TRPG General Chat - 2019-04-12 (page 1 of 2)

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12:11 AM

@IlmariKaronen Or, at least, a close enough variant to get really frustrated that it doesn't quite work the way one might expect =)

Hot RPG Questions

12:53 AM

4

Q: Can you cast a spell on someone in the Ethereal Plane, if you are on the Material Plane and have the True Seeing spell active?

A creature is on the Material Plane and can perceive someone on the Ethereal Plane using the True Seeing spell. Can that creature cast a spell that only requires that they see the character on the creature in the Ethereal Plane? For example, could someone on the Material Plane that has truesight...

dnd-5e spells planes targeting ethereal-plane

2 hours later…

2:45 AM

this question seems to have been edited recently:

-2

Q: Jumble mini-flail: is this balanced?

The jumble mini-flail is a mix of materials that: All-together causes 1d2 lethal damage & 1d2 non-lethal damage (yes you read that right). For every 2 hours searching a warzone or battleground or paying 25 gp/die increase or criticle upgrade you can up it 1 die type up to 1d12; after that it ...

dnd-3.5e weapons homebrew balance

changing "it's a simple weapon due to it's simple construction that can be adjusted to the users preferences" to "it's a martial weapon due to it's complicated use & materials that can be adjusted to the users preferences"

given the last part (i.e. the bit after the changed section), it seems like martial makes more sense, but still... seems like a significant change, years after originally asked

3:06 AM

That's quite a change

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: How can I have a shield and a way of attacking with a ranged weapon at the same time?

Apart from the Animated Shield, is there a way to fight with a shield (given that my character has proficiency with shields), and attacking at distance (I also have proficiency with some ranged weapons). Since ranged weapons are two-handed, it's seems very difficult to have a great defense and a ...

dnd-5e weapons ranged-attack shield

@V2Blast Looks like it wasn't the first time that had been done to this question either. I wonder why they even bother going back to it?

yeah

the same user also edited another question to remove a sentence saying they were asking out of curiosity

I can only assume they were trying to get a badge for editing an old question or something...

Don't your own questions not count for those badges?

They have also asked an additional question in the comments of their answered question a year later.

Yeah this seems to have been a continuing problem with this user. Seemingly for years.

(came here expecting talk about this after I saw you comment)

-3

Q: Could you please reopen my question asking privileges please?

I’m trying to improve my question asking abilities, but I can’t do it if I can’t ask questions, could someone please reopen my question asking privileges please?

support questions

@linksassin what's a bit more upsetting is that it kind of appears to ignore what the answers to the question say (or at least imply)

3:21 AM

Sounds like he just got off whatever ban he had and is trying again. Not sure how much we can do it they are ignoring mods.

If you think it might be something the mods might want to be informed about you can always drop them a flag (I already did so on one of them).

@linksassin that was my guess as well. No new questions yet though

Ah, I read the link from that meta post. He can't get unbanned.

I assume his trying to improve his posts to get past the ban.

Ah yeah, not from the question. I wondered if they put some sort of cool down ban as well

Quite possibly. The user has enough rep to chat. Is it worth our time trying to talk to them or is it a waster of our effort?

I always like to think that communication is helpful. It seems the user has jumped into chats under answers before. However the lack of willingness to improve over the many times communication has been attempted before makes me leery of our chances of success.

Especially since the changes they are attempting are generally the exact ones they were already warned about. Even on the same posts :-/

3:30 AM

Exactly what concerns me as well. When I see mods being short with a user it's usually a sign that they may not be very receptive to advice.

yeah that seems to not be a good sign

It's weird, because they are a reasonably experience user across the network. And not everything they post it bad. "Can you attack from prone?" is actually a useful question to have on the site it is just poorly asked.

@linksassin mhm. And I suspect its closure was more to do with the problematic history of the user than the face-value question.

Though it was also poorly asked.

It seems the mods closed it in order to stop dealing with issues rather than because it was actually off-topic.

Divorced from the history of the post, I don't really think the question should have been closed personally.

@linksassin I'm not sure if "stop dealing with issues" is the way I would put it. I would suspect that they may have been actually just trying to send a hard message about question quality improvement to drive the point home.

3:38 AM

Agreed. I have voted to reopen. I think it should exist. We have lots of very basic seeming questions that end up with high views. The fact that it earned him a notable question badge shows that other people think so too

Closure doesn't usually ward away trouble for one thing...

Yeah my personal thoughts are downvote and reopen.

(downvote for lack of research effort)

That's probably a better why to put it yeah. "I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because "curiosity" means this is a question with no real standing; it also shows a complete lack of research effort. – mxyzplk♦"

I think it's more the complete lack of effort that is the concern than the curiosity.

that is my thought as well. While it doesn't show really any improvement on their part, curiosity as a motive is generally not a closure reason.

And really they did do the one and only thing they could have done to improve the question: remove the "curiosity" point. Of course they also replaced it with something arguably worse.

Anyways, I would prefer to vote on the question and not the user.

Agreed.

Good comment for improvement.

3:44 AM

It's about the only thing I could think of. For basic questions like that context doesn't really help much.

oof. just realized that their edit to the question was almost exactly the last edit they made that SSD reverted and commented about.

@Rubiksmoose good catch

It's a shame because the question that got rolled back was a better question. "What sort of attacks can you make while prone" if asked as "Is there a limitation on the type of attacks you can make from prone?" would actually be decent.

But they added it to an old question instead of asking it as a new one.

@linksassin but also if you look at the context what they were getting at was towards some sort of ambiguous discussion about a homebrew breakdance (?) feat (?!)

Well OP did update and its...not bad. Confusing though

I think they are asking. because there were penalties in 3.5 and want to know if it is the same in 5e. But yes, somewhat confusing

3:52 AM

Does prone AC have anything to do with attacking in 3.5?

Or maybe they don't know anything about the differences between editions

IIRC PF did have AC penalties for prone as well, but I don't remember that specific mecahnic affecting attack

Umm.. I don't think so. Prone attackers have a penalty to attack I think, or maybe trigger and AoO.

I've only really played PF not 3.5 so I'm not certain what changed.

Same.

Sorry, I just corrected the tag @Rubiksmoose — Abraham Ray 4 mins ago

Ugh. I knew this would happen as well.

... A three year old question had the wrong system tagged? Great... We're going to have to roll it back aren't we?

4:02 AM

blinks in confusion

I...think so.

I'm kind of wrestling with this myself. On hand, the user may have made a mistake? On the other hand this question is very old. But then again, I think they are unable to ask new questions and thus this would be a way to improve the question. But it would mean deleting SSD's answer.

I think we have to roll it back. Let's help them write a good 5e question. Then hopefully they can ask a new question.

I mean, if they're unable to ask new questions, we shouldn't enable them to functionally do just that by letting them edit an old question into a totally different one.

2

Absolutely good point.

Reverted. And then overwritten by user adding homebrew idea generation.

on a totally different note:

-2

A: If a poisoned arrow's piercing damage is reduced to 0, do you still get poisoned?

Poison is a Separate Damage Type As Theik's answer pointed out, the poison damage here is not negated by the Damage Reduction of the HAM ability. That's what HAM gives you here: Damage Reduction 3 vs. bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. Even though the piercing damage is reduced to nothing by ...

this answer should not be an answer, as it's basically a comment by someone who didn't understand the SE format and thought it was more like a typical forum

needs one more vote to delete

4:08 AM

It was on the delete queue but then got upvoted to be ineligible for deletion I think.

Yes that can happen from time to time]

I think I already voted to delete because the option isn't showing for me

also a link-only answer (...which is also linking to their own video, but that's not really the issue) here, also needs one more vote to delete until they fix it:

-4

A: How can I make combat more tactically interesting for me as a DM?

I actually made a video on this a little bit ago. 7 Simple Ways to Make D&D Combat More Fun Let me know if this helped.

@V2Blast good call. done.

@Rubiksmoose <3

4:11 AM

@V2Blast sigh. I was hoping that they would take the chance to fix it.

same

@V2Blast :)

Can you attack while prone?

^I think this final edit is actually good.

Yeah, that was me. I figured I'd throw the guy a bone

He was struggling to make it a good question since he accidentally asked it wrong. If we had caught the system error in the first day or so we would have let them change it.

@linksassin ah oops somehow I missed that it was you.

No wonder it was a surprising leap in quality.

I'll take that as a compliment :)

4:17 AM

as you should, it was well converted.

:)

3 reopen votes. That should get is reopened soon enough. I wonder how many questions they need to fix before they get their rights back?

True. If only it weren't a question that regardless is answered with minimal research... (And already has been, I guess.)

@V2Blast <3 right back at ya

@linksassin It wasn't a system error. He meant to ask about 5e and did.

@Miniman I mean we can't be sure about that but it seems highly unlikely that they accidentally accepted an answer from a different edition.

4:26 AM

Honestly I have no idea what he meant in the first place...

@Rubiksmoose He was in chat at the time. I'm sure.

Ah

@Miniman How do you know? Was there conversation we can't see? There isn't enough information on the original to know for sure.

hmmmm

Dec 22 '16 at 7:40, by Abraham Ray

In dnd 5e this feat removes the disadvantage part of prone attacks

This appears to be the original context for the question:

Dec 22 '16 at 7:07, by Abraham Ray

New feat-Russian dance

That does make a pretty compelling argument

4:30 AM

(same day as they posted the question)

@Miniman good call

Still, they can ask the feat as a homebrew review question if they can get their asking rights back. We shouldn't discourage a user that is at least trying to fix them.

Though SSD's comment on one of their questions is telling: "As we've explained many times before, you can't keep changing your questions based on ideas the answers give you. I've rolled back that change and permanently locked the question. If you'd like to discuss this question or this moderation response, you may post about those on Role-playing Games Meta. – SevenSidedDie"

and of course

And allow me to add - that link and explanation, as well as many links about how to improve, have been sent to you several times in mod messages. Consider reading them if you actually intend to improve. — mxyzplk ♦ Feb 17 '18 at 20:47

@linksassin oh yeah. I think we would have lots of issues with a homebrew question if they haven't learned that yet

Ok, so, I'm not a mod. But most (all?) of this user's questions originated as "here's a random thought I had", and the site then puts in the effort to make it a semi-legitimate question. Which is how they ended up with a question ban in the first place.

@Miniman You are right there. So what should we do about it?

And yes, we should be encouraging them to ask good questions. But encouraging them to get around their question ban, let alone get it lifted, by making massive edits to old questions that have been answered as they were just doesn't seem like the way to do it.

4:35 AM

@Miniman Yeah, this is basically a corollary to what I said earlier.

@Miniman but making edits to improve questions is exactly the only way to get off an question ban and is explicitly encouraged in the meta

however, it should be improving questions, not changing them to new ones

> Before you do anything else, fix your existing posts! As noted above, down-votes cast by the rest of the community factor into the ban - so the single best thing you can do to get it lifted is to address any objections raised by others. Were your past questions unclear? Did they fail to show any effort on your part? Poorly worded, titled, formatted, and overly long or short? Then fix them!

I don't know what should happen here. It's an unusual situation, and as I said, I'm not a mod.

they also just edited the content-identification tag out of this post:

2

Q: What replicates the benefits of 'Silk Armor' to Heal checks?

There are historical references to wearing silk under armor. If the silk is loose enough, arrows bind in it rather than break through. The benefit of this is that the arrow's barbs are covered by the silk, allowing the head to be pulled back out of the wound, causing less damage than other treatm...

dnd-3.5e skills armor healing

where the tag seems sort of appropriate, so it doesn't really seem like an improvement

it doesn't seem appropriate at all to me for that question

Heh. I mean, if you look at the original question, what other users did to make it a "real" question was...drastic.

4:37 AM

@V2Blast though the edit didn't seem highly urgent/necessary either....

@Miniman ...also true

The content identification question it is now is not even vaguely what was asked.

their original question was "My questions are how much does silk Armor weigh & what effects (if any ) would it have on heal rolls?"

which has... literally (almost) nothing to do with the current question

Which, well. To me, this represents the problem with "massaging" low quality questions.

0

A: How do I get a skeleton PC into a dream?

In Star Wars rpg there’s a skeleton like race of living creatures,maybe he’s one of them in disguise?

...

4:39 AM

@V2Blast and really the title doesn't fit

why

@V2Blast jeepers

Well mxy has seen the user now. Though I don't know if they have seen the context yet.

Quit it. Leave it alone, all of you. Abraham, quit forever editing old questions, ask a new question if you have one. Everyone else, you aren’t helping with edit wars. — mxyzplk ♦ 3 mins ago

I rather think that was an unfair characterization of what happened.

And mxy missed that the user cannot in fact ask new questions.

:-/

4:57 AM

@mxyzplk We apologize for any "edit wars" that wasn't the intention

oh shoot. I didn't realize I could ping them in here (I did in NAB though)

The user can't actually ask new questions (which might be context you may have missed)

@Rubiksmoose Well, you can get a question ban lifted by contributing good quality answers.

@Miniman very true.

They can’t ask new questions for a good reason. I understand y’all are trying to help. Don’t. As usual he is thrashing around questions answered in 2016 until he gets locked from everything and then makes enough of a pest of himself that he gets suspended again. We don’t need more thrash in the mix.

aye aye

5:01 AM

Understood.

fwiw we also reverted a lot of the other changes they made. So it wasn't all thrashing on our part

No, I know. I’ve locked all his questions.

cool cool. Makes sense.

If he really wants to try to use the site right he’ll answer questions coherently and then ask good new questions. I am not holding my breath but am willing to be pleasantly surprised.

Does the effectively permanently ban him from questions? Or will enough answers eventually un-ban him?

5:04 AM

But every time he gets back from a year suspension he does the exact same things, we are quite over it and he is out of strikes.

Previous critiques seem to have not improved this latest edit spurt or the recent answer, so yeah...

He can get in-banned if he does well enough

But the algorithm doesn’t seem happy either

Thanks for you input @mxyzplk. Saved us all some effort.

The system banned him from suggesting edits till 2021. I’ve never seen that before.

oh.... wow.

Yeah thanks for hopping in and helping to explain.

5:09 AM

Sure, I appreciate y’all trying to help, just slow the roll on help piles and make sure the poster is doing at least half the work. If they aren’t, they are not learning or motivated to learn, in which case we aren’t super interested in their co tent.

6

Have a good evening

you too :)

5:21 AM

So I just passed 10k the other day. Far out I've never realised how many terrible posts and junk we get. Some of the deleted posts are unbelievably bad and I don't understand why people bother to take the time to write them.

@linksassin congrats!

Yeah being able to see deleted posts is probably one of the most significant privileges you get later on as far as giving you a look at things you couldn't see before.

and now you can see all the wizz bang spam that we get!

@Rubiksmoose I'd say thanks, but I think it's more a sign that I procrastinate here more often than I should.

@linksassin I would never do that... [looks shiftily at clock]

I think what impresses me most is how well the community moderation works to hide that stuff from regular users.

And then they complain about how strict we are. [wry]

5:29 AM

@BESW I'm certainly not complaining. Wish more sites ran like this.

I think you can definitely say tend to keep a tidy ship around here.

@linksassin You will also start seeing chatroom flags: any time a chat message is flagged in ANY Stack Exchange chat, ALL 10k+ users in ALL Stack Exchange chats get asked to review and confirm/deny the flag.

Most of the time it gets reviewed so fast that by the time you hit the button it'll be resolved.

And it may or may not be a comment written in russian

@BESW lol, I've noticed it once or twice and been quite confused

@BESW I've been seeing them for a while. I have enough rep on other sites that I crossed that 10k barrier a while back.

5:34 AM

Ah, fair enough.

@linksassin man I always forget the chat rep and site rep are different

@Rubiksmoose Chat rep is weird. It's your cummulative rep on all sites except for the original 3 and main meta. They get their own chats.

@linksassin weeeird

But you don't get the association bonus or the +1 per site so it comes out even stranger

@linksassin Here, have an inaugural page of righteously deleted answers to herald your newfound vision.

5:38 AM

"I'm not familiar with the rules but here is my completely unfounded opinion" that's the best kind of answer.

"I've never played the game you're asking about but have you tried [idea with no elaboration]?"

this is a good one as well (as far as amount of answers)

good ol' designer-reasons

Nice one.

Wow, is that the most upvoted deleted post on the site?

Hard to say. Deleted posts are almost impossible to include in searches.

5:42 AM

maybe! No way for non-mods to search deleted stuff. I don't think SEDE could pull it either.

It is certainly going to be up there though.

Well as far as stuff in the last 2 or so years goes lol

@Rubiksmoose From memory SEDE actually does include deleted content, just minus pretty much all of the data and content.

oh neat.

whaddya know

data.stackexchange.com/rpg/query/992956/…

30

Q: What are the most beginner friendly table top role playing games?

Many RPGs are extremely complex and hard for first time gamers to get into. Many others assume (even to the point of saying so in their introduction) that they are for people who already know what a roleplaying game is. Or they are organized more like an encyclopedia of options instead of walkin...

game-recommendation

That question is a perfect example of why that kind of question is bad

It really really is

I just ran across this old thing and want to share it again:

Mar 12 '13 at 14:26, by BESW

Greater Garden Gnome

(Uses the pre-Fate-Core Dresden Files RPG system.)

Yes, that is a porcelain garden gnome with claws and a poisonous bite, which prefers to act in swarms.

5:50 AM

Amazing

I mean I don't get the mechanical stuff really at all, but I love the concept and flavor

@BESW I'm hoping you can strip it of its group bonuses using a leaf blower :P

It was part of a campaign where a kid's magic powers were kicking in but he was in denial and afraid for the safety of the kids in his neighbourhood.... so all the toys and lawn ornaments came to life and viciously attacked anything their tiny plastic minds thought was a threat.

@BESW and really it is always all-or-nothing with tiny plastic minds

The first scene was a babysitter getting attacked by Skylanders.

It was going to culminate in the streets swarming with garden gnomes and lawn flamingos.

So would the person who chopped up the bunch of plastic gnomes be a polymer-derer?

5:55 AM

user image

XD

Well that is a go-to-bed worthy closer I think lol

user image

so I will talk to you all on the flipside :)

@Rubiksmoose TTFN

1 hour later…

7:16 AM

I've added the roof steps and roof to these TARDIS inspired dice tower prototypes. The damp weather here makes the glue-ups take longer. These have come together nicely, I think.

Tweeted by TARDIScabinets on April 11, 2019 at 10:27 PM

7:44 AM

@BESW Oh, so Toy Story 4 plot was leaked? :P

Hot RPG Questions

8:26 AM

4

Q: What options are there, if any, to get information from an enemy's familiar?

I'm currently reading through the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. In the scenario, the PCs can encounter a familiar: If the PCs are suspicious about this rat, they may try to attack it or even try to get information about its master if they suspect it to be a familiar. Is there any way fo...

dnd-5e familiars

1 hour later…

9:52 AM

oooh I just found that the G+ article "PTSD, access to role-playing games, and the Luxton technique" was republished with permission by Brie Beau Sheldon.

I'm so glad it's still available online.

@BESW yeah that was pretty great

@BESW wait there was reason to think it was not?

@trogdor It was originally on G+, which got purged earlier this month.

Oh shoot ok

I knew G+ got purged, I had forgotten it was in that

Hence things like this:

Apr 1 at 8:15, by BESW

"G+ Archives: 7 Dec 2012 - 31 March 2019," searchable archives of G+ activity on the Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, PbtA, and The Gauntlet communities.

10:36 AM

Mm

11:11 AM

Moving house:

> Father-in-law: "this box says DVD, didn't we already take those?"

actually was DnD :-)

11:49 AM

ha

12:01 PM

nice

12:52 PM

@DavidCoffron clients -> CLI (command line interface)ents -> GUI (graphical user interface)ents -> guients

1:13 PM

Hello. I'm in a dnd 5e campaign and the party is exploring a large dungeon. At the end of the last session the DM informed us that we have leveled up. Our wizard and bard were excited about gaining level 3 spell slots for the first time. But we weren't sure whether they'd be able to use level 3 spells right away at the start of the next session.

Our eventual consensus was: the bard gets to choose a new lvl3 spell right as he levels up, and can cast it right away. The wizard has to wait until the next long rest before he can prepare a lvl3 spell. Is this the correct conclusion?

If there isn't a question on our site answering this, I would highly encourage you to post it as a question.

There's Can I use my newly gained limited-use ability right after leveling up? whose top answer says "you can use everything right away" and whose second answer says "DM's discretion" and there's a comment that says "if you haven't explicitly prepared it, you can't use it"

So I'm getting some mixed signals

Seems like a pretty on-topic question to ask.

Then ask it as a new question, if the community thinks its already answered we'll mark it as a dupe, otherwise you'll get an answer for you specific problem

Seeing you rep. I guess you know how this works actually..

Ok, I'll try to put something together.

1:42 PM

Trying to figure out how to word this so the answers are more substantial then "yes, your assessment is correct" or "no, you missed the part on page 123 that says that everyone benefits from the effects of a long rest right after leveling up even if they haven't actually long-rested"

Or maybe I'm just being irrationally biased against questions that elicit one-sentence answers.

Generally asking if your conclusion is correct is gonna give an answer with elaboration/justification based on the relevant excerpts

Here's a selection of advice I often leave in comments:

Brevity is acceptable, but full explanations are better. It's important to "back it up," so answers should cite experience or other practical support of the concept. The Stack wants answers which connect all the dots, without leaving anything as an exercise for the reader.

2:14 PM

@Someone_Evil TBH, looking at the answers on that question, I think I'd rather mark that question as a duplicate of whatever @Kevin is about to post (depending on whether Kevin's question is materially similar or not, obviously).

Because neither the accepted answer nor the other answer have correct information, and the post is 5 years old.

@Xirema That seems like a reasonable course of action, but I don't feel up to making that call (nor am I in any way able to enact it)

@Someone_Evil I'm a few answers short of being able to make an executive call on that subject, but I've had conversations with mods in the past about this topic. Under unusual circumstances, it's appropriate to mark an older post as a duplicate of a newer post.

@Xirema yeah it's always kind of a tough call. We generally prefer to improve older ones if possible.

Duplicate posts are filtered out of Google search results and don't show up for unregistered visitors, so if there are two posts that are duplicates of each other, but one contains bad/false information, that one should be marked as a duplicate of the other, regardless of their age, pending exceptional circumstances.

Ok, well, here it is. rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/145078/…. if it gets hammered, c'est la vie.

3:03 PM

@Kevin looks good so far. I think it's compellingly not a dupe fwiw

That other question might deserve some kind of attention though..

I originally wanted to also ask about what happens to my current HP when my maximum HP goes up, but I'm pretty sure the answer is "nothing unless explicitly stated otherwise"

I can't back this up with citations (which is why haven't added it to answer), but the game generally assumes level-ups happen on long rests, everything else becomes kinda quirky

@Someone_Evil I strongly disagree with that statement. The game doesn't assume anything of the sort; many tables do, but the game makes no mention

After the energetic debate the players had, I suspect from now on my DM is going to try harder to only level us up while we're sleeping

3:09 PM

@Kevin That has been asked:

18

Q: Do you gain current HP when you level up?

Let's say your hero is at max HP and he/she is levelling up. PHB p. 15, "Beyond first Level" says about HP increase when levelling up: add the total to your hit point maximum Will she/he need healing afterwards? In other words, does "add to your hit point maximum" imply that your current ...

dnd-5e character-levels hit-points

@DavidCoffron The game doesn't mention it, yes (hence no citations), but the number of odd things on players levels as well as adventuring day calculations etc are a different story

@Someone_Evil I agree that the game "assumes" level ups occur at long rests, but I did do some digging and I couldn't find any evidence that the game "mandates" level ups occur on a long or short rest.

... I may have quietly restored my fighter to maximum HP while the spellcasters were fighting :-P

@Someone_Evil I don't think it is that weird, tbh.

@Xirema This surprised me. I expected at least one answer to cite some passage in the DMG saying "try to only level up the party when they're in town" or something.

3:11 PM

Prepared casters haven't taken the time to prepare new spells with their increased power, and your capacity to stay in battle hasn't been updated by a rest (remember HP is an abstraction)

@Xirema only in AL

@Rubiksmoose I wasn't able to specifically find that, but I have seen it mentioned a few times that AL mandates Long Rests before gaining level up benefits.

@Xirema yeah I think I've even quoted it in one of my answers

Of course they are always changing things up so maybe that is no longer true

The shared campaign guidelines in Xanathars has a variant which puts level ups at the end of a session, but that's the closest I've found

Hot RPG Questions

5

Q: What can Artificer's Alchemical Homunculus do outside of combat?

In the new version of the Artificer UA Artificer class one of the specializations is Alchemist. The alchemist gets the ability to create an Alchemical Homunculus. The description has a section on actions in combat In combat, the homunculus shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn...

dnd-5e unearthed-arcana alchemist artificer

5

Q: How do spell lists change if the party levels up without taking a long rest?

I'm playing in a dnd 5e campaign with a bard and a wizard. Our most recent session ended while we were in the middle of exploring a dungeon. The DM informed us that we leveled up from 4 to 5. The wizard and bard were excited to get level three spell slots for the first time. They began discussi...

dnd-5e spells character-levels

3:24 PM

I'm thinking about a wizard sub-class whose feature is that they don't have any low-level spell slots. Whenever they get access to a higher-level spell slot, all of their spell slots are converted to that higher level. For example, when they get access to 2nd-level spells, all of their spell slots are 2nd-level spell slots.

So if they prepare low-level spells, they have to be upcast.

And so I'd maybe add some additional effects for spells that are upcast.

@Yuuki What are you planning for higher levels, I would be cautious of a PC with five 9th-level slots

@Yuuki There would have to be some kind of severe negative downside, I think, to a feature like that.

@Yuuki Probably better as its own class at that point. There aren't any subclasses that change class mechanics so drastically.

In return, they'd have to have fewer spell slots.

Maybe the spell slots combine piecemeal? 4 1st Level Spell slots→2 2nd Level Spell Slots

At level 5, 5 2nd Level Spell Slots→3 3rd Level Spell Slots (so they'd have 5 total).

3:28 PM

@Xirema The Flexible Casting table implies that higher level spells are worth more than the sum of lower level spells piecemeal

And then allow the rounding errors to chip away at the total.

@DavidCoffron Might be better, there'd be less cognitive juggling to do if I just put out a table that says "You have X spell slots at Y level".

Hang on, let me build a table for this...

I'm probably coming up with the wrong feature for the flavor I have in mind though.

The concept is that of a caster with no restraint, they literally put full power into every spell and consequently can't cast as much as the average wizard.

"Maximum effort", so to speak.

They can only cast ~~Explosion~~ Fireball once per day, and its effective level is the sum of all their spell slots, and after casting they gain four levels of exhaustion

3:33 PM

@Yuuki Sounds like just a regular sorcerer who always uses his Flexible Casting to make big spell slots (just a character choice rather than a mechanical distinction)

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^ If we allow rounding errors to drop levels, this is the table we end up with.

On one hand, you never get more than 7 spell slots in a day.

(And you usually only get 6)

@Xirema Can you limit it starting at level 11, so it doesn't affect 6th level or higher slots (similar to the caps on Flexible Casting and Pact Magic)

On the other hand: 6 Level 9 spell slots. O_O

For laughs, you get a single spell slot.

And no cantrips.

Or rather, you have to use your spell slot to cast a cantrip.

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@DavidCoffron For your progression suggestion.

3:37 PM

@Xirema Honestly I might prefer that to the lots of 8th and 9th level slots

@Yuuki "Nothing but a bend spoon"

I like tabletop games, they are funny

They certainly can be lol

No, they can't. That's a computer game.

Then again, Riot did make a boardgame...

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^ If we preserve rounding errors and fold them into later levels...

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^ And if we don't create special rules for 6-9.

3:44 PM

@Yuuki mechs v minions right? It was really good actually...

Whoops, mistake in that last one. Last two rows should be 9, not 8.

@Xirema Not to pressure you into more work, but I haven't been able to replicate the table in the small amount of time you did, what if you weight them based on the Flexible Casting rules? So to upgrade level 1 slots into level 2 would cost 3, etc

@DavidCoffron I'm just using Arcane Recovery rules, i.e. 1 2nd Level Spell Slot == 2 1st Level Spell Slots. I can use those rules instead, see what we get.

@Rubiksmoose I heard it was really good, especially when you realize it was made by a videogame company as a one-off joke.

I need to find a copy so I can play it.

It's a hefty box. Not quite Gloomhaven hefty, but it's up there

3:55 PM

@Rubiksmoose Looks pretty fun

Then again, looks can be deceiving (I thought I would enjoy Axis and Allies; still do a little, but not as much as I excepted)

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^ Using Flexible Casting rules.

@DavidCoffron The Spell Points variant is more powerful than the Arcane Recovery rules: Under Arcane Recovery rules, a 1st level spell slot is 1/5 the strength of a 5th level spell slot; under Spell Points, it's 2/7, or 1/3.5 as strong.

So you get more spells, overall, if you convert into Spell Points first.

@DavidCoffron yeah it's a cool fun co-op programming game with a good sense of humor

@Xirema Oh. Let me rephrase, I expected that you would trade a 1st-level slot for 1 point and still need 7 for a 5th-level slot (as if you were actually using Flexible Casting)

@DavidCoffron Oooohhh. Hmm. I was using the Dungeon Master's Guide's Spell Points variant.

> One way to modify how a class feels is to change how it uses its spells. With this variant system, a character who has the Spellcasting feature uses spell points instead spell slots to fuel spells. Spell points give a caster more flexibility, at the cost of greater complexity.

In this variant, each spell has a point cost based on its level. The Spell Point Cost table summarizes the cost in spell points of slots from 1st to 9th level. Cantrips don't require slots and therefore don't require spell points.

Hot RPG Questions

4:16 PM

5

Q: Do I have Disadvantage attacking with an off-hand weapon?

I'm pretty new to D&D and have a question. I am currently playing as a rogue swashbuckler (lvl 3) which encourages dual wielding. I love this mechanic and enjoy playing it so far but I'm confused about the bonus action part of it. I understand you don't add bonuses in most circumstances to the of...

dnd-5e dungeons-and-dragons rogue

user image

^ Using @DavidCoffron rules.

4:35 PM

@Xirema Thanks. That's what I got too

(Although I had it calculate the Sorcery Points first and then distribute...)

2 hours later…

6:07 PM

@Rubiksmoose IMO, "They are humanoids; spells that affect humanoids benefit them the same as humanoids" is language that doesn't carve out exceptions. It just makes clear something which might have been ambiguous from context.

6:28 PM

For anyone wondering.

Reminder:

T̵̡̢̨̧̡̢̡̲̪͍͍̪̳͇̰̗͉̦̟̥̞̘̳͈̮͖̟̳̭͎͖̦͚̗͈́̓̎̿ͅͅḥ̸̡̧̨̡̛̛̥͎̞͔̘̹̞̦̰̪͍̟͇̘̠͉̮͉̖̘̖̰̤̳͎̩͇̻̲̗̟̩͚̝̞̓̂͛͛̃́͗̓̋̉̔͒̇̒̋̍̈̓̍̿̽̓͜͠͠͝͝ͅͅͅę̵̢̢̡͓̝̮͇͍͇͚̠̪̟͇̮̤̻̥̖͚̹͉̐͛̆͂́͑̃͋̆̓̅̃̿̓͑̽̎̈́̿͘͝͝ŕ̵̨̥͚̣̪̺̟͎̳̟͈̠̲͇͕̬̪̖̗́͐̉͒̾̿͆̃͒̓̑́̓̂̃͛̚͘͝ͅͅe̶̡̧̡̨̧̨̙͚̱͖̲̳̰̯̮̦̳̬̪̤̟̤̳̝̭̖̮͍̖̥̱̮͙͍͖̞̥̳̦͚͖͖̥̠̦̹͋̒͛͋̾̉͑̓̀̄͜ ̵̜̦̙̲̱̙̥͙̲͓̞͚̗̘̺̈́̇̑͌͛͆͑͊͑̉̈́͌̽́͆̍͛̂͠͝î̷̬̘̺̖͇̣̯̲̹̮̤͓̭̬͓̣̞̞̟̪͋̓͌̔͑͑̒̚͝͝ͅs̶͇̘̤͚̗͇̞͐̀̐̈́̊́͛̀̐͒͑͒̉̎̎̓̀̓̃͒̎͒͆̅̂̎̿͛͑̀̌͌͋́̇̅͂͊̂̂̋͐̊͘͘͠͠ ̷̡̡̨̛̻̖̜͇̯̻̝̍̍́̀̉̎̄̽̉̒̉̽̏͗͛͗͌͒͋̅̈͒̃͒̎͒̋̃͌̕͘͠͠͝n̷̛̦͔͎̘̪͍̟̲͉̙̘̦̮̑͛͆̒͗̆̀͆͒̓͆͗̐̉̏̎̔̈́̎̈̀̋̐͗͘͜͝ͅͅớ̷̧̡̡̧̢̨̦̞̲̝͎͇̠͍̘͔̝͚͔̱̜̬̰̙͔͆̏̌̒̀̎́̓́̆̈́͂́̒̍͗̅͝ͅ ̷̢̡̨̛͍̠̝̻͓͖͍̝̭͔̀͛̅͛̓͗̋̇́͋̍̚͜͜…

Hilariously enough, "Hail Sobek" is the most intelligible/readable part of that message.

I wonder how Sobek feels about being invoked there

6:47 PM

@Xirema not exactly true though. JC only ever said that about spells.

Really though, it is just good practice not to arbitrarily decide that text is flavor or mechanical without some kind of system or indication that it is that.

@V2Blast Considering active worship of him ended about 1700 years ago, I figure he appreciates the shout-out, regardless of context.

@Xirema hahaha he could do with the exposure then huh?

Now I want to see Sobek show up in American Gods

Hot RPG Questions

1

Q: Do warforged have souls?

Page 8 of the B codex of Unearthed Arcana says: Although they are constructs, they have much in common with living creatures, including emotions and social bonds, and perhaps even souls. This last part troubles me however. Do warforged canonically have souls?

dnd-5e lore racial-traits warforged soul

also, guess what folks. the IRL LMOP campaign I'm DMing is finally having another session this afternoon/evening, as people's schedules have lined up once again

6:53 PM

@HotRPGQuestions I feel like the real question we need to ask is whether they are ginger

This warforged thing just seems like a bad case of WotC wanting to have their cake and eat it too.

They like the ambiguity and mystery to the race so they lean into that, but they also don't want to disadvantage or single out the warforged race too much so they made everything work like normal for it.

That's my current read on it anyways

@Rubiksmoose I've looked at having a undead PC option, and while a Cleric using Turn Undead is funny, trying to fix the (most) healing doesn't work on you is not fun. So I can totally understand not declaring Warforged to not have souls and therefore being impossible to resurrect.

Because that is not something you (or most players anyhow) would care about until they need their character ressurected and then realize they can't, and that character is dead, and all the investment (work, emotions, and story) they've put into their character is wasted.

@Someone_Evil absolutely. It makes perfect sense to me as well from an ease of entry thing. Still, I think that sometimes those kinds of things can be fun flavor to differentiate one race from another

though its not like warforged don't already have some of those.

I can think of only three things in the game that care about having a soul; resurrection and a particular mirror, and a very particular deck of cards. Warforged mechanically (/canonically) not having souls would suck, therefore is should be a matter of lore, and lore a table (or DM) can flex to whatever they like (for all I care)

7:14 PM

@Someone_Evil Yeah I am with you. I don't think having them not have souls would be super fun.

Unless a lot of mechanical alternatives and patches were provided to explain how alternate things work for it in the place of a soul.

But that has a lot of issues too.

@V2Blast congrats!

Do Modrons have souls?

hmmmm I'm not sure.

@Rubiksmoose Or you apply a patch to the individual Warforged to give it a soul.

Warforged 2.1.2 (now with proof of metaphysical existence).

@Yuuki Warforged now with soul patch.

@Rubiksmoose Q: Can Warforged grow hair?

7:26 PM

@Yuuki Grow? Maybe not. But they can have as much hair as you can find and glue on!

@Yuuki I have some old USB-dongles that probably haunted, would that work?

I have something of a one-off joke bouncing around my head involving a bard casting Magic Mouth and Explosive Runes on objects.

His mixtapes are fire.

XD

> You know what? I think this is the start of a beautiful sigh.

It's better than my previous idea of a female character that cast Magic Mouth on their handy haversack.

She's a holler-bag girl.

7:40 PM

> The sigh?!?! YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE SIGH!!!!

@Yuuki I think that I am not hip enough to get this reference fully lol

I'm not one of you cool kids ;)

It was a hit song from awhile ago, "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani.

It was recorded in 2004.

So in fact, you are perhaps too hip to get this reference.

oh I very much doubt I am too hip for literally anything lol

The words in that song mush together too much for me to understand anything other than the refrain.

> Chuus sonar oun da tat, ex a big ga tol us in of vat BECAUSE THERE AIN'T NO HOLLA-BACK, GIRL! THERE AIN'T NO HOLLA-BACK, GIRL!

Don't @ me.

@Rubiksmoose If you haven't had a replacement, you're probably too (much) hip for a retirement home.

7:51 PM

Well ok. You got me there I suppose.

@Xirema Gwen Stefani was ahead of her time. She told everyone that she wasn't a hollaback girl before anyone thought of "don't @ me".

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