dnd-discussion

[potent mountain]

good worldbuilding!

[jaunty thistle]

I got a whole bunch of lore for the surrounding lands they'll start at (which is half the land. I am still working on lore for the other half of the land)

[potent mountain]

ooh i really like this!

[jovial kindle]

I have a picture of what he looks like with and without Armor

They made a poster of him wanting him Dead or Alive. They just never saw him without his armor.

[cerulean monolith]

#character-discussion might be more helpful

[jovial kindle]

Thank you! Sorry about that!

[fast latch]

The Staff of Wakus Bonkus is freaking incredible

[jaunty thistle]

Everyone can use the Staff and Wakus Bonkus in their campaigns and can freely change it all up if yall want

[jaunty thistle]

Also, may I DM you the lore i got of my campaign so far?

[potent mountain]

you may

[covert root]

What's new, gang?

[jaunty thistle]

The Staff of Wakus Bonkus.

[potent mountain]

greetings dungeoneer

[meager fractal]

What's the point of sacred flame. Such a weak cantrip. Should be buffed.

[potent mountain]

never heard of it

pray tell

[covert root]

It's reliable and it's Radiant. Doesn't need a buff.

[sturdy tusk]

I just bought the Kobold Press Master of Cantrip book. Pretty good so far, and has ideas for existing cantrips. Good value for the cost of the pdf.

[lavish flame]

It does the same damage as many other cantrips and weapons and ignores most cover, the only downside is that Monsters aren't typically bad at Dex.

[jovial shadow]

There are lots of monsters that have mediocre Dex. You can tell usually before you cast it (Giants, Trolls, Dragons, zombies etc.)

[uncut zenith]

It’s good for a cantrip. Especially if you’re facing off against a lot of creatures that are vulnerable to Radiant damage

And iirc that means a lot of Undead and Fiends, two of the largest monster types aside from Monstrosities

So it’s not a bad cantrip to have if you’re a WIS caster running low on spell slots

[feral fulcrum]

It's on average with every other damaging cantrip that's Eldritch Blast.

[potent mountain]

Hunger, insatiable hunger

To play dnd

[severe rampart]

first off, delete that, please.

Second, it's BBEG, or "Big Bad Evil Guy"

[loud tendon]

Usually the term is bbeg- big bad evil guy

[sharp forge]

Oh umm no I feel dumb and yeah I’m definitely deleting

[severe rampart]

No worries, it's an honest mistake

[sharp forge]

Yeah no Im just new I have zero clue with the slang

[minor cargo]

It's a really unintuitive acronym. You're good. :)

[loud tendon]

Acronyms are tricky things.. Just like DM is commonly used for "direct message" but in d&d often we'd be referring to the "dungeon master"

[wanton sorrel]

acronyms..... D&D, BBEG, LFG, ETC....

[minor cargo]

Really changes the meaning of "slide into my DMs".

[merry crane]

Anyone wanna spar 5e

[loud tendon]

Shouldn't do that unless you're trying to steal second. 🙂

[loud tendon]

Spar? What do you mean?

If you want to find folks to play d&d with check out #find-a-game to discover how our LF channels work

[wanton sorrel]

PC will always get me known in D&D terms, it's a player character...

[grim fjord]

Lol

[severe rampart]

Spar? you mean make a mock fight from two characters? or something else?

[wanton sorrel]

PC = Player Character, PC = desktop/laptop, PC = Polycarbonate

[pearl hedge]

context is very important for differing between a gaming PC and a PC who is a cleric in your party for example

[small heath]

That's usually my understanding of it when someone wants to "spar"

Make both characters same level, roll initiatives, and it's basically a 1v1.

[severe rampart]

Yeah but more or less it will end quickly

[lavish flame]

mediocre and bad aren't the same though. you'll come across monsters with a -2 to their Int saves. Thats what I mean by bad. You rarely come across monsters with a negative dex.

[jovial shadow]

Usually you will know what PC means, by the way it's used

[wanton sorrel]

It is true, but I work with plastic sometimes and talk about pc.... when I ask a question like this.... Do you have a PC? So am I saying player character or a PC as in laptop or desktop... It's pretty much weird. Who knows, maybe I'm saying polycarbonate

[barren panther]

Context

[wanton sorrel]

shrugs

[barren panther]

Is any conversation about D&D going to be talking about plastic unless it’s about minis?

[wanton sorrel]

well... I was thinking of making D&D mini's with polycarbonate.... I do have a roll... but i'm still trying to use blender to make the model myself.

i did make dragon minis for my family though they like them.

[potent mountain]

Just submitted to some campaigns

[wanton sorrel]

Better make several player characters just incase of characters death.

[fossil hollow]

A round is 6 seconds

[barren panther]

Yeah ten rounds is about 1 minute

[fossil hollow]

Round means everyone's turn in initiative before it cycles back to you

[barren panther]

So something that lasts 1 minute is usually good for around 1 combat encounter

[fossil hollow]

yeap

Doesnt matter if theres 10 combatants or 5, when they all take their turns its a round

[wanton sorrel]

well yeah

[barren panther]

Unless it’s something that recharges

[fossil hollow]

Are you talking about the max damage?

[barren panther]

That’s not kinda

[fossil hollow]

Channel Divinities recharge on a short rest in 2014, and you get one use back in 2024.

[barren panther]

That’s usually how recharges work

[fossil hollow]

its only once per day if youre long resting after every encounter (which isnt reccomended)

[granite pond]

Is there a reliable way to find artists to commission art of my characters?

Oh ok I guess I don't have that channel, I'll add it in the chanel list and look into it thanks

[fossil hollow]

whoops wrong one

[fossil hollow]

#dnd-advertisements sorry this is the right one

[granite pond]

Ok Coolio thanks!

[merry crane]

Mock fight

[pearl hedge]

hey baku!

[fossil hollow]

sup

[pearl hedge]

hows it going

[fossil hollow]

pretty good

[pearl hedge]

im still trying to think of some allies enemies etc for my character

bonds ideals and flaws are all pretty much done though

[mighty wharf]

Just had my first session of DnD

It was BRUTAL

[glass granite]

Good brutal or bad brutal?

[mighty wharf]

Chaotic, we had no teamwork in a HARSH ass environment

[glass granite]

Then ya know the first thing to work on!

[mighty wharf]

One of us I can already tell is the "it's what my character would do" problem player

[glass granite]

Raise that with them if you haven’t already

[mellow ether]

What’s wrong with that?

[fossil hollow]

its a sign of someone who has no care for the party and only cares about their character

[glass granite]

It’s good up to the point it’s not good for the party

[mighty wharf]

He rushed ahead towards a child in the feywilds, getting us ambushed and having ME, an initiative support control wizard, get charmed by a bone naga.

[glass granite]

Backstabbing the party because that’s what your character would do, for example, ain’t a valid excuse

[mighty wharf]

I was already down a familiar because we literally started IN THE FEYWILDS

[mellow ether]

One time I didn’t take part in combat because my character wouldn’t have wanted to kill the animals 0.0 now I’m having second thoughts about that

[mighty wharf]

And ofc my "Unseen servant" didn't trigger the ambush because he spoke over me and the DM went with him+not realizing my "investigating the child" with my servant was testing to see if it was a trap/ambush

And it was a HORRIBLE matchup for me. High int and wis, most of my spells are int and wis saves

And my wisdom was a 10. He made me roll wisdom for being charmed.

[barren panther]

That makes sense

[fossil hollow]

almost every charm effect is a wisdom save

[mighty wharf]

Which like yeah THAT IS THE SAVE, but to me it makes more sense if it's a intelligence saving throw in this context because it's not checking if I'm the Iroh of life advice it's seeing if I'm able to be mind controlled

[barren panther]

Sounds like a lot was going on for your first session

[fossil hollow]

WIS is the stat associated with mental defence.

INT is your ability to process information

[feral fulcrum]

Mind control and Charm effects are 99.99% of the time Wisdom saves

[mighty wharf]

Oh yikes

I have a 10 in wisdom 19 in intelligence.

[fossil hollow]

wizard right? You have proficiency in WIS saves

[mighty wharf]

What?! For real?

[fossil hollow]

... yeah?

[feral fulcrum]

If you chose that, it's not default.

[mighty wharf]

Not that it would have helped me (6, 1)

[feral fulcrum]

No wait I'm thinking skills aern't I

[fossil hollow]

yeap

Saving throw profs are nonnegotiable

[feral fulcrum]

Yeah Saves are indeed innate. It's been...about a year since I've poked at charecter creation properly. Got it mixed up with Skill profficiency selection.

[mighty wharf]

He told me after that the naga had a 15 in wisdom, and I'm like would casting Suggestion and telling it to go away have a good chance of working if I have a 15 spell save and a +7 attacking bonus? What is the attacking bonus for spells used for?

Is casting a spell that forces a saving throw an attack?

[fossil hollow]

Suggestion is a saving throw, so its DC 8 + Proficiency Bonus + INT mod for you as a wizard

[half igloo]

The realization that my monk is actually pretty trash although I’m having fun playing him

[mighty wharf]

No, I'm casting suggestion on the naga. It would use the wisdom saving throw of the naga versus my spell save as a wizard, right?

[fossil hollow]

oh yeah

[mighty wharf]

Where is the DC 8 coming from?

[fossil hollow]

8 is the base number for calculating your DCs for anything

[pearl hedge]

oh congrats

[pearl hedge]

oh god really?

[mighty wharf]

I need to give my Familiar a bead of magic mouth of "Scream if hostile creatures are nearby" and have it scan the areas ahead.

[barren panther]

That’s all that matters, don’t let the min maxers tell you otherwise haha

[mighty wharf]

It's going to be a clockwork owl I'm naming Laserbeak.

[pearl hedge]

what's your class and your other teammates' species and classes too?

if i may ask

[feral fulcrum]

I will note that's very much not foolproof.

[half igloo]

I’m multiclassing as ranger to it won’t matter in the long run lol

[feral fulcrum]

And subject to heavy DM interpretation.

[mighty wharf]

What pedantic ass phrasing would I need to say to be foolproof? I already said I'm going to use my familiar as a scout.

[barren panther]

This games definitely not about being foolproof. Some of the fun comes from the fool

[feral fulcrum]

No phrasing would be entirely bulletproof. Just don't be surprised when it misses Invisible Creatures, and creatures that are not Hostile to the Familliar.

[mighty wharf]

The bead is triggered not the owl. The bead is triggered no matter what. It's not based on sight.

[pearl hedge]

everyone likes the court jester no?

[mighty wharf]

Oh visible or audible conditions

Missing 1 or 2 words is really going to kill me as a wizard.

What would be a foolproof scouting method then

Why does an object need to know if something is visible or audible?!

[feral fulcrum]

I'm pretty sure Magic Mouth isn't Omnicient, and can, and will, miss things.

[feral fulcrum]

Because it's got to be detecting things somehow, and a low level spell can't magically defeat high level invisibility spells and concealment spells with trifling ease.

[pearl hedge]

@mighty wharf how do you like D&D so far

[mighty wharf]

Ok so a bone naga is using an illusion of a child and hiding getting ready to ambush, would a magic mouth that hears in a 30 foot radius be able to pick up the sound?

[mighty wharf]

Spells are really restricted.

[feral fulcrum]

It's again, something that's heavily up to DM interpratetion, but Magic Mouth IMO, should not be Flawlessly able to do whatever.

[barren panther]

Oh I didn’t mean that I meant more like screwing up and then getting yourself out of trouble

[feral fulcrum]

Given that it's able to hear commands, it should be able to hear sounds within a limited radius, yes.

[barren panther]

What level are you guys?

[mighty wharf]

By that logic I could just say "oh a creature was hiding and being really quiet" and get ambushed anyways?

[feral fulcrum]

You, the player, can argue for whatever you like. But it's the DM's problem to say Yes, No, and "Stop being a munchkin please."

[barren panther]

Partially depends on how the dice fall too

[mighty wharf]

How is scouting ahead in the feywilds being a munchkin 😭

[pearl hedge]

it's only because you're at level 1, you'll be able to do more things as you level up and you'll get more spells. and also even though some spells are restricted doesn't mean you can try to think of using the ones you have in creative ways. oh and you can use spells outside of combat if you wish

[mighty wharf]

WE'RE LEVEL 5

[feral fulcrum]

And besides. Can't you just share senses with your Familliar?

[barren panther]

Ah ok I was gonna say, a bone naga should eat you guys alive at level 1 haha

[mighty wharf]

But my perception is booty

[pearl hedge]

even at level 5 you won't have every spell available to you. there are a lot of spells that are class--specific

[feral fulcrum]

Well that's on you, if you're trying to be a scout with bad Perception. :V

[mighty wharf]

We don't have anyone to scout

We didn't think about team comp, we have fighters and monks

[barren panther]

It’s good that you’re not limiting yourself by your character sheet though haha

[mighty wharf]

And I get charmed when they rush ahead 😭

[barren panther]

Monk should be a decent scout too

Unless they rolled bad

[mighty wharf]

So the problem is I don't want to be ambushed

[knotty vine]

I prefer Druid scouts

[mighty wharf]

Could I just let my monk rush ahead while I stay behind the party?

[knotty vine]

Depends what you’re facing!

[mighty wharf]

It's the feywilds...

[knotty vine]

Just don’t give them your real name lol

[mighty wharf]

I have no idea. I'm not going to go metagame.

[barren panther]

Dang it’s her, the Tasha

[barren panther]

As a wizard you def shouldn’t be the one jumping into dangerous situations first, that’s for sure. It’s good you have a familiar

[mighty wharf]

I wasn't able to cast it this session because it takes an hour and we were thrown into the fey of things

Is a fire in the feywilds usually a campfire and not an enemy or an ambush?

[knotty vine]

Yes yes it’s me iggwilv

[mighty wharf]

I'm traumatized from being charm ambushed by the naga 😭

[barren panther]

Now we’re getting into stuff that your dm probably knows and wouldn’t tell you the answer too. But we don’t know haha

[knotty vine]

Yeah a lot of things will do that to do you in the feywikd

[pearl hedge]

what's the reasoning behind that? i never figured out why, or at least i've never explored the feywilds in any campaign i've been a part of

[barren panther]

Common fantasy trope of your true name being what holds power against you

[mighty wharf]

And do you roll for initiative for ambushes or does the enemy just get a free whatever the hell they want?

[knotty vine]

Well this isn’t a exactly a thing in dnd but irl if you give a fae your name it grants them power over you in folklore of course

[barren panther]

I believe in 2024 you’d roll initiative with disadvantage, either that or they roll with advantage I can’t remember

[mighty wharf]

Oh lord.

[covert root]

It's different. You just roll with Disadvantage if the enemy has Surprised you in 2024, and obviously vice versa.

[mighty wharf]

To intiative?

[covert root]

Yes.

[barren panther]

Yeah I knew there was no like surprise round anymore

[mighty wharf]

And ofc my DM chooses a Homebrew campaign made official 💀

[barren panther]

No cheating

[mighty wharf]

So now I'm like "Gee, what The Forest Oracle bs am I getting into?"

[mighty wharf]

I didn't, he told me it was

[knotty vine]

[charred olive]

Yo, anybody got some good ideas of stuff me and my bois can add to our bastion? Our base is a mini castle that has been abandoned and we just fixed up. Anything would be cool. I’m just not very creative… it can range to legit anything.

[knotty vine]

I’m quite fond of Tasha’s guide cauldron of everything

[feral fulcrum]

As far as I'm aware, there is exactly one campaign/adventure in the Feywild, and it was never even tangentially homebrew.

[barren panther]

Never would have guessed

[knotty vine]

Ikr thought I should let you know

[feral fulcrum]

Where's my Tenser's stuff at. Give us a book from the weirdo who gave us Tenser's Transformation.

[hidden spindle]

Tenser's Transformation to Everything~

[feral fulcrum]

Tenser's Guide to Fancy Combat Magic

[knotty vine]

Getting advantage to all marital and simple weapons is amazing

As well as an extra 2d12

[feral fulcrum]

I think the bigger part of it is getting Extra Attack, and Profficiencies.

And the 50 Temp HP.

[mighty wharf]

So if I'm a wizard, and I have a +3 proficiency, and I cast suggestion, does that mean the DC for the spell save is +3?

[fossil hollow]

no, its 8 + 3 (PB) + INT mod

[mighty wharf]

I'm trying to see if me casting a wisdom or intelligence saving throw control spell on the naga would have been a good idea or a waste of resources

[knotty vine]

So if you have a 16 in int it would be 8+3+3 so 14

[feral fulcrum]

You'd have no idea until it had rolled it's Save.

[mighty wharf]

True...

[knotty vine]

A good rule of thumb thump is if it looks smart don’t make it roll an int save

[feral fulcrum]

And if it had Immunty to Charm effects (Common on things in the Feywild), any such spells would just do nothing.

[mighty wharf]

It has high stats in everything wtf 💀

[knotty vine]

This as well smart guy

[mighty wharf]

That was just a difficult encounter where I do very little, okay.

[feral fulcrum]

Happens sometimes, especially with Charms and Stuns

Part of the game. It happens.

[fossil hollow]

wizards cant be great everytime

[knotty vine]

True

[mighty wharf]

How many creatures in the feywilds are like this?

[knotty vine]

Only most of the time however us wizards are amazing all the time

[feral fulcrum]

many of the ones capable of Casting spells. So anything Human Shaped pretty much.

[fossil hollow]

seeing how the feywild is the place of heightened emotions and charm and illusions, so

[feral fulcrum]

Most of the animal shaped fey denizens are more about weird esoteric effects, then direct Charming.

[knotty vine]

Mhm

[feral fulcrum]

Blink Doggies!

[fossil hollow]

i love blink puppers!

[feral fulcrum]

And some are just...well they're memes more then statblocks

[fossil hollow]

Quicklings be like:

[feral fulcrum]

Looking at you Babe the big blue ox. And the Giant Goose.

[pearl hedge]

ohhh okay i think i've heard about that before i just forgot

[fossil hollow]

Oi, the Feywild giant beasties are peak

Cant forget the Mother Goose Hydra. Freaking multiple headed cobra chicken

[knotty vine]

Yeah I study the fey

[feral fulcrum]

I'll accept the Giant GOose, but the Giant Blue Ox was just low effort. Like the endless "Hue hue, Giff/Jiff" Back and forth in all the Spelljammer marketing.

[mighty wharf]

So what about a banshee.

[fossil hollow]

nooo

[fossil hollow]

Undead, very dangerous

do not fail the save against Wail

[feral fulcrum]

Anything that's not a zombie, and is undead, is probably turbo-murder on legs.

[fossil hollow]

they instantly make you start doing death saves

[feral fulcrum]

Undead monsters are generally, pretty hilariously lethal.

[fossil hollow]

Shadows, Ghouls, Banshees, Nightmare Shepherds

Liches with their paralyzing touch and spells

[feral fulcrum]

Isn't the last one an MTG thing?

[fossil hollow]

Theros got a book, so

[feral fulcrum]

Nightmare Shepherds that is.

[fossil hollow]

They give +5 bonus to attack and damage rolls to undead within 30 ft of them

[feral fulcrum]

Was Theros official or just more of the uh...

What where they called, not PLanescape... But Plane something.

[fossil hollow]

Mythic Odysseys of Theros is official aye. Its not Planeshift material

[knotty vine]

Yeah

[fossil hollow]

my favorite DnD book

[feral fulcrum]

Huh, I always thought that one was Planeshift. TIL.

[mighty wharf]

I'm going to cast fog cloud in my enemies eyeballs and just see how my DM reacts

[fossil hollow]

@reef tundra sorry to bother you, but i think i found your wife

[knotty vine]

I actually quite enjoy a anther guide

[mighty wharf]

See what he thinks of me giving enemies caterax.

I mean I casted fog cloud in this session and just blinded everyone 💀

[fossil hollow]

fog cloud is good as a retreat or defense first option

[mighty wharf]

Spell slot to give one attack disadvantage, what a waste

I did retreat from close range.

[feral fulcrum]

And then the all Martial Party gets annoyed when they're also rolling at disadvantage because they can't see squat. :V

[fossil hollow]

they cant provoke OA if they cant see ya

[fossil hollow]

which is why you dont do it willy nilly :V
If youre retreating, the rest of the party is also most likely retreating

[mighty wharf]

I dropped concentration after the bone naga attacks and before my monk attacked

[mighty wharf]

They just took a bone naga which charmed two of us and put another one of us down like 20 hit points head on 💀

I thought we were all retreating.

[fossil hollow]

anyway, im reminded of when the wizard in my first game lured a manticore by using Dancing Lights. Lazer pointed that monstrous feline

[fossil hollow]

doesnt hurt to ask out of character

[barren panther]

What did we do? Lmao

[feral fulcrum]

It's low effort bait, ignore it.

[fossil hollow]

feesh

[fossil hollow]

-# looking at the profile, does seem like it

[barren panther]

Well at least you didn’t Cloudkill everyone

[fierce jackal]

hola

[fossil hollow]

alo hello

[fossil hollow]

dont think that works on spirit nagas anyway

[noble pine]

Do you know any free sites where I can create a world map for my home brew on a mobile device

[feral fulcrum]

I can't wait to probably get shrekt by Oberon on Saturday.

[fossil hollow]

#dnd-maps might have some

[barren panther]

It was her first session, you never know!

[feral fulcrum]

I'm not sure if World Anvil works on mobile, but that's one I like.

[fossil hollow]

damn, yall in the... thats a guy in the feywild, right?

[covert root]

The fairy king?

[fossil hollow]

Consort of Titania?

[feral fulcrum]

Titantia's right hand, yeah.

[fossil hollow]

ic ic. I was thinking of Oko for some reason

i cannot escape the thirst traps even after several months of not playing MtG

[feral fulcrum]

Guy who runs the Wild Hunt in Myth, typically, and in my DM's homebrew setting

[fossil hollow]

thats sweet honestly, i love the Wild Hunt

[feral fulcrum]

I'm not entirely certain, but there are big signs that I'll probbaly be fighting the guy. I fully expect to get rolled.

[fossil hollow]

How do you intend to deal with the rest of the Hunt?

hmmm now im brewing up ideas for an Animal Lord leading a wild hunt

[feral fulcrum]

I'm not being hunted by them. I'm just on a Vision Quest doing three trials, and it seems like he'll be the Third.

[fossil hollow]

ooh rule of threeee

[feral fulcrum]

Yuuup. Prodded Pan via magic for a quest to Transform for Power. (Worked it out with DM that all things going well, I'll end up an Alicorn, rather then a teeny tiny Fairy)

[fossil hollow]

god that sounds fun

[feral fulcrum]

Eat more magical trinkets and become a dangerously unstable lunatic of a Wizard. 50/50 odds you'll explode and die, or become incredibly powerful.

[fossil hollow]

Now i wanna do a fairy tale/folktale campaign,,,

European folklore is so much fun

[feral fulcrum]

Well, some of it is, some have been done to death and have been muddied down into ruin. Pretty sure everyone's burned out on "Oh look, it's Dracula, for the ten thoustandth time."

Dracula's been done to death, why not do something with a Bathory Knockoff.

[covert root]

Ravenloft fills that need for the most part, anyway, and quite well via Curse of Strahd.

[fossil hollow]

need more brownies, changelings, and shit

[covert root]

Plenty of changelings as is.

[feral fulcrum]

Need to be shived by angry mushrooms that got blood on them.

Redcaps are goofy weirdos

[fossil hollow]

cant wait to use em

Their kick action is so hilarious

[feral fulcrum]

Gang of Recaps that stroll in, snapping their fingers in sync.

Singing a horrible little song and dance about stabbing you in the kidneys. And kicking you in the shins.

[fossil hollow]

that is so hilarious LMAO. Mind if i steal that?

[feral fulcrum]

Feel free to

[fossil hollow]

#find-a-game

[wide pumice]

Sorry I got busy after that

[feral fulcrum]

Stabbin Hood and his Murderously Merry Men

[fossil hollow]

I should bring back Dreary Daisy and her gang of redcaps...

Night Hags are so fun

give em like, Italian mafia vibes

[feral fulcrum]

"You dare ask me for a favor on this, the day of my Birthday Stabbin Spree?"

[river vector]

Ah I love this game. I just had my party convince a crowd that someone was being framed for a crime, and that they shouldn't burn him alive. The widow of the dead person goes to free the man herself, but I then have the real killer (someone in the mob) cast cloud of daggers to kill them both, and since the crowd was so chaotic and unruly, they couldn't see who cast it.

[keen valve]

Wanted to share this because I think it's silly: I think I had a player in a game of mine leave once because I did a silly character voice.

I still find it interesting some people play D&D but get embarrassed by small things like voices. I guess it takes a while to get used to some things.

(For reference the voice was like Kaos from Skylanders.)

[stoic haven]

Omg, Kaos is amazing

[keen valve]

Agreed, my voice is perfect for small and evil characters.

Hence why I thought: Kaos.

[tardy jasper]

Epic explanation

[stoic haven]

Skylander dnd campaign

[severe rampart]

They do? I mean, I was flustered once because of a reverb sound effect of a fart sword being handed to me, but not enough to make me want to leave

[glacial mesa]

Hii fellas

[sharp belfry]

I did in fact fall earlier. Broke a leg

Nices observation

[meager fractal]

I enjoy dnd more without silly voices. Takes me out of the game everytime.

[keen valve]

At least it was a reverb and not an echo.
(Hilarious joke.)

[keen valve]

Yeah that's fair, but not every game is that serious, that and I think a little bit of cartoon villainy here and there is worth it. Especially if you've been through a lot of in-game stuff and need some relief.

Ok that's it for me, I'll be back here to chat in a month.

[feral fulcrum]

I'd definitely leave because of that, because it's both annoying, and childish, and definitely not the maturity level I'm looking for in a game. The opposite end of vibes I'm hoping for in a group.

[mighty wharf]

Reading the description of Tinker's Tools hurts me. A DC 20 to make a temporary item which I assume is nonmagical. I just want to make my parties shoes slip resistant so they don't fall when I cast grease 😭

Like yeah I get a proficiency bonus because I'm an artificer, but dc 20? Really?

Today I have learned that DnD hurts when you try to play by the rules.

[humble cairn]

That's in a Utilize Action, so six seconds.

I feel like assembling a useful gadget in six seconds is reasonably difficult.

Also not sure you could even make an item that makes people immune to the Grease spell.

[mighty wharf]

You can't cast anything (Fog Cloud, Faerie Fire) because you'll hit your martials with it because the rules aren't specific with creatures, your unseen servant can't scout for you, your magic mouth has to be pedantic as hell to get anything done, your party wont know what heavily obscured means and argue that your spell doesn't do what it does

[humble cairn]

But I suppose that's up to the DM.

[mighty wharf]

By RAW? No. Probably not.

But I learned that my party isn't going to retreat today even if they're dying.

[humble cairn]

There are other spells than those. Unseen Servant is not a scout, but your Homunculus could be.

[mighty wharf]

My DM didn't go by ambush rules. We just got attacked and that was it. No rolling for initiative, it was literally the wisdom saving throw and boom, charmed

I don't think he even knows about the ambush rules

[humble cairn]

Spells are a very specific set of tools that only do what they say they do. You can still be creative, but not by making spells do things they don't say they can do.

[humble cairn]

This is not a problem with RAW, this is a user issue.

[humble cairn]

Also you're an Artificer, you can just magically create a whole bunch of useful items. You don't actually need to use the tool rules.

[mighty wharf]

The thing is it wasn't my fault: I got charmed as a result of my monk party member charging ahead into what was obviously a trap.

[humble cairn]

You're telling me things I didn't ask about and that aren't related to what we started talking about.

And it's still not a problem with RAW, it's a user issue.

[mighty wharf]

What should I have done then?

[burnt valley]

Bro i was a fan of him back then

[humble cairn]

I have no idea, I don't know the situation and don't even know why we're talking about it, I'm so confused because you just kind of started talking about something random and unrelated to the thing you were initially talking about?

How did we switch from talking about how Tinker's tools work to this issue?

[mighty wharf]

👆

It was just one of the things that happened today, but yeah the jump was kind of jarring

[knotty pasture]

There are indeed weird loopholes and gaps if something is 100% played RAW

[humble cairn]

But it also sounds like the DM just isn't playing by the rules at all.

[mighty wharf]

It's like yeah, I could wait until the perfect moment to use my spells... I want to be able to use my spells in creative ways, not use spells for ONLY their intended purpose. That goes against the entire point of my character.

[humble cairn]

RAW is sometimes silly, but not using the rules correctly at all is another kind of silly.

[burnt valley]

I have the same issue ngl in my adventurer's league table

[glass granite]

I mean, using spells against what their purpose is is gonna be inherently difficult

[burnt valley]

It's agonizingly annoying to play with melee martials

[mighty wharf]

Ok, I assumed the spell grease was used to make enemies fall prone. Right?

But then all it becomes with martials is a retreat spell...

[humble cairn]

That is how you use Grease, yes. But it's an environmental hazard that your allies should be warned about to avoid. Prone enemies is great for your melee allies, if they don't fall down.

[mighty wharf]

Same thing with web, and fog cloud, and faerie fire is literally useless in combat when I was planning to use it in combat to buff my allies

[humble cairn]

I find that it is a force amplifier for melee allies, because it helps them hit the prone enemies.

[burnt valley]

Correct

[mighty wharf]

Then they're just not going to attack and that sucks! That really sucks!

[humble cairn]

Did you all discuss tactics at any point?

[humble cairn]

They're not useless, but maybe your party is not playing very tactically.

[mighty wharf]

We were just thrown into the thick of it and all of them are melee, there's no way around it.

[burnt valley]

Sometimes they'll actually go into the Web or what you just said, not attacking because they think they can't hit someone on the edge of an aoe control spell

[humble cairn]

Fog Cloud .. Fog Cloud is tricky. Because it often hinders everyone.

[burnt valley]

You know an enemy has line of sight stuff but can't use Fog Cloud because they're going to WHINE about the disadvantage

[mighty wharf]

They have a reach of like 5 feet...

[humble cairn]

This didn't answer my question. did you or did you not discuss tactics at any point?

[mighty wharf]

That is precisely what happened

[glass granite]

Fog cloud and fairie fire is situational but helpful in some situations, and web is a great spell to lock down enemies (but it requires you to often go first or tactically plan)

[humble cairn]

If you place your Web carefully, it can open enemies up for your melee allies.

[mighty wharf]

No, because we literally had no opportunity to. We were thrown into the feywilds, and had random encounters for basically everything we did. It's the campaign we're playing I'm sure of it.

[burnt valley]

True, which means they can actually hit them if they're one square away from outside the aoe

[mighty wharf]

Having to narrate my exact placement is annoying.

[humble cairn]

Then this is the problem, no communication. Discuss things with your party and how to use your abilities tactically.

[humble cairn]

It's part of the way of being a good caster.

[glass granite]

Clear room to hit Web without hitting allies and then wail on them

[mighty wharf]

For every single spell? RAW it works, but man that bogs down the experience a ton and ruins immersion. A 19 int wizard can't control his spell ranges? That's like a sniper not being able to aim.

[humble cairn]

Of course you can control your spell ranges, but dictating where it goes.

[mighty wharf]

They move into web. It's when they move jnto the area. It's a big area. They have to move into the area to attack

[glass granite]

A wizard can control his rangers wdym? It’s like chucking a grenade, you’re not gonna be able to avoid the AOE.

[burnt valley]

There's also another issue of dimwits setting the entire Web trap on fire because they use fire spells/attacks or just thing d4 damage = good

[humble cairn]

They don't have to move into the Web to attack if you place it carefully so enemies are on the edge.

[glass granite]

Or your ranged allies can shoot them to oblivion

[mighty wharf]

That's an explosion, this is casting magic fog and magic webs. You create this, it's not a fireball which you create and then explodes. That's my understanding.

[humble cairn]

If you're not going to bother being careful of your own spell placement like a tactical player I don't think it's fair to complain about everyone else not being tactical.

[mighty wharf]

I already explained the problem with that.

[glass granite]

You throw down a giant web and fill an area with smoke

[humble cairn]

You said it's annoying, which sounds to me like you can't be bothered to be careful placing your spell.

[glass granite]

That’s just chucking down an AOE

[mighty wharf]

Like atp you're not thinking about the experience especially for the other 3 people I have to play with having to listen to me and watch me draw out the exact placement of my spells

[humble cairn]

I have never run into anyone playing a spellcaster who wasn't excited to get the most out of their spells with placement.

[mighty wharf]

What's cooler: a wizard casting fog cloud in someones eyeball so they're blinded, or having a wizard take 2 minutes explaining that they're casting the fog on the edge of the enemy so that only the enemy is affected?

[humble cairn]

It's part of feeling like a cool caster to place your spell just right to hit enemies and avoid allies.

[mighty wharf]

It's one thing when you're getting the most but this feels like working around it.

[glass granite]

Applying it on allies isn’t gonna give them disadvantage tho, just chuck them on the casters

Both you and the enemy can’t see each other, so it’s neutral

[mighty wharf]

I place my spells at their feet or in their eye or stuff like that sounds way more interesting than "oh it's right on the edge of this square so they can move out of it super easily"

[humble cairn]

Also, sometimes knowing your ally saving throws is nice. I knew I could cast Entangle on my Paladin teammate because she has a heckuva lotta Str and Aura of Protection so she was gonna be fine.

[mighty wharf]

It literally did.

[glass granite]

Then that’s not RAW

[mighty wharf]

Well, they were still blinded

That's not fun...

[humble cairn]

So you purposely put them right in the middle of it, making it harder for your melee allies to get to them. Sounds like you also need to think a bit more tactically.

[glass granite]

Which doesn’t mean too much thankfully unless they were a caster

[mighty wharf]

I can't count on my party acting tactically were literally all noobs and have had no time to prepare tactics without metagaming.

[mighty wharf]

It means disadvantage on attacks...

[glass granite]

It ain’t metagaming to strategise

[glass granite]

The enemy are also blinded to you

Which means you have disadvantage on all your attacks against enemies, and they have advantage on all attacks against them
Hence, neutral

[humble cairn]

A little bit of metagaming is not bad, there's healthy metagaming, because D&D characters are supposed to be somewhat tactical in combat, but since our real life selves are not, discussing tactics OOC to make our PCs actually competent is all good.

[mighty wharf]

Yeah but then the whole point of me casting fog cloud to help my allies and hinder the enemies does nothing.

[glass granite]

Indeed, RAW its only there to nullify advantage and disadvantage or to break Line of sight (good against casters)

[humble cairn]

Fog Cloud is tricky, again. It hinders everyone. THAT is a retreat spell. Web and Grease can actually be helpful.

[mighty wharf]

To give you an idea of what I'm working with, my party insisted they could see through the fog when I insisted that it was heavily obscurred.

[glass granite]

They could’ve had blindsight mayhaps?

[mighty wharf]

They didn't know it meant blinded.

[humble cairn]

Well that's not Fog Cloud's problem, that's a user issue.

[mighty wharf]

I can't control other people.

[humble cairn]

You're right.

So why are you complaining about it like it's the fault of the spell?

The problem isn't that playing by the rules is painful, the problem is that playing by the rules when everyone else ignores the rules is painful.

[mighty wharf]

It would help 10x if it said explicitly whether you could or not. Because it doesn't say, you have to default to no and say it doesn't.

[glass granite]

Say what?

[mighty wharf]

Because my party members ask me all sorts of questions ahout the spells really limiting me

[humble cairn]

The rules are very explicit. Heavily Obscured means blinded.

[mighty wharf]

And I'm like, OK now I have to read the fine print instead of helping you out

[humble cairn]

The rules are not the problem here, the fact that your group doesn't know them is.

[mighty wharf]

You're right.

[glass granite]

It’s something that will develop with experience and teamwork

[mighty wharf]

I'm going to talk to the DM. See if I can be more flexible with spells, see what he allows.

[glass granite]

Communication is great, good start

Though be ready for a purely RAW approach (you never know)

[humble cairn]

RAW works (mostly) great with some few very odd exceptions.

[mighty wharf]

Because castjng fog cloud in someones eyeball to blind them and potentially explode their eyes with compressed air would be sick as hell. It says centered on a point within range, and technically people have empty space in their eyeballs

[pliant sapphire]

Your mates need to read the basic rules at least..

[glass granite]

Btw do yall have a battle map?

[mighty wharf]

We do have a battle map

[burnt valley]

Playing with dementors moment

[glass granite]

That should make it much easier to place spells

[glass granite]

I’m confident most DM’s will say no to this btw

[burnt valley]

Nahh that ain't RAW

[humble cairn]

There's flexibility and then there's outright silly and bad. Exploding someone's eyes with the Fog Cloud spell is extremely silly.

[glass granite]

Usually DM’s go with the “Spells only do what they say” approach

[mighty wharf]

My party is goofy as hell we have an Italian dwarven monk.

[glass granite]

I have an Italian Nonna in my game. Uses a pizza cutter

[humble cairn]

Italian Dwarven Monk doesn't sound goofy?

[undone rain]

How long does bladesong usually last?

[burnt valley]

Mario

[glass granite]

A minute

[mighty wharf]

I think my DM and I agree that that's a really stifling and boring way to do magic.

[pliant sapphire]

The Bladesong lasts for 1 minute

[glass granite]

Mayhaps, I do agree that asking them how they do it is the best move

[undone rain]

And thats 10 rounds right?

[glass granite]

But for balancing sakes, exploding people’s eyeballs with a non damage spell is usually out of what most DM’s agree for

And also cuz that’s not really what the spell does

[pliant sapphire]

Yea

[mighty wharf]

Yeah that's high hopes. At most I'm hoping that I can cast a little bit of fog in their eye to blind them while I concrentrate, just as a cool in-roleplay workaround to blinding my party and an actually creative spell placement instead of a boring "edge of cube" maneuver.

If I go RAW and do the edge of cube thing its repetitive to explain and just... boring.

[glass granite]

Btw for the future reference, check out evoker
Sculpt spells do help a lot

[undone rain]

I can definetly understand why bladesingers dont have medium armor prof. I have 15 ac on the go and then gain 5 ac with bladesong because +5 INT and then another +5 ac if i use shield spell

[mighty wharf]

It feels more like a cheap workaround than a creative spell use.

[humble cairn]

There is a single target blindness spell, it's called Blindness/Deafness.

Which you can flavor as a bit of fog that's stuck to their face.

[undone rain]

I can technically be a temporary frontliner if i must

[glass granite]

Martial wizard is what bladesinger aims to be

[humble cairn]

Edge of the cube with Fog Cloud doesn't help anyway? They're still obscured and hidden.

[glass granite]

It works with smt like Web for example

[mighty wharf]

Sigh I guess.

[burnt valley]

Use a dagger for bladesong then attack from ranged

[mighty wharf]

Yeah that makes sense.

[glass granite]

Effective indeed

[burnt valley]

mechanically, it'd benefit everyone more tbh

[mighty wharf]

Fog Cloud really is just a retreat spell I suppose.

[burnt valley]

It also denies los teleportation

[glass granite]

I use it to combat invisible enemies, if the enemy has easy advantage, if allies have disadvantage, or if I’m up against casters

[humble cairn]

D&D isn't really a game designed for you to be able to "do anything" as some people think it is. There are other games better suited for trying to improvise rules while playing.

[burnt valley]

This is why some DMs play Not Actually 5e disguised as 5e

[humble cairn]

Ooh, smart.

[glass granite]

I also do it if I want a theatric entrance

[humble cairn]

Aura farming

[knotty pasture]

Both a retreat spell and just pseudo cover on the fly in open areas

[mighty wharf]

Cover... for melee martials... against enemies that have opportunity attacks.

Nice. 🐟

[glass granite]

Oh yes that’s also a good use!

Some DM’s will also rule that enemies will not know your location inside the fog cloud, so you can use it to Hide

[mighty wharf]

Is it really? Because they pop out of the fog, they're visible, no advantage, they go back into the fog, all of that movement triggers opportunity attacks. I am giving them a free attack every round.

[glass granite]

Place it on the enemies and all your allies can slip out

[mighty wharf]

They get disadvantage.

[glass granite]

You can’t opportunity attack something you can’t see

[mighty wharf]

When they attack the enemy

[glass granite]

Again, it’s neutral.

If it’s otherwise in your game, raise that with your DM. It’s a common misruling

[mighty wharf]

What's the difference there?

[glass granite]

No one has advantage and no one has disadvantage
The common misruling being that’s everyone has disadvantage

That means you can place them on your enemies and no one can do an opportunity attack

[humble cairn]

1. If both characters are blinded, the attacks have neither Advantage or Disadvntage because it cancels out
2. But you cannot even attempt an Opportunity Attack against something you can't see

[mighty wharf]

I kinda like the fog of war idea the most yeah. That means tactically working with my team to make it work.

[undone rain]

Its like being a temporary fighter. Just that being a big hitter isnt their thing

[glass granite]

What’s the fog of war idea?

[glass granite]

There’s a fun build with shadow blade!

[humble cairn]

So Fog Cloud is useful to escape from melee. If you plop it down on both enemies and allies, allies can run away without fear of Opportunity Attacks.

[undone rain]

Tell me EVERYTHING

[burnt valley]

Just glyph Tenser's Transformation inside a bag of holding

[glass granite]

You use a non concentration spell and blade sing on your first turn.
Then you shadow blade and start SHREDDING

[reef tundra]

Oh my goodness…

[undone rain]

Oh yeah i definetly have found a new strategy

[glass granite]

Hello!

[reef tundra]

Hii

[humble cairn]

Most gish builds do take about a turn to set up, like my Valor Bard. First turn was casting Shillelagh and CME.

[undone rain]

We love our gish classes

[humble cairn]

I ❤️ gishes

Someone's going to ask so: Gish refers to a caste of Githyanki Mage Knights who went into combat with a blade in one hand and a spell in the other, but the word has now been generalized to characters who use both weapons and magic in combat.

[undone rain]

It just feels so cool to be a bit of both. Feels like a magic knight lol

[mighty wharf]

That's exactly how I used it. I honestly expected them to retreat, I have no idea why they all stayed. It made sense for the monk but not my sister who was dying.

[humble cairn]

Did you tell them to retreat? Like it's reasonable to shout in combat.

Communication is important, you can't just assume everyone can read your mind.

[burnt valley]

Stack Tenser's Transformation, CME and then using True Strike with Shadowblade

[undone rain]

I made my bladesinger a hexblood for flavor

And i cannot wait to use her

[mighty wharf]

Everyone in my party is under the assumption that we don't take actions on each others turns. I literally cast something or used an ability as a reaction and my sister was like "on my turn?"

We need to go over the rules 💀

[humble cairn]

How is this related to what I just said?

[mighty wharf]

Because in combat, you get like a bit of speech RAW

[burnt valley]

Make them recite the entire PHB 🙏

[mighty wharf]

And on my turn, I'm doing verbal components...

[humble cairn]

Yeah okay, so when you cast Fog Cloud, did you tell them to use it to retreat? Because you could have said that along with casting Fog Cloud.

[mighty wharf]

I remember what it was, I said I dropped concentration when they clarified they're not retreating

Sorry it's like 2:00 AM and I'm autistic

[humble cairn]

Ok but you didn't communicate with them that you meant for this to help them retreat, you just assumed they understood.

[mighty wharf]

Yeah basically... partially my fault. I thought it was obvious considering two of us were just charmed, and the other was dying.

[humble cairn]

Never assume. Communicate.

[mighty wharf]

Then my party calls me stupid "in character" for asking if it's wortth it to cast find familiar for an hour in the feywilds in order to get a scout... since we were just ambushed.

I need to have a talk with them clearly

[burnt valley]

Deliberately drop a Fire ball on your party and call it an "accident"

These type of players are a pain to play with

[humble cairn]

Please don't retaliate in character for things like that, talk it out with your group instead.

[exotic sinew]

Stuff like this is why I think session 0 is super important to like set expectations and boundaries and stuff

[mighty wharf]

We had a session 0 is the thing 💀

We used it for character building...

And we didn't even finish

[toxic patrol]

Well i had a situation that my players had a disagreement and they did fight it out then they were satisfied

[exotic sinew]

How long did it take to make characters??

[glass granite]

There can be more than one session zeroes! I recommend getting the group together again to set expectations

[mighty wharf]

Considering that we all tried to use DnD Beyond and it didn't work for any of us because it wiped our DMs access to all of his books, a long time.

[exotic sinew]

That doesn't seem healthy. I would definitely not like to fight my other party members

[mighty wharf]

Oh I'd be casting Suggestion, 100%. Our entire party has mediocre wisdom

[glass granite]

Yeah we’ve reached PVP, I HIGHLY recommend not doing that

[mighty wharf]

Apparently a +3 does not save you from a bone naga.

[glass granite]

-# also, your entire party will jump you the second they notice it

[glass granite]

Well, it depends how you roll

As with most things

[mighty wharf]

A 6 and then a 1. Because I used a budget portent.

We rolled HORRIBLY.

[glass granite]

Oof, bad luck

[humble cairn]

I considered casting Suggestion on a partymate before, but luckily I had a smart thought and asked the player if mind control were something that would make them uncomfortable, to which they said yes. So I didn't do it.

[mighty wharf]

Our monk rolled 4 1's

[glass granite]

Poor monk

[mighty wharf]

Tbf his entire character is the "I make 12 attacks but none of them do anything monk" archetype.

[glass granite]

Eh?

[exotic sinew]

@glass granite i see you have the monk tag do you like the changes to monk focus stuff cause I sure do

[glass granite]

Oh HECK Yeah
%*##**}+# love what they did!

[toxic patrol]

They both agreed to it so yeah it was a fun interaction

[mighty wharf]

The type that is optimized for attacks made instead of significant attacks...

[burnt valley]

lmaoo, martials lul

hold on, is this 2014 or 2024

[glass granite]

Monks do like to do a lot of attacks yeah, but their attacks do decent damage. It ain’t bad.

[mighty wharf]

HAHA YES

[glass granite]

Hm?

Oh playing a mix?

[burnt valley]

I see, may I suggest this build for him (incase next time he plays a M*nk) https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1ACBpeGKZVTkLanr86EPOMtAKpwFz45KHuNT6hU1swRg/mobilebasic

[mighty wharf]

Yeah 💀

[burnt valley]

Its called Moon Knight

[glass granite]

Like 2024 rules but with 2014 subclasses for those that haven’t been reprinted?
/vice versa

[mighty wharf]

I think he knows what he's doing... maybe... he was doing decent damage? Idk. He wasn't dying. The DM insisted on attacking my sister for some odd reason.

[mighty wharf]

We are going by "Rule of Cool".

[burnt valley]

What'd he exactly do?

[glass granite]

I see

I assume deflect attack is pretty good for surviving, my guess is that

[mighty wharf]

Idk bro made a few attacks and he just charged straight into a Bone Naga ambush. I think he did deflect attack and used 2024

[burnt valley]

LOL

[glass granite]

Hm, a brave one

[exotic sinew]

My table plays raw cause there be a few newer people (myself included) so it's easier to explain stuff

Although

[humble cairn]

I feel like that's a good approach.

[mighty wharf]

We're not doing any turns for out of combat either so like half of us are missing out on communication and actions out of combat

[glass granite]

Well, turns usually don’t matter out of combat anyway, so I’m confused there? Wdym?

[mighty wharf]

Rituals.

Spells.

[exotic sinew]

Cartographers tools (my tool proficiency) we are using the description from xanathars not from the 2024 phb

[glass granite]

Ah ritual casting is a more complicated part for newbies yes

[mighty wharf]

Utility. Scouting.

We are out in the Backrooms of dnd!

[glass granite]

The wha-

[mighty wharf]

And they CHARGED THE CHILD

[mighty wharf]

The feywilds

[glass granite]

Ah rookie mistake

You see a child (actually anything alive) in the feywild, assume it wants to kill you or worse

[mighty wharf]

My party thinks it's weird having a robot touch them to cast a spell.

[humble cairn]

Are you going from combat to combat and not playing anything in between?

[exotic sinew]

My dm has a habit of going around th table and asking what everyone is doing out of combat so we all have a chance of communicating ideas and hopefully contributing

[humble cairn]

We're using Bastions in our campaign so downtime and out of combat prep time is a big part of the campaign, as is traveling and managing our allies and contacts outside of fighting.

[exotic sinew]

I know that's not their job but it is nice that the quiet people have a chance to talk over the more outgoing people

[humble cairn]

Making sure everyone is having a good time is absolutely the job and responsibility of the DM.

[glass granite]

(I’d also say partially the players too)
But yes both

[mighty wharf]

We CAN. My understanding is it's all random ambushes. We started the campaign in the middle of the feywilds not remembering how we got there, no real plothook and we had to roll to notice something. Classic ability check for the plot hook and if you miss it then "now what?" moment. We all assumed we'd get attacked if we stayed there, which was true, and we were told there was fire which we assumed was possibly dangerous because feywilds and we had no prep time BECAUSE FEYWILDS.

[humble cairn]

Oh definitely, the players are also all responsible for making sure they are doing their best to make the game fun for everyone.

[mighty wharf]

This is a book campaign by the way

We literally didn't even get to introduce ourselves

[glass granite]

Which book?

[mighty wharf]

I have no idea. We're not metagaming.

[glass granite]

Fair

[humble cairn]

"We can" isn't an answer that makes sense to my question. Are you playing things in between combats or no?

[exotic sinew]

Well yea but I feel like us players should police ourselves and allow the other party members to share their thoughts, ideas, plans ect

[mighty wharf]

I think so? We travel, but it's not safe... unless we know 100% it's safe. We started with a combat essentially.

[humble cairn]

Ok so your game sessions don't consist of 100% combat time.

[glass granite]

Starting immediately into combat is a thing some campaigns do, which is fine

[mighty wharf]

No.

But we can have a "random encounter"

[glass granite]

Have yall gotten time to introduce yourselves? Familiarise yourselves with the party?

[mighty wharf]

Does that help? What are you really asking here?

[humble cairn]

When you said this it gave me the impression that your characters aren't talking to one another because your group was literally not even roleplaying the time between combats.

[mighty wharf]

We were talking as we moved, didn't have time for tactics.

Wouldn't have made sense for our characters anyways.

[untold mural]

Hey guys! I'm new and I understand almost everything on my sheet except hit points, could someone explain it in simple terms and how it is used in a session?

[mighty wharf]

Hit points are your health. Hit dice are how much you heal during rests.

[glass granite]

Hit points is how much health you got, if that falls to zero you’re downed and need to do saving throws till you succceed thrice (stabilised) or fail thrice (die)

[untold mural]

When do rests occur?

[exotic sinew]

Okay peeps I am going to have an early night 🌙 😴

[glass granite]

Whenever the party wants to really, though if that rest will help you is another matter. Short rests takes an hour, but if you’re interrupted or unsafe that timer resets

[untold mural]

Ohh! Do I need to update the number then?

[glass granite]

Yupadoo!

[untold mural]

Oh okay!

[glass granite]

If you have 20 Hit Points and take 5 damage you now got 15

And if you take another 15 you get down to death saves

[untold mural]

That makes sense why it says max hit point and hitpoint

[glass granite]

Mhm

[untold mural]

Thanks for the help

[glass granite]

Happy to help!

[keen valve]

I think that'd be a bit of an extreme reaction. I know we want serious games, I do too, but I think we have to manage our expectations and question why we want things the way we do as well as why we don't like them when they aren't, and what would be best for us. If the decision is leaving, then it's leaving, but that should only be so long as we don't try to make it out to be that they're the problem.

As childish as fart sword is, I do not think, as long as it isn't being abused to death, it is the crashing strike that should immediately call for your leaving of a game. Even serious stories such as that of Sweeney Todd has moments of levity in it, dark humour. It's ultimately a matter of timing, practice, and effort, but I don't think failed attempts should stain anything forever just because we are immediately adverse to it. I think we should take time to think, consider it, and reflect before deciding if we can move on thereafter. More often than not, I am of the belief we will simply look back, shrug, then keep going because it wasn't that bad in the long run.

Unless like fart sword killed your family.

I think that's valid.

[reef copper]

Id say it depends on your options too. If you already have another group i would probably abandon the fart sfx group too if the trend lasted.

But i would not leave before i got to hear how others would like to compensate

[keen valve]

I would hate if I'm playing CoS and dude just hands me a sword that makes the same dumb meme sound effect 25 times in a row ngl.

I think a one off should be all that most jokes ever go to the extent of being unless people like it, or if you're like me and you can rope it into being something serious, such as the funny haha gurgle noise is actually the monster who is warping your reality, and everytime it gurgles, something is being changed.

[inner silo]

Is artificer the best class for a merchant?

[limpid pawn]

I feel like warlock could be good for charisma but thats about it

[rough basalt]

Idk what it is, but CoS always seems to draw in memers that completely screw up the tone.

[keen valve]

It's because Strahd is an edgelord, I hate to say it, but he is.

[rough basalt]

Yeah

[remote wadi]

You would expect that to be VtM's thing...

[rough basalt]

DnD edge and VtM edge are on different levels.

[keen valve]

VtM is a whole other game.

It is story based from the ground up and often dives into real topics of struggle and horror in a way that D&D wasn't made for imo, which grants hit some whole other realms of stuff to see.

I kind of love that stuff though, cringe is dumb, and I would LOVE to play Mr.Darkheartevilpants who is really nice and good, personally.

[rough basalt]

CoS brings darker themes to a game that at its current state often sanitizes how dark it can really be where as VtM makes CoS look lighthearted as it's core standard.

[keen valve]

When you go corpo, unfortunately everything gets sanitized. Even VtM has been somewhat sanitized. In some areas, where it should have definitely been sanitized, but not so much in others.

[rough basalt]

Yeah which makes me wonder how Dark Sun 5e is gonna be.
Cause they either do 1 of 3 things

1: They completely botch trying to do it the right way and end up making something really bad unintentionally, so fans and terminally online people scream.
2: They completely sanitize it to the point its not even a Grimdark setting anymore, and Forgotten Realms is a darker setting leading to the same result as the former.
3: They do it the right way, respecting that it's a dark world and make it clear you're meant to be the people that stand against it, even if it may seem fruitless and only terminally online people scream about it.

[keen valve]

I don't know much about Dark Sun, but I think the one goal should be that they write the entire thing whilst listening to Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden in order to channel the energy needed for it.

[rough basalt]

Basically worlds been destroyed by mages, who rule over it like malevolent gods, which has led to a complete hostile world.

The world's ruled by entities called Sorcerer-Kings and one of the "least evil ones" was still evil enough to become a Lord of a Domain of Dread.

Tho there is one that's actually good by Sorcerer-King standards, while rest are either casual irredeemably evil, or competitive irredeemably evil.

[keen valve]

Competitive as in they show up to game night and go "Alright, who killed the most peasants today?"

[rough basalt]

Nah killing peasants for entertainment is casual

Competitive evil go for the whole species dead.

[dark basin]

I hear one of the competitive ones blind you and put you in a room full of objects at large toe and knee level.

[rough basalt]

The First Sorcerer-King iirc led wars to "cleanse athas and return it to Halflings."

[keen valve]

Ah, alright. I get you. That's a bit comical, tbh, though I guess it's all how you phrase it. Like if you present a comical "Ooh all the mages are evil and eat babies" but then actually dive into the reality of it.

[rough basalt]

And his champions led those wars and became sorcerer-kings themselves.

[keen valve]

I wonder what the result will be, maybe it will be good.

[rough basalt]

They even have titles for the species that eradicated

Then you have Oronis, he eradicated Lizardfolk but then felt remorse and decided to switch sides to Athas.
He's the good one I mentioned.

He's like Paarthurnax from skyrim. (Committed atrocities in the past, but is doing what they can in the present for good.)
It's a pretty messed up setting.

[keen valve]

Yeah, sounds like it.

[inner silo]

Can a wizard spare putting points into charisma?

[eager marsh]

if you want to

[inner silo]

Oki thanks

[real epoch]

What style are you looking for Can I help you with that @granite pond

[long swift]

im trying to rebalance boonerang shield into a legendary item. im thinking ricochet in up to 3 enemies on crit and smite working with it. also increasing the dmg but dunno how much. is that too op?

[inner silo]

What is the best support bard?

[eager marsh]

The one you build for support

The class is already support focused and has multiple subclasses that support in different ways

[inner silo]

Okay, thanks!

[worldly wadi]

Spider Climb and Alter Self are both 2nd level spells that can grant a new Speed type and a related bonus (Climb Speed + hands free & along ceilings, Swim Speed + water breathing). They're on mostly the same spell lists (Warlock only gets Spider Climb. Artificer, Sorcerer, and Wizard get both) and have the same duration.

Alter Self has other uses, though. Natural Weapons is niche at best, but Change Appearance is pretty significant. It's like having a second spell built in. The only other advantage of Spider Climb is that you can target someone else (or multiple people, if you upcast).

No question. Just an observation.

[eager marsh]

The swim adaptation is also more often than not useless in a majority of campaigns so the appearance aspect is generally the ‘only’ use for alter self usually

[west ridge]

Hey, on the dnd app, my races from MoM and spells from Steixhaven won't load.
They were bought as just the races/spells not the whole book.
Is that intentional by wizards or something kind of glitch/oversight?

I might be late to the party on this bc I haven't played in a while.

[molten bluff]

Our DM killed my PC, by having some monsters attack him while he was incapacitated (the rest of the party was still fighting). And now wants to revive it with plot powers. How would you feel about this?

[eager marsh]

Beyond? It’s a lot of spaghetti code

[eager marsh]

The raise dead spell isn’t plot powers and is usually something mid to high level adventurers have access to

[molten bluff]

we are level 5 and have no clrecis in the party.

[eager marsh]

And? NPCs exist. Temples are semi regularly paid to raise a dead comrade

The main issues for you are the body and enough money or favors to whoever casts the spell

Now if the DM is trying to just bypass all that and the potential quest line and debt to be paid and the roleplay involved with some sort of handwave gimmick I’d personally feel that’s a bit lazy

[buoyant oar]

I've killed many of players while they are incapacitated or even unconscious

The bad guys want to win

Whatever plot Powers is is too vague for me to comment on

[rough basalt]

If a player dies in my game they better hope they have one of the resurrection spells or scrolls.

Or Gentle Repose to get somewhere where someone can cast them.

Unless there's some kinda potential story beat with consequences that brings them back, but players don't like that ime.

[high carbon]

Dnd Is really stressing me out and I'm not sure why. Just bailed on a session on Saturday. 🙁

Not sure what to do because I really enjoyed it in the past, and I don't want to give up on it.

[buoyant oar]

Then you got to figure out what is stressing you out about it?

Rarely is it just D&D in and of itself

[worldly wadi]

I have this too, sometimes. If I can make myself go, I'm always glad I went, but there's some initial hurdle I need to clear.

[high carbon]

I feel like I don't want to disappoint the group. Then I end up doing that by bailing.

[high carbon]

Yeah that makes some sense

[worldly wadi]

How well do you know the other players?

[high carbon]

I did not. I had joined earlier that week. It was a new group.

I had chatted with some people though.. and was excited about the game. Until game time actually came around.

[quick rampart]

Hi all I honestly dont know where I should go but I wish for some assistance in learning to become a DM and making my own campaign.

If its possible to be lead in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated

[still plover]

Got an idea for an adventure in mind?

[worldly wadi]

In my experience, one of the best things you can do as a new DM is to set expectations. Just let your players know you're a new DM, still learning, and will probably be adjusting how you rules some things as you go. Also, I really ike Ginny Di's content on YouTube. She has some player-focused and some DM-focused videos that are really top knotch.

[exotic dagger]

Question for players: How jarring would it be for you if you're surrounded by a bunch of people with fantasy names and then there's just a lady named Susan who's also there.

[quick rampart]

Kinda but of starting in a Graveyard and the BBE Is a Necromancer

[worldly wadi]

If most of the strange names are non-humans and Susan is a human (or halfling?), then maybe not that weird? But if all other humans have strange names, it would probably raise some questions.

[loud tendon]

Not at all jarring I'd think? I've encountered many fantastical names in my time and also regular onea.. so Jeff and Jarinder the bespoke can both be in the same time

[rough basalt]

Susan would be a bit jarring for me.

[still plover]

Great, that's the location and opposition. Now you need a situation and complication.

[fair plinth]

Just depends on whether susan is a weird or uncommon name

[exotic dagger]

Susan is a fox-lady.

[quick rampart]

I think its Funny because it would be an uncommon name in the world

[quick rampart]

Ummm i haven't really finalised the BBE

[knotty pasture]

Would it be that uncommon? I always imagined that humans in Faerun would share our naming sense irl

[loud tendon]

I suppose it might depend on the location.. if Susan shows up in a group of plasmoids with fantastical names and isnt also a plasmoid.. I'm might react like will Smith in men in black and instantly think she is the only threat amongst them

Sorry, sora.. I meant to turn off ping

Just jumping off your point

[rough basalt]

True.
Random human woman on a spelljammer ship of plasmoids? She's up to something sinister.
It's alright I don't mind.

[still plover]

Doesn't matter at this stage.

[rough basalt]

A common new dm pitfall is planning/prepping too much

[quick rampart]

Would a Necromancer be a good BBE for starting off in a Graveyard

[still plover]

Sure! Plenty of dead folk, that's their trade.

What's going on that needs adventurers to deal with it?

[quick rampart]

Well i was also wanting like Banshees and that as an Enemy

[rough basalt]

Well, Banshees would be something else.

[still plover]

Maybe there's a connection, maybe they're the complication.

[rough basalt]

Also gotta take into account the level of players too

[quick rampart]

Im not sure if only thought of the Graveyard Bamshees and Goblins Burying them

[exotic dagger]

I mean, yeah. That's a skinwalker or something at that point. But nah, Susan is pretty normal for the setting she's in, that's just her name. The fox people's names are based on Persian/Iranian names in my setting which means you've got Artaxerxes and Darayavus and Nazanin and Shams. But then you also have Susan and Roxanna.

[still plover]

Could work with that!

Situation, location, opposition, complication.

[quick rampart]

Or do I do a few BBE and have them be Mini Bosses

[exotic dagger]

It's just amusing to me that it'd be an exotic name in context, but is like jarringly familiar to us.

[still plover]

You're getting ahead of yourself. First of all, figure what's going on and why it involves the party.

[quick rampart]

Would you have a good opinion

[exotic dagger]

Most names of most people are not going to familiar to the modern Anglosphere, but then you've just got random times where someone is just named something your cousin could be named.

[still plover]

Riffing off this, I might say:

Goblins are trying to bury an artifact haunted by a banshee when they accidentally disturb a necromancer, and the party are sent hustling in to sort it all out.

[exotic dagger]

I mean tbf, I don't know any of you, you might have a cousin named just about whatever name I could think of

[quick rampart]

Hmmm

But i dont want 1 Banshee i wanted a horde which is why i was considering a giant Graveyard

Maybe Amnesia

[rough basalt]

A horde of banshees is gonna obliterate a party of a level you should be running as a new dm.

[quick rampart]

Even low level?

[rough basalt]

Especially low level

[still plover]

Not super relevant right now. Could use mob rules, weak banshees, various fixes.

[quick rampart]

Mob rules

Im sorry im really really new to this

[rough basalt]

Ig, but it could be weird

[quick rampart]

Unless i make the Banshees Guards of the BBE

[rough basalt]

Can't have the Wailing with weaker Banshees or mobs mechanically.

Just flavor

[still plover]

The Monster Manual is suggestions, not a gospel.

The thing we're trying to establish here is what's going on in this graveyard.

[rough basalt]

Tho you could do minor discomfort volumed speaking

[quick rampart]

Im looking through it...

Its right in front of me

[rough basalt]

Sure it's suggestions, but I think it'd be best if a new DM learn how to use it first before they start using it as suggestions.

[quick rampart]

Takes Damage if shes in something or someone

[rough basalt]

That's if she ends her turn inside someone or something.

[quick rampart]

Yeah

[rough basalt]

Which iirc that's a pretty general rule for ghost-like beings.
That way they can't just hide in walls.

[quick rampart]

Do you have any thoughts on my idea?

[quick rampart]

Yeah

[still plover]

Why don't you lay it out for us?

• What's the situation?
• Where's it happening?
• Who or what is opposing the party?
• What could happen that complicates matters?

[humble cairn]

But like .. whose naming sense? "We irl" aren't a monolith.

The most common man's name where I live is Somchai.

[quick rampart]

Idk i guess BBE wants to turn the entire world into her undead minions and become an all powerful goddess?

[still plover]

Try it using the prompts I listed, and remember this is one adventure.

[humble cairn]

What level is the party? Because world ending plots are usually Tier 3 or 4.

[quick rampart]

There is no party yet im trying to construct A basic storyline so then I can somewhat improvise other bits

[loud tendon]

I dont want to interrupt the good flow too much, but we could probably move this to #dm-world-building or #dm-discussion

[quick rampart]

Thank you

[hoary totem]

It's just about Chinese New Year and I have the irresistable urge to play a leonin dance bard

[keen valve]

Not a dragon?

[hoary totem]

dragonborn, kobolds and the various other dragons and dragonlike races in dnd look NOTHING like dragons usually are in Asian cultures (can confirm, am ethnically Chinese)

[feral fulcrum]

Some of them got closer with the latest art updates. Such as Golds.

[keen valve]

Correct, I was referring to adapting it so as to fit, but that too. Flavour tends to be free.

[feral fulcrum]

I'd say Sun Dragons are kind of look Chinese style dragon, but honestly that'd be a lie, they look like angry sea serpents hit with an ugly stick more then anything. I don't care for their appearence in 5E.

[hoary totem]

ok but playing a dragonborn dance bard would be amazing, during a dragon dance performance there's always this colourful ball thing that the dragon follows, imagine having that as your arcane focus

[keen valve]

Imagine that being your warlock patron.

Colourful ball.

[rough basalt]

2024 updates gave some eastern dragon looks to dragonborn and dragons

Like the Dragonborn Monk on the Monk class art page and the Gold Dragons

I like the new dragon looks

[undone rain]

Would hags be strong enough to be a patron?

[knotty pasture]

They are a possible candidate for an Archfey patron yes

[rough basalt]

An Archhag would be a perfect archfey patron

[small heath]

A patron for a warlock I'm making is an arcanaloth

[severe rampart]

Archhags? are there Arch Covens?

[humble cairn]

Yeah and you do not want to mess with one.

[severe rampart]

I kind of want to... what level PC would be enough to take out an arch hag in a 1v1?

[humble cairn]

Arch Hags each have a very specific individual weakness that you have to use or else they can't be permanently killed. So .. hard to say.

[severe rampart]

ahh so maybe a Wizard/Sorc multiclass that can transmutate fireball?

[humble cairn]

For what?

[severe rampart]

ohh you mean very specific, I was thinking elementals, but I could definitely see Wizard/Sorc not being enough

[rough basalt]

nah like a specific item

[humble cairn]

When I say specific I don't mean just a damage type. One of the listed things is "a thread from the Lady of Pain's robes."

"A star pulled from the sky."

"The multiverse's worst pun."

[severe rampart]

Bard

[severe rampart]

From what I understand about DnD lore (which is very small) isn't that a nearly impossible feat?

[rough basalt]

not just nearly, fully

[humble cairn]

Probably easier to bring the hag to the Lady of Pain than the reverse.

[severe rampart]

could Divine Intervention even help with that?

[uncut zenith]

In 2024, no.
In 2014, it’s DM fiat.

[feral fulcrum]

The Lady of Pain cares not for your chicanery, to the endless maze with you.

[marble lion]

A star pulled from the sky is definitely the easiest there

Because i can see it not actually having to be what you think that means

It could be symbolic
The other two i dont think can be symbolic

[valid geyser]

Powerscalers would have a field day with that one

[severe rampart]

Why not the worst pun in the multiverse?

[frank ruin]

isnt there a warlock spell called crown of 7 stars or something?

[valid geyser]

i dont think thats a real thing

[marble lion]

Because thats impossible to quantify imo and it being a multiverse makes it impossible anyway unless youre so lucky youre in the right verse

[valid geyser]

or wait its just crown of stars

[strong pendant]

Sound. If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream. It can be your voice, someone else’s voice, a lion’s roar, a beating of drums, or any other sound you choose. The sound continues unabated throughout the duration, or you can make discrete sounds at different times before the spell ends.

so this is from minor illusion, does anyone know how using your voice goes with this? like would I be able to make the sound of me saying "go" in my voice?

[frank ruin]

ye that one lol

[uncut zenith]

Crown of Stars allows the caster to summon star-like motes

Not stars

[severe rampart]

What constitutes a star?

[frank ruin]

well if were saying that these weaknesses dont have to be literal...

it could be a cool twist on words

[valid geyser]

nothing really. If anything the weakness is probably symbolic

[marble lion]

For example, there could be a very famous jewel that is referred to as a star pulled from the night sky and that would work etc

Or its about bringing a very very high and mighty thing down

[severe rampart]

then that's weird, how would you figure out the archhag's weakness?

[uncut zenith]

I mean, if an archhag’s anathema explicitly calls for “a star from the sky”, I wouldn’t say a conjured star-like mote would qualify

[frank ruin]

well if were talking scientifically then there is a defintion but does that actually apply in faerun is the question

[uncut zenith]

The idea behind the arch hag’s anathema is that you have to go on some sort of quest to acquire it, not just cast a spell

[frank ruin]

but if were talking about a star like the sun wouldnt that just kill anyone?

[valid geyser]

and i mean, if "pulled" just means removed. One could hypothetically use illusion to temporarily remove a star from the sky, but then again it probaby wouldnt be a specific star or something

[marble lion]

If the weakness is literal, i can still see that being easier than the rest tbh

[frank ruin]

its not a very specific weakness

[severe rampart]

I mean, if a star from the sky means a literal, helium or hydrogen consuming star, I think the only way to beat it is to use wish

[marble lion]

But in most stories, it would be symbolic

[frank ruin]

wordplay seems like the most fae thing to do

[valid geyser]

one of the weakness options is like. "one of the hag's missing teeth" which can be solved by punching it, unless youre fighting a very gummy hag

[frank ruin]

wouldnt make figuring out the weakness itself any easier tho

[marble lion]

Like a legendary dagger, or a wizards built nuke that holds a brilliant light in a bottle that blows up when opened, or ruining a specific person the hag once made a star so her power fades

[ashen orchid]

Yall crooked moon is Worth it

[marble lion]

The last one is my fav

[serene jolt]

Are you asking if it is or just telling us it is? 🤣

[ashen orchid]

Telling

[marble lion]

What is crooked moon

[ashen orchid]

Idk i love it

[serene jolt]

I agree. It has lots of unique spells, species, and subclasses.

[uncut zenith]

It’s a third party folk horror campaign setting

[serene jolt]

It's a 3rd party book available on DnDBeyond and roll20.

It's very revolved around folk lore and horror like Nothic said. It's sick!

[feral fulcrum]

"And here comes Pelor with the Solar Slam!"

[undone rain]

I like how there is so many gish classes

Eldritch knight, bladesinger, sword bard, hexblade

[severe rampart]

Would an artificial star work?

[feral fulcrum]

Subclasses you mean. Classes imply a different thing.

[severe rampart]

I've never heard of the word gish

[stoic haven]

Hexblade my beloved

[ashen orchid]

Correct

[feral fulcrum]

It's a term stemming from older editions, and more specifficaly the Gith

[undone rain]

You know what im talkin about

[turbid vessel]

Broad term for a class/build that mixes sword and sorcery

[severe rampart]

Ahh I understand

[valid geyser]

i do wish there was just an arcane half caster that didnt have the artificer flavor trappings

[stoic haven]

I think bladesinger is one of the best gishes for the basic idea

[feral fulcrum]

I beleive it's origins lay in the fact that Githyanki/Githzerai were sword swinging magical lunatics with fantastical powers.

[valid geyser]

it's probably too late for that to exist, but i'd take that over bladesingers anyday

[turbid vessel]

From what I understand gish usually specifically refers to arcane magic, so a paladin or ranger wouldn't count much as a gish

Correct me if I'm wrong tho

[valid geyser]

gish is kind of a subjective term

[stoic haven]

I always though gish just meant magic

[valid geyser]

usually i do think just arcane for gishes, since divine magic has always been a little martial-oriented in nature from the beginning

[humble cairn]

See, in D&D settings this is a very interesting question. One valid answer is that they are Great Old Ones.

[valid geyser]

but its not a wrong answer to call a paladin a gish, because there isnt a right answer either

[humble cairn]

"Gish" has been generalized.

The Gish themselves I think were arcane casters, but the word no longer only refers to the caste of Githyanki Mage Knights.

[turbid vessel]

Interesting, didn't know the word had that origin!

[humble cairn]

Gish refers to a caste of Githyanki Mage Knights who went into combat with a blade in one hand and a spell in the other, but the word has now been generalized to characters who use both weapons and magic in combat.

[turbid vessel]

Shows I'm a "5e was my first edition" player without saying it out loud lol

[stoic haven]

How do yall think of telepathic voices?

[turbid vessel]

How do you mean?

[stoic haven]

When you use telepathy, does it automatically take your characters voice or can you freely change it

[still plover]

As in, can you impersonate someone else while using telepathy to communicate with a target?

[humble cairn]

By default I think of it sounding identifiable to you, but you could always try to use Deception to change your mental voice.

[feral fulcrum]

I'd say by default it'd be your voice, but if you tried, you could probably attempt to impersonate someone.

[turbid vessel]

I say whatever works for your character flavor. I've seen a character concept where the telepathy was abberant spirits acting as a messenger, so you heard a chorus of haunting spirits anytime you were being spoken to
Though I think as a baseline, most GMs would at least ask you to pick a concept and stick with it

[feral fulcrum]

But Telapathy faking runs into the problem that...most things are not Telapathic. "This is jerry from accounting, give me all of your gooooold." "Jerry isn't Psychic you twit."

[reef copper]

You can recognize people based on how fast, how they describe and what concepts/words they use. Sometimes you can listen in on people with detetect though without knowing their language if they dont think in words

In my opinion ofcorse

[stoic haven]

Because my warlock, I use telepathy and message all the time, and always flavor it as my patron's voice (usually for intimidation)

[reef copper]

If you talk telepathically with a person that knows the language of the subject you are reading the thoughts of they can understand the conversation

[marble lion]

I imagine telepathy can by default sound like a voice you shape in your head

I do that all the time irl

[reef copper]

Might as well be his voice, he can probably influence your casting somewhat

[marble lion]

When you imagine saying something and imagine how it sounds in your head

[valid geyser]

this is making a lot of assumptions that telepathy has to be just "a voice in your head" and that it plays out at the speed of normal talking
one of my favorite depictions of telepathy was in the dresden files, when a characterbasically just beamed the thought of a game plan into like, fifty wizards' minds instantly. Just everyone immediately thinking and understanding the same thought

[marble lion]

So it would be pretty malleable to me

[reef copper]

Spoilers

:)

But i love when they make good use of magic in books

[marble lion]

Rules state its a conversation and that usually the target needs to understand at least one language

[valid geyser]

figured it was relatively spoiler free, but I'll change it to just "a character"

[marble lion]

To me thats conclusive in the sense that it is not beaming a game plan in a second

And rather a conversation, as literally stated

[stoic haven]

Dresden files?

[valid geyser]

true. I just figured that you can make telepathy seem more incredible and alien if you make it seem like a superior form of communicating ideas

[marble lion]

Youre right

[valid geyser]

It's a novel series

[still plover]

A book series about Chicago's only wizard listed in the Yellow Pages, named Harry Dresden.

[marble lion]

Id be fine with flavouring too. Just saying its no assumption to say otherwise in dnd

[valid geyser]

true. I think there is stuff like the wizard telepathy spell that might be more fitting of that concept, specifically stating ideas, concepts, etc are communitcated instantly

[undone rain]

Never understood why oathbreakers have so little necromancy/dark spells

[valid geyser]

thats all the spells they get

[knotty vine]

Hello chat

[knotty pasture]

Hi

[timid arch]

Hey fellow followers of Bahamut! (and everyone else)

[knotty vine]

How haven’t we gotten a Druid that can a wildshape into things plant shapes

[knotty pasture]

I finally got most of the modding I want done in bg3, this is a W today

[marble lion]

True high fantasy vision
I turn into plant

[knotty vine]

Have you seen some of the plant stat blocks in dnd the awaken tree seem Quite interesting

[blissful ibex]

we used to IIRC

[knotty vine]

I’m quite aware

But I’m just surprised 5e hasn’t tried its hand at recreating such a thing

Also while I look the new moon Druid I feel like it should be less about spell casting and more about making your wild shapes even more dangerous

[blissful ibex]

it's about turning a utility class feature into a combat one and at least giving you some ability to use you major class feature (spellcasting) while doing so

[knotty vine]

Oh no while I think that’s cool it doesn’t really change much from the previous moon Druid what I mean is your gonna keep changing into the same animals over and over which gets kinda dull

[valid geyser]

Half agree. I think it did need the extra spells but I didn’t love the teleporting and radiant damage it got. Feels kinda random

I get the new explanation of “moon magic” but I think that’s kinda dumb; since the moon thing was more metaphorixal beforehand
Also it’s shapeshifting, that has enough power to stand on its own

[knotty vine]

They should have went more heavy into the combat aspect and give it the ability to change a few things about the wild shape itself like giving the bear an extra attack

[valid geyser]

Some of me does wish that druid went the way it did in the 2024 playtests where the statblock was just a specific thing that could auto scale but I get why people find that boring and sad

[slim anchor]

Hey guys

[serene jolt]

I agree!!

[knotty vine]

They did nerf the extra hp you got in wild shape

I think it would be very interesting if Druids could become imps but some might say thats too op

[serene jolt]

If you like this vibe, there are two books that do just that.
In the new 2024 Exploring Eberron, there's a Forge Druid. All the abilities actually buffs your wildshape.
And in the 2014/2024 Griffon Saddlebag, there's a Dragon Druid. All the abilities buff your wildshape as well. Some things give you buffs here and there but mostly reliant on the wildshape.

[valid geyser]

Also seems a little out of left field personally

[serene jolt]

I'm planning on trying the Forge Druid. It looks sick as heck.

[valid geyser]

Closer to cleric territory. Wild shape is essentially equivalent to channel divinity for a lot of subclasses

[marble lion]

I want a druid that can shift into Yamaha RZ 250

[knotty vine]

I agree a little as well it kinda feels like WOTC doesn’t know what do with moon Druid

[valid geyser]

I’ve said this before here but Druid could possibly work if split into two classes, one being focused on shapeshifting and the other on nature magic

[lavish flame]

I'm shocked that Moon Druid has no real ties to lycanthropy

[knotty vine]

Granted you are gaining access to a creature that could be a “potential” threat to level 1 characters at level 2 in 2014 3 in 2024

[marble lion]

That sounds pretty bad

[knotty vine]

I would absolutely love a class focused on shapeshifting

[valid geyser]

Hypothetically. Not strongly advocating for this but in my mind it might allow for shapeshifting to do more as a class ability

[lavish flame]

If you told me "there's a moon-themed subclass for the animal shapeshifter" I'd assume that they would be lycanthrope adjacent

[serene jolt]

I do wish they had two seperate classes for this purpose. I'm obsessed with the shapeshifting part of Druid. The spells are cool and versatile but I'm more focused on shapeshifting then spells. And then everyone yells that I'm 'doing it wrong'. 🤣

[valid geyser]

This. I mostly couldn’t care less about wild shape and a lot of druid subclasses just use wild shape as a resource for their magical effects

[knotty vine]

That does sound bad in practice moon Druid could become a brown bear for example which had muti attack at level 2 1 attack did 2d6+4 and another attack did 1d8+4

[serene jolt]

I loved running a Longtooth Shifter with Druid. I effectively get a BA attack on most of my combat forms. So that's usually 2-3 attacks depending on what I was.

[lavish flame]

I'm playing with a Spore Druid rn and when they turn into animals, it almost feels weird. The themes of that character mostly feel like "nature spellcaster" but their class also gives them shapeshifting.

[marble lion]

Im saying bad as in, a level 2 char shouldnt potentially be a threat to level 1s
It should absolutely be a threat

[knotty vine]

It’s somewhat a threat not to mention old Druids were mainly good for tanking damage as well

Just a big pile of hit points

[marble lion]

Id say changing into a brownbear level 2, with a free hp bar on top, is very good

[valid geyser]

Yeah also 2024 Druid and cleric’s base class kit is almost identical

[serene jolt]

That's kinda why I prefer 2024 druid. 2014 moon druid is just straight up boring after a little while.

[knotty vine]

I do like 2024 over all but the shared hit points does urk me a little bit

[serene jolt]

I think it makes it more balanced imo

I don't think a druid with effectively infinite hitpoints is all that cool

[lavish flame]

I vastly prefer "your animal form uses your vitality" to 2014's "you are a boss with 3 health bars"

[serene jolt]

And at level 20, infinite health bars 🤣

[knotty vine]

Long resting before getting to use another wild shape feels like a questionable chance

[lavish flame]

and with Moon Druid Elemental Forms it only gets nuttier

...why do they get elemental forms again?

[valid geyser]

I don’t think that’s how it works

[serene jolt]

Uhh with 2024 druid?

[knotty vine]

You get to wild shape twice then you have to long rest