Let's take a gnome for the example. Here is what the PHB 37 says for its size:
Size. Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds. Your size is small.
The PHB 176 also says the following for the carrying capacity:
Carrying Capacity. Your carrying capacity is your Str...
How do I determine how many spell slots I have if I multiclass into more than one spellcasting class? For example, I have a character that is a level 3 Wizard, a level 5 Eldritch Knight Fighter, a level 4 Arcane Trickster Rogue, a level 4 Paladin, and a 4 Warlock. How many spell slots do I have a...
If you are on a mount and it is knocked prone, do you automatically get knocked prone too?
To set the scene, I am mounted on my Warhorse when an evil NPC casts Earthquake below where we stand. My Warhorse makes a saving throw but fails and is knocked prone.
Does this mean that I too would auto...
@Slagmoth Well, we haven't yet. My son has done a few sessions with the neighbors, but that's on hold.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet with the whole family. My son really just likes the combat, but my wife and daughter will likely get into the roleplay. So...balance.
@Slagmoth ah, the Oni could do the same, but I wanted some roleplay first. I had them offer the party some delicious baby arm and then cast darkness to end the session.
once the players backed away from them.
@Slagmoth I don't think it really matters if there's an elevation change. The danger of falling into the mud doesn't really change. And that even seems crazy dangerous.
Yeah, after going through many 2nd edition modules I realized that their design was a tad weird, monsters that didn't belong and whatnot... I suppose that is explained away with them being contracted and forced into servitude here.
But you really thing a CR 7 Oni can take a party of lvl 8s?
Keep on the Borderlands is a great mix of RP and combat .... it may take a hint of "you need to get the denizens of the caves to fight each other" suggestion somewhere ....
I am actually trying to do the Keep with a fantasy SW rules for testing. We are very new to SW.
In my experience Sentient Items are a boon and a curse...
I love the portrayal they did in JourneyQuest though.
There is also the room with the fugitive captain that if you calculate the CR it is pretty high and in most cases they get a single-file ambush off as well.
BRB, have to feed my kid.
Back
@NautArch These particular items are very strong-willed as well so the PCs will likely not know any of the drawbacks of attuning until they actually start to attune and at that point it is pretty much too late.
@KorvinStarmast I agree it has a bit of everything. If you want you can even have intrigue in it. A couple of tweaks to some of the "scheduled" encounters can make it really fun as well. And there is a LOT to do. If the party wants that module could take them a little past 5th or even 6th level if they play it right.
@goodguy5 I was wondering the same thing. There were some grumbling last year about doing that to visitors and I donno if that has something to do with it
I gave the players some options, they chose pathfinder. It's 1st level, based on a prewritten module involving a mansion, and I've modified it to have more puzzle challenges. I'm drawing inspiration from horror/puzzle video games, so we'll see how well that translates.
One idea is to have alchemy books that let the players find items around the mansion and create powerful weapons, considering they're 1st level and some of the enemies are CR 3
@GcL Yeah, and maybe 7 if that kid comes back.He's pretty flaky, but I can also be pretty flexible here.
Last night was mostly just the end of the encounter that's taken a couple sessions to finish, and then random encounters as they waited for something to happen.
The next session is one that i'm specifically adjusting. I may need to adjust HP on the fly depending on how it goes.
I am giddy about what happens once they have to figure out who gets blackrazor
I found a turn timer helps for larger groups or players with decision paralysis. At a table top, I've so far used a chess timer, a board game hourglass, and push button stop clock. All worked pretty well for "giddy up, let's go" instead of "um... lemme think more"
@KorvinStarmast I don't recall. I seem to remember that a character can't start another adventure until they've rid themselves of it. Same with some of the ToA stuff.
There was a sword in one of my OD&D campaigns that was called The Sword of Sahanazar and we thought that it was the name of the big bad evil warrior. Well, we defeated him, slew him, but the rogue who got him also went down. All said and done, his minions retrieved the sword as they fled the battlefield.
We, about a campaign year later, were faced with another invasion from the Southwest (where Shanazar was from) led by Sahanazar wielding the sword of Shanazar. (Wait, we killed him last year, and we burned the body!)
This time, we captured the evil one (this was our mission from the local duke) and we took the sword.
@MikeQ This sword was Shanazar; its ego and INT were so high, it basically took over whomever wielded it. (Kind of like Stormbringer/Elric, but Stormbringer wins)
And our Fighter became Shanazar ... shortly thereafter.
@KorvinStarmast I think those are covered in the Story Awards/Effects/Items of the FAQ. They don't count against your magic item total, but you can only keep them for the duration of the hardcover adventure.
The Sword of Shanazar had an egoism of 11 or 12, and had the special purpose of "Conquest of the North" - which we didn't figure out until our wizard cast Legend Lore. Our Paladin charged me, the druid ( who cannot wield swords!) with taking it somewhere to destroy it. Yikes! This was a quest never completed thanks to 1) a follow on invasion of paladins and clerics form a Lawful region who didn't like adventurers
And 2) a few of the players and the DM graduating.
My boss is on my case to access this tool that our team is going to eventually transition to. Sure. sure. but I've had several issues with not being granted access properly and this is just another of those.
I tried to play some game to chill and it was not chillful
My wife took the baby out for a walk (they had to drive to get there), but the car was apparently making some weird noise, which then stopped for unknown reasons.
And My wife cannot be bothered to confirm there's a bag in the baby poop pail before yeeting the wipes into its stinky depths.
@goodguy5 Sysadmin sentiment "/dev/null is a fine home directory for all users." I wonder if they manually banged in the useradd command and borked it or if whatever automated system that was doing it wasn't configured well enough.
@goodguy5 you gotta let it go. I know I often can't and just had a little run-in with my wife. ANd we're all on edge, but you've got the extra edge of newbaby.
I think the thing that bugs me the most about it is that I view her tendencies to be inconsistent and illogical.
There can't be fur on the floor or glasses on the table, but she'll leave the baby's toys in the tub when she takes a shower and leave trash in her car.
@goodguy5 Valkyrie Dwarf Ladies sounds like the name of a prog rock band who does a cover of Jethro Tull's On a Cold Wind to Valhalla as their first hit.
@goodguy5 Seems apropos. Would probably narrate that as an unstoppable flying force of beards, spears, and drinking songs... err... prayers of Hanseath.
@RevenantBacon Hmm, getting into the sky is as simple as mounting the flying steeds. But the "leave my gold for a while" means enticing them with something excellent, like better beer. (I suggest you discuss the "high places" bit with Naut Arch, whose Paladin had the mounted combat feature and used a flying steed-my response to him is a ref to that)
@RevenantBacon Yeah, and now I need to find a picture of a flying beer barrel for my Thursday night game. We have a dwarf/beer drinker player character who'd love that ...
(FYI, mead isn't beer)
My wife and I went to the Rohan Meadery near La Grange, Texas some years ago; not beer! :)
Alright guys, I'm gonna be making a new character for D&D 5e. What class should I make it? (gonna make it at level 4 for fun) (just making the char cus I have nothing better to do rn)
@GcL Fair. Just murdering someone in the gutter doesn't cut it either, you need to murder someone for political reasons, or it's just not a real assassination
New prerequisite idea... having actually accomplish something. No bonuses nor mechanical add-ons. Just bragging rights... enforced by divineDM intervention.
as·sas·si·nate /əˈsasnˌāt/ verb: assassinate; 3rd person present: assassinates; past tense: assassinated; past participle: assassinated; gerund or present participle: assassinating murder (an important person) in a surprise attack for political or religious reasons.
I like that. Hitman vs assassin. One gives you the auto-crit and the other one does as well, but they both provide fodder for us to go on about. I'll submit that errata. /S
@GcL Once a session is tough, but with assassin, it's even harder. THey roll poorly on initiative and no matter whaty ou do, they don't get the mechanic.
Character with alert in current campaign. Lots of surprise attacks they get to warn the party about... also the +5 init is pretty nuts.
@NautArch Let them set up ambushes. Surprise rounds are the jam of the assassin.
Not even the whole group... places where they recognize they could fit and get the drop on the enemy while the party waits for the party to start. Classic misdirection.
@GcL Yeah, that's very true. And I usually in general try and let players think ahead to ambush. My main group typically bypasses the ambush and opts just leeroy jenkins all the freaking time.
The inverted ziggurat was a recent example from WPM. They just rushed in with zero planning. Turned the encounter into a seriously dangerous slog.
Our Tortle Barbarian, Donnie Tello, was dropped I think 4 times. His new nickname is Death Save Donnie.
@NautArch Probably write some content where that goes hilariously well and hilariously poorly. If you know the group's sensibilities writing stuff they'll likely find entertaining given their predilections.
@GcL most games I play end up with rolled stats for everyone. Plus this isn't a character for an actual game (if I do use it there I'll reroll stats)
Since nobody seemed to get the reference by hints, I'll spell it out and maybe someone can help me with making it a custom background. It's the Dark Brotherhood from Skyrim
@GcL I have them roll in roll20 in a game I created. :) I even gave them a cut and past text file to do it with. [[4d6d1]] | [[4d6d1]] | [[4d6d1]] | [[4d6d1]] | [[4d6d1]] | [[4d6d1]] and there it is.
If player not happy with roll, then we talk about it and re roll or not as agreed.
Sometimes, I'll just add a point here or there to make the aggregate "plus" be close to what the others ended up with.
our DM for my last game if I recall correctly let us roll for stats like normal but if we weren't happy with it he gave us the option to ignore the roll and just do point buy
@GcL Assassin, name "The Listener", race: Dragonborn
@Himitsu_no_Yami OK, if I take vHuman with these numbers, here's what I get: 14 16 11 12 18 14= 18 Dex, 16 Cha, 13 Int 12 Str 14 Con and 14 Wis.
Add the Alert Feat; add one additional skill to taste. (What I'd do with the sorcerer is Criminal Background since he's going thief, which offers Stealth and Deception, perfect fit for Sorc/Assassin)
What does it take to draw a weapon if you start combat with it away? Is it an Interact? If so, you trigger Reactions including Attack of Opportunity. Part of a Stride (as it was in P1e)? Free? What if you have two weapons; can you draw both or are they separate actions?
While Interact seems like...
I can make that after this, I have most of this one in mind now. I'm just trying to figure out how to make this background both appropriate and balanced
My brother is starting up a campaign for his first time with his friends and has started asking me so many questions. Would it be insensitive of me to just say "look it up here first"?
@KorvinStarmast Yeah; I started running a game online for my family bc quarantine, and that's what got him excited to run his own game (which I'm super psyched about for him)
@DavidCoffron This very much depends on whether he's asking you these questions for purely informational purposes or more as a "hey, this is our shared thing now"...
@DavidCoffron I have the Masters Vault on roll20. I think it's available for cheap. It's a great beginner dungeon with lots of good guidance for new DMs.
It has six pregens, easy to start ... but one can still make new chars also ...
@KorvinStarmast I pointed him to a couple resources for beginner dungeons, but he seems very excited about creating his own short campaign; so I've been walking him through that process with the usual tips of "don't over-prepare because players, especially new ones, make decisions you can't predict" (that advice has had varying degrees of success; but he's just excited so...)
The most recent Sage Advice Compendium article has just come out and says:
We at Wizards of the Coast are attempting be more inclusive of past editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Content from the following Dungeons and Dragons editions will now be considered officially valid for Dungeons and Dr...
@Himitsu_no_Yami WoTC have submitted a Sage Advice that they will be incorporating past edition rules into 5e. It presents a major problem for how we answer questions here and how to handle existing answers.
@DavidCoffron Maybe offer to be a practice player for him? let him knock of the big rough edges with you as the not-going-to-get-frustrated-no-matter-what player.
@DavidCoffron You could head off some of the early mistakes new DM's make in how they think about the game. Especially with monsters. Make sure he knows that he's just figuring out what the monsters do... they're not his team.
@NautArch Not really. It's wording is not great for the pedantic denizens of this stack, but it's fundamentally asking how to solve a specific problem.
Their problem is they have a character with sneak attack doesn't get the opportunity to use the feature due to the group lacking a tank. They don't know how to solve that specific problem.
@Himitsu_no_Yami ah, good point. Level 1 is also super tricky and trying to maximize at that level is an effort in futility as well (frame challenge answer.)
@NautArch I don't like it either, but it's true. We like to quibble about definitions, wordings, specific meanings, and are generally amenable to ontological discussion. If the shoe fits... probably wonder why we have a closet full of them.
@NautArch I think the potential issue is that it's too broad, not idea-generation. but "Are there good options for me as a DM to help her get sneak attack?" seems answerable, though the question might need a little editing to be clearer
also fixes the minor typographical issues with mind spike and Ancestral Guardian's listed die scaling/tables, as well as Arcane Archer's Arcane Shot previously saying it needed a magic arrow to work. (I think those were already silently fixed in past printings, but I guess those weren't enough to release a whole errata PDF over.)
@V2Blast It's not the DM's job to give her sneak attack, as I see it. It is up to the players to work together as a team. (well, that's the guiding thought behind my answer)
@Himitsu_no_Yami Right, so there are mechanical differences that don't reflect any difference in the fiction. You just get your choice of whether to represent your holy warrior dude with one set of mechanics or another.
@MarkWells Think of a cleric as the face of a god, the one most people see and interact with. Think of the celestial warlock as when a god needs something done but not by the cleric
Room 27 contains a creature who has some additional items listed as treasure:
Are those items active on the creature (changing some of their stats and giving some additional options)? Or are those not meant to be active/used and to be given as treasure?
If they do use them, does that adjust t...
@Someone_Evil They're not, but the difference is much more interesting when the entity you're forming a pact with is one that you wouldn't choose to worship, love, sacrifice for, etc. The Celestial patron lacks tension. It's too easy to actually be on the same side.
Let's take a gnome for the example. Here is what the PHB 37 says for its size:
Size. Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds. Your size is small.
The PHB 176 also says the following for the carrying capacity:
Carrying Capacity. Your carrying capacity is your Str...
If you are on a mount and it is knocked prone, do you automatically get knocked prone too?
To set the scene, I am mounted on my Warhorse when an evil NPC casts Earthquake below where we stand. My Warhorse makes a saving throw but fails and is knocked prone.
Does this mean that I too would auto...
The most recent Sage Advice Compendium article has just come out and says:
We at Wizards of the Coast are attempting be more inclusive of past editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Content from the following Dungeons and Dragons editions will now be considered officially valid for Dungeons and Dr...
Room 27 contains a creature who has some additional items listed as treasure:
Are those items active on the creature (changing some of their stats and giving some additional options)? Or are those not meant to be active/used and to be given as treasure?
If they do use them, does that adjust t...
