TRPG General Chat

1:09 AM

VTC too opinion-based.

Momonga-sama

@BESW Sounds kind of like a troll OP.

Yup, flagged for mods to look at.

They can see extra info that helps them determine that sort of thing.

2:38 AM

Update Adobe Flash! Always have your Flash spayed or neutered.

3

lol

#bobbarker

LOL

4:50 AM

It's really nice to have artists in the group. Depicted: overcoming an extreme consequence.

Turns out wearing a mechanized armor powered by unreal light which saps memories, and then catching a cannonball with your hand to save a guinea pig can lead to complications. They fixed it. Somewhat. Neither the surgeon nor the engineer can quite remember what they did. And our Iron-Clad Texan became Iron-Fused Texan.

5:04 AM

@SevenSidedDie The last "an answer" should be "a comment," Shirley?

SevenSidedDie

@BESW Yes! Thanks.

7:49 AM

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Tweeted by doctorow on June 18, 2016 at 6:57 AM

8:37 PM

It's me (a cleric), another cleric, a mage and a paladin. While introducing his character the player points out that, unlike many others, he doesn't use the powers granted from his got to be safe from small inconveniences like cold climate.

"Do you mean unlike my cleric? Is that what you mean?"

Shalvenay

8:57 PM

hey @Zachiel

Heya @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

@Zachiel how're things going?

If I must say, averagely bad. I've been reading an amatorial translation of a manga that has no official traslaion that I know of, but apparently once the manga got licensed the amatorial translation stopped and now my only chance to know how it ends is learning Japanese :/

For the rest, I'm torn between playing a tormented thus interesting character who's at odds with the many deaths happening around him, or having him grow into someone who believes in himself as much as he believes in his god, whic I'm not sure I can properly render.

My 4e Pencil & Paper campaign is faring well but I'm still a little baffled at the strikers autohitting most enemies their level.

A: How can I tune encounter difficulty appropriately in D&D Essentials?

9:16 PM

There's some pretty solid maths to study behind 4e, but early-era 4e monsters don't follow it.

10

The system is designed to accomodate this ...but without the DMG it's a little tricky. The science: Basically, each enemy has an XP value. This is how much XP it's worth when it's defeated (divided among those who defeat it), but it's also useful for building encounters. Here's how you build ...

14

A: How do I balance an encounter for my party?

The DMG talks about how to do this, but I've found that it needs some tweaking to be really effective. What level should an encounter be? DMG 56 says: An easy encounter is one or two levels lower than the party’s level. A standard encounter is of the party’s level, or one level higher....

And Quickleaf's 4e GM Cheat Sheet is pretty great too.

@BESW I am - or, to better express it, the guy rewriting the official statblock is - using Monster Vault. Which, to my knowledge, is post MMIII.

I think so.

Even while using Quickleaf's 4e GM sheet, I get similar ACs

But let me check.

So, let's see. [thinks back to 4e] Strikers do generally have slightly better than average attack values.

My diagnosys is that most trolls and giants are brutes, thus their AC is lower.

9:29 PM

(usually +1 to +3, I think)

Monsters can have an AC wobble of about 5.

My level 12 strikers have a +21 to hit, counting a constant +1 to all hit rolls from the leader and persistent combat advantage.

No wait, that was at level 11, now they have +22

So if the "average" to-hit of a PC vs a monster is 50% (I think it's higher), then a striker (+3 hit) against a brute (-2 AC) would be hitting 75% of the time.

And yeah, good leaders can skew that even further.

"Good leaders" is just a feat they always take, I think.

Sounds to me like your players put the resources into being very accurate.

They do. And I can't blame them, it is what 4e combat is all about.

I just realized it's not "the strikers", since we don't have two strikers currently. It's the striker and the sticky fighter.

9:34 PM

If it's making fights trivial or boring... consider adding other kinds of excitement, perhaps triggered by hitting things.

Basically, if someone risks death, it's always him.

Giants that get a no-damage-but-big-push attack whenever they're hit in melee.

Trolls that spew hot slippery blood when they get to half hp.

We keep getting back to the same thing. Fixing the game once for all versus fixing every single encounter I need to prepare. I shall admit using the encounters by the book is maybe the only thing that keeps me from mumbling about D&D non-stop during workhours.

Heheh.

(Ok, back when I played 3.5 I had a very manual job and thinking about D&D was maybe the only sane thing to do XD)

9:39 PM

I found 4e GMing to be highly prep-intensive.

Using canned modules never really worked for me, though I kept trying.

I basically show up at the session and except the time I spend modeling the map for miniature play, I just do what the adventures tell me to do. It's working fine, except when I wish the player were more challenged. Plus, the guy who wrote the Orcus Conversion did a really good job. The story is pretty linear but the party is fine with following what the NPCs suggest 'til now.

@CapnIndigo sez: Character from my 1st ever con game! Nitrate City by @billy_white. So much fun! https://t.co/cI7TSETe3Z @EvilHatOfficial

Tweeted by billy_white on June 18, 2016 at 7:53 PM

10:24 PM

Is there a list of creatures local to the underdark to build an encounter table with?

And if not would it be legal to build such a table and provide it?

tools.goblinist.com/5enc

"Google before you ask" -facepalm-

I have no idea if it would be legal, so I have no idea if that site is legal.

11:08 PM

@Skathix the only thing with the Forgotten Realms that you are allowed to distribute legally is everything, but only on the DMs guild website: dmsguild.com and you should check with their terms of service before freely distributing anything specific to the Forgotten Realms

Anyone have experience with the 5e Starter Set? I am trying to figure out if my casters are supposed to start with lvl 1 spell slots...there is only mention of the wizard getting lvl 2 spell slots, so I think I should use the core rules for lvl 1

Shalvenay

@DavidWilkins full casters should darn well start with lvl1 slots....

@DavidWilkins

If you check the wizard Character sheet under their attacks and spellcasting the first level spell rules are listed.

Cantrips. You know mage hand, prestidigitation,
ray offrost, and shocking grasp, and can
cast them at will.
Spell Slots. You have two 1st-level spell slots
you can use to cast your prepared spells.
Prepared Spells. You prepare four 1st-level
spells to make them available for you to cast,
choosing from the spells in your spellbook.
Spelibook. You have a spellbook containing
these 1st-level spells: burning hands, detect magic,
mage armor, magic missile, shield, and sleep.
Descriptions are in the rulebook.

11:32 PM

@Skathix thank you! As a player, I put all my caster stats on the spell casting page which is absent from the starter set sheets, I never thought to look at attacks, since spells are not necessarily attacks. That is exactly what I was missing

@DavidWilkins

Np

Hey, any thoughts on the price of magic items RAW vs drive.google.com/file/d/0B8XAiXpOfz9cMWt1RTBicmpmUDg/view

Also, should the value of items be given to players? Anyone know? Say they find a gemstone worth 200gp, should they be informed? Or is there a way for them to appraise?

@Skathix I hadn't seen that before, but at first sight....I need to look deeper. For instance the Javelin of Lightning is classified as uncommon, which RAW sets as 500 go max, but looking at what it does, it may justify a rare price instead of uncommon. I will have to look at more examples, but I think it may be OK in a low magic campaign.

Q: Should a DM tell the players how valuable non-magical treasure is?

11:48 PM

13

In D&D 4th edition most official adventures have encounters that come with lists of treasure items and their values. Example (not a great one but you get the idea): Polished Ruby with gold leafing worth 250gp My thinking is: How do the players know how much something is worth? Are they j...

@Skathix as far as players knowing the real value, it doesn't matter, no magic item seller is going to buy at full price, I think this is addressed in the DMG, but I don't know where at the moment

@BESW Does that article work for 5e?

Thx @BESW

Q: How much is 500 pounds of gems worth?

5

I am a player in a D&D 5e game with 4 other players and a Novice DM. We were 4th level characters at the time, hadn't been getting a lot of monetary reward for our dungeon crawling, and we've been beating up the undead for a side quest for a nice lich. We decided it's been long enough, so one of ...

dnd-5e economy

20

Q: Treasure that's hard to put a price on

(We've been playing D&D, but for this answer I'm looking for a system-agnostic answer that works for a premodern setting. Let's say 1500 AD or earlier.) Most of the treasure the party gets from encounters tends to be easy to put a price on -- like a pile of coins, or a +1 sword, or something li...

gm-techniques system-agnostic treasure

@BESW I think 5e works slightly different than all the games you are listing

11:51 PM

Indeed. But it's a starting place for reference, and shows that you can ask this question on mainsite for 5e-specific answers.