dnd-discussion

[humble cairn]

Eldritch Knight allows you to substitute a Wizard Cantrip in place of one of your Extra Attacks. (I call this Hextra Attack, this is not an official term)

[sturdy tusk]

Ah, Ok

[glass granite]

You can (cuz last I checked you play 2014) use action surge to cast the spell if you wish

[humble cairn]

Eldritch blast is not a Wizard spell so you will never be able to use it as part of your Hextra Attack.

[sturdy tusk]

Makes sense... Unless i ue Action SUrge, I cannot use 2 Leveled Spells in One turn then

[sturdy tusk]

-# Ik, I took Warlock as an Example

[humble cairn]

No, that's not true.

[sturdy tusk]

Oh?

[humble cairn]

Wait, you're playing with 2024, right?

[sturdy tusk]

2014

[humble cairn]

Ahh okay so Action Surge is probably the easiest way to cast two leveled spells in one turn in 2014, but it's not the only way.

[sturdy tusk]

Action Surge is Diff for 2014 and 2024?

[sturdy tusk]

Oh, Ok

[humble cairn]

Yes, in 2024 you can't use the Magic Action as part of Action Surge.

[sturdy tusk]

Ah... Ok

[glass granite]

(Good change imo)

[sturdy tusk]

Extra Att with Nick Mastery Works?

[humble cairn]

Agreed

[sturdy tusk]

4 Attacks for level 20 Fighter

[humble cairn]

Yes, but now you're in 2024 rules.

[sturdy tusk]

Nick would work?

[glass granite]

Nick doesn’t exist in 2014 rules

[humble cairn]

Level 20 fighter and Nick Mastery is 5 attacks.

[glass granite]

Weapon masteries are a 2024 thing

[sturdy tusk]

Hmm

[sturdy tusk]

Action Surge, then 10 right?

[humble cairn]

9

[sturdy tusk]

wait no 9

Cuz Nick is bonus action

[humble cairn]

Dual Wielder brings it up to 10.

[sturdy tusk]

Ah

[humble cairn]

No, Nick makes it part of the Action.

[sturdy tusk]

Okay, Makes sense

[glass granite]

Nick is a Light property attack, that specifically turns it into an action

[sturdy tusk]

Oh, Ok

[sturdy tusk]

Ah, Understood

[glass granite]

But you only get one Light property attack per turn, so 9 attacks

[sturdy tusk]

Understood

[humble cairn]

But the Nick attack specifically says only once a turn, no matter how many Actions you get.

[sturdy tusk]

Haste would Work?

[sturdy tusk]

So just 9 then, Dual Weilder is 10

[humble cairn]

Would work with what!? Can you ask less vague questions, please?

[sturdy tusk]

How does Haste affect a Character?

[sturdy tusk]

-# Sorry, Im a BIT new to DnD

-# I know Classes and species, not spells as much

[humble cairn]

There's a whole #dnd-newcomers channel

[sturdy tusk]

Ik that

I was there yesterday

[glass granite]

You get an extra attack

[humble cairn]

Can you see this spell? https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2619141-haste

[sturdy tusk]

Ah Ok

[humble cairn]

I'm not sure if that spell is free, but if it is, you can read it at that link.

[glass granite]

It’s free

[sturdy tusk]

Understood

[humble cairn]

There's an entire book to read for free: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024

Many of your questions will be answered in there.

[sturdy tusk]

Ah Ok!

Thanks, I'll go there rn

[inner silo]

Utilize action activates most magic items right?

[hot gate]

They frequently make use of the Magic action. Utilize actions are often used by mundane items.

[inner silo]

Ah

Dam

No hasted thief rogue ig

[hot gate]

yeah, but Bonus Action Magic + action Magic is already plenty good

[vestal crow]

are there any origin feats that gives +1 to wisdom somehow ?

[stuck shuttle]

No origin feats give a stat bonus

[inner silo]

Do you lose the effects of dodge if you just use up all of your speed so it's zero or is that not how it works?

[inner silo]

Yeah, it's great! Just no hasting

[rough basalt]

Nope.
You keep dodge until the start of your next turn

[inner silo]

Great!

[rough basalt]

If you're using the Haste spell it's probably one of the best options.

[inner silo]

I'm trying to make a mounted combatant beastmaster and making the beast dodge as a bonus action every turn seems like a very great idea

[humble cairn]

If you're using the beast as a mount Disengage might be better.

[inner silo]

To run away?

[humble cairn]

But I've also used the Help Action to great effect.

[humble cairn]

To skirmish, hit and run.

[inner silo]

Ah

[humble cairn]

Gaining distance can be a great defense, especially if the enemy is Restrained (Entangle, Ensaring Strike, Net) and can't follow.

[inner silo]

Ig so

[humble cairn]

Or you could have your mount charge in, immediately do the Help Action to give you Adv, then you hit them with your Shillelagh Quarterstaf and Topple them, then the Beast takes all their attack at Advantage because the enemy is Prone.

[inner silo]

Also they'll likely be prone as both the beasts attack and your attack does prone

[humble cairn]

Yes, a lot of prone.

Or you could have your Beast do Help as the last thing after all your attacks, as an apology to any archers in your party.

[inner silo]

Glad almost all of my party is melee

[feral fulcrum]

Pray you don't encounter many flying enemies.

[inner silo]

I should buy our paladins some tridents

Topple will work wonders

[stray sage]

is there a reason that oozes have disadvantage on saving throws against sunburst? I get undead, by why oozes?

[idle oar]

"How fast can an ooze realistically move?" is probably what the game designers weere thinking but outside of them explaining their reasoning, no idea why they decided to design the spell that way.

[wispy vector]

Maybe oozes aren't natural creatures and are partly made of/animated by dark magic

[rough basalt]

Also oozes aren't really a thing at the level of Sunburst other than the Blob of Annihilation

It's probably in there for funzies /j

[hot gate]

It's also notable that this disadvantage was removed in the 2024 version of sunburst, so I assume the 2014 one was a holdover from previous editions.

[pliant sapphire]

In 2024 they took out that part

[rough basalt]

Ah that makes sense

[feral fulcrum]

Gelatinous Cube oozin around at the speed of sound

Fastest Dungeon Roomba

[rough basalt]

Time to make a dungeon of only Gelatinous Cubes

The cleanest dungeon in the world

[stray sage]

in forgotten realms lore oozes are created by Jubilex, demon prince of oozes. But by that logic fiends should also have disadvantage but they dont

[sturdy tusk]

Oozes are cool. A Mimic thats an entire Dungeon on the other hand-

-# I just imagined a Plasmoid hiding inside an obvisiouly dead Half-Elf, but its way to shy and kind for others to point out, then it will go and cry in its room if someone does say that it isn't a half-elf

-# Class: Cleric

[marble lion]

i think its because they are made of fluid
sun would evaporate them

[stray sage]

oooh okay

[feral fulcrum]

By that same logic they should all have vulnerability to fire. :V

[marble lion]

i think all but one ooze also live only in the dark_

[marble lion]

different ways of creating heat idk

[sturdy tusk]

Prob resistance to Heat and Light

[marble lion]

maybe the heat coming through isnt as important as the light beams piercing the seethrough ooze, creating heat within as well

[feral fulcrum]

Pretty sure Thermal Dynamics isn't all that different in D&D land. Sunlight Hot, FIre Hot, both Evaporate.

[sturdy tusk]

but Too Much Sunlight, or too direct might harm it

[marble lion]

heat isnt all the same though

maybe the slime has a layer protecting against the fire but its seethrough so the sunbeam still goes through it

[feral fulcrum]

Or maybe you're reaching for an explanation that's not there. :V

[marble lion]

not that it scientifically makes sense, there are way more types of creatures that should be weak to this or that

[north umbra]

by any logic human should be vulnerable to everything

[marble lion]

im just saying i think my thinking is thematic

eh i think vulnerable is meant to convey especial harm

[wispy vector]

I think humans are more of a baseline to what counts as a neutral hit

[marble lion]

yeah

for example, skeletons weak to bludgeoning is because there is no soft tissue meat between softening the blow

fire burns humans sure, but we dont really BURN burn

[north umbra]

true, cuz dnd's mostly high fantasy setting. as long as the creators want it to be then it is what it is. we can always make twists here and there tho

[marble lion]

yeah but genuinely humans just shouldnt be vulnerable compared to others to most damage types

we lived in the ice age, are made of water so fire is not actually that dangerous to us until prolonged exposure

poison resistance can be built up and evolved

[inner silo]

You could even take humans as the "baseline" to reactions to different types of damage and from there look at how others react compared to humans and give out resistances and voulnerabilities

[marble lion]

radiant and necrotic are magic so that one can just be set by the devs without arguing at all

but is a commoner human vulnerable to fireball?
yes

[inner silo]

I just mean to in general take humans reactions to damage types in general, and set those as the base reactions to the.. fireball is a specific attack that does fire damage

[marble lion]

i was moreso talking to chomp there
your approach works

[inner silo]

Ah oki, mb. Thanks!

[marble lion]

but then we get the people who consider it bad to make human the standard, in a game made by humans, for humans

[wispy vector]

Atheists should be immune to radiant damage and ignore healing from spells

[marble lion]

it would be kind of funny to make a villain that just ignores any divine effects

[small talon]

that would be hilarious

[marble lion]

but you would have to explain it in a way that doesnt just feel like a cheating DM

[inner silo]

Against a party of paladins and clerics

[marble lion]

"I take 26 damage from your divine smite? Who decided that?" dun dun dun

[idle oar]

In many D&D settings the gods are real - atheists are just folks who chose not to follow any of them and ignore them

[small talon]

mwahahaha

i know what im going to do

[marble lion]

that is indeed how atheists in dnd work usually, this would be homebrew or rather a different individual take on it
possibly madness

[small talon]

: )

[inner silo]

You could also make them immune to magic as they don't believe in mystra existing either

[marble lion]

no no magic is real
they believe in magic, just not mystra

[inner silo]

Ah

[cyan narwhal]

Escanor reference, the goat will never be forgotten

[marble lion]

i will come up with an entire conspiracy theory for what REALLY happened with the spellplague and karsus etc

[marble lion]

wait thats from that show? now i need to watch it

havent seen it yet

[inner silo]

It's the stuff that gale from baldurs gate tried to fix?

[cyan narwhal]

Yeah that's a 7DS quote from Escanor

[marble lion]

loosely connected but no

[small talon]

even better make a atheist who doesnt believe in any magic gods or anything like that and their pure power of mind means that the damage is reflected onto u

MWAHAHAHAHA

[vestal crow]

people are saying great weapon master is good for crossbows but it specifies melee. am i missing something ?

[marble lion]

yes you hit them with the crossbow like a pick

[inner silo]

You melee crosbows ofc

[cyan narwhal]

Who tf takes a crossbow to use It in melee

[marble lion]

just kidding, its probably because in 2024, gwm does not specifiy melee for the dmg feature

[inner silo]

It works with the 2024 rules gwm

[rough basalt]

It is funny how being an atheist in FR is like being a flat earther.

[marble lion]

they changed that for .... some reason?

[inner silo]

Just has to be heavy

[inner silo]

To buff crossbows ofc

[inner silo]

Would be funny if faerun was also flat

[marble lion]

actually gwm 24 does require melee for the extra attack on crit

[inner silo]

That's details

[cyan narwhal]

That's funny to me cause crossbows still shoot with the same strenght

[rough basalt]

The caveat is you need dex for ranged weapons

[inner silo]

Probably still worth to grab for a crossbow

[rough basalt]

And GWM only raises strength so you miss out on the extra attack and a stat point you can't use.

So it's not really worth taking unless you're a fighter and can afford a junk feat

[inner silo]

It's for when you max dex ig

[marble lion]

this seems to be a nice thing to bring when making a dex frontliner

wait no heavy weapon huh

[inner silo]

Taking crossbow expert->+2 dex->GWM

[marble lion]

i guess its for str fighters who want a good ranged option as a bonus

[inner silo]

Tridents exist lowkey

[wispy vector]

You mean javelins?

[rough basalt]

Well they don't have dex so they can't hit with a crossbow that well.

[inner silo]

Tridents>

[marble lion]

ok but who carries around a trident without themeing the character around it

[glass granite]

Me!
Tridents are cool

[wispy vector]

Did they get buffed in 5e2024?

[marble lion]

most fighters still want some dex for saves and initiative though, no?

[rough basalt]

I see it get dumped

[glass granite]

They can knock enemies prone if you have a mastery

[pliant sapphire]

DEX fighter can use GWM with all the extra feats and ASIs they get

[inner silo]

They have the topple mastery which lets them force the target to make a save or get proned

Great at dealing with flying guys

[humble cairn]

They also got an upgrade to their damage dice.

[inner silo]

D8 when twohanding i think

[wispy vector]

Either Str or Dex all the way.
Goin Str and dex is only an option if you can't wear heavy armor imo

[inner silo]

No actually d8 when 1handing

[humble cairn]

In 2014 it was d6 and d8 for using two hands. In 2024 it's d8 and d10 when using two hands.

[inner silo]

D10 when twohanding

[junior spade]

Does the boots of flying movement count towards my actual like movement speed or

Or is it like a seperate thing

[marble lion]

well im not saying max both, but dont dump the other

[rough basalt]

You usually do

[wispy vector]

Why waste points in str or dex that could go to wis or con

[rough basalt]

Strength, Con, Wis for STR fighter
Dex, Con, Wis for dex fighter unless you're an EK or Psi Fighter

[inner silo]

Fighters can afford both. Dex for initiative and the saves is great still

[rough basalt]

Not really

[humble cairn]

Tridents are also the only ranged Topple weapon.

[rough basalt]

Wis saves are more important than dex ones

[inner silo]

Initiative though

[humble cairn]

A lot of fun on my thrown weapons Paladin with his flying steed.

[rough basalt]

Alert feat, warning weapons

[glad arch]

Assuming you mean winged boots you get a fly speed equal to your walking speed. So if you have 30ft walking speed you now also have 30ft fly speed. Meaning you can move a combined 30ft split between walking and flying

[inner silo]

Ig so

[rough basalt]

High initiative ain't worth being permanently paralyzed by Hold Person or completely running over your Wizard when they cast Dominate Person on you.

[inner silo]

That is true

There are also a couple feats like shield master that help with dex saves ig

[junior spade]

So I can walk 30ft and then fly 30 ft up

[humble cairn]

No.

[glad arch]

No, that would be a combined 60ft

[junior spade]

Aouh ok

[humble cairn]

Any movement you do subtracts from all your speeds.

[glad arch]

Basically you now have 30ft of movement you can spend on either flying or walking rathee then just walking

[inner silo]

Ngl shield master seems pretty great tbh

[rough basalt]

It is pretty good

[cyan narwhal]

I'm finding that out recently since my rogue doesn't have bonuses on WIS lol

[rough basalt]

Martial feats are probably in the best state they've been in the 5.x cycle.

[inner silo]

Though i wish feats asi wasn't limited

To certain abilities

[rough basalt]

Makes sense.
Keeps some feats out of hands that shouldn't have them without drawbacks

[inner silo]

Ig it helps keep pure martials be better then gishes

Or comparable with them

[tawdry sentinel]

It is worth noting special speeds work a bit weirdly, as when you dash you double only one of these speeds.

So if you can swim 30, and walk 30.

And there's a 40ft body of water between you and the shore, with a dash you'd double the swim speed but then not be able to move on the other side. Rather than have 20ft left.

[rough basalt]

It's also cause of cases like GWM for example.
If you could use it seamlessly on a dex PC it'd make ranged even better

[inner silo]

Isn't melee>ranged rn?

For weapons

[remote wadi]

Question

[rough basalt]

I'd say it's even if the DM isn't running wide open combats.

[remote wadi]

How does one roll a Constitution check as a martial class?

[glad arch]

You have to pick which speed to dash?

[rough basalt]

You roll a con check

[glad arch]

Same as another class?

[tawdry sentinel]

It is very rarely relevant, because if you have a 60ft fly speed for example, you can just fly at floor height. Basically swimming or climbing is probably the only time I can think of it coming up. And when do you have a combat where someone wants to climb more than like 10ft.

[glad arch]

Are you asking ways for martials to have to make con checks? Because poisons usually are con iirc

[glass granite]

I assume you mean a saving throw? Just chug some poison or expired milk

[rough basalt]

Or sit in a sauna for too long

[wispy vector]

Or fresh milk, if your character is lactose intolerant :P

[rough basalt]

Or sit out in a blizzard

[feral fulcrum]

Or attempt to Out-drink a mountain of a man made of 90% Alchohol

[glad arch]

Now im wondering is there any non-spell feature that requires concentration?

[inner silo]

The one time i failed a save for that werewolves attacked me. So con saves are EXTREMELY important

[rough basalt]

Tashas Ranger Favored Foe required concentration

It was basically HM but not called it with some extra bits

[feral fulcrum]

A few, such as Ranger's Favored Foe

It also wasn't a spell.

[glad arch]

Anything for pure martials?

[feral fulcrum]

Not to my knowledge, no.

[glad arch]

Makes sense ig

[inner silo]

Martials don't have anything to compete for that concentration slot so why give them any

Though it would probably be an interesting idea to give martials something to concentrate on as they're often good at con saves

[rough basalt]

Cantrip Tattoo of 2014 True Strike /j

[inner silo]

That'd be too powerful

Ngl bg3 is probably the only way to make true strike useful

[feral fulcrum]

Hardly.

[inner silo]

Ik, i jk

[feral fulcrum]

Truestrike in 2024 is actually good and no longer actively detrimental

[tawdry sentinel]

Arguably too good.

[inner silo]

If it worked with extra attack too it'd put martials out of their jobs when more gish caster subclasses get transfered

[glass granite]

I Wouldn’t say that. It’s good for sure tho.

[feral fulcrum]

Eh, not really. It's a perfectly fine Melee Cantrip.

[remote wadi]

That's a save

[remote wadi]

No, a check

[feral fulcrum]

It gives casters a way to get the most out of a Singular Melee attack. At the cost of not casting a Spell that turn.

[inner silo]

I'm pretty sure there are no con checks

[glass granite]

Like a skill check? Con has no skills

[remote wadi]

Also, good to see you, Nugget. Haven't seen ya in a while

[glass granite]

Back at ya

[remote wadi]

How strange...

[inner silo]

Con is for saves and hp

[glass granite]

No character can do a con skill check, let alone just martials

[obtuse stratus]

Right right. Got confused because I play old school, forgot they use skills now-a-days

[inner silo]

Tbh what would a con check even be

[feral fulcrum]

Not really that strange. What skils does being hardy apply to? Athletics at best, and Str already covers that. And since Grapple is also Athletics, it makes great sense

[remote wadi]

Long story short, someone added something for a class that allows you to add a certain modifier to certain checks

One of the ways was... Constitution checks

Either they added Con in by accident or they should have said rolls and not checks

[humble cairn]

Variant Skills could be a way to use Con for a check, if your DM uses that option. Intimidation (Con) by chugging the nastiest paint thinner of an alcoholic swill to scare someone with your toughness.

[glass granite]

Remind me, what’s the definition on a “check” in dnd again?

[tawdry sentinel]

It's not particularly broken. But it is just sort of, generically better.

Good damage type, doesn't hit action economy at all, uses your spell modifier, adds a modifier to damage.

[neat igloo]

Question, for Battle Smith Artificers what Ranged weapons would make most sense for them to create?

[glass granite]

It does hit action economy if you have extra attack

[humble cairn]

Ability Checks are one of the Big Three d20 Tests, the other two being Attack Rolls and Saving Throws.

[remote wadi]

That could work, but that is probably Intimidation and a Con Save. They also allow you to add said modifier to Chr checks anyways

[inner silo]

It requires a caster to go melee

[feral fulcrum]

TLDR I beleive it's generally based on Skills, sometimes a Flat Check, and "Attempt to Do X using Y Stat, versus a DC."

[humble cairn]

Here you go: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/phb-2024/playing-the-game#AbilityChecks

[fleet merlin]

how much weight can mage hand carry?

[obtuse stratus]

Crossbows. Crossbows for days.

[inner silo]

An optimised caster will be insanely tanky but most people playing casters wouldn't want that to happen

[feral fulcrum]

Five pounds, it says it in the Cantirp itself

A single atom over five pounds and it dissapears.

[remote wadi]

So it doesn't make sense at all. Why did they specify checks, but then mention Constitution as an option?

[fleet merlin]

oh, is there like a scroll or something that can make it carry more?

[humble cairn]

No

[humble cairn]

Sounds like badly designed homebrew.

[inner silo]

Maybe enlarging it? If that's possible?

[feral fulcrum]

Nope, Spells do what they say they do, and no more, and if they don't naturally upgrade, there's generally nothing that upgrades them.

[fleet merlin]

that sounds possible

[humble cairn]

There is another spell, Bigby's Hand, which makes a bigger, stronger, magical hand.

[small heath]

Shower thought: would Ben 10 from the TV show be a druid if made into a D&D character? 🤔

[inner silo]

In bg3 magehand can drink a strength elixir and carry more but that's just game logic

[fleet merlin]

so mage hand but better?

[humble cairn]

Not by the rules it isn't. You need to get the other spell, Bigby's Hand.

[humble cairn]

Yeah basically. This one can attack, too.

[feral fulcrum]

It's got entirely different purposes then Mage Hand.

[tawdry sentinel]

You can true strike with a crossbow no?

You're now doing 1d8+3 at level 1 for 7.5 instead of basically every other cantrip which does 5.5 or less.

[inner silo]

Best spell

[fleet merlin]

but it can be used for the same purposes?

[inner silo]

Ah. Then yeah, it's a great damaging cantrip!

[humble cairn]

Yes, you can use True Strike with ranged weapons.

[feral fulcrum]

One's a mildly useful Cantrip for someone too lazy to grab something at range, occasionaly useful for pulling levers behind mild obstructions at low levels, Bigby's a decently high level combat spell capable of doing Quite a bit more, and is much larger

[inner silo]

It's a 5th level spell slot so not recommended most times

[feral fulcrum]

One fetches you the remote on the couch, the other backhands Dragons

[fleet merlin]

ah, but how much can it carry?

[inner silo]

A lot. It does last like only 1 minute though iirc

[feral fulcrum]

If you want somethign to carry stuff, just use Bags of Holding, Tenser's floating DIsk, etc etc.

Or Acquire a Wagon

[inner silo]

Or hire poor villagers

Unless you're carrying valuable loot

[feral fulcrum]

Then still hire poor villagers, and pay them handsomely to not rob you

Just because they're poor doesn't mean they're thieves. :V Generosity begets alot of leeway.

[inner silo]

True

[remote wadi]

You think it was just a typo and they meant to say any rolls involving the stat?

[humble cairn]

I have no way of knowing, all I know is what you've told me, which sounds like badly designed homebrew that doesn't work well because it was written badly.

[inner silo]

I wander if a couple commoners or a magic initiate with tensers floating disk would be cheaper

[remote wadi]

Maybe I could ask whatever DM I can play said homebrew with for clarity

[humble cairn]

Mules are fairly cheap and can hold a lot in packs.

[inner silo]

Right, there are also animals

[remote wadi]

Because that is pretty confusing

[feral fulcrum]

Tenser's is just a Ritual, so, inherently cheaper to just do it yourself, because F R E E

[inner silo]

You may not know it

[feral fulcrum]

If your'e doing it yourself, you obviously know it :V

[humble cairn]

Mules cost 8gp and have a carry weight of 420lbs.

[inner silo]

I mean if you don't then hiring a magic initiate who does

[tawdry sentinel]

Skilled hireling which I guess your wizard apprentice is gonna be are ten times the day rate to "man with backpack"

[humble cairn]

Mules don't need to be paid, though they probably need to eat.

[feral fulcrum]

Honestly the Carry weight system in D&D breaks down pretty hard

I've never seen such anemic Horses and Mules in my life

[remote wadi]

Hehehe

[remote wadi]

And yeah, carry weight never made sense. Another reason I hope 6e becomes a lot less simplified

[feral fulcrum]

Pencil Legs and Glass Bones abound in DND Equines

[remote wadi]

Because 5 and 5.5 was broad, but shallow

[remote wadi]

Don't forget the paper skin

[rough basalt]

Now I'm back in the long wait for next dnd session period

[feral fulcrum]

No edition has done Carry Weight well

[humble cairn]

Not me, I don't want a grittier system. 5E is the crunchiest system I can tolerate.

[rough basalt]

I need a 3rd tabletop game on Fridays to cut down the downtime more.

[remote wadi]

I mean, they got pretty close with Variant Encumbrance

[feral fulcrum]

I pity you. But I'm a psychopath that enjoyed the flaming hot garbage of Exalted 2E

[humble cairn]

I don't want to have subsystems for mundane stuff like keeping track of all my tents and rations and stuff and nitty gritty details about exact punds of carry weight.

[remote wadi]

They would just need to add something for animals like mules and horses like a +_ carrying capacity

[rough basalt]

Animals can carry stuff for you

[humble cairn]

Don't need it? there's plenty of systems out there that are a lot less gritty and also fun.

[remote wadi]

Care to elaborate for the uninformed?

[humble cairn]

I enjoyed Exalted as well, but I don't think I got into 2E.

[rough basalt]

Exalted 2e I've heard is so crunchy you could shatter your teeth if you tried to eat it

[humble cairn]

It's another non-D&D game so it's not on topic. But it did have detailed sub systems for things like socializing and stuff, IIRC it made everything into combat?

[inner silo]

Are giant slugs underdark creatures?

[feral fulcrum]

TLDR Exalted is a game swimming in CRUNCH galore, With Systems, subsytems, and half a dozen guys who work on varying rules, with subsystems that have their own particular rules, and everything is a Math Equation, and you gotta juggle like 10 resources at once.

[rough basalt]

I wouldn't be surprised to see one there

[humble cairn]

Exalted is great lore, though.

[inner silo]

What about snails?

[feral fulcrum]

And absolutely DRIPPING with Cool NPC Names, Cool Move Names, and Fantasically Awesome Mystic Martial Arts.

[remote wadi]

Huh. Sounds like a good way to sharpen my brain

[inner silo]

Giant snails

[humble cairn]

And also get into a different genre than Tolkien-esque fantasy.

[feral fulcrum]

I wish D&D had Half the creativity of the guys behind the naming Conventions of Exalted :_:

[humble cairn]

Did 2E still mechanically reward you for describing your moves in cool ways?

[feral fulcrum]

90% of the names in D&D are so generic.

[feral fulcrum]

Yes, it still had the Stunt system.

[inner silo]

Like spell names?

[remote wadi]

I mean, in the background, I was calculating the odds of Stunning Strike working against a Pugilist assuming equal stats and Swagger Step applying to Con Saves

[humble cairn]

I remember getting a Three Point Stunt .. and still failing the roll, so disappointing.

[pliant sapphire]

Feywild

[feral fulcrum]

NPC Names, Spell names, location names, etc etc. Every part of Exalted was dripping with Impressive and sometimes absurdly silly names, but it was never Dull about it.

[humble cairn]

I mean everything. There's a spell in Exalted called Death of Obsidian Butterflies and that's .. like one of the more mundane sounding thing in the game.

[burnt valley]

Wdym by a crunchy system?

[inner silo]

I think partially why dnd names are simple is for it to be more accessible and descriptive

[inner silo]

Does it kill obsidian butterflies?

[humble cairn]

Lots of systems upon subsystems that require calculating and figuring.

[feral fulcrum]

As an example for the most Extra name I can think of off the top of my head. Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers

[humble cairn]

It shoots out obsidian razor winged butterflies in a cloud to shred enemies.

[still plover]

My favourite.

[inner silo]

Sounds cool!

[burnt valley]

Ehh I wouldn't say 5e is crunchy, most things in 5e are undefined and leaves it up to the DM

[inner silo]

Death of Obsidian Butterflies causing death by obsidian butterflies

[burnt valley]

I wanna try out Exalted 2e tho, i heard the martials there are pretty nuts

[feral fulcrum]

And THE ART OF FORCEFUL DECLARATION (All caps needed), was a Mystic Martial Art Style dedicated to Ritualistic Arguing Via Magic Punches.

[humble cairn]

5E is the crunchiest system I can tolerate, I come from games that are much much more fluff.

[burnt valley]

Creation Slaying Oblivion Kick

[burnt valley]

Fair enough

[feral fulcrum]

But I'm drifting far away from D&D now and will stop gushing about a very broken but awesome system

[humble cairn]

I do not like the crunchier versions of D&D. I have played 3.5 and I much prefer 5E.

I have played Pathfinder 2E and I prefer D&D 5E.

My personal system of choice would be Fate.

I admire the Powered by the Apocalypse games from the distance.

[inner silo]

Is there any fun wildlife in the underdark except spiders

[eager marsh]

plenty

[inner silo]

Would you mind sharing some you think could theoretically be mountable?

[eager marsh]

hook horrors, octupi, centipedes, rats, purple worms, etc

not theoretically. giant lizards just are used as mounts there

[inner silo]

Great! Thanks a lot!

[humble cairn]

Lizards, spiders, both giant of course. Rothe, oozes, demons (Yochlol if yuo pissed off a matron of Menzoberranzen).

Umber Hulks, those spider wrangler things.

[inner silo]

A myconid with a a lizard or ooze mount sounds cool

[sturdy tusk]

Another Question, If I finished my Character[Not Done yet] according to he Character Sheet, Where do I send the Pdf? Incase I want some Help or Advice in Combat/Out of Combat Stuff?

[humble cairn]

#character-discussion to discuss your character.

[sturdy tusk]

Sure!

Thanks

[still plover]

Friend Vincent provides me with a number of useful sayings.

[feral fulcrum]

Puuuurppple WOOOOOOORM

Faster, Purple Worm, Kill kill!

But bear in mind that the majority of the things in the Underdark, much like Australlia, wants to kill you in increasingly horrible ways.

[eager marsh]

that's why they're both the 'down under'

[mild lodge]

hi

[sturdy tusk]

Chat

Dragonborn's can Fly???

[pliant sapphire]

Yes, but only once (10 minutes) per long rest

[sturdy tusk]

Ah...
Makes Sense

-# Ability Score Increase in not in DND Beyond?

Huh... Interesting

[inner silo]

Are they friendly to other underdark livers though?

[feral fulcrum]

Generally, No.

[inner silo]

Shoot

[severe rampart]

What's the funniest thing you could do with Modify Memory

[exotic sinew]

With dnd beyond you must have the digital source books to have access to the subclass and stuff don’t you

[severe rampart]

Yeah

unless Content Sharing

[exotic sinew]

I kinda wish that hard copy books came with like a digital code with them 🥺

[sturdy tusk]

Yeah...

[exotic sinew]

That’s what my school textbooks used to do

[cinder timber]

hello yall

[sturdy tusk]

Sup

[north oasis]

Hi everyone I’m new to DND

[exotic sinew]

I am also new. Well newish. I have played a little bit and read both the 2014 and 2024 phb from cover to cover but still I am new I know very little and get confused easily

[north oasis]

Same I just got into it this year because of my partner

And we’re looking for people to join our guild. I think I’m using one in the right term. I’ve only watched like cosplayers play this game to be honest.

[severe rampart]

Planning something devious with Modify Memory...

[exotic sinew]

Very nice 😊 hope you enjoying it. My first one shot experience was early December last year I now am in the starts of a campaign (2 sessions in) and I play a few one shots and stuff inbetween on my off weeks

[north oasis]

That’s cool and yeah thx

[exotic sinew]

What you thinking

[minor cargo]

Not funny as much as it is cruel, but you can use modify memory to make sure that a creature remembers something with “exacting detail”.

So if this is a bad memory (say, painful physically or emotionally), it’s suddenly a huge burden. All of our memories fade and the pain, though lingers, usually dulls over time; this spell can prevent this natural occurrence from happening.

[severe rampart]

Gonna dig myself a deeper hole, I got into a bad deal with a very powerful wizard merchant, I'm gonna attempt to even the playing field and continue scamming him

[severe rampart]

Ohh... good idea

like perhaps a major injury or trauma

[exotic sinew]

Couldn’t the dm rule that it comes under the “An illogical modified memory, such as a false memory of how much the creature enjoyed swimming in acid, is dismissed as a bad dream. The DM might deem a modified memory too nonsensical to affect a creature.” Part depending on how you word it

Also unless you are using a higher level spell slot it’s only something within the last 24 hours

[severe rampart]

but it was a real memory, like they snapped a bone, they remember it vividly, they know it happened, they just won't forget it

I am planning to say this exactly

[exotic sinew]

What monster?

[severe rampart]

I get to keep all magic items I've gotten from him

[severe rampart]

That monster, I do not know of yet, supposedly it's guarding a magic item that when worn, gives 23 Strength to the wearer

[exotic sinew]

Oh 🤯

[severe rampart]

not sure if it's guarding it, or is wearing it

but surely, he doesn't know that

Of course, I do have to level up a level or two before I could do this

[exotic sinew]

Would that be something that would be in this wizard’s standard behavioural traits and like beliefs to do

Or would they be the type of wizard to stand their ground or have people in higher places who could ward off the monster

[severe rampart]

They are very greedy

Had to delete that modify memory cough, my DM is online and I do not want to spoil anything

[exotic sinew]

Cause modify memory is like very specific on the wording within how it is allowed to work. Unless your dm is more is a “rule of cool” or playing loose with the wording you can’t like make a character so something that would be completely out of line with what their character would normally do

[exotic sinew]

Oh no you modified my memory 🤯🤯🤯🤯

[severe rampart]

my DM is cool, yeah

[exotic sinew]

Fair enough. I have just seen some people before try to say some outrageous stuff when it comes to modify memory and it’s like bruh you ain’t that powerful with mind magic if you were you would pretty much be a god

[severe rampart]

I hate how many lore bard spells are concentration, I don't get to do anything cool

[severe rampart]

I tried to make it reasonable

[exotic sinew]

I know you did

Ffs autocorrect trying to make me sound like a meany

[severe rampart]

Some freudian slip? hm?

[exotic sinew]

Dissonant whispers is still one of my favourite bard spells and it’s such a low level to get its great

[severe rampart]

yeah, the ring I got from the wizard is The Ring of Spell Storing, which means I could cast those low level spells inside of "Silence" radius...

[exotic sinew]

3d6 psychic and they have to burn their reaction to run away from you is so good

[severe rampart]

Why can't silence be non-concentration 💔

[exotic sinew]

Are you level 6 trying to pick spells??

[severe rampart]

I have already picked my spells, level 8

[exotic sinew]

Oh lol 😂

It’s sad that bards didn’t get the change that rangers did. Like every time I long rest I can change one of my prepared spells. But bars are still only when you level up

So if you wanna try something new and realise you don’t like it well too bad so sad Julie your stuck with it now

[severe rampart]

I'll get a magic item that let's me replace a spell from my spell list with a different spell, albeit temporarily, I'm sure I'll find it somewhere

[crimson gulch]

Ahh my new curse of strahd game has started with a bang!

[severe rampart]

Really? mine is about to start session 1 in two days!

[crimson gulch]

Nice!

The dice barely saved their lives last night

[severe rampart]

... 😨

I'm not sure how close mine is with yours, but three out of five of my players are already cursed

one of them even got the... Curse of Strahd... 🥁

[crimson gulch]

No curses yet, though One will die of poison in 23 hours if they can't find a cure

[mild lodge]

hi

[severe rampart]

what'd they get hit with?

[mild lodge]

@severe rampart boop

[severe rampart]

what up?

[serene jolt]

Until it's a speedy or flying creature and the martials get mad because they're fleeing xD

[severe rampart]

Opportunity attacks all around

[serene jolt]

Until the bard goes first. Used properly (like when the creature is surrounded and doesn't have flyby), it's loads of fun.

I've experienced it used terribly before 🤣

[severe rampart]

if the wizard takes my ring, I take 4d8 damage and the bleeding condition... I better get that magic item soon

[exotic sinew]

It’s only as a reaction. When their turn comes around they can come back. But it also means they they can’t opportunity attack anyone if your team runs past them cause they used their reaction to run away

[crimson gulch]

Death dog posiom

[severe rampart]

ooo... custom monsters for the Durst Manor, personally I have ||The Skeleton Minotaur, Flameskull and Zombie Ogre, along with the undead shambling mound at the end||

[crimson gulch]

I'm running the house of lament to open the game

[serene jolt]

That being said, there have been situations where that spell has been more of a hindrance.

But if you're a bard with common sense, it's great.

[exotic sinew]

Idk why any creature in combat would get forced to move 30ft away after hearing a weird whisper in their mind taking a bunch of damage and then just keep running. Like most people have ranged attacks and can idk use a dash to close distance in one turn anyway if they did decide to do that

[tawdry sentinel]

Magic

[serene jolt]

I've seen more barbarians and fighters not have ranged more often than not.

Don't ask me why they don't, I have no bloody idea. XD

[exotic sinew]

Yea but surely someone in your party does. Like it’s really not the end of the world if one creature flies 30ft up the guys with the big stick may not be able to hit them but surely your whole party isn’t just people with big stick

You make it sound like person with big stick is only way to deal damage and ranged is useless

[serene jolt]

But I've had moments where the creature hasn't had a turn in combat, is flying, and the bard casts the spell on them. A few martials involved are upset because they are just gonna stand there and look pretty or throw something at dis. Then on the monster's turn, they fly back down and hits them.

Hindrance.

[rugged hawk]

That's just bad preparation by martials

[serene jolt]

But luckily most bards have common sense and wait until the creature is nearby someone.

[molten wigeon]

I've played an arcane archer fighter myself

[exotic sinew]

See now that’s on them though. That’s not the bard having bad action economy

[molten wigeon]

I find it fun

[rugged hawk]

In a world of magic and magical creatures, not having ranged options is literally handicapping yourself.

[serene jolt]

No, the bard should know their party and not work against them.

Sure they should have ranged but also the spellcasters should never be working against the party

Just time your spells right and everyone benefits.

[exotic sinew]

So the bard has to accommodate for the party but they don’t have to do the same thing and accommodate for the fact that things might be at range??

Thats just horrible thinking

[serene jolt]

Yes because I'm not gonna cast Web and fireball on my party because they 'dont have ranged'.

I work with them and not against them. That's dumb.

[exotic sinew]

All this cause I said I like Dissonant Whispers as a level 1 spell

[serene jolt]

All this because I said dissonant whispers is really good when you use it right. XD

[rugged hawk]

Yeah, and a sword's good when you use it right. Demanding enemies be in reach of it because you're too lazy to properly prepare contingencies for non-melee is dumb.

[exotic sinew]

Like you are making a big song and dance about a creature burning their reaction and also being forced to move away from you as far as possible whilst also taking 3d6 psychic damage. One of the most useful types of damage cause it’s on the lower end of creatures having resistance to it and your whole thing was.

But if they fly 30ft up cause that’s the safest path away then big man with stick gonna be upset

[serene jolt]

And setting up spells badly is also dumb

I'm just saying, as long as bards use it in opportune moments, then yes, it's awesome.

[exotic sinew]

For a 1st level spell it’s great. They need to use a reaction, movement and take damage. All at the low low cost of a level 1 spell slot

[serene jolt]

There are a lot of spells that applies to. I don't know why y'all are disagreeing. 🤷

[rugged hawk]

On a related note, though, this is exactly why my divine soul sorc's Trident of Warning is magicked with a Returning feature, so ranged isn't out of reach.

[exotic sinew]

Why can the guys with big sword not ready their action if they don’t have range for if the creature on their turn flies straight back down to them and they then get to smack it

[tawdry sentinel]

Dissonant whispers triggers opportunity attacks if you have a rogue as well wanting a double sneak attack.

[exotic sinew]

Is it an opportunity attack? I thought it was only opportunity on movement the creature willingly took. That’s why like pushes and shoves don’t trigger them

[severe rampart]

ooh wait you can have two sneak attacks a round if you use OA?

[south prawn]

Dissonant Whispers uses speed I believe, which is a condition for opportunity

I believe they take a reaction and move up to their speed away

[exotic sinew]

It’s take a reaction and move as far away as it can so I assume that is “30ft” for most creatures

[tawdry sentinel]

If it uses an action, bonus action, reaction, or uses speed. You stab

[south prawn]

Oh there you go, the fact it’s a reaction alone

[tawdry sentinel]

If they're being dragged by a grapple, or being thunderwaved. They don't.

[exotic sinew]

I have played a bard 2 times for AL one shots and when I saw that spell i took it and i loved it. Technically i still have the character sheet for that bard but i would have to dig it out of my folder.

[crimson gulch]

Dissonent whispers on a surrounded enemy, in my mad mage game we call that the "Nirbo Shuffle"

[severe rampart]

I am afraid of what that implies

[crimson gulch]

Nirbo is the warlock with Dissonint whispers. And we have 2 Rogues (and a war cleric Named Rogue) and a barbarian and a Melee wizard. So the Nirbo Shuffle is usualy a pair of sneak attacks, a Raging barbarian with a belt of Storm Giant Strenght and a plus 3 axe, the wizard thats usualy a Trex or sometimes giant ape. so a properly executed Nirbo Shuffle is between 100 and a million damage

[severe rampart]

so their very own "pack tactics"

[south prawn]

That’s hilarious. And those moments right there are just one reason why I love this game

[severe rampart]

absolutely hilarious

imagine that with several war casters

[crimson gulch]

oh yeah, the melee wizard did a Disintegration of Opprotunity before

[rugged hawk]

... speaking of AoOs, I think a spider might've gotten my big toe when I was wearing my sandals.

[cold violet]

Also speaking of spiders, what do yall think a good level would be for 4 pcs to fight Lloth

[knotty pasture]

Like literally Lolth or an avatar of Lolth

[tender fossil]

Level one. If Hank and the rest of them can fight tiamat at level 1 I say go for it

[exotic sinew]

If you are talking the literal god I would have to say tier 4 - level 17-20

[atomic kayak]

The actual god? Literally never.

An avatar? Could be at any number of levels depending on the form of the avatar

[knotty pasture]

Tiamat (another lesser deity) is fightable at a T3 game but that also requires ||going through things to weaken her before the start of a fight||

Otherwise its an easy TPK

[exotic sinew]

Well like you could fight it. I didn’t say they would win the fight but it seems like a good way to end the campaign and go well too bad so sad everyone died cause your fought a FREAKING GOD

[atomic kayak]

Very notably, still an avatar. Yes even despite that one tweet

[knotty pasture]

Yeah its probably an avatar

Kind of a retcon but the retcon makes a lot more sense in this context

[atomic kayak]

The simplest way to figure out if something is an avatar is "when you kill it, does the god truly die"

If the answer is no, then its an avatar

That example has literally always been an avatar, no retcon

(Especially since ||the statblock straight up tells you she doesn't die when its killed||)

Part of why every "god statblock" 5e has gotten (of which there are ones for at least 4 gods) has been avatars

[knotty pasture]

Didn't the sourcebook state that its Tiamat herself? Like granted that's obviously wrong and she's most likely an avatar

[hot gate]

There's a line about her being the "real thing"

Or it might be the "as it's clear from her stats, Tiamat is a god"

[atomic kayak]

It didnt state that, there was a tweet about it being "the real deal" by one of the wotc team but that doesn't actually contradict it being an avatar.

An avatar is still the god. But also that specific example has then been referenced multiple other times (in both interviews and other books) about being an avatar quite consistently

[atomic kayak]

Hence this

[hot gate]

Yeah at the time it was definitely more along the lines of "hey this is actually tiamat", but I see it as the same as them still figuring out how to treat the edition.

[atomic kayak]

(I know for a fact it was brought up in reference to "god avatar statblocks" when Rime of the Frostmaiden was coming out - in reference to "previous times 5e has done them" (since Tiamat was the only example before Rime) and then again in Fizbans where its explicitly referred to as an avatar

[tender fossil]

If you're on the prime you're fighting the avatar, God's normally aren't allowed to manifest outside the outer planes

[atomic kayak]

And I dont mean the tiamat statblock from fizbans, I mean the hotdq

[tender fossil]

The actual God forms will typically TPK the highest level parties in a couple of rounds. They don't play by your rules

[knotty pasture]

They don't even follow the game system anymore and could TPK in one round probably lol

[atomic kayak]

Definitely also partially a symptom of hotdq being made out of house (kobold press did it)

[knotty pasture]

Kinda like how Mystra isn't confined to slinging level 9 spells but like what, level 12 spells?

[pliant sapphire]

An avatar is a physical manifestation of a god after all. So you are always fighting an avatar

[uncut zenith]

Yeah it could’ve been accurate at the time they said that ToD Tiamat was the “real deal”, but WOTC has definitely made changes to how they view gods and their stats since then

[tidal bough]

That was the wizzy that cast the spell that caused the fall of the floating stuff, she's likely on a higher one

[knotty pasture]

Oh right

[tender fossil]

In all previous editions gods are usually 100% immune to mortal magic. You absolutely minimum damage and only with the most powerful magic items against them. You have to use artifacts even have a chance.

[atomic kayak]

Even at the time it could be (and was) simultaneously "the real deal" and an avatar. There's zero reason to treat them as mutually exclusive concepts

[severe rampart]

I have been blessed, my players are all chill with each other, none of them use AI, and they respect the table rules

[tender fossil]

The more benevolent gods if you attack them will act like you're actually hurting them so you feel like you're trying

[uncut zenith]

I’m inclined to agree with Swampellow when he says if the god doesn’t completely die when it’s killed it’s just an avatar, but on the other hand we could apply the same “logic” to creatures like fiends and celestials. A lot of them don’t fully die unless they’re killed in their home plane.

[atomic kayak]

Not dying doesnt inherently makes something a god

[tidal bough]

Ai ruins dnd as an experience and I hate that I have to go out of my way to check and confirm people arent using ai for their campaign/characters

[hot gate]

It would be fun if there was a line about how the perspective shifts in that regard. For example, lancer has a line about "if for some reason there is a human involved in mech combat, treat them as having 1 hp"

[tidal bough]

Imo that is*

[uncut zenith]

Right, I’m just outlining where there can be some confusion

[atomic kayak]

A lich isnt a god just because they can reform when their body is killed

A gods body reforms when killed (if they want) because they are a god

[severe rampart]

Two of my players drew their characters, two used Picrew, and the last one has not submitted a token as of yet 🙏

[tidal bough]

Ai art is abit iffy but ai content for the lore/backstory is a big nono for me

If i wanted to play with a robot then id go do that frfr

[atomic kayak]

And as demonstrated by at least 2 of the gods with avatars in 5e - killing an avatar can "put them on a cooldown" before they can make another one, but the god themselves are still fine

[severe rampart]

there is a strict "No AI" rule on my table

[tidal bough]

Valid and fair enough

[severe rampart]

I'm not "iffy" on AI Art, I stand that it steals the hard work of humans and creates soulless pieces of slop

[tender fossil]

My players generally grab classic fantasy art. Failing that they will go to the Masters. Hieronymus Bosch is a favorite

[tidal bough]

Ive had players ive made aware that ai isnt to be used only to then present a 10 page document that is clearly ai written and refuse to change on it

[livid owl]

I honestly left a game because the DM was crazy about ai art

[hot gate]

Dang, that's we call a former player around here

[swift wren]

instant guillotine stern talk with me if they ai

sounding like a boomer "No robot at my table >:("

[tidal bough]

Negatory, it was a brand new player and there were clear signs of visible ai use before even running it through an ai text checker (it showed 100% ai fyi)

[livid owl]

Noooo my autognome!!!

[knotty pasture]

But does your autognome talk like Claude, real question

[livid owl]

HAHAAHAH no

[hot gate]

Ah no I meant "that player won't be one for long if they have such trouble changing based on feedback"

[royal oyster]

so what’re we talking about

[tidal bough]

Ohhhh I thought you meant like an older edition player apologies hahaha

[livid owl]

Expanding on this, it made me highly question if they were using AI to run the campaign for them as well

It harms trust no matter which way you use it imo

[tidal bough]

They didnt make it to playing because they left after complaining that it was their hard work and that it wasn't ai

[knotty pasture]

Though thinking about it

Maybe AI's one of those things where you absolutely take a negative stance on no matter which part of the net you're in and regardless of your actual feelings on it

Seems like the diplomacy move in general

[cerulean monolith]

Taking a position for the sake of maintaining other people’s opinions is the same as not taking a position at all

[hot gate]

I mean, as an artist, I most easily recognize it in visual media, I bet authors most easily reognize it in text, same for music.

[knotty pasture]

Probably yes, though I feel like a lot of disagreements are avoided if AI bros would simply feign a stance rather than chanting about being pro AI

[swift wren]

ChatGPT, write me a hate comment

[knotty pasture]

You aren't just angry -- you're seething!

[hot gate]

At least even Chris Cox is now only continuing to say how much he uses AI in his own private campaigns instead of mandating that it be shoved into D&D as a whole.

[delicate owl]

Ah yes. The AI talk again. Wonderful.

[tidal bough]

Anything monetary should not be ai imo, if its for personal use between yourself and friends sure.

I generally stick to only ai art being allowed as dnd is for the most part about the story and not the art.

[tidal bough]

It always pops up every now and then

[hot gate]

It's almost like it's one of the most revelant issues right now!

[minor cargo]

As frustrating as it is, I think it's a topic that needs to be talked about more, not less.

If you don't talk about it, someone else will do the talking for you.

[delicate owl]

Its almost like this is for talking about dnd, not AI.

[fierce sparrow]

Like ai

[minor cargo]

They were talking about D&D - specifically how AI is impacting their games.

[hot gate]

We're explicitely talking about it in the context of D&D

[delicate owl]

Were. It began to be commentary about AI as a whole.

[knotty pasture]

You are free to report you know lol

[tidal bough]

Its still in the context of dnd in the messages that im able to currently see

In anycase now its getting off topic

[severe rampart]

oh my, what a topic to come back to

[delicate owl]

Anywho. Watdeeep Heist game today. Might be finally time to transition into Mad Mage.

[hot gate]

You're free to contribute your own part to the discussion, or perhaps even to bring it back to D&D, if you have something to share. Otherwise, perhaps let the mods do their job.

[tidal bough]

Ive heard mad mage is reasonably grindy but havent tried it myself yet

Anyone else able to give thoughts?

[tender fossil]

Mad mage is a strange one because it feels like a bunch of unconnected adventures welded together

[minor cargo]

I think there is still the possibility of using LLMs and generative AI in a way that would make sense for a D&D table. For example: I think a lot of groups would find a bot helpful for session summary notes - especially if they were requested and not "pushed". A lot of players really enjoy taking notes and sharing them, but a lot of groups often lack a "note taker" so taking notes is tedious for them.

And I think that's the main, core thing I feel when I talk about genAI in our games: is it taking away tedium? Often, it's not. The way it's used now, it takes away a lot of the fun I have with the game.

[fierce sparrow]

I want to play it myself

[knotty pasture]

Its kind of like video game cheats in a way isn't it, you take a stance against it and don't actively endorse using it in public scenarios, but for private use like note taking its safe

[severe rampart]

At best, AI is a note taker, that's it, and that's pushing it

[livid owl]

I used to tolerate players using AI art and generally if they don't generate it themselves I'm meh to it, but every time I see someone using it I think about how it will be completely unaffordable to build/own a computer in the very near future. And I think to myself. What a horrible world .

I've also had someone generate art of one of my characters before and it. Mmmm . It itches me

DND is about creativity I just don't understand phoning in said creativity by having Cleverbot do it for you 😭

Your point is possibly the only somewhat valid implementation of AI I can see in DnD but gods it is not worth it

[tender fossil]

The way it's written you can pull just about any level out run it as its own dungeon. I think there's only two that actually reference each other

[swift wren]

There is a technical side to the usage of AI, like translation, rules clarification and language analysis that was a pain before, especially for peope with English as 2nd+ language, understandable usage here. Any art, creative content and similar made by ai is unwanted as it takes things away from the game.

[tidal bough]

Hmm i suppose thats a fairly reasonable way to observe it for note taking in dnd, a enable humans as opposed to replace.

However I do feel that there is an inherently large difference between taking your own notes and pushing it off to another person/tool.

[severe rampart]

oh if someone AI generates my characters I'm leaving that campaign immediately

[hot gate]

Given that even the notetaking often involves uploading private information for processing to a companies servers and how they will absolutely use it for training, I don't even see that usecase favorably, unfortunately.

[delicate owl]

Im just a player, but I am excited for the transition into it. Never played it myself.

[severe rampart]

This too

[livid owl]

It was my first ever campaign and the DM told him not to do that again so it wasn't super bad, but yeah no when I joined a game and the DM was like 'i hope you don't mind me ai generating your character!' and I get in there and there channels..upon channels.. of ai images it . I just couldn't do it.

She was nice but ohhhh I just couldn't do it

[minor cargo]

Agreed. Kind of the part I didn't say explicitly was that we have to revamp our entire LLM structures to make this palpable. If our note takers are actually "data scrapers and we give you this fun little note feature at the end :)", we haven't really made the situation better.

[fierce sparrow]

Anyone in here have any experience playing a thief rogue

[severe rampart]

Even this, AI can be very wrong at times, even with the state of it now, especially with translation.

[tidal bough]

Not yet but I do plan on running a centaur thief rogue

[dry lichen]

I just started doing a thief rogue

[livid owl]

That goes INSANE with the climbing speed feature of the class LMAO

[fierce sparrow]

That lv 13 ability though

[dry lichen]

I’m a talking horse

[tidal bough]

Reflavoring the thief side as a ranger sort of thing that runs through the trees

[livid owl]

Oh that's actually really cool

[sudden seal]

I have a specific build I want, and a lot of the specifics are a little hard to explain without sounding like an I win character.

[hot gate]

Spider horse, spider horse 🎶

[knotty pasture]

The horse actually being able to climb at all is impressive in itself

[severe rampart]

Halfling with lucky as my prediction, perhaps a bard or a rogue?

[swift wren]

True

[fierce sparrow]

Has anyone read the level 13 ability use magic device

[dry lichen]

It’s amazing plus no one expects a horse when stealing

[tender fossil]

It could be a Skyrim horse

[livid owl]

Speaking of spiders I still want to play a neogi in a game sometime, or perhaps just some sort of alien..... But neogi is DND based so easiest to pitch methinks

I finally have a personality for them I think would be fun playing

[hot gate]

Statistically very likely, yeah

[delicate owl]

My stance on AI for a d&d is simple. If its for personal use only, and not something you use to develop every inch of your character, idc.

I personally use something that shows you where it pulled from, so you can look at the original artists, which I do.

But otherwise, yeah. The way it is being handled now is not the right way. Luckily, it is failing. AI is only used for personal use successfully and commercial use is being called out immediately and is a losing battle financially. For coding, notetaking, ideas and refinement of mundane tasks, it would be nice (if it lacks all of the privacy concerns). A tool is only good if used in the right way, and AI is definitely a tool.

[tidal bough]

Guard 1: "hahaha bro watch me shoot that horse looking thing"

Guard 2: "hahaha do it bro"

Guard 1: shoots

Centaur: runs at mach 5 up the tower walls using longstrider, movement, dash, cunning action dash

[minor cargo]

Oh, this is another good use of genAI that I think could be implemented.

So D&D Beyond's search is generally... okay. Serviceable. But if you can track what people search for and where they actually navigate to, you can start understanding where you can improve your search tools and efficiencies. For example, with the right genAI model, you can probably see that "stunning strike" searches usually end up with the user manually going to the PHB 2024 to find information - so that should probably come up first, instead of the 2014 basic rules (which is the behaviour now).

[livid owl]

LOSING it lmao

[tender fossil]

Look up aranea. The original spider DND race

[sudden seal]

Custom dwarf subspecies. Royal family magic item that serves as a bostaff that can bonk someone, transform into a trident that shoots water, transform into a spear that makes minor quakes, and at max awakening, a Geyser.

[tidal bough]

Could always reflavor a centaur as a drider situation ngl

[dry lichen]

Lmao I can’t breath but perfect scenario

[buoyant oar]

Calishite spider people my beloved

[sudden seal]

Each of these are different awakening stages

[tidal bough]

I either want it to be a centaur or thrikreen reflavored

[fierce sparrow]

Ok so im a thief rogue and I pick up a lv 9 spell scroll i can use it now

[dry lichen]

But not a centaur just a regular looking horse that talks no magic

[severe rampart]

not an instant win

[snow zephyr]

Thri-Kreen because having that on Athis would effectively make you mansa musa

[severe rampart]

wait till you see a Nova build bard...

[tidal bough]

Truuu just play a centaur but its just a horse with a horse head with arms growing out of their neck

[knotty pasture]

Rather than an I win character this sounds much closer to a custom homebrew magical weapon instead

[livid owl]

It actually isn't the spider element I want but rather the alien element. Neogi just have the most appealingly inhuman body plans for an alien race in DnD (and their brutal society is also fun to explore)

[snow zephyr]

Horse body with arms for legs

[sudden seal]

I call them tunnel dwarves. Smaller than normal dwarves and live in swamps.

[knotty pasture]

There's no mention of the subrace's features so I assume its not that far off from whatever Dwarf subraces we have

[snow zephyr]

And a human face on a horse neck

[tidal bough]

This just reminds me of that one horse dating simulator game

[livid owl]

Though I definitely have considered just reflavoring a centaur with an alien skin before and still might do that

[fierce sparrow]

I did the whole super speed character monk thing found out spellcasters were just better

[sudden seal]

Higher alch limits, and a natural affinity for earth and water magic.

[dry lichen]

Yeah I tried that but for comedic purposes and fun it’s more fun doing horse things

[tidal bough]

My horse prince

[knotty pasture]

No one race leans towards a specific area of magic, that's mostly covered by classes and subclasses

I'm not sure what alch limits are lol

[snow zephyr]

Or for magitech you just have a wand of lightning bolt with a phone charger coming out the end

[tidal bough]

Well technically speaking some species have additional spells and resistances so some are slightly more magically inclined

[sudden seal]

Alcohol. And that weapon was used to carve out their homes.

[dry lichen]

“Wait let me charge my wand and cast lightning bolt”

[livid owl]

Yuan-ti my beloved (free Suggestion goes crazy)

[knotty pasture]

Stereotypical Dwarven culture do like their ale yes

[fierce sparrow]

Ok how about this i take the artificers equipment it now works for me

[knotty pasture]

But what you described sounds like a Dwarf Druid instead

[tidal bough]

I dislike that there arent more players that describe how their spells look, please players, if you cast a spell, describe what it looks like

Not an essay ofc but just a quick description

Flavor ts

[delicate owl]

Theme and flavor is nice for aure

[livid owl]

I'm bad about this tbh but I always assume unless the DM asks specifically about it it's more appreciated to let combat continue uninterrupted

[knotty pasture]

My Eldritch Blast is just me blasting people with rocks wrapped in snow

[fierce sparrow]

I actually have a thing that is still want to try and it involves combing spells in one turn with action surge thus casting two spells

[knotty pasture]

Snowball fights are funny when its lethal

[fierce sparrow]

For flavor

[sudden seal]

The only time I ever got to use it, the dm had the rest of the party stumble onto my home, and in the fight my character almost partywiped them as an introduction. By accident.

[tidal bough]

Same w/ martial characters as well (when I play a monk ill reflavor takedowns as nonlethal choke outs or knees/kicks etc.)

[livid owl]

You could just be a sorcerer and use sorcery points for twinned spell

[knotty pasture]

Yeah I see where the I win thing came from, taking the introduction and pvp aside I don't think one PC should be that overwhelmingly powerful compared to everyone else

[fierce sparrow]

That just allows you target more people with one spell

[tranquil temple]

What is everyone’s favorite offical adventure module?

[hot gate]

Rime of the Frostmaiden!

It's such a cool vibe and has many cool ideas (pun intended)

[livid owl]

Ohhhh
I guess you could technically get magic initiate on a fighter and do it that way?

[tender fossil]

Nights Dark Terror

[tranquil temple]

Interesting. I don’t think I know too much about that one

[livid owl]

I actually have not played an official module siiiince Saltmarsh I think?

Every module game I've played has been underwhelming compared to homebrew ones idk

[sudden seal]

Also, another thing I was worried I'd be yelled at over os the fact that my character is royalty, but I was wanting to solve that by having the tunnel dwarf culture demand an adventure from the heir as a proving.

[fierce sparrow]

Always wanted to nuke someone with double evocation over charged fireballs

[tranquil temple]

I searched it up and that one’s a classic. Whats it about?

[tidal bough]

Your game will be more interesting if you do 90% of the time, just dont overdo it.

I.e

Instead of
"Alright I hit him with inflict wounds he takes x dmg"

Its
"As a life cleric i cast inflict wounds as I place my hand outward and they feel a strange uncontrolled burst of healing magic which pours out as their cells burn inside their body and take x dmg"

[sudden seal]

This too much?

[knotty pasture]

No cuz the noble background exists

[tidal bough]

Helps sell that idea that youre a life cleric and that although its the same spell it achieves a reflavoring that matches the subclass you are

[livid owl]

Oh that's sick yeah
Really need to up my game lol

[knotty pasture]

Flavoring is also free so you can justify it however you want

[tender fossil]

It starts off with a fetch quest, and then ends up as a chase between you and some of the worst villains D&D ever had to get a McGuffin to a lost valley that you don't even know exists. It is adventure making at its finest It starts with a siege and then just goes up from there

[tidal bough]

It is, it makes you feel sick as well when you start flavoring your spells to your character

[tranquil temple]

Wow! Has anyone made a 5e or 5.5e translation of it?

[fierce sparrow]

Ok any barbarian rogue fans out there

[tidal bough]

Inflict wounds for a life cleric might look like that, for a light cleric it might be a burst of radiant light that burns the flesh into necrosis, war cleric might make an area go into a frenzy doing the dmg etc.

[mighty quartz]

could actually be pretty fun

[tender fossil]

Yes several times I'll see if I can find you a link. Because you need to play this at least once

[tidal bough]

Scorching ray can be described as arrows fired from a bow or something etc.

[knotty pasture]

Scorching Ray but you fire lasers from your eyes

[still plover]

Rogue barbarians? What's the synergy?

[fierce sparrow]

Im bit of expert i have played i think 3 or more

[tranquil temple]

I need to add it to my list of campaigns to play or dm!

[swift wren]

Nothing will ever beat the absoute audacity and brave design of Forest Oracle, I think there is a group on youtube playing it. Nothing even comes close.

[sudden seal]

Also, tunnel dwarves are, in my original plan, prey to giants and trolls and such. Hence the tunnels rather than extensive caves. The DM from before gave them the debuff of fear when against those. Not that I got to see it. The almost party wipe kinda stopped the adventure.

[fierce sparrow]

Raging sneak with rapier expertise with athletics

[signal imp]

Make them like a secret counsel that even kings and queens have to respond to

[mighty quartz]

i honestly have, never touched rogue LOL, but it does seem like a fun class to mix with

[minor cargo]

If you reckless attack, you have advantage (barring other factors). So that means you're "giving yourself sneak attack".

It's clever and works, but in practice IME it's a bit underwhelming. There's a lot of ways to get sneak attack without reckless attack.

[fierce sparrow]

Swash

[knotty pasture]

That and cunning action dash gives Barb some mobility too

[swift wren]

41 baboons with individual turns, characters having a 50% chance to miss a road that is properly paved and they can walk over it and still miss it. Great fun. Read like a fever dream, plays like a inside joke you are not part of, just chefs kiss

[mighty quartz]

combat that takes genuine days </3

[fierce sparrow]

So the recent thing I came up with is near a cliff sneak attack then knock someone down with a shove have them fall and jump off yourself on top of them and profit

[tranquil temple]

nightmare for everyone, dm and players included

[knotty pasture]

I was just joking about it with someone the other day over this, four Druids at level 9 with Conjure Animals can easily turn into a nightmare as they can summon a total of 64 animals at once

[tender fossil]

Have you tried up the garden path? It is a most challenging experience. The challenge being to make a coherent story out of it

[knotty pasture]

And assuming the animals from Conjure Animals become corpses rather than disappearing into thin air after, a Spores Druid can then raise zombies out of those corpses

[sudden seal]

Also, it didn't help that in order to give them the elements that DM made my Dwarf, which is strong on its own, A MONK

[knotty pasture]

I don't think that's the main issue here lol

Regardless of the class the power scaling on your end was way too much

You yourself are an entire adventuring team's worth of combat power, joining a team of average people

[swift wren]

Yepp, even had a copy tilll 2023 of it, absolute madness :,D

[severe rampart]

Curse of Strahd

[tranquil temple]

I’ve heard great things about this one. I’m waiting for that new expansion book to play it though.

[sudden seal]

Well, can you guys help me improve it?

[knotty pasture]

Send your character sheet on #character-discussion

[tender fossil]

If you want to challenge your DMing skills try Mark of Amber. A murder mystery in an absolute insane family. 48 named NPCs all with speaking parts. Instead of text boxes you get to play a CD. I don't recommend you playing this adventure with anyone who speaks even a little bit of French

[fierce sparrow]

Whats wrong

[sudden seal]

I lost it, most is memory only.

[knotty pasture]

Dude had a character that's powerful enough to almost TPK his own team on introduction in a 1v3(?)

[sudden seal]

1v2-3. Yes.

[fierce sparrow]

What was he a pre nerfed changling paladin

[swift wren]

I collected and played a lot of strange things in the last 20 years, and I just have a love for obscure and horriby made ttrpgs <3

No, for real, CoS might be the best dnd module out there, with the idea of Avernus being close to it but having a non-sensical length before it starts to go to hell (what we want), and things like Feywild and Obojima are great in theory, if you wouldn't play dnd

[sudden seal]

Custom dwarf monk with beeg metal stick

[knotty pasture]

What I can gather so far is to forget about the staff cuz that's v unlikely to make it in, and focus on your character instead as a Dwarf Druid (ideally Spores or Land), flavoring is free so you can explain your character as you like without making something new

[atomic moat]

I ran it as a DM up until they got on the whale to the Frost Maiden's island (forgot the name) and pretty much gave up on it there. It was fun when it was more of a sandbox but it felt like it was getting too linear. I'm about to start a Tomb of Annihilation campaign and I have higher hopes for this campaign than the Frostmaiden one.

[knotty pasture]

Spores Druid fits because its the most melee-centric of the Druid subclasses that also involves beating people with sticks if needed, while Land Druid fits the earth/water magic thing

[fierce sparrow]

So you vs 3 one was a druid and the other 2 were?

[sudden seal]

I don't remember. It was like a pirate campaign.

[fierce sparrow]

I mean if rolls are bad and people dont wanna win and dont know action economy anythings possible and you stunning strike so

If this was lv5 atleast

[knotty pasture]

Monk doesn't work as well cuz there's no earth/water magic in general unless you wanna go Four Elements (which has a fixed list of spells and isn't only focused on earth/water)

[sudden seal]

Nope. All level 1. Normal smacks. One got a concussion. The other lost their knees.

[fierce sparrow]

What does this metal stick do

[sudden seal]

As a normal stick, it's a bo staff. Awakening 1, it gains the ability to become a trident and shoot water. Awakening 2, it gains the ability to become a spear and make small quakes. Awakening 3, it becomes able to be a spear at the bottom, Trident at the top, and summon geysers when impaled in the ground. That last one was meant to be an endgame thingy.

It never got to awaken.

[torpid hound]

I despise when people create useless characters because it's "funny"
"Hahaha look at my Orc Wizard who has an intelligence score of 6 because he's an Orc, that's so funny, right?"

[swift wren]

Sounds like the person is having fun.

[torpid hound]

Grog (the Half-Orc Rogue) is an exception because it actually works

[woven flint]

I don't think I'd be having fun if I had a 6 Int Wizard in my party tbh

[fierce sparrow]

Orcs can be smart you just have to give up an eye

[thorn wedge]

I don’t mind intentionally bad characters for a one shot. I think it’s kinda crappy for bigger campaigns, especially if the party size is small because of the obvious risk of getting the party killed

[torpid hound]

My Orc is the wisest member of his tribe
Well, WAS. He got exiled in his backstory

[woven flint]

Making characters who can't do shit isn't fun for other players in a serious campaign

[wispy vector]

Me with my "tanky" no charisma sorcerer that uses 2 GFB's every turn and a ton of defense and utility spells that don't scale off cha

[torpid hound]

GFB?

[wispy vector]

Green Flame Blade

[torpid hound]

What's that?

[sudden seal]

@knotty pasture is this too broken? Each stage is meant to awaken as an adventure goes on.

[woven flint]

Me when I make a normal character that can function without magic items

[wispy vector]

A Cantrip where you make an improved melee weapon attack

[knotty pasture]

General rule of thumb is that you don't make homebrew custom weapons for your character

[thorn wedge]

Wouldn’t that be useless since the extra flame damage just does your spellcasting ability modifier

[torpid hound]

That actually works
I meant -2 Fireball

[sudden seal]

🥲

[knotty pasture]

Like how you can make John Wick in dnd but you don't literally bring his pistol to the campaign

Follow dnd rules by using what the game/campaign gives you

[swift wren]

Like rp homebrew stuff is alright. You want a trident with stats of a spear? There you go. When you cast Eldritch Blast you used this old artifact, a Revolver, go ahead. But mechanical things are generally spared

[torpid hound]

Doesn't DnD have a middle agea pistol? Or am I tripping?

[wispy vector]

The ability mod extra damage only affects the second target.
So against only 1 target the damage is the same, if not higher due to having maxed dex or str

[fierce sparrow]

Yah we're playing with ancestral weapons in my game Im a multiclassed barbarian again going thief this time its going to be funny when he can fly and use everyone's weapons

[knotty pasture]

It does have a pistol from the renaissance era

[sudden seal]

It was just a lore thing for the custom race. My apologies.

[knotty pasture]

Your lore can be explained via flavoring and backstory

Like how you don't need John Wick's modern era pistol to be John Wick (cuz he's not defined by his trademark pistol)

[woven flint]

You know, within my few years of playing
I don't think I've attempted to homebrew like.. anything lol

I just have fellas
And I'm chill with that

[mighty quartz]

my group of guys have slowly transitioned from vanilla dnd to like, basically entirely homebrew campaigns LOL?

[fierce sparrow]

Yah idk both have thier benefits

[mighty quartz]

its been a bumpy road though, first couple attempts at homebrew was balancing hell for the DM

[sudden seal]

What about a gauntlet that only fires hot water, but there has to be water nearby?

[knotty pasture]

I must repeat this again

Do not make custom gear for your character

[sudden seal]

Got it.

[thorn wedge]

If there’s something that you really want like that you can always work out a deal with your dm. I usually will deal with players who want something like that, as long as they are willing to give up something equivalent in return. A spell slot, an important ability score increase, etc.

[sudden seal]

I just thought a compromise. No matter.

[knotty pasture]

If you must, you're asking the DM if he's willing to let you submit your version of a custom weapon, and even then its up to when the DM hands it out to you

[mighty quartz]

LMAO he thought a good idea for a class was making a martial die that added dice instead of upgradin the face and we ended up with martial dies of like 12d10 by the end 😭 😭

[woven flint]

My Bladesinger Wizard is retiring because we just a killed a Dragon God and said God reverted back to an egg... and, he, being the father of a dragon (long story but involves the deck of many things) feels its his duty to raise the Formally evil Deity with virtue and love.

[fierce sparrow]

The best part is if the warlock borrows it and is like I think I'll keep this

[mighty quartz]

omelette?

[woven flint]

What?

[knotty pasture]

If my game ends up getting a Tankard of Plenty my Dwarf Barb will hoard it at any costs

It is their luggage to carry because they're the strongest even though its not even that heavy

[sudden seal]

Ok. I'll remember that. I'm gonna go fishing for a character sheet online that I can modify.

[woven flint]

Oh, no, destroying the egg wouldn't do anything to the Deity.
It'd just appear somewhere else in the world.
The gods domain is Inevitability afterall...

[fierce sparrow]

There's free one out thier

[sudden seal]

I need to write this character down so it can be tweaked.

[woven flint]

It's Inevitable that Oroboros rises again 🧐
The only thing that can change is the circumstances of his upbringing, which, I hope my Wizard can be a good Father figure lol

[fierce sparrow]

A puzzle we should put the egg somewhere it can't do anything

[knotty pasture]

Check out Spores/Land Druid

They fit your description best, leaning towards Land Druid

[woven flint]

Eh, the group has close association with deities.
Oroboros in this world, is a sibling to Bahamut and though Oroboros hated his brother in his last life... I don't think I'd want to take away a chance for brothers to reunite.
He won't have his memories after rebirth anyway

[fierce sparrow]

I guess this might work

[woven flint]

Fun Fact: in actual lore, Bahamut DOES have a brother.
Null, the God of Entropy.
But Null was reverted back to a greatwyrm as a punishment for his evil deeds, I believe?

[spring light]

My character is going to a cooking contest,can't cook, has marvelous pigments.
Draws Gordon Ramsey so he can help her cook.
Marvelous pigments can't make creatures.
My character now has a cardboard cutout of Gordon Ramsey to motivate her

[knotty pasture]

Light or Forge Cleric, and if the latter, must I use heavy armor

[fierce sparrow]

So that subclass gets fireball right

[swift wren]

"The rules are meant to be RAAAAAAWW"

[knotty pasture]

Light gets Fireball yea

[fierce sparrow]

But what about forge

[woven flint]

Forge is pretty good, yeah

[knotty pasture]

Elemental Weapon and Protection of Energy

[tribal notch]

Hello there

[spring light]

"I'm an idiot sandwich"

[fierce sparrow]

Just imagine twilight cleric with observant feat

I see all

[swift wren]

Me, trying to somehow find the last health potion I had to help our rogue who is dying only to realize he used that to make a glaze for his Filet Mignon.

[woven flint]

The Barbarian Raging because he accidentally broke his salt shaker

[fierce sparrow]

Has anyone tried using a lance

[woven flint]

Yes!
Only really good if you're mounted, otherwise it takes up two hands

[fierce sparrow]

I know I should try this out sometime

[woven flint]

But, when mounted its a one-handed weapon AND works with the dueling fighting style

[fierce sparrow]

And a 1d12 damage

[woven flint]

2024 rules nerfed it from a d12 to a d10 but it's still really good

It also gets the topple mastery

[fierce sparrow]

Huh that's weird does anyone remember the old sage advice

[sudden seal]

Should dwarves get a strength bonus? If so, how much?

[severe rampart]

I'm still thinking about that time I rolled a dirty 0 in medicine and used "mending" to superglue a guy's severed arm back

[woven flint]

I speak from experience because I play a fighter that does mostly mounted combat

He WAS a Cavalier, but we changed his subclass to Battlemaster because I felt it just worked better with the support knight-esque feeling I was going for

[severe rampart]

I have fought against NPCs that use mounted combat, they are annoying to deal with

[woven flint]

He currently has
Commader's Strike, Goading Attack and Rally

[fierce sparrow]

If I were to ask you guys how shield master works and I said can I use my bonus action first to shove the opponent would you guys agree

[wispy vector]

I like that fighter is the only class that can make genuine use of every single ability score, depending on sub class

[woven flint]

Haven't had a horse for a few sessions because it perished, alas
He was my fighters childhood horse, so he really was devastated

It was a good few sessions in before he died though, at least.
Also, maybe helped with a bit of character development

He realized his quest to become a real knight like his Grandfather means potentially losing loved ones along the way

[sudden seal]

I'm about to put this file in #ddb-feedback so I can get help putting my character together better.

Because I can't upload it here

[woven flint]

He doesn't plan on losing anymore loved ones though
We've actually retreated from quite a few (like 2 or 3?) rough combats in the past because he didn't want patty members dying

A Knight should be heroic, but also.. wise 🧐

[sudden seal]

I'm trying to get help, but I can't send images anywhere.

[humble cairn]

Parenthood is a great adventure, but not usually the kind which D&D campaigns hold.

[onyx fable]

hello wats up

[hybrid girder]

Bored

[hybrid girder]

Though I did find some pals

Who like DND

[river vector]

How tf will I have my vampire BBEG feed while in disguise as a holy cleric and travelling with the party?

Just have the party find random corpses Ig

[knotty pasture]

Could be animals, could be dead bandits or something

They'd just have a weird eating schedule where they'd run off at night for some "exercise"

[hybrid girder]

Maybe the Tokyo Ghoul thing where they people though disguse it as regular food

[tender fossil]

You meet people along the way and some of them randomly go missing

[white gust]

hi guys!

[tender fossil]

Or get murdered by wolves

[river vector]

Feeding from the dead bandits the party kills could be a good idea, if they camp nearby.

[river vector]

this sounds like a good way to make it horrorish. Like they meet a merchants carvan, trade, the next day they go back, everyone is dead.

[river vector]

"A wild boar did it"

[knotty pasture]

Just cover up the puncture wound

[onyx fable]

and u didn't?

[hybrid girder]

didn't what?

[river vector]

OOH A party member is a warlock of an eldritch entity but is keeping it secret. I could draw strange symbols in the dirt, frame Warlock!

[hybrid girder]

OH No I like DND

[rotund thunder]

Assuming nobody in the party is a species that remains conscious while "asleep" like elves or warforged, you could just have them do it while the party is asleep. My bigger questions are why is this vampire NPC going to travel with the party, are they meant to be a good or bad person, and most importantly how are they handling the whole sunlight thing?

Also yeah the Tokyo Ghoul thing with humanoids disguised as regular food also works

[river vector]

None stay conscious, and the vampire NPC is the BBEG travelling in disguise with the party to spy on them and try to see if they would make good allies. The sunlight thing is being handled by a ring that may or may not be suspicious to the party (detect magic would reveal it to be some sort of magical ring)

[rotund thunder]

Sweet, sounds like a great time!

[river vector]

furthermore, if they encounter a house or river, the other vulnerabilities would be a dead giveaway

[rotund thunder]

I've actually had similar issues cause I love including vampires in my games

[river vector]

Yeah, I'm eagerly awaiting this sunday.

[hybrid girder]

Man I wanna play a game with vampires now

[severe rampart]

the cliffhanger every session really gets me every time

[rotund thunder]

The funniest possible outcome is one of your players is inevitably a thief who steals the ring with no idea what it does and the BBEG burns to death the next day

[river vector]

In that case one of my backups would have to be used lmao

or there's this whole drama with. "GIVE IT BACK"

[tender fossil]

I ran the adventure night of the Vampire for some players and had to change the villain turns out he was actually a werewolf that was really good at staging crime scenes

[rotund thunder]

The real problem I had when I was considering the party briefly meeting with vampires was considering how they handle the whole resting place thing. There's no mechanical rules for it, but the usual lore is they must sleep in their resting place during the day

[river vector]

I think BBEG would have enough time to use planeshift to escape burning to death

[rotund thunder]

And I was curious how a vampire would transport their large suspicious coffin as they go places

[river vector]

It's 20 radiant damage per turn, no? Out of 200 hp that's quite enough time

[rotund thunder]

Oh easily

[river vector]

Now I am curious as well lol

[rotund thunder]

Hopefully your players have fun with it! In my experience, secret villains either never get noticed no matter how many hints I drop, or the party figures ou tthe secret villain immediately

[tender fossil]

Disguise the coffin as a steamer trunk

[rotund thunder]

Once, I had a villain give them payment that I later revealed was old timey coins from a lost empire that aren't accepted anywhere, and they just brushed it off as a mistake or a thing to ask about next time they met him

[river vector]

I'm glad I made this villain a mere (
juiced up) spawn, so no coffin restriction during the day im pretty sure.

[rotund thunder]

It's your world and lore, so it can work however, but spawn usually also have coffins/resting places

it's not like, a hard requirement, I was gonna use Astarion as an example

[river vector]

I see. Well I will just ignore that lol

[rotund thunder]

but he's kind of an exception in a lot of ways cause of the tadpole issue

[river vector]

lmao they must really have liked this character

[rotund thunder]

No it was just that the players were not invested at all and genuinely didn't care about the game that much to be honest

cause I tried to get my regular friends into DND, and all but 1 or 2 of them didn't care much for the game and I should've realized that sooner

[vernal owl]

disguise the coffin as a cabinet or like a really big chest and attach some wheels on it when you wanna move it maybe 😭

[rotund thunder]

I guess that works???

[river vector]

Sadly too common

[tawdry sentinel]

Normal coffin in a black coach, transporting the body back to their familial home for a funeral.

[river vector]

they would see right thorough this I feel

[rotund thunder]

How quickly your players see through your villains tricks is a factor that heavily depends on how attractive the villain is

Also, to be fair, a coffin doesn't have to look like a coffin

[glad arch]

Hot villain is still obvious but gets a pass because the bard is trying to seduce them every chance they get

[rotund thunder]

I guess a smart vampire looking to travel would just change their coffin/resting place to look like something less conspicious and fill it with other stuff to make it seem like a regular container

[river vector]

I mean... attractive vampire spawn in disguise as holy cleric. This could work to them lol. I know monk wants to romance every villain I throw at him.

[tawdry sentinel]

Fake bottom of the coffin with a recently deceased travel snack in the first compartment adds the air of legitimacy.

[river vector]

Clever.

[rotund thunder]

The Dio technique

[vernal owl]

oo im curious how theyre avoiding to use actual clerical powers while disguised as one.. (assuming vampires cant cast holy spells)

[rotund thunder]

well, the double fake coffin bit at least

[woven flint]

Not all healing magic is holy

[vernal owl]

oh

[normal junco]

"You misunderstood. I said I do clerical duties. Paperwork."

[woven flint]

Also!
Mummy Lords can cast Clerical spells just fine
And they're undead

(Also keep in mind that not all deities are "Holy" either)

A Vampire cleric could most definitely work

[vernal owl]

i see, i was under the impression that the healing looks different based on who cast it

[vernal owl]

lmfao thats smart

[river vector]

The vampire is not actually of the cleric class, (Even though it would be easy to make it so) they will cower and pretend to be scared when combat begins, (Even though goblins are nothing to them) leaving the fighting to the party. Basically a complete fraud, will just say mumbo jumbo about the gods to the party.

[hidden spindle]

Regenerate Chicken Tenders~

[normal junco]

yet inspired by my dumb as a stump orc barbarian who doesn't understand the difference between a cleric and a clerk.

[vernal owl]

ah yes nothings stopping a vampire from actually being a cleric, i was just making assumptions that an undead cant harness holy magic 😭

[woven flint]

Which is surprisingly not the case

[river vector]

Like this vampire is a former hunter of undead, perhaps they should have some radiant powers?

[woven flint]

Honestly?
Might make an actual vampire cleric one day

Vampire Cleric, Lich Fighter and Mummy Lord Wizard lmao

[vernal owl]

interesting! im sure it would make for a super cool reveal

[hidden spindle]

Does a full blown 'humanoid' Skeleton with a Shortsword & Shortbow spawn from Animate Dead on Chicken Wing Bones from last meal?

Or a 'Chicken' skeleton with a Shortsword & Shortbow?

[cobalt owl]

Clank

[river vector]

"the gods directed me to find you!" "Give me your hair so I can use it in a holy ritual!"

ten guesses what the vamp would use the hair for lol

[normal junco]

wigs

[river vector]

nah my vamps ain't nosferatu

[normal junco]

to sell them at a profit

[woven flint]

CLAN-

sorry, I'm not that person anymore.. I can't...

[river vector]

Hair? Profit? lol

[normal junco]

wigs at a profit

[vernal owl]

dont underestimate the hair market

[river vector]

nemesis BBEG plan. To control the hair market.

Perhaps one day lol

[normal junco]

just get all the nobility to think wigs are trendy.