hey there @KorvinStarmast

hey there @Kevin, welcome to the RPG.SE lair :)

Hello

how're things going?

Just leveled up in my friend's dnd campaign, so good :-)

nice. what level are you at, and what sort of campaign?

Heading into level three now. It takes place in a post apocalyptic world that has devolved from high tech to medieval, so there's a fusion of fantasy and steampunk elements

ah

We've been fighting a good amount of robots and animated suits of armor and such. I came in here to ask if Heat Metal does damage to metal enemies or not. The spell description only explicitly mentions damage to enemies wearing metal.

@Kevin that's a darn good question

@Kevin What system?

D&d 5e

@Kevin short answer, no; it only heats an object (animated armor is a creature). If you want a longer, more thorough answer, ask on the stack :)

@Kevin I've seen this discussed before. Typical ruling is no, because Heat Metal is meant to target "a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range." and not a creature

Ok, so animated armor is definitely out. And I'm guessing robots are probably out too, on account of being creatures and not objects. Assuming the two are mutually exclusive.

Unless the robot is actually a mech suit for a creature (like a dalek for example), then it could be considered an object

Yep, it starts to get fuzzy when you deal with animated weapons/armor

These guys are typically armed so I could still target their weapons, I reckon, but that's like as not to backfire in the form of "robots don't have heat receptors, and are oblivious to your spell, and are also dealing bonus fire damage to you during their attacks"

I'd rule that something like a robot is a valid target -- but that's more of a simulationist view

Read as written, the spell doesn't do structural damage to the metal itself, but it was probably written under the assumption that most metal objects are simple and sturdy, owing to the low tech default setting. I might be able to argue that high temp could fry a robot's sensitive circuitry. But maybe I'll wait until I have more spell slots so I'm not betting quite as large a potion of my repertoire on a single debate with the dm

Maybe I'll take phantasmal force, that probably works on robots...

@Kevin You could ask the DM in advance whether they would allow the spell to damage robots. That way you avoid having an argument mid-combat, and you can pick a different spell instead.

@Kevin The one time this came up in play for me I had the shield guardian go ahead and take the ongoing 2d8 damage per turn, but anyone in melee with it had to take 1d8 (with a CON save for half). I felt like it "evened out" the fact that a real use-case would have the enemy take damage or shuck the hot metal, while in this case the enemy had no "out."

@Kevin yeah, I think that's fair to say -- it doesn't even mention anything about making steel lose its temper

hey there @Powerdork

I'll definitely ask the dm before the next session. I think he favors balance over realism, so the answer probably won't be "yes, it does 2d8 to robots every turn and they're helpless to stop it and there are no drawbacks"

D&D is not the place for debating realism

Hey.

how're things going?

Tiringly.

OK here, but slow

@Shalvenay OH, hllo, sorry, was playing hearthstone with my son

@KorvinStarmast how're things going otherwise?

Work a mess, a good friend in the hospital, and I have to check the news, I don't like what I am hearing .... in the past hour or so. :(

Yeah, not gonna talk about it here. I am a bit more worried that usual about the current events.

aww :/

This is not the venue for that discussion ... anyhoo, momma needs me, see you tomorrow night at the latest. :) Hopefully some email on tactics now that we see the situation.

Nite

The eagle is fussing around the nest

And chirping

END UPDATE

Eagle news are the best news.

I'm spending time with the puppy. His "big brother" (another griffon a bit over a year old) has been really good at his job. He escorts the puppy wherever.

"See lil boy, these people will pet you until you fall asleep" <drags puppy onto my lap>

hey there @ACuriousMind

Tonight's RPG session ended with one PC calling a bear "ugly" while it munched on a dead goblin, and my character shouting at it, "Don't listen to her! You're beautiful!"

and only one person wanting to make friends with it

@Shalvenay hey there

how're things going?

But it was a strong independent bear who don't need no man.

lol

I didn't expect Benmarden to become a bear stan, but I'm okay with it.

it would have been cool to have a bear follow you around for a while, but this means I don't need to track him

@Shalvenay Quite well

@ACuriousMind OK here

Greetings, I have come from the underdark that is known as WorldBuilding to bid you a question

Can you folks recommend any DnD 5th Edition oneshots (Wotc or fanmade/free) for level 1 or 2 characters?

@dot_Sp0T do you have access to Tales from the Yawning Portal?

@DavidCoffron I can get it on DnDBeyond I am sure

@dot_Sp0T there's an adventure in there called Sunless Citadel. It's relatively short and perfect for 1st level characters

It'll bring your players up to level 3 characters

(You can always cut the adventure short if you want them to be a lower level when they leave the citadel)

It's really just for one or more oneshots I'm going to do at uni to give people a chance of experiencing Table Top RPGs

although I'm planning on filling up a pool of people that want to play some more to do a campaign :)

so yeah, convention-sized modules are probably best for that

I've also found this one: winghornpress.com/adventures/wolves-of-welton has anyone played it?

Has anyone here played freebooters on the frontier? I am going to run a 1-shot in it later today, and I was wondering if people had GM tips.

hey there @WhatWizard

and I have not

Hello!

how're things going?

Pretty alright.

I haven't been in this room in a little while.

How are things here?

OK

Quiet as usual on the weekends

@dot_Sp0T I've heard that one recommended a few times and plan to use it for a one-shot myself, but don't have any personal experience.

@Rubiksmoose I'm way to excited about this PC PC PC character...

@Tiggerous ah nice, I might be running it then; will give a quick feedback on my experiences with it in here if you like and I'll remember :)

@DavidCoffron hahahah I gave it a brief look last night but I'll have to give it a more thorough look. I hope you can find someone who'll let you play it.

@Rubiksmoose I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find someone. It's balanced just weird narratively.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, potentially bad keyword in answer, toxic answer detected: Calculating Wizard spell casting ability and spell attack bonus by user43845 on rpg.SE

sighs...fee fi fo fum, is that the blood of a troll I smell?

@Shalvenay they are slain

they were defeated in minutes

i'm having flashbacks to one punch man

@BESW @trogdor there is a tv show on netflix see regularly, and every single time i read the name as "HONEY HEIST" for a second

and get surprised by there being a TV adaption, and one that is so hardcore, and one that features no bears

and then do a double-take and remember i've already done this a dozen times

hey again @WhatWizard

Hello again!

@doppelgreener I get the impression Netflix has hired some designers who don't step back from their work and look at it from across the room.

@BESW i agree with that

(but i also think i'm primed to see honey heist in ways most people would not be XD)

True.

@KorvinStarmast @NautArch @Shalvenay @trogdor (cc: @Ryan) I've got an engraving job running right now whose control software estimates it'll be done in 2h12m. Obviously that's pretty tight. I'll update in the 8pm hour as to how that timing looks.

(The engineer who's primarily responsible for these machines tells me the software tends to estimate high, so we should be all good. But it'll be close. I'm only 5m from home, so tight's not necessarily horrible.)

@doppelgreener don't worry, I've mentally noted your Freudian desire for all the points. I'll toss some bounties your way =)

@nitsua60 to be fair that word probably got deleted mid rewording >_>;

Also according to the badge I just got from that answer I'm now a necromancer!

@doppelgreener is this your first act of Stackromancy after all this time? :o

@Shalvenay nope, just the first time in a few years. Maybe it's more like multiclass level 4.

@doppelgreener xD