dnd-discussion

[pliant sapphire]

and sharpshooter

[glass granite]

Highest damage dice single handed weapon that has finesse

[remote wadi]

...so why would a Paladin want a Rapier?

[knotty pasture]

Dexadins

[glass granite]

Dexadins exist

[remote wadi]

What

[knotty pasture]

You can also go Polearms ofc, but damage output doesn't change that much

[glass granite]

Dex based paladins

[remote wadi]

Not that kind of what

[knotty pasture]

Dexadins are a treat and patch up some of Paladin's issues

[glass granite]

Nothing in the paladin features call out strength, except multiclassing

[knotty pasture]

Namely its bad initiative cuz of 8 dex

[glass granite]

Dexadins are also apparently fun as hell

[knotty pasture]

Unfortunately due to multiclass rules, Dexadins are locked to monoclassing for the most part

[remote wadi]

Dex being the dump stat? Not int?

[glass granite]

Usually both have to suffer

[knotty pasture]

I mean 8 dex and 10 dex isn't making a world of difference lol

[burnt valley]

RIP Aura of protection though

[remote wadi]

Ah. Either or. Gotcha

[knotty pasture]

Without Alert don't think about going first

[glass granite]

Oh? Why?

[knotty pasture]

You don't need to sacrifice cha for Dexadins

[glass granite]

Yeah

[remote wadi]

Paladin I am with is just going maul with GWFS

[glass granite]

And that's perfectly fine

[knotty pasture]

Its more romantic to go str Paladin, but dex Paladin is plenty cool too

[remote wadi]

She did 12 damage minimum at level 2, which is pretty good. Same as my max damage

[knotty pasture]

Cuz with dexadin you're locked to a few weapon choices only

They're all good ofc but def a lot more restrictive than str Paladin

[glass granite]

Yeah its either dual wield (far better in 2024) or rapier and shield. Or thrown weapon in 2024.

[knotty pasture]

But in any case peak Paladins is really just playing Sorc with heavy armor proficiency

[remote wadi]

Okay, I'm seeing a bit of a point for how Ranger is better

Although I still think level 2 spells really carry Ranger. Otherwise is not too good

[knotty pasture]

You don't need anything after level 2 Ranger spells, just like how you don't need anything after level 2 Paladin spells

[remote wadi]

But that good ranged damage does help pick up the pace. Not to mention surprisingly being a d10 hit dice

[knotty pasture]

Which is not the focus anyways, the focus has always just been aura at level 7

[burnt valley]

Its just the party would benefit more from it if they focused into CHA

[knotty pasture]

Dexadins still focus on cha

You can do 14 dex 14 con 17 cha

Or 17 dex 14 con 14 cha if that's your thing

[remote wadi]

Hmmm

Can't tell whether to look into Monk or Bard for a possible upcoming 2024 campaign

[knotty pasture]

Bard

[remote wadi]

That was a quick answer-

[opal wharf]

Monk

What sort of character you want to play? Which class will scratch that itch

[burnt valley]

Bard

[vernal hornet]

I played a little bit of DnD but I've never understood multiclassing

[remote wadi]

Need a basic rundown?

[vernal hornet]

not technically speaking, I ment as in "why would i delay myself from getting lvl 4, 5 etc. spells on purpose?"

[tame estuary]

ye

[undone rain]

The dm watching me just tank 5 guards because of superior ac

[burnt valley]

In 2024, only martial classes have that effect

[knotty pasture]

Bard is pretty flexible, if you hate playing support just go Swords Bard, but if you changed your mind go Lore Bard

[vernal hornet]

I guess it's more for RP reasons and not hard stats. Like I have a lvl in druid and can now turn into animals or something like that?

[remote wadi]

Mostly to focus on a more specific thing you're good at

My Ranger character, for example, is taking levels into Rogue to do better at powerful ranged attacks

[knotty pasture]

Monk meanwhile is stuck in the frontlines and if you're rolling nat 2s you aren't doing much

[remote wadi]

I don't mind support at all. Unfortunately, not everyone out there shows support some love

[knotty pasture]

You're doing it so your team wins you aren't doing it to appeal to them

[burnt valley]

Thats because no one is taking advantage of control spells

[remote wadi]

Not for this instance. I just mean support as a whole

Trust me. I am very frequently a medic in shooter games

Not everyone takes time to consider what their rampage was made possible by

[tame estuary]

wait until you find out the most effective spells are ones that lets you skip combat altogether

[remote wadi]

Mostly, I particularly enjoy classes that either have a playstyle i really enjoy

Or I see outside media that would work really well as character inspiration

Example being Dimitri from Fire Emblem as a Barbarian

[glass granite]

I usually like either fast combatants that can provide some utility, unarmed fighters, or supports with utility

Which is why my top two classes are monks and bards

[knotty pasture]

I like summons, though my concept can't realistically be produced effectively in dnd for the most part

[glass granite]

Outside of dnd I usually prefer the latter

[burnt valley]

Wouldn't Conjure Animals work?

Wait nvm the DM gets to choose your summons instead of the player

[knotty pasture]

A melee combatant with a large greatsword, who locks down an area with summons so the enemy is distracted, then rush in to gang up on them

[tawdry sentinel]

You take it for specific features that combo together.

Paladin/ Ranger at a certain level does sort of stop getting particularly impressive new features. So you just go sorcerer or druid on top to get the wonderful world of full spell casting.

Taking 1 level in whatever for armour proficiency or "better" saving throw proficiency etc.

A lot of the power building does just gloss over the bit where you have to play a weaker character than someone who didn't multiclass for several months.

[knotty pasture]

Closest I got is Spores Druid, but beating people with a stick doesn't feel romantic

[glass granite]

Paladin with spirit guardians is semi close thematically, but mechanically there’s no summons

[knotty pasture]

It ain't the same if I don't have like 6-8 remote controlled drones or summons to beat or shoot the enemy up

This character would excel in 1v1s but suck in group combat as a result, where every fight feels like a 2v1 to them in a way

[vernal hornet]

ah ok

[fiery nimbus]

That sounds like a warlock hexblade

[knotty pasture]

Hexblade doesn't summon a bunch of stuff sadly

It has individual powerful summons but that isn't what I'm shooting for

[fiery nimbus]

Pump out summon lesser demons to lock down the area in combat and go to town

[burnt valley]

Summon Greater Demon + Planar Binding

[fiery nimbus]

Summon lesser demons can summon multiple of em

And yes they will be hostile towards you if you summon them

[knotty pasture]

Oh neat

[fiery nimbus]

It is neat

They are demons so they kind of go after the closest thing to them

[prime pewter]

I love Pinterest collages, so fun to make them for my dnd characters

[reef tundra]

If there another dnd video game akin to BG3 was released, what exotic/lesser-known species would you want in it?

[prime pewter]

Kenku

[reef tundra]

Me personally, I say genasi

[reef tundra]

I have joined team Kenku as well now

Bring me the bird

[noble basin]

Big fan of aasimar or kalashtar. Having some kind of ancient great being whispering to you is cool

[burnt valley]

Custom Lineage

[reef tundra]

Omg I forgot about Kalashtar! I love them! I just got the Eberron book and I have become obsessed

[full wadi]

Gnoll. I have grievance with their "graaah all evil cannibals" interpretation, but I still want those hyena humanoids

[reef tundra]

They would be cool to play

[full wadi]

For similar reasons: Hadooze

[reef tundra]

Ooh I haven’t heard of that one before

[full wadi]

They're the flying squirrel primate ones from Spelljammer

[onyx yew]

Good

[lavish harbor]

Hi all !

I'm looking for a subspace that has at least 1 or 2 hours of breathable air. Bag of holding doesn't work (10 mins)

do you have any idea what could help ?

thank you for your ideas !

It has to be a different dimensional space

[burnt valley]

Rope Trick

[remote wadi]

Does a mimic count?

[lavish harbor]

didn't know about that one !

But I should clarify a bit more, it has to be some place I can store things in as long as I want, rope trick has everything fall at the end of the spell

Thanks tho

I know genie warlock have like a subspace like that, it's in that kind of Idea I'm going (but I'm not a warlock, so looking for other solutions haha. I'm a 2024 bard if that helps

[noble basin]

Level 8 spell demiplane will help you but it's quite late

[lavish harbor]

thanks for your reply !

yeah that will be my late game solution, but i guess from what you are all saying, there isn't really a solution for earlyer levels

[brisk lotus]

hey everyone

[fiery nimbus]

Are you interested in spells that just let you breath?

Air bubble spell lets you keep 24 hours of air around your head, than you can use bag of holding

[wanton sorrel]

hello black veil

[brisk lotus]

how are you

[wanton sorrel]

doing alright... just got my druid to level 5 and my rogue to level 5 as well.... druid almost level 6 though.... just finishing up the third session where i have to face a demodragon.

[fiery nimbus]

DM doesn't let me summon demo dragons -_-

[wanton sorrel]

are you using rule set 2014 or 2024?

[fiery nimbus]

Doesn't matter much tbh

[undone rain]

My paladin wont stop getting a hole in his chest lol

[brisk lotus]

hey guys what are you doing?

[undone rain]

Nothing a good nights sleep wont fix

[tropic plank]

Clearly if he keeps getting damage to the chest and surviving he should armour the other parts of himself

[undone rain]

The mans wearing full plate what else could he armor

2nd layer of plate?

[brisk lotus]

hey everyone

[tropic plank]

No wonder he’s getting chest holes if he’s wearing plates for armour

[undone rain]

No no

[fiery nimbus]

Is paladins name Dunkin by chance?

[lavish harbor]

I could ! Unfortunately, air bubble doesn't exist yet in 2024 iirc 🙁

[fiery nimbus]

2024 is backwards compatible with 2014

[lavish harbor]

if the DM agrees, if it is 100% 2024, I won't have too much choice but comply

knowing that 2024 exclusive was asked in order to avoid broken 2014 spells like silvery barbs, etc.

[hollow stone]

i'm like, 90% sure the devs explicitly said "if we don't update something to 2024 that means the 2014 version is the 2024 version until otherwise comes to exist"

[hidden spindle]

Sometimes people make arbitrary harder than it has to be

[eager marsh]

'broken spells like silvery barbs' when Sleep, Hypnotic Pattern, Simulacrum, and more still exist

[hoary totem]

cleric domains be like:
wanna defend your allies and are a bit of an edgelord? play twilight domain!
want a mix of defence and damage and are an even bigger edgelord? play grave domain!
just in it for the damage and are an EVEN BIGGER EDGELORD? play death domain!

[wanton sorrel]

T_T snake eyes

[feral fulcrum]

Hadozee.

[full wadi]

Close enough for government work, but thank you for the correction

[still plover]

Hah! (Rare to see that phrase in the wild)

[feral fulcrum]

I wouldn't really call Sleep broken, it does fall off pretty quickly.

[eager marsh]

No it doesn’t. 2024 sleep was changed

[feral fulcrum]

Ah, was it changed from being hitpoint based?

[eager marsh]

Point being that barbs isn’t broken like people say. And yes sleep is now a wisdom save. All targets that fail become incapacitated for 1 turn then take a second save and fall u conscious of they fail that one

Aoe incapacitated is incredibly strong even if they don’t fail the second save. Taking damage before the second save also breaks the drowsy state

But it’s still very good now and hits a decent aoe

[feral fulcrum]

I will say that Silvery Barbs really should be a second level spell rather then first level.

[eager marsh]

No it wouldn’t be worth the slot at that point

[dapper cloud]

Yes it would, lmao.

Honestly, you could up it to 3rd level and it'd still be good.

[feral fulcrum]

A "It hits." into "Lol no it doesn't." For a second level spell is stil Good Value.

[eager marsh]

A reroll doesn’t make it always miss shield is better for that

[still plover]

My real fuss about barbs is having to play Mother May I? with the player holding it any time I, the DM, am making a roll.

[eager marsh]

Being second level would make the spell feel worse to cast.

[lusty kelp]

silvery barbs good as a 3rd level spell? Uhh, no.
Shield is arguably better, since it lasts a full round instead of just one attack.

[feral fulcrum]

Yes, but Barbs can be used on Other people

[eager marsh]

You also don’t use barbs on attack rolls unless it’s a crit generally the reason it’s a ‘problem’ is using it on saving throws the enemy makes

And 2024 the spellcaster triggering the save can’t even use barbs themselves anyways so it’s even less an issue

[lusty kelp]

unless you're a high level warlock who picked it up~ or using a magic item to cast

[eager marsh]

A warlock using their pact slot for barbs when that slot is worth 5th level and they’re forcing An arcanum through? That’s not even bad

[lusty kelp]

I was thinking the free cast from Magic Initiative

[dapper cloud]

The problem with Barbs is that it's incredibly spammable, and there's rarely a reason not to use it. Past 5th level, 1st level spell slots aren't much of an object.

So attacks and saving throws constantly get bogged down by rerolls.

[eager marsh]

It takes 2 seconds to reroll a die so the ‘bog down’ argument is nonsense imo. And if an enemy failing a single save on a reroll would ruin the encounter when they could have also just rolled low the first time means it wasn’t a very good encounter to start with

The issue is people constantly use short adventuring days after tier 2 when they shouldn’t be so full casters always have most of their slots around

Same reason paladins in 2014 were the jobs damage king because they weren’t losing slots fast enough to lose out to the ‘no cost’ sneak attack comparison

[lusty kelp]

its the 8 minute adventuring day but with warlocks and monks instead of wizards~ same problem, with same solution

[dapper cloud]

Sure, rerolling dice is quick if you're doing it like once. All the arcane casters have Barbs, and they can do it every round each. It gets so obnoxious so fast.

Do agree about the short adventuring day, that helps, but again, 1st level spell slots still aren't that much of an object.

[eager marsh]

If they all do it every round they’re wasting all their slots in a single combat and that’s on them. That means I can make the later combats harder

Changing it to a lv2 slot doesn’t actually change the ‘plentiful slots’ argument either once you have lv3+ spells even those slots are generally free real estate

[lusty kelp]

• three of the arcane casters - wiz, sorc, bard.
  psions, warlocks and artificers do not.

[dapper cloud]

Yeah, that's why I would put it lv3.

[eager marsh]

Also wasting all your low slots for barbs means you have less of your utility choices

A level 3 barbs is garbage and I’d never agree to that lol

Barbs is objectively not that good

[feral fulcrum]

I still say that Barbs does far, far too much for a level 1 spell. If you took out the "It also gives someone advantage" Bit, I'd have less objections to it being level 1. But it both forcing a reroll and you must take the lower roll, and it also buffing someone, definitely a bit much for a mere level 1 spell.

[dapper cloud]

Yeah, Warlock and Artificer can't leverage it much anyway.

[eager marsh]

Everyone gets a single reaction and the ‘oops all barbs casters party’ argument is an outlier meme where the players are deliberately being onnoxious about it and shouldn’t be counted

[dapper cloud]

Level 3 would put it alongside Counterspell, which I think it roughly lines up.

[eager marsh]

No it doesn’t

[lusty kelp]

Silvery Barbs is not on par with Counterspell.

[dapper cloud]

Definitely gets rid of a spell (in 2014) Vs can get rid of a spell effect and give someone else advantage/disadvantage.

[feral fulcrum]

Counterspell is a Gaurenteed "No." most of the time. Silvery barbs is not.

[eager marsh]

‘Definitely’ is wrong and it doesn’t stop the spell

[dapper cloud]

Yeah, but Silvery Barbs has the added advantage/disadavantage.

[lusty kelp]

The innate restrictions of the spell require inter-party coordination as well. It is not very good as a stand alone spell.

[feral fulcrum]

And speaking of Counterspell, I don't run it on my Wizard because I want my DM to actually get to use Spellcasters.

[dapper cloud]

Does in 2014, at least relatively. 2024 is a different story.

[eager marsh]

That’s a weak and silly argument. The dm can always use casters and more than one caster than you

[dapper cloud]

What are those restrictions?

[eager marsh]

No it doesn’t the effect is the same it’s a reroll

[feral fulcrum]

I'm in a party in where 3 out of 4 players could theoretically be casting Counterspell.

[eager marsh]

And burning all their level 3 slots? Go ahead.

[feral fulcrum]

And if we all had it, fights would devolve into "No, no, no, also no, and some more no on top. Then the Ranger hits them on the head for being a nerd."

[eager marsh]

Having counterspell is not an incentive for a dm to not use casters. It’s an incentive TO use casters

Because it means you have a tool to potentially make the encounter less deadly. You get to feel good doing your thing. The way the game is intended to be played

[dapper cloud]

...No it doesn't? Unless you're Counterspelling something higher level.

[eager marsh]

If a player has a race or class feature with resistance to a damage type that’s not incentive to meta game and never use that damage against them. You use it and let the player feel good

[lusty kelp]

The restrictions of one spell slot per turn, and saving the advantage for a saving throw. because those are the only outsized problems. Advantage/disadvantage on attacks are trivially easy to aquire for longer duration, and on skills, tha'ts a cantrip level effect.

[eager marsh]

I was referring g to barbs in the message you replied to so thought you were also in barbs

[dapper cloud]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Silvery Barbs is definitely not guaranteed.

[eager marsh]

Anyways if a player takes counterspell that’s always incentive to use more spellcasters as a dm. If you don’t use them then that means you intentionally let the player choose a spell they won’t get to use and that’s bad DMing

[lavish harbor]

can't agree with that, silvery barbs is a level 1 spell, that certain feets give you 1 free cast and always prepared. The ratio of power for a 1st level spell is immense. even if the reroll still succeeds on the dm side, you can still give advantage, so anytime you cast it you have a guaranteed effect

not saying that what you mentioned isn't strong, but by essence, silvery barbs is the ultimate game breaker for a public die rolling GM, he will never be able to crit, and it's a spell that even non caster can get with feats. The power of this spell is terrifying

[eager marsh]

Blocking crits is the main way my diviner uses it. And only to protect the barbarian in front of me. Also you can only use one reaction. You can’t block every crit so that’s just plain not true

If I use barbs then I don’t get to use counterspell that same turn. Or barbs for something else. Or shield to protect myself

[lavish harbor]

there's a problem with the maths here, a GM doesn't crit as often as players by action economy AND because advantage sources are way fewer for NPCs than for players

so even if you can block 1 crit, it is maybe the only crit a DM will do in 3 turns

and you are saying this as if only 1 player can have this spell

[eager marsh]

That’s a generalization and also the DM rolls everything in the game that isn’t players. More importantly the dm ‘getting to crit or not’ isn’t some core aspect of the game either

Most enemies make more attacks than players and even fighters in most cases and there are usually more enemies.

[lavish harbor]

I agree with it not being a core aspect, but it destroys a tension component. Seing the DM fail is fun, but seing him succeed with a crit and the tension that comes from it is also part of the fun

not seeing the DM able to crit just takes out a big part of the risk

[eager marsh]

That doesn’t make the spell suddenly too strong because otherwise someone having Adamantine armor does the same thing

It ‘removes the tension of crits’ as you say

[dusk geyser]

Hi, I was playing a campaign with some friends, and the DM is doing 2014 rules. is using a ranger worth it now? We really need some utility.

[feral fulcrum]

I don't think Ryunosuke is going to be convinced by any argument.

[eager marsh]

Ranger is perfectly fine as long as you apply the Tasha’s changes

[dapper cloud]

Do you have Tasha's Cauldron of Everything? If so, yes.

Tasha's Ranger is actually damn fun.

[feral fulcrum]

Tasha's ranger is a skill monkey with fun later features.

[eager marsh]

Correct. This argument had happened many times even without my involvement. The spell isn’t as bad as people like to think and you can even find threads where people have run the math on it. Anyways I gatta go to my day job now. Yall have fun

[burnt valley]

Do you have other spellcasters in the group?

[feral fulcrum]

Like a bonus action invisibility for a round.

[lavish harbor]

seems so, but every discussion doesn't have for objective to force someone into being convinced. He stated his points, I stated mine and imo this spell should be a level 2 to 4 reaction spell, not a 1st level one seeing the guaranteed effect anyways.

[dusk geyser]

thx. We have 2 barbarians, a bard, 2 clerics (Life), a sorlock, a sorcerer, rogue, and a wizard (War)

[dapper cloud]

That's...a lot of players.

[dusk geyser]

yeah...it gets slow sometimes. I left for one session and they had killed the prince and escaped jail

[feral fulcrum]

That is indeed, probably too big of a table.

[burnt valley]

Thats already enough utility imo, what exactly are you looking for?

[dapper cloud]

I don't think you really need utility then, you've got it covered, lmao.

[burnt valley]

Yeah pretty much

[dusk geyser]

None of the classes that are utility don't play it or don't have the utility

[feral fulcrum]

HOnestly, a Wizard by themself is enough utility, if they're willing.

[burnt valley]

Wdym by utility as in ritual spells?

[dusk geyser]

This wizard is the wizard we had to pressure into not taking blade singer

[burnt valley]

Good.

They are better off armour dipping

[dusk geyser]

I mean, is ranger better than things like druid with setting battlefield and things that martial casters can't do? I know that rangers are good for specific things, but have never played one

[feral fulcrum]

Druids are better for spell based battfield manipulation.

[burnt valley]

Nah Druid does what the Ranger does but better

[feral fulcrum]

Rangers are more Martial then caster.

[burnt valley]

Yes

[feral fulcrum]

But Tasha Ranger's shine more out of combat.

Thanks to their endless skills and languages.

[burnt valley]

Which is subject to DM fiat and what the Bards already cover

[dusk geyser]

got it. thanks then. I'm only used to warlocks and sorcerers.

[dapper cloud]

My advice would be to split the group in half, but the DM probably isn't on the server, lmao.

[burnt valley]

From 1 to 10, what do you think of your party's spell list?

[feral fulcrum]

Never split the party.

Unless you mean like dming for half the group one day, and then the other half another.

[dusk geyser]

Most of the others are new players, and I almost laughed at the other sorcerer's spell list

[burnt valley]

Ah then you could probably try Wizard or play Sorc/Warlock again since you're the most experienced one in the group and could help out which spells to take and avoid

[feral fulcrum]

Sneers at Tiny Hut using Wizards and conjures up a five story tower with warm baths using Galder's Tower

[burnt valley]

For example, not letting someone pick Tasha's Caustic Brew instead of Shield or Absorb Elements

Or picking Prestidigitation instead of Ray of Frost

[feral fulcrum]

I wouldn't go that far. You can give advice, but don't force people to do what you want for 'optimal' picks.

Don't be That Guy at the table.

[burnt valley]

I mean im assuming the new players would want to actually excel with their class and wants to feel powerful in general

But if they're really focused on roleplay then any spell list would work cuz its a low op party

[tropic plank]

Bad spell choices are perfectly acceptable if they’re like rp decisions, like choosing mostly fire spells as a fire mage, even if they’re all worse than Fireball

But if it’s just not understanding which spells are useful, I’d suppose it might be okay to advise them on what use a spell has

I’d never say to dictate their decisions though

[feral fulcrum]

Yes, but there's a better way then going "Hey pick this, not that, don't be dumb." Suggestions are always better then flat out telling someone else "No, don't play your charecter like that."

[burnt valley]

Fair

[tropic plank]

Also I feel like prestidigitation would absolutely be a spell everyone who can cast it would know for sure

[feral fulcrum]

There's only one thing I'd ever get close to telling someone outright to not take. And it's 2014 True Strike. Which was the most pointless waste of a turn ever devised.

[tropic plank]

If there’s any spell I’d actually want other players input in using it’d be wish, simply because I feel something like that should be a party decision not a selfish one

[hidden spindle]

That's why you ready it. Won't trigger initiative casting it cause all you're doing is pointing

[burnt valley]

Yeah no, it will be their fault if they start feeling useless at times because multiple encounters had mostly resistant to fire or immune to it and not doing anything to suggest otherwise would be bad

[feral fulcrum]

A fire mage can get by quite well with Elemental Adept.

[tropic plank]

That’d be on the dm for having an abundance of fire resistant opponents and also allowing a fire mage to be in their campaign tho

[feral fulcrum]

I say that as a Scribe Wizard that turns all their damage into Fire. And short of Elementals and Red Dragons, it's not an issue.

[solar crow]

My party might be cooked y'all LOL. Cleric accidentally caught the attention of something so strong and evil the oracle is freaked out by it😅 😂

[burnt valley]

The DM shouldn't have to be forced to catering for that one character who decided to be a deadweight for some reason, they already have other things to deal with

[solar crow]

She was like actually struggling to speak

[burnt valley]

Do u know the statblock

[feral fulcrum]

Hey at least you're not on Zariel's "Personally murder with my own bare hands." List.

[solar crow]

Oop

[tropic plank]

The dm should just say
‘The campaign will have a lot of fire resistant encounters, so could you pick a different element’

[solar crow]

The Oracle said she couldn't tell us what the thing was it was too dangerous to say it's name

[tropic plank]

Or if it’s not central to the campaign, change it
DM’s do sort of have to cater to their party, the same way the party is expected to follow the DM’s story hooks

[solar crow]

Mind you we're stuck deep in a dungeon that is literally falling apart and is slowly catching on fire that we can't stop🤣

[feral fulcrum]

Or recommend the Elemental Adept feat.

[feral fulcrum]

Metroid Moment.

[burnt valley]

Uhh what level?

[tropic plank]

Have you considered long resting

[hidden spindle]

"This is fine"

[solar crow]

No we found an amulet, which was what we were trying to do all campaign, that was sitting on a throne and when we beat the boss guarding it and took it, the throne caught on fire and the fire is spreading

[tropic plank]

Put the amulet on

[solar crow]

We long rest after every session we're doing a campaign in D&D club at the community College we go to

[feral fulcrum]

I was thinking more "Time for the obligatory panicked, timed escape sequence."

[solar crow]

We can't use it yet it's power was drained

Plus it does time related things

[tropic plank]

You can still put it on and look fancy when you die in a cave in

[solar crow]

Lol

[hidden spindle]

Always keep Gust of Wind or Create or Destroy Water prepared

[still plover]

Run? Create water? Get your sorcerer to try dumping their unused spell slots into it for a jumpstart?

[solar crow]

It's not gonna cave in on us. This whole semester is for us to escape the dungeon

[feral fulcrum]

Be the future loot for adventures.

[tropic plank]

Failing that, carry water bottles

[feral fulcrum]

Water bottles don't do squat to anything larger then a burning candle.

[tropic plank]

Become the dead guy who warns the players of the booby traps

[tropic plank]

Well the fire would have been that size at some point

[burnt valley]

Dimension door out

[solar crow]

There won't be any. The dungeon will disappear after we leave

[solar crow]

The flames have already consumed multiple floors

[tropic plank]

A bit late for a water bottle then

[solar crow]

Plus we already tried asking if we could stop the fire and the oracle said no it's not a normal fire

[feral fulcrum]

Hope you all like smoke inhalation.

[tropic plank]

The Oracle is obviously the evil force that wants the cleric in disguise

[worn lagoon]

Oracles are evil, always

[umbral girder]

The new MM has an Oracle stat block right?

[empty thicket]

why the oracle wants the cleric?

[umbral girder]

It’s a cyclops I think?

[full wadi]

Did I miss the weekly Silvery Barbs roast

[hidden spindle]

Something about that Oracle Cyclops 🔥

[tall forge]

I love silvery barbs

I started using it in fights recently

I can see why my players used it against me so much >:)

[vale sage]

Im debating whether I pick up the dungeon masters guide and monster manual for 2024's ruleset.. i own the PHB, but was a bit burnt out on 5e for awhile and am now wanting to run it again

do yall think theyre worth it as upgrades?

[umbral girder]

Oh yeah they are very good

[vale sage]

ik the monster manual is pretty solid from what ive heard!

[umbral girder]

As a DM it made things so much easier and fun to run.

[full wadi]

Advantage and disadvantage is already tossed out like candy, I don't really mind a spell that does it explicitly

[umbral girder]

A lot more useful stuff in these books and better organized

I like Monsters having a note for treasure they like to carry and additional tables to roll on

[vale sage]

frankly ive had my issues with WOTC so im a bit hesitant to buy new books but my players all still like 5e, and i think its a fun time so

[burnt valley]

2024 monsters are much stronger

[umbral girder]

Like an Archhag’s weakness, Gargolye disguises, Mummy Lord plots, Lich’s Phylacteries etc

[wanton sorrel]

campiagn beaten... phew....

[tall forge]

The problem obv is its a spell that turns advantage into a disadvantage

THEN gives advantage

[vale sage]

one thing i dont like from the PHB is warlocks and clerics getting their stuff at lvl 3, it just doesnt really make sense to me LMAO

[burnt valley]

It takes 2 or 3 Cloud Giants to tpk a party

[umbral girder]

Nah it’s fine

It’s just like Paladin oaths at level 3 back in 2014

[vale sage]

yeah, but it feels a bit weird for a warlock to A) not know their patron until lvl 3, or B) have to roleplay their patron without having those abilities to back it up imo

but yknow, i guess you can just flavor things as always :P

[umbral girder]

They can still know who their patron is

Nothing stops them from knowing ahead of time.

[vale sage]

thats what i said yeah

there was a second part to that message

[umbral girder]

Does a moon Druid not know what circle they have been in at level 1?

Does a Ranger not know what conclaves they have been working with at level 1?

Do Bards not know what college they have been part of?

[uncut zenith]

Levels 1 and 2 are like an “internship” for warlocks and clerics. They get some features, but once they get to Level 3, they go from intern to employee

[vale sage]

i get the point LMAO

[lusty kelp]

I don't think you do. We need more stabbings! (/jk 🗡️ )

[blissful ibex]

ye, class level 1 & 2 are the initiate/acolyte/squire phase

[empty thicket]

to most of classes in general

except a few that get to choose their stuff at first, like sorcerer

[lusty kelp]

I'm sorry, but the line "I'm interning to be a thief" makes me giggle slightly

[blissful ibex]

2024, they wait until 3rd level as well

[umbral girder]

This is a 2024 convo

[uncut zenith]

Yeah levels 1 and 2 are designed to be “tutorial” levels

[empty thicket]

Oh.....weird ngl, i found more "narrative" fitting getting to chose the subclass at first

[umbral girder]

Yeah part of DnD streamlining for new people to play DnD since DnD is becoming people’s first TTRPGs a lot of the time

[blissful ibex]

for sorcerer it's like tapping into and discovering your bloodline abilities

[tropic plank]

Especially for a warlock or sorcerer, that sort of thing sees pretty important to the backstory

[umbral girder]

Not really?

[tropic plank]

It works great for an amnesia plot tho

[glad arch]

Sorcerer isnt too hard to explain, you have magic heritage you just dont know from where/it hasnt fully awakaned

[umbral girder]

Like the story of “I suddenly have magic that evolves over time” is a in classic story telling

[empty thicket]

like, yeah, i kinda understand it.
Like a person that start doing an exercise and found out is giga good in that exercise

[blissful ibex]

and for warlock, it's like 'you've uncovered a mysterious ritual from an old tome and signed a shady pact with unkown powers in exchange for forbidden secrets'

[lusty kelp]

I find it interesting how many people talk about bloodlines with sorcerers, when the core class is described more as being a mutant, nothing to do with lienages.

[empty thicket]

oh i was thinking of some backstory like that for a sorc wild magic i want to do

[blissful ibex]

and only later do you discover what kind of entity you;'ve endebted yourself to

[umbral girder]

Yeah Draconic in 2014 was the only Bloodline subclass even then it had options out

All the other ones had “planar magics changed you one day” as their go to method

[empty thicket]

A guy that was used for experiments in some school or place and after being used was threw away, explaining the wild magic on him like a constant conflict of all the experiments made on him.
Adding to the plot some sort of Revenge arc against those that did him that

[feral fulcrum]

Um, have you actually looked at it? " Sorcerers carry a magical birthright conferred upon them by an exotic bloodline, some otherworldly influence, or exposure to unknown cosmic forces. No one chooses sorcery; the power chooses the sorcerer. "

[tropic plank]

Yeah, I guess I’m just used to a warlocks patron being a really important character for their backstory as opposed to a surprise element

[uncut zenith]

Warlocks at level 1 and 2 can just be people who might be dabbling in some occult and esoteric things, and once they get to 3 they decide to double down

[glad arch]

Its the 'otheewordly influence or exposure to the unknown' part

[lusty kelp]

The entire thing with sorcerers and bloodlines is so weird to me especially because tieflings, elves and gnomes, who have actual racial magics, are more associated with the warlock subclasses than the sorcerer too.

[glad arch]

Neither of those are bloodline

[blissful ibex]

they still can be, you just flavor it as the connection needing a certain level of strength before the specific abilities of the patron are capable of manifesting; very similar flavor to cleric

[tropic plank]

But then I’ve been quite annoyed with backstories for a while now, because a lot of the time the backstory is just a story and not a little flavour
Idk i feel like the campaign is your characters story and you only need a few paragraphs of background

[feral fulcrum]

Consider that Sorceror subclasses include things like Draconic and Celestial and it makes a great deal more sense. Somewhere in the family someone got some dragonblood, and that's why you've suddenly started growing scales and setting things on fire.

[still plover]

Heck, I only ask for three sentences.

[glad arch]

I can see the tiefling warlock vibe, elves and gnomes have always seemed more 'good' to me though

[lusty kelp]

Consider that the Sorcerer includes defiled magic, moon magic, wild magic, and it makes a lot less sense.

[tropic plank]

One of my players sent me a detailed thousand year story covering nearly every one in a decent level of detail

[still plover]

So not to dig, but that looks like it says:

• tieflings are evil
• warlocks are evil
• elves are good
• gnomes are good

And I just disagree with all of that.

[lusty kelp]

Archfey Patreon is literally the High Elf / Eladrin subclass

[blissful ibex]

backstory is the leadup and also gives the DM an idea of the kind of story you want to play
it gives them hooks to get your character invested with what's going on because they can draw parralels between the character's history and the events happening 'on screen'
or just have part of a character's backstory explicitly woven into events

[feral fulcrum]

shrugs At the end of the day, the Flavor is up to you. And plenty of them make plenty of sense to be a family bloodline thing.

[glad arch]

Its just archetypes

[empty thicket]

or you were part of an experiment in a village where everybody ate in a festival a stew that had dragonblood, some mutated horrible and others died. You were the only that survived and was the "good" subject.

[tropic plank]

Yeah but when you have a really long backstory it doesn’t make sense to then be level one at the start of the game

[vale sage]

i ask my players to give me 3 npcs, 3 sentences (at least, they can do as much as they want!) of backstory, and 3 goals for their character

[still plover]

I think you mean stereotypes.

[empty thicket]

it depend all how you and the DM want to lead the story

[blissful ibex]

which is why you want to try and keep it to a few paragraphs and leave lots of open plot hooks
need enough there to get an idea of the charater and enough for the DM to work with if they want to pull on story threads

• like a named NPC or organization or two
• a possible adversary
• a more mid to long term goal
• and info around how the character was brought up

[vale sage]

its worked for me for basically any game i run

[glad arch]

Either works (?)

[vale sage]

not necessarily

[glad arch]

Ig that depends on your personal view on the species. If you think elves arent good but they look good its a stereotype. If most elves are good then a good elf is the archetype

[empty thicket]

yeah, every race can have his own story in each Setting//campaign

its the lovely part of DND, you can kinda manipulate//write the things like you want

[lusty kelp]

You're the one who started arguing with me, so shrug back

[glad arch]

Indeed

[empty thicket]

In fact, nuke strahd.

Why? there you hesitated, you dont ask why, you just do it.

[feral fulcrum]

Strahd is now Radioactive, being near him gives one level of Exhaustion each round. Congrats, you made him worse.

[empty thicket]

Bold of you to assume it was nuclear.
The artificer was missing for 6 months, guess what he made.

[burnt valley]

Strahd is the core for the reactor btw

[feral fulcrum]

Bottled Sunshine?

[empty thicket]

Hydrogen bomb With anti magic glyphs and a Teleport spell to teleport above Strahd.

He did like those machines that teleport 3000tnts in minecraft.

[feral fulcrum]

That reminds me, there a Psuedo nukes in...Elemental Evil I think? Edit: Correction, Princes of the Apocalypse. Devastation Orbs.

[burnt valley]

Oh those orbital cannons

[empty thicket]

Flattened a whole island, now is missing. But worth the shoot

[umbral girder]

Immortality is why

[woven flint]

Honestly, dunno why one would go so overboard trying to kill Strahd

The Dark Powers are just gonna bring him back anyway

[umbral girder]

Strahd would be fine in a few minutes and Barovia would suffer the effects

[reef copper]

Tbf barovia is a big place

[woven flint]

Nuking Strahd would be doing more harm than good for the people of Barovia lol

[tepid wadi]

ive never played curse of strahd, i bet its a good campaign

ive only mostly played homebrew

[halcyon bison]

The dark powers are such sore losers

[umbral girder]

Not really. It’s like 30 miles at most

You could walk across the entire place in a day.

[woven flint]

Aye, they're Demi-Planes
Not full on planes of existence

[hoary totem]

Fey are weak to iron. iron is, coincidentally or not, the most (nuclear) stable element.

This implies that fey frickin love radioactive isotopes.

[woven flint]

Probably

[halcyon bison]

I can confirm this is correct 👍
Make sure to bring some uranium when you go to the feywild to feed the fairies

[woven flint]

I love eating nuclear isotopes

[reef copper]

Barovia is big compared to blast radius, but i bet everyone will notice

[hollow stone]

is it that they hate nuclear stability, or that they hate ferromagnetism?

[umbral girder]

And how far does radiation travel? Hundreds of miles. All of Barovia would suffer.

[hollow stone]

why are we nuking barovia?

[woven flint]

The blast Radius of a Hydrogen Bomb is around 60 miles lol

[lusty kelp]

I'm sure that there's some kind of magic that can remove radiation.

[glossy otter]

Real estate of course

[umbral girder]

Not to a 30 mile scale

[hollow stone]

i mean, given the fact that most detection spells are abated by lead, it might be that magic is radiation

[reef copper]

I thought we where discussing a ”normal modern nuke” tbf

[woven flint]

Spoilers but relevant: ||Barovia is on a timeloop, everything would be reset at the end of the day||

There's literally no point to nuking Strahd or Barovia

[umbral girder]

One of those hopeless places

[glossy otter]

I think that ones homebrew (but I haven't read the book in a while)

[umbral girder]

||Per the ending of the book||

[lusty kelp]

does that mean that D&D sorcerers are immune to cancer?

[woven flint]

Nope, apparently ALL the Domains of Dread are

[reef copper]

Barovia has a lot similar with dbd it seems

[glossy otter]

Ah. That's why I didn't remember that part

[umbral girder]

Some can work their way out of course.

Vecna and Lord Soth forced their way out

[woven flint]

I think the Domains of Dread are slightly less worse than the Entities domain, but I'm uncertain

[hollow stone]

i think it implies they're much more vulnerable to cancer, actually

[glossy otter]

Tbh id love to see campaigns set in the other domains

[lusty kelp]

I'm sorry, but drawing a blank here. What's Entities domain?

[umbral girder]

Dead by daylight

[woven flint]

There's a Domain of Dread lord who is a Rakasha or however you spell it
His domain is a jungle

[umbral girder]

It was mentioned earlier. Which yeah Domains of Dread are pretty much the same as the DBD but DBD’s entity is way more active about it

[woven flint]

I wanna know more about him and the other Dread Lords >:/

[umbral girder]

The Dark Powers are slow and will let people out who slay their dark lords.

[umbral girder]

I have been thinking about a Lamordia campaign

[glossy otter]

Tbh the only thing I found weird with ravenloft was how many lords were changed

[woven flint]

Kas, Aizalan, Vecna and Strahd are the only ones we really have a decent amount of information about, I believe

[lusty kelp]

I liked the two tiefling dark-lords from 4e era. They were kinda fun.

[umbral girder]

Lords can be replaced. I think there is a thing about PCs able to replace Strahd

[umbral girder]

Every other Dark lord praying Vecna and Kas don’t notice them

[woven flint]

Don't tempt me

[umbral girder]

Notably Vecna and Kas were actively being tricked to stay there unlike the other Dark Lords

[woven flint]

I will find a way to free the people of Barovia

[umbral girder]

Vecna caught on and left because big wizard brain

[lusty kelp]

And Kas followed Vecna

[hollow stone]

is it like the Apocalypse Now king thing, where you kill the leader and you can either take up the title or leave?

[glossy otter]

I mean yeah, though domains like Lamordia were straight up altered without context. I forgot the huntress' domain but I do recall her domain's changes explained

[umbral girder]

I still want to do a Lamordia game

[glossy otter]

Likewise

[umbral girder]

Mechanical zombies, radiation, icy survival land

The German accent stuff would be an interesting experiment for me as a DM.

[glossy otter]

Wasn't Lamordia one of the few taken from Eberron

[umbral girder]

Not to my knowledge

The only Ebberon one I can think of is the Cyre Train

[glossy otter]

That one I remember

[woven flint]

Aha, The Raksasha Dread Lord is named Arijani, his domain is Kalakeri

[lusty kelp]

On the subject of Dread Domains... Is the Raven Queen a Dark Lord or Dread Power... was that ever established?

[umbral girder]

She is her own thing

She isn’t associated with the Dark Powers or Domain of Dread I think? She is just the Shadowfell

[empty thicket]

1000 ways to kill strahd,
Nº245 Hydrogen bomb.

[woven flint]

It wouldn't permanently kill him lol

[umbral girder]

He’d be back in an hour

[reef copper]

What about using the good old trusted stick?

[woven flint]

It's going overboard for no reason

[umbral girder]

Vampire after all

[glossy otter]

Wait a min. That gave me a thought. With ravenloft 2 coming, perhaps we'll see Duskmourn?

[lusty kelp]

We do have that revenant haunted house in the MM, so maybe they'll build off that?

[umbral girder]

We get to see Carovia with its leader Ttrahd

[woven flint]

Can we talk about how cool the name Arijani is, real quick?

[umbral girder]

Who totally isn’t just Strahd and Barovia with fake mustaches and glasses

[woven flint]

Xarovia

[glossy otter]

Damn, the lakes formed to make a mustache, surely it isn't suspicious

[umbral girder]

Even the castle has a mustache

[glossy otter]

Every now and then a tree twirls the castles stash

[woven flint]

Lmao

Mr. Alaster, The Evil Dm?

More like
Mr. Alaster, The SILLY Dm

[umbral girder]

“That house on the hill? Called the ‘Stache House.”

[glossy otter]

PC: "Its got spices or something?"

The carriage driver with a stache: "no, its because it literally has a mustache"

[umbral girder]

Several wolves come from the woods wearing mustaches

[woven flint]

Every man, woman and child has a Mustache

[glossy otter]

Clearly they're trustworthy

[hoary totem]

Describe your PC's backstory as a clickbait youtube video title

[umbral girder]

Yes that’s how it is in Carovia

[woven flint]

The Player characters find themselves growing facial hair too, in Carovia, if they didn't have it before

[umbral girder]

red arrow points the guy who doesn’t exist!?!?! /jk

Adds an outline where a PC should be

[silver dock]

i HATE rolling for stats

[glossy otter]

Even the tarokka cards have mustache's

[umbral girder]

Skill issue /jk

nah that’s fair to not want to roll stats

[reef copper]

May i do it for you:)

[silver dock]

i hate having the chance to just start the game with an objectively bad character

[woven flint]

I was a Librarian who joined a Group of Thugs?! (3AM Challenge) (Gome Wrong) (My Friend Died!)

[silver dock]

(im probably only more partial to point buy because of playing fallout 4 growing up)

[umbral girder]

Eh I’ve learned stats are important mainly for the first 3-4 sessions of a game

After that you got a lot of options to get around that with proper loot and cash drops and class features

[woven flint]

None of my characters are ever objectively bad..
From their point of view 🧐

[reef copper]

Optimized optimism

[woven flint]

I've played a Chaotic Evil character who WASN'T a Murderhobo

[glossy otter]

We need more of those

[loud halo]

Hi guys

[reef copper]

Is ce murder hobos actually a thing or are people gaslighting each other most of the times is what I would want to know

[loud halo]

I wanna try and get into dnd

[woven flint]

He didn't seek to murder, he wanted to cause disarray for those living Civil lives, thinking they were below even beasts and didn't care who it hurt because he want everyone to live as he had since he was a small lad, The Chaotic Evil nature Deity Malar inspired him and gave him his Druidic Powers

[glossy otter]

Allegedly its tied to horror stories from all the times I've seen

[umbral girder]

Cool! We have #dnd-newcomers and #learn-to-play to help with this

[reef copper]

What made you interested to become a dnd player?

[loud halo]

Thank you

[loud halo]

I was playing BG3 with someone that I was into, and I liked that, and then I started looking into dnd

[hoary totem]

Girl Escapes Genocide and Finds La Llorona (Gone Wild) (You'll Never Guess What Happened Next)

[umbral girder]

Shout out to BG3 letting you have a character be a Murderhobo and still get a good plot/storytelling out of it

[woven flint]

My CE was very straightforward with his goals, he wanted to cause societal structure to collapse completely within the world and let the rules of the wild run rampant, he was great lol

[loud halo]

Hell yeah

[reef copper]

Dnd is a lit more role play inclined but any table can do their own thing. A lot of the time you have tons of freedom to do things in character so i recommend really getting into how they think and act so every situation is immersive

[loud halo]

I like that a lot

[umbral girder]

Also a lot of things automated in BG3 will have to be things you the Player gotta remember.

[loud halo]

There’s like a sheet to write that stuff down, right?

[umbral girder]

For your character's features yes.

For base rules its more every one works to remember that.

[livid valve]

How's everyone doing?

[umbral girder]

Alright. Procrastinating on homework to talk more D&D

[wanton sorrel]

doing great.... got my rogue to level 7 along with druid as well.... and completed the hellsfire campiagn

[woven flint]

Average Nealen moment

[umbral girder]

Tokii gonna get Strahd'd in a few days.

[loud halo]

Thank you

[woven flint]

Nuh uh
Sovis isn't getting Strahd'd

[umbral girder]

Just gotta sap a bit more Max hp.

[glossy otter]

Going good. Just heading to class and then attending a college dnd meeting that I can only go to for roughly 45 min

[umbral girder]

You guys can only heal so much with your Max hp going down.

[woven flint]

Strahd can only run so much 👁️

[umbral girder]

150ft of movement before spells

[livid valve]

Homework can wait tell your teacher you need to max out your spell slots

[livid valve]

...huh?

How did you do both at once

[wanton sorrel]

solo.... had 3 sessions...

[umbral girder]

Playing 2 characters or playing 2 campaigns probably

[livid valve]

Damn thats- a lot

In the same day?

[umbral girder]

Yeah the rules books do say if you are missing players you can give them multiple characters.

[wanton sorrel]

the only thing that died was pre-made fighter... no it took 3 days 1 session a day...

[livid valve]

How long were the sessions

[livid valve]

That sounds horrid

[umbral girder]

Eh isn't that bad.

[wanton sorrel]

the first one took 4 hours.... map 1.... map 2 took 2 hours... and the thrid map took 4 hours....

[livid valve]

Just have the dm make a character and have him join in and dm

[umbral girder]

After all an example to give is BG3 letting you play 4 characters at once

[still bolt]

i still don't totally understand solo 😭

[livid valve]

You need rest

[umbral girder]

Its a way to play with the rules.

[still bolt]

it's different for everyone 😭 i've had ten-hour sessions with my group,,

[wanton sorrel]

• practice makes perfect... the only thing i struggled with is fighting 2 things near the hellfire dome

[livid valve]

IM SORRY WHAT

Did your dm at least allow bathroom breaks?

[umbral girder]

I was in a game for a 12 hour session

[livid valve]

That's half a day-

[umbral girder]

It was CoS.

Covid Lockdown gave us a lot of free time

[livid valve]

Ohhh

[undone rain]

12 whole hours

[livid valve]

Ok that makes more sense

[umbral girder]

Getting to level 4 in 1 session (from level 1) was fun

[undone rain]

Thats almost 4 sessions in one

[umbral girder]

Also reducing a 5th lightning bolt's damage to 2 damage was fun too

[livid valve]

Being a paladin especially an oath of redemption with saruman as your pfp has me quite confuzzeled

[umbral girder]

Why not?

[undone rain]

No thats gandalf the white

[livid valve]

I'm dumb

[undone rain]

No no its fine, easy to confuse

[wanton sorrel]

right... i think those 12 whole hours has to be aat least a open world or homebrew.....

[livid valve]

Wizard please cast time stop

[umbral girder]

I'd say "PFP doesnt need to match server Icon" but then I remember I got a Sonic character pfp and a Pride icon so I'm not setting an example.

[wanton sorrel]

for me i just went straght to the books and skip the open world.

[still bolt]

i was the dm, , ,

[livid valve]

I just thought it was ironic

[woven flint]

Ha!

[livid valve]

Please tell me you told your players to hold it in while you went on for another 30 minute story

[fast umbra]

Hey all new to DND but it's something I've wanted to get into. Just wondering does anyone know of any Discord DND games (as i live in the middle of nowhere), or any Docs people can DM me to get the basics and stuff down?

[still bolt]

😭 lol,, kinda,,

[woven flint]

My pfp is an older D&D character of mine, it's actually on topic to the server 😎 /silly

[livid valve]

I can somewhat help I had my first DND experience 2 days ago with a one shot

[wanton sorrel]

D&Dbeyond can help you

[fast umbra]

One shot?

[still bolt]

bleh, ddb sucks,,

[livid valve]

This is the dm experience I expect to hear more of

[livid valve]

3 hour long little session

[fast umbra]

Ohhh I see

[livid valve]

DND is not as hard as I thought it is

[reef copper]

12 hour session is for shure a long session.
Think i have only gone over it like 1-4 times depending on how you count.
And i have played for soon to be a decade

[wanton sorrel]

it's hard for new players to get a feel for it... but once you start it's simple as apple pie.

[umbral girder]

Yeah a character sheet is more of a reference sheet

[livid valve]

Making your first character is probably the hardest but after that it's fun

[umbral girder]

And a lot of a character sheet is just showing your work too

[reef copper]

Most sessions should probably aim for like 3 hours unless its basically the days plan to play dnd

[fast umbra]

I see, so character sheets are better, as from what I've seen ya can spent 2 mins waiting to make an "ability check"?

[livid valve]

It took me 5 hours to make my first character kenku warlock and then an hour to make my next character an assimar

[umbral girder]

getting better and faster I see

[glad arch]

Gotta do some good research

[umbral girder]

Takes me like 10 minute to fill out a character sheet (No digital tools)

[halcyon bison]

Making characters has only become slower for me :<
Cause I keep looking at all my options

[reef copper]

It took me 1 hour to make my first character. Halfling barbarian.
It took me like 2 weeks to make my second

[glad arch]

Filling in ≠ coming up with

[umbral girder]

Nah it takes me less than a minute to come up with a character

[glad arch]

Need to consider all my options

[fast umbra]

I think people overthink their first as it's like making your first skyrim character. Or something along those lines.

[umbral girder]

Actually it was something I practiced a few times just rolling up random stat arrays are seeing what character I could come up with in 60 seconds.

[reef copper]

But the development of it is where the fun begins:3

[umbral girder]

Really isn't that hard. Besides most of it should be in session. That is where the storytelling happens after all.

[glad arch]

Wdym wait to make an abikity check? In 99/100 cases when you need to make an ability check you do it right away

[fast umbra]

As in with Dnd Beyond

[reef copper]

Im way the opposite. I just add more lore lol

[glad arch]

Aah, dont know that

[reef copper]

You dont make a background story?

[umbral girder]

I do. Its not that hard to make one.

[reef copper]

Its not hard but it takes time

[umbral girder]

Not really. Takes time to put it on paper from what I've experienced.

Then again I have the benefit of just knowing a lot of lore and story stuff in D&D ahead of time so it isn't too hard to mix and match them

[reef copper]

I would die if i put my backgrounds on paper ☠️

[fast umbra]

I mean i was 13 making my first "Dovakin" so I basically ended up doing all the side quests and didn't know about the whole Becoming a dragon born thing around 100-120 hrs into the game as I never knew fast traveling was a thing. So I think that really puts into habit how some just really want something to be special and don't think to add lore after haha

[humble cairn]

I recommend players make a three sentence backstory.

[umbral girder]

Yeah ideally the important cool stuff that happens to your character is at the table

[wanton sorrel]

welp... time to make a 2 new character.... a wizard, and a sorcerer

[reef copper]

Idk feels to combat focused to have a game like that imo

[humble cairn]

What do you mean?

[umbral girder]

No?

[tropic plank]

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with having a detailed backstory, it’s having a long one that’s an issue
By all means have like twenty Npc’s but don’t tell me you’ve been wandering alone for 100 years and not levelled up once

[umbral girder]

You don't need big complicated backstories to make an interesting character

[lusty kelp]

backgrounds are important in that they can give the DM story hook ideas. After that, its more trouble than worth.

[umbral girder]

Like Frodo, Eragon, Luke Skywalker, etc. These are fantasy heroes who don't have big complex backstories.

[reef copper]

True, but if thats what you are looking for go ahead i would say

[humble cairn]

Three sentences is good because it forces players to focus on what is core about the character and not bloat it up with fluff. Making them longer isn't wrong, I just want what will be applicable and usable in the plot. All the coolest stuff should happen to the character after the backstory, you know, in the game.

[umbral girder]

Frodo is just "Raised by an adventurer" and Luke is "Bad guy's secret son living as a farmer". You don't need that much.

[reef copper]

The cool stuff should be ingame definitely

[umbral girder]

Because all the character moments and storytelling is in the adventures you are playing in.

[humble cairn]

Backstories should be the seeds of coolness. Potential coolness and not full on coolness itself. This is different if you're starting at a higher level, of course.

[humble cairn]

Luke's connection to Vader isn't even Backstory material. It's an in-game reveal.

[fast umbra]

Has anyone ever run a campaign where the rest have really, indepth characters then there is just a character with a very simple life with basically no hardships basically being a simple farmer?

[reef copper]

Oh yeah good point, i usually start high leveled and a decently old age

[umbral girder]

Also true! Wouldn't even be back story stuff

His backstory is just "Farmer who lives on a desert and is bored."

[tropic plank]

That’s just the fellowship

[glossy otter]

Yes, they then were a target for PC trauma XD

[wanton sorrel]

frodo, and luke skywalker.... frodo the ring of power!!!! skywalker.... wnats to become a jedi, he now knows his father was evil. luke skywalker had 1 complicated backstory.... when 6th movie was made.

[fast umbra]

That revelation just hit me like a BUS

[lusty kelp]

not a farmer, but I've seen a game where there were a bunch of crazy backstories, and one guy who named his human Fighter Greg. He's the town guard.

[tropic plank]

The One Ring was a dm device to give Frodo character moments

[fast umbra]

I love Greg already

[umbral girder]

Wanting to become a jedi and vader being his father isn't backstory. Its just the Story

[wanton sorrel]

true

[umbral girder]

His backstory is just the Farmer being bored and wanting to see more of the Galaxy

What happens in a session is the Story after all

[tropic plank]

I’d assume in this example the player provided Anakin as ‘my mysterious Jedi father’ and then another player (obi wan) decided to use him in their backstory, and the DM would be the one to turn Vader from Obi Wans old rival to Anakin

[sand cargo]

Hello i was wondering if i could draw someoens dnd oc trying to improve my portfolio its for free not trying ot get comms

[umbral girder]

Did Luke even know he had a Jedi father? Its been a while

[naive cedar]

while this is true, tbh I wouldn’t say Star Wars is the ultimate example of storytelling

[wanton sorrel]

jedi father or a sith evil father?

[tropic plank]

Yeah but it is fun to imagine movies as a dnd game

[naive cedar]

if every character’s backstory is just “dude on farm” thats kind of boring

[umbral girder]

Definitely didn't know the 2nd half. George Lucas didn't even know that 2nd half.

[valid geyser]

its been a while since i watched star wars but i watched the family guy ones last night

[naive cedar]

like Frodo isn’t just a dude on a farm. he’s the nephew of a hero and is friends with a wizard

[umbral girder]

Yeah we mentioned that already

[wanton sorrel]

also the drawf.... in later in the movie

[lusty kelp]

Frodo is a nepo-baby. He gets his hero-ness as an inheritance~

[reef copper]

Which one is the favorite:)

[naive cedar]

I agree that characters don’t need super complex backstories but backstories don’t need to just be “dude on a farm”

[umbral girder]

No one was saying that

[naive cedar]

wait wait keep cooking

[tropic plank]

Well it’s never just ‘dude on a farm’ it starts as that and becomes more over the course of a game
Like in a somber moment you reveal your parents died and you became an adventurer to find their murderer

[lusty kelp]

My favorite backstory as a warlock was just... stereotypical witch family, secrets passed down mother to daughter.

[naive cedar]

hmm yeah I agree with that. Initial revealed backstory should be fairly simple, but you can get into the deep stuff as time goes on

[umbral girder]

Ranger backstory: Was raised by Druids but like to be more practical that magical.

[wanton sorrel]

way to simple backstory... pretty common

[tropic plank]

DnD roleplaying is at the end of the day a big game of improv

[naive cedar]

yeah I think people over focus on revealing their character’s entire damage right away and ignore the improv element

[tropic plank]

I was using an example of how you can evolve a backstory as the game goes on, not necessarily advocating that as a massively innovative story concept

[wanton sorrel]

it still works though...

[tropic plank]

I don’t know what you’re trying to say

[wanton sorrel]

make a better example of not a tragic backstory.

[umbral girder]

Easy one for a Fighter with the Soldier background. Just got out of the military and is looking for good paying work.

[tropic plank]

The example served its purpose my fine fellow
It doesn’t need to be a masterpiece it was a throwaway explanation of my point

[naive cedar]

Okay here’s one: your character was a regular student at the wizard academy, but later on it’s revealed that they feel inadequate due to failing a class

[wanton sorrel]

^ i wonder if i can use that.

[naive cedar]

Not a masterpiece either but like you dont need to explain in detail why they feel inadequate in the initial backstory. It could just be a simple “they didn’t get the marks they wanted” and yoy can go into the details of how they feel inadequate and how to changes their psyche

[umbral girder]

Drizzt's backstory was super simple until they made a prequel book trilogy for him.

[naive cedar]

Feel free, although I’ll probably use that eventually too lol

[umbral girder]

Just "Drow with a terrible childhood wanting to make the world a better place."

[wanton sorrel]

can a backstory truly be like that ^ in one sentence.

[umbral girder]

Yeah. It doesn't need much.

[naive cedar]

Nah lol. You could go into a little more detail like “their parents didnt ljke them because they weren’t ambitious enough” or whatever. That’s just my perspective though

IMO the most important element is the backstory making sense for the character

[umbral girder]

Like Hulga from the D&D movie is just "kicked out of her tribe and broke up with her husband over drinking issues" and we didn't really need more than that

[naive cedar]

Don’t give your level 1 Wizard Gale’s backstory unless they’ve also got a tadpole sapping their powers

[wanton sorrel]

when i make a backstory i always end up with at least 8 - 15 sentences....

[naive cedar]

Same but I usually condense it down lol

[limpid plaza]

Too bad, the party will have to end up feeding my wizard 800 enchanted boots

[naive cedar]

He only eats three of them smh. Leave my wizard with bad knees alone /j

[umbral girder]

5 if you include the Mash cartoons

Where he eats 2 more boots with a fork and knife

[naive cedar]

Here’s another suggestion: make your 10 page long epic backstory in word doc and make a condensed version to share at the beginning

[tropic plank]

My internet died sorry

[umbral girder]

You were still right

[naive cedar]

ah, how can I forget

[wanton sorrel]

if your character dies you'll have to make another backstory.... (Muhahahahaha)

[limpid plaza]

Fr tho my wizard is literally just a madman who studies spells and tries finding insane ways to deal with enemies

[hollow thicket]

guys i may or may not have simulated a fight of 4 lv6s vs 50+ baboons just to workshop and adjust my custom encounter's Lair action (it was summoning more baboons)

[naive cedar]

Just don’t die smh

[limpid plaza]

Magic Man from adventure time without the sad backstory

[umbral girder]

Then again those BG3 Mash cartoons also had Sonic and friends in Baldur’s Gate

[naive cedar]

Sonic is canon to DND.

[wanton sorrel]

everyone makes the jump sucees of 5 ft.... me.... rolls a 1 drops off the cliff of 540ft high

[umbral girder]

Was neat seeing humanoid versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy

[tropic plank]

Everything is canon to dnd

[livid valve]

How do I achieve three kobolds in a trench coat

[naive cedar]

Get three kobolds and stack them together

[livid valve]

Also why does DND disrespect kobolds

[halcyon forum]

pro trick if you fall of a cliff, just turn into a goldfish.

[naive cedar]

Bc Astarion is actually writing all the books

[umbral girder]

It’s been that way for 50 years

[tropic plank]

Play a normal character but every time you lose a third of your hp one of them died

[halcyon forum]

Kobolds >>>> gnomes btw

[umbral girder]

It’s more everyone else shifted on writing Kobolds

[wanton sorrel]

sadly it was my barbarian

[naive cedar]

That’s incorrect sorry

[livid valve]

In EVERY OTHER MEDIA kobolds are these dangerous lil mechanics IN DND THEY HAVE GROVEL?

[halcyon forum]

how can the objective truth be incorrect?

[idle oar]

DMs can run their kobolds anyway they want

[umbral girder]

Well yeah in D&D they are weak individually. Their gimmick is being super dangerous as a crowd.

[naive cedar]

In all seriousness DND has a bad track record with making entire species comically evil to justify heroes slaughtering them. That’s mainly because it was one of the first rpg things

[naive cedar]

Kobolds are even lower on the “things it’s okay for vampires to snack on” tier than gnomes are

[halcyon forum]

I mean the groveling is a deception, which tracks with all the other shenanigans Kobolds are usually up to

[wanton sorrel]

never fight kodbolds at a kobold concert.

[idle oar]

The monster stat block is just the official mechanics for it but nothing says the DM has to just follow that straight up and play them as just punchbags for the party.

[umbral girder]

Mainly due to the original stories is just "Evil monster shaped like a person" and going off of that.

[livid valve]

Look at final fantasy look at other rpgs of kobolds

And all DND gives me is a shriveled up dragon who cowers -.-

[umbral girder]

Take a guess what Final Fantasy came from

[livid valve]

Yes yes I know

[umbral girder]

The creator himself even said Final fantasy was him trying to make a video game off of another certain game

[naive cedar]

Final fantasy 1 ripped off so much from DND that Nintendo had to localise the names completely differently to avoid getting sued

[umbral girder]

The point is D&D is the origin point for a lot of other games who just spin off or change things so they don't get in trouble for copying directly

[livid valve]

I get violent urges to send a kobold flying into a field goal with a nice messi kick

[naive cedar]

And yeah final fantasy (like dragon quest) was their attempt to do Ultima and Wizardry on consoles

[livid valve]

Ultima is in DND?

[naive cedar]

I know way too much about RPG history

Ultima the video game

[livid valve]

Oh

[idle oar]

Outside Xbox's Oxventure D&D stream had an interesting one-shot game where the party played kobolds trying to stop the adventureres waking up the kobold's queen (an ancient dragon). That was pretty fun to watch/listen to. Can look it up on YouTube.

[umbral girder]

The reason why Kobolds are different in D&D is because everyone else was trying to do it differently from D&D.

A lot of stuff is created to replicate or respond to other stuff after all.

[livid valve]

Is there a benefit to doing three kobolds in a trench coat?

[naive cedar]

Comedy

[livid valve]

Well obviously

But does it have any benefit that I can exploit

[naive cedar]

I like xvarts more personally

[idle oar]

No because it requires DM and table buy-in for the concept to work

Which means it's not so much an exploit as allowance

[livid valve]

Sad

Wait wait

Do they at least get more intimidation on a shorter enemy

[woven flint]

Nope

[umbral girder]

Kinda feels iffy to be looking for exploits.

[livid valve]

If we walk into a dwarf I want to rob him by intimidation

[idle oar]

Not how the game works usually but... I guess you can ask your DM

[livid valve]

Isn't the entire point of DND exploiting what can and can't be done?

[woven flint]

I helped my teammates Wizard do an Intelligence Intimidation check because he was speaking legalize and big words to a Flaming Fist Captain and I asked if they could do an Intimidation using Intelligence for it, it was pretty cool

[umbral girder]

No?

[livid valve]

Let me elaborate

In terms of roleplay I mean

[woven flint]

No, lol
The entire point is to make a compelling narrative where everyone has fun, including the dm

[livid valve]

That's why I rephrased it to roleplay

[umbral girder]

Trying to cheat your way throught everything is an odd mindset to have

[livid valve]

No no no no no

I don't care about rolling lots of dice for doing most damage I meant for fun scenarios

[idle oar]

The point of D&D is to have fun playing a collaborative storytelling RPG game together with others

[livid valve]

Exploit was not the right word-

[lyric viper]

I think this is more framing things as using what you have intelligently in a way that a stricter scripted game wouldn't allow you to

[livid valve]

Yes thank you toon link-

Idk I saw your pfp and thought of toon link

I wouldn't be like hey dm I'm going to go three kobolds in a trench coat for exploiting id be like hey since we are bigger then this dwarf if we all agree could we rob him just to make fun stuff happen

[turbid vessel]

Interesting idea, but consider: that's mean 😔

[stuck shuttle]

At some point you’ll have to address the fact that you are 3 kobolds, aka 3 characters, which means the usual mechanics of a character are not going to satisfactorily represent the fantasy.

[marble lion]

Whats the difference between this and a normal tall human doing it

[lyric viper]

The sort of things that usually feel really smart when a character goes 'Wait, this could work right?' and the DM goes 'ooh, nice idea'.

However there is a ambiguous line between flavour and mechanical advantage. A player describing their tall PC as using their height to loom over an NPC to intimidate- really nice touch. Maybe, depending on the circumstance, might get a bonus. But it doesn't automatically give it.

[marble lion]

Most races are that tall, do they all get to intimidate dwarves by default?

[valid geyser]

But what if a dwarf doesn’t care about being shorter than another creature

[livid valve]

No but it's funny when it's three kobolds in a trench coat

[marble lion]

I like my dnd immersive

[idle oar]

And are dwarves really all intimidated by folks taller than them? Seems a bit... oversimplified

[knotty pasture]

As usual in social situations like these its best to ask your DM but by RAW you can't intimidate someone for just being tall

[hot marlin]

Some animals are more scared of small things than of large ones too.

[turbid vessel]

Heck, dwarves are usually burly and stout, I doubt the average dwarf gets scared just from height alone

[marble lion]

The only scenario where youd get a special bonus from me is when intimidating another kobold

[lyric viper]

Funnily enough in D&D gnomes and dwarves specifically had bonsues against taller folk in earlier editions

[turbid vessel]

Something something elephants and mice

[lyric viper]

They'd kneecap a giant without fear.

[knotty pasture]

Just a simple "Can I roll for intimidation to scare this poor NPC"

[hot marlin]

Personally I am far more scared of wasps, which are a fraction of my volume, than I am of horses

[marble lion]

Until the horse is aggressive

I doubt youre more afraid of a wasp then

[hot marlin]

Even so, I am less afraid of it than I am of the wasp.

[umbral girder]

Evil and Intimidating horse moment

[lyric viper]

Bad horse, Bad Horse, He rides across the nation~

[marble lion]

Then you severely underestimate horses

[livid valve]

And what do you think happens to us if the dwarf finds out we are lying? It's our scales

[hot marlin]

But I have apiphobia, so there is really nothing in the world that is more scary than a wasp to me

[umbral girder]

A wasp can be sneaky and hard to escape. Also implies there are more Wasps

[hot marlin]

Oh no, I know perfectly well what horses are capable of. But fear is not rational

[marble lion]

I see thats reasonable then

[hot marlin]

I'd take nuclear annihilation over a wasp nest any day

[umbral girder]

A horse is easier to spot and, with the right terrain, escapable.

[hot marlin]

Indeed. While those repugnant monsters fly

[lyric viper]

Coughs But yes, ahem. I'd still say this is one of those 'Definitely lean into it RP wise, but don't expect it to be mechanically supported' thing.

Social skills are always the more subjective of skills in D&D I find.

[umbral girder]

Also can follow you into somewhere like a building

[livid valve]

I would always ask first

[hot marlin]

So anyways, just because something is bigger does not mean it's scarier than something smaller!

To the lion, the cobra is scarier than the zebra.

[umbral girder]

Unless its very noticibly big like a Tarrasque

or those things in D&D

That one with the wings. Something about Dungeons & ...... /jk

Balors. That's it. /jk

[lyric viper]

Are we going to play a game of naming big but adorable monsters and small but terrifying? Because that sounds fun (off tangent from the original discussion, but very fun).

[umbral girder]

Bread and (Honey) Badgers for the next game

[lyric viper]

Kindori (Space whales) are massive. Big enough to have whole settlements on their backs. Would love to see a pod of them.

Would hate to see an illithid tadpole. Absolutely not.

[umbral girder]

Those teeth and tentacles near the eyes

[lyric viper]

Shudders

Flail snails are pretty big and for some reason I have them stuck in my head as 'baby'.

[umbral girder]

Or nose.

Im sure there are some silly Metallic Dragons to hang out with

[atomic kayak]

These are not mutually exclusive

It can be massive and still be baby

[lyric viper]

I'm just saying I don't think that's the usual response upon seeing a flail snail, but I have them down as 'baby, protect at all costs'

[naive cedar]

I think every monster is baby tbh

Including beholders

[tropic plank]

You think that till they eat the party goblin

[umbral girder]

The gross moment when you learn Beholder drool isn't just Salaiva. Beholders a freaky aliens.

[serene monolith]

They are

[timid current]

I'm not familiar with the (forgotten realms?) Lore. What is it if not saliva?

[tropic plank]

You could say you’ve forgotten the lore of the realms

[naive cedar]

Idc theyre still baby

[umbral girder]

Hmm thinking about how to say it without maybe angering the mods so I should not say it.

[serene monolith]

I love beholders. They're so silly.

[umbral girder]

Basically previous editions had stuff talking about monster biology and there is some neat things on them.

[vale sage]

oh yeah, are there any optional rules that the 2024 DMG gets rid of? since 2014 had a lot of variant rules..

[lusty kelp]

like the power point stuff, or the disarming rules, flanking rules?

[valid geyser]

It’s less got rid of, more didn’t care to reprint

[vale sage]

im actually a fan of the spell points optional rule

[dusky nebula]

How to prevent my players from unionizing?

[crimson gulch]

the 2024 dmg dosent get rid of anything, but not everything was reprinted

[crimson gulch]

What?

[vale sage]

dont, you dont wanna be a union buster, do you?

[dusky nebula]

i already busted one union in this group now another part of them is unionizing

[umbral girder]

Yeah the 2024 DMG didn’t revise everything

[sterile axle]

Hi

[lusty kelp]

Hi ❤️

[serene monolith]

Context?

[tropic plank]

Keep them apart through the use of desirable magic items by making them excellent for both players forcing them to conflict between who gets it

[dusky nebula]

it is a pvp campaign where everyones name is a number and at first 40-50 started unionizing but now that i stopped that 1-10 are unionizing.

[serene monolith]

Are they supposed to fight each other?

[sterile axle]

Just bought starter box

[serene monolith]

Is it a tournament? Or a Battle Royale?

[dusky nebula]

battle royal

[serene monolith]

Definitely start offering magic items. Especially if there's a limited amount of them.

[tropic plank]

Have the administrators send in a team busting group of orcs

[dusky nebula]

"We are waiting on 4 and 6
and then
The Single Digit Union is prepared"

[woven flint]

Honestly, teaming up is only beneficial for a short time in this type of scenario

[sterile axle]

Which class should I use? I'm new to the game and I'm thinking of using berserker or druid

[dusky nebula]

they are unionizing before it even begins

[woven flint]

They're eventually gonna have to take eachother out, no?

[woven flint]

Barbarian
Berserker is a Barbarian subclass

[sterile axle]

Oh yeah forgot

[serene monolith]

Could also just spread some misinformation and rumors about certain characters.

[tropic plank]

Ration food

[serene monolith]

Find the weakest link and pay them off

[sterile axle]

Oh and does necromancer exist?

[woven flint]

The Warforged who doesn't need food:

[tropic plank]

Necromancy is a spell type, which is enhanced by the necromancer wizard subclass

[dusky nebula]

everyone is a homebrew race that is identical

[woven flint]

Imagine needing food

[sterile axle]

Oooh, thx, everyone here is so kind 😄

: D*

[serene monolith]

Also could just say no

[vale sage]

so spell points should work without too much issue in 2024, yea? ik people have mixed feelings about them but i think they are a bit more intuitive and help negate the ludonarrative dissonance that happens when your wizard is able to cast a handful of 3rd level spells, but cant cast any more 1st level spells because theyre out of slots lmao

[woven flint]

Allow team ups, it'd make fun Drama and character dynamics
But make sure said team ups are consistent of small groups

[sterile axle]

Could someone help me do my first character? Idk how

[woven flint]

It'll make things all the more sad when they have to fight eachother to survive

[dusky nebula]

well there is no team limit but they can only do it after 20 players have died

[vale sage]

are you going to be running the game or playing in it?

[sterile axle]

Playing

[vale sage]

also, which starter set did you get? or, what color dragon does it have on the front

[sterile axle]

Blue, the starter one

[vale sage]

okay! well, is your entire group new to the game? the starter sets do a pretty good job at walking you through it, but there are also plenty of great videos on youtube if thats more your style.

[sterile axle]

Ye, I bought it to play with my family

[vale sage]

gotcha, stormwreck isle. that was the starter set released before the rules revision in 2024, but the rules provided are self contained in the little rulebook and should give you guys everything you need to know!

[sterile axle]

Ooooh, tysm

@vale sage Yo, I opened it but there are only presets, dices and the rulebook

[hoary totem]

The undead warlock:

[sterile axle]

There's other thing I need?

[vale sage]

yeah, i dont own the box personally but that sounds about right. it comes with pre made character sheets, but the free, basic rules for DnD are available on DnD Beyond as well that are more extensive and give you options to create your own characters if thats what you all want to do :)

[lavish flame]

wait this is genius. there have been 4 and they had a Green (Phandelver), White (Icespire Peak), and Blue (Stormwreck Isle), and Red (Borderlands) dragon on the cover

patiently awaiting a Black Dragon on the cover of the next starter set

[umbral girder]

Classic Sunless Citadel /jk

I don’t even know if that was a starter set at it’s time.

[crimson gulch]

you mean the hellfire club box set? thats got a black dragon-ish thing on

[umbral girder]

Oh yeah it does

[lavish flame]

idk that thing has the Stranger Things Demogorgon face, and its two-headed

[umbral girder]

yeah the Demodragon

D&D Beyond has an article on it when it released.

[crimson gulch]

the black dragon art in Dragon Delves is great too

[umbral girder]

2024 art in General is very, very good

They do be paying artists.

[crimson gulch]

yes indeed, all the great art in the heros of the border lands set too

[valid geyser]

Man I wish my party members were using 2024 healing spells. I don’t think I can ever go back to 1d4 healing word

[sterile axle]

@vale sage K, but, do I need something else? Like a board or something

Also there's no barbarian

[vale sage]

nope. you can play with a grid/board, but its by no means necessary

ive been playing on and off for probably 6 years now and i dont use a grid :)

[sterile axle]

Oh, thanks

Also I did not found barbarian so I'm playing warrior or paladin Wich should I use?

[umbral girder]

Yeah healing has been drastically improved in 2024 with the dice being doubled.

[vale sage]

read about them! barbarian is in the basic rules online if you have your heart set on it

[uncut niche]

I really like the sorcerer mechanics and some of the characters that I made with that class but after some thinking, what is the kinda main role of the sorcerer? I'm guessing being able to change up on the spot with meta magic and the subclasses helping change up the fight nearly instantly (mostly wild magic). Ik the question might be dumb since I already like the mechanics but just want to make sure I get the right idea

[vale sage]

paladins are kind of, holy knights i suppose? fighters are just that, kind of a catch-all class for a warrior or someone who uses weapons primarily

[sterile axle]

So, imma use fighter

[umbral girder]

Fighter is very good

[stuck shuttle]

If you’d like to use this server to find a game there’s instructions in #find-a-game

[serene monolith]

Look up the DnD free rules on Beyond. I believe Barbarian is there.

[somber pier]

Hi there. I rolled a 1.

[wanton sorrel]

such an impressive one... you fought bravely sir Angelovullo

[vale sage]

might be better to go to a local community forum or group (i know a lot of towns have facebook groups? idk i dont use facebook lol) so it could be smart to check there.

or go to a local game store if you have any in your area :P

[stuck shuttle]

It is not a chat. It is an instruction channel that shows how to make and respond to posts in the lfg channels. If you’re looking for games in your area specifically, maybe check social media groups specific to your location

[deep rivet]

Likelihood of finding an IRL game online is very low, honestly. If you want to attempt to find people to play in person, searching a platform like Facebook may be your best bet?

[stuck shuttle]

Barbarians are right here:

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/character-classes#Barbarian

[vale sage]

then get those friends together and see if they want to play? i got my main group together by literally just asking some close friends "hey, wanna try this game?" lol

nothing wrong with introducing new people to the hobby! but online is also a great option

[sterile axle]

The fighter preset can speak read and write common, elf, dwarf and galling, it has a large bow, a greatsword, a leather armor, 20 arrows, a bag, 10 torches, a canteen, a tinder box, a backback, kitchen utensils, an iron casserole, a shovel, a 15cm hemp rope and a rucksack,is it good?

[wanton sorrel]

10 torches... that's too much weight. x'D

[vale sage]

thats just fine :)

its better to think of DnD, at least in my opinion, less with the philosophy of a video game and "what is good", and more with the idea of telling a story! most things in the game are good

[sterile axle]

How should I name the fighter? I'm thinking about Julius or Dr Pepper

[wanton sorrel]

story is good.... maybe a few homebrew....

[vale sage]

great thing about dnd is that you can make whoever you want, so get creative :)

[wanton sorrel]

just go with Dr. Pepper...

[lusty kelp]

"Name's Pepper. Doctor. Pepper." in a james bond voice.

[vale sage]

LMAO

theyre an actual doctor

[wanton sorrel]

Dr. Pepper became a surgeon... it's so strange... so much of surgery. They even name it as a drink after that.

[lusty kelp]

sugary surgery.

[sterile axle]

Or should I just pope Leo as name or Julius Caesar, but I think pope Leo would be good for cleric

[vale sage]

depends how silly you and your group wanna get

[lusty kelp]

Leo d'lion

[sterile axle]

I like that

[stuck shuttle]

Having the first name Pope sounds pretty wild yeah

[vale sage]

name your kid for the job you want them to have ig

[wanton sorrel]

just make sure it's nothing to weird x'D (because i might laugh way to hard if the name is too funny.)

[stuck shuttle]

My 2 heuristics for naming are:

• Make it easy to pronounce
• Be ok with it being shortened for a nickname

[sterile axle]

It's done, he's gonna be Justin Case

[vale sage]

i had an npc in a game who was a lumberjack dwarf, his name was Timm Burr

he ran the wood mill in a town

that was about as silly as i was willing to get lol

[feral fulcrum]

If you want to find local games, you're best served by looking around game stores and the like in your area, rather then using the World Wide Web.

[sterile axle]

K he is now Justin Case

[wanton sorrel]

And so Justin Case was born

[vale sage]

things get buried quickly in big servers

no need to be rude 🫡

youre gonna have more luck asking in places that are connecticut specific, thats just the facts of it

[wanton sorrel]

wow connecticut must be brutal

[vale sage]

LMAO

im on the east coast i can call 5 gay nerds right now and have them at my dnd table tomorrow

[woven flint]

Now we try looking for D&D groups in Detroit