TRPG General Chat

Ben

2:26 AM

Afternoon all. Just spent 3 days on a minesite in rural Australia. Lots of fun

Ben

2:50 AM

Dora the Destroyer

[When the Barb takes levels in Ranger]

Shalvenay

eheheh

I have a character that resembles that remark, even, just with a bit more of a gymnast's build and pointy ears

(Wood Elf Barb11/Rgr1, 20 STR, 16 DEX, only 12 CON tho)

Ben

@Shalvenay Legolifter

Shalvenay

@Ben lulz :P she's more melee than ranged, even, although she wields two-handers (halberd, heavy flail) for the most part

Ben

I had an elf fighter that had a long sword and a short sword. We only played one session, and he was a very daring character. Leaped off the back of a moving cart onto a giant charging best, and anchored himself by using the swords as "pitons"

Shalvenay

it makes me wonder just how much draw her bow has (game-wise, it's a +1 bow with +4 Mighty on it), though

Ben

2:59 AM

Howard Hill was a famous archer. Has a 100lb wooden longbow.

The bow didn't weigh that much - the draw weight was very high lol.

Shalvenay

yeah

Ben

The average for an adult is 50-60.

Shalvenay

yeah, I could easily see my elfess' bow drawing in the triple digits

probably draws almost as much as she weighs

(do archers in other countries measure draw in Newtons, or does everyone use lbf for that? :P)

Ben

Everyone uses imperial measurements. Inches and lbs

Shalvenay

she's 5'8"/132-and-change lbs (or 1.7m/60-and-change kg for metric people), btw

Ben

3:05 AM

Wow.

She's about as dwarven as she can get XD

As wide as she is tall haha

Shalvenay

LOL. that's....basically a somewhat built stick figure by human standards

Ben

And we all know that elves don't get fat, so that's just all muscle. Haha

She's the Wolverine of the Elven kingdom

Shalvenay

@Ben yup. she basically has no curves to speak of

scarred as all get out, too

(part of the reason she has all of 6 CHA)

V2Blast

Our D&D 5e podcast, Planeslip: Echoes of Creation, is chatting with the community! With 2 of our cast members indisposed with life obligations, Dred, Vic, and Fae are sitting down to have a friendly chat with you, the audience! Ask about worldbuilding, the current setting, character direction, favorite anime, or anything else that comes to mind. It's AMA night!

See you all for our Q&A in 1 hour, at 11 pm CDT (midnight EDT)! https://www.twitch.tv/bigdredwun

Ben

[After losing his memory to the weapon-X program]
Wolverine: Good thing I know the Canadian wilderness like the back of my hand!
[Shnikt]
Wolverine: wtf

Shalvenay

3:12 AM

yeah, no adamantium claws here, but she's still a bit on the scary side (might put more points into Intimidate actually if Taunt's not really a thing one can switch to in mindstream)

V2Blast

4:08 AM

we're live now! pls tune in

Hot RPG Questions

6:25 AM

2

Q: Can drawing a weapon be part of ANY kind of move action or just moving?

Assuming a character has a BAB higher than +1, would he be able to draw a weapon (or shield) as a move action and then draw (or sheath) another weapon (or shield) as part of that same move action (due to his BAB)? This question could be applied to any other move action, does it have to be specif...

kviiri

6:44 AM

Yesterday's DnD sesh was a bit better than the last one, although my character spent most of it Frightened and therefore being generally useless

Also, our GM swiped the map from some less game-design oriented old scenario so we had a fairly stall-prone combat scene going on

Everything was corridors and choke points, hard to get to melee and hard to attack at range.

I wish our mobile site allowed me to flag comments >:/

Ben

@kviiri seconded

kviiri

7:13 AM

Hehe

@Ben What's up, other than that?

BESW

The con I ran a Lady Blackbird table for, finally uploaded some photos.

kviiri

I love the tri-folded introduction page

What do you have on those square cards in the middle?

BESW

The poker chips are for XP tracking, and the three squares of paper are Fast Forward/Rewind/Pause from Script Change; there were enough on the table so everybody could reach them easily.

kviiri

Ah, gotcha!

BESW

And the tents show each PC's name and one-sentence description blurb, so people can keep track of who's playing who more easily (and so you can quickly decide who you want to play when you come to the table!).

The dice are multicolored because I found a big pack of dice really cheap after Christmas one year.

(In the background are Fate Accelerated, Honey Heist, Roll For Shoes, and extra copies of the Safety Tool Compilation Toolkit handout.)

trogdor

7:22 AM

@BESW !

lol of course

kviiri

Cool where was this con?

BESW

In a terribly echo-ey concrete hall on the second floor of a shopping center.

@kviiri I made it myself! [grin]

This is what happens when a con table is run by a graphic designer who is secretly a frustrated arts-and-crafts hobbiest.

Any excuse to use my bone folder.

Pierre Cathé

@BESW Do you use it to fold bones ?

Also good morning

kviiri

Know when to fold 'em

BESW

The table needed verticality to attract interest, and while only one person read the introduction crawl unprompted, strategically placing the trifold risers let me read the crawl at the beginning of games while also looking around the table at all the players instead of down at my notes.

A bone folder is like a knife, but too dull to cut anything. It's used to make creases in paper so it folds more accurately.

Pierre Cathé

7:34 AM

@BESW Yeah I bet that's what you want us to believe

kviiri

@BESW It's about the feel, yes!

Derpy

morning

trogdor

yes, that time that it definitely is to you too

XD

V2Blast

7:58 AM

The l5r tag info seems to be copied straight from an old version of the Wikipedia article:

Legend of the Five Rings

Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated L5R) is a fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Dave Williams, and John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1995. The setting primarily involves the fictional empire of Rokugan, though some additional areas and cultures have been discussed. Rokugan is based roughly on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures such as China, Mongolia and Korea. This setting is the basis for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game as well as the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game. Legend of the Five Rings...

(you can see the exact same phrasing from the tag wiki on RPGGeek, which credits the Wikipedia article: rpggeek.com/rpgfamily/2437/legend-five-rings)

Ben

@kviiri I have sowed the seeds fort inevitable millionaire-dom. Lol

Totally not overexaggerating... just keeping positive mindset lol

V2Blast

the language there is also quite promotional in nature

Ben

For my*

Just realized the error lol

@V2Blast you referring to me or the l5r link? Haha

V2Blast

the tag info

for l5r

I've tried updating and paraphrasing a bit, and cited the paragraph I left from Wikipedia

Ben

Nice

BESW

8:12 AM

9

A: Avoid just copying text into the tag wikis

The most universally convincing argument I've heard for not pasting into tag wikis is simply that tag wikis have a pretty specific purpose (clarifying the sort of question they should be attached to), and it's next to impossible that any text from another source will be written with that purpose ...

trogdor

B: Be excellent to each other

XD

V2Blast

C: is for cookie, that's good enough for me

trogdor

XD

The Oracle

1

Q: Is '5e' a clear enough statement of game system by a question asker?

As a community we have a long established policy of not guessing game systems. In cases where the game system is unclear we require question askers to clarify, before answering their questions. This is a policy that I support, and is more generally well supported among longer-term site users. ...

discussion policy game-systems

Ben

@TheOracle I think I remember a conversation that ended with the consensus being "no"

Since there are potentially other systems that have 5 or more editions, that are less common

kviiri

8:33 AM

Interesting little bloggy thing about RPGs that concern language: heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/…

2

BESW

8:58 AM

Hot RPG Questions

3

Q: Can the nightmare effect of the Dream spell stack?

Let's say a character casts the spell Dream, and chooses to make the messenger terrifying to cause a nightmare. Then, they deliver their ten words and wake up, and immediately cast Dream again on the same target to give them another nightmare during the same long rest. What happens? Does the targ...

dnd-5e spells stacking

BESW

@TheOracle Thought experiment: if we discovered that every question which says it's about "D&D" but doesn't specify edition turns out to be about D&D 5e, should we then assume all future questions about D&D (no edition specified) are about D&D 5e and tag accordingly?

Seems to me like that's what we've got here: at least four systems have part of their name in common but most of our questions are about just one of them and that ubiquity is being used to argue that something which would otherwise be obviously a guess, isn't.

...Sorry, at least five systems.

SmokeDetector

9:16 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, blacklisted username, blacklisted website in answer, link at end of answer, potentially bad ns for domain in answer (330): How can I encourage my group to seek success, rather than entertaining failure? by Victoria Tegg on rpg.SE

BESW

Wow, 13 seconds alive.

Ben

#SmokeDetectorForMod

Lol

@BESW gonna add that to my Relaxing OCD images library. Lol

BESW

I thought somebody'd get a kick out of that big round boy.

@Nyakouai Hi!

Ben

Haha

Nyakouai

Hello all

Ben

9:24 AM

How's it going?

BESW

Welcome back.

Ben

Welcome to chat :)

Nyakouai

Don't mind me, just strolling around

I'm out of Pathfinder question to answer

The SmokeDetector is a bot? (Yeah I come here very often)

I really miss on reading the deleted answers from time to time. Some are real gems

BESW

Yeah, SmokeDetector is a bot that taps into a Stack-wide project to learn how to identify spam posts.

Ben

Or welcome back, as appropriate haha

Nyakouai

9:28 AM

@Ben I pop in the chat so regularly it might as well be my first time :D

Ben

Irregularly*?

BESW

Ben

I'm always around... But only occasionally join in.

@BESW ah. I believe that's what you might call "observational humour"

BESW

Observe: Humour!

trogdor

@BESW oooh nice have not seen this one in a while XD

Ben

9:45 AM

@trogdor @BESW I bet you googled that instead of digging it out of the vault XD

trogdor

it really doesn't matter does it?

it's extremely good XD

Ben

I'm considering re organising my meme collection into sub categories in order to make locating them easier haha. Might even use my EDMS system to add an extra level of organisation to them hahaha

BESW

kviiri

Related to an answer-in-comments that I found false anyway: do you (more) DnD 5e-savvy people think "Is dedicated healer a feasible party role in DnD 5e" would be a stackable question? I think this theme occurs fairly often and could be linked to people who discuss the idea

FWIW my answer'd be "no" for most sensible definitions of "dedicated healer". I mean, sure having someone who can heal is useful but healing tends to be a tertiary or at best secondary focus to even them

Derpy

@BESW had Maud being dubbed by Tara, the joke would have come full circle...

Ben

9:56 AM

@BESW nice :D

kviiri

@Ben I recommend machine learning

Ben

@kviiri ... Like Linux?

BESW

@kviiri It would require aggressive defining of terms to avoid becoming a discussion prompt.

kviiri

@BESW Yep, that's a fair concern. We do have some similar questions already, though

rpg.stackexchange.com/q/46976/11660 okay, this question essentially asks the same question except it is more about classes capable of healing instead of characters dedicated to healing.

Ben

I store all my memes on my phone, and I have an EDMS system already at my disposal (I'm a reseller for the product). Lol

BESW

10:00 AM

I mean, you really only need one picture.

Ben

BESW

kviiri

@BESW amused reaction

Ben

@BESW I was actually going to post that very one, but you beat me to it lol

trogdor

@Ben XD

kviiri

11:09 AM

Our GM linked us the Acquisitions Inc company role list and asked if we wanted to use them

I told him that they sound cool in principle but I imagined them differently, and posted my own draft ideas for what roles I'd want

...and he actually liked it! \o/

BESW

Yey!

kviiri

The Acq.Inc company positions are like "you're a Cartographer, so you get a magic spyglass and a special map case to help on your adventures" which is kinda cool but feels more like an extra adventuring subclass than a company role.

BESW

InSpectres encourages everybody to give themselves fancy executive-sounding titles.

kviiri

The ones we started working on are more corporate-specific and hopefully leech less into the actual execution side: eg. Sales can try to pitch a higher reward for assignments, Distribution determines how fast we can fence acquired loot and for what value, etc.

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose Ok, fair point about the thing in the body, but I was more pointing to that as an example of a short hand refererence to that system.

sort of a usage thing.

BESW

11:29 AM

There are at least 38 instances of questions using "5e" to refer to something other than D&D.

(There are six results from that search where it's possible-to-obvious that 5e means D&D but I couldn't narrow the search terms any more to eliminate them from the results. On the other hand, chances are very good that other examples of non-D&D "5e" usage suffered collateral erasure because I was very aggressive with my search terms--such as assuming any mention of "5e" in a Pathfinder or Starfinder question meant it was D&D 5e.)

Nyakouai

People are mistagging? I'm truly shocked :P

Thing is, I feel this stack is very cautious about editing tags on questions. Mainly cause changing a tag here can yield totally erroneous subsequents answers.

BESW

Askers aren't being clear when they ask a question, saying "5e" without specifying a system. Then other users come in and tag it by assuming "5e" always means dnd-5e instead of vampire-the-masquerade-5e or hackmaster-5e or l5r-5e or shadowrun-sr5, all of which are also "5e."

And sure, by volume the vast majority of the time that's a correct assumption.
But it (a) isn't always right, which means answerers' time and energy gets wasted; (b) teaches users to be imprecise because others will clean up after them; (c) is a messy exception to a very clear policy about not guessing tags, which leads to people guessing tags in cases where it's NOT so often accurate and then being upset when they're called out because it's okay when other people do it (on 5e tags); and (d) the process of asking for clarification creates community engagement and sometimes reveals additiona…

And the debate's been happening in the comments on questions rather than on meta, so Tiggerous made it happen:

5

Q: Is '5e' a clear enough statement of game system by a question asker?

As a community we have a long established policy of not guessing game systems. In cases where the game system is unclear we require question askers to clarify, before answering their questions. This is a policy that I support, and is more generally well supported among longer-term site users. ...

discussion policy game-systems

Carcer

12:08 PM

@BESW I've never intended to dispute whether or not 5e is used to describe other systems because it clearly is, but I'd honestly be surprised if any querent has ever said "I'm playing 5e" without also actually naming the system and meant something that isn't D&D

BESW

You're probably not wrong. It's not a strong argument against the policy though.

These conversations get hung up on "how often will the guess be wrong" when the policy isn't based on that determiner.

Carcer

sure. I understand why the policy exists and I have made my peace with strict enforcement of it for various reasons

I just get a bit frustrated by exactly that handwringing, yes

kviiri

There are quite a few SE policies that do frustrate me, some specific to this site. I still understand, at least tenuously, why they exist.

But I must admit that the chat has been the main reason for me to come back for quite a while... I'm not that into DnD and that's most of our content on the main side.

BESW

It's important that we feel okay to revisit policies when we see problems they're causing!

2

Miniman

Personally, I just keep coming back to Tiggerous' excellent argument - as is, we have a clear line. Any more tolerant policy would involve a lot more argument.

2

kviiri

12:13 PM

^ yes

vicky_molokh

12:38 PM

Somebody needs to make a satirical two-page mini-RPG called 5e.

10

(Ideally two or more editions thereof!)

Someone_Evil

If you want to justify that name: have 5 abilities/properties beginning with 'E': Endurance, Education, Elocution, ...

Derpy

and the electric power just went out! YAY!!!!

You would expect office workstations to be attached to an UPS....

You would

at least it only lasted 5 minutes

KorvinStarmast

@Carcer me too, but I'm going to take Rubik's points from yesterday on board and remind myself that engaging with the question's asker to make sure has its own benefits beyond tagging. The engagement process itself can improve the questions in other ways- due engagement.

Carcer

@KorvinStarmast sure, I said as much in my comment on the meta

it being about the teaching the querent is a more compelling argument than "we might guess wrong" in this specific case

KorvinStarmast

12:54 PM

@Carcer I have not dropped by the meta yet, so I'll go and do that now.

@Derpy We lost power in our neighborhood yesterday from mid afternoon to a bit after midnight. As it worked out, my wife ended up sleeping over at her mom's house but I chose to stay at the house with the dogs. We've had looting problems before when major power outages occur ...

NautArch

@kviiri I think it's likely stackable. Many folks have experience to support an answer.

Nyakouai

@KorvinStarmast Working at this exact moment on electric grid bot (probably not in the same country). You wouldn't believe the things I hear (though it might be off topic on RPG)

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh I think you are the perfect agent for that ground breaking RPG. Looking forward to reviewing it. XD

Nyakouai

To keep it short, your electric service is in fact probably worse than what you believe

vicky_molokh

@KorvinStarmast If I make one, do you promise to post at least two questions per week about it? ^_^

KorvinStarmast

1:02 PM

@vicky_molokh I'll post a few, sure. that would be fun.

But with a two pager, unless you write it with as many swiss cheese holes as D&D 5e did, there may not be enough material for two questions per week. Until you release second edition!

GcL

@vicky_molokh I second your nomination, and whole heatedly support your satire.

@KorvinStarmast Whole bunch of designer intent questions!

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast 5e 2e. I'm in!

kviiri

@NautArch I am a bit conflicted because it very much depends on what kind of DnD 5e one is exactly playing but then again we have lots of questions that don't have problem assuming that...

GcL

And a second revision of the second edition 5e2er

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch But that's just for short, Naut. The real name of the game is Fivee

We can play test it on discord

kviiri

1:04 PM

I only play 5e 3.5e e6

GcL

@KorvinStarmast I'm highly entertained.

vicky_molokh

Okay, so attributes are Endurance for Conanesques and Sonyalikes, Education for magicians, Enlightenment for monastic æsthetes, Elocution for the . . . chaotic locos? . .

KorvinStarmast

@GcL Yeah, for sure,

Someone_Evil

Just as a warning: that idea got my own idea-juices flowing. Won't guaranty that it is fun(ny) nor will reach any kind of release, but we can handle two different games called 5e, right?

vicky_molokh

Really, we need something that shares a root or faux-root with elocution . . .

kviiri

1:06 PM

@KorvinStarmast "EEE, that's two lowercase E's" would be a good name for the game

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh Point buy or d100 char gen (the way we did in Empire of the Petal Throne?)

vicky_molokh

@KorvinStarmast Point-buy 2d6.

KorvinStarmast

@Someone_Evil Yes we can, as long as they are roughly two pages long

Pierre Cathé

@vicky_molokh Empathy for healers ?

vicky_molokh

Just post them under different editions.

@PierreCathé Yes.

KorvinStarmast

1:07 PM

Should I ask the first question now? "When will the RPG Fivee (5e) come out of beta and actually be released for play test?"

Nyakouai

When it's rEEdEE

(I'll see myself out)

Pierre Cathé

@KorvinStarmast Don't forget to tag it properly !

GcL

@vicky_molokh First question with the designer intent flag, "Sonya likes what exactly?"

KorvinStarmast

@PierreCathé I'll create a new tag called 5e or Fivee ... which do you suggest?

BESW

How about a game called 13.59145 (5*e), or 79.43235 (5^e)?

vicky_molokh

1:16 PM

@KorvinStarmast 5e

One thing about E-attributes is that I don't think I know an agility-related E-word.

KorvinStarmast

@BESW My only worry about those names is that the marketing of those names may not reach a broad enough audience. (Yes, I got the math jokes, and I tip my cap to you :-) )

BESW

Or 1.83939 (5/e)

Someone_Evil

@vicky_molokh elasticity?

BESW

New challenge: games which are impossible to tag because Stack tag markdown won't process the names.

Nyakouai

Dang, too late

vicky_molokh

1:19 PM

@Someone_Evil (Puts on physical education teacher hat.) That would be a flexibility-word, not agility-word. Totally different attribute! ^_^

Pierre Cathé

@KorvinStarmast that's what tag synonyms are for

G. Moylan

@BESW [[☻]] ?

well markdown certainly processed that

[[☺]]

hmm oh well

Pierre Cathé

']drop table tags;

G. Moylan

deltree .

ugh markdown

what the heck is the escape character here? \

deltree *.*

there

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast Sorry to hear that - in our case it was just a minor outage, nothing worrisome. My point is that a coworker was currently migrating some code between two sourcecontrol systems... You would have expected that the workstation was under UPS or something similar... instead it went Poff

KorvinStarmast

1:33 PM

@Derpy OUch! I hate it when that happens. We discovered a few months back in our office (a major thunderstorm) how many UPS ... weren't protecting anything. Just under half.

@vicky_molokh I think that for a game called Fivee, your PC's need to have five character traits, referred to as their Eccentricities. Five E's. 8^D

Someone_Evil

@KorvinStarmast That was very much the idea I was working on, thank you for the trait name

Derpy

@KorvinStarmast I assume you never heard about the "Möbius UPS Ring", right?

@KorvinStarmast basically, is when you manage to plug an ups back in itself.

KorvinStarmast

@Derpy I've not heard that, so TIL today. Thank you. 8^D

Derpy

it is what happened to Stack Exchange in 2016.

82

Q: What happens when you plug a UPS into itself?

UPSey daisy; so we had a little ... incident ... Pretty sure that has power. We're past that now, and things are returning to normal. It's only appropriate that we take a moment to think about the folks that got pulled out of bed and worked their knuckles to the bone to get things back up and...

discussion community

Now you also know why they switched the company that hosted their servers soon afterward

KorvinStarmast

@Derpy Aha, service provider change.

vicky_molokh

1:44 PM

@KorvinStarmast Either there need to be five attributes, or five categories of Eccentricities, one of which is attribute-like.

Derpy

in our case, it isn't even a "Möbius UPS Ring" problem, we just use the simpler "chain of power strip plugged one after another that would probably never pass any safety laws test" layout

Carcer

that's what fuses are for

I've never had a mobius ring of UPSes but I have had a rack of daisy-chained UPSes that were being kept in storage before

(gotta keep them powered to stop the batteries flatlining)

Delioth

On RPG-topic: Pathfinder 2e should be released digitally in... 3 minutes?

:excitement-noise:

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh Well, it's your game (I'll ust review, playtest, and ask abuot it) so which one do you think fits your desired feel better?

JohnP

@Carcer We had the chained "plug as many as you can cram in" power strip of death

NautArch

1:58 PM

@KorvinStarmast Well done on the NPC question. I expect they'll be disappointed to learn that the flameskull will be an XP soak.

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh Or Five Essentials or Five Essences ... I'll go an look up some more words starting with E until I hit the sweet spot. scurries off

@NautArch (Heh, they always forget that bit, don't they? ) 8^D

Carcer

Exemplars

vicky_molokh

@KorvinStarmast On essential attributes, I'm thinking Endurance, Education, Elasticity (agility), Empathy (social stuff), and maybe Enlightenment. For the Merits/Advantages/Flaws/Disadvantages/Feats/Aspects, I'd say go Eccentricities.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast yup :) Oh, you'd like some help? Well, enjoy a slower level progression.

KorvinStarmast

@vicky_molokh Love it! :)

vicky_molokh

2:01 PM

Basic mechancis are this:
Your essential attributes have a stat range from 1 to 5 (because 5e), and you roll essence+2d6 against a difficulty. Average 'adventury' difficulty is 10, and average adventury essence level is 3.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch My brother's campaign we escorted a rogue. he was level 2. Now he's level 4". We had to fight our way through, and he helped. None of the players mind his XP drain ... but now that he's been delivered (We are all level 5 now) we won't get his help.

vicky_molokh

So an average roll result is 'inconclusive' (i.e. difficulty = dice+essence).

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast We had lost a player at our table and the DM gave us an NPC that traveled with us. We didn't mind either, but we also knew we'd eventually get to where we were going and that guy helped keep us alive. Was very sad when the DM killed him off-screen. I spent a lot of time keeping him alive.

Miss you, Usyrus! [pours some of his water out for him]

vicky_molokh

Eccentricities are things that can be detailed or concise; their number should be kept sane but not strictly limited. An eccentricity can provide a bonus to your rolls when it's (a) relevant and (b) activated. Activation usually lasts for a single scene or similar context, and costs essence points. Each PC gets five essence points per session, and usually can store up to twice that.

You can spend up to 3 essence points on an Eccentricity to enable its bonus, whether at the beginning of a scene or after the dice for a particular action hit the table.

Delioth

:happiness: : 2e.aonprd.com

NautArch

2:07 PM

I think this question can be reopened. Little help?

vicky_molokh

Conversely, a bad eccentricity can be used against you, providing a penalty for the duration of a scene, but compensating you by granting you bonus Eccentricity Points next . . . session? Scene? Something!

Carcer

@NautArch still unclear why the question has the competitive-play tag

Medix2

Random question: Does anybody know a way in 5e-dnd to have your attack roll use one ability modifier and your damage a different one?

Pierre Cathé

@vicky_molokh next Encounter

vicky_molokh

@PierreCathé Yes!

NautArch

2:09 PM

@Carcer Yeah, I'd like to remove it. BUt I don't think that tag is eough to keep it closed.

vicky_molokh

It lasts for an Encounter and the compensation arrives during the next one!

NautArch

@Medix2 Can't think of one. YOu pick one and use it.

Carcer

@Medix2 hmm. Can't think of any ability off the top of my head which doesn't change both attack and damage at the same time

NautArch

That barbarian question makes me want to build a tWF barb now.

I'd gladly take a lower damage die weapon like the hand axe to stack rage damage.

Someone_Evil

@NautArch using TWF lessens the power of Brutal Critical does it not?

(only relevant if your table goes for high optimization)

NautArch

2:14 PM

@Someone_Evil Yeah, but I don't think that's as big of a deal personally. I'd rather have higher damage more often than an extra die 5% of the time.

Medix2

Yeah and all I can think of where you only use one modifier is spells and two-weapon fighting

kviiri

I want to play 4e againnnn

NautArch

@kviiri If someone were to set up a chatizen 4e/13th age, I'd absolutely try and make time to try those.

Carcer

I think 5e has deliberately tried to avoid ever having attack roll and damage bonus key off different attributes

kviiri

@NautArch Hmm. It would require either some hacking or a platform, as 4e is heavily married to the grid

But that's doable I reckon

NautArch

2:18 PM

@kviiri Could use roll20? Skip the macros and what not, and just use it as a grid?

Hot RPG Questions

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Q: Can you remove a blindfold using the Telekinesis spell?

Suppose a Sorcerer with Subtle Spell is blindfolded, and has their hands tied behind their back. Could they Subtle cast telekinesis to remove the blindfold? The relevant part of the spell description: When you cast the spell, and as your action each round for the duration, you can exert you...

dnd-5e spells vision-and-light blind

kviiri

@NautArch I guess --- I've nebe

Shoot

...never used it but it oughta work.

Miniman

@NautArch Yeah but...Polearm Master is just an objectively better choice.

@kviiri Me too :(

NautArch

@Miniman Ah. yeah. I'd take the lower damage die of the polearm bonus action for the other good stuff it gives.

kviiri

The expected damage difference of different weapon base types isn't usually that huge

So I agree

Medix2

2:32 PM

But the benefits from feats and brutal critical do sway those a bit more. 4d8 is 18 while 4d12 is 26

Reckless attack increasing the chance of a crit to 9.75% is also significant, though for both options...

kviiri

True, true.

Medix2

I'm unsure of the etiquette in here, can I ask a general opinion question about 5e-dnd?

JohnP

Sure, this is the perfect place for opinion questions. :)

NautArch

@Medix2 THis is wide-open for questions (as long as we follow Be Nice)

JohnP

@NautArch We do? Oh yeah, we do. I forget sometimes. :p

Various chats across the network have wildly different chat standards, which can be very confusing.

Medix2

2:46 PM

I just feel like there are too many "attack types" in 5e-dnd: "(melee/ranged) weapon attack", "(melee/ranged) attack (roll)", "attack with a (melee/ranged) weapon", "melee attack with a weapon". Thoughts?

NautArch

@Medix2 i'm not sure i understand.

JohnP

...and you're missing quite a few.

Medix2

I am?

I could list them out...

NautArch

you've got melee attacks and ranged attacks. The qualifier of spell/weapon/unarmed separate, but there are two generally just two primary types of attacks and then the specific things tell you more about what attributes to use.

Pierre Cathé

@Medix2 Are you expecting D&D to be a well-designed game ? Because it isn't

Carcer

2:48 PM

I'm not personally a fan of things making a distinction between "weapon attack" and "attack with a weapon" (I am totally okay with paladins smiting evil by casting fist)

Medix2

There are features throughout the game which have requirements: some require melee weapon attacks, or ranged weapon attacks, or weapon attacks, melee attacks, melee attack rolls, attack rolls, ranged attacks, attacks with melee weapons, attacks with ranged weapons, and even melee attacks with weapons

booming blade with a punch, let's go

vicky_molokh

@Carcer Even when firing super-heavy-draw crossbows?

Sir Cinnamon

is "attack with a ranged weapon" not the same as a "ranged weapon attack"

NautArch

@Medix2 I don't think those are necessarily different 'attack types', but qualifiers that must be gated for a specific feature to work. My assumption (probably false) is that when creating those rules, WoTC did so for 'balancing'.

Sir Cinnamon

and same for melee

Medix2

2:50 PM

A thrown weapon is a ranged weapon attack

Sir Cinnamon

Makes sense to me

Medix2

It is not an attack with a ranged weapon

Carcer

but it is an attack with a melee weapon

Pierre Cathé

@NautArch That's because they hadn't thought about it all beforehand

Carcer

(probably)

Medix2

2:51 PM

The same applies to improvised ranged attacks, they are ranged attacks with a weapon, but are not attacks with ranged a weapon

David Coffron

@SirCinnamon Many things count as melee weapon attacks that don't involve melee weapons (including unarmed attacks, many monster's attacks, and a handful of special cases)

JohnP

@DavidCoffron A few spells...

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch help provided

David Coffron

@JohnP Are there any spells that have "melee weapon attacks" that don't use a weapon?

Medix2

@NautArch Some of the gating just seems... really strange especially when it only applies to 3 or less features in the entire game

NautArch

2:52 PM

@Medix2 I can't directly answer the Intent, but given that it does apply to a subset, that may be precisely why it's there. TO apply to that subset.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch but you don't always get as many rages per day as you do combats. (See barbarian table, rages per day)

David Coffron

@Medix2 I think that's because most of the rules were designed without requiring that they be formulaic. I think it is a design choice rather than an oversight

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast Very true, but that's moot when you compare that both PAM and TWF are utilizing the bonus action attack and it would apply to both. It's either there in both, or it's not there in both.

KorvinStarmast

At higher levels, you get as many rages as you need, and perhaps more.

JohnP

@DavidCoffron uhh....hmph. Maybe not. I was thinking there were, but maybe I'm mixing systems again.

KorvinStarmast

2:54 PM

@NautArch For sure, that rage bonus damage is a nice add on to TWF that a Fighter does not get

David Coffron

@KorvinStarmast Maybe; the adventuring day rules say you should have way more combats than rages (but that isn't always followed)

KorvinStarmast

@Carcer me too, on the paladin smite/fist thing

Medix2

I guess some of the distinctions just seems arbitrary to me... I often remove a lot of them in my own games

KorvinStarmast

@DavidCoffron But those are "guidelines" more than "rules" I suppose ..

@Medix2 Thrown just increases your reach with a melee weapon, one time, if it has the thrown property. Does that help, or just add confusion? XD

Medix2

I know that

David Coffron

2:59 PM

@KorvinStarmast That's not quite right. Throwing weapons are considered ranged weapon attacks, which means they don't qualify for certain features

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast they just get more attacks :)

Carcer

@KorvinStarmast if you move more than 60 feet away from me I reserve the right to throw an axe at you

goodguy5

I'm thinking about a barbarian warlock.
Can a warlock have two pact weapons?

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