I've been looking around but can't seem to find dnd minis on ebay or gumtree or anything... Is there a specific way to refer to them? are they unavailable on those sites?
Or is it just that no-one sells them in Australia...
I've tried to stop playing DnD myself, but I haven't been able to. My friends all play DnD. They are varyingly skeptical about other systems. Were I to just drop out of DnD, I probably wouldn't get to play much anymore.
I just don't get it, they're all so "I don't really care about the system/rules, it's all about the group" but still they play an expensive system with bulky and clunky rules...
I think we're just on fundamentally different wavelengths at times, regarding RPGs.
I am trying hard to get better than "we're having fun despite the problems", but the others seem more into "we're having fun so what's the problem?" Which makes sense in a way, but the magnitude of fun is also important to me!
There's also the mindset that if there's a problem with the rules, it's the GM's job to fix it, and so if the rules got in the way of the fun, it's primarily the GM's fault instead of the rule's. Which makes conversations about problems with the rules difficult...
They say stuff like "I don't remember a single time when the rules got in the way of a fun game": And we've had a session where one of our players was playing Hearthstone for the entire time because his character had a debilitating -3 Wound penalty that made it very unlikely for him to even get to try to act.
Savage Worlds, not even once. If it were up to me I'd say not even... zeroce?
I think it could've been bearably good with three stipulations: 1) No pretenses that it's not a combat game, 2) Everyone plays three or so characters so players are less likely to be left without agency and 3) Healing between missions is provided
This issue of the confusion between the story and plot tags has been brought up twice in the past (years ago):
How should the “story” and “plot” tags be used?, in November
2011 (eventually closed as a duplicate of the later post...)
Do we need both [plot] and [story]?, in October 2014
Also semi...
Since nobody else is talking I will make a note about my most recent game that I found interesting. In my Masks game, for the first time in my GMing career, I am finding it interesting/fun/appropriate to introduce forces into the game which challenge the characters to actually leave the team. I even underestimated how successful my initial efforts would be.
And the choices I'm offering are very far from a clear distinction what is a good/bad right/wrong decision.
Personally, the lazy DM in me hopes they end up staying together. But I think that it would be very interesting story-wise if they choose to go down the path I have offered.
@Rubiksmoose Selamat obrolan! [Colleagues told be that Indonesian can have a “happy”/“good”/“safe” (‘selamat’) anything. There is time-based stuff, like ‘selamat sore’=“good afternoon”, but also ‘Selamat bekerja’ = “Happy working”. ‘Obrolan’ might mean “chat”.]
I used to play Sheikh Salama (a minor Muslim lord in Western Iberia) a lot in Crusader Kings 2. AFAIK it's related and means "peace" (or "peaceful"?) but in Finnish it means " thunderbolt" :>
@Tiggerous Looks like you covered a lot of scenarios and maybe answered a little more than what was asked, which isnt a problem, its a good detailed answer
The question as asked is "Do you take damage when falling off of a mount" and the RAW answer is "You take fall damage according to the rules on fall damage" and also "Your DM can decide if you fall too fast/hard/on spikes and take more"
@Tiggerous youve written a nice detailed answer which really covers all scenarios of "what happens when I go from mounted to unmounted" - If the asker wants more they should probably ask a new question
Also, you have a hilarious typo: "specific beast general"
How D&D is presented on tv: a band of stoic heroes fight dragons and rescue maidens fair.
Actual D&D: dysfunctional adopted family of bisexual disaster kleptomaniacs set everything on fire while drunk and flirt with anything vaguely humanoid.
Dysfunctional heroes with problems who after toppling the villain, decide that his lair has amazing property value potential and spend the rest of the adventure getting money to clean up the place, get rid of the really evil stuff, then sell the property.
"But this is kings land in a feudal economy, you have no ownership." "Well fine, we did labor on the kings land to fix and repair a property he wasn't aware he owned. Pay us!"
Actual D&D: The bard gets a free pass on a skill check to distract the big bad, by actually belting out the entirety of the Pirates of Penzance 'Major-General' song, from memory, on key, with unprompted applause from other players.
(Had no idea he was in the theater troupe in highschool)
Protip: On-key only matters when you're performing with more than one source of sound. Otherwise the intervals just need to sound correct (if a sound is sharp or flat it doesn't matter, you only need to be in-tune when there's more than one source of notes, so they agree; also you can transpose anything and it'll still sound right)
@JoshuaAslanSmith I've been considering that one. I'm a little disappointed by the out-of-combat abilities of the paladin, so I might consider that one.
@DanielZastoupil Just a quick note: whatever this source is that you are using that is "not 100% correct" you should probably stop using it? Quoting incorrect rules sources can create confusion and other issues. Especially when we are supposed to be the experts.
I only mention it because I'm pretty sure that I've seen it happen at least 2-3 times with you recently (feel free to correct if that is not true). And that seems like an issue to me.
@Rubiksmoose Yeah, that's probably fair. I don't have access to my books, so I end up relying on an app that has failed me a few times. I'll make sure to check my stuff.
I'm really just looking for a tanky character that looks and feels interesting in combat. Like creative uses of Lightning Lure, utilizes different weapons for different uses, or well-timed uses of resources. But there's not a lot of support for any of that, it seems.
Warlock gets level 1 spells shield and Armor of Agathys, and gets the level 2 spell Blur, but I'd burn through my very limited spell slot selection very quickly.
Shield and Blur also don't scale with spell slot level.
Which is a huge downside for Warlocks.
And the first defensive class feature kicks in at level 10.
Saw the thing about Pirates of Penzance, it was preformed at our local college. One of the officers was played by a guy who's skinny and around 7' tall, the uniform pants were mid-calf for him. He leaned down so far to talk to one of the daughters.
You could knock the enemy prone with thunder, heal an ally as you smack him, knock him into a bunch of allies, charm him, or do a whole bunch of other things.
Or...you could just deal extra damage.
There are a ton of smite spells that only the Paladin can use, but because of the Divine Smite feature, nobody uses them.
So Paladins now have this stigma of being boring and used for power-gamers who only care about killing stuff in 1 hit.
And with how efficient the feature is written, it's hard to justify not using it.
And if you take it away, paladins don't have the spell slots needed to keep up with other classes.
Heh, just thought of a fun combo. Create Bonfire to block a hallway while you take up the rest of it. If something tries to get past you, move and yank them into the bonfire with Lure.
I would have liked it if Paladins didn't align themselves with Oaths, but aligned with planar energy. Kinda like how there's paladins of specific alignments in Pathfinder.
Has a strong balance of control and RP abilities, with plenty of decisions to make.
Resistance to spell damage is also very useful.
And the tenants easily allow a warlock patron without much complication.
As for the Patron, it'd probably depend on the campaign. For an undead apocalypse, I'd probably forge a pact with some benevolent immortal being with the Undying patron. If a more brighter/greener campaign, a Fey patron.
@Carcer I'm not sure of the meme's origins, but for quite some time now there's been a meme going around on tumblr (and possibly elsewhere?) sorting characters onto a chart where the vertical column is "distinguished," "functional," and "disaster," and the horizontal is "gay," "bisexual," and "lesbian." I would not be surprised if both "disaster lesbian" and "disaster bisexual (kleptomaniacs)" trace back to this meme. :v
The meme has mutated into other forms recently and become a "tag meme" where you tag your alignment. The more common form contains curse words so I won't repeat it. :v But the more wholesome variant is "naive, shy, warm" x "gentle, tough, loving."
@trogdor I might have some with characters you'd recognize on my blog, but I avoid entering the unknown wilderness of tumblr on a work computer, so it must wait. :v
@trogdor This is very true.
My friend who's only played one game of 5e asked me about the alignment system, and I was just like, "It's vague, it doesn't look anything like its origins (which made a marginal amount of sense in their original context), anything can be argued in any direction, and I kind of hate it." :v
My first actual character was something neutral, I ran around doing mostly random acts of good, my brother was running the one off and had to interrupt me to change it to chaotic good
But it's still an exuse to be super random, either way
What I've tried to in my games is to say that in-universe, alignment is recognized as an outdated concept and is based on stereotypes. Since mechanics involving alignment tend to be reserved for divine powers, I say that the alignments are subjective to the opinions of the associated divine source
I have never had alignment come up in a meaningful way outside of cleric spells. I've also never had a real argument over alignment. I suppose this means my play groups have always been more mature and understanding than the norm?
That's a valid take on lawful, sure, but it's also one of those things that makes alignment functionally meaningless to me. Because everyone has a different opinion on what alignments entail and it's easy to argue any given behavior as fitting multiple alignments, I don't think they give much useful information about the character.
I find just treating alignment as it's listed in the PHB works. It really isn't a major mechanic. People make a big deal out of it, but the games (that I've played, dnd3.5, PF, 5e) really dont.
Like when players ask "Will my alignment let me do this?" or "What would my alignment make me do?", it's telling you that the game is restricting them in an arbitrary and, well, stupid way
@Yuuki Yeah. But its preservation even in vestigial form still leads to many issues (not in my group, but in many others), and I don't think I personally know anyone who actually likes alignments. I sort of wish they'd take the plunge already and scrap it, but it's just one of those things. "D&D needs this because [waves hands vaguely]."
@V2Blast Regarding this answer I'm not sure if this is what you meant. I don't think it gets clearer than this. Or did you mean I should add a more in depth explanation of what dim light or darkness means?
@MikeQ Hmm... I should make a puzzle fight where the party fights an immortal div. And the way to solve the puzzle is to kite it into the middle of the room.
This issue of the confusion between the story and plot tags has been brought up twice in the past (years ago):
How should the “story” and “plot” tags be used?, in November
2011 (eventually closed as a duplicate of the later post...)
Do we need both [plot] and [story]?, in October 2014
Also semi...
