the Aetherial Sea.
Drakkenheim, Grim Hollow publishes it but its not their own written setting.

Delver's Guide to Beast World is really neat. There's also Humblewoods.

[sand hornet]

Gotcha!

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/UBJpBgcHpHY

There's also Midgard from Kobold Press. Course Exandria is still considered third party.

Also Planegea which is a stone age fantasy setting.

https://youtu.be/GIYlpFCLK8s

[sand hornet]

Ye those im familiar with at least

[merry atlas]

Have you heard about Dr Grodbort's Scientific Adventure Violence?

[sand hornet]

I have not

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/29gaV63LGBA

[merry atlas]

It's a retro-futuristic alt-history setting that leans hard into raypunk. The British Empire united Earth and expanded into space, though they got stopped at Venus by the natives who rapidly reverse-engineered their tech. You have Venus, Earth, Mars, The Moon to play around with. Paladins use tech for their abilities rather than directly channeling holy magic.

[sand hornet]

Neat

[arctic yew]

I miss campaigns gone by

God I miss Stacey the valley girl dragon

[grave hollow]

The latest Dungeon Dad Monster of the Week made me really sad over what has happened to D&D sourcebooks today. https://youtu.be/IUCKSscmats?si=qpPpbbU_WNMZH-PK&t=180

[timber sleet]

ive figured out the perfect way to act upon my urge to be a dnd dm without all the stress that comes with it: dnd with my alters
upsides: no social stress, no misunderstandings as to what i mean when i say things
downsides: puzzles are impossible, social encounters are hard because the players know everything about every character and its insanely hard not to metagame with that amount of knowledge
ill probably have to run it as a "string of encounters" kind of thing because of that but tbh im fine with that

[dapper fulcrum]

Susie is a dragonborn paladin change my mind

[sand hornet]

That tracks yeah, or Dragonborn Barbarian

If anything Ralsei is a tiefling

[low heart]

mostlikely related to a yugoloth

arcanoloth to be exact

[visual river]

easy. you just don't let your headmates see what you're up to. maintaining a degree of separation for the spirit of the game

CreeperMan247 (It/Thon/Thorn) ⨺⃝ ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) ive figured out the perfect way to act upon my urge to be a dnd dm without all the stress that comes…

susie is a cleric of peace but it's not immediately apparent to her yet
kris is a paladin but their oath is not the one you think it is
noelle is a white dragonblood sorcerer. duh
berdly is an eldritch knight fighter
||gerson|| is an ancestral guardian barbarian
ralsei is a bard of lore

Morgana MechGirl Chaser ↩️

[(click to see attachment)](#1161699276234178560 message)

[timber sleet]

unfortunately, not how our system works, we all know exactly what everyone else is thinking, seeing, and doing at all times and share memories

[trail bane]

Making villains sure is time consuming

Im thinking about a dragonborn based off of a genetically created elder dragon. A Guardian for an ancient civilization. And yet he ended up being born first; a being forced into the shadow of his unborn ancestor.

though beyond awakening/killing his "father" i'm unsure what motives i can give him

[low heart]

so it's a clone?

why not make her cells decay

with her attempting to find a way to survive

[trail bane]

Well their face is already severely deformed, with twisting horns that cover their eyes. And while they're not exactly a clone, they're a DRAGONBORN variant of this big unborn dragon

[low heart]

i see

having mayor genetic damage would make quite a bit of sense

[trail bane]

mhm

This campaign has a large hint of Monster Hunter to it

So, spoilers for WILDS: ||They're a dragonborn version of Zoh Shia||

hence the malformed looks

[low heart]

i dunno who that is

[trail bane]

||but under the white body it's more like this||

again, hence the malformed look

still unsure how to explain why they're alive and Shia isnt, but it'd just be a neat idea

[merry atlas]

Looks like we're getting 2024 Dhampirs soon.

[low heart]

i like the look

[timber sleet]

does anyone have a 2014 rules character sheet that can be edited in like, word or google docs? turns out the official one is a modifiable pdf, which are notoriously buggy on windows, and it turns out for my machine in particular the bug is "freeze file explorer when highlighted for any reason forcing you to go into command prompt to delete it"

[visual river]

damn, i think if my headmate had that level of access i don't know how i'd cope with the lack of privacy

CreeperMan247 (It/Thon/Thorn) ⨺⃝ ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) unfortunately, not how our system works, we all know exactly what everyone else is thinking, seeing,…

[low heart]

hello mals

[visual river]

we got pretty lucky and everyone in our system are very agreeable with each other

Mals (she/her) | eggs_box system ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) damn, i think if my headmate had that level of access i don't know how i'd cope with the lack of pri… 📎

[low heart]

hey i have seen one of those comics your character is from venus

[visual river]

yeah, to be honest it's not a great reference image, the body shape is all wrong, but it's the best i was able to find

[worthy plank]

Oh yeah my character and another character's 'will they or won't they' ended last session with one of them dying, getting revivified and them kissing as the end of the session

It was awesome lol

[merry atlas]

"Riko loves you."

[worthy plank]

lolwut

[merry atlas]

I just got reminded of a couple from WoW. One's a Hozen named Riko, and the other is a Forsaken lady named Kiryn.

[worthy plank]

Those were certainly words lol

[merry atlas]

Hozen are monkey folk, and Forsaken is undead human.

[worthy plank]

interesting

[worthy plank]

old man yaoi can overcome anything, including being temporarily blinded

overcome via flanking

I FUCKING STUNNED THE BOSS WITH STUNNING STRIKE

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[worthy plank]

I am now a monkadin lmao

story shenanigans be like

[low heart]

:)

[trail bane]

wawa

[worthy plank]

wawa

[trail bane]

awawa

[merry atlas]

Weewee

[trail bane]

chat im struggling with figuring shit out for my campaign 👁️

[merry atlas]

-pixar face- Have you thought about pulling from adventure modules?

[low heart]

watch pirates of the caribbean

[trail bane]

playing Monster Hunter would probably be the better option💀

[trail bane]

i have trieddddd

i got the whole concept already but its the execution that's getting me

[low heart]

combine them >:)

[trail bane]

Already have >:]

sorta

i dont wanna add too many islands tho

there's a difference between a pirate themed campaign and a "stop a literal draconic god from reawakening"

[low heart]

damn

[random gull]

Just ran a pirate themed campaign if you need campaign notes, world building or similar :D

[worthy plank]

play Pillars of Eternity II and you shall realize you are more than capable of running both!

[trail bane]

as mentioned im unfortunately not running anything pirate themed :(

i'd like for everything to be on a single continent

The current goal is preventing the birth of a black dragon

[random gull]

D:

[trail bane]

and i dont mean the acid spewing kind

im talking "took down an entire city in one night"

I just need everything to kinda fall into place D:

And good guh i need to figure this all out

[craggy cloak]

So what do you have

[sand hornet]

Pirates games are cool I wish I could play one someday

[sand hornet]

I found an open group for that module I really wanna play

But theyre like halfway through the module as far as I can tell

[trail bane]

Could you elaborate 👁️

[trail bane]

okay how do i make the inside of a colossal mountain interesting

[random gull]

Paracausal labyrinth containing an elder spirit, mines that are actually a calcified giant dragon, extremely peaceful Goblins that bring flowers to anyone who enters and try to teach their horrible farming techniques, mountain is alive, direct portal to hell that is used as heat source for cold winters

[trail bane]

Currently ive got

Mountain has an inside volcano in the lower regions, but is more lukewarm the higher you go, one part has floating, frozen rocks due to an apex monster.

as for a hell portal. that sounds fun, but i dont think it'd fit all too well.

Calicified Giant Dragon seems somewhat fitting though considering the island is formed from a dead ancient dragon

[trail bane]

hear me out

Giant with Microphobia

[craggy widget]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FUNQXh4_GDn_7lAuOoV1hsB3hivcKufKeqQlU2Nu_YQ/edit?tab=t.0

Yall look at what I found

[modest echo]

they eat grass??

[obsidian jasper]

guys I fucked up

I rolled spinal fluid for my dhampirs hunger

is this like the worst option?

[trail bane]

Just Bane them and break their spines over your knee

jokes aside you can just choose another hunger

[low heart]

bite them in the back of the neck

make it scary for them

always leave one alive to spread the story of the neck ripper

[low heart]

or do it like metal gear rising

cut them up and grab their spine

or just rip it out

[obsidian jasper]

Hmmm

It’s just like

Very yucky

[obsidian jasper]

I rolled because if I had to choose it would’ve been a boring character

[worthy plank]

Man

This sunday session is promising to be quite the event

We're getting more godly responsibility handed down to us alongside some boons

[distant marsh]

Is there a general homebrew channel? I need help coming up with ideas

[visual river]

there's this channel if it's d&d specific but there's also #game-design-discussion

[distant marsh]

It is DND specific, but either would work

I've got a player in a fairly new campaign that wants to go full Artillerist. He asked me straight up if he could have an Arcane Cannon as his weapon. Obviously I said no because he has no way of transporting it, making it at his level (4) or buying one currently. I told him that he might be able to get one later on, but this guy is dead set on it, which got my DM gears turning.

I came up with an Enhanced version that can be upgraded and have attachments after he spends the time and gold to alter the base one. I need some ideas on more upgrades and attachments he could make.

[worthy plank]

So the fight over my character's soul

is now a trial

being presided over by

Ao...

You know

God

Like

The Big Man Upstairs

[dapper fulcrum]

does he want to be there

[worthy plank]

NOPE

[dapper fulcrum]

he reads to me as the Middle Manager of the Forgotten Realms Setting

[worthy plank]

HE SEEMS RATHER ANNOYED AND DISINTERESTED

[dapper fulcrum]

peak Ao tbh

[pure elm]

Ao never wants to do anything

his default state of being is being mildly to severely annoyed with things, and the gods in particular

[dapper fulcrum]

he's fun that way

@worthy plank how did he get involved in this

[worthy plank]

Bahamut and Selune are fighting over my soul

Because my character is a githyanki thrust from the astral plane to the material by Selune, in exchange for participating in the fight against fiendkind on the material plane

Unbeknownst to them, their first magic sword was forged with a red dragon scale

taken from Bahamut in his form as Marduk the Justicebringer

They were made to swear to uphold the law by the sword, thus bringing them in line with Bahamut's domain, and have fought righteous battle with the blade

Thus both gods feel a claim to their soul

Also they just said, in regards to being made to choose one or the other 'I am mortal. In mortal life there is place for duty, justice, and rigidity. But there is also place for capriciousness, chaos, choice.' turns to both Gods

'I cannot choose. Will not.'

And they uh

Respected the balls?

XD

[low heart]

damn

to be fair you made a good point

now get more gods

[worthy plank]

Yeah it's

been interesting

Also my character is now in a relationship with the Yuan-ti hexblade of the party

[worthy plank]

Comparison of Level 10 vs Level 4 that I sent to my DM lol

[low heart]

damn

he can really impress everyone

[low heart]

do you plan on making the situation even more chaotic for the gods by making more gods attempt to claim your soul

[worthy plank]

no

two is enough

[low heart]

:) come on

do it

i know you want to do it

[worthy plank]

no lol

I really don't XD

[low heart]

sadge

oh well

wonder how it'll go

altough

you could use it for a while

[low heart]

piss off asmodeus the devil

by destroying his plans

and when he starts attempting to take your soul

make him see exactly why it won't be a good idea

[worthy plank]

lol

[low heart]

he may be a lower god

but selune and bahamut are greater gods if i remember correctly

and i'd like to see him attempt to explain why he shouldn't be killed

[sand hornet]

If it isnt a weird question to ask, whats the opinion on Paid Games here? Personally have no issue with them, but i figured id ask

[trail bane]

So my players have encountered a CR15 monster at level 2, and it's a subspecies of monster that hasnt been seen before.

now they need to make connections to properly prepare before hunting it down :3

it'll probably lead them on a wild goose chase further into the map before they find the "home" of the subspecies

[dapper fulcrum]

three more days until i run my Dunmeshi reflavored Dungeon of the Mad Mage game (after several weeks of delays)

[low heart]

is the home inside a cave?

[trail bane]

most likely

[low heart]

then they can kill it by chocking it with carbon monoxide :)

choking

[trail bane]

It doesnt need to BREATHE

so no
they cannot kill it

by choking it

[low heart]

unfortunate

blow it up then :)

gunpowder needs coal powder sulfur and salpeter

so quite easy to produce

[trail bane]

The cave is gigantic

holds a literal city in it

[low heart]

damn it

anyway want to know the quantities you need for 10g of gunpowder?

[trail bane]

Nah

[low heart]

sadge

[craggy cloak]

the party artist is going off on tonight's session; my fighter left, wizard right

[dapper fulcrum]

Im with your fighter

Crusts are part of the pizza dammit

My culture shock when i stayed in Australia was finding out people leave the pizza crust

[craggy cloak]

this was about sammiches!!

the teen wizard is a very picky eater

[dapper fulcrum]

Oh i see
Carry on

[trail bane]

im gonna make a second island/continent for my map so the players have an excuse to sail the seas for a little bit :3

[trail bane]

i think its as follows:

Act 1: The Mainland

Act 2: The Ocean

Act 3: The New World

Act 4: The Awakening

Act 1 Consists of the party chasing down a mysterious Anjanath subspecies that has laid waste to the lands.

Act 2 is a short ocean adventure as they sail the seas to reach another island which someone is situated upon. Someone who presumably created this destructive Anjanath.

Act 3 is the players trying to find him, inevitably fighting Zoh Shia or, like, Xeno'Jiiva

Act 4 is the chaos that ensues. Elder Dragons return, and the players need to stop it.

[obsidian jasper]

Are you planning on making them fight a gore or Shagaru magala?

[trail bane]

Well their current big bad is a rampaging Guardian Fulgur Anjanath which is demolishing the ecosystem. Theyre gonna have to deal with that before the npcs can discover a similar "Guardian" energy elsewhere to begin act 2

currently Elder Dragons are said to be extinct, as none have been sighted for hundreds of years

though once Zoh Shia/Xeno'Jiiva shows up it'll be proven that theyre still alive

[trail bane]

oh yeah also

Equal Dragon Weapons. Big machines built to fight Elder Dragons

i think im gonna make one like the Earthmover, where it roams like a walking city
except this one roams through the ocean

[trail bane]

okay, act 2, 3 and 4 are most likely getting combined into a bigger act

then i can fit act 3 in there

im unsure how that'd go though

act 4 would be the very end to act 2, and lead to act 3

and act 3 is the midground of act 2 where the gang goes to the new world, encounters a few wild monsters, then has to fight xeno/zoh

this would be a VERY big act

[trail bane]

i may modify the lore and make it so that the Guardians are actually created through Xeno'jiiva/Zoh Shia's energy

[trail bane]

time to make a tragic villain who is trying to kill his ancestor before its born, but he's done such awful shit to get to them that he has to die

[he's cursed, which has driven him to insanity]

[proud osprey]

d&d tomorrow

let’s gooo

[lament geode]

ayo same

Players are gonna wind up in a fight against a Sphinx trying to get her to remove a curse(she won't)

But they will try

[proud osprey]

got two players picking up from last time where during their downtime they pursued a job lead that got them into a drider’s lair

except dark elves aren’t a spider oriented matriarchy in my world, so this is an abominated one of racnosa

and there are just two of them

and they’re level four

there is also a third person thefe

[merry atlas]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2041-designer-insights-from-unearthed-arcana

[sand hornet]

Gladiator looks neat

also looks very DArk Sun

wonder if that means what I think it means

[sand hornet]

Huh, my favorite module is getting a 2024 rework

https://arcanumrpg.com/

[merry atlas]

Oh hell yeah

[visual river]

yeah it's called thief: deadly shadows

rat ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) there is also a third person thefe

[proud osprey]

there*** THERE*** I SAY

[trail bane]

so my level 2 players are planning on killing a CR 19 monster

with Chlorine Gas

if only they knew Guardians dont breathe :(

[low heart]

is it made of iron?

or any metal?

because chlorine gas corrodes certain metals

if i remember correctly

[trail bane]

No. It's organic

it COUNTS as a construct, but is fully organic

biological and allat

[low heart]

unfortunate

if i remember correctly there is gas that can harm organic life only by coming in contact with it

i do not know if chlorine is one of those

also does the construct contain liquid water since it's biological

since chlorine reacts with water to become acid

[trail bane]

The monster is an artificially created and engineered version of an already existing monster

[low heart]

so it has water inside?

[trail bane]

well, yeah

it bleeds

basically instead of this

It's this

[low heart]

i see

[grave hollow]

There be water in that there creature!

[random gull]

Suprisingly starting a new 2024 campaign on monday

Found some nice people

and everyone was hyped for the setting

[merry atlas]

What setting you using?

[worthy plank]

Today's game is gonna be fun

[sand hornet]

How is the Sorcerer in 2024 btw?

They seem neat (especially that Sorcerer Rage thing), but idk how they work in practice

Ill be playing one in an upcoming game so im curious

[random gull]

The classic homemade desert with a despot to topple, working beyond death and sandships 🐸

[low heart]

oh hey a mechboy

[next canopy]

dumb idea i had for a camâign for dnd i guess
early 19th century France, the illuminati manipulate the rogue bonapartists to get some magic stone, the bonapartist want to build a nuke (probably to delete England) the illuminati want to use the stones to resurrect Chtuluh. Th Pc are on a train that the Bonapartist attacks to get said stone. The Pc will try to stop them from building the nuke. the issue is that a lot of people helping them are actually Illuminaties manipulating them to get their hands on the stones

[sand hornet]

Our Party, as it currently stands, is gonna be a Wizard, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Cleric

May god have mercy on our souls

[pure elm]

I mean that's a perfectly fine party

[sand hornet]

Fair, it just feels very squishy to me at least

I'd probably switch classes if my current concept wasnt pretty rooted already

[pure elm]

well it doesn't have to be 😛
but I get what you mean

but I mean at minimum the Cleric will be fine, and the Rogue okay-ish
and then it's up to if the other casters fix their AC or not

[sand hornet]

Fair enough

Im a Draconic Sorcerer, so im a bit beefier compared to other Sorcerers

But yeah

[solemn totem]

Shield, Shield of Faith, Mage Armor, etc.

[merry atlas]

Ghostfire's 2024 edition of Grim Hollow's Player Guide just dropped on DnDBeyond.

[sand hornet]

Nice

[random gull]

Also - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPjsIKS8p7Y&t=704s is the review from Dave Thaumavore of Nimble 5e and what 6th edition could've become. A real good interview and a grand read for anybody hacking dnd

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite how do you feel about Grim Hollow?

[subtle granite]

Extremely medicore lore that is clearly a home game turned into a published product.

Adequate mechanics for players to engage with, that are outclassed by those in other supplements.

Very good bestiary additions and some good GM facing mechanics.

Paired with eldritch hunts player options and you have two halves of an amazing whole.

[merry atlas]

Damn just really shove the dagger in there

[merry atlas]

I quite enjoy the lore, but I get what you're saying!

Really liking the look of some of the new subclasses for the core classes they added this time around, on top of updating the older ones.

[sand hornet]

Whats your opinion on Eldritch Hunt, on that note?

Personally its one of my favorite 3rd party books

[subtle granite]

Some of the archetypes are neat, for sure, others are questionable, like the pride monk who's class features dont even come online unless he is half health.

[subtle granite]

Its the superior product.

Cool mechanics, the new class is great, neat new player weapons and other well thought out pieces of gear, its fun.

The gm side is way better to, with the moon mechanic being very neat, and the bestiary is stellar.

I do think the lore is "we have bloodborne at home", but its better about it than the fragged empire 1e supplement, and does enough to at least make it an interesting variant on the same thing, rather than outright plagiarism.

Its the only 5e book I own physically, and I got the collectors edition.

[sand hornet]

Fair enough

It is a pretty good book yeah

[subtle granite]

I do enjoy some elements of the lore, dont get me wrong, but "not venice" feels out of place, and for some reason a random shanty town is given the same level of love as a major capital city which feels odd, but you can tell it was a key location in the home game.

I enjoy the elven kingdoms though, they're neat.

[sand hornet]

Can't wait until they update Jaeger to 2024 >_>

[subtle granite]

With critical role using the 2024 rules, and stranger things coming on the horizon, I imagine the new ruleset will see a fair few 3rd party modules updated to match.

[sand hornet]

Oh they already announced Steinhardt for 2024 iirc

Or at least a Jaeger rework for 2024

[merry atlas]

Delver's Guide probably won't see a 2024 rework they're already struggling to get the adventure module they kickstarted out the door.

[sand hornet]

Damn

[lament geode]

https://arcanumrpg.com/

I'm about to go hard on a kickstarter for the first time

[sand hornet]

Same

Glad to see someone else enjoying Odyssey

[trail bane]

chat my LGS has Gnoll Witherlings for sale and i'm tempted to buy one

[sand hornet]

Gnoll Witherlings?

[trail bane]

Undead Gnolls

[sand hornet]

neat

[visual river]

nice site design

[sand hornet]

it looks a lot better when not on mobile tbf

though I'm unsure what the purpose of the text at the bottom is

[low heart]

looks like it's a scam website

[sand hornet]

I dont think it is, given it appeared in actual newsletters

[low heart]

i see

[flat gull]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/dungeon-masters-guild-bestselling-tabletop-dd-community-books

[visual river]

session 0 went okay!

we were however missing two party members

[proud osprey]

got a pivot to a mystery plotline, the dwarven temple was robbed, the emperor shows up tomorrow, his advanced party has arrived and the dwarven quarter is in chaos in the eve of his arrival so the city watch want shit sorted FAST

need some characters

need a city watch captain and the captain of the imperial crown guard