dnd-discussion

[umbral girder]

Try and prevent Lord Soth’s spiral of a life

[severe rampart]

Stay in general?...

Talk about AI being bad or be spoiled in a campaign I'm in...

[uncut zenith]

Ah yes. Their “friendship”

[lyric viper]

Just no sharing of AI generated content or advertising/suggesting ai

[cursive fjord]

Oh I understand completely, I HATE using AI as a REPLACEMENT, but I think its a tool that can be used for good thing.

[humble cairn]

To quote myself: "A Great Beast which devours the soul of humankind and vomits forth the stitched corpses of their dreams, revenants animated by dark magic which pollutes the earth, the skies, and the waters."

[river vector]

what campaign? Vecna?

[severe rampart]

Dragonlance

[umbral girder]

Uh this isn’t campaign talk?

Like it’s a setting with a thousand novels

[craggy summit]

Absolutely. If you use it for ideas and inspiration instead of using it to carry your game, then I think it's okay

[severe rampart]

Ahh sorry, did not know about that, just heard dragonlance and thought about it

[river vector]

This is what I would consider acceptable. Just never get ideas from ai, or use it for art.

[minor cargo]

I’d much rather get ideas from real people in this server than offload it to a machine that scrapes data without consent.

[blissful ibex]

Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen exists as a playable adventure though

[umbral girder]

Plus it’s use at all is very, very bad for the environment too

[river vector]

all the water

[lyric viper]

Random idea generator that gives you prompts and you think about how to make it work

[severe rampart]

None of my players use AI, they all drew/commissioned their characters, and since they were being such good players I surprised them with a commissioned art piece for every single one of their characters

[keen valve]

I would actually advise reading and consuming media to get inspiration, it's far more nuanced and helpful and lucrative. There is so much you can do with classical titles and things of that nature to help push forward ideas for you. It also just makes your work look more thought out and professional in the end.

[umbral girder]

If I want more ideas I got like a bunch of source books and novels to use

[river vector]

I wish I had the money to do that lmao

[river vector]

meanwhile me getting villain ideas from niche books

[severe rampart]

Artists from other countries💯

[keen valve]

I do that but with ao3.

[umbral girder]

I just Google a picture or follow artists for character art.

[limber trail]

It’s very very tempting to use the idea to just outright canonize the relationship (in my setting)

[cursive fjord]

For example, i use it a lot to flesh out my character backstories, I tend to have a lot a of ideas and it straights it, I can feed it the highlights that I want, and sometimes it has some interesting ideas to fill in why things happened

[severe rampart]

Not a good example, imo

[umbral girder]

Eh that just grabs the most generic stuff from other people’s writings

[knotty pasture]

My best ideas all came from ao3 fics lol

[river vector]

My CoS arrives today!!!!

[knotty pasture]

There's probably a reason why my characters tend to have a fallen from grace motif, alas

[lyric viper]

All D&D games are just D&D fanfic

[severe rampart]

With improv

[river vector]

True....

[limber trail]

If you’re running a homebrew setting… where does that leave you

[cursive fjord]

See I do a lot of scholor type of character, and doctors

[river vector]

mega fanfic

[lyric viper]

AU

[knotty pasture]

Even my most scholar-like character is also... you guessed it, fallen from grace!!

[cursive fjord]

Good luck, ive tried tried that campaign 8 times and it always fell apart

[umbral girder]

Coffee Shop AU for next DnD campaign /jk

[river vector]

I will enjoy Curse of Strahd, I think

[river vector]

thanks, I think I have a pretty good group gathered here.

[craggy summit]

Have fun with it! That was the first campaign I fully played and beat as a player

[severe rampart]

Writing 100k words about ||Sergey and Tatyana slow burn where Sergey waits centuries for various incarnations of Tatyana||

[umbral girder]

Actually in podcast discord I’m in based on Spelljammer I remember bringing up in a “modern day” AU their Spelljammer would be an RV

[blissful ibex]

just straight up make one of the hyper tropy "healer/support cahracter kicked out of their party goes on a revenge tour" characters that are spamming fantasy media nowadays XD

[severe rampart]

It's very good

[river vector]

"I WAS KICKED FROM THE HEROES PARTY"

[severe rampart]

Definitely enjoying it as the first campaign I'm DMing

[river vector]

I already have so many ideas for the character of strahd

[severe rampart]

He's a creep, he's a weirdo, what the hell is he doing here /ref

[cursive fjord]

I once started as a PC and my character ended up though his decision, becoming a NPC and one of the main villans for the campaign and I switched to another PC

[blissful ibex]

"so I joined a party of ruffians and underdogs to outdo them!" 17 light novels and a manhua adaptation
the author gets imprisoned for tax evasion for the betetr part of a decade before finishing it

[knotty pasture]

Those are my guilty pleasure watches but even then I kind of rate them at B tier stuff, I might do it as a placeholder for campaigns where I don't want to sortie my prized PC concepts

[river vector]

CoS reddit has inspired me quite a bit

[knotty pasture]

Getting kicked from a hero's party implies I have this pressure to go mvp on my tables

[severe rampart]

It's hard to roleplay a character who's more charismatic than me

[river vector]

yeah.... this will be an issue for sure

[umbral girder]

Here is a question for the DMs here

How many adventures do you think you’ve ran that were just plots you got from other media?

I remembered I did a Sigil one shot with Demons that I realized after the fact was just some stuff I got from Batman: Arkham Asylum

[severe rampart]

Not plots I got from media, but plots that coincedentally was very similar to a movie

[remote wadi]

Anyone got a good feat recommendation for a Divination Wizard?

[umbral girder]

Should have realized it when the Gnoll Demon was just the joker

[blissful ibex]

there is nothing new under the sun
it's best to not worry about it

[severe rampart]

War Caster if you haven't already?

[limber trail]

That’s it. You’ve solved DnD. All campaigns are fanfic or AU. I don’t know what to do anymore

[river vector]

Hmmm.... I'm new so I'm currently running my homebrew campaign, with basically a vampire spawn killmonger.

[sonic quiver]

👀

[blissful ibex]

telekinetic c:
moving enemies around is nice <3

[remote wadi]

I guess that could work. What feats do Wizards try to take aside from an ASI?

[umbral girder]

While not the exact wording, that is literally said in the DMG.

Pictures? In our general chat? Heresy! /jk

That is pretty neat tho.

[blissful ibex]

warcaster, fae touched, resiliant (con), spell sniper, telekinetic/telepathic, elemental adept (depending on build), etc.

[severe rampart]

Lucky,Resilient, Fey touched?

[lavish flame]

Soooooo many of them. My current campaign is taking concepts and ideas from the musicians Rush and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They just had good ideas and names so i'm taking them.

[sonic quiver]

“Abusing” my power to bring you news from GaryCon 😛

[severe rampart]

Oh boy news!

[thorn abyss]

hey guys, i know dnd is high fantasy for the most part.

but hear me out. bards with other genres of music. is that a thing?

[lavish flame]

LaTia!

[sonic quiver]

Hi!

[empty thicket]

Yeah, they kinda do, you can use in theory any music you want for your stuff and even make it part of his identity

Get one of the most aggressive subclass and use Rock for them

[umbral girder]

What would be amusing Party themes to have in Curse of Strahd?

[lavish flame]

Of course it is. Your Bard does not need to be a Classical or Baroque musician. Your Bard can play Jazz and the Blues or Folk music or Rock & Roll, they can make Rap if you want. The only thing the game cares about is "One of the Bard's hands is occupied with an instrument" so you couldnt use a sword, shield, and instrument all at once.

[empty thicket]

Electric attack? Play that guitar making the lighting go through it

[severe rampart]

Lin Manuel Miranda as a bard

[blissful ibex]

just make the scooby do mystery gang

[umbral girder]

My brain is thinking of a Goblin War Band party in CoS

[sonic quiver]

I had a bard in the game I ran yesterday play a set of quad drums like in a marching band

[hot marlin]

For a thousand years I laid dormant! I awaken now to seek my food: Alignment arguments and optimisation debates

[severe rampart]

True Neutral doesn't exist

[hot marlin]

Hello everyone. Haven't logged in a while, what did I miss?

[limber trail]

Four sherlock holmes / benoit blank / hercule poirot level genius detectives show up in barovia, with the sole objective of disproving the existence of vampires.

[rare ember]

Harmonica beatboxing bard

[blissful ibex]

everything O_o /j

[hot marlin]

Yeeeees. Feed meeeee

[river vector]

that one song in wotr that plays at the start

[umbral girder]

“We found proof a vampire does exist!”
everyone sharpening their stakes
“Not for long.”

[limber trail]

You understand precisely what I find appealing about this idea

[empty thicket]

Scooby (Druid)
Shaggy (Either monk or Ranger)
Dave ( Fighter or Paladin)
Daphne (bard or rogue)
Finally Velma (Wizard)

[umbral girder]

Not music theme. As in character theme.

[severe rampart]

You can't balance good and evil precisely, down to the point where it is "true" Neutral

[river vector]

a bunch of dhamphir that think they are related to strahd, but just had modify memory cast on them. Strahd is just confused whenever they show up.

[severe rampart]

Strahd having to raise Dhampir children

[umbral girder]

Strahd’s cousin clearly did it (that is an actual character)

[hot marlin]

The flaw here is in believing that true neutral represents an exact point of balance. Another flaw is in believing that there "amounts" of good and evil that can be measured and balanced

[umbral girder]

What was her name? Lisa Zarovich? I gotta check again

[severe rampart]

He's back

[limber trail]

Zanaris I deeply want to run a westmarches barovia game with my party (Detectives set out to disprove vampires) and your party in the same world. I want to see how poorly that goes.

[severe rampart]

How can one display a true neutral approach then?

[umbral girder]

I know Strahd’s cousin invented Vampiric Mind Flayers

Ah is Lyssa von Zarovich. Thats her name.

[river vector]

that would be chaos lol

[fossil hollow]

I live

[limber trail]

Are you sure

[severe rampart]

You live not

[fossil hollow]

True, you killed the grim champion good

[severe rampart]

... I liven't...

[umbral girder]

Counterspell

[thorn abyss]

whaddya'll think of the theory that DND secretly runs pop culture?

[limber trail]

I liver

[lavish flame]

You could go all-in with Gothic Lineages and spooky subclasses

[blissful ibex]

literally just being a pragmitist or chill XD
no/limited internal/external guiding code or urge to randomly cause mischief
no/limited inherent need to always do what would be perceived as the good or evil choice
not just like killing random people becaue they inconvenience you or helping them just because they ask

[fossil hollow]

would be funny if the party was cottage core and stuff though

[limber trail]

Oops all goths

[fossil hollow]

"I'm willing to wait for it"

[river vector]

Now I want to give someone permission to have a dhamphir character that is "related to strahd" only for some troll wizard also in barovia to have cast modify memory.

[severe rampart]

... I am the one thing in life I can control.

[river vector]

I think this would unironically make for a good arc

[fossil hollow]

EXACTLY

[umbral girder]

How many darkness theme builds could a party have? Shadow Sorcerer, Way of Shadow Monk, probably Death, Grave, or Trickery Cleric of Shar or the Raven Queen

[severe rampart]

...i now see the light

[umbral girder]

Vengeance Paladin and Oathbreaker maybe?

[severe rampart]

Thank you Aaron Burr, sir

[knotty pasture]

Hexblade if you push it, Gloom Stalker

[hot marlin]

It is very simple, let's refer to what I consider to be the only definitions of alignment that I consider not just useful but usable.
A good character is a character likely to sacrifice their health and comfort to defend the dignity and lives of others
An evil character is a character likely to attack the dignity and lives of others
A lawful character is a character likely to compromise their principles, interests and beliefs, doing something they do not want to do, in order to defend social order, traditions, the rule of law
A chaotic character is likely to attack social order, traditions and the rule of law if they go against their beliefs, principles or interests

A true neutral character is a character unlikely to do those

[umbral girder]

Warlock is the “dark mage” class so makes sense

[limber trail]

Here's a great one:

A party who has had a great session 0, they're all showing up with connections, and backstories that tie into the adventure, and character BBEGs, and they've got player connections, and super deep lore.

It's all fiend lore. They're in the wrong adventure.

[blissful ibex]

Gloom Stalker ranger; skulker/blindfighting fighter

[knotty pasture]

I was thinking of how Hexblade has ties to the Shadowfell/Raven Queen

[severe rampart]

All of them being Necrotic Shroud aasimar

[umbral girder]

Oh yeah species too.

Drow, Duergar, Deep Gnome, Shadar Kai, Fallen Aasamir, Dhampir, Hexblood, Reborn, the upcoming Lupine

[severe rampart]

Deep Gnome, Necrotic Shroud Aasimar, Duergar, Drow, Kensei?

[fossil hollow]

Oh god, forgot we're getting Lupine.

PLEASE BE ACTUAL DOG

[severe rampart]

Please be a cat

[blissful ibex]

unless you're going by final fantasy terms; in which case sorcerer is more of a darkmage than warlock is

[umbral girder]

Kensei? Odd species

[severe rampart]

Crow people

[fossil hollow]

We already got Tabaxi, WoTC hates dogs :spb

oh, you mean kenku

[umbral girder]

Fun fact that was from Dragonlance

[limber trail]

Okay as a follow up, it's an oops all one class run of curse of strahd, which class is doing the absolute worst

[umbral girder]

A lot of early Final Fantasy was just Dragonlance

[severe rampart]

Rogue

[umbral girder]

Barbarians that aren’t Berserker

[limber trail]

Four rogues stumbling their way through barovia sounds amazing

[fossil hollow]

I would have thought Zealot

[umbral girder]

Wizard party isn’t getting through the Death House

[river vector]

I've heard curse of strahd is brutal... worried for my fellow noob players lol.

[umbral girder]

Vampire with Charm is why

[severe rampart]

They are dead at the start

[hot marlin]

That's the problem when you take the time to write down something thoughtful. The conversation has already moved on.

[blissful ibex]

Kalashtar as well if you stretch it a bit

[severe rampart]

I apologize Incubus, I do not mean to remove your sustenance

[fossil hollow]

We are too brainrotted to stick to actual substance

[burnt valley]

melee martials

[umbral girder]

Artificers could struggle

[severe rampart]

My brain is mush right now

[limber trail]

Four human fighters vs the world

[severe rampart]

I hate Artificers, never liked 'em

[fossil hollow]

Im fairly sure a team of all paladins is fine

[umbral girder]

A fighter party would ruin Strahd

[river vector]

I mind controlled warlock, he oneshot artificer.

[severe rampart]

4 bards vs Barovia

[hot marlin]

A team of all monks would do well too

[limber trail]

Oh a team of all paladins has that campaign locked down

[fossil hollow]

A group of Frat boys going up against strahd

[fossil hollow]

So... many... stunniung strikes...

[hot marlin]

What matters the most is that the team has some ranged option and a good wisdom save

[umbral girder]

Ranger, Paladin, Cleric, and Fighter are classes that could MonoClass Curse of Strahd

[limber trail]

A team of all paladins is effectively Seal Team Six

[severe rampart]

Bards...? :)

[limber trail]

twenty potential stunning strikes at level 5

[umbral girder]

Bards die

[severe rampart]

Reminds me of Paladin in Hell (2e adventure IIRC)

[fossil hollow]

Bards get turned into Spawn

[hot marlin]

Well enough. Spellcasting carries the team through the tough patches

[limber trail]

I don't think fighters can solely because I don't know if the healing from Second Wind is enough

[umbral girder]

Their spell list gets ruined by the undead running around

[severe rampart]

The Bard Slander will not be tolerated

[umbral girder]

They would have 4 of them by level 10

[severe rampart]

They get cleric spells :(

[umbral girder]

Each, and all get their stuff from short rests

[fossil hollow]

if they live that long. More likely to be turned to Spawn

[limber trail]

If they live long enough they'd be fine, it's the low levels I'm worried about

[umbral girder]

They get two at level 1 each

[burnt valley]

Does he know?

[limber trail]

A balanced group of fighters are probably fine I guess

[crystal latch]

The best team to all-one-class CoS is either wizards or warlocks

This is basically the same questions as "what's the best class"

[umbral girder]

Add something like a Battlemaster or Banneret they got enough HP

[fossil hollow]

Oh perfect

[severe rampart]

I think Cleric might be the best... no?

[burnt valley]

It gets filtered at some point

[umbral girder]

The wizard party isn’t getting out of Death House

[crystal latch]

They absolutely are lmao

[umbral girder]

Yeah Clerics would do wicked good in CoS

[limber trail]

Wizards can't do it, I'd be cautious signing off on warlocks but maybe you could

[crystal latch]

Not really

[severe rampart]

One broom vs 4 wizards

[fossil hollow]

broom solos

[crystal latch]

Broom gets stomped

[umbral girder]

Turn undead, sear undead, their entire spell list negating the curses and debuffs of Strahd, great wisdom saves, healing and utility

[fossil hollow]

ok, clearly the vibes are not meticulous today

[umbral girder]

Varied subclass options. Clerics handle CoS hard

[severe rampart]

Spirit Guardians dodge too

[limber trail]

Do clerics maybe have the best run of it?

[umbral girder]

Yeah plenty of options to stop Strahd’s running away tactics

[crystal latch]

The most important thing for clearing CoS overall is the quality of your class spell list

[severe rampart]

That's what I think

[blissful ibex]

we were 1 missed attack away from TPKing to broom q_q

[umbral girder]

Main weakness of clerics is they are slow

[limber trail]

I feel their only competition might be the paladins

[crystal latch]

Overall I'd say the best possible comp to clear CoS in 4 people is 2 wizards 2 warlocks

[fossil hollow]

ok

[umbral girder]

Ranger is decently close to

[burnt valley]

Best possible monoclass team would be either 4 warlocks or 4 wizards right?

[severe rampart]

Things are heating up in the Strahd community

[limber trail]

Ranger might not be a terrible shout here

[umbral girder]

Mainly because Ranger counters Strahd’s primary tactics

[steel moth]

if we are just talking about death house at level 1 then twilight cleric

[umbral girder]

We aren’t

[limber trail]

I'm also gonna be honest part of my consideration here is: Does this class have access to any real healing

[severe rampart]

One bad initiative and wizards die to death house

[burnt valley]

They meant the entirety of CoS

[limber trail]

one problem with all wizards is you do not have a lot of healing options

[steel moth]

i see

[burnt valley]

I have a feeling this is an elaborate ragebait

[knotty pasture]

Oh hi Lime

[umbral girder]

The surprise round dudes in Death House killing wizards round 1

[burnt valley]

Hallo Sublime

[crystal latch]

5e or 5.5e?

[steel moth]

this is monoclass right?

[limber trail]

Yeah monoclass

[severe rampart]

5.5e we'll say

[fossil hollow]

more like not everyone is high optimization minded

[steel moth]

5.5e

my cue to leave

[umbral girder]

5.5e Death House likely one shots every Wizard since the damage buff to monsters and their action economy too

[limber trail]

I'm assuming four reasonable well built, but not completely optimized PCs. The kind of PC you might play in an actual DnD Campaign

[severe rampart]

Right? saw the 2024 stat blocks and went back to 2014's to make it easier, now I'm running 2024 stat blocks the gloves are off

[crystal latch]

The only encounter that you actually have to fight in DH is the armor, everything else is skippable one way or another

[eternal plinth]

Have there been any more details about what's included in the upcoming season? (Additional adventures, store support kits, etc?)

[umbral girder]

Healing isn’t too much of an issue for CoS personally

It’s removing all the evil status effects.

[limber trail]

It's not a huge issue but having some is always helpful

[fossil hollow]

Just whats been announced (Ravenloft, Arcana, potential Dark Sun)

[knotty pasture]

I rolled three nat 5s in a roll...

Curse you dice god

[crystal latch]

In 5.5e you get healing through Magic Initiate (healing word or goodberry)

[limber trail]

You don't need healing every fight, but you will eventually reach a fight where you do need healing

Healing Word is probably the shout here as far as efficiently getting people back up goes

[trail root]

Heyo

[crystal latch]

You really don't need more than HW and Goodberry

[burnt valley]

True

[crystal latch]

Death house difficulty is very frontloaded too

[umbral girder]

It’s the bouncer slapping the wizard party out

[crystal latch]

4 wizards are bringing up to 8 magic missiles assuming they spend one slot each on Mage Armor

Realistically fewer

[umbral girder]

They are so cooked

[blissful ibex]

that or 5.5e making healing potions a bonus action

[crystal latch]

Armor - kite
Specter - probably magic missile it which is an L, burst it down in general
Broom - burst it down but cantrips may very well suffice
And then everything else is just a default kill

[fossil hollow]

well, it was fun

[crystal latch]

The big L in this prompt is that it's single-classed so no armor dipping, might unironically give bladesinger a niche

Or we just go Tortle or cope with 16 dex mage armor

16 AC is low but it's still just a module

[limber trail]

21 AC if you really need it with shield too

[crystal latch]

Yes

Single-classed warlock is really sad in 5.5e now that Moderately Armored is gutted

[cobalt owl]

Poor moderately armored

[abstract swan]

ok wait i came to ask a DND question but why am i suddenly getting a verizon ad overlayed on my discord sidebar wtf

[cobalt owl]

I miss medium armor master not removing the dex disadv

[fossil hollow]

discord's orb thingy?

[crystal latch]

But yeah, for an all-PCs-are-the-same-class run of CoS or any other module I'd do 4 wizards or 4 warlocks

[abstract swan]

yeah i just learned it's togglable but idk why it suddenly turned on. was a jumpscare

[burnt valley]

It would be correct to say melee martials would do the worst right?

[crystal latch]

Yes

It's literally just the class tier list

[umbral girder]

Amusingly the 2024 melee Martials all got bonus mobility options now

[fossil hollow]

Welp, the chat has turned into optimization, back to looking at pinterest for art references

[lyric viper]

Yep folk please keep optimization chat to #optimization

[undone rain]

I always have a hard time picking a race for characters because so many of em are cool af

[floral wyvern]

is this the right channel?, i just wanted to ask for advice on what to do

i just joined a campaign but the dm is hella spamming me on character creation information that i already get it and was already doing the character creation but his just repetitively doing it and it's making my head hurts i can't continue on creating my character

[idle oar]

Communicate - tell them you already have the info and are working on creating a character

[undone rain]

Like elves alone and their subracrs are cool, the changelings are cool. Every race is so awesome and i have a hard time picking one

[fossil hollow]

roll a die

[undone rain]

Perhaps i should play a giant race. What were those guys called. Not goliaths, another race

Connection to the feywild

[idle oar]

Bugbear?

[fossil hollow]

Firbolg

[idle oar]

Ah yes

[undone rain]

Firbolg thats the one

Those are some silly fellas

Yes a firbolg ancient paladin, i got it!

[woven flint]

I'm gonna be playing a Firbolg wild magic sorcerer soon

[crimson gulch]

Firbolgs are great

[woven flint]

Yeah, and they have some pretty solid species features tbh

[crimson gulch]

The first dnd campaign I wrote and ran was based on firbolgs and the meme "the forest won't be harmed when the lorax is armed"

[woven flint]

That's based

[proper forum]

Classic D&D interaction right here.
"What race should I pick?"
Gives the most obscure and oddball species ever

[proper forum]

Play one of the like 10 types of elf elves are cool

[knotty pasture]

When in doubt with weird races, pick Giff

[woven flint]

Firbolgs feel incredibly underutilized

[knotty pasture]

Gun wielding hippos in campaigns with no guns will seem out of place

[woven flint]

I dunno, I think Thri-Kreen and Plasmoids are the weirdest species, as much as Giff are my beloved

[proper forum]

Also half of the species in D&D are literally just normal animals that walk on two legs instead of four
think about it

[woven flint]

Beastfolk aren't that abnormal in the realms, no

[rough basalt]

Speaking of Giff. Im hoping when I run my small spelljammer adventure soon I get someone who picks one.

[woven flint]

If you run it and I'm avaliable, I'll play Reginald

[rough basalt]

The legend himself

[umbral girder]

Sora every villain has to dab him up and recognize him.

That’s just the law of Reginald they all just know him

[proper forum]

On the contrary, I said that beastfplk are way more ordinary than they seem because they're just like... normal animals that exist in real life. Like just normal animals. The only difference is that they can stand up and talk.

[jolly hound]

What class/subclasses would you guys recommend for a pirate campaign I have coming up. The only one on my mind is swashbuckler lol

[proper forum]

That is literally the one that makes the most sense

[hushed radish]

nah, just look at tortles life span. they did that race dirty

[proper forum]

But you could also go gunslinger

[still plover]

Plenty of options. Barbarian - boarding party. Bard - herald and negotiator. Cleric - sea priest. The list goes on.

[rough basalt]

I haven't decided on a time and day yet so we'll work it out.

[proper forum]

You could also do a warlock with a fathomless patron if you want to be the weird fortune teller character who has visions and communicates with the sea

[woven flint]

Sea Druid is also there

(If you're using 2024 rules)

[woven flint]

If you ask me, they should live longer than even elves

[undone rain]

Turtles do live long irl so yeah

[jolly hound]

Yk I was thinking of that one, I’m gonna play as a skeleton with a bunch of coral and stuff growing on him

[undone rain]

Youd expect these wandering lil wise guys would travel for hundreds of years

[surreal trellis]

can someone help me name my character

[hushed radish]

race class?

[proper forum]

Guys is skeleton a race

[woven flint]

Plumbert.

What species?

[hushed radish]

er... species...? that's what they say now

[woven flint]

Reborn could be flavored as a skeleton

[opaque tusk]

Relicborn from Crooked Moon

[surreal trellis]

discription is in character discussion

[woven flint]

Crooked Moon isn't official content

[idle oar]

Can I encourage the character discussion over to #character-discussion please?

[opaque tusk]

Well yeah but third party is close enough

[hushed radish]

too much work can't be bothered

[undone rain]

John Dungeon

[idle oar]

What are folks doing D&D-wise this week? Any interesting games coming up?

[woven flint]

Its completely dm dependant on if it's allowed

[opaque tusk]

Ik, but if it is I'm just sayin

It's possible

[undone rain]

Just another regular sesh this sunday

[jolly hound]

It is when you’re dm is so flipping cool and let you make stuff

[undone rain]

We are doing a pretty small campaign after realizing 8 people was a mistake

[idle oar]

Let me tell you about running a game for 13 teenagers...

[arctic roost]

i've got a session next wednesday

[proper forum]

Ain't no way my DM would just let me make races

[undone rain]

Sounds like hell lol

[proper forum]

I will next week, we don't know when exactly. Our ranger is very busy.

[idle oar]

It was crazy creative but yes a nightmare to keep them all on track lol

[undone rain]

When the campaigns done we will simply split up into 2 groups again lol

[arctic roost]

yeah i'm playing a level 4 paladin right now
it's pretty fun not gonna lie

[proper forum]

I want to start dming but none of my friends are here and roll 20 is so hard to use it almost made we want to quit

[idle oar]

Have you tried Owlbear.rodeo yet? Can be a pretty simple "map + tokens" VTT

[hushed radish]

is it free?

[idle oar]

Yes it has a free tier

Paid tier for more storage space and other features I believe

[hushed radish]

well, all I'd need is joining a game and moving my token as a player

[river vector]

Reading the curse of strahd module, looks like I have to buy a deck of cards

[proper forum]

But I still have to make Stat sheets... character sheets... what ever it is for the NPCs ughhh I don't knowww

[river vector]

I mean.... You don't have to make homebrew enemies

[proper forum]

Yes, unless you're the clown running the whole thing (that's me)

[river vector]

(It's fun though)

[idle oar]

You can have two browser windows open - one with the VTT and one pointing at a notes/rules/adventure references

[proper forum]

But I want to...

[hushed radish]

yeah roll 20 is my preferred. but a group mentioned using the rodeo thing. I would have much preferred roll20 but at least it's free and I can still use my own stuff for character sheet

[river vector]

Hmm I wonder if I should start a curse of strahd campaign alongside my homebrew one

[proper forum]

But like all my friends use roll 20 and I don't know if they want to switch

[river vector]

Or since it's my first time, just focus on my homebrew

[river vector]

This is a problem solved by asking your friends

[hushed radish]

if you're the odd one out maybe you should switch lol

[fossil hollow]

not really how it works

[idle oar]

Ultimately as a DM you decide some major factors in how your group plays. If you decide you're going to meet in person and use physical maps, it's on the players to decide if they like that will participate in that. Or if you decide you're going to run the game using Owlbear.rodeo and Discord, it's on your players to decide if they can do that or not. There is obviously some communciation and accomadation though of trying to find the best tool(s) that works for most of the playing group.

[hushed radish]

imo, if they (the dm) wants to use some weird site the group doesn't know/want they should just share their screen and let the players use their preferred character sheet site

[river vector]

I'll focus on my homebrew for now, I will run curse of strahd in a few months when we finish

[rough basalt]

I mean Owlbear isnt a weird site, its just Roll20 without a lot of ads and easier to use

[hushed radish]

Roll20 has ads? I've never seen any cause ad blocker

[rough basalt]

You use external sheets for it anyhow

Its just the easiest vtt for a dm to use online that I'm aware of

[proper forum]

This whole conversation started with me saying that Roll 20 is very hard to learn to use and I don't even know where to start

[rough basalt]

Owlbear then

[hushed radish]

ah, well I had like a 20 minute run down from my last DM then started DMing using it no problem

[fossil hollow]

at that point its more work for the DM

[hushed radish]

I don't think so? sharing your screen in discord is like two clicks

[proper forum]

It does indeed have ads. Quite a lot actually.

[hushed radish]

you, my friend, need adblock then

[proper forum]

I might need to download another one

[fossil hollow]

Sure, but the last thing I need on my platter is also asking where exactly the player wants to move their char or mess with their tokens

[hushed radish]

they should volunteer where they want to move not you asking. anyway, it's happened before due to technical issues with my group in the past and hasn't been a big deal.

[fossil hollow]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

I meant more so clarifying where they want me to move them

[rough basalt]

I'm a believer that DMing follows much of "drivers rules" in cars

[hushed radish]

use a chess board style grid? I just don't tend to want to join any non roll20. kills my wanting to deal with it

[rough basalt]

Driver picks the VTT, riders use it if they don't wanna drive

[fossil hollow]

I still use grids yes.

The point is that I dont want to worry about moving their tokens, period

[hushed radish]

by that I mean: chess board grids are labeled with letters and numbers. like: knight to E12

[fossil hollow]

oh perfect, now I gotta put more on my maps- the point is that I already got enough on my plate without having to do more

[hushed radish]

that's good for you, I'm just saying from a player perspective I don't want to pay for another service, join another site, or learn a new site

[rough basalt]

The only VTT that makes players pay is Tabletop Simulator afaik

And if a player ain't gonna put in the effort to hit a button to roll on ddb then say it aloud the dm shouldnt need to put in the effort to learn a VTT they're having trouble with

[hushed radish]

ddb = dnd beyond?

[lavish flame]

doesn't Fantasy Grounds cost money?

[lavish flame]

yeah, thats a shortening on DndBeyond

[hushed radish]

isn't that paid for most things? like using content from books other than phb?

[fossil hollow]

Its the same as Roll20

[rough basalt]

There's a free download version for players

[idle oar]

Anything outside of the SRD and free rules is paid (regarding D&D materials)

[hushed radish]

hard core no thanks then

[fossil hollow]

R20 works the same way as DDB does, it just offers a bit more than just DnD

[hushed radish]

I want to be able to add my own features by typing them by hand if I want

[idle oar]

I mean even Roll20, anything outside of the SRD and free rules is paid too

[hushed radish]

features from books of course.

[rough basalt]

Tho Fantasy Grounds is a pain in the butt I wouldn't suggest it to anyone

[fossil hollow]

I mean, the homebrew system also does the same. Even if its a pain to figure out

[rough basalt]

Unless they're good at Microsoft Excel

[hushed radish]

naw, I just add a new feature and copy paste

[jagged raft]

Hey folks, not sure where to post this: What character sheet layout do you like the most? I'm trying to see what's out there for a new character I'll be playing

[hushed radish]

maybe you mean the auto level up wizard? if so just don't use that lol

[idle oar]

You can technically do that on D&DBeyond as well using the homebrew tools. If you own the physical book you can recreate your content on D&DBeyond - just don't publish it (e.g. make it publicly available to everyone) and you're good.

?books

[cosmic roost]

Accessing Content on D&D Beyond

There are four ways to access content on D&D Beyond that you may have in your physical books:

1. Purchase the full digital book from the marketplace
2. Purchase a digital/physical bundle from the marketplace
3. Join a D&D Beyond campaign with someone who already owns the book where content sharing has been enabled
4. Use the homebrew tools to copy the content from your physical book into D&D Beyond (Note: Do not publish any content copied in this way; it is for personal use only)

[hushed radish]

so you have to create content to pull features from? I'd rather make the features directly into the character sheet. seems like extra work

[idle oar]

Or you by the book

[fossil hollow]

DDB's homebrew system is def a bit janky

[idle oar]

Oh 100%

[hushed radish]

that's why I'll just stick with roll20

[idle oar]

Hopefully after the D&DBeyond rebuild it will be a lot better but yeah, there's some things that still aren't possible to do mechanically on D&DBeyond

[idle oar]

and others will stick with pen and paper and physical books...
I'm a firm believer in pick and use the tools that work best for you and your group

[hushed radish]

for character sheets, to me DM should be satisfied with me sharing screen as proof of rolls if it's a trust issue. and screenshots of character sheet. are people that picky with forcing ddb?

[fossil hollow]

Depends on DM. I accept DDB or PDFs

or even avrae

[hushed radish]

what about screenshots lol?

[fossil hollow]

depends on scenario

[hushed radish]

I guess I can use chrome's print to PDF but that's extra hoops

[idle oar]

I mean ideally your group you're playing with can be trusted to roll physical or digital dice and everyone accepts whatever they communicate as being what was rolled.

Basically they can be trusted to play according to the rules and not cheat

[hushed radish]

yeah, that's true. I have physical dice I just roll with roll 20 cause it gives me proof I don't have to worry about being accused

and I don't have to math

[fossil hollow]

one day ill have a camera facing downwards so i can use physical die for my online games.

[woven flint]

Eat your dice on camera

[fossil hollow]

I still need to find someone who sells edible die

[hushed radish]

I think there are dice ice cube molds you could probably make candy or ice dice and eat them

[idle oar]

It can also be fun to see the dice rolls so the experience is shared by the entire group... but yeah. Communication and trust is pretty critical regardless of what tools or processes you use to play D&D.

[fossil hollow]

unfortunately my candy making skills are not as great as my frying skills

[woven flint]

Your frymaking skills 🔥

[fossil hollow]

yes, a shrimp did fry this rice

[woven flint]

Because you're short! HA!!!

[knotty pasture]

Gnomes.

Still baffles me to find out that they count as an uncommon race, even Rock Gnomes (the most common kind)

[fossil hollow]

Like, theyre not as common or what?

[knotty pasture]

PHB classified them as an uncommon race

I thought they were common all this time

Forest/Deep Gnomes are rarer sure but that's mostly it

[fossil hollow]

I mean, theyre typically holed away somewhere. Its probably less theyre rare and more you just never see them cuz theyre always being autistic at home

[buoyant oar]

Considering that in the most detailed setting of the Forgotten Realms Gnomes are uncommon to the point where most of them come from a small island that just recently recovered from an apocalypse.

Uncommon makes sense.

[umbral girder]

Guys hear me out

[fossil hollow]

no

[umbral girder]

Necromancer who works in a Stable

In order for the players to stop him they need to beat a Dead Horse

[dim wasp]

Ok I have not started my first DnD session

[woven flint]

Necroprancer

[knotty pasture]

If it doesn't smell I'll do it

[dim wasp]

But I did start fantasy age today which is similar

It was fun I can't lie

[fossil hollow]

Nealen, silence

[dim wasp]

(this is what they told me)

[umbral girder]

I walk 25ft out of it

[fossil hollow]

Entangle

[umbral girder]

Immune

[buoyant oar]

What in the YouTube Shorts was that pun

[umbral girder]

: )

[dim wasp]

calls owlbear to take you back to us

[buoyant oar]

I cast death by cringe

[fossil hollow]

Unsavable Rime's Binding Ice

[umbral girder]

It missed

[dim wasp]

What do ya all think of Fantasy Age?

[fossil hollow]

#non-dnd-topics

[dim wasp]

But mom /j

[umbral girder]

I was playing around too much with an upcoming TTRPG about manifesting things with the power of puns and world play.

so my upcoming sessions might be insufferable if I get my computer working in time.

Lord Soth is gonna have a weapon that tears up the battle field because he keeps Dragging the Lance

[woven flint]

I think my Cleric is gonna have to chastise his party a little bit the next session we play

We're finally in The Dungeon of The Mad Mage now and they just.. pursued two bugbears without checking for traps or letting me Arcane eye ahead first

"I know ya think that ya can just be risky cuz ya've got a Cleric, but it don't matter if I end up dyin' because o' yer mistakes! "

Mind you, it was a Monk and a Rogue doin' risky plays, not even the Barbarian (he wasn't there for most sessions but was there for the combat at the very end)

[buoyant oar]

In one of my paid sessions recently, the party paid me money to lay them out as their employer for 2 hours after they got caught lying about murdering an innocent person

I've never been paid to yell at people before. I felt weird lol

[woven flint]

I'd pay you to yell at me... /silly

I love my party to bits, but man sometimes it sucks being their cleric 😭

And my Cleric is such a kind old man that he doesn't even view them aa a nuisance

He wasn't very kind to Volo last night 💀

[buoyant oar]

Worst part is they spent the entire previous session coming up with a cohesive story that they could all tell as a lie. And after they did so and the employer bought it, one of them sighed and said

"thanks so much for being cool about us lying when you go to tell your bosses" think she was in on it when she very much wasn't.

[umbral girder]

Btw Tokii did I tell you I got my idea set up for my next Mini Campaign?

I’m titling it “Volo’s Guide to Barovia”

[woven flint]

My Tortle Cleric would like to punch Volo in the teeth
He wouldn't
But he'd like to

[stoic haven]

Oh, question, who is Volo

[woven flint]

Volo
The guy who wrote Volos Guide to Monsters

[umbral girder]

A level 1 Wizard called a Bard who gets into way too much trouble

[stoic haven]

I know Drizzt, Jarlaxle (thanks to Ti), the wizards

[woven flint]

He's a Wizard that parades as a Bard

[umbral girder]

He is kinda an idiot gag character

[rough basalt]

Guy who would be in bigger trouble if elminster didnt edit out a lot of his bigotry

[stoic haven]

The one from Baldurs gate?

[arctic bobcat]

Yall i need some villainous acts for a really cocky human fighter rival to do

[woven flint]

Yes

[umbral girder]

That is one of his appearances yes

[rough basalt]

Elminster leaves in just enough so people will know what hes about

[arctic bobcat]

Something thatd make my players hate him even more

[umbral girder]

Acererak and Volo being in the same zip code is fun to me

[stoic haven]

Wait, The Baldur's Gate Volo is the volo?!

[woven flint]

How villainous?

[umbral girder]

Yes

[woven flint]

Yes.

[arctic bobcat]

Not actively going out of his way to harm people, just whatever it takes to boost his ego

[rough basalt]

He's what Wizards decided to pin all the "inherent evil" stuff on as well

[arctic bobcat]

Do want him to be a bad guy tho

[stoic haven]

I knew it, joked about it, and that it was coincidence

[umbral girder]

Volo once killed thousands of people

Because he wrote a very bad book called “Volo’s Guide to Magic”

[woven flint]

Maybe have him push a kid or something for accidentally spilling something on his armor because he's that Egotistical and it damaged his fragile ego

[umbral girder]

Too many people trusted it

[arctic bobcat]

Oo i really like that

[stoic haven]

Wait wut 0-0

[umbral girder]

Volo is amusing

[woven flint]

Not too heinously evil, but just evil enough

[stoic haven]

So is Volo always a level 1?

[rough basalt]

Yep

[woven flint]

Yes

[stoic haven]

Very!

[rough basalt]

His CR is 1/4

[umbral girder]

Hear me out, I give Volo a walking speed of 35ft

[stoic haven]

Interesting, crazy that he has his own books

[woven flint]

Volo writes about monsters he has no true experience with

[umbral girder]

So that he is faster than the player’s walking speed but slower than their running speed

[rough basalt]

He was created by the gods to keep faerun in a Renaissance era

[woven flint]

Is that true?

[rough basalt]

No.

[woven flint]

Damn you, Sora!!!
You're one of my trusted dms!!! /silly

[umbral girder]

I love how he is such an unreliable narrator

Because that makes it an easy excuse to retcon all the “Volo’s guide” books

[rough basalt]

Basically he's the one that painted all the species in VGM as monsters and evil.

So Wizards stepped in and stopped his bigotry

[umbral girder]

They can just say “it’s a book written by Volo”

[stoic haven]

I liked Volo in Baldur's Gate,|| he stabbed my eye out||

[umbral girder]

Sounds like him

[rough basalt]

Larian made him the best version of himself

If it were 5e Volo he would've killed you

[woven flint]

Volo's already made a play on our parties adventures in Waterdeep
We've talked about shutting down the Books he's writing because

1. We don't trust his narrative declarations
   And
2. Our Waterdeep party is already too widely known for their comfort

[rough basalt]

Cause he'd be very drunk during the eyepoking

[umbral girder]

He has 5e stats

Which is so fun

It’s literally level 1 wizard with no damage spells

[rough basalt]

Ye his statblocks in Dragon Heist and Tomb of Annihilation iirc

[umbral girder]

Trying to sell his book “Volo’s guide to monsters”

[fossil hollow]

CR 1/4, 1st level wizard with 31 HP

[rough basalt]

I let my ToA party beatem up in Port Nyanzaru

The guards thanked them.

[umbral girder]

When the level 1 wizard rivals a level 3 fighter HP

[woven flint]

Yup
Dragon Heist is where we first delt with him
And since we're using the same characters and lore for DOTMM he came begging us for money after we completed the Dragon Heist.... ||And the city already taxxed us.||

[stoic haven]

Ok, what is the worst module you've ever played in? (If any)

Because certain ones get bad reps and so lots of people piggyback on that without playing it, so I want experiences

[woven flint]

Honestly?
I've liked the ones I've played in so far

Dragon Heist
EOR
Phandelver

Most games I've been in have been homebrew settings

[stoic haven]

Tokii, you are a greater man than I, far luckier than myself

Homebrew settings just hit different

[umbral girder]

sees EOR
I wonder who runs that game

[rough basalt]

The modules ive touched are
Phandelver
EoR
CoS
OotA
SKT
QftIS
ID:RotF

SKT was by far the worst

[stoic haven]

Oooh, I got to be a Guest Star in Candlekeep last night, so that was fun

[woven flint]

Dragon Heist is probably my favorite because I just love our Waterdeep Menaces

Ti had to change our group title from Heros of Waterdeep to menaces after first session lmao

[stoic haven]

EoR?

[buoyant oar]

I think honestly, if I was to ever run a game that was not set and forgotten Realms it would probably be set in the Elder Scrolls Universe

[rough basalt]

Eve of Ruin

[stoic haven]

Oh, I keep thinking Eve of Ruin is the one shot

[buoyant oar]

I've been a DM for decades and the idea of creating my entire world on my own from scratch is not appealing for some reason

[woven flint]

The Waterdeep Menaces AREN'T Evil.
We're just a rowdy bunch who want to get on with our lives

[rough basalt]

The module where Mordenkainen says "what are we, on the eve of ruin?" Before the module title drops

[fossil hollow]

Tokii has played it before iirc

[stoic haven]

It sounds like a oneshot tbh

[woven flint]

Nealen is the only full game I've played it under so far lol

[umbral girder]

I’ve run Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Descent into Avernus, Eve of Ruin, Lost Mines of Phandelvar, Princes of the Apocolypse, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and Rise of Tiamat

[buoyant oar]

The one shot is nest of the Eldritch eye

[stoic haven]

Also QftIS

[umbral girder]

Yeah Chapter 1

[rough basalt]

Quests from the Infinite Staircase

[stoic haven]

That is one I have not heard of, mind filling me in?

[rough basalt]

I played one session but was ultimately disgusted and didnt wanna keep running it

Not related to the module at all

[umbral girder]

It’s like Tales from the Yawning Portal. It’s a handful of reprint adventures from older editions

[buoyant oar]

quests from the infinite staircase is a module that updates five classic modules from first and second edition

[rough basalt]

Well actually, kinda. The Maps are too small for VTT use which is an unforgivable crime for me

[buoyant oar]

It has in it one of the first modules and ever written for the Forgotten Realms in a region that they never touched again

[umbral girder]

Oh yeah Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury I ran as well

[stoic haven]

Don't have to do it from scratch, nor do I believe it is possible, I famously (among friends) cherrypick and take things I like from other settings and kinda mix it all up

[rough basalt]

Basically they had one room with Two Large creatures in it and the map itself could only fit one large creature and it couldnt leave the room

And I saw enough, I was done

[woven flint]

@fossil hollow
Is my recollection right?
Did you change our name from Hero's of Waterdeep to Waterdeep Menaces after session 1? Lol

[fossil hollow]

Legends of Waterdeep

[woven flint]

Ah, Legends to Menaces lmao

[rough basalt]

Quests is good, but not if you're a VTT guy like me unless you find some community made maps or makeem yourself

[buoyant oar]

One that's interesting about tales and the yawning portal is that it has a reprint of an adventure from early 5th edition in it. Dead in Thay was a DnD Next Adventure

[woven flint]

Honestly, we should get Leather Jackets that say "Waterdeep Menaces" 🔥 /silly

[umbral girder]

And it wasn’t a “1 square is 10ft” thing too?

[crimson gulch]

quests from the inifinite staircase had some of the best maps in a published book in a long time imo

exept for the last chapter

[umbral girder]

Yep! And I think against the giants too?

[civic palm]

Is it? I’ve never actually played pathfinder.

[rough basalt]

I think it was this case but that doesn't transfer well to a VTT

[rough basalt]

You pretty much ripped almost straight from pathfinder

[buoyant oar]

Against the Giants was published in 1981

[umbral girder]

You don’t just double the map size? Or does your VTT not let you do that?

[stoic haven]

Most of my longest campaign experiences have been bad, which were PotA, ToD, OotA (not yours Ti), and 2 homebrew settings

[civic palm]

Man that’s embarrassing. Suggesting an idea I think is original only for someone else to have done it first.

[rough basalt]

Wdym double it

[umbral girder]

Like if the map layout is “25x25” just change it to “50x50”

So the squares match the VTT

[arctic roost]

i've been running DoIP myself

[civic palm]

That’s Quadruple.

[rough basalt]

That doesnt change the hallways only being 5ft wide tho i dont think

[fossil hollow]

Like a biker gang?

[woven flint]

Hell yeah lmao

[umbral girder]

Does the maps change the square size mid map?

[rough basalt]

I dont think so? idk

[stoic haven]

But then you would have to double the footage of every spell and creature to one size larger to hold up with the canonical measurements

[rough basalt]

Better to just say that 1 grid should be 5ft

[umbral girder]

No?

[civic palm]

I usually do that with TaleSpire. Although it does technically increase the distance my players have to move, it makes up for it by actually looking good.

[umbral girder]

Why would you make the monsters bigger?

Like I ran Princes of the Apocolypse and that’s what I did since half the maps there were “1 square is 10ft”

[still plover]

10' grid? Could just use the four corners, suddenly it's a 5' grid.

[rough basalt]

ye thats why I dont like modules

[umbral girder]

Like a monster is not “1 square size”

It’s “medium, large, etc”

[rough basalt]

1 square is 5ft should be a rule of life

[buoyant oar]

One of the main reasons why you have 10-ft square maps is because they try to get the maps to fit on a singular page while also making them massive

[rough basalt]

cause now we got a hill giant thats 40ft wide

[umbral girder]

Why would you change the monster size?

[rough basalt]

Monsters on 10ft grid maps be the wide meme

[umbral girder]

Why would the monster change?

[stoic haven]

Because if the map is 25x25 and you are scaling it times 2, objects on the map will be bigger and more squares, so if you want it to stay proportional for play, you make players "large" and large creatures "huge"

[still plover]

"I take wide steps."

[umbral girder]

It’s the map changing not the monsters

[buoyant oar]

The monster doesn't change in size just because your grid size is different

[umbral girder]

Why would any creature change in size?

Changing grids don’t change creature sizes

[rough basalt]

cause how are you taking up 50ft of room as a 10ft tall, 3ft wide monster

[buoyant oar]

If you take every square on a 10-in square map and subdivide it into four squares, you have four 5 ft squares.

[still plover]

That's what I said.

[civic palm]

So rather than 1 square of 10ft, you’re doing four squares of five ft which equals it?

[stoic haven]

If I would cast a spell on the first 25x25 foot map, and it had a range of 30 ft, I would usually be able to cast from one end to the other, right? But now the footage, according to VTT is 50ft, so I cannot stand on one end of the map and hit the other side

[buoyant oar]

I'm agreeing with you. It doesn't change the size of the monsters

[umbral girder]

A large creature isn’t 2 squares by 2 squares. It is 10ft by 10ft

[rough basalt]

Yet another 5ft grid square W, dont have this nonsense going on

[crimson gulch]

10 foot squares are fine on a vtt

you can just overlay a grid thats 5 foot on top of it

[stoic haven]

The actual size doesnt change, just according to the VTT, they are still for all purposes a large creature

[umbral girder]

Yeah the VTTs split up the squares you know that right?

[buoyant oar]

You can program the footage to say whatever you want on a vtt if you're editing the scale of the map, the footage should automatically correct itself

[civic palm]

Okay but you could also double the monster size. It’d be funny.

[rough basalt]

Then you have large monsters in 3 different rooms

[umbral girder]

Like even DnDBeyond maps does that.

[buoyant oar]

If the footage does not automatically correct itself. You're playing with a bad vtt

[rough basalt]

No?

it uses the 10ft grid as 1 square

[umbral girder]

Roll20 and DnD Beyond both do that for me

[crimson gulch]

yeah, and then 4 medium monsters can fit in the square

[rough basalt]

That just sounds like a pain to keep track of

all 4 tokens on the same spot

[umbral girder]

They aren’t

[crimson gulch]

they arent in the same spot

[rough basalt]

They are?

[umbral girder]

The squares are split up into smaller squares by the VTT

[crimson gulch]

they are in the four corners of the one square

Four can Fit in one

[buoyant oar]

Whenever I run a module like that, the tokens are automatically adjusted to fit into one quarter of the square as there is a secondary grid that overlays the map that splits every square into four

[crimson gulch]

because a 10 foot by 10 foot is 4 5 foot by 5 foot squares

[rough basalt]

I assumed you were using community made fixed maps

[umbral girder]

No it’s official maps

[still plover]

You might have to turn off "snap to grid" but that's hardly a deal breaker. Right?

[civic palm]

I must be experiencing ceromorphosis…

[umbral girder]

That came packaged with the modules I bought

[rough basalt]

I'll entertain this idea

[buoyant oar]

And besides gridded play is optional

[crimson gulch]

entertain the idea? were telling you how it works

[umbral girder]

I think you aren’t understanding the idea

You are not making the VTT’s grid bigger

[buoyant oar]

Grab yourself a string. Do not be bound by the grid

[umbral girder]

You are making the Map Bigger.

[rough basalt]

I dont play irl

[buoyant oar]

Most vtts allow for gridless moving

[civic palm]

Artistic freedom.

[rough basalt]

So you walk through walls?

[crimson gulch]

#dnd-maps message here is an example of 10 foot grid use

[umbral girder]

I could show you what I mean perhaps? If you got time for me to show you.

[civic palm]

Disappear and fly?

[rough basalt]

So you make the tokens smaller sized?

[buoyant oar]

No walls can still block movement, but you can move without having to snap to a specific grid and most measurement tools in those vtts allow you to move however you desire within your movement speed and the available space

[umbral girder]

No

The tokens and grids of the VTT are unaffected

The map is made bigger

[civic palm]

Perspective-wise, technically yes. A bigger map, smaller tokens, potato po-tah-to.

Proportionally the tokens would take up less space from the total map.

[buoyant oar]

Both making the map bigger and making the tokens smaller by using the grid as a subdivision will both achieve the same effect. One just might have to have manual toggling of the measurement tools of your vtt. Again, if your vtt doesn't have this, it sucks

[crimson gulch]

Sora uses foundry

[umbral girder]

Basically you are not making the Grids on the map match the Grid on the VTT

[buoyant oar]

Which has editable measurement on grid

[rough basalt]

It does but the maps are too small?

[umbral girder]

You make the VTT’s grid half of the map.

Once again Sora I can show you since we share a Roll20

[civic palm]

I read this as “edible measurement”. I need breakfast.

[fossil hollow]

No, i did too

[buoyant oar]

I am eating breakfast myself ahaha

[white cave]

Foundry can do that easily

[crimson gulch]

think like math blocks, if you have 4 cubes, and you say they are each 5 foot, putting 4 of them togeather maes a 10 foot by 10 foot surface

[rough basalt]

This seems like magic to me

[cerulean monolith]

Measurement-O’s are very nutritious

[buoyant oar]

Yeah you can set the map pixel size directly. You can edit the grid size you can at the grid pixel width you can free. Scroll it to get it to exactly where you want.

All of this can be done within the map configuration menu of the particular scene

[crimson gulch]

🟦 🟦
🟦 🟦

like that each 10 foot square is made up of 4 5 foot squares

[buoyant oar]

I suggest editing the grid size more than editing the maps image file as if your map has dynamic lighting set up on it. Grid size will be easier to deal with

[rough basalt]

Now idk what's going on

Now its actually doing what you guys said it should do

Who got into my foundry

Wait

[buoyant oar]

Blessed be Atropus and the Devs of Foundry

[fossil hollow]

stares

[umbral girder]

Basically it is 1 Map Grid = 4 VTT grid

You just double the map’s dimensions

[civic palm]

Quadruple.

[buoyant oar]

If I double the size of one 5 ft square. It turns into one 10-ft square

If I quadruple the size of one 5 ft square, it turns into a 20-ft square

[umbral girder]

We aren’t cubing it

[buoyant oar]

Doubling it is the correct term we're not dealing in length or width we're dealing in square feet

[umbral girder]

It’s just making the dimensions twice as big

[civic palm]

So, a 25x25 map size is 625 total blocks, yes?

In a square.

[umbral girder]

We aren’t measures blocks

[rough basalt]

This is weird

[umbral girder]

We are measuring dimensions

[buoyant oar]

I cast a spell upon chat today

It's a new spell. I've been working on it for a bit

[fossil hollow]

ive lose the sauce with this convo

[rough basalt]

Before it treated every square like 5ft but now its doing what yall said

[buoyant oar]

It's called. Learn Geometry

[rough basalt]

Realistically, Foundry fixed a bug that made these maps function wrong

[fossil hollow]

My fatal weakness, my anathema

[civic palm]

Just saying that doubling it would technically make 50x25, not 50x50.

[rough basalt]

But I believe yall used magic to change it instead

[umbral girder]

We aren’t doubling a single dimension

[buoyant oar]

If you double both dimensions of a 25x25-ft map, you have a 50x50 foot mat because you've doubled both dimensions

[umbral girder]

We are doubling their dimensions plural

[buoyant oar]

If you only doubled one side, you haven't doubled anything. You've just changed the shape

[rough basalt]

Well that certainly changes my approach to running modules if the 10ft square is working properly

[civic palm]

Doubling both dimensions, both x and y, is quadrupling the total area.

[fossil hollow]

Theyre talking dimensions

[umbral girder]

We aren’t measuring total area

[rough basalt]

I won't need to make my own or buy community maps

[buoyant oar]

Blessed are developers of Foundry

[fossil hollow]

they can have my 50 bucks when i die

[civic palm]

Geometry is fun.

[buoyant oar]

I'd much rather give them 50 bucks once then pay a subscription until I die

[hot marlin]

Which, if my latest plans work, will be sooner than expected

[fossil hollow]

You Fiend

[hot marlin]

evil laugh, but in a non-fiendish way

[fossil hollow]

Too late

[civic palm]

Lich laugh?

[woven flint]

The fiend does fiend things

[buoyant oar]

The ability to be able to just buy things and not have to endlessly rent them is a good thing

[hot marlin]

Lord Kas is wise

[umbral girder]

Personally I don’t find Foundry all that fun to use

[civic palm]

Tech bros reinventing DnD by making subclasses available via subscription:

[rough basalt]

I'll probably get the community made strahd maps anyways over the official ones but this is good to know

[buoyant oar]

Foundry's not to everybody's tastes. I get that but I found it to be much more stable than the competition. I found it to be The Sweet spot between free services like owlbear rodeo And roll 20 and hyper complex systems like talespire and fantasy grounds

With the ability to mod it like Skyrim

[rough basalt]

If I had to use a free I'd use owlbear

But foundry is the best paid option for me

[hot marlin]

I prefer roll20 out of habit but Foundry is a close second

[crimson gulch]

Owlbear is free and does everything I need

[buoyant oar]

I'm over 10,000 hours into roll 20. Was a supporter from day one. I bought Foundry on the winter sale a few years back. 20% off. I haven't opened roll 20 since except to export all of my assets

[civic palm]

I use TaleSpire. It’s been fun so far.

[rough basalt]

Fantasy Grounds is the VTT for people who can use Microsoft Excel

[crimson gulch]

You can't use excel?

[umbral girder]

Excel isn’t too hard.

[buoyant oar]

I've been a player in one fantasy grounds game and it is very very powerful. I think it is probably one of the most powerful systems out there. Problem is is that it requires such a steep learning curve

[umbral girder]

I had a college course on Excel and it was basically a free pass because I got it all done in a week.

[crimson gulch]

Ditto

[rough basalt]

A bit of an exaggeration, moreso, people who can make Excel do the tango and ask for permission to marry your daughter in a victorian era story novel is what Fantasy Grounds is for

Using it for its base uses makes you look like hackerman

[civic palm]

Ah yes. A common activity.

[hot marlin]

Took me a while but I made excel take care of basically every rule added by Matthew Colville's Strongholds & Followers

[rough basalt]

I played in a game with someone who didnt know how to use it and it was a neverending stream of issues and the campaign got deleted so it needed restarted

[crimson gulch]

Every dm i have played under that used roll20 or foundry did not actually know how to run dnd they just had a few buttons ready. And it was painful when the buttons stopped working

[rough basalt]

Think that, but 100 times worse

Thats Fantasy Grounds when its not working

[buoyant oar]

I think the biggest slowdown that's happened in one of my campaigns on Foundry is I was trying to load a map and somebody was trying to access it via a Chromebook tablet while stating they had a computer and so it wouldn't load for them. So I had a hot swap of map real quick took 5 minutes. We took a break

[fossil hollow]

For me, its just wondering why DDB is rolling twice for around 5 mins

[rough basalt]

For me my common issue is maps made in dungeondraft either not showing up or being a different map

So I just use my czepeku ones

[crimson gulch]

Dnd beyond has been super langgy since the everyone sees the dice update

[buoyant oar]

Yeah, I don't use dungeon draft. I have had a very good track record with dungeon alchemist though the fact that I can just export it as a json map and add it in with dynamic walls and audio is awesome

That program turned my setup time from 30 minutes per map to 2 minutes

[rough basalt]

Ye DD has a good track record for me but every now and then it gives me trouble

I looked at dungeon alchemist before, seems nice.

[civic palm]

I wish you could toggle that. The times my initiative roll has been knocked over thanks to one of my friends…

[rough basalt]

That stuffs hilarious

[buoyant oar]

I'm about to start a spelljammer campaign in Foundry and I found this cool module that can help randomly generate star systems with orbiting maps that animate on screen with no AI generative code or images

[crimson gulch]

My setup time per map on owlbear is like 10 seconds

[rough basalt]

How much is it?

I'm looking to run Jammerspell myself

[crimson gulch]

Drag and drop and fog fill

[river vector]

Going to have a side NPC that said he was going to the capital not be there when players inevitably want to go there. Players will wonder where he is, it is like he vanished off the face of the earth. Cue the second campaign, Curse of Strahd, where it is revealed that he was taken by the mists.

[buoyant oar]

Subscribe to the Augur patreon for the 10$ a month tier and then install the mod and unsubscribe until you need to update.

[civic palm]

Time and starting date?

[buoyant oar]

TBD but a few months out.

[rough basalt]

I'll keep that in mind.
My patreon needs are stacking up.

[river vector]

But for an entire campaign they will wonder what happened to him

[civic palm]

Well, if you need a player, I’d happily join.

[buoyant oar]

Remember you only need to say subscribed if your module accesses the internet or you need to update

And I'll happily pay somebody money to do coding. I don't have to

[rough basalt]

True

Currently I'm at 31 when I gotta update

[still plover]

Presumably the party know where they're meant to be finding this chap? A capital city is a big place.

[river vector]

He's a descendant of the king, he left to go do noble things.

[rough basalt]

If my small spelljammer games makes me enjoy the setting an extra 10 to the sum probably won't be too bad.

[river vector]

So the king will be like "Huh? Neel never arrived"

[buoyant oar]

Right now I use DDB importer, the Ripper93, and The Augur

[rough basalt]

I'm just trying to wary of getting to the point where I'm spending too much for my game running.

[buoyant oar]

I pay only when I need an update which is like once every 6ish months.

[fossil hollow]

The urge to start an IRL campaign is super strong within me

[rough basalt]

I wish I could run an irl game

[buoyant oar]

The only reason I pay for DDB importer is to get all of the monsters off of DDB for foundry.

So I did it into a template world and packaged all of the monsters I owned up into a module and made it locally installable. Some work but now I can keep my statted DDB mobs forever.

[crimson gulch]

In person is the way for sure

[rough basalt]

An extra 10 bucks really isn't that much when I look at the few hundred that's in my next cart

[crimson gulch]

#merch-and-dice message

Marut smash last night

[civic palm]

Would you rather be 20th level with a class, feats, and subclass of your choosing (from official materials) or gain the ability to cast wish without the drawbacks?

[rough basalt]

Cast wish

[civic palm]

Not having to worry about getting crippled for wishing for cash would be nice.

[lavish flame]

wiah

I don't fr need any other ability in my regular life

[limpid plaza]

did someone mention spells

[rough basalt]

I'd wish my body to good health, wish away some other issues.

Wish a pizza to my house

[civic palm]

You’d still only get one wish per day.

[rough basalt]

I got like 50 more years I can handle a day limit

[limpid plaza]

I used my wish spell to wipe out a city before

[civic palm]

More if you use it to replicate clone or similar magic.

[crimson gulch]

Once a day wish would be enough for me

[rough basalt]

Wish myself the motivation and energy to do stuff instead of sitting on discord

[limpid plaza]

Just wish for a meteor swarm over the general area and everything miraculously stops existing

[civic palm]

I’d probably take the 20th level and build a wizard.

[rough basalt]

20th level would end up drawing too much attention to yourself imo

[civic palm]

If I want to use Wish for something beyond replicating a spell, Simulacrum solves that.

[limpid plaza]

Just find a wizard tower to spend your days in then.

[civic palm]

“Oh no,” I say in my demiplane.

[rare ember]

20'th level drunken master Monk aura

[limpid plaza]

So Jackie Chan?

[rough basalt]

Eh. I'd rather just a cureall on a daily basis, but I can see the appeal

Tho I'd use it in ways I wouldn't draw unnecessary attention to myself

[civic palm]

“I wish that all of my wishes appear normal to others.”

[rough basalt]

I wish away my texture issues with food then wish that it's normal for one day for them to disappear so nobody questions why I can now eat salad

That would help a lot of people too unintentionally

[river vector]

"I wish that wish only works for me"

[limpid plaza]

Actually yknow what? No. HERES how you make a good base.
1 - find an abandoned area
2 - cast Mordenkainen’s mystical manor (or whatever the spell is called)
Free mansion, barely anyone will find it (except for some urban exploring commoners)

[civic palm]

Learn tenth level magic and create a floating island.

[limpid plaza]

Too lazy to learn it, plus it’s not safe if a dragon happens to fly by.

[civic palm]

Make the island big enough that if it falls, the impact would be catastrophic.

No one would mess with you after that.

[limpid plaza]

I think you’d need a 14th level spell for that though

[rough basalt]

Uh. Yeah they don't care.

There was a netherese city that was dropped on a city in faerun cause people don't care about the damage

[limpid plaza]

“Floating continent” is a pretty hard spell to get

[civic palm]

Not big enough then.

[rough basalt]

I think the Netherese Cities were with a 10th level spell

Ye Proctivs Move Mountain

[limpid plaza]

Just go with my plan, and maybe bring a necromancer friend for extra defense.

Then if an enemy DOES find the base, they have to deal with the several reanimated piles of bones with swords and bows.

[civic palm]

If something has stats, it can die.

[keen valve]

Something I always think is odd is how often dnd players will scoff at characters who don't go in with the intent to kill 24/7. I understand it below board, but there are occasions where it is above board and I guess I find it inexplicably odd.

It also surprised me in the starter's kit recently one of the adventures pulls you through a scenario that doesn't even offer the idea of not going through it with the intent to end it peacefully or otherwise.

These are two different things, I know, but I believe both can be scoffed at and it somewhat confuses me. Like, we're truly not that far gone so as to think non lethal combat or peaceful settlings to situations is tacky or bizarre, right?

Is diplomacy really that much of a foreign idea these days?

[rough basalt]

I don't think there's magic powerful enough by mortals to lift a whole continent though.

[potent vector]

I should note there is always the option to knock out and not kill enemies

[civic palm]

Not with that attitude!

[potent vector]

So I think the intention is to beat them up hard enough to listen

[viral kraken]

you just need enough mage hands

[rough basalt]

Most powerful spell by mortals was Karsus's Avatar (12th level)

[civic palm]

Pull an Ultron! Lift that mountain so high that if it falls it’ll destroy all life!

[limpid plaza]

Can I knock them out with a 4th level fireball?

[keen valve]

The point of my statement is that I feel like there are players who scoff at that. And DMs who refuse it even if it would be reasonable.

[potent vector]

Attack rolls only

Iirc, lemme double check

[rough basalt]

Specifically melee attack rolls

[limpid plaza]

Then it’s useless to just knock them out!

[rough basalt]

Can't non-lethal by burning someone's face off or shooting an arrow into their heart.

[limpid plaza]

What do you think I am, a monk?

[keen valve]

Yeah, but pommel stamping a homie down shouldn't always elicit death if you're measuring your blow so as for it to not be lethal.

[rough basalt]

True

It's why non-lethal is a melee thing for the most part.

Nice thing is, it's Melee Attacks

So Shocking Grasp aka DnD's equivalent to a Taser can be non-lethal

Certain control spells allow for non-lethal resolutions

[still plover]

I get you. The difficulty an adventuring party often faces is expediency. They're often in the wilds, far from civilisation. They may not have the time or supplies to return with multiple prisoners for lawful judgement. Left alive, today's beneficiaries of mercy are tomorrows stalking predators, waiting for a moment of weakness.

[rough basalt]

Like if someone falls asleep from the sleep spell you can just tie them up as an action

Or the new Street Justice feat in the FR book that let's you arrest people you grapple with manacles.

[ocean patio]

i have this assimar rogue with the sinner subclass and i need help figuring out how i should play the charecter

[rough basalt]

Well it sounds like a homebrew or third party sub so idk.

[ocean patio]

it is its from which light

sorry not which light meant avantris entertainment

[rough basalt]

Ah

[jagged vigil]

Trying to lean into ideas of modern play for this campaign I'm running has been fun. The party as the protagonists of a large, campaign-spanning conflict, personal connections from PCs to a larger narrative, heroic stakes that lead to heroic victories, etc. It has been a different experience than how I usually run, but a fun one. I am so used to my old-school style with a focus on verisimilitude and player-led play, and I still love that, but this has been really neat

[rough basalt]

It's nice to switch things up now and again

My current games are sandbox hexcrawls and the story is told by the players engagement with the world. But recently I ran a 3-4 session Shadowdark game about reclaiming a mine from a dark force and it was a lot of fun.

I kept trying to do these big expansive things for a couple ideas I had but chat here helped me reshape my focus which now has me working on a couple more 1-4 session adventures

[hot marlin]

I think you're conflating two things. Non lethal combat and diplomacy are two very different situations.

I often do non-lethal combat with one character. Because that character is very arrogant and believes most enemies to simply not be worth killing. "Let them come for more, it will be good practice"

But diplomacy? Now that really only can happen in specific situations. While you can always just decide to spare someone's life

[keen valve]

I guess I mean more than diplomacy? Non violent solving of situations which shows those possibilities.

Diplomacy was a bit of a hasty word to go with.

[still plover]

I've got a warlock who will always try to negotiate. Even with an angry giant, even with a demon. Once you start throwing hands it's a lot harder to get back to talking.

[hot marlin]

I understand what you mean. So, for non-lethal solutions, or even non-violent solutions, there are other matters to take into accounts

Mostly, the question of the game's expectations.

[keen valve]

I don't like interjecting, but this is a very good point. There are games with that expectations.

[hot marlin]

I like to come back to a certain scene in critical role season 1. Party has captured and interogated a duergar enemy after incapacitating him in combat. He answers the question honestly, with the deal being that if he does so, they let him go unmolested.

Grog, ever the buffoon of the group, wants to keep the duergar's weapon. The rest of the party agrees, the duergar disagrees that having his weapon stolen counts as being "unmolested".

The argument turns sour, the duergar goes to flee. He is killed fleeing.

So, what the party just did, in real life, would likely see them tried, and maybe even hanged.

In a military setting I mean.

They broke the negociations, they changed the terms agreed upon, they killed an enemy who had surrendered.

For me, that scene was... Not shocking. But the fact that none of the players seemed to consider that what their characters did was bad was meaningful to me

[still plover]

(Whuf!)

[hot marlin]

Now maybe there is something to be said about the fact that the media has consistently portrayed heroes that break those laws and customs and treat those basic cruelty as heroic since 2002 and that may have something to do with it.

But that would be getting into contemporary politics, a road that I am not inclined to take

[hot marlin]

Uh... Are you referencing something here?

I don't get it

[still plover]

Apologies, an expression in this case indicating approximately "the cads, how could they?"

[hot marlin]

No need to apologize

[still plover]

I sometimes use language in a way anybody not occupying my personal six inches of thinking space might find unclear. It's a bad habit.

[hot marlin]

Anyways I feel like there is a desensitization to those actions, that I personally find horrendous of course, that has gotten ingrained in people.

But thing is... That kind of mentality is at the root of Dungeons & Dragons.

[still plover]

Heroes by definition being heroic, kinda thing.

[hot marlin]

Or "It's only bad when they do it to us"

For a non-contemporary politics example: When Daenerys in Game of Thrones had hundreds of aristocrats crucified to death, the direction treated it as her triumph. When she burned a city, that was bad. Of course burning the city was bad, but why was the horrific torture of those people treated as good by the direction? As empowerment even?... Well, because the masters of that city were "evil". (And it was coded as being middle-eastern, while King's Landing is functionally coded as white)

[keen valve]

Thank you for the analysis. It gives me something to think about.

[hot marlin]

And that's the thing. People have been talking about bio-essentialism and how it's bad. But I always felt like that consists of missing the forest for the trees.

[still plover]

Friend Vincent says (in AW) "Name everyone, make everyone human." And I think in that game of small communities that helps to establish a world. Everyone knows everyone. What you do to one person, likely everyone knows about by the next day. It'll affect how they think of you - even if you feel your actions were perfectly justified, Keeler's going around with a black eye that you gave them, and everyone knows it.

I'm trying to think how to bring that thinking to D&D.

[hot marlin]

Of course treating entire people, like orcs, as being functionally evil, is a bad thing. But let's take the focus out of the racial aspect and into the moral aspect. What does evil mean?

Essentially, evil, to that kind of direction and to that kind of mentality, means "anything they do is bad, but there is nothing we can do to them that will be portrayed as bad"

Your enemy being "evil" gives you a moral license for cruelty.

You do not need to respect the laws, to respect their dignity, to keep your word, to even be polite.

Long ago, I remember an argument I had where I had been somewhat... Misunderstood.

I argued that saying "orcs are not fiends, they're humanoids, therefore they should have choices" is a meaningless sentence. What I meant was "treating orcs as evil by default is bad, and the same goes for treating demons as evil by default". It was understood as me saying something more akin to... "it's fine that orcs are evil because you accept that demons are naturally evil"

I heavily dislike and despise the concept of the Thermian Argument and people who use it, I think calling something "a thermian argument" is in itself a show of bad media literacy. Regardless, justifying it through that difference is, in itself, kind of a thermian situation

[keen valve]

I don't know the exact detail of this conversation, but I do want to say that I kind of always look at morality treated in regards to species as the equivalent to looking at humans from two different places. Calling one evil and one good has never been true, and the issue of the matter almost always falls apart if both species you look at aren't being born from evil goo, which they usually aren't.

Though that isn't as concrete an argument as I wish it could be.

[still plover]

Ah, that's what I'm reminded of. The later days of Cherubael, daemonhost of Eisenhorn. But that's a different franchise.

[hot marlin]

That will be going on my reading list

Anyways I suppose my point is that saying "humanoids cannot be evil by nature" completely sidesteps the problem. The real problem is the equivocation of "evil" with "unworthy of dignity". The concept of evil itself is a problem.

[still plover]

Alright. What if we roll back the landing zone? Evil not as unworthy of dignity, but as a range of behaviour that puts one outside of the tolerances of society.

"You do you, but over there."

[hot marlin]

That would be a good start, but do you see all the new questions that raises?

Mostly "which society"?

Fantasy, since Tolkien, has always been concerned about the intersection of multiple societies. It's a core feature of the genre

[still plover]

Like Einstein said, it's all relative.

"We are Klingons, Worf, we don't embrace other cultures, we conquer them."

I'm thinking of societies and their various standards of expected behaviours like some kind of multidimensional Venn diagram. Boundaries and crossovers.

[serene jolt]

Also just keep in mind that most parties in DnD are neutral at best. Most parties do some really evil, f-ed up stuff and claim it's heroic and justice.

We want to see our characters as good people but at the root, most aren't. The spells we cast on enemies, the morally grey things we have to- or choose to- decide at times.

I ran a Lawful Evil character and honestly nothing he did was horrific to the party, including good aligned characters.

Which, I'll admit. It's not a bad thing. But not realizing how messed up your characters' actions are and even defending them... Is possibly just a look into your own morals. XD

[still plover]

When I was Slane, I spent a lot of time in third-person mode because she was not a good person.

[serene jolt]

Totally valid

[hot marlin]

Anyways yeah. What I mean is that over the last twenty years, we have been bombarded with the message of "the hero must torture the prisoner to get information and save the day", "rules only get in the way of the good guys winning". I can't blame people for having absorbed those ideas, no matter how repugnant I find them

[serene jolt]

That evil character I mentioned was really fun sometimes but other times, I am feeling kinda terrible because I know it's something he'd do but I also know it's horrifying.

[jagged jungle]

hellur

[serene jolt]

Hi feesh

[hot marlin]

And that is what evil means. It means "we do to them anything required". And that's at the fundation of D&D.

[still plover]

It is a bother. And I hope you don't think I'm taking it lightly with my one-liners, this is a fascinating chat.

[serene jolt]

That's why I have such a conundrum when people ask for my character alignment. I have no frickin idea.

[hot marlin]

And who is evil in D&D? The foreigners. The ones outside this society. There's a move to trade the foreign invader, the orc pillager, the goblin attacker, with the "cult". This time an enemy from within. This also reflects cultural anxieties.

[still plover]

The eternal Other.

[serene jolt]

And the unknown.

[hot marlin]

The cult member functionally makes themselves a foreigner. They worship a foreign god, a forbidden god, who is not part of that society. Whether it's Bhaal or Myrkul or whatever

... You can't imagine how difficult it is to make my points while avoiding contemporary politics.

I can do it, but damn.

[jagged jungle]

I feel like human sacrifice to summon Tiamat is pretty objectively evil

[frail wasp]

might be best to switch topics if that's true

[hot marlin]

Of course it is! But what is human sacrifice?

Can't it be said that most of society is about deciding who gets to be a sacrifice and who doesn't?

What are soldiers? Human sacrifices. Enemies you kill? Are they not human sacrifices? Where is the limit?