TRPG General Chat

AncientSwordRage

12:10 AM

@ThomasMarkov the rules are so wonky here....

Thomas Markov

12:22 AM

@AncientSwordRage definitely weird. But not hard to keep straight once you know the bonus action rule.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov even so...

Thomas Markov

I think the whole “this doesn’t seem intuitive” or “this seems totally arbitrary sometimes” makes people think it’s more confusing than it is needs to be.

Adeptus

1:15 AM

I had a nice "rule of cool" moment at my table last week. I'm DM, my wife is one of my players. She wants to get through a Wall of Fire and is looking for a way to reduce damage. "Can I use Cone of Cold to reduce the flames for a moment?" So I let her roll damage for Cone of Cold, & took it away from the damage for the Wall of Fire.

AncientSwordRage

1:55 AM

@Adeptus nice

Hot RPG Questions

4:41 AM

6

Q: What spell level should this homebrew spell have?

Name: Morph Exterior Level: 3 School: Transmutation Casting Time: 1 action Duration: Concentration, 1 minute Range: Self Components: V S M (a piece of obsidian, a sycamore tree branch, or a sample of Ochre Jelly ooze) This spell allows you to alter the outer layers of your body to adapt to the b...

Thomas Markov

12:26 PM

I've an idea for a list question

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov go on

Thomas Markov

"What are all of the 'guaranteed' functions of the Wish spell that are not listed in the spell description?"

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov ... I thought there were none?

Someone_Evil

So all the tings that say "a wish spell can end this effect" or something similiar?

Thomas Markov

Some game features identify things that can be done with a wish spell

@Someone_Evil Yeah, those would qualifty

AncientSwordRage

12:31 PM

@ThomasMarkov ah right

guaranteed might not be the best wording

Thomas Markov

What made me think of it was the Androsphinx's lair action:

> The flow of time within the lair is altered such that everything within moves up to 10 years forward or backward (sphinx’s choice). Only the sphinx is immediately aware of the time change. A wish spell can return the caster and up to seven other creatures designated by the caster to their normal time.

AncientSwordRage

because my understanding is that a DM could STILL say: nope

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage Not so sure, at least, I dont think a DM should be able to say no to the stated function of the wish spell in that lair action

I think I would want to word the question to exclude "only a wish spell can undo this" sort of effects.

AncientSwordRage

> You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above examples. State your wish to the GM as precisely as possible. The GM has great latitude in ruling what occurs in such an instance; the greater the wish, the greater the likelihood that something goes wrong.

interacting with the lair action is 'beyond the scope' of the above examples

Thomas Markov

hmmm

This list would likely be wayyy too long with all of the monster effects that mention it.

DDB search only gives the first 35 results.

AncientSwordRage

12:38 PM

what I'd love is for the wish spell to state "Some things can only be interacted with by the use of a wish spell the GM does/doesn't have final say over if you are successful based on your wording"

Akixkisu

Naming the monster with the text should do the trick.

No need to cite every instance

Someone_Evil

Is there a particular use for this list, or is it mostly idle curiosity?

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov this fact always makes me want to make a list question even more

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage Right?

AncientSwordRage

exactly

Thomas Markov

12:43 PM

@Someone_Evil Mostly just wanting to know what all the published functions of wish are.

Someone_Evil

That's fine. I was just asking in case there was something I was missing

Thomas Markov

You think that's a good enough scope for a list question?

I could get it started with a CW answer.

Someone_Evil

And a self answer with the effects you've found, "please point out any I've missed" works quite well

Thomas Markov

With some of the examples I had found

Someone_Evil

CW doesn't really make much diff, but you could

Thomas Markov

12:47 PM

@Someone_Evil I feel like CW sends a signal of "add what you find here instead of posting a new answer with an effect you found that I didnt"

And it's not like I care about the rep lol

I am also still of the opinion that we should make the wish question I answered a canonical dupe target.

4

A: Should we have a canonical "Can the Wish spell do X?" question?

I think this is a good candidate for having a canonical dupe target. My approach here is going to be to review the evidence that motivates having a canonical question, then propose a question and answer to workshop. Exhibit A: Volume of essentially identical questions with essentially identical a...

Pretty sure it didnt get traction cuz it was two years late to the post, and at the time of writing, there was no good target candidate.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov I'm in favour

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil can we do a revisit of that meta?

:P

AncientSwordRage

If only WoTC would link to this answer in the wish spell's description in the Basic Rules. I love your approach. I think there's a bounty on the way ... — KorvinStarmast Sep 7 at 16:57

also @ThomasMarkov talking of bounties, it looks like it's too early to bounty that pvp answer? Or is it the 3 close votes?

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage Got a few hours before its eligible.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov finger hovers over F5

Someone_Evil

1:15 PM

@ThomasMarkov Uhm... you probably could if you think there's a compelling reason to start the discussion anew (eg. questions we've received in the interim).

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil The answer I provided to the most recent iteration of the question is the highest scoring answer in the wish tag by a notable margin and provided guidance that was notably lacking from all previous iterations of the question. At the time that meta was asked, there was simply no good dupe target. I think the most upvoted answer to the old meta has some stale votes that arent going to change.

Someone_Evil

I'm not sure I can image a dupe target that would actually be useful, because there are so many different constructions with the wish spell and I'd want to be careful around over-duping over similar answers

Thomas Markov

I'm saying my answer here should be the canonical answer to questions of this form.

Someone_Evil

But the claim is then that these questions can't have other good/valid answers, no?

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil Well, yeah. The basic formula for answers is usually "the DM can do what they want" and then to proceed with idea generation for how the DM can twist the particular wish.

The other solution is for me to just post my answer to all of these questions.

AncientSwordRage

1:28 PM

@Someone_Evil I'm arguing that TM's answer is as canonical as you can get

Thomas Markov

I spelled out my reasoning in my answer to that meta.

AncientSwordRage

if somebody has a better answer, it needs to go on the unclosed wish question (not the one that gets closed as a duplicate), and then compete with it

Thomas Markov

All these question are essentially identical and have essentially the same answer.

Q: Can wish do this thing?

A: Yes, but the spell description says its entirely up to the DM how it works out, if at all. [And sometimes these answers include a list of ways the DM can twist the wording].

AncientSwordRage

this ^

Someone_Evil

But if there's another answer to the specific question

AncientSwordRage

1:30 PM

@Someone_Evil "the spell description says its entirely up to the DM" covers that

and that's not TM's interpretation of the spell, it's quite plain in the spell description

Thomas Markov

I'll just use future questions of this form as rep and badge farms.

lol

Maybe even go around and drop the answer on some old ones.

Someone_Evil

I'm not convinced we actually have a problem with these questions that needs solving. Or maybe for the "can it be DM proofed" that you propose, but I think that's actually very few of the questions in question

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil I think it's most of them.

Some of them have some nuance that's worth addressing seperately, but most of these really are just "can I make the DM give me this wish?"

Someone_Evil

But do go ahead and open the meta. Don't let my doubts stop you

Mostly as a thought experiment, what would you do if the thing they were trying for was possible by other means? That would normally be a good frame challenge, no?

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil Yeah, but that means it's an XY Problem

which making a new canonical self-answered question could address hmmmmmmm

Someone_Evil

1:41 PM

I'd low-key expect any "can the wish spell do X?" question to be a bit XY-y

That or a thought experiment or a discussion prompt (or all three)

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil I think the procedure here would be to initially close as a dupe, mention to OP that their question may be an XY Problem, and ask them to rephrase their question as a problem to be solved rather than a question about the solution they thought of (wish).

Someone_Evil

If the XY is obvious, we shouldn't have to make them jump through those hoops

But I suppose then the canonical would be useful for an answer to open and link to, saving them some time on that

That function is already covered by having the good answer somewhere really

Thomas Markov

I really feel like we don’t need to keep repeating a basic explanation of the spell description, and I definitely think we need to stop the idea generation behind twisting the wording.

Someone_Evil

There's a fine line between idea-gen and expert reading, but I'd sorta agree that that side of the answers isn't really worth protecting

AncientSwordRage

1:56 PM

@Someone_Evil "can the wish spell do X?" and "can I make the GM (via the wish spell) do X?" aren't a million miles apart

Someone_Evil

One seems based on a much more antagonistic player-DM relationship, but yes

Thomas Markov

They’re opposite frames of the same question. The answer to “can wish do X” is “yes, but the dm decides what happen” and the answer to “can I make the dm give me wish X” is “no, the dm decides what happens”.

Same answer, because they’re really the same question.

@AncientSwordRage about 100 minutes till that question is eligible

AncientSwordRage

2:14 PM

@ThomasMarkov It's on

AncientSwordRage

2:29 PM

@ThomasMarkov It's weird because I'm used to questions having the button but saying 'eligible in X hours/days/minutes'

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage Ill probably be away for lunch when it becomes eligible.

AncientSwordRage

:o

I'm happy to wait for you to some back

Thomas Markov

You can drop yours, I'll just drop a bigger one later.

KorvinStarmast

Curse of Strahd, down in the basement. Carefully exploring a passage that turns east, after I had turned the shadows and made them run off. (Well, one didn't run off so we had to kill it). Listen at the door. DM says "You hear nothing, and then you hear and feel saliva dripping and a breath" - I say "I back away!" .... right as the mimic attacks me! (It rolled a 5). The party then had to kill the mimic who oozed forward and tried to whack at our barbarian with it's pseudopod.

The way the DM had set the scene, and his description, was really good. (Ya had to be there, I guess). First time I have enjoyed a mimic encounter in years.

We had actually TPK'd earlier in the session, but Crom gave our Warlock one last chance. The way we did Chargen, it was "point buy or roll in order, as Crom would have you do!" (Old school DM, and a good one). The other three rolled stats. Our warlock ended up with a 7 Con. Anyway, the ghoul ambush out of the floor dropped us all, one by one (I got critted, went down early) and the three others got to 0 HP. But the Warlock actually died. He had 1 HP, got hit for 12, and had HP max of 10.

Dead. I keyed the Mic "OK, I guess I'll get my next character started" ... and headed off to the little macro I made for rolling up new characters. DM said "Wait a minute, Crom has not yet spoken". {Pause} {apparently a whisper to warlock} warlock gets up and thrusts his spear (rolled a 17, woot!) and hit the last ghoul standing. Ghoul not dead. Swing and amiss from the ghoul. Warlock rolls a 14, hits, and ghoul drops.

We (other three players) asked DM "What happened there?" and the Warlock Player answered: "Crom told me that he wasn't done with me yet, now go back there and finish what I sent you to do!"

The dice were kind, however. it could have ended otherwise. Crom gave him 1 HP to finish the job ...

GcL

2:56 PM

@KorvinStarmast I initially read mimic as mime and the passage was just as terrifying.

Actually, I like it better that it was a mime that oozed forward to whack the barbarian with his pseudopod. That's canon now.

All of this, with the new canon, begs the question: If a party perishes in a dungeon, and the players don't stick around to hear their demise, do they make a sound?

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov no bounty link has appeared

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage you’ve got another hour

AncientSwordRage

OH it's 15:49:30 Z

that Z is important

Z for Zis iz not BST

GcL

Daylight savings time is bullshit. And not even a useful kind.

AncientSwordRage

@GcL as somebody who follows the position on the sun pretty darn closely I definitely have opinions

GcL

3:09 PM

@AncientSwordRage You're stuck orbiting that big fusion sphere too?!

This gravity well goes deeeep

AncientSwordRage

@GcL I'm more girosole than gyro-soul

KorvinStarmast

@GcL Bloom County, mime-whacking by Opus the Penguin (obviously a barbarian!) was the image your comment triggered. 😁

GcL

Just keeping things precession-al?

KorvinStarmast

@GcL The only sound heard is the grinding of teeth and the rolling of handfuls of d6 ...

GcL

@KorvinStarmast Oh news papers... back when we had news. Those were the days.

AncientSwordRage

3:23 PM

@GcL yup! Keeping up with my 5-a-day

KorvinStarmast

4:46 PM

@GcL now we only get commentary. News is getting a bit hard to pick out of the noise.

Joel Harmon

5:15 PM

Sadly, I find various SE sites to be top-tier news providers these days (in terms of hard content vs. word count).

GcL

@JoelHarmon There's SE news sites?

Joel Harmon

Not explicitly, but as a general trend news will spawn questions on relevant stacks, which garner views because they're news, and thus on to HNQ.

For day to day stuff, I'd guess that Politics.SE sees lots of major news stories, but focuses on specific details more than he-said-she-said.

Thomas Markov

5:37 PM

0

Q: What are all of the published "off-label" uses of the Wish spell?

The spell wish offers several things you can wish for that are guaranteed to work. Wishing for other things can lead to consequences, at the DM's discretion: You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above examples. State your wish to the GM as precisely as possible. The GM ...

dnd-5e spells wish

AncientSwordRage

6:11 PM

> The archmage Traxigor was polymorphed into an otter, and decided he liked his new form, so he made it permanent using a wish spell.

... re-ferret-rence please.... For no reason.

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage He's a character in Descent into Avernus

dndbeyond.com/sources/bgdia/a-tale-of-two-cities#TraxigorsTower

> Traxigor was polymorphed into an otter years ago, and decided he preferred the new form to his original one (that of a wizened old man). His otter form was made permanent by a wish spell. He uses the archmage stat block, but is a Tiny beast with a Strength of 3. His alignment is chaotic good, and he speaks Common, Draconic, Dwarvish, Gnomish, Halfling, and Troglodyte.

AncientSwordRage

Excellent, thank you

Thomas Markov

10

Q: What are the circumstances of Traxigor's transformation and do they explain how he retained his magical abilities as an otter?

Traxigor is an Archmage with a rather unique morphology, who is encountered during Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus: Traxigor was polymorphed into an otter years ago, and decided he preferred the new form to his original one (that of a wizened old man). His otter form was made permanent by a ...

dnd-5e dungeons-and-dragons lore spellcasting polymorph

Unfortunately it looks like there is no info about him outside of the module

AncientSwordRage

6:28 PM

@ThomasMarkov shame

Feeds

8:25 PM

Needles & Nilbogs: Neverron: Never Eberron, or teenage-me having Ideas

posted on September 23, 2021 by Bardic Wizard

Today I have no plan for a blog entry, no sleep, and no time. So I’m just going to share an idea and a world I’ve developed — and (surprisingly for me) it’s not the Auri or their culture. It’s a setting I’ve probably mentioned before; it was intended for d&d, but it mostly ended up being used for Risus games and the infamous Elvish Flirting Law Incident. Because I started developing it in m…

Thomas Markov

8:41 PM

0

Q: Error message in LQP queue asking me to "Please try again" led to multiple comments posted

I checked the LQP queue and there was an answer with a score of 1. As it had a positive score, I was given the option to Recommend Deletion. I first downvoted the post, then attempted to complete the review with Recommend Deletion. It did not work, and I received a red error message, which I unfo...

bug comments review low-quality-posts

Someone_Evil

Well that's a fun edge case you ran yourself into :)

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil how many comments need to happen for you to get a spam alert?

Someone_Evil

No idea. Don't need to test

Not sure that's supposed to be public either

Akixkisu

@ThomasMarkov 20

If that is just regular comments.

Thomas Markov

@Akixkisu I think that's the generic alert if any comment section gets to 20 comments.

Im pretty sure Ive sent an alert to the mods before by posting many comments in quick succession, with less than 20 on the thread.

Someone_Evil

8:54 PM

Actually, doesn't look like there's an autoflag on that specifically. It's probably rare and weird enough to not warrant it. I'd sure expect to get a flag from a user if anyone saw it though

@ThomasMarkov The generic 20 comments flag also counts deleted comments

And we sometimes get flags asking for comments to be cleaned up or moved, which do the same thing as the autoflag except on different criteria obvs.

KorvinStarmast

10:04 PM

I am doomed, thoroughly and completely doomed. Diablo II Resurrected is down loading, and I have a date with my son and a friend at 6:30 to begin playing ... I am doomed. They did a nice visual upgrade, fixed a few QOL issues, and playing with friends in that game is fun. You can make a strong build, weak build, medium build ... so many different ways to enjoy that game. I am doomed.

I am not sure which was worse: my Starcraft addiction when I discovered that game, or my diablo II addiction when I found a group of people to play weird builds with on battlenet. (D III Never quite reached that level of fun, for all of its visual excellence)

GcL

I do recall loving those games. I found the antidote was to read any of the recent news about Blizzard, and remember that Blizzard North did Diablo... and all those people aren't there anymore.

So for me, I keep the memories of those games relatively clean by not digging back into it because I don't want to think about Blizzard anymore.

KorvinStarmast

@GcL Blizzard North was originally called Condor, and affectionately known by some as "Buzzard" thanks to their advocacy of grief play. (They championed PvP and PK styles with horrific loopholesl that took until patch 1.10 to fix)

@GcL WoW never did it for me. I enjoyed some Hero of the Storms for a while, and I play Hearthstone because I like the tone. I will for sure get Diablo IV. But Blizzard never met a release date that they couldn't miss, and I am sure they'll miss D IV's 'release date' as well. 😋

Thomas Markov

10:32 PM

24

Q: Profile image changes (TL/DR: You won't be able to switch back to your old Gravatar image after you change your email)

TL/DR: You won't be able to switch back to your old Gravatar image if you change your email (or have changed your email in the past). Please save and re-upload your Gravatar image if you want to keep it going forward. Hi, everyone! I’m Felippe Rangel, a software engineer at Stack Overflow, and I...

discussion featured gravatar announcements email-addresses

Akixkisu

10:43 PM

Anya Taylor-Joy will voice Princess Peach, Charlie Day will voice Luigi, Jack Black will voice Bowser, Keegan Michael-Key will voice Toad - what a cast.

DForck42

5e: would a single boneclaw against a part of 5 6th level players be too much? i want it to be a bit of a nasty surprise as part of a plot line they've been following for a while now

Akixkisu

@DForck42 will depend much on the circumstances, certainly in the it can get out of hands quickly category.

DForck42

@Akixkisu yeah, rereading it i think i'm going to change the encounter, might save it for later depending on how the plot line develops

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