TRPG General Chat

Nat

00:01

Fixed my comments to avoid misrepresenting homebrew content. Thanks for the catch, @Miniman.

BESW

Guys, I got to play Arecibo when it was being playtested and @NicolasHornyak has created an amazing game set in Puerto Rico with an authenticity and affection that sets this game apart. Check it out when you can! https://twitter.com/fredhicks/status/984548766131867648

Tweeted by ShoshanaKessock on April 18, 2018 at 12:29 PM

KorvinStarmast

@Miniman Yeah, that's a low class move by WoTC.

Nat

Looks like Banishment is an official 4th-level spell. So I guess a banished vampire would either actually be banished (if non-native) or banished to a demiplane for 1 minute (if native). That'd seem to free its victims from its charm attack.

Miniman

Yeah, Banishment was my first thought too.

Nat

00:19

Only other one I see is Contingency, at 6th-level, if it could be used to trigger Blink when the caster is charmed. Kind of a one-time shield for the caster only.

After that, then 7th-level+ spells seem to offer a lot of options. Heh, it'd be funny for them to fight the vampire near a Magnificent Mansion, then grapple charmed allies or the vampire across the dimensional threshold.

Oh! Or shove them into a Bag of Holding or Portable Hole!

Ben

01:36

Shalvenay

02:05

@Ben yeah, I know how it feels man -- although instead of a gratuitous/unexplained DV, I simply come up with a goose egg

Mike Q

02:23

Nobody knows the real stackexchange experience until they spend 2+ hours researching and editing their answer, and immediately receive a Flurry of Downvotes

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose Why is it bad form to correct a question?

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Because correcting mistakes is a key job of answers. I've scolded for this before.

Shalvenay

@MikeQ the best part is when those downvotes come with no additional feedback or explanation whatsoever

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose really? That seems odd. Did a mod scold you?

Rubiksmoose

Once you get answers, you should leave the question as is unless there is a quality issue with it. Factual errors can be dealt with in answers.

@NautArch Yeah SSD in this case

@Rubiksmoose Eh, it's discouraged to correct questions based on corrections in the answers (correcting misapprehensions embedded in questions is a normal part of answers' jobs), but being in a conflict of interest on that point here, I don't feel like doing anything about it. — SevenSidedDie ♦ Mar 2 at 1:16

NautArch

02:27

sheesh, that seems weird. I actually hadn't read your answer when I commented.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch I mean the other more pragmatic reason is that it creates a situation in which the question can be constantly changing based on the answers, which means the answers then have to change again. If that makes any sense.

For example, if Op actually made the edit you suggested I would have to remove a large chunk of my anwser.

(not that I mind too much)

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose I don't agree, but whatever. It seems like we should want to have questions that are factually correct so that answers can be more direct and directed.

Using an answer to 'fix' a question seems like the wrong way of going about it, but if that's the stack way, then it's the stack way.

Rubiksmoose

Fwiw that was my justification for changing the post in question when I was scolded by SSD as well and I don't think it was a huge issue then or in this case necessarily

But it is a bit unfair to allow the question to change substantially based on the answers and force all the answers to change to address it unless there is a serious need to do so IMO.

Just my 0.02 though. I have no idea if the idea is commonly held throughout the stack. Just echoing what I've been told.

Ben

@NautArch down voting != correcting

NautArch

But the question isn't changing substantially. It changes an assumption they made, but the question remains. You only had to add a section to your answer in order to address it.

Rubiksmoose

02:33

@Ben different discussion actually.

@Ben context: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/120839/…

@NautArch shrug I'm not that worked up about it. Might be worth pinging a mod or writing a meta to see what the dealio is vis-a-vis this issue. Maybe they have a better or more compelling reason. Like I said though it doesn't make a huge deal here IMO. It was more the principle of the matter.

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose yeah, i'm trying to figure out how to ask it on meta.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch Feel free to cite the comment from SSD.

Maybe "Is correcting the question based on answers to it correct form? If not, why?" type of thing

NautArch

11

Q: Should we correct rules references in questions?

I came upon a question, where the asker referenced the rules incorrectly (the question in general was also rather hard to follow). Later on someone edited the question and formatted the incorrect reference as a quote. I tried to help out and edited the question, so that it included the correct ...

this is basically it

I like Adam's answer, that makes sense.

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch I'm glad other people are more coherent at explaining things that I.

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose heh, no worries

Rubiksmoose

02:42

0

Q: How to get a party member into a Bag of Holding or Rope Trick to break a Vampire's Charm?

As per answers to this question What can break a Vampire’s Charm besides Greater Restoration? - a vampire's charm can be challenging to break (i.e. Dispel Magic doesn't work) but the charm can potentially be broken by separating the victim and the vampire onto different planes. Separating a cha...

dnd-5e magic-items monsters

I'm pretty sure this needs to be closed btw. For the reasons I cite in my comment.

NautArch

@Rubiksmoose already got my vote :)

Rubiksmoose

@NautArch heh, the first non-contentious vote I've posted in a while lol

Ben

@Rubiksmoose ah. Ignore me then XD

SPavel

03:36

Bless the airport lounge and unlimited liquor

Where else can a whiskey ginger be mostly whiskey?

Although, the double whammy of a hangover and jetlag may fell even the mightiest warriors

trogdor

05:17

Ugh air travel, the bane of my existence

Powerdork

07:20

Anyone about that knows the specifics of becoming a bard in a pre-2e D&D game?

Derpy

07:45

@trogdor then I am sorry, but you should switch your avatar from Twilight to her brother, Shinning Armor (ref: season 7, "Once upon a zeppelin") ^_^

trogdor

@Derpy lol

I don't feel like I need to share every quality with the character I use as an avatar

heck some of them I share hardly any qualities with

kviiri

Hmmm! The bird cam has some noise manifesting as horizontal lines

I hope the hardware's not giving up before the chick hatches

Derpy

08:05

@trogdor I am pretty sure someone in this room once suggested that we should look into the possibility to create our own candy colored ponies with SCIENCE!. Since I wasn't able to get the required uranium unstable isotopes to build the Friendship Core engine, this his is my next plan: use social engineering to slowly turn other users into ponies.

If the plan goes like I expect, in about 6-8 month you should wake up in the morning and discover you now have a set of pony tail and ears. Pinocchio style.

trogdor

lol

not sure how that would work without the uranium

kviiri

The Satakunta osprey is present (webcam in youtube)

Doesn't have a mate or eggs though

Trish

08:26

/me chuckles madly... "Last game night was great... ok, The Year of the Griffon has pretty much 3 interwoven plots: a war one (the city is under siege by orcs) a criminal one (there is a vampire roaming the city, killing people, and since the night before he has sired himself a helper) and finally there is a history plot (there is an ancient temple under the city, which was used by orcs some 1200 years ago, sealed by elves and dwarves).

Now, their current prime suspect of the criminal plot is: "a flying, 3 meter (ca. 10 feet) tall flying female, black haired werewolf butcher that wears makeup like an easy girl" At least that is the sum of their assumptions. Well they have a point: the last murder was conducted by the newly made vampire, which just so happens to be a female half elf with a liking for 'elaborate makeup'.

@trogdor actully it can be quite fun to play a very different character from yourself. Empowerment is one of the things about RPGs

trogdor

@Trish oh I agree

kviiri

We have Curse of Strahd continuing today

trogdor

it was actually very specifically Avatars I meant but rpg characters I play work for that too

kviiri

We've been progressing really slow and it's frustrating me

Trish

Well, the group also conducted research in the archives... the archivar? a greedy little man... the problem in their research? they sent the hunter that can barely read... and she just looked into the files of capital corpus delicti of the last 20 years... the last vampire? something like 500 years ago

Tiggerous

08:35

My group has spent 30 hours on LMoP so far, and they've only just entered the eponymous Lost Mine. Serves me right for DM'ing 6 completely new players.

Trish

plus, the old archive burned out 200 years ago, making the old files hard to ind

YotG successes in 6 months:reach the town, free it, build war machines(2 catapults, 1 trebuchet) to defend the town, cook up the recepie for greek fire, make some 15 flasks of the stuff 8it will go more rapidly now that the alchemist got her fingers on a little bit of demonic wood... enough to make 30 flasks in the same ammount of days... she blew herself up a few times...)

anyway, other successes: get one of the PCs married to an NPC, almost put the elf to the stake for demonology, hunt the "flying werwolf" without success, build a militia of about 400 people that by now have some fighting experience, evacuate 1600 non-fighters from the town.

OOC? about... 1 meeting a week, since last semester start, so about half a year by now with the march as hiatus due to it being a college group. IC? about... 77 days or such.

no, wait, 107, forgot a month

kviiri

09:16

our current game was supposed to be a frequent one

The last game was a month ago, approximately

Didn't work out too well.

Trish

Well, college club has a huge benefit: it gives a regular date, people live pretty much on campus and have it as one of the 'events' in the week (my group manages to laugh each other to the table regularily...)

Tiggerous

We play twice a month, I send round a doodle poll round and book them in a few months at a time. Minimum 4 / 6 players needed to go ahead. Got dates up to August sorted atm.

kviiri

Now we have dates scheduled for today and the next two Thursdays

But I suspect next week will be cancelled

Tiggerous

One day, I would like to play at least a one-shot as a PC myself though...

kviiri

The infrequent schedule we've been maintaining, combined with the general slow pace of the sessions we've been playing, has been really frustrating

Tiggerous

09:30

I can appreciate that.

kviiri

I like to say AW lets me run a movie in the same amount of time DnD takes to run a few scenes, but we've been moving disappointingly slow and mostly interacting with NPCs who are far too numerous and boring to appreciate.

Tiggerous

That does sound slow... my players rarely manage more than two encounters a session, but we only play for 2.25 hours at a time.

And one of them still stuggles to remember which dice they need to roll to make their basic attack.

kviiri

The worst session was literally just us walking around the town and asking every NPC we came across the same questions and got the same answers

And CoS has a lot of NPCs.

Tiggerous

I have heard that. I'm not sure it's the module for me.

doppelgreener

For the Geek Night that BESW hosts, we meet up every Saturday, and it's no pressure, whoever can attend. (99.9% of the time that includes trogdor, 90% of the time that includes me.) Right now we've got one game involving five of us, and whenever at least four of us are present we play. If there's less than that, or we're not prepared to play, we talk, hang out, might play other games or do a one-shot.

Ben

09:40

@MikeQ I did it! First try!

BESW

We collect a lot of one-shot systems.

kviiri

@doppelgreener I've been gently nudging our group towards one-shots or minicampaigns because... well, the idea of running a long game is fun but so far 0% of our campaigns has reached their conclusion for planned lengths beyond three sessions.

Fatigue invariably sets in.

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener Online, I presume, rather than IRL?

Ben

Parried the lazer from a Guardian. Waited for the beep and BAM

BESW

@Tiggerous Right now it's mostly online except Trogdor comes to my house. For several years it was IRL at my house except for Greener.

trogdor

09:44

@doppelgreener 99.9% is a little high I think

unless you count like,... ever since we started

when it was us and a bunch of different people

doppelgreener

@kviiri What I've aimed to do in that situation is to have, basically, a renewal date: choose a story, and agree to playing it specifically for just three sessions, and aim to have a story arc that will last 2-3 sessions of content. It should be such that it's fine to end after three sessions, but also leave room to keep going. Then, after those three sessions / at the end of that story arc, you're done.

Then the group can discuss what they want to do next: do they want to continue that story? Do a different story? Return to a previous one? Do a one-shot and work it out next week?

... I haven't been able to actually see through that process and see how it fully works out, though, because I've been trying it with various groups that have spooled up but also disintegrated sometime between sessions 1 and 2 for various reasons.

BESW

Heheh.

doppelgreener

For our regular campaign a couple of years ago we had (almost entirely) strictly episodic sessions: the whole story arc of that session is wrapped up the same night it starts. Next week, we work out what we want to do, and it might be the next session of that game, or a one-shot, or some other game, etc. So it's basically that ^ on a tighter feedback loop, and it worked well for us.

BESW

Completely unrelated: I've been watching some TV shows recently where there's some kind of dangerous terrain separating locations that characters semi-regularly need to move between, and the shows tend to be really bad at making the travel actually feel perilous because of course the main characters will survive the journey.

Tiggerous

I, at least, have a pretty consistent group at the moment. We're all work colleagues (plus partners) and only we have a child, so everyone just comes to us. It's all IRL except if someone has to travel for work, then they've occasionally Skyped in from the hotel.

doppelgreener

09:58

@Tiggerous that's really good!

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener Yeah, I should count myself very lucky!

BESW

In Fate I think it'd be pretty straightforward to model it as an attack or a challenge, but I also thought that for really dangerous terrain it might be interesting to model it as a monster you have to fight in a full conflict.

doppelgreener

@BESW ooh, shoot. man, Into the Brolands would do that properly and have an actual suspenseful perilous terrain journey.

BESW

Or, going the other way, to just say "Crossing this terrain forces you to fill your lowest consequence slot."

The latter would be for situations where the terrain itself isn't particularly interesting, but the narrative needs locations to be meaningfully separate.

doppelgreener

@BESW i think i'd go for that: if it was a foregone conclusion we'd make it through, and there's not much interesting actually happening there, that would be appropriate.

but there might be a lot of fun to be had in "you can either take two weeks, or take two days crossing the molten lava fields with the molten lava worms. Yara Baba's hut is in the middle."

BESW

10:03

(In the new TV series Krypton, above-ground terrain outside the city is so very dangerous the city has a force shield to protect itself, and executes people by shoving them outside the shield without the specialized equipment needed to survive. Of course, almost every major character walks around outside the city at least once an episode with no particular problems except some dramatic music.)

kviiri

@BESW That sounds like the Silo series

doppelgreener

@BESW [major character then comes across a tent and campground where all the city exiles from this past season are roasting marshmallows and playing instruments, major character is welcomed and offered a smore]

BESW

@doppelgreener I keep waiting for this.

So far they've already found at least three different hideouts/settlements out there.

doppelgreener

[ponder] @BESW You suggested a few weeks ago that one thing that Librarians does well is that most episodes are substantially exploring a particular note of a particular character, or exploring the group dynamic. Having to cross perilous terrain would be an extraordinary way to handle, say, an episode that's exploring trust between two characters or the group.

BESW

(There's a mad scientist's lab, a rogue splinter of a revolutionary movement, and a heretical cult.)

True!

kviiri

10:10

Hazardous terrain is one of the reasons why I tend to dislike the idea of "fast travel as a perk/reward/service".

BESW

It really depends on the kind of game you're playing.

kviiri

Yep

If terrain hazards are not really dangerous (eg. having some wolves between two long rests in DnD), it's basically an anti-frustration feature, but I don't think "no boring parts" is something that should be earned

BESW

Like, 4e is focused on combat to the extent that Ritual Casting exists largely to justify accelerating the intervals between combats.

kviiri

But if hazards are really dangerous and interesting, there's no real reason to get rid of those... except as a sort of tiering mechanism, perhaps.

BESW

While 3.5, as written, presented travel as a way for the GM to fit in a few meaningless combat scenes that may or may not have been appropriate for the party, level, or plot, because 3.5 really liked its random nonsense.

trogdor

10:13

@BESW wow way to kill it XD

BESW

I do firmly believe in "no boring bits" in all my RPGs unless the whole group agrees otherwise.

My friends dedicated part of their week to playing a game with each other, and I feel the minimum I can do in return is not waste their time.

kviiri

Eg. if a lower-level party's quests are among the "courier" or "escort" missions, where the main objective is to complete a perilous journey between two safe locations, safe fast travel can serve as a tier step from that to other kinds of missions.

BESW

I like that 4e uses the levels on planar travel rituals as a soft gate to slowly expand the scope of the multiverse in which the PCs can play.

(I say "soft" gate because the GM can fiat a thinny any time they want.)

kviiri

Yep

BESW

@trogdor It's not Arrow bad... yet.

trogdor

10:20

@BESW oh well such praise

who is it about though?

I realize like, maybe Superman but,... he was too young right?

or not even born yet depending

BESW

It's about Superman's grandfather Seg-El as a young man.

trogdor

ah

BESW

Adam Strange travels back in time to tell him that he needs to stop Brainiac from destroying Krypton in Seyg's time, or Superman will cease to exist and the universe is in a lot of trouble.

But Seyg-El is caught up in Kryptonian politics.

Because you know what the general public's really looking forward to when they tune into a Superman franchise? Palace intrigue. It worked so well for Inhumans!

kviiri

Hah!

BESW

Krypton doesn't even have a cute dog.

trogdor

10:26

lol

Frezak

@BESW Thanks for having mentioned 4E basically every time I come in here. (Not that it seems that the internet hates 4E or anything)

trogdor

I,... feel like there is curiosity about what Krypton was like before it got destroyed, but at the same time,.... maybe it isn't very deep curiosity

BESW

@Frezak It's my favorite of the D&Ds that's actually called D&D!

trogdor

and maybe the idea of what it was like is better than trying to define it

BESW

@trogdor And that curiosity quickly dies since in the comics... Krypton's a hell-hole.

trogdor

10:28

@Frezak no of course it doesn't, what would make you think that? :P

@BESW also fair

it's just weird that people seem to think we really want and need a show about,.... not Superman

not that every show should have Superman in it,.... but that this one is about Superman, basically, and doesn't actually,..... have him in it

BESW

Yeah, it's a hard sell.

kviiri

4e is among those things that has an inflated bad rep. It's only fair that people who like it keep up the good work of discussing its virtues too!

Frezak

@trogdor Well, that would be the internet. Well. Twitter and TG. Actually pretty much anywhere I look.

BESW

I think they should've taken a different lesson from Inhumans and made a show about Krypto, not Krypton.

trogdor

lol

Frezak

10:31

Next you're going to suggest a team of Super fantasy dogs from different settings that have to team up to save the universe because all the bipeds have been trapped.

kviiri

Kind of like Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I didn't know anything about TNG or Star Trek, really, except that Picard makes cool speeches, Data is an android who wants to learn emotions and that Wesley is an absolutely terrible character who ruins the entire show by solving every problem all the time

trogdor

@Frezak I actually don't run into that many people who just hate 4e and don't have any good reasons I can accept,.... but the few I have were very adamant and confusing about it

BESW

@Frezak If it includes The Littlest Hobo, I'm all in.

kviiri

But after watching TNG, I conclude that Wesley Crusher was a bad character only during the first season, really, and the show had much bigger issues at the time.

Memetic hate, whether towards 4e or Crusher is contagious!

trogdor

I mean,... I didn't particularly like Wesley Crusher

but the degree that people express that they don't like him in is a bit much

he was annoying,... in a few episodes

but not in a large number of them that I saw

kviiri

10:36

Yea, exactly

Overall I don't think there are that many good characters in TNG overall

doppelgreener

@kviiri A friend put it to me thusly: Wesley annoyed people because he simultaneously majorly messed up all the time in ways that might get people killed, but also he always wound up the one to solve the issue. So he was intermittently a bumbling buffoon and also a prodigy, and there was unresolved tension in the audience for him never facing serious consequences (in terms of personal impact that spurs character change -- his mistakes cost a friend's life, or something) or from the crew.

BESW

TNG was definitely, as a general principle, more interested in idea-driven stories than character-driven ones.

doppelgreener

But, also, Wil Wheaton (Wesley's actor) says the writing crew basically recognised this problem, and wanted to make an episode that helped redeem Wesley's character and address these issues. But Wil at one point accepted a side contract between seasons, after the show's producers told him not to. And the producers cancelled his redemption episode.
Wil's agent told him at the time that was the producers' way of saying: "We own you. Never again defy us." And Wil and his agent both decided Wil had to get out of there.

kviiri

Oh, did I remember to vent about Netflix? They kept recommending Mockingjay part 2 (the final Hunger Games film) to my SO. No other installment was available to watch on Netflix. Annoying. A few months later we noticed that hey, the first three films are available, let's start watching.

doppelgreener

So, he left the show entirely, his character un-redeemed, and that character went on to haunt his acting career until he just quit acting and became (as he puts it) a professional geek instead.

kviiri

10:47

...and after watching the first three movies we noticed that they've removed Mockingjay part 2 from Netflix.

doppelgreener

@kviiri bah!!

kviiri

This is why people are pirates - piracy works.

doppelgreener

@kviiri Netflix recently recommended A Series of Unfortunate Events to me. Despite my having started watching its second season a few days prior. (So... it wasn't exactly wrong to recommend that to me... though it wasn't right either.)

kviiri

@doppelgreener Yeah, I can relate to that being a problem, but I think it's hugely exaggerated.

doppelgreener

@kviiri I agree, and I don't understand how it escalated to the levels of hate it did toward both Wesley and Wheaton as an actor in other productions.

kviiri

10:50

Hating in an echo chamber is easy

trogdor

yeah

I have seen what I presume was the product of similar things a lot

I personally assume that was it

BESW

Not even wrong

The phrase "not even wrong" describes an argument or explanation that purports to be scientific but is based on invalid reasoning or speculative premises that can neither be proven correct nor falsified. Hence, it refers to statements which cannot be discussed in a rigorous, scientific sense. For a meaningful discussion on whether a certain statement is true or false, the statement must satisfy the criterion called "falsifiability"—the inherent possibility for the statement to be tested and found false. In this sense the phrase "not even wrong" is synonymous to "nonfalsifiable". The phrase is...

doppelgreener

@BESW Yes XD

@kviiri ooh... shoot, you're right. that does explain it.

BESW

@doppelgreener There was a lot of emotional investment going into TNG, as the revival of a beloved series after a very long time, in an age where that was actually unusual.

trogdor

I mean heck, to use an example from Game of Thrones, Lena Headey plays Cersie, and apparently has gotten some IRL death threats and such for "being so horrible"

doppelgreener

10:52

@trogdor holy crap

BESW

At the time, any challenge to the show's success had to be either dismissed or eviscerated by the fans in order to defend their identity as people who like a product.

trogdor

and yes, the character is pretty bad,.... but separate the character and the real person playing them

Frezak

I heard that GRRM told Joffrey's actor "congrats kid, now everyone hates you" or something similar.

Tiggerous

I think Jack Gleeson (Joffrey) planned to quit acting...maybe related?

BESW

TNG was also spawning into the early days of figuring out online forums, with all the terrifying social stuff that entailed.

So not only did the effects get magnified within that space, they got inherited more easily.

trogdor

10:57

@Frezak yeah, I heard that might have happened too,..

no idea how true it is, but I suppose it could be

kviiri

@doppelgreener it's funny how Grey uses cutesy images of Butterflies and Flowers as symbols for two factions fighting each other

doppelgreener

@Tiggerous yes, he did

kviiri

The truth behind that is, of course, less fun.

BESW

Why couldn't we have inherited The Great Balrog Slippers Debate instead?

doppelgreener

@BESW beautiful

BESW

11:02

@doppelgreener See also Tolkien as Calculus.

Tiggerous

12:09

Hmm is this question, as currently phrased, a shopping question?

I think it could fall into the "Does such a thing exist" category, rather than the "Reccommend me one of these things" category. But I wonder if it could be reworked into an altogether better question...

BESW

"Does thing exist" is pretty much a worse kind of shopping question.

Tiggerous

Hmm, so both bad then.

BESW

The answer is "yes" without explanation --or it's a shopping question-- or "no" with explanation (and it's almost impossible to prove a negative).

But let me read the question and see what the specific case is.

Oh, that's fine. It's not "does thing exist," it's "how do I do thing, I assume the solution will involve a recommendation."

Tiggerous

It's this bit that concerned me "Is there any resource that lists all the pre-made magic items by their effects, rather than in an alphabetical list?"

BESW

Yeah, but that's not the central question. if you removed it, the question would remain intact.

Keep an eye on answers and see if that line causes confusion.

If there's no confusion in answers, we're golden. If there is, a clarity edit on the question will be in order.

But right now lets not go fixing problems we might have.

Tiggerous

12:17

Good advice.

BESW

It's probably something of a good sign that you're thinking about this; not only are you engaging with the site critically and constructively, it also means the site probably doesn't have a lot of actual fires to put out right now, if we have the time to eyeball potential fire hazards.

(Some Stacks have so much going on that they can only handle the most obvious blazing infernos, and the overall quality drops dramatically. But sites where users with high-rep mod tools are bored get over-zealous and didactic.)

goodguy5

12:42

morning nerds

kviiri

Hiya

goodguy5

consider the forest gnome's talk with small beasts

If I wanted to give that to a halfling instead of their hide behind other creatures, does that have any implicit balance issues?

KorvinStarmast

13:06

@goodguy5 What class is this halfling playing

goodguy5

rogue

I was talking to the player and he said he wanted to come from like .... this working stiff river hobbit town

Tiggerous

That seems like a nerf for a rogue, if anything. Unless of course your campaign is very small beast heavy - in which case the halfing couldn't hide behind them as it is.

goodguy5

I think it's an overall nerf as well, but I was reluctant to just add it on

Should I also give advantage on swim checks?

Or if you it's not a bug deal, I could just tack on this from Triton
**Emissary of the Sea:** Aquatic beasts have an extraordinary affinity with your people. You can communicate simple ideas with beasts that can breathe water. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return.

Tiggerous

Could confine it to freshwater animals?

goodguy5

oooh.

I think I'm going to do freshwater small fish though

And just add it on.

Tiggerous

13:16

They're losing an often useful combat ability (more opportunities to hide = more sneak attack) and getting quite a bit of extra RP functionality. But you still want it to feel thematic, so river town = freshwater, sounds fun.

(And normal small beasts too)

goodguy5

Yea. This game is all new characters. So they're not thinking with their mechanical brains (which I like)

Tiggerous

I like that too.

goodguy5

So, I want to work with them, but I kinda don't want to allow them to nerf themselves too much.

Tiggerous

I've got Session 0 coming up for my new campaign soon, I'm pretty excited to see what my players come up with.

goodguy5

nice!

We had our session zero on april 7th

goodguy5

13:35

I just stumbled upon someone that rolls their stats as 7+1d8

Sir Cinnamon

@goodguy5 That's unconventional

goodguy5

indeed

Sir Cinnamon

Bounded between 8 and 15

goodguy5

I'd rather do like 1d12+6

yea, it's bounded to the point buy scale, but still random

Sir Cinnamon

statistically thats stronger, 1d12+6 brings the minimum down 1 and maximum up 3

I dont really hate either idea, but I usually dont like rolling for stats regardless

goodguy5

13:39

tbh, I meant to say +5

6-17 (rather than 7-18)

Sir Cinnamon

Ah

Yeah thats equally balanced with more spread

Tiggerous

14:11

I have a friend who likes 4d4 (drop lowest) + 4

Which gives 7-16.

goodguy5

and an average of 11?

neat

well... average closer to 12, I guess

neat

Tiggerous

Yeah, I'm completely undecided on whether I want my players to roll at all for our next campaign.

goodguy5

for stats or in general? lol

And it depends on how new the players are for me.

I don't give newbies the option to roll

Tiggerous

It's their second campaign, but first ever char gen - first campaign used pre gens.

goodguy5

Hrm.... tough decision. Personally, I;d stick with point buy

doppelgreener

14:22

i strongly suggest point-buy.

Dice rolling is great and all, but when it's their first time at their first group, you don't want that situation where one person rolls all 12's and 14's and one other person rolls a couple of 16's and a 17 or an 18, and their scores make the first person feel a bit crap about their character.

I've done that, seen it, didn't know how to resolve it, just had to accept it, but it was a small speed bump I could've eliminated by using standard arrays or point buy.

goodguy5

non sequiter... I just got my louise hat from Bob's Burgers...

doppelgreener

i feel it's fairly important on account of it helps each person retain a feeling of relevance. and since that also materially translates to spotlight time, it helps to manage spotlight if people can be on similar footing.

@goodguy5 oh cute :D

goodguy5

ikr!

It'd be cuter if I was a girl, but I'll take it.

I'm surprised by how sturdy the ears are without feeling intrusive

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener Thanks, that's definitely the way I'm leaning.

goodguy5

14:38

@Powerdork I didn't know you could be a bard pre 2e

goodguy5

14:57

can someone post the general "welcome to SE" for that lizardman post?

nitsua60

@doppelgreener good call on the arrow-energy question.

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 thanks. :)

goodguy5

@doppelgreener yea... I def was like "note to self, don't LARP in Russia"

queue "in soviet russia" joke

doppelgreener

PSA: even LARP arrows, fired with enough energy, can take someone's eye out or break something, and/or otherwise ruin someone's day. If you were found trying to circumvent safety standards, anyone running the LARP would be right to ban you for life.

5

goodguy5

starred

*super upvoted

***time weaseled

KorvinStarmast

15:04

@doppelgreener Thank you for your comments on that question. I was not as diplomatic as you were, but the points you raised needed to be out in the open . applause Chat entry starred.

goodguy5

Can we talk about that barbarian question for a minute (damage immunity)

GreySage

@goodguy5 Bring a mace?

goodguy5

That seems like it should be a dupe of something like
"How can I prepare for and overcome damage resistances of enemies"

But I couldn't find anything like that.

Should we push to edit the question so that it covers a broader base of situations?
Or make a sign post?

KorvinStarmast

@goodguy5 It was a prototype of what in 3e became the Prestige Class ... bard in 1e was an odd duck.

goodguy5

omfg, I just realized the pun of signpost

doppelgreener

15:08

@KorvinStarmast thanks. :)

goodguy5

@KorvinStarmast neat. I legit thought that bard STARTED in 2e.

Tiggerous

Hmm, someone's just commented on my answer "If you're going by the phrase RAW you can’t combine it with the phrase “generally understood”". Do they have a point? I'm not sure I agree.

GreySage

@goodguy5 Why would you make it broader than the querent's problem?

KorvinStarmast

@goodguy5 Technically, as a class that you can enter at level 1, that is true, but I had a 1e AD&D DM who let people start as bard 1. You by "rule" had to first get a few levels of fighter and a few levels of thief ...

@GreySage Indeed. Tightly scoped question, simple and clear answers.

goodguy5

@KorvinStarmast OOOHHHHHH. 1e AD&D, yes. I thought you were talking about OG D&D

doppelgreener

15:10

@Tiggerous nope. for example, it is "generally understood" that freedom of movement, taken literally, prevents you from even dying, or at least, suffering the effects of death, because death would prevent you from moving and nothing can prevent you from moving. it's also "generally understood" that this would be nonsense and nobody would even try to exploit this as if it were true.

GreySage

@Tiggerous Well, you have to understand the words that compose the RAW, so no I don't think they do have a point

doppelgreener

I will attempt to word this in a response.

goodguy5

@GreySage because we don't have a question about "how to overcome damage resistances" (that I could find)

KorvinStarmast

@goodguy5 The bard in Strat Review likewise had some restrictions.

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener That would be much appreciated.

GreySage

15:11

@goodguy5 You could always ask another broader question

goodguy5

That's what I was getting at

doppelgreener

Response posted. AFK!

KorvinStarmast

@goodguy5 Strat Review number 6, Feb 1976, bard, author Doug Schwegman, you could start at level 1. I don't remember playing with an OD&D bard though ...

A Bard has the thieving abilities of a thief one half his level rounded off to the lower level, Elves Dwarves and Hobbits may be Bards but cannot progress beyond the 8th level (Minstrel). Elves receive an extra 5% on their charm and lore scores and receive all the extra benefits of an elven thief. Dwarves and Hobbits reveive only their additional thieving benefits

A Bard may use any weapon and for purposes of hit probability he advances in steps based on four levels like clerics. For purposes of saving throws they are treated like clerics as well (pages 11 and 12 of Strat Review number 6)

Tiggerous

@doppelgreener Thanks

KorvinStarmast

@Powerdork Yeah, see my chats above, and the AD&D 1e Players Handbook, Bard (which was an optional class)

goodguy5

15:20

Yea, I didn't realize he was talking about AD&D

Help on a broader version of that barbarian slash-immunity question.

My working title is:
How can I prepare for creatures with damage resistances or damage immunities?

KorvinStarmast

15:35

@goodguy5 I am pretty sure that BECMI didn't have bards, but I'd have to look that up. I don't recall any in the games I played.

goodguy5

I know what you're talking about, but I can't recall what the anagram stands for

0

Q: How can I prepare for creatures with damage resistances or damage immunities?

This is a broader version of this question about barbarians and slashing-immunity. There are many creatures that are immune and/or resistant to the normal sources of damage, such as a Black Pudding, or Lycanthrope. This can make combat difficult for physical damage based characters (rogues, barb...

dnd-5e combat damage-resistance immunities

I'm not sure if it should be closed as a duplicate or not, but it's asked

lunch time afk

Trish

16:03

@Baskakov_Dmitriy : E of the Arrow is E=1/2 mv². The acceleration this arrow undergoes is F=dE/dt=ma and is a linear proportional function of the draw weight - 30 lbs draw weight means, it has a pull of 133.45 Newtons. Divide this by the mass of your arrow and you get the acceleration. No trick on earth will change this force unless you manipulate the bow after check in - which makes the bow no longer allowable.

Ryan

16:23

Is this correct that if I take the Help Action, all of my allies get advantage against that creature until their next turn? That seems really OP: rpg.stackexchange.com/a/120882/35172

nevermind he just changed his comment to say otherwise

GreySage

@Ryan one ally gets advantage against one enemy (enemy within 5ft of you)

Ryan

@GreySage and its just whoever swings next or do I pick which ally I'm helping?

Rubiksmoose

@Trish technically would aerodynamic improvements be able to improve distance though? But the question is asking about the bow specifically, so yeah I am not sure that physics and safety allow what OP may want.

The Oracle

1

Q: Make [specialabilities] not special

This tag has (only) 4 questions and is only recently created (early March). specialabilities seems useless and should be removed. Can we burninate this tag?

discussion tags burninate-request

Trish

@Rubiksmoose yes, aerodynamics and arrow weight/shape are the only two factors that can be legally finetuned to get more "oomph" from a fixed bow.

lighter arrows have more speed, but also are more susceptible to side wind... and the head weighs more in relation to the arrow, thus changes its aerodynamics to tilt down in flight faster.

GreySage

16:32

@Ryan You pick who you are helping

Trish

heavier arrows are slower and (of the weight is not tip heavy but balaned in the center) fly straighter.

Ryan

@GreySage okay cool. So it wouldn't have worked last night as we used it since the dragon was flying above us but I can use it to specifically help my Fighter land his Great Weapon Master feat as long as I'm willing (and able) to get close to the enemy

doppelgreener

ok, reading illustro's responses, here's what i'm getting:
- RAW is about pedantic literal legalistic interpretation of text
- we don't skip from "here's what it literally says" to "here's what we infer this to mean, in a way that is different to what it literally says" unless we have a very good reason to do so, because RAW is generally more about examining the former. (a good reason is: "the text literally means this. however, that's patently absurd, and nobody uses it that way. we tend to take it to mean [other thing] instead.")

they may be taking your turn of phrase to indicate you're stepping away from handling the rules as written

Rubiksmoose

16:51

Can a Wizard tell what the spells in another Wizard's spellbook are? Dupe or not?

goodguy5

Oh, that's a good point.

"Do I know the title of the spell"
!= "Can I cast the spell in the book"?

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 they aren't asking about how to cast the spell from the book (it is a miscomprehension in the question). As I read it, the main question was how to read the book at all.

goodguy5

upon further reflection, I'm not sure it's a duplicate

Rubiksmoose

I can see that point, and I think this question is better, but I also pretty sure they are straight dupes.

@goodguy5 I'm open to convincing

goodguy5

So, we agree on the way to get spells from a found spellbook, right?

spend money and time, put spell in your book

Rubiksmoose

16:55

@goodguy5 yup

goodguy5

Cool.

Now. How do you know what the first spell in the book is?

(or second, third, nth)

Rubiksmoose

@goodguy5 my reading is that you don't honestly RAW., Though that makes very little sense narratively.

Sir Cinnamon

My instinct is that it would be recognizable quite quickly

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose I think the question is asking "What percentage of the 2 hours is spent 'deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it' to determine what the spell actually is?"

goodguy5

@Rubiksmoose Okay, then how do you know if it's even a spell that you can copy into your spellbook based on level restriction.

Sir Cinnamon

16:58

Or if it's a spell you already know

David Coffron

@SirCinnamon Even if it is a spell you already know, you may not be able to identify it with the other wizards unique notation

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron that is my thinking as well.

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