TRPG General Chat

6:02 PM

What I'm trying to say is, I think we should try to be welcoming and friendly instead of curt with new users when they make mistakes, even obvious (to us) like these, whose honesty is plausible.

GreySage

@Maximillian Yes, new users can comment on their own questions/answers

nitsua60

@kviiri I agree. I'm saying that I've often opted for a ping here to say "hey, nitsua, that seems a little brusque" rather than leaving my own.

kviiri

Ah, okay

goodguy5

I don't think I've ever seen "brusque" as a word

kviiri

Now I see what you mean

Sdjz

6:14 PM

If you are only browsing the main site and someone pings you in chat do you get notified?

Yuuki

@nitsua60 I'm not sure chat is an appropriate venue for you to talk to yourself.

@Sdjz Unless you are a ~~mod~~ diamond, you can only ping people who are in the room.

kviiri

@Yuuki Or have been recently enough

goodguy5

you have to be "signed in" to the room

so, I get a little red alert because I never "leave" the room

Sdjz

@Yuuki <- just to be sure this is what we mean with "ping" right?

Yuuki

tl;dr if your name doesn't autocomplete then you won't get pinged

@Sdjz Yes.

Sdjz

6:19 PM

@Yuuki alright thanks!

doppelgreener

6:32 PM

an @ping at someone only notifies them if they've been active in the room in the past week.

they don't have to be present at that moment or visible in the sidebar, but they have to have been around fairly recently.

(i don't know if "active" here means having said something or just hopping in for a moment and appearing in the sidebar)

whether you can see them in the autocomplete, as Yuuki describes, will always tell you if they're pingable

GreySage

2

Q: Are there rules for what happens if a paladin breaks his oath?

Are there rules for what happens if a paladin breaks their oath? I haven't found a single one. Am I missing something?

Didn't this get asked in chat just yesterday?

Rubiksmoose

yesterday, by GreySage

There is a section in the PHB that basically states minor infractions don't matter (but you should RP repentance), but willfully violating the oath with no sign of repentance allows the DM to make you take a different class/Oathbreaker option

Duck

yeah oathbreaker is in dmg pg 97

how do i link a question in here?

doppelgreener

@Duck paste its link with no other text on the same line and it will onebox

optionally you can include a direct message reply (the kind with the :123456 numbers right at the start)

Duck

6:47 PM

its url?

doppelgreener

@Duck yup

Duck

In context, it's a reach (though you did get my +1 for a nice try) since "equipment" for all background is what you start with. Rather than try to assert that this means that all creatures are now equipment, consider that the mouse was put there for convenience (is a love letter equipment(Entertainer) or is a secret equipment? (Inheritor, SCAG). Are all secrets now objects? Or is that put there for purposes of organization? Food for thought. — KorvinStarmast 7 hours ago

wtf

that didnt work

how do i do what greysage just did?

doppelgreener

that was a comment link

Rubiksmoose

@Duck the link you posted was actually a link to a comment.

goodguy5

you want to link only the actual question link, not a comment or answer

Rubiksmoose

6:49 PM

try this link rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/121679/…

doppelgreener

every question or answer has a share button in its bottom left, you can click that to get a link to that exact question or answer.

Wibbs

@doppelgreener I'm guessing you're the mod that declined my flag on that edited question? If so, can you explain why please, coz I'm confused. To me it looks like the edit adds a whole bunch of detail that wasn't in the original question, basically making it up, just so the question has enough detail to be reopened? O_o

doppelgreener

@Wibbs reopening a question closed by the community doesn't warrant diamond intervention

Wibbs

but my flag was to get the edit rolled back

doppelgreener

oh, gotcha

Wibbs

6:52 PM

The editor completely made up information and added it to the question to get it reopened

(as far as I can see)

@doppelgreener ta very muchly :)

Duck

Ok hopefully i figure it out. regardless I was just curious why people don't like my answer even though it is supported by textual quotes from published material? I am talking about the link rubiksmoose posted.

GreySage

@Duck If it helps, I literally posted the following link with nothing else on it : rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/121839/…

doppelgreener

(click that, copy the link in there, paste it here)

Duck

cool thank you @GreySage

GreySage

Tangent: I want to play a good blackguard, like, an evil paladin who forsook his oath and became good.

Rubiksmoose

6:57 PM

@Duck It is hard to say for sure. I think to make the argument that creatures are considered equipment in general (which is a huge pill to swallow) people want more evidence than just a background quote. It seems like rather soft evidence to me personally.

And fwiw, I did not downvote.

goodguy5

@GreySage I propose: Oathmaker

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 If Quaker is your religion you could be an oatmaker.

kviiri

I've always wanted to play a penitent character who's turned to good from bad, but somehow never got around to doing it

Rubiksmoose

@Duck and, to be clear, you are at +2/-2 which means people are just evenly divided about the answer not that people don't like it. At most you can say there are 2 people that disagree with your answer.

Duck

no oathmaker doesn't work since you aren't making a new oath, it's more like Oathunbreaker

ok im still trying to figure out how this rating stuff works

how do you see how many people have voted on an answer?

kviiri

7:01 PM

It's a reputation-unlocked privilege

Rubiksmoose

@Duck No worries :) It does take some getting used to. I would try not to let every downvote bother you. Everyone gets them and it is impossible to avoid. And unless they leave a comment why there is no way to know for sure why they voted.

kviiri

At 1000 reputation, you can click on the post score (between the voting buttons) to see the up and down votes.

goodguy5

@kviiri I DID NOT KNOW THIS

Rubiksmoose

@Duck And, for the record, an upvote is worth more rep than a downvote so you have still earned rep from the answer.

goodguy5

(caps represent mind blowingness)

kviiri

7:03 PM

@goodguy5 Glad to be of service

Rubiksmoose

@Duck If you are receiving lots of downvotes with no idea why, asking here isn't a bad idea though. We can probably make some educated guesses if people are around/interested enough.

SPavel

@goodguy5 Read the privilege ladder, you get a lot of cool stuff

doppelgreener

goodguy5 now knows all the things

Duck

The whole oathbreaker thing has been kinda wonky to me. If broke your oath and now you immediately become bad paladin and decide you want to go back do you immediately go back to paladin when you make the decision or do you have to work toward it. Just seems weird that going one way would likely be ruled an instant change where the other way takes time and repentance.

goodguy5

it was harder than I expected to find this:
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/help/privileges

Yuuki

7:08 PM

@Duck Well, the difference is that the other oaths are, well, oaths whereas oathbreaker is not.

It is instead the distinct lack of an oath.

Which is weird that it gives you paladin powers, but whatever.

Maximillian

If you're a paladin and you cross your fingers behind your back on an oath it's totally okay. (No it's not.)

GreySage

@Duck I think in practice they amount to the same (unless you have a jerk DM who screws with you)

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose top member this quarter!

Yuuki

Although further research indicates that oathbreaker also includes an oath to darkness and evil.

Duck

yeah but an oath is just that you make the oath the first time you get the powers, you make the oath again why wouldn't you get the powers right back?

Rubiksmoose

7:10 PM

@goodguy5 I am?

Yuuki

@Duck Because it takes time for your Green Lantern battery to recharge.

Duck

lol

goodguy5

stackexchange.com/leagues/122/year/rpg/2018-01-01/28591#28591

GreySage

@goodguy5 That honestly doesn't surprise me

@goodguy5 I like how d7 is 7th

Duck

woohoo I'm #1 on page 10!

doppelgreener

7:13 PM

Oathbreaker is about willingly breaking your oath without repentance. If you make an oath to defend the weak and impoverished, then decide not to take a stand against a local lord making victims of the weak and impoverished, and feel no repentance for doing so at that point or afterwards, you are no longer the kind of person who could sincerely devote themselves to an oath to defend the weak and impoverished.

From my understanding, D&D 5e paladins don't get their powers because they say some words -- they get their powers through absolute devotion to their oath and their cause. If you're the kind of person to break your oath, you're not the kind of person who could hold that level of devotion to it. You've now got an arc of character development to engage in.

goodguy5

if you look at quarter instead of year, you're higher.
https://stackexchange.com/leagues/122/quarter/rpg/2018-04-01/44027#44027

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 oh wow lol

Yuuki

@doppelgreener Really, the words approximate how much time it takes for the battery to recharge your ring.

wait

doppelgreener

(This understanding might be totally wrong, so feel free to correct me. I'm not the resident D&D 5e expert by any means.)

Yuuki

> Green Lantern

> doppelgreener

I'm onto you.

doppelgreener

7:15 PM

ssshhh

not so loudly, others might find out

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage tryhard status confirmed lol

Yuuki

So apparently a sneak attack can deal psychic damage.

Rubiksmoose

@Carl It's certainly nonsense, but it's playable nonsense. In my experience, the alternatives—like determining a ratio between different movement speeds then determining how much of a creature second movement speed remains after having used a fraction of its first movement speed—are generally a lot more complicated and slow down play without any really benefit. — Hey I Can Chan Sep 24 '17 at 8:12

Yuuki

> Insecurities, man. You're never gonna finish that novel. Your music isn't good enough. Your dad's a good guy and you were wrong.

Rubiksmoose

I like this comment. "Playable nonsense" should be a term of art for RPGs lol.

GreySage

7:21 PM

Yeah, its a good one

doppelgreener

that is a good comment

also a good reminder why we engage in high level abstraction during game design

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose only if paired with a similar term of playable sense

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 First someone would have to prove that exists in RPGs ;)

Yuuki

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I used copper pieces.

doppelgreener

there have been games whose designers could not accept anything less than a hit chart that designates several zones for every limb and vital organ, tracks damage against each of them, and has a mechanism whereby each individual bullet (even all the ones from machine guns separately) must be tracked randomly to a body part, influenced by range and skill of the gunner.

there are reasons you have not heard of anyone playing these games.

they stop being nonsense in terms of abstraction, but start being nonsense in terms of being unplayable.

Rubiksmoose

7:25 PM

@doppelgreener dear goodness.... I don't even...

doppelgreener

and between unplayable nonsense and playable nonsense, the playable one is far more preferable.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener are you saying I should stop working on my 5e hack with 100% accurate physics?

Duck

That is about how I feel about rifts. I have always loved the storyline and world but it takes me like 8 hours to make a character and combat is a nightmare.

Rubiksmoose

Sidenote: I am doing no such thing. I am not a mad man.

Yuuki

Man, this post is making me think about a Sherlock-esque wizard whose arcane focus is their pipe. And they use fog/cloud spells in combat.

doppelgreener

7:27 PM

@Rubiksmoose yes. you'll just have to abstract a few orders of magnitude higher than those d% rolls to see where the electron winds up at each division of planck time.

Duck

You can't have 100% accurate physics because we don't know physics to 100% accuracy yet.

doppelgreener

(i mean, you were considering subatomic physics, right? otherwise it's just not 100% accurate.)

Yuuki

Assuming that the universe is deterministic, the entire campaign would begin and end at Session 0, where you determine the starting state of your reality.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener absolutely! Then you just work up from there. Getting the Quantum Mechanics ruleset to mesh nicely with the General Relativity stuff might be a bit tough, but I'm sure I can knock it out in a couple of nights.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose i'm sure you'll do fine. also, once you do, please inform the global physics community.

kviiri

7:30 PM

@doppelgreener And Oathbreakers get their powers from the broken oath slowly burning away

SPavel

@goodguy5 Stack is a developer designed site, so nothing is easy to find

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener First combo ENnie/Nobel prize for an RPG?

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose yes :D

Duck

so just curious once you get the quantum mechanics worked out are you going to reverse engineer it to determine how magic breaks physics at the quantum level?

Rubiksmoose

"So how did you make this incredible discovery?" "Well I couldn't figure out how to model the velocity of my magitons (the elementary particle of magic obviously) as they were going through an interdimensional portal. So I downed a few glasses of tea and banged it out in a couple of hours. I honestly don't see what the big deal was."

@Duck Absolutely not! In addition to working Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity into one compatible theory I will also prove that magic is predicted by physics and doesn't break it at all.

GreySage

7:37 PM

@Rubiksmoose The elementary unit of magic is the Thaum

Rubiksmoose

@GreySage Hey buddy, who is the guy who almost has the nobel prize here huh?

Duck

I have recently been thinking that processing power is getting good enough that video games can start applying actual human physiology and impact mechanics to determine damage instead of arbitrary numbers but you are going quite a few steps beyond that.

kviiri

@Duck For most games, that would only make things worse.

SPavel

@Duck There was a Kickstarter for that, Sui Generis I think?

Never made anything tho

Mount & Blade has some rudimentary impact factors, namely relative velocity of combatants

If you lance someone who's moving away from you, it will barely graze them, if you lance them when they are moving towards you, you can potentially deal tons of damage

goodguy5

40k is the best rpg I've played with guns

GreySage

7:41 PM

@Duck Once you have headshots, what else do you really need?

Unless you are going the Bushido Blade route

kviiri

Dwarf Fortress takes into account the mass of weapons when fighting. It's possible for a player to trip themselves by celebrating their first discovery of adamantine by constructing adamantine warhammers for their armies... only to notice that despite being super strong, the almost feather-light adamantine is not the optimal material for bludgeoning anything with.

SPavel

@GreySage Headshots are not even the best way to kill someone, there's a lot of your brain that is fairly useless

What you want is a dum-dum bullet into the heart, or kidneys

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/121804/…

GreySage

@Rubiksmoose Longest comment chain I've ever seen

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose I'm erring toward letting that slide, as pointers to a potentially helpful resource for someone who's got a basically unanswerable question is kind of a mercy I'm willing to extend sometimes.

SPavel

7:44 PM

@GreySage Mods are asleep, post comment chains

kviiri

For anything with an edge, adamantine rocks. Except crossbow bolts, IIRC

doppelgreener

(But also I've got some study I need to do, so not taking moderator actions at the moment.)

SPavel

@doppelgreener Perhaps the solution is to link those resources in the close message in the future

Closed because of XY Problemitis

doppelgreener

@SPavel we can't modify the close reasons like that, they're a standard banner

SPavel

@doppelgreener Everything is possible when you have meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/feature-request

I love some of those downvote counts

-33, -39...

Rubiksmoose

7:47 PM

@doppelgreener Fair. Good studies!

doppelgreener

Thanks!

Duck

@Rubiksmoose once you solve physics you can answer his question easily.

Rubiksmoose

@Duck But I'll have a hefty consulting fee of course. :)

Duck

@Rubiksmoose consulting fee? You would be giving a competitor trade secrets. He better be paying royalties.

Yuuki

8:11 PM

@Rubiksmoose But you'll get so much exposure.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki hahahaha That'll look great on my resume!

Mike Q

@goodguy5 How discouraging, I really need to catch up with the rest of yall

BESW

Excellent advice from the rulebook for Uprising: the Dystopian Universe RPG from @EvilHatOfficial that could stand to be pointed out more often.

Tweeted by twsias on May 3, 2018 at 5:30 PM

One thing I like is all the new D&D character races and classes that the neural network invented.

Tweeted by JanelleCShane on May 3, 2018 at 3:17 PM in reply to JanelleCShane

SPavel

>No time-weasel

Duck

8:28 PM

Does anybody have any idea why in 5e a spear is not considered a polearm?

BESW

Because D&D has a long, proud tradition of making up stuff?

Duck

sounds about right

Yuuki

@BESW I wonder what subrace traits a rope gnome has.

GreySage

I wonder what an Opera is

Duck

I dunno but I bet they are pretty knotty

An opera is like a play where they sing a lot

ACuriousMind

8:33 PM

Does a half-ALF unsuccessfully try to eat tabaxi as a running gag?

Simon H.

gentlemen, please. dogminer is clearly the most interesting class.

Rubiksmoose

@SPavel is that like a sheriff badger?

BESW

@Duck Why should a spear be a polearm? The flail doesn't even exist, let's talk about that before griping about ven diagrams of weapon types.

Yuuki

@SimonH. I don't know, dogecoin is probably crashing along with all the other cryptocurrencies.

Rubiksmoose

@SimonH. dogminer just wrecked me. I was fine up until then.

Yuuki

8:34 PM

@Rubiksmoose Given that the second entry on the list...

Simon H.

@Rubiksmoose didn't take long, then.

Rubiksmoose

@Yuuki hahaha it came from a longer post here: aiweirdness.com/post/173546448332/…

Duck

@BESW They said weapons that function like other weapons with thematic differences can just be swapped in with their lookalike. So a flail is a mace in the same way a nunchaku is a club.

BESW

In all seriousness though, weapon categories in D&D are differentiations for controlling how a particular weapon interacts with other rules, while in real life weapon categories are complex historical and linguistical shibboleths.

nitsua60

@doppelgreener Just popping in suffices. There are a bunch of rooms in that I mostly touch through the "rejoin favorites" button; I'm pingable there even if I haven't spoken (or even tabbed-to) in months.

BESW

8:38 PM

The term "polearm" means something very different in D&D than it does in military parlance, because actual people using weapons don't have to worry about whether they get +1 when charging or how many feats it takes to make their glaive a ranged weapon.

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 thank goodness! it's so good to finally know an answer to that one.

BESW

People who can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot put into words.

Tweeted by iiTalW on May 3, 2018 at 5:01 AM

Duck

I just think of polearms as weapons that are composed of a pole and something else that hurts when swung or poked at the end of said pole

nitsua60

@DavidCoffron I got an inbox notification of a ping from you that led to a deleted message here--all good?

Simon H.

@BESW crickets

Rubiksmoose

8:41 PM

@Rubiksmoose - yes I read it, and I thank you. I am beyond frustrated at this point, and time restraints today prevent me from arguing for an improved rpgSE policy. I have a partial answer from JohnDallman and I will continue my quest without input from Andy (because it was deleted). I am unlikely to turn to rpgSE for answers in the future because this is the second time that I posed a question too inconvenient to be allowed to garner answers for a few hours before being closed. That is a shame, because I've received some excellent game design help from the rpgSE community in the past. — Everett Steed 1 min ago

@nitsua60 think you have a moment to respond/clean this up if you think it needs it?

BESW

I think one thing that comes up with fantasy military hardware (including poorly researched attempts at historical accuracy) is, there are a LOT more names for weapons than there are weapons.

Duck

@BESW truth!

BESW

Even historically there's confusion about exactly what various records and accounts are talking about.

Yuuki

@Duck Which is categorically wrong. Polearms are the upper limb portions of the West Slavic peoples native to Central Europe.

kviiri

@BESW Excellent

BESW

8:47 PM

And since we're talking about a game in which "clerics" were originally inspired by Peter Cushing's vampire hunter character in Hammer horror films... any attempt to expect or retcon real-world accuracy into D&D is gonna be met with hysterical laughter from me.

Duck

@Yuuki I think that would be Polisharms.

Yuuki

Poles

The Poles (Polish: Polacy, pronounced [pɔˈlat͡sɨ]; singular masculine: Polak, singular feminine: Polka), commonly referred to as the Polish people, are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Poland in Central Europe who share a common ancestry, culture, history and are native speakers of the Polish language. The population of self-declared Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of an overall population of 38,538,000 (based on the 2011 census), of whom 36,522,000 declared Polish alone. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora (the Polonia) exists throughout Europe, the Americas, and i...

They are also called "Poles".

Mike Q

Apr 14 at 2:24, by Mike Q

D&D is not the place for debating realism

GreySage

@Yuuki I can't even imagine a country as homogeneous as that...

Yuuki

@GreySage Japan?

Mike Q

8:49 PM

@GreySage Clearly you have never been to Homogenoustan, where everyone is the same

Yuuki

Japan is 98.5% Japanese.

GreySage

@Yuuki I thought Japan was more multi-cultural than that, although I admit I have nothing to base that on.

doppelgreener

there's also stuff like how two-handed claymores typically weren't used except to chop the heads off of spears, by people who would then run away again behind their lines to fetch more practical weapons

GreySage

I also admit that my standard for multi-cultural is not normal, given that I grew up in a Canadian city with more Asian people than Canadian

BESW

> Japan’s census does not measure for ethnicity (minzoku). It still measures only for nationality (kokuseki). In other words, on the form you indicate that you are Japanese or that you are miscellaneous (indicate nationality). (source)

So, you know, we've got no idea how many Ainu there are, for example.

Rubiksmoose

8:52 PM

Man, moderating is hard work guys.

SPavel

Huh, Russia is only 80% ethnic Russians, this is surprising

Rubiksmoose

Mad props to the diamond mods that volunteer to do this daily

Yuuki

On the other hand, Russia is a massive country with a history of shifting boundaries and territories.

Duck

@Rubiksmoose That is surprising I would expect it to be moderate work on average.

SPavel

@Yuuki The only significant non-Slavs are Turks

Everyone else is fractional percentages

Rubiksmoose

8:54 PM

@Duck hahaha. bravo.

doppelgreener

@Rubiksmoose as Brian Ballsun-Stanton once put it more or less: there's a reason we get a gold badge for putting up with this crap for a whole year

:D

SPavel

@doppelgreener If anything, a gold badger would be even more trouble

doppelgreener

it would be

it'd keep itself well-polished, so that when it attacks at just the right angle you're blinded as it pounces.

Rubiksmoose

@SPavel Gold badgers are very precious. Only people that have proven to be hardy and responsible folks by trying to tame a corner of the internet are deemed worthy to attempt to own such creatures.

doppelgreener

it is tough & requires a lot of thought and care, and mindfulness that everything we say is said with a booming voice and a "kick me" sign on our backs

SPavel

8:57 PM

@doppelgreener You are thinking of Neraphim

doppelgreener

@SPavel whoops, i always get those two mixed up

doppelgreener

9:25 PM

BESW

Now that would be a good die for a 200-word RPG.

Rubiksmoose

"That's quitter talk" hahaha

Mike Q

@doppelgreener I did (almost) exactly this in my most recent game! The PCs found a mysterious black orb with runes on it, and I would roll a d20 whenever they asked a question. They thought it was telling the future.

doppelgreener

@MikeQ brilliant

@BESW i agree

"roll the 8-ball, then argue about what the result means."

Mike Q

@doppelgreener Once the players realized that it was giving inconsistent answers, one of them was like "Ohh, it's literally a magic 8-ball."

doppelgreener

9:36 PM

i'm extra happy they eventually realised XD

Mike Q

Yes, I was amazed that the (seemingly) simple task of "use critical thinking, ya dummies" can potentially lead to a TPK

Rubiksmoose

@MikeQ that whole thing makes me really happy. I love how it worked out.

BESW

> Magic 8-Ball Dependency. Roll 1dF at the beginning of each scene. On a + you are Optimistic with one free invoke. On a - you are Pessimistic and the GM has one free invoke. On a blank you are Cautious with no invokes.

Mike Q

You see, they didn't do anything to verify that the ball was telling the truth. They just asked it questions, it gave them a random answer, and they all started freaking out at the implications.

INT-based PC, who is on a boat: "Are we on a boat?"
8-ball: "My sources say no."
INT-based PC: "Oh no! We're in a dreamworld, aren't we? Does that mean we're immortal?"
8-ball: "Yes."

doppelgreener

oh dear

Mike Q

9:40 PM

That was at least the shortened version. They also almost failed their primary quest, because the ball said that the main quest-giver NPC was going to harm them, and that the obvious antagonist was a good guy.

BESW

Well, it's magic. In D&D, magic works.

It's not wishy-washy, it's not ambiguous, it's not unreliable. Any magic doesn't work in D&D, the text specifically warns you about it.

Mike Q

@BESW Yes, it reliably gives a random answer :)

BESW

That's not really a critical thinking fail.

They understood how their world works, and then they encountered something which appeared to function in the same way but didn't.

Mike Q

@BESW Fair enough, but when the mysterious orb starts making statements that contradict the established reality, I expected them to at least be suspicious. And the players did figure it out, eventually.

Yuuki

I mean, it'd be misleading if you told them it was a "magic 8-ball".

BESW

9:45 PM

In D&D you mistrust NPCs, you mistrust dungeons, but you don't mistrust your magic items because they're part of the all-sacred power advancement ladder. There's a reason most editions shove "cursed" items at the back of the DMG with a strong-worded disclaimer.

If you think ten-foot-pole paranoia is bad, wait 'til you see cursed item paranoia.

Duck

@BESW maybe new D&D does my first ever magic item in ad&d was a cursed belt of giant strength that changed my characters gender.

Yuuki

Question: Did they try Detect Magic on it and if so, did you give it a magic aura?

David Coffron

@nitsua60 Oh everything was fine. I just realized I misread something so I deleted it as it made me look stupid and wasn't relevant

Mike Q

@Yuuki Yes, and yes. Divination and illusion. Also chaotic with a hint of evil.

BESW

@Duck Cursed items have been variously marginalized, or revised to be less toothsome, in the last 18 years-worth of D&D editions.

Since the current conversation is about either 5e or Pathfinder, I'm gonna go out on a limb and stick by my statements.

Rubiksmoose

9:51 PM

@Duck Regarding your OA question. Can you answer miniman's comment?

Otherwise your question might get closed as unclear. It is worth pointing out that he is indeed correct BTW.

Yuuki

@MikeQ Hmm... I feel like it's a bit misleading to give it a divination aura if it's not actually doing any divination.

David Coffron

@BESW I use cursed items all the time. (Player's accept it). The setting I use involves the evolution of magic items to cursed items and eventually sentience just as the magic within them evolves naturally. It makes for much more fun in my opinion (and my playgroups)

BESW

@DavidCoffron So it's an established thing your players are aware of, and that's great.

Duck

10:03 PM

Ok so I just asked a question and the responses I am getting are confusing me. What is the difference between an attack of opportunity and attacking as a reaction?

Mike Q

@Yuuki Yes. I justified it as divination because it understood all languages, and would respond in the asker's language. In retrospect, I probably should have made it pure illusion.

John

hey guys. I have a question for you all...
In my game I had a Fey pact Warlock. He unfortunately died, but I have a lot of plot that I still want to use surrounding this character. Instead of throwing it away I was planning on having his patron perform a true resurrection on him as he is not done with him.

The player was cool with it and is now playing a fighter and having a blast. But I am planning on bringing him back from the dead as a surprise to the party eventually.

Now here is my question :

BESW

I've found that "shock and awe" aren't worth planning for. It's a momentary pleasure that can't be relied upon. I find it much more rewarding to rope players in as co-conspirators who collaborate with me to create awesome stories that surprise us all because no one person can expect what we create together.

Mike Q

@John "I have a lot of plot that I still want to use surrounding this character" -> Has this been presented at all in-game, or is it still in your DM notes?

John

@Mike

@MikeQ just in the notes, although he was unknownly killed by fet creatures from the winter court (he was a knight of summer essentially)

@BESW thanks for the opinion

Mike Q

10:08 PM

So if that side plot doesn't happen in game, will that change anything as far as the players are aware?

Because if it has not yet happened in-game, then it's not really "canon" as far as the game is concerned - you could omit it from the campaign, or rewrite it to be about some other fey-pact warlock

doppelgreener

(fyi @John you can edit your posts, either by hovering over them and clicking the dropdown menu on the left, or by hitting the up arrow key to access your last message)

John

@MikeQ to get into it a little more -- He was Oberon the fairy King's lackey. He was bestowed his power after an artifact he was watching over was stolen on his watch. so he was tasked to find it, and eventually blow it which would then create endless summer and recreate the world a la Dark Sun in a way. however, i was having the winter court operate from the shadows and was dropping hints about the attacks being of unsealy fey creatures.
I was going to have Lord Oberon summon them blame them for letting his knight die and have them essentially fight the winter knight and during this I figh…

@MikeQ so nothing really has happened in game. just general hints at thing some forshadowing if you will.

Mike Q

@John Okay. So there hasn't been anything in-game to suggest that the PC warlock was integral to the plot?

In that case, having some secret storyline about a former PC, if it doesn't benefit the story in any way, then it may be easier to leave it out

John

@MikeQ not really. but I thought it would be fun to being him back. and this whole thing was just a side plot that I probably went overboard in designing anyways. This was more of a character's own story arc. and forcing him to make some hard choices.

Mike Q

Yes, it does seem a bit over-designed, although I'm not familiar enough with your game's story to draw any conclusions.

If you think that rezzing the warlock as a plot-relevant NPC would be fun for the players, then you could ask the player whether they have any interest in playing the warlock again

doppelgreener

10:21 PM

FYI, please avoid swearing in chat. (I've replaced the occurrence in that message 'cause diamonds can do that.)

John

sorry

ok thanks guys

Miniman

10:46 PM

@doppelgreener Considering what happened last time, can I suggest the mods at least make an announcement before enforcing this as policy?

doppelgreener

11:04 PM

@Miniman I agree. It would be helpful to at least have a clear "this is policy now" announcement to clarify the discussion has been had.

i am going to be in bed within minutes so now is not a good time for me to write a meta post

i'll pass this on & we'll have something done over the next day

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