dnd-discussion

[remote wadi]

Wanted to ask a question or 2

[umbral girder]

17hp at level 1. Gonna pray I survive.

[remote wadi]

For starters, how good is the Martial Adept feat on Ranger and Paladin?

[tame burrow]

It's a machine that decides whether you are guilty or not, it's based on the feelings of the people in the court + facts

[remote wadi]

What kind of stats did you roll up...

[crimson gulch]

Dwarf fighter with tough?

[tame burrow]

Useless??

[umbral girder]

Elf Barbarian with Tough and 16 con

[tame burrow]

Don't you already have proficiency with armour and martial weapons?

[river vector]

I don't see how that is similar to what I said, but ok I guess lol.

[umbral girder]

Martial adept does not give weapon proficiencies. It gives Battle master manuvers

[remote wadi]

For some reason, that is what they named the feat. Confusing, I know

But that is the one with the maneuvers

[hushed mason]

Oh hello @remote wadi 🙂

[umbral girder]

Weapon master gives proficiency (unless 2024)

[remote wadi]

Evening

[tame burrow]

No, um, I was explaining what it is literally, the meme is that it sounds like a song when you say it

[tame burrow]

Ahhh okk

[river vector]

Ahh I see

[south prawn]

Only 1 superiority die seems lackluster. If it were 2 though…

[remote wadi]

So I wanted to ask how good it would be with Paladin and Ranger, as both are martial spellcasters and have good space to treat it as a helpful niche, I'd imagine

[umbral girder]

Notably the feat is a short rest resource too

[remote wadi]

Which Fighter also heals on a rest too. Because of course they do...

[river vector]

Should angry vengeful ghosts shriek incoherently or talk hatefully? Your opinions?

[umbral girder]

both

[river vector]

Hateful screeching "AHHHH I HAVE RISEN TO KILL YOU HAHA"

[umbral girder]

depends how angry they are perhaps

[river vector]

serial killer that had plans foiled by the party

I assume it would be along the lines of screeching

[tame burrow]

Yeah

[river vector]

Yeah, I think I'll go with that. Killer was never talkative in life anyway.

(it would give away the identity)

[weary raft]

I decided to add a dm role so I can learn dming better

[weary raft]

Ooh, I got da pretty name as well

[remote wadi]

Asking about the maneuvers because I do love the idea of Ranger being able to pull out a sword and maybe a shield as a sort of Frontline defense

But If I were to pair that with maneuvers, I would likely need one for either archer or foot soldier

[river vector]

Lol I had this whole ass murder mystery planned, only for my party to kill my killer upon first encountering them.

The killer coming back as a ghost is a metaphor, it feels like

[tame burrow]

Rangers can be purely melee too, depends on how you build them

[tame burrow]

Lmaooo, classic dnd stereotype 💀💀

[rugged hawk]

I blame you for not giving your killer one of those items that teleports them away when they're in danger.

[river vector]

The party and killer are both low level

[rugged hawk]

Then you clearly didn't give him enough HP

[remote wadi]

Probably not the best idea, though. At that point, you're maybe off better playing a Paladin

Dexadin, even

[river vector]

Yeah, you're right

This is why my killer is returning with a bitter vengeance and reanimated victims

[tame burrow]

Obviously, but if you want to play a ranger, you should

[river vector]

I learn from my mistakes

[hushed mason]

He does. 🙂

[remote wadi]

I'm just saying, a possible idea isn't always a good idea

[tame burrow]

It is if it's a fun one

[weary raft]

A possible idea always has the potential to BECOME a good one if you think hard enough

[humble cairn]

No, there are things a melee Ranger do that are different from a Paladin.

[remote wadi]

Not the same, but you're sacrificing a lot to try and compete with someone else's side hustle

[humble cairn]

One of the classic tropes that the community loves is a dual scimitar Ranger.

[remote wadi]

Well, sure. But think about what you lose by doing that

[meager fractal]

I prefer my rangers with longbows tbh

[humble cairn]

Rangers are not only archers.

[rugged hawk]

Now we know you aren't human - humans aren't reasonable like that. Just look at all the terrible ideas we made manifest: nukes, extreme sports, underwater cave diving, energy drinks, bioweapons, cars that can move several times faster than maximum allowed speed.....

[humble cairn]

Melee Ranger are fine?

[remote wadi]

For starters, you are locking yourself out of spells unless you pick up war caster as well

[humble cairn]

Hunter's Mark, Ensnaring Strike, Zephyr strike are all Verbal only. Works just fine with weapons in both hands.

[remote wadi]

You would likely fall behind in damage as well unless you picked uo the proper feat/fighting style as well

Combine that part with the AC problem, and it can fall apart in a difficult campaign or unprepared player

Not advised against it, but it requires quite a bit and risks miniscule returns

[remote wadi]

Ah, verbal only. It's possible, but at the same time, not something you want to limit yourself to later on

Otherwise, you limit yourself to out of combat spells for the most part

[humble cairn]

Not even to mention if you go with a two hander you also have a hand free to cast or access a component pouch.

[rough basalt]

Session 0 of new campaign went well i think

[humble cairn]

A Hunter with a Sweep weapon and Horde Breaker could be a neat little AOE melee.

[remote wadi]

If you go with a 2 hander, you likely are relying on strength more than dex...

[humble cairn]

Yep, and STRangers can work as well.

[remote wadi]

But that does bring up a question: why use component pouches when you can have a focus?

[humble cairn]

They are effectively the same, but a pouch doesn't need to be held. It can just be interacted with, like if it were hanging around your neck.

[icy needle]

Can player play as a half dragon?

[humble cairn]

It's not an officially playable species, but with your DM's approval many things are possible, from reflavoring a playable species (Dragonborn is probably the one) to creating a homebrew species.

[remote wadi]

But aren't those components in the pouch finite?

[humble cairn]

No.

[remote wadi]

Oh, right. Spells don't consume a material unless stated

My bad, brain is still trying to get up and running for the night

[humble cairn]

In conclusion, melee Rangers are fine.

[remote wadi]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is a point where someone's idea is so unorthodox that it is much better to play a different class

They're not terrible, but can become a problem if careless

[humble cairn]

Melee Ranger is in no way unorthodox.

People have been playing dual scimitar Rangers since before 5E.

Largely due to the most famous Ranger in the franchise.

[remote wadi]

Anyways, would 2 good maneuvers for Ranger be Precision Strike and Evasive Footwork?

[humble cairn]

Depends on what combat tactics your Ranger prefers, I suppose.

[remote wadi]

Basically the weapons of choice swapping between long range sniper and sword and shield frontliner in a pinch

[umbral girder]

People have been doing melee rangers since AD&D.

[humble cairn]

Emphasis on sniper with sword and board only in a pinch?

[remote wadi]

Primarily because it's very difficult to make a dex reliant weapon equivalent to the pike and shot

[humble cairn]

Pike and shot? I'm not familiar with that combination of words.

[remote wadi]

In medieval times, infantry tactic or weapon involving a combination of pikes and muskets

[humble cairn]

Swapping weapons and a shield mid combat is kind of tricky.

[remote wadi]

It would, all things considered, be reasonable to make a weapon that is mostly a rifle, but can function as a Pike or spear of sorts in some situations

But it would require some leeway and a good chunk of investment. Cool idea, though

[remote wadi]

Well, no. If the weapon could be made, it would be just using that

[rough basalt]

Forgot a crucial thing in my s0

[remote wadi]

But with how unlikely it is, I'm mostly just planning in my head for the improv: that being a longbow for range, sword and board if needed close by

[rough basalt]

The initial quest to get the party together.

[humble cairn]

These would be fine, but consider Evasive Footwork + Menacing Attack. Use it on the same turn and not only do you distance yourself from the enemy, you also prevent them from coming any closer to you for a round. Allowing yourself to make even more distance. If your primary tactic is archery.

[rough basalt]

We're gonna work it out over the week, but Session 0s are still my bane.

[umbral girder]

I hope I helped guide the session 0 well.

[rough basalt]

Yeah you did

[remote wadi]

It could work, but evasive footwork does mean that you carry less of a risk if you dash vs disengage

[rough basalt]

I'm not good at talking.

[umbral girder]

Gots get the ball rolling

Get everyone out of their shells

[humble cairn]

True, combine the two to go full flight mode.

[rough basalt]

Gonna think up a few starter quests to throw in the hat

[remote wadi]

Especially if you choose to get a rogue MC; you could bonus action that and still have chances to shoot

[rough basalt]

Obligatory: Go dig into an ancient city and find a black book with magic spells in it then read from it after digging up a 3000 year old corpse that was cursed.

[remote wadi]

Furthermore... this also limits the enemy deciding to just dash back in if you disengage because presuming you have Deft Explorer, climbing or swimming away is possible

[umbral girder]

We read the book and meet a guy with a tentacle sword riding a dragon talking about how he could have stopped the BBEG but didn’t

[jolly agate]

Miraak Is that you?

[umbral girder]

Also the 2024 DMG has a bunch of starting quest prompts you can look into for level 1

[rough basalt]

Oh yeah

[humble cairn]

Well ... Cunning Action makes Evasive Footwork somewhat redundant.

[rough basalt]

I could probably look at the low level Calimshan adventures for inspiration too

[remote wadi]

I guess this explains my thoughts on builds like these: I do have good ideas sometimes, but there is a smidge of humor to be found in asking myself "How is Lady Luck going to bite me this time?"

[remote wadi]

I'm saying that you have the opportunity to do both at the same time

[humble cairn]

They both take a Bonus Action so .. no?

[umbral girder]

Playing a Wild Magic Barbarian is gonna be nice when we reach level 6. Because an Eldritch Knight, Artificer, and Paladin will be hurting for spell slots.

[remote wadi]

Dashing away with EF and having them likely miss because you still have an average of 18.5 and then shooting them down with Sharpshooter + Precision

If they live still or you miss, you are in a good situation without needing to repeat the process

[humble cairn]

SS and ... oh you're using 2014 rules?

[rough basalt]

Yall are gonna run into the Dancing Mummy Lord, and he's just gonna start dancing too restoring slots

[humble cairn]

I think Evasive Footwork works differently in 2014.

[remote wadi]

I'll check

Yeah, it's different

[humble cairn]

Yeah Evasive doesn't use a Bonus in 2014, but it doesn't last very long either.

[remote wadi]

14 doesn't give you disengage, but it doesnt cost any actions

It doesn't have to in 14 anyways

[humble cairn]

And it only lasts until basically the end of your turn, not any longer.

[remote wadi]

Think of it like this: you are in melee range of a guy with a greataxe

[humble cairn]

The AC bonus for Evasive '24 lasts until the start of your next turn, which is nice.

Evasive '24 is better.

[remote wadi]

You use EF and move out of range, likely evading the attack (or living: if that's not likely or possible... let's not think about that)

[humble cairn]

It kind of feels like EF '14 is supposed to be used to bait OAs.

[remote wadi]

If you dash as an action or BA, it'll be much harder to follow you if you have terrain like trees or water

[humble cairn]

Not as good in a '24 environment when they could ignore your AC and just Grapple you as an OA.

[umbral girder]

2014 was mean to Martials

[remote wadi]

This counteracts their attempt to dash back in because despite them having the same distance as you, you have a climbing and swimming speed

[humble cairn]

If you're playing 2014 rules don't use Evasive Footwork, get something else.

Get Zephyr Strike as a Ranger and just negate OAs.

[remote wadi]

Meaning that should they follow you up or across, you can create distance much easier

[rough basalt]

Was reminded just now that Elephants are only 200gp.
All Encumbrance issues solved.

[remote wadi]

Or that. That too...

[umbral girder]

The Mobile feat also gets around OA by attacking and running away

[remote wadi]

Iirc, that's for melee attacks

Yep. Melee attacks only

[umbral girder]

Just kick them and run. Mobile doesn’t need you to hit. Just try to attack

[humble cairn]

Correct, but it doesn't matter if you actually hit. Just make an unarmed strike, and then run away.

[tame burrow]

Ultimate ragebait feat

[rough basalt]

I need to fill my groups minds with the glory of the elephant until someone buys one cause it'd be very funny

[noble pine]

How does action surge work

[humble cairn]

Like so! https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/2190879-fighter#FighterClassFeatures

"On your turn, you can take one additional action, except the Magic action."

Then you need to Rest before you can do it again.

[noble pine]

What kind of action

[humble cairn]

Any Action except the Magic Action.

[humble cairn]

Here's a list of actions: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/playing-the-game#Actions

[umbral girder]

An Action

Not a bonus action or reaction.

An Action.

[noble pine]

So you can take an additional attack

[umbral girder]

Yep. If you have extra attack you can make a lot more attacks

Like if you get 2 attacks with an attack action (level 5 fighter) and use action surge that is 4 attacks.

[rotund badger]

Hello

I want to choose Trollclaws as my first game; where should I start?

[umbral girder]

What’s a Trollclaw?

[rotund badger]

it's in Forgotten Realms

beside Field of The Dead

Northeast of Baldur's Gate

[umbral girder]

Ah the games are decided by the DM usually

[remote wadi]

Then I guess this explains the risk and reward

Evasive Footwork for 2014 is using a single item that replenishes on rests and leaves your action open for basically full damage

[humble cairn]

It's not a great Maneuver. How are you getting Maneuvers on a Ranger anyway?

[empty thicket]

there was a feat in 2014 that let you get maneuvers or another get you fighting styles like a fighter

[humble cairn]

I'm aware, I'm asking specifically.

[empty thicket]

like what feat? or what?

[humble cairn]

I'm asking Bloodline whether they're taking a Feat or multiclassing.

[empty thicket]

ooohhh, okey okey, that change the recipe

[umbral girder]

Martial adept feat

According to an earlier message

Gives 1 dice and two Manuvers i think

[molten pollen]

hi, I guess this is a bit of a weird question, but I'm fairly new to DnD, but have had a blast over the last 2-3 months. While I love the combat and strategy, I feel like I'm totally bad at the whole roleplay aspect of it, and can't voice or act like a character for the life of me, does anyone have any suggestions or things they did to get better at that?

[umbral girder]

Write up a few personality traits and look for ways to include it. 2014 had PBIF so if you got the old PHB (or the basic rules which is free) you could use those for ideas

PBIF is Personality traits, Bonds, Ideals, Flaws

[hoary totem]

Get in the POV of your character. Cosplay if you can and want to. if not just wear clothes (and makeup if you want) that fit your character's vibe or similar to what your character would wear. Do stuff similar to what your character would do. If you're playing a wizard or pact of the tome warlock, track your spells in a notebook. If you're playing a monk, do a fake punch when you unarmed strike. Stuff like that.

[humble cairn]

To start with you do not need to voice act if you don't want to. Roleplaying can be of different levels and all are okay. In the beginning I think if you just pick one signature behavioral "move" or catch phrase and just lean into it, that's a good start. From there you can branch out once you get more comfortable with the character.

Are you the character who is always flipping a coin as a habit? Maybe you're always saying "Hmm, harumph" and clearing your throat. Something, just a signature thing you do as a default when you don't know what else to do.

[molten pollen]

thank you all for the advice, I think that I have a much better understanding of how to act like my character. I think I just might've accidentally shot myself in the foot though by making a really simplistic backstory and weird race/class combo, and I'm not really sure where to go from there. I've heard dnd horror stories of characters who only have one gimmick for a whole campaign, and how it gets annoying fast, and I'm really not trying to be that person 😭

[remote wadi]

Likely a feat, assuming i don't have others i really need

[warm shore]

I’m in the exact boat 😭 if anyone’s got advice for it, please share

[cedar moss]

hello guys

[hushed mason]

So develop the backstory. Add people to it.

[mortal tinsel]

Does Bark Skin in 2024 stack with a held shield?

[cerulean monolith]

No, and #dnd-rules

[mortal tinsel]

d'oh! never even noticed -rules... thank you

[fossil hollow]

wha

#critical-role-spoilers

[grizzled lance]

Wait bark skin doesn’t stack with shield?

[fossil hollow]

no

[spare fjord]

Bark Skin just sets your AC to a number if it's not normally that number, iirc

[grizzled lance]

Right

[spare fjord]

So it can't go above 17 from the spell

[fossil hollow]

if its lower or higher, barkskin simply doesnt apply

[cerulean monolith]

Er, no

[fossil hollow]

wait, i could have worded that better

[spare fjord]

If you put on a shield, Barkskin would either still make your AC 17 if it's still lower, or do nothing

[cerulean monolith]

Rather, Barkskin only applies if your AC is lower

[fossil hollow]

yeah, i meant the shield

... actually, ill leave it to ratatoskr and you sam, you got this

[mortal tinsel]

it's confusing but i can see the interpretation... i have an AC of 10, cast bark skin now 17, add shield 'hope it's 19'... however, i have AC of 10, add shield now 12, barkskin takes it to 17....

flat 17 makes the most sense IMO, very confusing though with gear or spells that augment after the fact (base armor 10, bark skin + shield (spell) becomes what?)

[fossil hollow]

17

[rough basalt]

Imo Barkskin is very geared towards wild shaping

[cerulean monolith]

The shield spell would indeed do nothing there.

[warm shore]

Is it not weird to anyone else that there’s not just an upgraded version of shield of faith

[fossil hollow]

why would there need to be

[humble cairn]

IMO Barkskin should be resistance to BPS and Stoneskin should be resistance to BPS + Fire, Cold, Lightning, Thunder, Acid, Poison.

[mortal tinsel]

right, it would add 5 to "my ac" bringing me to 15, which is still lower than what barkskin is giving

[spare fjord]

You mean like upcasting? Not every spell needs to do something extra at higher levels

[fossil hollow]

nor do they need a higher level counterpart

this aint a mmo

[spare fjord]

It's a little annoying for warlock imo, but otherwise I like having stuff that just works with the low slots

[fossil hollow]

they dont even get SoF tho

[spare fjord]

I know, I meant in general

[fossil hollow]

fair

[warm shore]

I feel like it’s just a good all rounder concentration spell to have as a paladin, and I had it pretty consistently even at higher levels, and I’m just sorta bummed that there isn’t a way to upgrade it further

I mean haste seems like a better version of it but it’s a whole level 3 spell slot

[rough basalt]

Barkskins one of those spells thats pretty middle of the pack id say

can be very good, can be eh

[fossil hollow]

haste provides more than just +2 ac

[mortal tinsel]

great early on imo and it's lvl 2... so makes sense

[fossil hollow]

but its also a very risky gamble

[warm shore]

The extra action is great and all, but the stuff my DM throws at us would slaughter me if I couldn’t do anything for a round

[cerulean monolith]

Imagine I’m wearing Leather Armor with 10 DEX (so AC 11). I cast Barkskin on myself, and since my AC is below 17, it increases to 17. Then I equip a shield, and my AC calculation increases to 13, but that’s still lower than 17, so Barkskin still takes effect.

But then, if I’m wearing Chain Mail instead (AC 16), and I cast Barkskin, it applies. But if I equip a shield, my AC calculation becomes 18, and Barkskin stops having an effect.

[fossil hollow]

thats the risky gamble i mentioned yeah

[warm shore]

I used to be huge on maxing my ac when I was just stating out but I feel like I’m at the point where I realized like

A healthy amount of AC is well and good, but the best defense is just killing enemies before they hit you

[fossil hollow]

yeap

[humble cairn]

And then you can't forget about saving throws, either.

[bold grotto]

In the recent state of the game video one of the D&D people mentioned a feedback channel on discord - does anyone here know what he was referring to or where that is?

[mortal tinsel]

#ddb-feedback ?

[vestal crow]

can clerics cast spells as rituals is 5.5e ?

[cyan narwhal]

A quick googling says yes

[feral fulcrum]

I don't see it in their class block, so don't think so.

If they lack a feature that says they can do Rituals, then they can't do Rituals.

Which is weird, as they had it in 2014

[cyan narwhal]

That's what confuses me too

[marble lion]

I thought 5.5 was 24

[feral fulcrum]

It is.

2024, 5.5, DND 5E Boogaloo, all the same thing.

Blame WOTC for being crap at keeping the naming consistent and screwing up the initial marketing with OneDND

[marble lion]

Then why did you just say 24 had clerics ritualcast but 5.5 doesnt

[feral fulcrum]

Because I fat fingered the 2 instead of the 1 :V

[marble lion]

Alright typo nvm

I always thought anyone could do ritual casting if the spell allowed it

[feral fulcrum]

Nope, you need explicit features for it

It's why things like Pact of the Tome go out of their way of saying it gives you the ability to do Rituals. And why it's in various Features.

[tame forge]

Not by rules as written. Though a significant amount of DM's allow anyone to cast ritual spells.

[marble lion]

I was one of them

Now im not sure

I think any full caster should have ritual casting probably

Wizard cleric druid warlock for sure
Maybe not sorcerer
But maybe paladin

[severe rampart]

what about Bards

[tame forge]

Bards can do anything

[marble lion]

Ill put that in the maybe not basket

[tame forge]

They can already by rules as written and as a full caster. Lmao

[marble lion]

Are you saying all full casters can?

[tame forge]

Pretty sure yeah.

[marble lion]

Cleric apparently cant

Thats how this started i believe

[feral fulcrum]

Clerics can't in 2024, they could in 2014.

[marble lion]

Just saying who i think rituals fit best, nothing more

[tame forge]

Wizard, cleric, druid, bards, and artificers can.

[marble lion]

Warlocks?

[feral fulcrum]

They apperently yoinked Ritual casting from most

[marble lion]

Id take it from bard and arti

[feral fulcrum]

Pact of the Tome still provides Rituals for Warlocks I'm fairly sure.

[marble lion]

Add it to cleric and warlock

[tame forge]

Cleric is on the list. Warlock can with a pact, as can rangers with a subclass

Bard should absolutely be able to do ritual spells in any world tho

You are crazy.

[severe rampart]

All bards have to do a special dance for 10 minutes in order to cast a ritual spell without expending a spell slot, yes

[marble lion]

Maybe but i dont think it fits most bards

[feral fulcrum]

Huh, actually, 2024 Pact of the Tome doesn't mention giving you the ability to Cast Rituals, and it's not in Warlock either. Did WOTC just forget to add Ritual casting to classes that were not Wizard? Because Wizard's still have an explicit feature that lets them use Rituals, so it can't be a general rule...

[marble lion]

Is there maybe more to the wizard feature

Google says everyone can cast rituals

Wizards special thing seems to be that they can cast any ritual not prepared too

[feral fulcrum]

Hrmmm...probably a general rule that I can't find. But I know for a fact that you needed a specific feat in 2014.

[marble lion]

Google says that too

[feral fulcrum]

That was a thing in 2014 as well.

[marble lion]

It seems like they just changed

[tawdry sentinel]

Everyone can ritual cast in 2024 pretty sure.

The "you have to have the ritual caster feature" was removed from the ritual casting rule itself. Which is why the classes won't mention it in their section.

Except wizard, who can ritual cast any spell in their book and doesn't need it prepared. Which is why they get a special mention because there's is the exception rather than a general rule.

And pact of the tome won't mention they can ritual cast the rituals the warlock learns from the feature, because they can already do so.

[tribal dirge]

Can I ask a question to players really quick as a dm?

How would you react knowing your love interest is cursed with turning into a werebear and can't communicate with you in this form everytime they aren't touching you, but everytime they physically touch you they turn human but you realize that both of their eyes are blind, cursed with no being able to look at your face in their true form?

[reef copper]

Depends too much on character but i guess i would be fine with it above game. Although i would be interested in how that came to be

[tribal dirge]

Hehehehe homebrew campaign go brr. XD

[reef copper]

I love making homemade settings and content too :3

[tribal dirge]

In our last session he stopped as werebear by grabbing it around the neck to stop it but it turned into her and he realized it not looking at her face yet just her body and started crying tears of joy knowing he found her finally but I ended the session on that.

I can't make it that easy for him to fully "have her" again as she was before.

[reef copper]

Does this mean they become aggressive as a werebear?

[tribal dirge]

They become almost like the mom from Brave. Where they are a bear but they dont know how to live as a "bear" at all. Discombobulated, their vision is strange, and shes scared that if she touches anyone she will hurt them.

[reef copper]

Bears are quite strong indeed

[tribal dirge]

I'm trying to come up with ideas for next session on sunday and my brain is just static

I wanna do a classic fairy ball or gala

But thats all ive got so far.

[reef copper]

A fey ball? Oh things might turn wild, chaotic and intimate fast 😅

[tribal dirge]

Mhmm thats the point XD

I need another creative mind to bounce ideas off of lol

Wanna be that creative mind? XD I need help

[remote wadi]

I'm listening

[tribal dirge]

Another creative mind! hallelujah!

[reef copper]

Could be although need to get to my lunch rest first. Also including players in pre game information can be nice too

[tribal dirge]

ok can i make a group dm wiht you two?

So theres no slow down?

[idle oar]

That's what these discussion channels are for

And you get everyone else who wants to participate's help as well

[tribal dirge]

Truuuuu

Ok I'll try to write as much as I can.

Players: Argus Nephys: A Human Blood Hunter: He can see spirits and is basically holding a ferrymans journal that acts like the marauders map from harry potter but for souls. Everytime he wants to utilize the book he risks the "ferryman" being able to track him down and bring him to the last of uncertainty I called Nocturne or the soul realm. His goal is to find out who's journal this is and why he can see lost souls.

Lee: A human fighter knight who was a guard for a prince who has gone missing mysteriously and he doesn't know where he has gone. (His love interest above table is the werebear). His goal is going to figure out how to break her curse and find his childhood friend.

Rais: A changeling bard who has found out his adoptive mother Tess Rosenwald has been working for a cult after abandoning him as a teenager. He has become a therapist and learned to play the bagpipes and has basically become the comedic relief of the party but deep down hes trying to figure out why he was abandoned and where his mother went and who his true parents are.

[humble cairn]

#dm-discussion is probably the more useful channel for this.

[humble cairn]

Are these all NPCs?

[tribal dirge]

(I want players advice tho...)

No these are players.

And the mod said it was ok....and this is where i can write this stuff...

[idle oar]

Yeah it's okay-ish here for now

[humble cairn]

Ahh okay sure, so what's the situation so far?

[tribal dirge]

One more character: Kaidos, a tiefling monk who is basically the slave of the god of death who has been given the orders to kill the gods other half life and is keeping it a secret from the rest of the party but has also found a member of his lost family, Raya, his little sister. His goal has shifts from doing his gods duty to protecting the family he never had before.

So last session, they couldnt stop a forest fire that ended up burning the entirety of a small farm town down and have had to run away with 3 npcs, Raya, Seraphine (a vixen Tiefling who is Kaido's love interest) and woman named V who mysteriously glowed white with magic then passed out (they took her with them). The town accused Seraphine of witchcraft since she was the only "herbalist and magic user" in the town and blamed her for starting the fire. They were banished from returning to whatever was gonna be left of that town. They are now in the forest on the run from the townsfolk who were raising pitchforks at them and telling them to get. They made it safely to an open clearing in the forest and they were able to talk and take a long rest. But the next morning Rais took out a message moonstone mirror (homebrewed) and used it only as a mirror since it only works at night to change himself into his mother and to say "hi" to his mom in longing. In the reflection of the mirror, he notices a bear and stands up and screams and whole group came running. Luckily Lee ran up first and stopped the charging bear with his fists but then it turned into his love interest Belle, his childhood friend from knights training who has been cursed as I said up above before. And thats where we left off.

[hidden spindle]

I would cast Lesser Restoration

[tribal dirge]

Its not a "disease or lycanthropy" like normal werebears. Its a curse.

[hidden spindle]

For the blindness

Remove curse for werebeast

Or find an Ersatz Eye

[tribal dirge]

Oooo smart but is my player and only spell caster Rais that smart

[hidden spindle]

Its what I'd do and I usually don't mess with Curses because Remove Curse is just silly

[humble cairn]

And you want to do a Fae Ball of some sort? Since they are officially banished, how would you feel about them accidentally creating just the right conditions to stumble into an Unseelie revel? A Ball for the Banished, perhaps? How conversant are you with stories of the Fae?

[tribal dirge]

A bit. 😄 This is also hella homebrewed so. I'm honestly down for any suggestions

I want them to have opportunities for romance and also a lot of rp versus fighting which they did a lot last session. They deserve a break.

[humble cairn]

So let's say the Unseelie Court is throwing a ball and they send out a mystic invitation: "All ye banished, all ye outcast, all ye reviled and revolting .. BE YE WELCOME! The Monster's Ball will be a wondrous bash! It will be a graveyard smash!"

Basically the Fae who are not the pretty ones want a ooky spooky party.

[tribal dirge]

Ooooo ok!

[still plover]

I like this idea.

[humble cairn]

And because the party fits the bill (they are banished) and they accidentally walk through a mushroom ring, they end up transported to the party.

[tribal dirge]

OOOOOOOOooo! i forgot about mushroom rings!

[humble cairn]

I would say it's not meant to be an all out fight, but the Unseelie will not hesitate to do a little drunken brawling.

And they will love if the characters lean into their gross, disgusting, spooky side.

[tribal dirge]

Aaaah. whats the more "pretty sparkly fancy" route of doing a fey ball?

The other side of the coin I suppose.

[humble cairn]

Well for that, you would want the Seelie, and I don't quite see a direct plot connection to that from where you are.

[still plover]

Feasting, revelry, entertainments and of course, the politics. Always the politics with the fae.

[humble cairn]

Oh of course, it's just with the Unseelie it's not pretty politics. In fact it's way more like edgy goth teen politics.

If the edgy teen goths had true magical power.

All about the Hags and the pookas and the nucklavees.

[tribal dirge]

I saw someone say to use homebrewed fairies and fey that are basically start as plant sprouts and have it be like tribes of fey based off plants who have come together to flaunt their tribes and also discuss politics. Some pretty some not.

[humble cairn]

Red caps and darklings.

Hags will definitely be the nasty queens of the ball and they will all be trying outdo each other in how nasty, gross, and ugly they can be.

[still plover]

The sparkly side, well.

The Unseelie might do it like a house party. It's a bit wild, might be a bit rough, lots of bring your own bottle and share.

The Seelie I feel would be more stately and formal. Folk are announced, everyone's trying to be polite, the hosts are trying to dazzle everyone with how awesome their event is.

[humble cairn]

The Seelie are polite, pretty, and vicious. The Unseelie are crude, ugly, and vicious.

There is an etiquette, either way.

[tribal dirge]

(I kinda want the party to get shrunk to fairy size) And I think I wanna do like a homebrew mix of the two. Like both sides are there. And they disagree. So you have like fey that are cute like fruits and flowers, but then you have the ugly like flytraps, poison ivy, etc.

You have chaos on one side, very formal polite, but then on the other side of the ball you have the chaos and rudeness and crudeness.

[still plover]

Have a couple of cliques on each side.

[tribal dirge]

Maybe two fey like romeo and juliet who both actually like each other but who's tribes are so different moral wise they can't show they like each other in front of everyone else.

Maybe she sees beyond his ugliness and grossness and sees his true self.

[humble cairn]

Ok, one important question. What is the purpose of thise encounter? What is it you want the party to take away from it, is it furthering the main plot or is it to get a deep impression of this aspect of your setting?

And what kind of player group do you have? Are they more interested in getting stuff and powers or will they delve deep into your lore?

[tribal dirge]

It's going to further mainly them getting to know the npcs better (cause theyve been on the run for a bit and haven't had a chance to know their npcs personalities in a formal setting, show that its theres more to this world that just the mortal realm and also magical beings among them they cannot see, and also world building. They are also huuuge into the world environment and the lore.

This I'm hoping will allow them to realize the connections their main npcs all have to one another.

[humble cairn]

Ok so this isn't a one time thing, never to be seen again. You intend for these Fae factions to be a presence in future plot.

[humble cairn]

Do all their important NPCs have ties to the Fae?

[tribal dirge]

Mhmm oh yea for sure. The main "problem" in the campaign is creatures from essentially "hell" are breaking loose from the underworld after a gemstone called the Merillion Crystal which was taken by the player Kaidos in his backstory which keeps the world in balance was stolen, which has caused a strange magic like a toxin or virus to spread throughout the world. Its affecting the fey, the mortals, etc. Its effecting the whole environment. Its causing plants to grow strangly in some places, weird earthquakes to happen randomly, people going missing, a lot.

[grizzled lance]

Orb I’m back with another question

If i somehow got an owlbear to be under the effects of Magic aura and then I cast awaken on it would I be able to have an owlbear as a friend

[humble cairn]

Do you want this encounter to be a high tension, high stakes encounter where they will have to make dangerous decisions and risk possible death or loss of character? Or is it meant to be a slower one where they can take some time to relax and get to roleplay with one another?

[tribal dirge]

Definitely slower but by next next session I want it to end on a cliffhanger where something happens that will lead into a more intense session next weekend depending on how they play it.

I do want this one to be more rp heavy though for sure.

Our sessions are 7.5 hours long on sundays from 1pm-8:30pm with a half hour break in between from 5-5:30pm.

But I also dm super slow and describe things really thoroughly to create suspense and let them talk a lot about things. They are very in detail sessions rp wise.

[stray sage]

How can you flavor studded leather armor as something not metallic for a druid to use?

[fair summit]

Bone instead of metal, or pieces of carapace from an animal

[humble cairn]

Okay so maybe .. have some NPCs present at the Ball. Have them wearing clothes that the characters recognize are from centuries ago. They are mortals who have also accidentally ended up there for a long time because time passes strangely in Faerie. Have them pull the group aside and show them how to take breaks. The Fae nobles will have dances that last for months and mortals literally die of starvation while compelled to dance because the Fae just don't understand how time passes for mortals, but this old timer will show them how to make camp under the tables where the inevitable pull of the narrative is weaker.

[humble cairn]

You can ignore the metal restriction, honestly.

[tribal dirge]

I DIDNT THINK OF THAT! Omg thats brilliant!

[humble cairn]

So you can make the plot slow down a lot because of time shenanigans, but you can eventually introduce that corrupting element you talked about. the oldtimer might notice something and say, "That's different .. the Fae don't do different!"

[tribal dirge]

What type of time shenanigans?

[shell mason]

Yo

[humble cairn]

Time passing differently in Faerie.

[tribal dirge]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH

they have an npc that is currently like 8, Raya Kaido's sister.

Can i leave her behind? and when they get back she has aged to like a teenager?

[grizzled lance]

I wish more pc races had superior dark vision

[knotty pasture]

Team Underdark let's go

[grizzled lance]

Hell yeah

[humble cairn]

Any sort of time shenanigan is possible in Faerie. This will have consequences, of course.

[tribal dirge]

Mhmm mhmm. Ugh but this will also allow the "banishment" to kinda go into history so they could explore again.

What would be a good thing to be thats "different" as you were saying with the old timer?

Maybe they also need to find a way out of the fey realm.

[humble cairn]

The hellish corruption.

But you'd need to tell me more about that for me to get a good idea of how to do it.

[grizzled lance]

I still want more celestial based races besides just aasmair

[shell mason]

Man, finding campaigns to join can be hard

[grizzled lance]

Is it?

[rough basalt]

Ye

[tribal dirge]

@humble cairn So basically the main backstory is there were two dragons, Xeneth and Zyos, the dragons of creation who made vestyria. One day Xeneth saw that the world was too peaceful (like eden) and wanted to create death. She did so behind Zyos back even though Zyos thought death was a bad idea. When she did, Zyos got enraged and attacked Xeneth, which caused a crack in the world from two creators fighting to appear. That started up a war called the Stellaris was where the mortals in world of Vestyria had to fight against creatures that were leaking from this crack. kingdoms fell, and they were able to push them back behind a wall thats now guarded. They called that land grimgar, or the land of the grimspawn. Zyos lost and as punishement Xeneth turned him from a dragon to a large bird and banished him to the land of the dead or "Morte" where he has been chained and banished too ever since. In Kaido's backstory, he found a strange stone and removed it and it was Xeneths way of keeping the crack in grimgar from spreading anymore than it already was. Cause hes removed it, Xeneth has noticed and is trying to track it down. Kaido's was about to die in his backstory when he was dragged through a portal to Morte where he met zyos and basically was told in order to stop pain and suffering he had to kill Xeneth. He trained in Morte for months before being spat back out with a goal in mind and now is with his party. He hasn't told anyone yet.

[grizzled lance]

Holy

[tribal dirge]

Yea my campaign im running is dark as hell XD

[shell mason]

Anyone got tips on how to find campaigns to join?

[tribal dirge]

Go to #find-a-game. It might help.

[undone rain]

Damn half orcs are kinda cool ngl

[knotty pasture]

The punch really hard guy, nice

[remote marsh]

Hi guys!! I just joined. How goes fellow adventurers and story weavers?

[humble cairn]

And the corruption is grimspawn?

[undone rain]

Hmm perhaps i should play one for my war domain cleric

[knotty pasture]

Go for it

Unlike Half Elves to Elves, Half Orcs and Orcs are more distinct imo

[rough basalt]

Looking forward to next week of my dnd games, tho nervous about them

[tribal dirge]

mhmm. I'm reskinning things like hellhounds etc.

[undone rain]

Ik that usually dosent make sense for a cleric of ilmater, their usually life domains but that heavy armor proficency and weapon proficiency and defense spells are so sweet

[humble cairn]

The grim are what .. forces of anti-creation?

[tribal dirge]

Also, I'm homebrewing anomalies. Like a harpy mixed with a centaur etc.

[tribal dirge]

Exactly. They are also weird experiement creatures.

[undone rain]

They really are

[tribal dirge]

Tieflings in my world are half grimspawn half mortal of whatever kingdoms were in that area before.

[humble cairn]

And is the Grim corruption currently making spawn, or is it corrupting existing things?

[remote marsh]

How do you personally work out the stats on creatures like these? I've wondered how its done for some time

[knotty pasture]

Add them together and divide them by 2 /s

[tribal dirge]

I mash creatures up and have fun with it in foundry.

[tribal dirge]

It is yes.

[humble cairn]

That was an "A or B" question.

[tribal dirge]

Oh sorry, both.

There are like pureblood grim spawn but theres a demigod called Ketherax which is essentially a quezacolotl ive reskinned as a loki demigod who likes to play with mortals and create anomolies that work for Morte. Not truly dead, not truly alive.

That works for Zyos.

[undone rain]

I could make mine be an outcast from an orc tribe, not really fitting and all. Being cast out later one but was later found by knights of ilmater who took him in instead

[remote marsh]

So is.. Xeneth... Creating the grim and spawning then via the cracks.. if by either intentional actions or subconscious one's more like leaking dreams? Or even better.. o.o... leaking nightmares of Zyos?... Or is the tear in reality itself manifesting these things?

[knotty pasture]

Yeah Half Orcs do have that issue, they simply just don't fit in either community

[humble cairn]

Hm ... okay so how abouuuuttt ... sometime during the party a red cap or a boggle from the Unseelie side decides to spike the punch with something, just for funsies. Something that has happened before, but this time it's Grim that some scout of their found pooling somewhere. The first to drink it are some goblins or something, and they start just killing indiscriminately. Rude, which the Seelie detest but expect from Unseelie, but they do is mindlessly and dispassionately, which is not how the Unseelie brawl. And then a little while later a young Seelie noble also succumbs and starts to mindlessly kill, which is when the Seelie start to freak out.

[knotty pasture]

More so than Half Elves on that front

[undone rain]

Excellent. Well not for him but for me, lore tiiiime

[knotty pasture]

Its open ended too cuz you can just justify your Half Orc being more accustomed to human culture which doesn't have a stereotype

[tribal dirge]

@humble cairn The tear in and of itself if manifesting these things. Xeneth created something she didn't have full understanding of. Now that Zyo's is forced to be "in charge" by being chained down there of it, he has decided to use his brother Ketherax to do the dirty work and make creations. Zyos hates death and pain, he just has been forced to watch it for ethernity. Oh I should also mention now that the crystal has been taken the hold on Zyos in Morte has gotten a little bit looser cause the balance has been shifted.

[knotty pasture]

Orc culture is stereotypically warlike in comparison

[remote marsh]

Imma roll for investigation

[tribal dirge]

The DC is 30 with disadvantage.

[humble cairn]

This tells me a lot of high level stuff, but not a lot on how this stuff manifests in play, and the kind of feelings you want to evoke with these manifestations.

[undone rain]

Well this is perfect then. And the war domain would make sense because maybe he trained a bit when he was younger before being cast out

WOTC thank you for making half orcs

[humble cairn]

Like is Grim unsettling body horror with a touch of cosmic horror, like Cthulu stuff?

[remote marsh]

I got a 14 🙁

[humble cairn]

I've always found them to be a bit uncomfortable. Like why is that specific combination singled out to be a special different stat and why specifically write their history to be always children of violence?

[tribal dirge]

Fear, confusion, disgust of weird abominations, as for how it manifests, I see it as kind of like its soaking into the ground, creatures are also finding secret ways to get beyond the wall without being noticed, and as ketherax creates the abominations their numbers grow , and the original grim spawn are creatures that originally appeared in Morte when Xeneth created it are starting to feel the power shift so a brighter darker power has been seen from the wall surging from grimgar that hasn't happened before. So theres two different types of creatures at play.

[tribal dirge]

You notice a small rose on the ground, its petals a crimson red, but as you turn it upside down, you notice the pigments on the bottom shift from bright red to almost a dark, almost decaying green, as the stem itself has a small grin with too many teeth that are rotting.

[remote marsh]

Hmmm.. I roll for medicine as I consider eating it.

I rolled 12

(Using AI /roll disabled in a d&d server? Lol)

[tribal dirge]

It doesn't look inedible, but the teeth defintely throw you off a bit. Strangely it smells almost like your childhood home as you bring it closer to your nose.

[marble lion]

thats because this chat isnt for roleplaying hint

[tribal dirge]

It is indeed. This campaign is definitely body horror cthulu stuff.

[remote marsh]

Yup. I eat it

[tribal dirge]

Is there a funsie rp chat in thsi server anywhere?

[remote marsh]

I hope so

[marble lion]

no

[tribal dirge]

damn here dm me Mystic XD

[remote marsh]

Hell yeah. Anyone else want in on whatevers about to happen?

[tribal dirge]

@humble cairn We are all in our mid 20s and in our session 0 I asked them if they are comfortable with it i will dm anything as long as it is not gonna get me flagged by the government. They all said sure shockingly. So its a very no boundaries body horror gore heavy romance campaign.

Hahaha I dont have work till 5 pm tomorrow so I'm chillin @remote marsh if you wanna help me practice dm rping over text

[humble cairn]

Ok so the Fae nobles transforming into fleshy horrors is definitely going to be different for them.

[tribal dirge]

Mhmm ooooh yea lots of descriptions

[humble cairn]

I'm currently playing No Rest for the Wicked, and there's a lot of body horror monsters.

[swift wren]

Make a good primer so they know what they are getting into :D

[tribal dirge]

Oh we are already 8 sessions in. They know XD

8 session each 7.5 hrs long.

[swift wren]

tell me none of you is 30+ without telling me none of you is 30+ xD

[tribal dirge]

Ive had moments where theyve asked me, "Mong, are you ok? Mentally?" and Ive had to look at the camera, shrug, and say "oh yea im fine XD"

We take a 1/2 hr break in between and also 2 small 15 min breaks too.

This is also over discord using foundry.

[swift wren]

Beautiful; I gmed quite a lot of more tour-de-force games in and outside of dnd and making good primers for them is so important. Currently gming a game that has "mythos horror gore hyperviolence" on the very front, but it is such fun slapstick hyperviolence that it really much feels so lighthearted due to all characters being "Magical Girls" / Sailor Moon characters

[tall forge]

I dunno if i could go back to the 7-8 hour sessions

But also we didnt take breaks so, that didnt help

[tribal dirge]

Yeaaa our breaks and also being long distance def helps. Cause were all comfy cozy at home. with snackies and stuffs.

I sent them all recently though posters of the campaign and also their own custom dice as a gift with some lore related puzzles they cant tell each other about in a box.

[tall forge]

True, i do online only at this point bc of the long distance

Its the only way we can do weekly

[humble cairn]

I moved to the other side of the globe, so I have to do online to play with my group.

[swift wren]

Yeah, one of my current groups is Murica - Germany - Thailand, all timezones there are :,D

[humble cairn]

Hey, I'm in Thailand!

[tribal dirge]

But yea looove ur input @humble cairn

Hmmm... how gorey do I want to go.

[humble cairn]

Glad I can help!

[swift wren]

Yes

[humble cairn]

Grim is anti-creation, so I would take the opportunity to make the creatures it corrupts go against their grain. Goblins are squirrely little rats that take pot shots at you and then hide. Make them do something big and brutish, like one of their arms swells up into a giant swollen fist, one that would fit an ogre's body, but looks grossly misshapen on them. Then have them take big lumbering smashes.

The Seelie noble ... have them vomit. Something that the Seelie are probably incapable of doing as part of their nature. Then have them continue to vomit, blabbering apologies as innards and tentacles and torrents of acidic bile begins erupts from them.

"I'm sorry I ... I don't know blaarrgh .. what .. what's going blargh on!?"

Mechanically they will be an enemy on the field, making acid attacks, but in character they will be acting horrified and apologetic.

[swift wren]

Body Horror-ish
||We currently fight Girla Gora, who turns the intestines of people into strings for their harp to change reality, and during the last fight there was so much blood that people started sliding on their knees like soccer players after a goal to move around, and one character got their own tarot deck to determine the magical damage they do to others - including, but not limited to, being teleported next ot the sun for a few seconds, three dozen ferrets with forks, economical ruin or turning them inside out. It was beautiful.||

[tribal dirge]

Omg...that sounds crazy XD

[knotty vine]

inside out spell is back?!

[hollow stone]

economic ruin is probably the funniest consequence tbh

[silk hare]

sure, but yk: death?

[hollow stone]

"instead of dealing damage, roll 1d6. global inflation instantly increases by the rolled number."

[silk hare]

• body horror doesnt really dabble in economic ruin all that much (at least in my books lol)

[rugged hawk]

Okay, but if you're not animating someone's skeleton while they're still alive and trying to kill you, making their skeleton tear off all its meaty bits, are you really even trying to be the best necromancer you could be?

[silk hare]

I mean tbh not like the party will steal everything anyways + its just a lot of work for the dm to make stuff consistent

[silk hare]

and if you are not diong that and grafting animal bones through your targets skin to the skeleton while doing that, are YOU really trying to be the best necromancer you could be?

[swift wren]

We got that too, as "every person on earth suffers 1 damage" - its an all-out, short hyperpop of a campaign that is so over the top with I think just 60ish different damage effects for that one character because fffffffry it

[rugged hawk]

Diabetes is just a CON save every month to not lose 1 Max HP

[swift wren]

We got addition / substraction of a few thousand calories in a tenth of a second as damage; close enough :D

[silk hare]

why 1/10 specifically?

[swift wren]

gonna be real here, i have no clue what would happen on a biological level for most of the stuff, it just sounded pretty gruesome. There is "sparkly rainbow" as damage type and the realization of what happens after death-damage.

[silk hare]

I mean defo instant passing out, probably decent damage to all kinds of organs etc

depending on where we are with the couple thousand xD

[silk hare]

I mean you just chill no? unless its not forgotten realms/ some homebrew setting

[swift wren]

Probably, in game terms its translated into 3d6 - Draw a Tarot Card - Damage against opponents, sometimes with light extra effects like a short stun, a small to larger status effect and similar

[silk hare]

nice

[jovial badger]

what do yall think of throwing a level 6 character i made as the final boss at a party of level 3 characters

[silk hare]

how big is the party? and whats the lvl 6 char like

spellcaster/ melee, feats chosen, Ability scores

• might have to give them some legendary actions/ resistances for them to stand a chance (your character I mean)

[knotty pasture]

Is this level 6 character a Kobold Sorc

[hollow stone]

who would win
45 level 1 char
kobold with a gun

[silk hare]

depends on the gun

flintlock pistol?

the lvl 1 characters imo

[south prawn]

May need to add some smaller minions, action economy could get your guy killed quickly

[hollow stone]

20mm autocannon

[silk hare]

mhh depends on the characters then + 2014 or 2024

[hollow stone]

45 2024 level 1 wizards

[silk hare]

ah wizards? shame

how many can the kobold shoot in a round theoretically?

bc if th answer is anything other than all of them I guess the wizards win, even if only 2 get their magic missile off or sth

also whats the hit modifier of the kobold

(with the gun)

[hollow stone]

i mean i guess it would depend where they're standing cause as i imagine a 20mm autocannon is basically a dragon's breath weapon but it deals Piercing on a DEX fail and Force on a DEX success

[hollow stone]

probably standard DEX since i don't think a kobold even knows what a regular firearm is much less a 20mm autocannon

[silk hare]

ah so a saving trow, I was prepping for blade singing AC boost shenanigans haha

thought it was more a multiattack thing, at least thats what I pictured

where are we positioning the kobold in relation to the wizards?

[hollow stone]

i mean the aircraft rated 20mm autocannon i was thinking of dumps like 4500 rounds per minute iirc

[hollow stone]

like 30 feet away from the nearest wizard

[silk hare]

booooo, 2024 makes this way less fun xD

no fey touched misty step shenanigans, cant take warlock stuff via MI etc

tbh warlocks would have a field day with this, everyone jstu casts armor of agathys or hellish rebuke (or both), kobold dies within the first 4 lol

[fossil shuttle]

My party is fighting an ancient orange dragon with an unknown magic item next session, and we haven't gotten a full rest yet. Are we screwed?

[hollow stone]

i mean all of the wizards are level 1, idk if they'd have that at all

[silk hare]

I mean tbh depending on initiative wizards still win bc magic missile

[silk hare]

in 2014 you could, bc feats were not classified for origin and non origin

e.g. you could take any feat (that you qualified for) if you took variant race, so fey touched would have worked

magic initiate wasnt only like wizard, cleric and druid but also warlocks (so giving access to stuff like EB + armor of agathys

[silk hare]

depends on your party tbh

[hollow stone]

idk what book it's in but my current campaign has a Magic Initiate of every fullcaster (warlocks, bards, druids, clerics, wizards, sorcerers, and artificers)

[silk hare]

ah dang the tiefling spells you dont get until lvl 3, otherwise hellish rebuke would have worked still 🙁

[silk hare]

uhhh thats nice Ig, but yeah it was mostly like that in 2014 (not ALL of them but yeh)

[fossil shuttle]

We have a phantom rogue (me), a kensei monk/hexblade warlock (currently at around half health), a death cleric (took some damage), a shadow sorcerer (already used their 7th level slot), a cleric companion (I don't remember her subclass), and a thief rogue companion. We are level 13.

[hollow stone]

i'm in 2 2014 games right now and one of them has like... every book ever written, some of the things i've discovered are weird

[silk hare]

I mean other than the one spell caster you dont have that many important long rest resources other than health

[silk hare]

oh yeah, all books is a funky thing to do

theres a bunch of "oneshot anything at lvl 1" builds out there with certain books

[jovial badger]

4-5 ppl, hes a path of the beast barbarian (and i buffed his stats a bit)

[silk hare]

oh melee, thats easy then, barely an inconvenience if they know what they are doing

[jovial badger]

mmm unfortunately not

[jovial badger]

woah ryan george references are TIGHT

[fossil shuttle]

The clerics have also used some spell slots. I just don't remember exactly what level.

[silk hare]

oh wasnt even trying to do that but u right lol

[silk hare]

I mean yeah, but for most of your party it doesnt matter really (not saying that increases yuor chances) but u are cooked motly bc u are fighting an ancient dragon, not bc u didnt get a long rest lul

[hollow stone]

i got a Plasmoid Warlock with the spell to deploy a maggot that deals like 1d8 to the target each turn, without rolling to hit, until the person decides to throw it on the ground and smash its head in, and despite no rolls being associated with the maggot, it's quantified in Beyond as an Attack Roll, as indicated by the fact that i tried to take the Spell Sniper feat and its range doubled

the build isn't broken i am just discovering so many bizarre spells

[jovial badger]

if you want the char sheet for my guy i can slide it

[fossil shuttle]

We killed another one (this one's mate), 2 sessions ago, and we only barely made that with no deaths after having a full rest. And that one was only green.

[remote wadi]

tfw you have ideas for cool weapons to make, but can't also be the ones to use them

Sadge

[hollow stone]

oh yea also Pact of The Tome is so different between editions, i have doubled my number of cantrips through that

[worn lagoon]

Warlock gets two cantrips at lv1 so that's not unexpected

[empty thicket]

1 of them is most of the time eldritch blast, its a good tool for him

[worn lagoon]

1 actual cantrip choice

only time i didn't take it on a warlock was when i had built a bowlock

[empty thicket]

True strike if you have pact of the blade
Blade ward if you want to survive until next levels
Mage hand is a really good utility or Presti

[hollow stone]

we are level 6 and if i were playing a different build i would only have 3 cantrips, why does the class with the least spell slots also have the least cantrips 😭

now i have like 7 cantrips, none of them are Eldritch Blast, and one of them is a silent, untelegraphed, and completely invisible Mage Hand

[woven flint]

Good Morning/Afternoon/Whatever time it is for you, friends 🧐

[hollow stone]

hi tokii!!!!! you ever seen a Warlock cast Sorcerous Burst?

[woven flint]

My Warlock does, a lot
He's a Celestial Warlock

He's partially Tome Warlock, but mostly blade

[hollow stone]

i'm playing a warlock with a subclass that the DM made from a half joke (i was just gonna have it be flavor)i made in passing lol, i said "The Great Mother Ooze That Lives On The Moon" once and they fully doubled down and now the moon has oceans on it and those oceans are sentient

[woven flint]

And Celestial Warlocks can add their Charisma to the Damage of Fire or Radiant spells, I use Sorcererous burst specifically for a fire cantrip

[empty thicket]

Im thinking of getting Tome too for the Ritual spells and some extra cantrips, but i dont want to overload myself of stuff

So i took Blade, for now im going to work with that

[hollow stone]

ironically i'm using it specifically because it is one of surprisingly few spells that deals Acid damage, the character is a Plasmoid and we are going very heavy into the slime theming

it's a 2014 game so i can't run Tome and Blade at once, i had to choose >~<

[fossil shuttle]

The warlock casting Vicious Mockery, Sorcerous burst, and Druidcraft in front of the bard, sorcerer, and druid

[undone rain]

Damn dnd communitys goin wild on youtube

[woven flint]

It's glorious, truly

Looking over at them and mouthing "you're not special" lmao

[undone rain]

Also man there are alot of tribes races have in dnd

[hollow stone]

does anybody else find it weird how many spells warlocks get to prepare compared to their actual spell slots?

[humble cairn]

In certain settings, sure. They are not inherent to the species in all of the vast multiverse.

[humble cairn]

No?

[hollow stone]

i have like, 2 spell slots but like 20 different things i could do with either one

[cerulean monolith]

Because you get your slots back on a short rest.

[fossil shuttle]

I really wish WoTC had gone through with that UA ruling that let warlocks swap out one spell on a long rest

[humble cairn]

Options are good.

[hollow stone]

sure, it's just a bit overwhelming to try and measure the cost effectiveness of using one of my two spell slots

maybe i'm too much of a spell slot dragon but i don't like spending things if i think they'll be useful later

[merry pine]

Warlock should just use their spell slots without worrying since it comes back so easy

having a short rest and not restoring a bunch of cast slots is also a waste

[humble cairn]

Ooh yeah that's a surefire way to be less powerful as a Warlock.

I generally try to use one spell slot per combat.

[hollow stone]

i mean they do replenish on a short rest but weirdly enough i don't find a lot of "okei take a short rest" chances

[humble cairn]

I have found Short Rests to be critically under used in many campaigns.

Often if the DM decides you have time for a breather, that usually means you have time for a Long Rest.

[cerulean monolith]

Warlocks actually have more effective spell slots than full casters until 3rd level and don’t fall behind until 4th. And that’s only assuming the standard adventuring day 2/day; if your party is short resting every chance they get, you have much more.

[hollow stone]

i'm definitely liking the availability of my combat solutions but i feel like that's a symptom of the particular DM's choice in books, which is all of them at once, it seems

[umbral girder]

Plus you can by pass spell slots with the right invocations too

[fossil shuttle]

For the campaign I'm in, we travel by cart most of the time, so if we don't have an encounter during a section of the day, it's counted as a short rest cause no one's doing anything.

[humble cairn]

My advice for warlocks is the same as it would be for a full caster:
Full casters have access to the biggest toolkit in the game, which makes spell choice probably one of the more complex character building exercises in D&D. My guidelines are usually this:

• At least one combat Cantrip
• At least one Utility (non-combat solution) Cantrip
• A handful of powerful Concentration spells targeting more than one enemy Saving Throw
• At least one powerful Concentration Support spell
• A handful of useful non-Concentration spells that you can apply after you get your Concentration spell up (An Attack spell and various defense spells like Shield and Absorb Elements)
  This way you have an answer to a lot of situations you may face. This may not all be possible at level 1, but after a few levels a full caster wants to be a Swiss Army Knife of spells to solve any problem the group may face.

[hollow stone]

oh yea i'm running Eldritch Sight and Armor of Shadows lol

[cerulean monolith]

You can actually short rest while walking, iirc

[humble cairn]

Yes, I run it that way as well, but some people are strict about the party having to be at rest someplace. I just say if there hasn't been combat in an hour, the party just automatically benefits from a short rest.

[umbral girder]

Walking counts as strenuous activity. That’s why it can give exhaustion. So no resting.

[hollow stone]

i mean i've seen 3 different philosophies used for short rests, that being "none at all, we do tons of long rests", "if you murder this guy you can get a short rest because they didn't call backup", and "short rest whenever you have a meal because those are basically the same thing"

[humble cairn]

My philosophy: If combat hasn't happened in an hour, you automatically benefit from a SR.

[umbral girder]

My dungeon crawl rule as a DM is “you get 2 short rests before I try to mess with you. So don’t spam it.”

[hollow stone]

one of my campaigns is actually in a dungeon crawl right now, we killed the third of seven bosses, and we didn't even get a rest, we got a full level up which, with that DM at least, replenishes all resources

that's the DM who hasn't explicitly said they don't do short rests but i have never seen them do a short rest

[humble cairn]

They said they don't do Short Rests. And they haven't.

That seems logical.

[hollow stone]

they haven't explicitly said that, i just haven't seen them do a short rest this entire time

[humble cairn]

Oh "hasn't" sorry, I misread that.

Maybe you should explicitly ask.

[hollow stone]

eh, in that campaign i'm running a Rogue anyway, i don't actually need short rests, or rests at all other than to stave off Exhaustion

i just find it a little funny

[umbral girder]

Well short rests don’t prevent exhaustion

Unless a level 10 ranger

[fossil shuttle]

Speak for yourself, I'm running a Phantom Rogue, and I have 2 different abilities that need a long rest to recharge, plus my robe of stars

[hollow stone]

oh wait nvm i'm running a Hill Goliath so i have some Long Rest charges

[umbral girder]

Are Halflings the only PHB race (2024) that don’t have a racial feature come back on a rest?

[hollow stone]

i'm running a Thief, originally i was gonna do a STRogue build and then i slowly drifted away from that, so now i have a 7'2" Goliath that can ascend walls at 5 feet per second

[umbral girder]

Humans: Inspiration
Elves and Tieflings: Spells
Dwarves:Tremor Sense
Goliath: Giant powers
Dragonborn: Breath and Wings
Gnomes:Spells and robots

Aasamir: Super Saiyan modes

[fossil shuttle]

Who needs to climb when you can fly? (says the Aarakocra player)

[umbral girder]

Orc: Their Dashes and Relentless

[hollow stone]

see that DM said "i'm not banning anything, but you should know, i hate birds."

[worn lagoon]

Massive red flag

[hollow stone]

i am 80% sure if somebody played a bird creature, they would have been eaten

[burnt valley]

Humans are for the extra origin feat (Custom Lineage 2024 currently is the best because its just Human with Darkvision)

[worn lagoon]

Get a cool dm like me who hates specifically champion fighter and not much else

[burnt valley]

What makes u hate em?

[frozen comet]

What is a Goliath

[severe rampart]

Champion is so underwhelming

[worn lagoon]

Do you know the common joke about Molise?

[hollow stone]

i mean yea but they're the first DM i had so i'll probably stick through this campaign

[burnt valley]

I agree, its one of the more mundane martial subclasses

[worn lagoon]

It's the Molise of subclasses. I don't think it exists.

[fossil shuttle]

Giant kin

[burnt valley]

Nah not rlly

[hollow stone]

one of the 80 billion "at some point one of your ancestors was a fantastical creature", particularly Giants

[worn lagoon]

More serious answer, there's nothing in there and it pisses me off

[burnt valley]

I see

[fossil shuttle]

I'm a fan of flavoring my characters to be more than just the race description. My warlock character is an infernal tiefling whose fiend patron is his dad, so he's directly tied to the hells and serves as an errand boy for whatever archdevil needs him at the moment.

[hollow stone]

iirc the only PHB races that aren't this are Humans and Dwarves

[umbral girder]

What about Halflings and Gnomes?

Or Orcs?

[hollow stone]

oh yea almost always my characters are something that their species largely isn't, like the Goliath Rogue i've got is someone trying to defect from the mafia without the aid of federal witness protection

[hollow stone]

oh, those are all valid, actually

i was just thinking like Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi, Goliaths, Elves, and probably more than just those things

[umbral girder]

Genasi aren’t PHB

[hollow stone]

really? i thought they were

[atomic kayak]

Even outside of the PHB this really isn't particularly the case

[hollow stone]

is there an Abberant descendant of some kind?

[atomic kayak]

Obviously there are some but most are their own things

Elves are also. Not that.

[umbral girder]

Nope. It’s the 5 LotR races.
Gnomes
Goliath and Dragonborn
Tiefling and Aasamir

Genasi did not make PHB.

[hollow stone]

i thought they descended from fey creatures?

[atomic kayak]

They just descend from slightly more fey elves

[hollow stone]

oh i see

[atomic kayak]

Its elves all the way down for them

[umbral girder]

Yeah those Fey were also elves

The Eladrin

[fossil shuttle]

I particularly like humans, cause they just exist, no gods or planar ancestors involved

[umbral girder]

Maybe*

[atomic kayak]

The LotR stuff are all their own things, as are gnomes, and dragonborn. And plenty of others outside the PHB

[atomic kayak]

Definitely not the case in at least a few settings

[umbral girder]

There are signs of them maybe being a Sigil race (or could have come through Sigil)

[atomic kayak]

But also notably, plenty of other species are also that in many settings

[umbral girder]

Giff moment

[hollow stone]

eh, i feel like once you put them in the context of everything else it kinda feels thrown in, right? like "look at all of these creatures that come from something! and then there's whatever you are that's not really as cool but you get a free feat"

[umbral girder]

Plasmoids just spawned in the world

[hollow stone]

i thought they were just another kind of slime, a kind of slime that had more nervous mass and developed the capacity for proper intelligence that makes them people, but at the cost of not being as big as their ancestors?

[umbral girder]

Nah Limbo just accidentally spat them out

[hollow stone]

oh that's funny

[umbral girder]

Limbo is the realm of “sometimes things happen” realm. Chaotic Neutral in the Planescape

[marble lion]

Life

[hollow stone]

one campaign i'm in, we invented an extremely vague origin for the oozekind, in which there is a Great Mother Ooze that lives on the moon and is also the moon's ocean

[valid geyser]

i dont think plasmoids have a specified origin in any canon stuff

[hollow stone]

that's the patron deity of my warlock thst worships it, which is a plasmoid

[valid geyser]

just kind of a byproduct of spelljammer being three REALLY tiny books with a lot of filler like ship maps and statblocks

[undone rain]

Love me plasmoids their silly

[valid geyser]

astral adventurers guide describes their biology really heavy, so that makes me feel it is a more biological origin than a magical one

[marble lion]

I like big moon lake mama

[valid geyser]

but i assume its mostly to just explain "yes, these guys do speak, see, feel stuff, and can wear clothes"

[stoic haven]

Mornin

[fossil shuttle]

I just realized, now that the paladin has had to leave our party, we're not going to be able to achieve our goal of throwing a spear into the moon.

[hollow stone]

yea she's fun, she is very patient and likes collecting memories, the detail of their (her and the warlock's) pact is just "i give you magic to protect you and you give me more memories and stories"

[woven flint]

Giff and Thri-Kreen are my babies

[atomic kayak]

Really doesnt have anything to do with that, generically. They didnt have much of anything in 2e either

[marble lion]

I really enjoy the "give me stories" warlock theme
I did that myself because fighting my patron sounded annoying

[woven flint]

I'm more likely able to play a Thri-Kreen over a Giff, though, admittedly
Giff as a species are like Loxodon and Tortle
For whatever reason, people view them as incredibly goofy

[bronze wave]

they are kinda goofy looking

[marble lion]

Because they look big and clumpsy and slow

[atomic kayak]

(As much as people hate it - the 5e spelljammer books kept in line with the original 2e release. Even outside of plasmoid. A lot of the extra spelljammer stuff came from further books and content)

[marble lion]

I do love loxodons and tortles though, when played by someone serious

[hollow stone]

i made one joke in passing and now we have a very, very interesting patron and character and i'm very happy with these events

[woven flint]

I have a Tortle Cleric
He's an Old Man, his Deity is Oghma (Knowledge) and like the rest of the group, he's just tryna survive waterdeeps everyday life lmao
He's struggling with morality even as the most good aligned individual in that party lol

[hollow stone]

i was gonna do a Great Old One warlock for the plasmoid for the irony of the GOO goo, but now we following The Slime Mother

[valid geyser]

dont quote me but i thought 5e plasmoids only shared the name with earlier editions plasmoids, who were just large space blobs

[halcyon bison]

Plasmoids are silly, I like them

[valid geyser]

but i also believe plasmoids dont really need lore that much, as in theyre cool based on their gimmick (not a bad thing tbw)

[halcyon bison]

Reject rigidity, embrace the goo

[undone rain]

Ohhh sweet my dms given me a nice lil buff. Im a half orc meaning i have darkvision but within lore his eyes were taken but was given new ones by his deity giving him 20 feet of vision in the dark, magic dark as well, can see invisibilty and not be blinded

[woven flint]

We invaded Xanathars Base covertly and he was adamant we saved a Halfling fellow that was being forced to fight a Minotaur, the others said "Hell No!" Because a bunch of Xanathars folks were watching the fight, but he came up with a plan to use our Elemental Summoning items to cause a distraction for him to possibly escape

[valid geyser]

i'm in a weird mood right now where I like the idea of plasmoids, usually I'd be "hurr durr theyre too weird for me!" but i think I'm turning around

[woven flint]

Oh, my Plasmoid character idea is a mercy monk that was a human that couldn't control control his Necrotic Ki and ended up melting into a fleshy abomination 🔥

[halcyon bison]

If you think about it we’re all goo
Just with some bones inside

[atomic kayak]

Like most playable options in terms of "weirdness" for me, its just a matter of context of where they are put

[woven flint]

Exactly

[halcyon bison]

Dang I hate it when that happens to me 😔

[hollow stone]

i mean my plasmoid is definitely based on the "huh, weird little creature." type of vibe but they're chill, they just don't follow mammal/human laws as it pertains to seeking comfort or identity

[woven flint]

You see
If we separate our bones from the flesh
Then we become TWO silly things
Skeletons and Ooze

[atomic kayak]

Meanwhile im also of the opinion that the "generic" elf (and dwarf) in dnd are painfully painfully not weird enough

[halcyon bison]

Skeletons should be scary but have been used so much in media that they are silly now

[valid geyser]

right now I think I kinda agree. I think theres a lot of directions you can go with them to make them more intriguing

[hollow stone]

yea, like moving pictures, they used to be terrifying until somebody else ruined it for everyone and now i don't think i'd even question it irl anymore

[woven flint]

Skeletons should be whimsical, because we as people shouldn't be afraid of what's a part of us

[atomic kayak]

Gnomes get away with it. Mostly. By at least typically having a more express fey-link (or at least more inbuilt oddities) than elves do

Halflings (and I recognize this is mostly a me thing and influenced by my view of them in my setting) I view as of a kind with humans

[halcyon bison]

The weird thing is that zombies are still scary despite being used just as much if not more

[woven flint]

Halflings are boring

[empty thicket]

Remember guys, nothing stop you all to add Angels from Doctor Who into your campaigns.

[atomic kayak]

Same way as humans yes

[woven flint]

I'm not scared of zombies personally :3

[atomic kayak]

But having just the two boring options is fine I think

[valid geyser]

i think the wood/high elf split thing is a little have your cake and eat it too if that makes any sense

[hollow stone]

but then you need blinking mechanics :(

[halcyon bison]

Well I mean there are still horror movies about zombies
But no horror movies about skellytons

[empty thicket]

Make the players think there is a Gorgon in the area and when they dont look, move the statue

[atomic kayak]

Humans have versatility, halflings have luck, both are otherwise boring

[halcyon bison]

Zombies have more intimidation factor

[empty thicket]

low light//directional seeing

[halcyon bison]

I guess skeletons don’t typically turn you into another skeleton with only a bite

[empty thicket]

They cant lockpick the door and see the angels all teh time, they must look away in some moment

[woven flint]

I feel Zombies come from the fear of the perversion of eternal rest.
Nobody wants to be in that state and plenty of people just want to have the salvation of rest after a long life.

[halcyon bison]

Also they eat people that helps

[hollow stone]

i've wanted to play with an inverse weeping angel, something that only moves while you look at it, because that's a much more vast betrayal of the human instinct: if you see it moving, you wanna see where it ends up

[valid geyser]

I remember wanting to experiment with a world where elves are a little more trapped in some ancient ways. The idea being that only dozen or so centuries ago a group of humans were cursed to become the first elves, and that immortality made their culture really obsessed with holding onto their heritage, so they just didn't advance technologically or anything, and are still kinda stuck with bronze age stuff (also if we wanna be fey about it they could have an issue handling iron)

[woven flint]

Not ALL zombies in Media eat people though
Sure, majority do, but, I personally think it'd be more realistic if they DIDN'T eat you.
They don't have biological functions, it's not gonna stop them from rotting, sure, undeath could awaken a feral mindless creature that rips you apart because it's lost all semblance of humanity and reasoning, but I don't get the eating people bit

[halcyon bison]

Well that’s scary too!

[valid geyser]

wood elves are weird. I dont see them used in fiction and d&d as much else than "xenophobic ecoterrorists who turn you into a pincushion if they catch you cutting down trees"

[hoary totem]

Best custom weapon or arcane focus (preferably with custom homebrew features) your characters ever received?

[woven flint]

Logistically, a zombie wouldn't FEEL or get hungy because it's brain wouldn't function (The Hypothalamus is the part of the brain responsible for making you feel hungry)

[severe rampart]

Zombies wouldn't be so scary if not for the fact that they can turn you into one of them with a single bite

[halcyon bison]

Well logistically a zombie wouldn’t get up and walk around either without a functioning brain

[woven flint]

Exactly.

[severe rampart]

if Zombies were just monsters that would want to kill you, then sure, slightly scary, but they can turn you into one of them, and quite easily because they're often depicted in hordes

[umbral girder]

Notably zombies eating flesh is a more modern thing. In DnD and the historical zombie stuff they were just moving corpses.

It’s Ghouls that were known as the flesh eaters and spreading their disease

[severe rampart]

The Walking Dead, Train to Busan, etc. have great portrayals like this where not even main characters are safe from the infection, the idea of you turning into a mindless beast with no way to turn back human, potentially even hurting the ones that you love is very terrifying

[still plover]

There are zombies in Dan Abnett's book Magos that have an entropic touch. They don't batter through doors, they just place their hands on them and rot their way through.

[atomic kayak]

Magical transformation of something else is one of my favorite ways to do a lot of species in my setting lol. Many of them are recent in setting, so they don't have any unique cultures really (yet), but i did something like this with orcs as well

The short of it is they are magically mutated humans who are (as a result) more innately magical

[umbral girder]

Wight moment

[severe rampart]

Damn that is insanely cool and I hate that isn't depicted more

[atomic kayak]

So lots of sorcerers wizards and druids from their populations

[woven flint]

Draugr are a scary type of undead in Norse mythology because they keep their intelligence and are often fueled by jealousy or vengeance

[umbral girder]

Now that's a D&D Wight there.

[halcyon bison]

What’s your favorite undead in dnd

[woven flint]

Boneclaws.

[umbral girder]

Flameskull. Because they can cast fireball on a level 4 party

While still being considered an "Easy" Encounter

[severe rampart]

Shadow

[woven flint]

Boneclaws are fun because they're the product of people who have failed to become true liches.
And they serve the closest and most evil being they can find

[halcyon bison]

Solid answers all around
I like liches :3

Demilich is probably my second favorite

[severe rampart]

ohh, I thought liches only turned into Demiliches if they fail

or is it, if they fail they die, if they fail to keep up the phylactery they turn into a demilich

[woven flint]

Being a Demilich is a part of becoming a true lich, iirc

[hollow stone]

oh i remember one of the bottom rated homebrew items, "The Necronomicon of The Undead", that lets you summon an infinite quantity of any Undead creature but you can only let go of it once you've expended all of the charges that it doesn't have

[umbral girder]

A lich becomes a Demilich if they don’t feed their soul jar.

A Boneclaw is someone screwed up the potion that turns you into a Lich.

[livid slate]

Why do bards get so much melee

[severe rampart]

So you can never EVER let go?

[halcyon bison]

No im pretty sure its if they fail to consume souls

[woven flint]

What?

[uncut zenith]

Yeah boneclaws were never liches to begin with

[severe rampart]

Because Bards are awesome

[livid slate]

They have so many melee options

[woven flint]

Nealen enlightened me dw

[uncut zenith]

Correct. Demiliches are liches who “starved”

[hollow stone]

yea you just can't let go of the book, i guess? you could just cut off the hand tho

[livid slate]

Well compared to other spellcasters

Why is the support getting so many and the sorcerer dps gets none;-;

[livid slate]

That is a fair reason

[woven flint]

What are you talking about...?

[severe rampart]

I think they're talking about Swords Bards?

[livid slate]

Dancer subclass
Sword subclass
Etc

Thats already more then most spell casters

Not including half casters of course

[woven flint]

Oh, Subclasses lmao

Also, to be fair, Dance Bard isn't SUPPOSED to really be close range, it's a more midrange support for the most part

[safe timber]

Ghost Dragons and Vampires…Vampires mainly vampire masquerade

[halcyon bison]

Vampires are very cool :0

[severe rampart]

I am itching to play a Swords Bard soon

[woven flint]

Dance bards having the unarmed strike doesn't instantly make them a melee bard

[safe timber]

Yes they are…I got away with a Vampire Bard once lol

[livid slate]

It still saddens me that bards get more melee subclasses then all other full casters
Except cleric which in that case there base class is lowkey already melee

[severe rampart]

Sounds like one of my players

[hollow stone]

the condition to break its curse is to beat a save that only triggers once all of its charges are spent, but its description never actually names any quantity of charges, so you
A. cannot ever break the curse
B. can summon a quantity of resurrected Tarasques that would exceed the total volume of unoccupied space available within the universe, and thus instantly end the campaign

[safe timber]

Did they get away with that too? lol

[severe rampart]

well their party TPK'ed

they split up, shadows took out the paladin, and the wizard (almost) died to a centipede

[safe timber]

Brutal 💔

[safe timber]

All tho..gives me an idea, Shadow Paladin…

[woven flint]

Haven't people learned from horror movies that splitting the group is ALWAYS a bad idea?

[safe timber]

D&D is no exception especially when undead is involved lol

[severe rampart]

they found out the bard was a vampire, and this was Curse of Strahd... so the wizard and barbarian didn't trust the bard and split

[halcyon bison]

What do you mean it’s an excellent idea :3
also make sure to not charge your flashlight and send only one person to investigate suspicious sounds

[woven flint]

Jokes on you, I have Dark Vision

[safe timber]

I like it too…bring horror vibe to the table

[hollow stone]

"i mean you can choose to split up but every encounter in my notes is balanced to be fighting the entire party and is already loaded into the VTT, so like... that wouldn't be a wise choice."

[severe rampart]

I have learned from practicing being a DM... uh.. it is... Magical Darkness!

[woven flint]

The only reason the party should split up is if the Monk, Rogue, Ranger or whatever goes scouting 😭

[halcyon bison]

Honestly the main reason I avoid splitting the party is because it makes it harder for the DM

[hollow stone]

my dark vision comes from Devil's Sight 👉👈

[woven flint]

Not to say I'd stop my parties as a dm
I'd just hit them with the fabulous
"Are you sure?"

[halcyon bison]

Also sometimes something important happens to the other group but you’re not there to participate

[severe rampart]

well, with their newly created characters/party, they want to go back to the place where they TPK'ed 🫠

[woven flint]

"Are you sure?"
Feels like the polite way to tell your party that they're being dumb

[severe rampart]

"You can certainly try" when you're afraid of what'll happen if they do, but are also too curious to not see it through

[still plover]

Friend Vincent says, "tell them the possible consequences and ask."

[hollow stone]

even then just deploy the avian Familiar to do the scouting, or even get a Gaze of Two Minds warlock to take the Find Familiar spell and use it like a UAV

[woven flint]

Jokes on you
I've got Archer Constructs set up that shoot anything on sight

[still plover]

This is standard practice for my chainlock.

She uses a quasit. Invisible bat!

[hollow stone]

i've also hypothesized Unseen Servant + GOTM + GOO but that's pretty close range scouting

[woven flint]

I'm not gonna lie
I feel like Familiars take the fun away from folks like
Rangers, Monks and Rogues who are pretty much built for scouting

Sure, it removes some danger, but let your allies do they thing sometimes!

[severe rampart]

I like it when my players want to debuff themself for lore reasons, like, sure you can be vulnerable to fire damage as a fire goliath because of Strahd's curse on you

[hollow stone]

i feel like a good irp telegraph is making them roll an extremely low DC Insight check for "your intuition tells you that there is simply no possible way that this ends well"

[bronze wave]

i like using echo knights for souting

i send my echo 1000ft away into the room what do i see

[severe rampart]

I don't see anything boss

[still plover]

-# "If your echo is ever more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn, it is destroyed."

[drifting fjord]

REALLY dislike the new layout for dndbeyond

[woven flint]

I'm playing a Gloomstalker Ranger in BG:DIA and if my Wizard tries to use a familiar to scout I'm above table gonna say
"Hey, that's kinda what my whole class AND subclass is for" 💀

[fossil shuttle]

My tiefling character is vulnerable to radiant damage due to being so closely tied to the hells, but for fiendish resilience I'm going to make him resistant to radiant damage. I just need a lore reason for him to have that, like a blessing from a God. My options are limited though.

[drifting fjord]

Nothing seems very accessible or easy to navigate.

[severe rampart]

it is quite a bit of a pain to navigate

[lethal herald]

May I ask what a normal Session 0 contains?

[fair summit]

Echo Avatar feature at 7th level lets you see through it and send it up to 1000 feet 😏

[severe rampart]

Names, what TW/content will be in the campaign, what are they hoping to get/experience in sessions, etc.

[hot marlin]

I once had a magic item for that.

[woven flint]

Most fiends don't even have a Weakness to Radiant damage inherently, most things that do Radiant damage that does extra damage to fiends is because it says so (the item or spell)

[hot marlin]

Well, it let me see through any fire bigger than a torch and cast spells through it

[lethal herald]

Okay thank you soooo much

[fossil shuttle]

Yeah, but I still need a reason to justify the resistance

[still plover]

Ah, fair.

[severe rampart]

No worries

[bronze wave]

Starting at 7th level, you can temporarily transfer your consciousness to your echo. As an action, you can see through your echo's eyes and hear through its ears. During this time, you are deafened and blinded. You can sustain this effect for up to 10 minutes, and you can end it at any time (requires no action). While your echo is being used in this way, it can be up to 1,000 feet away from you without being destroyed.

my goat once more echo knight

[severe rampart]

I wanted to play Echo Knight but when I saw in DnD Beyond that I needed the player hand book I just moved on over to the bard

Champion Fighter is very underwhelming

[bronze wave]

i dont rlly use beyond for my chars outside of the skeleton

[bronze wave]

its like white bread

[severe rampart]

yeah, I am moving away from it

[pliant sapphire]

You have the Wildermount book?

[severe rampart]

white bread with no toppings, no spread, not even lightly toasted

[celest ocean]

do i need the phb PDF in DnD beyond?

[bronze wave]

the 2024 is decent but still boring mostly

[hollow stone]

actually, speaking of things like that, why does the GOO feature specify that the ability that lasts like 10 minutes has a maximum range of 4 miles? like just make it infinite, who is going to traverse 4 miles in 10 minutes????

[bronze wave]

which is funny bc 2 of my players are champ fighters, and they love it

[bronze wave]

nah infinite is crazy its msotly a scouting tool

[halcyon bison]

I think 2024 has been better for balance but worse for flavor and consistency than 2014

[hollow stone]

not the echo knight thing, the Great Old One telepathy

[bronze wave]

oh

[severe rampart]

unfortunately no I do not

[pliant sapphire]

Then you need two books

[hollow stone]

i could, and quite feasibly, traverse 1000 ft in 10 minutes i'm pretty sure

[severe rampart]

Why?

[still plover]

Echo had it right, here's some more: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/929-how-to-run-a-session-0-for-your-d-d-game

I feel the core of Session Zero is establishing what we're going to be doing. What's the goal and scope of the campaign, what kind of activities might come up. Shared expectations. Then character creation and suchlike.

The rest of it is the "technical" side: when do we play, how long are sessions, what happens if someone's absent. Safety tools, resources for chargen, that kind of thing.

[pliant sapphire]

Wildermount and the players handbook

[severe rampart]

Yeah why, if Echo fighter is advertised in the player's handbook, why do I need to also own Wildermount in order to access it?

[swift wren]

Also - explain certain homebrew rules you are using and expectations for table.

[pliant sapphire]

Hmmm Echo Knight is not on the PHB

[hexed girder]

Echo knight is not in either the 5 or 5.5 phb

[pliant sapphire]

Its from the Wildermount book

[lethal herald]

This is helping so much, thank you. My DM (who is a friend and is a new dm) didn't do a proper session 0 and I've never played properly before (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ seems like I need to redo my Session 0

[severe rampart]

it isn't?, oh, I thought for sure it was

[fossil shuttle]

Eldritch knight is

[hexed girder]

No, it was a subclass invented by critical role and later introduced into an official 5e source book

[woven flint]

Hopefully you have a great time 😎

[lethal herald]

Thank you :D

[atomic kayak]

No, it was first (and iirc, only) ever published in an official book

[woven flint]

I'm thinking of a back-up character for if my Knowledge Cleric dies tonight

We're level 6 and we're confronting an adult dragon to POTENTIALLY negotiate

It's a Golden Dragon, but it has specific duties and we kinda need what it's Gaurding 😎

[bronze wave]

tbf its a good dragon so you might be ok

[hexed girder]

I mean it was invented by them for use in their campaign
Then they made the explorer's guide to wildemounte which included it

[woven flint]

Golden Dragons are typically more reasonable, yeah

[still plover]

No worries, it's all a learning experience.

Like I said, the key idea is to make sure everyone is on the same page getting started.

A princely duelist looking forward to courtly intrigues, a scheming thief aiming to be a big name in the underworld and a naive priest who just wants to help people go into a dungeon.

By itself, nobody's getting what they're after there. Chat first.

[bronze wave]

its lawful good to so reasonable(ish)

[hexed girder]

There were a few ecjo knight npc's in campaign 2

[woven flint]

Lawful Good doesn't mean Lawful Nice, though

[bronze wave]

true but it trends to it generally at the min it makes it ill hear you out often

id be shocked if the gold dragon just killed you lol

[woven flint]

And our group isn't exactly upstanding Lawful individuals (but we're not horribly moraless either)

[bronze wave]

looks at you and blast breath

[uncut zenith]

I’ve actually played in a few campaigns where the LG characters are actually huge jerks

[severe rampart]

I hate mean people, it's nice to be nice

[woven flint]

If Golden Dragons detest crime as much as Bahamut, he'd have reason to dislike quite a few members of our group
(My character is probably the only one who hasn't committed a crime, but hasn't tried to stop the party from doing their thing either)

[severe rampart]

mean as in being rude for no reason, if you have a reason that's completely understandable, otherwise it's just a downer for everybody else

[bronze wave]

jerks sure, kill you off rips or just attack? possible but seems less likely

if i ever had to parley or try convicing someone lawful good seems the best choice generallu

[celest ocean]

ok so

[marble lion]

Basically

[woven flint]

Basically

[marble lion]

Technically

[woven flint]

I just fear that the Golden Dragon MIGHT somehow be able to sense that we've associated and negotiated with fiends before 💀

Not for bad reasons, of course
Kinda because we were given one bound to a bag

[bronze wave]

i mean overall is your party good? and what have you heard about the dragon

[misty dagger]

Hello all! I'm looking to get my old discord server back up and running after having to take an extended leave of absence. I thought the one that was looking over it could handle it while I was away but now the server is basically dead. I will be starting my own campaign in about 2 weeks and we need both DMs and players ready to play. We do movie nights on Sunday nights to build interaction between the players and have a safe and comfortable space for everyone to make real friends at the same time. I will also need help to create and head a sister West marsh server soon.

[bronze wave]

like does it just kill baddies without any thought?

seems more chaotic good then lawful to me lol

[jolly agate]

Vc or pbp?

[woven flint]

I'm probably the only person in the party who could be considered Good
But the rest of the party is fairly neutral aligned

[misty dagger]

Which ever the DM chooses.

[severe rampart]

Probably best to post this in #dnd-advertisements or #looking-for-community

[misty dagger]

Ok ty!

[jolly agate]

Kinda hard to find a pbp Campaign

[bronze wave]

idk any lawful good dragon who is eating neutral ppl lol

[woven flint]

I feel like the thing is
We MIGHT'VE heard that this particular Gold Dragon isn't exactly like the rest

[bronze wave]

oh

then you should just go or dont go at all, why are yall going to this dragon LOL

[woven flint]

Because he's Gaurdian a treasure vault
And we want the treasure to potentially better the lives of the people that live in Waterdeep (as many of us were born and raised there lol)

[bronze wave]

so its for a good reason?

like i feel the dragon would be like ya ya i see what you mean

[marble lion]

I assume youll be able to earn it from the dragon

[woven flint]

Said Gold Dragon has been sealed underground protecting the vault for... who knows how long though
He might ve crazy lol

[bronze wave]

lawful good char and neutral who is trying to do a very good act, like if the dm killed someone it seems kinda forced

[bronze wave]

alr so its just not rlly a normal gold dragon to me, its smth else. like throw out lawful good

[prime basin]

Gold Dracolich

[bronze wave]

idk id be kinda annoyed if this good-neutral party is doing a super good act and then the lawful good char kills us

which is why i always use chromo drags

[marble lion]

Im sure the dm has figured out a nuanced way here

Not a new dm either, it will be alright

[swift wren]

Yeah, in general its one of the very few things that should always exist as a rule - the person giving you the job never betrays you. While its great for storytelling it gives so many players such an anxiety and then, of course, they are suspicious of every single mission and quest they take

[woven flint]

That'd break my heart because itd have to be WILLING and AGREE to become a Dracolich

[woven flint]

We're definitely not trying to kill them, at least, that's not planned YET

It's an Adult Gold Dragon and we're level 6 afterall

That's a CR 17

[hollow stone]

and it's underground?

[woven flint]

From my understanding

[hollow stone]

oh, don't even engage it then, just stockpile dynamite and cave in every entrance to the chamber and suffocate it

[woven flint]

As I said
We're trying to NEGOTIATE with it.

[hollow stone]

oh, send it some dynamite as an offer for peace and a warning of what's to come if it even thinks about saying no

[marble lion]

This is the sound of a very angry frog

[woven flint]

Also, killing a Lawful Good dragon just doing his Job wouldn't exactly earn us points among the people

[swift wren]

Reminds me of studio ghibli sending a Katana with a letter containing "no cuts" regarding the publication of Princess Mononoke in America

[marble lion]

Amazing

[woven flint]

The reasonable thing is to just talk to him and tell him we want to improve our city

[marble lion]

I concur

And pray noone tries to steal from the hoard

[hollow stone]

oh if it's lawful good then you don't need to do anything, right?

[marble lion]

Conflict of interest

2 good parties with seemingly different goals, but yeah talking might turn up a solution

[hollow stone]

talking is a fine idea if it's proven before that talking works

[woven flint]

I don't think people understand

Just because it's Lawful Good doesn't mean it'd just be like
"Oh! That's a good reason!" And let us have the treasure.
He's guarding it for a Reason

From my understanding though, its not its OWN Treasure, so it was hired by SOMEONE

[hollow stone]

is the dragon literate? do you know?

[marble lion]

Wow i cant even

[hollow stone]

you could send a Familiar to message it to try and find out who hired it

[woven flint]

It has like.. 16 intelligence, I'd be surprised if it wasn't

[hollow stone]

i guess an equal question is if it can write back?

[woven flint]

Probably

Dragons don't oft let their forms limit them

[marble lion]

Can the dragon turn into a human

[woven flint]

We haven't talked to him yet

[marble lion]

I really want to meet a golden dragon in human form one day

[hollow stone]

yea just write to it and find who its contractor is and pray that it wasn't hired by yet another dragon

[woven flint]

I mean, we're going down into the vault to talk to him.

None of us have Find Familiar anyway lol

[hollow stone]

sure, that works, but indirect communication is also a fair approach

[hollow stone]

okei yea you gotta talk to it lol

[woven flint]

Direct is how our group has been for.. the whole time lmao

[hollow stone]

it's just way safer to pen pal with a dragon for like 2 weeks until you can find out who hired it

[woven flint]

On the plus side, my Cleric now has Telepathy within 60 feet of him, so if we have to plan on the spot, we can communicate through that

[hollow stone]

i know that i, for one, have never heard of a dragon being hired to do anything

[woven flint]

Fairly recent edition as we leveled up last session!

[humble cairn]

Oh no, the Beyond website has updated to the stupid version that they reverted it from.

[celest ocean]

What does book being shared mean?

[dark pewter]

If you have any feedback, especially specific critiques/improvements, please send them to #ddb-feedback!

[celest ocean]

Like does the website act like i have all the rules from it?

[dark pewter]

If a book is shared with you through campaign sharing, it means you have access to read it and to use any character builder features in said book for a character in that campaign.

[merry pine]

One simple thing D&D beyond needs is the ability to write text that only the DM can see. They did add stickers with numbers so thats a good start for keying the maps but it's nice to have notes and things...my memory sucks

[lapis knoll]

I'm wanting to start a campaign based on Gacha potentially as I think it'll be fun but I'm worried no one will be interested

[glad arch]

Imo already plenty of gambling involved in dnd

[void crown]

quick question for roll20 users. if you ever actidently roll with advantage how do you ussualy go about fixing it?

i ussualy just use the first number rolled or roll again without advantage

[fair summit]

I always run with advantage on, and just take the leftmost result unless there was advantage/disadvantage, in which case we use the higher / lower accordingly 😏

[void crown]

i ussualy set it up to ask me first but sometimes i forget espessialy when starting a new game

[fair summit]

Yeah it's why I ended up with my way of doing it (which my friend did first and I just copied)
Saves me from having to remember anything or having to keep changing stuff when someone has or doesnt have advantage, and just lets me keep things the same and not worry about it

[shadow vapor]

so does Gather the Coven like work again after you use it once? like it says-

You perform a 1-hour ritual, which can be done during a rest, forming a bond with up to six willing creatures that must remain within 10 feet of you during the ritual.

Does this mean I can only use this with Six Creatures ever,
or
I can only do it with six creatures at a time.
-# meaning I could do the ritual again to bond with another six creatures.

there's no text saying a bond ends when you use this feature to form a bond with another six creatures, but maybe it's implied? all it says at the end is-

You can end the bond for any number of the creatures (no action required), and the bond ends when you die.
nothing about what happens if you preform the ritual again, would this allow me to do something give the queen and all of her men a bond that would allow her royal knight teleport to her once, this would be the greatest bargaining ability known to man, I can literally loan power to other people, and the dm could do something with this gift like because I'm spreading my patrons influence I gain more favor with him and he gains more notoriety amongst all walks of society this could influence the world in a lot of ways.

if its the first options that fine to I guess, it's still a good feature, although the name Gather the Coven is a little odd in that case.

[humble cairn]

Is this a third party spell?

[shadow vapor]

14th level class feature for the horned king warlock.

I didn't put down the whole thing because I don't want to get warned again for sharing paid content (the warn was fair)