dnd-discussion

[flint ledge]

Don't Githyanki use red dragons in the FR?

[woven flint]

Yes!

[obtuse stratus]

Nah, just made old dragons smart, and the rest bestial

[woven flint]

But Githyanki and Red Dragons go waaaay back

[humble cairn]

They do, as part of a pact their culture hero made a long time ago.

[uncut zenith]

Yes, but that’s due to a pact between the Githyanki’s leader and Tiamat

[flint ledge]

Ah I see.

[uncut zenith]

Those red dragons don’t necessarily act as a mount out of their own free will (though some might because every dragon has an individual personality), they do it because they were commanded to by their goddess.

[woven flint]

Some Dragons are born with more intelligence than the average person lol

[small heath]

Speaking of dragons: if I am a Circle of the Dragon druid, when I wildshape into one am I still considered humanoid or am I monstrosity?

[woven flint]

White Dragons are an exception, but even then, I think they have average intelligence when they're Wyrmlings

[flint ledge]

I do find it sad a lot of dragon variations were left in old editions

[vale sage]

Happy Saint Patrick Day!!

[uncut zenith]

Circle of the Dragon sounds like homebrew, so we wouldn’t really be able to say

[small heath]

It's a 3rd party

Not homebrew

[flint ledge]

Now we gave chromatic and metallic dragons unless I'm wrong

[uncut zenith]

From what book?

[woven flint]

Oh! Speaking of

My Tortle Cleric drew the Dragon Card from the Deck of Many More Things and now he's a Copper Dragons Dad lol

[small heath]

Griffon's iirc

[uncut zenith]

We also have a #third-party channel. But I’ll be honest, if it’s not a popular third party book, idk if you’ll get a lot of help

[woven flint]

Two of my characters have drawn the Dragon Card

It was fate for them to be fathers even if they never married

[flint ledge]

Actually I guess there's some other dragon variations in Fizban's

[clever fulcrum]

does anyone happen to know where i can find a group to play wit rn? im new to d&d and i heard there's these things called one shots? i just really want to play!

[flint ledge]

What is a dragon turtle even classified as actually? Is it just a non of the above thing?

[uncut zenith]

Dragon turtles are dragons

[harsh hinge]

Read #find-a-game!

[flint ledge]

I mean yeah but chromatic or metallic or just neither

[uncut zenith]

Neither

[clever fulcrum]

thank you!!!

[uncut zenith]

Not all dragons fall into the chromatic, metallic, or gem subcategories

In the same way that not all fiends fall into the devil, demon, or yugoloth subcategories

[flint ledge]

Oh yeah succubi don't right?

[uncut zenith]

Succubi/incubi, night hags, and iirc rakshasas don’t fall into fiendish subcategories

[woven flint]

It'd be so funny if Artanza (Tortle Cleric) got turned into a Dragon Turtle

Oh! His Copper Wyrmlings name is Ryndellu
She's an awesome little lass

[flint ledge]

Thinking about it, having a campaign on one really freaking big ancient dragon turtle sounds fun

[woven flint]

Gigantic Turtle friend

[uncut zenith]

iirc the new DMG actually has an art piece of a dragon turtle with a city on its back

[woven flint]

Turtles are the most epic creatures ever

Turtles and Crabs
Very neat critters

[flint ledge]

New idea: Crab Dragon

[bronze canopy]

You would normally wildshape into a beast. But in this case you become a dragon. Watch out for dragon-slayer weapons!

[glossy otter]

I'll do you one better, a Krakgon

[woven flint]

The Crab Dragon of wisdom

The Krabgon

[small heath]

Thanks!

[glossy otter]

Why am I thinking of that eldritch dragon from shang chi

[woven flint]

With 2024 Wildshape, your creature type stays the type it was previously

[glossy otter]

The Dweller in Darkness

[flint ledge]

I mean I suppose it depends with what rules the 3rd party content was written in mind

[woven flint]

The Krabbagedon

[bronze canopy]

My bad. You do maintain your creature type. Thanks

[bronze canopy]

It seems that what I said might only apply to 2014 rules

[small heath]

My campaign context is 2014 anyways so it works

[glossy otter]

his cultists just call him Mr. Krabs

[copper parcel]

hi every one i am new in d&d and i was making a background but i am someone whose English is his third language could someone check my backstory about my character

[flint ledge]

I wonder how many unique monsters you can get by just fusing something with a dragon

[copper parcel]

because no idea how it is

[glossy otter]

Technically it's just a matter of dr monroeing two creatures together

[glossy otter]

#character-discussion should be able to help you out with that one

[copper parcel]

ok thanks

[glossy otter]

Now I'm just imagining it, a chimera mixed with a medusa

[flint ledge]

Feels like you'd get some weird basilisk out of it

[kind bramble]

Ended up writing to my dm im uncomfortable with it no longer being weekends only and that if we are gonna add weekdays I can't, that id like my character to get a wandering role. Cuz last session ended with her splitting from the party already so the narrative is there. (That'd make my character more like ada in resident evil. Showing up to help occasionally, when weekends are chosen, and doing her own thing when weekdays are chosen)

Essentially putting clear boundaries when im available

Fingers crossed she accepts that. And hoping it was the appropriate thing to do

[remote wadi]

Protection from Evil and Good?

[empty thicket]

The best protection from evil is stakes with the heads of your enemies

[humble cairn]

Pretty sure Nothic means that while they are Fiends, they aren't classified as Demons, Devils, Yugoloths, or Demondands, etc.

[remote wadi]

Was a half joke

Anyways, anyone know good ways to find a PbP campaign? Feels really hard to find them

[minor cargo]

I asked this question a while back, but I'm going to ask it again with a fresh audience if that's okay!

I have a new NPC the party is getting to know, V.
V is an old flame of another NPC J. J is romantically involved with a PC.

Here's the conflict: V feels like J betrayed them years and years ago, resulting in V's death. V was resurrected and has since moved on; in fact, they're a member of The Harpers (notoriously good guy faction).

V specifically is holding on to the belief that J needs to experience what they did. That is, V wants to murder J and then pay for the resurrection. They think this will not only settle any leftover bad blood, but give J a new perspective on life - just like it did for them.

How would your characters react in this situation? 👀

[flint ledge]

Speaking of weird basilisks, I bet a fusion of a dragon and a basilisk would make for one hellish monster

[knotty pasture]

Roll for intimidation that if V tries to pull some Bhaalist crap on J, they're not getting revived when they get chopped down

(Maybe rolling for intimidation with 10 cha as a Barb isn't such a good idea...)

[remote wadi]

Don't they get advantage?

[tender fossil]

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Dracolisk

[knotty pasture]

No class gets advantage baseline I don't think

[tawdry sentinel]

Raging barbarian can use strength for intimidating from level 3 and has advantage on strength checks

[knotty pasture]

Isn't rage a combat action only

As in you can't rage while outside of combat

[tender fossil]

No now you can rage at any point because raging gives certain skill checks advantage like stealth and perception

[knotty pasture]

Oh right 2024, ofc

[river vector]

I had my players ask a adventurer what he was doing in town, he flatly said "I'm here to kill you." My players reaction was hilarious

[flint ledge]

That's actually much tamer than I thought it would be

[humble cairn]

"No murder is going to happen, but we will be locking everyone in a room, tied to chairs, until they talk it all out."

[tender fossil]

It was still a save or die, wasn't hard to get yourself killed back in the early editions

[flint ledge]

Oh yeah right 3rd edition

[remote wadi]

Not going to lie, I'm really starting to get the itch to play a good quality PbP campaign

[humble cairn]

I really really tried with PBP, but my brain seems to detest it.

It's something to do with the pacing and my attention span.

[minor cargo]

For me, it has to do with the "magic circle". That is, getting together over voice or in-person creates a "magic circle" where we can play and engage with D&D. PBP to me has a circle that's really hard to close, so I get less joy out of it.

[river vector]

Warlock was actually arguing that the evil undead kingdom that kidnaps people to experiment on their souls to find immortality are the good guys.

Saying they would "share" it

[balmy juniper]

.

[river vector]

He made a soul pact with the undead(separate from his patron) so I think he is just a bit biased.

[rare hull]

Eesh-

[glossy zenith]

Usually find character art through DeviantArt, ArtStation, and Tumblr, where there are lots of human artists. Games like BG3, Skyrim, or Sims with mods work too. Pinterest is tricky now because of AI, but if you check sources. Are you looking for an artist to commission?

[lofty tide]

no i'm not, i don't have the money to spend on character art (especially knowing the prices a bit-)
but thanks for reminding me of the xistence of deviantart and tumblr. Didn't know of artstation either

[minor cargo]

I've mentioned it a few times in the past, but "commissioning" art can of course mean paying cold, hard cash. But it doesn't have to.

Depending on the people you know, sometimes you can "trade" for art. For example, I might offer to edit someone's writing (in terms of both technical writing but also giving game design feedback) - and maybe some art in exchange is fair. Likewise, I know people who will trade music they created or voice work they've done. It's all good so long as everyone feels like it was fair in the end.

So even more options. ✌️

[undone rain]

I think one of the few moments when an oath is broken for the sake of good is the oath of the crown as many monarchies can be corrupt

[glossy zenith]

Totally get that commissions can be expensive But the cool thing about DeviantArt, Tumblr, and ArtStation is that you don’t have to spend a dime! You can still find tons of character references, outfit ideas, and poses for free. It’s a super easy way to get inspo and build your characters without paying anything. Honestly, just browsing can spark ideas you might not have thought of

[lofty tide]

i'll give that a look!
i still need to get an actual idea of the global appearance of my character first x) so thanks for the tips-

and yeah, i've heard orf art trading before, but to partake in that i'd need to be able to do any form of art-

[glossy zenith]

Haha, yeah, getting a clear vision of your character first makes everything else easier. And don’t worry about art trading, sometimes even rough sketches or simple designs can count, it doesn’t have to be super polished.

[torpid hound]

What if you cast Disguise Self as the BBEG and then cast Friends on Asmodeus?

[umbral girder]

Doesn't he have true sight?

[rough basalt]

ye

[torpid hound]

Does he even have a stat block?

[rough basalt]

Ye

[umbral girder]

Chains of Asmodeus

[rough basalt]

Its in a charity book adventure but yeah

[crimson gulch]

yeah good luck bluffing the lord of lies

[umbral girder]

He can summon Zariel and Tiamat as a lair action

[rough basalt]

Even if he didn't him having truesight would be expected

Can't be the King of the Hells and Lord of Lies if you can be deceived by simple magic tricks

In fact, you trying to deceive him was already part of his plans.

[lofty tide]

yeah- i have the class, subclass, and a tiny bit of backstory figured out so far, but no species or appearance x) that would be the first step imo lmao

[wispy vector]

If you're an abjuration wizard and take the Eldritch Adept feat to spam mage armor to always keep your ward topped off, couldn't you abuse that and become a really solid healer with Life Transference?

[torpid hound]

Real life alignment is way more complicated than D&D alignment, I legit got "True Neutral" when I took a test

[rough basalt]

In 2014 that seems the case but I'd be prepared for the dm to vetoe it.

As it was probably likely unintended for free spells to work for it.

Cause in 2014 multiclassing was an optional rule and Eldritch Adept came out in Tashas.

[wispy vector]

I mean you could also choose any random Lv. 1 or 2 abjuration spell as your free spells at Lv 18.

[crimson gulch]

i ruled that the wording on life transferance did not hit temp HP because it says it can’t be reduced in any way

[rough basalt]

Ye but that's at level 18

Seems like they had Sage Advice made for it where they said that is intended but that was posted before Tashas came out and let you get warlock invocations without multiclassing.

[wispy vector]

The ward isn't providing Temp HP and has its own seperate HP though.

But I definitely get your point

[rough basalt]

Infinite HP hacks and stuff fell into the "we expect players to not abuse this stuff"

Which is why a lot of the new corebooks was changing wordings to be more clear and concise.

[glossy zenith]

Exactly nailing down the species and appearance first gives your character a solid body to build the rest of the story around. Everything else, backstory personality, quirks, fits more naturally after that

[humble cairn]

Fun fact, 5E doesn't have True Neutral as an Alignment.

[wispy vector]

I mean you'd still spend spell slots so it's not really infinite. (Unless you mean filling up the ward itself, then I understand.)

[torpid hound]

Is it just called Neutral?

[humble cairn]

It is.

[rough basalt]

Yeah I meant the ward

[torpid hound]

Whatever, me being neutral is nonsense

[rough basalt]

But there's a lot of stuff in 2014 that's abusable cause of poor wording, power creep, and common rule mistakes.

[torpid hound]

And it also said I'm a Human Cleric... With 12 WISDOM

[woven flint]

That sounds horrid.

[torpid hound]

Ability Scores:
Strength- 10
Dexterity- 11
Constitution- 11
Intelligence- 13
Wisdom- 12
Charisma- 10

[woven flint]

Could've put the 13 in Wisdom 😭

[humble cairn]

The ability scores aren't realistic, so trying to personality test yourself into a D&D character isn't going to make sense.

[torpid hound]

I'm more smart than wise irl

[torpid hound]

I answered 140 questions for this

[humble cairn]

Okay?

[rough basalt]

If you play a character with those stats it's gonna be hard on your party sometimes.

Cleric can kinda get away with it cause of Bless

[torpid hound]

I'm obviously not gonna play that character

[lean wigeon]

i have 30 int and str and con and wis and dex and cha

[torpid hound]

Bro's Ao

[lavish flame]

checks out for a regular person tbh

[bronze wave]

nah commoner stats are way more cheeks

[echo ruin]

pretty sure a regular person is below 10 Strenght

[lavish flame]

commoner stats are just 10s across the board

[torpid hound]

I'm a rarer

[lavish flame]

so, like 13 being ur highest stat is reasonable to me

[torpid hound]

I'm pretty sure that's point buy

[woven flint]

Uncommoner

[lavish flame]

"I am better on average at one thing, in a barely quantifiable way" about makes sense

[torpid hound]

Anyways, what I was talking about at first was my alignment

It said I'm Neutral

[thorn wedge]

Not game breaking bad, but definitely will be a weaker character.

[burnt valley]

we yes WE love mixing flavor text with mechanical text

[lean wigeon]

say that again

[woven flint]

Breaking... Bad..

[torpid hound]

What

[lean wigeon]

themberchaud gained 1 calorie

[torpid hound]

What happened to the gif?

[lean wigeon]

do not do that again

[thorn wedge]

Waltuh…

[woven flint]

It was deleted because they don't allow gifs here
Themberchaud ate it

[lean wigeon]

he is on diet

[torpid hound]

What happens if the dragon is fed too many gifs?

[thorn wedge]

Obesity

[torpid hound]

Pete's Dragon

[woven flint]

Themberchaud is already obese 😭

The Duergar keep him fed so he powers their forge, I believe

[hollow stone]

kaboom

[orchid wyvern]

Hello guys i just discovered dnd and i wanna play i dont mind when and with who and i am a player i need a DM

[cosmic roost]

Ready to play Dungeons & Dragons?

Visit #find-a-game for everything you need to start your search, including:

• Instructions for finding a game here on the server (including how to post in our #looking-for channels).
• Suggestions for finding a game outside of this server.
• Basic advice to help you in your hunt.

[harsh hinge]

Follow the bot post to #find-a-game. It contains the info for using the server's Looking for Game/Group channels.

[orchid wyvern]

Thank you . Sorry

[empty thicket]

is in diet now in day, poor cant fly for how big his belly is

and even spitting his fire for weeks he dont burn all those calories

[river vector]

I love tempting my players to take the deal my Lich King is offering.

Of course if they take it, that means they can't take any action against the Lich King, or they die. But he also can't take any action against them, or he dies.

[bronze wave]

Id take that deal, id make him do smth dumb and he dies

[sudden hollow]

Guess who just found out he will be doing half damage for the foreseeable future😅

[fast latch]

How did that happen?

[sudden hollow]

Im the only party member who doesnt have constant magic damage. I have 2 smites and a fire rune

So now that enemies who are resistant to non magic damage are showing up... im kinda boned

My only magic item is a hat of disguise.

[fast latch]

Ask your DM for a magic weapon

Hell, you’re a Paladin, I think Magic Weapon is actually on the Paladin spell list

[sudden hollow]

Only lvl 2 paladin

And the 2 spellslots i have are for smites

[fast latch]

Your DM is throwing normal resistant enemies at you at level TWO?

[sudden hollow]

Level 5

Im lvl2 paladin. Lvl 3 rune knight fighter

[fast latch]

That seems a little unfair- okay level five is more reasonable

[sudden hollow]

Tbf. I beat the chain devil to death dealing 1d8+1 +1d6 damage that it resisted

And I barely took any damage😅

[torpid hound]

It's recommended that you don't multiclass until you reach level 5 in your first class

[sudden hollow]

Our campaign is rather short. We are ending it in 3-t more levels so I was trying to get the foundation for the build early

By the end if we reach lvl 10 before the campaign ends, I will be lvl 4 paladin lvl 6 fighter

[torpid hound]

Then why did you start with Paladin?

[sudden hollow]

That was honestly a mistake😅 but it was too late to change it

This character entered at lvl 5 after I retired my first one

[bronze wave]

Id also ask your dm just again to look into a magic item and have that be smth you get down the road

[sudden hollow]

Well its not that he hasnt been giving them out.. my party just keeps taking them and I dont wanna upset them by pointing out they each have 3 and I have a hat of disguise that I didnt even get intentionally. My dumb character just picked up the chaindevils hat and put it on

Our bard has... 4 or 5 magic items now. Goblin has 3, paladin has 2 or 3, and warlock turns any weapon he wants into one. Plus he has gotten stuff too

[sudden hollow]

If I didnt have giants might I would have been ducked. Only dealing 1d8+1 damage lol

Got timed out for a second.. thats probably gonna be a recurring problem

[bronze wave]

ngl dude, i think you should talk to your party?

very easy fix here

they might not know or blah blah reason

[glass granite]

Might not be that easy, but it’s that simple. Just gotta communicate with your party

[sudden hollow]

Thats the issue im am very shy in person.. my characters rarely speak cause of it😅 i have gone 4 sessions where the only things I said were my characters actions in combat

And even though im hardly dealing damage im still doing my job and absorbing it. And everyone else is having fun

[jolly agate]

Hello

[glass granite]

Your party ain’t mind readers, unless you tell them they aren’t gonna know. I understand it’s difficult but…it’s just as minor as “hey can I have that magic item” when you see another one you like.

[sudden hollow]

I definitely would have loved the cloak of protection

That would set my ac to 22 currently, 23 next level, and 24 when I get halfplaye

Halfplate

[bronze wave]

You have how much ac holy shit lol

[bronze wave]

or just bring it up with a current item, like hey this item works well for me if you dint need it

[severe rampart]

Might be playing a monk?

No wait, if he wears armor, no unarmored defense... then maybe fighter

[bronze wave]

its a paladin echo knight

[cerulean monolith]

Breastplate, 14+ DEX, a shield, and Defense fighting style gets you to 19. Make the breastplate or shield +1 and throw in a Ring of Protection and you get 21.

[river vector]

Hello Cow Latrell (I am not insulting him)

[burnt valley]

Forge cleric + Defense fighting style from fighter + Warforged

[jolly agate]

Hiii

[river vector]

I've been writing up the powers that my dnd players would get by making a deal with The Lich King. Tempting them lol.

[jolly agate]

did u kill the monk yet?

[river vector]

Nah we only play once per week, and he didn't show this time.

Even if he did show, I wouldn't permakill him for insulting the lich

He would meet the goddess of death, get a quest to get his life back.

[jolly agate]

that sounds hella cool ngl

[river vector]

Thanks.

[glass spindle]

Would I be able to run my (partly) homebrew boss by someone? I'm wondering if it's too strong for its cr

[glad arch]

#homebrew

[glass spindle]

Oh ty

[primal wolf]

I had a PC like this once and the GM basically just threw saves at me 24/7

[severe rampart]

I can't wait till my battlemaster is strong enough to survive a fireball, that way I can just keep doing that

[glad arch]

Thats why you play paladin

[primal wolf]

Nah I don't like playing martials

[severe rampart]

Had an encounter where the party was in 3 tiles, I had to restrain myself to not use fireball, they were bunched up in that small corner

(To clarify, I'm the DM)

[remote wadi]

Ranger, though

Also, it's really unfortunate that we can have enemies grouped up all the time. We need to normalize enemies also being in a straight line

[primal wolf]

As long as the enemies aren't always sat 30ft equidistant apart I'm cool with it

[crimson gulch]

Do it, cast fireball

[obtuse stratus]

I have to agree eith my brutal DM compatriot. Cast fireball.

[severe rampart]

I wanted to, so so bad

but here was the situation
Cleric - 7 hp, Sorcerer - Max HP reduced to 7, Bard - 11 hp, Battlemaster - 13 hp, monk - 7 hp

[woven flint]

Should've killed them all

Teach them not to group up

[severe rampart]

the previous session I tpk'ed them

I didn't want two TPKs back to back

[woven flint]

Do it again
Send a message.

[severe rampart]

Also I've grown to be invested in their characters, as 4/5 of them are cursed right now

[obtuse stratus]

Right, this is 5e. Sorry, my bad. Maybe don't fireball them

[woven flint]

No, do it, fireball them
Instakill them from massive damage

[obtuse stratus]

If this were becmi, they deserved it. If it's 5e heavily consider doing it to instruct them

[severe rampart]

Lycanthropy for the Battlemaster, Curse of Strahd and Cursed Ring for the Monk, a curse from the Reborn, and of course, Entropy for the Sorcerer

[obtuse stratus]

But with their HP there, what 2nd level?

[severe rampart]

3rd level

[spice flame]

Hello

[severe rampart]

they were just really damaged

[obtuse stratus]

Yeah maybe don't be throwing fireballs at them yet

[woven flint]

Yeah, COS has a lot of max hp drain.

It's obnoxious, really

[severe rampart]

I like it, gives me way more opportunities to tempt them to accept a deal from a hag, etc.

[woven flint]

Majority of it goes away on Long Rests though or with greater restoration

[obtuse stratus]

I'd say "when they could take half damage and survive an average hit" smack them with the fireball

[severe rampart]

I'm the DM, the max hp won't reset on a long rest, instead there will be a different way...

[river vector]

I had my Lich call himself "The Plague" so now my Lich has undead swarms (: funny what improvising can do.

[primal wolf]

HP of a 14 con fighter at 3rd level: 28
average fireball damage: 28
Decent chance you're instantly downed from a fireball at 3rd

[blissful ibex]

Aura of Life is rather nice in CoS

[woven flint]

Honestly, it sounds like you just want your players to have a difficult time

CoS itself is already incredibly challenging (because encounters are bullshit)

[obtuse stratus]

I made my players go through 5 levels on no long rests. They didn't need them because I let a level be a full restore, but I think they were 16 hours into CoS

[river vector]

My players got unlucky with a fireball wild magic surge, I was sweating

[severe rampart]

I don't have to run the encounters as written, I change it, of course

[rough basalt]

Max HP drain staying around just sounds miserable

[woven flint]

Give Strahd a Boneclaw minion
Send a message.

[glossy otter]

do the swams live in them?

[blissful ibex]

We didn't have too much toruble with it with 4~5 players in 5e

[severe rampart]

So you're saying my battlemaster can survive a fireball (Has 34 hp)

[river vector]

Occasionally. Most of the time they act as a swarm that walks.

[blissful ibex]

we had a rounded party that mostly knew what they were doing though

[woven flint]

Your party isn't majority of parties

[rough basalt]

I'm theorizing in order to get their hp back they'll need to pay above table? A little bit of that cash

[primal wolf]

oh yeah they'd live if they had full hp outside of some truly henious luck

[glossy otter]

ngl you're making me think of the Lichen Lich

[flint ledge]

1 Dollar per hp

[woven flint]

Hell, the Animated Broom alone has caused more TPKs itself

[obtuse stratus]

Dude, that is RIPE fireball territory. I'd almost say that's 2 fireballs at a time territory

[rough basalt]

I've never seen a death in strahd hilariously enough

[severe rampart]

if only his teammates weren't right next to him, sitting at 7 hp

[river vector]

Seems similar, but different enough lol

[obtuse stratus]

They'll be fine. Sell themselves to the vestiges for a res and a quest

[river vector]

Doesn't CoS have "The Dark Powers" as a plot device? Use them.

[woven flint]

Well, the Dark Powers are what control the domains of dread and they REVEL in suffering

[obtuse stratus]

1 res- quest to complete for a particular vestige that takes interest in them 2 res- need to visit the vestige but granted a mark thematic to that vestige (eyes all over for example)

[severe rampart]

What would be a good pose for showing off marks on your forearm that's a curse from Strahd...

[rough basalt]

If it was a dark power to get hp back may as well die

[woven flint]

Nobody in the domains of dread permanently die unless the powers say so or they're outsiders, I believe

[primal wolf]

Real talk i get tired of AOE spam from DM's so fast. There's just very little I can actively do to avoid it because of how in most games everyone in the party starts right next to eachother on top of all the other annoyances that come with it

[rough basalt]

Cause you're gonna be stuck in the domains of dread forever otherwise

[glossy otter]

ngl I feel lichen lich's are underated

[obtuse stratus]

If the party starts together, aoe is bad form in the beginning of combat. But later....

[rough basalt]

They suffer from being an adventure book monster

[woven flint]

Make a deal with the Dark Powers that if you defeat Strahd, you take his place in Barovia as the Dread Lord (you'll be tormented for eternity, but hey, at least you get a cool castle!)

[glossy otter]

I mean I could see them being in a new monster manual since they're agnostic enough

[river vector]

Honestly I just like swarm that walks (not worm that walks) so I just fused that with my Lich.

[severe rampart]

oh wait, I've got a monk expert here!, Tokii, what's the coolest monk pose you can think of?

[rough basalt]

True, they should've been.

[blissful ibex]

5e (2014)

• Hill Dwarf: Grave Cleric
• Firbolk: Some sort of Barbarian or Paladin; switched classes part way through
• Reborn: Undead Warlock
• Goblin: Gloom Stalker Ranger
• Plasmoid: Swarmkeeper Ranger/ Spores Druid

[primal wolf]

for me it's always been: Roll init, maybe I win but the party sure doesn't vs the dragon, I move my max 30ft away, doesn't matter, whole party consumed in 60ft cone.

[woven flint]

None of my Monks are really flashy
Most are just.. humble fellows
They don't do posing or showing off

[severe rampart]

What campaign?

[blissful ibex]

CoS

[rough basalt]

My strahd party was
Light Cleric
Eldritch Knight
Vengeance Paladin
Moon Druid

[obtuse stratus]

100% rude. At least let the players set themselves on the map

[rough basalt]

We bodied the poor ||Shambling Mound||

It was Death House but not for us.

[river vector]

Need to plan for the party getting mushrooms from goblins for a wizard that uses them to see the future.

[glossy otter]

ngl it makes me think, what other classes could work as liches

[woven flint]

Honestly...
I think I'd be a Trickery Cleric in COS

[severe rampart]

Ooh, my party is interesting as well

• Grave Cleric Reborn
• Draconic Sorcerer Human
• Fire Goliath Monk
• Battle Master Elf
• Lore Bard tiefling

[rough basalt]

I do wanna see a PC die in strahd at some point

[primal wolf]

this has been like, standard form for every DM i've ever had for the last 6 years

[rough basalt]

It's on my bucket list

[woven flint]

Mask sent me to troll Strahd type beat

[primal wolf]

the 'rude' one kept trying to say that enemy casters could use a contingency of fireball to AOE us right as initiative was rolled

[severe rampart]

Ohh yeahh

[rough basalt]

Strahd felt pretty leisureful in my two tries

[river vector]

Don't they have to roll|| something if they die for over 24 hours, because they realize they are trapped in Barovia? ||

[severe rampart]

Really? ||Strahd's already eyeing out a PC of mine||

[blissful ibex]

#dnd-discussion message updated to have species c:

[woven flint]

We kicked his Ass in Eve of Ruin, but we were on his level lol

[rough basalt]

Unironically, Eve of Ruin is the most trouble I've had in a module in terms of sketchy combats here and there.

[obtuse stratus]

Did you discuss this with them? Because opening on an AoE on a party that is clumped together because it's the beginning of combat is poor form. That is the kind of thing a "I'm a strategic DM" does (read: "I like to kill my players and win at D&D")

[woven flint]

I like that Nealen is revamping the encounters a bit tbh

[primal wolf]

of the few times i brought it up i was largely shrugged at and told that's just how it be

[rough basalt]

I've flameskull fireballed a level 5 party twice in a room that's fireball sized on the 1st round of combat before

Was fun

[blissful ibex]

The very first attack roll of the entire campaign was an Opportunity attack made against our warlock
it crit
she had 7 max HP and it did 14 damage O_o

[severe rampart]

I'll only fireball my PCs, when they can survive a hit

[rough basalt]

I've used Contagion on a level 4 before

[obtuse stratus]

Nah, I think it's just rude to do that when the circumstances are largely out of the control of the adventurers. Now if they literally said "yeah we all walk into the room together and stay bunched up" well, it's on them

[primal wolf]

This is why every character I have takes absorb elements from level 1

[rough basalt]

The monsters are rude

[glossy otter]

Ngl I might swap out the original spot in Barovia for castle ravenloft just to spice things up in that module

[woven flint]

Honestly, I agree that narrative is fun
But I also like it when PC lives are also at risk
Of course, you can out risks in your campaigns without deaths, but sometimes the world is cruel!
Sometimes adventurers die, you should know going into Adventuring that you could possibly die.

[glossy otter]

I don't think it's spoilers because it was widely talked about prior to module release

[rough basalt]

Yeah Castle Ravenloft would be cooler

[sharp summit]

where do i go to join a oneshot

[blissful ibex]

We've been runing some of the season 8 AL content in skullport and it's fun because if you don't end combat after 3 rounds and book it you get hammered with fireballs XD

[obtuse stratus]

Well, yes, but the placement of the figures on a battle mat shouldn't be the determining factor in the first round of combat if it's out of the player's control. I'd at least let them place themselves or confirm with them they want to all be next to eachother

[rough basalt]

I hope I get to curse a PC before they have access to remove curse sometime.

[flint ledge]

Actually what are we gonna getting with ravenloft the horrors within? Something similar to heroes of Faerun?

[severe rampart]

What? 4 of my PCs are already cursed

[woven flint]

I'd be a LITTLE sad if some of my characters died,
Hell, I retired a SINGULAR character because I didn't want him to die because he had become a Father of two (Dragons, long story).
But I'm okay with my personal PCs dying

[severe rampart]

one of them is double cursed

[primal wolf]

The line i wanna draw here is that there's "Risk" where you can also apply methods of risk avoidance and strategy and come out on top, then there's "HP Tax" where you get fireballed as you enter the room bunched together on init 40.

[rough basalt]

They were in a small dungeon

[severe rampart]

Proud to say never had a PC of mine died, only the campaigns that died

[woven flint]

Only two of my PCs have died so far.
Both were personal acts of self sacrifice so, through my actions lol

[obtuse stratus]

Leta assume this is the Amber temple. They don't need to walk into a flameskull room together unless they say that's what they're doing

[rough basalt]

I've had one permanent PC death and it was due to very bad dm encounter balancing

[blissful ibex]

could always seek out a temple or a scroll of it and then cast it with the DC check for higher level spells

Like they're not going to have any of that out in the middle of some ruins, a dungeon, or the wilderness or something, but you can technically always access it

[rough basalt]

Well it wasn't the amber temple.
It was my dungeon and they decided to open the door to the flameskull room.

[woven flint]

I can tell you right now

I have like..
3 characters currently that I know they'd absolutely die for their parties

[primal wolf]

half of my PC's would kill a party member for a pack of cigarettes

[blissful ibex]

Always allow them to set marching order prior to placement of enemeies

[flint ledge]

Playing the self sacrifice type much?

[rough basalt]

I have one character, and she'd probably die for one of the party members.

[flint ledge]

(No hate I would love having that type of character in my parties)

[severe rampart]

I have one character with expeditious retreat, ready to leave their party members

[blissful ibex]

haven't had any die either; I play very defensively due to my earliest experience with this sort of game being older, fairly difiult CRPGs O_o

[primal wolf]

I play super defensively because one of my first games ever was with a meatgrinder DM

[severe rampart]

I have rolled death saving throws, but never died

[blissful ibex]

got close once and ||it was to the stupid cr 1/4th broom|| in CoS >.>
hate that thing with a burning passion XD, it's way overstatted for a ||cr 1/4|| XD

[flint ledge]

Meatgrinder as in a lot of deaths I take it

[severe rampart]

I'm curious, what are your guys' opinions on permanent injuries in DnD?

[woven flint]

My Fighter, Warlock and Cleric they're all just incredibly good-hearted individuals.
The Fighter wants to be a Knight, The Warlock is a Celestialock of Eilistraee
and the Cleric is an Old Grandpa who views the party as his kids in a way.. although they're criminals and he works for a private detective company, he's never narced on them once lol

[severe rampart]

In two oneshots, both wizards managed to ||tame the broom||, it even saved one wizard's life

[primal wolf]

tons of deaths and 5x deadly encounters were the norm

[blissful ibex]

We almost TPKed to it

[rough basalt]

I've never seen the broom actually be a problem.

Except when my level 14 rogue missed it twice

[severe rampart]

they rolled a natural 20 in animal handling, both of them, these were separate cases

[flint ledge]

I think you should use them on harder/hardcore campaigns, on casual they seem a little much

[obtuse stratus]

In OSR a meatgrinder is often a low level adventure where each player has multiple active characters and the goal is to have any survive, those often being your first stabled PCs

[rough basalt]

Meatgrunder

[severe rampart]

When dropped to 0 hp they roll an injury table, 20 is like a minor scar, 1 is like a lost limb?

[blissful ibex]

Yeah, our DM was playing it as a proper horror campaign, so no ||taming the mindless constructs||

[flint ledge]

Yeah

[severe rampart]

It was a oneshot so I allowed it, but not in the campaign

[obtuse stratus]

thank you, I really hate phone keyboards.

[flint ledge]

Lost limbs can be literal hell cause you need the regenerate spell so if it happens early game it's pretty much wraps

[primal wolf]

I despise when we're 2 rounds into combat and a party member starts trying to be friendly with the enemies

[sudden hollow]

Currently 21. Its not optimized yet tho

[woven flint]

Give your martials a Dancing Blade and flavor it as an Animated Sword

[severe rampart]

Being the DM is great, I can just make up ways you can regain it/replace it, such as in Curse of Strahd ||Commissioning Blinsky to make you a toy prosthesis arm ||

[inner silo]

Ngl a talking sword is either one of the best or worst things

[obtuse stratus]

In OSR that's often how it goes, but that first round might just be covering ground. Before blows are struck is usually when reaction rolls are done

[woven flint]

Blackrazor is arguably the worst thing /silly.

[river vector]

I gave my party a talking rapier. It was a lich king in disguise.

[severe rampart]

you guys gotta stop giving me magic item ideas to give to my players...

[flint ledge]

Character concept a warforged that used to be human and had their entire body slowly replaced (no idea if that would even work)

[severe rampart]

Robocop

[inner silo]

Was the lich nice?

[crimson gulch]

In a world where Magic is real anything is possible

[woven flint]

It's a Lich, probably not lol

[crimson gulch]

But don't expect offical printed options to reflect everything you can think of

[river vector]

Lich is trying to manipulate the party to kill his enemies

[inner silo]

90-10

[obtuse stratus]

IIRC the one is CoS is

[primal wolf]

not sure about OSR, in the dnd games i've been in it's always "my PC is going to convince them to stop now :3" and if I continue fighting, i'm the bad guy, so my character has to full on stop what they're doing and take a beating while that one party member makes persuasion rolls for 2-3 rounds.

[inner silo]

Are his enemies not very good people?

[blissful ibex]

You can get magical prostetics now out of Heroes of Faerun

[severe rampart]

That's what great about being the DM

[river vector]

His enemies are better than him lol

[blissful ibex]

and Ersatz eyes have been a thing

[flint ledge]

Imagine a party tracks down a lich just for the lich to actually be a really chill nerd who takes the souls of people who are already dying

[inner silo]

Oof. Well maybe the party can fix him

[woven flint]

Liches can be nice, but they can never truly be good people
They still feed on Souls to continue their existence, even if they eat the souls of bad people, its still kinda morally shitty because those souls are consumed and destroyed

[blissful ibex]

in 5.5e they don't even need the souls anymore apprently XD
but they still consume them if you die within a mile so

[primal wolf]

this is usually followed with the party giving away resources to whatever enemy we're befriending

[inner silo]

They can be not as bad as some other evil guys at least

[severe rampart]

Ethical lich buying the souls of people while they're alive and conscious for future use

[river vector]

His enemies are rebels against the kingdom he has established, the enemies want to destroy the kingdom he has established, but use bad methods.

[woven flint]

There's nothing Ethical about Lichdom

[inner silo]

Does he run the kingdom well?

[river vector]

Well it is a dictatorship

[remote wadi]

People can be so weird sometimes, I swear to high heaven

[inner silo]

Oof

[obtuse stratus]

That's not how it should be. If blows are being struck we're in combat until one side is bested. Before that is when to do that. Talk with your group and try to establish this. Now there is something to be said for the first round of combat if you've been catching arrows in an assault and trying to de-escalate but that's first round stuff and the DM may have had trigger happy enemies. But if both sides have already gone to bat, nah brah, we're finishing this

[severe rampart]

That is a defining aspect of humans, yes

[woven flint]

Just use the CLONE spell if you want to be immortal smh
Your clones can be as young as you want your body to be and then you can continue your research with the same soul and mind you had when you died.

[flint ledge]

Wait then uhm what's so bad about lichdom? Do you have to kill like 500 people to complete the ritual now or is it up to the DM?

[river vector]

One of my party members has made a soul pact binding him to the Lich King lol

[inner silo]

I think it'd be pretty funny if a lich, thanks to his wisdom and longevity would actually set up a successful country and be a decent ruler

[obtuse stratus]

Do you want to know what the ritual entails?

[remote wadi]

• Look for open BG3 campaigns
• Find an open campaign
• instantly blocked for saying age after being requested of said age (21+)

[primal wolf]

yeah i'm fully aware of how it should be, good luck convincing the other player though

[inner silo]

Undead warlock?

[severe rampart]

"a diamond worth at least 1000 gp and at least 1 cubic inch of flesh of the creature that is to be cloned, which the spell consumes. A vessel worth at least 2000 gp that has a sealable lid and is large enough to hold the creature being cloned, such as a huge urn, coffin, mud-filled cyst in the ground, or crystal container filled with salt water"

1 cubic inch of my flesh?... no thank you

[woven flint]

You don't have to be a Warlock to make pacts

[river vector]

Nah this is seperate from his warlock pact.

[obtuse stratus]

See this just gets me back on the Furry/Saiyan/Autobot thing. Home come the Furry is the only one playing fantasy with me

[river vector]

But he is a warlock which is funny

[inner silo]

So he's also a warlock and sold his soul to another dude aswell?

[woven flint]

It's a price to pay.
Better than destroying millions of souls over the course of your life!

[blissful ibex]

Like they still might degrade over time into demiliches if they don't stay grounded to reality; bit it's no longer tied to souls
They don't really expand on the ritual at all in the rulesbooks at least, so don't know on that end
and their lair info still says they consume souls of any humanoid that dies within 1 mile of their lair so

[river vector]

More like he is a pylon for an eldritch entity invading the world

[woven flint]

Hell, cut off your hand/arm.
I know it sounds like it stinks, but the world of D&D has magical prosthetics anyway

[river vector]

AND he made a deal with this Lich King

[severe rampart]

I like my hand

[inner silo]

Then making a pact with a lich tyrant sounds thematic

[blissful ibex]

can always pay some hippy like 20,000gp to grow it back if you don't like the prostesis XD

[river vector]

They gonna have to fight over him lmao

[primal wolf]

i mean i'm sure it hurts or something but having to do this once every 50 years isn't so terrible a price for being actually immortal.

[woven flint]

Make a Cleric friend so they can cast regenerate on you and you can grow it back

[inner silo]

Just needs to get a fiend to the mix and a fey

Free for all

[river vector]

Eldritch Entity is stronger than the Lich King so it would win

[blissful ibex]

You can just use wish to skip the actual casting part and just skip to the effect (still have to wait for it to mature though) XD
also Ruby Weave Gem can eat the cost for the 1000 GP diamond c:
and you can just heal the flesh, so long as you're not removing a limb

also, you don't even need the flesh anymore in 5.5e, you can just touch the creature

[flint ledge]

I think you know you have a very awesome party if they'd kill one another for exactly 10 gp and a bottle of ale

[inner silo]

Isn't it a world ending threat?

[river vector]

It's been contained to one region.... For now.

[primal wolf]

why do people see "1 cubic inch of flesh" and immediatly start lopping off hands and fingers? go for something that won't cripple you until you get it back. A cubic inch of blood counts. get some liposuction or something

[woven flint]

Because magical prosthetics are cool

[obtuse stratus]

I peal off skin flakes like Goldmember

[inner silo]

Tbh considering the lich is requesting the partys help to get rid of those rebels, it's probably not much of a fight

[severe rampart]

Magical Liposuction? 😭

[primal wolf]

at the very least you could go for the foot

[obtuse stratus]

Nah, if resurrection brings back limbs or whatever, I'm chopping off an arm and making a couple clones

[river vector]

Party actually asked why the Lich doesn't kill the rebels himself. Because him doing that would cause political upset.

So he needs pawns

[primal wolf]

don't need magic to do lipo

[inner silo]

Ah, makes sense

[severe rampart]

Why multiple? they'd age at the same time no?

[woven flint]

Skill issue for the Lich, honestly

[primal wolf]

they don't age while in the jar

[inner silo]

I wander if they'll take over the government after killing him

[severe rampart]

interesting

[obtuse stratus]

They don't need to be finished casting to be set up 😉

[severe rampart]

all this talk about lobbing off limbs to make a clone of yourself is making me hungry

[blissful ibex]

beyond the 120 days you need to prime them at least
though you decide what age they are at that point

It's one of the few ways to access immortality in the game

[flint ledge]

"Apparently it's a social faux pas to annihilate commoners with death magic" - the lich king probably

[obtuse stratus]

I mean I did do that with the goblins in LMoP. Wolves eating good for the next couple weeks

[blissful ibex]

one of the better ones at that as it can save you dying

[primal wolf]

Clone is awesome yeah

[river vector]

The rebels have plans for complete destruction of the undead kingdom.

[primal wolf]

once you get wish you don't even need to carve yourself up for it

[river vector]

They ain't commoners lol, they are other undead

[inner silo]

I mean the party could take them down, then take the lich down and take over the country, theoretically speaking

[river vector]

That would be a long term plan then

[blissful ibex]

or just play 5.5e, you don't need the cube of flesh for it in the rework

[woven flint]

I guess you could say.. thats a ... Skull issue...

[primal wolf]

but then you're playing 5.5e

[flint ledge]

You have a skele-ton of puns

[blissful ibex]

I prefer it honnestly c:

[obtuse stratus]

Once you have wish you already have simulacrum. You can have them process you and set up multiple clones which then one goes off and you finish. Skip the whole ressurection bit entirely

[rough basalt]

5.5 is just too good

[woven flint]

Bad to the Bone Riff

[primal wolf]

my biggest gripe with it is that it removed all the interesting "summon CR X or below" spells, with their wide variety of uses and damage potential, and then replaced them with single-statblock single-creature summons that just aren't that good.

[woven flint]

Just be kind to your simulacrum in life

[inner silo]

Are underdark spiders afraid of water just like irl spiders?

[rough basalt]

Cause those spells were a problem and the new summons are pretty good ime

[upbeat lava]

Guys, I have no idea what I’m doing and I made a character sheet with ChatGPT’s help. Anyone interested in showing me, my friend, and his girl how to play

[river vector]

The rebels are basically composed of vampire spawn leaders (the BBEG is a vampire spawn that is using experiments to free other vampire spawn after his sire died in a freak accident)

[river vector]

Watch a video

[primal wolf]

they're usually really bad. single attack with a longsword for your conc and a 2nd level slot bad.

[blissful ibex]

The multi-summon spells needed to go and the change to the single summon spells prevents people sitting there for twenty minutes indecisive over what they want to summon because they've never looked at a stat block in their life q_q

Also they made druid prepare their wildshapes which moved the same thing happening with that outside of session

[tough lynx]

I’ve never played in a one shot with a ca Druid that took more than 1 minute to take the animals turn

[still plover]

Checked out #dnd-newcomers yet? Lots of helpful advice there.

[obtuse stratus]

In the Mentzer Basic solo game the BBEG is using charm person on some goblins and being mean to them. So I just started doing charm person on all the goblins and being super nice to them. Even when it wears off they hang out with me

[tough lynx]

Auto roller or rolling before your turn!

[woven flint]

Never use AI to help you with D&D

[blissful ibex]

also Magic Initiate: Wizard gives literally every class access to Find Familiar now if they want it , so you can still have the fun utility side of things at the very least

[woven flint]

We're here to help you :]

[blissful ibex]

AI cannot differentiate between older editions, 5e (2014), 5.5e (2024), homebrew, other similar systems, and random people on the internet posting basically whatever they want on the topic that the bot happened to scrape up, and as such AI should not be relied on for rules questions

Ask your questions in the appropriate channel here to get more accurate information and to avoid being lied to while burning clean water and electricity on halucinations c:

[flint ledge]

So true

[obtuse stratus]

I also think a lot of those AIs are trained solely on older information and may not even have 2024 info at all

[inner silo]

As someone who had 3 new players use ai to help with their characters a month or so ago i can confirm

[river vector]

Idk I think I made the rebels too sympathetic

[primal wolf]

uh, ok. I should be happy not all the good spells from 5e are worse, then?

[flint ledge]

Speaking of skeletons, anyone know why dracoliches are weaker than regular liches? I mean might just be me but to me it seems like they should be stronger

[river vector]

Gonna have them kill puppies or something

[blissful ibex]

besides; I rather like new CA and CWB, they're rather nice spells that evoke having multiple summons without mechanically killing action economy and initiatave

[upbeat lava]

Thanks a lot. I showed the character sheet to a friend and he said it all looked right for 5e. Where should I be asking these types of questions if not in this channel

[tough lynx]

I prefer the old one but to each their own

[inner silo]

Aren't vampire spawns overall victims too?

[primal wolf]

new CA is incredibly boring

[torpid hound]

CA?

[primal wolf]

Conjure Animals

[tough lynx]

Conjure animals

[lavish flame]

I'll take boring over "takes over the game" tbh

[blissful ibex]

Here's the info on learning the game as well as character building

Read the information in 'Playing the Game'; Then follow allong with 'Creating A Character' using either the dnd beyond character builder or roll20 to make a practice character before heading over to #character-discussion to have it looked over.

Feel free to ask any questions you still have in #dnd-newcomers or check out the resources in #learn-to-play ; There's a short interactive module you can play to get a feel for the game, or you could seek out gameplay videos online. Once you're ready to play, head over to #find-a-game, one of the many LFG discord servers, r/lfg on reddit, or your friendly local game store. If you'd like a printable character sheet, those can be found here.

[river vector]

Yes but in this case the vampire spawn leader would want to destroy the undead kingdom entirely, and only the nobles are undead.

[obtuse stratus]

Eh, I actually want MORE taking over the game. I want to flood the field with animals, then undead, then golems.

Then I don't need other characters in my solo play

[uncut zenith]

Yeah, "boring but balanced" is ultimately more fun for me personally

[obtuse stratus]

I think that's the only bit of 3.x I miss. It was bonkers

[primal wolf]

5.5e kind of killed the last vestiges of the "Summoner" Fantasy and replaced it with mediocre and uninspired instances of "Here's a statblock that does an attack" spells that also come with weirdly expensive material components so the GM can easily shut you down.

[lavish flame]

I have been both a player and a DM in a 5e game that had a Conjure Animals-using Druid and it just sucked the fun out of every fight every time on either side of the screen.

[uncut zenith]

Conjure Animals is notorious for messing with action economy and encounter balance, so I'm a lot happier with the new CA

[flint ledge]

It definitely is but the old one was unbalanced without question

[uncut zenith]

Same

[obtuse stratus]

But in B/X at least I can just hire a bunch of nerds out for a share of my $$$ and they're all super simple

[blissful ibex]

Many actually got better tbh
Command is doesn't require that they know the language
sleep was reworked but is still incredibly good
True Strike, Blade Ward, Cloud of Daggers are actually usable now
Detect Magic isn't a massive headache anymore
etc.

[primal wolf]

but you could've just balanced the old spell instead of removing it and replacing it with Generic colum of damage number 7

[uncut zenith]

They did balance it. By making it a spell that doesn't allow the caster to pick X number of creatures the DM didn't take into consideration when you designed the combat encounter.

[primal wolf]

Some got better yeah, the original argument was just confusing. Several spells i liked are replaced but they mention one that wasn't.

[lavish flame]

wait why was Detect Magic a nightmare? that one feels barely changed, if at all.

[blissful ibex]

My druidlock makes heavy use of it; it's a powerhouse because it only requries that you star moving to mvoe it rather than an Action or Bonus Action
and it may be save or suck but that gets around evasion which is decent; and it's incredibly easy to have it hit twice per round if an enemy stays within or moves into the space

[primal wolf]

Balance in a way that doesn't change the core identity of the spell, then

[blissful ibex]

They clarified what it can do so your DM isn't pressured to decide what school of magic random effects fall under

[inner silo]

could he be reasoned with?

[obtuse stratus]

Actually... Okay everybody: What builds can you solo play a single character through the 5e modules with

[uncut zenith]

The core identity is still there. The caster summons animals to help in combat. Mechanically it functions differently, but the identity is still there. You've conjured animals, the animals just don't have individual statblocks.

[river vector]

No, I plan to have him be sort of tragic in his desire to destroy and get revenge.

[flint ledge]

I definitely understand both sides of CA I love summon spells but it's also very hard to balance

[rough basalt]

You're still conjuring effectively a stampede of animals

[inner silo]

i see. Sounds like a good idea

[river vector]

Of course the party can decide that they loathe the undead as much as him...

[rough basalt]

Like other systems that have summoners also limit summons cause mass summons are just not fun for the rest of the table.

[primal wolf]

The flavor is still intact, but it's otherwise "column of damage" and no longer a summon spell. I would like to actually summon creatures when I play summoners. Why is this hard to get across.

[lavish flame]

Oh, now it only does that if specifically a Spell is causing the magic. Thats fair. In most cases, it got used on something that didn't have a spell making it magical, like a magic item.

I usually defaulted to the magic's nearest spell. So like a +1 Weapon might be Transmutation like how the spell Magic Weapon is Transmutation.

[blissful ibex]

Most Gishes

[lavish flame]

So choose the spell that lets you summon a controllable Monster. Summon Beast. If you want 1 summon, you grab a Summon spell, if you want a group, you grab a Conjure spell

[primal wolf]

but that's no longer a real group of creatures

[rough basalt]

Cause a real group of creatures clogs initiative and slogs games down in majority of cases.

[blissful ibex]

It is, they're just represented mechanically in a different way then just spamming stat blocks

[primal wolf]

Also, like i said, the "Summon Beast" and similar spells are bad.

[river vector]

The War will not end lmao

[tough lynx]

Just roll before your turn or use an autoroller

[primal wolf]

it's represented mechanically as generic Column of damage number 7 and not stat blocks. I would like to have creatures as a summoner.

[blissful ibex]

Then play wildfire druid or another pet class

[rough basalt]

That's the thing, not everyone will do that

They wanna optimize every bit of the spell.

[flint ledge]

I think you 4 need to realize you are talking through one another and this will result in nothing

[primal wolf]

Wildfire druid is also really bad at this

[rough basalt]

These 4 raptors attack that target, these 2 finish this target, those 2 finish that target.
And that sounds easy on paper until the caster doesn't wanna remember the velociraptor statblock nor will keep it written down on hand.

[lavish flame]

I can understand the desire to get 7 turns in combat, but keeping the cap at 2 (or 3 if your subclass gives a pet) is entirely reasonable. The game just isn't balanced with 11 party turns in mind

[rough basalt]

And they can't count so they don't mass roll the dice even with digital rollers

[obtuse stratus]

Anything else? Because while a gish used to be able to do that, so too could a golemmancer, necromancer, summoner, you know all the bad party classes but they were a fun time in solo

[primal wolf]

Even if you Have to keep the total number lower, conjure elemental and the likes were decent enough beforehand, but have also been replaced with "Summon X" spells that are overall less effective.

[torpid hound]

If I'm a Fighter 17 / Ranger 3, do I only have 2 1st level spell slots?

[blissful ibex]

the skill classes like Rogue, Bard, and Ranger could likely do well also
Druid or cleric would be good choices as well
also paladin

[tough lynx]

You have 3 unless you are ek

[torpid hound]

ek?

[arctic bobcat]

Whats some fun magic items i can put as treasure for my players. It’ll be a reward for them and their lvl 5 btw

[tender fossil]

Eldridge night

[tough lynx]

Eldritch knight

[rough basalt]

I've been using the new summons a lot and they're pretty good

[torpid hound]

Ah, I don't have that since I'm only using the free basic rules

[lavish flame]

yeah, you only have 3 levels in a spellcasting class. As a 3rd level Ranger, u should have 3 slots though

[tender fossil]

Or electrokinetic if you are in dark sun

[torpid hound]

It's gonna be my first campaign

[torpid hound]

So rounded up?

[blissful ibex]

I've done 88 damage in a single turn with a 3rd level casting of 5.5e Conjure Animals c:

[arctic bobcat]

I don’t know much thats why im askin

[primal wolf]

I don't see how. they have minimal health and bad damage.

[blissful ibex]

would have been more but it was the first time I was able to use the spell and wasn't used to positioning it properly quite yet

[lavish flame]

what? read your Ranger table's Spell Slot section. at 3rd level, a Ranger has 3 level 1 slots

[torpid hound]

Isn't it halved for Ranger?

[rough basalt]

Cause in actual play they're a nice extra being on the field that can put in more damage or help without making the combat last 3 hours

[torpid hound]

In multiclasses?

[flint ledge]

I mean if it would help I feel like you could also simply compress the creatures from conjure animals into a single swarm unit, that you can make up on the fly without too much trouble

[torpid hound]

Or is it already half a full caster?

[lavish flame]

You aren't multiclassing into another spellcaster, so you don't need to worry about this

[primal wolf]

are they "pretty effective" or are they "a nice extra"

[obtuse stratus]

Hrm, I'll need to check with Vin how they're doing solo character solo play see if it's something else than the suggested ones. Thanks Meabhy

[wispy vector]

Do you all have some useful/fitting/funny suggestion what magical item I should grab as a lv 3 alchemist? (ASIDE from alchemy jug, and a second alchemy jug)

[blissful ibex]

three slots of first level in both 5e and 5.5e assuming you're not an Eldritch Knight

[rough basalt]

Both

[lavish flame]

yeah idk, i think those are about the same level of praise tbh

[flint ledge]

A 3rd alchemy jug (this is a joke)

[rough basalt]

Depends on the summon.

I've mainly used Summon Dragon

[mighty kestrel]

Any recommendations on a class that might fit well? Not sure if it pretty much needs to be a ranger or if other options are available. I want to dual-wield crossbows - maybe dual weapon fighting style but definitely need crossbow expert feat

[primal wolf]

ok let me try to ask another way: Are they your main contribution to the fight and is that contribution proportional to a reasonable party or does it mostly sit on the sidelines and do "a little bit of extra" damage.

[rough basalt]

It depends on the situation

I play on battlemaps so white rooms aren't really a thing.

[wispy vector]

I will pour 2 gallons of mayo on you in your sleep

[severe rampart]

Worse fate than death, dare I say

[flint ledge]

Why not an all purpose tool? That's pretty nice

[primal wolf]

I'm literally asking about your combat experience with the spell how are you accusing me of white room.

[rough basalt]

I'm not accusing you. I'm saying that it's hard to put it in a single category cause sometimes the summon is crucial to us surviving by blocking off a path, keeping enemies busy, sometimes they're helping out in a brawl.

[lavish flame]

real. I once used Summon Undead to get through a Plant-heavy dungeon, and the last guy we fought ended up also being Undead. That summon was quickly dismissed.

[wispy vector]

What kinda all purpose tool?
I'm afraid I don't have a list of all the common magic items in my head

[blissful ibex]

literally any class with martial weapon proficiencies work; Fighter or Ranger are likely the best but something like Valor Bard could be interesting as well

[river vector]

Lol I don't know if I've given my warlock too many powerful abilities as part of this other pact he made with this Lich

[tender fossil]

Spade of colossal excavation. A powerful magic item of very limited scope, but if you give it to a player they will look for any excuse to dig a big hole

[flint ledge]

Basically it's a magic item that functions as any kind of artisan's tool (I believe) they come in +1-3 versions as well

[lavish flame]

there's a magic item that can turn into any kind of Artisan Tool in the game. this is stuff like Carpenter's Tools and Weaver's Tools.

[flint ledge]

What gwyn said

[lavish flame]

thats the Manifold Tool, an All-Purpose Tool is the same thing but it can also buff Artificer spells

[wispy vector]

That's an item from 2e, never heard of it before.
Seems funny though.

[primal wolf]

Gonna be real i've been here asking for a real example of any of these spells being impactful and you've responded with vague "it depends" followed with "they're good though" for a while and i'm kinda done with it

[river vector]

"The dragons suck?"

[wispy vector]

Ah, that all purpose tool.
Not as fitting for an alchemist but definitely worthwhile.

[rough basalt]

Because any specific example isn't applicable cause it's a specific case and you've already made it clear you won't accept they're not bad and I don't have the energy to recount a t4 dungeon that was heavily decided by summons and our fighter.

[lavish flame]

Alchemist's Supplies is a tool

[flint ledge]

How specific do I have to be, are you a fey or smth.... smh

[wispy vector]

Yeah but I automatically get the Proficiency for it, and I need it as my casting focus anyway

[tender fossil]

It's been across multiple editions. It digs a big hole quickly. That's all it does. But your players will start thinking of ways how big holes will solve the current situation they're in

[rough basalt]

Like one time we had Summon Celestial able to heal an npc so they survived an extra turn that if they died that turn instead of the turn after Orcus would've been summoned and we would've died

Same dungeon, my Summon Dragon bodied off a bunch of extra minions so we could focus the Lich.

And to use someone I know, he runs a caster focused Beastmaster Ranger and I'm pretty sure he uses or used Summon Beast with his Beastmaster to have two animals including him just ripping people up.

Sure he could've done it with 8 individual Beasts, but if he did that every other combat, his party would likely have gotten sick of it.

[river vector]

Maybe I am a fey, who knows? What's your name?

[rough basalt]

Cause depending on where you are, how is your party gonna get to monsters if your animals are clogging the entire room.

[remote wadi]

Got a question for chat

How does one deal with constantly trying and failing to find a campaign that interests me and doesn't fall apart?

[rough basalt]

You keep looking

Most games fall apart, it's an unfortunate reality.

[flint ledge]

You may refer to me as whatever you wish

[rough basalt]

A game not falling apart is basically lightning in a bottle

If the DM doesn't just keep replacing people who leave or can't show up.

[flint ledge]

Imagine a fey robbed my username and that's why I keep naming myself somebody everywhere. That's a fun thought

[rough basalt]

If a dm does that, their game will survive eventually

[lavish flame]

I figured it was an Odysseus situation

[rough basalt]

Forget where I heard it but "you run games for people who will show up to them"

[remote wadi]

That's usually what I do. The problem is that it tends to make the cycle of you constantly failing to find a great one

And that does get under someone's skin eventually

[wispy vector]

Dungeon Party of Theseus

[rough basalt]

Someone doesnt show up for 3 sessions in a row without a real good reason? Gone.

[flint ledge]

Oooh I didn't think about it like that actually

[wispy vector]

Is it still the same party if everyone got replaced

[rough basalt]

You just make a new party or build a new one.

[wispy vector]

A Mario Party?

[rough basalt]

Adventurers live fleeting lives

If players won't show up, their PC goes home, unable to handle the commitment of being an adventurer

If they can't show up for good reason, they went back home for family, health, or other responsibilities, but maybe they'll be back someday.

[remote wadi]

I mean like, PbP campaign

BG3 campaign

Those are way easier said than done for finding a genuine one

[rough basalt]

I don't touch those.
BG3 is a video game so I wouldn't try to treat it like a usual campaign.

[obtuse stratus]

I like it

[rough basalt]

Unless someone makes a mod similar to DM mode from old Neverwinter (I believe were the games with a DM mode)

[obtuse stratus]

Ooo I miss NWN, but going back it just isn't as magical, like D2 and unlike Morrowind. Gosh darn, I should go play some Terraria

[river vector]

Ok "whatever you wish"

[knotty vine]

yo who wants to play The forest oracle

[lavish flame]

I find myself running into this problem semi-often where the party that started the journey is not the same party by the end of the journey

[rough basalt]

Hey. That's hell you're walking into.

[remote wadi]

BG3 gets boring quick solo

And a PbP was something I always wanted to try. Sure beats trying alternatives for a different human DM

[knotty vine]

i know

i watched just roll with it play it

[rough basalt]

It is so hilariously bad

[knotty vine]

one of the first encounters can be 40 kobolds 😭

[rough basalt]

"Oh uh you lost the road"

[clever zinc]

I use pbp for light roleplay and narrative beats in between sessions...... can lead to some really cool moments once session time comes around

[knotty vine]

ive been dipping my foot into PbP and im enjoying it weirdly enough

[remote wadi]

It could be fun for a hybrid of sorts

But imma be 100 with you, that's even rarer than either or

[remote wadi]

Take me with you

[knotty vine]

theres plenty of discords thats how i found my Pbp

[glossy otter]

pbp's not bad, though most times I've been in them they didn't last long

[lavish flame]

I've encouraged players to do additional text roleplay to represent what their characters do and say during extended travel sequences or during rests. I just don't have players that bite that kind of hook.

[rough basalt]

Im not a fan of pbp but just a "not for me" situation

[obtuse stratus]

Been in many games that wanted that, I was the only one that did it

[knotty vine]

doing PbP is also improving my writing qutie a bit

[rough basalt]

I'd rather argue online

[clever zinc]

It is a fine line you have to walk cause i was in another campaign that used narrative pbp and it eventually turned into only pbp which is not what I was looking for in that game

[knotty vine]

aruging can be fun

[obtuse stratus]

Okay reddit

[rough basalt]

My favorite pasttime is going on r/DnDNext and telling them I like tracking encumbrance.

[obtuse stratus]

Sora, I'm stealing your name

[knotty vine]

thats insane

[keen kestrel]

truly a monster

[knotty vine]

one of my past dms made us use Varient encumbrance and it was such a weird feeling

[rough basalt]

Based

Variant Encumbrance is peak

[knotty vine]

granted i was a druid so i didnt need to carry much

but watching our paladin only move 20ft was something

[clever zinc]

Just gave it all to the barb

[rough basalt]

Maybe he should've gotten a horse

[knotty vine]

we did have horses

[spice stump]

is it okay to throw a CR 30 monster at my level 1 party in the first session

[rough basalt]

An Elephant then

[obtuse stratus]

I still prefer Ker NEthalas' encumbrance. It was just slot based and worked pretty way. I have this autistic love for logistics in game so going into Companion material from BECMI is just chef's kiss

[rough basalt]

The Elephant is the answer to Encumbrance needs

[clever zinc]

Do it

[knotty vine]

yeah

[spice stump]

it's a homebrew monster that can also stop time indefinitely

[obtuse stratus]

do they have a portable hole, a bow and arrow, some string, and a bag of holding?

[clever zinc]

Screw that party i say

[knotty vine]

its not like it can do anything during time stop unless you chagned that

[spice stump]

they have hopes and dreams and a half-finished bottle of glue to hold those hopes and dreams together. they also found 1 singular wooden stick that broken in half from a gust of wind

[tender fossil]

That's because BECMI was peak D&D. Even if they wouldn't let me play a Sphinx

[obtuse stratus]

Eh, if they were 3.5 players they could take that CR 30. Let them have it

[spice stump]

wait what's becmi

[spice stump]

what the hell was going on in 3.5e 😭

[obtuse stratus]

Talk to my dude ktrey, he has a RaC beholder, he could probably hook you up

[obtuse stratus]

You know how people talk about everyone wanting to have an extra special totally awesome character in 5e? Nah that has nothing on 3.5, you're playing a monster with enough templates to never gain a level

[rough basalt]

Not even WotC knew

[knotty vine]

3.5e had threats all the way up to cr 100

[spice stump]

in all seriousness, i'm throwing a monster of about CR 9 at my lvl 5 party should i tone it down

[rough basalt]

They were just printing stuff left and right

[knotty vine]

like the great wyrm time dragon

[hot reef]

Depends how many

[spice stump]

6

[hot reef]

They’ll curb stomp it

[river vector]

I keep having a lich show up and want to be allies with my third level party. It wants to have them kill rebels that it won't kill by itself because it would cause more rebels.

[spice stump]

wth-

[tender fossil]

I joke about the Sphinx, but it was broken and not in a good way. Like 2 million XP to 2nd level

[spice stump]

what cr should i give them then

[obtuse stratus]

Imaging that CR 9 monster just being enough flame skulls to equal CR 9

[clever zinc]

Are you looking for a hyper deadly encounter?

[knotty vine]

40 kobolds

[tender fossil]

Just weld them together

[obtuse stratus]

So ktrey's beholder doesn't start at full, it levels into its abilities and hit dice, it's pretty nice I'd play it

[knotty vine]

the sphinx was immune to all magic

[echo meteor]

flameskulls r pretty awesome

[spice stump]

like something that would give them a run for the money and maybe knock out a couple of the members but not tpk (unless they roll horribly)

[obtuse stratus]

A flying pickle WOULD say that

[hot reef]

Add some minions, maybe a couple CR2s

[spice stump]

in addition to the cr 9?

[knotty vine]

i think iggwilv is awesome

[clever zinc]

And are they all coordinated and planned team or no

[spice stump]

no they're mostly newbies

[hot reef]

Yeah, it’ll feel more balanced than just a single creature

[tender fossil]

Go with five evil dwarves that been merge into a larger more powerful dwarf

[echo meteor]

“just carry around holy water!”

[obtuse stratus]

If it's just a single CR 9 you should add 12 CR 1/2s with 1 hp each and 6 CR 2s

[spice stump]

there's like one member who knows how to optimize and that's about it

[hot reef]

In that case you can dial it back a bit
Have you run a game for them in the past?

[spice stump]

i've ran like 2 battles for them to get used to rolling

[echo meteor]

it can cast fireball though, and it can regenerate on a short rest

[spice stump]

campaign is only 3 sessions in

[obtuse stratus]

If you aren't throwing 30 fireballs at the start of combat are you even playing D&D

[clever zinc]

Honestly I'm thinking like a cr6 with 2 or 3 cr4 and maybe a swarm of cr1/2 and more swarms come in on a trigger

[spice stump]

and the second session was mostly a bridgeway for them to get fully integrated into the plot

[obtuse stratus]

Oh, that reminds me, how many polearms are in 5.5e

[hot reef]

If they’re taking semi-optimal actions (the wizard isn’t casting level 1 spells, the rogue is using sneak attack, etc) then a CR9 with some minions would probably work, although it depends how optimally the CR9 is played (surprise round, environmental tactics, etc)

[echo meteor]

30 flameskulls = 30 fireballs. it’s pretty good

[spice stump]

is there anyway to make a balanced encounter with just one big boss?

[hot reef]

Yes but it’s harder

[feral fulcrum]

Given you can use any of the existing weapons and flavor them as needed and apropriate, all of them :V

[clever zinc]

Not with out bumping his cr

[echo meteor]

one big boss encounters can be cheesed too easily

[tender fossil]

Not easily. Figure they get one action to the party's six

[echo meteor]

you ALWAYS need chaff to make it fair

[obtuse stratus]

Just checking, because it isn't D&D without an inordinate number of polearms

[spice stump]

the thing is the monsters i've made are mostly wild and wouldn't really work together much

[hot reef]

If you can reasonably have the boss summon minions then that’s best

[spice stump]

what's chaff?

[clever zinc]

Or giving it mechanics or abilities that can crowd control heavily

[hot reef]

If it’s a magical creature, it can summon/animate things that don’t have a mind of their own

[tender fossil]

The game just hasn't been the same since they got rid of the Bohemian ear spoon. Now that was a real weapon. Just mining your own business and some Bohemian jumps up and spoons you in the air

[feral fulcrum]

Disposable Mooks, and also tiny metal flakes that aircraft fire out to spoof radar.

[obtuse stratus]

the part you remove from wheat, also cannon fodder, aka little gubbins to fill in and die easily to players

[spice stump]

i have a rogue/warlock, a ranger, a bard, a fighter, a monk and a paladin. they're lvl 5 and tbh they don't seem like they know any methods to cheese

[frozen heron]

I’m trying to think of a good character design for the incarnate of Wrath (Seven Deadly Sins) any good ideas or inspiration for me??

[cerulean monolith]

I ran an encounter which had (among others) six Flameskulls. 4 of them got killed before taking a turn, fifth spent their turn failing to break concentration with a Magic Missile (PC casted Shield), and the sixth tried to cast fireball but got counterspelled. It was strangely satisfying to watch a group of famously powerful creatures get stomped on

[obtuse stratus]

Oh the olden days of D&D, if only I could have 2 guirusamas attached to chains and fling them around like nunchucks. We can only remember

[spice stump]

the paladin mainly just uses support and healing spells, rogue just sneak attacks and doesn't have any problematic spells, and the bard is a full support with the exception of command which i could see them trying to use to cheese but they seem to prefer supporting

[hot reef]

The main problem with a single creature is that the difficulty will entirely depend on how that one creature rolls. Their high damage attack either hits or misses. With minions, you have more rolls, so damage will be closer to average rather than really high or really low

[echo meteor]

its okay, after a short rest, they’ll come back

[spice stump]

i see i see

i never thought of that, thx

[echo meteor]

and they’ll have the fireball spell because they haven’t casted it yet

[frozen heron]

Geez never mind

[cerulean monolith]

Party had a drow alchemist accompanying them, so they can easily be holy water’d away

[spice stump]

if i want to balance a big boss is it possible to do so by giving them more ways to manipulate their rolls (eg, gaining advantage) to make them more consistent and then be able to balance off what their average rolls might be

[hot reef]

Which is a shame because a single boss creature is a pretty common encounter for DMs to come up with

[hot reef]

Spreading their damage out between legendary actions (and/or lair actions) too

[tender fossil]

Either the single boss monster doesn't have enough attacks or hit points to prove a challenge. The first level party all getting initiative on an ogre is going to drop in before he even reaches where a die

[spice stump]

off topic but how do legendary actions work, i've mostly made less difficult bosses and i'm still new to alot of concepts for dming

[echo meteor]

main issue with a single creature is that one creature means a single point of failure (save or suck ) and you lose out on action economy. you have to artificially inflate it with special rules like legendary actions

they have to be a “generalist” and can’t “specialize” in doing one thing

[spice stump]

so i never actually ended up giving an enemy a legendary action

[hot reef]

True. There are multiple main issues with single creature encounter lol

[spice stump]

fudgestickles

[echo meteor]

you can’t have an “army” with creatures that blink around a map, a caster that creates hazards, debuffs, buffs, and supports… martials that deal damage

[spice stump]

so im pretty much forced to do mostly bosses with minions or like group battles

[echo meteor]

you just have 1 guy that does everything or just 1 thing really really well which is boring either way

[spice stump]

what if i like

what if the party split up

and then i could have the bosses be like 1v2s or something

would it be easier to balance it if that happened

[echo meteor]

or special rules with legendary actions/legendary resistance

[spice stump]

assuming my players got into such a situation

[keen kestrel]

the problem is that some builds are incredibly good at dueling, so it's hard to have any reasonable 1vX fights

[hot reef]

It’s not that single enemy encounters are impossible to do right, they’re just more likely to feel flat

[glad arch]

If anyone has a mount 1v1 is basically solved unless they have good range

[echo meteor]

some guy was saying they having 1 big strong boss is “aura”. w/e that is

[glad arch]

Thematically it looks cooler when you have a group of heroes fighting one big bad evil guy. In reality for dnd its not that interesting

[lavish flame]

at least for 5e, solo elite monsters aren't what the game loves

I wish they had codified Mythic Monsters/Actions into the new Monster Manual. I liked them, I thought they were a really great space to design for

[tender fossil]

It doesn't that there's not much of an incentive to actually move around the battlefield

[minor cargo]

Did you get a reply? I didn’t see.

But yeah, I think Barbarian is the obvious choice. Use rage to represent changing form. There’s also a 2014 subclass called Path of Giants that does actually increase your size.

[frozen heron]

Yes I did, it’s for a boss character not a player character I should’ve clarified 😅

Thank you though

[wide phoenix]

Hey guys, I just joined a server and I want to get into DND but my laptop recently broke. I’m looking to play on mobile. Does anybody know if there is a way to play on mobile that’s easy really asking if I can play comfortably on mobile.

Like dice apps

Or should I get real dice? Probably

[glad arch]

For dice you can just google 'dice' the build in dice for google work suprisingly well

-# that is not a prperly flowing sentence i apologise

[glad arch]

Real dice are fun to roll

[vagrant parcel]

finding a group is hell on earth bro i swear to god

[wide phoenix]

Yes I want the real fs but I wanna see some kind of crust effect on the google dice

[echo meteor]

found it, we had this convo b4..
#dm-discussion message

[wide phoenix]

I have advantage on my charisma irl

[glad arch]

Crust effect?

[wide phoenix]

Critttt

[glad arch]

Aah

Idk if theres any that do that

[wide phoenix]

It didn’t do it

Wait is that a flex

First try

[obtuse stratus]

Favorite D&D pets for your characters to have?

[stiff rock]

i know a druid with a pet giant badger

[glad arch]

Doggy

[torpid hound]

The Sorlock is sad, the Monkadin is mad, there's no winning in multiclassing

[lavish flame]

Oh man. I think a Gray Render is the best pet

[glad arch]

Monkadin is a new one to me

[torpid hound]

It's the most MAD (Multi ability dependent) multiclass and by extension the worst one

[lavish flame]

yeah that just sounds like u need every stat

still no need for Int tho

[torpid hound]

Except Constitution and Intelligence

Wait you you need con in general

[lavish flame]

con is needed for basically any character

[torpid hound]

I thought you were talking about literal requirements

[stiff rock]

i knew a cleric with -1 con who went down if you all but sneezed on him, it was pretty funny

[lavish flame]

we had a rogue who put a -1 into Con. they were kicked for unrelated reasons, but upon getting hit, they'd always fear for their life

[stiff rock]

poor dude

[torpid hound]

Any dump stat can be funny, have you seen Tiberius Stormwind?

[stiff rock]

my current warlock character has a -2 in strength - while i'm yet to make a strength check with her i'm still afraid of the time i have to

[obtuse stratus]

I played a character in old school. Upon getting hit you just die

[stiff rock]

i rolled my stats and got such good rolls for everything else that i hardly cared about a 6 in strength

[stiff rock]

yeah i swear especially first edition like anything could kill you immediately

[torpid hound]

I'll do you one better: 18 STR, 13 DEX, 17 CON, 13 INT, 14 WIS, 13 CHA before background bonuses

[lost flicker]

hypothetically

can an elf still be knocked unconciouslly physically? like the sleep spell won't work, but can they be knocked upside the head?

[lavish flame]

the Dungeons of Doom are a scary place, you never know what'll kill you

[obtuse stratus]

18 con wizard? You just break your ankle and die, roll a new dude

[stiff rock]

sounds horrific

[obtuse stratus]

What is that a d4+3

lol

[torpid hound]

It doesn't say they're immune to the unconscious condition

[stiff rock]

i think the highest i've got with rolling stats was a fighter with 20str and 19 con after bonuses. everything else was between 14-16

[lost flicker]

awesome possum thankies

[torpid hound]

That's 1d4+4

[obtuse stratus]

Not in old school, lol

[torpid hound]

WHAT

[stiff rock]

although i do prefer standard array or point buy most the time because i don't trust when people roll for stats online

[obtuse stratus]

Unless it is in 1e, lemme check

[torpid hound]

You can use a bot with dice

[paper portal]

yeah my dm makes us stream our rolls but i just use point buy cus i like the consistency tbh

[stiff rock]

yeah there's that too

[lavish flame]

they aren't immune to being Unconscious, when their body has taken too much abuse, they'll fall unconscious. If someone hits them on the head in an attempt to knock them out, then its light out.

They are also still able to sleep if they desire, and it will provide the same benefits that sleeping as anyone else would (ie a Long Rest). They can just choose to Trance and cannot be magically forced asleep.

[stiff rock]

until john fighter rolls in with an 18 in everything cus he rolled his stats in private

[torpid hound]

I don't like how the highest ability score you can get with point buy is 17

[paper portal]

ill probably roll stats the next oneshot we do but ill make it something stupid like 1d20 in order just for fun

[lavish flame]

Afaik, for a long while you didn't get a bonus at all until 14+ in a stat

[tender fossil]

Playing 3D6 straight down helps people justify characters I strongly recommend it

[torpid hound]

So every 2 points higher than 12 instead of 10?

[paper portal]

erm well if you pick the race custom lineage and use that to get a half feat you can hit 18 :3 but yeah it kinda sucks tbh, rolling i think is better on average but id rather guarantee i have decent stats than have good stats most of the time

[tender fossil]

Before third edition every stat had its own chart for advancements. They weren't uniform

[stiff rock]

i watched a live play game the other week from JRWI where they all started with 1s for every stat and would do challenges to increase them, it was really funny

[lavish flame]

nah, it wasn't standardized like that. the difference between 16 and 17 might get you a higher bonus

[obtuse stratus]

1e, wizard gets 1d4+2 for 18 hp, a fighter would get 1d8+4 because they're special but most 18s are +3 and 3s are -3

I prefer basic, everyone just gets a +3

[stiff rock]

so in theory 5 damage could outright kill you?

[obtuse stratus]

Oh yeah

[tender fossil]

BECMI did have standardized bonuses, but it was 14 or 15 for a plus one, 16 or 17 for a plus two and an 18 got a plus three. And you couldn't go higher than that

[obtuse stratus]

no negatives to hp, 0 is dead

[stiff rock]

at least it's realistic

[obtuse stratus]

13-15 for +1

9-12 is 0

[tender fossil]

And skills were based off of your ability score. Which in basic you had to roll equal or under. Every point counted

[obtuse stratus]

If you were doing AS checks, yeah

[lavish flame]

yeah dawg. fighting a level appropriate enemy at level 1 often ended in someone dying. You just weren't sipposed to fight for a lil while

[obtuse stratus]

otherside there might have been skills based on your background and DMs usually just give you that, depending

[tender fossil]

You were also supposed to hire mercenaries and hirelings

[obtuse stratus]

And have a stick

[stiff rock]

i kinda like that? probably wouldn't like it long-term but i'd love a gritty oneshot with that kind of rule

[obtuse stratus]

I forgot a stick, then I smashed up some random bed we found

[stiff rock]

i've only actually feared for my character's life like twice in 5.5e

[obtuse stratus]

Gritty? Do a funnel

[stiff rock]

funnel?

[tender fossil]

Play a bunch of characters and the ones that survived become the actual party

[obtuse stratus]

each player gets like 5 dudes and goes through a dungeon (often level 0), survivors survive

[lavish flame]

make everyone make like 5 PCs at once and sees who lives through a dungeon

the survivors become their characters

[torpid hound]

Has anyone's Fighter carried a golf bag holding their mastered weapons before?

[obtuse stratus]

3d6 down the line, they probably have a 19 THAC0 (+1 I think for ascending) and whatever their saves are

[stiff rock]

ohh i've heard of that but under a different name

[obtuse stratus]

meatgrinder?

[tender fossil]

I've heard it called a gauntlet

[stiff rock]

it was something like you play a series of commoners fighting off a swarm of rats, and whatever commoner you are that kills the rats becomes your new level 1 character

[obtuse stratus]

Works too

[stiff rock]

meatgrinder i just interpret as "you will likely die a few hundred times" rather than a funnel or gauntlet

[tender fossil]

Oddly enough there was an old module back in first edition that invented that, but nobody really remembers it

[lavish flame]

huh, I've always heard gauntlet to basically mean "a series of enemy fights in a row"

[obtuse stratus]

I actually like to do it like this, each player gets a small portion of a town, like 20-30 dudes and plays 1 on 1 with the DM. Survive with as many that do and then pick your favorite 5 to be the dudes with the rest of the party

[stiff rock]

same here

[obtuse stratus]

anyone survives the adventure, they get stabled

[maiden hamlet]

so im reading echo knight and its ac is the proficiency + 14, is that just your fighter proficiency or like your characters, say if youre multiclassing into fighter

[stiff rock]

i don't know if it's just because it's 5.5e but i've rarely actually felt like i'm in any danger in combat

[stiff rock]

proficiency bonus i think

[obtuse stratus]

I have had numerous parties die to Goblin Arrows

and that's 5e

[stiff rock]

which is tied to your overall level, not multiclass levels

[maiden hamlet]

oh is that how proficiency bonus works?

[obtuse stratus]

but after that... so I have had to make new characters every session with 1 dm (we quit at light chapter 8 of ToD) and I have had some players not listen to advice in CoS and get TPK's

[paper portal]

fighter proficiency isnt a thing, pb isnt affected by multiclassing

[maiden hamlet]

rip my lost alert feat

[obtuse stratus]

hi, meowmeow

[stiff rock]

yeah it isn't tied to a specific class level it's just ur total level between all classes

[limber trail]

Yes, your PB is based on your total character level, not any specific class levels

[maiden hamlet]

neat, good to know

[paper portal]

hi oxy :3

[keen kestrel]

Thankfully, PB is tied to your level, it works great

[tender fossil]

Unlike other editions fighters don't actually get any more bonuses to hit than other classes

[stiff rock]

i'm shocked you got to skyreach castle before you quit ToD

[paper portal]

if only extra attack worked the same way 😔

[keen kestrel]

or eldritch blast

[obtuse stratus]

The DM berated my ride and ousted me as an evil character then TPK'd us (also he'd just advance chapter after the TPKs)

[paper portal]

eldritch blast does scale off overall level

[tender fossil]

I've been thinking about letting fighters increase their weapon damage is a level up like warlocks and Wizards get with their cantrips

[stiff rock]

what a kind soul 😊

[keen kestrel]

oh does it? I thought it was warlock levels, that's awesome

[maiden hamlet]

i just want to pull an Aoi Todo on my opponents

[ebon silo]

Reached a conundrum with my level 12 EK dont know if i should keep going pure or multy class

[stiff rock]

martials do enough damage as-is imo

[keen kestrel]

eventually getting 4 attacks a turn sounds awesome

[stiff rock]

i think single emojis get deleted as spam

[paper portal]

yeah all cantrips are overall, thats why i think its kinda weird that extra attack doesnt cus martials really need the help lol

[maiden hamlet]

would love to have a 12 attack monk turn

[tender fossil]

Not martials, just fighters

[obtuse stratus]

So when I ran for him he very much powergamed, when he ran for me he very much tried to win every encounter, eg at the castle he sent ALL of the castle at us because our optimized dwarf meme party could goodberry (I followed his advice and did the trick). No one goodberried because that's not how it works when like 40 people attack you

[keen kestrel]

eh, I'm always of the mind that martials should get a little more

[ebon silo]

Pugilist boxer dragonborn is where it’s at

[paper portal]

it's that whole thing where the martial caster divide is bigger the stronger your party is

[stiff rock]

i DM for a semi-minmaxed fighter that does a scary amount of damage per swing. i think they're pretty good as-is

[tender fossil]

One of the biggest complaints in my table is the hit point bloat. Plus looking at the weapon abilities from older editions and wondering where all the extra damage went

[paper portal]

at a normal table it's noticeable but not that big of a deal, at a high op table martials are just unplayable

[keen kestrel]

I'd agree, but sadly spellcasters if done properly vastly outscale martials in damage

[stiff rock]

but i think the general argument is martials are weaker because they do steadier damage for longer, whereas spellcasters can run out of damage potential quite quick cus of spell slots

[obtuse stratus]

Meanwhile when I run I'll do stuff the party enjoys like pull from the book for them because they liked that, and I'd also give them fun stuff like magic items they would forget and never use. Whatever, it wasn't great when that dude played ever

[frozen heron]

I use homebrew to make martial arts stronger because I am bias

[stiff rock]

he sounds like a lovely person to play with lol. really sorry your ToD went so poorly

[paper portal]

the thing that hurts martials the most is just that dpr isnt really that important

[stiff rock]

i tend to go with the rule that most combats can be heard one or two rooms away

[keen kestrel]

it's not so much dpr, more so that most good fights tend to involve a lot of ads, which martials suffer against

[west hearth]

Hii

[tender fossil]

I also tinker with letting fighters gain more styles as they level up. Cuz that's something that they sadly underutilized

[obtuse stratus]

It's okay, when I ran part of it for my friends they had an army of pets behind them they had to do logistics for because they really liked animals and I just let them pokemon catcher everything

[paper portal]

nah monks really need the help at least in 2014

24 monks are still struggling but no more than any other martial

[keen kestrel]

2024 monk is at least midly better, though not by much

[west hearth]

Does anyone customize the rules of how dice works or do you stick with the books?

[stiff rock]

haha yeah i think in most of my games i don't make pets require food or anything unless they have actual mechanical benefits

[ebon silo]

My dm gave me a spear that does 1d10 now and get 2d6 temp hp when i killed something, he very nice…..sometimes

[stiff rock]

what mechanics in specific do you mean?

[woven flint]

Hello, friends