dnd-discussion

[old sluice]

Yes

[fossil hollow]

yes. we literally said that

[lavish flame]

BG3 plays fast and loose with a fair bit of lore

[eager marsh]

Omeluum has this problem as he is trying to find an alternative to brains and he still has to eat brains

[lavish flame]

this is almost bar-for-bar my example, you could absolutely do this

[fossil hollow]

im kinda sad no karlach statblock though. ig a warrior vet fits.

or a berserker commander

[old sluice]

Not as much as fast and loose as some people think. Many so called lore inconsistencies are explained by the fact that some characters are simply liars or wrong. One specific character, for example, lies just about every time they speak

[lavish flame]

Berserker Commander is prob the play

[knotty pasture]

Wild Magic Karlach sounds funny in my head

[eager marsh]

Illithids are really fun to play as a character if you dig around into all their cultural norms and the ways they behave so that you can play a foul and squid out of water to the rest of the party assuming you can cross the first barrier of why you aren’t still bound to an elder brain

[fossil hollow]

just change the thunder damage thy got to fire maybe, slap on hellish rebuke, darkvision, thaumatrgy, and fire resistance

[remote wadi]

I was reading the higher level Fighter levels by the time you said your answer

[old sluice]

Or just make Karlach's heart a magic item.

[fossil hollow]

message was literally underneath the one you replied to

does karlach need soul coins?

[lavish flame]

The BG3 PCs as NPC stat blocks would be what, like Vampire Spawn, Mage, Berserker Commander, Priest, and Fiend Cultist?

[lavish flame]

yeah, it burns Soul Coins for her unique ability

[fossil hollow]

or is the infernal engine not the same as an infernal machine's engines?

oh ic

[fossil hollow]

if shadowheart is the priest, i think she works better as a death cultist

[lavish flame]

ah, she is. that makes sense tho

[fossil hollow]

fiend i take it is... drow wamen

[lavish flame]

nah that was Wyll

[fossil hollow]

oh, makes sense

minthara probably what? drow priestess?

[lavish flame]

one of them fancy newfangled FR Drow prolly

if not, then Knight

[old sluice]

I am still ashamed by the fact that I played the game three times before learning that Minthara was recruitable.

[fossil hollow]

they basically reprinted the 2014 ones

[cerulean monolith]

Astarion is confirmed Vampire Spawn, yes. As for the others, it's up to debate. Gale was an Archmage (and also a ||Chosen of Mystra||) pre-tadpole

[fossil hollow]

i can see some swash mixed with astarion

[eager marsh]

Being a chosen means he’s functionally a demigod kinda

Mystra should get killed again

[fossil hollow]

gug, yall making me remember to slot them into my BG:DiA campaign

[lavish flame]

Yeah there's some "when are we snapshotting these characters?" going on cuz like... Astarion can become Distinctly Not a Vampire Spawn. Gale is either insanely strong or A Regular 'Ol Wizz.

[woven flint]

I agree

[fossil hollow]

and i concur with killing mystra. do yall think the hells is hte best place to kill her?

[lavish flame]

Asmodeus wants moar magic, sure

[eager marsh]

Getting her there would be difficult

[fossil hollow]

chains of asmodeus time

[eager marsh]

And Ao would never permit Asmo to inherent the weave

That’s like handing him the multiverse then and there

[stray atlas]

speaking of killing gods

what would happen if shar or selune died?

would the opposite sister take their domain?

[remote wadi]

In any case, I think i got a good plan for future level ups

Level 3 is subclass into Gloomstalker and the Piercer feat
Level 6, MC into Fighter, take the Gunner feat
Level 9, subclass into Fighter, take Alert Feat
Level 11, take one last feat (Lucky, probably?)

[eager marsh]

Ao picks a random mortal to fill in like he did for Mysra most likely

[remote wadi]

Thoughts on this?

[fossil hollow]

#optimization

[remote wadi]

Gotcha

[stray atlas]

aaand I think a scambot from here chose me

[fossil hollow]

kill it

[lyric idol]

Faerun would be in chaos for a while but Shar wouldnt be missed. Another deity would probably replace her in half a second.

Free followers or something

[fossil hollow]

i think its only the drow(?) who follow her

wait is she part of the drow pantheon

[stray atlas]

idts

[knotty pasture]

Drow follow Lolth the Spider Queen

[fossil hollow]

shes not the only one on the drow pantheon

[stray atlas]

I doubt a goddess who is related to Selune that closely would be followed by only one race

[cerulean monolith]

Well, they have a ton of domains that would be fought over. Neither of them have something that's super necessary to be maintained. If Shar dies, Mystra probably absorbs the Shadow Weave.

[fossil hollow]

miss twilight domain eli is the most common example

[meager fractal]

If lolth died I'm sure a lot of drow would switch to Shar in a heartbeat

[knotty pasture]

Shar doesn't fall under any race I reckon either, like how Selune doesn't

[fossil hollow]

selune is a moon goddess though

[stray atlas]

Selune is kinda related to werewolves though isn't she?

[cerulean monolith]

I think Lathander, Mystra, and Cyric are probably the biggest beneficiaries if both of them die. If only one dies, then it's the other.

[old sluice]

Actually Shar already died and was resurrected in a novel.

[stray atlas]

or is that my research failing me?

[knotty pasture]

There's something sad about Drow jumping ship to Shar first before considering Eilistraee

[fossil hollow]

elistri something is part of the drow pantheon

[lavish flame]

Eilistraee

[old sluice]

Shar is the oldest evil goddess in the Realms, killing her is possible. But she probably has so many contingencies that lead to resurrection that it's a waste of time.

[fossil hollow]

Eilistraee? no wonder i cant remember the spelling

[cerulean monolith]

Eilistraee is the Good-aligned alternative to Lolth

[fossil hollow]

but yeah, lolth isnt the only one drow can follow

theres like, two guys they follow to, albeit secretly

[lavish flame]

They have a whole pantheon, each one edgier than the last

[old sluice]

Even Eilistraee is kind of edgy. She's always naked.

[knotty pasture]

Yeah Shar isn't within the Drow pantheon

[stray atlas]

tbh if what she's shown like in bg3 is even slightly accurate she should've been killed long ago

[meager fractal]

She gets cranky if a drow doesn't worship her tho

[fossil hollow]

nah, she enjoyed drizzt

[old sluice]

She has. It did not stick. Because, once again, she and her twin are simply the two oldest gods in the setting.

[fossil hollow]

actively loved the chaos he spread

[knotty pasture]

Its Lolth, Eilistraee, Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Selvetarm, Vhaeraun, Malyk and Zinzerena

[fossil hollow]

yeap

[red steppe]

Blame Mystra for that /j

[stray atlas]

she should've stayed dead

[fossil hollow]

poor 6 armed guy was this close to redemption

[stray atlas]

who?

[old sluice]

OK I'll bite... How the hell is Mystra responsible for that?

[fossil hollow]

cant remember the name, but its a drow god.

was it malyk?

wheres my tome of foes

[stray atlas]

again I'm not sure how accurate bg3's depiction is but dear god

[lavish flame]

Mordenkainen upon the slightest challenge

[lean belfry]

Hi there! I used to be able to post games as a DM but now the channel is inaccessible to me. Do you lose the ability to post games for being inactive, or?

[lavish flame]

Nah, there's just a bot command for it now. Check out #find-a-game for more info

[red steppe]

Mordenkainen giving a flight of stairs a statblock after tripping on them

[lavish flame]

You send the bot command in any channel and it reroutes the information into the right one

[stray atlas]

she literally created a hell full of undead nightmares, tortured someone for a century, and regularly removes the memories of her devoted

[marsh spade]

I have a bit of an odd question,

we started my campaign as an online dnd campaign with some in person sessions here and there, now, we don’t do either, but we all want to keep the campaign going. The dm doesn’t like online that much but is not opposed to it, but it’s like the only way we can actually make progress sometimes. We haven’t had a session in months

How should a player bring up to the dm that if we wanna keep playing, online sessions might be the best option until our schedules actually line up for in person?

[lavish flame]

"tortures someone for a century" is relatively blasé for the gods

[old sluice]

Wait until you see the depravities Myrkul gets up to.

[stray atlas]

tbh him being part of the same group as bhaal and bane already tells me what I need to know

[keen valve]

This is entirely unrelated to whatever you folk are talking about, but I have become obsessed with making a warlock then marrying them to their patron. I have small different concepts of romances between patrons and warlocks, it's insane.

You guys do similar weird stuff?

[red steppe]

What, no

[fossil hollow]

most of my patrons tend to be hands off

[lavish flame]

That has all the problems that a boss/employee relationship does but ten-thousandfold.

That said, I do indeed imagine relationships for my PCs regardless of whether or not that PC gets with someone.

[stray atlas]

I mean

I could imagine that happening but it depends on whether they knew each other before the warlock mess

[old sluice]

Most of my patrons tend to be not only aromantics but be as baffled by the idea of romantic love as you would be by the concept of colours having a specific smell

[keen valve]

Exactly! It's insanely funny. "My boss is my partner? Ohhh nooo, my archfiend-patron is."

Full of all the weird power dynamics and personable relationship issues one could ever hope for out of something like a ao3 novel but in D&D.

[old sluice]

Although in some specific case, it could be the backstory of the warlock. The pact was their mariage.

[stray atlas]

y'all don't associate colors with smells?

[old sluice]

Not if I am sober, no.

[lavish flame]

I don't mean to deflate your joy but thats not a funny dynamic, thats a dynamic rife with abuse.

[keen valve]

Well no, yes, that's the point.
(Hence the ao3 comment.)

[old sluice]

Those are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

You can make comedy out of everything, depending on how you frame it.

Whether that comedy is tasteful is yet another matter

[lavish flame]

I don't care

[keen valve]

No this isn't about it being comedy, this is about it being a tragedy.

[old sluice]

Oh, then go ahead with the abusive dynamic.

[stray atlas]

I look at mint green and can smell the menthol

[keen valve]

I got one single positive relationship, all the others are horrific. Good stuff yk?

[old sluice]

Yeah uh... You might want to see a neurologist. Maybe. I don't know.

[primal imp]

I think Detect Magic isn’t that useful. Most magic items are fairly obviously magical, and every DM I’ve ever had has allowed the use of the Arcana skill to identify a school of magic, determine what spell an enemy is casting, etc. The only real use case I can think of for it is for finding hidden or invisible magic effects, which happens rarely enough that you may as well use the prepared spell slot for something more useful. Am I crazy?

[stray atlas]

tbh with all the mental issues I already have it's probably one of them

[keen valve]

Yes.
Orange is sherbert.
Yellow is lemon.
Red is cinnamon.
Brown is gingerbread.

[lavish flame]

Nah what. Its literally "mint color reminds me of mint flavor" thats absolutely standard

[lavish flame]

Your DMs have inflated the value of Arcana checks to deflate the value of Detect Magic.

[keen valve]

They shouldn't be letting it identify a school of magic unless they're like physical objects or concepts with enscripted things?

[deft pine]

Blue is the general popsicle flavor

[old sluice]

OK maybe my brain is weird then.

[fossil hollow]

its good for confirming, and if you have time to ritual cast but not short rest, it doesnt cost a slot, just 10 min. although at that point its a lot btter for ongoing spells and other effects that glow with detect magic

[keen valve]

Gelatinous cube delights.

(Please tell me the D&D recipe book makes turkish delights and calls them something gelatinous cube related.)

[fossil hollow]

detect magic specifically states the school of magic if any

[stray atlas]

been wondering

[keen valve]

Out of all the things to misunderstand. I meant arcane.

[old sluice]

Detect magic tells me if there are magical traps, if a door is under an arcane lock, if the enemy I'm fighting has a buff spell going on...

[lavish flame]

In my table, Detect Magic + Identify are staples and adventuring parties without access to those spells kinda get screwed over. They usually miss magic items without Detect Magic or end up with items they super don't want.

[deft pine]

In the middle of my first long campaign and it gets canceled early cause one of the players banged the dm's daughter. I hope things like thay dont happen often

[fossil hollow]

detect magic tells you its magical + what school

identify tells you what the magic item do

also what the hell

[stray atlas]

was it normal for it to work when my orc told blackrazor to shut up if they wanna be evil?

[fossil hollow]

im surprised they didnt cast haste on you to end it immediately

[stray atlas]

how the hell do you want us to respond to this?

[deft pine]

I just felt like sharing

[old sluice]

And yeah, one time, we only found our best magic item because of it. Because it was broken, in metal fragments. But because we had detect magic up, we realized that among that mess there were fragments of one broken magical sword.

[fossil hollow]

blackrazor has so much potential to screw its wielder

"get haste lethargy, idiot"

[keen valve]

Yes. Arcane, does not.
It could, but generally does not.

[old sluice]

That's... OK, well, I guess it can happen. But like, what's the problem? Some fathers can DM for their daughter's boyfriends.

[lavish flame]

did that... work?

[fossil hollow]

what?

[stray atlas]

meanwhile my meathead of an orc made it calm down by telling them to shut up and later threatening to bring down a tower on it

[keen valve]

What I've been saying since the beginning.

[deft pine]

Ok lemme get typing, the drama is juicy

[fossil hollow]

i dont understand your point

[stray atlas]

yes

[old sluice]

Wait. Does that drama involve any actual creepy behaviour or underage characters?

[keen valve]

Ti, how do we always get into these spots.

[obsidian moon]

@trail mirage

[old sluice]

Because if the answer is yes to any of those, I will be happy to remain ignorant of the drama.

[fossil hollow]

i dunno mate. how the hell does "arcane" matter for detect magic

[lavish flame]

if you've got a story from ur time playing, that should go in #tales-from-the-table But I cannot lie I Do Not Think This Story Will Be Server Appropriate

[deft pine]

Nah, just beef

Ok fs

[keen valve]

That was the whole basis of the conversation!? The whole thing was that Arcane is not Detect Magic.

[fossil hollow]

what the hell is arcane

[keen valve]

Arcana.

[old sluice]

The arcana skill, not the show.

[lavish flame]

the Arcana skill

[primal imp]

Thanks for the thoughts, folks. Just tryna optimize my starting spell selection for my Kenku Order of Scribes Wizard.

[fossil hollow]

there we go, that solves my confusion

[old sluice]

Seriously, while you can get by without identify, please always have one character with detect magic prepared

It's not much, but it's better to have it and not need it than not having it when you need it.

[keen valve]

Or at least an item that can do it. That at the very least will help.

[lavish flame]

Arcane Traps my beloved

[old sluice]

Or able to ritual cast it.

[keen valve]

Maybe you could smell magic, but not see it.

[remote wadi]

So, what is a good feat to take after the good ones?

[keen valve]

What would transmutation magic smell like?

[fossil hollow]

a helm of detect magic but the only magic you see is the helm itself

[primal imp]

One of the bad ones lol

[deft pine]

Ozone

[lavish flame]

depends

[fossil hollow]

i imagine transmutation magic to smell of blood and dead parents and bodiless brothers

[stray atlas]

meanwhile my orc nearly one shotted a marut at level 5 with it

[remote wadi]

The ones I will take are Piercer, Gunner, and Alert

But what would be best after that?

[stray atlas]

dm had to save the marut

[primal imp]

But fr, if you aren’t prioritizing ABIs, I always like Skilled.

[fossil hollow]

"Ed... ward"

[old sluice]

No.

[fossil hollow]

thats what i think transmutation smells like

[old sluice]

Stop it this instant. You want to send people crying?

[keen valve]

I always take feats relevant to the character or would provide unique things to the game.

Hence why I usually homebrew them since existing feats are generally just NOT enough.

[lavish flame]

I think like... Polymorph just smells like a barn does. I think Maximillian's Earthen Grasp smells earthy.

[remote wadi]

That would normally be a good idea, but I already have some via homebrew rules (related to Intelligence actually mattering for the campaign)

[old sluice]

I watched it in 2003 and I am still traumatized

[deft pine]

Playing a smart character as a stoopid fella is very difficult

[old sluice]

Yes but consider: Playing a stupid character as a smart fella is very easy. So it's balanced.

[deft pine]

I was playing a leader of a druidic eco terrorist group. V difficult

[keen valve]

A la Darth jar jar binks or something else?

[deft pine]

Im funny so maybe I should just stick to my lane and be a gnome or something

[primal imp]

What are you playing? I’m assuming a ranged combat focus, but what class/background?

[old sluice]

No, I just mean like... You know how actors always say that you need the smartest actor you have access to in order to play a dumb character correctly?

The smarter you are, the more aware you are of what constitutes dumbness.

[primal imp]

Skulker is pretty great for ranged combat, if you plan on attacking from stealth

[remote wadi]

Human and Soldier. 2014 rules

Anyways, I narrowed down the final feat to Tough, Durable, or Lucky

[old sluice]

On the other hand, a character defined by their intelligence? Easy to mess up. Just look at the Sherlock show, where intelligence is essentially the superpower to read the script and come to the conclusion the writers want you to come to despite the fact that you do not actually have the informations that would make this conclusion come to you

[keen valve]

It would be the inability to learn, and the refusal to try.

Low intelligence is not a ranking of actual intellect so much as that ability to learn, explore, comprehend, and reason.

A low int character could be someone who is unreasonable and illogical, but theoretically not stupid by way of not knowing things.

[remote wadi]

Wouldn't that be a low charisma?

[old sluice]

Sure, among other things!

[keen valve]

No, rhetoric is not inherently charismatic so much as the understanding behind it.

[old sluice]

BTW, did we agree that, RAW, a 30 INT creature learns a language instantly?

[fossil hollow]

where does it say that

[remote wadi]

Anyways, I'm trying to think here

[fossil hollow]

i think the xanathar rules for learning languages still need a week minimum

[old sluice]

We talked about it last week. Basically since the training rules are that it's (10-intelligence modifier) weeks to learn...

[remote wadi]

For a Ranger/Fighter, which would be the best final feat to get: Lucky, Tough, or Durable?

[keen valve]

Actually using rhetoric, however, would require charisma, though. In truth, int, cha, and wis should overlap more.

[fossil hollow]

oh yeah

[old sluice]

And apparently, there is no minimum. Though I don't have my books with me so if someone can check, it would be appreciated

[empty thicket]

Bro know what i will say before i even think about it.

"Did you know"
Him: Yes, i know.

[fossil hollow]

no, i have it open rn, its no minimum

so youre right

[old sluice]

So the RAW answer... Really is that a 30 int creature can learn a language instantly.

[remote wadi]

Wait

[empty thicket]

lucky help you in a lot of spells saves being a fighter, same with attacks

[fossil hollow]

... wait i have a wizard player who has 30 INT

[keen valve]

It's like that sketch of the guy who answers questions before they're asked.
"I'm fine."
Him: "Good morning."
"Terribly."
Him: "How are you?"

[lavish flame]

I thought the language learning rules basically were just "spend [defined #] days and [defined #] of gold and you get the proficiency" is this Xanathar's?

[old sluice]

At least in "0 weeks". Which... You know, a second is 0 weeks, and six days is also 0 weeks.

[empty thicket]

bro just flip over a book and read it in one second

[remote wadi]

For a bit of context, I'm mostly a sniper, hence eventually getting into Fighter

My question is... how does HP growth work in a multiclass?

[fossil hollow]

its in the multiclassing section

[empty thicket]

higher numbers

[remote wadi]

I couldn't exactly find it

[fossil hollow]

at this point these questions are better for #dnd-newcomers

[old sluice]

I wonder though. Are there other "fun" things you get RAW by having a 30?

There has to be other stuff where the rule is that it's 10-modifier something.

[empty thicket]

normally is like that, now the thing is. If you worry too much about your hp for some high level spells, tough is good to go.
If you have already someone that cover you from that, take lucky.

[lavish flame]

PHB '14 has Training a Language as "it takes 250 days, 1 gp per day" and DMG '24 has Training a Language as "spend 30 days". What a weird anomaly for Xanathar's

[fossil hollow]

thats exclusive to training i feel

[keen valve]

I would say you could easily make it to where you're literally too much of something.

[fossil hollow]

also, ran one of the eberron airships an hour ago, i love them

i wanna make an eberron or spelljammer campaign solely to use those mechanics now

[keen valve]

I.e.
30 Cha bard: "Wow, nice hat, you should wear that more often-"
Guy with hat: "I am going to DIE wearing this hat."

[remote wadi]

Okay, the hit dice makes sense

But how exactly is HP determined?

[lavish flame]

this sorta defeats the power fantasy inherent to D&D tho

[keen valve]

Power fantasies are a farce.

[fossil hollow]

class. again, this is all literally in the basic rules

[keen valve]

They will as much issue as having too much of something irl would.
Sure it is nice to pretend otherwise, but is more meaningful to accept the truth.

[empty thicket]

str depend of your size until some points so... its tricky there

isnt the same a 30str dwarf like a 30str goliath

[lavish flame]

Depends on ur Class and Constitution Modifier. In very select cases, there is something else contributing to it. Read over the Basic Rules

[fossil hollow]

both are medium creatures

unless the goliath uses large form

[keen valve]

Funny idea, macaroni art golem.

[fossil hollow]

and the dwarf is a duergar with enlarge up

[lavish flame]

Ur talking crazy. Its antithetical to D&D's design to make having high bonuses bad. D&D wants the players to get really good at what they do.

[keen valve]

Maybe D&D is wrong.

[fossil hollow]

isnt bounded accuracy a thing though in 5e?

[remote wadi]

Okay. I did see how it changes. Last question for now is "Are the effects combined or larger only for multiclass?"

[fossil hollow]

dude theres literally only so much we can say that isnt already in the BR.

[remote wadi]

People likely have the answers here faster than the trouble searching myself

[keen valve]

But yeah, you are right. It's not within that generic "I am all powerful" energy that D&D hopes to let players exude. Hence why I'm more into games that level the field a lot more. GURPS, my beloved and so on.

[fossil hollow]

...

[lavish flame]

If this is your first time reading over the Basic Rules, do yourself a favor and avoid Multiclassing entirely, you're going to stunt your growth.

[fossil hollow]

its also a bit annoying... its literally free to view for a reason

[empty thicket]

you get my point, isnt the same and size matter

[fossil hollow]

they can carry the same amount

[hushed mason]

SO ANNOYING

[lavish flame]

There's like 5 multiclass builds that perform similarly to a single-classed character of the same level. 95% of multiclass combinations suck majorly

[fossil hollow]

actually wait, goliath have powerful build

[remote wadi]

Huh?

[fossil hollow]

ignore, been too long since i actually thought about powerful build

[hushed mason]

That you won't search for the answers elsewhere first

[lavish flame]

Powerful Build got cooler in 2024! Barely cooler, but cooler nonetheless!

[fossil hollow]

adv to end grapple is neat

i wonder if thats gonna apply to powerful build going forward or just for goliath

since i dont think we got minotaur, centaur, firbolg, or any of the other big guys yet

[remote wadi]

It can take a while to search for myself sometimes. I'd prefer not to waste this much downtime when the answer is right there. Apologies

[lavish flame]

not quite yet

[fossil hollow]

did they say anything about the next book yet?

[lavish flame]

Not a word

[fossil hollow]

i remember hearing about a adventure module in the works

[remote wadi]

But I read through it and it makes sense now. The amount of HP you get from leveling up is unique to each class, and which dice you use is dependent on which one you take the level up in

[lavish flame]

the Events tab is in shambles man

[lavish flame]

We have a Szass Tam adventure somewhere in the pipeline

[potent siren]

if you do have questions about character creation and similar, asking for help in #dnd-newcomers will prob help you out faster. That text channel is set aside for it

[lavish flame]

Or at least we should if it didn't get canned

[deft pine]

I think im gonna make a guerilla warfare build next. Maybe rogue druid?

[remote wadi]

Probably. But hopefully I will be a lot more knowledgeable by the time I need help again

[fossil hollow]

oh, a continuation for hold back the dead? kinda wish we got a continuation for elemental scions then. i enjoyed that adventure

[lavish flame]

Personally I'm hoping for a Bigby's/Fizban's style Elemental book

[remote wadi]

Hmmm. Well, then I guess that solves my questions

Thanks for the help

[fossil hollow]

i would love it, starting a elemental themed campaign myself, starting next sat

who would be the face i wonder. any named characters from calimshan?

or maybe we can get an elemental prince or the genie from infinite staircase maybe?

[lavish flame]

Sultana Songal is the only one I can think of, the non-genie leader

she might be a genie actually idk

[fossil hollow]

oh right, she has the new spell in heroes

[empty thicket]

fast question, what it mean?

[fossil hollow]

hm? powerful build is a feature goliaths get that lets them count as a size large for carrying, pushing, and lifting

[lavish flame]

Yan-C Bin's Guide to Elementals would be crazy

[fossil hollow]

in 2024, it also lets them get out of grapples better

[empty thicket]

okey okey, thankies

[fossil hollow]

i feel like.. that would be going Yin-C Bin

im taking psychic damage

[empty thicket]

There, a pie i made with some pork meat, egg, cheese and milk (+12T.hp)

[fossil hollow]

pizza?

jackpot

[empty thicket]

no, pie. Its something else but i cant find the translation right now. Ate it in front of your enemies for brag about such good meal

[fossil hollow]

this is not a woo hoo moment

[old sluice]

BTW, on the monster books, we had Volo's that talked about... Kobolds, goblins, giants, illithids, hags, gnolls and Yuan-Ti. Mordenkainen's that talked about elves, halflings, gnomes, githyankis, githzerais, devils and demons. Bigby's that was all about giants. Fizban's that was all about dragons... What else is left?

A category of monster that could use a book to flesh them out, give them more variant, more fun rules, some lore dissections, some loot...

[fossil hollow]

plants, fey, monstrosities, titans

[old sluice]

Oh. Undead. Vecna's Scroll? Acererak's Scroll?

You could probably put all the plants, fey, beasts and other monstrosities with a natural flair in the same book.

But which character should it be named after?...

[fossil hollow]

well, theres a lot of druids and nature oriented characters

drizzt, dorin, to name a few

[old sluice]

Drizzt's guide to the wilds?

Could work!

I'm dying for some plant monsters. We have a deficit of those

According to my doctor, it's pretty bad. And it turns out that french fries do not count.

[fossil hollow]

theyre monster on your health though

[old sluice]

You know... In Pathfinder, they had a beautiful plant monster I adored. It looked like a giant manta ray made of leaves. Flew through the air.

[red steppe]

We need a CR 20+ Plant creature

[old sluice]

5e's design philosophy seems to be that high CR creatures cannot be naturally native to the material plane.

So what sort of plant could be CR 20+?...

[torn bluff]

How often does one need to use comprehend language spells in a party?

[fossil hollow]

dragons and giants be like:

[humble cairn]

It can be kind of annoying being treated like a human search engine.

[potent siren]

A parasitic plant infecting the world tree!

[old sluice]

Allow me to amend: Add the words "non-civilized" before "high CR".

[sand nacelle]

Hello. I am new here.

[remote wadi]

I getcha. I'm sorry about that, to those involved

Silver lining, I did get all my questions solved and have a good understanding of what my character will become as I level up

[fossil hollow]

white dragon:

but i get ya lol

[red steppe]

A very invasive parasitic plant with zombie movie esque fungi spores

[empty thicket]

for understanding each other? or what?

[old sluice]

OK hear me out: Irminsuls. Magical trees that all contain a portal to another plane. Each Irminsul has a different profile depending on which plane it links to. When the links between planes are disturbed, Irminsul awake and seek to restore it.

[potent siren]

I mean, whenever the party comes across a language they dont understand

[humble cairn]

Intra-party? Should be never, considering Common is default for everyone.

[old sluice]

So an Irminsul that links to Mount Celestia would be very different from one that links to the hades.

[sand nacelle]

Husband and wife need comprehend language sometimes.

[fossil hollow]

highly dm and campaign dependant

[humble cairn]

I mean heck husband and husband often do, too, ime.

[empty thicket]

Unless you want to do some sort of "i am groot" feature in a character

Would be troublesome most of the time, but you can do it

[potent siren]

I do find it a bit of a shame that 2024 rules just have everyone start off with a static number of languages, it feels a bit cheap

[old sluice]

Other high CR plant ideas... Oh! Decay Monarchs! The backstory could be that they're the product of a gang of succubi and incubi that tried to assault the realm of a demon lord of fungus, and their corpses were used to create monsters made of decaying plants and fungi that can control other plant monsters.

[humble cairn]

Meh, it's not a realistic game, and I find it better that way.

[empty thicket]

Making it be an "i am groot" and have some sort of telepathic way to talk with each other would be an interesting character. Everyone else wont understand you and the party talks but you could talk with the other people.
For charisma rolls you would need to explain too properly the actions for such thing

[old sluice]

A lotus tree maybe? Eh, it feels like it shouldn't be a monster.

[empty thicket]

There is Fungus zombies?

[humble cairn]

Yes, Myconid make them as servitors.

[empty thicket]

No, im not coping from The last of us.
Im asking because i remember some enemies from Darkest dungeon being fungus people

[tough sandal]

TTRPG roleplay gives me headaches, because I dig into the well of my emotions to feel what the characters are feeling. :D
It's very fun. (owo )

[empty thicket]

Okey okey, so a whole chapter of the party dealing with a fungus that is spreading around a forest is plausible

[sand nacelle]

What are we doing on Earth?

[humble cairn]

I think the myconid spore zombies are not viral, but I guess you could always just make one that is.

[empty thicket]

Something something wild magic from a graveyard of many sorcerers because they were sacrificed by a kingdom and now the fungus in that area absorbed the magic and started growing up wildly taking over people and that kingdom something something

[old sluice]

Okay another high CR plant monster idea... The Mossking! In a jungle, the PCs find a ruined city overgrown with vegetation. The cause of the fall of that city is the mossking that dwells in the heart of the temple, barred by strong vines. The mossking was born when an archfey crafted a powerful curse against the city, which gave birth to this being, the incarnation of the forest's anger. Its maker locked it in the ruins of the city, but now that the city is discovered and it feels sapient creatures approaching, it tries to invite them in the temple, to break the roots that keep it locked inside. All it craves is the destruction of everything not of plant. And for abilities... Okay: What if it can turn people's limbs into hard wood when it hits them with a crit? And if it dies, it's always regenerated by next season, except during winter?

[lavish flame]

I've always liked the idea of a Yggdrasil Blight as a very high CR Plant

[sand nacelle]

Moss king. King of moss. Is it made entirely of moss? Is it a moss covered ent?

[old sluice]

Maybe!

[humble cairn]

Something like an Animal Lord, but for plants.

So Plant+Celestial.

[knotty pasture]

Its moss infestation in a trenchcoat

[humble cairn]

Grandmother Willow, Grandfather Oak

[remote wadi]

Okay, so...

I may have found a way to make my character start dishing out crap tons of piercing damage

[lethal raft]

I just want a plant based player charchter

[remote wadi]

I'm a little excited to get to level 11 and see it in all it's glory

[knotty pasture]

Did it involve Nyrulna and Bhaalist Armor

[lethal raft]

we have 3 robots and a slime and like a dozen diffrent animals but no plants

[midnight sail]

hi guys

[remote wadi]

Me or someone else?

[knotty pasture]

Yes you

[old sluice]

Other idea: Lightning tree. Trees that can only exist in a feywilds, and only appear when a tree has been hit by lightning. It starts feeding on lightning instead of sunlight. Using its ability to control the weather, it creates a permanent lightning storm around it. Its sap is a poison that deals lightning damage? Maybe it has advantage on attack rolls against things that wear metal armour? They seek to gather as much metal as possible to become more and more conductive and reach the final stage of their life cycle, where they explode into the worst possible storm imaginable, a tornador of lightning that carries seeds wherever the lightning strikes.

[midnight sail]

idea: tree that grow apple

[humble cairn]

I feel like it should look like it's made of glass. Because fulgurites.

[old sluice]

That's good.

[lethal raft]

glass or coal as it would be carbonized

[remote wadi]

I have no idea whag either of those 2 things are

But for now, my level 11 plans are 5 levels in Ranger and 6 levels in Fighter with sub classing both Gloomstalker and Champion. Traits also turn it up to 11: Sharpshooter, Piercer, Gunner, Alert, and Lucky

[old sluice]

And let's not forget: Whosoever says tree says dryad. For every weird kind of magical tree, you could make a new dryad variant.

Maybe... A plant whose branches are shaped like a cage? Keeps people imprisoned inside?

[sand nacelle]

Do you work for WOTC, Praetor Slimmy?

Wizards of the Coast

[remote wadi]

Looked up the Bhaalist Armor, that would make it absolutely diabolical...

[lofty bobcat]

gng I hate my new character, she's lvl 3 and I made her to be this intimidating, smart type, but I have NEVER rolled good on ANYTHING

[old sluice]

No, why?

[midnight sail]

kill her

[red steppe]

Can its sap be collected and used as an item?

[sand nacelle]

Because you are being creative.

[lavish flame]

A Plant that functions like the Oblex (absorbing people to make mimics of them) could be very cool. There's already the Bodysnatcher Plant but iirc that just eats ppl

[lofty bobcat]

she has a plus 4 to investigation, and the rest of the party rolled WAY better than me :( (2/3 have a -1 to investigation btw)

[old sluice]

Sure why not?

[lofty bobcat]

it's like this to everything, I rolled Deception with a plus 4 at advantage and still rolled below a 10 all together

[keen valve]

I suppose, but you should always start off with at least one language, no? Maybe not necessarily write in it depending on the setting and how available that sort of education is, but you will always at least know one.

A multitude applies for some settings though. Especially when there are multiple cultures who share in communication.

[red steppe]

Make Irminsul tree roots as components for Plane Shift or Gate

[old sluice]

It could very well work as a substitute for the usual material components, yes

But there is a question when designing tree monsters... What do their flowers and fruits do?

[remote wadi]

I mean, this would already do 1d12 + modifiers piercing damage as is, but this is also adding on Sharpshoooter getting a +10 for a -5 penalty (which is still a net +4 at level 11), Piercer getting a reroll and making it now 3d12 +M on a crit (homebrew rule makes crit dice always max damage, so technically 1d12 + Modifiers + (24 +M))

Not to mention getting 3 attacks per turn, 6 with AS, improved crits from Champion, and a whopping +14/15 to initiative, and being able to reroll attacks with both Gloomstalker and Lucky dice?

Holy moly, I'm getting the same dopamine rush I got from Fallout: New Vegas dumping that much damage down range...

[raw ocean]

Force cage has to be one of my favorite spells, it's basically a gauranteed win in most scenarios

[remote wadi]

I may have created a monster...

[deft pine]

I like plant growth

[fossil hollow]

minor temporal mishaps if eaten

[remote wadi]

Oh, no

I just remembered that our Fighter has Crusher-

[raw ocean]

Depends on the type of tree monster

If it's just low class tree monsters, probably just poisoned fruit

[old sluice]

Of course. If we take the lightning tree idea, for example, any idea for what the fruit could do?

[raw ocean]

But if it's a boss, i'd probably make the fruit good for buffs or such

[old sluice]

Oh oh! What about a tree that survived a dragon's breath and was mutated by it?

[raw ocean]

Oh, I see.

Well in some versions, dragon's blood is a highly dangerous component for alchemy

So maybe make the fruits akin to grenades or just a highly reactive ingredient?

[old sluice]

Maybe!

[red steppe]

What would numbing pain do in a mechanical sense?

[old sluice]

OK so, first step, make a monster representing a tree that survived a dragon's breath weapon.
Step 2: The fruit... And here's is the idea. If you eat it, you must pass a con save or take damage of the dragon's breath weapon. If you pass, you take half that damage and get a buff. For... Twelve hours, your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 of the damage type and your spells and abilities that deal that damage type get to... I don't know. Be maximised is too much. Maybe just get the effects of an empowered metamagic?

[raw ocean]

Players get resistance to everything but they can't see their health

I would probably do that just to troll them

[old sluice]

Anyways, my point is: There's a lot of fun things that can be done with plant monsters.

[raw ocean]

Good idea, but since it was mutated into a mutated dragon tree, why not have the fruit temporarily give the players dragon-like features? [Flight, Dark Sight]

Mutation Inception

[old sluice]

Maybe but it's a bit too much, no?

[raw ocean]

If your referring on giving them ALL the dragon features, yes. I was saying more of a table of effects they could get

Kind of how troll blood mutates you too [Forgot if troll blood mutations are RAW or not]

[old sluice]

Other plant monster idea: The orchid mantis. Not the species of mantis that just looks like an orchid with bright colour, no. It's what happens when a carnivorous plant eats the orchid mantis of the feywilds. Its body starts to warp into a mantis-like form covered in flowers. Insects are their favourite prey, but they will eat anything.

[red steppe]

What effects would a Time dragon breathing on a Tree give?

[red steppe]

No

[old sluice]

Mostly it would just kill the tree. In the rare case where a tree survives though...

I feel like this should be an exception to the usual rule of "tree becomes infused with the energy of the breath"...

[glass granite]

I feel like it would spread the energy through its roots

Assuming it survived, if course

[old sluice]

OK time-related power...

[glass granite]

Time stasis?

[old sluice]

What if the tree, in adapting to the dragon's aging breath, compensated the other way?

Overflowing youth in response. That's how it survived.

[glass granite]

Something might happen with the fruit too

[old sluice]

So what happens to a tree that overflows with youth? Its roots spread and turn the environment into previous versions of it. Animals turn and transform, given time the entire forest start to transform. Extinct species roam.

[glass granite]

Oh, maybe it becomes a forbidden fruit, banned for mortals and feasted on by the gods?

As it could grant the ability to extend one’s lifetime

[old sluice]

Yeah, maybe... But then, I would roll how many years it de-ages you. It might make you gain one year. Or it might turn you back into an embryo that dies immediately

[glass granite]

I was thinking it slowed down aging rather than reverses it, but that’s an interesting idea

[old sluice]

You know what? Scratch that, too obvious, too simple.

What can be done with this idea. A tree that survived the breath of a time dragon and took it inside?...

You know what? It has an aura of decay. Sure, let's go with that. It conjures ghosts of people who are still alive who approach it by drawing upon their future deaths.

Rather than revert a place to what it used to be, the place becomes a projection of what it will be. People see their own future graves, the graves of a potential future. They have to fight their own undead corpses raised.

All around the tree, it's a reminder that everything is destined to die and decay. Some mad cultists seek to replant those trees in some places to see what will happen to those places in due time. The answer is always the same: Ruins and graveyards.

Maybe a legend about a king who ruled over a magnificient city, and who decided to prove the city would forever stand by replanting one of those trees in his courtyard. He turned mad after the tree showed only ruins. He tried to make over decisions to see if it would change the future, it only changed the shape of the ruins he saw. Until the day he started studying necromancy to see if that would change the future showed by the tree. It showed the lich he would become, a delusional skeleton pretending to rule over a ruin.

And since then the future has come true. The king is a lich in a ruin still ranting and begging the tree to showcase another future where the city stands renewed.

Kind of good? Yeah, I'm keeping that

[lyric idol]

This was awesome to read.

[deft pine]

I love lore

[worthy maple]

Lore is fun

[glass granite]

Lore is great

[subtle orchid]

mann i hate how half of dnd is waiting for the next session

[burnt valley]

does Szass Tam have a statblock?

[worthy maple]

That's so real, lucky for me, that's in 12 hours

And I still need to get prepped

[subtle orchid]

i have one in 14!

if it goes tho, still uncertain

[worthy maple]

I'm running mine no matter what, well, unless nobody shows up ofc

[last lark]

How much do dices cost in your area?

[old sluice]

Yes. He was statted for an AL book

[worthy maple]

depends on where you get them from, I recently picked up two sets for $20

[meager mist]

Wish there was a dnd video game where you could make your own campaigns and world and share them for others to play

[knotty pasture]

The closest you have is modding in bg3

Which its still v new tech for the modders there to make fresh content out of the blue

[meager mist]

I heard someone making a full dlc sized campaign for it that looks really fun

[old sluice]

Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 are calling

[meager mist]

Oh?

[old sluice]

People have been making their own modules for those two games for decades.

The games were partially built for this

[meager mist]

Might half to look into these games then get the enhanced on steam?

[old sluice]

Yep. Though avoid the remaster of NWN2 like the plague

After twenty years they remade the game... Worse in every conceivable way.

It's uglier and more buggy, if you can believe it.

[fiery kayak]

Fighter vs Paladin?

Which is stronger?
Which is more fun to play?
Which is better for newcomers?
Which one is more versatile?
Which one is theoretically easier to write a backstory for that works with the rule set?

Etc

[glass granite]

Opinion warning, and assuming I must pick one

1. Paladin
2. Paladin
3. Fighter
4. Fighter
5. Fighter because with fighter the bar’s in hell

I like paladins personally

[old sluice]

1. Depends on the build
2. Depends on the person playing it
3. Depends on how much the newcomer understands the rules
4. Paladin
5. Equal

Although even the versatility depends. A fighter technically has more wiggle room on the build, but the paladin has more tools.

Like... You can build a very effective longbow fighter, which is not true of paladins.

[glad arch]

Lvl 5 paladin rn, yet to hit crazy damage but the never getting hit part is fun

[glass granite]

I like them both for their burst damage with smite, flavour and roleplay/backstory fun

[old sluice]

I could say that fighters are more versatile in matters of build, but in-play paladins are more versatile because no matter the build they get more possibilities for how to use their actions.

[sharp badge]

hello....

[glad arch]

Yeh i havent got any good burst damage yet tbh, just need to get a lucky crit in

[glass granite]

Wahzzup

[sharp badge]

the thing is i am new to D&D so i just needed a heads up on how to start.

[glass granite]

Read up on the first few chapters of the free basic rules on #learn-to-play , and feel free to ask any questions you might have.

[sharp badge]

ok

[teal scroll]

Can anyone call and teach me how to make a character

[rough basalt]

I say you got it on the money

[old sluice]

Flatterer.

[rough basalt]

Fighters are definitely the most versatile martial in terms of builds.
Like you can have a party of like 5 fighters and they can all considerably different.

2024 that is

2014 less so on the different part but still the most versatile martial build wise

[old sluice]

Yeah. All five of those fighters will have a different gameplay but they will all be kind of...Stuck to that gameplay.

In comparison, a team of five paladins will all feel extremely similar. But in play, all five paladins will have more choices for how they'll act on any given turn.

[rough basalt]

Somewhat yeah

As halfcasters they don't really have enough slots to go too crazy with spellcasting tho they can take the Cantrip fighting style.

And you do get AoP and the other Aura being redundant

Tho I do believe Subclass auras work as long as their unique ones, but I'm not 100%

There'd be a good bit of a mess around Subclasses that use the core aura of protection for some features too

Like if a level 15 devotion paladin smites, everyone in their Aura gets halfcover but since everyone's a paladin, are they using their aura? Or whose using whose aura (creatures get to choose 1 of several AoP if multiple paladins auras are conflicting)

[knotty pasture]

Think a Paladin is equally flexible when it comes to builds compared to a Fighter

[rough basalt]

Ah yeah, Subclasses auras don't work either

[knotty pasture]

Paladins focus on dex, cha, maybe str

[rough basalt]

Since they're apart of Aura of Protection at its base.

[knotty pasture]

Fighters are just str or dex for the most part, unless you're EK or PDK

[rough basalt]

So a party of paladins could be a mechanical nightmare

Gotta keep track of who gets to use their AoP features

[burnt valley]

Full party rogue 💀

[rough basalt]

That'd be very easy to handle tbh

[burnt valley]

Fr?

[rough basalt]

Depending on the size of the party, there's enough skills for each rogue to have expertise in individually

[old sluice]

And then they all die to a single cone of cold

[rough basalt]

They don't even get that far cause the DM crashes out and nukes the campaign cause they let Charisma checks be mind control and stealth be Skyrim stealth. /hj

[burnt valley]

Ah yes, the "place bucket on an npc's head" tech

[old sluice]

I once enraged a PC by killing them while they were in stealth.

Bad guy just cast fireball on the place where he thought the PC was hiding.

[knotty pasture]

4 Rogues need Steady Aim for it to go somewhere, without Steady Aim it does come down to shoving someone off to kick the bucket first

[humble cairn]

Maybe Strength? It's one of their Primary Ability Scores.

[knotty pasture]

The issue with a full Paladin team is that you're going to have a field trip with their oaths

Someone is going to break oaths because of contradicting oaths

[rough basalt]

Reference the Monty Python skit on How Not To Be Seen, where it shows obvious hiding spots getting blown up

[burnt valley]

What was even their hiding place?

[old sluice]

It was a forest.

[humble cairn]

Devotion, redemption, ancients, crown, and maybeglory can all play together quite nicely.

[rough basalt]

Only issue is the Aura problem

[old sluice]

PC was hiding behind a tree. Bad guy figured that whoever was hiding was vaguely in that general direction, cast fireball figuring that, at worst, it might smoke them out.

[humble cairn]

Redundant aura, yeah

[rough basalt]

Unless they all just stick to their own auras

[burnt valley]

Oh, oh no, that's the perfect place to Fireball

[rough basalt]

Especially since Paladins generally get several features attached to it

AoP, AoC, Subclass auras, some other Subclass features on some subclasses

Moment someone else wants to use another aura the cog in the machine breaks

[old sluice]

Also, have you ever given thought about synergies? Recently I realized how well a paladin and a monk worked together due to the paladin making the monk's saves even better, the monk compensating for the paladin's poor mobility, and the paladin compensating for the monk's poor HP.

I wonder if there are other duos like that.

[burnt valley]

Did the bad guy ever had to roll anything to figure out where the rogue is?

[old sluice]

No need. He saw the rogue before the rogue hid. He figured the rogue couldn't have gone too far after hiding.

[glad arch]

Paladins the goat, healing, burst damage, tanky, spell casting (though limited) only weakness is AoE

[knotty pasture]

Spread your team out, have the entire battlefield be in someone's aura no matter where they go

[old sluice]

The rogue that hides as a bonus action, when your turn comes, will be within thirty feet of the last place you saw them.

[burnt valley]

I don't know if it has to be a separate class but I can only think of Cleric and Cleric, they take turns using their emanation to save resources

[rough basalt]

That's not how it works.
You can only be affected by one AoP at a time and it's centered on you at all times

[old sluice]

So why bother searching for the hiding character? Just nuke the covers.

[knotty pasture]

Right I was thinking of Vengeance and Conquest

[old sluice]

As the military has consistently proven since WW1, grenades don't require aiming!

And really what's fireball but a magical phosphorus grenade?

[rough basalt]

I can see it.
If I'm a mage fighting a stealthy guy in a forest, I'm not gonna go looking for him, I'm just gonna nuke the forest

[burnt valley]

Common Fireball W

[old sluice]

Other dirty tricks to use against your players? Disarm their foci.

[burnt valley]

I should write down a list for these, there has to be a countermeasure for each one

[old sluice]

Sure, the countermeasure for this trick is to have redundancies. Have two foci, and a component pouch for good measure.

The countermeasure against the place where you're hiding being nuked... Well, there aren't really any. It is a countermeasure to your stealth.

Another dirty trick? A monster casting heat metal that also has the ability to move where PCs can't follow it. Whether it can move through walls or swim or whatever. It comes, casts heat metal on the paladin, goes away to where PCs can't follow. Keeps concentrating. Paladin has no choice but take off the armour or take the damage.

[burnt valley]

I just thought of something, would wrapping the foci around your arm work?

[old sluice]

Nope. Foci can be disarmed, that's just the rules.

Let's see, what other dirty tricks do I know?...

[burnt valley]

Iron Golem and Wisps

[humble cairn]

Singular = focus, plural = foci.

Oh I suppose that could have been plural, sorry.

[burnt valley]

Ohhh

[old sluice]

If you're using 2014 banishment and the PCs are on another plane, banishing the non-spellcasters essentially puts them out of the session!

[burnt valley]

This could already work on spellcasters if done in Tier 2

[old sluice]

Also, yeah

Rust monsters make paladins and fighters cry, use them

One possibility; Antimagic field + rust monster

Those two go together like peanut butter and chocolate

[burnt valley]

How'd you deal with martials in general? One I could see having a way out is Monk at Lvl 14 with Diamond Soul

[old sluice]

Honestly? No dirty trick works on high level monks.

That's just how the class is built.

Between the deflection, the high AC they eventually reach, the evasion, the ability to cancel charm and frightened, the saves, the movement speed...

[burnt valley]

Oh damn

I guess high lvl monks are the exception

I know speedy martials can get cheese'd by having Wall of Force or Forcecage caster enemy ready

[old sluice]

Forcecage does work on monks!

... Unless the monk gets misty step.

[burnt valley]

Shadow Monks have an equivalent to that

But hey, at least it works on most of the subclasses

[hybrid lichen]

Hi guys

Why is dnd so confusing

My friends and i are new

[glass granite]

Have you read the rules?

[hybrid lichen]

A little bit like 60% on beyond

[karmic mason]

That's the issue.

[stuck shuttle]

What's something specific you guys are confused about?

[knotty pasture]

The idea of attuning magical items I suppose, I think I get arcane focus too

The latter means that so long as you have your spellcasting focus item, you could throw spells regardless of the weapon you're holding

[stuck shuttle]

Attunement is mainly just a balancing thing, such that players can't benefit from too many strong magical items at once

[knotty pasture]

So spoiled by bg3 that I'm expecting to run into late game with like 10 magical items

[stuck shuttle]

Yeah BG3 went crazy in allowing everyone to get stacked

[fiery kayak]

Thanks for the answers, guys.

[red raft]

Hello, I was planning on using Avrae for an online DnD discord campaign however it's become clear it has a lot of arguments in commands. I think it would be better just to have DnD beyond on a seperate tab, any notes?

[stuck shuttle]

I don't have experience with Avrae but in my experience having DDB stuff separated anyway has helped with my organization

[loud tendon]

Do you have a few specific parts that are confusing? The folks over in #dnd-newcomers might be able to help

[robust compass]

do the server error?

dnd beyond?

[noble tusk]

It's currently under maintenance #dnd-announcements message

[hybrid lichen]

Ye

[hybrid lichen]

Imma double check when beyond is fixed

[robust compass]

is fixed

[inner silo]

Is 6 dice sets in 3 months of playing too much?

[glad arch]

Only 6?

[inner silo]

Okay

[hidden spindle]

You need two more sets for Fireball

[inner silo]

Alrighty

I'll also probably need some container to store them in

[hidden spindle]

Have you found a preference in dice material?

[glad arch]

Getting 8d6 should be pretty easy

D6 are 'normal' dice after all

[inner silo]

All others are very expensive and more hard to find so i only have plastic or resin so far

I'm getting to level 5 after the next session so i still have time ig

[hidden spindle]

I usually roll digitally, with DM permission, but I prefer the heavier ones over the lighter ones. And I only have two sets, enough for rolling 2d20s, so rolling dice multiple times for other things can be a time sink.

But I also play martial so I don't need very many.

-# Unless I'm a Rogue...

[inner silo]

I get that

I now usually try to give my dice to other players if they need to roll multiple but only have one set

I also mainly bought so many dice because I'll be playing with friends soon as a dm and i need dice for them all

[hidden spindle]

That sounds rough honestly, supplying your players dice sets. They could at least grab a set of their own or roll digitally

[hidden spindle]

Got to grab my Monopoly and Yahtzee dice, holdup

[inner silo]

Yeah, that's true. But half of my dice i bought using a gift card they got me so kind of evens out

[glad arch]

First couple of sessions i borrowed dice from my dm or another player

I didnt get my own dice set for a while

[inner silo]

Our dm got us dice for our first couple of sessions until we started getting our own

[glad arch]

On 3 sets rn, probably will increase after christmas

[inner silo]

Nice!

3 sets is enough for chromatic orb

[glad arch]

Need more d8's for when i start smiting with non lvl 1 spell slots

[inner silo]

Definitely. I have two paladins in my party and I'm already giving them my dice for smite before level 5

[glad arch]

3 d20's mean i can put one in dice jail

[inner silo]

I might start having to do dice jail now, and assigning certain d20s for certain rolls

[eager marsh]

Now you’re becoming a real D&D player

[loud tendon]

all this dice talk reminds me I have to reorganize our dice shelves.. people have been borrowing sets and not putting them back and we do that too, so its a bit in shambles.

[burnt valley]

I keep forgetting to bring my dice

[fair plinth]

Since a lot of the tasha rules are in the 2024 core books, is there a point to get tashas cauldron?

[eager marsh]

Many of the subclasses and most of the spells haven’t been reprinted yet

[karmic mason]

Question.
How wide can you open a bag of holding

[eager marsh]

There are also a lot of those secondary roles and bits

[eager marsh]

The item itself says the opening is 2 ft in diameter

[karmic mason]

Alright there goes my idea

[eager marsh]

Prolly for the best. Bad shenanigans are dnagerous

[karmic mason]

I was gonna put a piano in there just to tilt it upside down and drop it on enemies heads

[gray pike]

Has DnD done its maintenance yet? Because it’s only been two hours since it was supposed to start and the sites up

[fair plinth]

Pretty unlikely but has anyone played or ran a game based on Helldivers 2?

[wheat thorn]

i need help

[glad arch]

Better just ask your question straight away

[wheat thorn]

whats difference between half elf and half elf variant

[glad arch]

2014 or 2024?

[wheat thorn]

e5?

[eager marsh]

2014 I believe it was Tasha’s or mordenkainens that applied a small bit of the various full elf traits to half elf

[wheat thorn]

2024

[eager marsh]

Half elf doesn’t exist at all then

Half races were removed in 2024 and you choose one of your parent race’s features

[hollow stone]

you pick one from both or you pick one from one and forgoe the other buttons?

[hidden spindle]

You could carry the '14 Half-Elf into '24 though (same with any species not reprinted)

[hollow stone]

yea this is a common thing, the backwards compatibility meta is really cool

[humble cairn]

Half species don't exist as a mechanical thing in base 2024, though it still exists as backwards compatibility from previous books. Meaning you can still play them. You can have mixed heritage as a lore thing for your character while still picking one species as the mechanical base, however.

In other words you pick all the buttons from one species and just describe yourself as someone of a different heritage.

[hollow stone]

oh okei

[hidden spindle]

Half-Elf Variants had like an "a la carte" based on their Elven features. Base Half-Elf don't have very many options.

You could still use'm in '24

[burnt valley]

Are there other dm speak like "You can certainly try"?

[knotty basin]

“Are you sure?”

[lusty tendon]

Guy yesterday i ran my first ever one shot honestly i think dming isnt as hard as i originally thought it was gonna be

[shy stirrup]

As far as you know...

[lusty tendon]

Sure why not roll and see what happens

[burnt valley]

They really sound like a warning cue lmao

[burnt valley]

Which dm speak lines should I trust?

[shy stirrup]

"Are you sure you want to do that?"
Translation: You should seriously consider not doing that, but on your head be it.
"As far as you know..."
Translation: You may not have all the information, or, maybe you do? 🤷‍♂️
"You can certainly try..."
Translation: Outcome doubtful, but hey you never know 'till you try

[hollow stone]

i remember once i had a character about to leave a situation and the DM hit me with the "You want to try to walk away?" with this odd little chuckle and grin and immediately had me "nope, nevermind, i think i'll stick around"

[humble cairn]

As a DM I avoid these kinds of weird hints as much as possible.'

[shy stirrup]

Same, it can have an undue influence on player behaviour

Tho I do use "as far as you know" frequently enough

[burnt valley]

I'm kinda sus'd out everytime my DM does the "speak"

[humble cairn]

If something is obviously stupid I will tell them that their character realizes that the course of action is obviously stupid and will result in something bad.

[hollow stone]

has anybody ever done an experiment to disengage the pavlovian response by just abusing that pattern for every possible scenario in which it could be incurred? was it successful?

[hidden spindle]

I don't use any DM speak. There'll be rolling Initiative

[burnt valley]

what is that

[hollow stone]

Pavlovian Response is like, how someone is trained to respond to a specific stimuli

[burnt valley]

oh

[hollow stone]

for example, you might train a dog so that when you say "treat" it gets a treat, and as food makes dog excited, it then gets excited when it hears treat

you can provoke the same in humans, in this literally being discussed right now how players are secondguessed on an action by the DM and their instant response is "i should not do that." because of previous negative experiences that were first secondguessed by a DM

[humble cairn]

I don't try to condition or de-condition my players. I just try to be as upfront and collaborative with them as possible with Sessions 0's and such.

[hidden spindle]

I don't like making my players second guess their choices

[hollow stone]

that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, yea, i might do too much testing of people

[marble lion]

If youre asking for an alternative that doesnt raise suspicion, just tell them what to roll

[minor cargo]

Yeah, similar to Shye, I've been trying to actually change my "DM-isms" with more clear language.

So instead of "You can certainly try", I will just say, "Hmm. It's going to have a low chance of success. And your character knows that, too. But definitely not impossible - just very risky."

Here I've been more direct, but also pushed the conversation back towards roleplaying - so two benefits IMO.

[burnt valley]

Nah nah i was asking which dm speak lines that sounds suspicious

[minor cargo]

This does take up more "time" at the table, though. So not perfect.

[marble lion]

I think the whole point of those lines is to be obvious

Theyre funny or dynamic, not secretive

[shy stirrup]

"As far as you know..." is safe, honest, direct, plain language
and yet, it can drive players a bit nuts, but it is what it is

[marble lion]

If a dm says stuff like that, he is fine with the player knowing its risky

[marble lion]

Oh that one is different i think

[hollow stone]

i know i've been wanting to host an experiment where i abuse a different pavlovian response - believing that checks gatekeep progress - by asking for a semi-relevant check with a DC of 0 (so that all attempts succeed no matter what) as a way to say they're making progress in the necessary direction of a given goal

[marble lion]

What if they roll a 4

[hollow stone]

they still pass because the DC is 0

[marble lion]

You will look dumb

Any smart player will question your dming for that one

[hollow stone]

it only exists to incentivize progress

[marble lion]

Its false progress

Just give them real progress instead

[crimson gulch]

I love using a bunch of those classic lines it's all in the delivery too.
"You can certainly try" there's risk involved and we won't know the outcome till we roll.
"How do you want to do it" classic killing move narration.

"Easily enough done" no need to roll you sucessfuly do the thing.

[hollow stone]

it's false progress to lead into real progress

[marble lion]

Yeah but its weird

[hollow stone]

absolutely, yes, it's inordinary, that's why i want to

[delicate roost]

technically its slowing progress at the table since everyone has to needlessly take time to roll dice, add up bonuses and then tell you one by one what they rolled, only to be punked with a haha jk, you all passed cause the difficulty was 0

[inner silo]

Guys if a secondary caster joins the casting on cloud of daggers as a circle spell, does it become a 15ft cube?

[hollow stone]

not everybody, just one of them that is doing the thing, and the point of rolling dice is that they're supposed to perceive rolling dice as a good thing

[knotty basin]

Generally rolling means there is a risk

[burnt valley]

I would straight up have Guidance on 24/7 incase of crucial checks atp

[inner silo]

I wander how bad would a game be if everything needed a roll

[hollow stone]

and the perceived risk creates engagement, successful avoidance of risk creates perceived progress

[knotty basin]

It really doesn’t

[inner silo]

That's like the shillelagh thing

[shy stirrup]

Unbearably bad

[loud tendon]

It would take considerable longer..

[marble lion]

If i had to make a check and roll really low but succeed anyway, id be put off the game

[humble cairn]

Yeah but it's not. It's unclear and that leads to frustration.

[hollow stone]

probably won't do it then

[inner silo]

"i would like to walk down the stairs"
"Roll acrobatics"
"Nat 1"
"You try to walk down the stairs, but you roll your ankle, fall down and take 30 bludgeoning damage"

[minor cargo]

I haven't used Circle Magic rules in my games yet, but from what I can see, I think you're right. #dnd-rules might have some folks who know more directly than just my vibes, though. 😅

[marble lion]

Its only obvious when you as a group click

[delicate roost]

I think an easier way to encourage your players into feeling that 'rolling dice is a good thing' would be to not use penatlties for critical failures. don't punish players for rolling a 1 on the D20, instead of imposing false DC checks

[inner silo]

Alrighty, thanks!

[humble cairn]

And I don't rely on mysterious "click" chemistry, I would rather just be upfront.

[marble lion]

Human intuition is quite fun for some people

[hollow stone]

oh no, i'm using that preexisting sense of "rolling dice and nothing bad happens = good" to influence engagement

[hidden spindle]

Usually, if there was 0% of failure, I wouldn't roll but instead quickly decide that goes right into role-playing (as an auto-success)

[hollow stone]

but given how other people judge their response to this then i probably shouldn't do that

[minor cargo]

I agree! That's why social deduction games like Werewolf etc. can be so fun!

I just have, recently, decided that at my D&D tables I'm going to move away from it. I hear what you're saying but given my circumstances and my players these days, my choice seemed like the right one.

[delicate roost]

though technically someone could possibly still fail a 0 dc check. if they have a -2 or more in a given ability score. rolling a 1 means they would still possibly fail 😄

[knotty basin]

I thought 0 was the minimum

[hidden spindle]

I've done this before with 0 on Initiative. (-1) on a Nat 1

[inner silo]

I'll have a light outage during my entire online game today, idk what to do

[hollow stone]

if somebody gets a -1 on a check i just feel like i couldn't possibly fault them for that

[delicate roost]

Your character had to tie their shoes huh. lol

[hidden spindle]

It was my STR-based Monk and I dumped DEX.

[inner silo]

Does this mean you don't take a turn, take a turn last or take a turn at the start of the next round?

[rich axle]

You just watched eating popcorn as your teammates were fighting

[knotty basin]

It’s just normal initiative. If that’s the lowest, you go last

[inner silo]

Oki

[hollow stone]

if you have a 27 point buy and do 8 in Dex and Wis then go Gloomstalker i think you could get a -2 to Initiative

[knotty basin]

I think I got a nat 20 + 6 initiative last session

[hollow stone]

literally top 5 worst possible builds tbh but it'd certainly get laugh

[delicate roost]

in the current game i am in, we do an interesting co-op initiative. everyone rolls that way we can see where we go in relation to the enemeies, but the players all decide the order we go in rather than going off what we rolled. Basically we can swap spots in initiative.

I like it becuase it lets us set up for great synergies

[shy stirrup]

The game has had other initiative systems in the past, round based, and side based

[wet sleet]

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire does that basically, you have party slots and enemy slots. The problem with that in D&D are that you have feats, and a couple class abilities that allow for swapping initiave counts.

[burnt valley]

Human intuition?

[delicate roost]

still appliciable for our game. lets say that the cleric has to emergency swap with the barbarian to throw out some buff or healing. they could temporarily swap

[wet sleet]

So, do you roll, then people jus take the initiave they want and that locks in for the rest of that combat?

[delicate roost]

everyone rolls, which basically locks in where players will act in relation to enemies. and before combat, we already decided when we want to go. usually Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Rogue. which allows us to have damage, buffs, combat control, damage, ranged damage

the rogue is also our capitian. team leader. so he tells us when to act.

[wet sleet]

Okay, thats different that what I though, in the SW:EotE initiave is rolled, and there are slots available in those positions, but there is no set order. When a party slot comes up, anyone can take any slot each turn, so round 1 it could be player A, but round 2 that same slot could be player C.

[minor cargo]

Have you ever tried "popcorn" initiative? I think your group might also enjoy that!

Popcorn initiative is where one "side" goes first (anyone on that team can go), then the other team goes. After you go once, you can't go until everyone else has gone. From what you've described, it's kind of what you're doing - but it's less bookkeeping since you don't need to track initiative values.

Some games that use it are LANCER, Gubat Banwa, and Daggerheart.

[knotty basin]

What’s the point of high initiative anyways? As long as an encounter lasts 2+ rounds, everyone gets a turn no matter what

[delicate roost]

Sounds kinda cool. i can bring it up with the DM (weve only had 2 sessions.)

[spring light]

bigger numbers go brrrr

[shy stirrup]

Round Based: Initiative is rolled at the start of every round of combat. This can produce wild swings in combat, as one side gains, or loses, the initiative
Side Based: Contested roll, the side that wins goes first, if the players, they decide among themselves in what order to take their turns

[uncut zenith]

Yeah, that popcorn spotlighting is pretty fun. Especially in systems that utilize combo moves more than D&D does.

[loud tendon]

Some classes (like rogue assassin) get benefits if they go before a creature in initiative. You can sometimes get a creature or two down before their turn and thus minimize damage to the team.. or avoid big damage right away from a boss, or a spell that charms someone.

Lots of good perks to going earlier.

[robust dragon]

Is maintenance not happening?

[delicate owl]

Go first as a caster with a way to debilitate the enemies gives a huge advantage.

[delicate roost]

yeah, also allows you to throw down AOE spells with out worring about clipping a player too 😄

[humble cairn]

"How do you want to do it?" on the other hand, is great! Allowing players to have authorship over events in the game is great and I try to use it in other places, too, not just on killing blows. Knowledge rolls, for example. If it's something that pertains to a character's Background or something, I will sometimes treat a successful roll on a Knowledge Skill as an opportunity to turn to them and ask, "You tell us what this means. What are the funeral rites of the elves of this area? You're the expert, after all."

Impromptu world building in a minor way.

[inner silo]

Ngl the knowledge part sounds sick, I'm taking that

[humble cairn]

I do reserve veto rights.

Buti f I ask them to world bulid only in very niche ways I generally don't need to veto.

[spring light]

i very much like to turn it to my players, especially if the scene in question relates to their character(s)

one of my players has really come a long way since we started playing, at first he'd barely speak up, and didn't even know what to roll, how to read his dice.

Now he roleplays, throws dice, and asks if he can do things!

[humble cairn]

Sure, but unreliable and not to be prioritized over the safety of all that are participating in a consensual group activity with me.

[inner silo]

We did a circle spell last game and cast a 45ft cloud of daggers on the dms 8 demons (hopefully we got the rules right) and easily destroyed them but now I'm scared our next enemy will be a coordinated group of cultists

[humble cairn]

Everyone better prepare Counterspell.

[inner silo]

I'm the only non warlock fullcaster

[humble cairn]

Ahh great, now it becomes a game of being the better caster or just dying.

[inner silo]

That's 2 counterspells per day i guess

But I'll have to use all my spell slots for it

[hollow stone]

the reaction economy is up!!!

[limber trail]

If there were five casters involved in the spellcasting then yep, you got it!

[inner silo]

Alrighty, good to hear, thanks!

[hearty bay]

I fear my barbarian might enter death flag territory

[humble cairn]

This is extremely nasty since Cloud of Daggers just does auto damage without allowing a save.

[hearty bay]

He's becoming too smart

[loud tendon]

I believe it already happened.

[inner silo]

Yup, the dm was thrilled! to use this in the future

How do i make little text, i forgot

[limber trail]

Yeah the maintenance happened and is since over - it happened right in the middle of my game ;-; oh well

[inner silo]

Sad

[dense tusk]

Damn there is no meme channel in this discord? Shame

[loud tendon]

Nope.. no memes and no gifs. We prefer to encourage discussions. 🙂

[hidden spindle]

Its funny you say that because I think I remember a tidbit that the Red Wizard's of Thay created Circle Casting

[inner silo]

Naah. If i see a guy in a red robe I'm straight blasting them

[dense tusk]

Shame because I put one whole minute of my life into making a dnd meme I will never get back, unpaid labour truly /j

[halcyon forum]

I'm sure the people on /r/dndmemes will love it lol

[hidden spindle]

Its a real shame there wasn't a Martial Arts group that developed Team Combat Arts

[inner silo]

?

[hidden spindle]

Just that Magic Users get more and more things like Team Casting while Martials don't get much at all

[inner silo]

Yeah that's true

[inner silo]

I mean they kinda do with flanking with only buffs melee attacks but yeah that's not much

[timid current]

Flanking?

From 3.5 / 4e?

[halcyon forum]

flanking is also an optional rule in 5e

oops sorry for ping

[timid current]

So it's not a player facing option like circle casting

Also at least in 2014 it was horrendously implemented

[halcyon forum]

yeah not a fan of 5e flanking

[median abyss]

5e flanking turns combat into a conga line

because of how opportunity attacks work

[crimson gulch]

I love flanking in 5e, I get advantage on players so much more than they get it on monsters

[median abyss]

yeah

[halcyon forum]

it does invalidate a lot of features that give advantage though

[humble cairn]

PCs = 4-6
NPCs = infinite

[knotty basin]

What’s flanking?

[uncut zenith]

If two allies are directly on either side of an enemy and within melee of said enemy, they get advantage on their attack rolls

[minor cargo]

I know Reddit isn't real life, but a friend sent this to me and it echoed a lot of conversations we have in and around the D&D space. And... I dunno. It was sad to read.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/1pgfsnj/my_dm_cant_stop_using_ai/

My DM is using AI for everything. He’s worldbuilding with AI, writing quests, storylines, cities, NPCs, character art, everything. He’s voice-chatting with the AI and telling it his plans like it’s a real person. [...]

I’m tired of it. I’m tired of speaking and feeding my real, original, creative thoughts as a player to an AI through my DM, who is basically serving as a human pipeline.

Of course I brought it up. Everyone knows I dislike this kind of behavior, and I am not alone[...] But what can I do? He has been my DM for the past 3 years, he has become a really close friend, but I can see this is scrambling his brain or something, and I cannot stand it.

[glossy otter]

agreed, I feel while AI is a great tool and all, it shouldn't replace the human aspect of being a DM

[still plover]

"I want to be a DM but I just use autocomplete."

[crimson gulch]

folks need to leave bad games faster

[shy stirrup]

The top comment, 3k ups, says it all:

If you can’t stand playing in a game that is run in this way, make it clear that if this continues, you will be leaving the game. Then follow through if necessary. It’s as simple as that.

[glossy otter]

an AI cannot beat a person at telling a better game

[minor cargo]

I mean, yeah, but maybe I could be a bit clear - I'm not sad about this because it's a problem you can't solve. I'm sad about the context.

[spring light]

As someone who uses ai as a tool to organize materials for my games, i feel like an over-reliance on it is extremely detrimental.

[glossy otter]

ah, my mistake. I read the context wrong

[median abyss]

id rather have a gm thats a bad storyteller but that is genuine over someone using AI like that

[uncut zenith]

I don’t think the issue is so much that people don’t realize they can just leave a campaign they’re not enjoying so much as it is that this is an issue that’s actually becoming (imo) all too common

[glossy otter]

agreed, at least there you know the games authentic

tbh oddly enough I see it in the lense of a job. it's harder because securing a new game is tougher than it looks these days online

[minor cargo]

The other aspect, outside of the reliance on AI, that I think is rough is that... well, it basically ruined that friendship. I mean, it could be healed with time (potentially) but at this point, the players communicated their dislike and the GM continued. That relationship is always gonna be coloured by that.

[valid geyser]

i had a dm who used some AI to write his adventures, and it went like this
"Yeah just letting you know last session I did have AI help me write some stuff, does anyone have an issue with that?"
"Yeah, kinda."
"Alright, I'll stop."

[shy stirrup]

Right, but if enough people up and leave such games, DMs who turn control over to the AI will find they also need AI players

[glossy otter]

the only thing I ever really use ai for is streamlining my thoughts to use or for NPCs that I can't find good art for/get comissions at the time

[crimson gulch]

i had one person tell me that using ai is the same as using a published book, and im like, i mean theres some similarities but theres a lot more issues with ai

[valid geyser]

even then i dont feel it was entirely generated, i just realized one of the puzzles he used in a session reminded me of a really crappy completely written AI book about unbeatable d&d puzzles someone showed me

[crimson gulch]

i bang out npc art in heroforge

[glossy otter]

I try heroforge when my computers not hating me

[valid geyser]

not as crappy, just one of the puzzles solutions in the book being "The characters have to admit a deep regret/secret" which is less of a puzzle and more of forced character development

[spring light]

heroforge stuff winds up looking too samey over time. . .
which... i mean yes, obviously.

[crimson gulch]

i search the community for ones that other people made, loads of folks share them

[knotty basin]

Heeofroge just looks too plasticy

[crimson gulch]

and a consistent style is good

[glossy otter]

yeah, its probably my one and only complaint in a way as the poses all look the same or can look incredibly silly if not proportioned right custom wise

[spring light]

i'm not knocking the consistent style, or the fact that it looks plasticy.

[valid geyser]

a lot of the puzzles in that book are hilariously bad. Like, most of the solutions being to alter reality, or to believe in something so hard it works. Like there's a puzzle with a key that can't fit in anything, and has a vault that it can open, and the solution is to go back in time and give the key to your past self

[glossy otter]

that might just be from my lense of making HF

[spring light]

just... it kind of doesn't exactly suit what I want.

That being said I absolutely use it if i need to knock out a render of a character.

[crimson gulch]

im biased because i 3d print a lot of heroforge, so seeing that makes me feel like my online games have a more real feal

[glossy otter]

the one thing I give heroforge props for is a lot of customization. Never throught I'd be able to make a machine with corrupted organs in it, but it surprised me

[spring light]

oh yeah, it's definitely been expanding and coming a long way from when i was first using it.

but i do like when my players have such a huge variety of images.
One guy with his ai image, one guy with his art that was clearly "borrowed" from an artist, one guy who drew it, one guy with a heroforge, one guy with a random image he picked cuz he didn't care

[snow agate]

It is entertaining

[spring light]

it's part of the charm

[snow agate]

If I could draw good I would because sometimes finding a suitable image is a pita but yeah I think most people just use Pinterest or Google images

[spring light]

and these days pintrest and google images are just flooded with ai images.

which again as someone who uses a lot of ai tools, i still find that kind of disheartening.

[knotty basin]

I just use the ones from D&D beyond

[snow agate]

I find it more annoying than anything because it just clogs the area

[spring light]

and that's absolutely a valid choice, for sure. @knotty basin

[glad arch]

Heroforge is honestly great visualisation tool if youre not artistic/spending money on art

[spring light]

agree. but it all winds up feeling samey over a long enough timeline.

which i mean... is fair, and isn't really a flaw

[valid geyser]

yeah id usually rather just take art from mtg cards

[glad arch]

Maybe, i probably hacent spend long enough for that to kick in

[spring light]

I've been using it for years now.

[snow agate]

That’s a good one, I also like taking fanart of side characters or characters from less popular games

Because it’ll have decent resources but it avoids the issue of people going “oh that’s (X)”

[spring light]

Man, i hate when people call out character art like "isn't that x from y?"

suspension of disbelief people! c'mon!

[snow agate]

XD

[humble cairn]

I mean ... if you get into really nit picky pose customization you can get really really specific.

[snow agate]

But yeah sometimes there’s good places for it. JRPGs have a lot of DnD appropriate npc art honestly, or you can find fanart of said NPCs

[knotty basin]

It completely breaks my immersion when I recognize an image like that

[cinder timber]

That's why I say it first when I submit my art

[spring light]

it's not the pose that i'm talking about, it's the art style.

[minor cargo]

I agree HeroForge has the pro and con of being very recognizable and consistent. That said, you can totally apply a post image filter or something like that. IME that can help a lot.

[spring light]

Like I said, I still use it a ton and make a heroforge for every one of my characters.

[knotty basin]

Also, with heroforge you really have to settle with your character’s design

[hollow stone]

tbh not even just art, sometimes people will see some coherences in story or behavior and be like "isn't this literally (different media you haven't seen)?"

[snow agate]

Yeah entirely biased but I just don’t like the art style so I never use it

[spring light]

yeah, that might be another part that gets me. you have to have a settled concept AND hf needs to be able to embody that concept.

one of my characters just doesn't render well with hf.

[snow agate]

As a suggestion it can also be good to use npc art/fanart from characters that just have minimal dialogue. Dark souls NPCs work great for that, because they have so few lines you’d have to make up their personality even if you were trying not to

[spring light]

i always find it polite to not really call attention to it, unless the player themself call attention to it (i based this off x from y)

[hollow stone]

i mean i'll take any opportunity to go on a tangent about anything that i write but i feel really weird about people soft-accusing me of plagiarizing the plot or pattern or shape of a thing when i haven't seen it

[snow agate]

Yep

[spring light]

Okay so... a tool i REALLY like is notebooklm. It's an ai companion, but it is strictly based off what you feed it.
IE you can feed it your session notes and it can base information off of that.

i've found it to be a lot more reliable for anything that even somewhat matters.
Most AI tools are like... weird toys.

[hollow stone]

i don't keep notes that are coherent enough for anyone that isn't me, it's a problem lol

[azure jasper]

If my species gives me advantage on the charmed condition
and my background also gives me advantage on the charmed condition
does that mean I roll 3 times and take the highest roll or can the advantage not stack?

[spring light]

advantage does not stack

[potent siren]

advantage never stacks

[spring light]

unless your DM makes a special exception for "this specific instance this specific time"

[hollow stone]

we found a poorly drawn map and i accused it's maker of being an "illiterate psuedocartographer" which was really funny the first time but then it has come up in every session since because nobody knows what that means

[spring light]

or it's a blanket rule for the table, etc

[snow agate]

Like does it just make your notes more consistent or what does it do

[azure jasper]

ok, ty

[snow agate]

I haven’t used it so idk

[spring light]

it can provide analysis and structural organization

Like say... you have a world, right? and you want to present the information quickly and coherently to your table, or more give them something to "take home"
it can say... make "slides" or a short explainer video.

the video is more a slideshow

[snow agate]

Ohhh so it’s for like summarizing key info

[spring light]

Or if you're like me and desperately need to be critiqued so you know where you can improve

[spring light]

yeah, it's exceptional at that

something like chatgpt will lose the plot halfway through, and start giving you crapola, making stuff up, and not even really do what you asked.

[timid current]

think of advantage like needing a pen to write - no matter how many people offer you a pen, you'll only be writing with one of them

[snow agate]

Tbh I usually don’t write enough words for it to matter but I guess if you have a big ol lore document it can help

[spring light]

if you're clever enough and just audio-record your sessions, you can feed that into it to

[timid current]

rolling with advantage is specifically rolling 2d20 and taking the highest. "granting advantage" allows that. Granting advantage isn't "you get +1d20".

[snow agate]

Ok that’s pretty cool I didn’t know that was a thing

[spring light]

heck, if you just want to use it to get your audio transcribed it's good for that... though it won't specifically differentiate different speakers.

or: if say you're in a new campaign and your dm lore dumps a ton of documents, you can feed it all in to get concise info

[crimson gulch]

Nah feeding ai lore is a good way to make a mess of it

[spring light]

notebooklm has, in my experience, been great for getting concise details about what you feed into it.

most ai tools are pretty... awful... for getting useful information

[hollow stone]

yea because of the way A.I. works (using the statistical likelihood of a given result under the provided cause (each word being the "result" of that before it and "cause" to that after it (eventually encompassing full phrases)) it's not very good at actually saying anything that wasn't already said

[timid current]

It's also horrendously wasteful. At least notebooklm doesn't steal other users' data openly

[umbral girder]

Openly being the operative word there.

[timid current]

I mean something was used to create core behaviors for it even if it claims the data set is entirely voluntary

Yep.

[hollow stone]

it would, theoretically, be good as a search engine, but because of the modern people wanting things quickly meta, they tend to use any of the information in their dataset at all, which can cause "A.I. hallucinations", and like Dave said it takes a lot of electricity to get anything done at all, as well as dirtying an amount of water in its cooling processes

A.I. is generally like, really really really ineffective for the cost of using it

[loud tendon]

Before we delve too deep into the waters of AI, please let's pull back a bit and back to d&d as we dont promote the use of AI nor in depth discussion of it as its not on topic.

Thank you

[spring light]

okay okay, that was my bad. I definitely veered us towards it.

How about those modrons though huh?
I only got to use them once in my current campaign

[hollow stone]

what is a modron?

[cosmic roost]

https://media-waterdeep.cursecdn.com/attachments/0/828/c2-16.png

[knotty basin]

These @hollow stone

[loud tendon]

Only the best bots in all of Mechanus

[glacial shell]

Hellooo

[green vine]

Good afternoon everyone

[hollow stone]

oh, those little creatures!! i've never seen them in game before

[glacial shell]

Can anybody tell me more about dnd pleaaaase im a rookie

[unreal halo]

aight so guys, im about to play with a bunch of new guys and considering making a quirky illusionist gnome as that could probably be pretty fun

dm is now offering standard array, point buy or 70 points however you want
what do you guys think would the most fun (not necessarily strong) option be, i want them to have a good time but inner me just wants to dump some stats with 70 points free assignment

[glacial shell]

Bruuuuh ppl are just ignoring me omg

[unreal halo]

i mean that question is very open :p

[knotty basin]

You might find better answers in #dnd-newcomers

[green vine]

How many years do you have available @glacial shell

[knotty basin]

The DM said 70 points however you want?

[unreal halo]

yes

[noble basin]

70 points give u a lot of freedom

[loud tendon]

It has literally been less than five minutes. You should give people time to read and respond and people are not obligated to reply.

As thatPoker said #dnd-newcomers is a good place to start.

[knotty basin]

30 strength, 30 dexterity, 2 in everything else

[unreal halo]

that's why i am so urged to just do stupid stuff but... I dont wanna ruin it because there's others who never played before

[green vine]

I can help with questions you may have @glacial shell

[unreal halo]

that's a con dump if i have ever seen one

[knotty basin]

Barbarian of course

[green vine]

Is that con ascending?

Bwahahaha

I'm done carry on lol

[unreal halo]

but yeah... or do i just do a tame normal split... its probably the best, right? dont wanna go too crazy

[green vine]

Tough crowd

[loud tendon]

You could take the regular point buy option. Definitely not too crazy.

Though, you may want to ask what the other players are doing otherwise people might feel way underpowered.

[unreal halo]

the others are new so i am not sure if they'll end up with smth too strong

[dim flicker]

hello dungeoners of their dragons

[timid current]

note that the point cost for ability scores above 18 isn't listed

[unreal halo]

im considering to just put int at 20 so that i can then focus on fun flavorful feats for my illusionist - like eldritch adept for misty svisions

[green vine]

Good afternoon @dim flicker

[unreal halo]

yeah its not point buy its just take 70 and put them however you want

[timid current]

oh. and are starting maximums maintained?

minimums

[unreal halo]

i assume so. it's a new dm so I assume he wants to do smth fun, which is why I wanna take the good stuff but not go too crazy

minimum would be 3 I assume

i mean i could also just do 20 charisma hexadin or coffeelock but idk...

that sounds excessive

[timid current]

I'd just ask the DM what the intention is. "hey with this ability score methodology we will far outstrip the bounded accuracy built into the 5e ruleseet. is this intentional?

[grizzled plank]

Is a really big sword more of a barbarian thing or a fighter thing

[timid current]

depends on your characters

[shy stirrup]

Alternatively, is a big axe more of a barbarian thing, or a fighter thing?

[grizzled plank]

With axes I think barbarians

[unreal halo]

i talked with him, he said go crazy, I want to learn. but its his 2nd session dming. I don't think it would be a good idea

[shy stirrup]

Despite the example of Conan, I would tend to think along similar lines

[unreal halo]

and the other players are also new

[buoyant oar]

It is best to divorce the idea of certain weapons for classes.

[grizzled plank]

So with big sword go fighter

[hidden spindle]

I would run Standard Array.

But if I did run 70 points... minimum of 8s. That leaves 22 points to apply anywhere. That's one stat at 20 (12 points), another at 18. (10 points).

STR 8, DEX 8, CON 20, INT 18, WIS 8, CHA 8.

[timid current]

conan used a small sword most of the time

[viral ore]

DA FORCE?

[unreal halo]

i like that idea

[buoyant oar]

Aragorn, Son of Arathorn II is a Ranger with swords not a bow, same with Drizzt do'Urden.

[grizzled plank]

No offence but who in earth are they

[viral ore]

oh no...

[buoyant oar]

Aragorn is one of the main characters in the Lord of the Rings.

[timid current]

if you want to use a big sword, there's archetypical examples for both barbarians and fighters. it depends on what you want to play

[unreal halo]

he also just told me the others are playing a bard and a barb. so maybe i go cleric or pala so that they have some healing instead