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12:01 AM
Interestingly, the question on the Fate deck from the Dragonlance game can probably be answered by a lot of us even without that experience of that game.
 
@NautArch The probability one?
 
Oh geez no
That one should be closed
this one. And it could use another reopen vote.
 
@NautArch Yeah I pinged it open
 
@NautArch I'm not sure about that haha
Usually when I think I can answer a question about a system I have not played, I find out that I had lots of misconceptions
 
theres definitely nothing in the basic rules about the colors.
 
12:09 AM
@HellSaint hmm, the colors don't mention the positive, negative and neutral states? I took it at face value that was legit.
 
@NautArch No idea. What I mean is that I have no idea what these "identities" actually mean within the game, for example
 
@HellSaint I guess that could be true, but the question seemed pretty simple at face value with the update.
 
@NautArch thats probably in some other text i guess.
 
@HellSaint ah, true. I made an assumption (sorry!) That it was the card identity
 
the basic rules are actually really short
 
12:11 AM
But whatever, I'm backing out of that question
If mods are others want to handle it
 
like, im all about assuming good faith, but only until i have a reason not to.
 
I actually think the question in its current state is decent and answerable by someone with expertise in the system.
From my understanding the question is: there is a tool implemented in the game (or in some expansion from the game), which is described as something that should help the GM, but the rules provide little or no guidance on how to actually use such tool to improve your GMing
 
@HellSaint I agree, it's got a problem to be solved now
 
It's like CoS gave you the Tarokka Deck and said it could help you with the adventure and then stayed silent on how the heck you should use that.
 
@HellSaint I was thinking about that, I just started CoS last night and did the tarokaa reading for my players
"What cards are in the tarokka deck?"

"These."
 
12:18 AM
Ah but CoS actually has an entire section explaining how you do that, at least haha
Although I do find that the Tarokka reading is sluggish if you don't actually memorize and practice the speech lol
 
Trying to customize an ability in roll20 starfinder... Does anyone happen to know the syntax for "1d20 plus character's stealth bonus plus four"?
 
"Okay, the Thief... let me see... oh okay, life and death, buried, something something"
 
I'm looking at wiki.roll20.net/Roll_Templates but I don't know if it's even related
 
@Kevin I don't know for starfinder, but it should be easy to check what is the modifier for the stealth bonus
let me assume it's stealth_mod
it would be /r 1d20 + @{character_name|stealth_mod} + 4
 
When I hover over the stealth stat, it says %{stealth}
I'll try both stealth and stealth_mod
 
12:22 AM
then just @{character_name|stealth}
Starfinder is based on PF which is based on D&D right? so you have the attribute, which is a high number like 18, and a modifier, which is like +4, right?
If that's the case just make sure you are getting the actual modifier, not the attribute itself
 
The system is quite dnd like, yes. Stealth is calculated from dex plus skill point bonuses
 
Yeah so pretty much like 3.5
 
1
Q: Are light hammers broken/underpowered, and would adding the finesse property fix this?

papidaveWhen playing RAW, the only simple melee weapon with the finesse property is the dagger (PHB page 149). Most other thrown weapons of this type (hand axe, javelin, and spear) all do 1d6 damage with a secondary property thrown in -- hand axe is light, javelin has extended range, and spear is versat...

 
But yeah, roll20 syntax for an attribute is just @{character_name|attribute} AFAIK.
@Kevin Try this page instead: wiki.roll20.net/Macros#Attribute_Macros
 
That does seem to be correct syntax, although now I'm getting No character was found for 'Iseph'. Maybe I got the spelling wrong...
 
12:27 AM
If you insert the macro in the Sheet, you don't need to put the character name. If for some reason the character name is different from the sheet name, you need to write whatever is on the sheet as well
(although most sheets will synchronize the character name and the sheet name)
Ah, and you can't put a space between the name and the { or the |, otherwise it will parse the space as part of the name. Like, if you write @{ Char |stealth} if will think the name is " Char ", with the spaces
 
Ah, I needed /roll 1d20 + @{Iseph (Operative 1)|stealth} + 4. I forgot the parenthetical
 
@Kevin ah yeah, and you need to put the full name of whatever is on the sheet :P
 
Thanks a lot for your help so far :-) Still trying to figure out how to put it in the sheet
There's a text field that lets me specify what appears when I click the ability, but it's acting weird
 
@Kevin unless you really need to, you can just create a macro and have it in your macro bar
 
True.
 
1:15 AM
My sheet has an attack with the name "Survival Knife". Is it possible to simulate clicking on this attack in a macro? I tried %{Iseph (Operative 1)|Survival Knife} but I got No ability was found for %{Iseph (Operative 1)|Survival Knife}
Unclear to me whether an attack counts as an ability in the first place
The examples at wiki.roll20.net/Macros show how I can simply enter the stats of the weapon into the roll commands of the macro, but I'd prefer to not have to type it out explicitly, since I'll have to edit it every time I enchant my weapon or get a new attack bonus or whatever
 
@Kevin Not that I know. The sheets usually operate on API-level which is not simply a macro or a fixed attribute.
Why is it a problem to click on the Survival Knife? (asking so I can understand the problem that you're trying to solve with the macro :P)
 
@NautArch The thing that gets me about that one is... there's kinda no probability to be had, there. The "to-hit" value (at least, in the basic rules) is always a static 8. You know your stat, so just by looking at your hand you can know whether the card you see is enough to sum with your stat to 8.
Where probability does come in is if I decide to play a below-hit-value card of trump, which allows me a draw from the deck. And now we're talking about the probability that a randomly drawn card is of some value or higher, given the cards I see in my hand. Which is trivial, too.
 
I'm playing an operative (i.e. space rogue) and every time I make a trick attack (i.e. sneak attack) I need to click my "trick attack" macro to calculate the stealth check and additional damage, and then click the weapon itself to calculate to-hit and damage. I'd prefer to only have to click one thing rather than two things.
Also it would be nice if I could roll stealth check, then to-hit and damage, then additional damage
 
@Kevin Fair enough. In 5e sheet, you can click on Stealth, which will roll your Stealth check, then you can click on the weapon, which will roll the to-hit and damage, and you have a checkbox in which you can include extra sources of damage.
Take a look if the Starfinder sheet doesn't have a similar checkbox for additional damage. (in the 5e sheet, you have to go into the Settings of your sheet and manually enable it)
But either way I'm not sure you can do it with less than 2 clicks without macro'ing your weapon as well haha
 
1:30 AM
Pandatheist has started part 2 to the Bolt RPG read through (twitter link)
 
Hmm, I'll poke around
 
3
Q: What should I do about a player who isn't engaging?

CalumRecently the party I DM for has had to move to playing online (due to covid and social distancing). It started off fine and everyone was having a good time but over the last two sessions one of the players is just refusing to get involved at all. They will come to the session but then just sit in...

 
1:49 AM
Well, at the very least I can copy-paste the syntax from the real attack and paste it into my macro, so it will look properly authentic. I'll still have to change it when my weapon stats change, but c'est la vie
 
 
2 hours later…
3:54 AM
hey there @linksassin
 
4:27 AM
6
Q: Does the artificer's Enhanced Weapon stack on top of hexblade's Improved Pact Blade?

jumblerumbletrumbleI play a hexblade warlock with an Improved Pact Blade longsword. I like the idea of the eldritch tinkerer, who builds his patron's gifts into his gadgets, which fits in a warlock/artificer multiclass. The artificer's Enhanced Weapon infusion would be very nice with the warlock if it stacks with t...

4
Q: Can the creature from a Bag of Tricks make opportunity attacks?

NathanSThe bag of tricks description includes the following: You can use an action to pull the fuzzy object from the bag and throw it up to 20 feet. When the object lands, it transforms into a creature you determine by rolling a d8 and consulting the table that corresponds to the bag's color. [...] The...

 
 
2 hours later…
5:59 AM
Anyone know any good D&D5e spells dealing with time travel/time, preferably below 2nd level? I’m making a race that’s sort of shunted in time and I want spells to reflect that
It’s for a character that just died, my GM’s being lenient on the homebrew
 
6:49 AM
HEXXED by Aaron Lim is a GMless hexcrawl RPG about someone who's been split into different Aspects due to a hex. You play these aspects as must now work together to break the hex by exploring your shared memories in a dreamlike space. This is a Hex Jam submission.
Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada got an update! Two more games, designed mechanics, and quality of life improvements.
 
7:21 AM
Can someone explain to me why Darkvision is a second level spell when so many races get darkvision (the feature) by default and there are easily available torches and/or light cantrips?
 
Feature creep.
 
Feature creep?
 
> the excessive ongoing expansion or addition of new features in a product
 
I don't follow?
 
A great deal of the time, the answer to a "why" question about D&D 5e is "because D&D is almost fifty years old and has been added to by countless underpaid, undertrained enthusiasts who feel obligated to satisfy the vocal minority of fans demanding slavish devotion to decades of tradition over a coherent contemporary product."
Put another way, darkvision is a second-level spell because darkness is a second-level spell and D&D worships at the altar of symmetry. Darkness is a second-level spell because it's too inconvenient (if you don't have ways to counter it) to be a first-level spell, but too easily counterable to be any higher. And there are so many counters to it because... [drumroll] they're traditional.
Darkvision is balanced against magical darkness, not mundane darkness, because magical darkness is immune to mundane light sources but cut by darkvision.
 
7:32 AM
I was with you on "put another way" but magical darkness is also immune to darkvision so the next message has me lost again
 
Heh. They changed that back too? Okay.
 
> A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
 
Seriously though, I gave up long ago trying to find any rhyme or reason within the choices made by a given edition of D&D without going back deep into the history of the franchise. Especially 5e, which is trying to appeal to the 3.5 and 2e people while secretly not giving up everything the devs learned from 4e.
There's bits directly copy-pasted from 3.5 and not edited to actually fit the 5e context.
 
Somehow that doesn't even surprise me
 
So why is darkvision a second-level spell? Because it was in 3.5. Why do races get darkvision? Because they always have.
 
7:37 AM
A part of me wants to take all the nonsensical pieces of 5e and make them all mesh correctly with what I feel the system is trying to do but that's way too much work
 
Why does this stuff not seem to make sense anymore? because the traditions were developed independently of each other.
@Himitsu_no_Yami Yeah, it was kinda frustrating to watch 5e develop because 4e was quite internally coherent. But there's so many other games out there NOT made by Wizards of the Coast, which fit my needs so much better, that it's kinda theoretical for me now. WotC wouldn't be getting my money even if they were producing a product that lived up to its marketing.
 
Wait
I forgot what I was gonna say crap
 
A Tiny Shortsword by TorTheVic is a minimalistic one-page rpg with simple dice mechanics, fast character creation and a free form magic system!
 
I had a really bad but funny joke lined up about wotc but when I tried to make a new line and it sent I completely lost it
Something about them not being wizards cus int is too low but them actually being sorcerers cus they have high cha
I think if it ever comes up in my games I'm just gonna tell players darkvision is a first level spell comparable to mage armor in utility
 
 
1 hour later…
9:15 AM
2
Q: What is the damage dealt by Eldritch Smite?

HellSaintEldritch Smite is an Eldritch Invocation for Warlocks similar to the Divine Smite feature from Paladins. It is available in Xanathar's Guide to Everything and states Once per turn when you hit a creature with your pact weapon, you can expend a warlock spell slot to deal an extra 1d8 force damage...

 
 
2 hours later…
11:39 AM
@BardicWizard Have you looked at the Wildemount stuff? I think it includes some low level spells too, but I'm not sure any of those are time
 
12:03 PM
Anybody got strong feelings on the duplicate-ness of these dnd-5e questions? I'd only worry since the answers are different amounts of complete "What do your base stats do for your character other than set your modifiers?" and "When are Ability Scores (not modifiers) used in D&D 5e?"
@BardicWizard I'd honestly say just the shield spell and "reflavor" the turning a hit into a miss as time travel
 
@Medix2 Oh wow. Definitely duplicates but it isn't immediately clear which should be the target. Good answers on both
 
I was trying to find a duplicate to this cuz I swear we had one. But looking through all the questions gave me nothing so I guess I misremembered. But I did find those two XD
 
 
1 hour later…
1:26 PM
Pidj Sorenson, author of Graffiti Speak and A Shame-Free Game, has just started a Patreon.
 
1:47 PM
@Medix2 I found two others, but I'm not sure whether either of them's actually a dupe
 
2:21 PM
Sea Slug Game (twitter link) by SweetCyanid. Get on the floor or bed, whatever. Roll the dice.
 
user15026
2:37 PM
@BESW I like this.
 
@Ash Somehow, I thought you would.
[grin]
 
Here is an interesting article where they reduce the skills in 5e down to 5: Fitness, Speechcraft, Stealth, Awareness, and Knack.
 
3:01 PM
@BESW nudibranches !
@Rubiksmoose I love this kind of thing
 
3:19 PM
:) me too!
 
@BESW talking of grins, did you ever get a name for you ghost hound?
 
@Rubiksmoose that’s really cool! I love variant rules
 
3:38 PM
6
Q: Double proficiency from blessing of knowledge

AnagkaiA player in my new game chose the Knowledge domain, gaining the feature Blessing of Knowledge: At 1st level, you learn two languages of your choice. You also become proficient in your choice of two of the following skills: Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion. Your proficiency bonus is doubled f...

 
4:06 PM
How to make the DM regret sending a Tarrasque at you: open an all you can eat BBQ serving tarrasque meat.
 
I mean, don't you have to eliminate the tarrasque first?
I'm assuming if the players manage to deal the tarrasque things have already gone sufficiently off the rails lol
 
The trick is not eliminating the tarasque but rather chanining it down and carving meat off it forever.
 
@Joshua I... don't think... that would work... for a few reasons...
But if the players manage to defeat it I guess I would completely allow it
Tarrasque in 5e is kinda extraordinarily weak anyway :( give my little Lavos its practical immortality again
 
Even the neutered 5e tarrasque would not take kindly to being chained and carved.
 
Oh they got rid of tarrasque's regenerate in 5e.
 
4:17 PM
@Joshua also the whole "you have to use a Wish spell to keep it dead"
@Joshua rpg.stackexchange.com/q/87280/43856 - Obviously someone has thought about capturing a Tarrasque before.
But in that case, for a Tarrasque Bomb.
 
Is it just me or should power word kill not work on ghosts?
 
5
Q: Can you designate a creature you haven't met for Illusory Script?

BBeastA military general wishes to deliver important instructions to an allied leader who is a long distance away. To safeguard the message from being read by enemy spies during delivery, the general employs the services of a wizard. The wizard is able to cast illusory script, which provides a desirabl...

 
4:37 PM
I'm debating answering a PTU question with "There is no benefit to evolving a Pokémon early"... but I'm worried I'm just not finding one
If anybody knows one I'd be very happy to know it (all I've got are very small things like Type changes and Ability changes)
 
4:52 PM
There's a setting someone made where civilization is based around a chained tarrasque
 
5:38 PM
4
Q: How do an ability-setting item and a +1 feat interact?

Olivier GrégoireI'm playing a Half-Elf Lore Bard at level 5, with CON score of 14 after racial bonus. Yesterday evening, a great oracle gave my character an Amulet of Health, which does the following: Your Constitution score is 19 while you wear this amulet. It has no effect on you if your Constitution is alrea...

 
@Joshua The Tarrasque is immune to barbecue.
 
6:17 PM
Actually, @AncientSwordRage, can I borrow you for a moment?
Or really anyone with more than 10k and less than 15k rep on RPG
 
@Someone_Evil sure
I'll bite
 
Cool, do you see anything particular on this post (on the q or when trying to answer it)?
 
@Someone_Evil I spy a deleted spam answer
nothing else pops out at me
 
But you have no indication on the question itself that it is protected?
 
6:26 PM
Ok, that's good to know and really annoying. Means a lot of new users don't really encounter the protection feature until they get 15k and thus can use the privilege without oversight. That'll be useful to know for the oncoming meta disc
Thanks for your time!
 
I discovered I can answer the linked question. (I deleted my answer in 2 seconds or so.)
 
@Someone_Evil I don't follow? What protection feature?
 
Yup, you should be able to. You have earned more than 10 rep on the site. But between those rep scores there's no indication of protection outside timelines/rev history
@AncientSwordRage Questions can be protected and unprotected so only users with 10 rep earned on the specific site (ie. no assoc. bonus) can answer it. Shows up as "Highly active"
 
@Someone_Evil Weird. So under 10k, you see a warning? and over 15k you see you can't add the warning
ah ok
do both sets get a warning, just not in between?
 
No, under 10 rep there's a box explaining it instead of the answer box
 
6:32 PM
13 mins ago, by Someone_Evil
Or really anyone with more than 10k and less than 15k rep on RPG
did you mean 10 rep, not 10k rep?
 
@AncientSwordRage Yup, nothing to help you learn the feature from observing other users doing it
 
@Someone_Evil interesting
 
@AncientSwordRage 10k earns you moderator tools and privelidges, which seems like a reasonable time to show you that info, but alas
 
Ah I get it now. The protection banner does not show for me either.
 
I think I follow
 
7:05 PM
@ThomasMarkov If you don't have the record for most answers in a one week period, I'm scared
 
7:30 PM
Hahaha
I’ve even deleted two answers this week
Looks like 25 answers in the last seven days
11 of them accepted
It goes to show how many DnD 5e questions we actually get.
 
7
Q: What happens to a spell cast by a target affected by the delayed effect of the Slow spell when he saves?

john wallersteinPart of the description of the Slow spell says: If the creature attempts to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action, roll a d20. On an 11 or higher, the spell doesn't take effect until the creature's next turn, and the creature must use its action on that turn to complete the spell. If it c...

 
@Rubiksmoose there's a not bad idea, in the right hands. I can also see it generating arguments ...
 
7:46 PM
@KorvinStarmast I take it you don't get arguments on the use of the normal skills?
 
@Someone_Evil Why did you say that? Of course people argue if they see a situation through a different lens. That is one reason why the reductionist approach (which I don't dislike) will not solve that problem. Did we have Snarkflakes for breakfast today?
 
Ah gotcha. So that was more a point on something it doesn't solve rather than causes
 
@Someone_Evil yes, and perhaps my brevity of expression did not contain sufficient wit/depth.
 
Just FYI, I didn't read snark in any of the last few comments
 
And for full disclosure, I would rather that Acrobatics as a Skill Proficiency didn't exist: I'd rather it was athletics, which makes Dex less of a superstat.
@AncientSwordRage Well, the tone came across as snarky to me, based on how that was constructed, but it's not a detriment to conversation ...
 
7:53 PM
@KorvinStarmast I'm rather prone to agreeing with that
 
@Someone_Evil nice pun there. :-)
 
@KorvinStarmast I'll apologize for that. Certainly wasn't intended.
 
@Someone_Evil Thanks for that, and maybe my riposte was hasty, so apologies for that right back atcha!
 
@KorvinStarmast Entirely accidental :)
 
What does acrobatics even do (that athletics can't)?
 
7:55 PM
@Someone_Evil Which is how I broke my hand ...
@AncientSwordRage indeed ...
The niche for acrobatics that I can see is in the Performance skill/Entertainer background. (And with a daughter who was a cheerleader and gymnast, all of that acrobatic stuff took quite a bit of training in strength as well as flexibility)
(I still grit my teeth at Gygax 'thief acrobat' in 1985 UA. gags again )
this from a guy who played a whole bunch of thief PCs.
 
8:11 PM
Didn't it used to be useful in 3/3.5 to get around people in combat?
 
@AncientSwordRage tumble?
 
@KorvinStarmast thats it
 
@KorvinStarmast Arguments? At a game table? Say it aint so!
(just kidding of course, I can definitely see potential for argument if people were truly married to the kind of sorta-granularity that 5e offers)
It definitely throws things much more into the DM's territory as far as what applies where.
 
Apr 1 '19 at 18:09, by nitsua60
I had an (5e) AL gm throw the Tarrasque at a party trying to take a long rest in a dungeon as a random encounter. The paladin with a +27 to hit did a pretty good job of taking him down while the wizard who was immune to lightning damage kept nailing him with chain lightning, not caring about the reflections.
When you get your skull-pieces put back together, *don't* ask me on which planet that was AL.
 
8:32 PM
@KorvinStarmast Wasn't the acrobat's main class feature to increase their jump height by fractional inches per level, and nothing else?
 
@MikeQ I'd need to grab that book to get you a solid answer. Thief Acrobat was an attempt to capture a certain kind of thief and like the Cavalier ... was in a lot of ways messy
@MikeQ in a word, Nope. It introduced evasion, tight rope walking, pole vaulting, etc. You may be remembering an AD&D 2e kit?
 
Maybe? I vaguely recall reading it in the same source material where Fighting Man got progressively better employees per level.
 
@MikeQ hmm, but that's been true for a long time, the fighter getting access to better hirelins as levels increase. (Though Charisma matters in that 0 through 2e)
checking 1e UA ...
@MikeQ I am thinking AD&D 2e DMG or PHB? not finding it in UA 1e.
 
9:35 PM
@MikeQ 3" per level during levels 6-15 on high jump, basically an extra 6"/12" on standing/running broad jumps through the same levels.
That tightrope walking gets pretty clutch, though. At level 15 you're still at 100% success rate carrying an extra 100# or in a moderate wind.
Gotta take a look at Appendix T while I'm here... so many polearms, so few polearm masters.
 
 
1 hour later…
10:52 PM
@AncientSwordRage Right now I'm just calling them Grim.
 
11:07 PM
Hexing Wizards by Max V E R for Hex Jam. Become a Hexing Wizard by collecting hexes from printed media and battling enemies and magical dilemmas with your Wizard friends.
 
You know you've got a problem when you dispatch your opponent with Power Word Kill and he planeshifts back on top of you two rounds later.
 
Sounds like my lich in a bag.
 
Is bag lich similar to pocket wizard?
 
11:22 PM
3.x demiliches get astral projection at will, and there's a relatively cheap at-will amulet which lets you planeshift at will with better accuracy than the actual spell provided you make an Int check that a demilich can't fail. If your astral projection dies, you snap back into your body. If your astral cord is cut, you die.
Demilich jumps into a bag of holding, casts astral projection, pops the bag from the outside, proceeds to only ever interact with the outside world via astral projection.
If you kill the demilich, they're back in two rounds: they snap back into the bag, cast astral projection, use their amulet to planeshift back to you.
 
lol I didn't realize there was a way to actually do it. I found a few ways that were too slow but no fast ones.
 
If you snap their astral cord, they're back in the normal amount of time it takes for a lich to regenerate unless you find and destroy their phylactery.... but good luck finding the extradimensional space that used to be attached to a bag of holding.
It's a +8 level adjustment, I think.
I made a level 31 demilich PC who could cast as a level 20 wizard and a level 20 cleric.
 
@BESW How does a demilich wear an amulet? Isn't it just a skull?
 
> Phylactery Transference (Su)
Headbands, belts, rings, cloaks, and other wearable items kept in close association with the demilich’s phylactery transfer all their benefits to the demilich no matter how far apart the demilich and the phylactery are located. The standard limits on types of items utilized simultaneously still apply.
 
@BESW, In 5e due to what's probably an error in the writing, you can enter the bag, make the tuning fork for that extra-dimensional space, exit the bag, and planeshift back in carrying the bag. Trying it with another bag will be destructive.
Too bad I can't use that. My way of becoming a lich is streight up polymorph. No phylactery ever existed.
 
11:30 PM
(The skull is traditional, but my demilich was his left hand, with the illusion of the rest of a normal-appearing body. That way he could shake hands with people.)
 
@BESW Hmm, OK.
I was kind of hoping the amulet was threaded through the eye sockets or something, but sure.
 
If I ever do find a way to make a phylactery, good luck finding it. It's gonna be on the near ethereal plane, somewhere.
 
GcL
@Joshua Isn't there a bunch of stuff on that plane that one wouldn't want to come across your phylactery?
 
@GcL: The near-ethereal plane tends to be empty when the corresponding material plane location is inter-galactic space.
 
@Joshua In that case what's the point of it?
 
GcL
11:44 PM
I don't recall how space worked in Spelljjammer. Did that ever get a subsequent edition port? or was that just 2nd edition?
 
@MarkWells: Staying alive. After the moon war that gave it a few new craters everybody wants me dead.
 

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