Dungeons and Dragons

[random gull]

Like you need NPC statblocks or ideas? D:

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite what did you think of the transformation rules from Grim Hollow?

[subtle granite]

questionable.

on the one hand, they're fucking cool.

On the other, its a massive spike in power to whomever gains the transformation at the cost of not very much, and puts the rest of the party on unequal footing with you.

and the extra 'death'/banishment conditions you gain are a little meh.

I like the expansion of player options, but it stands out as a sore thumb in contrast with the rest of D&D 5es design ethos.

[merry atlas]

Have you had a chance to see the updated 2024 stuff?

[subtle granite]

I've not looked at it yet sadly, still working through CoD.
I have heard good things about it, like the fighter being able to pull off DMC dante combos

[proud osprey]

more names and vibes than stat blocks

maybe like the second in command of the imperial royal guard, not the guy at the very top of that

but definitely the guy in charge of the city watch

[merry atlas]

@waxen torrent there’s also transformation rules in Grim Hollow, with the updated version covering Liches, Vampires, Werewolves/Bears/Crows/etc, Aberrations, Oozes, Fiends, Seraphs, Fey, and Hags

[waxen torrent]

Ooooo

Which book?

[merry atlas]

The new Grim Hollow Transformed player's guide. I got it on DnDBeyond, keeping an eye out to get the pdf. I got the pdf for the campaign setting book

[waxen torrent]

Excellent! How are the rules for aberration transformations?

[merry atlas]

Not sure mechanically x-x

[merry atlas]

@waxen torrent another one to check out is Metis Creative's stuff. They got three campaign setting books out for DnD that also include core classes' subclasses. But its dark historical fantasy, one set in Istanbul, another during the Crusades, and assuming its out now another focused around Venice.

The second one is very Lovecraftian/eldritch horror focused.

[sand hornet]

I wish there was a proper (non-druid) shapeshfitng class for 2024

[proud osprey]

thinking about the smišia storyline

my party are currently in the big city of mollebourg, capital of the imperial province of mollebranque. there’s going to be a big tournament, and they’ve signed up. if they win, they get glory and gold and a plot of land. if they lose, no big. from here they will be able to further pursue two leads up to the north.

• the paladin, who is playing the long game hunting after a heretic traitor gideon godfrey
• the druid, who is seeking the aid of one elissa hantel, who mysteriously vanished from public eye after separating from the circle (the imperial guild of mages), in order to help heal the lands from whence he comes

so my vibe is that i need to plot out that smišia chunk. their main lead is to head to žem, the province capital there, and investigate since that was hantel’s last known whereabouts and one of the last few significant stopping points in the northwestern part of the empire

i know i wanna have her shacked up in the middle of assfuck nowhere with a fellow rogue wizard

having possibly joined a different order

and that i wanna have that wizard be a cool eccentric since ive been playing a lot of morrowind

so i want him to have some kind of construct and some kind of summoned “pet” or servant or bodyguard or something

taking suggestions on constructs and summons

[proud osprey]

definitely doing weird magic experiments that are, strictly speaking, illegal under imperial law. i’m thinking:

• cultivation of some kind of disease
• rot grub nonsense
• WIP flesh golem
• portal to somewhere inappropriate

[sand hornet]

This your homebrew setting?

[proud osprey]

yes’m, we’ve got good momentum back up and running again after a fairly nothing couple of months

[proud osprey]

planning ahead in some broader world terms

[sand hornet]

First session of the new Odyssey campaign is tonight 👀

[proud osprey]

odyssey you say

[trail bane]

my kobolds are giving a level 4 party a run for their money

a kobold got launched into a player who failed his save

yeah

[trail bane]

well then

[sand hornet]

Of the Dragonlords ye

[proud osprey]

going back to thinking about the exiled wizard hideout

[proud osprey]

he definitely has a pet slash servant banderhobb

[random gull]

oh god i love kobolds so much. and flinging opponents into pcs is so much fun

lil ragdolls of existance
tiny candles filled with rage

[proud osprey]

esoteric wizard dude needs a name

possibly a member of some kind of illuminati type organisation

not running the government, more just, intellectuals with big ideas biding their time to position things to a theoretically brighter future with some moral ambiguity as to the underlying nature that begets such optimism

[craggy cloak]

Cetirizine the Archchancellor

[craggy cloak]

def needs a lot of self-sufficient servant type shit, like skeletons+gelatinous cube type combos

[dire trail]

I dunno if anyone here would know, but what's a good place to search for DnD games? Anyone have leads on any?

I got a massive DnD craving lately so I'm looking to play :3

[proud osprey]

i was thinking some kind of summon, some kind of construct

[arctic yew]

what is a good time rogue

like,i had a character that was a fighter with time powers

he was a echo knight. the echoes were fragments of other timelines,action surge was slowing time so he was faster,second wind was speeding up his metabolism to heal faster

now i am playing an alternate version of that character who is a rogue instead of a fighter

[craggy cloak]

if i had to make a time-powers-themed Rogue, I would look at Mastermind and Phantom subclasses

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/MNDuOiF1e7w?si=BcaKCh_PsntT_8Pj

Anyone here pretty familiar with Grim Hollow?

Also how does the aberrant mind and wild magic sorcerer subclasses compare to each other in 5.2024e?

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite you should check out of Legend of Aventris’s Crooked Moon books

@waxen torrent you too

[waxen torrent]

Ooo! Why so?

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/EPyTYU-4vZU?si=_QcYOaE9MsVQ9vTk

Folk horror inspired campaign setting

Multiple new horror themed subclasses too

[waxen torrent]

Oooo

Do we play as the folk horrors?

[merry atlas]

There’s a pumpkin headed scarecrow like ancestry, an imp with a scorpion tail, a ghoul inspired one, and troll too. Also an industrialist werewolf like wolf folk, owl folk, trying to remember some of the others

A circle of wicker Druid subclass, blood magic sorcerer

[waxen torrent]

Love a ghoul!

[merry atlas]

Plagueborn which is ratfolk

Relicborn is skeletons

Silkborn is spider like folk

Stoneborn is gargoyles

[topaz lagoon]

i take it bloodborne must mean you're human, then

[merry atlas]

https://tenor.com/view/dog-what-huh-what-did-you-just-say-cute-gif-15640723

[arctic yew]

some bullshit with my current campaign that i feel like i have to share

It's a pirate campaign

The king of the pirates Is like 80 and trying to find a crew to sail on his last voyage

In come we.

We do a trial which involves finding a dragon on his private island,and join his crew

He explains how he is retiring and wants to find the one piece the biggest treasure in the world before dissapearing.

During dinner he is telling us stories about how he has always been one step ahead of everyone and untouchable

And then immediately chokes on his food and dies.

We discover that the pirate king is basically a massive game of chicken against the governments of the world,keeping then from straying into lawless water and wiping out the pirates of the world.

With his death without a proper heir,that shit is gone.

So now we have to find that treasure so we can say that one of us is the new pirate king witouth anyone figuring out he is dead

....after that first session the campaign got retitled from "pirate campaign" to "weekend at matey's"

[obsidian jasper]

what exactly is the bs

I'm a bit consed

[arctic yew]

wym?

[indigo steppe]

joining a candyland themed oneshot

gonna play a gummy wizard with fruit rollup robes

all da spells are gummy themed like melatonin for sleep, citric acid for the sprays

etc

trying to decide if i want a hobgoblin for the mechanical effects, hexblood for flavor, or completely 180 it and play a spearmint gum dragonborn with the cold breath weapon

what do yall thunk?

[indigo steppe]

that sounds fuckin awesome and also pretty hilarious lol

[sand hornet]

Nice

[obsidian jasper]

Nvm sorry I thought you meant bs in a negative way

[obsidian jasper]

Depends on the tone of the campaign imo

[indigo steppe]

its a very whimsical oneshot

we're overthrowing a facist regime of sentient la croix cans

[obsidian jasper]

So like it’s not very serious?

[obsidian jasper]

BTW there’s an oath of the people paladin

(Communist)

If u wanted a fun subclass as well

[indigo steppe]

nah im goin scribes wizard

i have a stone rune disc called the Ring of Life

[obsidian jasper]

Ahhh

[ocean geyser]

Was that one official? I thought it was just a fan thing.

[obsidian jasper]

No not official

[ocean geyser]

Thinking of this specifically

https://imgur.com/a/kIa7n

[obsidian jasper]

I meant the communist one lmao

[ocean geyser]

That is the Communist one.

I mean I'm assuming that's it

Given it has a 'Turn Bourgeoisie' power. 😛

[arctic yew]

....i want to yap a bit about my character in this campaign

his name is pip. he is a barbarian halfling

He was a shipwright of a little island village who one day had to service a giant ship

....like.

A ship of giants.

He met a storm giant woman and immediately fell in love.

They met when she almost ate him because he tried to climb inside her drinking mug to get on eye height with her

They hit it off very well,but when he told everyone that they wanted to get married their parents were not having it and gave him 3 impossible labors to be allowed her hand in marriage.

Bring her her own weight in gold,the head of a monster that could fell a battleship and a title of nobility

So he went to become king of the pirates since that seemed the easiest way to do all of that

He uses a giant halberd that she gave him as a gift

Hr also doesn't have a bedroll

Instead he sleeps inside the envelope of the last love letter she wrote to him

[low heart]

cool character :)

[dapper fulcrum]

In the dunmeshi reflavor of Undermountain im running

The pcs rescued some petrified dudes

I adjucated that they were petrified for so long that some of them were there in the 4e era

One of them is now a hireling and she's pissed that she can't do cool 4e ranger shit after the Second Sundering occured

[mellow rivet]

4e wasn't that long ago. I bet all the elf rangers are just as mad

[dapper fulcrum]

i bet they are

[proud osprey]

this is actually pretty great

[subtle granite]

tell me moar!

[merry atlas]

They're a folk horror inspired campaign setting taking place in a realm of death (though the living can travel there, it is DnD afterall) where the dead are reborn here, on a continent shaped like a crescent moon in which the world is in perpetual night with only a few hours of dusk, and otherwise the sky is lit by the creepy smiling crescent "Crooked Moon".
You got several neat subclasses, and then I think eight or so species?

Also as I understand it, stuff is mechanically balanced better than Grim Hollow.

[subtle granite]

oooooooh, I want!

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/EPyTYU-4vZU @subtle granite

One of the new druid subclass involves wickers.

And a blood magic themed sorcerer

[stone hollow]

I will be playing 5e soon I think i wanna cook up a homebrewed cleric domain

[dapper fulcrum]

2014 or 2024 5e

[stone hollow]

Idk whats the difference

[fallen hornet]

2024 is a lot more streamlined (as in everyone picks their class specialty at level 3)

[dapper fulcrum]

monster design is eugh for a few beasties though (side-eyeing all the "instant rider effect on a hit attacks")

[merry atlas]

Kinda prefer 2024 over 2014.

x-x so been frustrated hanging around the Critical Role discord server with how often most of the new games being posted are all 2014.

[topaz lagoon]

Admittedly, I can see why it’s a bit of a hard sell

This is purely guesswork, but I think a lot of people who onboarded into 5e did so around 2018 - 2020 because that’s when Crit Role C2 and D20 were really taking off, so a large swath of the target audience has only kinda recently picked up the 2014 books

this among many other complicating factors, I mean

honestly I should find a solid abbreviated list of the changes because I have almost no idea what changed except for monster spellcasting

[vapid flame]

i think people seemed happy about the martial changes

[merry atlas]

Kinda also reminds me of what I saw with PF1E vs PF2E, where some people just get super comfy in their box and refuse to budge out of it.

[modest echo]

i wonder what edition retention/conversion stats are like in general

[topaz lagoon]

Any particular notes? I am a martials girly

[merry atlas]

Fighter got a lot of neat stuff. I think monk was the real stand out though from what I recall? Ranger is well....ranger, better than 2014 definitely, but compared to other martials.

Barbarian finally got some tools so they can actually participate in social, and use rage to their advantage.

They also got a subclass that eventually allows the Barbarian to teleport around the battlefield.

[dapper fulcrum]

Except for ranger

The gloomstalker got a pointed nerf that i felt was like a targeted assassination

[merry atlas]

Rangers....being happy? Perish the thought.

-aiming another nerf-

[dapper fulcrum]

The Wayfarer in Fabultima felt so refreshing in comparison

[pure elm]

Monk got some good stuff yeah

They also benefit from the fact that the ceiling for martial optimisation was lowered a bit, so them not benefitting from feats as much is less of an issue

[normal crow]

Tasha's fixes for Rangers > 2024 PHB Ranger > 4.0 Ranger >? 3.5 Ranger > various forms of medieval torture >>>>>>>> 2014 PHB Ranger

[dapper fulcrum]

imo 4e ranger is higher than tasha's
for the given reason that 4e martials are infinitely better than any 5e martial 😔

[normal crow]

I think the order of the first three on the list are highly subjective (and 4e rangers are definitely fun)

The point is, 2014 Rangers are just that bad

[craggy cloak]

I have been having a lot of fun as a 24 fighter

The weapon masteries + weapon swapping has been very cool

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/4d2Zc40YyB8 Hmmm

[modest echo]

is it tomb of horrors

[topaz lagoon]

if it's Undermountain I've got the Adachi "True!" lined up

[merry atlas]

It's Mad Mage

[pure elm]

Never read Mad Mage closely

But it seems fine as a megadungeon

[merry atlas]

megadungeons scary unless Heart, and a few other exceptions.

[timber sleet]

i dislike 2024 rules because imo they just simplify things too much

theres also the slight bias of me being far more familiar with 2014 rules as well though, ill admit

[merry atlas]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-pull-cat-snatch-tabby-cat-brown-cat-pull-gif-22680347

Come come, we’re gonna have fun with 2024. This is a threat

[topaz lagoon]

https://tenor.com/view/adachi-true-raapberry-pi-pico-pcb-dungeons-and-fakultet-gif-24324824

[dapper fulcrum]

Been running a dunmeshi version of that

[obsidian jasper]

2024 made it so you can powerbuild differently 😔

I no longer have the advantage of being fine with playing flavourless characters and getting rewards for it

[obsidian jasper]

Anyone know of an official Gnoll player species?

[dapper fulcrum]

None official

Keith Baker of Eberron fame has one in his Exploring Eberron book tho

[obsidian jasper]

Thanks

Also does it make sense for flavor to make a Gnoll have the intelligence of like a wizard

[dapper fulcrum]

Yes

Say they learned wizardry from personal practice

[obsidian jasper]

Oh it’s not a wizard

It’s some guy that got cursed into being a Gnoll cuz he did some bad things out of greed

[obsidian jasper]

I figured out a solution

[worthy plank]

cw shouting, planned battlecry for a ship we're about to overtake that holds my character's bf ||COME YOU MOTHERLESS FIEND-WORSHIPPING BASTARDS! THE WRATH OF THE GITHYANKI WILL FALL ON YOU THIS DAY! I WILL HAVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR ILK'S BLOOD PAINT MY BLADES AND ARMS! COME AND DIE TO THE SERVANT OF TWO GODS IN CONCORD!||

[obsidian jasper]

How would you guys go about making a character that is very strong without making said character feel like a power fantasy?

[normal crow]

Max starting Strength
But Wizard

[obsidian jasper]

I meant figuratively but that is a funny idea

[lament geode]

Describe it in their ordinary actions. I had a character in another game who was always breaking stuff without thinking about it

Every little slam of a hand on the table, every frustrated stomp, etc, was breaking stuff

To the point that it became a problem

[stable falcon]

A clenched fist making indents on a steel tankard handle.

Or, in magical power terms, maybe your connection has minor effects around you that you can't actually control. Your shadow occasionally sulks and pulls in close to you, making you slightly worse at stealth; your connection to supernatural chaos makes your luck supernaturally bad and you can thus never win at games of chance. Something like that.

[timber sleet]

finally getting around to the dnd with alters idea, i love making the world alongside them making their characters because it means i can 100% garuntee that everything will work together
its also really fun to see how the world can evolve from simple character decisions
katherine is playing a lawful neutral cleric whos also a mildly greedy noble. whats a good god for the task whos within one step of lawful neutral? well, waukeen is a neutral god of wealth, so that fits pretty well. what if the entire noble estate was devoted to waukeen? maybe i can implement some kind of banking system where churches of waukeen function as banks and members get some kind of benefit like better interest rates or some kind of loyalty card. worldbuilding alongside your players is so much fun lmao

[trail bane]

So i was the thousandth member in a dnd monster hunter server im in, so the owner [Amellwind] made a statblock for a future boss i'm gonna run in my campaign

im gonna buff some damage numbers but other than that im quite excited

"sih-thor-in" for those wondering how to pronounce him

[worthy plank]

I am very excited to play my new character after today's session

very inspired by Pan's Labyrinth, The Boss from MGS, Asajj Ventress, and Petrichor from Saga

[stone hollow]

I actually like a lot of the dnd 2024 rules and it looks like I'll be playing in a game with them soon

[sand hornet]

Nice

What are you playing?

[worthy plank]

I am very tempted to ask my DM if I can speak Spanish for Sylvan with this character cuz of how the Faun speaks in the original dub of Pan's Labyrinth

[visual river]

game 1: we cleared out the gang controlling the town. humo seduced the captain, then ate him. zach discovered the joys of the gatling gun. corb was denied the chance to perform her rituals because of fire. baz discovered the party's guide had been her old captain all along, and she took back the rolling block pistol he accidentally stole from her

game 2: jabari discovered an artifact which would allow the party to steal a corpse. besteln's player discovered why his pc's name is ridiculous. dewdrop opened his third eye and turned a bunch of skeletons to dust. trix invented pinball. teco ate some moss and nearly turned into a demon

[stone hollow]

Warrior of Shadow Monk

[sand hornet]

Nice

[elder cove]

love when the only experienced player in the party goes "I'm gonna play Peace Cleric" and then rolls this shit

(I'm mostly joking, I'm confident in my DMing abilities, it's just funny to see)

[dapper fulcrum]

finally glad that they let you see through the darkness you generate with that one

[sand hornet]

And someone left our Odyssey game without telling anyone and blocked the GM :v

on the day of the second session nonetheless

[sand hornet]

Yeah we're gonna have to put the campaign on pause until we get a new player

Because we're right at the narrative cut off point for new characters

[modest echo]

oof

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite @waxen torrent this new DnD Grim Hollow campaign started with all our PCs absolutely fucked up. Thankfully turned out to be a vision, but that's a first time experience. Poor Saskilia had her legs shattered, crawling along the ground and had to be pulled into a tavern with this city district going up in flames because Arcanist Inquisition is purging this ward.

[subtle granite]

whats the campaign premise?

[merry atlas]

"The free-city of Voros has lost it's freedom. It had once maintained it's independence through neutrality on the matter of mages (allowing mages and arcane folk entry lest they use their spells), through its shrewd diplomacy and through it's high profits in farmed goods, fish and armaments of all kinds. This peace and freedom kept welded together by their guard, a standing army falling under the command of House Savoy and the Company of Free Swords. But despite Voros' strength, their liberty died in a whimper. Ended with the death of the previous Count. An explosion of arcane energy rocked the counts tower only two weeks ago, sparking both a rapid scramble for succession by his children (triplets, making the matter of succession difficult) and an inquest into the arcane event responsible for his death. Out of the triplet sires of Count Savoy though only Dario Savoy was able to wrangle enough people quickly enough to take the throne. This was in spite of his twin brother Matteo Savoy having the backing of the Free Swords and Aurora Savoy having the backing of the court. Dario Savoy though was married to the niece of Hedric, the High Redeemer of the Arcanist Inquisition, mustering the armies of Castinella and using the city's priests whom he held favor with to whip the public into further troops to help him seize the throne and put him upon it. Since his crowning life has been on a razors edge for the arcane folk, and the city's long decades of independence have ended, even if it hasn't been stated outwardly. But with the arrival of a massive army of Inquisition troops garrisoning outside the city, the public revelation that the former count was slain (allegedly) by Aurora who was a mage, and the common folk being widely loyal to Dario and the priesthood, it's obvious that a purge is coming to a head for all heretics in the city. You must protect or join in the escape of these heretics in the city before you and yours find yourselves on the pyre."

[solemn totem]

I found a copy of Tasha's for 12 BUCKS at goodwill.

[sand hornet]

nice(?)

[timber sleet]

finally getting around to working more on my dnd campaign with alters, still not remotely used to balancing the encounters lmao

theres only 2 players instead of the traditional 4

so like, for example, i was looking for a solid cr 1 monster to use as a boss for this area, thought "oh hey a razorvine blight looks cool" then realized only after like a minute of thinking, this thing would fucking shred them lmao

if i want to have both a boss and decent support i really am gonna have to settle for like. a vine blight

[mellow rivet]

Low levels are rough, a 2 player party is rougher. Can you send them some sidekicks to help them out in the boss fight?

[elder cove]

yeah this is what Sidekicks are for

[timber sleet]

ooo, i didnt know sidekicks were a thing, thank you for that

i wanted to avoid dmpcs because the 2 players are a couple who want this to kinda be their thing, but i think ive figured out how to make this work, sidekick will have the spellcaster class and the noble statblock (because the characters are nobles) and will be a cleric. ill make it so they are 1. the person who cast the ceremony spell for the marriage that the campaign starts right after, so they fit in more, and 2. theyll leave after like, level 3 or 4 after the characters "learn the ropes of adventuring" so that the character doesnt seem too intrusive. the fact that the campaign starts right after a ceremony spell marriage also means they characters will have a +2 ac bonus when within 30 feet of each other which'll also help with these early low level fights

i might have to make the sidekick start at level 2 though because the spellcaster sidekick knows 1 spell at level 1 and i dont want to make the only spell the guy whos supposed to be helping in combat knows be ceremony lmao

oh wait, didnt notice they got cantrips, level 1 is fine then

[subtle granite]

aaaah. Metal.

[merry atlas]

OH! Also there's a new campaign setting from Cubicle 7 for DnD. (Feel like I talked about it with you before...don't remember) Victoriana is the name of it.

[subtle granite]

I was gifted the book by a certain someone, so im aware of it XD

[merry atlas]

sorry me brain is cooked

[trail bane]

working on a world map

[low heart]

most interesting

how about you call the volcano island the night isle?

due to the smoke and ash in the air

[visual river]

last game of dnd at caffeinated dragon today

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite my character is by her lonesome to do some negotiating with Valikan folks. Had to do some deception and persuading to get through several gatehouses staffed with Inquisition. Especially the first one which had ten Inquisitorial guards with polearms or other melee weapons, and ten ones with bows.

[icy sky]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/335051714988212224/1426746732615569498/IMG_0386.jpg?ex=68ec58f0&is=68eb0770&hm=6332c25e7adf37f94060c22090ae7514cf584f788f1e48d2516bfbbf08266578&

emilies are making an evil vampire lady i think

[trail bane]

filling a world map is super difficult god damn

[grave hollow]

Today in my 5e session: The far off and away basecamp they've been working on setting up gets to experience a worker's strike because the party offered up workers to a group of Shadows in exchange for safe passage. While the party was supposed to be guarding said workers.

[trail bane]

did it mostly. yay

[merry atlas]

WORKERS RISE UP! BREAK YOUR CHAINS!

[sand hornet]

Just got the stat array for our game
15, 16, 8, 11, 5, 14

[dapper fulcrum]

nice

[sand hornet]

Personally really dislike the 5

feel that's crippling

but I guess I can see what I can do

Like im probably overreacting but idk if I can make a satisfying character with this array

[craggy cloak]

imo you gotta find a way to lean into the 5; something like a career-ending injury, or age, or Za Curse

One of my players ended up with a 7 in Con once and went with "they're 10 years older than what dragonborns are listed to live to" to explain their fragile health

[subtle granite]

Good lord, hope you've got an escape plan in case things go south.

[next canopy]

I want to make combat against a Sea hag i teresting for a Lvl2 party ideas?

[dapper fulcrum]

If you set it underwater thats gonna be super memorable (and deadly)

Put some giant crab minions too

[next canopy]

I was think underwater palace, she would have like 1 hp but impervious to damage until they break her magic mirror

Fae magic bullshitery ensue

[dapper fulcrum]

So its a race to find the magic mirror in her palace?

[next canopy]

More like lots of reflexion and illusion trying to find the right target

Kinda ethel fight in bg3

[dapper fulcrum]

Never played beegee tree

[next canopy]

It’s good. Ypu level up real fast tho

But the TLDR is ethel is a green hag that creat illusions and tp around

She also shape shift into a npc you're trying to save in "whose the real one" type deal

Mine in lore would have taken over an entire vity after broking a deal with the queen. She would ensure the survival of her people and land in exchange of her beauty. The hag transformed the queen in a magic mirror and tool her form. Transform the city in a salted lake and the people into slimy watter critter.

To lift the curse the group musy go in thr Hag palace at the bottom of the make and break the magical mirror

When the mirro is actove the hag reflect damage. But has 1 hp. So they break the mirror they can attack and kill the witch

[sand hornet]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcanumworlds/odyssey-of-the-dragonlords-remastered-edition

It's here

[lament geode]

It sure is

[torpid belfry]

thinking about my dnd setting for the first time in quite a while

[merry atlas]

The Universal Music? -squint- I SEE YOU ILLUVATAR!

gonna sing me some chaotic notes into that symphony.

[torpid belfry]

oh god

but yeah I do know the reference but I more had the Music of the Spheres in mind

because I am a nerd for alchemy and adjacent

I enjoy astrology for this reason but I do not even remotely believe in it
I just think the historical overlap between alchemy and astrology is neat but I can’t just say “I think astrology is cool” without context because otherwise ppl will think I’m gonna blame everything on the stars

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite if you ever get a chance to check out the Anbennar setting, you might like it. Might even like running a campaign in it.

[subtle granite]

which one is that, the slavic one with the blood witch?

[merry atlas]

Nah, Anbennar is a setting that I think started as a DnD campaign, but the creator started expanding on it and turned it into a total conversion mod fantasy setting for Europa Universalis 4.

[subtle granite]

ooooh.

I know that now.

I've heard its meant to be amazing.

[merry atlas]

Its been fun so far!

I initially started as the Frost/Fjord Trolls in the far north of the big eastern continent (the equivalent of Europe or the "Old World", there's other continents connected to it) but been having more fun playing as this Dwarven adventuring company that I had reclaim one of the ancient dwarven holds in the Serpentreach range of mountains (a smaller mountain range that branches off the big Serpentspine Mountain range that stretches through several continents. All of which at one point in time was home to the ancient dwarven empire of Aul-Dwarov) reforming the Dwarven Hold of Gor-Barad, home of the Basalt Dwarves. Which uhh....angry angry grudge holding dwarves living over a potentially active volcano.

[subtle granite]

I know there's a faction of a depressed orc hero who saved the world but lost everything, and tbh, that was enough to make me to wanna get EU 4, because if they can make a faction where that is your starting point? I wanna know more.

[merry atlas]

That sounds like a certain Half-Orc hero from the Green Tide wars.

[subtle granite]

Probably him then.

[merry atlas]

The lore is really neat for the setting.

[subtle granite]

mhm, it's definitely gonna be the reason I buy it some day.

EU 4 that is.

[merry atlas]

Just got an event involving whispers either directly from the deity, or a high ranking clergy, from the evil dwarf religion trying to coax the current king of Gor-Barad into converting to their religion.

[torpid belfry]

also this reminds me of one of my Guerten villains who opened a PSYCHICALLY BEAMED evil monologue with “do you have the slightest comprehension how long I have wished to grow beneath this place, only for you to introduce discordance into my harmonies?”

dramatic fuck

[merry atlas]

Ooh I like that o.o

@subtle granite I also like stuff, like the history of the orcs. And also how the orcs at one point used to be able to change their skin color based on their environments...but they eventually lost that ability and that's how you have green skin orcs, black orcs, grey ones too I think? (Unless those are the black orcs)
There is a uhh...red skin group of orcs, but I won't say much on why they're like that. Spoilers. Playing that tribe of Orcs is basically being a whole society of horror movie monsters.

The gnolls are pretty interesting too from what I've heard, also the gnomes, and halflings, and kobolds.

[torpid belfry]

thank :3

yald-ha-kas my beloved

what a freak.

[sand hornet]

Gnoll mention

[worthy plank]

Struggling to think of what to play in a group I just joined run by an old friend

party is a druid/rogue, paladin, wizard, and sorcerer

5th level

So not rly wanting for blasting, mostly wanting in the realms of the Beef

[merry atlas]

Monster Hunter, or Barbarian

[topaz lagoon]

fighter, the pure martial with the most decision points when last I played

[merry atlas]

@subtle granite Love the art too. Also those are Oni statues, you can play as Ogres (Oni are the Horned Ogres)

[subtle granite]

Oooh

[worthy plank]

Ended up going with an Arcana Cleric who Goes to the Gym

xD

[icy sky]

https://heatherundermoonlight.bearblog.dev/session-20/

[worthy plank]

booming blade crit with spirit shroud active is hot

[visual river]

teco is also growing a love-hate relationship with dewdrop's kleptomania and having met a barbarian for the first time realized he has a lot more in common with people on the fringes or outside of society than anyone "normal", and is glad to just finally meet another person who appreciates the culinary value of a raw heart

[trail bane]

heehee

[merry atlas]

https://tenor.com/view/critical-role-crit-role-cr-matt-matthew-mercer-gif-14236225

Toyed around with making a Fire Goliath sorcerer that’ll be a Spellfire sorcerer

[merry atlas]

Okay, I definitely want to play in a Calimshan adventure.

[fervent heath]

Not sure where to post this but it seems like Fantasy grounds is now free!

https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/fantasy-grounds-free

It has a bunch of System modules for D&D and many other RPGs

[lament geode]

Nice

[timber sleet]

big tip for anyone looking to dm: for the love of God dont draw your battle maps in paint 3d

ive made a horrible mistake i shouldve used a program that has layers

i spent the past hour painstakingly removing grid lines from the insides of solid objects

[grave hollow]

Got to use the Neogi in a game! My players hate the little bastards.

And they didn't even fight them, they just had to trade with them.

[dapper fulcrum]

Gross lil guys from space

[torpid belfry]

i thought neogi was a kind of italian potato dumpling

[spice hornet]

i can potentially direct you to firealpaca- it's a bit more manga/comic oriented but it is a completely free art program i've been using for ~7 years and I have no complaints abt it

[flat gull]

i used krita for battlemaps#

[visual river]

yeah it was debating using either krita or gimp because we already have those installed

[trail bane]

chat how many shipwrecks do i add to my world's ocean

im half expecting them to go on a bit of a boating journey in the future so

i wanna know how many wrecks i should dump for fun :3

[merry atlas]

Yes

[obsidian jasper]

None because that means they were found

[trail bane]

i want them to be discovered though..,

[obsidian jasper]

So no evil thing in ocean :(

[trail bane]

not yet, no

there is a ghost ship though

[obsidian jasper]

Hmmmmm

[trail bane]

i think i called it the Twilight Saber

[obsidian jasper]

I guess put wrecks where it makes sense and if you’re feeling mischievous place some in the most random places

[trail bane]

Funny enough they're a rather friendly crew of skeletons manning a ghost ship that sank off the coast in a battle long ago

[obsidian jasper]

They seem chill

[trail bane]

"WHY THE FUCK IS THERE A SHIPWRECK ON THAT MOUNTAIN?!"

"Forgot where it was, lol"

[obsidian jasper]

I just had a terrifying idea of kobold pirates

[trail bane]

Oh they are. They have a thing of "You die on the ship, you serve for at least a decade" but other than that they have no catches if you travel with them

kobold pirates my beloved

also Gnolls

[obsidian jasper]

Menace of the ocean

[obsidian jasper]

Gnolls are cool but like I am scared of kobolds because my first and only encounter with them almost ended in a tpk

[trail bane]

my players also lost a pc to kobolds

[obsidian jasper]

Gnolls can punch way above their cr if used correctly I think

Never dmed but heard many stories

[trail bane]

you ever consider a Ghost Ship with Gnoll Witherlings?

im gonna do that now 👁️

[obsidian jasper]

Hmmm

That seems like a great idea

[visual river]

fun fact pack tactics is why kobolds have sunlight sensitivity

absolutely op

[obsidian jasper]

I fought them in a cave

I didn’t even have dark vision

[trail bane]

i love giving my players warnings for the future

...this was today's session's premonition

[merry atlas]

"Hey cleric...that was just a stressful dream, right?"

[arctic yew]

Me: "hey dm,I had an idea for a DND character, it's accidentally describes the plot of ghost rider"

"...dude that's ghost rider"

"....FUCK"

[spice hornet]

if someone accidentally made a ghost rider expy i'd be fucking ecstatic idk about you

[torpid belfry]

I also made an accidental Ghost Rider expy but she’s not D&D related so. uh. yk lmao

[proud osprey]

working on a west marches

gimme dungeon ideas

[dapper fulcrum]

Flooded castle

High tide and low tide reveal different rooms

[torpid belfry]

castle floating in the sky, built by mages or celestials or air elementals or whatnot

[proud osprey]

good of you

[proud osprey]

maybe

[arctic yew]

dnd modern

name still undecided

she is a cowgirl from the weird west(the wild west,except all the tropes were real. Reverends actually summoning the power of god,tinkerers actually harvesting the power of lightning,the devil actually comes to you at the crossroads)

a bandit

she had a long streak of hits,having had to skip town several times

until one day,she decided that a town was small enough that she could do whatever she wanted

she decided to shoot a man in the middle of a saloon just to steal his drink.

she was caught for that

they hanged her for that

when the devil came to collect her soul,she made a deal with him

where she would be allowed to live if he became her collector

she roams the world,hunting down people who try to squander the devil's deals as a immortal bounty hunter,being allowed to live longer for every target she takes.

Trying to find ways to get her soul out of his clutches for the last 400 years

[spice hornet]

That's raw as hell tbh

[lament geode]

I do this all the time

[obsidian jasper]

i remember that animation

[torpid belfry]

SO

one is my own setting, Guerten
where there aren’t true gods per se but rather spirits, which include both:

• local animistic spirits
• saints, distinguished from standard fantasy gods by always originating as the souls of mortals, which also makes them more local

the other is my gf’s setting, which doesn’t have a name so I just kind of refer to it by the title of the campaign, Dark Stars Rising (DSR)
in that, the countries that have been the most fleshed out religion-wise are:

• the Empire, which does monotheistic sun god worship in a very Late Medieval Europe-inspired way (complete with “send your later-born noble kids to live in the monastery instead of going to war” and “the church and state are nominally working together but it is very tense”)
• Lazarios, a primarily elven nation which is polytheistic, also has animistic nature spirit worship in the mix (especially in the North, which is less state-y), and doesn’t actually really care that much about Corellon on a day to day basis, with his role as king of elven deities being more like Dyaus—important mythologically, but less so religiously

[lyric sedge]

I can't believe this :O My homebrew setting's primary religion also has saints which were once mortal.

[lyric sedge]

We need to stop doing this :P

[torpid belfry]

I

I just remembered that I think the reason I did this with Guerten was originally an MCR reference

[lyric sedge]

I haven't heard any MCR songs that I remember. :V

[torpid belfry]

it wasn’t even a reference to MCR music directly

[lyric sedge]

My character Delila would say "Saints and exemplars" as an exclamation because I thought it sounded cool, and then I backformed it into a religion. :V

[torpid belfry]

it was a reference to Gerard Way art with MCR lyrics

specifically, it started with St. Viticus, patron saint of sacrifice (cw for blood and… [violence? body horror? not sure exactly how to tag it] in the first one)

https://pin.it/2OYfDJI4R

https://pin.it/6M8o7MRD0

[torpid belfry]

oh, gosh
in Guerten the phrase “saints and spirits” is basically the equivalent to “oh god” or “oh my god”

[lyric sedge]

lmfao

[torpid belfry]

Marian, my char in that game, has Vandria as her patron deity ^w^

she’s a monster hunter and Vandria is the elven goddess of vigilance, grief, and war, so it felt fitting

Marian von Favidromos my beloved <3

high elf dhampir

[lyric sedge]

I also think I read this at some point, forgot it, and subconsciously molded it into the "exemplar" concept. https://www.tumblr.com/dougbeyermtg/170014031714/banesaints

A Voice for Vorthos

Banesaints

I wrote this passage about the idea of taking a “banesaint” back around 2009, for the _Scars of Mirrodin_​ world guide. I don’t think the idea never made it onto Magic cards, and the world now known as New Phyrexia certainly has bigger fish to fry these days than the maintenance of certain Auriok cultural practices. But I’ve been thinking about the idea a lot lately:...

Tumblr · Jan 22, 2018, 10:16 PM

Exemplars are less personal and less outright evil, but they still serve as bad examples.

[torpid belfry]

ahhhh I see, interesting

I’m very fond of my Lazarios worldbuilding I gotta say

(the emphasis on Lazarian [especially North Lazarian] nobles in these notes is because Marian was born into North Lazarian nobility)

North Lazarios is one of the places that tends to get viewed most often as “barbaric” by other peoples (especially the Empire, but to a degree even South Lazarios)
there’s a degree to which it’s like, harsh northern lands with a sense of… like… developing the individual for the sake of not dragging down the community in such difficult conditions?
which means they tend to be exoticized for their perceived unilateral badassery and/or reviled for their perceived savagery
neither of which is great

[lyric sedge]

I really need to figure out what real-world cultures inspire my worldbuilding.

[proud osprey]

d&d tonight!!

[next canopy]

Hey my players are going to fight a bunch of monsters that are by pack of 2 and are supposed to be twins. I would like iodeas on mechanic where one of the twin can help the other and reward the group if they manage to kill one. Any Idea ?

[proud osprey]

d&d went totally crazy

purely exploration and RP section

which helps because the next few are going to be combat all round

got to rp a few favourite NPCs from the city thus far, almost had a reservoir dogs stuck in the middle with you moment with a gnome, we had some tasteful sewer explanation and magical shenaniganing, found the dark elf community underneath the city, visited a cool blind fortune teller type lady

she was fun to role play

they legend lored a chalice

which i reckon the dwarf will be acquiring

[grave hollow]

Couple days late, but: Cave System with just a shitton of predatory creatures in it.

[proud osprey]

all predatory? D:

OOPS! ALL PREDATORY

i like a bit of gygaxian naturalism

as much as the next guy

but you gotta have a mix

[grave hollow]

You could make it more dangerous and have it filled with some of the most crash out herbivores.

[proud osprey]

okay chat

here we have it: Castle Dréaduig

six floors, ground floor through 1st, 2nd and the 3rd floor at the top, as well as a basement level leading into a system of caverns that wind down the hills, emerging at two separate small caves by the river

the castle itself is very wildly overgrown, blending into the wooded hillside due to all the foliage

i now need to work out

1. who was here
2. what happened
3. who is now here
4. what is here

so that’s lore and lair and loot

time to consult

[proud osprey]

chat is the boss of the dungeon half white dragon or half green dragon

[visual river]

Ooh, white!

It's winter now after all

[proud osprey]

neat

half dragon orog, exiled from his tribe as a freak, building a warband of his own

living in an ancient overgrown castle in the hills

[proud osprey]

more west marches ideas welcome

[elder cove]

what's the setting like

[proud osprey]

vaguely more temperate weather british isles style vibe. all that folklore, druids n fairies n shit, + d&d stuff, on a slightly more diverse island climate side

[lament geode]

You should have a part

where they march west

[merry atlas]

new shifter art

[sand hornet]

For a second I thought this was a Shifter ala the Pathfinder Class and got unreasonable excited for that moment

[merry atlas]

read the channel name Starduster, don't be fooled

NOOOO

[sand hornet]

I know but still

[merry atlas]

I just need them to give me dino mounts at some point for the Halflings of Eberron.

[icy sky]

First year of the Tuesday Game complete! Final party composition was:

• Relimi, Cleric 5
• Merce, Cleric 2 (henchman)
• Nissa, Magic-User 5
• Celebrindel, Elf Thief/Magic-User 3/2 (henchgirl)
• Caratacos, Fighter 3
• Aethelwynn, Paladin 4

and rest in peace to:

• Goatsberg, Thief 1, ambushed by seven zombies
• Ralami, Cleric 1, split off while fleeing a shadow
• Clovis I, Fighter 1, pit trap
• Unnamed Nomad, Magic-User 1, the same pit trap
• Priasons, Thief 2, tried to backstab a firenewt cleric
• Temp, Paladin 1, overwhelmed by firenewts
• The Woman from Greick, Fighter 1, ghouls
• Valeucou, Fighter 4, got hit with Yellow Mold, was revived, then fought a Shambling Mound
• Gwyrhaern, Fighter 2 or 3, dueled King Sigurd
• Gwyrthaern, Fighter 1, giant ants
• Henchelf, Fighter/MU/Thief 1/1/1, heart attack from Haste
• Temp, Druid 1, giant crabs

[ocean geyser]

Oooh is that new Eberron art?

[merry atlas]

Yup!

There’s a section at the back of the book that’s just a series of pieces from throughout it that together tell a neat story

@flat gull I’m gonna be playing an Artificer in a FR campaign starting in Phandelver. Using 2024 Warforged but reflavored as a particularly autonomous Mechanical Wonder (or Nimbleframe) from Calimport.

Planning to go for the new Cartographer subclass

Though if I ever get to play in Eberron I want to play a Warforged Pact of Fiend Warlock, or a Changeling College of Dance Bard (and the former would have the new Aberrant Dragonmark background, and the latter a Scion of one of the Houses)

[proud osprey]

https://tenor.com/view/fire-writing-gif-24533171

[lament geode]

thank you, thank you, I try

[visual river]

Same thing happened to my headmate when she described her wizard and I went "Oh, that's just Sylar from Heroes."

lukelblitz ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) Me: "hey dm,I had an idea for a DND character, it's accidentally describes the plot of ghost rider…

I then decided to show her the entirety of Heroes and she leaned into the similarities. Chills.

[merry atlas]

https://tenor.com/view/sylar-zachary-quinto-heroes-smile-no-gif-16862933

[trail bane]

the duality of man

the humble art user vs the overcompensator

im the overcompensator

I LOVE CHITTER SO MUCH

[trail bane]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeiUQ7h8qX8

[sand hornet]

Who's Chitter?

[proud osprey]

today i drew the better part of the map of my upcoming west marches campaign

while at work i recruited three more players to the pool

[trail bane]

my character, a thri-kreen

[proud osprey]

assimilated normally recruited two more players

[proud osprey]

one of my players was worried about me not trusting his rolls because he ended up with two 18s on his sheet, twenty minutes later i go back to the break room and one of our new joins rolls two 17s and an 18 in front of me and god

shits crazy

meanwhile guy sat next me has 6 dex

8 AC babeyyy

[proud osprey]

another big dungeon in the works. a basilisk spore servant deep in its depths

a mineshaft infested in the deepest layers with myconids

[trail bane]

Straight up dungeoning the dragons

[proud osprey]

chat i need low level (like maybe a challenge for level 1 or 2) generic grassland encounters for my west marches

[muted yacht]

birds try to carry off your lunch

dire eagle

ground collapses under your feet, causing you to fall into a dire badger den (it was structurally unsound)

insect swarm

[proud osprey]

i love this yoink

insect swarm is a shout

dire eagle maybe

[muted yacht]

big grazer animal comes to mind as a pacifist encounter

[proud osprey]

i’ve got bison in there

feel like there would be bison here

[muted yacht]

I'm imagining sort of a magic bison
like it has an axe on its tail to cut the grass like a lawnmower

a game I used to play with my brother is giving animals one single spell-like ability and making up some stuff about its ecological role and behavior

like, a cobra that puts you to sleep with its gaze, sort of thing

could be an interesting angle to mine for ideas

coyote that produces supernatural fear, but only to scare you off so it can eat all your rationa

[grave hollow]

So there is a 3rd party creature I love for this purpose: The Doppelrat.

Long story short, it is a rat that can make a bunch of clones of itself.

Once every ten minutes, it can make a rat swarm every round for four rounds.

[proud osprey]

pokemon

[proud osprey]

basilisk spore servant

[proud osprey]

chat what is in room B6/2?

context: deep inside a mine, this section is separate from the rest of the lowest floor and leads, eventually, behind a secret door in B6/2, to the entryway to the sealed dwarven stronghold of gildrau

sealed why? idk. you need a key. where the hell you gonna get a key? idk maybe aurora’s hole or smth

regardless of those logistics, what monster guards that progression?

some kind of construct

OOH

some kind of construct with the passcode to the secret door to the secret area that leads into lost gildrau

maybe carved in dwarvish into one of its plates

nvm :p

[normal crow]

I was gonna say "ur mom's in room B6/2" but I think you managed to figure things out without the help of your mother. Good!!!

[proud osprey]

https://tenor.com/view/misato-katsuragi-reload-gun-load-big-gif-11764396

[normal crow]

Misato ain't exactly a model mother though

[proud osprey]

tru

arguably not at all

the idea then is that this section leads to a big dwarven stronghold

dungeon within a dungeon

but it’s abandoned

due to. idk. a dragon? shadow dragon

some evil sorcery i think. they were arcane dwarves, which are unusual on the face of it in my world as dóthlanders typically dislike magic in a modern context due to where it has historically led their society and many others

so most dwarves are a god fearing humble people who take melee over magic any day, with dwarven mages a rarity nowadays

[normal crow]

Cursed Dwarven Construct

[proud osprey]

hell yea

[proud osprey]

what about

MANY cursed constructs

[arctic yew]

What effects should I add to a carpet of flying to reflavor it as a flying nimbus while also being

Different enough from the carpet

[low heart]

Penance stare

[low heart]

maybe give it some charges that the player can use to cast different weather spells or lightning spells?

or maybe give it an ability that allows it to create rainbows that turn people into snails :)

[normal crow]

It smells like rain on a sunday afternoon.

(As opposed to the flying carpet, which smells of a wet cat or dog and goddammit you have to wash it again but the smell never leaves, IT NEVER LEAVES)

[low heart]

damnit no one got my reference

[lyric sedge]

https://tenor.com/view/jojo-jojo-reference-jotaro-jojos-bizarre-adventure-is-that-a-jojo-reference-gif-6681830226860212095

[low heart]

YES

[low heart]

yo guys can i get your opinion on an adventure idea?

so in the adventure the party reaches a small town with only few people

a priest

a fisher

a farmer

a blacksmith

and a tavernkeeper

two people who were recently killed

those being the son of the tavernkeeper

and the daughter of the blacksmith

the party needs to figure out the murderer of these two

that being the priest

what could i use to symbolize the priest being the murderer

[proud osprey]

need more intel. motive?

[low heart]

well

it's based upon a videogame which name i have forgotten

but in the game the priest murders someone out of jealousy because he wanted to be with a certain person

he also forced that certain person to kill their unborn offspring

[proud osprey]

it’s not koudelka is it

[low heart]

i dunno

but in it you're a witch hunter

and plot twist

there is no monster

only a human one

[proud osprey]

at some point i really wanna do a faith esque one shot or small campaign where everyone’s clerics or paladins or otherwise has a religious bent and they work for the order of inquisitor

no rush tho. two of my party ARE junior inquisitors

and it’s gonna take them strange places

what kinda low level dungeon should i prep next

we’ve got:

• overgrown resettled castle
• gnomish ruins and arcane lab
• deep mineshaft with a couple of problematic occupants
• several tombs
• shipwreck

[arctic yew]

Hey,this is a weird ask but

Does anyone have a rework of artificer or something that is less "spellcaster with a steampunk skin" and sells more on the inventor thing

[pure elm]

Check out the KibblesTasty Inventor

[proud osprey]

i’ll get back to you next campaign, hmu in 2028 or so

[proud osprey]

thinking about the trajectory of the narrative campaign’s plot. once we leave the big city, the party are gonna get a place to call home, a castle a couple weeks north. then they’ve gotta head after a pair of leads for the paladin and druid, which will lead them to the wizard’s old mentor whose new apprentice has gone missing crawling a dungeon with a party of mercenaries looking for ancient dwarven magical research, covering the philosophers stone

the philosophers stone in question will prove useful for the druid’s plotline as it will be a means for him to reinvigorate the gostwood, his homeland, which will likely be their next destination following that and which is in the midst of an uprising that will only further explode following their exodus from the aforementioned big city due to the death of the emperor and some other factors

so we’ve basically got a big rainbow arch going backwards from big city to the gostwood by way of the northern backwater slightly sinister cursed territory of the empire

and during this hopefully the paladin (and the cleric, oooo) will start to piece together important stuff about their backstory. furthermore the dwarf barbarian will realise the wrongs done to his people by the empire, as will the drow wizard

and then it can all hopefully sync up in the gostwood where, if i have lined everything up correctly, they will have the opportunity to take down one of the mysterious agents of evil acting in the shadows as part of the conspiracy they have gradually been trying to unearth since literally session 2

chat i think i have cooked

following the gostwood arc it really depends on some of the outcomes. but i reckon the party will wanna head back to their stronghold and come to grips with the change in regional circumstances in the empire. and by that point given the extent of their travel it’ll beeeee

several months later, into the new year i believe

which is good. i like campaigns where time feels like it actually passes

hate when you’re like level 12 and it’s been maybe two months

[low heart]

the second one

so why not let's say have some

abominations born of alchemy necromancy and tansmutation eh?

[proud osprey]

huh?

[low heart]

your adventure ideads

ideas

[proud osprey]

but in specific reference to what?

[trail bane]

fight's going well

[worthy plank]

Oh no!!!!

<XD

[proud osprey]

any update??

[trail bane]

fight finished and the gm let me get back up at 1hp

[proud osprey]

phew

[low heart]

to the second adventure

[proud osprey]

i reckon they’ll cover w lot of this ground in the smišia arc, which is good bc we’re on the same wavelength

as for the second campaign (in like three years) i reckon it’ll be a lot of political shit and extraplanar high magic nonsense, but a slow burn to reach that point

[low heart]

i see

[proud osprey]

it's gonna be a good combat i think

[proud osprey]

i'm realising that something socioligcal that underpins early game d&d is that, going tavern to tavern in exotic lands rounding up a group of mismatched but compatible travelling companions is literally just what travelling and staying in hostels is like

[arctic yew]

what rogue subclass is good for

a bodyguard for a noble that is also their butler/maid

[torpid belfry]

I have to ask, is this a Fire Emblem Fates reference or am I being Guy Who’s Only Seen Boss Baby about this

[modest echo]

Battle maid is a recurring archetype, Fates is a nice and straightforward example

[modest echo]

Mastermind? For a bit of support

[arctic yew]

i mean,the noble is supposed to be just

some guy

with a unstopable force of nature for a servant

[torpid belfry]

makes sense
I vaguely remembered this which is mosta why I included the latter option

[sand hornet]

Once again my specific module desire comes back up

And once again it still has no open groups

[proud osprey]

fire emblem fates moment

[torpid belfry]

unstoppable force of nature
hmmm
combat wise, utility wise, mix of both...? (by rogue standards I mean)

cos like

if ur focusing on the "they can kill people So Fuckin Hard to protect their ward" aspect then maybe assassin

or if you want to go for the idea that they do like, honorable dueling etc because they are Proper™ then swashbuckler

or so on

I just don't feel like I have enough info on this char yet to know what subclass to recommend for sure yk

[low heart]

god shattering star

[proud osprey]

chat how convoluted should one’s various villains’ plans be

we got a vampire lord who is playing one of the gods of undeath

AND playing one of the other gods of undeath

but loyal to that second secret one

he is the only true vampire in the world, a survivor of the cadian wars, an icon of sanguinis, the bloody prince

we’ve got a duchess aspirant of the other god of undeath

our setting’s vecna

we’ve got a cultist of the demon dragon god, this setting’s answer to tiamat, trying to rebirth her by profane magical brute force by causing one massacre per head of the dragon and then casting a spell to bind all of those from the central point

[proud osprey]

we’ve got a worshipper of a sea god

he’s chillin mostly ngl. an antiheroic character. if we compare the campaign to fullmetal alchemist, he would be greed

there’s a worshipper of a demonic god of ambition and ascension, who is this wood elf nationalist dude who wants to do some fuck shit like what nationalists always seem to want to naturally progress to doing

and then there’s a worshipper of a demon lord of madness. she’s completely wordless

i’m not even confident i’ll give her telepathy

although that would be cool actually

[proud osprey]

anyway circling back to my original point how convoluted should these plans be

more??

more :^)

[low heart]

CADIA STANDS

oh wait wrong universe

[low heart]

make here telepathy either extremely silent and serene or chaotic and storm like

to show that she's either so mad that her mind is empty

or that she's so mad that her mind is always overflowing

you could also sometimes make pieces of her mind enter other peoples minds without her or them knowing

[proud osprey]

hell yea

[proud osprey]

i IMAGINE the end outcome for some of these folk won’t be strictly success for them but that their gods will rise in some form. like the vampire lord playing both sides ultimately just gets the OG vampire god sanguinis back into material reality, and then i can upcycle him as a main villain in a later campaign

[proud osprey]

cat

kbity

[trail bane]

kbity!

chubby kbity

we lub

[proud osprey]

hell yea

artificer? what is?

i’m debating letting people play artificer in campaign 2 seeing as it’ll be about 125 years after the current campaign where we’re already seeing some arcane powered flight (albeit as a very marginal exception) and the birth of an age of gunpowder and sail

[trail bane]

Battle Smith :>

[proud osprey]

fun

like i said. makes one debates :3

thinking things up, party will be coming up on level 6 by the end of the next arc or two

[low heart]

nice lookin art

[proud osprey]

chat i am SO excited

session #17 on saturday

THE CHALICE, PART III: THE CROW’S EYE

introducing a new major recurring antagonist

and drip feeding quite the extensive wedge of plot continuation for two or three of the characters

while introducing a new PC

and having a bomb ass combat encounter

LETS GOOOO

just did the maths it’s actually session #20

[proud osprey]

chat if my bard player goes down do i bring out the magical demigod woman tormenting him and let him get back up as a warlock in her servitude

[visual river]

Well obviously yes, that sounds awesome

[proud osprey]

like they’re right about to level up

[proud osprey]

debating the exact specifics of his warlockship

if it were to happen

[proud osprey]

the gf is formally assembling her character

all according to keikaku

[sand hornet]

I found a game for the module I want, that the party is just starting later today. The one problem (if you could call it that) is that it's on Roll20

debating if I still wanna try it out, even then

[random gull]

r20 isnt bad in itself

its a chunky mess of a program, but if the group is nice...

[timber sleet]

Wait so im not the only person who found roll20 completely impossible to use

Thats relieving i thought i was stupid

[sand hornet]

I massively prefer Foundry personally, though having checked they have made some changes to Roll20

[dapper fulcrum]

I use a certain plugin thingy that makes roll20 useable

[sand hornet]

Which one?

[elder cove]

foundry is so good but I'm too entrenched in my 3000+ hours of roll20 muscle memory

[proud osprey]

no such thing

[dapper fulcrum]

Forgot the name

Its integrated to that one website with all the 5e stuff so

[modest echo]

https://bsky.app/profile/sumiaou.bsky.social/post/3lnoncqzces2h

🔞 Sketch 🔜 ANE (@sumiaou.bsky.social)

grave cleric serval

Reposts

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Likes

2274

Bluesky · Apr 26, 2025, 2:00 AM

[proud osprey]

KBITY

[timber sleet]

i love servals

[visual river]

the changes to roll20 are too little too late i'm a foundry+5etools girlie now

anyways hey gang my d&d group hasn't even had its session 0 yet and the character art my butch is doing goes hard as hell

the other two players haven't designed their characters and i can't wait to see them

[icy sky]

I hope they live

[visual river]

me too! good thing is you have to make some real poor choices over and over again to die in waterdeep: dragon heist

alex is also really not gung ho on killing children, and pallas is one (he's equivalent to a 16 year old in satyr years according to sword coast lore)

[visual river]

I'm going to try to make Anía in Baldur's Gate 3 and give her a go in order to get a rough idea of what she'll play like, which is really funny given the actual adventure we'll be doing. Paradox PC.

[low heart]

nice art

[proud osprey]

is that one’s name queef?????

[visual river]

Yes. One of the recommended Tortle names is Quee. Mals misread it and hilarity ensued.

silly little jester man ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) is that one’s name queef?????

What's funny is that Queef is actually the most seriously built character in the party. Me and Mals's partners have PCs with insane lore.

[visual river]

Pallas's gay, trans, adoptive halfling dads have essentially outsourced his coming of age to an old flame because the kid wouldn't drink, fuck, or fight. He just sat in his room reading all day. Even sending him to a monastery didn't work.

Anía is one of the few Dragonborn that not only likes dragons, but is actually immediately related to them, but instead of being majestic, she chose to be a beat cop for the City watch, and eventually got bumped up to the Waterdhavian equivalent of a SWAT.

The unnamed fisherman PC is a werebear. The story of how a humble fisherman managed to convince a werebear to bite him is one that will never be told as the whole truth. Despite being from Waterdeep, he has an old timey pirate accent.

Our half-drow hasn't got a name yet, but whatever it ends up being, their class is designed to start them off flat broke, in an adventure where money management is central to the whole thing, because it's fucking Waterdeep.

Queef is just a guy doing fieldwork as part of his studies at the new Warmage school in Blackstaff, a position he earned because of an unexpected financial windfall that motivated him to actually do something with his life.

[proud osprey]

it is a very funny name

[arctic yew]

....I AM SORRY DM

i am bored

[dapper fulcrum]

God help your DM if its the 2014 version

[low heart]

oh oh no

[proud osprey]

what’s wrong with the horn of valhalla

[proud osprey]

????

[dapper fulcrum]

The 2014 horn is 2d4+2 summons or so

The 2024, only 2

[proud osprey]

2014 better

[arctic yew]

It's the brass horn

It's 3d4+3

The silver horn is 2d4+2

The bras is 3d4+3

The bronze is 4d4+4

And the iron horn is 5d4+5

[proud osprey]

i plan to give the horn to one of our party

at some point

except it’s called the horn of krïgfïst, like kriegfeast

dwarvish is the source of the word feast and a number of words for war

[arctic yew]

What tier

[proud osprey]

idk. later game shit prolly

the dwarf is well-swagged rn

in no rush

[visual river]

if queef dies i am going to replace him with the worst man of all time. just the absolute antithesis of everything the starting party makeup stands for

Maya (it/its) | eggs_box system ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) Pallas's gay, trans, adoptive halfling dads have essentially outsourced his coming of age to an old …

actual supervillain type shit

[proud osprey]

a super bigoted super rich super violent human fighter called slurs mackenzie

[grave hollow]

Alternatively: Gry Gygyx

[proud osprey]

idk if gary was ever super rich

sorry, sorry

for legal reasons

gry

[visual river]

a deep gnome assassin rogue named marty chumbis who would kill anyone for some decent coin and treats compassion, empathy, mercy, kindness, etc. as weaknesses to exploit

jingle balls ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) a super bigoted super rich super violent human fighter called slurs mackenzie

he owes queef a life debt so if queef dies then marty will arrive to pay that debt

[proud osprey]

i love playing gnomes

like can u believe they added gnomes

shits crazy

[sand hornet]

I am reminded of a homebrew class I really wanna play, but at the same time I consider it somewhat OP

Dunno if anyone else ever has taht issue

[proud osprey]

anyone have experience running for blood hunter players?

[torpid belfry]

reminded now of how I named an NPC in my first PC Helga’s backstory Bungo Sacksley
because Bungo is one of the 5e halfling name suggestions and I thought it was fucking hilarious
which then led to me giving him the surname Sacksley in reference to the Baggins family
cos like
bags -> sacks

[proud osprey]

i might play some solo d&d

[grave hollow]

So got a fishing minigame supplement that's 3rd party, and one of the fish in here is just

[visual river]

what's the source

[grave hollow]

Why Slay Dragons When You Could Be Fishing

[proud osprey]

chat what breed of dog does my dwarf barbarian's cool outdoorsy \ranger uncle have

[modest echo]

boarhound

[proud osprey]

we've already got one too many scooby doo jokes

[low heart]

looks cool

[low heart]

don't say this to bard or they will lay the dragon and sleep with the fishes

[arctic yew]

out of the hundreds

uypon hundreds of dnd npcs i have seen

none have ever captured me as much as

stacey

the valleygirl dragon

[spice hornet]

If the scales don't look like rhinestones you're not doing it correctly

[elder cove]

one of my favorite PCs I ever played alongside was similar

we were told we were doing a slasher movie themed two shot and so naturally the entire party played one of each of the Cabin In The Woods archetypes (Athlete, Whore, Scholar, Fool, Virgin, for reference)

The Whore was a stuck up preppy asshole woman who was richer than god and got off on the wrong bus stop on the way to sailing camp

a barbarian, naturally

she used a greatclub reskinned as a golf driver, but halfway through picked up a magical hot pink chainsword

her rages mostly involved yelling "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM" and "DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE THIS OUTFIT IS" at the top of her lungs

[proud osprey]

any demands to talk to managers

we got this for some of the conspiratorial dragons

[elder cove]

we figured out the slasher in question was a flesh golem, and as she cut it to pieces she demanded to speak to its necromancer

so pretty close

[proud osprey]

genuinely great

speaking of flesh golems, what other kooky magical oriented friends does the sketchy Illuminati dark elf wizard npc have tucked away

[dapper fulcrum]

Allip

[proud osprey]

YO bars

this shit is gas

banderhobb, allip, flesh golem

what else

[proud osprey]

makin some nice accessible la/ndscape character sheets for my people. thoughts?

[sand hornet]

Sad news: the Odyssey game I joined died early

Silver Lining: the DM, who has done tons of Odyssey games, is now gonna do Raiders for those of us still left

[proud osprey]

:)

[onyx crow]

Ok so I continue

trying to create fun and varied encounters while balancing them so one fireball doesn't shred my opfor

[round copper]

So, at level 6 your full casters will have a total of 10 spell slots (3 lvl 3, 3 lvl 2, 4 lvl 1)

[ancient jackal]

You could make conc a skill instead, easier to pick up and doesn't need con saves

[onyx crow]

spread over 4 combats? I'm considering making an optional 5th if they're greedy and want to steal a guarded treasure

[round copper]

Yep, that's around 2 spells a combat (assuming they don't want to cast any non-ritual utility spells)

[ancient jackal]

No 4ths, not until 7

[round copper]

as in 4 of the level 1 spell slots

[ancient jackal]

Ah, you had that reversed, my bad

[round copper]

nw, I could have made that less confusing

[onyx crow]

I think spreading out enemies and adding them gradually as reinforcements instead of having them all on the board at once also helps

I'm trying to design the encounters to be tactical and rely on other things than just damage because my experience with DnD so far has been "I stand next to the enemy and hit him. And do that again. And again."

I'm adding flanking and some slight tweaks to grappling to encourage melee control and movement a little more

[ancient jackal]

Have you checked out 5.5 yet?
Weapon mastery adds a lot of versatility to martials

[round copper]

wouldn't say "a lot" but it's a decent addition

[ancient jackal]

Some compared to none is a lot

[onyx crow]

I haven't, but I don't think reading up on it (and having the entire group read up on it) in the timespan we have is going to work

[ancient jackal]

True

[round copper]

Also, having the enemies with effects that force strength or dex saves affect casters a bit more, since they tend to dump on the physical side

[onyx crow]

I'm going for enemy comps of "some defenders, some control/support casters, some damage dealers", so the defenders could probably do some prone knocking stuff or such

[ancient jackal]

Quite a few 5.5 monsters auto grapple things they land attacks on

[round copper]

oh ye, 2014 counterspell

is... probably a bit mean if you're spreading their resources that thin

[ancient jackal]

A little

[onyx crow]

hmm yeah I don't want them to be super targeted

but I can be a little mean to my players, as a treat

I'll keep that in mind though and not stack too many caster targeting things

give them their moments to shine

[ancient jackal]

It's only mean because they lose the slot if it works
That's actually one of the reasons I like new counterspell more, I can use it against players more

[onyx crow]

I am considering adding an option for grapplers to interrupt spells cast by creatures they grapple, burning the action but not the slot

which would also be an encouragement for melee players to grapple enemy casters

[round copper]

Also stops Misty Step from being a get out of jail free card

[onyx crow]

It would probably be a contested dex check or something

Which could be cool because both casters and grapplers probably aren't that high on dex so it's not useless and not a complete counter either

[round copper]

usually the prio on stats on a caster is Casting stat > Con > Dex (up to 14 if medium armor)> everything else

[ancient jackal]

Me, looking at my entire line of homebrew martial feats that give more opportunity attack triggers and effects

[onyx crow]

If you would be willing to share some of those ideas I'd be thankful

[round copper]

flat dex check, or acrobatics? (important due to potentially adding prof)

[onyx crow]

honestly flat dex seems more appropriate

but acrobatics allows countering it... hmmm

or, building to counter it

[round copper]

making it acro will also practically force your casters to take acro (either via race or background)

same way securing your concentration is necessary in base DnD

then again it also makes Monk uniquely better at grappling casters

since monks already grapple with Dex anyway

and 2014 Monk needs the help lmfao

[ancient jackal]

I was toying around with the idea of another feat that provoked opp atks from other opp atks, haven't given too much thought to it yet

These combo with sentinel/PAM so, feat synergy for whatever playstyle you want

[onyx crow]

Ooh that's cool

[round copper]

Reactive is... a bit much

then again, it can't be used to cast a spell

[ancient jackal]

Maybe, needs testing

[round copper]

actually now that I think of it, it'd be neat on Monks

[ancient jackal]

And rogues

[round copper]

especially since their damage mitigation really falls off when multiattacks start existing

[pure elm]

Instantly top on Rogues probably

For being one of the few feats that meaningfully scales their damage

[ancient jackal]

Yep

Rogues should have better SA dice scaling anyway

[pure elm]

They should yes

[ancient jackal]

Don't get me started on barb rage damage

[round copper]

Even though it doesn't let you cast a spell. Polearm Master Reactive on a caster makes them even more obnoxious. (which is fair, that does cost 2 feats that don't go towards their main stats)

[ancient jackal]

Exactly
Besides, PAM is only a problem for casters with WC

[round copper]

I usually prefer Resilient Con over War Caster

[ancient jackal]

Just tweak the wording to be a generic non-OA reaction for spells, and issue solved

[ancient jackal]

Same, but conc wasn't the problem

[round copper]

the reactive spell aspect never really came up for me tbh

ig you can use it to cast Cure Wounds on your allies

[ancient jackal]

I've seen (and made) eldritch blast monsters

[ancient jackal]

RAW, yes
Was going to make a new feat for that RAI though

[round copper]

How do you force them to proc AOO? Command?

[pure elm]

PAM

[round copper]

Oh, I was looking at the 2024 PAM

[ancient jackal]

Unnecessary nerf
WC was the problem with that combo

[pure elm]

You have a reach polearm, PAM and Warcaster

But yeah it doesn't work anymore in 5.24

[ancient jackal]

See above

[pure elm]

And then you EB anyone who approaches and use Repelling Blast to push them away

[round copper]

oh that is obnoxious lmao

[ancient jackal]

4d10+20 damage too

[pure elm]

There's ways to mix Echo Knight in too

To expand your zone of control

[ancient jackal]

Yep

[round copper]

Echo Knight sure is a subclass

[ancient jackal]

I did revise (revert) PAM so it synergizes with the other martial feats though

[ancient jackal]

Mix in a bit of old bladesinger or new valor bard for EB actions too

[proud osprey]

yo what we do

[onyx crow]

hello if anyone is free would you like to look over monster designs I made and check if they seem balanced?

[proud osprey]

sure

[onyx crow]

Fishfolk Speardiver
Medium Humanoid

Armor Class: 15
Hit Points: 45
Speed: 40ft, swim 40ft
CR2

STR 14, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 10

Skills: Perception +4, Athletics +4
Senses: Darkvision 120ft, passive perception 16
Languages: Abyssal
Amphibious: the Fishfolk can breathe water and air.
Weak point: Once per round when the Speardiver hits a creature suffering from the bleeding condition inflicted by Rending Spear with a weapon attack, it may deal an additional 2d6 piercing damage to that target.

Actions:
Multiattack: The Speardiver makes two attacks; either twice with its spear or once with its spear and once with its net.

Rending Spear: Melee Attack, +5 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 1d8+3 piercing damage. Target must succeed on a CON save (DC 12) or start bleeding and take 1d4+1 piercing damage at the start of each of its turns for 3 turns. Successive failed saves forced by attacks extend the duration by an additional 3 turns. Bleeding can be cured by restoring any amount of HP, or by repeating the CON save as an action.

Net: Melee Attack, +5 to hit, reach 10ft, one target. Hit: No damage, but the Target becomes restrained until it passes a DC 10 STR check as an action or the net is destroyed by taking 5 or more damage (the net is immune to psychic, piercing and bludgeoning damage). The Speardiver cannot use the net again until it retrieves it as a free action while adjacent to or on it. If the net is destroyed, the Speardiver cannot use this ability.

Fishfolk Brawler
Large Humanoid

Armor Class: 13 (natural Armor)
Hit Points: 60
Speed: 25ft, swim 25ft
CR: 2-3

STR 18, DEX 10, CON 16, INT 7, WIS 9, CHA 5

Damage Resistances: Fire
Senses: Darkvision 120ft, passive perception 7
Languages: Abyssal

Traits:
Amphibious: the Fishfolk can breathe water and air.

Actions:
(1/day) Scale Guard: the Brawler designates an allied creature within 10ft to protect as a bonus action. The Brawler gains resistance to non-magical piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage. When the protected creature would take damage from an attack while within 10 ft of the Brawler, the Brawler can use its reaction to take the damage instead. This effect ends when the Brawler is incapacitated, is more than 10 ft away from its protected creature at the end of any turn, or when its protected creature dies.

Chitinous fist: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 1d8+4 bludgeoning damage

Grimy Tentacle: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10ft, one target. On Hit: 1d6+2 bludgeoning damage and the target is automatically pulled adjacent to the Brawler and grappled. If the target cannot be moved, the grapple fails. Until this grapple ends, the Brawler cannot grapple another creature.

[proud osprey]

the bleed seems very strong for a CR 2 critter. what levels the party

[onyx crow]

i'm not so sure about HP values, on one hand I don't want these to bog down a combat by staying alive forever but it'd be nice if they survived at least a turn. the idea is to have a few of these on the board (along with a spellcaster that I still need to work out) to have the trio defender-damage dealer-controller against a level 6 party

so there'd be about 5 enemies on the board at one time, probably 1 defender, two damage dealers, 1 caster and one weaker critter that can inflict poison or something

with reinforcements coming in from tide pools

[proud osprey]

bunp

[onyx crow]

level 6

you could probably write this effect so it scales with party level

but I find this appropriate, the save isn't too bad and the real threat is taking the bonus damage from being hit while bleeding

[proud osprey]

well i like the mechanic

works for me

careful on overloading the combat i guess but otherwise these sound solid and fun

[timber sleet]

weird thing i like to do: due to a weird mix of spiritual and system stuff, i have a bunch of past life memories of being a deity, and i love to turn my angels into dnd statblocks, its really fun

i classify them as aberrations and not celestials because these were like, biblically accurate style

[proud osprey]

thinking about cool endgame magical artefact level items for my group

like legendary gear shit

[arctic yew]

Add "jumped up to the sky and swallowed a delayed blast fireball before it went off" to the list of coolest things I did in dnd

[proud osprey]

thinking about the southwest of my thus far imagined world

thinkin about yuan-ti

never gotten an opportunity to properly run them

y'know like kobolds, undead, goblins, orcs, dragons, bullywugs, plenty others i've been able to run so-to-speak "in totality"

like never as a whole arc or even dungeon or boss

so they'll be my introductory villains

next time

magically and technologically advanced empire, represented here by a raiding party including yuanti

[low heart]

why is the visitor here?

[timber sleet]

Lmao

Yeah most of my pfps are of various eldritch/deific creatures because of how i relate to them, a few others ive had include the nameless deity from terraria calamity mod wrath of the gods addon and FRIEND from deltarune

[low heart]

relate to them?

who the fuck are you?

yogsothoth?

[timber sleet]

Like i said up here, its a big mix of spiritual and system stuff

[low heart]

understandable

[proud osprey]

oldschool dungeon measurements/scale were weird

3.3 ft per square which can be occupied by a person but the maps were drawn at 10ft scale

[low heart]

100 can be split through 3

equaling to

33.3333333333333

and on and on

[proud osprey]

meanwhile modern editions decomplicate it by having 5ft scale

meaning every 10ft squared you can fit 4 people instead of 9\

[timber sleet]

on the topic of this, i made another one, this ones a greater angel while the previous one was a lesser angel, and the power level on display here should make it obvious why i cant really translate any archangels into dnd statblocks

[onyx crow]

@dapper cove you mentioned ideas to improve dnd combat, I'm trying to do exactly that currently

I've got a few changes I want to make already apart from simply designing more engaging maps and enemy compositions

[proud osprey]

i do think next campaign i run i'm gonna hatchet apart 5e in order to run a lil faster. stuff like counterattacking and all that

[onyx crow]

the probelm is trying to maintain a balance between better tactical combat and not bloating the fights with tons of rules that make every turn take half an hour

[proud osprey]

well mostly i just want to speed things up

i figure if everyone (at least martials) gets to counterattack then more attacks mean combat concludes quicker

a big part of the issue is bounded accuracy and the general skeleton of wotc dnd

maybe next time i'll run a 2e campaign

[dapper cove]

So I've got a few basic principles to lay out though I was more focused on map creation. If you also want to change rules I can at least give pointers on what I have in mind there too, but I'll admit a decent chunk of it may just end up be about reinventing 4e.

[proud osprey]

maybe i'll just make a private d20 fantasy heartbreaker

for next campaign

[onyx crow]

yeah for map creation I'm doing LoS breaks, elevation, enemy spawning zones, difficult/dangerous terrain and some sort of map element like good old explosive barrels

[proud osprey]

kboom

[dapper cove]

Right, the next step from there is identifying pathways by which one can move, objectives that give a reason to do so, as well as the ability to move around on the map.

If memory serves the MCDM stuff on updated monster rules should suffice there. For player characters one of the bigger tactical bottlenecks is the limit to effectively one action per turn, which there are ways to mess around with but is more difficult.

For NPCs giving things tactical, crossbows and ranged attacks that you can break the LoS of should do well.

Spellcasters add more spice, but right now the focus is just on giving people a reason to use the cover laid out

The other struggle to deal with is that DnD combat, due to how attacks of opportunity work, tends to be rather sticky with tools for dealing with it being unevenly distributed. This is more a case of needing to evaluate it overall, since you do want some stickiness to melee as to not make kiting too strong.

[onyx crow]

what's MCDM?

[proud osprey]

matt colville's company. they made dnd supplements a while ago for a few years

now they've basically taken that design philosophy up to eleven and made draw steel, if you've heard of that

[onyx crow]

i've only seen memes about how it instantly kills your character

I think that was the one

[proud osprey]

h u h

[dapper cove]

Yeah, irony being that the work he did both for dnd and Draw Steel both reminded me of 4e, but I'll put that aside.

Flee, Mortals! is solid

[proud osprey]

both are solid to my understanding. not played draw steel yet but heard mostly good things

overall i've heard more people be positive about draw steel than i have daggerheart, as a point of comparison

4e the oft-maligned

secret best edition

[dapper cove]

The irony is that this particular discussion stemmed from me not being too impressed by what I've seen of Draw Steel's map design so far (with notable exceptions; small, complex rooms tend to be solid enough).

[proud osprey]

can't weigh in unfortch

[dapper cove]

And since I finally have time to I can now start stress testing the system for the sake of map design.

[proud osprey]

woop

[dapper cove]

It's a kind of niche topic admittedly, but this is the (alpha) map that ignited this particular discussion: #tabletop-discussion message

Though my want to stress test draw steel is older than that

[proud osprey]

ramp

[visual river]

we decided this sucks and instead my backup pc is a harper warlock tiefling whose patron is a flumph

Mals (she/her) | eggs_box system ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699276234178560 message) he owes queef a life debt so if queef dies then marty will arrive to pay that debt

cesa is an any/all bi cis woman on testosterone. i will not explain further

[lyric sedge]

waow (based based based)

[wild hornet]

Hello! I've been working on a D&D 5e actual play/audio drama for the past 9 months with some friends, and we're finally ready to debut to the public! We've got a professionally-composed score, lovely digital art, and a great cast. If you like actual plays at all, you'll like this one too, and if you don't think you like actual plays, well, this one might be worth a shot! Episodes are about an hour each, and they're edited like episodes of a radio show, so things keep moving - this is a lot higher production value than just a mic in a room during a normal D&D sesh.

Our debut episode can be found on YouTube with subtitles here: https://youtu.be/6Rra-c1LmUM
We're also on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/65PThsPWnY98NdtDuwsZQG?si=d5ec1bbe8ad44d41), Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weave/id1865803508), and of course you can hook up whatever you want to our RSS feed (https://feeds.captivate.fm/weave-by-fictioneers/)

[low heart]

i got good news

i have fizbans treasury of dragons now

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/bnZs4PmiYQg

[sand hornet]

huh

was literally about to come in asking about Historiac Arcanum and if it's good

how are the books?

[visual river]

good morning nerdasses do any of you have or know of a good d&d 5e homebrew for a grammarian wizard subclass

[sand hornet]

Theory crafting for a character, dunno if I want to go Wizard, Fighter, Artificer, Sorcerer, or something else

2024 rules, if it matters

I'm thinking somewhat of a "rich bitch" vibe for this character, but they have a lot of knowledge, be it simple combat training, the training to cast spells, or simple mechanical knowledge

Also probably one of the "furry" races, as our DM is letting us use old races within reason

Current frontrunner is a Bladesinger, but we'll see

[dapper fulcrum]

artificer for skill proficiencies

wait wizard has expertise

wizaard

[sand hornet]

Huh, didnt know Wizards have expertise in 2024

Neat

[trail bane]

been making some custom tokens for my player group

had a lot of fun with evil ol' alothorn i'll be fr

[trail bane]

god help

im joking ofc

it's just some books as a reference to the Lusty Argonian Maid

but one player wants to collect all the issues

[low heart]

that isn't good

[trail bane]

the players are mature, and nothing NSFW is actually being written.

it's one of those things that people just want to collect for the fun of it lmao

[low heart]

i see

is it the bard trying to collect it?

[trail bane]

nope lmao
it's the party chef

[alchemist artificer]

[low heart]

damn

[proud osprey]

chat i have d&d next week

new group, some newcomers to the game, what do

[ancient jackal]

Session zero

[low heart]

may i entrust you an adventure for them?

first the group will meet on the road and reach a small but cozy farming village

the first person they'll meet is named

veritas

(truth in latin)

he speaks the truth and is a good guy

says some people have disappeared and that newcomers are look at with suspicion

the party get's recruited through some ways to help search for the missing people

if they ask veritas he answers "i've seen somethings in the woods nearby, they might be of help"

and through some more stuffs they figure out it's a cult and the priest of the village is behind it

ensue the combat

or other things

[lyric sedge]

Call me a suspicious motherfucker, but I would immediately assume someone named "Veritas" is lying.

[low heart]

nah this time not

i based it on a game where a character called veritas is actually telling the full truth

[merry atlas]

"New" Eberron book tomorrow on DnDBeyond.

[dapper fulcrum]

Wha

Which one

[merry atlas]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2126-q1-2026-partnered-content-release-schedule

Not sure because they emphasize (2024) with it.

So either it's a "remaster" of one of the three (presumably the first one) or a mash up, or a new one?

[proud osprey]

well yea

i mean i don’t rly do session zero bc i only ever play with people i know pretty well

but still we’re gonna be making characters and stuff then diving in

[merry atlas]

https://marketplace.dndbeyond.com/category/DB8XTUXUM?pid=DB8XTUXUM @dapper fulcrum

[low heart]

Ebberon my beloved :)

[obsidian jasper]

Okay so how far can I bring a martial to be on par with a caster and what martial or half caster would help the most?

I also kinda want to do a mage slayer build

[ancient jackal]

I did make a few martial-specific feats, spellbreaker and mage slayer makes for a good anti-mage combo :)

[obsidian jasper]

Ooh

[merry atlas]

https://youtu.be/tKBfu9mrrdE

[dapper fulcrum]

Oh i have that

[merry atlas]

There’s some new content as I understand, and it’s all been updated to 2024

[trail bane]

okay HERE's the right channel

I hate world maps i hate world maps i hate wo-

[proud osprey]

very noice

[trail bane]

i must now fill it with explorable areas

[proud osprey]

i see many

dog this is morrowind

[trail bane]

uh...it isnt meant to be

let me grab the older maps