dnd-discussion

[solar crow]

And I'm a paladin

I'm having our wizard who was helping track my rolls and damage dm me what I did later

Cause I'm not even sure

[fervent current]

Cool, tell me too later

[solar crow]

Ye

[fervent current]

Dm me maybe

[solar crow]

Lol ye

[steep creek]

sounds like your a 'dawnbreaker'

[covert trail]

Is anybody a DM, looking for one

[steep creek]

i am

[jolly canyon]

#dm-discussion if you wanna ask questions. Although here works too honestly. If you're looking for a DM for your group then #find-a-game is better.

[rough basalt]

The old guard watching new WotC make actual setting guides for their classic settings and bring people they wrongfully pushed away back into the fold, and now making all the stuff they said they'd never do. "Noooo!"

[glossy otter]

Ngl im excited for these new books as it gives a little more spice to 5.5

[rough basalt]

If the books this year keep the same quality as last year, or get better I'll keep buying as long as that maintains

[glossy otter]

Im just happy after 7 years the BoVD is finally happening

[lavish flame]

Yeah, I'm really liking the UAs and these big swings that the new team is doing

[rough basalt]

Old guard when they saw Dan Ayoub say "ya know Dragonlance is cool actually we should have more of it"
collapses on their knees

[lavish flame]

Circle Magic, Paths of Villainy, all the stuff playing off Renown. I'm liking the new ideas from the new team

[rough basalt]

I like the paths of villainy a lot.
Feat paths for certain things is cool

[ripe nimbus]

oh renown?

[balmy lily]

Is there any information regarding how blink dogs age, and how old they could get?
I've looked in alot of places and the information just seems, absent.

[rough basalt]

Can't think of it

Stuff like that I imagine is probably like "dm can do that if they want"

[balmy lily]

Damn.

[lavish flame]

yeah, the recent Forgotten Reapms and Eberron books placed some emphasis on Renown. If you wanted their unique Bastion Special Facilities, you might need 10+ Renown with a Dragonmarked House or 10+ Renown with the Harpers.

[rough basalt]

I love that. I love that we got a new system for moneysinking and the devs kept adding to it.

Instead of forget about it.

It may not be perfect but I think Bastions are pretty good, and easy to make some changes people would like.

I've made the Bastion in my Monday game sort of tied with the "main plot" in a sense.

[jolly canyon]

My players got +10 renown with House Tharashk early on for working with Finders groups in Sharn

[rough basalt]

The PCs took on trials to become champions of certain gods for power (basically chosen-lite) and one of them is the Goddess of Magic who would've asked the Wizard to build a tower.

[cyan tide]

Yo Kaiju Druid? Lets go

[rough basalt]

But they already have a tower they conquered earlier as a Bastion so she changed it to "build it up well and make the town around it prosper."

[undone rain]

Oh boy time to play paladin again

[austere root]

Leviathan, Leviathan.

[rough basalt]

Need to have a druid attack a seafaring party then start blasting a Leviathan from ff theme.

[austere root]

Better be the Eden one.

[rough basalt]

Perfect

[severe rampart]

Daring today, aren't we? /j

[undone rain]

Im super original! hides 23 character sheets of paladins

[rugged hawk]

At least I've successfully avoided becoming a stealth archer

[shy sparrow]

What's going on?

[undone rain]

Paladin

[rugged hawk]

Well, I unbound my Stealth key, so I can't fall into the trap of stealth archering.

This time, I shall remain a mage!

[shy sparrow]

Oh ok

What class are you

[rugged hawk]

In other news, someone else is playing the same class they always do

[shy sparrow]

I saw

That much

[undone rain]

Hey ive played a fighter once!

[shy sparrow]

Isn't a paladin just a holier than thou fighter

[ripe nimbus]

ohhhh. yeah, i wish there was some renown stuff that didn't require the bastion system though

[rough basalt]

I think that just falls under regular renown rewards tho

[undone rain]

Paladins did originate from fighters

Literally it was a subclass back in the 70s

[shy sparrow]

Yea cool. so what class is everyone else here

Didn't know that tho

[jolly canyon]

War Cleric Goliath.

[rough basalt]

Rn my one PC is a Scion of the Three Rogue

[solar crow]

There might have been a mistake in my rolls for attacks that turn I'm not sure and I'm checking with a few people that were there

[jolly canyon]

I need to figure out which wis half feat I want next lvl

[shy sparrow]

I'm a dragonborn(silver) warlock of the fiend patron

Also is it every level that clerics get new spells

[jolly canyon]

Lvl 4 I don't think much changes outside of an additional lvl 2 spell slot. Lvl 5 is lvl 3 spell slots and revivify so that's cool

[turbid vessel]

a lot of the classes we have today were subclasses previously, i wonder what they'd do if they took that path again. what's a subclass that feels like it deserves to be fully realized in a standalone class?

[shy sparrow]

Oh wow I've been doing it wrong

[jolly canyon]

If you're curious I'm pretty sure the cleric spell/lvl chart is in free rules? I check the phb when I'm curious

[shy sparrow]

Thanks I wasn't sure so I just gave the Spellcasters in my party a spell per lvl

[jolly canyon]

I think clerics do get at least 1 spell per lvl

But idr off the top of my head and I just look at the phb everytime I lvl up

[halcyon forum]

beastmaster, alchemist, necromancer, Moon Druid, banneret (as Warlord), all have enough to be spun out into their own classes imo.

[shy sparrow]

Ok cool.also I'm nearing the end of my campaign do you have any ideas for filler sessions (the party is on a volcano leading to an adult red dragon)

[turbid vessel]

alchemist i 100 percent agree with

[shy sparrow]

Same

[jolly canyon]

"The number of spells on your list increases as you gain Cleric levels, as shown in the Prepared Spells column of the Cleric Features table. Whenever that number increases, choose additional spells from the Cleric spell list until the number of spells on your list matches the number on the table."

[halcyon forum]

Elements Monk ->Kineticist too

[turbid vessel]

lacking any robust potion creation system in base 5e, a class that has an entierly unique line of mechanics for it would be a fun substitute

[shy sparrow]

Thanks😊

[sly crest]

if it's Alchemist you gotta learn how to turn stuff to gold

[shy sparrow]

Is it just me or should death himself be added to DND as an enemy or smth

[halcyon forum]

there is the spirit of death

[turbid vessel]

i mean the idea of an animised "death" is so differing from culture to culture, it'd be hard to lock down on something everyone can agree on

[shy sparrow]

Oh I never saw it I just added him as a homebrew to my campaign for fun

[halcyon forum]

ah wait, i meant the Avatar of death from the deck of many things

[turbid vessel]

also isn't kelemvor already a deity that exists

[shy sparrow]

Oh cool again I added him as a homebrew as a guider helper and at times enemy for fun

[turbid vessel]

god of death and judgement right there

[halcyon forum]

sure but you typically dont fight gods in dnd, most dont even bother with avatars

[turbid vessel]

ah so we're talking about a defeatable death

[sly crest]

he doesn't carry a scythe or wear a big spooky cloak though, and those are the fun parts

[turbid vessel]

ah so you want halloween death

[sly crest]

I don

[halcyon forum]

hey, thats disrespectful to Discworld Death

[shy sparrow]

Didn't know I normally have him as a corpse dressed as a fortune teller

Also in mine you can kill him but if you do you become death

[sly crest]

that's awesome in its own right.

[shy sparrow]

Yea he foretold my parties death and meeting with a pit fiend

[severe rampart]

As am I... hides 30 Bard sheets

[turbid vessel]

my favorite iterations of death are the passive inevitables. "i have no ill will towards humanity. i don't know the meaning of life. i don't even know the reason for my existence. but i know i do exist, and i must do what i must do."

[fair plinth]

Do yall also make characters for fun even tho you dont have time to play campaigns for them

[sly crest]

I'd probably do tons and tons of druid sheets. In multiple biomes.

[halcyon forum]

Yes

[errant crag]

Yes

[shy sparrow]

Yep

[sly crest]

I definitely want to

[errant crag]

I have many characters that I've made, wanted to play, and completely forgotten about

[shy sparrow]

What's you guys favourite homebrew monster you've made (if you've made any)

[turbid vessel]

i love to make what i call character "shells." i write the broad details and ideas, but never develop it so much that it has any meat to it. it's a shell of an idea, waiting to be filled when i join a campaign and can fill it with details that work with the group

[austere root]

gargantuan bat

[fair plinth]

This one time i made a giant cake with exploding candles

[sly crest]

I want to make a loxodon bard that specialized in elephant jokes

[fair plinth]

It was based off some demon or other

[turbid vessel]

so often do people lock themselves into 1 specific idea and then aren't flexible if they come across a group where that idea might not work so well

[shy sparrow]

I made a shadow demon that can give you sleep paralysis and has hundreds of eyes

[errant crag]

I make a lot of characters just off of a mechanical interaction or gameplay angle I wanna try without adding narrative to them as I don't usually come up with story for my characters until I have an actual game lined up for them to be in

[sly crest]

That's my problem, I can't make characters without giving them a story, even if it's just "I'm a penguin aaracockra"

[shy sparrow]

Has anyone here used or fought a false hydra in a campaign

[errant crag]

I would really rather not it doesn't actually seem fun to me

[round mountain]

It's a slime likes to crawl all over when you're not paying attention. It's completely harmless though. It just looks for metal you're wearing because it eats the impurities in most metals. If you let it do it's thing it gives your metal a nicer quality

[austere root]

I can't see that be enjoyable

[sly crest]

IIRC it was originally a thought experiment and not meant for play.

[shy sparrow]

I used a false hydra once as DM I thought it was fun

[errant crag]

It's a homebrew/third party thing it's not an official creature

[shy sparrow]

Cool

[sly crest]

It sounds like a headache with too many necks

[turbid vessel]

i think the false hydra is a fantastic idea for a system that doesn't really have the bones to support it

[shy sparrow]

I know

[round mountain]

Yes.

[turbid vessel]

i'd love to see the false hydra in Call of Cthulu

[errant crag]

I just don't see it being fun for the players

[steady sentinel]

False hydra seems like the perfect creature for a horror one shot or Halloween campaign

[errant crag]

You're just gaslighting them

[shy sparrow]

That would be godly

[round mountain]

False hydra doesn't really land that hard in a game like d&d

[river vector]

DND can't do horror

[crimson gulch]

Nah, false hydra is just a metagame nightmare

[round mountain]

It relies on the players playing along with the idea that their memories are altered

[crimson gulch]

Dnd does horror just fine, but not with bad homebrew

[turbid vessel]

yeah, you gotta have players that really buy into that narrative. and those players are out there! but not all players are that player

[shy sparrow]

Is it just me or does anyone here do absolutely zero prep for campaign and just make it up on the spot

[errant crag]

I don't see myself getting scared or unsettled by any horror TTRPG I simply feel that the format makes it impossible to actually get scared

[river vector]

I mean I don't do zero prep, I get maps and all that but I do improvise according to what players want to do?

That's what it's supposed to be?

[turbid vessel]

overprepping is definetly a problem a lot of new DMs fall into

[round mountain]

I feel like if you are signing up to dm and do zero prep multiple times

Id rather you just say you don't want to dm lol

[crimson gulch]

Not zero, but the minimum nessisary

[steady sentinel]

Indeed Like me who thought Minis were required

[shy sparrow]

I found it harder to do pre written campaign

[river vector]

I thought the same, then I discovered one I like

[sly crest]

I'd probably use beads or buttons

[river vector]

Curse of Strahd will be great fun to run

[shy sparrow]

All I do is make a map

[crimson gulch]

It is I'm on my 4th run of it

[river vector]

I have plot lines, characters with motivations

[steady sentinel]

Who knows. I never actually met anyone who runs one though so I have no idea if it's fun or not

[errant crag]

I do as little prep as I can get away with doing nowadays

[shy sparrow]

My players made their characters right before we started

[errant crag]

I have a bad habit of driving myself crazy by biting off more prep than I can chew

[river vector]

If players don't ignore my hook, today they will meet with the BBEG. I did a bunch of prep for that

[river vector]

Did you write lore and stuff?

[shy sparrow]

Nope made it up on the spot

[river vector]

My players read the lore and made characters around it

[round mountain]

My campaign is pretty grounded. Like I don't need to prewrite much. There's the premise of getting from A to B and figuring out why something is happening. It's sandboxy but with a clear path of advancement. With that you can do whatever you want and will make some sort of progress really

[river vector]

Damn I wrote 47 pages of lore 😭

Well if the players are having fun

[turbid vessel]

the key to finding a happy medium with prep is having an open conversation with your players about how much prep is wanted and realistic
you may find that your players would be willing to pick up a lot more of the improv slack than you think

[river vector]

That's what matters

[shy sparrow]

Making stuff up on spots kinda my thing during dnd

[river vector]

I took two months writing shit down lol

Different types

[shy sparrow]

Wow

[river vector]

Some write for years

[steady sentinel]

Honestly reminds me of my quests who is a hunter who thinks he has slain every monster but in reality makes the party hunt them for his Glory and trophies lol

[river vector]

Two months is nothing compared to that

[shy sparrow]

all I did was decide what the quest would be

[river vector]

There's no point in comparing how "nerdy" a DM can be. If the players like it, that's what matters.

[shy sparrow]

True

[meager fractal]

yes it can, just not very well.

[river vector]

Me when players turn my curse of strahd campaign into Monty Python

(I have been told this will happen)

[shy sparrow]

The main villian: leave or I shall taunt you a seccond time

[river vector]

My vampire spawn BBEG is more polite than that lol

[shy sparrow]

They kill the vampire with the holy hand grenade

[river vector]

Nooooo

[severe rampart]

It is very much fun

[shy sparrow]

The vampire spawn who say neee

[river vector]

Especially roleplaying strahd will be fun

I get to harass myself in front of a live audience

[shy sparrow]

Have fun I guess😂

What do you all think is the best campaign

[river vector]

I think popular opinion is CoS or LMoP

[shy sparrow]

I have no idea what those are but ok

[river vector]

Curse of Strahd and lost mine of phandelver

[shy sparrow]

Oh ok

[limber trail]

Curse of Strahd and Lost Mines of Phandelvar. I've also heard Icewind Dale is really really good. I do think a lot of these modules are elevated even further by good DMs, and so it's not fully just about the module itself. It also matters the enthusiasm the DM and Players are bringing to the game

[shy sparrow]

Nice

[umbral girder]

Lost Mines of Phandelvar my beloved

Peak. No notes.

[tender fossil]

Mines is the best original, CoS is a conversion of the original Ravenloft with extra bits bolted on. Still a good module, but if you asked for an original adventure in 5e the results are very mixed after mines

[round mountain]

I wanna try Frostmaiden

[errant crag]

I really love Ghosts of Saltmarsh but I wish it did more to guide you if you wanted to string the adventures together as a campaign

It just doesn't give much guidance for setting up a final encounter/confrontation with the "BBEG"

[atomic moat]

I think a mediocre adventure ran by a good DM willing to modify and improve the adventure is better than the best campaign ran by the book.

[limber trail]

definitely

[errant crag]

I ran Tomb of Horrors and my players really loved it, it was legendary

[rough basalt]

Some modules are just pretty good as written

But most need dm work.

[limber trail]

(The inverse is also true, a campaign ran by the book does provide a base level of fun, which a DM overly improvising on can also lead to the adventure getting worse. I played a pretty whatever few sessions of Rime of the Frost Maiden, which were very improvised by the DM to poor effect)

[rough basalt]

Ranging from touch ups to full on may as well written your own adventure.

[rough basalt]

This is also true.

[errant crag]

My first few attempts at playing through CoS were hampered by the DM changing things

Would have been much better if he just stuck to the book

[rough basalt]

My failed attempts at CoS was dm laziness and players having no buy-in after death house.

[errant crag]

My DM straight up skipped death house both times he ran it

[rough basalt]

I did it both times.

[errant crag]

And that really stank he really shouldn't have skipped it

[rough basalt]

We killed ||Mr. Shamby|| both times

[steady sentinel]

Ngl kinda wanna try Dragonlance

[river vector]

Almost time for my players to do their goblin side quest. A classic.

After they do that, they better meet the BBEG. He's been very patient.

[limber trail]

(By the time I joined the group it was barely even RotFM, there was a weird plot with illusionist cultists who were taken from cult of the lamb, it wasn't fun, the group fell apart within four sessions)

[river vector]

Honestly, these adventurers. Going off to fight goblins and ignoring your summons.

[atomic moat]

I hope you weren't in my campaign then, LOL. No I was pretty open about what I changed in RotFM to my players and I think I improved a lot on parts of it, especially the chapter on the duergar. The campaign ended not long after that though.

[lament shuttle]

Do the spellscales from 3.5e have tails? I don't think it was mentioned in the appearance section and I'm not entirely sure looking at their art as most in the dragon races book is upper body

[umbral girder]

#dnd-lore and #dnd-elder-editions will likely help you more

[lament shuttle]

Thank you!

[umbral girder]

Have fun!

[heavy patrol]

does anyone have like a campaign minors can join

[umbral girder]

Only place for that is in the #looking-for-players channel

[severe rampart]

#find-a-game is the place for it

[umbral girder]

That’s all the server provides

[heavy patrol]

They're all either 18+ or closed 😭

[idle oar]

Check the LFG channels (see #channel-guide and #find-a-game ). That said being a minor does make finding a game harder so be patient.

[severe rampart]

Not always, all it takes is for you to check it out daily

[umbral girder]

Spoilers in my general chat?

[heavy patrol]

Sigh

[umbral girder]

That’s how it is as a PC. Good luck.

[severe rampart]

Could always just be a DM

[heavy patrol]

Oh never that

Way too inexperienced

[idle oar]

New DMs started somewhere... lol

[umbral girder]

That doesn’t stop anyone from being a DM.

In fact many start as DMs.

[heavy patrol]

I have the storytelling skills of a concrete cube

[umbral girder]

I know because I am one of those people back in highschool.

[severe rampart]

Jump in head first

[umbral girder]

Ok. The DM isn’t the storyteller.

[heavy patrol]

Huh

[severe rampart]

The DM is more so the driving force of the campaign, if that makes sense

[umbral girder]

The DM sets up the pieces. The players make the story. Being a PC is being a storyteller.

[heavy patrol]

Close enough

[severe rampart]

The players and the DM make the story

because your choices matter

[fickle ocean]

hey am i tripping or isn't there a big list on this server somewhere about free dice on dndbeyond??

[glass granite]

-# I’m one of them!

[ripe nimbus]

the DM is a referee much more than they are a storyteller

i mean, they help set up the story, but you don’t determine, by yourself, what the story is and what unfolds. that’s a give and take between you and the players

[rough basalt]

My setting guide is now sitting at 37 pages so far.

This is a daunting project for me.

[heavy patrol]

I see

[buoyant oar]

DMing is so much fun I don't play anymore by choice.

[empty thicket]

i want to try it someday, will do my first dming with a CoS so i see how it is

and once i get some experience and feel confident enough, will do a campaign i have in my potato mind

[round mountain]

Give me level up and I take an extra minute every turn to figure out what I wanna do

Smile

[vale kettle]

New game posts are made daily, just be patient

[subtle pelican]

@brazen sleet HEY

Lol my old account got hacked btw

[buoyant oar]

CoS is the one campaign I recommend new DMs Don't do first.

[normal canyon]

Wuts CoS

[buoyant oar]

Curse of Strahd

[normal canyon]

Why wouldn’t you recommend it?

[eternal bison]

Extremely hard to work around

Personally

[buoyant oar]

Curse of Strahd is a hard module to run. And it is also a Safety mine field even the revamped version.

[fossil hollow]

its dense with information, and that information scattered all over the book

[eternal bison]

I gotta question for people who know what avatar the last airbender is, if you had a avatar themed dnd campaign, would you rather it be set in republic city's time, or aangs war time?

But no relation to the main characters

[keen kestrel]

It also just has so many important NPC's and things that can happen in between

[keen kestrel]

depends on what the players prefer for weaponry/technology. If they want to do more out in the world and nature based stuff, go pre war or earlier, for something akin to artificers or others, go newer

[rough basalt]

You can definitely jump into the deep end of the pool but be wary that you're jumping into the deep end of the pool.

And it's a pool with a lot of glass and other dangerous debris in it.

[buoyant oar]

A new DM taking upon CoS. Is like someone new to RPG Video games picking up Dark Souls.

[eternal bison]

That is a perfect companion actually

[keen kestrel]

although I'm currently playing through CoS, and I would also absolutely recommend new players also avoid it

[rough basalt]

The full trigger list for CoS is almost a whole page of a doc too

[wraith vault]

I’m Offering to make a free map for a Fellow DM if anyone is interested?

[keen kestrel]

I'd say that's part of it, but also it's incredibly difficult to understand that CoS is very hard on people and player death can easily happen if you wander into the wrong place at the wrong time

[rough basalt]

Yep

It's not for a party that wants a happy safe jaunt.

[buoyant oar]

Yep. Nearly every other module is better for newbies.

[keen kestrel]

I would've been incredibly sad to lose a character just starting out, but now I accept that pc death is certainly plausible

actually, I did lose a pc in Barovia

[normal canyon]

I think for me the module with be fine as a first time

[rough basalt]

I haven't yet

[keen kestrel]

My dm offered us a deal, but I decided that my character wouldn't accept a deal from anyone besides his true deity

[rough basalt]

Alright but it will be one of the absolute hardest adventures you'll ever run so it might desensitize you if you manage to get through it.

[fast latch]

Can you use Nystul’s to change the creature type of a creature with 3 or less Int to Beast or Plant, and then cast Awaken on it?

[keen kestrel]

On the flip side, now the noble genie paladin I'm playing wandered in and posed a lot of philosophical questions to both players and van richten alike

[rough basalt]

Some of Strahds difficulty is also completely not related to the module or on the dm side of the table sometimes.

[fossil hollow]

yes

[buoyant oar]

My experience is there are 1 billion ways to DM. But there are some universal truths. Brand new DMs who think they can take Curse of Strahd are built different, are in actual fact built different. It's a recipe for a bad time.

[rough basalt]

The "real curse of strahd" as I like to call it is players who won't get invested in CoS

[keen kestrel]

This yes

[normal canyon]

I literally run a homebrew campaign 100% homebrew enemies, new homebrew feats/features/etc (more than 30), and a couple homebrew resource systems (as a first time) so I think I can manage.

[keen kestrel]

I will say that my current pc is very divested from the story as a whole and just wants to help his newfound friends

[buoyant oar]

The player who feels the need to keep any and all tension away with comedy.

[rough basalt]

The modules popularity draws people who only wanna roll dice and if you as the dm wanna fully engage with CoS you can't do it with "I just crapped my pants" the Dwarf who can only say "I just crapped my pants"

[rough basalt]

Sounds like you'll have a decent spot, but many aspiring DMs have fallen victim to the greatest enemy of DMs of all.

the casual dnd player

[keen kestrel]

I think what i've really enjoyed about CoS especially as a noble genie paladin is that he's very different from typical paladins and can look at morally grey situations with a different perspective

[normal canyon]

I literally had like 4 session 0s reviewing and doing one-shots to practice the systems with my players

Before the actual campaign

[keen kestrel]

but what if I want to just blow up everything? does that make me a filthy casual

[rough basalt]

Sounds like you'll be off on a good start then, but the real curse of strahd is always prevalent.

[normal canyon]

Ok

[buoyant oar]

Also. Curse is a long campaign. DMs can often feel like there are months into a depression fest with no light at the end of the tunnel.

[rough basalt]

Ye it takes like 6 months to a year if you're playing weekly.

Least going off what I've read from dms who've completed it.

[buoyant oar]

That is about that it takes me

[normal canyon]

Im gonna make my campaign be like 6 years at least.

[tranquil trail]

Hi

[keen kestrel]

CoS is great, but I would def avoid making it extremely long lol

It's a lot of doom and gloom, and you can only do that for so long

[rough basalt]

I'd heavily advise against dragging out CoS that long.

[buoyant oar]

Longest I have done in 25 years for any game was 2.5 years.

[rough basalt]

Barovia itself is very small

And you often do a lot of backtracking as is.

[keen kestrel]

I've only done like 2 years at most curently, but I've not been playing more than 5 years

[rough basalt]

You'll be 3 years in and "Alright guys you go into barovia for the 300th time, what do you do?"

Actually 300 is probably too low.

[buoyant oar]

The original Ravenloft that spurred this vampire madness that is essentially twilight for nerds was I-6

I-6 was only 32 pages long.

CoS is the already the bloated version.

[rough basalt]

Wasn't it just Castle Ravenloft?

Or basically just Castle Ravenloft

I remember seeing the dungeon map for Castle Ravenloft and going "uhhhhhh"

Or another good reference.
The new Ravenloft novel is called Heir of Strahd but light spoilers ||they spend like 100 something of 300 pages in a completely different domain||

[olive pawn]

How would I go about calculating the AC for a man made entirely out of steel and is also wearing plate armor which has an AC of 18

[buoyant oar]

No the village bariova is featured. Castle Ravenloft was the signature.

CoS expanded on Barovia

[rough basalt]

Ah so Barovia, Homegirl (Ireena) then Castle Loftraven

[fossil hollow]

18

[keen kestrel]

I mean, just go with the armor, unless you really just wanna give him a plus 1 to AC

[buoyant oar]

Also the mechanic of the cards and macguffins. But instead of all over the country they're all in the castle.

[rough basalt]

So I6 Ravenloft is CoS but Strahd is a lot smarter, having the macguffins in his funhouse of horrors

[buoyant oar]

It was also meant to be a short 1-4 session game.

[rough basalt]

I kinda wanna run I6 ravenloft in shadowdark at some point

[buoyant oar]

And it has a sequel. I-10 Ravenloft 2

[rough basalt]

CoS itself has a good community conversion for that system

And I feel like it's lethality and torch mechanic will lend well to the horror

Obviously I'd cut out the uh "products of their time" terminology

[buoyant oar]

Ravenloft 2 was generally worse. With a human Strahd living in Mordent.

But had an interesting mechanic you were to play it and I-6 at the same time. Everything you sleep. You visit the other domain. And you have to figure out which one is real and which Strahd is real.

[rough basalt]

That's pretty cool.

I forget what adventure it is, but there's an old dnd adventure you run if you want your friends to hate you

[umbral girder]

Hear me out that was the guys in Blutspur messing with the PC's brain

[umbral girder]

Is it the Forest Oracle?

[rough basalt]

Ah yeah

That one.

"Alright you've been traveling for hours. You went the wrong way."

[umbral girder]

"Only a druid can end this!"
Ignores any druid PCs in the party

Can't even say "Druids weren't a thing" Druids were a cleric subclass

[rough basalt]

I forget what actual play it was I saw shorts of run it and I wish I remembered so I could watch the full

Cause God it's so damn bad.

[umbral girder]

The one with Slimciclle right?

Had a friend with a wizard beard and a cleric with a gun

[rough basalt]

I think so.

Face looks familiar

[umbral girder]

Just Roll with It "I forced my friends to play D&D's Worst-rated advetnure"

Another channel called ZachtheBold also ran it but haven't seen if there are shorts.

[rough basalt]

Another funny one I saw was I'm assuming they ran I6 Ravenloft cause the DM was like "uh. They were called something different. It was the 80s!"

Regarding the Vistani I assume.

[umbral girder]

Just Roll with It also had that

In their Forest Oracle video

[rough basalt]

I think ZachtheBold did like a video skit where he reenacted it while talking about it

Idk if the actual game was recorded

He's good to watch whenever you wanna hear someone yelling in your ear about random crap with DnD mixed in

[knotty vine]

Path of the death knight and Path of the lich?! im in heaven

I really hope that comes out

[rough basalt]

I'm on hopium

I believe the new team thinks that UA content should be worked on and released

[prime basin]

W barbarian subclasses

[knotty vine]

I dont think there barb subclasses

[rough basalt]

Barbs don't get anything

[knotty vine]

yeah

There just paths that your character can take

[rough basalt]

That's one holdover from the Old Guard

Gonna be years before a new barb sub

[knotty vine]

Pestilence Domain (Cleric)
Circle of the Titan (Druid)
Hell Knight (Fighter)
Demonic Sorcery (Sorcerer)

[atomic moat]

For the Ravenloft book I assume? It seems like they'd be on later UA's though...

[knotty vine]

We already kinda got a hell knight fighter in a way no?

[rough basalt]

Aside from the reprints I think are coming in the High Magic book.

[rough basalt]

Not officially

[knotty vine]

thats what i meant kinda

[rough basalt]

I imagine they'll be in the first book next year

[umbral girder]

The "paths" seem to be a chain of feats.

[knotty vine]

Yeah

[rough basalt]

Which I like.

[prime basin]

But it says "path" so its obviously a barbarian subclass

[knotty vine]

But it aint

[prime basin]

the lich lets you cast spells unless your raging

[rough basalt]

Gives all casters and martials a general evil path they can take.

[umbral girder]

Its a chain of feats. #1026901431132885064 can help also reading it too.

[knotty vine]

I remember reading that the book of vile darkness had secrets of how to become a lich/death knight

but dnd left it up to the dm to decide what that was

[rough basalt]

Yep.
Book of Vile Darkness 5e coming

[knotty vine]

So AWESOME!

[rough basalt]

With an actual Vecna statblock

I believe

[knotty vine]

I hope we get a proper Vecna statblock

[umbral girder]

I think Tasha meant the magic item Book of Vile Darkness

[rough basalt]

Harness the hopium.

[atomic moat]

Can't have too many feats. I get that they want to prevent bloat but feats are too important for customization.

[knotty vine]

Yeah

But a book of vile darkness couldnt hurt

for 5e

Even through Vecna is more so a "demigod" in dnd 5.5e

[rough basalt]

If they're gonna do a book focused on evil it'd be a good way to do it

[knotty vine]

True!

I love evil player options

I was so giddy when i saw oath breaker and death domain

[atomic moat]

I wish they had something for werewolves or other lycanthropes. Just no clear way to handle that without 3rd party stuff.

[rough basalt]

Cash in on the nostalgia, as well as put the final nail in the coffin that new WotC believes in more content for dnd

[knotty vine]

There is its just boring

[umbral girder]

New race in Ravenloft also Eberron has it

[rough basalt]

Unlike the old that didn't wanna make content sometimes

[knotty vine]

In 5e its just your strength got slightly bigger

[umbral girder]

Shifters are meant to be descendants of lycanthropes and the upcoming Ravenloft book has a Lupine (Werewolf-like) race

[knotty vine]

in 5.5e if you get blooded you just turn into a werewolf under the control of the DM

[rough basalt]

It is funny how fast the new WotC is going back on the old guards vision for 5e but in a good way

[knotty vine]

Werewolf. The character gains a Strength of 15 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in wolf or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength.

[prime basin]

Professor of the Dark Arts....Remus Lupine

[knotty vine]

A pc can also transfer the curse in 5e

becoming a werewolf in 5e was more of a gift then a curse imo

[rough basalt]

They said "no dnd setting guides, only Eberron, multiverse, and MTG, no evil player options, no Dark Sun, no Psion, you'll get your FR setting lore in adventures or the 10 pages in SCAG. Good day."
New team "so yall wanna be evil, kill slaving tyrants, actual lore and have suitable setting guides? Well boy do I got something for you."

[prime basin]

I feel like that always ends up being the case

[knotty vine]

A character who becomes a lycanthrope retains his or her statistics except as specified by lycanthrope type. The character gains the lycanthrope’s speeds in nonhumanoid form, damage immunities, traits, and actions that don’t involve equipment. The character is proficient with the lycanthrope’s natural attacks, such as its bite or claws, which deal damage as shown in the lycanthrope’s statistics. The character can’t speak while in animal form.

[rough basalt]

And WotC working with Luke Gygax and Tracy Hickman for more Dragonlance and Greyhawk media.

[umbral girder]

"How about we give you actual one shot sized adventures?" current D&D team.

[prime basin]

Very punishing

[knotty vine]

IKR

[rough basalt]

Dan Ayoub said "Dragonlance is cool actually" and the old guard collapsed in despair.

[knotty vine]

you dont even get an aliment change unlike the vampire spawn/vampire

[atomic moat]

Dragonlance were awesome novels but as a setting ended up lacking. I wonder if they'll find a direction for a Dragonlance campaign that works.

[knotty vine]

I still think its very funny a warforged could get a werewolf curse in 2014 since they were humanoid

[umbral girder]

One of the old guard leaves and someone decideds "Maybe hard coded ability scores aren't tied to your birth"

[severe rampart]

How would that look like? robot dog?

[umbral girder]

Creates tashas

[prime basin]

Half Lycan, Half Robot, All Humanoid?

[rough basalt]

Rest of the Old guard leaves and now 9/10 releases have generally been good to great with mild criticisms that are expected.

[rotund thunder]

"oh no guys please cure me and remove my 18 STR, 16 CON, and immunity to all non-silvered weapons. This is such a tragedy because every full moon you have to chain me down and it does literally nothing to me any other time."

[ancient linden]

I would be the interested

[severe rampart]

Funnily enough, the PC I infected with Lycanthropy has better stats than the statblock overall

[knotty vine]

dont forget the +1 in AC

Just because

[rough basalt]

New WotC release a real Spelljammer book and my soul is yours.

[rotund thunder]

Liches of the Coast

[knotty vine]

Also because the statblock doesnt say so full moons dont even effect werewolfs 😭

PC characters are in FULL CONTROL of there hybird/normal state

[severe rampart]

19 Strength, 14 Dex, 19 Con, 12 Int, 17 Wis, 13 Charisma, every single stat is better than the werewolf's

[rotund thunder]

I thought it said the DM decides that they go on a rampage on every x point in time or something like that

[knotty vine]

Nope

No aliment change nothing

[prime basin]

I just want an oathbreaker paladin that actually feels cool

[knotty vine]

A character who becomes a lycanthrope retains his or her statistics except as specified by lycanthrope type. The character gains the lycanthrope’s speeds in nonhumanoid form, damage immunities, traits, and actions that don’t involve equipment. The character is proficient with the lycanthrope’s natural attacks, such as its bite or claws, which deal damage as shown in the lycanthrope’s statistics. The character can’t speak while in animal form.

A non-lycanthrope humanoid hit by an attack that carries the curse of lycanthropy must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + the lycanthrope’s proficiency bonus + the lycanthrope’s Constitution modifier) or be cursed. If the character embraces the curse, his or her alignment becomes the one defined for the lycanthrope. The DM is free to decide that a change in alignment places the character under DM control until the curse of lycanthropy is removed.

[severe rampart]

every single full moon (every 28 days) I make the battlemaster roll a con save then a wisdom save to see if they go on a rampage, because without that Lycanthropy is just... a blessing

[knotty vine]

Thats one thing i didnt like about DND werewolfs

full moons just dont do anything to them

[severe rampart]

So far the battlemaster has been bitten by a werewolf, a vampire spawn, a strahd zombie and is still standing

[knotty vine]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17057-werewolf

[prime basin]

I'm still standing...

[knotty vine]

through the 2024 rules made the werewolf thing more of a curse since whenever you drop to 0 hp you become a werewolf under the dms control

granted you only have 10 hp

[empty thicket]

heard before it gave you some juicy stats up

[severe rampart]

Well, time to prepare for my next session

[idle oar]

Folks please keep adventure spoilers in #1029833015423143957

[knotty vine]

Gives you a 15 in strength and a +1 in AC

and the ability to make other werewolfs

[severe rampart]

can I get some lycanthropy? (8 Strength, very frail bard)

This is why I have lichdom planned for my bard

[knotty vine]

Theres optinail rules for a vampire PC character

where i think all there Physial stats just bump up to 18

[prime basin]

I prefer being an archdevil, but to each their own

[rough basalt]

I'm ready for a 2nd year of being excited for the new content coming, can't wait for the ravenloft book

[prime basin]

all you have to do is wait 4 months

[rough basalt]

2 months actually

[empty thicket]

damn, its good with anyone
Casters get the str they dumped and that +1 ac is always welcome
But the downside is... "Awoooo im a wild monster"

[severe rampart]

That's just flavor baby, and who doesn't love flavor

[knotty vine]

Dont forget the bite that turns others into werewolves

[empty thicket]

I have a teammate that is a bloodhunter werewolf so... i already told him.
If i sense some danger from him, im taking him down.

and he adviced us that when he transforms, we take some distance from him

[primal wolf]

were-raven is the coolest

[empty thicket]

flying and what else it have?

[severe rampart]

being a cool raven

[keen kestrel]

Being a good aligned therianthrope is never a bad thing

Like you don’t have to worry about your friend trying to do something crazy when they transform

[primal wolf]

Flyby i think

The link I originally used on my blog won't load

[empty thicket]

Cool, so a party with a Druid, a Ranger, a Barbarian that was bite by a werewolf and a Bloodhunter Were-Raven.
The Animal Squad.

[primal wolf]

Werebat might be better

[severe rampart]

are you sure it's not just the ranger and their pets?

[primal wolf]

I'm most fond of the vampire transformation

[empty thicket]

Ranger Beastmaster and the whole team are the beasts

Please dont take it in the wrong idea.

[sleek siren]

Hii

[primal wolf]

Druid, Ranger, Animal Totem Barbarian, Mark of Handling human wizard. Everyone constantly arguing about who's the beastmaster and who's the party pets

[severe rampart]

the ranger has an extra large pack of animal treats

[keen kestrel]

Suddenly the ranger is a Pokémon trainer lmao

[empty thicket]

Who is the leader of the pack and all that

[severe rampart]

oh my god this is just pokemon.

[empty thicket]

No.

[primal wolf]

it's Furrcon

[acoustic hornet]

the pokemon dnd overlap strikes again

[empty thicket]

I wont let it happen, BBEG find the cure or make rules for shapeshifting in kingdoms or mst

[severe rampart]

Honestly... multiclass the ranger into a genie warlock, so he can have pokeballs.

[empty thicket]

And make items that stop people from shapeshifting too, collars, rings and finally for fighitng some chains or nets that break shapeshifting

Or do like they did to Yujiro and use a net full of tranquilizers

[autumn comet]

Hello

[empty thicket]

hello there buddy, any favorite spell?

[autumn comet]

Uhmmm, I don’t know any…😂 I think there was a cantrip once that allowed me to have fire or light around me and one that allowed me to heal others

[primal wolf]

Vampire's being the only one with a CON increase is kinda funny

[empty thicket]

okey, a green one.
welp, welcome to this lands

[empty thicket]

isnt like because the others weres are taken liek curses?

[primal wolf]

vamparism is also taken as a curse

[empty thicket]

then pretty weird ngl

[autumn comet]

I came to ask if anyone has had a successful campaign with/as a chaotic evil or evil character and how difficult it was to uphold that character throughout (if this is not the space to ask that please direct me)

[celest sail]

hallo hallo

[empty thicket]

the closest i could tell you its a campaign that we had to end it because things got too chaotic and the dm got giga burned out.
3 of the party escaped while one joined the literally Crazy Ass and evil doggies kicker cult, forcing him to make 2 stories or conect them in some ways

that was one of the many drops that made the dm want to end it

[sleek siren]

I just tried to understand what they said at the top and man I am confused

[empty thicket]

and 6 months wait... for studies...

[empty thicket]

which thing?

[sleek siren]

Like all things I only joined today to learn about dnd to play with my friends and I know very little but man this seem more complicated than I thought

[autumn comet]

Oof… I have always wanted to play a non neutral/good character and on the evil/chaotic evil side but every campaign I’ve ever been apart of or DM is spoke to said no… so I guess why have the alignment if you really will 9/10 get denied the evil/chaotic?

[empty thicket]

it scare more than it is
Dnd can be resumed in
Maths+Gambling+roleplay+strategy = Dnd

[empty thicket]

the thing is, how you would do it in the Practice?
3 of the party are good, you are the only one evil and you would(?) Sabotage them? betray them? what you would do?

[sleek siren]

Gambling and roleplay won't be a problem
But math and gambling? Damn

[celest sail]

Calculating stuff won’t get too complicated methinks

[crystal hatch]

I hath arrivethed

[celest sail]

hallo hallo

[empty thicket]

luckily isnt so big numbers and its pretty simplified or not too complex
If you want try in the channel of newcomers that there will be people who would help you a lot in things

isnt a Bhaskara equation or smt like that
Its "2 + 3 + 5 % 2(resistance) = Damage made"
In the worst scenario were an enemy have resistance to a kind of damage

If not is immune and there is no math for X damages or stuff

[sleek siren]

My dm friend said get to know the basic so we can play a campaign
Also there is different campaigns? More thàn one?

[empty thicket]

There is 3 ways to do campaigns
Oneshots = 1 session story, see it like a movie with start, middle and ending and that it is.
Modules = stories with many sessions but following an already written story
Free campaigns = where the DM make a story, world, etc. etc. and your party follow his story

[autumn comet]

I guess I would betray them for ulterior motives. Like example- I could be the sibling or child of the boss who is obviously evil/very bad, but I could want to kill him myself but would have the traits of being raised by that evil character (boss) so ultimately I would steal, kill, lie, etc. to get the edge on the boss and even potentially sacrifice my team… but, how would it work amongst the team… well what if instead of 1 big boss I played as the “mini boss” in the end game… I think I’m onto something here😂

[empty thicket]

With starting like a DM (Dungeon master), its recommended oneshots to slowly understand the system and stuff and modules for get into it a bit deep and understand more.

[sleek siren]

My friend said we'll be playing something called dragon of ice peak or something
I really dunno names are too long

[empty thicket]

yeah, names are sometimes weird, dont worry in sometimes say "i dont know about this" and read, most of time knowing the basics and some lil stuff its "enough"

[empty thicket]

you can act like a bad guy wanting to be greedy for yourself, or have a hidden plan for smt and the party dont know.

[sleek siren]

Okie dokie so what should I learn just to get through basics?
Also I looked at campaign name dragon of icespire peak

[empty thicket]

But once you separate of them, you either became a bossfight or the DM pull out smt and took you down

[empty thicket]

check in #dnd-newcomers , there will be people like you asking the same things you are thinking

[sleek siren]

Thankie will do

[empty thicket]

normally if its oil its used over smt, because drinking a whole bottle of magic oil.....would need to do a Con check at some point

That or i use that magic oil in some food, a sandwich or deepfry something like some potato croquettes

[celest sail]

I’ve barely had the chance to play much so I joined a Westmarch style server, I’m wondering if it’ll be better to just find a typical online group instead

[crystal hatch]

Finding an online group hard as hell 🥀

[hasty flare]

Yeah

[jolly canyon]

It can be yea

[tough sandal]

I had to move online for the survival of my "Phandelver & Beyond" campaign.

[crystal hatch]

I work night shift so I kind of don't have a choice

Not a lotta people willing to run games at 1 AM lol

[tough sandal]

For me, it was relocation. My players are due for LV 14 next session. :>

[hasty flare]

Fair

I’m rlly new to dnd lol

[empty thicket]

kinda know the feeling, had to drop a campaign because got a job (happy about it) and i kinda felt bad even after building such lovely character

[hasty flare]

I’m like 6 sessions into my first one with my friend and some of his friends

I’m tryna find another campaign to join with my best friend thou since my current one we don’t do sessions very often

[crystal hatch]

I've built a few characters just to never be able to use them because all the campaigns fell through 💔

Done 1 one-shot at least

[hasty flare]

I’ve got 3 so far lol, one for my current campaign, one for my campaign from my other friend Ina few months and another one for if I join another campaign

[crystal hatch]

I made a homebrew subclass for my fav character but never got it properly reviewed by the DM so it's stuck in limbo LOL

[hasty flare]

Oof

[crystal hatch]

I made it just for the purpose of making poison not suck

[hasty flare]

-# I’m too new to understand what homebrew means T-T

[tough sandal]

Hombrew = Custom Content.

[hasty flare]

Ah

[crystal hatch]

Basically custom content

[hasty flare]

Sounds cool but yeah I can see why it could suck for DMs

[crystal hatch]

He didnt review it only bc the campaign fell through

I asked beforehand if I could, always good to do so

[tough sandal]

I delayed a lot of homebrew in my Phandelver early-game.

[hasty flare]

I Lwk still don’t understand a lot about DnD but thankfully my friend is explaining it in Elden ring terms for me lol

[tough sandal]

When the players were more comfy with their characters, I let my Rune Knight Fighter overwhelm me with custom runes.

We went back-and-forth with balancing. It's been great.

[hasty flare]

Sounds fun

I still need to ask my friend to explain spells and stuff since my next charachter is an elf cleric

[tough sandal]

Now they'll soon be LV 14. He got "Rune Upgrades" at LV 10. The custom runes were originally introduced at LV 6. :)

[hasty flare]

That sounds like a difficult fight

Or smth idk

I still don’t understand all the DnD terms

[crystal hatch]

This is really funny because my two main dnd character ideas are based on Elden Ring OCs

[hasty flare]

lol

I Lwk think my characters so far have been original

Well maybe my cleric u could think of avatar since imma have their whole story be fighting with and learning the 4 elements T-T

[tough sandal]

Just wait, eventually you'll start unintentionally referencing things. :)

[hasty flare]

I think I’ve started too

[tough sandal]

I wear my inspirations on my sleeve.

[hasty flare]

But the only charachter I’m using rn is 100% original

Prob bc I had to rush them for the session 0 and then build their story up later

[crystal hatch]

My dnd characters so far are a shapeshifting con artist, a naive warlock who believes she is doing good, and a mentally ill royal jester from a usurped kingdom

[hasty flare]

Very unique
I

Bru

My phone too small I keep hitting enter on accident

[crystal hatch]

I did get to use the first one, he was in the one shot I've been in

[whole shore]

Hey question for DMs if a player said “i made my back story with ai” how would you feel

[fossil hollow]

ew

[crystal hatch]

I am not a DM but as a player I would never want to play with someone who ai generated their character

[hasty flare]

Well that’s good
my character rn is a guy who was the sole survivor of an attack on his village and had his sister taken, so he trained with a dragon and when the dragon died of old age he turned into a Dragonborn idk

[whole shore]

But why?

[crystal hatch]

DnD is a game about creativity and expressing yourself. Using a creativity theft machine is inherently anti-art

[hasty flare]

Cause I feel that defeated the purpose of dnd in my eyes of “using your imagination to the fullest”

[crimson gulch]

I have had a few folks do this, and nothing gets discard faster than something you dident actually make yourself

[tough sandal]

As a wise man once said, "We ask them politely yet firmly to leave."

[hasty flare]

But what if they want their steak well done

[crimson gulch]

Every ai backstory I have encountered has been quickly set aside as the player actually plays and finds their character for real

[crystal hatch]

If someone is having trouble making a character backstory, they can always consult their DM or other players for help and ideas

[crimson gulch]

No backstory is genuinely better than an ai one

[tough sandal]

The actual answers are Lyra and Urizt's answers.
Players and GMs will often discover new details that never existed in an original backstory through play.

[cobalt owl]

AI blows for backstories

AI blows

[jolly canyon]

I can't help but think back to the recent Ginny Di video with the ai backstory scammer

[tough sandal]

It happens all the time. Opportunities will present themselves that make the light bulb pop and add to the world.

[crystal hatch]

Ohhh yeah that one

[whole shore]

Ok anyone here that would not mind or are pro ai backstory

[crystal hatch]

Why did you ask if you already made up your mind?

[crimson gulch]

By and large the most passionate folks about dnd are very anti ai

Your not going to find a pro ai echo in here

Your not even aloud to post ai art or text here

[whole shore]

I did not i am just showing my friend why he cant use an ai one but i need help explaining it lol

[tough sandal]

It's gonna be difficult to find anyone here for the sake of a devil's advocate.

[crystal hatch]

Did he say why is he so insistent on it?

[whole shore]

He thinks of it as improve acting like he got a prompt from a director

[rough basalt]

God

[crystal hatch]

Couldn't he just... Ask a real person for one then?

Or at least for directions on what could be a good idea? There are so many other avenues he could have taken 😭

[lavish flame]

Traditionally roleplaying prompts just occur in D&D, without a need to ask first

[tough sandal]

The GM is the director.

[crystal hatch]

I meant for a backstory specifically

[tough sandal]

The situations that present themselves in the world and story framework the GM provides is the teleprompter.

My last session had SO MUCH of that.
So many minor implications because I was mindful of my players' backstories, and events that occurred off-screeen with the players' knowledge.

Backstories do not need to be complicated, they don't need to be even two paragraphs.
They can just be bullet points to give the GM some MEAT to cook with.

[burnt grove]

Okay what do you guys think wins fight to the death Remorhaz cr 11 vs Adult white dragon cr 13

[whole shore]

Adult white dragon

Honestly i told him dont even come up with a back story but he likes the ai one and wants to play with that

[burnt grove]

Really aren’t white dragons vulnerable to fire, and far less intelligent then most? Brutal sure but would it stay around melee or in flight?

[tough sandal]

Nothing replaces the joy in a player's eyes to see what's truly THEIRS being directly incorporated by the GM.

[whole shore]

Vulnerable to fire? They added that in 2024?

[fossil hollow]

weak to fire? No. Hate it? yes.
intelligent? no, barely human at adult

and all dragons prefer flight

[burnt grove]

Damn lmfao I got that wrong

[lavish flame]

I'd have to assume the white dragon, but their ice powers will not be affecting each other

[empty thicket]

there is creatures vulnerable to radiant damage, why not the other kinds of damageS?

[fossil hollow]

white dragons are just as vulnerable to fire as humans are

[tough sandal]

Roasted dragon. Yummy. 🍖

[broken imp]

my party asked if they can heal by eating other people.... so um yea

[burnt grove]

Oh no

[broken imp]

i said u can try and they did, it didn't work, and they got poisoned instead because it was raw meat

[lucid reef]

What channel can I use to talk about Unearthed Arcana stuff??

[fossil hollow]

#1026901431132885064

[meager fractal]

https://discord.com/channels/516367331358801950/1489312713678258307

[vapid pawn]

Since you summoned me i feel i should ask “Can you be a good player with an ai backstory or is just using one means that you will be a drain on the game”

[broken imp]

ai backstories are always by default a EPIC U SAVING THE WORLD FROM SOME GODLY THREAT OR ANCIENT BEING OR A DIVINE EVENT THAT'S BREAKING THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE

[vapid pawn]

I reject the term always

[empty thicket]

"Eat another people, either your same race or some other humanoid race and you will get insane and a disease that will kill you fast"

[cobalt owl]

Cannibalism is also very impactful on ones psyche

[empty thicket]

Yep, why insanity mentioned too.
If they still go for it, put consequences and make them understand that if they do it again. They wont have it easy.

[lavish flame]

typically that hurts much more than it heals

[empty thicket]

Rations arent that expensive, going to hunt too
Survival//Nature checks are there
Purify food//water or use magic for it is there
The only reason to eat someone else in the bad sense is just psychosis

Or being in a REALLY bad spot.

[broken imp]

lol they just got poisoned, one of them rolled a one and almost died

[broken imp]

no they just wanted to because it was "maybe uhh could work or something but we can try won't hurt right? uhh... i'll do it"

[empty thicket]

"It isnt so ba.... "

[umbral girder]

Then don’t eat Cans. /jk

[empty thicket]

500 baboons.

But yeah, rarely one would get into such situations unless they seek for it and that is.... pretty F@€¬~# up

[umbral girder]

Besides being a Lizardfolk.

[empty thicket]

and look, im open to ideas like "lets eat the manticore to see how it taste, if it taste more lion, goat or snake". Humanoid is the limit.

[lavish flame]

saying "wouldn't hurt to try" about a phenomenon that is well documented to hurt to try

[umbral girder]

Dungeon Meshi moment

[empty thicket]

1 of 6 players of Russian roulette dont like it

Guess why.

[umbral girder]

They don’t like gambling

[primal wolf]

oh it's making an impact alright, my vampire PC never felt better

[lavish flame]

There's an old dungeon crawler I play, NetHack, and one of the best mechanics in it is "eating corpses" which can give you monster traits. Eating any kind of Beholderkin can give you ESP, for example. For this reason, it is common practice to keep a physical log of which things you can safely eat

I've eaten so many Giants

[empty thicket]

yeah, something like that, I would try to implement food managment in the campaign i want to make but there will be always food avaible
Either hunt, recollect or buy it
Use magic (Would fill but not satiate)
Improvise something to at least satiate the hunger

[umbral girder]

I meant eating humanoids

[meager fractal]

nethack is goated

[empty thicket]

Yeah, the rule in me already existed but dungeon meshi is a nice example of it

Would even copy a monster like the demon from Dungeon meshi, i found its concept pretty cool

A demon that eat desire but instead of just eat it, he make the people slowly get some, desire for power, money, etc. etc. Until finally devour it and leave them like husks

[warm shore]

I feel like if the campaign I’m in had a survival system with hunger, we’d totally die in like two sessions 😭

[empty thicket]

just remember to carry some rations//water for short//long rests and i think you would be fine

And every time you get a merchant ask them if they have any food, smoked meat, dried fruits, jams, sausages.
Like or not there is tons of ways to preserve food in ancient times

or just "rations"

[feral fulcrum]

Delicious and Nutrtious, the snack that fights back.

[umbral girder]

I mean they in fact did eat them.

[empty thicket]

Devour the Bread Golems.

[broken imp]

this is really cool idea but unfortunately one of my party have read that do i just didn't use it

i think it's monkeydm or someone who said the 7 candles horror campaign idea, also really col

[empty thicket]

how so?

[empty thicket]

only their hair

[umbral girder]

And babies

[broken imp]

they'd know and i just decided that it wasn't worth it, to obvious of a copy, also i forgot about that idea after like a day

[umbral girder]

Also I had an idea.

So Vampires have absolute control over their spawn.

What happens if they meet a Spawn made by another vampire?

[empty thicket]

copy isnt bad at all for me.
More if you give it a lil twist and again, the demon concept was pretty cool in general so why dont mention it?

[umbral girder]

Could they force a similar amount of control? Or would that spawn be more free?

[empty thicket]

but yeah, forgot about it after 1 day is... meh, it happen

[empty thicket]

see it like Ants and variations of them
If there is 2 ants from different queens, yeah, both are ants but they arent from the same side

[feral fulcrum]

I dont' see why they'd have any influence over a Spawn they themselves didn't create.

[umbral girder]

And what if the other true Vampire dies?

[tropic cypress]

anyone got a good artificer build im running my first one and just hit lvl 3 and went for armorer but is there anything better or whaat i can do with this subclass or should i multiclass?

[empty thicket]

Such interaction could lead to a fight, a lil talk or just they passing through and dont being important

[umbral girder]

What happens if the vampire meets a masterless spawn?

[empty thicket]

I guess they could adopt it(?) or kill it
Or one of the spawns get ascended and became the new "leader"

Military way, the highest rank take the lead

[feral fulcrum]

I wouldn't worry about your build overly much uneless your'e specifficaly in a hardcore game with a bunch of optimizers

[umbral girder]

The other thing I am thinking is that a Spawn can only ascend is their master letting them drink their blood.

[knotty vine]

Lowkey liking the way the new UA sounds

[umbral girder]

Wondering why it's their master, or has no one tried feeding the blood of a different Vampire?

[tropic cypress]

two are optimizer one of is new and one is like kind of new but ive ran a campaign with

[empty thicket]

hidding a vial for the left hand of the vampire ascend in some emergency scenario

showing that the +500 years of life make someone get experience

and other thing, if you are a creature that can live +300 years and you are still poor. Start swimming and visit other continent.

[knotty vine]

The new druid UA subclass can just large or smaller creatures at level 14

[feral fulcrum]

They can what? You're missing a word or two in that sentence Tasha.

[empty thicket]

A giant rabid bunny.

a pocket size owlbear.

[knotty vine]

Swallow

I never understood the point of devil sight unless you have the spell darkness

[jaunty warren]

Hello. (　・ω・)

[woven flint]

Imagine with me, if you will...
Shadow Monk can see through its own darkness, Warlock with Devil Sight can see through the Darkness.. Hellknight with 4 bajillion attacks can see through darkness

Getting jumped in darkness

[knotty vine]

The hell knight subclass is kinda cool

[woven flint]

Glorpus splikle dorp

[empty thicket]

And you see your ally getting jumped in the darkness.

[blissful ibex]

The Warlock, Druid, and Wizard with a bat familiar can see in darkness c:
though warlock can just devil's sight as well so that's kinda moot

[knotty vine]

getting 1d6 for a min worth of fire damage is kinda ehh

[woven flint]

Thats the fun part, since the allies have Devilsight, the attacks against them are at disadvantage because they're obscured but can still see their enemies

[crystal hatch]

I love poison so much but wow does it suck in dnd

[knotty vine]

Poison in dnd is a do or dont type of thing

[woven flint]

Midsion

[primal wolf]

I'm finally making a Poison build work in dnd

[crystal hatch]

Investing in poison seems to either be incredibly good or entirely worthless depending on the situation

[knotty vine]

Like if your playing in a game where theres gonna be no construts elementals devils demons undeads(besidess vampires) then poison might be worth it

[empty thicket]

Yeah... there is any way to break an immunity or pierce poison immunity?

[knotty vine]

Nope

[empty thicket]

Resistance you can in many ways

[crystal hatch]

Not in base game i dont think

I was gonna homebrew a warlock patron for it but I don't know enough about balancing to understand what is too strong when it comes to buffing the damage type

[empty thicket]

Damn....why there is not an upgrade to Poisoner or a Feature in assassin that make you pierce it...

or some magic item that let you do a kind of damage without worrying about the immunity//resistance

[knotty vine]

the poisoner feat is still kinda worthless since i counted and both in the 2024 and 2014 monster manual and free rules there are only 11 creatures that are resistance to posion

[blissful ibex]

ye, not even Boon of Poison Mastery lets you pierce immunity

[crystal hatch]

The idea I had was making poison immune things instead just have a resistance, but that might straight up break certain things

[knotty vine]

lemme do a total count for only 2024 monsters

[empty thicket]

Like i understand is a type of damage that anyone can access...but i dont see that much fire resistances//immunity too

[knotty vine]

theres 6 monsters that are resistance to posion in the 2024 monster manual

compared to the 100+ that are flat immune

[empty thicket]

At least poisoner give you any other useful feature?

[cobalt owl]

Poisons like the most common immunity

[knotty vine]

its kind of a lesser divine smite

[cobalt owl]

Remains the worst damage type

[knotty vine]

its the assassin badgaer and its giant variant incubus succubus and the cambion

[cobalt owl]

Wish less things had lightning immunity since lightning is my fav damage type

[knotty vine]

thunder is mine

Being loud is fun

[blissful ibex]

costly pseudo smite

[cobalt owl]

Boon of furious storm go brrr

[empty thicket]

Assasssin who use poison like one of its features :

[cobalt owl]

Assassin cringe

[empty thicket]

Damn....not even that good....

[empty thicket]

500 baboons.

[knotty vine]

yeah

[cobalt owl]

I do like some features of hell knight at least

[woven flint]

Mid Knight ]

[knotty vine]

Its really cool but it also seems really ehh

[cobalt owl]

Inbuilt elemental adept is always good on any sub thats type focused

[woven flint]

Play an Eldritch Knight Fighter or Paladin and take Path of the Death Knight ez (Silly)

[cobalt owl]

But it's also slightly necessary

[knotty vine]

Oh it does get ignore fire resistance

thank asmodues

[empty thicket]

Welp, at least poison wont be that much expens....100gp a basic vial of poison that have a really bad save and damage
But meh at least the upgraded versions arent that expensi.... purple worm poison is more than 1k of gp.

[knotty vine]

For the posioner feat it only cost 50gp so theres that ig

[empty thicket]

"common type of damage", Common for who?

[empty thicket]

remember that i said a vial of acid cost 1/4 and do non savable damage.
Still holding that

[knotty vine]

lol

Hell knight just allows you to sned someone to hell

[empty thicket]

If you tell me at least poison is cheap and easy to access so its understandable the balance of it, okey.
It isnt.

[knotty vine]

Thats qutie a capstone

[empty thicket]

"just"....

[knotty vine]

Whenever damage from your Hellfire Weapon or
Infernal Wound reduces a creature to 0 Hit Points,
the creature dies, and its soul rises from the River
Styx as a Lemure in a layer of the Nine Hells of your
choice in 1d4 hours. If the creature isn’t revived
before then, only a Wish

Great way to stop someone from reviving

[woven flint]

Me, playing a Pestilence Cleric and decimating the local populace by giving them dysentery

[knotty vine]

To hell with ye lich

[empty thicket]

....Who you had beef with that you literally sent its soul to the ninth ring of hell?

[knotty vine]

Idk but it sounds funny

Hell knights capstones are kinda crazy

[empty thicket]

Gets a critic
"My turn"
//Proceed to literally send him to hell//

[feral fulcrum]

I mean it's a fairly common thing for Hell-based weapons to be incredibly nasty

[knotty vine]

You know what thats a fair point

[feral fulcrum]

Hellfire Weapons are an uncommon magic item and have the same effect.

[woven flint]

Taking Path of the Lich with a Spirits Bard sounds like it'd be pretty fun....
Be The Necrodancer
Turn it into a gRaveyard

[errant crag]

I really oughtta try out Assassin Rogue sometime

[cobalt owl]

Good game

[void crypt]

being a evil dancer worked out great for vampires in sinners why not let the liches have fun on the dance floor

[empty thicket]

same, i have it like a character in my do list

[knotty vine]

Just dance for liches

[errant crag]

I might go with a Duergar assassin

I never play them and they're my favorite species

[feral fulcrum]

You know for all the things immune to Poison in D&D, you'd think the majority of the world was a Poison Swamp. Sings the Blight Town song

[errant crag]

I feel like it great damage type to throw around at players

[empty thicket]

But not for players to use?

[knotty vine]

Thats a good question

[errant crag]

There are a lot of monsters that resist and are immune to Poison. Players are rarely immune to it and a good amount of classes and races resist it, and there's a plethora of options to avoid it.

[knotty vine]

Posion is a decent type to use against players

[knotty vine]

theres 6 monsters that resist posion*

compared to the 100+ that are immune

[errant crag]

Okay

[meager fractal]

most (ime) dms homebrew a lot of monsters tho

[errant crag]

Not all

[knotty vine]

That is a lie and a half

[errant crag]

I very rarely use homebrew content

[knotty vine]

Same here

[errant crag]

I only use it if I need to and it would only be simple things I make

[knotty vine]

the most "homebrew" ill do is use UA

[humble cairn]

Do we consider it homebrew to take a statblock and tweak it?

Because that's pretty common

[languid crescent]

Is there a lfg channel in here? If there is I promise I'm blind

[errant crag]

#find-a-game

[knotty vine]

No it legit says that you can tweak monster stat blocks in the DMG

[humble cairn]

Right, but does that make it not homebrew?

[knotty vine]

I doubt it

lemme consule the demons

[humble cairn]

If the DMG says "go ahead and homebrew" then it's obviously fine to do, but wouldn't it still be homebrew?

[empty thicket]

Time to homebrew a Poison dagger that pierce immunity and you can chose which poison damage do if you recharge the dagger container with that poison

[errant crag]

Sounds very strong

[languid crescent]

It seems I'm way out of my depth here. Cheers folks 😄

[knotty vine]

only if your fighting something with posion immuntity

[humble cairn]

Like I don't think that something needs to be made completely from scratch to be considered homebrew.

[knotty vine]

also a dagger does like 1d4

[humble cairn]

There's degrees of homebrew.

[empty thicket]

+2 dagger + that effect.

So even if the effect is strong, its still a Dagger

[errant crag]

I just felt like something that can always do it's full damage to a creature and never be affected by resistance or immunity is inherently strong

[knotty vine]

Undead grasp sounds kinda crazy

Paralyzing Touch. You know the Chill Touch
cantrip. If you already know it, you learn another
cantrip of your choice. Intelligence, Wisdom, or
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell
(choose when you select this feat).
When you deal damage with Chill Touch, you can
expend a level 1+ spell slot to attempt to paralyze
the target. The target takes an extra 1d10 Necrotic
damage per level of the spell slot expended and must
succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your
spell save DC or have the Para

[humble cairn]

It's emulating the lich statblock.

[knotty vine]

I know and i love it

i still think its a bit silly that you ONLY need to be level 12 to get full on lichdom

[hidden spindle]

My favorite part is Chill Touch can target objects too so... paralyzed objects are a thing.

[errant crag]

Is that a feat

[hidden spindle]

It's part of the recent UA

[knotty vine]

Its a chain of feats you can get

[empty thicket]

that its why its in a dagger and not a shortsword or smt like that.
And ngl, after seeing how Expensive is poison in general, the balance is there.

[errant crag]

Oh I see

[rough basalt]

Well, I imagine its cause Lich's are usually Wizards, who were Archmages likely which are cr12, then their time as liches led them to becoming cr21

[empty thicket]

unless you have an alchemy jug where you can get poison daily, the price is there

[knotty vine]

CR 12 and level 12 are not very compareable

[woven flint]

Honestly?
Pretty sound logic

[jolly agate]

What is the opposite of a Lich?

[knotty vine]

Nothing

[hidden spindle]

Hcil

[jolly agate]

Wym nothin

[empty thicket]

A priest(?)

[rough basalt]

True but in this metaphor it works because I say so.

[errant crag]

It being a dagger doesn't really limit it as much as you are thinking it will I feel. There are a good handful of ways for martial characters to get bonus damage of the same type as their weapons damage type

[knotty vine]

Idk i dont think theres an "opposite" of a lich

[rough basalt]

Source: My mom said so

[woven flint]

The opposite of a Lich would.. probably be a creature that despises undeath

[knotty vine]

A lich is just an undead spell caster

who wanted to become immortal

[empty thicket]

some high rank church agent i guess

[jolly agate]

Lich Is like Death and nec dmg and necromancy, what's the opposite

Like someone really powerfull and holy

[knotty vine]

A solar maybe?

[woven flint]

A Deva

[knotty vine]

thats a legit angel

[jolly agate]

You can't become a Deva, can you?

[knotty vine]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/5195208-solar this thing

Its also CR 21

[jolly agate]

A lich Is a wizard that went really into necromancy

[empty thicket]

it still 1d4 damage, even wielding 1 hand and doing X ammount of attacks, poison would still apply in 1.
So its strong because he could do 4 attacks + that lil poison damage or is strong for that +poison damage?

[knotty vine]

I mean any spell castaer can become a lich

[jolly agate]

It has to be something you can become

[knotty vine]

as long as you have spell casting or pact magic

[empty thicket]

1d4+2 (duelist) + proficiency dont go above 15 damage per attack

[knotty vine]

I think its funny that a monk cant do either Death knight or lich path

[humble cairn]

It's not really something that has an opposite, is it? Like what's the opposite of a .. I dunno, a Pope?

[knotty vine]

monk got left out of the new book

[empty thicket]

Vecna

[jolly agate]

I think it would be a High Priest

Like a High Priest of Lathander

[knotty vine]

A high priest isnt really compareable to a lich

[jolly agate]

Dammit

[knotty vine]

One is compared to a demigod more often then not

[humble cairn]

Ehh ... I guess? But if a lich is all about study and magic, why wouldn't the opposite ofthat be holy and a physical warrior? Like a Paladin?

[jolly agate]

Maybe

[woven flint]

I guess a THEORETICAL on a scale is that an Archdruid could probably be the opposite of a lich?
Someone who preserves, protects and even creates life?

[meager fractal]

CR 8 or 9 would be close to a single level 12 pc imo

[humble cairn]

But honestly again, it isn't something that really has an opposite.

[knotty vine]

For the death knight path you need weapon mastery and for the lich path you need spell casting

Monk has neither of those

[jolly agate]

Alr ye maybe, i like that one

[feral fulcrum]

A Lich is an udnead wizard that eats souls to prolong their unnatural existence. There's not like, A Super Duper Alive guy who spits out souls as their perfect opposite.

[jolly agate]

Everything has an opposite.

[humble cairn]

See how there are many ways you could slice this argument?

[knotty vine]

The lady of pain doesnt!

[humble cairn]

No, not really.

[feral fulcrum]

Not remotely true.

[knotty vine]

She is true neutal

through and through

[woven flint]

I don't have the opposite, we're all the same /silly

[knotty vine]

is there anybody else besides monk that cant take the UA feats??

[jolly agate]

Tymora, Selûne or Lathander maybe

[feral fulcrum]

Pale Lady is fairly simmilar to The Lady of Pain, but not her opposite.

[knotty vine]

Yeah

[rough basalt]

coughing babys vs hydrogen bomb

[woven flint]

Neither of those are even close to being opposites in reality

[knotty vine]

its nearly impossble to be the opposite of true nu

[woven flint]

The Lady of Pain is more a FORCE of existence
She's not even really considered a god, but she's above more of them in power

[knotty vine]

This is true

But there is no doubt that she isnt real

[humble cairn]

So no, everything does not have an opposite.

[knotty vine]

I saw her floating above sigil the other day

[jolly agate]

BLASPHEMY! Have more faith in our lord of the morning and savior Lathander

[rough basalt]

dude is nothing compared to her

[knotty vine]

yeah the lady is compared to the likes of IO

you know the outer god

[jolly agate]

Oh damn

Does AO even have a form? Like. Physical

[knotty vine]

In i think 3e or 3.5e he was shown a few times

[rough basalt]

Even ao is a coughing baby

[woven flint]

You mean Ao.
Io is the Dragon God.

[flint ledge]

Io got killed in 4e no?

[knotty vine]

i always confuse them

[woven flint]

Io's real name is Asgorath

[knotty vine]

He needs to get a longer name

[jolly agate]

Aint that ma boy Fizban The Fabulous?

The dragon god

[rough basalt]

There's only one person whose ever treated LoP

[knotty vine]

Through IO was also somewhat compared to AO

[woven flint]

Fizban is Bahamut
Io is different

[rough basalt]

Threatened

[knotty vine]

IO was later split into tiamat and bahamut i think

[rough basalt]

Vecna

[jolly agate]

Is Fizban fabulous or the fabulous is Fizban?

[knotty vine]

Vecna only threatened Sigil so she kinda had to back down

[woven flint]

"Asgorath more commonly known as Io in the Outer Planes, was the dragon deity of creation. He (or she, as some traditions suggested) was regarded as the creator of the multiverse and of dragonkind, and he manipulated the destinies of all dragons by operating in a way that nobody suspected his involvement."

[void crypt]

io dead and then tiamut and bahmut appeared i think

[rough basalt]

He pulled a massive gamble that put sigil in danger if she did anything

[knotty vine]

Aka if Vecna and the lady were to battle then and there it would have put sigil and danger

As shown in DIE vecne DIE

[feral fulcrum]

No, Fizban is Paladine/IE Bahamut IIRC

[rough basalt]

Then 2e adventurers casted die on him

[knotty vine]

yup

and vecna died

[feral fulcrum]

AO/IO don't really show up on the planes, period.

[coarse ravine]

"Die" used to be a spell?

[knotty vine]

wasnt he at most shown as like an orb

[flint ledge]

From what I recall a massive elemental split Io into Bahamut and Tiamat

[knotty vine]

IO didnt even have a form

[void crypt]

i mean we have power word kill in the modern day

[woven flint]

Notably, Ao and Io are indeed two different beings

[rough basalt]

Ao is just there to make sure gods don't let FR advance as a realm

[knotty vine]

Ao just kinda does nothing in lore

Hes the ceo of dnd and true to his name he just kinda sits there

[empty thicket]

high speed bullets?

[knotty vine]

50 cal non magical missle

[void crypt]

ive seen the rules for guns in dnd those things are not fast/s

[rough basalt]

He makes sure the evil gods are allowed to threaten the world so adventurers can stop them to keep the content wheel going

[jolly agate]

How powerful are the Power words anyway?. Like, Canonically

[knotty vine]

Decently powerful

[empty thicket]

50 cal. with runes so no magic shield can work on it and make it explosive so if a monk try to deflect, it explode

[woven flint]

They're literally known as the "Words of Creation" so...

[rough basalt]

And that good gods are only allowed to offer vibes

[coarse ravine]

Have to be under 100 for power word kill. Very specific. Power word heal is very strong as its the only thing that can get rid of stun

[knotty vine]

Then theres power word stun

hes just kinda there

[jolly agate]

Ye but sometimes when u tell someone "DIE" and they do not die so

[rough basalt]

Not in 5e anyway

[knotty vine]

In 3.5e we legit had the venful gaze of god

[rough basalt]

In older editions you could just kill people instantly

[knotty vine]

which did 300d6 worth of damage

Just death

[woven flint]

"The Words of Creation were fragments of Supernal, the language of the gods; more specifically, they were the power words within Supernal, the syllables, words, and full utterances that the early gods used to shape the universe at its inception and give it lasting form. Indeed, creation was the original purpose of the words, although they were capable of far more. Yet while Supernal was the precursor of the celestial language, Supernal itself was a lost language. Very few celestials remembered even some of its Words of Creation, and even fewer mortals had access to so much as one or two."

[rough basalt]

Finger of death, disintegrate, PWK were just all die instantly

[knotty vine]

i mean the lowest one is like level 8 right?

[flint ledge]

I mean at least Ao did something when the tablets of fate were stolen

[woven flint]

The ones that we "mortals" know of, yes

[coarse ravine]

Feeble mind would be a cruel way to not full tpk. But to leave the last member of the party alive. But absolutely brain dead

[knotty vine]

finger of death and disintegrage can be countered by being an orc

aka the endurance trait

[jolly agate]

Are Goliaths stronger than Orcs?

[rough basalt]

Bold choice

[coarse ravine]

Id say so